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1 of 6 Names are not required on the backs of jerseys in college football, so why have a rule legislating what can be written in the space? The NCAA only allows three FBS schools—Air Force, Army and Navy—to put something other than a player's name on the space above the numbers on the backs of their uniforms. Yet for every other school it's a surname or nothing at all. A handful of teams wanted to go with non-names in 2014, yet each was rebuffed. Vanderbilt still went ahead and wore its "Anchor Down" jerseys for the season opener against Temple and nearly paid a steep price. "We sent an email design concept to the NCAA football rules committee, got a cursory response which says, 'It looks good to us,'" Vanderbilt athletics department spokesman Rod Williamson said via David Climer of The Tennessean. "We thought that meant every piece of the communication was fine." Initially, officials working the game announced that the Commodores' uniform violation would result in a loss of a timeout for each quarter those jerseys were worn. That ruling was quickly overturned, though it didn't help Vandy in the long run, as it was blown out 37-7 in its first game under new coach Derek Mason. This isn't a matter of schools wanting their players to stand out, like with the old XFL and its use of nicknames on jerseys. Instead, it's meant more to inspire camaraderie and solidarity, as with South Florida coach Willie Taggart's (disallowed) wish to have "The Team" on the back of the Bulls' tops.

Toys that we really can’t describe! Bowlingual Voice A Tomy employee poses with the Bowlingual Voice, a gadget that expresses dogs’ emotions, at the annual Tokyo Toy Show 2009. Tomy claims the gadget analyses a dog’s voice through a wireless microphone attached to its collar and then displays its emotions. Maui Flowers Dog Bikini Make a summertime splash with the Maui Flowers Dog Bikini. Your dog will not be able to resist this cute Spandex bathing suit. Canine Maui Flowers Bikini is two-piece for easy movement with a comfy and practical fit. Dog Spinny Interactive Toy By Nina Ottosson ‘Dog Spinny’, has a single removable bone that has to be dislodged by the dog, who can then rotate the top section to access treats in the compartments below. By gradually reducing the number of treats, you can encourage him to work harder. Nina Ottosson’s range of durable interactive games have been designed to stimulate a dog’s brain whilst reinforcing his relationship with people. Each design has a unique mechanism that requires mental as well as physical dexterity to work through the challenges and reveal hidden food rewards. They can be set to differing levels of complexity, to satisfy all ages and breeds of dog. Zig A Zag Ball The Zig A Zag Ball is a motorised ball that gives hours of crazy fun! Using 1 AA battery which is supplied with the toy you can turn the ball on and watch your dog play for hours with the unpredictable movements the ball makes. The toy is made from non toxic material and measures approx 9cm in diameter. Dog Tornado Interactive Toy By Nina Ottosson The idea behind the ‘Dog Tornado’ is for the dog to dislodge the removeable bones, then turn the revolving sections to reveal hidden treats. The Tornado has many variables to increase the level of difficulty as the dog’s skill improves. With a little practise, he will soon learn to dislodge the bones and turn the Tornado to access the rewards. Nina Ottosson’s range of durable interactive games have been designed to stimulate a dog’s brain whilst reinforcing his relationship with people. Each design has a unique mechanism that requires mental as well as physical dexterity to work through the challenges and reveal hidden food rewards. They can be set to differing levels of complexity, to satisfy all ages and breeds of dog. Hotdoll, Love Doll for Dogs Dogs are animals with enormous sexual appetites that can’t be controlled easily. So this is in artificial way to stop dogs inborn character. The Hotdoll is a natural way (and actually a beneficial one for dog’s health) to control its sexual impulses. This Love Doll for dogs is shaped to be grabbed easily by the dog’s paws like grabbing female hips. Designer: Clement Eloy. Humunga Stache Dog Toy The Humunga Stache Dog Toy. On one side, it’s a fun black ball for your dog to play with while on the flip side is a gigundus moustache (yes, gigundus). A Holiday Meal Fit for a Dog Really, how cute is this? The set includes turkey, corn, baked potato, biscuit, and what appears to be broccoli, served on top of a Frisbee. Yes, a Frisbee plate! Grrrona Mexican Beer Dog Toy Long Summer days kicking back with a Mexican beer and a slice of lime. Summer bliss! Your pooch will love this embroidered plush Grrrona toy featuring a squeaker inside for added delight. Doggie Chill Pill Oh boy, don’t you just feel sometimes like giving your dog a “chill pill”? Well, now you can — er — figuratively. These Chill Pills plush and rope toys from Loopies crack me up.

The Los Angeles Times published an in-depth interview with Jesse Eisenberg about his Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice role, and it has some interesting new details. Advertisement When asked about Lex Luthor’s different hair styles in the movie, Eisenberg replied “when you see the movie, you’ll see. It’s the greatest scene that I’ve ever gotten to take part in — it accounts for the change in hair.” That’s high praise! Eisenberg also revealed that fans will see Lex Luthor’s backstory in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. “The character has a core of reality,” Eisenberg explained. “[Luthor] has a back story that’s tragic and an emotional inner life that’s authentic. That’s in the movie. It was my interest in playing the character with a real emotional core, and this writer, Chris Terrio’s interest in creating a character that seemed viable in reality.” Zack Snyder told The Los Angeles Times that he originally offered Eisenberg a different role (he wouldn’t say which), and Eisenberg declined. He then went back to Eisenberg with the Lex Luthor offer, which he obviously accepted. “I feel like once [Eisenberg] found out who Lex was he embraced it,” Snyder said. “Once you kind of start digging into Lex, it’s a bit of a scary thing to be that guy. I don’t think he just goes ‘Oh, I’ll just be that guy and then when I go home I’m not him.’ I think the thing with Jessie is he wasn’t immune to the reality of playing a super-scary character.” SOURCE: The Los Angeles Times

Leicester were twice denied by the woodwork as well as by saves from Ben Foster Leicester missed the chance to go five points clear at the top of the Premier League as West Brom came from behind to claim a thrilling draw. Salomon Rondon shrugged off Robert Huth to give West Brom the lead, but a Danny Drinkwater deflected shot levelled it. Andy King finished a wonderful move to put Leicester ahead only for Craig Gardner to equalise with a free-kick. Leicester twice hit the bar at a raucous King Power Stadium, but could not find a winner. The draw leaves the Foxes three points ahead of Tottenham, who can go top with victory at West Ham on Wednesday, and six ahead of Arsenal, who face Swansea. West Brom, who have now lost only two of their past 10 league games, stay 13th - 12 points clear of the relegation zone. Relive Leicester's thrilling draw with West Brom No more late drama Media playback is not supported on this device No negatives despite a draw - Ranieri Leicester were below their best on Saturday but still managed to beat Norwich thanks to a late winner - here they were much improved, but could not conjure similar drama despite laying siege to the West Brom goal. West Brom may have planned to concede possession and defend deep, and they were duly bombarded by wave after wave of Leicester attacks, mainly down the flanks through the excellent pair of Riyad Mahrez and Marc Albrighton. On Saturday, the Foxes had 13 attempts on goal - here they had 22, with headers from Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki hitting the woodwork. Ben Foster also saved well from Jeffrey Schlupp and Wes Morgan, while Leonardo Ulloa could not repeat his weekend heroics when the ball flashed across the face of goal in the very last minute. Baggies forced out of their shell Eight of West Brom's 11 attempts on goal came in the second half West Brom could have been forgiven for thinking that allowing Leicester the lion's share of possession was a sound approach. Against Norwich, Leicester had the majority of the ball for only the third time this season and struggled. Whether by design or necessity, the Baggies were happy to sit back in the first period, especially after Rondon got on the end of Darren Fletcher's through ball to put the visitors ahead. However, even with nine red shirts behind the ball, Leicester still found a way to lead, meaning West Brom had to make more of the play in the second half. It worked to their advantage as, after Mahrez needlessly handballed, Gardner curled in a sublime free-kick. Rondon could even have won it but somehow turned over from inside the six-yard box, and the Baggies ultimately needed some fortune to hang on at the end of a breathless night. King of the King Power King (10) finished from Mahrez's wonderful back-heel following a cross-field ball from Albrighton King was making only his seventh league start of the season, in the side for the injured N'Golo Kante. The Welsh midfielder is the only member of the Foxes squad remaining from their time in the third tier seven years ago and has winners' medals from both League One and the Championship. Here he looked to have taken a stride towards adding a Premier League medal when he met Mahrez's athletic back-heel to finish sharply past Foster. But in the end the odds on King completing an unlikely hat-trick lengthened - and Leicester could be back to second in the table as early as Wednesday night. Man of the match Marc Albrighton was a constant threat down the Leicester left before being substituted What they said Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri: "I am very pleased with our performance. They played so well - there was no panic after the first goal. We played much better than against Norwich. I am satisfied with the performance. Just sometimes you can do everything but the ball doesn't want to go in. "I want to create a lot of chances and sooner or later we score. Tonight wasn't the right moment but we are alive and we fight to the end. Everybody is ready to fight, to play well, to create chances. Only the victory was missing. "We tried to do everything and well done to my players. We never never give up. We always try the best in every situation. Every team plays football and we have to find the solution and try to win. It is important not to lose the match too as they could have counter-attacked." Media playback is not supported on this device Pulis happy with Baggies' form West Brom manager Tony Pulis: "Leicester are a good side. They ask questions of you. "It's another point on the way for us. It's important for us to get to 40 points and we are happy with the way things are going. We need the hunger and desire to get to 40 points. We should have kept the ball better tonight. I'm really pleased with the players though. "I'd love to see Leicester win the title." The stats Leicester are the first Premier League team this season to score 50+ goals in the competition. Two of Leicester's three top-flight goals from outside the area this season have been scored by Danny Drinkwater. Leicester's record as the only Premier League side not to concede at home in 2016 ended. Riyad Mahrez has had a part in a league-high 25 Premier League goals this season (14 goals, 11 assists). Salomon Rondon has scored in three of his past five Premier League games, having failed to score in his previous nine in the competition. Andy King is the fourth Welshman to score on St David's Day in Premier League history (also Pembridge, Saunders and Collison). Craig Gardner has had a role in three of the Baggies' last five Premier League goals (scored two, assisted one). Gardner has also scored in back-to-back Premier League games for the first time since last April (also v Palace and Leicester). What's next? Leicester travel to Watford on Saturday, while West Brom welcome Manchester United on Sunday.

CocoRosie / Busdriver Venue, Vancouver BC, October 24 Photo: Alan Ranta Published Oct 25, 2013 9 Surrealism was in the air as the CocoRosie faithful came out in force, as hippy-gypsy Renaissance Fair ladies in frilly dresses that looked like they walked out of the freak-folk duo's liner notes filled Venue to capacity.With skeletons and mummies hanging from the ceiling to light the Halloween spirit, and a clothesline stretched across the stage, Los Angeles rapper Regan Farquhar (a.k.a. Busdriver) warmed the crowd up with a solo set. He tweaked beats ranging from hard house to symphonic glitch over which he laid his signature cerebral flows, delivered at a breakneck pace that could rival Busta Rhymes in his prime. While obviously talented, Farquhar seemed almost schizophrenic, alternately dazzling and befuddling as he attempted to engage the distracted crowd with hard-stop teasers and beckons to the crowd for responses.Upping the theatrics, CocoRosie sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady, along with multi-instrumentalist Takuya Nakamura and ace beatboxer TEZ, took the stage wearing stripy muumuus, the first of many costumes they'd move through. Sierra would rock lingerie, an apron, and a sequin geometric tutu, while Bianca put on a Twin Rivers t-shirt from the clothesline, a top hat, overalls, a "Pride" baseball hat, and saggy bottom jogging pants, with both later donning the tribal masks from their "We Are On Fire" video.Their performance went far beyond costumes, though: Nakamura played a Nord keyboard, upright piano, and trumpet, among other things; Sierra spent time between harp, piano, and vocal processors; and Bianca laid down bass lines on a Korg and performed various wind instruments. TEZ was the only musician who didn't change instruments between every song.Everything felt live and fresh. For all the dense soundscapes, they sprinkled in stunning minimal moments like when Bianca sang the majority of "Harmless Monster" from their recent albumwith just a piano accompaniment, or when TEZ nailed an awe-inspiring solo beatboxing exhibition mid-set, including his take on Ginuwine's "Pony."Their theatricality was something else. They played with the clothesline, or at least got caught up in it a couple times, and used a white vanity set to stage Broadway moments, fanning themselves there before an early costume change or reapplying makeup. With her creepy, childlike voice and hip-hop style, Bianca was reminiscent of Beth Gibbons, but Sierra earned MVP of this show; her opera training at the Conservatoire de Paris shined through, hypnotizing with her shimmering soprano, and imbuing hooks like "welcome to the afterlife" and "this is the end of time" with all the drama of a Disney princess.Near the end of their set, during a downtempo new-age take on "God Has A Voice, She Speaks Through Me," Sierra put on a silver dangly headpiece that slipped down and became tangled. Abandoning the third verse, she turned away from the crowd and ripped it off, taking a large chunk of her hair with it. While Bianca momentarily looked at her with concern, Sierra ditched the clump of jewelry and tresses and returned to the mic, powering through to sing the rest of the track like nothing happened.Although the biggest crowd response arguably went to their trip-hop laden "Smokey Taboo" from 2010's, Busdriver came back for an incendiary verse on their upbeat take on "K-Hole" from, which brought their set to a natural crescendo.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. -- Robert Quinn crept toward the line of scrimmage with just over nine minutes remaining in Sunday's second quarter. He burst around Indianapolis Colts left tackle Anthony Castonzo at the snap, then picked himself up off the ground and wrapped his arms around the upper body of quarterback Scott Tolzien for his first sack of the year. Two plays later, with the Los Angeles Rams in a nickel package on third and long, Quinn operated out of a three-point stance and did the very same thing -- he got around Castonzo, went after Tolzien, then quickly shifted his focus to Robert Turbin after a quick pitch, sending the Colts' running back to the ground almost immediately after he caught the football. In a span of three plays, Quinn was personally responsible for a loss of 11 yards. "That was just the official knock the rust off," Quinn said, smiling. "It's just fun to make a couple plays." In defensive coordinator Wade Phillips' 3-4 base set, Robert Quinn has transitioned from defensive end to outside linebacker, where he will sometimes drop into coverage but mostly rush the passer. Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images If he can remain healthy, Quinn should make a whole lot more plays in Wade Phillips' system. Phillips' 3-4 base set required Quinn to transition from defensive end to outside linebacker, where he will take on a role similar to the one DeMarcus Ware played in Dallas and in Denver, occasionally dropping back in coverage but predominantly going after the quarterback. Ware announced his retirement with an Instagram post that highlighted his accomplishments on his jersey. That post is now laminated and taped to Quinn's locker for motivation, as are the career statistics for some of the other great defensive ends and outside linebackers throughout NFL history. The Rams have been very careful with Quinn, who amassed 40 sacks from 2012-14 but made only 15 starts from 2015-16. He didn't play in any preseason games and was held out of several practices while under what first-year head coach Sean McVay continually referred to as a "maintenance program." But Quinn made most of his adjustment to outside linebacker during the offseason program and said in the days leading up to the regular-season opener that he is "pretty comfortable with where I'm at." The Rams played Quinn in only 50 percent of the defensive snaps in their 46-9 rout of the Colts, but he made his presence felt nonetheless. "He's certainly a rusher that you have to account for," said McVay, who will probably give Quinn more snaps as the weeks go by. "He's got a great get-off; love the effort and intensity he plays with. He's one of the guys that I've always had a lot of respect for, just coaching against him in years past. When No. 94 is right, you feel him. He is an elite rusher and he certainly looked like that guy [on Sunday]."

A gay couple living in Wynantskill, New York had their home and car struck by vandals this week. John Mcenerney said his partner Lyle Houston woke up Thursday morning to discover the spray painted slur on the side of their home. The crude graffiti is difficult to read but “Jenner Fags” appears visible. A window pane in a side door and the window of Houston’s Jeep were also broken. “You would think my initial gut reaction would be like, ‘oh my God, I fear for my life.,'” said Mcenerney in an interview with WNYT. “I kind of feel more sorry for the person that they felt it was necessary to try to destroy somebody’s house.” WYNT adds: Lyle said there was also an incident Monday night, but his pitbull scared away someone he now thinks was trying to break in. The couple says they aren’t scared, they’re just going to remain positive

We talked to Na`Vi's Ladislav 'GuardiaN' Kovács about his team's victory over Liquid as well as the upcoming grand final of ESL One New York. Despite going down in the first map to Liquid, CIS region team Natus Vincere rallied and won the series and advance to the final of the $250,000 event, with players Egor "flamie" Vasilyev and Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev having strong performances. Afterwards, we caught up with Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács of the team to ask him a few questions about the Liquid match, the grand final, and the new update and pause rules that are in effect in New York. You will be able to find all of our interviews from ESL One New York on our YouTube channel here. stich writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter

Async IO for Rust (part II) PaulColomiets Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 12, 2015 This is a second article about designing “rotor”, the library for doing asynchronous IO in Rust. This part describes what changed since the previous article as well as expands on discussion points of the previous write-up. State Machines Are Good Enough One of the hottest topics in the discussion of the previous article was whether threads are the better abstraction for I/O. And if OS threads are not good enough some kind of green threading should be introduced. There are two such libraries being developed: mioco and simplesched (both of them do not work in stable rust yet). Still I don’t believe it’s a good fit for low-level protocol handling. This section looks at issues with the threading model for handling I/O in Rust. You may skip the section if you are more interested in Rotor rather than design decisions. Memory ownership Typical request processing code looks like: It looks nothing wrong at a glance. No memory leaks here. But note that both “buf” and “parsed” are still being allocated while the response is being sent. But they are useless at that point in time. Is it easy to fix? Yes, just pass them by value, or wrap code block in braces. Is it easy to find? No. The code is too simplistic to show you the complexity. But compare it to the state machine: It’s easy to reason about memory usage in this case. Also, note that nothing is allocated for idle connection at all (except obviously the state machine itself). 2. Timeout handling Timeout handling is inevitable in any networking code. In most languages with green threading timeouts are simple: spawn another micro thread that sleeps and throws an exception to parent. If parent finished earlier, kill timer thread. But Rust doesn’t have exceptions. An example of timeout handling in go should show you the complexity. To give you the short breakdown: it adds a timer with a callback, which finds current “cancel callback” in a map, which in turn closes an underlying connection. The process involves at least 3 shared locked objects, and may involve sending a message through a channel. A cancel callbacks are changed during the lifetime of the request several times and special channels just for cancel operation are created in multiple places (if it’s not clear: that happens on every request even if no timeout occurred). 3. Connection pooling Threaded code dealing with client connections usually works along the lines of: Acquire a connection from pool Do something with the connection Release the connection to pool Sometimes it’s okay. But often things go out of control. For example, one may use two different connections for backends A and B, and keep both acquired at the same time. When resource A becomes slow, connection pool B quickly becomes exhausted too, just because coroutines hold on the resource. This is probably the norm for small python applications which handle ten simultaneous requests. But this can quickly become an issue for a server in Rust which can probably process a million requests per second (unproven yet, but I’ve got half of the million on 4 core i7). Rotor forces the user to think about such cases. The easiest way to handle client connection in rotor is to send a message to a connection pool with the message being “do this unit of work for me”. Where examples of the unit of work are: execute a request, push message to Kafka, execute a transaction. This is possible with threading model, just much less common. 4. Unit tests And it’s much easier to unit test a state machine. You can inspect it layer by layer because the state machines in Rotor are generic over the type of the next layer. You can test each state and each action separately without starting from the initial handshake. Often you can clone the state machine in test and continue by multiple paths. Obviously, you can test an assembled state machine. You can test with fake transport (i.e. without actually creating the sockets). Many of the unit test features are easy and obvious on state machines but are impossible or very cumbersome on threaded code. What’s New in Rotor? So we keep state machines. We still pass them to action by value and rely on return value optimization (RVO) to do that fast. We still use the Context thing and have state machine types generic over it. However, we get rid of Scope. This was an object that was carrying main loop operations to the state machine. It was too hard to handle because each layer of abstraction required a new unique type passed to the next layer and required that type to implement a number of traits. The traits could not be derived automatically in current rust language. The most important subset of the functionality is now served by return value. We have a common return type that is used in all actions: The M is a state machine, and V is a return value from the action to the lower layer. The V is defined by the specific lower layer. You should think of it as of asynchronous counterpart of Result. Any action may return “Continue” to wait for the next event. “Stop” to stop the state machine and “Timeout” to set the timeout on a connection. The value V is very dependent on layer used. For example on lowest layer there is a trait EventMachine, which has the following action: If an action returns “Continue(m, Some(n))” this means n is a new state machine that must be inserted into the map of the state machines of the main loop. The “accept” transport uses it to accept connections. (Note the type of both things is the same because all connections are stored in the same slab, so are of the same type; “accept” transport uses enum to differentiate between the initial listening socket and a client connection). Any communication between two subsequent layers may be performed as a series of the action calls and return values. For example, HTTP server implementation may accept full Response as value, but may also accept enum of Headers, ChunkOfBody, EndOfBody, to allow asynchronous response generation. Timers work similarly: return the time of the next wake up. Next timer returned from the action replaces the previous one. This allows to get rid of possible timer leaks. The timers of each subsequent layer coalesce into a single timer (simple “min(x, y)” operation), so we have maximum one timer per state machine. We currently use a deadline-style timers instead of timeout-style, unlike in system calls. The return type will probably slightly change in the future. For example, the Stop action may grow an error type. But overall Async type looks like a more deliberate decision than what we have used before. Another thing we keep is Transport. It is the structure that contains network buffers which we pass from the stream to the protocol parser. We don’t pass the socket directly for a couple of reasons: This way protocol parser doesn’t need to be generic over streams (TCP, Unix, SSL). Transport type is the same for all of them. It’s easier to unit test protocol parser. Just fill the buffers, instead of opening real OS sockets (especially it’s important for testing partial sends, which might be coalesced by OS) It’s unproven, but by using this API it should be possible to pass RDMA buffers or TCP buffers of userspace TCP stack directly to the protocol without changing the code. If protocol itself handles buffers, it will do additional buffering anyway in those cases. Future Work In the near future, I’m going to figure out the shape of the “Async” object. In particular, whether it’s possible to use it as a Carrier for Trait-based exception handling RFC, and what consequences of this are. Also, I’m going to play with timeouts more. The large problem of the timeouts is not how to handle them but rather how to define them. For example, HTTP application might have five timeout classes: idle, header-receiving, request-body-receiving, response-generation, response-sending. And at least two of them may depend on the request itself. Another hot topic is messaging between state machines. Currently, it is accomplished by a “wakeup” event that is triggered by a message to the main loop that contains machine token and no payload. The action then propagates through the state machine to all layers. It’s expected that state machine will find out what is the payload itself by looking into some queue or a cell. Still better abstractions should be created to accomplish request-reply pattern on top of that (probably something that looks like a Future) similar thing for queues shared between connection pool and may be other things. Another exciting task is to figure out a better interface for the Stream/Transport pair. This is interesting for two reasons: Simpler to write protocols Super-efficient RDMA and Userspace network stack The second point needs a detailed explanation. For example, instead of the current “wake me up after the next read” abstraction we could provide a “wake me up when there are 128KiB in the buffer” operation. Then changing the underlying stream, into userspace TCP, the driver can arrange a network buffer of this size for the connection. So you don’t copy incoming packets and still have a contiguous chunk of data from the network, which can be used directly. Disclaimer: my understanding of how RDMA or userspace TCP stack work are very sparse and theoretical, so I may be wrong. Conclusions Different languages have different idioms. I think I’ve found a good way to make asynchronous applications in rust. This is not to say that threads are bad. Threads in rust are very great. Just threads for handling a large number of network connections and timers is not very good. I believe that “rotor” library starts to gain its shape. Which means there will probably be no drastic changes in how it will work. Still some types, names, and other things will change in backwards-incompatible ways until it is feature complete. Which probably means that at least some critical number protocols implemented and at least few small applications. Benchmark And the fun part. I’ve just passed the point of 0.5 millions of requests per second served: This works on i7–4790K (which is desktop-class CPU), on localhost (which also means that “wrk” runs on the same machine too).

Denver's cannabis industry is hoping to add more minorities to its workforce. Two local organizations are teaming up to bridge the gap between people in minority groups and employment opportunities. Marijuana Industry Group and Servicios de La Raza started the initial effort on Sunday at the Vangst Cannabis Career Summit at Mile High Station. Servicios de La Raza provides support services for communities it says are underrepresented in the Denver area. The strong push to hire more minorities was spurred by Denver’s city council, according to MIG executive director Kristi Kelly. “They really threw down the gauntlet to us in the last year and said, ‘Hey, we’re not seeing people of color represented at the same proportion as our city,’” Kelly said. “So, we really want to change that.” The partnership aims to “break down barriers of discrimination and lack of access,” said Servicios de La Raza executive director Rudy Gonzales. “Cannabis businesses offer meaningful employment at living wages,” Gonzales said. “That’s what we look for when we want to break the cycle of poverty.” The two groups hope to use the new strategy to also create opportunities for the people they say have gotten into trouble with the law because of marijuana. The organizations said previous offenders often have a hard time getting jobs and their hope is to make it easier for them to find work. Copyright 2017 KUSA

Cisco today announced that SURFnet has completed a technology test of Cisco's 100G DWDM solution between the National Supercomputing Center, SARA, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, using the Cisco ONS 15454 M6 Multiservice Transport Platform. The Cisco system uses dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) to unite multiple optical carrier signals on a single optical fiber, leading to several benefits including increased fiber capacity. The test involved introducing 100G single carrier optical interfaces into SURFnet's existing optical infrastructure made up of a combination of 10G, 40G and 100G wavelengths. Once connected, the Cisco 100G DWDM solution was quickly operational without any disruption to the existing network. This demonstration shows that SURFnet can utilize its existing infrastructure and help protect its network investment while supporting new 100G data services over the existing fiber infrastructure.

When it came to choosing my first “older” Only the Music choice of 2019 it was very clear which route I’d be taking. Fresh in my memory as I type is the recent launch of Venus Unwrapped, the concert series at London’s Kings Place which will spend the next eleven months throwing a light on the achievements of women composers. That opening event saw soprano Mary Bevan and members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment perform the music of seventeenth century Venetian composer Barbara Strozzi, and by the time the year is out over 100 women composers will have been represented across over sixty events. It should be fascinating, and I suspect many of us will emerge the other end having had previously-held perceptions challenged and changed. So the first track on this month’s playlist is the first movement of French composer Louise Farrenc’s 1847 Symphony No 3 in G minor, a magnificent work that represents a colossal achievement not simply for the fact that it was composed at a time when women were barred from composition classes at the Paris Conservatoire, but also because this was an era during which symphonic music in general was out of fashion on Parisian stages, audiences instead preferring grand opera. Opening with solitary oboe, before quickly and expertly building to a huge full-orchestra climax, this is a brilliantly crafted and thoroughly ear-grabbing work which thoroughly explains why Robert Schumann admired her music so much. It’s Schumann who then tops this month’s three new release choices, in the shape of cellist Gautier Capuçon’s new all-Schumann programme for Warner Classics, after which we have Early Music vocal ensemble Stile antico on Harmonia Mundi, with a programme centred around English Elizabethan composers in exile. Then to finish, a first foray into the recording studio from the young Consone Quartet that’s resulted in a programme of Mendelssohn and Haydn which I’ve no doubt I’ll still be describing in eleven months’ time as one of the most satisfying recording debuts of 2019. Schumann Years in development, Gautier Capuçon’s latest album is an all-Schumann programme of live concert recordings dating between 2009 and 2015, made with some of his longest-standing musical collaborators and champions. Its superlative curtain-raiser is the Cello Concerto (composed so the three movements flowed seamlessly into each other with no breaks, such was Schumann’s dislike of mid-work applause), recorded in 2015 in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Bernard Haitinck (first concert together 1997). Capuçon’s playing here is supremely elegant and unfailingly beautiful of tone. However equally it’s taut with drama, and with a wonderful ever-so-slightly-untamed quality which brings to the fore the turbulence and instability which dominated so much of Schumann’s life and psychological state. Haitink and the COE meanwhile are with Capuçon every step of the way, with a multi-coloured reading imbued with understanding of both composer and soloist. The rest of the album then underlines Capuçon’s status as one of the world’s finest chamber musicians, with recordings made with pianist Martha Argerich (first concert 2002) at her Martha Argerich Project Festival in Lugano: the Adagio and Allegro op.70, the Fantasiestücke op.73 and the Fünf Stücke im Volkston op.102; then the Fantasiestück op.88 for which they’re joined by Capuçon’s violinist brother Renaud (first concert 1997). With all of these it feels every bit as much like perfection every step of the way, with chamber bonding which couldn’t be any tighter, closer or more instinctive. Or indeed more exquisite, when it comes to moments such as the brothers’ dovetailing lines of the op.88 central slow movement. Obviously it’s early days, but I have a feeling this will turn out to be one of this year’s stand-out albums. So lucky us that we get it as early as January. Stile antico This latest beautifully conceived album from Early Music vocal ensemble Stile antico is built around the music of Elizabeth composers who found themselves in exile as a result of their Catholic faith. Sometimes this was textbook geographical exile, with composers such as Peter Philips, Richard Dering and John Dowland effectively choosing spiritual home over physical home by leaving England’s shores for new lives on the continent. For other composers though, such as Robert White and William Byrd, the exile took the form of spiritual exile in England itself. The works Stile antico have chosen span the emotional and stylistic gamut. On the one hand, there’s Robert White’s (1538-1574) affecting Lamentations a 5: a dramatic and individual setting of the Old Testament Lamentations from Jeremiah, meditating on the Babylonians’ destruction of Jerusalem, which would have felt especially pertinent subject matter for an England-based Catholic. But on the other hand there are works such as Peter Philips’ joyous and slightly more archaic-sounding “Gaude Maria virgo”. The Stile antico sound itself is clear and agile, with female sopranos so boy-treble-like of tone that at points you can’t believe that’s not what you’re listening to, and the two tracks I’ve chosen show that off to the full. First, Richard Dering’s Italianate, madrigal-like “Factum est silentium”, which sets a dramatic passage from the book of Revelation. The second extract is then the recording’s only modern piece, from one of today’s finest British composers: Huw Watkins’ 2014 setting of Shakespeare’s poem The Phoenix and the Turtle, which on the surface describes the funeral rites of the phoenix and the turtle dove (symbolic of perfection and devoted love), but which may also have been an allegory about Catholic martyrs. Consone Quartet Every so often a debut recording comes along which absolutely leaps out of the stereo at you as something special right from its first seconds, and this is one of these. Formed in 2012 at London’s Royal College of Music, the Consone Quartet focusses on exploring Classical and Early Romantic period repertoire on period instruments, and their successes to date include winning the 2016 Royal Over-Seas League Ensemble Prize, and two prizes at the 2015 York Early Music Competition, including a place on the Eeemerging Scheme for young artists at Ambronay. At the centre of this programme now recorded through that same Eeemerging Scheme is the first of Haydn’s late-life op.77 pair of string quartets of 1799, commissioned by the wealthy Viennese patron Prince Maximilian Lobkowitz who at the same time commissioned a set of quartets from the young Beethoven. Bookending this are two Mendelssohn quartets: the String Quartet No 1 of 1829, written by the eighteen year old composer shortly after Beethoven’s death sent shockwaves across the musical world; then the four string quartet movements dating from various periods of Mendelssohn’s life, which after his death in 1847 were grouped together and published (in 1850) as his op.81. It’s Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No 1 you’ll find on this playlist, and the Consone Quartet’s tender and poised reading displays all the qualities you’ll hear across their programme: clean, lucid tone; tonally zinging and tightly superglued ensemble playing; beautifully spun long lines; and a compelling narrative to the phrasing which has you hanging on for their every next musical word.

Stephen Hawking says pope told him not to study beginning of universe HONG KONG (AP) — World-renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said Thursday that the late Pope John Paul II once told scientists they should not study the beginning of the universe because it was the work of God. Hawking, author of the best-seller A Brief History of Time, said John Paul made the comments at a cosmology conference at the Vatican. He did not say when the meeting was held. Hawking quoted the pope as saying, "It's OK to study the universe and where it began. But we should not inquire into the beginning itself because that was the moment of creation and the work of God." The scientist then joked that he was glad John Paul did not realize that he had presented a paper at the conference suggesting how the universe began. "I didn't fancy the thought of being handed over to the Inquisition like Galileo," Hawking said during a sold-out audience at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The church condemned Galileo in the 17th century for supporting Nicholas Copernicus' discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe. But in 1992, Pope John Paul II issued a declaration saying the church's denunciation of Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension." Hawking is one of the best-known theoretical physicists of his generation. He has done groundbreaking research on black holes and the origins of the universe, and he proposes that space and time have no beginning and no end. During a question-and-answer session, Hawking was asked where constants like gravity come from and whether gravity can distort light. But there were several humorous moments. The wheelchair-bound Hawking, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, communicates with an electronic speech synthesizer. Hawking was asked why his computerized voice has an American accent. "The voice I use is a very old hardware speech synthesizer made in 1986," he said. "I keep it because I have not heard a voice I like better and because I have identified with it." He said he once considered using a machine that gave him a French accent, but he did not because his wife would divorce him. But Hawking said he is shopping for a new system because his current hardware is large and fragile, using components that are no longer made. "I have been trying to get a software version, but it seems very difficult," he said. He urged people with physical disabilities not to give up on their ambitions. "You can't afford to be disabled in spirit as well as physically," he said. "People won't have time for you." Hawking ended his lecture saying, "We are getting closer to answering the age-old questions: Why are we here? Where did we come from?" Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Iranian experts at a knowledge-based company have manufactured the Farsi version of speech recognition software. Hadi Veysi, the managing director of the company, said the software can transcribe the user's voice and audio recordings of conference sessions into digital text. He explained that users should ensure that microphone is connected to their computers, adding that the users need to set up computer for the speech recognition software. Veysi also said if the user makes a mistake, the software edits it and the entire notepad is editable. "Older versions of the software could understand input from a variety of users but with a limited vocabulary bank," he said, adding that additionally, background noise posed limiting factors on the effectiveness of speech recognition technology. "The new software recognizes about 120,000 words and the user can say commands to turn off the system," he said. Most people can talk faster than they move their fingers on a keyboard, so with speech recognition software they are able to work as fast as you can talk, particularly with speech-to-text systems that have high dictation accuracy. Hands-free computing is one of the biggest advantages of voice dictation programs. Working a job that requires a lot of back-and-forth between the computer and other tasks can typing cumbersome. It's beneficial to those who aren't the best spellers and busy parents with their hands full who just want to get that email sent. However, one of the largest benefits is to those with limited mobility or disabilities that restrict keyboard and mouse use. The dictation-to-text software can be used easily.

Share this... Reddit Linkedin email “No freeman may be taken or imprisoned or be disseized of his freehold or liberties, or his free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or in any manner destroyed, but by the lawful judgement of his peers, or by the law of the land.” These words were first written in the Coronation Charter, also called the Charter of Liberties, which was a proclamation by Henry I issued in 1100. In 1100! Just think about that for a moment. 915 years ago on this island, uniquely in the world, great men were laying the philosophical foundations of a special type of liberty and striving to restrain the power of their rulers. It marked the beginning of an historic struggle for the soul of England that took place over centuries while absolutism and tyranny was established unchallenged on the continent. When the struggle was won this great country of ours was the freest in the world. Freeborn Englishmen were envied and admired around the globe for the constitutional liberty they enjoyed and the spirit of freedom that thrived here like nowhere else. Sadly, that is all part of history now and we must fight this struggle once again. It is a sign of the times that a British Prime Minister, and a Conservative at that, can say something like this: “For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens ‘as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone’” Did our Prime Minister really think about what he was saying when he uttered these disgraceful words when addressing British citizens? It is astonishingly blinkered to not realise just how dangerous this kind of rhetoric is and what the wider implications are. The British people have been numbed to shockingly illiberal rhetoric such as this, it’s just a continuation of the Blairite authoritarian mantra. It is the equivalent to when Blair said, let no one be in any doubt, the rules of the game are changing”. Well, the rules are changing again and we are close to sweeping away every last vestige of British liberty. As long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone should be a slogan for the British state to forever abide by because it is a basic tenet of a free society. The Prime Minister should remember that he works for British citizens and he is not our master. Sadly, the majority election win is being seen as a mandate to clamp down on civil liberties in the name of security from the Islamist bogeymen. A ghastly combination of paternalism, New Labour style authoritarianism and the restless government urge to be seen to be doing something is the dominant force in the Conservative Party now. There are no longer any restraints on Theresa May and she is preparing anti-terror measures that trample over our freedoms. A counter-terrorism bill including plans for an “extremism disruption order” is to be included in the Queen’s speech. This had previously been blocked by the Liberal Democrats on the grounds of protecting free speech, which is a stand worth remembering and giving credit for. The police will be given powers to apply to the high court for an order to limit the “harmful activities” of someone they deem to be an “extremist individual”. The worryingly elastic definition of “harmful” is to include a risk of public disorder, a risk of harassment, alarm or distress or creating a “threat to the functioning of democracy”. Those deemed to be “extremist individuals” will be banned from broadcasting and will be required to submit in advance to the police any publication intended to be printed or placed on the internet. Extremist groups deemed to be undermining democracy or indulging in hate speech in public places will also be banned. The measures have been stretched beyond stopping those who incite violence to those who are perceived by the authorities to be espousing views or undertaking harmful activities for the “purpose of overthrowing democracy”. How vague, if it to be made illegal to not believe in democracy, should anarchists and purist libertarians be worried? Are revolutionary socialist groups to be illegal? The “extremism disruption orders” are designed to criminalise the intent to promote terrorism, or give hate speeches, and whether an individual has that intent will be based on the judgement of ministers. Essentially the measures are expanding the definition of people who could potentially be imprisoned or have their freedom restricted from those who do things, to those who think things. The language of the Police gets a bit Minorty Report-ish when they speak of targeting individuals who operate in what they call “pre-criminal space”. These new measures have a terrifying potential to be used zealously to the point that they are used in situations in which certain “bad” or “extreme” thoughts never actually led to any action being taken and were perhaps never going to lead to any action being taken. It could mean British citizens being prosecuted in our courts on the basis of their thoughts. The age old test of criminal liability according to Common Law, actus reus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea (the act is not culpable unless the mind is guilty) will be violated as the courts prosecute based only on the guilty mind (mens rea) in the absence of action (actus reus). Thought crime has become part of our public life and discourse and we already arrest people simply for what they say, or tweet. All the old customs of English liberty are fading into memory. Now we seem set to officially introduce thought crime into our legal system. To override the many difficulties of prosecuting thought crime in our criminal justice system (which is set up to protect the rights of the individual) and to pre-empt all the legal challenges it would likely inspire, it is the Home Secretary and ministers who will make judgements, further breaking down the barriers separating the government and the courts that are in place to prevent exactly the abuse of power that these measures represent. “…because it may be too great a temptation to human frailty apt to grasp at power, for the same persons who have the power of making laws, to have also in their hands power to execute them” – John Locke The Terrorism Investigation and Prevention Measures will restrict the individual’s freedom of movement and expression without guilt being proven at a fair and public hearing. We have witnessed the erosion over time of Habeas Corpus, jury trial and the presumption of innocence- the finest safeguards of liberty ever conceived- and we are now witnessing their abolition. These restrictions are also violations of our much ballyhooed “human rights” but luckily these rights come with the conditions, caveats and get out clauses necessary for the government to remove them at will. The Human Rights Act didn’t protect us from New Labour’s bonfire of liberties, it won’t protect us now. The test that should be applied before introducing legislation in the name of security is to hypothesise whether we can foresee this government, or any future government, and the all the authorities it empowers, potentially abusing these new powers in the future. Any thinking and sceptical person can see these measures have a huge potential for serious abuse. Throughout history liberty has been abolished and totalitarianism imposed in a sudden revolution or invasion to the tune of marching jack boots. We feel safe and secure in the knowledge that this is unlikely to happen in Britain but we have been lulled into a false sense of security. Our liberal democracy will not be abolished through a flash of violence; the state will become totalitarian incrementally, measure by measure, introduced with consent of a timid and fearful populace cowering from the terrorist threat. It is unjust and totally contrary to our values for restrictions to be placed on individual freedom without due process. I urge every liberty minded Conservative to dissent; you cannot stand up for, and conserve, British values while violating them in a climate of fear and intimidation. With the exception of incitement to violence, in all cases speech must be free. In a genuinely free society it is only after a crime has been committed that the law becomes involved. Nor do the authorities have any right to pre-approve speech or publications before they are expressed. Just think of what a sad state of affairs it would be for the police to be poring over speeches and articles for signs of “extremism”. Curbing free speech is setting us on to the road to serfdom and tyranny, a road paved with good intentions and calls for greater security. By allowing fanatics to speak and publish openly they can be identified, observed and their networks monitored. If we oppress opinions we are merely ensuring that they are expressed in secret, which is dangerous. The free competition of ideas is essential for societal development and progress, and therein lays the answer. If we allow those who we perceive to have abhorrent and “extreme” views to express them openly we can combat them fiercely. For we know that the ideals, principles and values we hold dear are superior and will endure (if we conserve them). Our timidity is betraying young Muslims lured into temptation by false prophets and corrupt ideology. The ideas and views of Islamists are not just immoral and disgusting; they are downright stupid, ridiculous and laughable. Let us speak up for British values and all the virtues of our free society. We have all the cultural muscle we need to face down these pretentious Islamist dogmatists in the open exchange of ideas. Let them speak openly, and we can defeat them through criticism, refutation, ridicule and satire. By readily betraying our values in the face of terrorism, we are defeated. We are letting them win and we are proving right their assertion that we are weak and hypocritical. It has been said repeatedly that the proposed security measures are designed to protect “British values”. Well, upholding British values means protecting the principles of equality before the law and freedom of expression. If David Cameron and Theresa May are unsure as to what constitutes a British value, I’m happy to offer the following examples: “We must be free or die, who speak the tongue That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold Which Milton held.” “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.” “If the arguments of the present chapter are of any validity, there ought to exist the fullest liberty of professing and discussing, as a matter of ethical conviction, any doctrine, however immoral it may be considered.”. “He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.” Celebrate the Magna Carta – and the continuing importance of liberty – with us on June 10th.

TigerAidan Originally Posted by No one knows the reason why Cain was suspended for the Miami game so to say he needs to get it together is assuming and that is never a good thing. As far as the other 2, Lakip is a senior so his career was over after this year anyways and JJ I am afraid to say probably just sealed his fate as a Tiger but he had ample amount of time to get it together so I can't feel sorry for him. With that said there are rules that have to be followed and if you break those rules you have to be dealt with but I am not going to judge these young men on failing a drug test. I am sure the last thing any college kid wants to do is take a drug test. Hopefully it is a learning lesson for these kids but they don't need so called fans judging their lives or their decisions. They made their choices now they must live with the consequences and it isn't fair to have those fans who know nothing about them berate them because they can't help their favorite team win. If it is your first instinct to name call and tell everyone how stupid they are then you damn sure better have a clean closet....

Guardian investigation reveals death toll over 12 months with many desperately trying risky routes into UK to escape makeshift camps without sanitation at French port Facebook Twitter Pinterest Calais migrants: ‘Get to England or die trying’ At least 15 migrants in and around the French port of Calais have died in the past year as an influx of young men and women from east Africa take ever greater risks to get the UK, according to an investigation by the Guardian. Growing numbers of young families, some with children as young as three, have also arrived in the French town in the past few months and are living in makeshift camps without sanitation or running water. The European director of the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) described the situation as shameful and warned more people will die in the refugee camps in the coming weeks as temperatures plummet. “The conditions are totally unacceptable and are not consistent with the kind of values that a democratic society should have,” Vincent Cochetel from the UNHCR told the Guardian. “This is a shameful situation to witness in the heart of the Europe Union.” The French authorities do not generally keep a record of the migrants who die in Calais, but local charities and the UNHCR say at least 15 people, including young women and teenagers, have died in the past 12 months. Last month one man died after attempting to jump from a motorway bridge onto a moving lorry, and two more were killed in nearby Dunkirk when the truck they were hiding in caught fire. Earlier this month an Eritrean man was knocked down and killed as he looked for a lorry to board. Cochetel said he believed conditions in Calais were now worse than those at refugee camps in Turkey, where hundreds of thousands of people arrive each month to escape the bloodshed in Syria. He said the British and French governments had yet to appreciate the severity of the situation. “You will have people dying of cold and even more desperate people taking even more risks,” he said. “Some of the people there are becoming so tired and desperate that they are ready to do very dangerous things.” The French port has repeatedly hit the headlines in the past year, amid an increasingly hostile debate in the UK around immigration and asylum. As more people arrived in Calais – and conditions deteriorated – clashes erupted between different groups of migrants and politicians on both sides of the channel called for ever tougher measures to secure the port. Despite this the harsh reality of life for the people in the camps has been largely ignored. Today a Guardian investigation also reveals: • More and more teenagers and young children – some just three years old – have arrived over the past few months, mainly from East Africa. • Young women living in the camps are being sexually exploited often by trafficking gangs which are offering a route into England in exchange for sex. • New camps are springing up along the coast and around the entrance to the Euro Tunnel as French and British authorities step up security at the Calais port. Juliette Delaplace, who works for Secours Catholique, a charity that has been assisting migrants in Calais for 10 years said: “No other year has seen as many migrants die. They are jumping on lorries and taking more risks.” Most – but not all – of these deaths in the Calais area happened as migrants attempted to make the perilous journey to the UK. In the event of a migrant death the charity helps to raise money from local community groups to repatriate the body. The charity receives no support from local authorities in this process. Those families and friends who can not raise enough money to repatriate their bodies are buried in unmarked graves in cemetery plots usually reserved for the homeless. Migrants, mainly from Eritrea, have gathered their tents in an abandoned warehousein Calais. Many try to hop on trucks to get to England. Photograph: Etienne Laurant/EPA Hussain, an agricultural engineer who left his wife and two young children in Egypt to try to find work to provide for his family, said a friend of his, a 32-year-old from Sudan, died earlier this year after holding onto the underside of a lorry for three hours. “He just couldn’t hold on any longer,” said Hussain who has been in the camp nicknamed “the jungle” for two months and tries every night to get onto a lorry bound for the UK. Cochetel said it was typical of the growing risks people were prepared to take. “We are seeing more and more people taking crazy risks because they feel they have nothing to lose so they take whatever chance they can to get to a place where they feel their life is going to be better or to where they think they will be protected.” Migrants also told the Guardian that trafficking gangs were openly operating in Calais and offering to smuggle people into the UK for between £800 and £2,500. Some said traffickers were coercing vulnerable young girls into having sex in return for being smuggled into the UK. Cochetel said: “We know that it is going on. For a few of them it might be what is termed “survival sex”, a sort of strategy, for others yes it is in-kind exploitation by smugglers in exchange for getting them on the back of a truck.” A 23-year-old Eritrean woman who has been living in Calais for two months told the Guardian she was fearful: “I am not safe living in the jungle. There is a lot of drinking in the camp and this creates problems. It is very dangerous for a woman living here.” Earlier this year more than 100 migrants broke through port security in an attempt to force their way onto ferries bound for the UK. There have also been clashes between different groups of migrants in the town. The UK government has pledged £12m to help secure the port but Cochetel said that was not enough, arguing that people would “always find a way around fences”. He said the UK – along with other northern European countries - had to “provide a mechanism” that allows those with legitimate claims to seek asylum when they first arrived in southern EU countries. And he warned that until there was concerted EU-wide action the situation in Calais was likely to deteriorate further. “There will be more deaths and more tension… in the mid term it is just bad news coming for these people,” Cochetel warned. • Additional reporting: Anne Penketh Escaping from Calais camp: ‘I risk my life – whatever if takes’ With his face lit by the flames from the small campfire Mohammed, a 23-year-old who fled the conflict in Gaza earlier this year, quietly explains how he ended up in a squalid camp just 20 miles from the English coast. “I had no choice but to leave and try and find something better,” he says. “Our house was destroyed …we had nothing, I just wanted to feel one moment of safety, one moment when I am not cold, when I am not treated like an insect.” Migrants in Calais gather food and supplies during the day, waiting for the night or a traffic jam to hop on trucks on their way to England Photograph: Etienne Laurent/EPA Tonight, as on every other evening for the past month, Mohammed and his four friends – two Syrians and two Egyptians, who met on a smugglers’ boat crossing the Mediterranean – will set off on their nightly quest; pitting themselves against the French police and private security guards protecting Calais’s lorry parks and motorways in an attempt to find their way onto the back of a truck and what they hope will be a better life in the UK. “It is dangerous and difficult when you have not had food or sleep but every night we must try,” Mohammed says with a smile as he pulls his hat down against the biting cold. “We have left our homes to find a better life. We can not stay here and put up with this.” He gestures behind him to the muddy field stretching into the distance, spotted with campfires and covered with makeshift shelters. Beyond the tents are piles of rubbish, and beyond that, the strip of wasteland used by the hundreds of people who live here as a toilet. Mohammed and his friends are among thousands of people who, having fled war, persecution and poverty beyond Europe’s borders, are living in increasingly precarious conditions in makeshift camps across northern France – waiting and hoping for their chance to make it to the UK. Many more people seek refuge in other European countries but the concentration of those waiting here and the conditions in which they are living set Calais apart. According to local charities and the UN’s refugee agency at least 15 people, including young women and teenagers, have died in the past 12 months. As first light spreads over the largest camp in Calais – known as the jungle – Mohammed and his friends make their way back to their shelter along a disused railway track after another fruitless night. During the early hours they were chased by police and one of Mohammed’s friends, Hussain from Egypt, was pepper sprayed, before falling into a ditch. His plight prompts gentle mocking from his friends but the atmosphere is sombre. The men have just been told another of their friends – a 32-year-old from Sudan – has died. The group, exhausted and cold from a night tramping the dual carriageways and lorry parks that surround the French port, falls silent. They know it is a fate that could befall any of them. Over the past few months it is not just the numbers of people arriving in Calais that have caused alarm among politicians and aid workers – it is their age. Following the chaos in Libya since the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime thousands of young people have used the failed state to flee oppressive regimes in east Africa in search of a better life in Europe. Among the dirt and makeshift shelters of the jungle, three-year-old Adiam watches her mother Winta, 18, cooking over a small fire of twigs. In one pan are two potatoes, in the other coffee. Adiam plays on a filthy plastic trike as her father Ataklti, 24, explains how he left Eritrea to escape compulsory military conscription and a brutal regime that Amnesty says is responsible for widespread human rights abuses. He takes a battered picture from his wallet of himself smiling next to another man. “He killed himself rather than stay or get locked up and so I knew I had to leave,” says Ataklti quietly. The family left their home in Eritrea a year ago, heading first to Sudan before paying smugglers to take them across the Sahara desert, through Libya and onto another smugglers’ boat bound for Europe. Like many of those in the camp he is reluctant to reveal too many details in case the Eritrean authorities take action against his remaining family. But in a halting voice he says the worst part of the journey was crossing the Sahara, where they had little water and seven of the people they were with died. He says the gangs in Libya “treated them like dogs”. And now sitting in the camp in northern France in the cold he admits he faces a fresh challenge: getting onto the back of a lorry with his three-year-old daughter and young wife. If he does not succeed, the family – who have never experienced a north European winter – face months of freezing conditions sheltering in a derelict sports hall at the centre of the jungle with little food. “It’s very difficult here with a young child because we are trying to get onto lorries which is very dangerous, but I would do anything for her, for her future. I will risk my life whatever it takes,” says Ataklti. According to the UNHCR Adiam and her family are among about 3000 migrants in and around Calais – three times the number at the beginning of the year – who are taking greater risks to try To get to the UK. Most of them live in makeshift camps like the jungle or in squats scattered around the town and survive on one meal a day provided by local charities. The French authorities have pledged to open a new day centre in January to help the most vulnerable people. Opponents have claimed this will only attract more migrants to the town. Those in the camps are sceptical it will ever open and say even if it does it will be too little, too late. Whether the centre does help or not it is clear the problem is no longer confined to Calais. The Guardian spent time with truck drivers who say their lorries are regularly targeted by smugglers in car parks more than 125 miles (200km) from the French port. Migrants have also set up smaller camps across the region from the fields near the entrance to the Channel tunnel to a small wood near a shopping centre in Dunkirk. At one lorry park about half way between Calais and Paris, Matthew, who works for a UK-based furniture removal company, checks his lorry for the final time before turning in for the night. He seems overly paranoid as he points to the hedge surrounding the car park. “They will be in there now watching and waiting to see which lorries look the best bet.” But as dusk settles he is proved right. There is a movement in the hedge and Matthew goes for a closer look in time to see three young men in their late teens or 20s sitting in the bushes. “Even here so far from the coast they are trying to get on now. It is getting beyond a joke.” Two weeks later his firm decide to stop using Calais altogether. For many UK politicians the answer to the unfolding crisis in Calais seems to be two-fold: build bigger and higher fences and make life for those who do make it through to the UK as uncomfortable as possible. Others suggest that only closer co-operation at EU level – with countries from northern Europe working much more closely with those in the south to offer asylum to refugees and return others when they first arrive – can the problem be addressed. However, as record numbers of people flee poverty and war in the Middle East and Africa it seems unlikely that people will stop leaving their homes in search of a better, safer life in Europe for the foreseeable future. “When I get to England I will study and then get a job and work so my daughter can have a better life,” says Ataklti, who a few weeks after we spoke discovered his wife was pregnant with their second child. As he settles down to his one meal of the day as the night closes in on the Jungle he remains sure he is doing the right thing, despite the risks. “We did not have a life at home and we do not really have one here. So we must keep trying.”

For other uses, see Californication 1999 studio album by Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication is the seventh studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was released on June 8, 1999,[2] on Warner Bros. Records and was produced by Rick Rubin. Californication marked the return of John Frusciante, who had previously appeared on Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik, to replace Dave Navarro as the band's guitarist. Frusciante's return was credited with changing the band's sound altogether, producing a notable shift in style from the music recorded with Navarro. The album's subject material incorporated various sexual innuendos commonly associated with the band, but also contained more varied themes than previous outings, including death, contemplations of suicide, California, drugs, globalization, and travel. Californication is the Chili Peppers' most commercially successful studio release internationally, with over 15 million copies sold worldwide,[3] and more than 6 million in the United States alone.[4] As of 2002, the album had sold over 4 million copies in Europe.[5] The record produced several hits for the band, including "Otherside", "Californication" and the Grammy Award-winning "Scar Tissue". Californication peaked at number three on the U.S. Billboard 200. The record marked a significant change in style for the band: Rolling Stone's Greg Tate noted that "while all previous Chili Peppers projects have been highly spirited, Californication dares to be spiritual and epiphanic".[6] Another critic, Billboard's Paul Verna, mentioned that the album brought out "the group's softer, melodic side," as opposed to their previous six albums.[7] Background [ edit ] In 1984, the Red Hot Chili Peppers started off as a "funk-punk band, driven by Kiedis's exuberant rapping and Flea's manic slap-bass" (Sanneh, 2002). Guitarist John Frusciante, who had joined in 1988 at the age of 18, left the band in the middle of a 1992 tour that promoted their critically acclaimed album Blood Sugar Sex Magik.[8] It took over a year for the band to find a new guitarist with whom to record officially. Dave Navarro, formerly of Jane's Addiction, was invited to join the Chili Peppers after Arik Marshall, who had finished the remaining tour dates for Blood Sugar Sex Magik, was fired.[9] Navarro influenced the band's ensuing album, One Hot Minute, by incorporating various elements of heavy metal and psychedelic rock,[10] which was something for which the Chili Peppers had not previously been notable. Compared to Blood Sugar Sex Magik, One Hot Minute was a commercial disappointment, selling only half of what Blood Sugar Sex Magik had originally sold.[11][10][12] Navarro and the band parted ways in early 1998, clearing the way for Fruciante's eventual return.[13] In the years following his departure from the Chili Peppers, Frusciante had developed a vicious addiction to both heroin and cocaine that left him in poverty and near death.[14] Friends convinced him to enter drug rehabilitation in January 1998.[15] In April 1998, following Frusciante's three-month completion, bassist Flea visited his former bandmate and openly invited him to re-join the band, an invitation Frusciante readily accepted. Within the week, reunited for the first time in six years, the foursome gathered to play and jump-started the newly reunited Red Hot Chili Peppers.[16] Through a number of lineup changes, the Red Hot Chili Peppers had released multiple compilation or greatest hits albums prior to Frusciante's return; Frusciante pushed for the group to change their "funk-punk" sound and become more of a "mellow-progressive rock act" for Californication.[17] Writing and composition [ edit ] "Around the World" "Around the World", the second single from Californication, combined harder, more abrasive guitar progressions with a deeply melodic chorus representative of the band's stylistic shift. "Otherside" Californication, was one of the darkest recordings following One Hot Minute due to Kiedis' continuing drug addiction which considerably affected his songwriting. The track prominently features a sparse guitar arrangement that Frusciante played on a 1955 "Otherside", the third single from, was one of the darkest recordings followingdue to Kiedis' continuing drug addiction which considerably affected his songwriting. The track prominently features a sparse guitar arrangement that Frusciante played on a 1955 Gretsch White Falcon Problems playing these files? See media help. Much of the album was written in the band members' homes in the summer of 1998. Kiedis and Frusciante often spent days together discussing song creation, guitar riffs and lyrical content. Bass and percussion aspects of the record were constructed through jam sessions and the individual work of Flea and drummer Chad Smith.[18] Most of the material and lyrics throughout the songs in the album came from the "personal and professional turmoil" that different members of the band went through/were currently going through at the time. This resulted in the "sensitive approach that one might not expect from a band whose followers are skate-punks and fraternity boys". Anthony Kiedis's main point behind this album was to "tell tales of wandering souls who've lost their way searching for the American dream in California". Californication's lyrics were derived from Anthony Kiedis' ideas, outlooks, and perceptions of life and its meaning. "Porcelain" resulted from Kiedis's meeting with a young mother at the YMCA, who was attempting to battle her alcohol addiction while living with her infant daughter.[19] Kiedis also had a love interest in Yohanna Logan, a fashion designer whom Kiedis met while she was working in New York City. Kiedis involvement with Logan influenced his multiple examinations of love throughout Californication, in songs such as "Porcelain" and "This Velvet Glove." [20] Sarcasm was a concept that Kiedis had dealt with in the past, and he ultimately crafted a song around it. He was inspired by former bandmate Dave Navarro, whom he considered to be the "King of Sarcasm".[21] Frusciante approached the guitar line present in "Scar Tissue" as an attempt to use two notes that are played far apart, but produce a "cool rhythm".[22] He had explored this technique on his first solo album, 1994's Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt. Frusciante considers "Scar Tissue" to be a "very simple example of the technique, but I think it's a style that sounds like me". The guitarist made use of slide guitar-playing for the solos in the song.[22] The song "Emit Remmus", which is "summer time" spelled backwards, was inspired by Anthony's brief relationship with Melanie C of the Spice Girls.[23] "Get on Top", a song which contains significant use of a wah pedal, was formed after a jam session conducted shortly after Frusciante had listened to Public Enemy: "I came up with [the rhythm to the song] on the way to rehearsal—just tapping it out with my foot."[22] The understated guitar solo played in the middle of the song was originally intended to be more noticeable, according to Frusciante, who was playing screaming guitar solos. He changed his thought process after listening to Steve Howe's guitar solo on Yes' "Siberian Khatru": "the band sounded really big—and they're playing really fast—and then this clean guitar solo comes out over on top. It's really beautiful, like it's on its own sort of shelf. For 'Get On Top' I wanted to play something that contrasted between the solo and the background."[22] "Savior", a song found towards the end of the album, features heavy effects, most notably an Electro-Harmonix Micro Synth with 16-second delay.[22] Frusciante notes that the sound is "directly inspired by Eric Clapton's playing in Cream. If you listen to the actual notes, they're like a Clapton solo—they just don't sound like it because of the effects."[22] The hit "Around the World", which harkens back to the Chili Peppers' funk-influenced sound, was constructed by Frusciante at his home. The rhythm and beat, however, are intricate; this required him to play the song with the rest of the band rather than alone for them to understand it.[22] The bass lick was composed in "maybe 15 minutes," according to Frusciante: "Flea is the best bass player in the world. His sense of timing and the way he thinks is so crazy."[22] The title track of the album was among the most difficult for the band to complete. Frusciante felt compelled to write an appropriate guitar ensemble that would appropriately complement the poignant lyrical content, but encountered difficulty.[24] The song was barely making progress, and would have been scrapped had it not been for Kiedis' urgency to include it on the album. Frusciante completed the final riff two days before recording, after drawing inspiration from The Cure's soundtrack song to "Carnage Visors".[22][24] The title track was intended to represent Californian lifestyles and, more specifically, the "fake" nature which is associated with much of Hollywood. It references Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and uses considerable imagery to capture the evocative nature of California.[24] The record was a change of style for the Chili Peppers, especially compared to their previous album, One Hot Minute, which combined various elements of heavy metal and psychedelic rock. Although Californication still contains some funk rock songs (such as "Around the World", "Get on Top", "I Like Dirt", "Purple Stain" and "Right on Time"), it leaned towards more melodic riffs (for example, "Scar Tissue" and "Otherside") and focused on songs with implemented structure rather than jams.[25] Outtakes [ edit ] The album featured a few outtakes that didn't appear on the studio album. "Gong Li" and "Instrumental #1" were released on the "Scar Tissue" single. The instrumental "Teatro Jam" was released on the "Around the World" single while "How Strong" was featured on the "Otherside" single. "Instrumental #2" was released on a bonus disc for the album. In 2006, iTunes exclusively released "Fat Dance," "Over Funk" and "Quixoticelixer" along with the album for download. "Slowly, Deeply" an instrumental track, would later be released as a b-side to the "Universally Speaking" single in 2003, while "Bunker Hill" would be re-worked on during the band's Greatest Hits sessions in 2003 and released on the "Fortune Faded" single that same year. In August and September 2014, unreleased demos from 1998 were leaked to the internet. Many of the demos were of songs that made the final album or released as b-sides; however, some were different from the final album version with the most notable differences being a reggae influenced version of the title track with different lyrics and a very different vocal melody, a version "Scar Tissue" with a longer intro, a slower version of "Purple Stain" with added lyrics and different chorus, "Porcelain Alice", the original version of "Porcelain" with different lyrics, an instrumental version of 'Quixoticelixer' (with the working title "New Wave Song"), "How Strong Is Your Love", the original version of "How Strong" and the original demos for "Fat Dance" and "Bunker Hill" (originally titled "These Are Not My Dreams of Bunker Hill"). The leaked demos also included never before heard songs such as "Plate of Brown", "Tellin' a Lie", "Mommason", "Andaman & Nicobar", "Boatman", "Sugar Sugar" and "Trouble in the Pub". In February 2015, a collection of rough mixes of outtakes from the Californication sessions was leaked. This group of songs, which were recorded on April 21, 1999 at The Village Studio, contains a version of "Trouble in the Pub" with vocals along with "Blondie", a song Frusciante mentioned in an interview as an album outtake however the song turns out only to be a rough mix of "Instrumental #2". An unmastered mix of the album also exists that features alternate versions of some songs, such as extended endings ("Easily"), extra verses ("Savior"), alternate choruses ("Around the World") and different guitar mixes ("How Strong").[26] Promotion and release [ edit ] Rick Rubin had produced their two previous albums. However, the Chili Peppers decided to look for other producers for Californication.[27] David Bowie had shown great interest in working with the band and asked to produce the album; however, the Chili Peppers chose to remain with Rubin for Californication.[27] Rubin had, in the past, granted the Chili Peppers creative freedom on their recording material; this was something they thought necessary for the album to be unique, and could only occur with his return.[28] Recording took place at Cello Studios in Los Angeles. In early 1999, following the recording process, the band played "Scar Tissue", "Otherside", and "Californication" to their managers, and it was decided that "Scar Tissue" would be the lead single for the album.[29] To support their reunited line-up, the band played various proms across the country to promote Californication.[29] It sprouted a competition, which called upon high school students to write essays on "how they could make their schools better, safer, happier, more rocking places, so that they didn't have to go to school afraid. If you wrote the essay, you got a free ticket to the show."[29] Californication was released on June 8, 1999, debuting at #5 but peaking at #3 on the Billboard 200 chart. In Europe, the album peaked at #5 on the UK Top 40, #1 on the Finnish, Austrian, Swedish and New Zealand charts, and #2 on the Top 40 of France and The Netherlands. It was certified gold just over a month later, on July 22, 1999, and its continuing sales have resulted in it being certified six-times platinum.[30][31] In March 2006, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' albums were made available to purchase on the iTunes Music Store.[32] Albums bought there included new previously unreleased tracks ("Fat Dance", "Over Funk", and "Quixoticelixer"). Commercial performance [ edit ] In the United States the album debuted and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 the week of June 26, 1999 with 189,000 copies sold.[33] The next week it dropped to number seven and it was present on the chart for one hundred one weeks.[34] It was certified six times platinum by the RIAA on June 28, 2016 for shipments of six millions.[35] In the United Kingdom it debuted and peaked at number five on June 16, 1999, the next week it fell off to number seven; the album remained on the chart for one hundred sixty nine weeks.[36] It was certified four times platinum by the BPI on September 2, 2016 denoting shipments of one million two hundred thousand units.[37] In Germany, it was the band's best-selling album, staying on the Media Control Charts for 114 weeks (more than 2 years) and selling more than 750,000 copies, reaching 3× Gold.[38] Critical reception and legacy [ edit ] Californication received favorable reviews in contrast to its less popular predecessor, One Hot Minute, and it was a greater success worldwide.[39] Rolling Stone credited Kiedis for his drastically improved vocals: "[his] vocal cords have apparently been down to some crossroads and over the rehab, and returned with heretofore unheard-of range, body, pitch, soulfulness, and melodic sensibility."[6] Songs such as "Otherside" and "Porcelain" were called "Pumpkins-esque", while the album as a whole was "epiphanal" and the "RHCP furthermuckers are now moving toward funk's real Holy Grail: that salty marriage of esoteric mythology and insatiable musicality that salvages souls, binds communities and heals the sick."[6] Other critics credited the album's success to the return of Frusciante. AllMusic's Greg Prato said that the "obvious reason for [the band's] rebirth is the reappearance of guitarist John Frusciante", considering him to be the "quintessential RHCP guitarist".[39] The album as a whole was "a bona fide Chili Peppers classic".[39] Entertainment Weekly also credits Frusciante with transforming the band's sound into a "more relaxed, less grating, and, in their own way, more introspective album than ever before".[25] Mark Woodlief of Ray Gun commented that "'This Velvet Glove' strikes an intricate balance between a lush acoustic guitar foundation and anthemic rock," Woodlief continued "the disco intro to 'Parallel Universe' gives way to a scorching Western giddy-up motif in the chorus, and Frusciante's Hendrix-like excursions at the song's close."[47] While many critics found the band's new sound refreshing, NME criticized the Chili Peppers for rarely using their trademark funk sound, asking: "Can we have our brain-dead, half-dressed funk-hop rock animals back now, please? All this false empathy is starting to make my removed rib tingle."[48] Pitchfork, while considering the album a triumph over One Hot Minute, felt Californication lacked the funk that was ever-present in Blood Sugar Sex Magik.[44] It went on to scrutinize some lyrics for being overly sexual, but also considered Frusciante to be "the best big-time American rock guitarist going right now".[44] Critic Robert Christgau gave the album a one-star honorable mention ( ), describing the band as "New Age fuck fiends" and citing "Scar Tissue" and "Purple Stain" as highlights.[49] Over the years, Californication has maintained its popularity. "Scar Tissue" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 2000.[50] The album was ranked number 399 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and, in 2006, the Chili Peppers recorded a five-set playlist for AOL Sessions that included "Scar Tissue" and "Californication".[51][52][53] The album produced many staple hits for the Chili Peppers; five of the sixteen songs on their Greatest Hits album were taken from Californication.[54] Waveform of bootlegged "unmastered" version of " Otherside " (top) versus waveform of original CD release version (bottom), showing difference in volume levels. The album received criticism for what Tim Anderson of The Guardian called "excessive compression and distortion" in the process of digital mastering.[55] Stylus Magazine labeled it as one of the victims of the loudness war and commented that it suffered from digital clipping so much that "even non-audiophile consumers complained about it".[56] An early, alternately mastered version of the album with a different track listing and mixing, probably a pre-release candidate, has been circulated on the internet.[57] Accolades [ edit ] The information regarding accolades attributed to Californication is adapted from AcclaimedMusic.net[53] Tour [ edit ] Immediately following the release of Californication, the band embarked on a world tour to support the record, beginning in the United States. To culminate the US leg of their tour, the Chili Peppers were asked to close Woodstock '99, which became infamous for the resulting violence.[64][65] The band was informed minutes before arriving that the crowds and bonfires in the fields had gone out of control.[64] When the Chili Peppers performed a tribute to Jimi Hendrix's song "Fire" to finish their set as a favor to Hendrix's sister, the disruption escalated into violence when several women, who had been crowd surfing and moshing, were raped and nearby property was looted and destroyed.[66][67][68][69] Kiedis felt that "It was clear that this situation had nothing to do with Woodstock any more. It wasn't symbolic of peace and love, but of greed and cashing in ... We woke up to papers and radio stations vilifying us for playing 'Fire'."[67] To kick off the band's European tour, the band staged a free show in Moscow's Red Square, on August 14, 1999, to a crowd of over 200,000.[70] Kiedis recalled the situation: "Red Square was so filled with wall-to-wall Russians that we needed a police escort to get near the stage."[70] Following the European leg, the group did a show in New York City, at the Windows on the World, for KROQ radio contest-winners, and then at the Big Day Out festival in Australia following several Japanese tour dates.[71] Flea, however, began to feel the repercussions of touring causing the band to set up concerts that were less strenuous, and consequently less financially rewarding, for them. These shows would finish the remainder of the Californication tour.[72] As one of the last shows before the release of their next album By the Way, the Chili Peppers played Rock in Rio 3.[73] Track listing [ edit ] All tracks written by Red Hot Chili Peppers (Flea, John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith). Japanese edition bonus track No. Title Length 16. "Gong Li" 3:43 iTunes bonus tracks No. Title Length 16. "Fat Dance" 3:40 17. "Over Funk" 2:58 18. "Quixoticelixer" 4:48 Australian edition bonus disc No. Title Length 1. "Gong Li" 3:43 2. "How Strong" 4:42 3. "Instrumental #2" 2:43 Personnel [ edit ] Red Hot Chili Peppers [ edit ] Additional musicians [ edit ] Production [ edit ] Lindsay Chase – production coordinator Mike Nicholson and Greg Collins – additional engineering Greg Fidelman – additional engineering Jennifer Hilliard – assistant engineer Chris Holmes – mix engineer Ok Hee Kim – assistant engineer Vlado Meller – mastering Rick Rubin – production David Schiffman – additional engineering Jim Scott – engineer, mixing John Sorenson – additional engineering Design [ edit ] Lawrence Azerrad – art direction Sonya Koskoff – photography Red Hot Chili Peppers – art direction Tony Wooliscroft – photography Charts [ edit ] References [ edit ] Bibliography [ edit ] Dimery, Robert. 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . New York, NY: Universe, 2006. ISBN 0-7893-1371-5. . New York, NY: Universe, 2006. ISBN 0-7893-1371-5. Kiedis, Anthony and Larry Sloman. Scar Tissue . New York, NY: Hyperion, 2004. ISBN 1-4013-0101-0. . New York, NY: Hyperion, 2004. ISBN 1-4013-0101-0. Larkin, Colin. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication." Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 4th ed. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 27 Sep. 2016. Sanneh, K. (2002, Jul 14). A band even better cooled down. New York Times (1923–Current File)

Story highlights David Frum: Hundreds of thousands of Americans lost power in snowstorms this week He says this happens regularly in U.S., but not in Germany, where power lines are buried Some say it would be too costly to bury power lines; he says cost creates benefits Frum: It's a project that would benefit many, create jobs; our grandchildren will thank us Congratulations: If you're reading this, there's a good chance you still have electricity. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of Americans hit by winter weather in the South this week couldn't join you. And ice and storms making their way north threaten loss of power stretching to Vermont. Why do Americans tolerate such outages? They are not inevitable. The German power grid has outages at an average rate of 21 minutes per year. The winds may howl. The trees may fall. But in Germany, the lights stay on. David Frum There's no Teutonic engineering magic to this impressive record. It's achieved by a very simple decision: Germany buries almost all of its low-voltage and medium-voltage power lines, the lines that serve individual homes and apartments. Americans could do the same. They have chosen not to. The choice has been made for reasons of cost. The industry rule of thumb is that it costs about 10 times as much to bury wire as to string wire overhead: up to $1 million per mile, industry representatives claim. Since American cities are much less dense than European ones, there would be a lot more wire to string to serve a U.S. population than a European one. Cost matters. But now reflect: 1. There's reason to think that industry estimates of the cost of burying wires are inflated. While the U.S. industry guesstimates costs, a large-scale study of the problem conducted recently in the United Kingdom estimated the cost premium at 4.5 to 5.5 times the cost of overhead wire, not 10 times. JUST WATCHED Atlantans stocks up for winter storm Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Atlantans stocks up for winter storm 01:16 JUST WATCHED Atlanta ready for second ice blast? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Atlanta ready for second ice blast? 01:31 2. U.S. cost figures are a moving target. American cities are becoming denser as the baby boomers age and opt for central-city living . Denser cities require fewer miles of wire to serve their populations. 3. Costs can only be understood in relation to benefits. As the climate warms, storms and power outages are becoming more common. And as the population ages, power failures become more dangerous. In France, where air conditioning is uncommon, a 2003 heat wave left 10,000 people dead , almost all of them elderly. If burying power lines prevented power outages during the hotter summers --and icier winters -- ahead, the decision could save many lives. 4. As you may have heard, many Americans remain unemployed. Joblessness is acute among less educated workers, many of whom used to work in the depressed construction industry. Burying power lines is a project that could put many hundreds of thousands of the unemployed to work at tasks that make use of their skills and experience. The Obama stimulus failed to produce many projects of lasting benefit to the country. Yet even now, borrowing costs remain low for governments and large ultilities. Burying power lines is a public works project for the 21st century that our children and grandchildren would appreciate -- and that might save our parents' lives.

Apple will add all iPhone 4 models, the late 2010 13-inch MacBook Air, third-generation AirPort Extreme, and mid 2009 AirPort Time Capsule to its vintage and obsolete products list starting October 31, according to Japanese website Mac Otakara Apple products on the vintage and obsolete list are no longer eligible for hardware service, beyond a few exceptions. Apple defines vintage products as those that have not been manufactured for more than five years but less than seven years ago, while obsolete products are those that were discontinued more than seven years ago. Each of the products added were released between 2009 and 2010.The report specifically pertains to Apple's vintage and obsolete products list in Japan, but the new additions will more than likely extend to the United States, Australia, Canada, and the rest of the Asia-Pacific and Europe regions.Apple already obsoleted CDMA models of the iPhone 4 around the world last month, while the late 2010 MacBook Air joins the mid 2009 iMac, 2010 Mac mini, and mid 2010 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro among Apple's recently obsoleted notebooks.macOS Sierra remains compatible with the late 2010 MacBook Air, while the iPhone 4 cannot be updated beyond iOS 7.1.2. Read how to identify your MacBook Air model or how to identify your iPhone model The current MacBook Air has not been updated in 584 days. Refreshed models with USB-C ports are expected later this month at the earliest.

Defending World Champions, European Champions in 2008 and 2012, success at the age-group level, Real Madrid and Barcelona continually top or near the top of the wealthiest clubs list and home grown players much sought after around the world – this is a Golden Age for Spanish soccer ........or is it? Last week there was a very public reminder that success has not brought benefit to all. Because for all the success achieved over the last 10 years or so Spain has an unsustainable system by which the top two teams – Real Madrid and Barcelona - siphon off so much money that the others are faced with accepting the inevitably of irrelevance or incurring so much debt that bankruptcy becomes just another milestone in the business plan. Along the way suppliers go unpaid, taxes owing to governments mount and players and support staff are surprised if a pay check arrives on time. Racing Santander is not a well known name having never won a top honor in their one hundred year history. Fans in North America are more likely to recognize the name on account of US international defender Carlos Bocanegra playing on loan at Santander last season before signing for Chivas USA. Others with a slightly longer memory may remember when Ukrainian-American businessman Dmitry Piterman bought the club in 2003. There is nothing particularly unusual with a foreign businessman buying a Spanish soccer team but Piterman was not content to just own the club he wanted to run and manage every aspect of the club. A short while after buying a 24% stake and controlling interest in the club a TV interviewer asked Piterman is he was not cutting a bit more off than he could chew with his all-encompassing management style/ego-trip. His response was to say the least sharp and to the point; “There’s a dork running the most powerful country in the world without a qualification to his name. And you ask me for a diploma to run a football team? Give me a break.” However, Piterman could not get the Spanish Football Federation to budge on the technical qualifications to actually coach the club but they were no match for Dmitry. Piterman employed someone with the appropriate qualifications and installed his stooge as a figure-head coach. Meanwhile, Piterman accredited himself as the club photographer albeit one who sat next to the bench and barked instructions to his players. The first and possibly only owner/coach/photographer in the game. Piterman later bought Deportivo Alves but by 2007 he was gone from Spanish soccer. Nonetheless, he is still regarded as being one of the weirdest characters ever to own a Spanish team and that is no mean achievement in a business that spawns them. But back to this current edition of Racing Santander. Last Thursday, Santander, currently in the third tier of Spanish soccer after suffering two successive demotions took to the field for a Copa del Rey quarter-final second leg match against top flight Real Sociedad. But that was about as far as it got. A few days before the scheduled game the Santander players had issued a statement stating that unless the club president and the board of directors resigned en masse, they the players would refuse to play. The players’ beef was that despite many promises to the contrary the club had not paid them for months. By kick off time the resignation of the board had not been forthcoming. So when the referee blew for the game to start, Santander, rather than competing for the ball simply stood around the centre circle, arms locked in unison, offering their version of Roberto Duran's famous "No Más." After a rather one sided 30 or so seconds in which Sociedad knocked the ball around (100% pass completion rates no doubt), referee Jesus Gil Manzan was left with no option but to abandon the match. The stand taken by the Santander players drew unqualified support …well almost. The Spanish Football Federation (SFF) took a dim view of the players’ actions and banned Santander from next season’s Cup competition and fined the club $4,000. Most right minded people would point out that rather than making an issue of the Santander protest the SFF is far more culpable for allowing it to get to that stage. But the situation has become so prevalent that it is doubtful that the SFF would no where to start. Non-payment of wages has been a festering sore for Spanish soccer for many years. Just over two years ago it led to a players strike and at that time it was estimated that players in the top two levels of the Spanish game were essentially subsidizing their respective clubs to the tune of anywhere between $40M to $80M. Industrial action lasted just one week at the start of the 2011/12 season after both sides agreed on a deal to protect players’ salaries in the event of clubs declaring insolvency. Nonetheless, unpaid wages and a litany of clubs seeking bankruptcy protection continue to haunt Spanish soccer at all levels. In fact, Spain leads all other leagues with the unenviable record of the most bankrupt teams. Unpaid taxes have hovered around the $1B for a number of years with the top 20 indebted clubs at the end of the 2011/12 season owing a cumulative total of $4B to creditors. Underpinning the financially dysfunctional model is a TV rights deal that currently sees Real Madrid and Barcelona pocket around 42% of the revenue while the remainder is split between the other 18 clubs. Actually, it is not so much a TV deal as a series of deals. But with one eye to the Barclays Premier League (and now Serie A) where TV rights are sold as a package and the money is distributed more equitably although not equally, Spanish clubs have accepted, in principle at least, the selling of rights collectively and that the distribution of income must change. But accepting a concept in principle is one thing, actually tailoring a binding agreement is something else. Barcelona and Real Madrid have made it clear that they will not accept a deal that gives them less money than they currently receive. So although there has been talk of the big two receiving a smaller percentage the percentage may drop but Barca and Real except/need the TV pie to grow significantly in order to generate the same or greater cash flow. The other issue is that the Spanish top league seems intent on re-enacting Nero’s show stopping one night performance in Rome from a few thousand years ago. The intention was to have the new system in place for the 2015/16 season but now the talk is of 2016/17. Already, La Liga only generates around 50% of the Premier League’s broadcast income and around 75% of what Serie A generates. In the intervening years these gaps are only likely to grow ever larger with every team outside of the big two bearing an excessive burden. There is, however, one group who changed the way they do business. From 2014/15 onwards 35% of all domestic television revenues will be deducted at source and remitted to the Spanish taxman. Post-script One bit of redeeming news is that over the weekend the Racing Santander board was replaced. Conversely, carrying debts of over $65M the future looks bleak for all concerned.

The Dane completed another solid day of testing for the French works team at Barcelona on Tuesday, logging 119 laps before running out of fuel and stopping out on circuit in the dying stages. With only one day left in the car before heading to Melbourne, Magnussen says a clearer idea of where Renault stands in the competitive pecking order is beginning to emerge. “I think we’re just around the points, maybe just outside, on a good day,” he told media at the end of the day. “If we can get points in Melbourne, that’s a good weekend. “We’re running different tyres [to our rivals]. If you look at the field today, many people were on mediums, some were on softs, so it’s difficult to say. “But it looks quite close around the midfield, hopefully it will be close so we can make a difference.” Ready for Melbourne Asked what the RS16 was still missing, Magnussen added: “The same as any F1 car – downforce and power. The more of that you have, the faster you go, so that’s always what you look for. “We can fine-tune what we have, and there’s room for improvement, but we’ve come on a long way the three days I’ve been in the car. “I feel ready for Melbourne – you can never feel 100 percent ready, but I’d be happy to go there now.” Magnussen said there would be no major upgrades on the RS16 for Melbourne, but mentioned that there is a new front wing in the pipeline. “We have a new front wing to try out, hopefully at the end of the week with Jolyon [Palmer],” he said. “So we’ll see how that works. But [besides that] nothing too big for the first race.”

Well it's haraam for Muslims to fight each other and take each others properties. But besides the scenario, it's permitted to have Muslim/Mumin slaves. Allah speaks about believing slaves in several ayahs of the Quran. In Surah al-Baqara 2:221 = And do not marry polytheistic women until they believe. And a believing slave woman is better than a polytheist, even though she might please you. And do not marry polytheistic men [to your women] until they believe. And a believing slave is better than a polytheist, even though he might please you. Those invite [you] to the Fire, but Allah invites to Paradise and to forgiveness, by His permission. And He makes clear His verses to the people that perhaps they may remember. Surah an-Nisa 4:92 = And never is it for a believer to kill a believer except by mistake. And whoever kills a believer by mistake - then the freeing of a believing slave and a compensation payment presented to the deceased's family [is required] unless they give [up their right as] charity... So Allah speaks about believing slaves while they are enslaved. There's nothing wrong with having slaves in general as long as you treat them properly and give them their rights.

Only five beers into our 2014 journey and we’ve already had two beers with gingerbread men on the label. (Albeit this time, one of them dismembered.) And three beers that seem to feature ginger even when they don’t (like the 2014 Anchor Christmas Ale). And I have insider knowledge that at least one more beer in the series is ginger heavy. Friends, this may be a movement. If you like ginger, no problem. Otherwise, well. This entry is from the Boston Beer Company, otherwise known as Samuel Adams. It wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to fill an entire 12-pack with different Samuel Adams beers that could be loosely considered holiday beers or winter warmers. We might get around to them all eventually—Old Fezziwig, White Christmas, Chocolate Bock, Holiday Porter, Cold Snap…. As I noted back in 2012 when enjoying the Samuel Adams Winter Lager, one could drink a different beer each week from the Samuel Adams roster and still be going after an entire year. This particular brew is one of 16 beers in the brewery’s Small Batch Series, all high ABV beers in 22-ounce bottles that might best be shared, which is exactly what happened tonight. We put the Merry Maker to the eponymous test, we being the Shakespeare group that gets together every month or so to read through the Bard’s works. This has been going on for quite awhile—coming up on twenty years—and we’ve been through every play at least twice, most three times, some four times. We also snack, drink, gossip about town politics, solve worldly problems. In short, we have enough fun that we just keep going, reading on even through the deaths of several members, absorbing Shakespeare into our beings to whatever degree we do. We swap parts, don’t get overly histrionic, don’t delve into knotted analysis. Mostly we just read and let the words wash over us. And that’s plenty. We rarely make it through an entire play in one evening. So it was finishing up the “The Tempest” tonight, a play with its fair share of enchantment and merriment. But it also has that compelling valedictory feeling that suggests Shakespeare knew he was winding up his career, and I had the pleasure of reading Prospero tonight when he makes that marvelous speech: Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. –Act IV, scene 1 Our revels were just getting going when I poured out the Merry Maker. It’s a stout all right, opaque in the glass, redolent of ginger in the nose, but it gets more complicated in the palate, with cinnamon, clove and nutmeg in the spice mix, roasted barley and a bit of wheat and flaked oats, leading to a smooth, chocolately mouthfeel. East Kent Goldings and Fuggles hops are along for the ride. The three beer drinkers among us all liked the beer, all found the ginger and sweetness components muted to an agreeable degree, and didn’t object to the strength, since we spread the beer around, thereby avoiding the antics of Trinculo, Stephano and Caliban. Deb Luskin, who’s not a big beer drinker, but a graceful writer, gave it a sip and a one-word interjectional review: “Ew!” Name: Merry Maker Gingerbread Stout Brewer: Boston Beer Co., Massachusetts Style: Spiced sweet stout ABV: 9% Availability: November, nationwide For More Information: www.samueladams.com [December 18, 2014] <12 Beers of Christmas 6: Elysian Bifrost Winter Ale 12 Beers of Christmas 4: Guinness The 1759>

July 21, 2009 Dennis Kosuth responds to a critique of his article on the 1989 Tiananmen uprising from a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. MY ARTICLE on the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising in China ("Twenty years after Tiananmen Square") for SocialistWorker.org drew a harsh response from Richard Becker, writing for the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). Including footnotes, Becker's reply is nearly twice as long as my original article. It is packed, every inch of the way, with denunciations of me and the International Socialist Organization, which publishes SocialistWorker.org. Why should a relatively brief article on Tiananmen provoke such a lengthy and hostile response? It isn't because my article was a sustained attack on PSL--I mentioned the organization once, three paragraphs from the end. The answer is that what you think about the Tiananmen Square uprising goes to the heart of what you think about socialism. The American socialist Hal Draper once wrote a brilliant essay titled "The Two Souls of Socialism" that identifies two trends in the socialist movement historically--those who believe socialism can be imposed "from above," in the name of the working class, whether by electing socialists to government office or through a military victory and force of arms; and those who think socialism must be achieved "from below," by the collective action of the working-class majority in overturning capitalism and creating a workers' state based on mass democracy and freedom. The 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising shook China's rulers Becker and the PSL have two feet firmly planted in the "socialism from above" camp. Their identification of China with socialism depends, above all else, on the fact that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) remains in charge. To the PSL, the CCP is, ultimately, the embodiment of socialism, rather than anything to do with the Chinese working class. Therefore, at those points when the CCP bureaucracy was at odds with the mass of the Chinese working class, the PSL sides with the CCP--even when that means defending indefensible repression and violence by China's state machine. Ultimately, PSL's socialism from above drives people like Becker to ever greater--and ever more shrill--twists of logic and distortions of fact about Tiananmen Square. THIS IS clear from the beginning of Becker's response to my article, when he takes offense at my distaste for the Chinese National Anthem--a sign, he says, of my "cultural arrogance, jingoism and apparent ignorance." Besides being born in Hong Kong, I lived on the mainland as well, where I attended public primary school. Since I actually had to listen to the Chinese National Anthem weekly during the flag-raising ceremony at school, I might have some basis for my personal opinion. Perhaps even a stronger one than Becker has for his. In fact, in my article, I pointed out that China's anthem, unlike those of other countries, calls on the people to "stand up" and refuse to be slaves. But it's worth mentioning that the author of these lyrics, Tian Han, died in 1968 while in prison for "standing up." This was during China's Cultural Revolution, which Becker refers to as a period of "debate [and] fierce polemics." Tian Han was on the wrong side of those debates--he was denounced as a "poisonous weed" and charged with opposing the CCP in 1964. He refused to recant and remained in prison until his death at age 70. During this time, the national anthem was changed to "Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman," which ends with the line "Mao Zedong Thought is a sun that never sets." Becker's gripes about me and China's national anthem serve as a jumping-off point for the complaint that I'm hostile to "the Chinese Revolution in its entirety"--back to the 1949 revolution and the victory of Mao's Red Army after the "Long March." Leaving aside the fact that my article is about a rebellion in China 40 years later, the truth is that the ISO does view the 1949 revolution as a step forward in having driven out the colonial powers and ended the imperialist occupation of China. But that doesn't mean we have to say China is a socialist society. It's possible to support the Chinese Revolution, but also believe it wasn't a revolution that put the working class in power--which is the ISO's definition of a socialist revolution, and more to the point, Karl Marx's. The mass of Chinese workers played no role in the 1949 revolution--"socialism" was imposed from above in classic fashion, by the victorious Red Army--and they have never exercised any real authority since then in how China was run. That authority has stayed in the hands of the leaders of the CCP. Becker spends yet more time on another point in China's history that preceded the Tiananmen revolt--the Cultural Revolution. Though initiated by Mao against other members of the CCP leadership, says Becker, the Cultural Revolution sparked a "truly mass movement--first among young people and later among Chinese workers." He also states that "millions of mainly young Chinese engaged in fierce struggle within the CCP, and against some of its top leaders, including Deng." This begs a question about the Tiananmen rebellion in 1989. While it wasn't started by a CCP leader to further a faction fight within the bureaucracy, the Tiananmen movement did take root among "millions of mainly young Chinese," and "later among Chinese workers." It engaged in "fierce struggle" against the CCP and "some of its top leaders, including Deng." So why does Becker hold up one as an example of open debate and free thinking, and the other as something only George Bush Sr. and the CIA could love? What exactly is the PSL's criteria for supporting or opposing a movement from below in a supposedly socialist country? One can only infer that because the Cultural Revolution was initiated by Mao--rather than a mass popular movement from below, as in the case of Tiananmen--it has merit to the PSL. An issue of PSL's Socialism and Liberation magazine that focuses on China characterizes the Cultural Revolution as an "advance and retreat"--with the "old capitalist roaders" ultimately successful at defeating Mao and his allies, some of whom supported a "commune-style state." So for the PSL, the Cultural Revolution was a mixed bag of positives and negatives--while the right-wingers won, it was at least an example of the freedom to dissent in socialist China. Neither Becker nor the Socialism and Liberation writers mention how, from the end of 1968 until Mao's death in 1976, tens of millions of youth were deported to the countryside to halt the Cultural Revolution--and tens of thousands were simply killed. Nor that Mao himself closed ranks with the rest of the CCP leadership to put an end to the Cultural Revolution, out of fear that society would get out of control. SOME SELF-described Maoist organizations view Mao's death and the end of the Cultural Revolution as the end of socialism in China. But for the PSL, even this is going too far. Despite the fact that the "capitalist roaders" have run China without any significant resistance within the leadership since 1976, the PSL still maintains that the CCP should not have been overthrown in 1989. According to PSL leader Brian Becker in Socialism and Liberation, the process of capitalist class relations becoming entrenched in China is "unfinished," and "as long as the [CCP] retains its hold on political power, there is a possibility, however great or small, that this trend can still be reversed." On this basis, the Tiananmen movement is slandered, and the CCP is defended for crushing the uprising by students and workers--with the same logic that the PSL and its forerunner, the Workers' World Party, used in supporting USSR assaults on Hungary to put down the 1956 revolution and on Czechoslovakia in 1968 against the Prague Spring. It would have been a step forward for Chinese workers if the 1989 uprising had won more rights. Becker snidely dismisses this suggestion by me as "some rosy, democratic and affluent future where everyone could vote for various millionaire politicians." I wonder if he would make the same argument about Black people in the U.S. who struggled against murderous Jim Crow racism for the right to vote? Becker views the continued rule of the CCP as more important than the right to free speech, protest or, yes, even voting. He sides with CCP leader Li Peng, who said there were "sufficient human rights" in China--just prior to ordering troops to crush the Tiananmen resistance. Having the rights to free speech, to protest and to organize independent trade unions isn't the end of the matter, of course. But it is certainly better to have them than to be rounded up in the middle of the night and carted off for talking to your coworkers about working conditions. When it comes to insisting that few people were killed in the suppression of the Tiananmen protests, Becker quotes selectively from his dependable sources in the U.S. corporate media, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Despite his recognition that the "capitalist roaders" were in charge in China and were developing commercial ties with the U.S., Becker seems unable to comprehend that the U.S. ruling class might have had an interest in downplaying the bloodshed at Tiananmen. There was, after all, money to be made, and after a short period of token protest, the U.S. government and Corporate America got down to the business of making it in China. No one knows how many people died in the Chinese military's crushing of the Tiananmen revolt. What we can say for sure is that the protesters and ordinary people in Beijing suffered the brunt of the violence--not the Chinese military, as Becker absurdly claims. Whatever the exact body count, this is a question of which side you're on--the state and its repressive apparatus, or the resistance. The actions of the student and worker protesters of Tiananmen deserve our support, not the Chinese government. No amount of political contortions can excuse being on the wrong side about Tiananmen.

With the help of EB Games and numerous A-League football clubs, Livewire In-Hospital recently hosted a series of launch nights for FIFA 14; the most recent release in the incredibly popular soccer video game franchise. The launch events were held in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle, with the participation of players from Perth Glory, Adelaide United, Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC, Western Sydney Wanderers, and Newcastle Jets. Patients in the hospitals were given the opportunity to play FIFA 14 on the day of its release, meeting some of their favourite A-League players, and going head-to-head with them on the game. As it turns out – some of the professionals really met their matches in the video games, with the kids coming out on top on numerous occasions! EB Games provided Livewire with copies of the game, as well as vouchers for prizes. Sydney FC was kind enough to donate some awesome seats to their games for the patients, and all of the clubs bought some sweet swag along to the events. All of the players involved had a great time experiencing the Livewire program too – beyond playing FIFA, players were given the chance to hit the wards (one patient at Sydney Children’s Hospital decked out his room with a plethora of Sydney FC merch – the guys were impressed), do some origami, play some drums, and participate in some of Livewire and Starlight’s favourite pastimes old (Uno Championships) and new (the Head’s Up app is proving immensely popular recently). This series of FIFA 14 launch events was an incredible success for the Livewire program, the clubs involved, EB Games, and most importantly, the patients admitted to hospital nationally. Livewire has plenty more planned for the coming months – hopefully, we can work with clubs again prior to the release of FIFA 15. Livewire is showcasing some of the stuff that we do on Instagram – so check us out there by following @starlight_livewire. Livewire In-Hospital is one of Starlight’s adolescent programs, which is proudly supported by nib Foundation. Livewire In-Hospital aims to bring fresh and exciting workshops to the wards, and empowers hospitalised teenagers to be social and have fun during their admission. Advertisements

When Zak Pashak moved to Detroit five years ago, he seemed to be swimming against the tide. He bought a house in a city battered by job loss, blight and crime, at a time when much of the population was on its way out. He arrived with a plan to open a bike factory in a city long abandoned by manufacturers. He had no bike-making experience, wasn’t a serious cyclist and had left a vibrant hometown, Calgary, for a place that would become America’s largest city to file for bankruptcy. But as an entrepreneur, Pashak was used to taking risks. Today, his company, Detroit Bikes, is a growing business and part of a lively entrepreneurial scene crucial to the revival of Detroit. The scene includes tech startups, investors, artisans, foodies, shop owners and transplants like Pashak, drawn to Detroit’s mix of grit and opportunity. Detroit Bikes appears this week on Microsoft’s #DoMore page on Instagram and kicks off a series about entrepreneurship in the Motor City. “It’s a great city to start something in,” says Pashak, a music entrepreneur before he launched Detroit Bikes. “There’s a real culture of encouraging each other and teamwork, almost. And there’s a lot of really talented people.” Entrepreneurs key to Detroit’s resurgence Once the automotive center of the world, Detroit has become one of the most distressed cities in America, a decline triggered by lost jobs and hastened by the mortgage crisis. By the time it filed for bankruptcy in 2013, the city had shriveled to its smallest population since the 1910 census. Detroit emerged from bankruptcy last year and is on a long road of tackling crime, poverty and thousands of vacant lots and unlit streets. Entrepreneurs play a key part in Detroit’s recovery, with businesses and investments revitalizing its downtown. Detroit’s business district used to be a lackluster space with empty buildings, but now bustles with office workers, a thriving tech community and a busy streetscape of retail and residents. “The entrepreneurial scene in Detroit is amazing. It’s off the charts. You’ve got these incredible, passionate people who are pouring their heart and souls into the city,” says Josh Linkner, a founder of Detroit Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that funds early-stage tech startups in Detroit. Linkner recently stepped down as CEO of Detroit Venture Partners to focus on his career as a book author and keynote speaker. Detroit’s woes have made it cheaper for entrepreneurs to start up, while fueling an underdog mindset and desire to help the city. That collective pride shows up in slogans like “Detroit hustles harder” and “Detroit vs. Everybody.” “There is this Detroit grit, like we’ve been kicked down. We’re like the Rocky Balboa of cities; we’re fighting for life and glory,” says Linkner. “I think that is in contrast to Silicon Valley – I don’t want to be disparaging anybody – but we look at them and say, ‘Oh, they’re sipping their Frappuccinos. They just got their Stanford degree. Isn’t that nice.’ And we’re like streetfighters. I’m exaggerating, obviously, but that’s the vibe here. We have this real gritty, scrappy, resilient tenacity.” Much of Detroit’s resurgence can be traced to one man, Quicken Loans founder and chairman Dan Gilbert, who also founded Detroit Venture Partners. Gilbert’s real estate company has invested $1.6 billion in downtown Detroit. His companies have filled the area with 12,500 employees in less than five years. More than 70 tech companies exist in a single square block, many backed by Detroit Venture Partners. Gilbert’s business presence has sparked a surge of people living, shopping and dining downtown. Gabe Karp, a partner with Detroit Venture Partners, often asks young people in interviews why they want to be in Detroit, when previous generations would have passed. Their answer relays a new buzz, a passion to be the first chapter in a comeback story of a once great city. “They say, ‘We’re hearing about what’s going on, and it sounds really exciting… We want to be there on the ground floor, help write that chapter and be part of that story,’” Karp says. Detroit Bikes renews manufacturing in the city Count Detroit Bikes as part of the story. Founder and president Pashak had launched two Canadian music venues and a music festival when he decided to join Detroit’s community of problem solvers. He started Detroit Bikes in 2011, with a mission to renew manufacturing in the city. Last year, his 50,000-square-foot factory in Detroit made about a thousand bikes. He calls them the “Honda Civics of bikes,” to distinguish them from specialty and racing bikes. This year, Pashak expects to make about 5,000 bikes, with nearly half destined for New Belgium Brewing, the maker of Fat Tire Amber Ale. The Colorado brewery will use the bikes for employee gifts and promotions. Pashak is also opening his first retail store in Detroit. “It’s a region filled with people who are innovative and like making things,” says Pashak, whose skilled, 20-person workforce includes bike enthusiasts and former auto workers. “So there’s a culture of getting things done that is facilitating this company’s existence.” For Henry Ford II, Detroit Bike’s master builder, the company is a return to family roots. His grandfather worked for the Ford Motor Company and had named his son after founder Henry Ford. The son then worked for Chrysler, and much of the large, extended family worked in factories belonging to the Big Three: Ford, Chrysler and General Motors. “We were known as ‘the other Ford family,’” Ford says. He himself ended up in the mortgage industry until he was laid off, and then he started a house painting business. “To come (to Detroit Bikes) to reintroduce manufacturing to the city, to make a product that gets people to move around… It still gives me goosebumps, thinking about the lineage that has come to this particular point,” he says. Load third party embed As an avid bike, parks and neighborhood advocate, Ford has been fighting the decline of Detroit for years. To see his hometown become trendy with everyone from tech developers to hipster craft-liquor distillers makes him laugh with joy. “Being a unique individual showcasing your talent is like the new hot thing,” he says. “Everybody wants to show us what they can do. People are coming here from all over the country, because of the access to material, talent and overall attitude to get things done and see where it goes from here.” Lead Photo: Detroit Bikes master builder Henry Ford II. Photo by Ami Vitale.

Jon Hunstman Sr. watches as his son, Republican presidential candidate, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman announces his withdrawal from the race, Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Jon Huntsman, Sr., a wealthy industrialist and a Republican, is endorsing Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) over Republican rising star Mia Love in Utah's 4th congressional district. "The Matheson and Huntsman families have enjoyed three generations of respected association," Huntsman said in a statement released on Friday afternoon, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. "[Rep. Jim Matheson] is a conservative 'Blue Dog' congressional leader from Utah who represents our state very well." Huntsman is the father of Jon Huntsman Jr., who previously served as Utah's governor and ran in the Republican presidential primary this election cycle. Another Huntsman son, David, also endorsed Matheson, as did Abby Huntsman, who is the daughter of Jon Huntsman Jr. and works at HuffPost Live. Although the Salt Lake Tribune notes that Huntsman Sr. is a "lifelong Republican," he has occasionally donated to Democrats in the past, including fellow Mormon Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). Love is one of the Republican Party's top prospects, and she is narrowly leading Matheson in the most recent poll.

Edoardo Mortara has taken pole position for the FIA GT World Cup qualifying race in a close-fought qualifying session dominated by Mercedes-AMG GT3s at Macau on Friday afternoon. The Mercedes-AMG Team Driving Academy driver posted a time of 2:17.565 in the closing stages after battling with Daniel Juncadella, Raffaele Marciello, Augusto Farfus and Robin Frijns throughout the 30-minute session. Juncadella will line up alongside Mortara after setting a lap time 0.282 seconds slower than the five-time Macau winner. The top four grid positions were secured by Mercedes-AMG drivers. Maro Engel and Marciello will start from third and fourth in their GruppeM-run Mercedes, with Audi Sport Team WRT’s Nico Mueller the best non-AMG entrant in fifth. Frijns looked set to take a strong grid position after topping Free Practice 2 earlier in the day but a collision with the barrier took him out of contention for much of the session. As a result, the No. 1 Audi R8 LMS will take the start of the qualifying race from 17th. The qualifying race will get underway at 12:25 p.m. local time on Saturday. RESULTS: Qualifying

I know this is not everyone’s dish of tea William Weld, former Massachusetts governor, uttered this one on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, when he introduced the topic of climate change. This is a mashup of “not one’s cup of tea” (not one’s preference) and maybe “dish it out” (to dispense something, often verbally)? Or was the speaker just thinking of “cup and saucer” and got the two confused? No one knows except Mr. Weld, and perhaps he doesn’t either. On that note, I think I’ll have a “disha”. A big thanks to two people who heard this one and sent it in almost simultaneously: David Stephens and Donna Calvert. Thanks David and Donna! Advertisements They would jump on a bullet for him This was uttered when discussing the blind loyalty of Trump supporters. It is a congruent conflation of “take a bullet for (someone)” and “falling (or jumping) on a grenade for (someone)”, both meaning to accept a personally harmful or sacrificial task to protect someone else. Jumping on a bullet doesn’t seem like a great sacrifice to me, so perhaps this speaker was not such a loyal follower. A big thanks to John Kooser for hearing this one. The Manafort situation throws the whole incentive system on its head Columbia Law School professor Berit Berger uttered this one on the MSNBC show “The 11th Hour with Brian Williams”. She was discussing the pardon system and the Manafort case. This is a mashup of “turn (something) on its head” (to alter something in an unexpected way) and “throw it out the window” (forgotten, disregarded). “Turning” and “throwing” seems to have caused the mixup here. A big thanks to Frank King for hearing this one. Is it “Defend On Your Own” night? The contributor says her husband says this when she doesn’t feel like cooking for dinner. The malaphor prompts a visual of the family opening the refrigerator and fighting for the best leftovers. This is a mashup of “stand on one’s (own) two feet” (act independently) and “fend for (oneself)” (take care of oneself without the assistance of others). I suppose the speaker was thinking of the word “fend” but uttered “defend” instead. A tip of the hat to Lori Snider for sending this one in! My hackles were ruffled This was overheard at a nearby table at breakfast. This is a brilliant congruent conflation of “ruffle (ones’) feathers” and “raise (one’s) hackles”, both meaning to make one irritated or angry. “Ruffle” and “raise” both begin with the letter r, possibly contributing to the mix. By the way, do you know what “hackles” are? Hackles are the hairs on the back of an animal’s neck, which stick up when the animal feels fearful or angry (late 1800s). So, the two expressions involve some type of body covering sticking up, a perfect explanation of the mashup. A bravo to Sam Edelmann who heard this one all the way from India. I’m worried stiff Heard on the MSNBC show with Chris Hayes. This is a conflation of “scared stiff” (utterly terrified) and “worried sick” (very concerned about a person or situation). I have heard this one a lot. “Sick” and “stiff” are similar sounding words, contributing to the mashup. A big thanks to Frank King for hearing this one! If you liked this one, check out my book on malaphors, “He Smokes Like a Fish and other Malaphors”. It’s available on Amazon for a cheap $7.99. Just click on the link – https://www.amazon.com/dp/0692652205

There haven't been as many articles nationally complaining about the new scoreboards being installed at EverBank Field as one would imagine, but I was alerted to a special one from ESPN today on Twitter. It's penned by Gregg Easterbrook, who doesn't have the best reputation as far as integrity goes, but it's also one of the laziest ones I've seen. I've blockquoted the paragraph below, with their HTML in-tact in case they try to ninja edit the egregious errors. The fleecing of taxpayers continues:Jacksonville just agreed to pay $43 million to spruce up the stadium where the Jaguars play. Owner Shad Khan, net worth estimated by Forbes at $3.8 billion, will contribute only $20 million. A new hotel tax will fund the giveaway: Ordinary people using hotels in the Jacksonville will pay more so that a billionaire can have a new toy. If the gigantic scoreboard to be funded by the tax sells more tickets, the billionaire will keep the gains. And will hotels in Jacksonville lose business owing to the new tax, or hotel workers face layoffs triggered by an NFL owner's subsidized toy? Meanwhile a Jacksonville public school district needs $51 million in facility upgrades. The same month Jacksonville had no problem finding $43 million right away for a gift to the NFL, local politicians said the school money could only be supplied over several decades. The first big error is Easterbrook's notion that this is a new tax that will put burden on local hotels, which could potentially cost people their jobs. The problem with that notion is, is it ignores that it's not a new tax. It's an existing tax that has been in place for a few years already, since oh... 1984. It was modified in 1994. It's not changing. It's not increasing. There is no new burden that wasn't already there. It's not going to cost anyone their job Gregg. Don't worry. If you click the "several decades" hyperlink, you'll notice something peculiar. When I initially clicked it, I was a bit confused. I'd never heard of the My Journal Courier in Jacksonville. That's probably because it doesn't exist in Jacksonville, Florida... but rather Jacksonville, Illinois. In case their copy winds up fixed, it went to this article about the Jacksonville, IL school district. There are certainly arguments on both sides regarding using public funds for sports arenas, but good God man. You didn't even get any of it right. Honestly: How does this get through copy edit? How do you not realize that a tax you're calling new isn't new? How do you not realize you're linking to an article about schools in the state of Illinois and not Florida? I don't understand. Update, 3:52 PM: It appears Gregg Easterbrook tried to fix his mistake, but no where in the article does it acknowledge that an egregious error was made in the first place. There's not a notation for a foot note, an asterisk, a note from the editor that an error was made. Nothing. Not only did Easterbrook try to ninja-edit the lazy error away, but he still failed to acknowledge the fact that this isn't a new tax and it's not going to have any bearing on any hotel employee's jobs. Not only that, but I failed to mention the first time that it's not the NFL owner's toy, it's the city's toy, which will allow them more events at the municipally owned stadium that will in-turn pay for the scoreboards. He tried to save his initial erroneous point by linking to the 2013-2014 Duval County school budget plan with zero context of what it means or where that money comes from or the fact that neither have anything to do with one another. One is being paid for with a revenue bond, which in-turn pays for itself. Though, again, a little research would have lead Mr. Easterbrook to that conclusion. It's clear he still hasn't done any outside of simple Google searching, while utterly failing at it the first time. Update 9:10 AM, 11/21/13: @BoldCityCap Use of word "new" corrected -- thank you for pointing out. — Gregg Easterbrook (@EasterbrookG) November 21, 2013 It appears Easterbrook once again attempted to correct his mistake, once again without any notation or acknowledgement of a mistake being made. In this correction, he literally just removed the word "new" when he called the bed tax a new tax. But, even his corrections are lazy because he didn't change the corresponding sentences which continue to infer that it's a new tax that will put a burden on hotel employees and businesses. Through the whole ordeal, only one thing is clear: Gregg Easterbrook doesn't like publicly funded stadiums, which is fine, but he also has absolutely no idea how the EverBank Field scoreboards are being paid for. He also doesn't have much of a grasp as to how Florida schools are funded, which is to say they cannot be funded by revenue bonds. He also throws in a jab about how "if the team sells more tickets, the billionaire will keep the gains," which is also false. While the Jaguars will gain more money from more ticket sales, so will the city. The city will also attract more events, which are already in the works, that the Jaguars will see no money from. Since I published this, Gregg Easterbrook has apparently blocked me on Twitter, as well as the Big Cat Country twitter handle. There have also been users who have reported that ESPN is actively deleting comments off the article noting the mistakes that Easterbrook made. But hey, bloggers are the big danger to journalism. Not journalists, right? More from Big Cat Country: Follow @BigCatCountry Follow @SBNationNFL

For the ribbon-cutting at the Washington Heights Library this month, the son of a former custodian returned to his old home. He grew up in what used to be the caretaker’s apartment on the third floor. While his father shoveled coal at night to heat the place, he would go downstairs to read about boat building and navigating by the stars. Ronald Clark went on to become the first in his family to graduate from high school and college, and decades later he built himself a boat and navigated by the stars that he had learned about in the library under him. A few years ago, library officials hired the architect Andrew Berman to revamp the two upper stories of that Andrew Carnegie-era branch on 160th Street. Mr. Berman has now turned the third-floor apartment into a clubhouse for teenagers, and the whole second floor into a double-height palace for young children, with seating nooks and lime-green sofas under towering windows. A snaking, pale-wood bookshelf divides the room into cosseting quadrants, scaling it down for pint-size patrons. Smart, sunny and simple, the redesign feels lofty and homey at the same time, rebooting Carnegie’s original grand-populist vision for the branches. In ways big and small, architects like Mr. Berman have changed New York City this year. Projects like the library branch made it a little more livable and humane. What follows is nothing nearly as disciplined or logical as a list of 2016’s architectural highs and lows in town. It’s more a kind of belated thank you note for a few projects that kept faith with architecture’s ideals and the city’s better self.

Touch typing Hi, my name is Roman, and I am addicted to tools. Do you type for hours every day like I do? Then let me share a year-long journey to the holy grail ergonomic typing. Touch typing can change your life (in a good way). If you're looking for a new keyboard or considering learning an alternative layout, you should definitely keep reading. Long story short I "touch typed" with seven fingers for decades and managed to type at average speed with pretty poor accuracy. I tried so many times to learn proper technique, but I always gave up in a week. A year ago I decided it was now or never. I had only one goal: to type faster, like 100 WPM. Spoiler: I'm not there yet. Back then I was using QWERTY on an Apple Wireless keyboard. This was my method: "Okay, roll up your sleeves, and just memorize every key for all ten fingers." It took two days. I memorized all the keys during that weekend. Typing speed plummeted to 10 WPM on the first day; I was "thinking" before pressing almost every key. I could type with 100% accuracy without looking, but it was very very slow. Next phase: typing lessons every day for an hour. From time to time I typed with my seven (favorite) fingers when I needed to get work done, but in a few days I switched to the ten-finger method cold turkey. I continued practicing every day at Keybr and Keyhero and finally reached 40 WPM in two weeks. Phew... As soon as I returned to my original speed and accuracy, I decided to upgrade my keyboard to an ergonomic one. Two months later ErgoDox arrived. And of course, I wanted to try an alternative keyboard layout on it. After a quick analysis, I picked the Norman layout: it's easy to learn, and it significantly reduces distance traveled from the home row. Relearning. My speed dropped to 10 WPM, and recovered to 40 WPM in three weeks. I switched to the ErgoDox full time and played with ErgoDox layers, ending up with a single-layer solution. I reached 50 WPM in 40 days and stopped all typing lessons. Today I am a happy ErgoDox user. My average speed on Norman is 60 WPM, and it's increasing every month, slowly but steadily. Lessons learned Fast and accurate typing is a must-have skill for a programmer. I wish I'd switched to the right path earlier. I am not the fastest typist, just a bit quicker than average. My achievements in terms of words per minute are very humble. Still, I can say the return on investment is overwhelmingly high. Proper typing style Better typing speed saves me a few hours every week on code documentation, notes, and emails. Fast typing enables blogging: you can find an hour for a draft, but it is harder to find two. So a difference of 20 WPM can affect your productivity quite significantly. If you are an average typist, you should invest few minutes a day in typing lessons. Focus on accuracy and practice every day. Totally worth it. Ergonomic keyboard If you have a Mac, there's a good chance that your keyboard is excellent. Apple keyboards are robust, compact, and quiet. ErgoDox is louder and bigger. The primary benefit of ErgoDox is ergonomics. (Surprise!) As with any split keyboard, you can sit (or stand) straight, so your posture is healthier, and it's simply more relaxing. My initial goal was just to improve my typing speed. Of course, high speed is necessary, but when I started using ErgoDox, I realized that comfort is the primary reward: my hands, shoulders, and back are much happier now. Yes, ErgoDox costs three hundred dollars, but it's the best keyboard available today for that price, and the keyboard is the most important part of my workplace. If you're typing all day long, you can connect your awesome keyboard to any cheap computer and be productive in no time. Alternative keyboard layout I use Norman and like it better than QWERTY. I haven't tried any other layouts, and honestly, I'm not sure that learning alternative layouts is worth it. What I am 100% sure of is that I can learn any keyboard layout and be productive in two weeks. Layouts and keyboards do not limit my speed; my fingers can move faster than I can compose words in English. Why not stick with QWERTY on all my keyboards? Switching to a different layout and keyboard helped me break my bad typing habits. It's easier to learn correct technique from scratch on an entirely new instrument than it is to to fix those bad habits deeply wired into your brain. How did I choose Norman? Two sources. First, people who already who use multiple layouts for years: Gary Bernhardt, Aaron Patterson, a good review by Ted. Second, I compared Dvorak, Colemak, Workman, Norman, and even my custom layout with a keyboard layout analyzer (made by Patrick Gillespie). Norman performed slightly better than the others on my custom corpus of text. One more reason I picked Norman: It's easy to switch to QWERTY and back to Norman in few minutes. (I use QWERTY when I travel.) Norman is just a fifteen-key difference from QWERTY. I use Vim with both QWERTY and Norman, and I do not remap anything in Vim. In the beginning, I had one annoying issue: HJKL on Norman are in weird locations. I was hitting U instead of J . That was such a painful week. Now everything is just fine. Looking back, I am not entirely sure if all these layouts made any difference in my case. I can learn any crazy layout and reach an average speed in few weeks, but it won't increase my speed beyond that level. Maybe I should try QWERTY on ErgoDox someday. Level up If you need to type at high speed for hours at a time, then you should probably follow Mirabai Knight and learn stenography. Beware: the learning curve for steno is steep and you need a steno machine (or for the first time you can use NKRO keyboard, e.g., ErgoDox). Conclusion Typing can be fun if you fix your bad typing habits. The earlier you start learning, the more rewarding it can be. Teach kids to touch type as soon as they start playing with the computer. This skill will stay relevant for at least one more generation. If you want to take away only one thing from my story, it's this: Learn proper touch typing technique today. Recipe Take a typing test on Keyhero. Slower than 40 WPM? Practice 15 minutes every day for a month. If your accuracy is lower than 95%, slow down and try to type as accurately as possible. If you type more than four hours every day, you should use an ergonomic keyboard. See also Typing with pleasure by Pavel Fating, Programming's dirtiest little secret by Steve Yegge, Norman layout by David Norman, My keyboard layout on GitHub © 2008–2019 Roman Zolotarev User Agreement Privacy Policy

No one at Nabisco’s corporate headquarters in New York City had any idea why members of the National Organization for Women were lined up outside. It was the fall of 1971, and the manufacturer best known for their Oreo and Chips Ahoy! snacks had not made any obviously sexist advertisements or taken any particular political stance. They sold cookies. Then they read the signs: “Sick toys for children make for a sick society.” That May, Nabisco had attempted to diversify by purchasing Aurora Company, the West Hempstead, New York model kit maker best known for their plastic kits of Frankenstein’s monster, the Wolf Man, and other horror film icons. The cheap plastic toys came in pieces and could be glued together and painted. Unknown to Nabisco, Aurora had recently branched out and begun offering entire model kit dioramas. Instead of a single figure, consumers could buy detailed “sets” for their monsters to interact with. There was a guillotine, a razor-sharp pendulum, and a laboratory; a female protagonist, referred to in the copy as “the Victim,” was scantily-clad and ready to be dismembered, beheaded, or trapped in a spiked cage. Kids could also opt to have Vampirella, the top-heavy villain licensed from Warren Publishing, operate the winch and pulley while her plastic captive was shackled to a table. Each kit also contained a comic, which instructed builders on how to assemble the torture scenes for maximum enjoyment. A narrator named Dr. Deadly seemed to opine on the appeal of the Victim once she was fully assembled. “Now that you’ve gotten her all together, I think I like the other way. In pieces … yesssss.” In addition to Fig Newtons, Nabisco realized it had also been peddling tiny torture racks. Z1DO4U via YouTube Since its inception in 1952, Aurora had seen enormous success by exploring the horror genre. As television came into prominence and late movies screened the classic Universal monster films of the 1930s, a new generation of monster buffs had been nourished. Kits featuring Dracula, the Mummy, and even Godzilla were cheap to produce and sell. (Many models retailed for just 98 cents.) Having the consumer construct them with contact cement and model paint gave them a sense of accomplishment. Aurora held contests for custom kits, highlighting winners in monster magazines. By the 1960s, they had started noticing that a lot of submissions revolved around expansive, morbid scenarios: a mad scientist’s laboratory, or an execution motif. To Aurora, it was a clear indication that their consumers wanted context for their models. In 1964, the company unveiled its Chamber of Horrors Guillotine, which featured an unfortunate male sentenced to death via a chopping blade: once activated, his head could be retrieved from the basket, re-attached, and executed once again. While the toy did have some precedent in 1700s France—a two-foot-tall guillotine was popular among children, some of whom used it to decapitate rodents—there was some minor furor from parents, and Aurora didn’t pursue the line. Six years later, the company felt the cultural climate was ready for something more provocative: They began developing a line dubbed Monster Scenes. Using generic characters like the Victim, designers concocted elaborate scenarios that put the unfortunate captives in mortal peril. One scenario had a mad scientist hovering over his captive with a tray full of hot coals and a set of tongs; another designed after Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum featured a swinging blade that would cleave the Victim in two. (Or at least nudge her side; once assembled, the toys didn’t easily come back apart.) Aurora also pursued the license for Vampirella, a buxom vampire featured in James Warren’s horror periodicals: Warren sold a lot of Aurora kits via his mail order business, and a decision was made to include his character in the line rather than risk dissolving a partnership. Unpainted, she appeared to be virtually naked. Her counterpart, the Victim, sported hot pants and a halter top; a dress or flowing skirt was deemed impractical in order to have her fit on the torture rack. In a big departure from previous kits, the Monster Scenes featured snap-on parts, the better to lure in consumers who were concerned over fumes from glue or contact cement. Once assembled, the characters could be placed in the Pain Cage, the Pain Parlor, and other disturbing scenarios. Eager to trumpet their daring new line, Aurora’s marketing made the unfortunate choice of plastering each box with a stamp: “Rated ‘X’ for Excitement!” In an included comic book, Vampirella quells concern that someone might hear the Victim screaming by saying, “Don’t worry—this is New York. No one will help her.” (The gallows humor was later interpreted to be a reference to Kitty Genovese, a woman who was murdered in 1964 while apartment-dwellers nearby did nothing.) Monster Scenes debuted at the Hobby Industry Association of America’s trade show in February 1971. Aurora hired model Nina Anderson to demonstrate the playsets, which attracted a stream of curious media members. Anderson, not particularly versed in the features, made a show of lopping off arms and legs before an angry Aurora executive told her the parts weren’t meant for that. But Anderson had perfected her sales pitch. Of Vampirella, she told the Chicago Sun-Times that the busty character could be placed in a cage to “make her a go-go girl.” Still, Aurora thought they had a hit. They even began to sketch out plans to license DC Comics's Lois Lane as a marquee “victim.” Aurora began shipping the kits in March 1971. The characters—Vampirella, Doctor Deadly, the Victim, and Frankenstein—were $1.30, while the dioramas retailed for $2. There was no overestimating adolescent interest. By the fall, approximately 800,000 of the kits had been sold. According to Aurora, the toys were paradoxically healthy for young consumers, allowing them to overcome fearful scenarios by having control over them. The company said it had consulted with psychiatrists prior to producing the torture scenes and found no objection. But parents objected plenty. Letters came in to syndicated newspaper columns and to company headquarters. Kids wrote, too, but with requests for more sets to be added; they wanted gallows, a bed of nails, man-eating plants, and wheels of torture. In her syndicated advice column, Ann Landers weighed in: "For $1.99 you can own a doll named Vampirella. She comes equipped with a beaker of blood. If all this isn’t symptomatic of a warped society, I’d like to know what is." Under fire by NOW and other activism groups, Nabisco was horrified to see headlines in The New York Times and other papers calling attention to the fact that one of its subsidiaries was peddling toys of victimized women in shackles. Under corporate pressure, Aurora began toning down the line by identifying “the Victim” as Doctor Deadly’s daughter, a slightly less generic personification. They also began shipping Vampirella in red plastic instead of the neutral, skin-toned gray that led some critics to declare her nude out of the box. The Pendulum was deemed beyond hope and pulled entirely. The furor over the toys reached television: Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In got a reaction from a joke about the torture toys. By December 1971, Nabisco had endured enough. After promising media they would cease production of the toys, they began to announce a recall of inventory already in stores. Treated like a contaminated product, Monster Scenes had lasted a paltry nine months. As the 1970s wore on, Aurora returned to less controversial kits. Nabisco, flustered by the negative publicity, cut their development budget before selling the company to Monogram in 1977. Plans for a prehistoric line of kits and an extension of Monster Scenes were curtailed in the process. The kits eventually became embraced by collectors, some of whom tried to recreate the store displays or make modifications to the existing kits. Aurora employees queried about the project expressed amazement that the toys had been perceived as sadomasochistic or misogynistic—they felt they were simply delivering the kind of exaggerated play premise that adolescent kids loved. Decades later, toys like Electric Chair Marv—a character from Sin City who could be electrocuted on command—from McFarlane Toys would invite a similar level of controversy, though nothing that quite reached the levels of Aurora’s misstep. Their product had helped compel California legislature to pass a toy ban into law on July 1, 1972 prohibiting “torture toys” and replica grenades from being sold in the state. As for the excess inventory: when Nabisco made the call to discontinue the kits, the remaining stock was hauled to Canada. The boxes removed the “Rated X” endorsement but kept another bit of fine print: “For ages 8 and up.” Additional Sources: Aurora Monster Scenes: The Most Controversial Toys of a Generation.

These discussions will continue in coming weeks with other Times editors and reporters. Translating the Paper to the Web Q: I recently had the opportunity to have lunch with the publisher of the local daily paper here (there is only one local daily paper here). I told her of my preference to get my local and national news online, browsing several news sites as a part of my morning routine. However, I quickly discovered that I was missing important stories that had prominent placement in the print version but were impossible to find in the online version. In trying to explain my difficulty with her site, I could only think of The Times as an excellent example of online news reporting. So, my question is, what makes your site such a great online version of your print product? Where are they going wrong? Why can’t I explain it clearly to someone else (don’t answer this)? Also, you use a serif font that I think is difficult to read in general, although it does not bother me on your site. Why did you choose what I think is such an non-traditional font for your site? A: First, thanks for the kind words. Whatever success we've had with making NYTimes.com a useful and engaging source for online news, in my opinion, comes from realizing that we're not just trying to re-create what's available to readers in the printed newspaper. Rather, we're trying to create something that's true to this medium, that borrows the best of what works in print and that takes advantage of the unique aspects of digital media. This means we pay a lot of attention to how people use our content online. That is, not just how they read it, but how they make use of it: how they might scan the page haphazardly rather than diligently reading from top to bottom; what parts of the page they look to first and last; what they expect to change from visit to visit; which visual cues are meaningful for them and which design flourishes they find useless. Advertisement Continue reading the main story There are a multitude of factors like these that we’re continually evaluating, though I admit that as an online business we’re certainly not alone in being mindful of them. I think what we do differently from any number of other sites, whether established news organizations or young companies, is that we very expressly try to maintain continuity with a brand that’s over 150 years old. So, sometimes we may purposefully approach a design problem differently from how our colleagues in the print art department might, but just as often we’ll try to bend the technology so that it makes sense when seen through the lens of The Times’s visual legacy. That might be the intangible quality you’re talking about. Visual Consistency Q: Regardless of platform or browser, NYTimes.com looks the same. This is not an easy feat to accomplish because of inconsistencies between browsers and how they handle HTML and CSS. How do you do it and with which tools? A: It’s our preference to use a text editor, like HomeSite, TextPad or TextMate, to “hand code” everything, rather than to use a wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) HTML and CSS authoring program, like Dreamweaver. We just find it yields better and faster results. But really the browser-to-browser consistency that you see (and I have to admit, it’s far from perfect) is the result of a vigilant collaboration between many different groups — the visual designers and technologists in the design team that I lead, their counterparts in our technology staff, and the many, many detail-oriented people who come together to make the site a reality every hour of every day. One of the things that makes my job here so satisfying is that, among all of these many different kinds of collaborators, there’s a healthy respect for design. Everyone is committed to putting the best face forward for The Times — including paying close attention to visual integrity of the site. Regardless of the tools you use, it's really only that kind of commitment that makes it possible to maintain consistency on a site as sprawling as ours. The Sources of Inspiration Q. I was wondering how much influence the design of other media Web sites has on your design choices for The New York Times's Web site? For instance, I think The Guardian has one of the most visually appealing front pages of any online news outlet I've ever seen — though the underlying pages are not nearly as beautiful. Do you look for direction or inspiration from other sites? A. We definitely look at the competition from other news organizations, both for how design informs the way they present the news, and for how they've designed and integrated tools for making the news more useful to their audiences. (And yes, over at The Guardian, their creative director, Mark Porter, and his team are doing some really terrific work that we admire greatly.) However, that's only part of the homework we do. I think it would be a fallacy for us to think that we're only competing for the attention of a discrete "media" audience. Internet usage is very eclectic by nature, and it's the responsibility of my team to be conscious of that. Advertisement Continue reading the main story So, just as often, we draw inspiration from what's happening in digital media at large, regardless of whether or not a news organization is explicitly involved, and often regardless of whether a given digital product deals in the news at all. That means that sites of miscellaneous classification like YouTube, Wikipedia, Craigslist and Facebook — and countless others, many of which might have only recently emerged from their founders' garages — are of as much interest to us as top-shelf competitors like The Guardian and our other peers. What Does a Design Director Do? Q. Can you give a little more insight into exactly what you do as a design director ­ does it involve actual production work, is it purely supervisory, or does it fall somewhere in the middle? Also, what do titles and terms like information architect, design technologist and user experience mean? I've heard of them used elsewhere, but what does it mean for The Times? A. The question of "What do you and your design team do?" is pretty hard to answer without resorting to a tremendous amount of off-putting and, frankly, loopy jargon. I'm going to try, but forgive me in advance if I lapse back into it. When most people hear "design" and "NYTimes.com" together, they usually think of the wonderful interactive graphics or multimedia storytelling done by our colleagues on the graphics and multimedia teams. (In fact, Steve Duenes, the graphics director, offered lots of insight into much of this work in his own Talk to the Newsroom session some weeks ago.) Though we do work with these teams in a support capacity, it's not the core of what we do. If you think of their work as design for the content that appears on our site, then you can think of the work that my team does as design for the framework for that content. Which is to say, we create the underlying platform on top of which the content sits. Even setting aside the vast amounts of original reporting that we publish every day, our site is still under more or less continuous revision, so that framework is constantly being tended to. We're always looking at ways to improve various sections of the site, tweaking our templates, adding new features and tools and removing impediments to people's consumption and use of the news. As the design director, my responsibility is to oversee the creative aspects of these continual improvements. Each one is a project of its own with some range in scope, from very short and discrete to long and drawn out over many months. And each project requires one or more of the members on my team: information architects (who are charged with organizing the features and the flow of information so that people can make use of them most intuitively), design technologists (who do the actual coding of many of these sites, using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flash, etc.) and/or visual designers (who handle the overall look and feel, including layout, typography, color, proportion, etc.). Advertisement Continue reading the main story You could say that all put together, the final product of our efforts is the user experience, or the sum total of the content and the framework as it's used by visitors to the site. Of course, it's not true that my design group is the only team responsible for creating this experience; it's really the result of contributions across the board, from editors and reporters to project managers and software engineers and many more. Finally, my job doesn't involve as much hands-on design work as it would in an ideal world. The majority of my day is spent either in a supervisory capacity, reviewing and discussing work done by my staff, or sitting in meetings, planning for upcoming enhancements to the site and how design can make them happen. The way I usually put it is that my job as design director isn't actually to do great design, but rather to help create and sustain the conditions under which great design can happen. The Design of Blogs Q. I love all the blogs springing up on NYTimes.com. Can you talk about their design and specifically their logos? A. I'm especially proud of the design work that's gone into our blogs for many reasons, but especially for how our designers have dealt with sheer scale. Over the past two-plus years, as The Times newsroom has embraced blogging with tremendous alacrity, we've created over 150 blogs, and over a third of those remain active today. The challenge is even more complex when you consider that, though each blog has its own needs, the vast majority must be based on a single template (within WordPress, our Web log publishing system) that manages all of the blogs together. As you can imagine, that requires that the template be very versatile and that our designers be very nimble. So by virtue of the fact that we're constantly launching new blogs, we're also in a perpetual state of revision and refinement. We're fine-tuning the typography, adding new features to the right-hand column, incorporating new kinds of media content into the articles, etc. All of which is work that may then be reflected back on the other blogs. Jeremy Zilar, the design technologist in my group whose primary responsibility is to develop and support these blogs, said, "Every blog we launch seems to bring something new to our template that every other blog can benefit from." As for the the logos that we've developed for the blogs, that too has been an evolution. In the beginning, we were very liberal with our use of art, and gave illustrators lots of creative leeway to render a distinct visual identity at the top of each new blog. Over time though, we've refined our approach so that the the typography is more or less consistent, and that each logo has a compact, iconographic illustration to identify it. In one of my favorite examples of our Web staff working with our colleagues in the print art department, almost all of these logos are a tight collaboration between Rebecca Paterson, one of our very talented digital designers, and Nicholas Blechman, who art directs the Book Review section. Photo For each new blog, they work together to brainstorm a concept, select a freelance illustrator, and art direct its execution. Within that fairly restrictive formula we've set for the art, I think they've done an amazing job cultivating a great variety of artful logos. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The Publishing Software Q. I was wondering how permissive the New York Times's content management system is with custom layout. Is there only one template that an article must follow, or are there exceptions? If there are exceptions, how do you handle them? Q. How involved are you in the design of the content management system that feeds the NYTimes.com front end? The posting of news and videos to a popular media site in a timely manner requires a highly usable and dummy-proof solution. Is your back end as user-friendly as your front end? Cheers from a fellow Otis grad. A. Our content management system — the software that we use to publish our articles on our Web site — is based on a finite number of templates. So in large measure we're resigned to working within those pre-determined layouts. The range of expression that you see day to day on the home page and on our various section fronts is really a credit to the editors and producers who do the actual publishing of the articles. They use the C.M.S. the most and have learned to be very creative with it. (My design group is focused on the site as a platform, and we don't often get involved with the daily layout of the news.) If there are any shortcomings in the range of expression that those templates offer, it's the job of my design group, working with our technology team, to create new ones that better suit the needs of the editing staff. This can be a lengthy and involved process. Often it doesn't make sense to invest the effort in creating a brand new template if the needs it will address are singular or short-term. So we will often — not frequently, but often enough — try to work around the limitations of the existing templates using custom code, essentially "hacking into" our own templates to achieve a unusual presentation. A great example of this is the work that our design technologist Bart Szyszka did for our recent series on China and the environment, "Choking on Growth." Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. These work-arounds aren't ideal of course, so we try to be sparing in our use of them. We want to maintain as much design flexibility as we can, of course, but we also have to be practical about the technical implications. Pushing the C.M.S. too far in these ways would be untenable. Our director of content management systems, Brad Kagawa, said, "The need to structure data" — encode the content in such a way that it makes sense to our systems — "is sometimes at odds with the desire to have custom layouts. With the C.M.S. publishing to dozens of delivery channels (Web, RSS, mobile, Times Reader, the Times archive, various partner feeds, Amazon Kindle, etc.) we have to store everything in a structured and non-Web-centric way but at the same time retain that flexibility." As a result, the design team is actively involved in the design and planning of our next generation C.M.S. Alex Wright, the information architect who is heading up the design aspect of it, said: "As you might imagine, it's a large undertaking. We're constantly making adjustments to the interface as we develop new ideas about how to streamline the publishing process while supporting the complex requirements of a large news-gathering organization." Interaction With Reporters and Editors Q. You have stated that you and your staff are involved with what you describe as the framework for NYTimes.com. To what extent do you and your staff interact with reporters and editors? How does that work? Assuming you do work with the reporters and editors, is that the same as what happens with the graphics team? In any case, how does your team work with the graphics team? Advertisement Continue reading the main story A. We do work with editors and reporters quite a bit. More often than not, in fact. Going back for a moment to the subject of the last question: blogs are a great example of how we work together. Each blog we create begins as a conversation between editors and designers. Because they're so highly focused on specific subject areas, we really try hard to create the right design solution for those particular editorial needs. For some of our more standard journalism, our teams work together to create special layouts of our home page or section fronts. This tends to happen only when we have at least a few days' advanced notice, so ongoing stories like the presidential campaign, big events like the Pope's visit to the United States or special series like "Choking on Growth" are good examples of that. Those happen regularly if not frequently, but we're always eager to design for the news when we can. At the same time, we're continually collaborating with editors and reporters on what I described before as the NYTimes.com platform. Editorial input is really a key component on these design challenges. An obvious example would be the section fronts we've overhauled over the past year or two, e.g., Health and Movies. Similarly, for last year's major overhaul of how we present our slideshows, editors and photo editors were deeply involved in establishing the requirements that guided that redesign. Even platform projects that aren't explicitly examples of delivering Times journalism, like our My Times product, were designed from scratch with the input of the editing staff from the very start Personas in the Design Process Q. Do you use personas and/or a goal-directed design process to craft your interaction design? If so, how do you go about your user research, given that you have such a broad base of users? A. Every time we add a new feature to the site, redesign an existing section or create new digital products of any kind, we start with the premise that our primary "clients" are the people who will actually be using it, and not necessarily our staff of journalists, technologists, businesspeople or designers. It's kind of an obvious assumption, but it really is the hardest part of the process for any design team, regardless of the industry: setting aside your own familiarity with the content, your own expertise and envisioning a solution through the eyes of those whose relationship with your product is much more casual. When I say "design team" here, I mean it in the larger context, including product developers, software programmers, project managers, marketers as well as reporters, editors and many more. Everyone here is involved in the design process, so everyone has to be able to make that leap into "user-centered design" thinking. We employ a lot of research for this. We have a customer insight group that pays a lot of attention to site metrics: the traffic we get, how the site is being used, and the overall statistical patterns for that usage. We also work with them frequently to perform usability tests, where we bring in real people to our in-house testing facilities to watch how they interact with new design solutions we put in front of them. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Sometimes this research feeds into the "personas" method of designing, in which we write detailed descriptions of archetypal users and make design decisions around the goals and needs of those actual personas. Personally, I have mixed feelings about the effectiveness of that technique, though I don't question the basic premise that understanding our users is the single most important start to any solution. We like to be flexible, though. Alex Wright, information architect, said: "Different projects call for different design approaches; we try to avoid locking ourselves into a one-size-fits-all design process. For major projects (like section redesigns), we do use personas and scenario modeling methods. For other projects, we use a mix of different methods: field studies, eye tracking, online surveys, card sorting and, of course, traditional usability testing." Some Pet Peeves Q. It's hard to find the link to the Obituaries section on the front page of NYTimes.com. Why is it listed on the lower part of the lefthand column in small print along with Blogs, Crosswords, etc., when it deserves to be placed higher up in the column and in larger print along with other newsworthy sections such as Sports, Science, Arts and Style? Q. Other papers, notably The Seattle Times and The San Francisco Chronicle manage to include pictures and graphics from their stories in the printer version that shows up on the browser. It would add a lot in some cases. Why can't The Times manage to do this (going forward, if not for past stories)? Q. A lot of times I enjoy the New York Times videos and would like to share them with some of my colleagues. But I find that NYTimes.com doesn't have the embedded source like YouTube does. Blogs nowadays embed all sorts of YouTube videos and other videos from different host sites and it makes it easier for people view things without actually visiting the site. My question is, why doesn't the NYTimes.com include embedded sources and will we see that in the future? A. I'm going to try to answer these three questions with one general answer, and by extension, hopefully address several other questions that were sent in by readers who also requested changes to or expressed frustrations with various parts of NYTimes.com. I don't necessarily disagree with most of the suggestions and criticisms that people have about the functionality of our site. They're quite valid and they'd almost always go a long way toward improving the overall experience on the site for users. In fact, if you cornered me in conversation, it wouldn't take much effort to elicit from me a long list of my own NYTimes.com frustrations and peeves, things I'd very much like to see fixed. At any given time though, my design group is working on roughly a dozen or more projects of nontrivial size, while simultaneously watching for urgent problems cropping up across a site of significant volume and breadth. That keeps us very busy. So as a matter of resources — having enough designers to take care of everything — it's almost impossible for us to implement every change or improvement we'd like to see happen. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Even if the design team doubled or tripled in size (and I actually believe that beyond a relatively small staff count, most larger design teams are actually less effective than smaller ones), we can't implement these changes on our own. For many of them, we'd very much need the collaboration and support of our colleagues throughout the company, especially those in our technology group, and they have their hands full as well. Luckily, a lot of our projects are actually focused on overhauling and improving existing areas of the site that have been long neglected. So in a sense, we're continually trying to root out these imperfections. It just may take us a while to get to the ones mentioned in these questions. Recommended Course of Study? Q. What course of study would you recommend at the graduate or undergraduate level for someone looking to work in your field? Or, failing that, what practical experience do you think most prepared you for your current job? A. I don't presume to be an educator, so it's probably best for me to answer this question in terms of what I look for when hiring a new employee. It's actually quite a complex mix of varied skills: an ideal applicant would have very strong traditional graphic design skills; in-depth training in usability and interaction design; practical experience coding XHTML, CSS, JavaScript and Flash; a commercially viable comfort level with database and application programming; and last but not least sound news judgment based on a deep understanding of current affairs. Mind you, almost nobody possesses this exact combination of skills. If there's a school or curriculum somewhere that's turning out these kinds of candidates regularly, I'd be very interested to know. (Besides, I tend not to pay nearly as much attention to where a candidate was schooled as I do to that candidate's portfolio of work samples and practical experience.) So obviously I look for people who can combine as many of these skills as possible. I'm not sure it would be fair to say that any one skill is more important than the other because they're all vital, but I can say that having a particularly weak foundation in traditional graphic design — lacking an understanding of typography, color, composition and visual storytelling — more or less disqualifies one immediately. There are a few other intangible qualities that I look for, too. The ability to effectively articulate one's ideas about design is a big plus; translating design's subjective nuances into plainspoken explanations is a critical requirement for this job. Agile problem-solving skills are also an imperative; being able to think about a design problem in a larger context than one's own role as a designer only makes it easier to pull off ambitious solutions. And maybe most important of all is enthusiasm for the work; there's no substitute for a designer who feels truly invested in the work. All the News and Links That Fit? Q. Could you talk about balancing the multitude of links to options, services, newspaper sections, etc. on a page with the actual content of the paper? When is it better to make readers click through one or two levels to find something instead of cluttering the front page with links? Is there a science to this, or is it design instinct? Advertisement Continue reading the main story A. There's no question that there's a lot of stuff on our pages. In fact, to speak frankly, I'd say that often there's just too much stuff. Too many links, ads, extra features and even too much text. We often hear from users — and even from our own staff — that we should be seeking to reduce the number of visual elements on each page. However, throughout virtually the entire site, we have to achieve a delicate balance between the concerns of our newsroom, our business, our technological infrastructure, our brand and, most important, the people who use the site. Just about anything that appears on any given page is tied to some intricate combination of editorial judgment, revenue, technical restriction and user behavior. You can think of it as an elaborate logic puzzle, with the onus on my design staff to solve the puzzle using as few elements as possible, in as aesthetically pleasing a manner as possible. We strive to distill every template that we create down to its core parts, and actively debate the placement of nearly every element. There's no magic formula for this, unfortunately. In some cases we do find it better to design a feature so that people are required to click through it. In other instances, we find scrolling or simply presenting all of the available options up front is the better course. And at times there are design solutions that everyone feels are the simplest and best, but that can't be implemented due to some pragmatic constraint imposed by any of the many interdependent factors driving the site. As you can imagine, it's no easy feat — which isn't meant as an excuse. This difficulty of the situation, while not always enjoyable, is a big part of the reason many of us have signed on for this job. It's an interesting design challenge because it's a hard one. We're under no illusions that what you see on the site is the best possible design ever. We look at it as a work in progress, and something that can be continually improved.

Eric Fanning (waving) is the first openly gay Secretary of the Army in US history. The first openly gay US Secretary of the Army Eric fanning rode in the San Diego Pride parade on Sunday in an open car with boyfriend Ben Masri-Cohen. Fanning spent the weekend in the sunny California city and also appeared at a rally and at a San Diego Padres baseball game. His appearance came just weeks after the US military announced it would begin to allow transgender military personnel to serve openly for the first time. ‘For many in our military, Pride in San Diego has special meaning,’ Fanning told an audience at the Spirit of Stonewall rally Friday evening at Balboa Park. ‘With their actions, they sent a clear message to our country: That it’s possible to take deep pride in being part of two great families, the U.S. military and the LGBT community.’ He also addressed critics who are against allowing transgender people to serve openly. ‘Today, when our critics say that the military is not a place for social experimentation, they may be right. But equality and inclusivity are not experiments. They are American values.’ Manning later told the San Diego Union-Tribune: ‘I want to be able to recruit from the broadest base of people possible who meet the requirements. So why shouldn’t we open up service to those people who meet those requirements that are all about the job and the mission? … People who just want to serve.’ Fanning, 47, also spoke at the rally of the 12 June shooting massacre at the Orlando nightclub Pulse that killed 49 people and injured 53 others. ‘We should come together, even as we grieve and mourn,’ Fanning told the crowd. ‘Because we must respond to acts of cowardice with acts of confidence, with acts of pride in who we are and what we believe.’ His nomination last fall by President Barack Obama came just five years after the historic end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. That law prohibited gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans from serving in the US armed forces openly. Enacted in the 1990s, DADT prevented Fanning from joining the military himself.

He would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for that elastic waistband. Tazviona Maluge Bhebe, 40, entered a London liquor store last January, wielding a kitchen knife and disguised with a pair of light blue boxer shorts over his face, according to the Telegraph. Police say the Zimbabwean man then threatened to "use the knife" if store employee Harry Mahalingham, 34, did not give him money. Mahalingham, however, was not about to give in to demands from a talking pair of underwear. The sales assistant leapt over the counter, grabbed a display sign, and proceeded to beat Bhebe with it, the New Zimbabwe reported. Ultimately, Bhebe's disguise failed him. Security camera footage shows the boxer shorts slipping off the robber's head, revealing his face. Police identified Bhebe based this footage as well as DNA samples from the underwear, which the would-be thief discarded as he fled the shop, according to UPI.

Show of hands, please: Who thought, back in February, that we’d be approaching Memorial Day with the Baltimore Orioles in possession of the second-best record in the American League? Uh-huh; not many of you. Now: Who thought instead, three months ago, that the 2016 Orioles would be fortunate to end the season with 75 wins? A few more, and we are among you. We won’t revisit our thinking, if you can call it that. We will point out, though, that the Orioles will certainly come partway back to earth. First of all, none of the other teams in the AL East are going to be pushovers. More importantly, the Orioles have been somewhat fortunate so far this year, just as they were somewhat unfortunate last year. Their record today is 26-17; their Pythagorean projection (we’ll assume you know what we mean) has them more like 24-19. Conversely, the 2015 Orioles finished 81-81, whereas their Pythagorean projection had them more like 83-79—which, over 43 games, makes for 22 wins. The small difference between the seasons can be fully accounted for by the acquisition of Mark Trumbo and the advent of Kevin Gausman. We confess to being mistaken about the Orioles not only in bulk but at retail. Sure, we (sort of) touted Joey Rickard before (we think) anyone else, and we’re proud of it (although he certainly has cooled off). But we didn’t envision a bounceback by Chris Tillman. And the guy we absolutely adored on draft day was Pedro (.191/.300/.351) Alvarez. You know how MLB might try to make games shorter by using automatic intentional walks? We propose automatic strikeouts, starting with Pedro. Don’t even bother having him approach home plate. So our Orioles picks have been wrong. But perhaps our next Orioles pick will be right. In fact, we’re sure it will be: Mike Wright, starting pitcher. His story so far, in telegraphese: right-handed, 26 years old, former good-not-great prospect, 6.04 ERA in 9-start audition last season, 4.97 ERA in 7 starts this season, durable, hard thrower, good stuff, command problems, misses too few bats, owned in 1% of Yahoo and ESPN leagues. A compelling addition to your Fantasy squad, correct? Wright is nonetheless extremely interesting, because he and his surroundings have a virtually pharmaceutical purity if you’re inclined to see them, as we are, as elements of a laboratory experiment. Our regular readers, if there are any, know that we are somewhat unhinged on the subject of 5-inning starting pitchers. In our monologues on the subject, we commence by noting that a fair number of starting pitchers are good for five and only five innings, and turn to pumpkins if they stay around longer than that. We add that, while long-winded starters get scarcer, each year’s harvest of relief pitchers capable of throwing 15 or 20 pitches at 97 MPH every couple of days seems more abundant than the last. We then mention that the success of the Kansas City Royals, who don’t push their starting pitchers and have an unprecedentedly deep and impermeable bullpen, has inspired imitators and will inspire yet more as the tactic proves effective generally. And we opine that managers who want to keep their jobs will have to begin—and will begin–to deploy these redoubtable bullpens preemptively. That is, they won’t wait until the starter gets in trouble in the sixth or seventh inning, but instead will bring in the cavalry at the start of those innings, even if the starter has been pitching effectively and has thrown relatively few pitches. When—not just if—that occurs, starting pitchers who can go only five good innings before detonating will have significantly more value, in both Fantasy Baseball and Reality Baseball. The Orioles have exactly what they need to effect this strategy. Wright is a 5-inning pitcher to the tip of his cleats. He’s made 7 starts this season. His numbers for the first 5 innings: 35 IP, 31 H, 10 W, 13 ER, 25 K, 3.34 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 6.43 K/9. His numbers as a starter in the innings thereafter: 5 1/3 IP, 11 H, 4 W, 10 ER, 5 K, we can’t even bring ourselves to do the rest of the math. Baltimore’s of course also got a formidable bullpen to take over where Wright leaves off. Here are the aggregate 2015-2016 stats for the bullpen’s Big 4 of Brad Brach, Mychal Givens, Darren O’Day, and Zach Britton: 315 1/3 IP, 2.00 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 10.82 K/9. So we’ve got a five-inning starter and a bullpen full of reliable hard throwers—two of the three preconditions for our experiment. Do we also have a manager who’s not afraid to yank Wright after he throws five good innings, whatever Wright’s feelings on the subject may be? Not so far, but we have hope. Buck Showalter has let Wright pitch into the 6th in 6 of Wright’s 7 starts, with generally unhappy results. But Showalter’s an attentive manager, and has never been scared to rely on his bullpen, even when that bullpen’s been less formidable than the one he’s got now. So perhaps he’s gotten the message, or will soon get it.

Sharp Uptick in Wildfires Strains Great Plains Agencies The Great Plains had long been spared the agony of frequent wildfires — until recent years. A satellite analysis published by scientists this week showed the number of large wildfires burning up swaths of the Great Plains rose 350 percent during 30 years, while the total area burned each year increased four-fold. Smoke from a 2016 wildfire in South Dakota. Credit: orientalizing/Flickr “There haven’t really been very many large wildfires in the Great Plains — until recently,” said Victoria Donovan, a PhD candidate at the University of Nebraska who led the analysis, published Friday in Geophysical Research Letters. A variety of factors are thought to be behind the wildfires, including warming caused by fossil fuel pollution, growing populations and the expansions of cities and towns, invasions by fire-prone weeds, and the after-effects of a century of firefighting, which allowed flammable trees and dry grass to build up in wilderness and rural areas. “Obviously it’s being driven by some sort of change,” Donovan said. “It’s largely been seen as a low risk area for wildfire. We’ve had highly successful suppression efforts over the past century.” The spreading rash of fires across the flat and grassy states west of the Mississippi River has jolted a region unaccustomed them, even as it has been overshadowed in the news and dwarfed in firefighting budgets by bigger wildfires tearing up the West Coast. “The low frequency tends to lull all of us into a sense of complacency,” said Michele Steinberg, manager of wildland fire operations at the nonprofit National Fire Protection Association. “We have a long way to go with education, particularly for folks where they have not seen a lot of fire.” Because wildfires have been relatively rare in the Great Plains until recently, many states and counties have come to depend heavily on each other for assistance when they strike. “They rely on their neighbors,” Steinberg said. But the shared firefighting resources are becoming strained as more fires need to be fought. “You’re seeing conditions that are just right for not only ignition of fire, but also fire spread,” Steinberg said. The new analysis also examined rising instances of wildfires in states from Texas to North Dakota, altogether spanning nearly a third of the country, including some of its most remote areas. The study showed there had been a “pulse” during the last decade in the number of fires and acres burned in the Great Plains, said Dirac Twidwell, another University of Nebraska scientist involved with the study. “It’s not individual fires getting bigger, like some might expect, it’s just a result of having more fires,” Twidwell said. “Fire departments don’t have the kinds of staffing and resources that states with a history of wildfire do.” The rise in wildfires in the Great Plains mirrors similar changes underway elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad as the climate and environment change, and as humans spark fires at times of year when they wouldn’t naturally strike, reshaping landscapes and ecosystems. “2016 was a big fire year in the Great Plains, and 2017 has been no slouch,” said John Abatzoglou, a University of Idaho scientist. He wasn’t involved with the new analysis; his research has shown fire risks are greatest in the Great Plains when hot and windy conditions follow wet years. “The increases over the past three decades in the region are similar to those in neighboring regions.” You May Also Like: May Continues a Ridiculous Warm Streak for the Planet A GOP Congressman Is Forging Ahead on Climate Action New York Boardwalk Shows Climate Adaptation Costs Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to fires in Arizona. They were not part of the Great Plains analysis.

Getty Image Following the publication of Bloomberg political correspondent Joshua Green’s report from within the “Trump Bunker,” former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders noticed a pertinent passage about voter suppression. The outspoken-yet-critical Hillary Clinton surrogate was especially interested in a quote from a senior official touting the Trump campaign’s plans for at least three different campaigns designed to discourage potential Clinton voters from showing up at the polls on November 8th. The pertinent passage from the Bloomberg article doesn’t mince words. “Voter suppression” is explicitly mentioned, and according to Green’s reporting, that’s because a top adviser said those two exact words together, in the same sentence, while being totally serious: Trump’s campaign has devised another strategy, which, not surprisingly, is negative. Instead of expanding the electorate, [Stephen K. Bannon] and his team are trying to shrink it. “We have three major voter suppression operations under way,” says a senior official. They’re aimed at three groups Clinton needs to win overwhelmingly: idealistic white liberals, young women, and African Americans. Green goes on to list specific examples of Trump campaign personnel purchasing ad time at television and radio stations with predominantly African-American or Latino audiences, and inundating the airwaves with materials designed to turn those inclined to vote Democrat away from the polls. Despite the use of the perilous phrase, however, nothing in Green’s article suggests the Trump campaign is physically preventing people from participating. Even so, Sanders was none too pleased with the report and aired his grievances on Twitter Thursday morning:

Inside Publishing NO WORD UNSPOKEN Midway through the Confessions, St. Augustine recalls how he used to marvel at the way Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, read his manuscripts: "His eyes traveled across the pages and his heart searched out the meaning, but his voice and tongue stayed still." Scholars have sparred for decades over whether Augustine's offhand observation reveals something momentous: namely, that silent reading--that seemingly mundane act you're engaged in right now--was, in the Dark Ages, a genuine novelty. Evidence abounds that ancient and medieval readers relished giving voice to their favorite texts in order to appreciate more fully the cadences of Homer and Lucian. Of course, we equally enjoy reading poetry aloud. The question is: Could the earliest readers literally not shut up? Paul Saenger thinks so--but his argument for the onetime dominance of the spoken word doesn't rest on Augustine. Saenger, a medieval-manuscript expert and a curator of rare books at Chicago's Newberry Library, believes that reading aloud wasn't a mere preference for the ancients, but a practical necessity. His explanation is simple: Ancientandmedievalmanuscriptslookedlikethis anditwaseasiertoreadthemaloud. In his provocative new book, Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading (Stanford), Saenger argues that the practice of transcribing Greek and Latin manuscripts without spaces, or in scriptura continua, made reading silently a mind-bogglingly difficult task. "It wasn't literally impossible to read silently," Saenger says, "but the notation system was so awkward that the vast majority of readers would have needed to sound out the syllables, if only in a muffled voice." Saenger's book asserts that only at the end of the seventh century, when Irish monks introduced regular word separation into medieval manuscripts, did swift, silent reading become feasible. Why is it so hard to read text without spacing? Just imagine how difficult it would be for your computer's spell checker if you wrote a document in scriptura continua. The program would initially have to determine which syllables to slice into words, and then proceed with its main task. The human brain, fortunately, is more dexterous than a word processor, but the burden of breaking strings of letters into words is, nonetheless, a laborious first step. And therein lies Saenger's thesis: "There is a correlation between a propensity to read orally in both past and contemporary cultures and the duration of cognitive activity needed to achieve lexical access in that culture's script." Saenger, who has a Ph.D. in medieval history, backs up his claims with cutting-edge scientific research. (To his delight, he discovered that psychologists had been testing adult abilities to read English versions of scriptura continua for decades, "without being aware of its real-world precursor.") Clinical tests reveal that the brain processes the reading of spaced text--in which words are essentially digested whole--differently from the syllable-by-syllable decoding of continuous script. In fact, different parts of the brain handle these two tasks: Studies of brain-injured Japanese patients demonstrate that, depending on the site of a cerebral lesion, a person may lose the faculty for reading kanji ideographs, but not Japanese phonetic script, which lacks regular word separation--and vice versa. The implication is that, even if early medieval readers of scriptura continua somehow managed to keep their mouths shut, they were performing a mental task fundamentally different from that of contemporary readers. To modern eyes, the benefits of word spacing seem obvious. What took so long, then? Actually, word spaces can be found in ancient Hebrew manuscripts, as well as in a few of the very earliest Greek papyri. But Saenger doubts those word spaces engendered fluid silent reading at the time. After all, he notes, these manuscripts were all written without vowels, making the use of word spaces a virtual necessity for any kind of deciphering. In any case, following the Greeks' swift incorporation of Phoenician vowels in the ninth century b.c., scribes began crushing all the words together and writing in scriptura continua. Indeed, the entire Greek literary canon, from The Iliad onward, was written down this way. Why? Were the scribes trying to save paper? Saenger offers an explanation for this baffling step backward. "The ancient world did not possess the desire, characteristic of the modern age, to make reading easier and swifter," he writes. "Those who read...were not interested in the swift intrusive consultation of books." The canon was small, and prized texts were typically memorized. Who cared, then, if it was hard to slog through a manuscript the first dozen times? And let's not forget the inherent elitism of Greek and Roman readers. "The notion that the greater portion of the population should be autonomous and self-motivated readers was entirely foreign to the elitist literate mentality of the ancient world," Saenger writes. Fortunately, this situation didn't last forever. While an ambiguous text format "enhanced the mystery and power of clerics," Saenger notes, such awkwardness served no purpose in a scholarly universe in which readers began "to grapple with highly technical concepts" of science, law, and theology. Starting in the fifth century, scribes began to speckle manuscripts with spaces. As Saenger writes, "The introduction of word separation reflected a mentality in which reading was primarily a visual process for which the stylistic virtue of mellifluous sound was subordinate to rapid access to meaning." Most classicists have decried sporadic spacing as a sign that medieval monks didn't fully understand what they were transcribing. But Saenger sees it as a "great leap forward. It allowed the brain to find its bearings." He's even coined a new term, "aeration," to describe such manuscripts. Having spent the past fifteen years combing medieval manuscript libraries on both sides of the Atlantic, Saenger identifies the first properly spaced Latin manuscript as the Irish Book of Mulling, an illuminated translation of the Gospels dating from around 690 a.d. Indeed, he notes, the Irish soon adopted the the verb videre, "to see," as a way to describe reading. In a similar spirit, an Irish monk compared the activity of reading to a cat silently stalking a mouse. Why Ireland? For one thing, Irish monasteries were home to a select collection of Syriac-language biblical texts from late antiquity, all of which featured word spacing (but no vowels). Moreover, the Celtic-speaking monks approached Latin as a foreign language, and word separation greatly aided readers struggling with the vocabulary. (The French, in contrast, didn't think of their vernacular language as particularly different from Latin.) In the end, muses Saenger, "people at the frontiers have always been more open to linguistic innovation and combining things in new ways." Over the next couple of centuries, this Irish innovation spread to other countries--first to England, then to the Low Countries and the rest of Europe. By the twelfth century, reports Saenger, murmuring monks had become a relic of the past. (There's no precise date available, alas, for the first appearance of a SILENCE, PLEASE! sign.) As reading became a silent activity, new types of manuscripts that took advantage of this intimacy were produced, from pocket prayer books to erotica. More important, the intellectual orthodoxy enforced by group readings of manuscripts melted away as scholars retired to private rooms for quiet study. Saenger's book is sure to meet some strong resistance. Many simply refuse to believe that the ancients didn't learn to read scriptura continua silently. In a classic 1968 article, "Silent Reading in Antiquity," Bernard Knox wondered sarcastically, "Are we really to imagine that Aristarchus read aloud all the manuscripts of Homer he used for his edition?" Last year, Russian classicist A.K. Gavrilov dug in his heels, insisting in Classical Quarterly that "the phenomenon of reading itself is fundamentally the same in modern and in ancient culture." Why are some scholars so opposed to the idea that scriptura continua would impose limits on the ancients' reading abilities? "It's funny," laughs Saenger. "Mathematicians have no problem seeing the importance of notation. Newton's contribution in the Principia was both intellectual and notational, with all its symbolic innovations. But classicists refuse to accept that reading has anything to do with the page it's printed on." Of course, classicists aren't the types eager to jump on the interdisciplinary bandwagon. "These folks tend to be tremendously conservative by orientation," Saenger muses. "They tend to be frightened by modern things like psychological research. At one conference, after I laid out my ideas, some classicists called me a Freudian." DANIEL ZALEWSKI

Ten Years on, New Estimates of the Economic Cost of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan This week marks the tenth anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq. What have the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost the United States to date? What additional bills will come due in the future? Economists and budget analysts have made many estimates since the early 2000s. Only one regularity has emerged from their work: Each new round of estimates is higher than those before. Last week the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University released a new set of estimates. The numbers are summarized on the web site of the institute’s Cost of War project and detailed in a paper by Professor Neta C. Crawford. The institute’s estimate of the total cost of the two wars now comes to just under $4 trillion. It wasn’t supposed to cost so much The wars were not supposed to cost so much. As the administration of President George W. Bush was building a case for the Iraq war in 2002, with some 5,000 American troops already deployed in Afghanistan, the question of cost naturally came up. In September of that year, Lawrence B. Lindsey, then Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, estimated that a new Iraq war would cost $100 billion, maybe $200 billion at a maximum. With a midterm election on the horizon, the White House viewed that estimate as shockingly high. The President quickly dismissed Lindsey. Many observers saw his war cost estimate as a major reason. Later that year, Mitchel E. Daniels Jr., then head of the Office of Management and Budget, told the New York Times that $50 to $60 billion would be a more realistic figure, the same or a bit less than the cost of the 1991 Gulf War. As it turned out, the cost of the Iraq war came to $770 billion over the next twelve years, measured by Defense Department appropriations alone. DoD appropriations for Afghanistan added another $609 billion, pushing the cost of the two wars to well over a trillion, or $1,379 billion to be exact. The following chart, which gives the year-by-year tally, makes Lindsey’s estimates, let alone Daniels’s, look preposterously optimistic. Getting to Four Trillion $1,379 billion is a lot of money, but it still isn’t $4 trillion. How do we get from the total DoD appropriations to the larger cost figure that Crawford gives? We start by adding in three budget items that represent war expenditures by agencies other than DoD. The State Department and U.S. AID spent some $84 billion on reconstruction and development aid in Iraq and Afghanistan. Next comes $19 billion in military aid to Pakistan. Operation Noble Eagle added another $29 billion, largely for mobilizing the National Guard for homeland security operations. That brings the total to just over $1,510 billion. There is more. The Watson Institute study attributes several more expenditure categories either to the war itself or the climate of war that shaped U.S. policy decisions after 9/11. These include: $135 billion for medical care and benefits of Iraq and Afghan war veterans. An estimated $743 billion in additions to the Pentagon’s base budget. Although these funds were not spent directly in the war theaters, the researchers believe they would not have been appropriated had the wars not been undertaken. $455 billion for homeland security. Again, the assumption is made that much or all of this spending would not have been undertaken but for the war and climate of war. $130 billion in additional spending on war operations and war-related base budget for 2014. We are now up to $2,973 billion, roughly $3 trillion, through the projected end of Afghan combat operations in 2014. However, the costs of war will have a long tail that extends for decades after American troops come home. One of the biggest components will be future expenditures for medical care and other benefits for war veterans. The Institute estimates those at $754 billion through 2053, for a total of $3,727 billion. Finally, there are interest payments. For the most part the wars were financed by borrowing, so the above costs added directly to the federal debt. The Institute study calculates the interest costs of war borrowing at $254 billion through the end of FY 2012. We have now arrived at Watson Institute’s figure of just under $4 trillion. The Institute suggests that possible future interest payments might eventually add as much as $7 trillion more, but that is far more speculative. Although we can fairly say that war costs added directly to federal deficits in the early years, more recently the size of those deficits and the accumulated debt have begun to affect both taxes and spending for other programs. Without past war expenditures, the federal debt at the end of 2012 would have been about 51 percent of GDP rather than the actual 71 percent. That would have reduced the pressure to raise taxes as part of the fiscal cliff negotiations at the end of 2012 and to cut spending by letting the sequester go into effect in 2013. From 2012 on, then, it becomes less reasonable to say that the federal debt would be dollar-for-dollar lower without the wars. Saying that does not diminish the budgetary opportunity cost of war expenditures. It just means that as we go forward, we may bear them in the form of a squeeze on other programs or higher taxes rather than as interest payments on war debt. What about the cost of human life? The Watson Institute study addresses only the budgetary costs of the war. Beyond that, there are human costs. Most people would agree that the human costs of war are beyond quantification, and for the most part, I would go along with that. Still, to help put the budgetary costs of the war in perspective, we could try applying statistical value of life methodology to war casualties. Various U.S. agencies apply statistical values of life to evaluate costs and benefits of life-saving policy measures like improving road safety or reducing air pollution. Courts use statistical value of life numbers in awarding compensation for accidental death. The values of life used in such situations come, among other sources, from studies of the extra pay required to compensate for differences in risk of death among various occupations. These highly imperfect numbers tend to run in the range of $6 to $8 million for the life of an American of working age. The same method can be used to calculate proportionately smaller values for the reduction in quality of life as the result of disability. Just as a back-of-the envelope exercise, suppose we imagine what the additional budgetary cost would have been if the U.S. government had paid a death benefit of $7 million dollars for each service member killed in action and a $1 million cash benefit for pain and suffering to each person wounded in combat. Applying those numbers to 5,200 killed and 50,000 wounded would add about another $85 billion to the cost of the war. That does not include the statistical value of life of more than 1,000 American soldiers and contractors who died from noncombat causes in the two war theaters, or the almost 1,400 allied military personnel who died there. The Watson Institute also estimates that between 158,000 and 202,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan during the war. I won’t even pretend to suggest what statistical value of life would fairly compensate those war victims and their families. Pick your own number, multiply it out, and add it to the total. The bottom line Many people will object to the entire premise of the Watson Institute study and of this post. They will say that the dollar cost of the war and the statistical value of the lives lost in it are completely beside the point. The war was never about economics; it was about national security, national honor, and bringing peace and democracy to oppressed peoples in far-away lands. Still, one can’t help but wonder. If Congress had been told that the price tag would be not $50 billion, but $4 trillion, would it have voted so overwhelmingly for the Iraq War Resolution of October 2, 2002?

This Is Why People Don’t Agree With Sound Of Same Headphones There have been interesting researches on the sound of headphones as it is found to believe that every human being have a different opinion on the same headphone sound and this behavior has been researched by Brent Butterworth who has provided an elaborative reasoning about the same. In a recent study, different humans have been made to hear a same headphone sound and asked about their opinions. Interestingly, every test subject had a different take on the sound heard which proves the theory of disagreement as every human has a different take on same headphone sound. Every human has different hearing and interpretation capabilities It has been found that the reason for different interpretations is due to the development process of human ears as the ear canals vary from human to human. As quoted by Jacob Soendergaard, a sales engineer in a sound and vibration company. Each minute variation in geometry (ear canal shape, amount of folds and creases in the canal, aspect ratio of canal, location of double bends, size of tympanic membrane [eardrum], etc.) will affect the hearing perception — especially at the high frequencies with very short wavelengths. Hence, in the case of frequencies between 10KHz to 20 KHz (human hearing range), even a minuscule difference in offsetting of the human eardrum, which can be referred to as a measurement device, by a millimetre can result in varied results from person to person. Every human has a different headphone’s space-sense Scientifically, the human brain uses hand related transfer function or HRTF to locate sound in three dimensions. This function involves the time difference between the arrival of sound at the ears, difference in sound levels, differences in frequency caused by acoustical effects of heads, shoulders and pinnae. All these functions support the interpretation of the sound. Headphones adjustments to the ears The fitting of headphones plays a great role in the sound performance output of headphones. It is dependent on the fit of the ear pads of an ear-headphone on the pinna. For a good bass of headphones, a good seal will ensure the same. In case if any space is created, the headphones will have a low bass, which might result in the tonal imbalance. Different humans have different tastes It has been observed that one of the reasons behind the different taste could be varied perception of humans towards a headphone sound. This can be obvious as every human is different and the like and dislikes to a particular headphone sound mostly depends upon which sound is more likeable to a particular human. Hearing ability varies The hearing capability of a human undergoes changes with age. If the human ear is exposed to loud sounds continuously, it might result in low hearing capabilities in the long run as the ear might have lost hearing efficiency at loud sounds. Also, as you grow old with age, the hearing aid of humans starts to show changes, the efficiency of which slowly withers away with time. Reference Source: Lifewire

After my exam earlier was postponed due to some problems between Pearson VUE and VMware Lab communications, I did my VCAP-DTM deploy last Friday. And it was a pass on the first attempt 🙂 Woohoo. The exam is a whopping 3,4 (or somewhat with 205 minutes) hours getting through tasks where time management is the most important piece. Well next to actually knowing what you need to be doing. I missed some questions in the end, but 30 questions seem to be enough to barely pass. I was a bit slow as deployment is something I do differently in real life, irritated about the backspace not working (arrow del key combination is not my cookie) while my Pavlov keeps hitting that key and in the last part of the exam I had to keep pushing radio buttons several times before they got active. Some tips for the time management when you will attempt the exam: Prepare your exam lab experience. Do VMware Hands on Labs from the EUC mobily courses. Is it not for the subjects, is it knowing how to operate the lab environment. The exam lab is the same as the hands-on labs. I used several HOL-1751-MBL-1 and so on. Do note the Horizon are not the versions used in the VCAP6 version, but most items are still in the right place. I have also used Ravello Cloud for my labs. Bonus with the HOL’s is that you already have the password to use in the exam drilled. Familiarize with the subjects. Read through the exam objectives and practice those in your own lab or hands on labs. These blog posts were very helpful: Going through the VCAP6-DTM Deploy Study guide several times with this blog post series: https://szumigalski.com/2016/08/01/vcap6-dtm-study-guide/. Prepare yourself about the exam lab environment with this blog post: http://sostechblog.com/2016/07/26/vcap6-dtm-desktop-and-mobility-deployment-exam-launch/. Schedule your exam. Have something to work to. Do this before starting to study, but allow for a reasonable study preparation period. There is no non-native English speaker time extension, 205 minutes is what everyone gets. A VCAP study group with peers is worth it, especially working together on a shared goal and for sharing experiences, tips and tricks. At our company ITQ (http://itq.nl) we did VCAP Bootcamps were we had multiple sessions and let some of the team present an objective. Don’t have peers at your company that go for the same kind of exams? Well reach out on twitter, the community is strong in its knowledge sharing force and you will get a group in no time. Mirage base layer and application layer capturing, restoring, as well as App Volumes capturing take time to complete. Make a note on your whiteboard and do some other questions while these are capturing. Return to see the progress. Set your environment to a comfortable screen resolution, mine was to set the screen to 1024×768. Also change this resolution in the Remote Desktop Manager. If you happen to need console access to a virtual machine (mostly RDP will work), use the web client not VMRC or the vSphere client console as the CTRL-ALT are not working. Once at the exam, go through the exam questions, start the capturings, complete the ones you know, skip the ones you don’t know or are not sure about. You can navigate back and forth through the tasks, but don’t go skipping in berserk mode. Have some idea what questions are for what subjects, use your white board to write done the questions, make notes and mark completed, in progress or fail. Do take time to read the assignment, you have multiple clusters, desktops and connections servers. Don’t wasted time starting the task on the wrong component. Don’t let slow performance get you. This is a lab environment and not running in your exam centre or even region. It can be slow, be prepared and be patience. But that doesn’t mean that if it is unworkable you shouldn’t say something about it…. Know how Horizon architecture, application capturing and desktop pools work, know your way with Identity Manager (vIDM) and Mirage, know the lmvutil and vdmadmin command line help options, and you will be a okay. And yes that time management…. – Enjoy your exam experience! Sources: vmware.com, szumigalski.com, sostechblog.com

Call Goes Out for Bellator Reality Series Tryouts Along with Bellator Fighting Championships’ move from MTV2 over to Spike TV in January, the promotion has also announced that it intends to air a new reality series on its new network. There have been few details released about the new reality series, but Bellator on Monday put out the call for open tryouts. The tryouts are open for the 155 and 170-pound weight classes. Any fighter that applies must have at least three professional victories on their record and must not have an equal or greater number of losses than wins. All applicants must also be over 21 years of age. The Bellator open tryouts are slated for Nov. 10 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the American Top Team gym in Coconut Creak, Fla. Applications can be downloaded at http://2.images.spike.com/downloads/bellator/Bellator-Long-App.pdf and video submission sent to CastingBellator@gmail.com. The man in charge of developing the Bellator reality series is award-winning producer Bertrand van Munster, who was behind the CBS hit The Amazing Race and several other series. The reality series format has been a big hit in the past for Spike TV when it partnered with the UFC for The Ultimate Fighter. Stay tuned to MMAWeekly.com for more Bellator news and updates.

Web comics are a great way to get some much-needed downtime and inspiration, and are a nice, creative way to fill a break in work. Web comics are free and easily accessible, and there are plenty of great ones out there. In this article, we've picked some of the best web comics to explore. Some of the world's most well-known fictional characters were born through the medium of comics. The likes of Batman, Superman and Spider-Man have all won the hearts of successive generations of readers – to such an extent that, despite the rise of the internet, the printed comic industry is still booming. If you're inspired to create your own, take a look at our guides to how to create a comic page, and how to colour comics. Nedroid (pronounced 'NEH-droid') is a web comic by artist Anthony Clark. He has his fingers in a few different comic pies, but is best known for a goofy comic series featuring Beartato – a potato/bear hybrid, of course – that has been running since 2006. James Squires is an illustrator based in New Zealand who describes himself as a 'delusional comic person, coffee drinker, cat owner'. He's the artist behind web comic Moonbeard. These surreal, standalone cartoons often feature surprising twists, and they're well worth a browse. You can also browse his work via his Instagram feed. Webcomic Name first appeared in July 2016 and swiftly became a firm favourite. It's the work of UK-based artist Alex Norris and it never fails to amuse us with its excellently naive artwork, blobby characters and simple jokes, usually topped off with Webcomic Name's staple 'oh no' punchline. It shouldn't really work but it very much does, every single time. Anne Szabla's Bird Boy follows the story of Bali, a 10-year-old Nuru boy who is keen to prove his worth to his tribe. After being banned from the ceremony that would make him an adult, he stumbles upon a legendary weapon and must flee across a dangerous land of gods, men and beasts to prevent it falling into the wrong hands. The story was picked up by Darkhorse comics and has been compiled into graphic novels Bird Boy Volume 1: The Sword of Mali Mani and Bird Boy Volume 2: The Liminal Wood. With a thumbs up from Mike Mignola, it's definitely worth checking out. Canadian comic artist Kate Beaton, blended her expertise in history and anthropology with a talent for visual storytelling to give us this popular webcomic. Kate started the web strip during her breaks from her day job and they were all created in MS Paint (really). Beaton's simple, whimsical style, caricaturing Western historical figures from James Joyce to Ada Lovelace make Hark! A Vagrant a particular favourite of ours, and have won the artist multiple awards. She's no longer adding to the collection, but the archived version is well worth a browse. Written and drawn by Jake Wyatt with a helping hand from Kathryn Wyatt, this ongoing fantasy web comic is the tale of one girl's quest for revenge. This web comic is updated every Wednesday, and has gained popularity for its stunning visuals and engaging story. When the story finishes (we're not sure when this will be yet), there are plans to released by Image Comics as a print version. Run by Lize Meddings and Laura Jayne Cox, The Sad Ghost Club is a web comic with a cult following. "The Sad Ghost Club is a club for anyone who’s ever felt sad or lost," they explain in their manifesto. "It's the club for those who don’t feel like they're part of any other club; we love creating comics and zines to highlight the issues that a lot of ghosties go through." Branching out into tote bags, beanies, T-shirts, badges and more, the duo have come a long way with their tales of a lonely little ghost. Meddings and Cox's approach ensures you'll be smiling through each story, knowing you're not alone in the world after all. Created by Trudy Cooper and Doug Bayne, Oglaf is often a very NSFW web comic centred on a medieval fantasy realm which is decidedly sexual in nature. Not for the faint-hearted, Cooper and Bayne bring their world to life through hilarious short stories and inspirational illustrations – just don't let your boss catch you reading it. If you've embarked on role-playing games or dipped your toes into the world of medieval fantasy stories, you'll know that people tend to take both very seriously. The Order of the Stick is a web comic that pokes fun at the subjects with a unique flair. It was created by artist Rich Burlew, who brings the stick figure into the modern age. Artist and writer James Hornsby has been parodying and lampooning professional wrestling culture with his hilarious Botched Spot ever since 2008. Creating his own characters including Olav Orlav and Rad Bad DeBone, this is one of those web comics that anyone can enjoy – whether you like wrestling or not. Deathbulge was initially a comic series about a death metal band, but illustrator and writer Dan came to believe that was too limiting, so decided to draw whatever he felt like. It seems his change in direction worked, as the web comic has become a firm favourite among web comic fans. With out a new issue every Monday, there's always something fresh. Scary Go Round is the home of the web comics of John Allison. There are a few different stories there, all of which form part of a shared universe, and take place around the city of Tackleford. The current comic, Giant Days, follows regular Esther de Groot as she attends university. An inventive web comic with colourful illustrations and witty dialogue that MTV favourite Daria would be proud of. Tom Gauld is a hero of sorts among the illustrator and comic-loving crowd. Based in London, not only does he draw a regular cartoon for the Guardian newspaper, he's also created a number of comic books. Although You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack is indeed, a printed publication, you can sample its delights on his Tumblr. Gemma Correll charts her 'mostly boring' life in her daily diaries Gemma Correll describes herself as a cartoonist, writer, illustrator and all-round small person. It's arguable whether her sketchbook diaries technically count as a web comic, but they're so charming that we just had to include them here. Charting her 'mostly boring' life, cute illustrations teamed with refreshingly honest observations make for some delightful reading. Related articles:

Why Meditate? Steve Pearl has been meditating for over 40 years since he became a Buddhist in the 70’s in Dharamsala, India. As a child of the 60’s Steve was active in the counter-culture movement in Palo Alto, CA. Bitten by the wanderlust bug, he found a loophole little-known loophole and managed to dodge the draft when he moved to Europe with his mother and brother from Veracruz, Mexico on a frigate ship. He and his brother Andy, drove a red VW van across the former Yugoslavia, a pre-revolutionary Iran, and Afghanistan where they bartered the van for six horses. They made their way to India through Pakistan on these horses with a band of friends. He almost died on a mountain pass along the way. He worked on a pirate ship in Ibiza back when it was still a small fishing hamlet. He even made and sold sandals on the Spanish Steps in Rome. He first came in contact with Buddhism in Dharamsala, India and was a Buddhist monk for well over a decade. He was also a pilot doing aerial photography. Steve is currently retired and has chronicled the adventures of his youth in a book called From Kalamazoo to Kathmandu. Learn more about Meditation: 5 Tips for Getting Started with Meditation

Crusader Kings II : The Middle-Earth Project mod 0.3.1b has been released, you can download the new full build below. Posted by Lonhaldar on Jul 27th, 2014 Middle Earth Project 0.3.1b Download CK2:MEP 0.3.1b This is a full update of the Middle Earth Project mod for Crusader Kings II. This update is compatible with version 2.1.6 of Crusader Kings II. This is a beta and there will be bugs. Nothing is set in stone and we will appreciate any input that you think might improve the mod. An Extended Map Look into Belegaer, the Great Sea of the West, and discover the borders of the lost lands of Beleriand and Numenor. New islands, like Tol Fuin or Tol Morwen appears now. We reworked too some areas, like Bellakar, or the areas of Gundabad and the Misty Mountains. Welcome to Gwaihir, the Lord of the Eagles, and all his kin in Rosroval, the "Peak of the Eagles". The Line of Golfimbul is still alive, and Mount Gram can prepar to war once again. All Eriador fears the new powers of the orcs of the North now! Create your own kingdom of middlemen in Enedwaith, and become the High King of Isenvale, to balance the power of both Arnor and Gondor! Craft your own objects ! As a Dwarf or a Noldor craftsman, you're now able to craft your own objects. Create some jewels, forge weapons, and improve your skills to be the proud heir of Telchar of Nogrod, or Celebrimbor of Eregion ! As a Noldor master or legendary craftsman, reconquer Ost-in-Edhil, and try to rebuild the Gwaith-i-Mirdain, the brotherhood of Celebrimbor, where were forged the Rings of Power. Gather the other craftsmen, and together, you'll give prestige and glory to your kin ! Use the Rings of the Dwarves to create more wealth in your mines, or try to find the One Ring, and maybe you'll find a Lesser Ring, these rings forged by the Noldor of Eregion as essays of the Rings of Power. The Palantiri Now, the Palantiri are all created, one trait by Stone. Try to keep the stones in your dynasty, and gain a lot of prestige with them ! As one of the guardians of the Palantiri, use your Stone during Wars to call your friends to the battlefield ! As an elf or a numenorean, travel to Elostirion, and try to see the Lights of Tol Eresseä through the Stone of Elendil, the only one who wasn't connected with the others in Middle-earth. You can gain more prestige, or become more depressed... Will you be as perceptive than Elendil the Great? More corrections... - Fixed some bugs, like the "the Old" for elves and dwarves - Random generated numenoreans characters will now have some chance to gain one of the blood of numenor - Colonize and Purge the provinces of your vassals There is much more, and you can read the full changelog included with the download. That's all for now, we hope you enjoy this next step in the MEP ladder. Want to help? We are still in need of modders in scripting and events, as well as other things.Contact Redit or Lon here or on the Paradox Forums if you are interested in joining the MEP team.

Sony’s “Back up & restore” app gets hacked [Update] Sony has a potentially serious issue on their hands as its “Back up & restore” app appears to have been hacked. Looking at the Play Store ‘My apps’ section on our Xperia Z3 reveals that the app is now managed by the “HeArT HaCkEr Group.” As a system app, there is no way to delete the app either, so given the permissions this particular app has (see below) it is a serious issue. We’re not sure how the app has been hacked. Potentially, Sony Mobile’s Play Store account may be compromised, where the hacker has replaced the original app. However, we’ll wait to hear from Sony directly. The Google Play Store listing for this new hacked version can be found here (PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL). At this stage, we can’t say whether this app is doing anything harmful, but we’ve contacted Sony and will let you know their response. In the meantime, check your phone to see if you are affected and we will post updates in this post. Update: Sony has a quick update on its support forums: “Sony Mobile takes the security and privacy of customer data very seriously. We are currently investigating these reports. More information will follow as soon as we have fully assessed the situation.“ Update 2: The app in question has been removed from the Google Play Store. Also it is no longer present in “My apps” within the Play Store app. We still await for the ‘all clear’ from Sony and an explanation on how this happened in the first place. Update 3: Sony has released a statement explaining what has happened in this situation and that ultimately there was no risk to users: “It appears that an unauthorised 3rd party developer created an application using the same name and identifier as our “Backup & Restore” service, and uploaded it to Google Play. As the app mirrored our ‘Backup & Restore’ service naming structure, it appeared as downloaded on some products within Google Play’s “My Apps”, when in fact it wasn’t actually installed. We don’t provide ‘Backup & Restore’ on Google Play – it is pre-installed on Xperia devices, with all version and maintenance updates handled directly through our Update Centre. This application posed no risk to users, but has since been removed from Google Play.“ Permissions of hacked “Back up & restore” app Thanks Brad!

Watch the live webcast on this page on Wednesday, February 6, 2019 Thursday, February 7 at 7 pm ET. (The initial date had to be postponed due to severe weather.) Clifford V. Johnson is a theoretical physicist passionate about sharing science with the public. He resolved to write a book explaining physics to a lay audience, but he felt that words on a printed page did not fully convey the dynamic, collaborative nature of fundamental research. What if, he wondered, you could represent multiple voices and points of view? What if one could make the reader feel immersed in scientific discourse, rather than reading the words of an expert sharing a single perspective? He wanted to write a book that would give readers a fly-on-the-wall experience of the process of fundamental science. Johnson realized that graphic novels are the unique narrative medium he was searching for. Through the written word and compelling visuals, graphic novels immerse the reader in a sensory world of ideas. This realization led Johnson to write and draw The Dialogues: Conversations About the Nature of the Universe (MIT Press), which allows readers to eavesdrop on a series of dialogues, set in locations around the world, about cutting-edge scientific topics. In his public lecture webcast at Perimeter on February 6 February 7, Johnson will discuss the process of turning complex scientific topics into compelling visual narratives. The talk will be “graphic,” but in a family-friendly way. Clifford V. Johnson’s work in science ranges from teaching and research into black holes, particle physics, string theory, and cosmology, to public outreach where he strives to put science back into the general culture. He helps artists, writers, and filmmakers incorporate science into their work, and appears on several TV and online shows. He has been a science advisor for many TV shows and movies, including Nat Geo’s Genius (featuring Einstein), Marvel’s Agent Carter, Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, and more. Tickets to attend this lecture in person will be available here on Monday, January 21 at 9 am ET.

When the photo of Higuain’s secret medical first leaked, Napoli fans across the world were distraught. The loss of our star striker would have hurt enough but to lose him to our most hated rival; that was heartbreaking. Just months earlier he had been kissing our shirt and singing with fans under the stands shouting about defending the city. Now he plays for the team whose fans invoke Vesuvius to bury that city in lava. As if that were not enough, just as hurtful to fans was his motivation. Higuain didn’t leave for money. Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis came forward and said he had offered more to the Argentine striker than he is currently receiving at Juventus. Higuain left “to win”. He obviously didn’t believe he could do that in a blue shirt; and if he didn’t believe it, then why should we as fans? Without his help and that of his 36 goals, what reason would there be to even dream of competing for trophies? While the supporters remained in shock, the club went to work; scooping up some of the most talented young players in Italy and Europe (Milik, Zielinski, Diawara, Rog, Maksimovic). Yet with youth comes inexperience, and it was only natural to think it would take time for the new acqusitions to settle in and contribute on the field. However, the two youngsters that have been given a chance, Zielinski and Milik, have made an immediate impact. Zielinski is already pushing Allan for a starting spot and Milik has made his claim as the starting striker with a goal per minute ratio that is top in Europe. Their contributions so far have been invaluable and they have given us reason to have high, but tempered, expectations for the other additions. Yet what has really stood out is how the team as a whole has performed on the pitch. Sometimes having a star player can damage a team as they look to force feed him the ball in times of need. Perhaps this was the case with Higuain in Napol; for as impressive as Napoli were last season, this year they look even better. The team’s movement seems even more coordinated. At their best, the players have looked like a single attacking entity. They did at times last year as well but these days it seems more like the normal run of affairs. Without a doubt the extra time for the returning players to learn Sarri’s system has helped, yet one cannot help but wonder if they are also playing a bit more free mentally without having to worry about feeding a striker who would at times throw a fit if he wasn’t serviced well. It’s important to remain grounded and remember that Juventus are still clear favorites to win the title. They had a terrible start to last season only to put on an amazing run of 25 matches in which they collected 73 out of a possible 75 points. At the same time, it is also important to appreciate this moment at the top of the table; to be grateful to the coach and players that have left us wondering if perhaps out of our midsummer despair we’ve emerged stronger than ever.

THREE and a half years into a war that has left 200,000 dead, forced more than 10m from their homes and sucked in America, Russia and a host of regional meddlers, the UN has a new plan for Syria: “Aleppo first”. It seeks to fix a local ceasefire in Aleppo, once a proud and bustling metropolis of 3m that has been reduced to a pockmarked carcass of mostly empty buildings, in the hope of gradually “freezing” battles elsewhere. Don’t hold your breath. The limited scope of the initiative, proposed on November 10th by Staffan de Mistura, the UN’s special envoy, underscores the intractability of this century’s bloodiest conflict. A break in the fighting that has split Aleppo in two would certainly cheer its surviving residents, many of whom no longer care who wins. But too many factors militate against even a limited local ceasefire, let alone a negotiated peace. Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. President Bashar al-Assad’s government said it would study the ceasefire plan, which Mr de Mistura described as a potential building block for a wider solution. “Of course they won’t say no,” says Emile Hokayem of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank in London. “Assad likes anything that appears to bolster his legitimacy.” Yet he notes that previous Syrian ceasefires have tended to come in two contexts: either regime forces have besieged a rebel district and offered a choice between starvation and surrender, or a halt to fighting has proven tactically useful, allowing the government to redeploy forces elsewhere. In fact, Mr Assad has been doing better lately. The American-led air assault against Islamic State (IS) and other jihadist groups has battered some of his foes, and allowed him to pose as an ally in fighting terrorists. Mr Assad has ramped up his own, far less discriminating, aerial bombardment of rebel areas. And he has been able to release ground forces to make gains in some places, including Aleppo, after months of stalemate. America’s decision to hit jihadist groups other than IS has further splintered the fractious rebels. Some have defected to extremist groups, including IS and Jabhat al-Nusra (which is affiliated to al-Qaeda), convinced that America’s coalition is in effect an ally of Mr Assad’s. Revelations that President Barack Obama promised not to attack the Assad regime in a secret letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader and Mr Assad’s staunchest ally, have deepened such Sunni fears. Yet, even though they are hopelessly squeezed between the regime and hostile IS forces, which control territory to the east of Aleppo, mainstream rebel groups inside the city seem determined to hold on. A commander laid out four conditions in response to Mr de Mistura: a halt to bombing by the regime; release of political prisoners (whose number is estimated at 85,000); the expulsion of “criminal terrorist militias” allied to the government (ie, Iranian-funded Lebanese and Iraqi fighters who bolster Syria’s depleted army); and the surrender for trial of those responsible for using chemical weapons against Syrian civilians. Bravado, perhaps, but despite the attrition of war and the waning enthusiasm of the rebels’ supporters in the West and the Gulf, Mr Assad’s foes continue to harass his forces. Fierce aerial bombardments have not stopped a slow, steady rebel advance from the south towards the capital, Damascus. Given the nastiness of the regime and the gathering strength of the jihadists, the bleak underlying reality facing the people of Syria is well captured by a commentator in Aleppo who writes under the pseudonym Edward Dark: “an outright victory by either side is neither a real possibility nor a desirable prospect.”

The Democratic ground has shifted in New York. Yes, the polls suggest Hillary Clinton will win, maybe even handily, Tuesday in what, for want of a more compelling alternative, must be called her home state. But let’s cut to the chase. Going back to the 1950s, the New York primary was the stop on the national schedule where the candidates pledged their loyalty to Israel. I remember very clearly the first New York primary I ever covered, in 1988. That was the year that Ed Koch, then the mayor, famously said that Jews would have to be “crazy” to vote for Jesse Jackson. But New York has changed, and its Democratic party has changed dramatically since Koch endorsed Al Gore, who, stuck in third place in a three-way race, opened New York’s contest by accusing Michael Dukakis of putting “public pressure on Israel” due to his a “naive legalism, an exaggerated faith in the United Nations, and a seeming reluctance to ever have the United States act on its own when necessary.” From there, it was off to the races as Koch endorsing Gore and firing some wild shots at Dukakis and especially Jackson. That 1988 primary was the worst, but in just about every New York primary since, candidates in both parties have competed to out-Israel each other, which has usually meant adopting not merely pro-Israel talking points but pro-Likud ones. I expressed the fear after Sanders won Wisconsin that Clinton might try to turn New York into an Israel referendum. She could have. And maybe she would have if the polls were closer. But she has not. Not only that. The needle moved significantly, and astoundingly, in the other direction. Here, Sanders deserves tremendous credit. He said at last Thursday’s debate: “As somebody who is 100 percent pro-Israel, in the long run—and this is not going to be easy, God only knows, but in the long run if we are ever going to bring peace to that region which has seen so much hatred and so much war, we are going to have to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity.” An acknowledgement that Palestinians are human beings—during a New York primary, no less! Clinton could have—and 12 or so years ago, undoubtedly would have—responded by saying something like until the Palestinians get better leaders and stop teaching hatred to their children, my posture won’t change. Not only did she not do that, but Sanders forced her to acknowledge the point. She said: “As Secretary of State for President Obama, I’m the person who held the last three meetings between the President of the Palestinian Authority and the Prime Minister of Israel. … Three long meetings. And I was absolutely focused on what was fair and right for the Palestinians. I was absolutely focused on what we needed to do to make sure that the Palestinian people had the right to self-government.” Sanders is to be commended for this anti-pandering—it could herald the start of a positive change in the way Democrats at least talk about the Middle East. But he was also able to get away with it because New York has changed so much. In 2011, Ed Koch came from seemingly nowhere to hijack the special election to replace Anthony Weiner in the House, turning it into a nationally viewed referendum on Obama’s Israel policies and costing Democrats what had seemed like a safe seat in the process. That was his last hurrah, and may have also been the last one for the staunchly pro-Israel Jewish Democrats who were once a dominant force in the party’s politics. The Jews who remain in the party, especially those younger than 40 or so, are much more anti-Likud than the generation that’s been dying off (if Koch were still alive, he’d probably have popped off about Sanders’s comment, and we’d have stormed our way back to 1988 again). On that one, Sanders showed that he’s more in touch with the current mindset of a crucial New York constituency than Clinton is. But with regard to African-American and Latino voters, especially those older than 40 (which is to say most of them), he still displays no feel at all for them, and no intrinsic empathy. Carrying on as he has about the South being “conservative” is, as I wrote last week, insulting to black voters everywhere. I’d have to bet this is a big topic of discussion on New York black radio, and was Sunday in the social halls of AME churches from Brooklyn to Buffalo. If Clinton wins, the margin will again be provided by these voters. I’ll be very interested to see what the tallies are in state’s three political regions: the city, the suburbs (Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam), and upstate. If the polls are right and Clinton wins by double digits, she should carry them all; and with 247 total delegates at stake (not including the supers), the difference between a 12-point win and a three-point win could amount to 12 or 13 delegates—a huge difference at this point in the campaign. I was standing in that field on Pat Moynihan’s farm that day in July 1999 when Clinton first put herself out there as New York’s future senator. She served the state by all accounts well, well enough that the Republicans couldn’t muster up a serious candidate against her when she ran for reelection, and well enough, if the polling holds up, to push her across the finish line tomorrow. But if this New York primary is remembered in the future for anything, it’ll be remembered as the one that finally buried some nasty ghosts from 1988, and it’ll be Sanders who will deserve the credit for that.

BOSTON -- When the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League helped out with a reading program in a number of local schools last season, the experience was a little different for one of the players than the rest. The kids were tasked with doing projects on one of 8-10 books chosen for the curriculum, which was sponsored by the Marlies along with Scotiabank and First Book Canada; the winning class got to go to a Marlies game. One of the options was "The Bambino and Me." Another was "Hockey Hero." Each was written by Hyman. Becoming an author wasn't exactly what Hyman had planned to do with his life. His goal was to become an NHL player, a dream he reached with his debut on Feb. 29; that it was with the Toronto Maple Leafs was doubly special for a kid who grew up in Toronto. That was what he would have said, had he been asked, about his aspirations back in elementary school or middle school or high school. Hockey was always his first love. But somewhere along the way Hyman found a parallel path, one that might last beyond the 24-year-old's playing days. "I didn't really expect much from writing," Hyman said Saturday. "I wasn't trying to go out there and be an author. But it's a big passion of mine and I just really, really enjoyed it, so once everything came together it was a no-brainer for me that I wanted to keep pursuing writing." It started when Hyman was in seventh grade, when he wrote the story that would become the basis for "Hockey Hero" for a short-story competition. He won. His father helped him explore the idea of self-publishing the book, which he eventually did. Inquiries led the pair to freelance book editor Janice Weaver, who often works on children's books. They began working together on "The Bambino and Me" when Hyman was in high school. The book is built, in parts, around real-life quotes from Babe Ruth. "What I really liked about that project, the thing that kind of struck me about it first, was that Zach had used so many of Babe Ruth's own words to tell the story," Weaver said. "I thought it was a really nice way of bringing the factual elements into a fictional story and giving you a good flavor for what that larger-than-life person was like. I thought it was clever and I thought it showed a maturity in his writing that you don't expect to see in a story written by a high school kid." The collaboration with Weaver eventually led Hyman to work with Penguin Random House with "The Bambino and Me" and, eventually, the revamped "Hockey Hero" being published under the Tundra Books imprint. That's not all. His third book, "The Magician's Secret," is in its final stages, with just the art to be completed; Hyman expects it to be published in the beginning of 2017. It's expected to be followed by a fourth book with a basketball focus. "The Magician's Secret" is his first book without a sports theme. The books are written in the many off-hours of a hockey player's life, at home and in the summers, when a break from training gives Hyman the time and ability to sit with the words. Then he gets to share them. "It's fun to write for kids because I remember when I was a kid and I always used to love reading children's books and looking at the pictures and being all excited. It's a lot of fun when you read the books to kids and see their faces light up," Hyman said, his own face aglow. "That's definitely a big reason why I write children's books. It's fun for me too." It's clear that Hyman's other career impacts his writing, his sense of hard work and goals and dreams. He has been through it. He has seen how that translates into real life, into finding himself in exactly the place he always hoped he would, playing for his hometown hockey team, serving as a role model to the kids he entertains, whether on the ice or in his books. "One of the things I really love about the books is they have a sort of old school message to them," Weaver said. "A simple kind of nostalgic, in some cases, message to them. And a lot of the messages of the books are about dreaming big, following your dreams, working hard to achieve your dreams. "I think that's very much reflective of the way -- from what I know of Zach -- of how he lives his own life and how he conducts himself in terms of his athletic career, so I think there's a real dovetailing there between the way he lives his life and what he believes on a daily basis and tries to put into action, and the messages that he's trying to convey through his books." It means something to him. It's something that's real to him. As Hyman's career has taken off on the ice -- he has four goals and five assists in 27 games for the Maple Leafs -- he continues to learn the lessons that likely one day will be encapsulated in future books, future labors of love. "It's just a big passion of mine and I'm fortunate to be working with awesome people who help me out along the way," Hyman said. "Just focusing on hockey and writing is something that I'll obviously continue to do. "Writing is going to last longer than hockey. You can't play hockey forever, but [you] definitely can write forever. Just enjoying it; it's amazing. I get to live the life of a hockey player and also have writing. It's pretty special. I'm really lucky."

The geography of Canada describes the geographic features of Canada, the world's second largest country in total area. Situated in northern North America (constituting 41% of the continent's area), Canada spans a vast, diverse territory between the North Pacific Ocean to the west and the North Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Arctic Ocean to the north (hence the country's motto "From sea to sea"), with the United States to the south (contiguous United States) and northwest (Alaska). Greenland is to the northeast; off the southern coast of Newfoundland lies Saint Pierre and Miquelon, an overseas collectivity of France. Since 1925, Canada has claimed the portion of the Arctic between 60°W and 141°W longitude to the North Pole; however, this claim is contested.[1] While the magnetic North Pole lies within the Canadian Arctic territorial claim as of 2011, recent measurements indicate it is moving towards Siberia.[2] Covering 9,984,670 km2 or 3,855,100 sq mi (land: 9,093,507 km2 or 3,511,023 sq mi; freshwater: 891,163 km2 or 344,080 sq mi), Canada is slightly less than three-fifths as large as Russia and slightly smaller than Europe. In total area, Canada is slightly larger than both the U.S. and China; however, Canada ranks fourth in land area (i.e. total area minus the area of lakes and rivers)—China is 9,326,410 km2 (3,600,950 sq mi) and the U.S. is 9,161,923 km2 (3,537,438 sq mi).[3] The population of Canada, 35,151,728 as of May 10, 2016, is concentrated in the south close to its border with the contiguous U.S.; with a population density of 3.5 people per square kilometre (9.1/sq mi), it is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. The northernmost settlement in Canada—and in the world—is Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert (just north of Alert, Nunavut) on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island at 82°30′N 62°19′W, just 834 kilometres (518 mi) from the North Pole. Climate [ edit ] Köppen climate classification types of Canada Arctic tundra covers parts of extreme northern Canada. Canada has a diverse climate. The climate varies from temperate on the west coast of British Columbia[4] to a subarctic climate in the north.[5] Extreme northern Canada can have snow for most of the year with a Polar climate.[6] Landlocked areas tend to have a warm summer continental climate zone[7] with the exception of Southwestern Ontario which has a hot summer humid continental climate.[7] Parts of Western Canada have a semi-arid climate, and parts of Vancouver Island can even be classified as cool summer Mediterranean climate.[6] Temperature extremes in Canada range from 45.0 °C (113 °F) in Midale and Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan on July 5, 1937 to −63.0 °C (−81.4 °F) in Snag, Yukon on Monday, February 3, 1947.[8] Extremes [ edit ] Climate data for Canada Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high humidex 19.2 22.3 31.3 35.7 42.3 52.3 52.6 49.3 46.9 39.2 27.5 24.1 52.6 Record high °C (°F) 19.4 (66.9) 22.6 (72.7) 28.5 (83.3) 37.2 (99.0) 42.2 (108.0) 43.3 (109.9) 45 (113) 43.3 (109.9) 40 (104) 34.0 (93.2) 26.1 (79.0) 22.2 (72.0) 45 (113) Record low °C (°F) −61.1 (−78.0) −63.0 (−81.4) −54.7 (−66.5) −48.9 (−56.0) −32.2 (−26.0) −20.6 (−5.1) −8.9 (16.0) −15 (5) −31.7 (−25.1) −41.7 (−43.1) −54.4 (−65.9) −60 (−76) −63.0 (−81.4) Record low wind chill −79 −72.3 −70.1 −60.5 −40.8 −32.7 −18.6 −21 −36.9 −52.3 −57.9 −68.8 −79 Source: Environment Canada Physical geography [ edit ] A satellite composite image of Canada. Boreal forests prevail throughout the country, including the Arctic, the Coast Mountains and Saint Elias Mountains. The relatively flat Prairies facilitate agriculture. The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Canada covers 9,984,670 km2 (3,855,100 sq mi) and a panoply of various geoclimatic regions. There are 8 main regions.[28] Canada also encompasses vast maritime terrain, with the world's longest coastline of 243,042 kilometres (151,019 mi).[29] The physical geography of Canada is widely varied. Boreal forests prevail throughout the country, ice is prominent in northerly Arctic regions and through the Rocky Mountains, and the relatively flat Canadian Prairies in the southwest facilitate productive agriculture.[28] The Great Lakes feed the St. Lawrence River (in the southeast) where lowlands host much of Canada's population. Appalachian Mountains [ edit ] The Appalachian mountain range extends from Alabama through the Gaspé Peninsula and the Atlantic Provinces, creating rolling hills indented by river valleys.[30] It also runs through parts of southern Quebec.[30] The Appalachian mountains (more specifically the Chic-Choc Mountains, Notre Dame, and Long Range Mountains) are an old and eroded range of mountains, approximately 380 million years in age. Notable mountains in the Appalachians include Mount Jacques-Cartier (Quebec, 1,268 m or 4,160 ft), Mount Carleton (New Brunswick, 817 m or 2,680 ft), The Cabox (Newfoundland, 814 m or 2,671 ft).[31] Parts of the Appalachians are home to a rich endemic flora and fauna and are considered to have been nunataks during the last glaciation era.[citation needed] Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands [ edit ] The southern parts of Quebec and Ontario, in the section of the Great Lakes (bordered entirely by Ontario on the Canadian side) and St. Lawrence basin (often called St. Lawrence Lowlands), is another particularly rich sedimentary plain.[33] Prior to its colonization and heavy urban sprawl of the 20th century, this Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests area was home to large mixed forests covering a mostly flat area of land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Canadian Shield.[34] Most of this forest has been cut down through agriculture and logging operations, but the remaining forests are for the most part heavily protected. In this part of Canada the Gulf of St. Lawrence is one of the world's largest estuary (see Gulf of St. Lawrence lowland forests).[35] The Great Lakes from space While the relief of these lowlands is particularly flat and regular, a group of batholites known as the Monteregian Hills are spread along a mostly regular line across the area.[36] The most notable are Montreal's Mount Royal and Mont Saint-Hilaire. These hills are known for a great richness in precious minerals.[36] Canadian Shield [ edit ] The northeastern part of Alberta, northern parts of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, as well as most of Labrador (the mainland portions of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador), are located on a vast rock base known as the Canadian Shield. The Shield mostly consists of eroded hilly terrain and contains many lakes and important rivers used for hydroelectric production, particularly in northern Quebec and Ontario. The shield also encloses an area of wetlands, the Hudson Bay lowlands. Some particular regions of the Shield are referred to as mountain ranges, including the Torngat and Laurentian Mountains.[37] The Shield cannot support intensive agriculture, although there is subsistence agriculture and small dairy farms in many of the river valleys and around the abundant lakes, particularly in the southern regions. Boreal forest covers much of the shield, with a mix of conifers that provide valuable timber resources in areas such as the Central Canadian Shield forests ecoregion that covers much of Northern Ontario. The region is known for its extensive mineral reserves.[37] The Canadian Shield is known for its vast minerals, such as emeralds, diamonds and copper. The Canadian shield is also called the mineral house. Canadian Interior Plains [ edit ] The Canadian Prairies are part of a vast sedimentary plain covering much of Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, and southwestern Manitoba, as well as much of the region between the Rocky Mountains and the Great Slave and Great Bear lakes in Northwest Territories. The plains generally describes the expanses of (largely flat) arable agricultural land which sustain extensive grain farming operations in the southern part of the provinces. Despite this, some areas such as the Cypress Hills and the Alberta Badlands are quite hilly and the prairie provinces contain large areas of forest such as the Mid-Continental Canadian forests. The size is roughly ~1,900,000 km2 (733,594.1 sq mi). Western Cordillera [ edit ] The Canadian Cordillera, contiguous with the American cordillera, is bounded by the Rocky Mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The Canadian Rockies are part of a major continental divide that extends north and south through western North America and western South America. The Columbia and the Fraser Rivers have their headwaters in the Canadian Rockies and are the second and third largest rivers respectively to drain to the west coast of North America. To the west of their headwaters, across the Rocky Mountain Trench, is a second belt of mountains, the Columbia Mountains, comprising the Selkirk, Purcell, Monashee and Cariboo Mountains sub-ranges. Immediately west of the Columbia Mountains is a large and rugged Interior Plateau, encompassing the Chilcotin and Cariboo regions in central British Columbia (the Fraser Plateau), the Nechako Plateau further north, and also the Thompson Plateau in the south. The Peace River Valley in northeastern British Columbia is Canada's most northerly agricultural region, although it is part of the Prairies. The dry, temperate climate of the Okanagan Valley in south central British Columbia provides ideal conditions for fruit growing and a flourishing wine industry; the semi-arid belt of the Southern Interior also includes the Fraser Canyon, and Thompson, Nicola, Similkameen, Shuswap and Boundary regions and fruit-growing is common in these areas also, and also in the West Kootenay. Between the plateau and the coast is the province's largest mountain range, the Coast Mountains. The Coast Mountains contain some of the largest temperate-latitude icefields in the world. On the south coast of British Columbia, Vancouver Island is separated from the mainland by the continuous Juan de Fuca, Georgia, and Johnstone Straits. Those straits include a large number of islands, notably the Gulf Islands and Discovery Islands. North, near the Alaskan border, Haida Gwaii lies across Hecate Strait from the North Coast region and to its north, across Dixon Entrance from Southeast Alaska. Other than in the plateau regions of the Interior and its many river valleys, most of British Columbia is coniferous forest. The only temperate rain forests in Canada are found along the Pacific Coast in the Coast Mountains, on Vancouver Island, and on Haida Gwaii, and in the Cariboo Mountains on the eastern flank of the Plateau. The Western Cordillera continues northwards past the Liard River in northernmost British Columbia to include the Mackenzie and Selwyn Ranges which lie in the far western Northwest Territories and the eastern Yukon Territory. West of them is the large Yukon Plateau and, west of that, the Yukon Ranges and Saint Elias Mountains, which include Canada's and British Columbia's highest summits, Mount Saint Elias in the Kluane region and Mount Fairweather in the Tatshenshini-Alsek region. The headwaters of the Yukon River, the largest and longest of the rivers on the Pacific Slope, lie in northern British Columbia at Atlin and Teslin Lakes. Volcanoes [ edit ] Western Canada has many volcanoes and is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a system of volcanoes found around the margins of the Pacific Ocean. There are over 200 young volcanic centres that stretch northward from the Cascade Range to Yukon. They are grouped into five volcanic belts with different volcano types and tectonic settings. The Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province was formed by faulting, cracking, rifting, and the interaction between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. The Garibaldi Volcanic Belt was formed by subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate beneath the North American Plate. The Anahim Volcanic Belt was formed as a result of the North American Plate sliding westward over the Anahim hotspot. The Chilcotin Group is believed to have formed as a result of back-arc extension behind the Cascadia subduction zone. The Wrangell Volcanic Field formed as a result of subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the North American Plate at the easternmost end of the Aleutian Trench. Volcanism has also occurred in the Canadian Shield. It contains over 150 volcanic belts (now deformed and eroded down to nearly flat plains) that range from 600 million to 2.8 billion years old. Many of Canada's major ore deposits are associated with Precambrian volcanoes. There are pillow lavas in the Northwest Territories that are about 2.6 billion years old and are preserved in the Cameron River Volcanic Belt. The pillow lavas in rocks over 2 billion years old in the Canadian Shield signify that great oceanic volcanoes existed during the early stages of the formation of the Earth's crust. Ancient volcanoes play an important role in estimating Canada's mineral potential. Many of the volcanic belts bear ore deposits that are related to the volcanism. Canadian Arctic [ edit ] While the largest part of the Canadian Arctic is composed of seemingly endless permafrost and tundra north of the tree line, it encompasses geological regions of varying types: the Arctic Cordillera (with the British Empire Range and the United States Range on Ellesmere Island) contains the northernmost mountain system in the world. The Arctic Lowlands and Hudson Bay lowlands comprise a substantial part of the geographic region often designated as the Canadian Shield (in contrast to the sole geologic area). The ground in the Arctic is mostly composed of permafrost, making construction difficult and often hazardous, and agriculture virtually impossible. The Arctic, when defined as everything north of the tree line, covers most of Nunavut and the northernmost parts of Northwest Territories, Yukon, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Labrador. Hydrography [ edit ] BC AB SK MB ON QC NB PE NS NL YT NT NU Drainage basins of Canada Canada holds vast reserves of water: its rivers discharge nearly 9% of the world's renewable water supply,[38] it contains a quarter of the world's wetlands, and it has the third largest amount of glaciers (after Antarctica and Greenland). Because of extensive glaciation, Canada hosts more than two million lakes: of those that are entirely within Canada, more than 31,000 are between 3 and 100 square kilometres (1.2 and 38.6 sq mi) in area, while 563 are larger than 100 km2 (38.6 sq mi).[39] Rivers [ edit ] Canada’s two longest rivers are the Mackenzie, which empties into the Arctic Ocean and drains a large part of northwestern Canada, and the St. Lawrence, which drains the Great Lakes and empties into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Mackenzie is over 4,200 km (2,600 mi) in length while the St. Lawrence is over 3,000 km (1,900 mi) in length. Rounding out the ten longest rivers within Canada are the Nelson, Churchill, Peace, Fraser, North Saskatchewan, Ottawa, Athabasca and Yukon rivers.[40] Drainage basins [ edit ] The Atlantic watershed drains the entirety of the Atlantic provinces (parts of the Quebec-Labrador border are fixed at the Atlantic Ocean-Arctic Ocean continental divide), most of inhabited Quebec and large parts of southern Ontario. It is mostly drained by the economically important St. Lawrence River and its tributaries, notably the Saguenay, Manicouagan and Ottawa rivers. The Great Lakes and Lake Nipigon are also drained by the St. Lawrence. The Churchill River and Saint John River are other important elements of the Atlantic watershed in Canada.[41] The Hudson Bay watershed drains over a third of Canada. It covers Manitoba, northern Ontario and Quebec, most of Saskatchewan, southern Alberta, southwestern Nunavut and the southern half of Baffin Island. This basin is most important in fighting drought in the prairies and producing hydroelectricity, especially in Manitoba, northern Ontario and Quebec. Major elements of this watershed include Lake Winnipeg, Nelson River, the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan Rivers, Assiniboine River, and Nettilling Lake on Baffin Island. Wollaston Lake lies on the boundary between the Hudson Bay and Arctic Ocean watersheds and drains into both. It is the largest lake in the world that naturally drains in two directions.[41] The continental divide in the Rockies separates the Pacific watershed in British Columbia and Yukon from the Arctic and Hudson Bay watersheds. This watershed irrigates the agriculturally important areas of inner British Columbia (such as the Okanagan and Kootenay valleys), and is used to produce hydroelectricity. Major elements are the Yukon, Columbia and Fraser rivers.[41] The northern parts of Alberta, Manitoba and British Columbia, most of Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and parts of Yukon are drained by the Arctic watershed. This watershed has been little used for hydroelectricity, with the exception of the Mackenzie River, the longest river in Canada. The Peace, Athabasca and Liard Rivers, as well as Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake (respectively the largest and second largest lakes wholly enclosed by Canada) are significant elements of the Arctic watershed. Each of these elements eventually merges with the Mackenzie, thereby draining the vast majority of the Arctic watershed.[41] The southernmost part of Alberta drains into the Gulf of Mexico through the Milk River and its tributaries. The Milk River originates in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, then flows into Alberta, then returns into the United States, where it is drained by the Missouri River. A small area of southwestern Saskatchewan is drained by Battle Creek, which empties into the Milk River.[41] Floristic geography [ edit ] Canada has produced a Biodiversity Action Plan in response to the 1992 international accord; the plan addresses conservation of endangered species and certain habitats. The main biomes of Canada are: Political geography [ edit ] For historical political boundaries of Canada, see Territorial evolution of Canada Canada is divided into ten provinces and three territories. According to Statistics Canada, 72.0 percent of the population is concentrated within 150 kilometres (93 mi) of the nation's southern border with the United States, 70.0% live south of the 49th parallel, and over 60 percent of the population lives along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River between Windsor, Ontario and Quebec City. This leaves the vast majority of Canada's territory as sparsely populated wilderness; Canada's population density is 3.5 people/km2 (9.1/mi2), among the lowest in the world. Despite this, 79.7 percent of Canada's population resides in urban areas, where population densities are increasing.[42] Canada shares with the U.S. the world's longest undefended border at 8,893 kilometres (5,526 mi); 2,477 kilometres (1,539 mi) are with Alaska. The Danish island dependency of Greenland lies to Canada's northeast, separated from the Canadian Arctic islands by Baffin Bay and Davis Strait. The French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon lie off the southern coast of Newfoundland in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and have a maritime territorial enclave within Canada's exclusive economic zone. Canada also shares a land border with Denmark, as maps released in December 2006 show that the agreed upon boundaries run through the middle of Hans Island.[43] Canada's geographic proximity to the United States has historically bound the two countries together in the political world as well. Canada's position between the Soviet Union (now Russia) and the U.S. was strategically important during the Cold War since the route over the North Pole and Canada was the fastest route by air between the two countries and the most direct route for intercontinental ballistic missiles. Since the end of the Cold War, there has been growing speculation that Canada's Arctic maritime claims may become increasingly important if global warming melts the ice enough to open the Northwest Passage. Similarly, the disputed—and tiny—Hans Island (with Denmark), in the Nares Strait between Ellesmere Island and northern Greenland, may be a flashpoint for challenges to overall claims of Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic.[43] Natural resources [ edit ] Canada's abundance of natural resources is reflected in their continued importance in the economy of Canada. Major resource-based industries are fisheries, forestry, agriculture, petroleum products and mining. The fisheries industry has historically been one of Canada's strongest. Unmatched cod stocks on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland launched this industry in the 16th century. Today these stocks are nearly depleted, and their conservation has become a preoccupation of the Atlantic Provinces. On the West Coast, tuna stocks are now restricted. The less depleted (but still greatly diminished) salmon population continues to drive a strong fisheries industry. Canada claims 22 km (12 nmi) of territorial sea, a contiguous zone of 44 km (24 nmi), an exclusive economic zone of 370 km (200 nmi) and a continental shelf of 370 km (200 nmi) or to the edge of the continental margin. Forestry has long been a major industry in Canada. Forest products contribute one fifth of the nation's exports. The provinces with the largest forestry industries are British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. Fifty-four percent of Canada's land area is covered in forest. The boreal forests account for four-fifths of Canada's forestland. Five per cent of Canada's land area is arable, none of which is for permanent crops. Three per cent of Canada's land area is covered by permanent pastures. Canada has 7,200 square kilometres (2,800 mi2) of irrigated land (1993 estimate). Agricultural regions in Canada include the Canadian Prairies, the Lower Mainland and various regions within the Interior of British Columbia, the St. Lawrence Basin and the Canadian Maritimes. Main crops in Canada include flax, oats, wheat, maize, barley, sugar beets and rye in the prairies; flax and maize in Western Ontario; Oats and potatoes in the Maritimes. Fruit and vegetables are grown primarily in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Southwestern Ontario, the Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, along the south coast of Georgian Bay and in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. Cattle and sheep are raised in the valleys and plateaus of British Columbia. Cattle, sheep and hogs are raised on the prairies, cattle and hogs in Western Ontario, sheep and hogs in Quebec, and sheep in the Maritimes. There are significant dairy regions in central Nova Scotia, southern New Brunswick, the St. Lawrence Valley, northeastern Ontario, southwestern Ontario, the Red River valley of Manitoba and the valleys in the British Columbia Interior, on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland. Fossil fuels are a more recently developed resource in Canada, with oil and gas being extracted from deposits in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin since the mid 1900s. While Canada's crude oil deposits are fewer, technological developments in recent decades have opened up oil production in Alberta's Oil Sands to the point where Canada now has some of the largest reserves of oil in the world. In other forms, Canadian industry has a long history of extracting large coal and natural gas reserves. Canada's mineral resources are diverse and extensive. Across the Canadian Shield and in the north there are large iron, nickel, zinc, copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, and uranium reserves. Large diamond concentrations have been recently developed in the Arctic, making Canada one of the world's largest producers. Throughout the Shield there are many mining towns extracting these minerals. The largest, and best known, is Sudbury, Ontario. Sudbury is an exception to the normal process of forming minerals in the Shield since there is significant evidence that the Sudbury Basin is an ancient meteorite impact crater. The nearby, but less known Temagami Magnetic Anomaly has striking similarities to the Sudbury Basin. Its magnetic anomalies are very similar to the Sudbury Basin, and so it could be a second metal-rich impact crater.[44] The Shield is also covered by vast boreal forests that support an important logging industry. Canada's many rivers have afforded extensive development of hydroelectric power. Extensively developed in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Labrador, the many dams have long provided a clean, dependable source of energy. Natural hazards [ edit ] Continuous permafrost in the north is a serious obstacle to development. Cyclonic storms form east of the Rocky Mountains, a result of the mixing of air masses from the Arctic, Pacific, and North American interior, and produce most of the country's rain and snow east of the mountains. Current environmental issues [ edit ] Air pollution and resulting acid rain severely affects lakes and damages forests.[45] Metal smelting, coal-burning utilities, and vehicle emissions impact agricultural and forest productivity. And ocean waters are becoming contaminated from agricultural, industrial, mining, and forestry activities.[45] Global climate change and the warming of the polar region will likely cause significant changes to the environment, including loss of the polar bear,[46] the exploration for resource then the extraction of these resources and an alternative transport route to the Panama Canal through the Northwest Passage. Extreme points [ edit ] Topographic map The northernmost point within the boundaries of Canada is Cape Columbia, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut .[47] The northernmost point of the Canadian mainland is Zenith Point on Boothia Peninsula, Nunavut .[47] The southernmost point is Middle Island, in Lake Erie, Ontario (41°41′N, 82°40′W); the southernmost water point lies just south of the island, on the Ontario–Ohio border (41°40′35″N). The southernmost point of the Canadian mainland is Point Pelee, Ontario .[47] The westernmost point is Boundary Peak 187 (60°18′22.929″N, 141°00′7.128″W) at the southern end of the Yukon–Alaska border which is roughly following 141°W but leans very slightly east as it goes North .[48][47] The easternmost point is Cape Spear, Newfoundland (47°31′N, 52°37′W) .[47] The easternmost point of the Canadian mainland is Elijah Point, Cape St. Charles, Labrador (52°13′N, 55°37′W) .[47] The lowest point is sea level at 0 m,[49] whilst the highest point is Mount Logan, Yukon, at 5,959 m / 19,550 ft .[47] The Canadian pole of inaccessibility is allegedly near Jackfish River, Alberta (Latitude: 59°2′ 60 N, Longitude: 112°49′ 60 W). The furthest straight-line distance that can be travelled to Canadian points of land is between the southwest tip of Kluane National Park and Reserve (next to Mount Saint Elias) and Cripple Cove, NL (near Cape Race) at a distance of 3,005.60 nautical miles (5,566.37 km; 3,458.78 mi). See also [ edit ] BC AB SK MB ON QC NB PE NS NL YT NT NU Geography by province References [ edit ] Further reading [ edit ] This article incorporates public domain material from the CIA World Factbook website https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html. The Barren Lands Collection, University of Toronto

Prepare to be merry: Brooklyn Nine-Nine has nabbed Jerry. Jim O’Heir — who scored laughs as the loveable-yet-hapless Jerry (Terry/Larry) for seven seasons on Parks and Recreation — is guest-starring in the second episode of the police comedy’s fourth season. He will pop up as a cop who crosses paths with Jake (Andy Samberg) and Holt (Andre Braugher) while the two are hiding out in witness protection in Florida. O’Heir is the second main cast member of Parks to appear on Brooklyn. Nick Offerman guest-starred as an ex-boyfriend of Holt last season. Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-creator Michael Schur also co-created Parks and Recreation. O’Heir’s recent TV credits include Veep, Hot In Cleveland, Another Period, and The Bold and the Beautiful. He also starred in the indie comedic thriller Middle Man. The second episode of Brooklyn‘s fourth season also features a guest spot by Ken Marino, who will play the precinct’s not-so-sharp replacement captain while Holt is in a witness protection program. The premiere episode, which airs Sept. 20 on Fox, also boasts a few celebrity guests, such as Maya Rudolph, Rhea Perlman, and Jorma Taccone.

Uruguay is set to introduce legislation allowing the state to sell and distribute marijuana, a first in Latin America. The measure was one of 15 measures to fight crime presented by President Jose Mujica's administration. The goal was for "strict state control over the distribution and production" of cannabis, said Defence Minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro. The government will also urge that marijuana sales be legalised worldwide, Huidobro said, adding the measure could discourage the use of so-called hard drugs. Marijuana consumption is already legal in Uruguay. "We want to fight against two different things: one is drug consumption and the other is drug trafficking. We think the ban on certain drugs is creating more problems in society than the drug itself," the minister told a news conference. "Homicides related to settling scores have increased and that's a clear sign that certain phenomena are appearing in Uruguay that didn't exist before," he said. The bill would legalise and set rules for the production and sale of marijuana but would not allow people to grow the plant for their own personal use. The proposals also include increased prison time for cases of police corruption, and tougher sentences for criminal youths. The government did not however give details on how the new system would work. In Uruguay about $75m changes hands each year in the illegal marijuana trade, according to official estimates. As of last year, 20 per cent of people between 15 and 65 years old reported they had smoked marijuana at least once and about 5 per cent of respondents were habitual users. A government survey puts the percentage of the population that consumed marijuana over the last year at 8.3 per cent, compared to one per cent who consumed cocaine in the same time. The proposal to legalise the marijuana market is one of 15 crime-fighting measures that include tougher penalties for police corruption, crack-cocaine trafficking and juvenile offenders.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video The mother of a 26-year-old man who suffered from bipolar disorder said on Sunday that she questions the police department’s version of what led up to the fatal shooting of her son at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Ruben Jose Herrera was shot at the hospital, in unincorporated Torrance, around 2:30 p.m. Saturday after police said he reached for a gun. Herrera’s name was confirmed by his mother, Graciel Herrera, and the coroner’s office on Sunday. The ordeal began hours prior, when someone reported a man was throwing bottles against an apartment complex, the Los Angeles Police Department said. In the department’s version of the events on Saturday, the vandalism suspect took a fighting stance when officers arrived, kicking and punching at them, and eventually reaching for a gun. The man’s mother said Sunday that Ruben had been sitting and putting air in his bicycle's tires when police arrived, and that he cooperated with them. Police responded by beating her son — using pepper spray, a Taser on him twice, and socking him multiple times in the face and back, she said. “My son was doing everything he was told. I told them to stop. My son was bipolar. You know, ‘please, don’t hit him,’” Graciel Herrera said. “He (an officer) just told me to shut up and go inside.” Ruben Herrera was then taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and was initially said to be cooperating with police, LAPD Cmdr. Phillip Tingirides said. It was not known what he was treated for, but his mother said he suffered injuries to his face and knees. During treatment, Herrera was handcuffed to a gurney in the hospital’s emergency room. His handcuffs were briefly taken off around 2:30 p.m., when Tingirides said the suspect picked up a metal chair and began swinging it. Witnesses told police the man reached for an officer’s gun, prompting an officer to fire a single round. Medical responders at the hospital attempted to save Herrera’s life, but he was pronounced dead at the scene, Tingirides said. The man’s mother says the officers should have treated her son differently. “If my son is bipolar, and they know he’s in danger, why do they unhandcuff him? I know my son didn’t do that. They’re just lying,” Graciel Herrera said. She then claimed police were telling a version of the story that would protect themselves. “They didn’t have to kill my son. My son was only 26. Regardless of whatever they say, they shouldn’t have taken his life like that,” she said. Police have not said whether or not the altercation was captured on video. Graciel Herrera was informed of her son’s death around 9 p.m., and after police had told her daughter around 3 p.m. that Ruben had been released from the hospital, she said. Ruben Herrera was the 20th person in 2015 to have been shot and killed by an on-duty LAPD officer, and 35th to have been shot, the Los Angeles Times reports. The case was being investigated by the Officer of Inspector General.

Freedom of religion has wrongly and unfairly been used to deny marriage rights to gay and lesbian Australians and must be strongly resisted, Labor frontbencher Penny Wong has said. In a rallying call for the separation of church and state, the South Australian senator blasted religious fundamentalists for limiting the freedom of "those who do not 'conform' to their views". "Religious freedom means being free to worship and to follow your faith without suffering persecution or discrimination for your beliefs. It does not mean imposing your beliefs on everyone else," Senator Wong told the NSW Labor Lawyers gathering on Tuesday night. "And it most emphatically does not mean deploying the power of the state to enforce one set of religious beliefs. One's own views should not determine the rights of others."

CLOSE Anheuser-Busch InBev sealed a deal months in the making to acquire its biggest rival, SABMiller, for $105 billion. Video provided by Newsy Newslook Belgium's Anheuser-Busch InBev, which owns Budweiser and is the world's largest brewer, has agreed to buy No. 2 SABMiller of Britain for $107 billion. (Photo11: Joe Raedle, Getty Images) Anheuser-Busch InBev on Wednesday formalized a deal to acquire its British-South African rival SABMiller for $107 billion, creating a gigantic global beer company hoping to reach deeper into developing markets. The companies had been weighing a deal since mid-September, with SABMiller rejecting several overtures from the Belgian-based AB InBev before accepting the deal. It still faces approval by regulators. The acquisition gives Budweiser maker AB InBev access to many emerging markets. SABMiller gets 35% of its revenue from Latin America and 34% from Africa. “We've admired this company for a very long time. The company has a strong portfolio of brands," AB InBev CEO Carlos Brito said on a conference call. "Together, AB InBev and SABMiller create a truly global business." AB InBev will pay about $67 per share in cash for most of SABMiller's stock, though shareholders can also elect to receive alternative compensation involving a mix of cash and stock. As part of the deal, Molson Coors will buy out SABMiller's 58% stake in their joint venture, called MillerCoors, in a deal valued at $12 billion in cash, reflecting an effort to appease regulators concerned about the combined giant's size. Together, a combined AB InBev and SABMiller would control almost 30% of global beer sales. Brito declined to estimate the combined company's global market share following the sale of MillerCoors, saying that most of its business "is done through local brands." But the combined company will have total revenue of about $64 billion, excluding SABMiller's joint ventures. Brito told investors that the two companies have a "largely complementary" footprint and that the new company will "take its place as one of the leading consumer products companies." He said the company would seek expeditious regulatory approval and hopes to close the deal in the second half of 2016. SABMiller's London-listed shares were up 1.9% after the announcement. AB Inbev's shares rose 0.8% in Brussels. AB InBev is betting that it can leverage the broader footprint to pursue growth opportunities in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. It also expects to save $1.4 billion per year by combining operations. SABMiller had already signaled plans to shed $1.05 billion in costs, which will continue. Brito said 35% of the "synergies" will come from administrative overhead and overlapping headquarter operations. The company also plans to save money through increased purchasing power, packaging and brewery distribution. The company is paying a premium of about 50% above SABMiller’s stock price on Sept. 14, the last day before media reports disclosed the acquisition talks. Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey. CLOSE Francesco Curto, of Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, and Bloomberg's Matt Campbell, discuss AB InBev's formal offer to buy SABMiller and what it means for investors. They speak with Manus Cranny on Bloomberg Television's "The Pulse." Bloomberg Kim Hjelmgaard on Twitter: @khjelmgaard. Nathan Bomey on Twitter: @NathanBomey. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1iTlxaE

A Derry man who smashed a window “head-butted his own reflection”, Derry Magistrates Court heard today. The court was told Gerard McGaughey, of Rosskeen Park, was drunk when he committed the offence in a city centre bar on May 2, causing over £500 of damage. The court was told he could not remember what happened. “The whole sorry incident is captured on CCTV,” defence solicitor Seamus Quigley told the court. “The prosecution suggest he turned around and was almost spooked by his own reflection in the door. “If the prosecution theory is correct, he may be fortunate that he is not charged with attempted assault.” McGaughey pleaded guilty to criminal damage and was ordered to pay £548.40 compensation to the bar and was given a two year conditional discharge.

European Astro Pi Challenge: Code your ISS experiment - more details ESA is inviting teams of students who are 16 years old and younger to join the first European Astro Pi challenge and have their experiments run on the International Space Station! Take this opportunity to learn about science and coding, just like space scientists do! Deadline to submit your registration is 13 November 2016. ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet officially launched the first European Astro Pi challenge last week. Thomas is looking forward to his first spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) with the Proxima mission later this year, and is looking forward to assisting the Astro Pi challenge from orbit. Watch Thomas’ message in the video above! What is an Astro Pi? Astro Pi is the name of a small computer developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, in collaboration with the UK Space Agency and ESA. There are two very special Astro Pi’s. Their names are Ed and Izzy, and they have been qualified for spaceflight. They are now onboard the ISS for students like you to use. Astro Pi computers come with a set of sensors and gadgets that can be used to run cool scientific experiments. This set of sensors is called ‘Sense HAT’. With the Sense HAT you can sense movements, measure humidity, temperature and pressure, and detect radiation. Ed and Izzy are also equipped with a joystick and buttons just like a videogame console! Discover more about the Astro Pi Sense HAT and its sensors here and experience what you can do with them by using this web-based emulator. Join the competition: your code may go to space! Astro Pi inside its flight case The European Astro Pi challenge invites school students to design a scientific experiment that can be run using Astro Pi Ed’s sensors, and to write the computer code with which the Astro Pi needs to be programmed in order to execute this experiment on the ISS. Ed is ready and anxious to run your code. What are you waiting for? The Astro Pi challenge is divided into three phases. You have to succeed Phase 1 in order to be selected to participate in Phases 2 and 3. Phase 1 – Warm up and show us you are up to the Astro Pi challenge! ESA’s Astro Pi kit In this phase, ESA expects your team - with the help of your teacher - to get acquainted with the Astro Pi and its sensors (see links provided above) and to demonstrate you have a clear idea of the kind of science experiments you can run with it. In order to achieve this objective, ESA asks you to come up with an experiment idea to be run using the Astro Pi on the ISS and its sensors (Sense Hat), and to describe this idea by filling out this template. No coding is needed at this stage: only an experiment idea! Your idea can be related to different aspects of life and work onboard the ISS. Search for cosmic rays? Record a loss of altitude or measure the acceleration of the ISS? Or perhaps just detect the crew’s movement? Here you can find some ideas for using Astro Pi and doing fantastic science. Have a look and get inspired! Ask your teacher to give you guidance and help you find additional inspiration by downloading the teacher’s guide here. The more creative, rich, and original your idea is, the better you will demonstrate your motivation, and the bigger chance you will have to be selected for Phase 2 of the challenge. If your team’s experiment idea is selected, you will also receive an ESA-branded Astro Pi kit, including all its sensors and components, directly at your school for free! You have until 13 November 2016 to submit your entries. Do this by following the indications provided below in the section ‘How do I submit my application?’. The selected teams will be notified of their acceptance to Phase 2 by 25 November 2016. Phase 2 – Take the scientific mission assigned by ESA and write your computer code In this second phase, which will take place between 25 November 2016 and 28 February 2017, Thomas Pesquet will assign the selected student teams with a scientific mission to be run on the ISS using Astro Pi Ed. To accomplish the objectives of this mission, you will have to define the steps of the scientific experiment you want to run, and you will have to write the computer code necessary to operate the Astro Pi accordingly. You will have to use the ‘Python’ programming language. Not an expert in coding? Don’t worry! ESA will provide you with supporting material and guidelines that explain how to use the Astro Pi and its sensors and to how to write a simple code in Python. This material will be published on this site by 21 November 2016. Phase 3 – Best experiments/codes are selected and run on the ISS In this third phase, which will take place between 1 March and 15 May 2017, an evaluation panel composed of ESA, the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and other national experts will select the winning experiments/codes per country that will be sent to the ISS to be run on Astro Pi Ed. On 15 May 2017, the results of the experiments will be published, and astronaut Thomas Pesquet will comment them from orbit! Who can take part? Teams of students 16 years old and under from an ESA Member State*. Each team must be supported by at least one teacher. *ESA Member States: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom How do I submit my application? In Phase 1 (4 October – 13 November 2016), teams have to register online and submit their original experiment idea. The deadline is 13 November 2016. If you are a team from Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, you can access the online registration form here, where you will need to provide information about your school, team and teacher. You will also have to attach the filled-in template (‘Describe your experiment idea’) in English. If you are a team from France, you should register through the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), in French, at this link. If you are a team from Poland, you should register through ESERO Poland in Polish. If you are a team from Portugal, you should register through the ESERO Portugal in Portuguese. In Phase 2 (25 November 2016 - 28 February 2017), the selected teams will be notified on how to submit the experiment they propose to accomplish, as well as the computer codes necessary to operate Astro Pi. Deadline is 28 February 2017. For questions, please send an email to teachers @ esa.int with the subject: European Astro Pi Challenge. Good luck! 1st European Astro Pi Challenge – Timeline Launch of European Astro Pi Challenge 4/10/16 Phase 1 – Registration and submission of Experiment Idea 4/10/16 – 13/11/16 Publication of supporting resources and Astro Pi guidelines 21/11/16 Selection of teams who presented best experiment ideas 16/11/16 – 24/11/16 Announcement of selected teams and mission announcement Distribution of Astro Pi kits to the selected teams 25/11/16 Phase 2 - Discover the Astro Pi, design the experiment to accomplish the mission, write and submit your code 25/11/16 – 28/02/17 Deadline for submitting your experiment/code 28/02/17 Phase 3 – Best experiments/codes are selected and run on the ISS 1/03/17 – 15/05/17 Selection of the best experiment/codes to be run on the ISS 1/03/17 – 14/03/17 Announcement of the selected experiments/codes 15/03/17 Publication of the results (after the codes have been run on the ISS) 15/05/17

(Editor’s note: The following is an email we received from a listener and his wife, who play Oxi and Kitkam on The Shadowlands server. Our sincere thanks to them both for providing such a comprehensive report!) I thought I’d give you an exclusive on the happenings at the Cantina Tour in Dallas on May 17th. My wife and I went to meet with the developers and other fans. Yes, she is an active SWTOR player, I am a very lucky man and acknowledge this. We had a great time. About eighty people showed up, nearly all of them players. It’s worth noting that about a quarter of them were women, and there were many player couples there as well. Four BioWare people were there to answer questions and meet the fans. Damion Schubert (Lead Designer), Jesse Sky (Senior Designer), Amber Green (Live Services Specialist – a.k.a. helps fix bugs and writes the patch notes) and Eric Musco (Community Manager a.k.a. a ball of energy). Overall it was a very casual atmosphere. All types of fans were present (both the good and the troll). The room was packed, especially at the beginning. Free appetizers and drinks were available all night, provided by BioWare. Prizes were also given out. Everyone got the much coveted Tauntaun Fawn code. A couple of people got Star Wars Gentle Giant bookends (pricey!), signed copies of SWTOR books were given out, and even clothes and hats. Most of the night was spent mingling, but for about an hour the developers took a casual Q&A from the room-at-large and were very honest and as candid as they could be. I tried to write down most of the questions. I’ll paraphrase their answers. I wasn’t able to cover all the questions asked at the event, nor their answers. Please note that any answers I heard from the BioWare team are being interpreted by me writing quickly on a small notepad, and thus should not be weighted with the same degree of importance as if they’d come from BioWare. Any errors reporting are my own, not theirs. Questions 1) Will we get Legacy Datacrons? Jesse Sky: High on his own list of wants, but no ETA. 2) Can we get Dye Packs for Speeders? Eric Musco: Probably not, because speeders are an ABILITY, not an item. 3) Legacy Commendations Transfers? Jesse Sky: Likes idea but no ETA. They’ve talked about this before, but worried about unintended consequences. 4) Will guild members be able to auto-fund their guilds by doing missions, where both the player and the guild get credit equally? Damion Schubert: It’s on our Wall of Crazy. No ETA. (The “Wall of Crazy” refers to the abundance of good ideas for content that they want to put out, but can only take on so many ideas with finite resources and various larger priorities. It’s crazy the amount of good ideas they have.) 5) Legacy Chat System? Damion Schubert: It’s on the Wall of Crazy, but recently became more of a possibility due to the recent unintended bug, where players could chat with someone across all of that player’s toons. 6) Why aren’t Dreadtooth Masks under hoods and why aren’t they Legacy in the new Collections? Damion/Eric/Jesse: They are an item they want you to earn on your individual character, not as part of a Legacy. It’s part of the high end-game content. There would be many technical issues to overcome in order to make that happen. Also it’s a HELMET in their view, not a mask, and you don’t usually put hoods over helmets. 7) Why weren’t the Cathar discounted for subscribers? Eric Musco: They’ve very much heard the community on this, and are actively coming up with more ideas for future subscriber benefits or discounts. At this point, Eric actively stressed how much they care about subscribers getting much more out of the game than free-to-play. Damion also then stated that his team at BioWare now is the best they’ve ever been at implementing and fixing content as well as actively listening to feedback throughout the community. Damion also said that subscribers will be getting a lot better PvP experience over free-to-play in the future. Then they talked in-depth about the struggle it is to balance subscribers and free-to-play. (In my opinion, it sounded like he was saying they might not always get it right, but that they care about getting it right in the long run, especially with subscribers. And that very HUMAN, not corporate, distinction is important to note.) Damion went on to say that subscribers are buying the majority of the Cartel Coins and that information isn’t lost on them. Cartel success equals more resources that BioWare can have to develop more game content. He also stated very emphatically that in his personal philosophy he’s against “Pay to Win” gaming. 8) When are we gonna get Guild Ships? Damion Schubert: Guild Ships are his baby, he really, really wants us to have them, but will be a long time before they come out. And ONLY when they look awesome. Eric then went on to say that they know guild players are the most active and loyal subscribers statistically in the game and that this info isn’t lost on them. 9) More Open World PvP? Jesse Sky: Difficult to implement and no plans ATM. If we do see more it’ll be more like the Gree event. 10) Guild banks on Ships and More Guild Bank Slots? Damion Schubert: I’ll add that to my Wall of Crazy. 11) Why is Revan’s Mask not part of the Collections when it was used as an example as being something in the Collections? Eric Musco: (He got very honest and open with us on this one.) Revan’s Mask should not have been used as an example. It was an honest mistake. Revan’s Mask is about a specific toon achievement gain, not Legacy. Sincerely apologize for the confusion. Eric and Damion then went on to say that only so much gear can be a part of the Collections and the achievements because of technical limitations. 12) Will PvP arenas for small teams come out? Damion Schubert: He couldn’t answer directly, but said that a big PvP patch was coming soon that should make us happy. (In my opinion, it seemed they were very aware of the lack of love for PvP in recent months and are very excited at what will be coming out for PvP in the near future.) 13) Is Bolster now working? Jesse Sky: Bolser is working better now but if you see problems please let them know through the official forums or tickets. Screenshots help. 14) Will more Collector’s Edition content be coming out? Eric Musco: More CE content is coming out. Dyes not binding on CE and Security vendors was not intended. Future exclusive content is coming. 15) How successful was the Cathar? Damion Schubert: Cathar was a very big day for them. Also because of Dye Packs and the ability to change your look. So successful that they’re actively paying attention for more ideas in the future for all of this. They’re closely watching the boards for feedback on the Cathar and body customization and how it will relate to the future content they implement. 16) Is Alacrity Working as intended in 2.0 for players? Jesse Sky: No. It’s working as we originally implemented, but players aren’t using it as intended and that’s something we may work on. 17) Why aren’t same-gender relations in the story content? Damion Schubert: At this point Damion got very sincere and earnest in his feelings about this subject and talked for a few minutes about it. Summarising what he said, same-gender was not part of the original design team’s implementation, so it didn’t get included. In retrospect they say this was a mistake. It will be too difficult technically to change the game story as it sits now to include same-gender, but moving forward they will not make the same mistakes. Additionally more story content is coming, but no ETA.” 18) Will we ever get flying mounts? Damion/Jesse: (Both laughed at this.) Don’t hold your breath. To get flying mounts they’d have to redesign the entire game. They went into some brief practical and technical reasons why not. It would be an enormous resource drain for a significant amount of time and that energy could be better spent elsewhere. If it were to ever happen in SWTOR (which it won’t), it would have to be in a new area of the game specially designed with flying mounts in mind. 19) Was the Cantina tour held in Dallas this weekend because of the Comic-Con event at the same time? Eric Musco: Yes. As much as possible we’re combining like-minded events. At this point someone asked about the restriction on the frequency of (player) name change to the game, and Damion said he needed to get “philosophical” with us. In his opinion, the less player names change the better. Why? Because to create a more stable community that can police itself, it’s better that trolls and jerks can’t change their name. If people were able to do this whenever they wanted with no monetary penalty, trolls would change their names all the time and degrade the overall community. He went on at length on this subject. If the internet were a happy perfect place he’s all for it, but because it’s not we need to be realistic and think about consequences. (Before this I was for name changes, after I heard him I was against it; he was very convincing!) Finally, Damion, Jesse, Eric and Amber said they loved the Cantina tour because it keeps them motivated and in touch with the fans’ feelings that you only get in person. We then spent the rest of the night talking with the developers either one-on-one or in small groups. For me, the thing I’ll take away from the event was that these are people who are trying their best with finite resources and time, and that they sincerely love this game. They play the game themselves and want it to succeed as much as, or more, than the players. They’re full of energy (amazing to me) and very funny. Amber joked that you’d be shocked at how much of their own money the people at BioWare have spent on buying the Cartel packs. Specifically Amber and Eric said that when they’re not working, they’re playing all the time and that when players are frustrated, so are they. They don’t have to relate, they live it with fellow players. When something bugs, they get mad too, and they work on fixing it. They encouraged players to submit tickets and post issues on the forums with screenshots. BioWare can’t spot everything, and need accurate feedback from the community to help them overcome bugs/issues. All four of them handled the crowd pretty well. They each took a thousand rapid-fire fanboy and -girl questions for four hours. Major props for professionalism, especially when some of the fans lacked basic human interaction skills or hygiene. The four of them gave real, down-to-earth answers. We shook hands, we broke bread, we shared beer and we could look each other in the eye. We came out of it more hopeful for SWTOR than before. We were very glad to have gone. We would highly recommend for other fans to go to future Cantina Tour events. Make sure you get there early. May the Cartel Coins be with you!

Sony might be staring down the barrel of another PlayStation Network security breach. The company, having just had a successful launch of the PlayStation 4 console, has sent out emails to an unknown number of users requiring them to change their passwords because of “irregular activity” on the account. It seems the warning might have come too late for some — users are beginning to report fraudulent charges on the linked credit cards. Unlike the breach a few years back, it doesn’t appear that mountains of customer data were stolen, but someone seems to have at least gained access to usernames and passwords. Reports indicate content is being purchased on accounts without authorization. One user tells IGN that $150 was charged to his PSN Wallet, and another says FIFA 14 content was bought by someone with his profile. It may seem odd that someone would steal account credentials only to add content to the victim’s account, but there is a way for the thief to benefit. By adding his or her console to the victim’s account the thief is able to download all the content they want and play it offline, assuming there is no additional DRM measure employed by the game. One user has also reported $650 charged to a clothing retailer on the card used for PSN, but it’s not clear if the supposed perpetrators got that kind of access. Sony hasn’t spoken publicly about the breach yet, but the emails are genuine. Something happened, but we might have to wait until after the weekend to find out what.

But some of the administration’s leading liberal insiders, like Harold H. Koh, the State Department’s legal adviser, are pushing for the United States to join the ban. And even some Pentagon officials are said to favor a change. In a sign of the effort’s urgency, the White House is holding regular meetings with officials from the Pentagon and State Department. The administration has summoned outside experts, like Karl F. Inderfurth, a former senior diplomat who led the delegation to Ottawa in 1997, where the United States watched as 120 other countries signed the pact. “I’m guardedly optimistic,” said a senior administration official who favors the treaty and who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. “Why stick with the status quo when we would get so much credit for even a modest move?” A Pentagon spokesman said it would be “premature” to comment before the review was completed. It is not clear where the defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, stands. The White House said that the United States is already helping deal with the fallout from mines. “The U.S. record on humanitarian mine action shows that we share the concern of parties to the Ottawa Convention,” said Michael Hammer, a spokesman for the National Security Council. Some analysts say the rationale for land mines is even weaker now than it was in 1997. Technological advances have enabled the Pentagon to create explosives that function like mines but are detonated remotely, making them permissible under the treaty. The United States has not used land mines since 1991, despite fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — two countries that have ratified the treaty. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. “The situation has changed significantly in recent years,” said Mr. Inderfurth, who is now a professor of international affairs at George Washington University. “There is every reason to believe we could join this treaty.” Next week, Senator Leahy plans to send a letter to Mr. Obama, urging him to join the ban. The letter notes that 158 countries have signed the treaty, including Britain and other NATO allies. It is signed by 68 senators, including 10 Republicans. Advertisement Continue reading the main story In the 13 years since Diana, Princess of Wales, walked near a minefield in Angola to dramatize the dangers, land mines have receded as a political cause. They were not an issue in the presidential campaign or in the early days of the administration. By all accounts, the initial land mine review was “cursory and half-hearted,” in Mr. Leahy’s words. Last November, on the eve of a meeting on the treaty in Colombia, a State Department spokesman declared, “We would not be able to meet our national defense needs nor our security commitments to our friends and allies if we signed this.” A day later, after a storm of protest from Mr. Leahy and human rights groups, the administration insisted that the review was still under way, and that the spokesman’s comments were premature. But one senior official said the “negative blowback” forced a more serious examination. The current review is being coordinated by two senior officials at the National Security Council, Samantha Power and Barry Pavel. Another key player is Andrew J. Shapiro, the State Department’s top liaison to the Pentagon who served as an adviser to Mrs. Clinton on defense policy when she was in the Senate. Officials said Mr. Koh, a former dean of Yale Law School, was drafting legal arguments on issues like the status of land mines in South Korea, where American troops are deployed. In the past, the Pentagon has sought a “Korean exception” that would allow it to keep a stockpile of mines in the demilitarized zone. But while those mines are there to protect American soldiers, control over them has been transferred to South Korea, which is not a party to the treaty. The goal of those who favor the treaty is to get back to the policy of the Clinton administration, which declined to sign the treaty in 1997 but said it wanted the United States to be compliant by 2006. In 2004, the Bush administration issued a new policy that emphasized the development of safer and more sophisticated mines, but pointedly refused to go along with a ban. Since the treaty has been in force for more than a decade, the United States would no longer sign it, but accede to its terms, a decision that would still require ratification by the Senate. The most likely outcome, several officials said, is for the administration to bring the United States closer to full compliance, while setting a goal, as Mr. Clinton did, to join it eventually. Such a move might not satisfy the advocates, said Heather Hurlburt, the executive director of the National Security Network, a foreign policy group. “But you definitely have people within the administration working to bring the United States closer to the spirit of the treaty,” she said.

Photo: Stephen Starr I'm on the shores of Lake Tuz, the second-largest lake in Turkey, and no one wants to talk about salt. It took 10 minutes of pleading with a security guard, even though he'd been told that a journalist would be visiting, to gain entry to the Kaldirim Salt Enterprise's huge facility on the eastern shore of Europe's biggest salt lake. "You can drive through and come back out again, but don't get out of the car," he warned. Inside the yard, mountains of the blindingly bright salt are piled three stories high by a conveyer belt being fed by a convoy of trucks. Except for three men sitting around a table in the shade at the yard's edge, there are few signs of anyone willing to brave the August heat. A fourth man runs out of a beat-down building and with his arms appears to signal "get out, now." Every spring, mineral-rich snow melt and rain flow south through Turkey's Anatolia and into Lake Tuz, adding a half-meter of water. The water evaporates by summer, leaving behind a three-inch layer of salt granules ready for harvest. The salt forms because the lake is endorheic, meaning it has no outflow. Flamingos are seen at Tuz Lake on July 16, 2015. Dunaliella salinas, a type of halophile micro-algae especially found in sea/lake salt fields, colorize a part of the lake every summer. Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images For locals, the lake is an important source of cash. Every summer farmers and large-scale producers go to work on the ethereal landscape that produces 60 per cent of all salt harvested in Turkey every year. Lake Tuz also provides life to the largest flamingo colony in the Middle East and North Africa combined—22,000 breeding pairs in 2013—and is a crucial resting stop and sanctuary for dozens of other species migrating between Africa and central Europe. What's more, it's a UNESCO special environmental protection area and a spectacular sight that turns red every July as a Dunaliella algae bloom explodes under the heat of the summer sun. But Lake Tuz is disappearing. Locals say submerging one's feet in the naturally-occurring salt takes away aches. Photo: Stephen Starr Since the 2013 Gezi Park protests, when people took to the streets to demonstrate against the ruling AKP party's plans to destroy a popular park in central Istanbul, environmentalists and government officials have been fighting a battle of preservation versus progress. The massive dams, highways, and bridges built around Turkey over the past decade have provided jobs for thousands of working class Turks, and helped to keep the AKP in power. Environmentalists say the nationwide building boom is the passion project of a single man: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is pushing for Turkey to become one of the top 10 global economies by the time its centenary comes around in 2023. The push for industrialization is evident here at Lake Tuz. A combination of falling precipitation; the inflow of wastewater from Konya, a city of 700,000 people; and upstream well drilling for crop irrigation is killing an already limited supply of fresh water. Once Turkey's second largest lake, some conservationists estimate Lake Tuz has reportedly shrunk by half in the last 40 years—though Ozlem Aksoy, a biologist at Turkey's ministry for environment and urbanisation, says a lack of up-to-date data means little consensus has been reached on the precise amount of decline, or which activity is most damaging. Turkish officials claim the drought is temporary or cyclical at worst, and that efforts to pump treated water into the lake are underway. The government has also pointed to its efforts in garnering Lake Tuz special UNESCO status as an example of its seriousness about protecting local habitats, including that of the flamingos. Yet according to government biologist Aksoy, no part of an action plan involving four ministries to transfer water to stop the lake drying up has been implemented yet. "So far these actions are not satisfactory," said Vakur Sumer, a water politics expert and international relations lecturer at Selcuk University in Konya. "The situation... is worsening." Streams such as this, that feed into Lake Tuz, are vanishing. Photo: Stephen Starr Three miles away on the eastern shore of the lake, there is little sense of concern. From afar, the groups of people walking across the lake's bleached white surface appear like slow-moving, tiny alien beings. Despite the wind driving salt into their hair, burning their eyes and creeping down their throats, tourists come in the hundreds to sample the homeopathic healing power the large salt granules are said to offer. Unsurprisingly, the local developers see an opportunity: Next to a parking lot clogged by coaches are two construction sites where hotel resorts are being built. Closer to the lake's shore, signs advertising the salt's benefits have been crudely hammered into the now-dry lakebed. Nearby, a putrid stream of water leaks slowly into the lake from behind a fast food joint. There are no flamingos to be seen anywhere. Several flamingo colonies on the lake have already vanished, said Dicle Tuba Kilic of the Turkish conservation organization Doga Dernegi, which translates to "Nature Association." Photo: Stephen Starr "There is a final flamingo colony in the middle of the lake," she said. "This colony depends on Tuz Lake completely." Water that once drained into the lake can no longer do so, she said, because of damming and crop irrigation. Long-term research further suggests the government's efforts might not be enough. A 30-year study published in 2012 found that temperatures in the karst central Anatolian region that includes Lake Tuz have risen 0.4 degrees Celsius (0.72 Fahrenheit) during that time, suggesting climate change is affecting precipitation, which is contributing to the reduced amount of water available to the lake. The global increase over the entire past century has been 0.6 degrees Celsius (1.08 Fahrenheit). With demands from farmers and factories increasing and the lake's nascent recreational value thought to be $5 million and counting, the share left for flamingos and other species is shrinking, just like the lake itself.

A source at PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company, has played down speculation about Pastor Maldonado's immediate future. Reports have suggested that amid a corruption scandal and the plunging price of oil, the company is late to make its due payments to the Enstone based Renault team. Other rumours, however, say a share-price plunging Renault may be facing a Volkswagen-like emissions scandal of its own, and therefore wants to shy away from associating with another scandal-ridden company like PDVSA. So amid reports Maldonado could be replaced by Kevin Magnussen, a PDVSA source said: "This is all speculation at the moment. "We have not received any information other than what was agreed last year with Lotus," the source told the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal. However, the source did not deny it has held meetings this week with Renault officials in Caracas. "Such meetings are always held to plan joint activities, so it is nothing strange," the source insisted. (GMM)

In cities around the U.S., there’s a growing awareness that streets are meant for more than just cars, and in fact, that streets should be safe places no matter what form of transit you choose, whether you’re a pedestrian, cyclist, bus rider, skateboarder, or pogo-stick jumper (okay, maybe not the latter). The National Complete Streets Coalition puts out a measure every year on just how well cities are doing at forming so-called “complete streets” policies that consider these various modes of transport as equals in transportation planning. This year’s list shows marked growth in cities adopting this progressive way of thinking about transit. (We covered last year’s list here.) In 2013, according to the coalition’s report released today, 83 jurisdictions adopted complete streets policies–making it a total of 610 that have done so over the years. “The majority of policies are in smaller suburban communities again this year. I think those are good things. There’s this mischaracterization of the complete streets idea as applying to big cities,” says Stefanie Seskin, deputy director of the coalition, a project of Smart Growth America. Here is the group’s ranking of the top 10 complete streets policies in 2013, based on metrics including vision, design, and clear performance measures: Littleton, MA Peru, IN Fort Lauderdale, FL Auburn, ME Lewiston, ME Baltimore County, MD Portsmouth, NH Muscatine, IA Piqua, OH Oakland, CA Hayward, CA, Livermore, CA, and Massachusetts Dept. of Transportation (tie) The top community, Littleton, Massachusetts, got to number one for its clear look at how the idea of complete streets would work for them, how it would be implemented, and how it could work with other jurisdictions to make sure streets were safe beyond the 9,000-person town’s small borders. Last year’s list included many cities in California, this year, there is much more geographic diversity. “It really speaks to the breadth of what’s happening here,” says Craig Chester, with Smart Growth America. One interesting development, says Seskin, is that more and more policies, such as the one recently created by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, are considering public health as a primary motivation. The growing awareness that transportation can be about promoting active lifestyles, and not just getting from Point A to B, is leading to a broadening of the policy conversation, she says. Another positive change compared to last year is that more policies adopted include specific steps of actions to take, rather than simply vague commitments, says Seskin. But a lot more needs to be done, especially for improved policies at the state and federal level that support local work.

“Some Christians are more offended by the idea of everyone going to heaven than by the idea of everyone going to hell.” - Evolving in Monkey Town, Chapter 9 If you’ve read Evolving in Monkey Town you know that some of my most serious doubts about Christianity were triggered by questions related to religious pluralism and the destiny of the un-evangelized. After witnessing the public execution of a Muslim woman from Afghanistan on TV, I began struggling with the idea that millions upon millions of people like Zarmina had been sentenced to hell for eternity, most without ever hearing the gospel. In Chapter 9 I write: In Sunday school, they always make hell out to be a place for people like Hitler, not a place for his victims. But if my Sunday school teachers and college professors were right, then hell will be populated not only by people like Hitler and Stalin, Hussein and Milosevic but by the people that they persecuted. If only born-again Christians go to heaven, then the piles of suitcases and bags of human hair displayed at the Holocaust Museum represent thousands upon thousands of men, women, and children suffering eternal agony and the hands of angry God. If salvation is available only to Christians, then the gospel isn’t good news at all. For most of the human race, it’s terrible news. As I’ve travelled around the country talking about my experience with doubt, I’ve been approached by many people, especially college students and young adults, who relate most to this section of the book. With tears in their eyes, they confess that they too lie awake at night wondering how a loving God could damn the majority of his creation to hell, how a God who “desires that all be saved” could leave so many without hope. In the book I explain why I think Scripture gives us reason to be optimistic about the future of humanity, but it has become increasingly clear to me over the past few months that this is a topic people desperately want to talk about. With this in mind, I recently requested an advance review copy of Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins: Heaven, Hell and the Fate of Every Person Who Has Ever Lived. I was especially intrigued by a video trailer for the book in which Bell asks the very questions I’ve been asking myself since childhood and the very questions with which so many in my generation wrestle: Will only a few select people make it into heaven? How does one become one of these few? Are people like Ghandi and Anne Frank really in hell, along with millions and millions of other people? Do we need a loving Jesus to rescue us from a hateful God? Is this what the gospel is all about? Is the gospel good news or bad news? What is the essence of God's character? Most of us haven’t received our review copies yet, but that didn’t stop a few bloggers from issuing their opinions about the book this weekend. Without even knowing Bell’s position, they declared it outside the bounds of orthodoxy and influenced by Satan. John Piper even issued a flippant “farewell” to Bell via twitter. The message was clear: Ask questions about heaven and hell and you will be cast out. But as Bell’s pre-orders soared and many rose to his defense, it became clear that that what John Piper and Justin Taylor failed to realize is that we are already asking these questions. We are asking them in our dorm rooms, at our kitchen tables, over coffee, in classrooms, at Bible studies, at church, in our journals, in our hearts, and in thousands upon thousands of tearful, faithful prayers each night. Scot McKnight said it well in an interview with Christianity Today when he noted that “Rob is tapping into what I think is the biggest issue facing evangelicalism today, and this fury shows that it just might be that big of an issue.” Ready or not, we are having this conversation. And it’s important that a variety of views are represented fairly and accurately—from exclusivism to inclusivism to conditional immortality to universalism. The Christian tradition is rich with a diversity of perspectives regarding heaven and hell, and we should hear them all out. Most of us are not so impressionable as to simply believe whatever one or two popular theologians tell us, but to do the research and reflection necessary to make up our own minds. At the end of the day, this isn't really about Rob Bell or John Piper or a single book or a single blog post. It's about a conversation that's been rumbling beneath the surface for a while now and has finally found the light. May it be lively. May it be civil. And may it honor the One who prayed that our unity would reflect the sweet harmony of the Trinity…because the world indeed is watching. *** Do you agree with Scot McKnight that that this is perhaps the biggest issue facing evangelicalism today? What sort of questions have you been asking about heaven and hell? (Note: Please do not comment on Rob Bell’s book specifically unless you have actually read it.)

MSNBC Terrorism Analyst Evan Kohlmann declared, “You cannot have a situation where you take in immigrants and you do not integrate them” and that Belgium hasn’t learned the lesson Britain did, which is that letting jihadists live in their country is dangerous when they kicked out “all those people that they had allowed to live in London, that turned it into Londonistan” on Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hardball.” Kohlmann said, “Belgian society, in particular, is very segregated. You cannot have a situation where you take in immigrants and you do not integrate them.” Host Chris Matthews then wondered, “Well, why do they take them in if they have no intention of letting them become Belgian? What’s the purpose of that? Why don’t they just bar them at the door, instead of letting them come in with the purpose of ghettoizing them?” Kohlmann responded, “This is a very important question that we should be asking the Belgians. I mean, you can’t do that, and then have no surveillance, or no oversight whatsoever. You’re asking for problems. And the truth is is that the Belgians have had an attitude, which not their own, the British had this for years as well, which is that, we’ll let jihadists live here, as long as they’re not targeting us. As long as they’re targeting other people, it’s not the end of the world. The British learned their lesson after 9/11, after the 2005 terror attacks, all those people that they had allowed to live in London, that turned it into Londonistan, they kicked all those people out. They arrested them. They extradited them. But the Belgians don’t seem to have had that realization.” Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

Author Anne Rice delivered the ultimate smack down on her Facebook page yesterday, telling her fans, “I will no longer tolerate hate speech in the guise of Christian belief.” Ms. Rice, whose son Christopher made Out Magazine’s list of top ten gay bachelors last week, has been a longtime LGBT rights supporter. Following Hollywood actress Ellen Page’s coming out this weekend, Rice posted a congratulatory note on Facebook Saturday to which dozens of haters left vile comments under the post. Ms. Rice then took to Facebook with this awesome post: Our post commending actress Ellen Page for her courage in coming out as gay attracted a lot of hostility and hate and hate speech — as well as positive and substantive comments. I have banned many from the page today. I will no longer tolerate hate speech in the guise of Christian belief with the usual irresponsible pick and choose bible quotes and talk of “sin” and hellfire. I have had enough of it, and I think the world has had enough of it too. Again, I commend Ellen Page for her bravery in coming out. I hope more celebrities and public figures will be inspired to do so. Anyone who thinks this does not matter is deceiving himself or herself. It matters very much. Gay people in all walks of life suffer from bigotry, bias, superstition, and ignorance. Hats off to Ellen Page! (And please do NOT come here to tell us publicly that you “don’t care.” If you don’t care, don’t expect us to care that you don’t care!). Rice also took time to respond to several of the over 3,700 comments to her post. In one response Anne explained how she bans Christian’s who spread hate on her page: I ban those who engage in hate speech under the guise of Christianity. And when people say they are unliking the page or rejecting me and my works, I also delete and ban them. This is my personal choice based on my experience on the page. Rebecca commented: I do not care. The American people have bigher fish to fry. Rice hit back with this response: Then why post here? Obviously you do care enough to tell us that you disapprove of our caring. Well, I do care. I think what Ellen Page did was brave and good….And her courage will have a decidedly positive effect against the hypocrisy,bigotry and ignorance that underscore the persecution of gays in our country. Mike H. left this response to her post: I love the way you see people who don’t like or agree with that lifestyle are always”haters”. By that definition what do you think you are when you don’t like what Christians believe. Total hypocrisey. Ms Rice I think you also are dabbling in some self deception. To which Rice responded with this comment: Mike, in my experience many Christians are extremely aggressive towards those they despise and seek to control and change. They spend millions in America trying to interfere with a woman’s right to choose and a gay person’s civil rights. They are vocal and “in your face” with their hate of gays and other strong religious biases. If they would respect the rights and dignity of those who do not share their belief system, it would be better for everyone. But sadly, they don’t. And when they bring hate speech to this page, I will delete and ban them. Mike, I don’t think the aggression and hostility of Christians towards those they condemn can be compared in any way to gay rights activists. Gay rights activists don’t spend millions trying to persecute and demonize others or oppress them in terms of civil rights. I hope you do some research on this topic. We have a serious problem in this country with aggressive Christians violating our separation of church and state, and campaigning to oppress women and gays, and sometimes children. I think we are in a time in America when we must demand that all people claiming to be Christian take full moral responsibility for their belief system and the harm it has done historically and the harm it continues to do in our country. I see no reason to give Christians a pass on any of this. Robyn wrote: I had made a comment late last night about how I believe in love. And how I am grateful to Jesus loving me as a sinner. I received a reply back about you not wanting me to preach on your page. I didn’t feel I was preaching, but stating my opinion, as so many others. I apologize if there were a misunderstanding. I enjoy your work, and your opinions. I totally agree about your stance on Ellen Page and perhaps, so many others. Have a great day… I’m off to do some chores. Rice replied with: Robyn, for many of us, words like “sin” and even “Jesus loving” have become associated, sadly, with bigotry and hate. This isn’t your doing. It isn’t mine. It has to do with the way this language has been used in America aggressively and boldly on a national level in a war against women’s rights and gay rights. So I find myself highly sensitive to it. I respect your good intentions. I cannot change at this point my own negative reaction to the word “sin.” I think it is a very poor word to use in discussing the human spirit and the moral problems which all human beings face every day. But again, I respect your sincerity. I think it’s a good idea to remember that religion has to do with faith in things which cannot be proven, and which have divided people into warring camps and warring nations for centuries. Saying that Jesus loves you may sound innocent and neutral. But blood has been shed in the name of Jesus for almost 2,000 years. Again, I respect your sincerity, but I do ask that people not preach Christianity on this page. {H/T: Instinct Via TheNewCivilRightsMovement]

Albano Brás, the owner of the small café, recalls them very well. They were regulars, “good lads”, calm, who appeared at the end of the day or at the weekend and always in a group. However much he attempted to recall some incident, the 52 year old emigrant – in Leytonstone for the last two decades – is unable to point to any particular warning sign that the “boys” might have given. They laughed at the comments of others, there were no Muslim items of clothing nor was there any reference to either the Koran or to Islam. They just did not consume alcohol. They watched the football with a bottle of Sumol orange or pineapple soda. And there was no censure should one of their friends drink a Super Bock beer. Religion was left very much at the door of the Cascais. Between 2012 and 2013, the five began sharing an apartment in Leyton, located between the calm Dawlish Road and Sidmouth Road, next to a children’s park with squirrels running through the trees. However, the Portuguese spent very little time there. It served only for sleeping, washing, praying and watching jihadist propaganda videos on the Internet. There was no television – out of choice that they stuck to with pride. The rent and daily needs were paid for by low level jobs in clothes stores or cleaning. There was not much money left at the end of the week but, then again, the group was not given to great extravagances. As a friend stated: “They did not need much to live. The remained satisfied with very little.” The house was just a minute from a bus stop serving routes 58 and 69, which would take them not only to Café Cascais but also to the University of East London, in Stratford, where most of them studied, and the mosque they attended in Forest Gate. They would head off to work or the faculty in the morning and return in the evening, a daily routine similar to the rest of the immigrants living in the neighbourhood. Leyton proves little more than a dormitory for its approximately forty thousand inhabitants, over half of whom belong to an ethnic minority, a ratio far higher than the Greater London average. Here, the unemployment, poverty and criminality rates are also way above the national averages. And, this is where one of Britain’s largest Muslim communities lives. In Portugal, none of the five paid any attention to religion. Some had even grown up in practising Catholic households. The conversion to Islam and the radicalisation had taken place there, in Greater London, in a quick process lasting just a few months in the majority of cases. Edgar, the first Portuguese person in the group to emigrate and turn Muslim, went onto influence his brother Celso and his three friends. However, who influenced him? “They went over to the more radical side of Islam because they wanted to, out of faith, due to not agreeing with the foreign policy of the West against Muslims. Nobody twisted their heads around. It was just like that. In Lisbon, the Muslims did not understand these questions. Here they did”, was the attempted explanation of a friend of the group who remains in London. Those responsible at the Forest Gate mosque, a white prefabricated building, modest in scale, which also serves as a religious schools, guaranteed to Expresso that they did not know any “brother” of Portuguese nationality but did accept their might be a few “black sheep” in amongst the flock of hundreds of persons attending the mosque daily.

UFC on Fox 15: Machida vs. Rockhold was an event that saw a multitude of lower ranked fighters defeat their higher ranked counterparts. This resulted in a lot of movement in this week’s official UFC Rankings. In his most impressive performance in the UFC, Luke Rockhold defeated former UFC Light-Heavywight Champion Lyoto Machida, and moved up three spots from #4 to the #1 spot in the Middlewight division. Although Jacare Souza won his fight in dominate fashion, a win against Chris Camozzi doesn’t compare to defeating Lyoto Machida, as Souza dropped from the #1 spot to #2 at middleweight. Lyoto Machida dropped from #2 to #4. The breakout star of the event was Max Holloway as he dominated the higher ranked Cub Swanson. Holloway moved to #6 at featherweight, while Swanson surprisingly stayed at #5. Paige VanZant also had a breakout performance, dominating veteran Felice Herrig. She had the biggest jump in the rankings, moving up 5 spots to #7 in the woman’s strawweight division. Herrig fell down three spots to #11 . Ovince St. Preux’s 1st round KO of Patrick Cummins did not give him too much of a boost in the rankings, as he stayed at #7 at light-heavyweight. Cummins fell a spot couple to #13 . Beniel Dariush makes his debut in the UFC rankings after putting on a grapping showcase against the former #12 ranked lightweight Jim Miller. Dariush is ranked at #14 , while Miller has fallen off of the rankings. There was no movement in the Pound-for-Pound rankings as no fighter within the Top 15 fought. Even though Rockhold and Souza are ranked higher at middleweight, fighters Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort continue to hold their P4P ranking. For the full rankings, click the link here, or visit UFC.com/rankings. Main Photo

The Super Bowl is over, which means that baseball season is almost here. More precisely, baseball prediction season is almost here, where ostensibly smart writers trip over themselves to be aggressively dumb in public. I know I'm addicted to the rush, not sure about everyone else. There's just something about picking the Royals for third place that really gets the endorphins firing. Before we get to the actual predictions, though, we'll start with something a little lighter. There are six divisions in baseball. All of them will have a champion in seven months. Our job today is to rank the divisional races to predict which one will be the most exciting. I didn't do this last year, so I can't laugh at past results, but I absolutely guarantee that my prediction for the least-exciting divisional race would have been the NL East because the Nationals were going to win by 13 games. It turns out that the NL East really was a boring division toward the end, but not because the Nationals ran away with it. The same will invariably apply to this year: The best divisions in baseball will disappoint, and a random team will come out of nowhere to be this year's Astros, which will turn an unexciting race into a September thriller. Until then, we'll go with what we think we know. Here are the best divisional races in baseball, in order from "least exciting" to "most exciting." 6. NL East Before you yell at me too loudly, note that all of these divisional races are rare, beautiful creatures that just might steal our hearts by October. A bad divisional race is still a glorious divisional race, and this exercise is like ranking our children. But some kids are objectively worse than other kids. That's not my fault, and I'm not going to apologize for it. And the NL East should have two good teams, one team on the cusp and two lousy teams. That's a combo to make them a clear last-place finisher. While the other five divisions might not have the raw intensity of a potential Nationals/Mets arms race, they'll mix a third team in the discussion that's more interesting than the Marlins, and they'll have more interesting fifth-place teams than the Phillies and a more interesting fourth-place team than the Braves. That applies if those two switch places, too. In the most basic sense, a great divisional race can be defined by just two teams beating each other up. No one cares about who finished third in the 1993 NL West. No one cares who finished third in the 2012 AL West. So, why should we use the overall strength of the division in our criteria? Because fewer contending teams means fewer chances at excitement. Last year, the NL East looked like one great team, one pretty okay team, and some also-rans, and it ended up being a pretty boring division by September. Not the way we expected, but still. If there's a glut of average-or-worse teams, the excitement potential goes way down. 5. AL West I really want to make a contending A's team happen. Partially for selfish reasons, partially because it would really jimmy up this whole AL West race and create chaos. I'm a baseball fan second, and a chaos fan first. Which is the same thing as saying I'm a baseball fan twice. Alas, the closer we get to the season, the less convinced I am that the A's will get to .500, much less threaten the division leaders. And if you're thinking the AL West is going to be one of the best races in baseball, you have to be thinking it's a five-way scrum. The Mariners are coated with a slick, Mariners-based substance that prevents them from getting too close to the top of the division, and the Angels might be history's most boring team if you limit the pool to "contending teams that employ the best player in the world." But, again, if you think of Yu Darvish pitching to Mike Trout on a warm August night, with everyone checking the out-of-town scoreboard to see how that Astros/Mariners game is going, you're excited about this race. It just lacks oomph at the bottom. 4. AL Central If you want parity, the AL Central has it. FanGraphs has the projected rosters for each team on their depth charts, and they've tallied up the projected WAR for each team. Here's where the AL Central teams rank: 12. Indians (39 projected WAR) 19. Tigers (33) 19. Royals (33) 21. White Sox (33) 23. Twins (32) The Royals aren't getting a lot of respect, just like last year. ZiPS' gas chromatograph is probably broken, and it's telling us that the secret ingredient is love, which you would think the Royals have by this point. But I'll take the over again, if only because the burns from last year's projections are still raw. And if you're taking the over on the Royals, why not the Tigers, too? That sure is one heck of a lineup, at least in the middle. And the White Sox rotation truly is underrated, even once you realize that John Danks has been replacement level for years now. The Twins have the kind of young talent that could go supernova at any second, which would alter the complexion of the race completely. I'm looking for five teams with a shot at the AL Central, which vaults them ahead of the other teams. In reality, one team will probably lose 90 and another team will have a 10-game lead by the middle of August. From the cold distance, though, it looks like a superb testament to the wonders of parity. 3. NL West They're going to have the lousy teams, just like the NL East. There's a clear top three and bottom two, just like the NL East. But there's a two-fer that elevates them above: The Diamondbacks and Zack Greinke, even if ZiPS and other projection systems aren't convinced. The Giants and Dodgers fighting it out has more of a ring to it than the Nats and Mets. That last one could be bias, but I've seen enough Ken Burns documentaries to know what people really care about. There's also just a touch of uncertainty with the two bottom-feeders, with the Rockies' homegrown rotation looking to surprise and the Padres cobbling together a staff filled with some angry pitchers trying to rebound from disappointing seasons. I've seen worse February rosters make it to the final month of the season in contention. And while you might think it would be a very Padres thing to lose in an undistinguished fashion, you're wrong. As a long-time observer, I can attest that it would be much, much more Padres to contend past the trading deadline behind fantastic Andrew Cashner and James Shields seasons, spend prospects to acquire reinforcements rather than trade away their best players for prospects, and then finish the season in third place, wondering why they didn't just trade their best players for prospects at the deadline like they were planning to before the season started. 2. NL Central This is the start of an aesthetic argument. Is it better to watch a division with three powerhouse teams, total heavyweights that might all threaten 100 wins, or is it better to watch a division with five teams that might all finish 83-79 and create 162nd-game chaos? If you choose the former, the heavyweights with a chance to win 100, I don't blame you. The Cubs, Pirates and Cardinals really are outstanding collections of talent. Even though the Pirates had an unfortunately dull offseason, and the Cardinals lost their most valuable position player and pitcher from last season's juggernaut, it's still a three-way race that should be compelling all season. SIGN UP FOR OUR MLB NEWSLETTER Get all kinds of MLB stories, rumors, game coverage and Vines of dudes getting hit in the beans in your inbox every day. Email I just can't get over the Reds and Brewers, both of whom have a chance to be unspeakably awful. We're talking 100-loss awful, even if only because of the top-heavy distribution of talent around the division. And while that shouldn't make a difference when enjoying a three-team race in September, it will. The Cubs will finish the season with a three-game set against the Reds, who will be busy seeing if 26-year-old Darnson Skinwell is the left fielder of the future, and starting a homemade Brad Penny that they made from assorted body parts that they found in Mr. Redlegs' office. Meanwhile, the Cardinals and Pirates will be slamming each others' heads against the turf. The Brewers were 11-27 against the Cubs and Cardinals last year, and the Reds were 13-25 against those two. For some reason, both teams were a game over .500 against the Pirates, so maybe this imbalance is a feature, not a bug, and it ferrets out the team that can't take care of the weaker teams in the division. Still, there's something about the stratification that bugs me. Give me strong teams up and down the division. Give me possibly weak teams, as long as they are five of them. Maybe I'm just a baseball socialist, I don't know. 1. AL East To get here, where you're excited about the American League East and the five teams within, you have to make some assumptions. First, you have to be somewhat curious about the Orioles. I was ready to proclaim their rotation very underrated for this article, and then I looked up Ubaldo Jimenez's second-stats, and, ha ha ha, no, they're probably rated just fine. He still has that Elaine-dance delivery, which means he's going to be inconsistent for the rest of his days. But I believe in their lineup. Or, at least, their capacity to hit 200 dingers again. I believe that Hyun-soo Kim is going to get on base, and I believe that Scott Boras whispered, "Hit better, you fool" into Matt Wieters' ear, and that he whispered, "Okay" back. Second, you have to forget that we were all jazzed about the Red Sox at this time last year, too. They have David Price, sure, but it's still a rotation filled with young players and uncertainty. Or, to put it another way, (last year's Red Sox + David Price) ≠ a 2015 contender, so are we really so jazzed about the way they finished last year? Yeah, kinda. Third, you have to believe in the Rays' rotation to an extent that it's not hard to see them aping the 2015 Mets, where the lineup does just enough until the deadline. Fourth, you have to forget that almost everyone on the Yankees has a well-curated VHS collection. You also have to forget that most of the ligaments in the starting rotation are held together only by the aid of George Steinbrenner's astral manipulation from beyond the grave. They've forgotten it. They're the Yankees. They don't care, and you know they'll contend. You should probably just forget all that. Fifth, you have to ignore both the Blue Jays' rotation of underwhelming adequacy and their potential to run away with the division by July. Which is hard to do in both cases, which means they probably even out. Maybe. Add in the potential for Red Sox/Yankees end-of-the-season chicanery -- but only if we can catch any of the games on national TV, somehow -- and you have the division I'm most looking forward to. The NL East should also be kind of cool, you know. There really isn't a wrong answer, and this entire article is basically a long-winded way of writing, "EXCITED ABOUT BASEBALL, Y'ALL." Last year was kind of a dud when it came to September races, especially once the Cubs and Pirates had the Wild Card safety net. Hopefully this year, we have some 162nd-game chaos.

Imagine what Toronto would look like if we had put librarians in charge of running the place a long time ago. Librarians would not have allowed a car-crazed condo-tower gold rush to crush the city. Librarians would integrate everyone regardless of age or background into a healthy, well-fed, multilingual, vibrant society. Too bad. Stupidity rules. And stupidity says penalize the Toronto Public Library system for achieving the world-class status that otherwise eludes this Titanic town. Sure enough, this year's proposed budget includes a 10 per cent funding cut to the TPL, despite the fact that more people visit libraries here than in any city in North America - or anywhere, I'd say, though they don't. Nineteen million a year. It's a freezing Sunday afternoon, November 24, and I give up counting; every possible seat in the council chambers is taken by the overflow crowd of library supporters. A hot Dixieland band distracts from the lack of any apparent heating other than human. Maureen O'Reilly, president of the 2,300-strong Toronto Public Library Workers Union Local 4948, chairs the meeting. She introduces her 87-year-old mother, who's sitting comfortably in the mayor's chair. Balloons and books for children are upstairs in the councillors' lounge. The library system no longer has a recognized classification of children's librarian any more. Young people are criminalized while penny-pinching perpetrates this immeasurable crime against youth. Pennies are no longer in use except when it comes to libraries. When amalgamation was forced on Toronto in 1998, libraries got just over 2 cents' worth of every budget dollar. Since then, the amount has decreased. Acquisitions, staffing, access and buildings have all suffered. This rescue meeting proposes restoration and reinvestment to the tune of 4 cents a day per resident. Over the last 20 years, there's been a 44 per cent increase in library usage while the 98-library system has absorbed more than $800 million in cumulative cuts. The most popular thing in town survives on an annual allowance of just $169 million as the blank cheque handed to police careens toward the billion-dollar mark. As usual, it's up to the book-reading/immigrant/women and children elites to kick up a fuss. Fortunately, our librarians are prepared. We watch a short fact-packed film by animators James Braithwaite and Josh Raskin celebrating our book centres as part of "intellectual infrastructure." Tricia Hennessy of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives calls Canada a "safe haven for progressive thought," which is cute. She shows a series of graphs illustrating the ski-slope dives of funding, staffing and acquisitions, and questions why the government refuses to supply the demand. She describes the "business" model as "how to drive a really good thing into the ground." Exactly. Hennessy points out that, interestingly, other services - fire, parks and recreation, sanitation - have not been forced to take the hit that libraries had to. The city paid consultants KPMG back in 2011 to assess the library system; they advised the lowering of standards, American-style. O'Reilly and library board member Councillor Janet Davis point to proposals being floated for "study halls" - rooms in the library with no books or computers available, and no library staff. Just a security guard. Library activist Alejandra Bravo tells of the crucial role the institution played in her adjustment to the city and how it became a place to escape the heat with her baby. She lists poetry and other programs offered only in libraries, not schools. "Young people can find themselves. The library is a neutral space where everybody can feel at home," she says. The revelation that 51 per cent of TPL workers are now part-time, with no benefits or pension, prompts cries of "Shame!" Davis encourages residents to call their councillors and invites all to deputations Monday and Tuesday, December 2 and 3, in Committee Room 1. As I exit the Hall of the City of the Future that never was, I find heat blowing out the door. news@nowtoronto

Donald Trump plans to elevate FCC commissioner Ajit Pai to lead the agency, replacing outgoing Chairman Tom Wheeler, Politico reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. An official announcement could come as soon as this afternoon. Pai has been a reliably conservative voice on the commission Pai, first appointed by President Obama for a Republican seat on the commission, has been a reliably conservative voice, often speaking out for deregulation and opposing progressive measures from the Democratic majority. He has widely been seen as a frontrunner in the race for a new chairman, and while it was suggested he may be made interim leader, Politico reports the move is permanent. When the Wheeler-led FCC’s net neutrality rules were passed in 2015, Pai was one of the most vocal sources of dissent, along with fellow Republican commissioner Michael O'Rielly. After Trump’s ascent to the presidency, concluding with today’s inauguration, those rules are in danger, and Pai’s nomination will do little to ease concerns for supporters of the rules. Pai has been critical of the commission’s net neutrality rules At the time the rules were passed, Pai said they would lead to "higher broadband prices, slower broadband speeds, less broadband deployment, less innovation, and fewer options for consumers." He has been similarly critical of privacy rules and other regulatory measures approved by the commission. In a speech last month, Pai vowed that the new commission under the Trump administration would take a “weed whacker” to regulations passed under Obama.

We are collecting cases of discontinuous technological progress, to inform our understanding of whether artificial intelligence research is likely to undergo such a discontinuity. This page details our investigation. We have verified that five technological trends underwent a discontinuous jump in improvement equivalent to more than a decade at previous rates, three of which underwent more than a century of progress. Details Motivations We are interested in whether artificial intelligence research is likely to undergo discontinuous progress in the lead-up to human-level capabilities, or whether it will get there via incremental steps. If the former, we are interested in the nature of such discontinuities. Why are we interested in this? If discontinuity is likely, a transition to AI is more likely to be abrupt, more likely to be soon, and more likely to be disruptive. Also, if we think a discontinuity is likely, then our research should investigate questions such as how to prepare or be warned, and not questions like when the present trajectories of AI progress will reach human-level capabilities. As well as being decision relevant and important, this question appears to attract substantial disagreement, making it particularly important to resolve. This project aims to shed light on the potential for discontinuities in AI by investigating the degree and nature of discontinuities in other technologies. This seems an informative baseline for our expectations about AI, especially if we have no strong reason to expect artificial intelligence to be radically unusual in this regard. We are interested in several specific questions, such as: How common is abrupt progress in technology? Where there are discontinuities, how much progress do they represent? (relative to previous rates of progress) What predicts such discontinuities, if anything? We are also interested in overall distributions of size of progress increments, but searching specifically for the very largest increments bears on this in a less straightforward way, so we are likely to investigate it by other means later. Methods We have collected around fifty instances of technological change which are contenders for being discontinuous. Many of these are suggestions offered to us in response to a Facebook question, a Quora question, and personal communications. We obtained some by searching for abrupt graphs in google images, and noting their subject matter. We are taking these cases one by one, and assessing whether each involved discontinuous progress on plausible and interesting metrics. For instance, if we were told that fishing hooks became radically stronger in 1997, we might investigate the strength of fishing hooks over time—if we could find the data—and also their cost and how many fish could be caught, because these are measures of more natural interest which we might expect to be related. We generally count progress in an area as ‘discontinuous’ if the improvement between two measurements is far larger than what one would normally expect over the same time period. This definition is open to revision, as we gain a better understanding of the landscape. Tentative findings We know of four large or moderate discontinuities. That is, discontinuities where at least ten years of progress at usual rates occurred on one occasion. We have roughly thirty suggestions for trends that may have been discontinuities that we have not finished looking into. The method of calling for examples of discontinuous progress does not lend itself well to giving a precise base rate of discontinuity, because we do not know how many technological trends participants knew about or considered. In particular, we would need to know how many technological trends there are, such that if they contained a large discontinuity, it would have been reported to us. If we guess that fifty people considered our question seriously, and each of them knows something about fifty technological trends, with thirty of those overlapping with the others, then we have 1,000 tech trends, that might have a discontinuity somewhere in them. If we conservatively suppose that all of the suggested discontinuities are actual discontinuities, then we have around forty moderate discontinuities, in one thousand examples, for an overall rate of a moderate discontinuity in around 4% of technological trends. These guesses are far too uncertain for us to put any weight on this number, however. List of cases we have evaluated This is a list of areas of technological progress which we have tentatively determined to either involve discontinuous technological progress, or not. Note that we only investigate cases that looked likely to be discontinuous. Key: LD: Large discontinuity (>100 years of progress at once) MD: Moderate discontinuity (>10 years of progress at once) NSD: No sign of substantial discontinuities IIP: Investigation begun but in progress The Haber Process – NSD The Haber process was the first energy efficient method of producing ammonia, which is key to making fertilizer. The reason to expect that the Haber process might represent discontinuous technological progress is that previous processes were barely affordable, while the Haber process was hugely valuable—it is credited with fixing much of the nitrogen now in human bodies—and has been used on an industrial scale since 1913. A likely place to look for discontinuities then is in the energy cost of fixing nitrogen. Table 4 in Grünewald’s Chemistry for the Future suggests that the invention of the Haber reduced the energy expense by around 60% per nitrogen bonded over a method developed eight years earlier. The previous step however appears to have represented at least a 50% improvement over the process of two years earlier (though the figure is hard to read). Later improvements to the Haber process appear to have been comparable. Thus it seems the Haber process was not an unusually large improvement in energy efficiency, but was probably instead the improvement that happened to take the process into the range of affordability. Since it appears that energy was an important expense, and the Haber process was especially notable for being energy efficient, and yet did not represent a particular discontinuity in energy efficiency progress, it seems unlikely that the Haber process involved a discontinuity. Furthermore, it appears that the world moved to using the Haber process over other sources of fertilizer gradually, suggesting there was not a massive price differential, nor any sharp practical change as a result of the adoption of the process. In the 20’s the US imported much nitrogen from Chile. Alternative nitrogen source calcium cyanamide reached peak production in 1945, thirty years since the Haber process reached industrial scale production. The amount of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer applied hasn’t abruptly changed since 1860 (see p24). Neither has the amount of food produced, for a few foods at least. In sum, it seems the Haber process has had a large effect, but it was produced by a moderate change in efficiency, and manifest over a long period. Penicillin on syphilis – NSD Penicillin was introduced to clinical use in 1941, and quickly became the preferred treatment for syphilis. At around that time, there began a steep decline in the prevalence of syphilis, which appears to be generally attributed to penicillin. Cases of syphilis declined by around 80% over fifteen years, as shown in figure 1. Between 1940 and 1975, deaths from syphilis declined by over 98%, from 14 deaths per hundred thousand to 0.2, as shown in figure 2. It is possible from our perspective that this decline is not entirely from penicillin. US Surgeon General Thomas Parran launched a national syphilis control campaign in 1938. Wikipedia also attributes some of the syphilis decline over the 19th and 20th centuries to decreasing virulence of the spirochete. Nonetheless, penicillin is likely responsible for most of it. Either way, the decrease in deaths from syphilis appears to have been rapid, but not abrupt: syphilis cases and deaths gradually came down over around fifteen years. In figure 2, the annual reductions during the fastest decline are not much larger than the characteristic difference between years before the decline. Even if penicillin’s effect on the national death rate from syphilis was gradual, we might expect this to be due to frictions like institutional inertia, rather than ongoing technological improvements. Thus it could still be the case that penicillin was a radically better drug than its predecessors, when applied. Recent predecessors to penicillin included arsenic and bismuth compounds, and intentionally contracting malaria. It appears on casual investigation that penicillin was successful about 85% of the time soon after its development, while a previous treatment—arsenic and bismuth—was successful around 90% of the time, though it is unclear whether the same success is being measured. However the success figures (for the latter at least) include only people who completed the treatment, and it appears that perhaps only a quarter of patients tended to receive a ‘minimum curative dose’ of arsenic and bismuth therapy before ‘defaulting’, seemingly due to the prolonged nature of the treatment and unpleasant side effects (though the death rate for untreated syphilis is apparently 4%-54%, so it is somewhat surprising to us that so many people would default from treatment). For an early version of penicillin, almost all patients could receive a minimum curative dose; a difference that might represent a large improvement in syphilis treatment. If penicillin made an abrupt difference to syphilis treatment then, it seems it is likely to have been in terms of costs, broadly construed (which were partly reflected in willingness to be treated). The time required for treatment reduced from more than 20 days to 8 days for the first penicillin patients. The side effects qualitatively reduced from horrible and sometimes deadly to bearable (see above). Evaluating these costs quantitatively will remain beyond the scope of this investigation at present. Even if penicillin was in fact a large improvement over its predecessors in absolute terms, in terms of characteristic progress in syphilis treatments, it was less obviously unusual. Arsphenamine, released in 1910, was sold as ‘salvarsan’ and known as ‘magic bullet’, and won its discoverer Paul Erhlich a Nobel prize. A physician at the time describes: “Arsenobenzol, designated “606,” whatever the future may bring to justify the present enthusiasm, is now actually a more or less incredible advance in the treatment of syphilis and in many ways is superior to the old mercury – as valuable as this will continue to be – because of its eminently powerful and eminently rapid spirochaeticidal property.” In sum, penicillin probably made quick but not abrupt progress in reducing syphilis and syphilis mortality. It is unclear whether penicillin is much more likely to cure a patient than earlier treatments, conditional on the treatment being carried out, but it appears penicillin treatment was around four times more likely to be carried out, due to lower costs. Qualitatively it appears that penicillin represented an important reduction in costs, but it is hard to evaluate this precisely or compare it with the longer term progress. It appears that as recently as 1910 another drug for syphilis also represented qualitatively impressive progress in treatment. Nuclear weapons – LD Main article: Discontinuity from nuclear weapons Nuclear weapons represented abrupt progress in explosive power, but probably not in cost-effectiveness. Nuclear weapons represented progress in relative explosive efficiency which would have taken over six thousand years at previous rates. High temperature superconductors – LD Main article: Cases of discontinuous technological progress High temperature superconductors represented abrupt progress in the temperature at which superconductivity could take place. In a brief period, progress took place which would previously have taken at least a hundred years. Jet-propelled vehicles – MD Main article: Cases of discontinuous technological progress Jet-propelled vehicles produced a moderate discontinuity—about thirty years of progress at previous rates—in the land speed record. Fairey Delta 2 and Lockheed YF-12A – MD Main article: Cases of discontinuous technological progress Fairey Delta 2 and Lockheed YF-12A were planes which increased the air speed record by relatively large factors. They represented 11-17 years and 7-8 years of progress respectively, at previous rates. The printing press – IIP The printing press is generally credited with massively increasing the availability of the printed word, starting in around 1450. For instance, some estimate that the number of books in Europe climbed from 30,000 to 10,000,000 in the fifty years following the printing press. We have not looked into this in depth yet, and there is some ambiguity around the relevance of other printing methods. For instance, according to Wikipedia, in the mid-fifteenth century block-printed books were cheaper than those printed on a printing press. Aluminium – IIP It is often claimed that the discovery of the Hall–Héroult process in the 1880s brought the price of aluminium down precipitously. We found several smidgeons of quantitative data about this, but they seriously conflict. By far the most rigorous looking is a report from Patricia Plunkert at the US Geological Survey, from which we get the following data. However be warned that some of these figures may be off by orders of magnitude, if other sources are trusted. Plunkert provides a table of historic aluminium prices, according to which the nominal price fell from $8 per pound to $0.58 per pound sometime between 1887 and 1895 (during most of which time no records are available). This period probably captures the innovation of interest, as the Hall–Héroult process was patented in 1886 according to Plunkert, and the price only dropped by $1 per pound during the preceding fifteen years according to her table. Plunkert also says that the price was held artificially low to encourage consumers in the early 1900s, suggesting the same may have been true earlier, however this seems likely to be a small correction. The sewing machine – IIP Early sewing machines apparently brought the time to produce clothing down by an order of magnitude (from 14 hours to 75 minutes for a man’s dress shirt by one estimate). However it appears that the technology progressed more slowly, then was taken up by the public later – probably when it became cost-effective, at which time adoptees may have experienced a rapid reduction in sewing time (presumably at some expense). These impressions are from a very casual perusal of the evidence. Video compression – IIP Blogger John McGowan claims that video compression performance was constant at a ratio of around 250 for about seven years prior to 2003, then jumped to around 900. Information storage volume – IIP According to the Performance Curves Database (PCDB), ‘information storage volume’ for both handwriting and printing has grown by a factor of three in recent years, after less than doubling in the hundred years previously. It is unclear what exactly is being measured here however. Undersea cable price – IIP The bandwidth per cable length available for a dollar apparently grew by more than 1000 times in around 1880. Chess AI – NSD There was a notable discontinuity in chess AI according to the SSDF ratings. However it appears to be less than ten years of progress at previous rates. Also, part of this jump appears to have been caused by the introduction of new hardware in the contest. Infrared detector sensitivity – IIP Infrared detector sensitivity is measured in terms of ‘Noise Equivalent Power’ (NEP), or the amount of power (energy per time) that needs to hit the sensor for the sensor’s output to have a signal:noise ratio of one. We investigated progress in infrared detection technology because according to Academic Press (1974), the helium-cooled germanium bolometer represented a four order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity over uncooled detectors. However our own investigation suggests there were other innovations between uncooled detectors and the bolometer in question, and thus no abrupt improvement. We list advances we know of here, and summarize them in Figure 5. The 1947 point is uncooled. The 1969 point is nearly four orders of magnitude better. However we know of at least four other detectors with intermediate levels of sensitivity, and these are spread fairly evenly between the uncooled device and the most efficient cooled one listed. We have not checked whether the progress between the uncooled detector and the first cooled detector was discontinuous, given previous rates. This is because we have no strong reason to suspect it is. Genome sequencing – IIP This appears to have seen at least a moderate discontinuity. An investigation is in progress. Building height – LD Main article: Discontinuity from the Burj Khalifa The Burj Khalifa represented a large (175 year) discontinuity in the trend of maximum building heights over time. It did not represent a particular discontinuity in the trend of maximum structure heights over time.

Microsoft has pushed out a C# software development kit (SDK) for its in-beta language parsing API, LUIS. LUIS – the Language Understanding Intelligent Service – is another chunk of the chatbot capability Redmond is so keen on. It's a model-making environment which Microsoft reckons helps developers teach existing apps to understand “book tickets to Paris”, “turn on the lights” and so on. That's covered by LuisClient: interactions are handled by the “predict” and “reply” functions. Devs can also “create handlers for each intent (as shown in the sample) and setup a router using these handlers in order to have the router handle the responses instead of doing so within the client application”, Redmond explains at GitHub. You need an app first, though, because it's when you publish the app here that you get the app ID and app key to use Luis. The idea is to relieve developers of as much effort as possible, with models built for Cortana and Bing doing the hard work. “Turn on the lights” – the “intent” – needs only a simple response (“ok”), but as Microsoft explains, “I'd like to buy a black dress” needs a more nuanced response (“what size?”, for example). That's the bit Microsoft is trying to simplify, with a developer's interface to define both the intent, and set the response parameters. Luis includes pre-built entities; the developer then trains the model, and finally publishes it to an HTTP endpoint as JSON. ®

Thigh-High Politics is an op-ed column by Teen Vogue writer Lauren Duca that breaks down the news, provides resources for the resistance, and just generally refuses to accept toxic nonsense. I was en route to the Sydney Airport in Australia when my cab driver asked me if I was ashamed of President Donald Trump. I immediately answered yes, before thinking about how ludicrous that question would be in any other context. It would have been provocative, perhaps, to ask an American tourist if she was ashamed of former Presidents Barack Obama or George W. Bush (though the latter’s global favorability ratings were far lower). Bush deceived the country as a means of invading Iraq, but even as public understanding about his actions became well-understood and global disgust morphed into widespread protest, there was still a patina of reverence associated with the Commander in Chief. At least in polite interaction, respect for the office was generally assumed — outside of the countries they were actively bombing, anyway. Under Trump, any such sense of deference has been obliterated. My cab driver in Sydney wasn’t trying to be rude, he was worried. The subtext rang of pity rather than condemnation, and the same was true of many other Australians and other foreigners I met while traveling through the country over the course of two weeks in October. On a dive boat off the Great Barrier Reef in Cairns, I sat surrounded by an Australian man, two brothers from Denmark, and a couple from Germany, while the other New Yorker and I attempted to explain how Trump happened. As we discussed horrors like the travel ban, birth control rollback, and the ongoing aggravation of North Korea, they alternately stared in wide-eyed horror or shook their heads in sympathetic disbelief. We weren’t offended — we were desperate to separate ourselves from the mess that is America. It was as if we had done something profoundly humiliating and they were at a total loss as to how to make us feel better. Or, as one of my Twitter followers put it a few days later, “We used to look up to you. Now we’re embarrassed for you.” A similar sentiment is shared by the global population. A Pew Research poll of 37 countries conducted in January revealed that only 22% of respondents have “confidence in Trump to do the right thing when it comes to international affairs,” down from 64% under Obama. FiveThirtyEight’s analysis of the Pew numbers also shows that the average favorability rating has dropped significantly, from 65 to 50%. I’d imagine both of those numbers would be lower if conducted today. World leaders have echoed discontent with Trump. During the campaign, the President of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, called Trump a “crackpot candidate.” The Prime Minister of Australia notoriously mocked him in leaked audio, poking at his relationship with Russia, and ideas about “fake news.” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been cautious to explicitly insult the States, but emphasized Canada’s belief that “diversity is a strength” in response to Trump’s travel ban. French President Emmanuel Macron decried Trump’s “mistake” in leaving the Paris Climate Accord. And, perhaps most profoundly, German Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted her country can no longer rely on America in allied foreign diplomacy. “The times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I’ve experienced that in the last few days,” she said during a campaign event in May. “We Europeans have to take our destiny into our own hands — of course in friendship with the U.S.…but we have to know that we have to fight for our own future.”

Most light emitters, from candles to light bulbs to computer screens, look the same from any angle. But in a paper published this week on the Nature Photonics website, MIT researchers report the development of a new light source — a fiber only a little thicker than a human hair — whose brightness can be controllably varied for different viewers. The fiber thus opens the possibility of 3-D displays woven from flexible fibers that project different information to viewers’ left and right eyes. The fiber could also enable medical devices that can be threaded into narrow openings to irradiate diseased tissue, selectively activating therapeutic compounds while leaving healthy tissue untouched. The paper is the work of seven researchers affiliated with MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), including Yoel Fink, a professor of materials science and electrical engineering and the RLE’s director; John Joannopoulos, the Francis Wright Davis Professor of Physics; lead author Alexander Stolyarov, a graduate student at Harvard University who is doing is PhD research with Fink’s group; and Lei Wei, a postdoc at RLE. The work was funded by the U.S. Army and the National Science Foundation, through MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies and Center for Materials Science and Engineering. The newly developed fiber has a hollow core; surrounding this core are alternating layers of materials with different optical properties, which together act as a mirror. In the core is a droplet of fluid that can be moved up and down the fiber. When the droplet receives energy, or is “pumped” — in experiments, the researchers used another laser to pump the droplet — it emits light. The light bounces back and forth between the mirrors, emerging from the core as a 360-degree laser beam. Surrounding the core are four channels filled with liquid crystals, which vary the brightness of the emitted light; each liquid-crystal channel is controlled by two electrode channels running parallel to it. Yet despite the complexity of its structure, the fiber is only 400 micrometers across. (A human hair is usually somewhere around 100 micrometers in diameter.) In experiments, the researchers simultaneously activated liquid crystals on opposite sides of the fiber to investigate a hypothetical application in which a transparent, woven display would present the same image to viewers on both sides — not mirror images, as a display that emitted light uniformly would. But in principle, Stolyarov says, there’s no reason a fiber couldn’t have many liquid-crystal channels that vary the light intensity in several different directions. “You can build as many of these liquid-crystal channels as you want around the laser,” Stolyarov says. “The process is very scalable.” As a display technology, the fibers have the obvious drawback that each of them provides only one image pixel. To make the fibers more useful, the researchers are investigating the possibility that the single pixel — the droplet of water — could oscillate back and forth fast enough to fool the viewer into perceiving a line rather than a colored point. Even before the researchers answer that question, however, the fiber could prove useful in the burgeoning field of photodynamic therapy, in which light activates injected therapeutic compounds only at targeted locations. “The coolest thing about this work, really, is the way it’s made,” says Marko Loncar, an associate professor of electrical engineering at Harvard University. “The technology that they used to do it, basically, they can make kilometers of these things. It’s remarkable.” Loncar adds, “And they envision this being used for surgeries and things like that, where it would be really hard to use any other laser approach.” Loncar also thinks that the problem of pumping the fluid droplet back and forth to produce images is probably soluble. “There are entire lasers that depend on microfluidics,” he says. “The handling of fluids on a small scale nowadays is a pretty developed technology. So I don’t see this as a major obstacle.”

Is this the best run-good in modern poker history? Erik Seidel took down another high buy-in event, capturing the inaugural WPT Championship $100,000 Super High-Roller. For the win, Seidel banks $1,092,780. He defeated Erick Lindgren ($700,500) heads-up for the title. In 2011 alone, Seidel has earned $5,590,166. This includes: :: A fourth for $295,960 in the $25k PCA High Rollers. :: A third for $618,139 in the $100k Aussie Millions High Rollers. :: A first for $2,472,555 in the $250k Aussie Millions Super High Rollers. :: A first for $144,570 in the $25k LAPC High Rollers. :: A first for $750,000 in the $25k NBC National Heads-Up. :: A second for $155,103 in the WPT Hollywood Poker Open. Between winning all of these events and the fact that nobody can get money off the site he helped launch–Full Tilt Poker–Seidel is pretty much the epicenter of the poker economy at this point. Where all of this places Seidel on poker’s all-time winningest player list is still debatable, depending on what tournaments you include for your list. He’s either first by a large margin or third. Regardless, by any measurable, the 2011 poker scene has been owned by Erik Seidel. And the DoJ. Get full payouts here.

The task force formed to create a set of voluntary climate-risk disclosure recommendations has more than doubled the number of companies supporting its mission in the five months since it first published its findings. The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) now has 237 companies with a combined market capitalization of more than $6.3 trillion that have publicly committed to its goals, according to its head, Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and entrepreneur. The TCFD was established by the group of global regulators known as the Financial Stability Board, chaired by Bank of England Gov. Mark Carney, and published its recommendations in June with the aim of encouraging companies to help investors understand the risks to their investments from temperature change, rising sea levels and natural disasters. The companies that have signed up include more than 150 financial firms with assets of more than $81.7 trillion, the TCFD said in a statement released at the One Planet Summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron. The summit marks the two-year anniversary of the Paris Climate agreement, which seeks to limit the global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius by reducing greenhouse emissions. President Donald Trump has pledged to pull the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, dismaying climate activists but spurring a greater effort from the private sector to push through its goals without government help. Insurers have said anything higher than a 2 degree-temperature increase would make the world uninsurable. In case you missed it: U.S. health insurers are in a state of denial about climate change The companies span a broad range of industries and sectors, from construction to consumer goods, energy, metals and mining, as well as the full capital and investment chain, from companies that issue debt and equity to the largest credit rating agencies and stock exchanges. The list includes Bank of America Corp. BAC, +0.07% , BlackRock Inc. BLK, +0.36% , Citigroup Inc. C, -0.64% JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, -0.76% , Morgan Stanley MS, +0.52% and investors including the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, among others. “Climate change poses both economic risks and opportunities,” said Bloomberg. “But right now, companies don’t have the data they need to accurately measure the risks and evaluate the opportunities. That prevents them from taking protective measures and identifying sustainable investments that could have strong returns.” Read now: In Trump era it’s up to companies to push climate agenda, advocates say The movement won a victory late Monday, when energy giant Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, +0.20% said it would disclose details on how climate change may affect its business, bowing to pressure from shareholders who voted 62% in favor of a resolution on climate change at its annual shareholder meeting this year. There was more good news when French insurer Axa AXA, +0.11% said it would pull €2.4 billion ($2.8 billion) from the coal industry, shed all investment in oil sands and no longer insure new projects in either sector, as The Wall Street Journal reported. Dutch lender ING AT:INGA ING, +1.42% said it would cut its exposure to coal power to zero by 2025 and the World Bank said it would no longer finance upstream oil and gas after 2019. That comes after Norway’s sovereign fund said recently it is recommending to its government a divestment from fossil fuels. Companies are expected to start making the first disclosures in the coming year and the TCFD will report on their progress this time next year at the G-20 summit in Argentina, said Carney. The task force is also planning to launch a web-based platform to further support companies that are interested in implementing its recommendations. The TCFD Knowledge Hub will go live in the first quarter and be available via 222.tcfdhub.org. The S&P 500 SPX, -0.08% has gained 19% in 2017, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.13% has gained 24%. Read now: Axa to spend €1.2 billion to fight climate change

CAMBRIDGE Mass. (Reuters) - Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said he was “disappointed” at Serbian officials’ comments following a drone stunt at a soccer match this week but vowed on Thursday to push ahead with plans to meet his counterpart in Belgrade next week. Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama is interviewed by Reuters at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts October 16, 2014. REUTERS/Brian Snyder Relations between the two countries have been tense since a Tuesday incident in which a drone bearing a flag representing “Greater Albania,” an area covering all parts of the Balkans where ethnic Albanians live, flew over a major soccer match between the Albanian and Serbian teams, prompting a brawl on the field and the cancellation of the game. Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic earlier on Thursday claimed the incident showed that Albania was “not mature enough” to join the European community. “We feel really sad and we feel really disappointed about what happened and about how Serbian authorities are reacting. It’s unbelievable,” Rama said in an interview with Reuters. But he said he would not allow the remarks, or claims by Serbian officials that his brother had been responsible for the drone, to derail his plans to visit the Serbian capital on Oct. 22, in what would be the first visit to that city by an Albanian leader in almost 70 years. “We should not be driven by this kind of politics of the past and hatred of the past. We should not be driven by what happened at a soccer game,” Rama said ahead of a speech at Harvard University, just outside Boston. “I am very determined to go ahead.” The Albanian team fled the field at Tuesday’s match, held in the run-up to the Euro 2016 championships. Riot police were called in to disperse the crowd. Rama noted that, in an effort to avoid any violent outbursts, Albania had sent no fans to the game other than a contingent of 45 dignitaries including his brother. The group was searched carefully by Serbian authorities, he added. “I don’t see how someone could have brought in a drone or a flag when even scarves with Albanian symbols were not allowed to enter the stadium,” Rama said. “It’s clear that the flying object came from out of the stadium.” He also asked why media accounts to the game played down the crowd shouting threats to kill Albanians, using an ethnic slur. Both Serbia and Albania aim one day to join the European Union. Relations between the two have long been marked by tensions over Serbia’s former province of Kosovo, which has an ethnic-Albanian majority and declared independence in 2008. “We are not going to respond in the same old way of a region that has suffered so much from this old way, from a region that has finally found peace,” Rama said. “We are in peace not because we became angels but because we are all convinced that Europe is our destination and we want to be part of the European family of nations as members of the European Union.”

The handy to-do list and task management app Astrid is shutting down. What's your favorite app for simple task reminders? Yahoo-owned Astrid was scheduled to shut down on Monday. (Photo11: Photodisc Getty Images) Story Highlights Yahoo acquired Astrid in May The Astrid service is scheduled to shut down on Monday Any.do is a handy replacement for simple task management SAN FRANCISCO — Today's to-do list: Settle on a good replacer for Astrid, the handy Yahoo-acquired to-do list app that is slated to shut down today. Done and done. In the spirit of the handy little reminder and task management app, the Astrid team on Sunday night sent an email to users reminding us that the service is shutting down on Monday and will no longer be available. Astrid had about 4 million downloads before its purchase by Yahoo in May for an undisclosed sum. As of Sunday night, you could download any data you wanted to retain from the service at astrid.com/home/export. The folks at Astrid recommended several replacements — Wrike, Wunderlist, Sandglaz, and Any.do — though there are a truly exhausting number of to-do list apps available on multiple platforms. I didn't want to spend a ton of time checking out alternatives. After a quick search in Google Play, Apple's App Store and the web a few weeks ago, I settled on Any.do and it has filled nearly all of my simple requirements. It's simple to add a task reminder in Any.do and that is all I really want in a to-do list app — a way to quickly add tasks, prompts and lists to get me through my personal day and work day: Move the car! Edit these stories! Call this person back! Any.do, from an Israel-based startup, does all that in a very minimalist way, much like Astrid, which I'd latched onto as much for its cheeky prompts as ease of use. I liked that I could log in with my Google account and sync tasks across my devices — whether Android or iOS or via the web (like Astrid, there's also a Chrome browser extension for Any.do). You could use it to screen incoming calls or set up meeting reminders. Any.do does all of that too, although you must either create an account or log in via Facebook rather than Google. There is nice integration with my Gmail account with Any.do. Open an email and you see an Any.do task bar offering "What's next" options — "follow up with Margie," "set up meeting with XX". Yahoo bought Astrid in May —— one in a dizzying string of acquisitions under CEO Marissa Mayer as part of the company's efforts to reach a younger, mobile audience. Readers: What's your favorite to-do list/tast management app? Drop us a note at techcomments@usatoday.com. Follow Nancy Blair on Twitter: @nansanfran. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1emqQ9Z

It is one of America’s most beloved past times. Every year, when the weather gets cold and the days get shorter millions gather around their television sets to cheer on their favorite football teams. From the Grid Iron to the Gravy Train: How the NFL Scored a Nonprofit Status Those same fans funnel billions upon billions of dollars into the industry to buy everything from tickets to memorabilia. In fact, the National Football League collects upwards of $9 billion in revenue each year, making the league the most lucrative in the world according to Forbes. On top of the massive profits the teams enjoy, the league also scores big with tax breaks handed down from the federal government, specifically income taxes. The teams themselves are considered for-profit entities and pay taxes -- however, the leagues, which set the rules, negotiate contracts, discipline players and come up with a programming schedule, do not. “The NFL is exempt for federal and state income tax under section 501c6 of the federal tax code, which is very different from the sections that exempt charities and other philanthropic organizations,” Chair of the Nonprofit Organizations Practice at Venable Law Firm, Jeff Tenenbaum explains, “A 501c6 organization, which is typically reserved for trade and professional associations and chambers of commerce and some sports leagues, is a category that… carries with it exemption from paying federal and state corporate income tax on your net income.” And, the NFL isn’t alone. The National Hockey League, the Professional Golfers’ Association, the U.S. Tennis Association and numerous other sporting leagues also enjoy similar statuses. So, how did such a situation come about? Since the 1940’s, the NFL has received some tax breaks from federal and state governments. However, it wasn’t until 1966 that language was formally added to the national tax code which officially protected professional football. At the time, there were not one but two professional football leagues: the NFL and the American Football League or the AFL. On June 8, 1966, the two leagues formally announced plans to merge. The first ever Super Bowl was also held that very season. In order to merge, the leagues had to approach Congress to ask for an exemption to antitrust laws, which prohibit monopolies that limit competition. Nitty Gritty Tax Law After a lobbying blitz by both the NFL and the AFL, Congress eventually agreed to allow the two leagues to merge. During that same time, football lobbyists also pushed for the NFL to be explicitly added to federal tax code as a trade association. As a result, Section 6 of Unites States Code 26 regarding 501 exemptions was modified to read as such: (6)Business leagues, chambers of commerce, real-estate boards, boards of trade, or professional football leagues (whether or not administering a pension fund for football players), not organized for profit and no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. According to the IRS, in order to be considered a trade association and, therefore, tax exempt, the league’s activities must: “Be devoted to the improvement of business conditions of one or more lines of business as distinguished from the performance of particular services for individual persons. It must be shown that the conditions of a particular trade or the interests of the community will be advanced. Merely indicating the name of the organization or the object of the local statute under which it is created is not enough to demonstrate the required general purpose.” In its 2010 990 tax return form, the NFL described itself as a “trade association promoting interests of its 32 member clubs.” Whether or not promoting the interests of 32 member clubs equates to improving business condition is up to the IRS to decide. Because the phrase ‘professional football leagues’ was added to the text, the NFL is protected, but the Internal Revenue Service takes that to mean other sporting leagues are as well. This is a notion Tenenbaum himself sees as suspect. “I think the legitimate question is, ‘does the fact that they were written in so specifically, with some very particular, specific language, does that mean that Congress actually meant to exempt the NFL from taxes under section 501c6 or was Congress simply saying a professional sports league that broadly promotes a particular sport, that’s another category of what we mean by 501c6, the NFL may or may not be one of those. We really don’t know the answer to that.” A Look at the NFL’s Playbook To truly understand whether or not the NFL meets those criteria, a basic understanding of the organization’s structure is required. The league’s origin goes all the way back to September 17, 1920, when team owners and football enthusiasts came together in Canton, Ohio to organize a central group that makes and enforces rules. Today, the NFL represents 32 teams in two conferences: the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The organization's main duties include hiring league employees, disciplining people who break the rules, negotiating television deals, distributing money from those television profits to teams, suspending players and coaches, handing down fines and, in serious cases, canceling contracts or striping teams of draft picks. In order to be able to conduct its business, each team pays annual dues. According to Forbes, only about $500,000 of the league's money comes in annually from fines and penalties and less than $200,000 comes from investment income. Teams pay the organization about $6 million in dues annually. However, as SportsFans.org reports, team owners are not taxed on that money since it is considered a donation to a nonprofit organization. In spite of the fact that the NFL in its entirety is the most profitable sport in the US, the league itself is actually operating in the red. In 2011 alone, the NFL reported $77 million in losses. “The expenses outweigh the revenues so it is actually losing money. So the irony is if it were a taxable entity it wouldn’t be paying any tax because, like any tax-paying entity, if you exceed your revenues you don’t pay any tax, there’s no net income,” Tenenbaum points out. But, how can a league which brings in over $250 million annually still report losses year after year? That's probably because the majority of the NFL's money goes to executives' contracts. Roger Goodell Makes How Much?! According to IRS salary transparency rules, tax exempt organizations can pay no more than fair market value compensation for services. It is also because of the fact that the NFL files taxes as a trade association that the public gets to know exactly what its executives make. Those very tax forms reveal that current NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made nearly $29.5 million in 2011 alone. That’s almost triple the $11.6 million he pulled the year before. Those big checks almost guarantee that Goodell is perhaps the only sports commissioner who makes as much as or more money than the athletes themselves. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, for instance, made a mere $18 million by comparison, and former Indianapolis Colts Quarterback Peyton Manning had a salary of $23 million in 2011. RT America reached out to the NFL, NHL as well as the PGA on multiple occasions. None of the leagues chose to comment on their tax exempt status. Flag on the Play: Petitioning the NFL’s Tax-Exempt Status Because of the revenues the NFL as a whole pulls in along with the massive salaries its executives enjoy, a number of people have spoken out against the tax exempt status, even fans themselves. Lynda Woolard is a longtime New Orleans Saints fan and yet she started a petition on Change.org to call for an end to the NFL’s nonprofit status. “I started the petition because I saw a real imbalance of power in the league," Woolard told RT. “So, to me, I was trying to think of a way to really give the fans a voice.” So far, the petition has been signed by over 304,000 people. There’s also a letter attached to the bottom of the petition for the public to send to members of Congress, which a number of people have taken advantage of. Woolard, who runs a nonprofit charitable foundation herself, says the biggest obstacle to overcome is lack of awareness. But she has gotten ample support. “Sports Fans Coalition at Sportsfans.org contact me and say they would like to go to Washington on the petition signers’ behalf and try to find someone to sign on to put this into the upcoming budget hearings that are coming up. So we do have a Champion in Washington.” The Senator Who Called ‘Off-Sides’ The Sports Fans Coalition isn’t the only group in Washington that’s taking the NFL to task. Republican Senator Tom Coburn released a Government Waste Book in 2012 detailing just how much money this sports loophole is draining from the American economy. Coburn argues that taxpayers are losing millions annually. “Hardworking taxpayers should not be forced to provide funding to offset tax giveaways to lucrative major professional sports teams and leagues,” the Government Waste Book reads, “Based on publicly available information about the NFL and NHL alone, barring major leagues from using the non-profit status may generate at least $91 million of federal revenue every year.” In April, Coburn introduced an amendment to Senate bill 743 or the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013, which would amend the IRS tax code. The bill passed the Senate in May, though Coburn’s amendment never came up for a vote. But that hasn’t stopped the Oklahoma Senator from continuing this battle. On September 18th of this year, Senator Coburn introduced his newest initiative to end the tax-exempt status for professional sports called the Properly Reducing Over Exemptions for Sports, or PRO Sports, Act. The goal is to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude major professional sports leagues from qualifying as tax-exempt organizations. If passed, all professional sporting organizations with annual revenue that exceeds $10 million would be forced to pay federal income taxes. The bill has been referred to committee but has a virtually nonexistent chance of passing by the end of the year. Even if the PRO Sports act did eventually pass, Zimbalist and others argue the league tax exempt status is not as big of an issue as you might think. “I think frankly it doesn’t make a great deal of difference because, as I say, as a central organization that is fulfilling a coordinating function, it doesn’t generate profits that it keeps itself and it can always, by changing its accounting, it can always make any potential surplus disappear,” Zimbalist said. “When the joint committee on taxation scored the Coburn bill to try to figure out how much money it would raise over 10 years, it came in at $10 million a year, which is basically a rounding error in federal budget standards. It’s a tiny, tiny fraction and that has to be because these leagues are not generating a lot of net revenue, at least the league itself… So in terms of any real impact to the tax payers and to the bottom line, it’s really not going to have any. People may be outraged, maybe justifiably so, but if anyone thinks this is going to be a boon to the U.S. treasury, it’s just simply not,” Tenenbaum agrees. If You Build it, They will Pay… Another major issue that is entirely separate from the tax exempt status debate but equally important is the massive amount of money states shell out to build state-of-the-art stadiums. Harvard University professor of urban planning Judith Grant Long calculated that league-wide, 70 percent of NFL stadium capital costs have been provided by taxpayers. The price tag on these behemoth stadiums, often featuring retractable roofs, interchangeable fields and massive jumbotrons, has risen substantially in recent years. “The costs of land, infrastructure, operations and forgone property taxes add 25 percent to the taxpayer bill for the 121 sports facilities in use during 2010, increasing the average public cost to $259 million, or $89 million more than the $170 million commonly reported by the sports industry and media,” Long’s book, “Public/Private Partnerships for Major League Sports Facilities,” contends. Big pay for sports teams to play. In fact there are only three NFL franchises, the New England Patriots, New York Giants, and New York Jets, which have paid three-quarters or more of their stadium capital costs, meaning 29 other stadiums were funded, in part by taxpayers. CenturyLink Field, where the Seattle Seahawks play, finished it construction in 2002 to the tune of $560 million. A whopping $390 million, or 70 percent, of that money for construction came from taxpayers. Another example: the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium. The 80,000 seat stadium came to a grand total of $1.3 billion when it completed its construction in 2009. Taxpayers handed over $444 million to contribute to the total. On top of that, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who ranks 166 on Forbes’ List of Richest Americans with a net worth of $3 billion, is exempt from paying around $6 million in property taxes annually as an incentive the state offered to keep the team in Dallas. On the other hand, professional sports teams argue their presence is an economic boon for the cities. So, proponents of stadium investments argue capital costs are a small investment for cities to make in order to guarantee a long and profitable future regardless of how well the teams perform. However, academic research has proved time and again public investment in sports stadiums do not result in the economic returns that would make such an investment worth it. Live Long and Costly Once the stadium is built and opening day is over, taxpayers continue to front money for years to come on maintenance and operation costs as well as city-wide functions necessary for game days such as traffic control. Maintenance extends from deep below ground in the sewer system all the way up to electrical costs. The Minnesota Viking stadium cost a grand total of $950 million to build. City residents are expected to shell out an additional $7.5 million on maintenance costs. And, when those stadiums need to be repaired or refurbished, that bill is once again addressed to the city. Earlier this year, the Carolina Panthers asked the state to pay $62 million for capital improvements, according to Charlotte Observer reporter Steve Harrison. Team owners want to renovate the 17-year-old Bank of America Stadium.The city of Charlotte will fork over an additional $125 on the promise that the Panthers will stay in the city for the next 15 years. Tack on top of that $15 million that the city would need to pay for maintenance and $375,000 for game-day traffic control and taxpayers are looking at quite a big chunk of change. Notably, all 32 NFL teams made Forbes’ list of the 50 most valuable sports franchises around the world with the Panthers claiming the 23rd spot. A starker example of taxpayers footing the bill for renovation was brought about in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. For days and weeks after the hurricane, hundreds of stranded families waited in the Superdome for FEMA’s help. The stadium acted as a symbol of the storm and the government’s disastrous response. Since that historic storm, taxpayers have coughed up $471 million to restore the superdome to its former glory. If You Don’t Pay for it, They Will Leave… Along with a long history of states offering incentives like tax breaks and stadium construction, there is also a long history of states refusing to fund these expensive stadiums and paying dearly for it. It has become somewhat of a tradition in professional sports for teams to threaten to leave if local governments refuse to write a check. In fact, many have left as a result. Some of the most recent examples of teams playing chicken with local governments are the Minnesota Vikings threatening to leave in 2011 over stadium disputes and, this year, the Atlanta Falcons, St. Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers are all threatening to pack their bags if they don’t get what they want. Interestingly, as part of the 1966 antitrust exemption Congress granted the NFL in its pursuit to merge with the AFL, the league agreed to a rule forcing all existing franchises to be retained, meaning there must be 32 at all times, and none of those teams were allowed to move outside of their metropolitan areas. So, how teams are traveling from city to city in the modern era remains somewhat of a mystery. In the end, many cities and states are more willing to hand over millions and offer tax incentives to teams rather than risk losing them for good. Post- Game Commentary In the end, America may be too invested in sports to adequately address any of these issues, from the tax exempt status to subsidized stadiums to its unparalleled broadcasting privileges. Some of these issues affect taxpayers more than others but all reaffirm how deeply ingrained professional sports, or perhaps just professional football, are in our culture. Love it or hate it, 17 million viewers will still tune in from kickoff to the fourth quarter to take part in America’s most profitable tradition.

If antioxidant supplement labels are to be believed, you should stop reading this article and gobble down some pills: Spurred by the rising sales of antioxidant supplements, Pom Wonderful, makers of pomegranate juice, now makes an antioxidant supplement that they claim has "extraordinary health benefits." This proclamation is echoed by numerous health supplement ads in health food stores and on the Internet. For instance, Source Naturals Resveratrol advises on the General Nutrition Centers Web site that taking antioxidants "…may help prevent free-radical damage throughout the body and provide protective support to the cardiovascular system.*" Problem solved. Except a bit of a buzz-kill is delivered by the asterisked footnote: "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease." So, do the purported health benefits of antioxidants actually exist? Here's the theory: Just as the name suggests, antioxidants slow down oxidation, a process that is part of normal bodily functions but can also damage cells. Oxidation can even increase the stickiness of cholesterol, upping the risk that it will block circulation and cause heart attacks or strokes. So it at least theoretically makes sense that antioxidants such as vitamin C, vitamin E and other antioxidant compounds found in carrots and other vegetables, are good for you. Ditto antioxidants found in pomegranates, red wine and licorice root. And early studies in the 1990s showed that people who ate more antioxidants had a lower risk of heart disease and stroke. But those findings didn't hold up for antioxidant supplements. In later studies, such supplements did not affect risk of—and in some studies actually increased—heart attacks and strokes. Nancy Cook, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and a co-author of one of these studies, suggests two possible explanations for these results: It could be that studies of supplements are using the wrong doses and combinations of antioxidants. Or, people who eat lots of antioxidants—in foods, not supplements—are already doing the kinds of things that lower heart disease risk, namely exercise and, well, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. Biochemist Michael Aviram of the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, suggests another alternative. His research focuses on pomegranates. In a recent study, he found that mice bred to have blockages in their arteries and developed fewer blockages in their arteries after they were fed parts of pomegranates. Because such blockages can cause heart attacks and strokes, he says his studies suggest antioxidants work against such events. And although earlier studies found that vitamin E—another antioxidant—didn't clear such blockages, he found that the kinds of antioxidants in pomegranates do. His theory: there are many sources of oxidative stress—viruses, toxins, physical strain—and each antioxidant might be effective against a particular type of stress, but not the others. In other words, it depends whether the antioxidants you're taking are fighting against the good, normal oxidation in your body or the bad oxidation. "The devil's in the details in a lot of these things," says Andrew Shao of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade association in Washington, D.C., representing supplement manufacturers. "If you were to take all the marketing at face value, you might think that the ideal situation is to have no oxidation whatsoever. That is not what you want. It's part of normal biochemistry, part of the immune system." "Most [antioxidants] don't work alone," he adds. "They're not drugs." Like Cook, Shao recommends a diet high in antioxidants and a healthy lifestyle that includes regular exercise. "That may run counter to what you see in some marketing," he says, although he refused to say which ads he meant. Marketing also makes it difficult for consumers to know what they are getting. "Is the product on the shelf the same one that was studied in clinical trials?" Shao asks. For foods, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission monitor claims made on the label or in advertising, but "it very much depends on the strength and specificity of the language in the claim," he says. A product that claims "antioxidant support" will raise less ire than one that claims to lower the risk of a particular disease. In any case, the research is clear: Large, carefully controlled studies and trials have consistently found no benefit to antioxidant supplements, says Alice Lichtenstein of Tufts University.* "You have to take the totality of the data, and that's what we normally do [in science]," she says. "Why are they popular? I don't know. Maybe because it sounds like the easy answer." With reporting by Willa Austen Isikoff * Note (7/7/08): This sentence has been modified since the original posting.

Gorillaz, LCD Soundsystem and Liam Gallagher set for Malahide Castle Next Year? Ah, the old internet rumour mill. What on earth was life like before you? According to reports on a couple of mammoth Irish digital content pedallers, LCD Soundsystem are primed to play Malahide Castle on Tuesday, June 5, Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz will play Saturday, June 9 and Liam Gallagher (whose debut solo album Christine Costello reviewed for us over here) will play an as-of-yet unspecified date in the month. According to a post by Enjoy Malahide (and let’s face it, who wouldn’t enjoy Malahide?) the shows are provisional and dependent upon successful planning permission. Assuming that’s granted, and these shows are, you know, actually in the pipeline, we can expect three sell-outs right off the bat there.

There are many short track drivers out there who dominated their local tracks and touring divisions but never got a chance to make it to the big time. There's also some out there who did make it to NASCAR's top levels, only to be phased out by younger, more funded drivers. While they may have had to hang up their helmets for one reason or another, many of those drivers are still around the racetrack. They're not behind the wheel anymore. Instead, they're up on the spotter's stand. Spotting wasn't something that guys like Freddie Kraft, Mike Herman, Jr., Tim Fedewa and Eddie D'Hondt started out doing. It was something that they did on the side when they had free time. "Towards the end of my career when things weren't going the way I wanted them to... through some mutual friends I heard that Bill Elliott needed a spotter for a few races here and there so I said I'd do it," said Tim Fedewa who now spots for Stewart-Haas Racing in the Sprint Cup Series. "I'd race Saturday in the Busch car and Sunday I'd stay over and help Bill occasionally. "When I couldn't drive anymore I needed to make a living," said Fedewa. "I just kept spotting and it's come to this." The 47-year-old Fedewa from Holt, Michigan scored four wins in what was then known as the NASCAR Busch Series. He said that his favorite moment behind the wheel was the day he won his first Busch race at Nazareth Speedway (PA) in 1995. "They had a memorial service in Michigan that day for my grandmother so it was pretty surreal that they were burying her at the same time the race was going on and I couldn't be there," said Fedewa. "But I know she was there with me so it was pretty special." Mike Herman, Jr. was racing on the USAR Hooters Pro Cup circuit while at the same time spotting for Joe Gibbs Racing in the K&N Pro Series East. Herman is a two-time champion in Late Model Stock Cars at Concord Speedway (NC) and now spots for Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. in the Cup Series. "It just so happened that the East schedule and the Pro Cup schedule didn't overlap so it worked out well," said the Kannapolis, NC native who also raced Modifieds at Bowman Gray Stadium (NC). "I basically worked through East, ARCA, Trucks, Nationwide. Basically like a driving career you're just making the right moves and it led me to where I'm at today." Freddie Kraft spots for Michael Annett at the Cup level as well as for Darrell "Bubba" Wallace, Jr. in the Camping World Truck Series. He raced at Long Island's Riverhead Raceway in the Figure 8 division for three full seasons and he'll quickly admit that he wasn't the best driver out there. "In 1999 I spent most of my time parked on the backstretch trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with my car," said the 32-year-old Kraft who grew up in Kings Park, New York. "I wasn't into it like I needed to be. Didn't put enough time into the cars. It was more about hanging out with my friends. More about spotting for my buddies." But Kraft has an interesting claim to Riverhead fame. "I actually won Rookie of the Year twice (1999 and 2004) which is pretty impressive because it's the same division," said Kraft with a laugh. "I think it was a lack of options the second year. I don't think there was anybody else. Maybe they kind of played some kind of joke on me, but that's the story there. I think they kind of forgot." Kraft started spotting for Jarrod Hayes at Riverhead, then started spotting for Jimmy Blewett and others before making his way up the ladder to where he is now. Kraft has even won a couple of championships spotting for fellow long Islander George Brunnhoelzl, III on the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour. "It came time to make a decision about whether I wanted to race or do what I do now," said Kraft. "I picked spotting obviously." Kraft is accompanied by another Long Islander on the spotter's stand. Eddie D'Hondt, from Levittown, NY, spots for Jeff Gordon. D'Hondt raced at Riverhead as well as Islip Speedway (NY) before running on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. "In 1996 Tommy Baldwin, Steve Park, Bono (Kevin Manion) and myself all moved to Charlotte," said D'Hondt. "We got a house together and just went to work. I started out as a mechanic and a pit crew guy. Then I started spotting for Bill Elliott back in 1999 so I just kept on doing it." The spotter is one of the most important pieces to the race team puzzle. Thanks to all the safety devices the drivers have now like the HANS device and containment seats their visibility is extremely limited. The spotter is a second set of eyes for the driver. But does being a former driver make for a better spotter? "I feel it definitely helps but to be a good spotter you don't have to have driving experience," said Herman. "From my standpoint it definitely plays into what I say every time I key the mic to talk. Because I know I've seen the view. I know what he's thinking. I know what he's feeling." Fedewa said that being a former driver helps him deal with his current driver, Kevin Harvick, when he gets angry and goes on a rant over the radio because he's been in that position before. "I know when I was driving I blew up and cussed and threw a fit," said Fedewa. "It wasn't directed at anybody in particular. Besides all the outside pressures, your sponsors, owners, it's the personal pressure you put on yourself as a driver. I try to say something that will make sense to him and calm him down instead of irritating him some more. Or I just say nothing and let him go. Usually five or 10 laps later they forget about it and it's over with." They haven't forgotten their roots either. Herman and Kraft still like to spot some short track races when they get the chance to. Herman will go spot for Ryan Preece on occasion like he did on Mother's Day weekend this year at Lee USA Speedway (NH). "I have an extreme love for short track racing to this day," said Herman. "I love the venues. It's rough and tumble. Short track racing is tough. Every lap is a battle. Sometimes at the big tracks it kind of gets spread out and it's all about the speed." Kraft likes to spot for Timmy Solomito for NWMT races whenever there isn't a conflict with his other responsibilities. "Any time I get to do short track racing I jump right on it because I love it," said Kraft. They may not be behind the wheel anymore battling it out on the short tracks like they used to, but they're still winning races and doing it at the highest levels of the sport. "It never ever gets old to win," said D'Hondt. "That's why we make all the sacrifices we made our whole lives to stay in this business as hard as it is and as strenuous as it is at times." -By Rob Blount, Speed51.com Regional Editor (Long Island, CT, and NJ) -Twitter: @RobBlount -Feature Photo Credit: Freddie Kraft Facebook. 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Join us on Saturday, January 28, 2012 at Noon for the biggest Flipper Bowl yet! The New Year is almost here and that means Flipper Bowl III is a month away! The New Year is almost here and that means Flipper Bowl III is a month away! The New Year is almost here and that means Flipper Bowl III is a month away! The New Year is almost here and that means Flipper Bowl III is a month away! Join us on Saturday, January 28, 2012 at Noon for the biggest Flipper Bowl yet! The Young Associates Board's Flipper Bowl has gotten SO HUGE we've moved to one of the biggest bar venues in Chicago - Joe's on Weed! THIS EVENT HAS SOLD OUT IN PAST YEARS, SO REGISTER BY JANUARY 7th AND SAVE $5 PER PERSON! Get your team ready and sign up at http://www.events.org/flipperbowl. Individual Entry - Now $35! (after January 7th $40) Team of 6 - Now $210! (after January 7th $240) Spectator Ticket - Now $30! (after January 7th $35) All proceeds from this event are donated to support pediatric brain tumor research and family support services at Children's Memorial Hospital. Check out the shining moments from Flipper Bowl II! Returning Teams ...remember where you finished last year?

HAUNTING PAST: The 63 tombstones at Satth Kabar in Bijapur today lie neglected HAUNTING PAST: The 63 tombstones at Satth Kabar in Bijapur today lie neglected History is not just about quests and conquests. Beyond the ramparts and the battlefields there were the ordinary men and women, the farmers, the shopkeepers, the housewives, the blacksmiths, the servants, who worked to keep the empires going. But their narratives lie frozen and unheard amidst the dead debris of time. If you look around carefully, you will find that every place has a nook or cranny which records history. It could be a decaying log hut, an inscription on the rocks, perhaps a path long disused and overrun by weeds. All these have their own stories to tell. There's such a corner in Bijapur with a sad tale to relate. The rows of tombstones there tell a story that is redolent of the days when the world revolved around men, when women wilfully or otherwise immolated themselves on their husband's funeral pyre. They recall insane acts, like those of Sultan Ibrahim of the Ottoman Empire who drowned his entire harem when he was told that one of them enjoyed a relationship with a eunuch. A concubine swam free and lived to tell the tale. None of the 63 noble women of Bijapur survived to recount their horrific experience. It was the year 1658, when Ali Adil Shahi II of the Shahi dynasty was preparing to go to war against Shivaji, the indefatigable Maratha ruler. Under constant pressure from Aurangzeb on one side and Shivaji on the other, Adil Shahi depended on his generals to stall the enemies, and he counted General Afzal Khan among his most trusted warriors. Khan was a brave man who had but one weakness: auguries and omens. When asked to lead a battle against Shivaji, Khan contacted astrologers who predicted doom - death at the hands of the Maratha soldiers. Fearing that his wives would remarry after his death, the anxious general chose to kill them. Some say they were pushed into a deep well, while others say they fell to his sword. The diviners proved correct, for Khan did die in battle. His wives lie buried just 5 km from Bijapur at a place that now bears titular testimony to the uxoricide - Saatth Kabar (60 Graves). Ironically, the tomb built by the general for himself, who wanted to be close to his wives in life and in death, stands adjacent to the one-acre burial ground surrounded by jowar fields. The site has now been declared to be of national importance under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1958 and is under the jurisdiction of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). But official acceptance of responsibility for its upkeep is not too evident. The tombstones are scarred by graffiti, and people often come to the shady spot for rest or boisterous fun. "People need to hear the heartrending stories that cry out from these graves," says Anilsaab Maashelkar, 65, who owns four acres of land besides the graveyard. He laments that there is not even a proper road leading to the monument. Another inhabitant of the area, Panchappa Kalbargi, adds, "This town is full of such monuments but there is not much awareness about them." Apart from the famous Gol Gumbaz, Bijapur, or the "City of Victory", has 50 mosques and 20 historic tombs. But the ASI has no money to protect them. "We are working on a tight budget," says A. Venkateshiah, superintending archaeologist of the ASI's Dharwad circle, under whose jurisdiction Bijapur falls. Another Dharwad resident, Ananth Kumar, until recently the Union minister for tourism and culture, explained that since the ASI had an annual budget of only Rs 156 crore, after meeting staff salaries and other expenses it was left with a mere Rs 7,600 to spend per monument. "Many in the government dismiss the Saatth Kabar as only a grave, forgetting the Taj Mahal too is only a mausoleum," adds V. Hari, a local resident who feels the site could become a tourist attraction. Karnataka Tourism Minister Roshan Baig says Bijapur's monuments are being considered in a plan the Government is drawing up to promote tourism in the state. Till the plan becomes a reality, very few will know of a general who so loved his wives that he murdered them.

The youngest person arrested was 13. All of the kids were handcuffed, cursed at and humiliated, and several spent 30 hours or more in jail. To date, there has been no evidence produced — no witnesses, no photographs or videotapes, no dented vehicles or broken mirrors, nothing whatsoever — to indicate that any of the youngsters had done anything at all that was wrong. How is it that you can have a rampage in broad daylight on a street in New York City and not be able to show in any way that the rampage occurred? Photo At least 22 of the 32 people arrested have had their charges dismissed or were never formally charged at all. No one has been convicted of anything. The case against 18-year-old Zezza Anderson was dropped last month after his lawyer, Ron Kuby, filed a motion demanding that Mr. Hynes’s office produce documentary evidence of the youngsters misbehaving. No evidence was produced. Instead, an assistant district attorney moved to have the charges against Mr. Anderson dismissed, acknowledging that the case against the defendant could not be proved. I’d like to know why, after the better part of a year, the authorities are still tormenting some of these kids. Why are charges still hanging over 10 of them? Why should it take more than nine months to resolve charges of unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct? Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. A number of the kids have missed days at school to show up for court dates at which nothing of consequence happens. Asher Callender, a senior at Bushwick Community High School, had to go to court on Friday, only to have his case postponed again until March 3. These are not gangsters. These are not drug dealers. These are kids who were trying to go to a wake for a friend. It was not the kids who were out of control, it was the criminal justice system, which can’t seem to tell the difference between right and wrong, between the truth and deliberate lies, or between justice on the one hand and gratuitously cruel behavior by public officials on the other. Advertisement Continue reading the main story All the charges in this case should be dropped and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who apparently wants to be mayor of this city, and District Attorney Hynes should offer the kids a public apology. The authorities have become accustomed to treating disadvantaged young people in New York City like dirt and getting away with it. In this case, local school officials, community residents and the civic group Make the Road New York rallied to the youngsters’ cause. Neither the police nor the district attorney expected to be confronted in any kind of sustained way over their treatment of these kids. Mr. Hynes said on the radio program: “None of these kids are going to be prosecuted. They’re not going to go to jail ... We are going to offer every one of them community service.” What he meant was that he expected the kids to go quietly, to plead guilty and passively accept the blot on their records and what he thought of as mild punishment. But the kids had a surprise for him. They refused to plead guilty to something they hadn’t done. Ten of them are still paying the price for standing up for themselves.

Margaret Thatcher and her chancellor Sir Geoffrey Howe were behind a politically toxic plan in 1982 to dismantle the welfare state, newly released Downing Street documents show. She later attempted to distance herself from the plans after what was described as a "riot" in her cabinet. The proposals considered by her cabinet included compulsory charges for schooling and a massive scaling back of other public services. "This would of course mean the end of the National Health Service," declared a confidential cabinet memorandum by the Central Policy Review Staff in September 1982, released by the National Archives on Friday under the 30-year rule. Nigel Lawson, then the energy secretary, said the report by the official thinktank on long-term public spending options caused "the nearest thing to a cabinet riot in the history of the Thatcher administration". In her memoirs, Thatcher said: "I was horrified when I saw this paper. I pointed out that it would almost certainly be leaked and give a totally false impression … It was all a total nonsense," claiming the proposals were never seriously considered by her or her ministers. But the 1982 cabinet papers show the politically explosive paper was discussed at a special half-day extended cabinet discussion on 9 September that year. They show that Thatcher and Howe had been encouraging the CPRS thinktank to come up with such long-term radical options since February that year and that Howe continued to defend them even after the cabinet "riot" described by Lawson. As part of that revolt a watered-down version of the CPRS paper was leaked to the press, provoking Labour accusations that Thatcher had a secret agenda to dismantle the postwar welfare state – a charge that continues to echo down the years. Thatcher responded by famously promising in her 1982 Conservative party conference speech in Brighton that the NHS was "safe with us" – a claim that every Conservative leader since has felt compelled to repeat. But the papers show the revised version of the CPRS paper that was leaked was mild in comparison with the original set of proposals – and that Thatcher's horror had more to do with the prospect of a leak than with the nature of its contents. The leaked version proposed introducing education vouchers, ending the state funding of higher education, freezing welfare benefits and an insurance-based health service. But as John Sparrow, the merchant banker Thatcher had appointed to head the CPRS, complained to her when she demanded a more circumspect version, the revised paper "loses a large part of its punch". The original version went a lot further, including compulsory charges for schooling alongside a "drastic reduction in resources going to the public sector", full-cost university tuition fees and breaking the link that then existed between welfare benefits and prices. But the earlier version's most controversial privatisation proposal concerned the health service: "It is therefore worth considering aiming over a period to end the state provision of healthcare for the bulk of the population, so that medical facilities would be privately owned and run, and those seeking healthcare would be required to pay for it. "Those who could not afford to pay would then have their charges met by the state, via some form of rebating or reimbursement." The only exceptions might be the long-term institutional care of the "mentally handicapped, elderly" who "clearly could not afford to pay". One of those who worked on the CPRS paper was David Cameron's current advisor on crime and policing, Lord Wasserman. The cabinet papers show Gordon Wasserman, who was on the thinktank's staff from 1981-83, proposed cutting 25% of state school teachers in a background paper for the education section. The cabinet papers show that far from being some kind of surprise freelance operation, the CPRS report was encouraged and commissioned by Thatcher and Howe. As early as February, Howe was pressing for a wide-ranging discussion on the future size and shape of the public sector. On 28 July, the Downing Street papers show that he told Thatcher: "We should not be inhibited at this stage by such considerations as … the alleged impossibility of change. A discussion of this kind would pave the way for some major strategic decisions affecting our programmes as a government for the next parliament." Howe proposed a Treasury paper also be discussed at the special cabinet meeting on 9 September: "The PM agrees too that it would be useful if there were a CPRS paper pointing up some of the longer-term options open to us." Thatcher said they should be "vigorously explored". On the eve of the meeting, the cabinet secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong, told Thatcher that Howe had suggested "and you agreed" that the CPRS should be asked to prepare a paper outlining possible ways of making significant changes to the scale and pattern of public expenditure. Armstrong said the value of the meeting lay in the chance for the cabinet to "lift its eyes from current preoccupations and to focus on what they like the shape of things in this country to be at the end of the decade. "At the extreme end, some may argue that any of the radical proposals discussed by the CPRS would be even more unacceptable than the prospect of unchanged policies. But the meeting will have failed in its purpose if ministers are not willing at least to contemplate the possibility of radical action," said Armstrong, who went on to recommend that all options should be remitted for further study.

By Ellen Asermely Rabat – Dutch far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders was found not guilty of hate speech but guilty of discrimination and group insult. He will face no punishment. The verdict is in reference to comments Wilders, the leader of the Freedom Party, made about Moroccans while campaigning in The Hague in 2014. On camera, Wilders said of his campaign: ‘They are voting for a safer and more social city with fewer problems and, if possible, fewer Moroccans.’ Wilders also asked the audience at a rally if they wanted ‘more or less Moroccans’ and the crowd responded, as instructed, ‘less’. The comments were met with backlash from politicians, Muslim organizations, and Moroccan-Dutch people. In December 2014, public prosecution announced its intent to take Wilders to court for discrimination and inciting hatred. During the case, judges wanted to determine whether the remarks were impulsive or planned in advance. They also wanted to address the fact that Wilders later claimed his remarks referred to ‘criminal Moroccans’ while simultaneously refusing to withdraw his statements previously made in The Hague. The public prosecutor also argued that Wilders used rhetoric to ‘drive the room’, saying ‘The unnecessarily hurtful nature of the statements can exist without foul language. The grievance lies mainly in the tone of speech, and inflammatory character…Here Wilders failed as a politician.’ The court found Wilders not guilty of hate speech, as his comments were not a call for violence. However, he was found guilty of discrimination and group insult. It was ‘legally and convincingly proven’ that Wilders had insulted Moroccans as an ethnic group, violating the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. He will not pay a fine, as the prosecution requested, as the court ruled that a criminal conviction was sufficient punishment. Three PVV hating judges declare that Moroccans are a race and convict me and half of the Netherlands. Madness. — Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) December 9, 2016 Wilders questioned the legitimacy of the court, and his lawyer announced that they will appeal the decision.

At the beginning? Quite a bit. Over time? Not as much. In this paper we compare the labor market performance of Israeli students who graduated from one of the leading universities, Hebrew University (HU), with those who graduated from a professional undergraduate college, College of Management Academic Studies (COMAS). Our results support a model in which employers have good information about the quality of HU graduates and pay them according to their ability, but in which the market has relatively little information about COMAS graduates. Hence, high-skill COMAS graduates are initially treated as if they were the average COMAS graduate, who is weaker [than an] HU graduate, consequently earning less than [HU] graduates. However, over time the market differentiates among them so that after several years of experience, COMAS and HU graduates with similar entry scores have similar earnings. Our results are therefore consistent with the view that employers use education information to screen workers but that the market acquires information fairly rapidly.

Itty Bitty Songbird Instructions If you are at Chicago Brickworld 2016 right now, you have one of these little guys on your display. As part of my duties as Brickworld Master 2015, I created 555 of these for the express purpose of pimping the MOCs on awards night. If yours falls apart, you now have instructions for putting him back together. A huge thanks goes out to CoWLUG members for helping me build the whole mess: Meghan & Ryan Nelson, Jim Miller, Derek Medina, Lester Marcinkowski, Donnie & Lauren Greenfield and Jordan Breithaupt. Also Dustin, Madi & Chase who stayed into the morning to get all the arms & heads done. Thanks too, to my Atomic Goblin crew, Bodhi & Dave for the final full body assembly. And finally, thanks to Mel, Evan & Adam for staying up all night in the event hall to help me make sure all the MOCs were properly pimped. You guys are awesome! Medic!!! And thanks to Nick and all the awesomeness that is GamerLUG for making a space for all of us. Done

This article is about the light machine gun. For the semi-automatic hunting rifle, see Browning BAR The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) is a family of American automatic rifles and machine guns used by the United States and numerous other countries during the 20th century. The primary variant of the BAR series was the M1918, chambered for the .30-06 Springfield rifle cartridge and designed by John Browning in 1917 for the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe as a replacement for the French-made Chauchat and M1909 Benét–Mercié machine guns that US forces had previously been issued. The BAR was designed to be carried by infantrymen during an assault[1] advance while supported by the sling over the shoulder, or to be fired from the hip. This is a concept called "walking fire" — thought to be necessary for the individual soldier during trench warfare.[2] The BAR never entirely lived up to the original hopes of the war department as either a rifle or a machine gun.[3] The U.S. Army, in practice, used the BAR as a light machine gun, often fired from a bipod (introduced on models after 1938).[4] A variant of the original M1918 BAR, the Colt Monitor Machine Rifle, remains the lightest production automatic firearm chambered for the .30-06 Springfield cartridge, though the limited capacity of its standard 20-round magazine tended to hamper its utility in that role.[4] Although the weapon did see some action in World War I, the BAR did not become standard issue in the US Army until 1938, when it was issued to squads as a portable light machine gun. The BAR saw extensive service in both World War II and the Korean War and saw limited service in the Vietnam War. The US Army began phasing out the BAR in the late 1950s, when it was intended to be replaced by a squad automatic weapon (SAW) variant of the M14, and was without a portable light machine gun until the introduction of the M60 machine gun in 1957. History [ edit ] John M. Browning, the inventor of the rifle, and Frank F. Burton, the Winchester expert on rifles, discussing the finer points of the BAR at the Winchester plant The US entered World War I with an inadequate, small, and obsolete assortment of domestic and foreign machine gun designs, due primarily to bureaucratic indecision and the lack of an established military doctrine for their employment. When the 1917 United States declaration of war on Germany was announced on 6 April 1917, the high command was made aware that to fight this trench war, dominated by machine-guns, they had on hand a mere 670 M1909 Benét–Merciés, 282 M1904 Maxims and 158 Colts, M1895s.[5] After much debate, it was finally agreed that a rapid rearmament with domestic weapons would be required, but until that time, US troops would be issued whatever the French and British had to offer. The arms donated by the French were often second-rate or surplus and chambered in 8mm Lebel, further complicating logistics as machine gunners and infantrymen were issued different types of ammunition.[2] Development [ edit ] A live fire demonstration of the BAR in front of military and government officials In 1917, prior to America's entry to the war, John Browning personally brought to Washington, D.C. two types of automatic weapons for the purposes of demonstration: a water-cooled machine gun (later adopted as the M1917 Browning machine gun) and a shoulder-fired automatic rifle known then as the Browning Machine Rifle or BMR, both chambered for the standard US .30-06 Springfield cartridge.[2] Browning had arranged for a public demonstration of both weapons at a location in southern Washington, D.C. known as Congress Heights.[6] There, on 27 February 1917, in front of a crowd of 300 people (including high-ranking military officials, congressmen, senators, foreign dignitaries and the press), Browning staged a live-fire demonstration which so impressed the gathered crowd, that he was immediately awarded a contract for the weapon and it was hastily adopted into service (the water-cooled machine gun underwent further testing).[6] Additional tests were conducted for US Army Ordnance officials at Springfield Armory in May 1917, and both weapons were unanimously recommended for immediate adoption. In order to avoid confusion with the belt-fed M1917 machine gun, the BAR came to be known as the M1918 or Rifle, Caliber .30, Automatic, Browning, M1918 according to official nomenclature. On 16 July 1917, 12,000 BARs were ordered from Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company, which had secured an exclusive concession to manufacture the BAR under Browning's patents (Browning's U.S. Patent 1,293,022 was owned by Colt).[7] However Colt was already producing at peak capacity (contracted to manufacture the Vickers machine gun for the British Army) and requested a delay in production while they expanded their manufacturing output with a new facility in Meriden, Connecticut. Due to the urgent need for the weapon, the request was denied and the Winchester Repeating Arms Company (WRAC) was designated as the prime contractor. Winchester gave valuable assistance in refining the BAR's final design, correcting the drawings in preparation for mass production.[8] Among the changes made, the ejection pattern was modified (spent casings were directed to the right side of the weapon instead of straight up). Initial M1918 production [ edit ] 2nd Lt. Val Browning with the Browning Automatic Rifle in France Since work on the gun did not begin until February 1918, so hurried was the schedule at Winchester to bring the BAR into full production that the first production batch of 1,800 guns was delivered out of spec;[8] it was discovered that many components did not interchange between rifles, and production was temporarily halted until manufacturing procedures were upgraded to bring the weapon up to specifications.[9] The initial contract with Winchester called for 25,000 BARs. They were in full production by June 1918, delivering 4,000 guns, and from July were turning out 9,000 units per month. Colt and Marlin-Rockwell Corp. also began production shortly after Winchester got into full production. Marlin-Rockwell, burdened by a contract to make rifles for the Belgian government, acquired the Mayo Radiator Co.'s factory and used it exclusively to carry out production of the BAR. The first unit from this source was delivered on 11 June 1918 and the company's peak output reached 200 automatic rifles per day.[9] Colt had produced only 9,000 BARs by the time of the armistice due to the heavy demands of previous orders.[9] These three companies produced a combined daily output of 706 rifles and a total of approximately 52,000 BARs were delivered by all sources by the end of the war.[9] Between 1918–19 102,174 BARs had been manufactured jointly by Colt, Winchester and Marlin-Rockwell. By July 1918 the BAR had begun to arrive in France, and the first unit to receive them was the US Army's 79th Infantry Division, which took them into action for the first time on 13 September 1918.[9] The weapon was personally demonstrated against the enemy by 2nd Lt. Val Allen Browning, the inventor's son.[9] Despite being introduced very late in the war, the BAR made an impact disproportionate to its numbers; it was used extensively during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and made a significant impression on the Allies (France alone requested 15,000 automatic rifles to replace their Chauchat machine rifles).[9] US Marines briefly took possession of the BAR. Troops from the First Battalion of the Sixth Marines had talked the "doggies" of the US Army's 36th Division into trading their BARs for their Chauchats. However, complaints from officers of the 36th resulted in the issuance of a command from Marine Lt. Col. Harry Lee on 9 October 1918: All Browning guns and equipment in Marine possession were to be turned in.[10] Design details and accessories [ edit ] The M1918 is a selective-fire, air-cooled automatic rifle using a gas-operated, long-stroke piston rod actuated by propellant gases bled through a vent in the barrel. The bolt is locked by a rising bolt lock. The weapon fires from an open bolt. The spring-powered cartridge casing extractor is contained in the bolt and a fixed ejector is installed in the trigger group. The BAR is striker-fired (the bolt carrier serves as the striker) and uses a trigger mechanism with a fire selector lever that enables operating in either semi-automatic or fully automatic firing modes. The selector lever is located on the left side of the receiver and is simultaneously the manual safety (selector lever in the "S" position – weapon is safe, "F" – fire, "A" – automatic fire). The "safe" setting blocks the trigger. The weapon's barrel is screwed into the receiver and is not quickly detachable. The M1918 feeds using double-column 20-round box magazines, although 40-round magazines were also used in an anti-aircraft role; these were withdrawn from use in 1927. The M1918 has a cylindrical flash suppressor fitted to the muzzle end. The original BAR was equipped with a fixed wooden buttstock and closed-type adjustable iron sights, consisting of a forward post and a rear leaf sight with 100 to 1,500 yard (91-1,372 m) range graduations. As a heavy automatic rifle designed for support fire, the M1918 was not fitted with a bayonet mount and no bayonet was ever issued.[11] Only one experimental bayonet fitting was ever made for the BAR by Winchester.[11] This was a standard M1917 bayonet fitted at the Winchester factory with a special muzzle ring. The bayonet was attached to a standard M1918 BAR by means of a special experimental flash hider assembly.[11] This prototype bayonet-flash hider assembly came from the Winchester in-house factory museum in New Haven, CT, with a tag printed on one side Winchester Repeating Arms Co./New Haven Conn., and handwritten on the other side: combined flash hider, front sight and bayonet mount for Browing Automatic Rifle Model 1918 with bayonet and scabbard and the date – September 7, 1918.[11] There is no evidence whatsoever of military adoption nor a military stock number, name or classification.[11] Variants and subsequent models [ edit ] The primary US M1918 variants. The early M1918 BAR. During its lengthy service life, the BAR underwent continuous development, receiving many improvements and modifications. The first major attempt at improving the M1918 resulted in the M1922 machine rifle, adopted by the United States Cavalry in 1922 as a troop-level light machine gun. The weapon used a new heavy profile ribbed barrel, an adjustable spiked bipod (mounted to a swiveling collar on the barrel) with a rear, stock-mounted monopod, a side-mounted sling swivel and a new rear endplate, fixed to the stock retaining sleeve. The hand guard was changed, and in 1926 the BAR's sights were redesigned to accommodate the heavy-bullet 172-grain M1 .30-06 ball ammunition then coming into service for machine-gun use. An FBI special agent practices with the Colt Monitor (R 80). The Monitor had a separate pistol grip and long, slotted Cutts recoil compensator. In 1931 the Colt Arms Co. introduced the Monitor Automatic Machine Rifle (R 80), intended primarily for use by prison guards and law-enforcement agencies.[12] Intended for use as a shoulder-fired automatic rifle, the Monitor omitted the bipod, instead featuring a separate pistol grip and butt stock attached to a lightweight receiver, along with a shortened, 458 mm (18.0 in), barrel fitted with a 4-inch (100 mm) Cutts compensator.[13] Weighing 16 lb 3 oz (7.34 kg) empty, the Monitor had a rate of fire of approximately 500 rpm.[13] Around 125 were produced; 90 were purchased by the FBI.[13] Eleven went to the US Treasury Department in 1934, while the rest went to various state prisons, banks, security companies and accredited police departments.[13] Although available for export sale, no examples appear to have been exported. In 1932 a greatly shortened version designed for bush warfare was developed by USMC Maj. H.L. Smith and was the subject of an evaluative report by Capt. Merritt A. Edson, ordnance officer at the Quartermaster's Depot in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[14] The barrel was shortened nine inches (229 mm) at the muzzle and the gas port and gas cylinder tube were relocated. The modified BAR weighed 13 lb 12 oz (6.24 kg) and was only 34.5 inches (880 mm) long overall.[14] Though it proved superior to the M1918 in accuracy when fired prone in automatic mode and equal in accuracy to the standard M1918 at ranges of 500–600 yards (460–550 m) from a rest, it was less accurate when fired from the shoulder, and had a loud report combined with a fierce muzzle blast.[15] Attaching a Cutts compensator materially reduced the muzzle blast, but this was more than offset by the increase in smoke and dust at the muzzle when fired, obscuring the operator's vision.[14] Nor did it improve control of the weapon when fired in bursts of automatic fire.[14] Though the report recommended building six of these short-barreled jungle BARs for further evaluation, no further work was done on the project.[14] The M1918A1, featuring a lightweight spiked bipod with a leg height adjustment feature attached to the gas cylinder and a hinged steel butt plate, was formally approved on 24 June 1937.[16] The M1918A1 was intended to increase the weapon's effectiveness and controllability firing in bursts. Relatively few M1918s were rebuilt to the new M1918A1 standard. In April 1938 work commenced on an improved BAR for the US Army. The army specified a need for a BAR designed to serve in the role of a light machine gun for squad-level support fire. Early prototypes were fitted with barrel-mounted bipods as well as pistol grip housings and a unique rate-of-fire reducer mechanism purchased from FN Herstal.[17] The rate reducer mechanism performed well in trials, and the pistol grip housing enabled the operator to fire more comfortably from the prone position. However, in 1939 the army declared that all modifications to the basic BAR be capable of being retrofitted to earlier M1918 guns with no loss of parts interchangeability.[18] This effectively killed the FN-designed pistol grip and its proven rate reducer mechanism for the new M1918 replacement.[18] Final development of the M1918A2 was authorized on 30 June 1938.[18] The FN-designed pistol grip and rate-reducer mechanism with two rates of automatic fire was shelved in favor of a rate-reducer mechanism designed by Springfield Armory, and housed in the butt stock. The Springfield Armory rate reducer also provided two selectable rates of fully automatic fire only, activated by engaging the selector toggle. Additionally, a skid-footed bipod was fitted to the muzzle end of the barrel, magazine guides were added to the front of the trigger guard, the hand guard was shortened, a heat shield was added to help the cooling process, a small separate stock rest (monopod) was included for attachment to the butt and the weapon's role was changed to that of a squad light machine gun. The BAR's rear sight scales were also modified to accommodate the newly standardized M2 ball ammunition with its lighter, flat-base bullet. The M1918A2's walnut butt stock is approximately one inch (2.5 cm) longer than the M1918 BAR's butt stock.[19] The M1918A2's barrel was also fitted with a new flash suppressor and fully adjustable iron sights. Late in the war a barrel-mounted carrying handle was added. Because of budget limitations initial M1918A2 production consisted of conversions of older M1918 BARs (remaining in surplus) along with a limited number of M1922s and M1918A1s. After the outbreak of war, attempts to ramp up new M1918A2 production were stymied by the discovery that the World War I tooling used to produce the M1918 was either worn out or incompatible with modern production machinery.[20] New production was first undertaken at the New England Small Arms Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. (a total of 188,380 new weapons were manufactured). In 1942 a shortage of black walnut for butt stocks and grips led to the development of a black plastic butt stock for the BAR.[21] Composed of a mixture of Bakelite and Resinox, and impregnated with shredded fabric, the stocks were sandblasted to reduce glare.[19] The Firestone Rubber and Latex Products Co. produced the plastic butt stock for the US Army, which was formally adopted on March 21, 1942.[19] The M1922 machine rifle was declared obsolete in 1940, but they were used by Merrill's Marauders in Burma later in the war as a slightly lighter alternative to the M1918A2. Production rates greatly increased in 1943 after IBM introduced a method of casting BAR receivers from a new type of malleable pig iron developed by the Saginaw division of General Motors, called ArmaSteel.[22] After it successfully passed a series of tests at Springfield Armory, the Chief of Ordnance instructed other BAR receiver manufacturers to change over from steel to ArmaSteel castings for this part.[22] During the Korean War M1918A2 production was resumed, this time contracted to the Royal McBee Typewriter Co., which produced an additional 61,000 M1918A2s.[23] Heavy Counter Assault Rifle [ edit ] Heavy Counter Assault Rifle-HCAR. In 2006 Ohio Ordnance Works worked on the 21st-century modernization of the BAR, named the Heavy Counter Assault Rifle (HCAR).[24][25][26] The Ohio Ordnance Works HCAR includes improvements such as an AR-style buffer tube with adjustable stock, an optional 16" shortened barrel with adjustable gas regulator, hand guard and receiver picatinny rails as well as a suppressor-compatible flash hider.[25] It also addresses the original BAR's weight issue through material reduction by machining material from the receiver, and through a dimpled barrel removing 8 lbs. overall.[25] It also features a proprietary 30-round magazine, to increase firepower from the original 20-round magazine. International and commercial models [ edit ] Export models [ edit ] The BAR also found a ready market overseas and in various forms was widely exported. In 1919 the Colt company developed and produced a commercial variant called the Automatic Machine Rifle Model 1919 (company designation: Model U), which has a different return mechanism compared to the M1918 (it is installed in the stock rather than the gas tube) and lacks a flash hider. Later the Model 1924 rifle was offered for a short period of time, featuring a pistol grip and a redesigned hand guard. These Colt automatic rifles were available in a number of calibers, including .30-06 Springfield (7.62×63mm), 7.65×53mm Belgian Mauser, 7×57mm Mauser, 6.5×55mm, 7.92×57mm Mauser and .303 British (7.7×56mmR).[27] All of the 6.5×55mm-caliber Colt automatic rifles appear to have been sold directly to FN.[27] An improved version of the Model 1924, the Model 1925 (R75), has achieved the highest popularity in export sales. It is based on the Model 1924 but uses a heavy, finned barrel, a lightweight bipod and is equipped with dust covers in the magazine well and ejection port (some of these features were patented: US patents #1548709 and #1533968). The Model 1925 was produced in various calibers, including .30-06 Springfield (7.62×63mm), 7.65×53mm Belgian Mauser, 7×57mm Mauser, 7.92×57mm Mauser, and .303 British (7.7×56mmR) (no Colt-manufactured Model 1925 rifles in 6.5×55mm appear to have been sold).[27] A minor variant of the Model 1925 (R75) was the R75A light machine gun with a quick-change barrel (produced in 1942 in small quantities for the Dutch army). Between 1921–28 FN Herstal imported over 800 Colt-manufactured examples of the Colt Machine Rifles for sale abroad.[13] All of the Colt automatic machine rifles, including the Colt Monitor, were available for export sale.[13] After 1929 the Model 1925 and the Colt Monitor were available for export sale in Colt's exclusive sales territories per its agreement with FN.[13] These Colt territories included North America, Central America, the West Indies, South America, Great Britain, Russia, Turkey, Siam (Thailand), India and Australia.[13] Belgium [ edit ] A variant known as the FN Mle 1930 was developed in 7.65×53mm Belgian Mauser by FN Herstal and adopted by the Belgian army. The Mle 1930 is basically a licensed copy of the Colt Automatic Machine Rifle, Model 1925 (R 75).[28] The Mle 1930 has a different gas valve and a mechanical rate-reducing fire control mechanism designed by Dieudonne Saive, located in the trigger guard-pistol grip housing.[28] Some of these FN rate reducer mechanisms and pistol grip housings were later purchased by Springfield Armory for evaluation and possible adoption on a replacement for the M1918.[17] The weapon also had a hinged shoulder plate and was adapted for use on a tripod mount. In 1932 Belgium adopted a new version of the FN Mle 1930 allocated the service designation FN Mle D (D—demontable or "removable"), which had a quick-change barrel, shoulder rest and a simplified take-down method for easier cleaning and maintenance. The Mle D was produced even after World War II in versions adapted for .30-06 Springfield and NATO-standard 7.62×51mm ammunition. The final variant in Belgian service was the Model DA1 chambered for the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge and feeding from the 20-round magazines for the FN FAL rifle.[29] Poland [ edit ] Production of the BAR in Belgium began only after signing an agreement with Poland (on 10 December 1927) involving the procurement of 10,000 wz. 1928 light machine guns chambered in 7.92×57mm Mauser, which are similar to the R75 variant but designed specifically to meet the requirements of the Polish army. Changes to the base design include a pistol grip, different type of bipod, open-type V-notch rear sight and a slightly longer barrel. Subsequent rifles were assembled in Poland under license by the state rifle factory (Państwowa Fabryka Karabinów) in Warsaw. The wz. 1928 was accepted into service with the Polish army in 1927 under the formal name 7,92 mm rkm Browning wz. 1928 and—until the outbreak of World War II—was the primary light support weapon of Polish infantry and cavalry formations (in 1939 Poland had a total of approximately 20,000 wz. 1928 rifles in service). Additional detail modifications were introduced on the production line; among them were the replacement of the iron sights with a smaller version and reshaping the butt to a fish tail. In the mid-1930s Polish small-arms designer Wawrzyniec Lewandowski was tasked with developing a flexible aircraft-mounted machine gun based on the Browning wz.1928. This resulted in the wz. 1937. Changes included increasing the weapon's rate of fire to 1,100 rounds/min, eliminating the butt stock, adding a spade-type grip to the rear of the receiver, moving the main drive spring under the barrel and, most importantly, changing the feed system. Sustained fire was practically impossible with the standard 20-round box magazine, so a new feed mechanism was developed that was added to the receiver as a module. It contains a spring-loaded, bolt-actuated lever that would feed a round from a 91-round pan magazine located above the receiver and force the round into the feed path during unlocking. The machine gun was accepted in 1937 and ordered by the Polish Air Force as the karabin maszynowy obserwatora wz. 1937 ("observers machine gun model 1937"). Eventually 339 machine guns were acquired and used as armament in the PZL.37 Łoś medium bomber and the LWS-3 Mewa reconnaissance aircraft. Sweden [ edit ] Swedish Kg m/21 model, which was nearly identical to the M1919 configuration. Model Kg m/37 with quick-detachable barrel. In 1920 Belgian arms manufacturer Fabrique Nationale (FN) acquired sales and production rights to the BAR series of firearms in Europe from Colt. The first BAR model sold by FN was the Kg m/21 (Kg—Kulsprutegevär or "machinegun rifle") chambered for the 6.5×55mm m/94 cartridge. The m/21 is a variant of the Model 1919 designed to Swedish specifications and manufactured initially by Colt's and later under license at the Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori in Eskilstuna. Compared to the Model 1919, the Swedish weapon has—apart from the different caliber—a spiked bipod and dust covers for ejection. The m/21 would become one of Sweden's main support weapons in the interwar years together with the water-cooled, belt-fed Ksp m/1914 medium machine gun (Swedish adaptation of the Austrian M07/12). Dissatisfied with the rapidly overheating fixed barrel of the m/21, Carl Gustaf began to design a new quick-detach mechanism for the barrel that mates the externally grooved chamber to a series of rotating flanges in the receiver operated by a locking lever. The barrel also received cooling fins along its entire length. These enhancements were incorporated into the fm/1935 prototype, which was favorably evaluated during trials in 1935. The final version was the Kg m/37, adopted for service in 1937, which uses a smooth-contour, unfinned barrel. Numerous m/21 guns were retrofitted with the screw-on receiver extension and quick-change barrel and renamed the Kg m/21-37.[citation needed] The m/37 remained in service until replaced by the FN MAG, but was still in second-line use until 1980. Carl Gustaf also developed a belt-fed prototype; however, it was never adopted. China [ edit ] FN M1930. The Chinese Nationalist Army used the FN M1930 throughout the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Chinese BAR was chambered for the German 7.92×57mm Mauser round, the standard rifle cartridge of the National Revolutionary Army. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Chinese Expeditionary Army in Burma was equipped with American BARs. Towards the end of the war small quantities of American equipment, including the BAR, made their way into mainland China. Civilian use [ edit ] With the cessation of WWI hostilities, Colt Arms Co. received the Browning patents to produce the BAR that had been withheld from issue during the war.[32] This allowed Colt to make the BAR available for commercial sale, including to civilian owners. The Colt Automatic Machine Rifle Model 1919, initially made up of overruns from the M1918 military production contract, was the first of several commercial Colt BARs that would follow. However, the high price of the weapon and its limited utility for most civilian owners resulted in few sales. Ad Topperwien, a famous trick shooter of the early 1920s, purchased one of the first Colt-produced BARs to perform aerial target shooting exhibitions.[33] Occasional BAR sales were made to civilian owners through distributors such as the Ott-Heiskell Hardware Co.[34] In 1931 the new Colt Monitor was made available to civilians during the Depression at $300 each, including a spare parts kit, sling, cleaning accessories and six magazines, but Colt records indicate no domestic sales to individuals.[35] After passage of the National Firearms Act of 1934, civilian BAR ownership was restricted even further. Importation of machine guns for US civilian transfer was banned in 1968 and US production of machine guns for civilian transfer was banned in 1986. However, some transferable civilian-owned BAR models exist in the US and occasionally come up for sale to qualified buyers. Some companies are manufacturing semi-automatic copies for sale to civilians. Ohio Ordnance Works, Inc., in Chardon, OH, holds an exclusive patent for the 1918A3-SLR (Self-Loading Rifle), which is a contemporary semi-automatic variant of the M1918 and is legal for civilians to own.[36] Criminal and law enforcement use [ edit ] Although the Colt Monitor version of the BAR failed to interest US civilian buyers in the midst of the Depression,[37] the underworld was a lot more interested: in 1936 the price of a black-market Colt Monitor was $5,000, with military BARs going for somewhat less.[37] The army's M1918 was a favorite of gangster Clyde Barrow, who obtained his through periodic robberies of Army National Guard armories in the Midwest. Barrow liked to use armor-piercing (AP) .30-06 ammunition he obtained from armory stores, and frequently modified his BARs to suit his own needs.[38] Barrow taught his girlfriend Bonnie Parker to fire the M1918 as well, and by all accounts she was an excellent BAR operator. She used an M1918 on full-automatic to pin down unsuspecting law officers after they confronted the gang at a house in Joplin, MO.[38] A Missouri highway patrolman at the scene, forced to dive for cover behind a substantial oak tree after Bonnie Parker opened up on him, later stated, "That little red-headed woman filled my face with splinters on the other side of that tree with one of those damned guns".[38] As the use of automatic weapons by criminal elements in the US became more widespread, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover ordered the agency to acquire and commence regular training with automatic shoulder weapons, including the Thompson submachine gun and the BAR. For its BARs the FBI turned to Colt, which sold 90 Colt Monitor automatic machine rifles to the agency.[13] Some of the FBI's Monitors were distributed to field offices for use as support weapons if needed on a particular operation, while the remainder were retained at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, for training purposes.[39] Colt sold an additional 11 Colt Monitors to the US Treasury Department in 1934, while 24 guns were sold to state prisons, banks, security companies and accredited city, county and state police departments.[13] At least one member of the ambush team that killed Bonnie and Clyde was armed with a Colt Monitor.[40][41] Although it has sometimes been alleged that the M1918 or M1918A2 BAR was used by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) in a shootout with Los Angeles police on 17 May 1974, no SLA members ever used such a weapon. The confusion arose out of Browning's decision in the 1970s to also designate its semi-automatic hunting rifle the Browning BAR. The SLA converted a .30-06 Browning BAR hunting rifle and a .243 Remington Model 742 to automatic fire by filing down the sear, and it was these weapons that were used in the shootout.[citation needed] In US military service [ edit ] World War I [ edit ] At its inception, the M1918 was intended to be used as a shoulder-fired rifle capable of both semi-automatic and fully automatic fire. First issued in September 1918 to the AEF, it was based on the concept of "walking fire", a French practice in use since 1916 for which the CSRG 1915 (Chauchat) had been used accompanying advancing squads of riflemen toward the enemy trenches, as regular machine guns were too cumbersome to move with the troops during an assault. In addition to shoulder-fired operation, BAR gunners were issued a belt with magazine pouches for the BAR and sidearm along with a "cup" to support the stock of the rifle when held at the hip. In theory, this allowed the soldier to lay suppressive fire while walking forward, keeping the enemy's head down, a practice known as "marching fire". The idea would resurface in the submachine gun and ultimately the assault rifle. It is not known if any of the belt-cup devices actually saw combat use. The BAR only saw minor action in France during World War I, being brought into action only as late as September 1918, less than three months before Armistice Day. The intentional delay had been inspired by general Pershing, the A.E.F. commander, in order not to let the BAR fall into enemy hands too early. Fifty-two thousand BARs were available by November 1918 and they would have been used in much larger numbers at the front if the war had lasted into 1919. Interwar use [ edit ] A US Army soldier trains with a BAR During the interwar years, as the U.S. Army was reduced significantly in size, the BAR remained in the smaller extant Regular Army and by the 1930s, was also issued to state national guard units to be maintained at their armories. Given the part-time nature, smaller manning and lesser security of these national guard armories when compared to regular army installations, some BARs were subject to theft by domestic civilian criminal elements.[42] The BAR was also standard issue to US naval landing forces during the period.[43] The weapon was a standard item in US warship armories, and each BAR was accompanied by a spare barrel.[43] Large capital ships often had over 200 BARs on board,[43] with many of the US Navy BARs remaining in service well into the 1960s.[43] The BAR also saw action with US Marine Corps units participating in the Haitian and Nicaraguan interventions, as well as with US Navy shipboard personnel in the course of patrol and gunboat duty along the Yangtze River in China.[44] The First Marine Brigade stationed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, noted that training a man to use the BAR proficiently took a full two days of range practice and instruction, compared to half a day with the .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun.[44] Prior to World War II both the US Army and Marine Corps had a separate BAR squad together with three rifle squads in the "square" organisation of the time. When converting to the "triangular" organisation the separate BAR squad was eliminated with BARs going to each rifle squad. World War II [ edit ] A US Marine infantryman firing a BAR at enemy positions When the threat of a new war arose, Ordnance belatedly realized that it had no portable, squad light machine gun, and attempted to convert the M1918 BAR to that role with the adoption of the M1918A2 by the US Army on 30 June 1938.[45] The BAR was issued as the sole automatic fire support for a twelve-man squad,[46] and all men were trained at the basic level how to operate and fire the weapon in case the designated operators were killed or wounded. At the start of the war, infantry companies designated three-man BAR teams, a gunner, an assistant gunner, and an ammunition bearers who carried additional magazines for the gun. By 1944, some units were using one-man BAR teams, with the other riflemen in the squad detailed to carry additional magazines or bandoliers of .30 ammunition.[47] Despite various claims on the subject, the BAR was issued to soldiers of various heights.[48] As originally conceived, US Army tactical doctrine called for one M1918A2 per squad, using several men to support and carry ammunition for the gun.[46] Fire and movement tactics centered on the M1 riflemen in the squad, while the BAR man was detailed to support the riflemen in the attack and provide mobility to the riflemen with a base of fire.[46] This doctrine received a setback early in the war after US ground forces encountered German troops, well-armed with automatic weapons, including fast-firing, portable machine guns.[49] In some cases, particularly in the attack, every fourth German infantryman was equipped with an automatic weapon, either a submachine gun or a full-power machine gun.[49] Elements of the 6th Marine Division at Okinawa with the lead marine (Onward Elmo McCullough) carrying a BAR In an attempt to overcome the BAR's limited continuous-fire capability, US Army divisions increasingly began to specify two BAR fire teams per squad, following the practice of the US Marine Corps. One team would typically provide covering fire until a magazine was empty, whereupon the second team would open fire, thus allowing the first team to reload. In the Pacific, the BAR was often employed at the point or tail of a patrol or infantry column, where its firepower could help break contact on a jungle trail in the event of an ambush.[50] After combat experience showed the benefits of maximizing portable automatic firepower in squad-size formations, the US Marine Corps began to increase the number of BARs in its combat divisions, from 513 per division in 1943 to 867 per division in 1945.[51] A thirteen-man squad was developed, consisting of 3 four-man fire teams, with one BAR per fire team, or three BARs per squad. Instead of supporting the M1 riflemen in the attack, marine tactical doctrine was focused around the BAR, with riflemen supporting and protecting the BAR gunner.[51] Despite the improvements in the M1918A2, the BAR remained a difficult weapon to master with its open bolt and strong recoil spring, requiring additional range practice and training to hit targets accurately without flinching.[52] As a squad light machine gun, the BAR's effectiveness was mixed, since its thin, non-quick-change barrel and small magazine capacity greatly limited its firepower in comparison to genuine light machine guns such as the British Bren and the Japanese Type 96. The weapon's rate-reducer mechanism, a delicately balanced spring-and-weight system described by one ordnance sergeant as a "Rube Goldberg device", came in for much criticism, often causing malfunctions when not regularly cleaned.[53] The bipod and buttstock rest (monopod), which contributed so much to the M1918A2's accuracy when firing prone on the rifle range, proved far less valuable under actual field combat conditions.[50] The stock rest was dropped from production in 1942, while the M1918A2's bipod and flash hider were often discarded by individual soldiers and marines to save weight and improve portability, particularly in the Pacific Theatre of war.[53] With these modifications, the BAR effectively reverted to its original role as a portable, shoulder-fired automatic rifle.[53] Due to production demands, war priorities, subcontractor issues, and material shortages,[54] demand for the M1918A2 frequently exceeded supply, and as late as 1945 some Army units were sent into combat still carrying older, unmodified M1918 weapons.[55] After a period of service, ordnance personnel began to receive BARs with inoperable or malfunctioning recoil buffer mechanisms. This was eventually traced to the soldier's common practice of cleaning the BAR in a vertical position with the butt of the weapon on the ground, allowing cleaning fluid and burned powder to collect in the recoil buffer mechanism.[53] Additionally, unlike the M1 rifle, the BAR's gas cylinder was never changed to stainless steel. Consequently, the gas cylinder frequently rusted solid from the use of corrosive-primered M2 service ammunition in a humid environment when not stripped and cleaned on a daily basis.[53] While not without design flaws (a thin-diameter, fixed barrel that quickly overheated, limited magazine capacity, complex field-strip/cleaning procedure, unreliable recoil buffer mechanism, a gas cylinder assembly made of corrosion-prone metals, and many small internal parts), the BAR proved rugged and reliable enough when regularly field-stripped and cleaned. During World War II, the BAR saw extensive service, both official and unofficial, with many branches of service. One of the BAR's most unusual uses was as a defensive aircraft weapon. In 1944, Captain Wally A. Gayda, of the USAAF Air Transport Command, reportedly used a BAR to return fire against a Japanese Army Nakajima fighter that had attacked his C-46 cargo plane over the Hump in Burma. Gayda shoved the rifle out his forward cabin window, emptying the magazine and apparently killing the Japanese pilot.[56][57] Korean War [ edit ] Korean War, 1951: A US soldier behind an M4A3E8 Sherman tank, with an M1918A2 The BAR continued in service in the Korean War. The last military contract for the manufacture of the M1918A2 was awarded to the Royal Typewriter Co. of Hartford, Connecticut, which manufactured a total of 61,000 M1918A2s during the conflict, using ArmaSteel cast receivers and trigger housings.[23] In his study of infantry weapons in Korea, historian S.L.A. Marshall interviewed hundreds of officers and men in after-action reports on the effectiveness of various U.S. small arms in the conflict.[58] General Marshall's report noted that an overwhelming majority of respondents praised the BAR and the utility of automatic fire delivered by a lightweight, portable small arm in both day and night engagements.[59] In his autobiography Colonel David Hackworth praised the BAR as 'the best weapon of the Korean War'.[60] A typical BAR gunner of the Korean War carried the twelve-magazine belt and combat suspenders, with three or four extra magazines in pockets.[61] Extra canteens, .45 pistol, grenades, and a flak vest added still more weight.[61] As in World War II, many BAR gunners disposed of the heavy bipod and other accoutrements of the M1918A2, but unlike the prior conflict the flash hider was always retained because of its utility in night fighting.[62] The large amounts of ammunition expended by BAR teams in Korea placed additional demands on the assistant gunner to stay in close contact with the BAR at all times, particularly on patrols.[63] While the BAR magazines themselves always seemed to be in short supply, Gen. Marshall reported that "riflemen in the squad were markedly willing to carry extra ammunition for the BAR man".[64] In combat, the M1918A2 frequently decided the outcome of determined attacks by North Korean and Chinese communist forces. Communist tactical doctrine centered on the mortar and machine gun, with attacks designed to envelop and cut off United Nations forces from supply and reinforcement. Communist machine gun teams were the best-trained men in any given North Korean or Chinese infantry unit, skilled at placing their heavily camouflaged and protected weapons as close to UN forces as possible.[65] Once concealed, they often surprised UN forces by opening fire at very short ranges, covering any exposed ground with a hail of accurately sighted machine gun fire.[65] Under these conditions it was frequently impossible for US machine gun crews to move up their Browning M1919A4 and M1919A6 guns in response without taking heavy casualties; when they were able to do so, their position was carefully noted by the enemy, who would frequently kill the exposed gun crews with mortar or machine gun fire while they were still emplacing their guns.[65] The BAR gunner, who could stealthily approach the enemy gun position alone (and prone if need be), proved invaluable in this type of combat.[65] During the height of combat, the BAR gunner was often used as the 'fire brigade' weapon, helping to bolster weak areas of the perimeter under heavy pressure by communist forces. In defense, it was often used to strengthen the firepower of a forward outpost.[65] Another role for the BAR was to deter or eliminate enemy sniper fire. In the absence of a trained sniper, the BAR proved more effective than the random response of five or six M1 riflemen.[65] Compared to World War II, US infantry forces saw a huge increase in the number of night engagements. The added firepower of the BAR rifleman and his ability to redeploy to 'hot spots' around the unit perimeter proved indispensable in deterring night infiltration by skirmishers as well as repelling large-scale night infantry assaults.[66] While new-production M1918A2 guns were almost universally praised for faultless performance in combat, a number of malfunctions in combat were reported with armory-reconditioned M1918A2s, particularly weapons that had been reconditioned by Ordnance in Japan, which did not replace operating (recoil) springs as a requirement of the reconditioning program.[51] After decades of complaints, ordnance addressed the problem of maintaining the problematic gas piston on the BAR by issuing disposable nylon gas valves.[63] When the nylon valve became caked over with carbon, it could be discarded and replaced with a fresh unit, eliminating the tedious task of cleaning and polishing the valve with wire brush and GI solvent (frequently in short supply to line units).[63] A South Vietnamese soldier using a BAR LMG Vietnam War [ edit ] The M1918A2 was used in the early stages of the Vietnam War, when the US delivered a quantity of 'obsolete', second-line small arms[67] to the South Vietnamese Army and associated allies, including the Montagnard hill tribespeople of South Vietnam. US Special Forces advisors frequently chose the BAR over currently available infantry weapons. As one Special Forces sergeant declared, "Many times since my three tours of duty in Vietnam I have thanked God for ... having a BAR that actually worked, as opposed to the jamming M16 ... We had a lot of Viet Cong infiltrators in all our [Special Forces] camps, who would steal weapons every chance they got. Needless to say, the most popular weapon to steal was the venerable old BAR."[67] Post-Vietnam use [ edit ] Quantities of the BAR remained in use by the Army National Guard up until the mid-1970s. Many recipients of US foreign aid adopted the BAR and used it into the 1990s. Users [ edit ] Polish resistance fighters during the Warsaw Uprising , 1944. The wz. 28 seen here is likely a survivor of the 1939 September Campaign BAR in use by Vietnamese communist guerrillas, 1966 British Home Guard in 1941. The man on the end of the front rank is carrying a BAR See also [ edit ] Notes [ edit ]

[This is a chapter from my latest novel, a sequel to The Fall of Doc Future and Skybreaker’s Call. The start is here, and links to my other work here. It can be read on its own, but contains spoilers for those two books. I post new chapters about every two weeks, and the next chapter is planned for around November 24th.] Previous: Chapter 13 The silence was oppressive. Flicker’s hearing was quite acute. Her power and reaction time let her start damping the effect of loud noises while they were still in her outer ears, and she created her own shockwaves so often it had long ago become second nature. So she never suffered the gradual, subtle hearing deterioration most people did from loud music and environmental noise. But there was no sound. No people besides Journeyman and her, no traffic, no running machinery, no birds, no insects, no running water. Not even any wind at the moment. The faint rustle of Journeyman’s trenchcoat seemed loud. There wasn’t all that much to see, either–a large, shallow pothole in the dark. It was about twenty feet wide and maybe three deep. It was filled with a mixture of dead weeds, mud, and ice. “There’s nothing here,” she said, after shining her flashlight around. “Not now,” said Journeyman. "But a Siberian elm grew there, until a few years ago. The one I brought Sylvi to.“ They were near the outskirts of Pripyat, in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Flicker was back in her costume, and she checked the radioactivity again–not life threatening, but enough to keep most people away. There were a few hotter spots at the bottom of the hole. Most of it was from cesium-137–the shorter lived isotopes had decayed, in the quarter-century since the disaster. "What happened?” Flicker turned the flashlight off, and let her eyes start adjusting to the night again. “I don’t know.” He didn’t continue right away, and the silence was back. “Do you want to go somewhere else to talk?” she asked after a while. “We probably should. I had a lot to drink, and this place gets to me. It sure got to her. That was the problem.” He sighed. "But this was the last place I saw her, and I wanted you to see it, since I’ve been telling you the story.“ "Thank you for trusting me.” “This part… isn’t so much about trust. Just about pain. And helplessness.” “Which requires trust, to share.” “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” A little while later, after a quick trip to her decontamination shower, Flicker rejoined Journeyman at his home and workshop, a converted former farmhouse located in one of the more rugged areas of Pennsylvania. She sat beside him on the couch, legs curled underneath her body, holding a mug of hot chocolate. He stared at his cup of tea. "My idea didn’t turn out to be nearly as good as I thought. People are scared of Chernobyl. And it had plenty of trees. But a lot of them weren’t very happy trees. And that matters, to a dryad. The Red Forest gave Sylvi nightmares.“ "The Red Forest?” “The pine trees just downwind of the plant were all killed by the fallout radiation, but they didn’t decay–they just stood there, dried out and brownish-red. The people handling the post-disaster cleanup ended up bulldozing them all and burying them in trenches, because of fears of what would happen if they caught fire. It’s still the most radioactively contaminated area in the world, though most of it is underground now. "And Sylvi could feel echoes from it–it was like a ghost forest to her, of trees that died horribly.” “Oh no.” “She was always tough, but she wasn’t… all that stable, even to start with. And losing her original tree was a big blow to her sanity. Dryads don’t usually survive that–they don’t usually want to survive that–which was why Sylvi never wanted to talk about it. "Chernobyl was a good place to hide. But it wasn’t a good place to heal, especially for someone who already suffered from depression. She wasn’t happy with her new tree–in one of her more lucid moments, she really chewed me out for the arrogance of daring to pick a tree for her. I asked what I was supposed to have done, and she said I should have let her die.” “Ouch.” “Yeah. I did what I could to help her, but it wasn’t much. I arranged a satellite net connection, but she wasn’t interested anymore. She had always had important responsibilities, even if she didn’t always like them, and without anything to do she just started drifting away.” Journeyman took a swallow of tea, then set his cup down. "I tried to talk to her about portal theory, and other worlds, because she was sick of Earth, and dryads supposedly have a natural ability to use trees as a kind of portal–but she didn’t stay interested for very long at a time. She kept losing patience and yelling at me to just go away. To live my own life, because she didn’t have one to share, anymore. “I still brought her cigarettes. She’d light up, then curse at me for bringing memories back, when she wanted to forget. "And then one day, a little over a year later, I ported in to visit–it had been longer than usual since my last one, almost a week–and she was gone. And so was her tree.” “Did you try to find her?” asked Flicker. Journeyman met her eyes, then looked down. "I looked around a bit, in the abandoned buildings nearby where she’d been living. Most of the stuff I’d brought her was still there, but there were some clothes and personal items missing. There wasn’t any note, and I started up her computer to check that–nothing. “And then I noticed something about the hole where her tree had been–remember how wide and shallow it was?” “Yeah.” “That pretty much matched the area of the tree’s root system. The area you’d have to disturb if you wanted to move the whole thing without hurting it.” “Oh. So–” “Sylvi must have found a way to leave–and take her tree with her. Because who else would bother? So I don’t think it was suicide. Or foul play. And since there was no note… I don’t think she wanted me to find her, wherever she went. I remembered what she’d said, all those years ago, about not trying to rescue someone who didn’t want to be rescued. So I finally listened.” “And let–” His voice choked up and he turned away. Flicker put her hand on his back. “And let her go,” he whispered. Flicker was finally learning how to listen, too. Just because someone had stopped talking for the moment didn’t necessarily mean they were done. Journeyman continued a little while later, as they shared some takeout stir fry. “It was the thinking I did about the aftermath of the curse that made me decide to become a superhero. Because if I could do that, I absolutely needed to be thinking of consequences beyond the personal. Or I’d end up a villain by default. I was arguably already there; very few people see themselves as villains, but being willing to kill people that way was what I’d call a hint.” “Is that when you starting talking to Doc? You were so grim and mysterious, that first visit.” “Yeah, but I was grim because of Sylvi. Doc was way more understanding and accepting than I expected. He had a reputation for being pretty paranoid.” “He’s good at hiding suspicion while he does a Database psych evaluation, and he had a lot of people try to fool him during the Lost Years, so he knows the patterns. And, well, you knew magic, you could teleport, you wanted to be a superhero, and you asked for his help first–did you really think he’d say no?” “Heh. I wasn’t very sure of anything then–living off the grid most of the time means you risk missing significant changes. It’s an occupational hazard for magicians. But even the limited Database access he gave me opened up all kinds of possibilities for proper mathematical analysis of magic–I hadn’t had the resources or statistical tools before. "And Doc was real happy to have me as a source and go-between for the magical community. He does some chancy stuff, but he listens. And he understood what needed not to go in the Database.” Journeyman snorted. "You were the problem there. You’d think the Database was yours, not his.“ "I’ve used it as auxiliary memory from the beginning, because of the mismatch between what I want to remember and what I can actually stuff into my long term memory every time I sleep, before my high speed storage decays. So I feel very possessive– that’s why I spent so much of my money on the capacity for a complete backup.” Flicker smiled. "But I’m willing to compromise, now–I hadn’t realized just how much of a pain magic makes computer security.“ "I didn’t fully appreciate it either, until I got the tip–I thought password stealing was the main threat. But Stella is taking care of it.” “Yeah.” Flicker hesitated for a moment. "There is one thing I’d like to suggest. You can tell me to mind my own business if you want. Not getting closure bothers you–not as much as it does me, but still. If you didn’t find a note at Chernobyl… then you can’t really be sure Sylvi didn’t want you to know what happened. Particularly given what you said about her mental state. “If you want to find out–even if you don’t want it going into the Database–we can talk to Lif. She’s really good at tracing threads. And we’d know where to start. Or if you’d rather I didn’t know either, you can talk to Lif yourself. I’ll give permission.” “Um.” Journeyman stared off onto space while he considered. "I… think I’ll need to sleep on that. Thank you for the offer, it means a lot. But we should get back–I’m sure the world hasn’t stopped throwing up crises while we’ve been out of touch.“ ***** Cryptographer and privacy expert Chuck Shiner sat on the low retaining wall outside the conference center, talking on his phone. The presentations he’d been most interested in were over, his own wasn’t until tomorrow, and he was thinking of getting something to eat. "Not bad,” he said. "But it was obvious where everyone added a bit at the beginning and a new summary slide to try to keep up with current events.“ He yawned as he listened to the response from one of his colleagues, who was currently in Japan. The last talk he’d attended had consisted of decent results presented by someone with an unfortunately soothing voice and manner, and Chuck was still shaking off the resulting torpor. "Yes, I’m using one right now. It’s worked fine so far, but I haven’t had a chance to play with it much. I’ve heard adoption estimates from about a million all the way up to half a billion. Which seems a little extreme, today, but I wouldn’t want to bet against it tomorrow, at the rate they’re spreading. No one really knows except the UPP folks, and they haven’t released any figures yet.” Several other conference attendees sat on the wall or nearby benches, drinking coffee, checking messages, talking, or just enjoying the late afternoon sun. A steady stream of pedestrians thronged the sidewalk between them and the nearby street, and gulls pecked at dropped scraps. He looked up at the blue sky above the line of buildings, watching other birds wheel and turn against the scattered clouds. “We picked the wrong week to be traveling. I’d like to take a closer look at the UPPfone infrastructure, but the Grs'thnk fleet and Black Swan are obviously dominating the discussion here. Did… Yes, I sent my own list to that address, but who knows.” He frowned. A dot had just appeared from behind one the clouds, and appeared to be moving closer. Definitely not a bird–a military jet? But there was something wrong with the shape. A faint rumble echoed, just audible above the traffic noise. A sonic boom? “How many? No I hadn’t. The news feeds have been going crazy, so I’m missing things…” He trailed off to stare. The dot had turned into a humanoid flyer remarkably quickly. She was nearly overhead when she dove feet-first for the ground, flexed her legs to soften her landing, and stood. She was less than fifty feet away. Everyone else nearby was staring as well, and there was a screech of brakes and a near collision as at least one driver did a double take. The newcomer folded her wings and turned towards him. He felt a little thrill of fear. Those eyes… “Uh, listen, can I call you back? There’s someone who wants to… talk to me, I think.” He ended the call as she came closer. “Chuck Shiner?” “Yes?” Her voice, appearance, and manner of approach had already established her own identity beyond any doubt. “I’m interested in your conference presentation, but I’m afraid attending it would be unnecessarily disruptive. Establishing social trust as an intelligent non-human is rather relevant to me, and I thought you might like to add an anecdotal example. I understand you have a few questions, as well. Do you have time to talk? I thought I’d buy you dinner.” She smiled. “Sure…” His day had just turned completely surreal. There was a fancy restaurant next to the conference center that wasn’t packed like the others, but it was ridiculously expensive–it catered to those wealthy enough to pay a large premium not to have to rub shoulders with run of the mill attendees. “Table for two,” said the entity beside him to the maitre d’ after they entered. "I have a reservation.“ "Name?” asked the maitre d’. There were appearances to maintain, after all. “Black Swan.” Next: Chapter 15

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- The Detroit Lions are still playing coy with what their alternate uniforms will look like next season, but president Rod Wood shed some more light on their roll out Tuesday. "They'll be rolled out, I think, once the schedule comes out -- which, hopefully, will be relatively soon," Wood said Tuesday during the NFL owners meetings at the Boca Raton Resort & Spa. "That's usually kind of late April. There'll be more clarity around the Thursday night schedule, and then I think the league will be prepared to kind of talk about the whole Color Rush idea for the whole NFL." The Lions are about to wear their first alternate uniform since this Thanksgiving game against New England in 2010. The league debuted the Color Rush uniforms last season, and will expand the program to include all teams playing on Thursday this year. Schedules have not been announced yet, so it's unclear whether the Lions have a Thursday night game or will be wearing the alternate look on Thanksgiving. This will mark the first time since the Thanksgiving game in 2010 that Detroit has worn an alternate uniform. They lost that game 45-24 against New England. Some players have already seen the look, , who raved about it. Wood said he's seen the jerseys as well, though declined to offer any more clues. "I'm not tweeting about them," he said. "I am not talking about them." What color will they be? "That would be giving it away, wouldn't it?" he said with a smile. -- Download the Detroit Lions MLive app for iPhone and Android -- Follow MLive Sports on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

When does women’s work become real work? When no woman shows up to do it. It feels like a footnote to the tumult of Month 1 of the Trump presidency, a minor detail easily lost in the toxic stew of news about Russia, executive orders, legal appeals and grammatically challenged Twitter blitzes. But by now, most of America knows that Melania Trump has declared herself the First Lady Who Wouldn’t. Instead of taking up the mantle of First Hostess and slipping into the role of a landlocked Julie the cruise director without complaint, Melania the Intermittent has chosen to mostly stay in New York City with her young son, at least through the end of the school year, emerging from her gilded penthouse for a White House dinner here or a sightseeing jaunt there. While a libel lawsuit suggests that Mrs. Trump had an eye on eventually monetizing her role as “one of the most photographed women in the world,” she has seemed uninterested in doing the work of the first lady. She waited until the end of January to name a social secretary and has yet to hire a full staff for her office. During his news conference Thursday, President Trump gave a progress report, explaining that his wife had “opened up the visitors center” and predicted that she would be a “fantastic” first lady, insofar as she was “always the highest quality that you’ll ever find.” You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Now that Mr. Trump has turned 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue into a bachelor pad, it’s clear that we’ve been taking our first ladies for granted.

HOUSTON (CN) – A Texas judge is facing a call for her suspension by a state ethics commission that claims she habitually bought prescription cough syrup on the black market, took marijuana that her bailiff seized from a defendant and paid female prostitutes for sex. Hilary Green is a justice of the peace in Harris County with jurisdiction over minor misdemeanors punishable by up to a $500 fine, and civil matters with not more than $10,000 at stake. She has presided over the court since June 2007 and retained the position through three elections, winning more than 80 percent of the vote in November 2016, despite media coverage of her nasty divorce from former Houston Controller Ronald Green that she filed for in April 2014. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct filed a motion to suspend Green without pay with the Texas Supreme Court on Wednesday, a request largely based on the lurid testimony of her ex-lover Claude Barnes. Green had a five-year extramarital affair with Barnes that ended in the autumn of 2015, according to Barnes’ deposition before the executive director of the judicial conduct commission. Barnes admitted in the deposition he filed a complaint about Green with the commission in December 2015 out of spite because she led him to believe she wanted to have an exclusive relationship with him after she finalized her divorce, but caught her “cheating” and said she had “unprotected sex with numerous partners” behind his back. “In January of 2010, I witness [sic] Judge Hilary Green smoke marijuana and illegally purchase Tussionex several times. Between 2011 I also witness her pay for sex from female escorts and consume the street drug ecstasy,” Barnes wrote in his complaint, using the brand name of the cough syrup he says Green became addicted to over the course of their fling. Barnes said in his deposition that he got a bottle of cough syrup for Green six to eight times from 2010 to 2014, from his former coworker, who jacked up the price from $460 to $600 per bottle. Barnes said Green initially told him she took a teaspoon of the syrup to help her sleep, but her usage steadily increased. “At one point in time I just saw her turn the bottle up. There was no longer teaspoons. It was just a swig,” Barnes said in the January 2016 deposition. According to the deposition, Green twice paid for female escorts off Backpage.com and she and Barnes had threesomes with the women at hotels in Houston and Austin, where Green was attending a conference for judges. Barnes said in his deposition that Green once showed him a baggie of marijuana and told him she got it from her bailiff, who had taken it from a kid in her courtroom. The commission states in its complaint to the Supreme Court that in response to ethics complaints, Green lied to it in 2014 and 2017 about her relationship with a convicted felon who remodeled her house, and that she had stopped taking cough syrup in 2013. “Judge Green’s nature and frequency of misconduct and criminal activity in her own courtroom is incompatible with continuing to serve as a judge,” the motion to suspend states. “She not only misused Tussionex, but she illegally obtained and consumed marijuana and ecstasy with her former boyfriend, Claude Barnes. Judge Green also gave hundreds of dollars to her courtroom bailiff to purchase Tussionex for her.” Green exchanged sexually charged text messages with the same bailiff, according to the commission, which faults Green for not reassigning the bailiff. But Green’s attorney Chip Babcock with Jackson Walker in Houston told Courthouse News on Thursday she has no control over the bailiff. “He doesn’t work for her and so she doesn’t have any personnel responsibility over him so she couldn’t fire him or reassign him if she wanted to,” he said. Babcock said he will file Green’s response on June 2 with the Texas Supreme Court. “We’re going to aggressively defend this,” he said, adding that he doesn’t believe many of the claims in the motion to suspend. “They are in many respects untrue and in all respects they are from many years ago and they are the result of allegations made by her ex-husband in the context of a bitter divorce case, and allegations made by somebody who is admittedly angry and out to hurt her. So their credibility is not the best,” he said, talking about Barnes. He said Green’s work is not the issue and voters agree. “She has been an exemplary judge and was reelected in November of last year by a huge majority, over 80 percent of the vote, and won a contested primary in the spring so obviously the citizens of her precinct don’t think she’s doing a bad job,” he said. The commission asked the Supreme Court to indefinitely suspend Green from the bench while its motion plays out, its executive director Eric Vinson said Thursday in a phone interview. “This is the first step that they have to do before they can recommend to the Supreme Court to remove a judge,” he said. Tussionex is a combination of the pain killer hydrocodone and chlorpheniramine, an antihistamine. Like this: Like Loading...