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[ "The Mankato Department of Public Safety responded to a fire just before nine Sunday morning at 2021 Hoffman Road.\nUpon arrival, firefighters found fire on the south side of the building with flames spreading into the interior basement and first floor. There were no injuries and fire damages are estimated at $160,000. The cause of the fire is unknown and under investigation.\n--KEYC News 12" ]

[ "Eight people are displaced and one is injured after a fire on New Year’s Day damaged a building in Hartford, fire officials say.\nHartford Fire Captain Raul Ortiz says the department was called to 23 Garfield Street in Hartford at around 11:45 a.m. this morning for a two alarm structure fire.\nThe blaze was contained to the outside porch of the structure, but smoke damage did affect the building’s living areas, Ortiz said.\nOf the people displaced, five were adults and three were children Ortiz said.\nAccording to Ortiz, one of the adults sustained non-life threatening burn injures to the chest area and they were transported to the local hospital for treatment.\nNo firefighters were injured, Ortiz said.\nAs of 1:24 p.m., fire crews had left the scene, Ortiz said.\nAccording to Ortiz, the cause of the fire is under investigation by the fire marshal, but it is not believed to be suspicious.", "Please enable Javascript to watch this video\nMILWAUKEE -- No one was hurt when a building housing a barbershop and rooming house caught fire early Monday, January 2nd near Forest Home and Muskego in Milwaukee. Nine people were displaced as a result of this fire.\nAs Chuck Heinz watched FOX6 WakeUP News on Monday morning, January 2nd, he heard about a fire near Forest Home and Muskego.\n\"I heard 'fire,' and I heard 'Forest Home and Muskego' and I was like 'oh no! I hope it's not my building!' That's when I Googled it. I didn't waste any time. I Googled it right away because I was like aww. As soon as I saw my bilding was alright, I sighed some relief, I'll tell you that much,\" Heinz said.\nBut then Heinz realized the flames were next door.\n\"We are still investigating specifically what the cause was, but the origin appears to be near an air conditioning unit,\" MFD Deputy Chief Aaron Lipski said.\nJust after 1:30 a.m., officials with the Milwaukee Fire Department responded to the building which houses Legends Barbershop on the first floor with a rooming house above.\n\"We had no working smoke detectors, and I count nine people that were displaced. Milwaukee firefighters made entry and evacuated those people safely,\" Deputy Chief Lipski said.\nThe building itself suffered significant damage.\n\"Nearly $900,000 in damage, building-wide,\" Lipski said.", "BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Investigators are searching for the cause of a morning fire that damaged a downtown restaurant and bar. Firefighters got the first call around 7:30 this morning at 454 Pearl Street, right around the corner from Sheas Performing Arts Center. Minutes later, they sounded a second alarm as a precaution.\nThe downstairs portion of the building houses La Delicias Taqueria. Firefighters tell News 4 the fire started downstairs and extended to apartments on the second floor. No injuries were reported.\nEarly estimates from firefighters put the damage to the building and contents at $300,000. Additional damage to another restaurant is estimated at $80,000.\nElectrical issues may have caused the fire.", "A fully engulfed vehicle that was parked in a garage at 710 East Overland led to a late night structure fire with damage estimated around $35,000.\nAccording to Scottsbluff Police, officers responded just before midnight to a reported structure fire at the residence. Officers located the fully engulfed vehicle in the garage at the south end of the property.\nThe fire spread from the vehicle to adjacent vehicles and the building. Tenants of the apartments were evacuated by Scottsbluff Police as Scottsbluff Fire arrived and extinguished the fire.\n11 tenants were assisted by the Scottsbluff Firefighter Ministry for temporary housing.\nGering Fire Department and Valley Ambulance assisted in the response with units on scene until around 4:30 this morning. The cause of the fire is still being investigated.", "JERSEY CITY -- Three Kearny families were displaced by a 2-alarm fire that damaged a Belgrove Drive building this morning, an official said.\nAt 9:40 a.m. firefighters responded to the three-story, three-family building at 246 Belgrove Drive and found fire on the second floor, Kearny Fire Chief Steve Dyl said, adding that a second alarm was called at 9:48 a.m.\nDyl said the fire which caused moderate damage to the second floor and minor damage to the third floor appears to have started on the second-floor porch.\nFirefighters had to deal with icing on the sidewalk and roadway as they fought the flames but the city department of public works has salted the area and Belgrove Drive has reopened.\nResident of the building are staying with friends and family pending its inspection by the city building department.\nThe fire was ruled under control at 10:18 a.m.\nThe cause of the fire remains under investigation.", "An explosion at a UPS freight hub in Lexington, Ky., on Wednesday morning sent multiple people to the hospital, the Associated Press reported. Two people were sent to the hospital to be treated for burns and possible concussions, and six others who were also in the building during the explosion were sent for observation. Fire officials described the incident as an accidental blast, but the cause of the explosion is still under investigation.\n“Fire damage from the explosion was minimal, most of the damage being to the walls and roof of the building,” the Lexington fire department tweeted Wednesday morning, following the blast. The department also wrote, “Nothing leads us to believe this is anything other than an accidental explosion.”\nAccording to Lexington Battalion Chief Jason Wells, the incident occurred as a result of a truck and a trailer with an acetylene tank exploding in the building. The fire department’s spokesperson, Jessica Bowman, also told news outlets that the structure of the building was being examined as part of the investigation.\nThere has been at least one other reported explosion at a UPS freight facility this year, after a leaky propane tank caused a blast at a facility in Rock Island, Ill.", "A number of piglets have been killed in a fire on a farm at Normanby by Spital.\nSix Fire & Rescue pumps attended the fire in agricultural buildings on Private Lane yesterday evening (Wednesday, June 14).\nThe fire also caused severe damage to an agricultural building and 110 large straw bales.\nTwo crews remained at the site to damp down and this morning (Thursday) one crew remains in attendance.\nLincolnshire Fire & Rescue say no cause has been established as yet.", "An explosion damaged a UPS freight hub Wednesday morning in Kentucky’s second-largest city, sending multiple people to the hospital in what fire officials described as an accidental blast.\nAbout a dozen people received medical attention after an explosion damaged a UPS freight hub in Lexington, Kentucky, Wednesday, May 30, 2018. (David Goldman/AP, File)\nLEXINGTON, Ky. — An explosion damaged a UPS freight hub Wednesday morning in Kentucky’s second-largest city, sending multiple people to the hospital in what fire officials described as an accidental blast.\nLexington Battalion Chief Jason Wells said a truck and trailer with an acetylene tank exploded in the building, news outlets reported. The cause of the explosion was not yet known, but the blast wasn’t suspicious.\n“Nothing leads us to believe this is anything other than an accidental explosion,” the fire department tweeted.\nThe building on Blue Sky Parkway sustained significant damage, which was visible in the back of the building. The facility had been evacuated and everyone was accounted for, fire officials said.\nEight people received medical attention following the blast, Wells said. Two people taken to the hospital suffered from burns and possible concussions, and six others in the vicinity of the explosion were taken to the hospital for observation as a precaution, Wells said. Fire officials initially said about a dozen people received medical attention.\nLexington fire department spokeswoman Jessica Bowman said the building’s structural stability was being checked as part of an effort to determine what happened and how.\nBusinesses near the site reported a loud explosion shortly before 8 a.m. EDT. Emergency crews rushed to the scene and restricted access to the area.\nThe blast was felt inside other buildings.", "Emergency crews rushed to Halston Circle early Thursday morning to deal with a fire at the Hillside Village Apartments.\nInvestigators tell us the fire started in the stairway around 3:15.\nThere's some damage to the building, but it's not clear how bad it is right now.\nThat damage seems to be to the outside of the building, none of the apartments were burned.\nFortunately, we're told there were no injuries here. Right now, we're in contact with the fire department to find out the cause of the fire.\nCopyright 2017 WAFF. All rights reserved.\nReport an Error | Submit a Tip to WAFF 48", "The Bay City Department of Public Safety is investigating the cause of a morning house fire.\nOn Dec. 7 at 6:52 a.m., the Bay City Department of Public Safety personnel were dispatched to 521 Cornell for a structure fire.\nEight on-duty firefighters and 19 public safety officers were first dispatched.\nWhen responders arrived at about 6:56 a.m., they found large clouds of smoke and flames coming from the roof.\nA wooden fence behind the house also caught fire.\nPublic Safety personnel went into the home until the fire grew unsafe. They left the house and continued trying to knock down the fire from outside.\nDue to the wind conditions and the wooden fence on fire behind the home, the house at 517 Cornell also caught fire.\nFirefighters quickly extinguished that fire with minor damage to the 517 Cornell home.\nSafety personnel are still investigating the cause of the fire.\nMcLaren Bay Region EMS, Essexville Public Safety, and Bay Metro Bus assisted with the incident.\nCopyright 2017 WNEM (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.", "Authorities responded to a structure fire on Saturday night located along Ottawa Road in Kasota Township.\nUpon arrival it was discovered the house was completely engulfed in flames. Fire crews were able to extinguish the fire but the residence was a total loss.\nA dog and two cats did not survive the fire. There were no other occupants in the residence at the time of the fire.\nInitial investigation by the State Fire Marshall and the Le Sueur County Sheriff's Office into the case of the fire indicates it originated around a wood burning fire place.\nA GoFundMe page has been started for the family who lost everything in the fire.\nLe Sueur County Sheriff’s Office, Kasota Fire Department and seven other agencies gave mutual aide responding to the call.\n--KEYC News 12", "A large fire destroyed at least one building in the village of Bear Lake.\nMI News 26’s Remington Hernandez has the story.", "LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - The Latest on an explosion at a UPS freight hub in Kentucky (all times local):\n10:40 a.m.\nFire department officials say fire damage was minimal in an explosion that rocked a UPS freight hub in Lexington, Kentucky.\nLexington Battalion Chief Jason Wells says the Wednesday morning blast included a small fire in the facility.\nWells says eight people received medical attention, but says they are \"extremely lucky\" the injuries weren't worse.\nWells says two people taken to the hospital suffered from burns and possible concussions, and six others in the vicinity of the explosion were taken to the hospital for observation as a precaution.\nWells told news outlets that a truck and trailer with an acetylene tank exploded in the building. The cause of the explosion wasn't yet known, but the blast wasn't suspicious.\nFire officials say the facility has been evacuated and everyone is accounted for.\n___\n9 a.m.\nPolice in Kentucky's second-largest city say they're responding to a large explosion.\nNews outlets report that a business in Lexington has been damaged by the Wednesday morning explosion. The reports say that the back of a building appears to have been damaged.\nBusinesses near the site on Blue Sky Parkway reported a loud explosion shortly before 8 a.m. EDT. The blast was felt inside other buildings.\nLexington police urged people to avoid the Blue Sky Parkway area.\nNo other details were immediately available.", "A local home sustained significant damage after a bird's nest on top of a light caught on fire and spread into the attic.\nStart the conversation, or Read more at UnionLeader.com.", "Bemidji, MN – The Bemidji Fire Department responded to its first fire of 2017 at 4:54 a.m. Sunday on New Year’s Day.\nBemidji firefighters arrived on scene at the 1200 block of Thomas Drive SW and were able to quickly extinguish the fire and prevent any spread into other buildings. Four firefighters and an engine extinguished the fire, which took approximately an hour.\nThe fire caused an estimated $40,000 in loss, however, $125,000 in property was saves.\nWhile the cause of the fire is currently under investigation by the Bemidji Fire Department, the incident still appears accidental in nature.\nThe fire department was assisted on scene by Bemtrami County Sheriff’s Office.", "Residents of two 64-unit buildings were forced to flee their condos early Wednesday morning as a fire ripped through the complex in Inglewood in southeast Calgary.\nFire crews were called at about 1:40 a.m. to the four-storey Pearce Gardens complex and quickly elevated the response to four alarms, said fire Chief Steve Dongworth.\nAt one point there were 25 trucks at the 64-unit building at 14th Avenue and 17th Street S.E.\n\"It was pretty hectic early on,\" Dongworth said.\nA major fire ripped through the roof and top floor of a condo complex in Inglewood on Wednesday morning in southeast Calgary. (Dave Will/CBC)\n\"This was a huge volume of flame coming from the roof of the building here. And it was starting to impinge on the adjacent building.\"\nBoth buildings were safely evacuated and there were no injuries. More than 200 residents were affected, the fire department said in a release.\nFirefighters were able to knock down the fire quickly with an aggressive attack, and prevent it from spreading across to the mirror complex, which has another 64 units.\nIt was declared under control just before 3:30 a.m.\nThe fire was contained to the northern 64-unit building of the two-building Pearce Gardens condominium complex at the bottom right-hand side of this satellite view. (Google)\n\"There were some great calls made here tonight which probably saved the second building,\" Dongworth said.\nThe fire ripped through the roof and caused extensive damage on the upper floors, damaging six units. Other units were damaged by smoke and water, the fire department said.\nJason Hogge and his family were woken up by fire alarms, believing at first it was a false alarm.\n\"Came out around the corner and the whole building was ablaze. I've never seen anything like it,\" he said.\n\"Sat in the evacuation bus for a bit, and I think emergency services did a great job of looking after us. And we grabbed a taxi to our brother's and we came back here and they saved Poofy the cat.\"\nDiane Ukrainec, who lives in the adjacent building, says it seemed like the fire started and began to spread very quickly.\n\"We think it was sort of in the balcony area that it might have started. There's speculation that it's an empty unit,\" she said.\nResidents of the affected structure were taken by Calgary Emergency Management Agency officials to a reception centre at the nearby Max Bell Centre.\nIt's hoped the residents of the sister complex will be allowed to return to their homes later on Wednesday.\nCrews will remain at the site all day.\nThe top floor of the complex was totally gutted by the fire. (@KulioGillesias)\nThe damaged building will need major reconstruction, Dongworth said.\nFire investigators are working to determine the origin and cause of the fire. Initial calls to 911 indicated it started on a balcony.\nDongworth says four-alarm fires are rare in Calgary.\n\"I think you're back into the Millrise fire — I can't even think how many years ago that was — and Erlton, of course, was probably five alarms maybe. But it's not common,\" he said.\nA fire in Millrise in southwest Calgary damaged 159 condo units in 2010.\nThe Erlton fire destroyed three condo buildings and damaged a fourth building at a partially-finished condominium complex along the Elbow River 16 years ago.", "socastcmsRssStartAlexander QuonsocastcmsRssEnd\nFirefighters responded to the blaze on Metcalf Street shortly after 7 a.m., to reports of smoke streaming from the building.", "Firefighters on scene at 693 Park Street after a fire in a restaurant kitchen damaged several storefronts.\nFirefighters responded to a 2-alarm fire at a restaurant kitchen in Hartford storefront Wednesday morning.\nFire officials said they were notified by a pedestrian of a fire at 693 Park Street around 4:48 a.m. That pedestrian saw smoke and walked down to the fire department, which was just two buildings away, so crews were able to respond quickly.\nWhen firefighters arrived they found heavy smoke coming from the building.\nCapt. Raul Ortiz of the Hartford Fire Department said the fire started in the kitchen at Mar Y Tierra restaurant and spread to two other connected storefronts.\nAs of 5:20 a.m. crews reported the fire was under control, Ortiz confirmed.\nNo injuries were reported. The fire was contained to the Mar Y Tierra Kitchen, but two other stores sustained smoke damage.\nFire officials are investigating the cause.", "Read more: The Maryland Gazette\nA fire caused by a rice cooker Tuesday morning caused about $2,000 in damage to a store at Westfield Annapolis mall , Anne Arundel County Fire Department officials said. Capt.\nStart the conversation, or Read more at The Maryland Gazette.", "Fire investigators say they don’t know what caused a Memorial Day weekend fire that destroyed a South Minneapolis building that housed businesses, apartments and artists’ lofts.\nThe Minneapolis Fire Department said Wednesday that investigators were not able to get inside due to the condition of the building and the risk of collapse. So the cause of the fire is listed as undetermined.\nAuthorities declared the building structurally unsound, and the building was demolished Wednesday.\nThe three-alarm fire broke out Sunday night in the old Roberts Shoes building at the corner of Lake Street and Chicago Avenue.", "UPDATE: Chattanooga fire department fire investigators say that the January 30, 2018 fire that severely damaged Summitt Pianos and General Appliance Warehouse was set intentionally.\nCFD spokesman Bruce Garner says that the investigation will continue.\nPREVIOUS STORY: Chattanooga firefighters were called back out Wednesday morning to the scene of two Lee Highway businesses that caught fire last Monday night/early Tuesday morning.\nThe fire that severely damaged two local businesses, Summitt Pianos and General Appliance Warehouse, may be re-kindled.\nDrivers in the 6200 block of Lee Highway should use caution as emergency vehicles maneuver around the area.\nPREVIOUS STORY: Two businesses are closed after a fire ripped through and destroyed everything inside. It happened on the 6200 block of Lee Highway, not far from the Lee Highway Memorial.\nThe businesses that were destroyed were locally owned. Summitt Pianos has been around the Chattanooga area for more than 100 years, today a part of their history was ruined by the massive fire.\nCell phone video sent to Channel 3 shows flames and smoke shooting through the roof.\n\"It’s just total destruction, it's awful, it makes me feel sad,” said customer Larry Otto. Summitt Pianos is on the lower level, above it is home to General Appliance Warehouse.\n\"They knew a lot about the products and I got a good deal,” Otto said. Otto is a longtime customer, he and his wife have moved several times, and each time they needed new appliances they came here to this mom and pop shop on Lee Highway.\n\"The owner was very personable; he came to our house and helped deliver the refrigerator,” he said. The majority of the damage is in the General Appliance space, but investigators still haven't said what caused the fire.\nThe efforts to save the structure seeped through the cracks into the business below.\n\"We've got a lot of wet pianos, smoke damage, everything's wet but it's not burned up like upstairs,” said Ted Summitt. Summitt is the Owner of Chattanooga’s oldest piano and organ retailer. It’s a family's owned business that's more than 100 years old.\n\"It's a sad day but it could've been a lot worse, they lost everything upstairs at General Appliance. We’re safe and no ones hurt we can always replace the pianos,” he said.\nIt's also a sad day for customers too, who knew the building and the businesses inside.\n\"The big keyboard that was up on the side there, I mean everyone knew where that was you know?\" Otto said.\nThe owner of Summitt Pianos tells us they were able to save some records and computers, but everything else has smoke and water damage. They are going to try and find a new place to re-open their business in the near future.\nPREVIOUS STORY: Chattanooga Fire Department responded to a large fire overnight at General Appliance Warehouse on Lee Highway.\nThe fire started just after midnight. Fire crews were able to get a majority of the flames out by 2:00 am, but will still be on scene throughout the morning due to hot spots.\nThe building housed General Appliance Warehouse on the first level, with Summitt Pianos and Organs on the lower level.\nNOW: Fire investigators back inside the business. Still no word on what caused the fire. @WRCB pic.twitter.com/ZkLmHATx6r — Tim Pham (@TimPhamWRCB) January 30, 2018\nFire officials on scene say the building has significant damage, and both businesses have heavy losses. An estimate of the dollar loss due to damage is not available. No injuries are reported.\nThe cause of the fire is under investigation.", "An investigator is trying to determine the cause of an early morning fire at the Asia Buffet restaurant in Saskatoon.\nMultiple 911 calls were received by the Saskatoon Fire Department just after 5 a.m. CT on Friday of the fire at 415 Circle Dr.\nREAD MORE: Prince Albert, Sask. apartment building fire called suspicious\nWitnesses reported heavy smoke and the smell of burned rubber.\nCrews arrived to find heavy smoke and flame coming from the HVAC system on the roof of the building.\nFirefighters climbed on the roof to start battling the fire while rescue crews entered the restaurant to ensure no one was inside.\nThe restaurant was found empty and firefighters encountered heavy smoke inside.\nCeiling tiles were pulled down to check for fire extension.\nREAD MORE: 2 house fires in Saskatoon under investigation\nA loss stopped was declared around 90 minutes after the first calls came in.\nThere is no damage estimate at this time.", "A fire broke out at Badger Corrugating in La Crosse.\nAccording to our sister station, WXOW, the La Crosse Fire Department responded to a call made by the building materials store around 10 a.m. Friday morning. When they arrived at the company's 1801 West Ave South location, crew found a fire that originated in the paint booth area and got up into the duct work.\nThe fire was extinguished by 11:20 a.m.\nAll employees were evacuated. One person was transported for unknown injuries.\nLa Crosse Fire Chief Ken Gilliam says a mechanical issue is believed to be the known cause.\nGreen Bay Street is closed down from West Avenue to South Avenue as crews remain on scene.\nBadger Corrugated has no comment at this time.", "What started as a bonfire in the backyard of a Post Falls home turned into an alarming house fire that has done substantial damage. Early Tuesday morning, the occupants inside the home off Greensferry Rd. awoke to smoke and flames in the back of the house.\nStart the conversation, or Read more at KHQ-TV Spokane.", "Officials are now calling a fire at a dry cleaning business arson. One of the responding fire fighters was badly hurt on the scene.\nIt happened late Friday night near 32nd and Grand in south Spokane.\n\"They started the fires in three locations in the back of the building,\" said Beacon Cleaners' co-owner Rodney Johnson. \"One of them took off. We have no reason why they did it.\"\nJohnson was on the scene Monday morning. He said the majority of clothes inside the building were not damaged. They are rewashing and sanitizing them before customers can pick them up later in the week.\nJohnson said he's grateful destruction wasn't worse.\n\"Probably 10 minutes later, and the entire (building) could have been engulfed,\" he said. \"I think God for the firefighters and police.\"\nAnd Johnson said he can't help but feel awful for one of those first responders who found himself with serious injuries at the scene. The 27-year veteran firefighter fell from a ladder.\n\"He is recovering,\" said Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer. \"It is unknown if he'll come back to work or not.\"\nFederal resources are assisting in the arson investigation because some vehicles at the post office next door were also damaged.\nIf you know who did this, please call Crime Check at 509-456-2233.\n\"They may be doing this to other businesses as well,\" said Johnson.", "In Mankato, fire officials say an electrical malfunction caused a house to catch fire over the weekend.\nCrews arrived at 2021 Hoffman Road around 9 a.m. Sunday.\nFire officials say the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction in the power supply of a meter box located outside of the home.\nThe family was home at the time, but were able to escape before first responders arrived.\nDon Lehne with the Mankato Fire Dept. said, \" And firefighters responded and found the fire working its way back up the backside of the home and working its way inside on all three levels of the home as well...so they uh knocked it down on the outside went inside and finished knocking it down on the inside...the family...the applicants were out when the firefighters arrived and it's been turned over to the owners now.\"\nA preliminary damage estimate is set at $160,000.\nAuthorities say the family has found other living arrangements for the time being.", "(Reuters) - Two United Parcel Service Inc employees were injured in an explosion on Wednesday that caused significant damage to one of the package delivery company’s freight facilities in Lexington, Kentucky, a UPS spokesman said.\nUPS said a gas leak from propane tanks inside a trailer may have caused the morning blast, some 80 miles east of Louisville. The company said the employees received minor injuries and that it shut down operations.\nUPS spokesman Glenn Zaccara said he did not know when operations were expected to resume or how much freight volume was disrupted by the blast.\nThe Lexington Fire Department said six people were taken to a local hospital for observation after the blast.\nFire officials said the explosion caused significant structural damage to a maintenance facility, with the walls and roof hardest hit.\nA photo released by the fire department appeared to show chunks of twisted metal and debris on the ground and roof in a loading area. The building was still standing.\n“Nothing leads us to believe this is anything other than an accidental explosion,” the fire department said in a string of tweets starting just after 8 a.m. EDT.\nThe building was evacuated and all employees have been accounted for, the fire department said.\nUPS said it was working with authorities on an investigation.", "Please enable Javascript to watch this video\nSEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. -- Nobody was hurt when fire ripped through a Sedro-Woolley business early Monday morning.\nAccording to Sedro-Woolley police, authorities were called shortly after 3:00 a.m. to the report of some electrical wires sparking near a dumpster.\nWhen officers arrived, a three-story building at Woodworth and Metcalf streets called Video West was on fire.\nBy 7 a.m., firefighters were still putting out hot spots.\nThe fire marshal was called to the scene and will begin investigating as soon as it is safe to enter the building.\nThis is a developing story and will be updated. Stay with Q13 News for the latest.", "The residents of 25 apartments in a multi-level building in Barrie were forced from their homes Monday night when fire broke out in their building.\nThe Barrie Fire Department was called to an active apartment fire just before 10 p.m. at 100 Little Ave., in Allendale. The fire, is believed to have started on the third floor of the building before spreading to the roof.\nREAD MORE: Fire at Dundas apartment building causes $300,000 in damages\nPeople forced from their homes took shelter down the street at the Allendale Recreation Centre front lobby, where they were met with paramedics. Barrie police say no injuries were reported as a result of the fire.\nThere is no word yet on what caused the fire. The investigation is in the hands of the Barrie Fire Department and the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal.\nBarrie Mayor Jeff Lehman took to Twitter early Tuesday morning to thank first responders and the various charities and organizations that offered assistance during the fire.\nStory continues below Thanking the angels on our shoulders for the fact there were no injuries tonight in the serious fire at 100 Little Ave. Many have lost everything they had. Thank you to first responders, Barrie Housing, Red Cross and City, County and Transit staff who are assisting tonight. — Jeff Lehman (@Mayor_Jeff) April 24, 2018\nA GoFundMe page has been set up to raise money to help cover the cost of damages, and to help residents devastated by the fire rebuild their lives.", "A condo was damaged in a fire early in the morning on Aug. 14. 2017. (Las Vegas Fire and Rescue)\nAn early morning fire destroyed a Las Vegas condominium on Monday, according to Las Vegas Fire and Rescue.\nThe incident occurred at the Indian Wells Condominiums near Durango Drive and Alta Drive just after 3 a.m.\nA passerby reported the fire to 911 after seeing flames coming from the balcony of the upstairs unit. The caller alerted the occupants by throwing rocks at the windows of the unit.\nArriving firefighters reported heavy smoke and flames coming from the balcony and front door of the unit. When crews tried to enter the unit they found it fully involved in flames.\nIt took about 15 minutes for crews to bring the fire under control. Crews were able to contain the fire to the one unit, the department said.\nThe fire gutted the upstairs unit and caused water damage to the downstairs united, the department said. Damage was estimated at $75,000.\nThe two adults who live in the upstairs unit said they went on the patio to smoke a cigarette before going to bed. They were sleeping when the woke up to the sound of rocks hitting the window. When they got up to see who was throwing rocks they saw the fire, which had already broken through the patio door and spread to the drapes and the rest of the unit. They were able to escape without injury.\nAlthough the cause of the fire remains under investigation, fire investigators believe the blaze started on the balcony, the department said.\nThe pair who was sleeping in the downstairs unit said they woke up to the fire department knocking on their door, the department said.\nThe American Red Cross is assisting the four displaced adults.\nCopyright 2017 KVVU (KVVU Broadcasting Corporation). All rights reserved.", "LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – The Lexington Fire Department said two were injured after an explosion at the UPS distribution center on Blue Sky Parkway in Lexington, Ky. on Wednesday morning, May 30.\nThe fire department said the injuries do not appear to be life-threatening. The department says 10 more people are expected to be taken to the hospital for evaluation.\nMost of the damage occurred to the walls and roof of the building. The fire department said the structural damage was significant.\nThe cause of the explosion is still unknown.\nBREAKING: Fire crews on the scene of reported explosion at distribution center. https://t.co/uvVPcMUK6z pic.twitter.com/T00Yf4RWRA — ABC 36 News (@ABC36News) May 30, 2018\n© 2018 WHAS-TV", "Firefighters in Cedar Rapids say they were able to quickly put out a fire inside a mobile home tonight, but the family living inside will now need to stay out.\nCrews were called to the home in the 200 block of Mitchell Street Southwest around 6:10 p.m. Monday, where they saw heavy smoke coming out of the home's door. Everyone was already out of the house by the time the firefighters arrived. Crews knocked the fire out quickly after entering the home, and then needed to cut a vent hole in the roof for smoke to make its way out.\nThe family displaced by the fire is being helped by the American Red Cross tonight.\nThe Cedar Rapids Fire Department says the fire is still under investigation, and say a \"moderate\" amount of damage was done. They say the fire started when the family was away from the home." ]

[ "(CNN) -- 2011 has been a year for young people in the Middle East and North Africa. More than two thirds of the region's population is under the age of 25, according to the Arab Thought Foundation, and they have emerged as the drivers of the Arab Spring uprisings. At the second \"One Young World\" conference in Zurich, Switzerland, this month, 1,600 under 25s from 194 countries spent three days sharing ideas and hearing from global leaders in business, politics and activism. Here, we profile some young people from the Middle East and North Africa who could be the region's leaders of tomorrow. Internet activist, Bahrain . Esra'a El Shafei, 25, founded the website Mideast Youth, which campaigns on a diverse range of initiatives. El Shafei set up Mideast Youth five years ago and has concentrated on issues that do not receive much mainstream media attention, such as the plight of migrant works or the rights of religious minorities. One of its recent projects is CrowdVoice.org, a user-powered service tracking voices of protests by crowd-sourcing information. El Shafei said: \"I founded CrowdVoice out of my own frustrations of desperately needing a tool to organize the dissemination of assorted information and current events about topics that mattered to activists worldwide. \"CrowdVoice made its mark with thousands of users when the revolutionary protests began in Tunisia and Egypt.\" How Arab youth found their voice . Campaigner for education reform, Egypt . Jamal Dayem, 23, is an engineer by trade but passionate about improving education in Egypt. He said: \"The real dream is to implement an education reform movement such as 'Teach for India' in Egypt, where high caliber Egyptian university graduates teach full time in low-income schools around Egypt. \"The education institutions in Egypt have been one of the most affected by the decades of corruption in the country.\" Daymen's mother is a teacher in a government school and has spurred his desire to change the system . \"There is no question that the education system in Egypt needs a revolution,\" he said. \"In Egypt universities graduate a plethora of extremely capable students every year that are bulwarked by an unemployment rate of 20% for their age group. \"If we as a country are able to harness their energy and passion to fuel the education of the succeeding generation we would be more effective than any curriculum change or incentives given to already dormant and corrupt members of education.\" Entrepreneur, Jordan . Rami Al Qadi, 25, is an entrepreneur and electrical engineer who has designed a wind turbine that works in low wind speeds. His entrepreneurial ideas range from bringing wind energy to Jordan to manufacturing sand buggies. Al Qadi is worried that this year's unrest across the Middle East has made conditions harder for growing businesses, particularly those which depend on tourism. He wants to see regulations eased for entrepreneurs and an end to corruption in Jordan. \"Young people are very important in the Middle East because they represent the majority of people,\" said Al Qadi. \"If a small percentage takes some action then a change might happen.\" Ten must-read blogs from the Middle East . Youth ambassador, Egypt . Raghada Abdel Hamed, 28, is Egypt's Youth Ambassador for Arab Thought Foundation, an organization which promotes innovation in science, culture, literature, arts and education. Hamed said: \"My main goal is to represent the organization in my country and spread awareness on its objectives.\" She has represented Egypt at numerous youth conferences since 2004, and works for the United National High Commissioner for Refugees interviewing people vulnerable to abuse and ensuring they are referred for support. Hamed was involved in the revolution in Egypt and is keen to help build her nation's future. She said: \"I have seen by my eyes the sacrifices made to this revolution to succeed. \"Therefore, we will work hard to achieve what we paid a great price for: better governance, better social justice, job creation, less corruption and above all a generation who are aware of their rights and duties, so that they can always stand up and fight for it.\" Youth employment trainer, Jordan . Mohammad Abulawi, 25, wants to help young people find jobs in his native Jordan. Abulawi is training co-ordinator for Jordan Career Education Foundation, an organization which aims to give vulnerable and disadvantaged 18 to 24-year-olds a sense of hope and dignity by training them for work. He said: \"My hope is that parents and children fully understand the importance of education and that the numbers of uneducated youth decrease in Jordan. \"I also wish that the 'culture of shame,' where Jordanian youth do not work in certain jobs, is tackled and that the youth become the biggest segment of the workforce in Jordan.\" Social entrepreneur, Egypt . Mahmoud El-Refai, 27, co-founded It'sOneHummanity, a global social network for humanitarians that lets them share their work and ideas. He is also a climate-change ambassador for an international project, an engineering graduate and a corporate strategy officer for Siemens. El-Refai said: \"I'm working on bridging the gap between the private sector, the public sector and the civil society to create projects that can benefit the people at the 'bottom of the pyramid.' I believe that business must be for profit, but profit must also be for purpose.\" He added: \"I dream of an Egypt where human rights are respected and where social equality prevails. I imagine an Egypt that is in the top 20 countries in the world, a leading country in the political, social and economic arenas.\" Researcher and women's advocate, United Arab Emirates . Graduate student Sarah AbdulRazak, 23, is on the board organizing a \"Women As Global Leaders\" conference in Abu Dhabi next year. AbdulRazak would love to see more women in public life in the United Arab Emirates and other Middle Eastern countries. She is also passionate about education and promoting dialogue between the east and west. AbdulRazak said: \"Young people are the voices and torchbearers of a progressive future, especially in the Middle East where they are currently underrepresented on the global stage.\" Inventor, Jordan . Abdel Rahman Alzorgan, 21, and his younger brother Mohammad were named among the best young inventors in Jordan after winning fourth place in an Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in the United States. The pair's invention was an automated irrigation system they had been working on since they were in elementary school. Abdel said: \"We got a patent for it, so we are known now as the youngest inventors of Jordan. At the moment we are working on five other research projects, mainly to do with environmental solutions.\" Alzorgan, now an engineering student, also works on awareness campaigns involving politics, fighting hunger and HIV." ]

[ "Britain's black and ethnic minority communities could account for almost a third of the population by 2050, according to a report published today. The number of people from minority groups could as much as double by then, it says. One in four children under the age of ten in the UK is already from a minority group and over the next few decades the proportion will soar, according to think-tank Policy Exchange. Melting pot: The minority population could double, researchers say . Currently, eight million people, or 14 per cent of the UK population, are from ethnic minorities. But they now account for 80 per cent of population growth, while the white population remains constant. Experts predict that as a result, by the middle of the century between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of the population – up to 16million people – will be from a minority community, the report says. Ethnic minority communities predominantly live in three main cities, with 50 per cent living in London, Manchester and Birmingham alone. They are seven times more likely to live in an urban area than someone who is white. But over time, ethnic minorities will move out of deprived inner city areas and into suburbs and surrounding towns, echoing the way that white groups migrated in the past with the growth of the middle classes, the report predicts. Ethnicities are increasingly mixing: one in eight multi-person households contains people from more than one ethnic group. The report draws on survey, census, academic and polling data to build up a comprehensive picture of the five largest black and minority ethnic (BME) groups in the UK – Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Black African and Black Caribbean. The report says people from ethnic minority backgrounds also have a far stronger association with being British than the white population . Eight million people, or 14 per cent of the UK population, are from ethnic minorities . Indians are he largest minority group in the UK, with 1,412,958 people accounting for 2.5 per cent of the population. Britain is home to the second largest Indian population in the western world outside India, after only the US. There are 989,628 Black Africans in the UK. They are the fastest growing of the main ethnic groups, and also the most diverse, coming from countries both inside and outside the Commonwealth. There are 1,124,511 Pakistanis in the UK, 447,201 Bangladeshis and 594,825 Black Caribbeans. Minorities account for only 5 per cent of the total over-60 population, but 25 per cent of those under ten. Almost 30 per cent of pupils in state primary schools and around 25 per cent of pupils at secondary schools are classified as being from a minority ethnic group. 'With such a youthful age structure, it is likely the UK's BME population will represent a larger proportion of the UK's population over time,' the report says. All groups except Indians have unemployment rates that are more than double the rate of the white population. People from ethnic minority backgrounds also have a far stronger association with being British than the white population, the report says. It argues that politicians should stop treating ethnic minorities as one homogeneous group and start appealing to the varied political views and concerns of non-white Britons. Rishi Sunak, co-author of the report, said: The UK is now home to a melting pot of different cultures and traditions. These communities will continue to become an ever more significant part of Britain, especially in future elections. 'However, ethnic minorities are not one homogeneous political group. From education to employment, housing to trust in the police, politicians from all parties must understand the different issues affecting individual communities.'", "Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- During London Mayor Boris Johnson's recent visit to Dubai on an investment promotion trip, he jokingly declared that he is \"mayor of the eighth emirate.\" Though uttered in typical self-deprecating jest, the mayor of the world's greatest city proclaiming that London is a mere province of the United Arab Emirates is revealing about how Dubai's fortunes have revived since the punishing real estate crash and debt restructuring following the financial crisis. With the UK economy slumping so severely that the IMF has recommended it reconsider its austerity policy, Johnson has to look abroad to maintain London's economic dynamism. He particularly appealed to the UAE's sovereign wealth funds (such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Mubadala) to invest in London's underground subway upgrades (not that Emiratis are regulars on the Tube, since they often ship their supercharged Italian sports cars to London for the summer months). Thirty years ago, when I was a child growing up in the UAE, Dubai's highlights were a cheap revolving restaurant in the creek district of Deira and the modest gold souk of nearby Sharjah. But a revolutionary transformation was also just under way under the visionary leadership of Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed al Maktoum, and subsequently carried forward by his third son Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, who currently rules Dubai while also serving as prime minister and vice president of the UAE. More from Parag Khanna: Is Brazil ready to take sporting center stage? Decades of heavy infrastructure investment built what is today one of the world's busiest ports at Jebel Ali, and the world's most transited airport. At any hour of the day, Dubai's Terminal 3 is the single most cosmopolitan building in the world, with every conceivable nationality transiting, visiting, or settling. The Dubai Mall, located at the base of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, was visited 65 million times in 2012, more than any other monument in the world. The increasingly populous and built-up corridor connecting Abu Dhabi and Dubai have inspired many to refer to this core axis as \"Abu Dubai,\" the unofficial capital of the entire Middle East. In time, all seven emirates -- and all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries -- will be linked by a coastal high-speed rail network. Led by the largest economy of Saudi Arabia, the GCC collectively deserves a place in any conversation about the \"BRICS.\" Huge real estate projects, central geography, and reconciliation with its fraternal capital Abu Dhabi made Dubai resilient to the crisis in ways almost every global analyst missed. Those who erroneously wrote gloating \"Dubai is finished\" headlines are derisively referred to here as \"the haters.\" Ironically, they come from the same places -- Europe and America -- that now send officials and out-of-work executives desperately seeking investment and jobs in the UAE. Would you rather be in Athens right now? In his penetrating new book \"The History of Future Cities,\" author Daniel Brook matter-of-factly declares Dubai as the center of the world. But he also sketches a portrait of a place that is not just a city, but an idea, and a dream. In one generation, Dubai has graduated from a village that people just fly over, to an instant city in the desert, to a destination for migrant workers and expatriates, to a world financial center and demographic microcosm of the planet. Just a couple of years after its economic crisis it feels like the center of the world again. In the traditional but affluent beachfront district of Jumeirah, the aesthetic matches the geography of being halfway between Europe and India: patisseries next to sari shops. An even further concentric circle of cultures is represented: Burger King and Chinese massage parlors. More from Khanna: Evolution, not revolution, in Myanmar . Geography plays a major role in Dubai's rebound. The UAE's largest trading partners are China and India. Indians are the second largest investors in the all-important property market (behind Emiratis); they flock here as the most convenient meeting point for far-flung diaspora families. Like anyone else, they also enjoy functioning infrastructure; hence the saying that Dubai is India's best-run city. (If only Dubai were still administered by the British Raj, when its currency was the rupee.) Dubai has also become a crucial outpost for China, with more than 2,000 Chinese companies registered in the UAE. While many have visited the sprawling Dragon Mart complex where low-cost Chinese goods are sold wholesale, an estimated 180,000 Chinese people reside in the country, including senior figures for state-run banks who negotiate joint investment opportunities in Africa with Western companies. The Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) is their neutral meeting ground, offering a one-stop shop for legal, financial, accounting and other services. The UAE also wisely plays a neutral game of multi-alignment with the superpowers: major arms deals with the U.S., massive energy exports to China, and billions in investment from Europe. Whether or not China is able to avoid the \"Malacca trap\" by building pipeline and railways across Central Asia to the Middle East, it will still need Dubai as its hub for its growing reach into the Middle East and Africa. Last week's third consecutive government-sponsored Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) in Dubai featured businessmen and officials from 114 emerging markets, showing how the city is the most convenient meeting point for the globe-spanning webs of commerce forming across Latin America, Africa, and Asia. With its location at the intersection of three continents, Dubai captures not only the shift in economic power from West to East, but also the rise of the South. Forty percent of the world's population lives on the Indian Ocean rim, and Dubai is the financial crossroads for their growing trade and financial relationships. Dubai is increasingly the hub for companies investing across Africa, and home to domestic powerhouses like Dubai Ports World, which is operating ports from Djibouti to Senegal, and Emirates Airlines, the only airline capable of flying non-stop from Dubai to every major city in the world. When you fly on Emirates Airlines, the pilots need several full breaths to list the languages spoken by the staff, usually including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Afrikaans, Bulgarian and half-dozen others. In his forthcoming book Start-up Rising, veteran tech entrepreneur Chris Schroeder points out that Dubai is effectively the commercial capital for companies looking to gain access to about 300 million Arab consumers. According to Standard Chartered Bank, the UAE itself has the highest rate of mobile penetration in the world, with 176 phones per 100 people. Smart phone penetration is expected to grow to 50% in Egypt in the next five years. Schroeder argues that Western VCs need to be greater risk takers, the way UAE-based ones already are. Abraaj, the largest private equity fund in the Middle East, has investments in 43 countries from Peru to Pakistan. Only at conferences in Dubai does one find billboards advertising Pakistan as \"vibrant,\" and find investors talking about the \"huge opportunities\" there. Perhaps the greatest geopolitical risk to the region is also what will become the UAE's next big opportunity: Iran. It is unlikely that Iran will spend the rest of the decade as an isolated pariah. Whether by war or diplomacy, with or without nuclear weapons, the giant Persian nation in the region's heart will be open for business. The smuggling business that has thrived for decades between Dubai and Iran will graduate to Dubai becoming the full-blown staging point for all parties involved in Iran's economic rehabilitation. With such strong, unchallenged and popular leadership, the UAE has wound up a beneficiary of the Arab Spring. Free of the troubles of Egypt, Syria, and other Arab states, \"Dubai is where you come to forget you're in the Middle East,\" according to one commentator. Just as it benefited in the 1970s and '80s from Lebanon's descent into civil war, the UAE is now absorbing an estimated 15,000 Arabs a month from Iraq and Syria, but also Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The best and the brightest -- and wealthiest -- are hedging their bets, fed-up with civil war or democracy. While the country is relatively open, tolerant and progressive, its freedoms come at a price. Human Rights Watch has recently reported on crackdowns of free speech, closure of Western NGO affiliates, intimidation and imprisonment of dissidents, continued human trafficking, and poor protection of foreign worker rights. And as in countries in West and East, security cameras are now ubiquitous, reminding of the underlying securitization that enables the peaceful daily order. Even as these issues receive growing scrutiny, Dubai is undeniably the deserving favorite to host the World Expo 2020 (the winner will be announced in November). The UAE biggest long-term challenge is demographic. The UAE and Qatar are unique in the world as nations whose indigenous populations are all but disappearing relative to the influx of foreigners. The country's population has tripled in just the past decade to over ten million people, yet Emiratis make up less than 10% of the entire population. The prominent academic Abdulkhaleq Abdulla is a provocative and thoughtful embodiment of the dilemma the UAE's success has brought about: on the one hand, he praises his country's spectacular modernization, but he has also sounded the alarm that Emirati identity is being extinguished, his tribe becoming extinct. At the same time, though Dubai has by far the highest foreign-born population rate in the world, it is not quite the melting pot New York is. To achieve that level of permanent, inter-ethnic integration, the UAE will have to transform itself from post-modern feudalism to an innovative stakeholdership model in which foreigners are accorded long-term residency rights, and both citizens and foreigners have meaningful rights as well as responsibilities. If it does so, it can be a role model for dozens of other cities that are becoming multi-ethnic global hubs. That is exactly what the world expects from the city at its center. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Parag Khanna.", "By . Ryan Lipman For Daily Mail Australia . Global sales for fast food giant McDonald's have slumped to a 10-year record low with Australia singled out as a 'weak' market. Internationally, Australia is part of the worst performing sector for this year's second quarter, the Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa operation, where sales fell by a massive 7.3 per cent. McDonald's chief executive Don Thompson defined under performing Australian and Japanese markets as weak and said the Illinois-based company was concentrating on 'stabilising' key priority markets in both Australia and Japan, as well as Germany and the U.S., reported the Sydney Morning Herald. Australia has been identified as a weak market for McDonald's and is part of the fast food chain's worst performing global sector . On the back of the slump, a McDonald's Australia spokesperson said the Australian business was strong and growing despite a 'challenging environment'. But as consumers look for healthier options in an increasingly competitive market, McDonald's recorded its worst global results in a decade with a 2.5 per cent drop in June and July. The results are its weakest since 2003 when the chain posted a 3.7 per cent fall over consecutive months. McDonald's has faced increase scrutiny in Australia in recent months thanks to the rollout of its controversial home delivery service already available in areas across Sydney's west including North Parramatta and Waterloo and Stanmore in the city's inner suburbs. McDonald's chief executive Don Thompson said the company was 'stabilising' the Australian market . The move is part of the fast food chain's strategy to 'stablise' the Australian market by increasing sales, but the service has been slammed by health groups concerned about easier access to junk food. Areas in Melbourne and Hervey Bay in Queensland's south east are trialling the service this month. The Hervey Bay trial has come under particular attack due to the area's already extremely overweight population where two thirds of adults are overweight or obese and one quarter of children are also overweight or obese, reported the ABC. Queensland's Australian Medical Association president Dr Shaun Rudd said the service could compound the problem of obesity. 'It's pretty sad. These large corporations have a look where they're going to get the most bang for their buck and they choose places like that,' he said. 'I think unfortunately they'll sell more food and that means there's going to be more burgers and more fries eaten by the population there, and they are already extremely overweight.' Yet McDonald's has already hailed the service a success and confirmed its plans to continue expanding it throughout the country once trials are finished. McDonald's and other fast food chains have also faced further criticism after a Cancer Council study found they were advertising higher-calorie adults meals to children by using an advertising code loophole. The company slump has been intensified in the U.S. due to increases competition from other chains offering limited menus . The study found McDonald’s Chicken 'n' Cheese Burger and KFC's Mint Choc Krusher were some of the adult meals shown to children. Internationally the company sparked food safety concerns with reports workers at a Shanghai plant were repackaging expired meat. The fast food chain promptly stopped using supplies from the plant, which meant many Asian stores could not serve Big Mac and Chicken McNuggets. McDonalds was also ordered to pay $27 million in damages in July due to relaxed security in a Texas store leading to the death of two teenagers in 2012. Denton Ward, 18, was bashed to death in the store and his 18-year-old partner Lauren Crisp was killed when she crashed her car while trying to get him to hospital. Despite the slump in McDonald's global sales, Burger King Worldwide has recorded its third consecutive sales growth in Canada and the U.S. Yet with more than 35,600 restaurants internationally and with 19 per cent owned by McDonald's, the fast food giant plans to franchise 1,500 of its company-owned stores mainly outside the U.S. by 2016. In the U.S. there has also been move from consumers to chains offering limited menus over McDonald's all in one approach. The company's shares fell 21 cents to $US93.10 at the close of trade on Wall Street on Friday.", "(CNN) -- The United States is likely to remain the leading world power in 2030 but won't hold the kind of sway it did in the past century, according to a new study by the U.S. intelligence community. Washington will most likely hold its status as \"first among equals\" two decades from now, buoyed not only by military strength but by economic and diplomatic power. That's one of the conclusions of \"Alternative Worlds,\" released Monday by the National Intelligence Council. China and other rising powers may be \"ambivalent and even resentful\" of American leadership, but they're more interested in holding positions of influence in organizations such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund than assuming that role, the report found. \"Nevertheless, with the rapid rise of other countries, the 'unipolar moment' is over, and 'Pax Americana' -- the era of American ascendancy in international politics that began in 1945 -- is fast winding down,\" the report states. Monday's 166-page report is the fifth in the \"Global Trends 2030\" series by the council, an arm of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It doesn't make specific predictions, but says that the world is at a \"critical juncture\" in which technology is advancing, competition for resources is growing and a middle class is emerging in countries around the world. \"Our effort is to encourage decision makers -- whether in government or outside -- to think and plan for the long term so that negative futures do not occur and positive ones have a better chance of unfolding,\" council Chairman Christopher Kojm wrote in the report's preface. The report lays out a series of possible futures, both optimistic and pessimistic, from a world in which globalization has stalled and the risk of war has gone up to one in which collaboration between Washington and Beijing produces a rapid increase in worldwide prosperity. Technological advances will give individuals more freedom, but also have the potential to provide small groups with the kind of destructive capabilities now available only to nations. \"With more widespread access to lethal and destructive technologies, individuals who are experts in such key areas as cyber systems might sell their services to the highest bidder,\" Kojm said during a briefing on the report. \"Terrorists might focus less on mass casualties and more on causing widespread economic and financial disruptions.\" Economic power is likely to shift away from the United States and Europe to China, India and Southeast Asian countries, and Africa will see an urban boom as people move to cities at a faster rate, the report concludes. But those developments will add pressure to deal with environmental issues such as more frequent or severe droughts and the projected rise in sea levels due to a warming climate. \"Under most scenarios -- except the most dire -- significant strides in reducing extreme poverty will be achieved by 2030,\" the report notes. The numbers of people living in poverty is likely to drop sharply in East and South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, with sub-Saharan Africa lagging behind. Kojm said, \"economic growth, the rise of the global middle class, greater educational obtainment and better health care mean -- for the first time in human history -- the majority of the world's population will no longer be impoverished.\" But perhaps the biggest question mark in the report is the Middle East. The region \"will be a very different place\" in 2030, the authors conclude. \"But the possibilities run a wide gamut from fragile growth and development to chronic instability and potential regional conflicts.\" The youth boom that has driven the Arab Spring revolts will give way to an aging population, while shifts in energy consumption may force oil-rich Middle Eastern economies to find new sources of income. The growth of middle classes will increase demand for political and social change, but that could be a mixed blessing: \"Historically, the rise of middle classes has led to populism and dictatorships as well as pressures for greater democracy,\" the authors noted. Meanwhile, that global growth \"disguises growing pressures on the middle class in Western economies,\" including international competition for higher-skilled jobs. The growing middle class will also increase demand for water and food by more than 35% over the next couple of decades the report indicates. Advancements in key technologies such as genetically modified crops, precision agriculture and water irrigation techniques should for the most part prevent scarcity. An increase in the earning power, education and political clout of women \"will be a key driver of success for many countries,\" with gender gaps closing fastest in East Asia and Latin America, the report found. And India is likely to be in the same position in 2030 that China is today, it concludes. \"India's rate of economic growth is likely to rise while China's slows,\" the authors found. China's 8%-10% growth \"will probably be a distant memory by 2030,\" it notes. And India's economic advantage over regional nuclear rival Pakistan is likely to grow, roughly doubling the comparative size of its economy. CNN's Pam Benson contributed to this report.", "Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Yemen's former president says he will not leave his country unless his political, tribal, and military foes leave as well, a senior aide to the ex-president told CNN Thursday. Former President Ali Abdullah Saleh said the condition was agreed to in a secret deal struck last May at the residence of Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, who was recently elected as the new president of Yemen, said the aide, who asked not to be named. Saleh named Gen. Ali Mohsen, military commander of the country's northern and eastern regions, as the first on the list of officials who must leave the country. Others include four brothers from the prominent Ahmar family who were involved in a fierce war against Saleh's forces last May before the president was seriously wounded and burned in an assassination attempt at the presidential palace amid battles between government forces and tribal fighters. Saleh's demands that his enemies depart Yemen come as tens of thousands of youth activists protested this week, demanding that Saleh be prosecuted. The unrest in Yemen began in 2011 as the population got caught up in the Arab Spring uprisings that swept North Africa and the Middle East. Protesters called for an end to Saleh's 33-year rule. Abdu Ganadi, the spokesman for Saleh's ruling General People Congress party (GPC), said that Saleh's stance does not represent the official position of the party, but is a condition that Saleh has put on the table in exchange for him leaving the country. \"With the attendance of the U.S. ambassador in Yemen, the opposition officials promised to leave the country if Saleh left,\" Ganadi told CNN. Saleh said Yemen cannot restore stability and security as long as the elements of the one-year political impasse stay in the country. A deal for Saleh to leave power, brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council in Saudi Arabia in November, did not include such a stipulation. After several weeks of maneuvering, Saleh finally signed the GCC power transfer agreement in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Saleh is currently the president of the GPC party and since stepping down from power has provoked the anger of the country's opposition with continuous involvement in the political scene. \"The opposition will not be involved in any national dialogue if Saleh is atop of the GPC. The country revolted against him so it is impossible to involve him in any dialogue,\" said Mohammed Qahtan, former spokesman for the opposition Joint Meeting Parties. \"He stands behind the killing of innocent Yemenis and the revolution is incomplete if he remains in the political picture,\" Qahtan said. Saleh's relatives still hold key military and governmental posts with more than 180,000 troops under their command. Asked about the report of a secret deal, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Thursday she \"can't speak to\" Saleh's \"political future in Yemen.\" As long as Saleh respects \"the process that the Yemeni people have endorsed and that is ongoing, we don't have a view one way or the other about whether he stays in the country,\" she said. \"We want to see him play a constructive role in supporting the democratization process in Yemen,\" Nuland said. Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East, with a severe shortage of water and rising levels of malnutrition among its population of about 25 million. Before he left office, Saleh faced a separatist movement in the south, sectarian tensions in its north and the growing presence of what Western officials describe as al Qaeda's most dangerous affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.", "The banks of the Dead Sea are under threat from soaring numbers of sinkholes that are appearing as the salt lake dries up, an environmental group has warned. EcoPeace Middle East estimates that there are more than 3,000 sinkholes now along the banks of the salt lake, which is bordered by Israel and Jordan. Water evaporation from the lake - which is occurring at nearly four feet per year - drawing freshwater into the pockets of salt left behind by the lake. Environmental groups report that there are now more than 3,000 sinkholes, shown above filled with water, along the banks of the main body of the Dead Sea, caused by the loss of water from the giant salt lake . As the salt dissolves in the fresh water, it causes the earth above it to collapse. Gidon Bromberg, director of EcoPeace Middle East claims that the appearance of the sinkholes has been accelerating in recent years. For thousands of years, the Dead Sea has attracted visitors who come to float in its salty waters and reap its reported health benefits. But the salt lake's water elves have fallen from 394 metres below sea level in the 1960s to about 423 meters below sea level at the end of 2012. As a result, the Sea’s water surface area has been reduced  by one third: from roughly 950 square kilometers to 637 square kilometers today. The water level continues  to drop at an alarming pace of 0.8 to 1.2 meters per year. The significant decline of the water level over the past 30 years is due to diversion of water from the Jordan River and from the Dead Sea itself due to population increase. The first one appeared in the 1980s, by 1990 there were 40 and by 2005 there were 1,000 holes. Now, Mr Bromberg says, a new sinkhole is appearing almost every day. Speaking to ABC News, Mr Bromberg said: 'These sink holes are a direct result of the inappropriate mismanagement of water resources in the region. 'They could develop overnight or over time, making them unpredictable and very dangerous.' Mr Bromberg and his colleagues believe the rate of these sinkholes appearing has been increased by the construction of dams and reservoirs beside the lake. Water is also pumped from the lake to be evaporated so that minerals such as potash and bromide can be extracted. Water is also pumped from the lake to help maintain the pools that sit outside the spa hotels that attract tourists from around the world. Sitting nearly 1,300ft below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest inland area in the world and has a salinity of almost 33 per cent. Sink holes like this one at Mineral Beach beside the Dead Sea on the West Bank are becoming more common . These sinkholes appeared in the fields in south east corner of the Dead Sea near to the Lisan Peninsula . It has historically been maintained by a flow of fresh water from rivers and streams that have equaled the water is loses to evaporation in the scorching heat - about 160 billion gallons a year. Now the Dead Sea is thought to receive less than 10 per cent of the water it needs to maintain its size and it has declined from being 50 miles long in the 1950s to around 30 miles long today. Warning signs now dot the shores of the lake to highlight the danger of the open pits that have been appearing as a result of the sea's shrinkage. Mr Bromberg fears that the sinkholes may soon start posing a threat to the roads and infrastructure that run alongside the Dead Sea. Israel's Transportation Ministry had to close down a stretch of its Route 90 in January after several metres on its eastern side sank by two inches. The Dead Sea is an inland lake that sits on the border between Israel and Jordan, as shown in the map above . The salt formations, seen in the aerial view above, are left behind as the mineral rich water evaporates away . This sink hole beside the Dead Sea, caused by collapsing alt deposits left by the lake, has filled with water .", "After a decade of construction and almost four years behind schedule, the Middle East's latest airport destination began full operations earlier this week. Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar, will eventually occupy 29 square kilometers (roughly a third of the size of Doha city itself) and comes in at a total cost of $15 billion. The giant facility will have an annual capacity of 50 million passengers as well as public spaces for art exhibitions, a VIP terminal inspired by Arabian sailboats and an aquatic themed mosque. Like an increasing number of oil and gas rich cities in the region, Doha is attempting to diversify its economy to make the most of new trade and tourism opportunities. For the head of Qatar's ambitious national carrier, the much-awaited development couldn't have come soon enough. \"It gives us unlimited opportunities,\" Qatar Airways CEO, Akbar al Baker told CNN. \"Doha International Airport was very congested. It was overcrowded. We could not give the standard of service we would prefer our passengers to have on the ground.\" Analysts say Doha, like its Gulf neighbors, understands the power and potential of aviation to provide a stable long-term industry in the region. \"There's a recognition by the (Qatari) government that aviation plays a wider economic role which doesn't only directly support jobs,\" said John Strickland, director of aviation analytics firm JLS Consulting. \"It (also) supports trade, it supports stability to develop tourism and we've seen that that's been done very effectively for example in Dubai,\" Strickland added. Dubai opened the doors of its second airport, the mammoth Dubai World Central, just last year. There are already plans to increase annual capacity there from the 120 million agreed upon during the initial design phase to over 200 million. \"Ultimately we want to create the world's largest airport,\" said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports. \"The current largest airport in the world in Atlanta, Georgia, is about 89 million passengers so you can see the kind of scale and order we are looking at,\" Griffiths added. In Abu Dhabi, meanwhile, construction is underway for the new Midfield Terminal Complex at Abu Dhabi International Airport. Set to open in 2017, it will have a capacity of 30 million passengers per year alone. Such massive developments ensure competition in the region is stiff. But with so much capacity will there be enough tourism and trade to go around? That remains to be seen, but regional airlines seem convinced and are operating to ambitious expansion schedules themselves. \"Step by step we're opening up the U.S. but we're also going to balance that with more cities in Southeast Asia (and) in the Middle East,\" said James Hogan CEO of Abu Dhabi carrier, Etihad. According to the International Air Transport Association, Etihad and the other Middle Eastern carriers are currently gaining more passengers than any other region. In the first quarter of this year Dubai International Airport (a separate facility to Dubai World Central) became the busiest in the world with more than 18 million passengers, overtaking 16 million at London's Heathrow. On top of this, many analysts believe the Gulf hubs -- situated just 8 hours flying time from two-thirds of the world's population -- are well placed to tap into many new and emerging markets in Asia and Africa. \"I don't think the big hub airports in the Gulf are particularly competing with each other, they are more competing with other parts of the world,\" said John Strickland. \"The Gulf is positioned between growing markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America and the airlines who operate out of these hub airports have very long range modern aircraft. \"Many other airlines in other parts of the world are simply not equipped .... so, these airports should be able to grow side by side,\" Strickland added. If that's the case, all that's left is for the Gulf carriers to grab a piece of the lucrative aviation pie in the skies. See also: Answering Egypt's economic riddle . See also: Gulf looks to rival Paris as fashion capital . See also: Meet the Middle East's king of hotels .", "Germany has rejected Greece's demands for £120billion in reparations for Second World War damages – adding there is ‘zero’ chance they will pay. New Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, in his first major speech to parliament, yesterday said his country had a 'moral obligation' to claim repayment for a forced wartime loan and other reparations. Tsipras's anti-austerity Syriza party claims Germany owes it around 162billion euros ($183 billion) -- or around half the country's public debt, which stands at over 315billion euros. Scroll down for video . Germany has rejected new Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's  demands for £120billion in reparations for Second World War damages . The issue risks aggravating already strained ties between Athens and Berlin, as Tsipras bids to reverse austerity measures imposed by its international creditors. Greece had 'a moral obligation to our people, to history, to all European peoples who fought and gave their blood against Nazism,' Tsipras said to parliament. 'Our historical obligation is to claim the occupation loan and reparations'. But Germany's economy minister rejected the call today, insisting the matter was concluded with a signed treaty 25 years ago. Sigmar Gabriel, who is also Germany's vice-chancellor, said today: 'The likelihood is zero.' Germany's economy minister Sigmar Gabriel, left, with Chancellor Angela Merkel, said there is 'zero' chance Berlin will pay the reparations . Speaking at a gathering of his Social Democrats in Brandenburg state near Berlin, he added a line had been drawn under 'all these issues' in legal terms, 'at the latest' when the two former Germanys signed a treaty with the Allies in 1990 - which is considered the formal end of World War II. 'There's no sense continuing down this road,' he added. During the war, the Nazis occupied Greece for four years and forced the Greek central bank to give the Third Reich a loan that financially ruined the country. Figures from some sources in Athens put the amount still owed by Germany at around 162billion euros ($183 billion) - more than half the level of debt that Greece is currently struggling with. The demand for compensation was revived by a previous Greek government in 2013 but not pursued. Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis (left) applauds Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during his policy speech before the parliament in Athens . Prime Minister David Cameron has chaired a meeting about a possible Greek exit from the eurozone, while George Osborne last week warned the situation poses a risk to the UK's economic recovery . The two countries share a complex history that has complicated the debt debate. Greece was occupied by German troops in World War Two, an issue that has resurfaced since it has been forced to endure tough reforms in return for a financial bailout partly funded by euro zone partners. Many Greeks have blamed euro zone heavyweight Germany for the austerity, leading to the revival of a dormant claim against Berlin for billions of euros of war reparations. As part of a wider appeal to Europe for solidarity, Greece's new finance minister has suggested a parallel between his country and the rise of Nazism in a bankrupt Germany in the 1930s, referring to Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party. Gabriel referred to the \"Treaty on the Final Settlement with respect to Germany\", also known as the \"Two plus Four Treaty\" signed in September 1990, by the former West and East Germanys and the four World War Two allies just before German reunification. Greek soldiers gathered round captured Italian war supplies after the . fall of Koritza in 1941 . Nazi Germany launched a dual invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941. Pictured, inhabitants from Salonique acclaim a German tank in April 1941 . Under its terms, the four powers renounced all rights they formerly held in Germany. For Berlin, the document, also approved by Greece among other states, effectively drew a line under possible future claims for war reparations. Germany thus denies owing anything more to Greece after the 115million deutsche marks it paid in 1960, one of 12 war compensation deals it signed with Western nations. But Athens has said it always considered that money as only an initial payment, with the rest of its claims to be discussed after German reunification, which eventually came in 1990. A finance ministry spokeswoman told reporters today that there was nothing new to add from the German side on the issue. By the end of April 1941, Axis forces had officially occupied Athens. Pictured, Greek Navy troops in 1942 . King George II of Greece, left, and Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas, right . At the outbreak of the war, Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas tried to maintain neutrality, but Greece was increasingly subject to pressure from Italy. Greece entered the Second World War on October 28, 1940 after Italian dictator Benito Mussolini invaded in a bid to emulate Hitler's conquests. The conflict, known as the Greco-Italian war lasted until April 1941. Italian forces invaded the country after Metaxas rejected Italy's demand to occupy Greek territory. As the Italian invasion stalled, Nazi Germany intervened and launched a dual invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941. By the end of April, Axis forces had officially occupied Athens, signalling the end of resistance from Greece. King George II and his government-in-exile fled to the Middle East a recall of food supplies caused in a terrible famine during the winter of 1941/19442, in which as many as 100,000 people died. In 1943, almost the entire Jewish population of Greece was deported to German death camps. Some 60,000 Greek Jews — more than three-quarters of the nation’s Jewish population — were rounded up and sent to their deaths in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Treblinka. As was the case in European nations invaded by the Germans, the cost of the occupation was paid by the occupied country. Hitler’s troops helped themselves to everything, stealing goods and food to such a degree that hundreds of thousands of Greeks were left destitute and starving - and at least 300,000 Greeks died. Greece's economy was plundered through forced exports. This led in devastating inflation and a radically lower standard of living for Greeks. Then the Third Reich forced the Greek National Bank to lend Hitler's Germany 476million reichsmarks interest-free, bleeding the country dry. On March 14, 1942, a team of German and Italian lawyers, in the absence of any Greeks, signed an agreement obliging the Bank of Greece to provide Germany with the ‘war loan’. After Germany's defeat, the Allied powers organized the Paris Conference on Reparations in the autumn of 1945 where Greece laid claim to $10 billion. Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Greece in April 1941. Pictured, Greek troops march from Koritza towards the front in 1941 .", "By . Martin Robinson . and Ray Massey . A leading architect has compared Boris Johnson’s plans for a Thames Estuary  airport to the grandiose projects Adolf Hitler might have dreamed up. Sir Terry Farrell, who designed the MI6 spy building, said the London Mayor’s plan for a £65billion airport was ‘mad’. Sir Terry said: ‘When people say that you have got to have vision, well Hitler had vision. 'Vision can be a madness where you get so obsessed you throw everything you have got on the roulette table and hope you got it right.’ Hitler famously had his architect Albert Speer draw up plans on an epic scale for a radically re-designed Berlin – to be renamed ‘Germania’. Vision: Foster Island (pictured) on the Isle of Grain has today been backed by the Mayor of London above his own Boris Island plan because of its proximity to London . Argument: Announcing his three preferred options for aviation expansion Boris said today that building a new runway at Heathrow would be 'crackers' All change: Boris Johnson's plans for a new airport would demand that Heathrow is bought and replaced with a 250,000 new London borough . Sir Terry, who has designed some of . the world’s largest airports and train stations, including Charing . Cross, said the four-runway proposal was on an unprecedented scale for . the UK and made the HS2 high-speed rail project ‘look like chicken . feed’. Mr Johnson yesterday underlined his . commitment to an estuary airport by naming Sir Norman Foster’s Isle of . Grain plan as his first choice. The Mayor also wants to shut Heathrow at a cost of £15billion to create a new London borough for 250,000 residents. But Sir Terry, who is working on . Gatwick’s bid to build a second runway, said closing Heathrow and moving . the capital city’s main airport to the east would mean  ‘flipping . London’. Sir Terry was approached by the Mayor to work on his project but turned it down. Announcing his three preferred options to expand aviation capacity in the UK this morning, he ruled out a 'crackers' third runway at Heathrow and demanded a new airport east of London or the expansion of Stansted instead. Mr Johnson said: 'Ambitious cities all . over the world are already stealing a march on us and putting . themselves in a position to eat London's breakfast, lunch and dinner by . constructing mega airports that plug them directly into the global . supply chains that we need to be part of. 'Those cities have moved heaven and . earth to locate their airports away from their major centres of . population, in areas where they have been able to build airports with . four runways or more. 'For London and the wider . UK to remain competitive we have to build an airport capable of . emulating that scale of growth. Anyone who believes there would be the . space to do that at Heathrow, which already blights the lives of . hundreds of thousands of Londoners, is quite simply crackers.' He also admitted that Boris Island might be a 'bit far away' from London and said that Foster Island was his preferred option. Boris has backed the four-runway 'Foster Island' (pictured), which would be capable of handling up to 180million passengers a year on the Isle of Grain in Kent . Elaborate plan: The Isle of Grain's proposed international railway station, which would include a service to Waterloo in 26 minutes . Once shut down, any Heathrow buyout would be bank-rolled . by the Government and the Mayor's aviation adviser Daniel Moylan has . said its rail, road and Tube links would make it an ideal place for a . new development on the western edge of the capital. 'FOSTER ISLAND': The inner estuary site on Kent's Isle of Grain is close enough to London to provide smooth and fast access by public transport, yet ideally located so as to allow take-off and landing over water and so impact on as small a population as possible. It sits in an area with a strong industrial history, and is across the water from the new DP World London Gateway Port. A new hub airport there would lay the foundation for a future logistics heartland of the UK. 'BORIS ISLAND': An airport on an artificial island off the Kent coast would remove all problems of noise pollution and give the airport the freedom to operate in whatever way it needed in order to maximise the UK’s connectivity and economic benefits. STANSTED EXPANSION: Developing a major four-runway airport at Stansted would have the attraction of building on existing infrastructure and being sited in a relatively sparsely populated region, Stansted has none of the environmental or wildlife issues that would need to be overcome in the estuary. 'For an airport, that is not very good . connectivity. But most outer London boroughs would bite your hand off . for transport links like that,' he said. But . Heathrow bosses say shutting down their airport would cost almost . 80,000 jobs, the biggest cull since Britain's coal mine closures during . the 1980s. 'It seems extraordinary that any Mayor . of London would propose forcibly buying and then closing Heathrow. The . Mayor's proposals would leave 114,000 people facing redundancy, cost . taxpayers more and take longer to deliver than building on the strength . we already have at Heathrow,' a spokesman said. This morning Mr Johnson announced that . 'Foster Island', 'Boris Island' or the expansion of Stansted airport . would be the three best ways to . solve Britain's lack of aviation capacity. Mr Johnson's plans will be submitted later this week to the Government-appointed . Airport Commission headed by Sir Howard Davies, who will help the Government make the final decision. Mr . Johnson said that a new hub airport would be able to support more than . 375,000 new jobs by 2050 and add £742billion to the value of goods and . services produced in the UK. He . said it could be built by 2029, with a hybrid bill . being passed by parliament to secure approval for the airport, the . surface access and the acquisition of Heathrow. Two ideas: This graphic shows how planners have designed two new airports on the Thames, one on the edge of Isle of Grain nicknamed 'Foster Island' and the 'Boris Island' proposal in the middle of the estuary . Talking about the future of the . Heathrow area should a new airport be sited elsewhere, Mr Johnson said . that part of west London, with good transport links, had the space and . infrastructure to generate up to 100,000 new homes that London badly . needed. There was the potential to attract . tens of thousands of jobs in a number of different sectors and while . some workers at Heathrow would relocate to the new airport, many others . would find work in a newly-developed Heathrow area. Mr Johnson's chief adviser on . aviation, Daniel Moylan, said: 'Heathrow can never solve our problems . and our studies show that we're better off with a new site. 'The immense noise, pollution and . congestion that would result from expanding an airport located in the . heart of our suburbs would potentially devastate the greatest city in . the world.' The mayor's original preferred plan had been nicknamed Boris Island in his honour as he has championed the . idea to build it on an artificial island made of landfill. It would be two miles north of the . Isle of Sheppey and ferries would link the site to Kent and Essex while a . railway bridge could connect it to the mainland. If the Isle of Grain plan happens the scheme is expected to be designed by eminent architect . Lord Foster and an airport would have a minimum of four runways, with space to build two more. Vision: This is what Stansted Airport could look like if it was turned into a four-runway superhub (design above and plan below) Marches: Celebrities including chef Jamie Oliver have joined protest to prevent Stansted growing in any way . The entire project would cost about £65 billion, including a new train line taking passengers to Waterloo in 26 minutes. Planes would descend over the North Sea rather than densely populated . parts of London, as many do when coming in to Heathrow. Mr Johnson now says that the Isle of Grain plan has the 'greatest single potential for regeneration'. The . blueprint involves an opening scheduled for 2029, requiring . infrastructure improvements such as extending Crossrail and widening the . M25 an extra lane in each direction for 36 miles. Ongoing fight: A longstanding campaign has been fought to prevent a third Heathrow runway, but if airports move to the east of the London, tens of thousands will lose their jobs . On . top of those three suggestions, Heathrow will be revealing its own . plans to expand with a third and maybe even fourth runway. The . Mayor also argues that Stansted could be transformed into a . four-runway international super-airport as part of a 'compromise' package. A super high speed rail link - cutting the journey time to London to 25 minutes - would also be built to support its growth. But . it will still be highly controversial as proposals for a second runway . there have already led to years of protests from people living under its . flighpath. Stansted has . been targeted by many protests including one where more than 50 people . burst onto its runway and shut it down for more than five hours. Celebrities including Jamie Oliver have also joined other protests.", "The number of foreign-born people living in London will outnumber native Britons by 2031, it was revealed today. The immigrant population of the capital will reach at least five million in 16 years - having more than doubled from one million in 1971 to three million in 2011, when the last census was carried out. New research has found the rise of non-British born Londoners will take the city's total population to more than 10 million in 2031 and 11 million in 2041 - compared with the 8.6 million living there today. But while the city's immigrant population will continue to rise sharply in the coming decades, the number of British-born people will continue to slowly decline. In 1971 this figure was at more than six million but this is likely to sink below five million in the coming decades. Tipping point: New research has revealed that the immigrant population of London will reach at least five million in 16 years - and outnumber British-born residents . Immigration groups have said that the situation will be 'totally unacceptable' to many voters while political parties say it will but put even more pressure on public services. Vice chairman of MigrationWatch UK Alp Mehmet said: 'The public understand the enormous effect that the present rate of immigration is having on many of our cities and especially on London. White British: 44.9% . Other white: 14.9% . Asian: 18.4% . Black: 13.3% . Arab: 1.3% . Mixed race: 5% . According to the 2011 census . 'On current trends, the UK-born will be in a minority in their own capital within 20 years, despite strong public opposition to mass immigration. 'It is time that the political class woke up to the implications for the future of our society before they find their credibility in shreds.' Research by The Times has revealed the likely change in London's population by 2031 and used previous studies. According to the national census from 2011 the capital's population was 8.2 million, up from 7.5million in 1971. Of the three million foreign-born residents 40 per cent were from Europe, 30 per cent from the Middle East and Asia, 20 per cent from Africa and 10 per cent from America or the Caribbean. Picture of Britain: Of the three million foreign-born residents in London in 2011 40 per cent were from Europe, 30 per cent from the Middle East and Asia, 20 per cent from Africa and 10 per cent from America or the Caribbean . Since 1951 the number of Londoners from Africa has rocketed from 90,000 to 620,000, with people from Nigeria making up 100,000 of those. In the same period those originally from Asia and the Middle East went from 180,000 to 970,000 - with people originally from India making up 155,000 of those. The 2011 census also revealed other social changes in London, including that white British people became a minority in London for the first time. Just 3.7million Londoners described their ethnicity as 'White British' in 2011 - down from 4.3million in 2001, and making up 44.9 per cent of the city's population. Five London boroughs saw the proportion of white Britons fall by more than a quarter. The largest decline was in Newham, East London, where the decrease was 37.5 per cent. In Barking and Dagenham, on the East London/Essex border, 80 per cent of residents were white British in 2001 but by 2011 the proportion was 49 per cent.", "It is widely regarded as the most expensive school in the world with fees more than double those of Eton. The Institute Le Rosey charges £80,000-a-year in fees and has taught the children of Sir Roger Moore and Elizabeth Taylor. It is also a firm favourite of European royalty and the super-rich. Scroll down for video . The Institute Le Rosey has launched a major world-wide recruitment drive for new students . The £80,000-a-year school is seeking students from Europe the middle east and north America . The Institute Le Rosey, pictured, has 179 en-suite bedrooms housing between one and three students . Officials from the school travelled to London last week in a bid to attract more students to the boarding school. The London event was one of a series of presentations across the globe with delegations heading to North America, Canada, Europe and the Middle East between now and March. Among the facilities on offer for the elite boarders, there is a 38ft yacht as well as a 1,000 seat concert hall. There is also an equestrian centre complete with 30 horses, allowing students to learn skills such as dressage as well as . According to the school's website, 'Le Rosey’s campus is set in 28 hectares of magnificent landscaped grounds where age-old trees frame our buildings and sports facilities. This exceptional environment offers a full range of academic, sports and arts facilities. 'In each boarding house, teachers living with their families ensure discipline, tidiness and are available to listen to any problems, big or small that Roseans may be faced with in their day to day life. 'Le Rosey is committed to ongoing investment to continue to improve accommodation, teaching, sports and leisure facilities.' The school is located approximately 20 miles outside Geneva with 179 en-suite bedrooms housing between one and three students. Among those who attended the school were Prince Rainier of Monaco, left, and the Shah of Iran, right . The students are taught in 53 class rooms and eight science laboratories. There are also specially designed rooms for music, orchestra, art and IT. In addition to 13 games rooms, there are two health centres. The school also features ten tennis courts, two 25-metre pools, three football pitches, rugby pitch, shooting range and archery. There is also a 'computer-regulated greenhouse. Students can also use a local 18-hole golf course and karting track. In winter, the school moves to the Gstaad ski resort. Headmaster Michael Gray told The Times: 'It happens with Swiss efficiency but is somehow mysterious. You go away for the holidays and come back to a different school.' The school has a strict rule that no country can have more than 10 percent of the student population. Former pupils have included the Shah of Iran, King Albert II of Belgium and Prince Rainier of Monaco. Mr Gray added: 'No one goes around saying \"I’m richer than you\". It’s completely unsnobbish. If people put on airs and graces they wouldn’t survive. We had someone recently from a famous family, and after three days it didn’t work out and he left.'", "Britain's population is growing at more than twice the European average. The number living in the UK soared by 400,000 last year – almost a third of the increase across all 27 EU countries. The rise is underpinned by high levels of migration and a baby boom itself brought about mainly by immigrants. Overcrowded? Britain will have the highest population in Europe within 40 years, according to projections made by Eurostat, the EU statistics agency . The figures from Eurostat, the statistical arm of the EU, are further evidence that England is becoming the most crowded country in Europe. Projections show that Britain will have the highest population on the continent within 40 years, overtaking both Germany and France. Eurostat said the UK's population growth of 409,000 in 2010 amounted to 30 per cent of the 1.4million added to numbers across the whole EU. The only other country to experience a population increase of more than 300,000 was France. Britain's population went up at a rate of 6.6 new people for every 1,000 already in the country, well over double the EU average rate of 2.8 for every 1,000. Only two countries – Belgium and Sweden – and the tiny nations of Malta and Luxembourg saw higher rates of increase. Baby boom: Around one in four babies is born to a mother born outside the UK. Picture posed by model . The figures will fuel concerns over the provision of housing and public services in crowded areas. Transport, schools, water and energy supplies are all in increasing demand as the UK population heads toward the landmark figure of 70million, which is expected to be reached in 25 years time. The EU analysis reflects the findings . of Whitehall officials in attributing two fifths of the population . increase to immigration and three fifths to 'natural change' – the . difference between numbers of babies born and the national death toll. However a substantial share of the baby boom, which is producing  birthrates which match the historic highs in the two decades after the Second World War, is largely a result of high migration. Around one in four babies is born to a mother who was born outside UK. Sir Andrew Green of the MigrationWatch think tank, said: 'This is a result of Labour's immigration policies which brought in three million migrants, raising our population both directly and indirectly. 'Many of the additional births over the past ten years have been to mothers born outside the UK.' A report yesterday revealed that UK migrants from one East African country are much more heavily dependent on the state to provide them with homes than people from any other minority group. Eight out of ten Somalis were found to live in homes provided by the taxpayer. Yet among every other immigrant nationality, more than half pay for their own housing either by renting it on the private market or through buying their homes. The findings come from the Institute for Public Policy Research and were revealed yesterday in a report by MigrationWatch. If the IPPR figures – calculated from official statistics – are correct, then the provision of homes for Somalis is likely have cost taxpayers more than £2billion. Whitehall officials estimate there are 150,000 Somalis in Britain, most of whom fled civil war and lawlessness that broke out in 1991. There has been outrage over Somali refugee Saeed Khaliif, who moved with his family into a £2m house in North-West London, at a cost to the public of £8,000 a month.", "Germany's Jewish community leader . has advised Jews not to wear skullcaps in areas with a large . Muslim population. His warning underscored fears about . growing anti-Semitism in Europe. Josef Schuster of the Central Council of Jews told German . radio that community members should not hide out of fear and . that most Jewish institutions in Germany were protected, but . that in some areas it was better not to be recognised. Germany's Jewish community leaderhas advised Jews not to wear skullcaps in areas with a largeMuslim population, a warning that underscores fears aboutgrowing anti-Semitism in Europe . 'The question is whether, in areas with a large proportion . of Muslims, it is sensible to be recognised as a Jew by wearing . a kippa or if it isn't better to wear some other form of head . covering,' Schuster told rbb Inforadio. 'It is a development that I did not expect five years ago . and that's a bit shocking.' Schuster expressed concern about a . new anti-Semitism combining views from the political far right . with anti-Israeli sentiment and hostility from young Muslims. Seventy years after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism remains a . particularly sensitive issue in Germany, and other European . countries, including France and Britain, are also worried by a . growth in hostility towards Jews. Last week, Berlin's Jewish community decided to send its . monthly newspaper out in a neutral envelope to protect . recipients. The number of reported anti-Semitic crimes rose by more than . one third last year to 1,076, says the Amadeu Antonio . Foundation, according to what it says are unpublished government . figures. Crimes included vandalising Jewish cemeteries, painting . swastikas on synagogues and inciting hatred against Jews. Josef Schuster of the Central Council of Jews told Germanradio that community members should not hide out of fear andthat most Jewish institutions in Germany were protected, butthat in some areas it was better not to be recognised . Some German politicians and German Jews blame the rise in . anti-Semitism on feelings about Middle East violence. A survey by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation last November . highlighted a blurring of the lines in Germany between . anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel, with 27 percent of those . asked equating the Jewish state's treatment of Palestinians to . the Nazis' persecution of Jews in World War Two. Other, earlier polls have found that 15-20 percent of . Germans have latent anti-Semitic views. Since 1991 the number of Jews belonging to a religious . community in Germany has more than tripled to some 105,000, . boosted by an influx from the former Soviet Union. About the . same number are non-practising Jews or people with Jewish roots. This compares to about 600,000 before the Nazi Holocaust.", "London (CNN) -- Shopping is a serious business in London whatever the season -- but it doesn't get much more serious than this time of year. The UK capital's January sales sees throngs of dedicated shopaholics cram its countless department stores, quirky boutiques and market stalls, keen to get their hands on the latest fashion trends and product offers. But it's not just domestic spend that's keeping the tills ringing in London. While the vibrant city's high-end stores are no strangers to overseas visitors, with those from the Middle East typically spending the most, a surprising new contender has emerged in recent times as a big spender in the international market -- Nigeria. \"Africa is growing from strength to strength and particularly in the last 12 to 18 months we've seen Nigeria come through incredibly strongly,\" explains Sue West, director of operations at up-market London department store Selfridges. \"It is a very broad base so we still very much have a strong Chinese base, a strong Middle East base, Russia is there, the BRICs nations as you imagine, but Nigeria seems to be coming through very strongly at the moment as well,\" she adds. Read: Web savvy Africans fuel growth in online shopping . The former British colony is Africa's most populous nation as well as the continent's top oil producer. According to African Economic Outlook (AEO), Nigeria's economic growth has averaged about 7.4% annually over the past decade, creating a wealthier Nigerian elite with a large spending power. At the same time, however, AEO says that robust economic growth has not reduced poverty in the country, with about two thirds of its population living on less than $1 per day. Home to a large African diaspora, the UK is a popular travel destination for Nigerians visiting friends and relatives, going on holidays or conducting business. Daily flights between Nigeria and the UK have increased in recent years, with airlines such as British Airways allowing Nigerian customers an additional 23kg of baggage free of charge. Read: Private jets spread their wings in Africa . According to the UK's Office for National Statistics, some 142,000 Nigerians visited the UK in 2011, spending an average £107 ($172) per day. From January to September last year, Nigeria's tax-free spend in the UK grew by 11% year on year, according to tourism services provider Global Blue. The trend has not gone unnoticed by UK retailers, some of which have responded by tailoring their offerings to their growing Nigerian customer base. \"More recently we're starting to introduce a lot more niche brands,\" says West. \"We've worked in collaboration with some very popular Nigerian brands,\" she adds. \"I think it's not only important to demonstrate we can bring the big brands such as Louis Vuiton and Chanel, but we can also really appeal to more of a niche market too.\" Read also: Rise of Africa's 'repats' One such collaboration helping Selfridges further engage with its growing number of Nigerian customers is its recent team-up with Style House Files. The Lagos-based fashion company has just opened an installation inside Selfridges, giving Nigerian designers a chance to widen their market and showcase their creations outside the West African country. Omoyemi Akerele, director of Style House Files, says that Nigeria is an emerging market, with Nigerians are among the five biggest spenders at the department store. Akerele argues the collaboration is a win-win situation for both parties. \"This will give our designers a platform, an opportunity for their pieces to be in Selfridges, that's a dream come true,\" says Akerele. \"For Selfridges, on the other hand, it would endear their Nigerian customers -- and not just Nigerian customers, African in general -- more to the brand.\" Read: African CEOs look to bright future . Akerele says that although the reality in Nigeria is that most people live in poverty, the rise of sectors such as telecommunications and the diversification of the Nigerian economy beyond oil and gas has created an emerging middle class with bigger spending power. \"Their earning capacity is increasing and they're spending on more things and not just the basic food and clothing,\" she explains. \"They're getting on a plane and coming to London to buy things they cannot immediately find in Nigeria.\" Teo Kermeliotis contributed to this report.", "By . Paul Donnelley . Two people have been arrested for conspiracy to commit female genital mutilation (FGM). A 72-year-old man was stopped by police at Heathrow Airport yesterday morning after arriving with an 11-year-old girl on a flight from Kampala, Uganda. Specialist officers took the girl - a UK national - into the care of social services. A 72-year-old man was arrested as he arrived at Heathrow from Kampala, Uganda with an 11-year-old girl . A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'Officers acted upon information given and a 40-year-old woman was arrested in Hackney under Section 2 of the FGM Act 2003, namely aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring a girl to carry out FGM on herself.' The man was arrested on suspicion of the same offence in Newham, east London,  today. Both suspects have been taken to east London police stations where they remain in custody. The police spokesman added: 'The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 makes it illegal to participate in any sort of arrangement for FGM to be performed on another, either inside or outside the UK.' The arrests come in the wake of news that militant group ISIS may have ordered compulsory FGM for all women and girls in a region of Iraq now under its control. The extremist group has seized large swathes of the troubled country's northern regions and is now said to be imposing its hardline Sharia rules on the population. The United Nations expressed deep concern yesterday at reports all girls and women in and around city of Mosul are to being forced to undergo FGM procedures. Mr Cameron speaks to campaigners against female genital mutilation at the Girl Summit 2014 in Walworth Academy, south London. At the one-day summit the government announced that parents will face prosecution if they fail to prevent their daughters suffering female genital mutilation . It also follows David Cameron's announcement this week that teachers and doctors will be under a legal duty to report if young girls in their care could be sent abroad and forced to marry under new rules. They could be struck off or disciplined if they fail to tell the authorities about children being spirited abroad and made to marry strangers, or if they ignore concerns a girl may be subject to female genital mutilation. Parents could be prosecuted if they fail to prevent their daughters being subjected to genital mutilation. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visit a school in Kampala, the city where the 11-year-old girl who arrived at Heathrow with the 72-year-old man came from . The Prime Minister said that schools had, in the past, been guilty of ‘turning a blind eye’ to the need to protect children at risk. And he said he wanted his daughters to be able to grow up in a world where the practice was outlawed. Mr Cameron made his comments at a major international conference in south London on combating forced marriage and female genital mutilation. He told the audience: ‘I am a dad with three children – two girls and a boy – and I want my girls to grow up with every opportunity that my son has, with no disadvantage, with the chance to make everything my girls can with their lives. ‘I've told you about my children. So my daughter – my eldest is 10; not that much younger than some of the children who get pushed into childhood or early marriage; not that much younger than girls who get cut and have their lives, in so many ways, taken away from them. ‘And this really is about the world that we want children like my daughter to grow up in. Is it going to be a world where we recognise that these practices are unacceptable, but instead of just saying that, instead of just signing declarations, instead of just passing laws, we actually commit to do everything we can, in our own countries and globally, to outlaw these practices forever.’ The Prime Minister – who had already passed a law making forced marriage a specific criminal offence, also said that he wanted schools to do more to warn and protect children from danger. Children are vulnerable in schools, he said, which ‘haven’t necessarily understood that these practices are going on and they have turned a blind eye.’ As well as the new rules for parents, teachers and doctors, victims of FGM will be given lifelong anonymity the moment an allegation is made. Mr Cameron told schools to stop being ‘coy’ about offending cultural sensitivities, and described how some girls were ‘disappearing off the school roll’ and ‘not coming back after the school holidays’. He added: ‘You read far too many stories about girls being taken on holiday to Turkey, to Pakistan and to India and not coming back and we need to get over that by advertising properly in schools.’ African country Somalia, whose capital Mogadishu is pictured, has one of the highest levels of FGM . Justice minister Simon Hughes said schools used to be nervous that challenging communities on issues of FGM or forced marriage amounted to “trespassing on a cultural space that was inappropriate” but that had changed in recent years. ‘It is no longer culturally embarrassing in this country challenge people’s beliefs and practices,’ he said. Unicef warned ahead of the summit that while the rate of FGM and child marriage has fallen over the past three decades, population increase in developing nations alone could reverse this trend if 'intensive action' is not introduced. It said its research showed that more than 130 million girls and women have experienced some form of FGM in the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where it is most common. In addition some 700 million women alive today worldwide were married as children, including more than a third - 250 million - who were married before the age of 15.", "By . Associated Press . Iekhan Safar moved from Iraq to Lincoln for the same reason that hundreds of Yazidis, a Kurdish religious minority, came to Nebraska's capital city: to live near family, far from the dangers they've long faced as a persecuted group. Lincoln has the largest concentration of Yazidis (yah-ZEE-dees) in the United States, and many of them brought their families to the U.S. after receiving visas for serving as translators during the first Gulf War. Now, the city is at the center of a frantic effort to draw attention to the group's plight in northern Iraq, where Yazidis are fleeing from Islamic State militants to escape violence and attempts to convert them to Islam. Scroll down for video . Members of the Yazidi community in LIncoln, Neb., Iekham Safar, left, her husband Ismaeil Khalaf, right, and Ismaeil's sister Gulie Khalaf, discuss the plight of the Yazidis in Iraq . Half a world away from the turmoil in Iraq, the largest concentration of Yazidis in United States is trying desperately to save their persecuted relatives in northern Iraq by pressing Nebraska's congressional delegation for help . Thousands of homeless Yazidi families are . packed into a refugee camp on a remote desert Sinjar mountain range . near the country's northern border, where there is little access to . food, water or shelter. Safar, a 26-year-old mother of three, . says her sisters and their children face an uncertain future there. One . sister called this week in tears: Her 3-year-old daughter fell off a . cliff and died in the rush to escape the extremists. 'I just hope they bring them here. At least they'd be safe,' Safar said through tears in her Lincoln apartment. 'They don't want (government) help — no Medicaid, food stamps, nothing like that. They'll work hard. They just want their kids to be safe.' Yazidis in Lincoln say they're grateful for the humanitarian airdrops and airstrikes against militants that President Barack Obama ordered last week, but fearful that their loved ones can no longer live peacefully in Iraq. Ghazalah Mourad holds a photograph that she said shows refugees fleeing into the mountains from Sinjar, Iraz . Ismaeil Khalaf watches television reports on the condition of the Yazidis in Iraq from his LIncoln, Neb., home . Uncertain of what to do, Yazidis staged a hastily organized rally at the Nebraska Capitol and the governor's residence this month and reached out to U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, who along with four other congressmen sent a letter to Obama calling for immediate humanitarian assistance. They also sent five vans of people to Washington to appeal to the State Department, asking for food, water and protection for their relatives. Yazidis — also spelled 'Yezidis' — have suffered religious persecution for generations because of their beliefs, which include some elements similar to Christianity, Judaism and other ancient religions. Many Muslims consider them devil worshippers, an accusation that Yazidis strongly dispute. Those who didn't flee into the mountains are still in their homes in the town of Sinjar, making whispered phone calls to relatives in Lincoln as extremists roam the streets outside. Relatives have received reports of women in northern Iraq being raped or having body parts cut off, and Yazidis being threatened with death if they don't convert to Islam, said Laila Khoudeida, a spokeswoman for the Lincoln community. Iekhan Safar holds her sons Lazgin Khalaf, 2 and Ghamgin Khalaf, 4, in LIncoln, Neb. Demonstrators march from the Nebraska Capitol to the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln, Neb., as they try to raise awareness about ethnic minorities who are under attack in Iraq . Khoudeida said Yazidis in the U.S. are asking for continued military protection and possible asylum for those left homeless. If granted, many would likely join relatives in Lincoln, where roughly half the nation's Yazidi population — about 200 families — lives. The first families came over to the United States in two waves — after the first Gulf War and then the U.S. invasion in 2003 — under a special visa for military translators and congregated in Buffalo, New York, and Atlanta. Church groups in Lincoln and volunteer families heard about the Yazidis' situation and offered to help, said Gulie Khalaf, Safar's sister-in-law and a sixth-grade teacher in Lincoln. The population slowly grew in the city about 40 miles southwest of Omaha, which was quieter and offered less poverty and crime than the bigger cities. 'Once a small group of relatives establishes a home base somewhere, it serves as a magnet for other families,' said Sebastian Maisel, a professor of Middle East Studies at Grand Valley State University in Michigan who has extensively researched Yazidis. 'It's the way that many communities from the Middle East like to live. They rely on a support network in the larger community.' The first members of the religious minority group came the Lincoln, Nebraska, in the 1990s, and more than 200 families have now made it their home . Safar's husband came to the U.S. with his family in the 1990s after spending seven years with his siblings and parents in a refugee camp in Syria. He eventually made it to Lincoln. Safar joined him and some of his family in 2006, but her sisters remain overseas and under attack. 'For Yazidis, it's no longer safe to be in the Middle East,' Khalaf said. 'The Middle Eastern countries' rules and laws do not protect religious minorities.'", "England's population is up 565,000 in the past three years because of a fresh influx of migrants, experts said yesterday. The migrant population in England is estimated to have increased by more than half a million in three years, research from the University of Oxford has revealed. Around two thirds of the 565,000 migrants thought to have come to the country between 2011 and 2014 were born in other EU countries, the study by the university's Migration Observatory said. Today the former head of the European Commission taunted David Cameron over this issue and said it was 'impossible' for Britain to reverse the trend. Scroll down for video . Picture of Britain: England's population is up 565,000 in three years just because migrants. Here is a regional picture of the total foreign population of England and the percentage it has risen in since 2011 . Jose Manuel Barroso said: ‘When you have 28 countries it will be impossible to say, let’s say, the French can come to Britain to work in the City but the Poles cannot come to Britain – this is not possible. This will be a violation of the principles of no discrimination. ‘Having said that, the European Union is very much aware that there is the abuse of social benefits. If you have not the means to be in the country, you cannot go there just to benefit from the social security. ‘But you have the right, if you are a citizen of a European country to go to another country to establish there.’ Poland is trying to call its skilled workers home from Britain. Ambassador Witold Sobkow said it cannot afford to lose its best young people and wants to persuade them to return. The Polish authorities also hope EU freedom of movement rules will encourage other Europeans to look for jobs in the country, boosting its economy. Mr Sobkow said efforts were under way to bring back some of the millions of young Poles who left for Britain and after Poland joined the EU in 2004. He told BBC Radio Four: ‘We have a special programme called Returns and the government is trying to attract these people back home. ‘We are worried that we may lose some well-educated people, and also skilled workers, because we need them.’ But he added: ‘We have other nationalities in Poland ... so this is a kind of free movement of brains.’ Plea: Witold Sobkow . He said as long as the principle of freedom of movement is not called into question, a deal can be reached to restrict migrants’ benefits. The majority moved to London and the south-east but the north-east and Yorkshire and Humber saw the biggest percentage increases, figures show. Every council area of England has seen an increased migrant population, it was said. Researchers, who stressed that the numbers are estimates, said the projections give a more up-to-date picture of the migrant populations across England than the 2011 census. It came as the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that rising number of migrants has led to council services spending by being cut in half - and those with highest migration numbers were hit hardest. Official estimates on population are expected in June from the Office for National Statistics. The greatest increase in the number of foreign-born residents has been in the capital. Almost 200,000 more migrants were estimated to live in London last year, compared to 2011. The South East saw the second-highest rise of 79,000, while the smallest increase was in the North East where an extra 26,000 migrants are thought to have arrived since 2011. Madeleine Sumption, Director of the Migration Observatory, said the study was done to provide more insight ahead of the general election. 'These data show how different local experiences of migration have been across the UK,' she said. 'There are large variations in the size of migrant populations, as well as the share that come from EU countries. Figures: The study shows how all regions have seen thousands more migrants from within the EU since 2011 . Embarrassing: Despite pledges from David Cameron thousands of migrants from outside the EU also came to England . 'We have undertaken this analysis to provide a resource for anyone looking to understand local demographics of migration in the run-up to the general election.' The news piles more pressure on David Cameron, whose promise to curb immigration has been shattered, . Last week it emerged annual net migration – the measure of how many people have come into Britain minus those who have left – has reached nearly 300,000 - a record. When he took power in 2010 Mr Cameron pledged to bring this politically sensitive figure below 100,000. A total of 624,000 people migrated to Britain in the 12 months up to last September while 327,000 left. The inflow is up 94,000 on the year before. Official figures: Last year 300,000 migrants arrived in Britain, with 190,000 of them travelled from outside the EU . Net migration from the EU hit 162,000 in the year ending September 2014, up from 130,000 in the previous year . A total of 37,000 Romanian and Bulgarian arrived in the UK, up from 24,000 in the previous 12 months .", "(CNN) -- Six former top Bosnian Croat leaders were handed long prison sentences Wednesday after they were convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including the rape and murder of Bosnian Muslims. The offenses, which date to between 1992 and 1994, formed part of a wider conflict that followed the break-up of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Christiane Amanpour: Bosnia's lesson for Syrian slaughter . The six were accused at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia of trying to \"ethnically cleanse\" non-Croats from areas of the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnian Croat leadership, along with Croat leaders, wanted to make this territory part of a \"Greater Croatia,\" said the ICTY, which is based in the Hague. In order to achieve this, they carried out crimes against Bosnian Muslims and other non-Croats that included murder, rape, sexual assault, destruction of property, imprisonment and deportation, the ICTY statement said. Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Milivoj Petkovic and Valentin Coric were convicted on 22 counts of the indictment for war crimes and crimes against humanity. In photos: Remembering the Bosnian war . Prlic, the former president of the Croatian Defense Council and later head of the government of a wartime Croat entity, Herceg-Bosna, was sentenced to 25 years in prison -- the toughest penalty. The other three were given prison terms ranging from 16 to 20 years in length. Two of the accused, Slobodan Praljak and Berislav Pusic, were acquitted on some of the charges against them. Praljak, a former assistant defense minister of Croatia and at the same time a commander of the Croatian Defense Council, was convicted on 20 counts and sentenced to 20 years in prison. He played an important role in securing weapons and ammunition for the Croatian Defense Council army, the indictment said. Pusic, who was formerly in charge of detention facilities and prisoner exchanges for the Croatian Defense Council, was found guilty on 18 counts and given 10 years in prison. Defense lawyers for the six have 30 days to appeal their convictions and sentences. 'Extreme violence' The chamber ruled by a majority that the accused wanted to create a Croat entity to unify the Croatian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Later, these areas were to be either joined with the Republic of Croatia or remain in close association with it, the ICTY said. The indictment focused on crimes committed in eight municipalities, including Mostar, the ICTY said. The chamber concluded that \"in the majority of cases, these crimes were not committed in a random manner by a few undisciplined soldiers. On the contrary, they were the result of a plan put together by the (accused) members to remove the Muslim population of Herceg-Bosna.\" Others were also part of this joint criminal enterprise, it said, and together they secured personnel and coordinated operations on the ground to carry out the plan. In the case of the historic city of Mostar, \"extreme violence\" was used to evict Bosnian Muslims from West Mostar, claimed by the Croats, to the other side of the city, the statement said. \"Muslims were woken up in the middle of the night, beaten and forced to leave their apartments, often still in their pyjamas. Many women, including a girl of 16, were raped\" by Croatian Defense Council soldiers, it said. From June 1993 to April 1994, East Mostar was under siege and the Muslim population there was subject to \"intensive and constant\" shelling which left many civilians dead or injured, it said. Other testimony focused on abuses against Muslim prisoners at Croatian Defense Council detention centers, including beatings, sexual assaults and using them as forced labor on the front lines. The trial, which started in April 2006, is one the largest and most complex the tribunal has handled, it said. More than 200 witnesses were called, 145 of them by the prosecution, and the judgment runs to some 2,600 pages. CNN's Marilia Brocchetto contributed to this report.", "By . Julian Gavaghan . PUBLISHED: . 10:37 EST, 14 March 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 07:52 EST, 15 March 2012 . People in Sunderland are more likely to drink themselves to death than anywhere else in the country, Government figures reveal. Alcohol . killed 36 in the city in 2010 as the number of victims across England . and Wales rose to 8,970 last year - up 126 since 2009. Nine . of the ten parliamentary constituencies with the highest number of . drink-related deaths were in the North – highlighting the social divide . between the regions. Booze borough: A pub in Sunderland, a city where 36 people drank themselves to death in 2010 . Bournmouth East, where 27 died, . was the only voting district in the south to register among these . hotspots, according to data from the Office of National Statistics. Just below deprived Sunderland Central . in the alcohol death toll rankings were Bootle, St Helens South & . Whiston, Birkenhead and Liverpool Walton – all in Merseyside. Afluent Devizes in Wiltshire had the fewest deaths at two. The . ONS figures listed the number of deaths directly caused by drinking – . including alcohol poisoning, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis. The data does not cover deaths caused by drink-related car crashes, violent incidents or linked diseases such as liver cancer. Two-thirds of victims were men – with the national death rate rising among males from 5,690 to 5,865 in the space of a year. By contrast, the number of woman who drank themselves to death fell to 2,925 in 2010 from 2,974. The . North West was the worst affected region of England – with 1229 victims . – followed by the South East (922) and the West Midlands 821. However, . per head of population, the North East has the highest rate of deaths . with 22.6 men per 100,000 compared to 21.3 in the North West and 13 in . the South East. Deaths in . the North East have also risen at a faster rate than anywhere else. Today’s figure of 469 is nearly three times higher than the 1991 toll of . 170. Worryingly, the rate . of female deaths across the region has increased by163 per cent since . 1991, compared to a national increase of 67 per cent. Colin . Shevills, director of alcohol charity Balance, said: ‘Once again our . region tops the tables and we’ve seen an astonishing leap in alcohol . related deaths over the last two decades. Death rate: The number of deaths per 100,000 people by English region . ‘People are dying because . alcohol is way too cheap. They’re dying because alcohol is available on . nearly every street corner at all hours of the day and night. They’re dying because alcohol is also far too heavily promoted. ‘The . alcohol industry spends something like £800m a year on marketing which . is having a huge impact on recruiting the next generation of problem . drinkers from amongst our children. ‘We . need to turn back the rising tide of alcohol related deaths by . introducing a range of measures which include greater restrictions on . alcohol marketing and a minimum price per unit of alcohol.’ Killer regions: The North East (outlined in red has in recent years overtaken the North West has the region with the highest number of alcohol-related male deaths . Prime Minister David Cameron has already signalled his interest in a minimum price of 50p per unit. Interestingly, . despite the general perception of bingeing teenagers, middle-aged . people were found to drink more regularly than bingeing young people, . new figures revealed yesterday.(Thurs) Those over 45 are three times as likely as younger people to drink alcohol every day, it found. Very . few young men in their teens and early 20s drink daily, and even fewer . women. But more than one in five men of pension age open a bottle or a . can of beer, wine or spirits every day. Killer: The table shows the North West has the highest actual number of male deaths, with the figure rising across the country from 5,690 to 5,865 . Reduction: The number of deaths among women across Britain has fallen over the last three years . The picture of steady drinking by the . middle-aged is likely to lift some of the taint that attaches to young . people over alcohol abuse. The violence and disorder in . many city centres at weekends, and the pressure on police and hospital . casualty units that follows, has left young people frequent targets of . criticism over their drinking habits.", "(CNN) -- In just a few decades, Dubai has risen from relative obscurity to become a global leader in the world of aviation. Emirates Airlines, their national carrier, is the third largest airline in the world according to CAPA Center for Aviation, and at the rate it's growing, it won't be long before it beats out Delta and United to the top the list. The city is host to one of the biggest events on the aerospace calendar: the biennial Dubai Airshow. The five-day show, which kicks off November 17 this year, will be held for the first time at the city's new $32 million Al-Maktoum International Airport -- set to be the world's largest on its 2027 completion. More: 9 unique Dubai restaurants . The 2013 event is expected to be one of the most popular in the show's history, with more than 1,000 exhibitors and 60,000 visitors already registered. \"The days where air shows were dominated by Paris and Farnborough are gone,\" says Saj Ahmad, a chief analyst with StrategicAero Research. \"Dubai is home to Emirates and (budget carrier) flydubai, two of the fastest growing airlines in the world, and thanks to its ever-expanding airport -- which could push Heathrow down the rankings table next year -- Dubai has shown that the region is key to the aviation market.\" Read more: The Middle East's airport wars . The Airshow, which first launched in 1989, has become pivotal for plane manufacturers. Over $155 billion worth of deals took place at the 2007 show -- the largest figure for any global aviation event. That same year, Emirates ordered £31.7 billion worth of Airbus A380s -- the biggest single order in airline history. In 2011, Boeing received its largest aircraft order -- also from Emirates -- for $18 billion worth of 777-300ERs. \"The legacy of Paris and Farnborough are important. However, Dubai's prominence as a venue for game-changing deals is one that the two European hosts will never match,\" says Ahmad. Infographic: Super-sizing the Middle East's airports . Already there are mumblings of record-breaking orders planned for this year's event. Likely, Boeing will unveil orders for their new 777X widebody jet, and there's rumors that Emirates is planning to purchase 100 of the planes for upwards of $30 billion, while Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways is supposedly set to buy 25 to 30. It should probably come as no surprise that aviation makes up a bulk of Dubai's economy; the industry accounts for nearly 20% of Dubai's workforce and 28% of its GDP. It is becoming important in other countries in the region as well. Aviation contributes $11.4 billion to Qatar's economy and more than $19.45 billion to Saudi Arabia's. Read more: Inside Dubai's A380 concourse . \"The geographic position of the Gulf happens to be excellent in the 21st century economic context,\" notes John Strickland, an independent transport consultant. \"Carriers like Emirates, Etihad and Qatar can access emerging markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America and connect them in a way that is meaningful to travelers, and that European carriers can't hope to copy. If you want to fly from Africa to China, in terms of lines on a map, it just doesn't make sense to stopover in Europe.\"", "Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Thousands of people who filled the streets of Cairo on Tuesday hope their demonstrations against corruption and failing economic policies will cause upheaval in the government, like the similar protests in Tunisia that inspired them. But analysts caution that in Egypt, the protesters are up against a different set of challenges. Juan Cole, a Middle East historian at the University of Michigan and blogger, describes Tunisia as \"a little bit unique.\" \"There have been lots of civil wars. There's been lots of societies in turmoil. But this kind of phenomenon where you had crowds peacefully coming into the streets to demand a change in their own contract with their government -- in the Arab world proper, this is the first time it's happened and it's the first time since 1979 in the Middle East,\" Cole told CNN last week. He noted that Tunisia is the \"most secular country in the Arab world.\" Its traditions have favored women's rights and its Islamist influence is negligible. Tunisia also lacked the oil resources of other Arab states and the ethnic divisions seen in other Middle Eastern countries, which make it harder for opposition movements to unite, he noted. Looking at the protests Tuesday in Cairo, Mamoun Fandy of the International Institute for Strategic Studies told CNN he was not seeing a \"turning point or tipping point yet.\" Noting the strength of the army, he said, \"The Egyptian system is too strong and too resilient.\" A key question that will show the potential strength of the demonstrations Tuesday is whether hardcore protesters will stay through the night, or whether the rallies will fizzle down, he said. Eric Trager, a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of Pennsylvania and a former Fulbright fellow in Egypt, wrote in The Atlantic, \"Egypt's liberal activists overwhelmingly come from the wired generation of Twitter and Facebook, and this makes them optimistic that pro-democratic movements can go viral, even in a political environment as traditionally illiberal as the Middle East. ... Yet Egyptian activists face tremendous odds -- in particular, an entrenched dictatorship that is determined to discredit the very idea of domino-effect democratization.\" Time.com published a story Thursday from writer Abigail Hauslohner in Cairo headlined, \"After Tunisia: Why Egypt Isn't Ready to Have Its Own Revolution.\" Some Egyptians \"believe the time is now\" for protests to bring about change like in Tunisia, and several people in Egypt have set themselves on fire or attempted to in recent days -- much like the self-immolation of a young unemployed man in Tunisia that sparked protests in that country,\" she writes. \"But in Egypt, it doesn't go much deeper than that.\" A greater percentage of Egypt's population than Tunisia's lives below the poverty line, she writes. \"The citizens of Egypt regularly complain of a neglectful regime that knows more about torture than it does about public service, and they're furious with a regime that seems to swallow any domestic profits before they can reach the lower classes. And yet no one predicts a revolutionary reset anytime soon.\" Two factors distinguish Egypt from Tunisia in this respect, Hauslohner writes: Tunisia's government spent generously on education, creating a frustrated educated but unemployed population. And in Egypt, \"the military stands with\" Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Time.com is a partner of CNN.com. Writing in Newsweek, journalist Mike Giglio suggested the \"upcoming protest in Cairo could mark the beginning of another upheaval.\" \"Tuesday will be the first real test of whether the revolution is contagious,\" he wrote in a story published Monday. Many protesters believe their demonstrations will prove to have far more power than naysayers suggest. A Facebook page that has served to help organize Tuesday's protests in Cairo says, \"Many young Egyptians are now fed up with the inhuman treatment they face on a daily basis in streets, police stations and everywhere. ... Egyptians are aspiring to the day when Egypt has its freedom and dignity back, the day when the current 30 years long emergency martial law ends and when Egyptians can freely elect their true representatives.\"", "An Iranian woman convicted of murder -- in a killing that human rights groups called self-defense against a rapist -- was hanged Saturday, state news agency IRNA reported. Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, was sentenced to death for the 2007 killing of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security. The United Nations has said she never received a fair trial. The U.S. State Department also said there were concerns about the trial. \"There were serious concerns with the fairness of the trial and the circumstances surrounding this case, including reports of confessions made under severe duress,\" State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday. \"We condemn this morning's execution in Iran of Reyhaneh Jabbari, an Iranian woman convicted of killing a man she said she stabbed in self-defense during a sexual assault,\" Psaki said. Jabbari's execution was originally scheduled for September 30, but was postponed. Amnesty International said the delay may have been in response to the public outcry against the execution. Jabbari was convicted of murder after \"a flawed investigation and unfair trial,\" according to Amnesty International. The United Nations has said Sarbandi hired Jabbari -- then a 19-year-old interior designer -- to work on his office. She stabbed him after he sexually assaulted her, it said. Jabbari was held in solitary confinement without access to her lawyer and family for two months, Amnesty International said in a statement. She was tortured during that time, the group said. \"Amnesty International understands that, at the outset of the investigation, Reyhaneh Jabbari admitted to stabbing the man once in the back, but claimed she had done so after he had tried to sexually abuse her,\" the rights group said. \"She also maintained that a third person in the house had been involved in the killing. These claims, if proven, could exonerate her but are believed never to have been properly investigated, raising many questions about the circumstances of the killing.\" Iranian Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi joined scores of Iranian artists and musicians calling for a halt to the execution. In an open letter, Farhadi asked the victim's family to pardon her, a possibility under Iranian law. Rights groups have criticized Iran for a surge in executions under Hassan Rouhani in his first year as president. UK Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood said he was \"very concerned and saddened\" that Jabbari had been executed, especially given the questions concerning due process in the case. \"The UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Iran, Dr Ahmed Shaheed, noted that her conviction was allegedly based on confessions made while under threat, and the court failed to take into account all evidence into its judgment,\" he said in a statement. \"Actions like these do not help Iran build confidence or trust with the international community. I urge Iran to put a moratorium on all executions.\" According to the United Nations, Iran has executed at least 170 people this year. Last year, it executed more people than any other country with the exception of China, the world's most populous nation. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking in July, said the death penalty has no place in the 21st century and urged all countries to work toward its abolition.", "Just an hour’s drive from  London and under the flight path of a major airport, it hardly seems the spot for a pastoral idyll. But if you are looking for the best quality of life away from the rat race, the little-known district of Uttlesford in Essex has just topped a survey of the best rural places to live. Despite its biggest claim to fame being that it is the home of Stansted, the area has just beaten 118 other non-metropolitan regions in Britain on factors such as health, life expectancy, employment, weather, wages and school results. Far from the crowds: The market square of Saffron Walden, a town of 14,000 people . Cottages: Towns such as Thaxted are popular destination for Londoners who want to leave the metropolis but continue to work there . And according to the report by banking giant Halifax, more than eight out of ten people in Uttlesford think ‘what they do in life is worthwhile’. The study, which is published today, also shows that the district’s residents are comparatively wealthy, with average weekly earnings of £819 –  compared to £608 across the rest of the country. And not surprisingly given its proximity to the capital, the employment rate is also far higher than the average for rural districts at 84 per cent, in contrast to just 74 per cent nationally. Colourful: People living in the Essex district are comparably wealthier and live longer than those in other metropolitan areas . Spring: An idyllic cottage surrounded by fields filled with daffodils in the village of Elmdon in the Essex district . But homes in the local authority area – which encompasses the towns of Saffron Walden, Great Dunmow, Thaxted and the village of Elsenham – are far from cheap. As a popular destination for Londoners who want to leave the metropolis but continue to work there, the area’s average house price is seven times higher than the salary of a typical local. However the houses are at least bigger than most, averaging 6.4 rooms – more than anywhere else in the country, and equal to Chiltern and Rutland. It is the first time that Uttlesford has won the top prize in Halifax’s annual research. Claim to fame: The district is just an hour's drive from London and under the flight path of Stansted airport . But it has rarely been out of the top five, and has gradually been promoted up the table. It came fourth in 2010, third in 2011 and second in 2013. Other places in the top ten include South Northamptonshire, Waverley in Surrey, East Hertfordshire, Rushcliffe, South Cambridgeshire and the Vale of White Horse. Overall, the best places to live are dominated by the East of England, the East Midlands and the South East. Of the top 50 local authority districts, 12 were in the East, nine in the East Midlands and 15 in the South East. By comparison, just two were in Scotland and two were in the West Midlands. The report defined rural districts as ones in which the majority of residents live in towns or villages, with a population of fewer than 10,000 people. Rural areas in the South tend to be better for employment, earnings, health and weather, while the North fares better for school exam results, a lower house price to  earnings ratio, traffic flow and  less overcrowding. However for those looking for sunshine, the Isle of Wight is the safest bet, while to avoid being burgled – and for the best chance of being happy – the Orkney Islands are the best place to be in the UK. As well as looking at rural quality of life, Halifax also compiles an annual report on the best areas to live generally, which is normally won by Hart in Hampshire. ■ The top ten rural places to live in Britain are: Uttlesford in Essex, South Northamptonshire, Waverley in Surrey, East Hertfordshire, Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire, South Cambridgeshire, Vale of White Horse in Oxfordshire,  Chiltern in Buckinghamshire,  Mid Sussex, and South Kesteven  in Lincolnshire.", "(CNN) -- In a new report, the U.S. National Intelligence Council predicts the winding down of \"Pax Americana\" and China's ascent as the world's top economy by 2030. That is, unless several \"Black Swan\" events skew their predictions. On Monday, the report \"Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds\" forecast that U.S. economic and international influence will decline in the next two decades as a shift of global power moves from the West to the East, and from the North to the South. The relative importance of the U.S. as a global actor will decrease, as its economy and that of its western allies will decline. Meanwhile, rising states such as China, India and other Asian nations will contribute an increasingly large share of global financial growth. \"With the rapid rise of other countries, the 'unipolar moment' is over, and 'Pax Americana' -- the era of American ascendancy in international politics that began in 1945 -- is fast winding down,\" the report states. However, despite a weaker economy, the U.S. will probably remain \"first among equals,\" the report says, adding that it is very unlikely that any other nation could replace the U.S. as the leading world power. The report is largely optimistic about technological and economic advances in the next two decades. The numbers of people living in poverty is likely to drop sharply in East and South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, with sub-Saharan Africa lagging behind. \"Under most scenarios -- except the most dire -- significant strides in reducing extreme poverty will be achieved by 2030,\" the report notes. What are those dire scenarios? The report gives a list of eight \"Black Swan\" scenarios -- a reference to Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book \"Black Swan,\" which posits that history is built on unforeseeable, surprise events. Global Trends 2030's potential Black Swans . 1. Severe Pandemic . \"No one can predict which pathogen will be the next to start spreading to humans, or when or where such a development will occur,\" the report says. \"Such an outbreak could result in millions of people suffering and dying in every corner of the world in less than six months.\" 2. Much More Rapid Climate Change . \"Dramatic and unforeseen changes already are occurring at a faster rate than expected. Most scientists are not confident of being able to predict such events. Rapid changes in precipitation patterns—such as monsoons in India and the rest of Asia -- could sharply disrupt that region's ability to feed its population.\" 3. Euro/EU collapse . If Greece were to leave the euro zone in an unruly way, it could result in eight times the collateral damage as the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, which could lead to a broader crisis in the EU in the future, the report says. 4. A Democratic or Collapsed China . \"China is slated to pass the threshold of US$15,000 per capita purchasing power parity (PPP) in the next five years or so—a level that is often a trigger for democratization,\" the report notes. \"Chinese `soft' power could be dramatically boosted, setting off a wave of democratic movements. Alternatively, many experts believe a democratic China could also become more nationalistic. An economically collapsed China would trigger political unrest and shock the global economy.\" 5. A Reformed Iran . \"A more liberal regime could come under growing public pressure to end the international sanctions and negotiate an end to Iran's isolation. An Iran that dropped its nuclear weapons aspirations and became focused on economic modernization would bolster the chances for a more stable Middle East.\" 6. Nuclear War or WMD/ Cyber Attack . \"Nuclear powers such as Russia and Pakistan and potential aspirants such as Iran and North Korea see nuclear weapons as compensation for other political and security weaknesses, heightening the risk of their use. The chance of nonstate actors conducting a cyber attack—or using WMD (weapon of mass destruction) —also is increasing.\" 7. Solar Geomagnetic Storms . \"Solar geomagnetic storms could knock out satellites, the electric grid, and many sensitive electronic devices. The recurrence intervals of crippling solar geomagnetic storms, which are less than a century, now pose a substantial threat because of the world's dependence on electricity,\" the report says. 8. U.S. Disengagement . \"A collapse or sudden retreat of US power probably would result in an extended period of global anarchy; no leading power would be likely to replace the United States as guarantor of the international order.\" CNN's Matt Smith contributed to this report .", "UKIP has unveiled a new ‘wag tax’ on designer goods as the party opened its conference in Doncaster today. The party’s economic spokesman Patrick O’Flynn said it made ‘no sense’ to levy VAT on everyday goods at the same rate as luxury items unaffordable to all but the very richest. He said there should be an extra 5 per cent tax on £200 shoes, £1,000 handbags and £50,000 cars. Scroll down for video . Mr Farage has pledged to cut income tax from 40p to 35p for people earning up to £55,000 - but will increase VAT on luxury goods . The tax - which has been dubbed a 'wag tax' - would hit the Ryder Cup golfers' wives and girlfriends, or 'Gwags', led by Amy Mickelson (second right) yesterday . Mr O’Flynn said the party would also look to scrap a loophole which allows foreign visitors from outside the EU to claim back VAT on shopping sprees in London and elsewhere. He said the party was now ‘mainstream not extreme’, unveiling sweeping tax changes. These include raising the personal income tax allowance to the level of the full-time minimum wage. This would mean no-one paying income tax until they earn over £13,500 a year. The party would also cut the 40 per cent rate of income tax to 35 per cent for earnings between £42,000 and £55,000. Inheritance tax would also be scrapped altogether. Mr O'Flynn told the conference: 'I want it to investigate the feasibility of imposing a luxury goods rate of VAT. 'It makes no sense to me that VAT is levied at the same rate on budget items purchased by the hard-pressed as it is on premium ones that are the preserve of the very well heeled. ‘And it seems to me that a luxury goods rate of 25 per cent could raise substantial extra funds from the wealthiest people. 'I would suggest such a rate be built around simple thresholds such as £200 for a pair of shoes, £1,000 for a bag or £50,000 for a new car.’ UKIP leader Nigel Farage visited a Doncaster cafe talking to workers before his speech at the UKIP conference in the town today . A UKIP delegate at Doncaster Racecourse (left) listens intently while the party's Scottish MEP David Coburn (right) arrives to hear the party's leader Nigel Farage speak this afternoon . The UKIP party conference at Doncaster Racecourse sold a host of speciality products, including this 'Let's Rock Politics' stick of rock . He also explained the party’s bid to scrap tax-free shopping for foreigners. Mr O’Flynn said: 'The Treasury calls it \"tax free shopping\". It basically means that foreign nationals can claim back the VAT paid on purchases by filling out a form at the airport. ‘So foreign tycoons can get 20 per cent off their purchases in London, thanks to a Treasury waiver that is in turn bankrolled by ordinary British taxpayers. 'The Treasury is very coy about how much revenue is lost to VAT rebates to foreigners. But HMRC calculates that it is at least £300million a year and I have seen estimates which point to it being significantly higher. This perk should be scrapped.' It comes after MailOnline revealed super rich Arabs were spending £4.5million a day in Britain - cementing London's position as the world's top playground for the rich. In total last year £1.25billion was spent in the UK by families from the Middle East - amounting to some £25,000 for every holiday. The party attacked the 'Westminster clowns' in the main political parties in Parliament, including Ken 'The Euro Clown' Clarke, the former Conservative Cabinet minister . David Cameron was a figure of fun for many of the UKIP delegates in Doncaster today . UAE visitors meanwhile lavished £156 a day, according to the Office for National Statistics. They are the biggest spenders of all foreign visitors to Britain. Only tourists under the title 'other middle east' spend more - at some £173 a day. Egyptians are the third biggest spenders, handing over £149 a day during their stay. American tourists as a whole contribute more than Arabs to Britain's tourist industry - spending a total of £1.5billion last year. But the number of visitors from the US far outstrips those from the Middle East - leaving the spending per person from the Arab world way ahead of that from the Americans. Arabs now spend twice as much as Australians, Germans and French - and 50 per cent more than Americans. Spending by overseas visitors last year soared by 12.7 per cent since 2012 to £21billion. More than half of this - some 53.6 per cent - was spent in London. The amount spent by overseas visitors in the capital itself almost doubled between 2003 and 2013.", "(CNN) -- Mitt Romney's struggling presidential campaign is trying to change the subject this week with stark warnings of chaos in the Middle East. It's trying to scare voters into thinking that his tough talk will somehow make the situation better. Yet in a recent op-ed calling for a \"new course\" for the region, Romney refused, as usual, to outline any policy specifics, instead putting forth platitudes and falsehoods about President Barack Obama's record. Romney likes to criticize the president's handling of Israel and Iran and to recycle tired attacks on his record on Israel. But he repeatedly sidesteps the facts, ignoring Obama's unprecedented efforts to make our closest ally in the Middle East more secure. Under Obama's leadership, Israel has received record levels of security assistance, including aid for rocket defenses that have saved Israeli lives, and our defense and intelligence cooperation has never been better. The president has forged an international coalition to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Under the most crippling sanctions ever imposed, Tehran's economy is floundering and has never been more isolated. Obama has repeatedly vowed to use all instruments of national power to ensure Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon, taking no option off the table. Opinion: Debate coach -- Obama, Romney are top performers . Beyond Romney's cowboy rhetoric, there are zero actual policy differences with Obama on Iran -- unless Romney thinks it's time to rush to war. Everything else he says he would do -- crippling sanctions, a credible military option -- the president is already doing. On terrorism, which Romney never discusses in depth, he has failed to outline any policies to go after al Qaeda and its affiliates. There is a reason for this: On the president's watch, Osama bin Laden is dead and more al Qaeda senior leaders have been taken off the battlefield than at any time since 9/11. Romney's op-ed also tried out new arguments against the president's handling of the Arab Spring. Yet Romney's position on the Arab Spring is particularly incoherent. He has tacked between supporting \"freedom\" and fanning fears of Islamism, without giving any sign that he understands the complexities of this volatile region. His criticism of the president is similarly erratic: sometimes accusing Obama of not doing enough to support emerging democracies, and, at other times, seemingly critiquing him for doing too much to support democracy in places such as Egypt. Perhaps out of fear of offending his party's warring neoconservatives, realists and isolationists, Romney simply refuses to offer any clear position on democracy in the Arab world. Romney's declarations on the Middle East have been heavy on bold declarations of \"leadership\" but light on explanation. Romney's claim that his brash rhetoric will restore order to the region is naive, if not dangerous. Indeed, the last time the United States enjoyed his brand of \"leadership,\" we found ourselves trapped in Iraq, besieged by record levels of anti-Americanism and confronting an ascendant al Qaeda. Bergen: Dangerous new world of drones . Similarly, during the intervention in Libya, Romney never articulated anything resembling a coherent policy. He simply refused to take a stand. More disturbing, Romney's immediate impulse when Americans were killed in Benghazi three weeks ago was to try to exploit the issue for political gain -- and he's been playing politics with the issue ever since. While Romney has consistently appeared unsteady and unready to handle unfolding events, Obama has effectively managed the tumult of the Arab Spring, demonstrating strategic patience and confident leadership. As millions flooded the streets of Arab capitals, Obama recognized that the United States should endorse their demands for democratic change and took the lead in helping to broker a peaceful transition in Egypt. When Moammar Qaddafi turned his guns on peaceful protesters, Obama led an international coalition that saved tens of thousands of civilians in Benghazi, supported the opposition as it overthrew a brutal regime and helped pave the way toward a new Libya. And in the face of President Bashar al-Assad's brutality in Syria, the administration is leading international efforts to isolate and sanction the regime, push back against Russian intransigence at the United Nations and work with European and regional partners to empower the opposition. Opinion: Debate coach: Obama, Romney are top performers . The fact that Romney's approach to the Middle East is all swagger and no substance should come as little surprise. After all, Romney backed the war in Iraq, the biggest foreign policy disaster in a generation, and his advisers -- the people who would populate the national security establishment in a Romney administration -- are a Who's Who of the war's architects. Not only did that war cost more than 4,400 American lives, leave more than 32,000 Americans wounded and cost taxpayers nearly $1 trillion -- it empowered Iran and Syria and undermined U.S. credibility in the region and around the globe. The notion that Romney and his team understand the contemporary Middle East or how best to advance American interests in this volatile region is impossible to reconcile with this record of catastrophically bad judgment. So, while Romney attempts to politicize overseas events to divert attention from his sagging numbers in the polls, Obama will simply continue to do what he's done consistently and effectively over the past four years: promote our values, protect our interests, defend our friends and bring to justice those who would do America harm. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Michèle A. Flournoy, Colin H. Kahl and Marc Lynch.", "Anti-Semitism is still prevalent in Germany with some 19 million adults harbouring negative sentiments towards Jews, according to a new study . Anti-Semitism is still prevalent in Germany with some 19 million adults harbouring negative sentiments towards Jews, according to a new study. The Anti-Defamation League's Global 100 Index found that 27 per cent of German adults answered 'probably' or 'definitely' true to six or more of 11 stereotypes about Jews in the survey. The finding places Germany - which has an adult population of around 69 million - among the countries with the highest levels of anti-Semitism in western Europe. Austria (28%), Spain (29%), France (37%) and Greece (69%) were higher. Meanwhile, Sweden, with 4 per cent, had the least. In the United States, 9 per cent of adults . were found to harbour anti-Semitic views, while the figure for the UK was 8 per cent. The highest level of anti-Semitism in the world was found in the Palestinian territories of West Bank and Gaza at 93 per cent. The global average came in at 26 per cent, meaning some 1.1billion adults hold anti-Semitic views around the world. The study, which the ADL called 'the broadest survey of anti-Jewish attitudes ever conducted', found the lowest level of anti-Semitism in Laos, with just 0.2 per cent of the adult population expressing such views. 'Our findings are sobering but sadly not surprising,' said ADL National Director Abraham Foxman. 'We can now identify hotspots, as well as countries and regions of the world where hatred of Jews is virtually non-existent.' Foxman said findings about Greece had already led to an invitation from that country's prime minister to discuss possible remedies. 'Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country/to the countries they live in,' was the most commonly accepted stereotype with 41 per cent of respondents surveyed across 101 countries and the West Bank and Gaza saying that it was at least 'probably true'. Scroll down for video . The highest level of anti-Semitism was found in the Palestinian territories of West Bank and Gaza at 93 per cent . The second most accepted stereotype, held by 35 per cent of respondents, was: 'Jews have too much power in the business world.' The survey also found that only 54 per cent of those polled had heard about the Holocaust, a figure Foxman called 'disturbingly low'. West Bank and Gaza (93%) Iraq (92%) Yemen (88%) Algeria and Libya (both 87%) Tunisia (86%) Kuwait (82%) Bahrain and Jordan (both 81%) Morocco, Qatar and UAE (80%) Lebanon (78%) Oman (76%) New Zealand, Australia, Canada (all 14%) Czech Republic and Thailand (both 13%) Tanzania (12%) U.S. and Denmark (both 9%) UK (8%) Vietnam (6%) Netherlands (5%) Sweden (4%) Philippines (3%) Laos (0.2%) The Anti-Defamation League's Global 100 Index found someone to be anti-Semitic if they answered 'probably' or 'definitely' true to six or more of 11 stereotypes about Jews offered on the survey. Above, desecrated tombstones in the Jewish cemetery of Herrlisheim, France . (Percentage responding 'probably true' among select demographic groups.)1. Jews are more loyal to Israel than to [this country/to the countries they live in]: 41% . 2. Jews have too much power in the business world: 35% . 3. Jews have too much power in international financial markets: 34% . 4. Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust: 30% . 5. Jews don't care what happens to anyone but their own kind: 33% . 6. Jews have too much control over global affairs: 29% . 7. Jews have too much control over the United States government: 25% . 8. Jews think they are better than other people: 34% . 9. Jews have too much control over the global media: 25% . 10. Jews are responsible for most of the world's wars: 23% . 11. People hate Jews because of the way Jews behave: 32% . Holocaust awareness was highest in . Western Europe where 94 per cent of respondents said they had heard . about it and lowest in sub-Sarahan Africa with only 24 per cent. According to the survey, 49 per cent of Muslims hold anti-Semitic views compared with 24 per cent of Christians. But Jeffery Liszt, who oversaw the survey for Anzalone Liszt Grove Research, said that anti-Semitic views conformed more closely to region than religion with 75 per cent Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa holding anti-Semitic views while only 18 percent of Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa expressed similar sentiments. The Middle East and North Africa region was found to be the most anti-Semitic and the Oceania region the least, followed by the Americas. Anti-Semitic attitudes were relatively low in English speaking countries at 13 per cent compared with 30 per cent for Spanish-speaking countries, the report found. The survey also found that among the 74 per cent of those surveyed who said that they had never met a Jewish person, 25 per cent nonetheless harbored anti-Semitic attitudes. The survey interviewed 53,100 adults across 102 countries with funding from New York philanthropist Leonard Stern. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 0.97 percentage points for results across all nations surveyed and varies for results from individual nations. The survey also found that only 54 per cent of those polled had heard about the Holocaust. Above, supporters of Karpaty Lviv hold a Nazi flag as they attend a soccer match against Dynamo Kiev in Kiev in 2007 .", "Sometimes even the fiercest birds of prey need a little rest and relaxation. You can find falcons getting that and plenty more at the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital, the largest of its kind in the world and the leading center for falcon medicine. Around 9,000 birds are treated at the hospital, which is located just outside Abu Dhabi, each year. Even falcons have to sit in the waiting room. The Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital is the largest of its kind in the world and the leading center for falcon medicine . A falcon gets weighed during a health check. Around 9,000 birds are treated at the hospital, located just outside Abu Dhabi, each year . A doctor carefully places a falcon on a bench. The center is open around the clock and offers a range of treatments, including an intensive care unit . The center is open around the clock and offers a range of treatments, including an intensive care unit. Falcons who visit the hospital can have X-rays done or get their eyes checked at the ophthalmology department. Birds with Avian Flu or Falcon Pox can recover in special quarantined rooms, and there are even two large air conditioned aviaries where falcons can relax as they shed their old feathers and make way for the new - a process known as moulting. One falcon gets examined for a health check (left) while another undergoes anesthesia (right). Falcons who visit the hospital can have X-rays done or get their eyes checked at the ophthalmology department . A falcon has its feathers checked while under anesthetic. The hospital, which opened in 1999, treats birds from both the United Arab Emirates and the surrounding Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait . Although it was initially dedicated to treating falcons, the medical center transitioned into an avian hospital for all birds and poultry in 2006 . The hospital, which opened in 1999,  treats birds from both the United Arab Emirates and the surrounding Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait. It also has its own breeding center. Although it was initially dedicated to treating falcons, the medical center transitioned into an avian hospital for all birds and poultry in 2006, according to its official website. The Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital has treated over 67,000 birds since it first opened its doors, and has since become a major tourist attraction in the Abu Dhabi Emirate. A falcon is aided after undergoing an anesthetic. The Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital has treated over 67,000 birds since it first opened its doors . Falcons rest in an air conditioned aviary, which helps them relax as they shed their feathers in a process known as moulting . The hospital has become a major tourist attraction in the Abu Dhabi Emirate, where falcons are a revered bird . Falcons are a revered bird in the region. They feature on the emblem of the United Arab Emirates and falconry is permitted and discussed by the Koran. Now considered a national sport and even a rite of passage for young Emirati men, falconry was once traditionally used as a way to obtain food. It has now been modernized - with some men even using drones to train their birds - as the sport has become more about camaraderie and developing a bond with one's bird. The United Nations' UNESCO division recognized falconry in their 'Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity' list in 2012. A falcon gets weighed during a health check. Falcons are featured on the United Arab Emirates emblem and are even mentioned in the Koran . Displays of spare feathers for damaged birds. Falconry is considered a national sport in the region, and has become more about camaraderie and developing a bond with one's bird . Falcons can go for thousands of pounds in the Middle East, and certain types of the bird have become status symbols - selling for more than a million dollars at auction. Abu Dhabi even hosts a falcon beauty contest every year. But the Abu Dhabi Falcon hospital is also working to release certain types of falcons back into their natural wild habitat. In 1999 the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency created the Sheikh Zayed Falcon Release program in order to increase the wild falcon population. Under the directive, the hospital rehabilitates certain types of wild falcons who had previously been used for falconry to follow their natural migratory route. So far more than 1,3000 falcons have been released back into their original habitats in Pakistan, Iran or Kazakhstan. Falcon owners wait to check in their birds at the hospital. Falcons can go for thousands of pounds in the Middle East, and certain types of the bird have become status symbols - selling for more than a million dollars at auction . But the Abu Dhabi Falcon hospital is also working to release certain types of falcons back into their natural wild habitat . In 1999 the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency created the Sheikh Zayed Falcon Release program in order to increase the wild falcon population. So far more than 1,3000 falcons have been released back into their original habitats .", "Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down Friday and handed over power to the military, his nearly three decades of iron rule ended by a groundswell of popular protests that began January 25. In a somber, one-minute announcement on state television, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced Mubarak's resignation and said the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces will \"run the affairs of the country.\" As Suleiman spoke, deafening cheers erupted among tens of thousands of Egyptians who thronged the streets of Cairo. It was a moment they had sought throughout long, often tense days of demonstrations -- some of them violent -- that demanded Mubarak's departure. It was a moment that many in the Arab world's powerhouse nation had not dared contemplate. Chants of \"Egypt is free!\" and \"God is great!\" rose from the crowds, dizzy in the honeymoon of their success. Some waved Egyptian flags; others honked horns; still others set off fireworks as they savored the scene. Two major bridges over the Nile River resembled congested parking lots, and partiers packed streets throughout Cairo. The state-run Middle East News Agency said some people had passed out from joy and others had suffered heart attacks. \"It was a sense of liberation for me, for every Egyptian,\" said opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei. \"For the first time, Egypt has a chance to be democratic, to be free, to have a sense of dignity, of freedom. So it's amazing. It's just like something we never experienced in our lifetime.\" A source with close connections to Persian Gulf government leaders said Mubarak, 82, had fled to the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, his presidency finished as abruptly as it had started in 1981, when he ascended to power after the assassination of Anwar Sadat. The repercussions echoed far beyond Tahrir Square as the Swiss government moved Friday to freeze assets belonging to Mubarak and his family, said Norbert Baerlocher, a spokesman for the Swiss Embassy in Washington. In a speech to the nation Thursday night, Mubarak had indicated that he was delegating authority to Suleiman but made no mention of resigning. Disappointed crowds calling for his ouster grew in number Friday in Cairo and in other major cities. By Friday night, the protesters got what they were seeking. But amid the euphoria, ElBaradei sounded a note of caution. \"We have challenges ahead of us,\" said the Nobel laureate, who some believe could emerge as Egypt's next leader. \"I think we need to not worry about retribution. Mubarak needs to go, and we need to look forward.\" Amre Moussa, the Egyptian secretary-general of the Arab League, told CNN that the country should focus on instituting reforms and establishing democracy. Asked how long it would take for the government to lift the 30-year-old state-of-emergency laws, he said, \"The sooner the better ... six, seven months.\" Asked whether he will run for office, Moussa demurred. \"That is not an issue to discuss today,\" he said. \"The time for such a question will come.\" Wael Ghonim, the Egyptian activist who became a reluctant hero of the revolution but has made clear that he has no interest in becoming a political leader, predicted that history books would describe Mubarak as a dictator. Ghonim -- a Google executive on leave from his job whose Facebook page is credited with triggering the uprising -- was seized by security forces and held for 10 days. His powerful television interview after his release Monday galvanized the protesters in Tahrir Square. He said he had felt certain that Mubarak would be forced out after a revolt in Tunisia forced that country's leader to step down in January, and he said he believed the Egyptian military could be trusted to respect the demands of the protesters. Many protesters had been calling for Egypt's army, which is respected within the country, to take over as interim caretaker. Friday night, they voiced optimism that the military would pave the way for free and fair elections. Throughout the uprising, the military both responded to the protesters and defended Mubarak's regime. It showed signs Thursday that it was assuming a greater role when the supreme council met without Mubarak, who was then still the supreme commander of the armed forces. Friday, it issued a communique stating that Egypt's emergency laws, used by Mubarak throughout his tenure as president to rule with an iron hand, would be lifted, but only when conditions allowed. After Mubarak stepped down, a military spokesman appeared on state television, expressing appreciation to the former president and saluting the \"martyrs,\" an apparent reference to those who died in the protests. Human Rights Watch has documented more than 300 deaths since the uprising began January 25. Many of the pitched battles between security forces and Mubarak's foes unfolded in the same places that were scenes of jubilation Friday night. But Friday's revelry could not push aside the looming uncertainty over what will come next in the Arab world's most populous nation and how Egypt's revolution, which succeeded on the 32nd anniversary of Iran's, might affect the region. Events in Egypt may extendfar beyond the country's borders, Moussa said. \"Winds of change are sweeping the Arab world and the Middle East,\" he said. In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama said the people of this key U.S. ally have made it clear that \"nothing less than genuine democracy will carry the day.\" He praised the Egyptian military for acting responsibly and said it now needs to help ensure a credible transition. Among other things, Egyptian authorities need to set about \"protecting the rights of Egypt's citizens, lifting the emergency law, revising the constitution and other laws to make this change irreversible, and laying out a clear path to elections that are fair and free,\" Obama said. But two miles from the White House, at a meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, said that the United States had invested billions of dollars over the years \"propping up that dictator\" and has little to show for it. \"Where do you think the money went? To a Swiss bank account,\" he said. \"It contributed to our debt, billions and billions of dollars, and all we get is chaos from it and instability.\" A spokesman for Obama's predecessor said Friday that former President George W. Bush \"congratulates the people of Egypt for taking an important and impressive first step toward freedom.\" But the U.S. government's applause for Egypt's step toward freedom and away from Mubarak differed markedly from its previous stance. At a joint news conference with Mubarak in April 2004 at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, he offered support for his Egyptian counterpart. \"Egypt is a strategic partner of the United States, and we value President Mubarak's years of effort on behalf of the peace and stability of the Middle East,\" Bush said. \"President Mubarak can be confident in my friendship and America's partnership as he moves forward to realize the hopes of his people.\" Just where those hopes would lead was not clear in the heady hours after Mubarak's resignation. What was clear was that Mubarak's imposition of military rule broke with Egypt's 1971 constitution. The constitution allows for only two scenarios for a president to relinquish power. The first stipulates that if the president has to step aside temporarily, the vice president steps into the top role. That is what the regime briefly orchestrated Thursday. The constitution states further that, if the office of the president is vacated or the president becomes permanently disabled, the parliamentary speaker is to assume the role until new elections can be held. Those elections, in turn, must occur within 60 days. In opting for a third way, which put all power in the hands of the military, the regime in effect rendered the constitution inoperable. A high-ranking Egyptian military official said the army's command was discussing whether to dismiss Mubarak's government and parliament and when the next election would be held. But some analysts were sounding the alarm over the takeover by the military, which has suddenly become accountable for the nation. \"Suleiman's statement is the clearest indication thus far that the military has carried out a coup led by Defense Minister Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi,\" analysts with Stratfor, a global intelligence company, said in a statement. \"Egypt is returning to the 1952 model of ruling the state via a council of army officers,\" the statement said. \"The question now is to what extent the military elite will share power with its civilian counterparts.\" Amnesty International warned that Mubarak's departure did not mean an end to the police state. \"The repressive system that Egyptians have suffered under for three decades has not gone away and the state of emergency remains in place,\" said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's secretary general. \"Those in power must grasp this opportunity to consign the systematic abuses of the past to history. Human rights reform must begin now.\" CNN's Amir Ahmed, Nic Robertson, Kurt Muller and Caroline Faraj contributed to this report.", "PARIS, France (CNN) -- A major donors conference to raise funds for the Palestinians has gone beyond expectations, with donors pledging $7.4 billion to help build a Palestinian state, organizers said Monday. France's Nicolas Sarkoxy, left, welcomes Tony Blair and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Monday. Other delegations at the Paris meeting are offering aid in kind, such as the International Monetary Fund, which said it would provide monitoring of the Palestinians' promised reforms to reassure donors that their money would be used efficiently. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called the pledge of money a \"vote of confidence\" in the Palestinians. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the support of donors needed to be repaid in the coming months with steps to create a lasting settlement. \"Over the next few months, we have to show people our capability of making the difference on the ground,\" said Blair, who co-hosted the conference in his new role as envoy for the so-called Middle East Quartet of the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia. The Paris conference focuses on short-term priorities for the Palestinians, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said those include providing immediate support for the Palestinian people -- particularly those living in Gaza -- and stabilizing the Palestinian economy. Watch CNN's Jim Bittermann explain the conference's aims » . It follows on the heels of last month's peace talks in the U.S. in which Israeli and Palestinian leaders vowed to negotiate a final-status agreement by the end of 2008. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said France would donate $300 million, and the United States was expected to pledge more than $500 million. Central to the Palestinians' request for aid is a three-year reform plan that the Palestinians prepared for the conference. The plan, which covers 2008 to 2010, centers on economic development and government reform. The World Bank praised the plan, calling it a \"promising effort\" to link policy-making, planning and budgeting. But in a report released Monday, the World Bank pointed out the reforms would succeed in helping Palestinians only if they were accompanied by both donor aid and Israeli actions. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni spoke of taking such actions, saying Israel is committed to meeting its responsibilities under the Middle East road map, especially regarding the contentious issue of settlements. Livni said an agreement had been reached with the European Union to provide training for Palestinian police. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinians didn't lack will or determination but resources. He promised donors that Palestinians would work hard to create a modern country in control of its security. \"We are at a historic stage today, and the destiny of our region and peace depends on this,\" said Abbas, who requested the conference be held. Abbas earlier had requested $5.6 billion in aid over the next three years. Sarkozy repeatedly told the conference he is a \"friend of Israel,\" but he urged the Israeli government to withdraw troops from the West Bank, freeze settlements, reopen institutions in East Jerusalem and help the isolated population of Gaza. The World Bank's report detailed the challenges facing attempts to revive the Palestinian economy, which has become almost totally dependent on foreign aid. The Palestinian Authority is the largest employer for its people, as private-sector jobs dry up. The World Bank said wages for public sector employees account for almost half of the government's expenditures. With public investment having nearly ceased, the World Bank said, almost all government funds in the past two years have been used to pay salaries and cover operating costs. Staffing also has gone up in the health and education sectors, the World Bank said, leaving little money for pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, teaching and learning materials, and overall maintenance. The World Bank said the reforms would only succeed if they include Gaza, where 40 percent of the Palestinian population lives. Gaza has been subject to a wide-ranging crackdown since Hamas took power in June; its borders are closed, fuel imports are restricted, and there are strict limits on all imported goods. \"The continued entry of humanitarian goods has mitigated the impact of the closures on Gaza's population, but has not been sufficient to offset the collapse of the private sector there,\" the World Bank report said. Unemployment across the Palestinian territories stands at nearly 23 percent, the World Bank said, but in Gaza, 33 percent of the population is out of a job. It predicted the figures would rise if the restrictions continue. A report Monday from the U.N. Development Program spotlighted the pressures on private Palestinian businesses, especially in Gaza, where it said the private sector \"is on the verge of collapse with no scope for recovery\" unless Israeli restrictions are lifted. E-mail to a friend . CNN's Jim Bittermann contributed to this report .", "(CNN) -- A third person has died in the extensive flooding that has deluged entire towns and threatens even more communities in southern Alberta, Canada, authorities announced Saturday. The three victims, two females and a male, were all found in the Highwood River that runs through the town of High River, about 40 miles south of Calgary, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. Officials did not identify the victims. High River is one of the worst-affected areas in the flooding that began after torrential mountain rains. At one point, the entire town of 13,000 was covered in brown floodwater and all residents are under an evacuation order, Cpl. Laurel Kading of the RCMP told CNN. There was \"substantial\" and \"extensive\" damage in the town, where waters rose so rapidly Thursday that about 1,000 people had to be airlifted or rescued by boat, the RCMP said. Kading described one man who dropped his keys when the water began rising, and when he stood up, the water was at his waist. The local news site High River Online reported river levels down substantially on Saturday in some parts of the town, but high water remaining in others. Photographs from the site Saturday showed a large pickup truck entirely caked in mud, indicating how high the water had reached. Another showed a submerged railway bridge covered in tree trunks and tree limbs. More photos showed buildings and roads still submerged. The RCMP said it was conducting door-to-door checks of homes throughout High River. There also was severe flooding to the west of the town, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. \"All the little towns all the way along have been affected to some degree or another,\" Kading said. \"There are reports of some farms in rural areas where some people have been stranded as well.\" To the east, the city of Medicine Hat was preparing for the South Saskatchewan River to burst its banks. City Hall was lined with sandbags. The city predicted water to spill over the banks overnight Saturday and keep rising until it crests Monday morning. About 10,000 people in Medicine Hat, population 62,000, were evacuated ahead of the flooding. City spokesman Brandy Calvert said officials expect the flood to eclipse the one they had in 1995, which was the biggest on record. \"We don't want to anticipate the worst, but we're going to be prepared for the worst,\" Alberta Premier Alison Redford said before visiting the city Saturday. \"We know that from what we've seen everywhere else that this is more exceptional than we've ever seen in Alberta before, so we're presuming that that's probably the circumstance that we're looking at (in Medicine Hat) as well.\" Calgary was still covered in water days after the Bow and Elbow rivers overflowed. The city was under a state of emergency Saturday, though Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the flow of the water was slowing and some people could start returning home Saturday night. The home of the NHL Calgary Flames, the Saddledome, also was flooded. The team posted pictures on its website showing the darkened interior of the dome with brown water sitting at row eight, blocking the entrance to the players' tunnel. Downtown Calgary will be closed until the middle of next week at the earliest, said Nenshi's spokesman, Daorcey Le Bray. About 30,000 power customers were without power, the city said. A pedestrian bridge over the Elbow River was damaged and city assessors were trying to determine the state of the dozens of other bridges, Calgary Police said.", "Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Yemen's new president on Saturday promised to continue the fight against al Qaeda, calling it \"a religious and national duty\" for citizens of his restive nation. Abdurabu Mansur Hadi was sworn in Saturday in the capital, Sanaa. The ceremony cements a power transfer deal reached in November to end months of protests and violence over outgoing leader Ali Abdullah Saleh's longtime rule. Hadi -- who served as Saleh's vice president and became acting president in November in an agreement brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council -- was sworn in before Yemen's parliament. President Barack Obama called Hadi to congratulate him and to say that the United States \"will stand with the people of Yemen as they continue their efforts to forge a brighter future for their country,\" according to a White House statement. \"Under President Hadi's leadership, Yemen has the potential to serve as a model for how peaceful transitions can occur when people resist violence and unite under a common cause,\" Obama said, warning that much work still lies ahead. Before Hadi took power, the Yemeni government had been engulfed in anti-Saleh protests and for years has been fighting al Qaeda militants. And as Hadi was being sworn in, a deadly car bomb killed more than 20 security force members in another part of the nation. The explosion occurred in Hadramout province, near the presidential palace in Mukalla, the provincial seat, a senior security official and an eyewitness said. The Mukalla palace is one of several presidential palaces throughout the country. Hadramout province is in the country's east; Sanaa is in the west. \"Yemen is a country where such attacks take place, so this is not a surprise,\" said Ali Saeed Obaid, a government official. No one has yet claimed responsibility. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is one of al Qaeda's strongest branches. Speaking about the fight against al Qaeda, Hadi said he hoped an effort to eradicate militants would lead to the return of displaced persons to their towns and villages. \"The country does not need additional crises to deepen its wounds, as the next period requires serious dialogue and clear outlines through a new constitution that meets the national expectations,\" Hadi said. He talked about the importance of reviving the middle class. \"We have to employ our energies in all walks of life and make security a reality that is felt by the citizen.\" On Monday, a formal inauguration will take place in Sanaa -- one that Saleh is expected to attend. A spokesman for the country's embassy in Washington said late Friday that Saleh had returned home after a short U.S. visit for medical treatment. \"The inauguration on Monday will only be ceremonial and a celebration in support for Yemen's new leader,\" said Abdul Aziz Jubari, a member of Yemen's parliament from Saleh's General People's Congress party. Hadi received 99.8% of the 6.6 million votes cast in Tuesday's election, according to Mohmmad Hassan al-Hakimi, chairman of the Supreme Committee for Elections and Referendum. Saleh, who led Yemen for 33 years, was wounded in a June assassination attempt at his presidential palace during battles between government troops and tribal fighters. A \"massive celebration\" was being planned for Saleh, who will not necessarily disappear from Yemeni politics, said Abdu Ganadi, his senior aide. \"Saleh has the option to continue involvement in politics, and the power transfer deal will not force him to step aside,\" Ganadi said. \"He is the leader of the GPC, and his voice and support will continue being heard in the GPC.\" U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the Yemeni election \"another important step forward in their democratic transition process.\" Gerald Feierstein, U.S. ambassador to Yemen, said it was a great day for the country. \"I think a lot of credit goes to the Yemeni people and to the Yemenis political leadership for guiding this country successfully through some difficult challenges so far,\" he said. \"This is just the beginning of the real transition process which is going to play out over the next couple of years. U.N. envoy to Yemen Jamal bin Omar said the Arab nation \"is turning the page.\" He said an upcoming \"national dialogue conference\" will be an \"opportunity to draft a new constitution that will be a new social pact among the Yemenis.\" Human Rights Watch has called on Hadi to make changes without delay. \"Yemen's potentially historic transition will be off to a shaky start unless Hadi makes an immediate break with the abuses of the past,\" said Letta Tayler, the rights group's Yemen researcher. \"Yemen's new leader needs to move decisively to usher in promised reforms that uphold human rights and the rule of law.\" The 65-year-old Hadi is a British-, Egyptian- and Soviet-trained army officer, recently promoted to field marshal. He had been vice president since 1994 and ran for a two-year term as president on pledges of improving security and creating jobs. But he's never had much of a power base, and Yemen's problems are expected to take longer than two years to fix. Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East, with a severe shortage of water and rising levels of malnutrition among its population of about 25 million. Saleh faced a separatist movement in the south, sectarian tensions in the north and the growing presence of what Western officials describe as al Qaeda's most dangerous affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. CNN's Jamie Crawford and Kindah Shair contributed to this report." ]

[ "New Zealand" ]

[ "outside the borders of their native country", "Fern Kinney", "nativism", "Native", "The Nativity", "country to country", "that which burns", "that which purifies", "nativity scene", "native breeds", "Native warriors", "Native Americans", "Native Peruvians", "that which is heard", "Nativity of Jesus", "native apps", "Native Panamanians", "native tongue", "native iron", "Nativity cantata", "Grotto of the Nativity", "Church of the Nativity", "Native Mexicans", "Native Colombians", "the Negrense natives", "Neon Trees", "native tribes", "native Indians", "The Hanging Tree", "the program in which they are enrolled", "For Your Country and My Country", "molecular trees" ]

[ "Q# type Result is represented by C# class Microsoft.Quantum.Simulation.Core.Result; in particular, it has constants Result.Zero and Result.One that you can compare the return of your operation to.\n\nusing Microsoft.Quantum.Simulation.Core;\n\nboolOutput = (QuantumOperation.Run(sim).Result == Result.One);" ]

[ "Building off of Ryan's answer (https://quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/a/12271/12224), it's important to recognize that the Qubit type should not only live just in the Q# code but also have its scope bounded by either a using statement or a borrowing statement. See Working with Qubits for more guidance on how to allocate qubits for use in an operation.\n\nAs an option for how to pass an initial state of a register as a series of ones and zeros, you could pass your input register from Python as an array of bools, and then use ApplyToEachIndex from Microsoft.Quantum.Cannon to map that array onto the array of qubits:\n\n operation test(bools : Bool[]) : Unit {\n using (qs = Qubit[Length(bools)]) {\n ApplyToEachIndex(InitializeFromBoolArray(_, bools, _), qs);\n }\n }\n\n operation InitializeFromBoolArray(index : Int, bools : Bool[], qubit : Qubit) : Unit {\n if (bools[index]) {\n X(qubit);\n }\n }\n\n\nNote that this also uses a callable invocation expression to create an operation with the signature expected by ApplyToEachIndex.", "Here is what I did when I was exploring optimizing the code to run as fast as possible in simulation (here is the blog post describing the things I looked into).\n\nAdd a classical driver to your project that calls your Q# code.\nI used C# (you can also use Python if you prefer it) and the code you'll use is going to be something like this:\n\nusing QuantumSimulator qsim = new QuantumSimulator();\nbool[] result = GroversSearch.Run(qsim).Result.ToArray();\n\n\nIn this classical driver, wrap the call to quantum operation's Run in classical code that tracks the start and the end time. Here is C# code for it:\n\nStopwatch stopWatch = new Stopwatch();\nstopWatch.Start();\n// ... call quantum operation here ...\nstopWatch.Stop();\nTimeSpan ts = stopWatch.Elapsed;\nstring elapsedTime = String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}.{3:00}",\n ts.Hours, ts.Minutes, ts.Seconds,\n ts.Milliseconds / 10);\nConsole.WriteLine("RunTime " + elapsedTime);\n\nYou can do any pre-processing before the call to quantum code and any post-processing afterwards, and they won't count towards the execution time.\nYou can see the full example here.", "One possibility is to override a default implementation using an alternative one for a specific simulator. Here, init_and would be the default implementation as in the uncommented code and CCNOT would be the alternative.\nIn the Q# libraries, we have the exact same case for Microsoft.Quantum.Canon.ApplyAnd and Microsoft.Quantum.Canon.ApplyLowDepthAnd. Here is a cut down version of\nhttps://github.com/microsoft/QuantumLibraries/blob/main/Standard/src/Canon/And.cs:\n#nullable enable\n\nusing System;\nusing Microsoft.Quantum.Simulation.Core;\nusing Microsoft.Quantum.Simulation.Simulators;\n\nnamespace SameNameSpaceAsQSharpInitAnd {\n public partial class init_and {\n public class Native : init_and {\n private bool use_classical_adjoint;\n\n public Native(IOperationFactory m) : base(m) {\n use_classical_adjoint = m is ToffoliSimulator;\n }\n\n public override Func<(Qubit, Qubit, Qubit), QVoid> __AdjointBody__ {\n get {\n if (use_classical_adjoint) {\n return base.__Body__;\n }\n return base.__AdjointBody__;\n }\n }\n\n }\n }\n}\n\nIn your case overrides for __ControlledBody__ and __ControlledAdjointBody__ are not required.\nThe C# code needs to be implemented in the same project and namespace where you implement the init_and Q# operation.", "The differences between the two pieces of code are piling up. \n\nThe ones that I notice right away are the differences in the style or formatting\n\nLet's first format them the same so that we can tell what is actually different.\n\nThis is the second piece of code, in which there are still some things I don't like, but we will get to that.\n\nint n, p, q, f;\nn = 0;\np = 3;\nq = 5;\nf = 0; \n\nscanf(\"%d\", &n);\n\nwhile (q < n)\n{\n f = 1;\n for (int i = 2; i <= p / 2; i++)\n {\n if (p%i==0) \n { \n f = 0; break; \n }\n }\n for (int i = 2; i <= q / 2; i++)\n {\n if (q%i == 0) \n { \n f = 0; \n break; \n }\n }\n if (f) \n {\n printf(\"p = %d, q = %d\\n\", p, q);\n }\n p++;\n q++;\n}\n\n\nHere you could actually create you f variable inside of the While loop instead of at the top.\n\nDon't one-line if statements so you don't have to use brackets for the For loop. dangerous coding. Just use brackets (curly braces).\n\nWhat are all these variables? I don't know what they are or what they do. Please use more descriptive variable names.\n\nI don't know what the standard for C is, but in C# you wouldn't declare all your Variables in one line, so this looks bad to me.\n\nSometimes you put spaces in between operators and variables and sometimes you don't, please use spaces.\n\n\n\nThe first piece of code looked like it was formatted pretty well. The only thing that I did was to break up the variable declarations and space some things out a little bit.\n\nI would still recommend that you create more memorable variable names though.\n\nint n;\nint p;\nint q;\n\nscanf_s(\"%d\", &n);\n\np = 1;\nq = 2;\n\nchar flag = 1;\n\nwhile (q < n)\n{\n flag = 1;\n for (int i = 2; i <= sqrt(q); i++)\n {\n if (q % i == 0)\n {\n flag = 0;\n break;\n }\n }\n if (flag)\n {\n if (q - p == 2)\n printf(\"%d %d\\n\", p, q);\n p = q;\n }\n q++;\n}\n\n\nNot assigning the variable n is probably a really bad idea, definitely not a good habit to fall into for sure.\n\nI have been corrected, it is okay to not assign to n but you don't check the value returned by the scanf and that could result in a null reference exception\n\n\n\nOne thing that I noticed is that you are using either an integer or a char datatype for a flag, why wouldn't you use a boolean type or even a bit instead?\n\nIt looks like you could use an #include if you are in C99.\n\n#include <stdbool.h>\n\n\nbut it does appear that the other options are integers except for one which is an Enum\n\nOption 1\n\ntypedef int bool;\n#define true 1\n#define false 0\n\n\nOption 2\n\ntypedef int bool;\nenum { false, true };\n\n\nOption 3\n\ntypedef enum { false, true } bool;\n\n\nReference: answer to -> Using boolean values in C\n\nSo I guess that it would make sense to use an integer. The char might even make sense since it is an integer type. But I think it would be less confusing if you defined a data type or at the very least label it flag and not f.", "I think you'll need to construct the joint probability function rather that expect Mathematica to put that together automatically from the one marginal distribution and the conditional probabilities. But after that one can use Mathematica commands to find conditional probabilities, marginal distributions, etc.\n\n(* Known information ... *)\n(* Pr(X1 = 1) *)\np1 = q;\n(* Conditional probabilities: Pr(X2 | X1) *)\nc[1, 1] = p (* Pr(X2=1 | X1=1) *)\nc[1, -1] = 1 - p (* Pr(X2=1 | X1=-1) *)\n\n(* Construct joint probabilities: Pr(X1 & X2) *)\npr[1, 1] = p1 c[1, 1]\npr[1, -1] = p1 (1 - c[1, 1])\npr[-1, 1] = (1 - p1) c[1, -1]\npr[-1, -1] = (1 - p1) (1 - c[1, -1])\n\n(* Define a joint probability function for use in ProbabilityFunction *)\njoint[x1_, x2_] := Boole[x1 == -1 && x2 == -1]*pr[-1, -1] +\n Boole[x1 == -1 && x2 == 1]*pr[-1, 1] +\n Boole[x1 == 1 && x2 == -1]*pr[1, -1] +\n Boole[x1 == 1 && x2 == 1]*pr[1, 1]\n\n(* Turn this into a Mathematica joint probability distribution *)\nd = ProbabilityDistribution[joint[x1, x2], {x1, -1, 1, 2}, {x2, -1, 1, 2}];\n\n(* Find conditional probabilities *)\nProbability[x2 == -1 \\[Conditioned] x1 == -1, {x1, x2} \\[Distributed] d]\n(* p *)\nProbability[x2 == -1 \\[Conditioned] x1 == 1, {x1, x2} \\[Distributed] d]\n(* 1-p *)\nProbability[x2 == 1 \\[Conditioned] x1 == -1, {x1, x2} \\[Distributed] d]\n(* 1-p *)\nProbability[x2 == 1 \\[Conditioned] x1 == 1, {x1, x2} \\[Distributed] d]\n(* p *)\n\n(* Marginal distributions *)\nFullSimplify[PDF[MarginalDistribution[d, 1], x1]]\n\n\n\n\nFullSimplify[PDF[MarginalDistribution[d, 2], x2]]\n\n\n\n\n(* Mean of marginal distributions *)\nMean[MarginalDistribution[d, 1]]\n(* -1+2 q *)\nMean[MarginalDistribution[d, 2]]\n(* 1-2 p-2 q+4 p q *)\n\n\nAddition:\n\nStealing from @SjoerdSmit 's answer (How to define a discrete distribution with non-integer sample space elements (outcomes)?) one can also define the joint distribution in the following manner:\n\nd = EmpiricalDistribution[{pr[-1, -1], pr[-1, 1], pr[1, -1], pr[1, 1]} ->\n {{-1, -1}, {-1, 1}, {1, -1}, {1, 1}}]\n\n\nThis is probably a safer way to define the joint probability distribution as you can see the match-ups between the probabilities and the pairs of (X1,X2) values.", "I tried to implement your transformation on IBM Q. Here is the result:\n\n\nInput is $|00\\rangle$ in this case. You can set input values by application of $X$ gates on q-bits $|q0\\rangle$ and $|q1\\rangle$.\n\nPlease note that this circuit run on a simulator only as reset gate has not been implemented on real IBM Q quantum hardware. But it is possible to simply measure $|q2\\rangle$ and $|q3\\rangle$. In that case your transformation become reversible.", "Reminds me of a story a friend (who is a math teacher) told me. Student comes to him and says his calculator is broken - it shows (-5)^2 = -25.\n\n[C] [-] [5] [x^2] [=] shows -25\n\n\nQ: So, how do you know that's wrong?\n\nA: Because my mobile says 25:\n\n[C] [-] [5] [*] [=] shows 25\n\n\nQ; And how do you know the 25 is correct, and the -25 isn't ?\n\nA: I checked with my friend's mobile, it says 25 as well ....\n\nMy friend turned this lesson into one focusing on how to use calculators correctly, and how to check whether or not the result makes sense.\n\nEspecially with those cheap calculator apps that come pre-installed with mobiles, and that don't handle operator precedence, you can get a lot of wrong/conflicting results.", "arg.Value contains the actual tuple that the controlled operation receives at runtime. It's a two item tuple in which the first item is the control qubits, and the second another tuple with the arguments the operation normally expects, so in your case you are only interested in the first item of this tuple.\n\nOverall, arg.Value can be anything, thus it has object as type, but fear not, using a little bit of C#'s reflection is easy to retrieve its content. The implementation you are looking for is this:\n\n static Qubit[] Controls(ICallable op, IApplyData arg)\n {\n // Uncontrolled operations have no control qubits.\n if (op.Variant != OperationFunctor.Controlled &&\n op.Variant != OperationFunctor.ControlledAdjoint)\n {\n return new Qubit[0];\n }\n\n // Get the first item of the (controls, args) tuple.\n dynamic v = arg.Value;\n QArray<Qubit> ctrls = v.Item1;\n return ctrls.ToArray();\n }\n\n\nNotice the array of Qubits is encapsulated in something called a QArray<Qubit>, QArray is the data structure we use in simulation for all Q# arrays.", "I have figured it out!\nIn this case, the object that is generated from a boolean operation should go through a triangulation.", "Answers to your question are somewhat dimension and signature dependent.\nFor example, in dimension $2$, if $g$ is definite, then every $C^1$ conformal diffeomorphism is, in fact, real-analytic, because, locally, $g$ can be written in the form $g = F\\,\\mathrm{d}z{\\circ}\\mathrm{d}\\bar z$ for some complex-valued coordinate $z$ and nonzero $F$. In such a coordinate, a $C^1$ conformal transformation is actually either $z$-holomorphic or conjugate $z$-holomorphic.\nAlso, in dimension $2$, if $g$ has split signature, then, locally $g$ is of the form $g = F(x,y)\\,\\mathrm{d}x{\\circ}\\mathrm{d}y$ for some coordinates $(x,y)$, and a $C^1$ $g$-conformal transformation is either of the form $\\phi(x,y) = (p(x),q(y))$ or of the form $\\phi(x,y) = (q(y),p(x))$, where $p$ and $q$ are $C^1$, and you don't get any better regularity than that since all such $C^1$-maps are $g$-conformal.\nIn dimensions higher than $2$, in the positive definite case, if $g$ is smooth, then any $C^1$ conformal diffeomorphism is smooth, though I think this is not an easy result, even when $g$ is flat. (See the proofs of Liouville's Theorem in the case of low regularity.) If you assume, say, $C^3$, though, then it's not too hard.\nIn dimensions higher than $2$, independent of signature, if you assume $g$ is smooth and $\\phi$ is at least $C^4$ (though probably $C^3$ is OK), then $\\phi$ must be smooth. About lower regularity, I don't know.", "This statement:\n\n\n (it is well-known that the optimal policy is invariant to positive affine transformation of the reward function).\n\n\nis, as far as I know, and as you summarise, incorrect because simple translations to reward signal do affect the optimal policy, and the affine transform of a real number $x$ can be given by $f(x) = mx + c$\n\nIt is well known that optimal policy is unaffected by multiplying all rewards by a positive scaling, e.g. $f(x) = mx$ where $m$ is positive.\n\nIt is also worth noting that if an optimal policy is derived from Q values using $\\pi(s) = \\text{argmax}_a Q(s,a)$, then that policy function is invariant to positive affine transformations of action values given by $Q(s,a)$. Perhaps that was what the paper authors meant to write, given that they go on to apply normalisation to Q values.\n\nThe impact of the mistake is not relevant to the the rest of the paper as far as I can see (caveat: I have not read the whole paper).", "AFAIK, what you want can't be run on the hardware right now. See this github issue.\n\nHowever, you can do this in the simulators. If, for example, c[0] and c[1] make up a two-bit classical register c, you can do this:\n\nqc.x(q[0]).c_if(c,3)\nqc.x(q[1]).c_if(c,3)", "I think what's confusing you is that $A \\times B$ is both a product and a coproduct:\n\n\nIt is the product of two factors, namely $A$ and $B$.\nIt is the coproduct of $A$-many copies of $B$.\n\n\nOnce you realize this, you will see that we can obtain $A \\times B$ as both a $\\sum$ and a $\\prod$:\n\n\nTake $P : \\mathtt{bool} \\to \\mathsf{Type}$ where $P(\\mathtt{false}) = A$ and $P(\\mathtt{true}) = B$. Then\n$$\\sum_{b : \\mathtt{bool}} P(b) \\simeq A + B$$\nand\n$$\\prod_{b : \\mathtt{bool}} P(b) \\simeq A \\times B$$\nTake $Q : A \\to \\mathsf{Type}$ where $P(x) = B$ for all $x : A$. Then\n$$\\sum_{x : A} Q(x) \\simeq A \\times B$$\nand\n$$\\prod_{x : A} Q(x) \\simeq (A \\to B)$$\n\n\nWe should therefore not pay attention to $A \\times B$ when deciding on a good naming scheme for these two constructs.\n\nThe dependent exponential is exactly a dependent product.", "Consider the following org file:\n\n#+EXCLUDE_TAGS: q\n\n* Questions\n** Question 1\n*** Question :q:\n How many sides does a square have?\n*** Answer :a:\n Four.\n** Question 2 \n*** Question :q:\n Today is Tuesday, what is tomorrow?\n*** Answer :a:\n Wednesday.\n\n\nIf you export it, you'll get the headings plus answers only. If you change the EXCLUDE_TAGS to \"a\" and press C-c C-c on the header to update the info, export will export only the questions.\n\nThis functionality can be used programmatically, and can thereby serve as a basis for a more automatic solution. One approach would be to write a simple publishing function that exported the q&a file twice, each time excluding one of the two tags. If the file is exported as latex, body-only, the resulting files could be directly included into a bigger latex file of the whole book.", "You have to use a literal C-j to match the newline, which you can etnter by prefixing it with C-q, i.e.\n\nM-x occur RET\ntext-to-find.*C-qC-j.*result\n\n(occur also takes a prefix argument that tells it how many lines of context to show, which can be useful too).", "[While B Layer is right that this question should demonstrate attempts (in order that answers address conceptual misunderstandings), the answer is at least straightforward.]\n\nTo toggle a \"boolean\" variable:\n\nlet x = !x\n\n\nSo the mapping is simply\n\nnnoremap <your keys> :let g:ale_fix_on_save = !g:ale_fix_on_save<CR>", "The Thom isomorphism is an isomorphism of mixed Hodge structures up to a Tate twist:\n$$ H^k_Y(X,\\mathbf Q) \\cong H^{k-2c}(Y,\\mathbf Q) \\otimes \\mathbf Q(-c).$$\nI don't know what's the canonical reference for this fact - how you prove it will in any case depend on how you choose to define the MHS on the left hand side - but it certainly follows from Saito's theory of mixed Hodge modules.\nSaito proves for $a_X \\colon X \\to \\mathrm{Spec}(\\mathbf C)$, $X$ a smooth complex variety of dimension $d$, that $a_X^! \\mathbf Q \\simeq \\mathbf Q_X(-d)[-2d]$, an isomorphism in the derived category of mixed Hodge modules. It follows from this that if $i \\colon Y \\hookrightarrow X$ the inclusion of a smooth subvariety of codimension $c$ that $i^! \\mathbf Q_X \\simeq \\mathbf Q_Y(-c)[-2c]$ (use that $i^!a_X^! = a_Y^!$). But taking derived global sections of this isomorphism gives the result: on the right hand side we get precisely $H^{k-2c}(Y,\\mathbf Q) \\otimes \\mathbf Q(-c)$ and on the left hand side we get $H^k_Y(X,\\mathbf Q)$, defined as in Peters-Steenbrink in terms of a cone, more precisely a mapping cone in the derived category of mixed Hodge modules on $X$, since $i_!i^! \\mathbf Q_X$ is the fiber (i.e. cone up to a shift) of $\\mathbf Q_X \\to j_\\ast j^\\ast \\mathbf Q_X$ where $j \\colon (X \\setminus Y) \\hookrightarrow X$.", "APL (Dyalog Unicode), 318 317 319 bytesSBCS\n\n\n\n∨/{(4=⊃⍵)>≢⊃1⌽⍵}¨{1=≢⍵:⍵⋄⊃,/(⊂⍵)∇{⊃,/,(⍺⍺⍵↑⍺)∘.{c←⊃¨⍺⍵⋄w←⊃,/⊃¨u v←1↓¨⍺⍵\n(⊂c)∊t←↓10 2⍴⎕A⍳'AOBAJACKANEADMLDJDGK':⊂(2,u)(1w 0)(3,v)(1u 0)(5(⊃u)⍬)(4w⍬)(6,u)(4,v)(7,v)(4,u)⊃⍨t⍳⊂c\n6 4≡c:⊂4,u,¨v\n9 1≡c:(2⊃v)↑⊂8,v\n8 4≡c:(a∊3⊃⍵)↓⊂4(a~⍨⊃v)((3⊃⍵),a←⊃u)\n⍬}⍺⍺⍵↓⍺}¨⍳¯1+≢⍵}{⌈/c←(⊃⍵)∊¨¯1⌽'()!',↓4 3⍴' &|=<>+* AE':8+⊃⍸c⋄1(⊂⍵)1}¨' '(≠⊆⊢)⍞\n\n\nTry it online!\n\n-1 byte thanks to @Adám.\n\n+2 bytes because the code wrongly accepted E ( a ) a = a. Fixed by adding a \"simple\" flag to the Num node, which is 1 right after tokenization but becomes 0 after any kind of merging. TQuant Num -> Quant rule is accepted only if \"simple\" is 1.\n\nFull program. Takes a line of input (each symbol separated with a space) from stdin, and prints 1 if it can be parsed successfully, 0 otherwise.\n\nHow it works: the grammar & parsing\n\nI manually dissected all the grammar rules into two-branch rules, e.g. the parenthesizing rule\n\n\"(\" Num \")\" -> Num\n\n\nbecame two rules\n\n\"(\" Num -> NumP\nNumP \")\" -> Num\n\n\nwith NumP being a new node type. Also, I omitted the last part of the Num node, as it is always an empty set.\n\n(Num ids,?) [+*] -> (NumR ids)\n(NumR ids) (Num ids2,?) -> (Num (ids+ids2),0)\n\"(\" (Num ids,?) -> (NumP ids)\n(NumP ids) \")\" -> (Num ids,0)\n(Num ids,?) [=<>] -> (BoolN ids,[])\n(BoolN ids,ids3) (Num ids2,?) -> (Bool (ids+ids2),ids3)\n(Bool ids,ids2) [&|] -> (BoolR ids,ids2)\n(BoolR ids,ids3) (Bool ids2,ids4) -> (Bool (ids+ids2),(ids3+ids4))\n\"!\" (Bool ids,ids2) -> (Bool ids,ids2)\n\"(\" (Bool ids,ids2) -> (BoolP ids,ids2)\n(BoolP ids,ids2) \")\" -> (Bool ids,ids2)\n[EA] (Num id,1) -> (Quant id)\n(Quant id) (Bool ids,ids2) -> (Bool (ids-id),(ids2+id)) if id not in ids2\n\n\nUsing these rules, I could tackle the ambiguous parsing problem as follows:\n\n\nSplit the given list of tokens into two chunks.\nRecursively get all possible parses for the two chunks.\nTest all combinations of parses to gather all possible derived parses.\nRepeat 1-3 for all possible splits, and gather all results.\n\n\nThe algorithm is exponential in the number of tokens, so the two longest test cases are excluded from the tests.\n\nOriginal version with comments\n\n⍝ Constants to classify the grammar node type\nNum NumR NumP Bool BoolN BoolR BoolP Quant TQuant TParenL TParenR TNot TBool2 TCmp TNum2←⍳15\n\n⍝ Split given string by spaces, and convert to a list of grammar nodes\ntokenize←{\n words←(' '∘≠⊆⊢)⍵ ⍝ split by spaces\n {\n class←(⊃⍵)∊¨'AE' '(' ')' '!' '&|' '=<>' '+*'\n ⌈/class: 8+⊃⍸class ⍝ Single-char tokens into respective nodes\n Num(⊂⍵)1 ⍝ An identifier is a Num node\n }¨words ⍝ wrap each word into tokens\n}\n\n⍝ Takes two nodes, and gives a new node if valid, ⍬ otherwise\nmatch←{\n class←⊃¨⍺⍵\n Num TNum2≡class: ⊂NumR(2⊃⍺)\n NumR Num≡class: ⊂Num((2⊃⍺),2⊃⍵)0\n TParenL Num≡class: ⊂NumP(2⊃⍵)\n NumP TParenR≡class: ⊂Num(2⊃⍺)0\n Num TCmp≡class: ⊂BoolN(2⊃⍺)⍬\n BoolN Num≡class: ⊂Bool((2⊃⍺),2⊃⍵)⍬\n Bool TBool2≡class: ⊂BoolR(2⊃⍺)(3⊃⍺)\n BoolR Bool≡class: ⊂Bool((2⊃⍺),2⊃⍵)((3⊃⍺),3⊃⍵)\n TNot Bool≡class: ⊂Bool(2⊃⍵)(3⊃⍵)\n TParenL Bool≡class: ⊂BoolP(2⊃⍵)(3⊃⍵)\n BoolP TParenR≡class: ⊂Bool(2⊃⍺)(3⊃⍺)\n ⍝ Valid only if \"simple\" flag of Num node is 1\n TQuant Num≡class: (3⊃⍵)↑⊂Quant(2⊃⍵)\n ⍝ Valid only if quantified variable is not already quantified\n Quant Bool≡class: (~(2⊃⍺)∊3⊃⍵)↑⊂Bool((2⊃⍵)~2⊃⍺)((3⊃⍵),2⊃⍺)\n ⍬\n}\n\n⍝ Given a list of tokens, returns an array of possible parses\n⍝ Split in all possible ways and check for at least one split is valid\nparse←{\n ⍝ Single token: no need to parse\n 1=≢⍵:⍵\n splits←⍳¯1+≢⍵\n ⍝ Concatenate parses based on all possible splits\n ⊃,/(⊂⍵)∇{\n left←⍺⍺ ⍵↑⍺\n right←⍺⍺ ⍵↓⍺\n ⍝ Test all possible combinations of left/right parses\n ⊃,/,left ∘.match right\n }¨splits\n}\n\n⍝ Test if one of the parses is Bool with no free variables\ntest←{\n ∨/{\n Bool≠⊃⍵:0\n 0=≢2⊃⍵\n }¨⍵\n}\n\n⍝ The solution is the chain of three functions defined above\ntest∘parse∘tokenize\n\n\nTry it online!", "In general, there are exactly two ways to allocate qubits in Q#: the using statement, and the borrowing statement.\nBoth can only be used from within Q#, and can't be directly used from within C#.\nThus, you'd likely want to make a new Q# operation to serve as the \"entry point\" from C#; this new operation would then be responsible for allocating qubits and passing them down.\n\nFor instance:\n\n// MyOp.qs\noperation EntryPoint() : () {\n body {\n using (register = Qubit[2]) {\n myOp(register);\n }\n }\n}\n\n\n// Driver.cs\nEntryPoint.Run().Wait();", "Basically, a tuple is encoded as if all its members were separate parameters, so the following function returns true:\n\nstruct Foo {\n uint x;\n uint y;\n uint z;\n}\n\nfunction foo () public pure returns (bool) {\n return keccak256 (abi.encode (1, 2, 3)) ==\n keccak256 (abi.encode (Foo (1, 2, 3)));\n}", "In case it helps someone, this can be done using QWebEngineView from Qt.", "This questions seems to be less about Q# implementation and more about the algorithm itself. It is not possible to implement the transformation you described, since it is not unitary. Consider an example for just 1 bit (to distinguish between Coke and Pepsi in your example): the matrix would have to be \n\n$$U = \\begin{bmatrix} 1.5 & 0 \\\\ 0 & 0.5 \\end{bmatrix}$$\n\nand the condition of it being a unitary transformation is $U^\\dagger U = I$, which clearly doesn't hold:\n\n$$U^\\dagger U = \\begin{bmatrix} 2.25 & 0 \\\\ 0 & 0.25 \\end{bmatrix} \\neq \\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 \\\\ 0 & 1 \\end{bmatrix} = I$$\n\nFor a transformation with a diagonal matrix to be unitary, all elements on the diagonal must have absolute values of 1, which is not the case for your example.\n\n\n\nIf you have detailed information about which outcome you want to get with which probability, you can just prepare a superposition state that will give you these outcomes with these probabilities when measured, i.e.\n\n$$0.57|Coke\\rangle + 0.1|Pepsi\\rangle + \\alpha \\sum_{other\\ drinks} |drink\\rangle$$\n\n(here $\\alpha$ is a normalization coefficient that depends on the number of other drinks you consider).\n\nYou can use the Q# library operation PrepareArbitraryState to do this.", "you should use auto properties where you don't need any validation. So all of your properties should use them like instead of\n\n\nprivate bool isChecked;\npublic bool IsChecked\n{\n get { return isChecked; }\n set { isChecked = value; }\n}\n\n\n\nyou would use \n\npublic bool IsChecked { get; set; }\n\nthis example of really unnecessary tenary expression \n\n\nIsChecked = IsChecked ? false : true;\n\n\n\nshould be replaced by \n\nIsChecked = !IsChecked; \n\nusing braces {} for single if statement also would make your code less errorprone \nyou should extract your magic numbers into some meaningful aka good named constants ( 3.0f , 1.5f etc) \nyou should extract \"\\u2713\" to some meaningful constant \nyou should extract new SolidBrush(tickColor) to a field, as the brush itself won't change.", "I would separate them out into functions to make the code more readable. So the first if/else would become:\n\nif (decode)\n doDecode()\nelse\n doEncodeSingle();\n\n\nI would also break the doDocdeSingle up:\n\nQuagga.decodeSingle({...},\n handleDecodeResult );\n\n\nThe last if/else is currently structured as:\n\nif (result) {\n if (result.codeResult) {\n // Handle Code\n } else {\n // Handle no-code\n }\n} else {\n // No result\n}\n\n\nI often find it cleaner to reverse the condition and structure it as:\n\nif (!result) {\n // No result\n} else if (result.codeResult) {\n // Handle Code\n} else {\n // Handle no-code\n}\n\n\nWhich removes a level of nesting. Again I would try and make each if section a single function call.", "Overall it looks like you are in the right track, though I think you have overcomplicated things a bit with that custom state flag and constants. C99 gives you the bool type, which could be used instead. Failing that, I would have settled with an integer. The defines seem overkill for such a tiny program.\n\nYou can omit the return 0 at the end of main, it is implicit (C99 standard).\n\n_tmain and _TCHAR are Microsoft extensions, added by Visual Studio when you create a project with it. Be advised that this is a compiler extension and is therefore non-portable. The standard C entry point function is called just main and it should take no arguments, unless you need to process the command line.\n\nPrefer exposing your #include dependencies instead of relying on the auto-generated stdafx.h that Visual Studio adds for you. Your program needs at least <stdio.h>.\n\nThis is how I would have written it, using a simple bool to keep track of the state, and, as @Loki suggested, using isspace() to test the character (always avoid reinventing the wheel, unless you really mean to):\n\n#include <stdio.h> // getchar() & friends\n#include <ctype.h> // isspace()\n#include <stdbool.h> // bool, true, false\n\nint main(void)\n{\n int c;\n bool needNewLine = false;\n\n while ((c = getchar()) != EOF) {\n\n if (isspace(c)) {\n needNewLine = true;\n continue;\n }\n\n if (needNewLine) {\n putchar('\\n');\n needNewLine = false;\n }\n\n putchar(c);\n }\n}", "I am able to reproduce this issue if I delete the <field name=\"_nest_path_\" type=\"_nest_path_\" /> field definition in the managed-schema.xml file for the xdb and the xdb_rebuild indexes.\n\nThe schema for these two indexes is supposed to be nested. According to Solr documentation for the [child] transformer, when using this transformer, the parentFilter parameter must be specified unless the schema declares _nest_path_. In this case, since the xdb and the xdb_rebuild indexes are supposed to be nested, the parentFilter parameter can be omitted in the queries.\n\nThe XConnect indexworker queries the status of the rebuild task invoking the Sitecore.Xdb.Collection.Search.Solr.SolrRebuildStatusStorage.ReadStatus() task. In this task, the internal GetJsonSearchByIdUri method is invoked to build the Solr search request uri. This code assumes that the Solr index is nested and indeed the parentFilter parameter is not used:\n\ninternal static Uri GetJsonSearchByIdUri(Uri uri, string id, bool includeChildren)\n{\n string str1 = \"id:\" + Uri.EscapeDataString(id);\n string str2 = includeChildren ? \"&fl=*,[child%20limit=1024]\" : string.Empty;\n return new Uri(uri, \"select?wt=json&q=\" + str1 + str2);\n}\n\n\nIt seems that the managed-schema.xml for the xdb and the xdb_rebuild indexes in your Solr docker container might be corrupted.", "According to the [Microsoft website][1], basically you create a new C# project with language Q#. That should do the trick.\n\n$ dotnet new console -lang Q# -o myApp\n$ cd MyApp\n$ dotnet run\nUpdate:\nTo add dependencies, such as nuGet, go to your project folder, open the terminal, and run this:\n```\n$ dotnet add package Microsoft.Quantum.Numerics\n\n\n\n [1]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/quantum/install-guide/csharp?view=qsharp-preview", "Application servers are more like a Java and Python and OOP thing. But surely there are \"object request broker\" models that are implemented in C, just can just add the libraries to your C program. You can provide us a little more details about your environment, I use Visual Studio on Windows and the clang compiler and gcc on Linux and SunOS. If you study the Q&A on various programming sites here, like SO that are tagged C programming and application server you will broaden and deepen your knowledge.", "See the answer to this question for more on how the classical control works. Basically, your operations are controlled on the integer stored (in binary) across a register rather than on the individual bits themselves.\n\nI also don't quite know the 'best practice' way of controlling on single bits, but I can tell you my workaround. Instead of creating a register with two bits, I create a list of two single qubit registers.\n\nc = [ ClassicalRegister(1) for _ in range(2) ]\n\n\nThese can be added using the add method of a quantum circuit.\n\nq = QuantumRegister(1)\nqc = QuantumCircuit(q)\nfor register in c:\n qc.add_register( register )\n\n\nThen it is possible to use your 'building the circuit' code can be done with\n\nqc.h(q)\nqc.measure(q,c[0])\nqc.x(q[0]).c_if(c[0], 0)\nqc.measure(q,c[1])\ncircuit_drawer(qc)\n\n\nThis works because c[0] now refers to a classical register, rather than a single bit from a classical register.", "There is the parameter do_swaps when you construct the fourier transform circuit.\n\ndo_swaps (bool): Boolean flag to specify if swaps should be included to align\n the qubit order of input and output. The output qubits would\n be in reversed order without the swaps.", "Substitute x for whichever number you want to check for.\nfunction highestOrderDigitIsX(uint256 number, uint256 x) public pure returns (bool) { \n while (number >= 10) {\n number /= 10;\n }\n \n return number == x;\n}\n\nFor completeness:\nfunction lowestOrderDigitIsX(uint256 number, uint256 x) public pure returns (bool) {\n return number % 10 == x;\n}", "Arc requires all layers to be in the same projection for geoprocessing. If one layer is out, results can be unpredictable. \n\nIf your layer is projectionless (i.e. if you check the source and spatial information is \"not set\" or similar) you need to use the define projection tool DataManagement>Projections and transformations>define projection\n\nIf your layer already has a coordinate system set but it is different to that of your map and other layers you need to reproject it. This is in datamanagement>Projections and Transformations> and then choose either feature or raster > project\n\nYou may need to use a transformation if the underlying datum is different.\n\nIf you are looking to explicitly set the output projection you can do so in environments. Don't forget that the environment setting are hierachical. Environments set in Catalog are at the top, individual tools at the bottom." ]

[ "The world has two kinds of measles problems. In low-income countries like Madagascar and in strife-ridden countries like Yemen, the disease takes a toll because vaccines are not available or accessible or affordable. In Madagascar alone, there have been nearly 80,000 cases and an estimated 900 deaths since September. And now there's a rise in measles in other countries, often wealthier ones, because of what's being called \"vaccine hesitancy.\" Parents are opting out of the routine vaccination, which has been available since 1963 and is credited in helping to nearly eliminate the disease. That hesitancy has played a role in outbreaks around the world. Japan is facing the worst measles outbreak in a decade, with at least 221 cases. Since the start of 2019, more than 70 people have been infected in southwest Washington state, and there have been 17 cases in Vancouver, British Columbia. And in Costa Rica this year, an unvaccinated French boy brought the first case of measles to the country in five years. The Philippines suffers from both problems: continued issues of access as well as vaccine hesitancy. Trust in vaccines faltered after the maker of an anti-dengue vaccine said in 2017 that vaccine may increase risks of severe infections. A recent study found that in the Philippines, those who believe \"that vaccines are effective\" dropped from close to 82 percent in 2015 to 22 percent in 2018. The result: More than 12,700 measles cases reported since the beginning of 2019, and at least 203 deaths. At least 55 children under age 4 have died since the start of the year at just one Manila hospital. \"The vaccine hesitancy movement has really reached this level in certain countries — the United States, European countries, even in the Philippines — where we now are having difficult-to-control measles outbreaks occur, because the level of immunity has fallen,\" says Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security and an infectious disease physician. It's a situation that the World Health Organization views with alarm. In January, WHO declared vaccine hesitancy one of the top 10 threats to global health — in the company of such looming problems as the Ebola virus and antibiotic resistant bacteria. Indeed, after years of progress in immunizing children and eliminating or nearly eliminating measles in some countries, those gains have stalled. According to WHO, reported cases of measles increased by more than 30 percent from 2016 to 2017. The reported worldwide total in 2017 was 173,330. A study published in The Lancet this month notes that of the 626,289 cases of measles worldwide from 2013 to 2017, 63 percent were categorized as \"preventable\" — if the children had received the two doses of measles vaccine, they would not have contracted the disease. \"It's very concerning because I think it represents a waste of resources, because we shouldn't be fighting measles outbreaks in 2019,\" Adalja tells NPR. \"This was something that should have been solved with the vaccine in the 1960s. Yet measles has persisted and now it's not so much a question of access to the vaccine, it's actually trying to convince people that the vaccine is worthwhile.\" And since measles has been virtually absent from many countries for decades, a new generation of parents has little knowledge about its nature. Stephen S. Morse, born in 1951, is one of those who got measles as a kid in New York City. He's now a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University. When he was growing up, he says, nearly all children got measles. That's not the case now, and that's one cause of people avoiding vaccination in places like the U.S., Italy and France. \"We've kind of taken it for granted because we see so few cases,\" he says. \"That's the vaccine essentially being a victim of its own success. People don't see a problem; they think it's not there anymore.\" Those old enough to remember measles may well recall manageable symptoms: a fever, runny nose, bloodshot eyes and white spots in the mouth. Days later, a rash develops, spreading from the face and neck downward. But the disease can be far more serious. Prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963, measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year, according to WHO. In 2017, approximately 110,000 people died from measles – mostly children under 5 in poor countries. The European region, meanwhile, had 72 measles deaths in 2018 — not a high number compared to other parts of the world. But the total numbers in Europe reached 80,000 measles cases last year, the highest this decade. While a number of countries have sprouted communities reluctant to immunize, they come by these beliefs in different ways. A global survey published in 2016 found that compared to other regions, Europeans were the most skeptical about the safety of vaccines — and it found that countries with high levels of schooling and good access to health services were associated with lower rates of posi" ]

[ "Nearly 23 million children around the world missed out on routine childhood vaccinations last year due to service disruptions from the pandemic, the World Health Organization and UNICEF report. In a new analysis released Thursday that highlights data from around the world, the two organizations said immunization rates among children fell in many Asian and Middle Eastern countries. India represented the largest increase in children not receiving their first diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) vaccine from 2019 to 2020. In 2020, India reported more than 3 million children didn't receive their first DTP vaccine, up from the 1.4 million children who didn't get the shot in 2019, according to the data. And the trend remains a serious problem around the world. There was an increase in the number of children who missed important first vaccine doses in 2020 globally, the organizations said, with millions more children missing out on later vaccines, too. Children usually receive their first dose of the DTP vaccine when they are under age 7. The first dose of the measles vaccine is usually received between 12 and 15 months of age. The WHO says the numbers released this week show the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on even routine health services such as vaccines and checkups, as well as immunization outreach, around the world. The worst impact is on children who live in conflict-ridden areas, remote places or in slums. Those are areas where access to basic health and social services are extremely limited and where the WHO and UNICEF say up to 17 million children likely didn't receive a single vaccine during the year. COVID-19 has made a \"bad situation worse,\" Henrietta Fore, UNICEF's executive director, said. She said, \"This evidence should be a clear warning — the COVID-19 pandemic and related disruptions cost us valuable ground we cannot afford to lose — and the consequences will be paid in the lives and well-being of the most vulnerable.\" Childhood vaccination rates have stalled for years Global health officials have seen worrying signs that efforts to immunize children against preventable illnesses were failing even before the pandemic, according to this most recent report. For example, before the onset of the coronavirus the number of children globally to get at least the first shot of the measles vaccine stalled for more than a decade at around 86%. The WHO and UNICEF estimated that fewer than 70% of children received the recommended second dose of measles. The global health organization recommends immunization levels of 95% to protect against an outbreak of measles. \"Even as countries clamour to get their hands on COVID-19 vaccines, we have gone backwards on other vaccinations, leaving children at risk from devastating but preventable diseases like measles, polio or meningitis,\" said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general. In 2018, more than 140,000 people died from measles during a surge in cases around the world among young children who were not vaccinated against the illness. Almost half of all measles cases worldwide in 2018 came from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, Madagascar, Somalia and Ukraine. In South and North America and the Caribbean, the WHO reports that vaccination levels continue to fall. Just 82% of children are fully vaccinated with DTP, down from 91% in 2016. Health officials believe funding shortfalls, misinformation surrounding vaccine safety and regional instability are contributing to the decrease in childhood immunization rates. Meanwhile, outbreaks of preventable illnesses among children in the U.S. have cropped up in recent years. In 2019, there was an outbreak of measles in 31 states. About 1,280 individual cases were confirmed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was the greatest number of cases reported in the U.S. since 1992. Most cases were among people who weren't vaccinated against measles. Ghebreyesus said, \"Multiple disease outbreaks would be catastrophic for communities and health systems already battling COVID-19, making it more urgent than ever to invest in childhood vaccination and ensure every child is reached.\"", "Scientists are monitoring the virus that causes COVID-19 for genetic changes that could make a vaccine ineffective. But so far, they're not seeing any. \"There's nothing alarming about the way the coronavirus is mutating or the speed at which it's mutating,\" says Emma Hodcroft, a molecular epidemiologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland. \"We don't think this will be a problem [for vaccines] in the short term.\" \"To date, there have been very few mutations observed,\" says Peter Thielen, a senior scientist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. \"And any mutations that we do see are likely not having an effect on the function of the virus itself.\" That's good news for scientists working to produce an effective vaccine by the end of the year. And it reflects the enormous quantity of genetic information on SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, that researchers have amassed since the virus appeared in China late last year. In January, scientists were limited to just one whole genome sequence of the virus. \"Today we have over 47,000 coronavirus genomes that have been submitted to international databases,\" Thielen says. New genomes are added every day by teams of scientists from around the world. And each time a new one arrives, it gets a close examination, Thielen says. \"What we're looking for in the data is similarity between the virus that first emerged and the genome that had been deposited and any changes that have occurred in the virus,\" he says. And overall, the viruses circulating today look remarkably similar to the ones first identified in China. There had been concern about mutations because SARS-CoV-2 is a type of virus capable of quickly changing its genes. But unlike many similar viruses, the coronavirus uses a proofreading system to catch any errors in the genetic code when it begins generating copies of itself. \"So if there's a change, it will actually make a correction at a specific location,\" Thielen says. Vaccine developers have been especially concerned about genetic locations that affect something called a spike protein. It's a structure on the surface of the coronavirus that allows it to invade cells. Spike proteins also give the virus its distinctive appearance and account for its name. Scientists who first viewed a coronavirus through an electron microscope were reminded of the solar corona. The candidates for a coronavirus vaccine now under development are all designed to teach the immune system to recognize these spike proteins. So far, Thielen says, that's looking like a good strategy. \"The targets for vaccine design today remain the same as we would have designed them in January,\" he says. Some other well-known viruses have proved less amenable to the strategy of using the same vaccine from year to year. Influenza, for example, is constantly altering its surface proteins in ways that require annual vaccine updates for each strain that's making the rounds that year. \"Flu just really loves to change these parts,\" Hodcroft says. \"And that's why we can end up with such different flus from season to season.\" Measles represents a virus at the other extreme – its genome has stayed fairly consistent over the years, at least in the ways that trigger immunity in people after infection. That means children today still get a measles vaccine that was developed in the 1960s, and it provides immunity for a lifetime. Hodcroft says she thinks SARS-CoV-2 is likely to fall somewhere between the flu and measles when it comes to making a vaccine. \"I think in the short term we'll find something,\" she says. \"The big question is whether this is something we'll be able to vaccinate once and then you never have to get it again, or will it be something you'll have to get every couple of years to keep your immunity up to date.\" Scientists are uncertain because the coronavirus is still so new, Hodcroft says. \"We haven't really seen the full diversity of how the virus can mutate,\" she says. \"It gathers mutations over time. We can't speed up time, so we just have to wait and see.\" At the moment, though, vaccine developers have more pressing concerns than mutations. First, they'll have to demonstrate that they can produce vaccines that are both safe and effective. Then they'll have to make huge quantities. \"It's not a small feat to manufacture a vaccine for billions of people and then to get it to all of those people,\" Hodcroft says. That will take months, she says, in addition to the months required to develop a vaccine in the first place.", "The Americas are now free of measles, the first region in the world to achieve that goal, the Pan American Health Organization announced this week. The success is credited to the effectiveness of mass vaccination programs over the past 22 years. Yet measles remains a significant problem in other parts of the world, public health officials warn. There were 244,704 cases reported in 2015. And outbreaks could still pop up in the Americas if unvaccinated travelers spread the disease. To find out more about the status and risks of measles, we spoke to Dr. Seth Berkley, the CEO of GAVI, a Geneva-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve and provide vaccine and immunization coverage to children in the world's poorest countries. (Note: GAVI's funders include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is also a funder of NPR and this blog.) The interview has been edited for space and clarity. Interview Highlights What, exactly, does it mean for a region to be free of measles and yet still be at risk for measles outbreaks? The Americas are now free of endemic measles transmission. That means measles is no longer being transmitted within that region from strains that [already are] there. But cases of measles can be imported from outside, and if you haven't been vaccinated, you can get the disease, and you can also transmit it. In the U.S., between January and September of this year there have been 54 cases of measles in 16 states. In 2015 there were 189 cases. And in 2014 there were 667. What do you say to parents who might feel the announcement that the Americas are free of measles means not vaccinating their kids is an acceptable health decision? Not vaccinating is absolutely not acceptable. People travel, and therefore viruses travel. As long as there are infections anywhere in the world, you can be infected. Every child needs to be protected, and we have to have high [immunization] coverage to provide that. Children without vaccines are at risk. What makes measles dangerous? In 2014, there were 114,000 reported deaths from measles. Most children who are healthy and well-nourished who get measles will survive. But not all children do recover. They can become sick, experience terrible effects and die. What needs to be done to control measles? Vaccination coverage needs to get to 90 to 95 percent [to stop transmission in a region]. But for measles, the rate worldwide is about 80 percent. That means 20 percent around the world are not covered. And it's not a uniform 80 percent. The U.S. coverage is in the 90 percent range, but in Chad you see a very low coverage, in the 30 to 40 percent range. How do you get the rest of the world to that 90 percent level? You have to have routine systems in place to provide coverage. If that is not in place, since children are born every day, you can become susceptible very quickly. What we at GAVI are doing is working with the world's 73 poorest countries to try to set up [an infrastructure for] routine immunizations. We are also organizing campaigns [such as those] through which we reached 118 million children in 2013. Tell us why putting routine structures in place is preferable to campaigns. The campaigns are disruptive because you're pulling all the health workers in a community to participate in the campaign, going door to door or out getting people to the clinics. They are doing that rather than providing other health care. That means it is an expensive and not a sustainable strategy. You try to get as high a coverage as you can [through routine vaccines] and then supplement with periodic campaigns. Are there other reasons why vaccine coverage is important? We need to build strong systems and [prevent] those diseases that we can through vaccines. Those systems will then be in place [in case of any future] epidemic. Why is this milestone significant? This is only the fourth disease that has been eliminated in the Americas: smallpox, polio, rubella and now measles. It is historic.", "A Brooklyn judge has sided with New York health officials to uphold a mandatory measles vaccinations order, dismissing a lawsuit from a group of parents who claimed the city had overstepped its authority. Judge Lawrence Knipel on Thursday refused parents' request to lift the vaccination order that was imposed last week to stem a severe measles outbreak. \"A fireman need not obtain the informed consent of the owner before extinguishing a house fire,\" Knipel wrote in his ruling as quoted by Gothamist. \"Vaccination is known to extinguish the fire of contagion.\" On the same day, the city announced that it was closing four more schools and issuing three civil summons for parents who had failed to comply with the mandate. As of Thursday, the New York Department of Health had recorded 359 cases of measles since the outbreak began in October, up from 329 confirmed cases on Monday. The cases are centered in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn. A group of five parents had sued the city over the mandated measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations, claiming that the current outbreaks do not justify \"drastic emergency measures\" that override individual rights. The lawsuit argued that the outbreak was not a \"clear and present danger to public health.\" But the judge disagreed. \"The unvarnished truth is that these diagnoses represent the most significant spike in incidence of measles in the United States in many years and the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn is at its epicenter,\" he wrote in his opinion, The Wall Street Journal reports. Robert Krakow, the parents' attorney, said that his clients were disappointed and that they were discussing next steps, according to The Journal. He said he was not surprised by the decision. In Thursday's release, the city said it had identified three children who were exposed to measles but were still unvaccinated as of last Friday. The cases will go to a hearing, where parents will pay a $1,000 penalty if the violations are upheld, according to the city. Parents who do not appear at the hearing or respond to the summons will be fined $2,000. The city said its health authority is working with community leaders to ensure schools comply with emergency mandates. A preschool program at United Talmudical Academy, which was closed for violating a city order that required it to provide medical and attendance records, reopened on Thursday \"under Health Department monitoring,\" the city announced. \"Because of measles' long incubation period, we know this outbreak will get worse before it gets better,\" said Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot in a press release on Thursday. \"However, we can turn the tide by people getting vaccinated, especially before Passover when families and communities will gather.\" Prior to the hearing, the city's Board of Health had voted to extend the mandate until the end of the current outbreak. Barbot said on Wednesday that an estimated 500 children aged 1 to 5 in Williamsburg had been vaccinated since the mandate was imposed on April 9, Gothamist reports. \"The purpose of this emergency order isn't to fine people,\" Barbot said. \"It's to stress the urgency and the importance of getting vaccinated and to enlist as many people as possible spreading the message that these vaccines are safe and effective.\" According to city data, about 14% of the children aged 1 to 5 in Williamsburg still have not been immunized, Gothamist reports. In Washington state, which also has seen a measles outbreak this year, lawmakers in the Senate passed a bill Wednesday that removes the personal belief exemption from MMR vaccinations, as NPR's Laurel Wamsley reports. The bill, which is expected to become law, leaves medical and religious exemptions intact.", "This week, the World Health Organization is sending a blunt message to Ukraine: declare a state of emergency. The reason: two children in Southwestern Ukraine were diagnosed with polio in September. Even two cases of polio is a concern, especially since these are the first cases of the virus in Europe in five years. But why is it cause for a state of emergency? That's what we asked the World Health Organization and other experts. What we found out is that the re-emergence of polio could actually have a silver lining when it comes to childhood health issues in Ukraine. How did polio re-appear? The oral polio vaccine, used in Ukraine, contains a weakened live virus that can be shed in stool. Usually, that's not a problem. In fact, it can be a force for good. The weakened virus can confer immunity on someone who's not been vaccinated. But in rare cases, the weakened virus can mutate, grow stronger and infect the unvaccinated. And in Ukraine, there are many children who are vulnerable. On average, the vaccination rate for infectious diseases in that country is around 50 percent. Why so low? There's a lot of distrust of vaccines. In 2008, a teenager who'd recently received the measles and rubella vaccines died of sepsis. The World Health Organization and UNICEF both reported that the boy's death was unrelated to the vaccine, but worry persists about all vaccinations. In addition, parents in the Ukraine are ill-informed about the risks of polio. A 2014 UNICEF/WHO survey found that only 18 percent of Ukrainian mothers think polio is a dangerous disease and only 27 percent know that it can cause paralysis. Even the medical profession is leery of vaccines. If a child in Ukraine dies within 30 days of receiving a vaccine, the vaccine is listed as a cause of death until the investigation is completed. During that time the licenses of health professionals who administered the vaccine are suspended and the professional could even be jailed, says Dorit Nitzan, head of the WHO office in Ukraine. But the most critical point is that there's an inadequate supply of vaccines for polio (and other infectious diseases). According to Clio Van Cauter, a spokesperson for the Global Alliance Vaccine Initiative, Ukraine buys vaccines for regular immunization programs through local networks, resulting in high costs — and vaccine shortages. \"If the country used more internationally acceptable procurement methods (like UNICEF), the national budget should be enough to cover the cost of the vaccines,\" Van Cauter wrote in an e-mail. How did the government react to the two cases in September? The Ukrainian government launched a polio vaccine campaign in October. The goal was to vaccinated 90 percent of children five and under for the first phase and Canada is financing this campaign and the oral polio doses are being brought in by UNICEF. This government campaign is getting support and assistance from the partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative which includes WHO, UNICEF, The U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the Gates Foundation and Rotary International. How's the campaign doing? The target for the first phase was to vaccinate 90 percent of children five and under. In addition, unvaccinated children ten and under are being targeted. In all cases, three doses of the oral vaccine are needed. WHO says that reports of the polio cases were a key factor in getting parents on board. But by early November, only around 60 percent of the five-and-under children had been vaccinated. So that's why WHO called for a health emergency. What would happen if the government agrees and declares an emergency. The declaration would mobilize other government divisions to support the vaccination campaign, says Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for WHO's polio eradication program. So the information ministry could produce public service announcements about the campaign, and the transportation ministry could carry vaccines throughout the country. Could there be a silver lining to this crisis? Public health officials hope that the polio vaccine drive could create a better supply-and-distribution system for all vaccines as well as greater public awareness of the importance of vaccines. UNICEF, for example, has included messaging about the need for other vaccines in materials it created for the polio campaign. \"This is being seen as an opportunity to reinvigorate the immunization system in the country,\" says Rosenbauer. \"The polio outbreak has put the spotlight on the dangers of vaccine coverage gaps.\" How critical is the need to reinvigorate other vaccine programs in Ukraine? UNICEF estimates show that rates of measles vaccination fell from 70 to 80 percent in 2008 to about 50 percent in 2012 and the number of measles cases rose from about 40 in 2010 to a whopping 13,000 in 2012.", "As the number of measles cases nationwide rises to levels not seen since before the virus was declared eliminated in 2000, some people who oppose vaccines cite an odd cultural reference as evidence that the concern about measles is overblown: a 1969 episode of The Brady Bunch. Some former Brady Bunch cast members aren't happy about it. The episode \"Is There a Doctor in the House?\" features the whole family sick with measles. First, Peter gets sent home from school. Mother Carol Brady, played by Florence Henderson, describes his symptoms as \"a slight temperature, a lot of dots and a great big smile,\" because he gets to stay home from school for a few days. Once the rest of the six kids come down with measles, the youngest two Brady siblings fool around, with Bobby trying to color Cindy's measles spots green. \"If you have to get sick, sure can't beat the measles,\" sister Marcia says, as the older Bradys sit around a Monopoly board on one of the kid's beds. All the kids are thankful they don't have to take any medicine or, worse, get shots, the thought of which causes Jan to groan. People who are critical of vaccines bring the episode up often. It's used in videos and memes and is cited by activists like Dr. Toni Bark, who testifies against vaccines in courts and at public hearings across the United States. To them, it aptly illustrates what they consider to be the harmlessness of the illness. \"You stayed home like the Brady Bunch show. You stayed home. You didn't go to the doctor,\" she says. \"We never said, 'Oh my God, your kid could die. Oh my God, this is a deadly disease.' It's become that.\" Del Bigtree, a TV producer who hosts a YouTube show critical of vaccines and who produced a movie about them, also looks to the episode to show that the current frenzy about the surge in measles cases is misplaced. \"We were all giggling and laughing because the whole family in the Brady Bunch got the measles,\" he says. \"Where is the sitcom that joked about dying from AIDS or joked about dying from cancer?\" Some former cast members are upset the show is being used in 2019 to bolster arguments against vaccines. Maureen McCormick played Marcia as a teen. She found out a few months ago that an anti-vaccination Facebook group was circulating memes of her with measles from that episode, and she was furious, she says. \"I was really concerned with that and wanted to get to the bottom of that, because I was never contacted,\" she says. \"I think it's really wrong when people use people's images today to promote whatever they want to promote and the person's image they're using they haven't asked or they have no idea where they stand on the issue,\" she says, adding, \"As a mother, my daughter was vaccinated.\" McCormick says that she got measles as a child and that it was nothing like the Brady Bunch episode; she got really sick. \"Having the measles was not a fun thing,\" she says. \"I remember it spread through my family.\" In 1969, the year that the Brady Bunch episode came out, there were more than 25,000 measles cases and 41 deaths, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It was six years after the vaccine was developed, and the vast majority of people who got sick with measles fully recovered, as they do today. Elena Conis, an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in medical history, explained that circumstances in 2019 are vastly different from those in 1969. \"In 1969, we had less control over infectious diseases,\" she says. \"Smallpox was still a reality. There were far more cases of polio. In that context, it made sense to think of measles as a lesser threat.\" Public health officials began to try to change the public consciousness about measles once a vaccine was developed, she says. \"They were saying, 'Well, hold on. There's this rate of complications; there's this number of hospitalizations; there's this number of deaths. We really have to shift our thinking about the threat that measles poses.' \" That effort to shift the public's understanding about measles is evident in the 1964 public service announcement, sponsored by the vaccine manufacturer Merck, called \"Mission: Measles — The Story of a Vaccine.\" \"Many parents think of measles as just a common nuisance which makes their children feel miserable and keeps them out of school for a while. But physicians today know that measles is more than a nuisance,\" the announcer says, going on to warn of potential complications, such as bacterial infections, fatal pneumonia and brain inflammation. The messaging worked, accompanied by federal funding initiatives directed toward childhood immunization. Over the next two decades, measles infections and deaths decreased precipitously as immunization levels went up. By 1984, there was just one death related to measles, historically low at the time and a far cry from the roughly 500 deaths each year attributed to measles before the vaccine was introduced. Everyone wh", "State lawmakers in California introduced legislation Wednesday that would require children to be fully vaccinated before going to school, a response to a measles outbreak that started in Southern California and has reached 107 cases in 14 states. California is one of 19 states that allows parents to enroll their children in school unvaccinated through a \"personal belief exemption\" to public health laws. The outbreak of measles that began in December in Anaheim's Disneyland amusement park has spread more quickly in communities where many parents claim the exemption. State Sens. Dr. Richard Pan and Ben Allen have proposed eliminating the personal belief exemption altogether in California. \"Every year that goes by we are adding to the number of unvaccinated people and so that's putting everyone at greater risk,\" said Pan, who is also a pediatrician. \"We shouldn't have to wait until someone sickens and dies to act.\" The exemption isn't new — it's been around since the 1960s. But the number of parents taking the exemption went way up in the past decade. In some schools in California, more than half of children have an exemption. If their law passes, all of those children would be required to get fully vaccinated in order to go to school. Pan says the most parents in the state would support that. \"People are speaking out, and they are calling my office and saying, 'Please help us by getting children immunized, so my children can be safe,' \" he said. Dorit Reiss, a law professor at the University of California-Hastings in San Francisco, supports adding further restrictions to personal belief exemptions, but she worries that the bill may go too far. She says a small minority of parents, who remain anti-vaccine despite the scientific evidence that inoculations are safe and life-preserving, may just try to skirt the new law. \"They'll fake vaccination by finding a doctor willing to sign something saying the child is vaccinated when he isn't,\" said Reiss. If a school doesn't know who isn't vaccinated, they don't know who to send home in case there's an outbreak. Reiss also worries that some particularly fearful parents might try to \"detox\" their children after vaccination with methods such as chelation, which has been linked to the deaths of children. Others might choose to homeschool their children. The legislation will almost certainly face opposition from families who don't want to vaccinate their children. It is not yet clear how likely it is that the bill will pass, but both houses of the California legislature are Democratic, as is Gov. Jerry Brown. In addition, California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, sent a letter Wednesday to California Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley asking that the personal belief exemption be reconsidered. \"While a small number of children cannot be vaccinated due to an underlying medical condition, we believe there should be no such thing as a philosophical or personal belief exemption, since everyone uses public spaces,\" Senators Boxer and Feinstein wrote. \"As we have learned in the past month, parents who refuse to vaccinate their children not only put their own family at risk, but they also endanger other families who choose to vaccinate.\" California has already shown a willingness to restrict the personal belief exemption: a law passed in 2013 required parents who want an exemption to first talk with a licensed health care provider about the potential risks. In 2014, the number of children who enrolled in school with a personal belief exemption to remain unvaccinated dropped by 20 percent.", "As the number of confirmed measles cases in New York continues to tick up, one county is determined to stem the spread of the disease by keeping it out of public spaces. Rockland County, just north of New York City, issued an order Tuesday barring anyone diagnosed with measles from all places of public assembly, including schools, restaurants and places of worship. The order also applies to people who have been exposed to a person diagnosed with measles, based on laboratory evidence or an investigation by the county health department. Earlier this month, a judge blocked the county's emergency declaration keeping unvaccinated children from public places. \"To be told that we should wait for someone to die because of this disease is absolutely beyond belief,\" said Rockland County Executive Ed Day at a press conference Monday. \"Should we wait for hundreds more people to also fall ill?\" It's the latest measure that officials in the region have taken to combat the spread of measles. As of Monday, 186 cases had been confirmed in Rockland County and 329 in New York City since the beginning of the year. The outbreaks, which are centered in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, have been associated with travelers returning from Israel, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases have also been recorded across the country, including in Washington state, New Jersey, California and Michigan, bringing the total number to over 550. It's the second-largest outbreak in the U.S. in two decades. On Monday, New York City closed a preschool program at a yeshiva in Brooklyn for failing to comply with measles vaccination requirements. The closing, which is the first for this outbreak, came less than a week after Mayor Bill De Blasio issued an emergency declaration that mandates measles vaccines for all children in four Brooklyn ZIP codes. A group of parents has sued the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene over the mandated vaccinations, claiming that the current outbreaks are \"insufficient to justify these drastic emergency measures\" and \"override the rights of individuals.\" The city's board will vote on Wednesday whether to extend the emergency declaration, The Associated Press reports. In Rockland, the county had previously announced a state of emergency that barred unvaccinated children from all indoor public spaces. But a group of parents sued, claiming the March 26 order \"achieves no valid public purpose\" and deprives children of their right to an education. A state judge later blocked enforcement of the ban, finding that the small number of measles cases wasn't enough for the county to declare a state of emergency. Day argued on Tuesday that the outbreak should have been considered enough cause to warrant an emergency declaration. \"Despite our best efforts, this outbreak is not going away,\" he said. \"If anything, it is now accelerating, much as we feared. We have seen 33 new cases since we declared our now-nullified state of emergency three weeks ago. In short, we saw this coming.\" The new order takes effect while the state of emergency undergoes appeal, according to the county — and just days before the start of Passover, when many Jewish people will travel to visit family and gather in synagogues. Officials say about 28 percent of kids in the county are not vaccinated, as NPR has reported. Experts recommend a much higher vaccination rate — over 90 percent — to achieve what's known as \"herd immunity\" and keep the disease from spreading.", "The number of new measles cases in the United States so far this year has hit 971, exceeding a record established 25 years ago that covered a whole year of new measles cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday. The federal figures show that most of the new cases this year have been concentrated in New York City and Rockland County, N.Y., where the virus has been spreading mostly among unvaccinated children in Orthodox Jewish communities. There have been 550 confirmed cases of measles in New York City since September 2018, according to the city's public health officials. Those caught unvaccinated in four Brooklyn ZIP codes can face fines up to $1,000. CDC officials warned that if the current rate of outbreaks continues, the virus may lose its status as being eliminated in the U.S., which public health experts have been worrying about since measles outbreaks starting occurring in recent years. \"That loss would be a huge blow for the nation and erase the hard work done by all levels of public health,\" federal health officials said in a statement. Widespread vaccination efforts overseen by the CDC had virtually eliminated measles from the United States by 2000. But health officials say it has been reintroduced by people who have traveled to other countries. Earlier this week, the CDC reported the tally of new measles cases had reached 940, which was the highest since 1994, when 963 cases were reported from an entire year, officials said. The new numbers mean that the first five months of 2019 have officially surpassed the year-end total in 1994. Two years earlier, in 1992, the nation saw more than 2,200 measles cases. To be sure, the recent uptick in new measles cases is a far cry from the 1950s, when millions of people caught measles and hundreds died each year from the virus, CDC data show. Vaccinations against the highly contagious virus are widespread across the U.S., with some 94% of kindergartners having received vaccination coverage, according to the CDC. Symptoms of measles include a high fever, cough, runny nose, rash and other symptoms. Most recover from the infection, though health officials say 1 in 4 people who contract measles will be hospitalized. In response to the recent resurgence, the CDC says it is further strengthening state and local programs aimed at spreading the word that the safest and most effective way to protect against measles is to get vaccinated. \"Your decision to vaccinate will protect your family's health and your community's well-being,\" CDC Director Robert Redfield said in a statement. \"CDC will continue working with public health responders across our nation to bring this outbreak to an end.\" The World Health Organization reports that more than 82,500 measles cases across Europe were reported last year, a significant surge from the previous year. Officials on Thursday said vaccination is especially important when traveling to places currently dealing with measles outbreaks, including Israel, Brazil, Japan, the Philippines and some countries in Europe and Africa.", "Many hospitals, clinics and dental offices in some places across the U.S. are beginning to open now for routine, preventative care that was postponed in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. But still, patients wonder: Is it safe to go? Michael LeVasseur, a visiting assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Drexel University in Philadelphia, says a lot of his friends and family members have been asking him that question, along with other queries about the pandemic. So many questions that he put together two YouTube videos to try to address them at once. LeVasseur's general advice is to contact your doctor — the best advice for you may still vary, depending on your situation and where you live. But he says he's confident that physicians who are accepting patients will be cleaning their offices regularly and taking other precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Neal Goldstein at Drexel University and Aimee Palumbo at Temple University, both epidemiologists, urge a number of specific precautions that concerned patients can ask medical and dental staff about when scheduling an appointment: Do the staff and patients wear masks at all times? Do the staff have enough masks and protective equipment? Will there be a limit on how many people can be in a waiting room? Are the staff being tested for COVID-19? How often are staff cleaning the waiting rooms and offices? If you don't drive, can you take public transit while keeping your distance from other people and washing your hands before and afterward? Many of the offices and hospitals opening back up for elective and routine medical appointments in the Philadelphia area highlight other precautions they are now taking, too, such as screening patients by phone a day or two ahead of the appointment for any sign of illness, checking for fever at the hospital entrance and testing patients for COVID-19 ahead of procedures. For most routine checkups, the decision about whether to start getting preventive care again should be easy, Palumbo says: \"The people that are at highest risk of COVID or poor outcomes from COVID are also the ones that ... are going to benefit the most also from these routine procedures, so we have to recognize that these things still do need to happen. It's better to treat something sooner than later, so it is still important to continue their care even while this is going on.\" Neil Fishman, an infectious disease specialist and chief medical officer at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, says that, broadly speaking, fewer patients have been coming in to medical offices with routine medical problems. That worries him. \"We know COVID-19 did not cure cancer, COVID-19 did not cure heart disease,\" he says, \"so that means that there are a lot of people who have been afraid to get routine health care either for existing conditions or for ... as-yet-undiagnosed conditions. \"It's critical,\" Fishman adds, \"for people to get [regular] physical exams, to get gynecologic checkups, to get mammograms, and colonoscopies, and particularly flu shots during cold and flu season.\" \"We have seen what a world without vaccines looks like,\" he says. \"It looks like this pandemic that we're experiencing — and it would be even more devastating if we saw a recurrence of vaccine-preventable illnesses because people are avoiding health care out of fear.\" Some of that avoidance of care that should continue has already happened. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month showed a drop in vaccinations among children age 2 or younger in Michigan during the pandemic, compared with similar periods in the past few years. \"The observed declines in vaccination coverage might leave young children and communities vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles,\" the authors write. \"If measles vaccination coverage of 90%–95% (the level needed to establish herd immunity) is not achieved, measles outbreaks can occur.\" At the same time, it can be difficult to talk to patients about coming back for routine appointments. In a May 27 editorial in the medical journal JAMA: Internal Medicine, David Asch, a professor of medicine and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, writes that \"the biggest challenge in helping patients feel safe is doing so in a way that is not itself scary.\" \"Hospitals should pay attention to how they may be perceived to ensure that they do not inadvertently scare away the patients who need them,\" Asch writes. Fishman at Penn Medicine agrees. \"People are anxious when they're visiting physicians or other health care providers; the anxiety is going to be ever more increased by the changes that COVID-19 are mandating now,\" he says. \"I always try to think about how a patient would feel — how my mother would feel — if they saw someone walking in the room with a mask and a face shield on, because that's not what you normally experience.\" Fishman has, indeed, talked to his mother, who has ", "If We DefaultIf the president and Congress let the U.S. government default on its debts, economist Mark Zandi warns global stock markets will plunge, the value of the dollar will drop and interest rates will spike. The clock is ticking down to an August 2nd deadline to reach a deal on lifting the debt ceiling. Host Neal Conan talks with New York Times business reporter Louise Story about the effects of a possible government default: What happens to people's savings and retirement accounts, home loans, student loans and credit cards? Will social security checks go out? What about Medicare? How might this affect government services and the private sector? Bill Gross, founder of the investment management firm PIMCO, will explain that while he would likely profit from a default, it would send shock waves through the investment industry and should be avoided at all costs. Opinion PageAll U.S. troops must be out of Iraq by the end of the year, unless a new deal is struck with Iraq's government, and there is growing concern about the country's ability to defend itself and counter Iranian influence. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki reportedly has privately told U.S. officials that he wants a deal to extend the deadline. Although the administration has stated that it is willing to strike a deal, in an op-ed for The Washington Post, Jackson Diehl argues that too many in the White House mistakenly believe that \"a stay-on force\" is not a vital U.S. interest and risk alienating an important ally. Neal Conan talks with Deahl about the risks of a U.S. drawdown in Iraq. Finding Work After UnemploymentThe unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent in June, the highest since December 2010. More than 6 million people have been out of work for at least 6 months. Still, there are some people who are managing to find work after a long run of unemployment. Last month, Emily Yoffe, contributing writer for Slate.com, asked readers who'd been out of work for a year or more to share their stories about how they landed a job. The responses showed it takes more than patience and hard work — some were hired after intense networking, reality TV appearances, volunteering, working with temp agencies or taking lower paying jobs. Host Neal Conan talks with Yoffe and with NPR business reporter Tamara Keith about the road back to work after long-term unemployment. Risks Of Refusing VaccinationsNew Zealand is experiencing the largest outbreak of measles in over a decade as low immunization rates have boosted the spread of the virus. The United States also recently recorded the highest number of measles cases in 15 years. Risk management consultant David Ropeik argues that people who refuse routine vaccinations put others at risk, and that they should pay a price for their decision. Host Neal Conan talks with Ropeik about the risks of declining vaccination rates and his proposals to make those who refuse vaccines pay more for health insurance or ban them from school trips.", "In the midst of one of the most volatile stock markets in years, countless Americans are worried about their retirement savings — and how they should allocate their money. Another person concerned about the retirement needs of about 3.4 million people is Roger Ferguson, the president and CEO of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association — College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF). TIAA-CREF, a huge retirement system with $420 billion in assets under management, started out serving college professors. It has branched out over the years to include people in other nonprofit fields, including many in public broadcasting. (NPR has a relationship with TIAA-CREF.) The conventional wisdom when it comes to retirement is to focus on the long term — and it's a point that Ferguson drives home, even for people in their 60s. \"The first thing that people have to recognize is that they will live in retirement for 25 years, 30 years, 35 or more,\" Ferguson tells NPR's Robert Siegel. \"I send notes out to people who have reached 100 years old, and get a number of them back. And so the focus on the long term should not change, even if one is very close to retirement, or frankly, even if one is in retirement.\" Ferguson says he is not concerned about baby boomers all choosing to take a payout at the same time. He says they will be able to access their funds. He also says TIAA-CREF managed to avoid the subprime crisis because its subprime exposure was \"really insignificant and miniscule.\" That's because the company's risk management and asset management professionals decided the return wasn't high enough for the underlying risk for those securities, he says. \"They made what was a very, very good, smart calculation,\" Ferguson says. \"We're also helped by the fact that we're a privately held, not-for-profit company, which means that we didn't have to chase incremental return to keep the quarter-to-quarter earning stream flowing.\" Since Sept. 1, Ferguson says the nonprofit has recorded $500 million in new assets. But there has also been a spike in calls — 15,000 of them on a recent weekend — from people wanting a \"gut check\" on the right portfolio in risky times. \"The only thing I worry about, frankly, is when the market drops, our call volumes spike,\" he says. \"That tells me that people are staying glued to the screens, worried about the ups and downs of a very volatile market. And frankly, for my participants, I think they should be focused on educating and teaching, and spending less time worried about the ups and downs of markets, which are going to be beyond their control — and certainly in these troubled times, very volatile.\"", "Update on Oct. 8: The Ebola patient in Dallas, the first diagnosed with the virus in the U.S., has died. Holy moly! There's a case of Ebola in the U.S.! That first reaction was understandable. There's no question the disease is scary. The World Health Organization now estimates that the virus has killed about 70 percent of people infected in West Africa. The Ebola case in Dallas is the first one diagnosed outside Africa, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. And the health care system in Texas didn't quarantine the man right away. He was sick with Ebola — and contagious — for four days before he was admitted to the hospital. But when you look at health officials responding to the case in Dallas, they seem cool as cucumbers, despite the initial misstep. \"I have no doubt that we will control this importation, or case, of Ebola so that it does not spread widely in this country,\" said the director of the CDC, Dr. Tom Frieden. Why is Frieden so sure this virus won't spread beyond a handful of cases? It boils down to something called \"R0.\" The reproduction number, or \"R nought,\" is a mathematical term that tells you how contagious an infectious disease is. Specifically, it's the number of people who catch the disease from one sick person, on average, in an outbreak.* Take, for example, measles. The virus is one of the most contagious diseases known to man. It's R0 sits around 18. That means each person with the measles spreads it to 18 people, on average, when nobody is vaccinated. (When everyone is vaccinated, the R0 drops to essentially zero for measles). At the other end of the spectrum are viruses like HIV and hepatitis C. Their R0s tend to fall somewhere between 2 and 4. They're still big problems, but they spread much more slowly than the measles. And that brings us back to Ebola. Despite its nasty reputation, the virus's R0 really isn't that impressive. It typically sits around 1.5 to 2.0. Even in the current epidemic in West Africa, where the virus has been out of control, each person who has gotten sick has spread Ebola to only about two others, on average. Why is that? Many factors contribute to the R0, such as how long you're infectious** and how many virus particles are needed to make another person sick. But in Ebola's case, the mode of transmission probably helps keep its R0 low. Ebola isn't spread through the air, like the measles or flu. It requires close contact with some bodily fluid, such as blood or vomit, containing the virus. Now at this point, you're probably thinking, \"OK. But an R0 of 2 is nothing to brush off.\" You're right. R0 of 2 means one person infects two people, who then infect four people, then eight, 16, 32 — the numbers go up fast. But that isn't likely to happen in a place with a good public health system, like the U.S. Why? Because people with Ebola aren't contagious until they show symptoms. So to stop the chain of transmission, all health workers in Texas have to do is get the people possibly infected by the sick man into isolation before these people show signs of Ebola. Then R0 drops to zero. And Texas is free of Ebola. *We're talking the \"basic\" R0 here, for all you epidemiologists. So, the R0 that you get when everyone in the population is susceptible to the disease. **The R0 is integrated over the time that a person is infectious to others. For HIV, this could be years. But for Ebola, that time is only about a week. So even though they have similar R0s, Ebola's infections per unit of time is much higher than HIV's.", "Seedheads rarely have much to offer in the way of colour, at least in comparison with flowers or even foliage. Instead, their aesthetic qualities are best appreciated through their form, so it is useful to begin with some basic categories and concepts which will help our approach to understanding and using the beauty of seedheads in the garden. A number of basic shapes appear and reappear in the world of the seedhead. To a large extent they reflect the shape of the inflorescence from which they are derived. The following classification of shapes owes much to Piet Oudolf. Single seeds Occasionally, individual seeds or their immediate supporting structures are large enough to make a visual impact, as with the annual Atriplex hortensis var. rubra, whose large grain-like heads are clearly visible, or the bunches of winged seeds of maples. All types of grasses fall into this category. Single heads and pods Some individual seedheads are large enough to dominate our impression of a plant, whether they are single or in bunches. The big upright pointed cases of many members of the Apocynaceae, such as Asclepias, or the bean-like pods of the Fabaceae are good examples. Such seedheads have a strong and somewhat definite look about them and tend to be visually arresting. Lighter, feathery seedheads make a good visual contrast. Spikes Although plants which carry their flowers and seedheads on tall stems to form spikes or spires are relatively few, they are invaluable for structural effect, particularly during winter. They include many Scrophulariaceae such as verbascums. The repetition of spikes across a space can be one of the most visually arresting features in perennial planting. Many seedheads form less immediately noticeable spikes, or at least upright heads. While these tend to have less impact, they are useful for the sense of structure they create. Umbels Such seedheads are gathered into rounded structures, which can vary from practically flat-topped in the case of Achillea filipendulina to very rounded in the case of Angelica gigas. The flatter ones (as most are) contrast effectively with spires, with the horizontal balancing the vertical. Massed umbels, as with Sedum spectabile hybrids or Achillea hybrids, can be striking, but lack the impact of massed spikes. Globes Relatively few seedheads form globes, but the ones that do are invaluable, loved by both gardeners and flower-arrangers. We seem to take particular delight in those that form near-perfect spheres, such as certain alliums. Panicles Loose structures with seedheads in multi-branched heads are often not particularly dramatic unless either launched skywards on tall stems or particularly finely feathery, as with some grasses. In many cases they may have a decorative vagueness, and sometimes even a see-through quality, as with many cultivars of the grass Molinia caerulea. Buttons Those members of the Asteraceae and others which have their flowers and then their seeds closely packed into tight heads, such as Centaurea, are often useful for contrasting with wispy panicles. Tight points of definition are especially useful in wildflower meadows, as all around them tends to appear loose and chaotic. Whorls Whorls of seedheads arranged around an upright stem give an impression of order and design, and can be very effective if repeated across a space. The more tightly the individual seedheads are packed, the greater the feeling of definition.", "Silk is in neckties, scarves and some fancy underwear and pajamas. Before too long, it might just help keep people from getting sick with measles or polio. Vaccines play an important role in health, but can be tricky to transport to the far corners of the world. Many vaccines and some other drugs require constant refrigeration — from the factories where they're made to the places where they're ultimately injected into people. That's where silk comes in. Researchers from Tufts University recently discovered that proteins in silk could help protect some vaccines and drugs from heat damage, eliminating the need for this so-called cold chain, according to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Continue Reading Chemicals in vaccines and some antibiotics given by injection must stay in the right folded shape to work properly. When exposed to heat or moisture those folds can unfold, and the drugs or vaccines can no longer challenge the bacteria or viruses they were designed to battle, says Dr. David Kaplan, a bioengineering professor at Tufts University and lead author on the study. Silk proteins stabilize the medicines and act to \"pin the structure in place,\" Kaplan says. With the addition of these silk supports, the vaccine (against measles, mumps and rubella) and two antibiotics were able to retain their potency at temperatures over 100 degrees for two weeks or more. Without silk stabilizers, heat that high saps their effectiveness in less than a day. Though this finding could help clinics in the U.S. eliminate the need for costly refrigeration facilities, the biggest impact of this discovery could be global. \"The cold chain is a severe limitation to the distribution of therapeutics. Not only in the U.S., but in developing nations where the cold chain is difficult to maintain, or may not even be present,\" Kaplan tells Shots. Silk is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for some medical uses, but Kaplan's concept is far from becoming a pharmaceutical reality. However, using silk to reduce the need for a cold chain got Kaplan and his team brainstorming. \"Think of a Band-Aid with small little spikes. When you put it on the skin, it penetrates the skin just through the outside layer so it doesn't hurt,\" says Kaplan. \"You can envision making these Band-Aids with vaccines and other drugs in there during the manufacturing, and distribute them without worrying about temperature exposure. And then when you're ready to use it, you just put it on your skin.\"", "A hospital in Texas has cut ties with a nurse who apparently posted about a young patient with the measles in a Facebook group dedicated to \"anti-vaxxers,\" people who reject the scientific evidence of the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. Screenshots show a self-identified nurse saying the sick child's symptoms helped her understand why people vaccinate their children, but that \"I'll continue along my little non-vax journey with no regrets.\" Texas Children's Hospital tells NPR via email that a nurse \"posted protected health information regarding a patient on social media.\" The hospital did not name the nurse. \"We take these matters very seriously as the privacy and well-being of our patients is always a top priority,\" hospital spokeswoman Veronika Javor-Romeis tells NPR. \"After an internal investigation, this individual is no longer with the organization.\" She also confirmed that the hospital is treating a measles patient and that the hospital will be assessing the risk posed to other children who may have come in contact with the patient. \"This is a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable infection,\" Javor-Romeis said. \"We know vaccination is the best protection against measles.\" The measles vaccine is extremely effective. But to prevent outbreaks and protect those who are not vaccinated, a high enough percentage of the population must be vaccinated to create \"herd immunity.\" Lower vaccination rates for measles and other preventable diseases have been tied to outbreaks in the U.S. and Europe. Experts point to anti-vaccine sentiments, fueled in part by a fraudulent paper in the late '90s that spread false information about vaccine risks. Texas Children's Hospital would not specifically comment on whether the nurse's anti-vaccination position played a role in the hospital's investigation and the nurse's departure. Javor-Romeis says all staff are \"strongly encouraged\" to receive routine immunizations, and that employees who opt out may not be allowed to work in some areas of the hospital. The anti-vaccine Facebook posts in question were apparently shared in a group called \"Proud Parents of Unvaccinated Children-Texas.\" As of earlier this month, the group had more than 5,000 members. The group has since been deleted. But a Facebook user posted screenshots of the nurse's posts on the Texas Children's Hospital's Facebook page, and the Houston Chronicle says it also acquired screenshots of the comments. According to those screenshots, a user who said she worked as a PICU/ER nurse at the West Campus of Texas Children's Hospital told the group, \"for the first time in my career I saw Measles this week.\" \"Honestly, it was rough. This kid was super sick ... it was terrible,\" she said. \"By no means have I changed my vax stance, and I never will. But I just wanted to share my experience and how much worse it was than I expected.\" She said she understood how some parents choose to vaccinate \"out of fear,\" as she put it. In a follow-up she said she deleted some responses to avoid risking her job, and reiterated \"we are not wrong in our beliefs/convictions.\" Another screenshot shows her saying she considered \"swabbing his mouth\" to bring a live measles sample home to her child. \"We are aware of this situation and have started a thorough investigation,\" the hospital said in a response on Facebook. \"We take these matters very seriously.\" \"The views of this employee do not represent that of the organization,\" the hospital added shortly after. The screenshots were shared with the hospital on Friday, several days before the Texas Children's Hospital or Houston Health Department had officially announced a patient had the measles. On Monday, the Houston Health Department said the case, which it described as \"suspected\" measles, involves a child between the ages of 1 and 3 who recently traveled overseas. Before this patient, the last confirmed case of measles in Houston was in 2013, ABC 13 reports.", "The measles outbreak that started at Disneyland and one other California theme park is expanding, with 59 confirmed cases in patients ranging in age from 7 months to 70 years. The California Department of Public Health has linked 42 of these cases to people who visited Disneyland or Disney's California Adventure Park. Initially, cases were linked to people who visited the parks in mid-December, but health officials now say that other people with measles were at the parks in January while infectious and also have spread the disease. The outbreak has spread beyond California with seven cases in Utah, Washington, Colorado and Oregon. Mexico has also confirmed a case. Vaccination status is known for 34 of the California patients. State officials say that 28 were not vaccinated at all, one was partially vaccinated and five were fully vaccinated. Six of the unvaccinated were babies, too young to be vaccinated. \"Measles is not a trivial illness,\" state epidemiologist Dr. Gil Chavez said Wednesday. \"It can be very serious with devastating consequences.\" Those consequences include pneumonia, encephalitis and even death. Before the measles vaccine was introduced in 1963, 500 people a year died of the disease nationwide. In the current outbreak, 25 percent of people with measles have been hospitalized. In 1989-1991, a measles epidemic swept California and other places around the U.S. There were 17,000 cases in California, and 70 people died. In Philadelphia, nine children died in just three months. \"The city was in a panic,\" Dr. Paul Offit of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia says. \"I saw children die of measles dehydration ... measles encephalitis. Measles can kill you.\" Chavez stressed that Disneyland was a safe place to go — as long as you are vaccinated. \"If you are not vaccinated, stay away from Disneyland,\" he said. The problem is not with Disneyland itself, but any place where large numbers — including people from foreign countries — congregate. Chavez described Disneyland staff as being helpful and \"quite concerned\" about the outbreak. Five Disneyland staff members are among the 59 cases. Measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000, but can still be reintroduced if someone from another country is infected and travels to the U.S., or an unvaccinated person in the U.S. travels abroad and brings the illness back. Measles is a highly infectious, airborne illness. It starts off with fever as high as 105 degrees, followed by symptoms that resemble a cold — a cough and runny nose. The hallmark of measles is a red rash that appears first on the face and upper neck, and then spreads to the rest of the body. If someone with measles coughs or sneezes it can spread droplets of virus that can live on surfaces for up to two hours. On the press call with reporters Wednesday afternoon, Kathleen Harriman with the California Department of Public Health described published case reports of a person with measles at a basketball game — and people across the court became infected, \"because the virus can float and hang out in the air for a long, long time,\" she said. Chavez urged everyone who was not vaccinated to get immunized. The first dose of vaccine, called MMR as it protects against measles, mumps and rubella, is given at 12 to 15 months of age. The second dose is given at age 4 to 6. Most people who get the vaccine do not experience side effects, but the most common ones are fever and a mild rash. If you were born before 1957, you are presumed to be immune to measles, because the disease was so widespread before the introduction of the vaccine. For years, only one dose was recommended; it protects 95 percent of people. The second dose was recommended starting in 1991. If you don't know your vaccine status, Harriman said you can safely get the MMR vaccine — if it's an extra dose it won't hurt you, she said. Local health officers in counties affected are busy tracing those who infected patients have been in contact with. Dr. Erica Pan, deputy health officer of Alameda County, says the county has shifted resources from Ebola preparedness to contact tracing for measles. Last year there were four cases of measles in Alameda County, she said, \"but we had 400 contacts to investigate.\" The measles outbreak comes after years of increases in the number of parents who refuse to get their children vaccinated. In California, the rate of kindergarten parents choosing the \"personal belief exemption\" to refuse vaccines doubled from 2007 to 2013. While the statewide rate of personal belief exemptions reached 3.15 percent, geographic clusters had significantly higher opt-out rates. But that steady increase in vaccine refusals was halted with the current school year — likely due to a new California state law. This school year is the first when parents who chose to opt out needed to meet first with a health care provider to discuss vaccines and vaccine preventable illnesses. The goal is to dispel misinformation and fear of va", "It’s been a landmark year for science. How did the science community do it — and at what cost? Guest Ed Yong, science writer at The Atlantic. Author of “I Contain Multitudes.” (@edyong209) Jennifer Doudna, biochemist who helped invent CRISPR technology. Professor of chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley.  (@doudna_lab) Also Featured Dr. Michael Mina, assistant professor of epidemiology and assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Associate medical director in clinical microbiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. (@michaelmina_lab) Madhukar Pai, professor and Canada research chair in translational epidemiology and global health at McGill University. (@paimadhu) From The Reading List The Atlantic: “How Science Beat the Virus” — “In fall of 2019, exactly zero scientists were studying COVID‑19, because no one knew the disease existed. The coronavirus that causes it, SARS‑CoV‑2, had only recently jumped into humans and had been neither identified nor named.” Nature: “Covidization of research: what are the risks?” — “Every crisis is a strong call to mobilize the entire research community to respond. The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. Researchers, universities, funders, philanthropies, journals, and journalists have all pivoted, en masse, to COVID-19. Everyone is ‘Covidized’, and it should worry us.” Boston Globe: “‘Makes you ask why the hell we even bother.’ Infectious disease experts face disillusionment as COVID-19 pandemic worsens” — “Michael Mina could have pursued a career as a potter. Or remained a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka. Instead, he opted to become an epidemiologist, a profession that now has his head hitting the pillow around 4 a.m. each day for five hours of sleep.” This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "A street drug made of various chemicals sprayed on tea leaves, grass clippings and other plant material continues to send thousands of people suffering from psychotic episodes and seizures to emergency rooms around the country. In 2015, calls to poison control regarding the drug already have almost doubled, compared to last year's total, and health professionals and lawmakers are struggling to keep up with the problem. Some call the drug K2, or spice. It's also widely known as \"synthetic marijuana,\" because the key chemicals in the spray are often man-made versions of cannabinoids, a family of psychoactive substances found in marijuana. But the ingredients and concentrations used in this street drug vary widely, and it can be very different from marijuana in its effects. At a drug rehabilitation center a short drive north of Syracuse University, where 52-year-old Edwin Santana has come for treatment, they call the drug \"spike.\" Santana, who was born in the Bronx, is a few weeks into his detox program at Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare. A longtime heroin user, he became homeless after multiple run-ins with the law. Then, he says, a couple years ago he developed a problem with spike. \"It was getting out of hand,\" Santana says. \"I was starting to smoke every day. And you know, spike is a drug I respect, because you don't know what you're getting.\" The drug also inspires fear in him. \"Not a little bit of fear. A lot of fear,\" he adds. It's hard to guess what will happen after you smoke or ingest spike, users and drug enforcement officials say, because the chemists who make it are constantly changing the main ingredients — tweaking a cannabinoid's chemical structure, or mixing it with other substances entirely, which can change its effects. \"You get stuck when you're on spike,\" Santana says. \"And it makes you do all kinds of crazy things, man. I've seen people roll around on the floor and stuff like that.\" Smoking the drug landed him in the hospital. Angel Stanley, a psychiatric nurse at the rehab center, ticks off the symptoms she's seen in patients who have smoked spike: \"Auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations, disorganized thinking, delusional thinking. Paranoia is a big one.\" Many of these patients, she says, expected that smoking spike would be just like smoking regular pot, because the drug was sold as \"synthetic marijuana.\" The drug first became popular with teens, who were looking for a new way to get high for just a few dollars. But now, Stanley says, she's seeing older users, too. \"They've gone from using some marijuana in the past, a little bit of alcohol use over the years, and now all of a sudden, they're in their 50s and they're addicted to spike,\" she says. Often users are also homeless. \"A lot of people who use it, their reality is pretty bleak, so they use spike to escape that reality,\" explains Matthew, who asked that we not use his last name. He just finished an inpatient program at Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare to help him stop using spike and cocaine, and doesn't want future employers to find out about his past. \"The main thing with spike,\" Matthew explains, \"is this: It is the cheapest, most effective high in Syracuse right now. Is it the most enjoyable high? Probably not. But it's the cheapest, hands down.\" The question facing workers at rehab centers and emergency rooms is how to effectively treat users of a drug that's essentially an unknown mixture. \"We know how to treat an alcoholic,\" says Jeremy Klemanski, who heads Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare. \"We know how to treat an opiate patient. We know how to treat somebody's who's using cocaine. But, when we say we know how to treat somebody who is using synthetics — to a certain extent we do.\" Health professionals faced with such a patient are usually flying blind, Klemanski says. Some types of spike can be detected in drug tests, but not all. \"Until we get to a point where the treatment system has as sophisticated testing as the labs that are inventing and creating these things, we'll struggle,\" he says. Lawmakers are paying attention. The federal government has permanently banned more than a dozen types of synthetic cannabinoids. But packets of \"spike\" and \"K2\" and \"spice\" are still sold in many mom-and-pop convenience stores, because they contain versions of cannabinoids not covered by the ban, says Matt Strait of the Drug Enforcement Administration. \"They are in a legal grey area,\" Strait explains, \"because they're not specifically named in the statute.\" That keeps makers and dealers of spike one step ahead of state and federal laws. Congress is weighing how to streamline the process of regulating new versions. Meanwhile, the Drug Enforcement Administration has been investigating and temporarily banning some new forms of the drug. But back in Syracuse, some health professionals and spike users say the government can't move fast enough to keep up with new varieties hitting the streets.", "Lately, Californians have been focused on a measles outbreak that got its start at Disneyland. But in the past five years, state health officials have declared epidemics of whooping cough twice — in 2010 and in 2014, when 11,000 people were sickened and three infants died. Now an analysis of a recent whooping cough epidemic in Washington state shows that the effectiveness of the Tdap vaccine used to fight the illness (also known as pertussis) waned significantly. For adolescents who received all their shots, effectiveness within one year of the final booster was 73 percent. The effectiveness rate plummeted to 34 percent within two to four years. \"This waning is likely contributing to the increase in pertussis among adolescents,\" the authors wrote. Tdap protects against three diseases: tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. The pertussis protection is from the acellular pertussis vaccine. It was introduced in 1997 to replace the whole-cell vaccine, which caused more side effects. Monday's report confirms earlier analysis that the acellular pertussis vaccine may be safer but less effective than the old one. The study was published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. \"The take-home message is that the waning is there,\" said Dr. Art Reingold, a University of California, Berkeley professor of public health. \"You're protected initially but it wanes over time.\" It doesn't mean people should skip the vaccine. Someone who is vaccinated, but becomes sick with whooping cough, should have a less severe course of illness. The authors said that new vaccines are \"likely needed to reduce the burden of pertussis disease.\" But Reingold, who leads the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices group on pertussis, said he doesn't know of any pertussis vaccine development in the pipeline. He also said that adding another dose of the vaccine at a later age wouldn't help much, based on research that was presented to the ACIP group. \"[An additional dose] would have very little impact on pertussis,\" he said, \"in terms of cases prevented.\" The most severe cases are in very young infants, Reingold said. Babies can't be vaccinated until they are 2 months old. To protect newborns before they can be vaccinated, the CDC recommends that women be vaccinated during the last trimester of every pregnancy — even if they received a vaccine before they became pregnant. \"Babies will be born with circulating antibodies,\" Reingold said, \"and there's pretty good evidence that that will reduce the risk of hospitalization and death in babies.\" In an accompanying commentary, Dr. James Cherry at UCLA said the findings about Tdap effectiveness were \"disappointing,\" but he also pointed to other drivers of recent pertussis outbreaks, including increased awareness and better, more sensitive testing. Previous reports have shown that vaccine refusal played a role in the 2010 whooping cough epidemic in California. Reingold also drew an interesting distinction between measles and pertussis having to do with herd immunity. If a large enough percentage of the population is immunized against measles, both individuals and the broader community are protected against outbreak. That's because the measles vaccine protects you against the virus that actually causes the measles illness. But in pertussis, the disease is caused by toxins that are released by bacteria. The pertussis vaccine protects you against those toxins, but it may not prevent you from spreading the bacteria to others — and causing illness in them. The outbreak of measles earlier this year was most likely caused by someone who brought the disease back from abroad. Measles was eliminated in the United States in 2000. \"Pertussis is not going to go away with the current vaccine,\" Reingold said.", "According to a report on the state of news providers, virtually every sector of the media is losing popularity. Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, talks about this year's report and what it means. Guests: Tom Rosensteil, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism; vice chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists David Folkenflik, NPR's media correspondent NEAL CONAN, host: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Dramatic changes are underway in the news business as virtually every sector of the industry loses popularity. Readership for newspapers and magazines continues to decline. The TV news audience is down: network, local and cable. Radio is flat, and so, too, is the Internet - long regarded as journalism's future. Diminished popularity generally translates to diminished income, and, it appears, to diminished ambitions. Many news outlets are closing - news bureaus around the country and overseas. The single, solid-growth area is ethnic media. Fundamental questions arise about business models, ownership models and about the outmoded ways we measure who listens or reads to what and for how long, and all of this - we should point out - at a time when there's hardly been a dearth of news. These conclusions come from the annual report on the State of the News Media from the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Director Tom Rosenstiel joins us in a just a moment. Later in the program, the fallout from the Scooter Libby trial is on the Opinion Page this week. We'll hear one argument that the vice president's former chief of staff be pardoned, and another that his old boss be impeached. But first, the State of the News Media, 2007. How has the way you get your news changed over the past two years and why? Our number here in Washington is 800-989-8255, 800-989-TALK. You can also send us e-mail: talk@npr.org, and you can join the conversation on our blog. That's at npr.org/blogofthenation, all one word. Tom Rosenstiel joins us here in Studio 3A. Again, he's the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Tom, nice to have you back on the program. Mr. TOM ROSENSTIEL (Director, Project for Excellence in Journalism; Vice Chairman, Committee of Concerned Journalists): Thanks, Neal. CONAN: And I think the phrase an era of diminished ambitions - I think that's a phrase that's going to jump out at some people. (Soundbite of laughter) Mr. ROSENSTIEL: Well, on one hand, it's a logical result of fragmentation. If everybody's audience is getting smaller, and you have fewer people in your newsroom, you've got to do something different. But for years, I think, in the newspaper business and television, we were talking about, well, we're cutting the fat, but we're not going to cut into the bone. Those conversations are over. We've cut a limb, perhaps. The Boston Globe, earlier this year, announced that it was closing its foreign bureaus. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has announced it's going to stop circulating in 155 counties around the South and concentrate on 44. The growth areas are programs and outlets that are very targeted. Keith Olbermann, you know, has gone from a kind of general interest show to an anti-Bush program on MSNBC. He does other things, but the core of his appeal is clearly a niche in around a point of view. And in newspapers, the watchword on Wall Street is hyper-localism. Don't worry about covering the rest of the world. The problem is when you try and do something with less, what are you leaving out? And what happens to the society? We're going to judge - we're asking ourselves to be judged as news organizations, I think, more on what we cover and a little bit less on how we cover the news. CONAN: Interesting, newspapers showed the most marked decline over time again. And not just the Boston Globe cutting its overseas bureaus, but the New York Times writing down the value of the Boston Globe by 40 percent. The Minneapolis Star Tribune just sold for half of what it sold last year. This is - is the situation that dire? Mr. ROSENSTIEL: Well, what it means is that at the moment, Wall Street doesn't value newspapers very highly. And the question is, is that a right judgment, or is that a temporary judgment? Are newspapers dying, or are they in transition? Is the news business declining, or is it emerging, but in a new medium? And how you answer that question I think really determines what - do you invest, or do you disinvest? Do you see the Internet as something that's going to be your future, but in a much more diminished way, or is this something that you really want to take risks and be bold and do something different? The funny thing is that if you were an emerging industry that didn't exist before, you'd go out for venture capital. You'd be private at first, and people wouldn't expect a lot of profit because you're emerging, your future's ahead of you. The news business is a very old business, and these a", "For the first time in history, more than 1 billion people are hungry, according to the World Food Programme. The organization is worried about meeting these staggering needs and is concerned that if things continue to worsen, a repeat of last year's food riots may occur. As head of the world's largest food aid program, Josette Sheeran has a pretty clear view about how the global financial crisis is affecting the poorest of the poor. She says in most countries in Africa, food prices have not come down since last year's spike, and the financial crisis has meant that remittances are drying up. \"For the world's bottom billion, the financial crisis is having an effect on their ability to access food. Now add in the increased cost of food, and it's a double whammy that is dangerous and destabilizing and a humanitarian crisis of huge proportions,\" she says. Sheeran says the World Food Programme tries to reach at least 10 percent of the billion people in need, but that is only possible in good financial times. \"We're facing a dangerous and unprecedented shortfall in emergency funding. Our budget for this year of assessed approved needs is $6.7 billion, and we expect with our projections in working with governments to come in at $3.7 billion,\" she says. Sheeran says the Obama administration has stepped up to the plate. Still, she comes to Washington, literally, with a cup in hand that shows the rations that needy people receive from the food program. The organization's director of public policy and communications, Nancy Roman, says these rations are now being cut everywhere from Kenya to Bangladesh. As well, the group is scaling back other programs, including one in Central America that moves food supplies into the region ahead of hurricane season. \"We're heading into hurricane season right now, and we don't have the funds to pre-position,\" Roman says. But fundraising is hard in these times, as countries around the world try to pull themselves out of their own financial straits. Sheeran says the World Food Programme is only trying to provide a basic safety net. \"If we look at the amount invested to stabilize the world after the financial crisis — trillions of dollars — we are talking about an investment that is a small proportion of even 0.1 percent of that to help the world's most vulnerable people get through this very hard time by ensuring they get at least one meal a day,\" she says. It's not all bad news, however. Sheeran, a former Bush administration official, praises the Obama administration for its focus on food security issues around the globe. And she says the U.S. is making it easier for the World Food Programme in places like Pakistan, by giving some of the donations now in cash, rather than only in-kind. That allows the group to buy on local markets, which it is trying to do everywhere. \"That flexibility is key. When we buy locally, as we are doing in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo and others, even in conflict zones, the people we are buying from, the poor farmers, don't need food aid. They now have an income and a guaranteed sale,\" she says. Canada is now a 100 percent cash contributor, and she says the U.S. is looking to increase the proportion of aid it gives in cash as well, something she is encouraging on her latest trip to Washington. MADELEINE BRAND, host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Madeleine Brand in California. ROBERT SIEGEL, host: And I'm Robert Siegel in Washington. For the first time in history, more than a billion people are hungry. That's according to the World Food Programme. And the program is concerned that if things continue to get worse, we may see a repeat of the food riots that occurred last year. NPR's Michele Kelemen has our story. MICHELE KELEMEN: As head of the world's largest food aid program, Josette Sheeran has a pretty clear view about how the global financial crisis is affecting the poorest of the poor. She says in most countries in Africa, food prices have not come down since last year's spike, and the financial crisis has meant that remittances are drying up. Ms. JOSETTE SHEERAN (Executive Director, United Nations World Food Programme): We're seeing this phenomenon where, for the world's bottom billion, the financial crisis is having an effect on their ability to access food. Now add in the increased cost of food, and it's a double whammy that is dangerous and destabilizing and a humanitarian crisis of huge proportions. KELEMEN: Sheeran says the World Food Programme tries to reach at least 10 percent of the billion people in need, but that's only possible in good financial times. Ms. SHEERAN: We're facing a dangerous and unprecedented shortfall in emergency funding. Our budget for this year of assessed approved needs is $6.7 billion, and we expect with our projections in working with governments to come in at $3.7 billion. KELEMEN: She says the Obama administration has stepped up to the plate. Still, she comes to Washington", "Pianist Dwike Mitchell (1930-2013) joined bassist and French-horn soloist Willie Ruff in 1955 to form the Mitchell-Ruff Duo, which created a stir in New York nightclubs and around the globe as they gained recognition for their elegant sound. On this 1989 episode of Piano Jazz, Mitchell demonstrates his formidable technique, touch and feeling in \"Lush Life,\" and he and host Marian McPartland form their own duo to perform \"Don't Worry 'Bout Me.\" Originally broadcast in the fall of 1989. Set List \"Don't Worry 'Bout Me\" (Bloom, Koehler) \"Lush Life\" (Strayhorn) \"For All We Know\" (Coots, Lewis) \"Where Are The Good Companions?\" (Wilder) \"Everything I Love\" (Porter) \"What Kind Of Fool Am I?\" (Bricusse, Newly) \"All The Things You Are\" (Hammerstein, Kern) \"When The World Was Young\" (Mercer, Philippe-Gerard, Vannier) \"Autumn Leaves\" (Kosma, Mercer, Prevert)", "When Linsey Marr looks back at the beginning of 2020, what strikes her is how few people in the world really understood how viruses can travel through the air. \"In the past year, we've come farther in understanding airborne transmission, or at least kind of beyond just the few experts who study it, than we have in decades,\" says Marr. \"Frankly, I thought it would take us another 30 years to get to where we are now.\" The urgency of the coronavirus pandemic thrust her once obscure field into the spotlight, as everyone from public health experts to ordinary citizens tried to gauge the safety of myriad activities, such as going to the grocery store, swimming at the beach or gathering for a party. \"Back in January, the understanding of how viruses spread through the air was really primitive and incorrect,\" says Marr, a researcher at Virginia Tech who has spent years studying virus transmission. \"It's been pretty wild to see airborne transmission of viruses become big news.\" At the start of this coronavirus outbreak, the prevailing assumption among many medical experts was that respiratory viruses primarily spread through droplets of saliva and mucus that fly into the air after a cough or a sneeze. These were thought to travel only a short distance before falling to a surface. Public health messages consequently urged people to wash their hands and avoid touching their faces. The coronavirus wasn't thought to be \"airborne,\" a word associated with viruses like the one that causes measles. An airborne virus was widely considered to be a germ that could travel in tiny particles called aerosols that hang suspended in the air and linger for quite a while, potentially traveling long distances. But, in reality, there's no clear cutoff between a virus that travels in aerosols and one that travels in larger droplets, says Marr. Infected people can give off respiratory viruses in particles of all different sizes that can travel a variety of distances, and big droplets can evaporate away into smaller ones. Very close to an infected person, the concentration of airborne virus could be high, and others could simply inhale it. As the new coronavirus began to spread, it sure seemed like airborne spread — at short range — might be critical. \"Once it became more apparent that this was a really important route of transmission, you know, I and others started making noise about this,\" says Marr, who sent out a tweet in early March that said, \"Let's talk about #airborne transmission of #SARSCOV2 and other viruses. A discussion is needed to improve accuracy and reduce fear associated with the term.\" Meanwhile, scientific research on how the coronavirus moved through the air was being conducted at an astonishingly rapid pace. \"We're not even 12 months in, and we know things about this virus that we don't know about viruses that have been around for decades,\" says Josh Santarpia, a researcher at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He notes that no one has been able to grow measles virus from an air sample and yet some people insisted that this kind of proof was needed before saying that the novel coronavirus could be airborne. \"It was interesting that the burden of proof was so high for this virus when it wasn't for these other things that we just sort of generally consider to be airborne,\" says Santarpia. His medical center took care of some of the first people with the coronavirus in the United States, and Santarpia recalls standing at the end of their beds with a device that collected air while they talked or breathed. His lab then analyzed the tiny airborne droplets, looking for the genetic signature of the coronavirus. \"We were getting positives, more than one positive in the air samples,\" says Santarpia. \"I was shocked.\" Signs of the virus were in such tiny particles that he worried that nothing less than the most protective masks could stop it. Soon, though, studies showed that even simple masks are able to reduce the amount of virus that gets out into the air, cutting the risk of transmission. Suddenly mask-wearing became an ordinary — if politically contentious — part of everyday life. Santarpia was floored at how quickly ventilation became a normal subject of conversation for the public. \"You know, 'How well ventilated is this space? Should I be spending time inside or outside?' \" says Santarpia. \"It's changed so much about the way we view the world.\" Whether this will be a lasting change is an open question. Donald Milton, a researcher at the University of Maryland, has spent a quarter-century thinking about the transmission of respiratory viruses through the air and has published studies showing that better ventilation in offices and dormitories is associated with a lower risk of virus transmission. He's hoping the experience of this past year will lead to better engineering solutions being put in place to improve the overall safety of houses and other indoor spaces — things like enhanced ventilation, air ", "HBO's press tour presentations this year were quieter than they've sometimes been. They don't have a big, splashy new drama series to talk about — in part because they still make a limited amount of original programming and don't have a lot of room when they're happy with how things are going. They have a comedy series with Stephen Merchant, but since we haven't seen it, most of the questions touched in one way or another on how tall he is. Their best panel featured Larry David and Greg Mottola talking about Clear History, a straight-up comedy film David wrote and Mottola directed, in which David is initially unrecognizable under makeup. But they also paneled Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight, directed by Stephen Frears, which sounds like it would be about Muhammad Ali but is actually about the Supreme Court. If I'd been titling it, I'd have called it something else because it's a little jarring to realize Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight is mostly about white guys. (And Thurgood Marshall, played by Danny Glover.) Lincoln has the same issue, but at least it's called Lincoln. Take note — Frears continues the trend of celebrated film directors working on made-for-cable movies, as Steven Soderbergh did with Behind the Candelabra. They also presented Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth. It's HBO's film of Mike Tyson's one-man Broadway show, directed by Spike Lee. The panel felt tense from the beginning because it started with a question about how loose the script was, given that it seemed unlikely that Tyson — not trained in theater — was presenting a Broadway-show-length monologue scripted to the last word. In a lot of ways, assuming things are loose and improvised is a compliment in this room, and if anything, we love hearing people say they make it all up as they go. But it clearly felt to Spike Lee like it wasn't a serious endeavor but just Mike Tyson Talking. \"This is legit,\" he assured us. It already felt like we as a room and Spike Lee as a director were talking past each other a little bit. Spike Lee and Mike Tyson have known each other a long time. Since at least 1986, Lee says. They \"blew up at the same time,\" he remembers, and they were both from Brooklyn. And Spike Lee is happy to tell you how much he respects Tyson. \"Mike Tyson is the most honest human being I've ever met in my life. Because most — I'd said it this morning. But most human beings are not going to display the dark parts of themselves, the demons they have, to the world. I mean, that's just not human instinct. And when Mike — when you see this, and if the people saw the play, he's out there on this stage naked, sharing his experience, his ups and downs, to the audience. And it's traumatic. And to do that without thinking about how — whether people are going to love me or like me or hate me, that's not — he doesn't care about. He says, 'I'm going to tell you the truth. This is my life, and do it with it what you will.' And when he — and it's the most courageous thing I've ever seen in my life. Because I couldn't do it, and most people couldn't do it, where you just go up there, no b- - - - - - t, no lies, no spin, and talk about the great things you've done and about the not-so-great things you've done. And tell them both with honesty.\" Now, when Spike Lee says \"the not-so-great things you've done,\" there's a lot that's covered there. Including, presumably, biting Evander Holyfield on the ear. But the much bigger issue bouncing around in my head is Tyson's rape conviction in 1992, for which he served three years in prison. I'm not an expert on the case against Tyson and, more importantly, I haven't seen the film, so I have no idea how or whether it's addressed. My own habit is not to ask questions about what's in films and not in them when the simplest answer will be \"wait and see.\" When I see how or whether it's addressed, I'm sure I'll have an opinion about it. On this particular day, what I do notice is that Tyson almost compulsively makes jokes about being inclined to violence. \"I'll bite you,\" he says, like it's funny. \"Just like in fighting, I wanted to kill everybody in the room — with my performance, of course.\" It's really, really uncomfortable the way people laugh, the way they call him \"champ,\" it makes me uncomfortable. But I'm not sure I have a question about it, exactly, and if I do, I'm not sure it's for either of these guys. Maybe it's for the HBO execs, who by this time have left the stage. Maybe it's for the writers in the room. Maybe all the questions are for myself: this conviction is more than 20 years old and he served his time long ago. Should it dominate every conversation about him forever? I'm not saying it shouldn't. Maybe it should. I don't know. I'm uncomfortable. And because I'm uncomfortable, I'm thinking a lot. I don't know. So much will depend on what's in the film, right? I haven't seen it. Spike Lee has already put his stake in the ground about Tyson's honesty, his willingness to put his flaws forward; if we ask ", "Beware, Massachusetts fish fans: If you're buying or ordering red snapper, white tuna, local cod or haddock, there's a pretty good chance that's not what you're going to get. Two intrepid reporters at the Boston Globe set out to figure out just how bad one form of fish fraud — mislabeling — is in restaurants, markets and grocery stores across the state. They collected 183 samples of fish from 134 sites and hired a laboratory in Canada to check the DNA. And they published their results in a two-part series this week: scientists found that 87 of 183 were sold with the wrong species name — some 48 percent. \"... if you're at a sushi restaurant and they're serving red snapper, it's almost definitely not red snapper,\" Globe reporter told NPR's Melissa Block last night on All Things Considered. \"It's probably tilapia. And if you're ordering white tuna, it's also probably not white tuna. You're probably going to get escolar.\" (If you're not familiar with escolar, it has the unpalatable nickname of \"the ex-lax fish\" because it sometimes causes gastrointestinal problems.) Continue Reading The reporters focused on the red snapper, white tuna, local cod and haddock because those are the ones most likely to be mislabeled. That's partly because cheaper substitutes — like escolar, ocean perch or Vietnamese catfish — closely resemble them, especially once they've been filleted. \"Even the best chefs can have difficulty [telling the difference],\" an industry expert told the Globe. Greed and limited availability of some fish — as well as ignorance — seem to be the driving forces behind the fraud, the paper found. In some cases, the fish get mislabeled at the beginning of the supply chain. In other cases, it's restaurant owners or chefs who never change the menu once a favorite fish becomes too expensive or too hard to find. Local commercial fishermen are also none too pleased by revelations of just how widespread the problem is. One Cape Cod fisherman said that when frozen fish from the Pacific is sold as fresh local fish, \"it kills us.\" It also irks marine biologists. As our health blog Shots has reported, a conservation biologist at the Guy Harvey Research Institute in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., did a similar DNA study in 2009 and found the same problem. Here at The Salt, we were wondering whether those of us outside of Boston should be worried about mislabeling, too. The answer is: probably. But National Fisheries Institute spokesman Gavin Gibbons tells us that the problem could be worse in New England because it's such a big seafood market. Gibbons says there are things consumers can do to minimize fish fraud. \"Find out if your local restaurant and grocery store uses suppliers that are members of the Better Seafood Board,\" he says. \"If the answer is no, your answer should be 'why not?' (No members of the Better Fish Board, which was formed to help eliminate fraud in the seafood industry, were implicated in the Globe investigation.)", "One atypical COVID-19 case is teaching health experts about how the disease is mutating. A 45-year-old patient in Boston battled COVID-19 for 154 days, one of the longest infections on record, before he died over the summer. Dr. Jonathan Li of the city's Brigham and Women’s Hospital treated this patient and says this man’s case is helping doctors understand new emerging variants. Most COVID-19 patients are able to eradicate the virus and move forward with their lives after leaving the hospital. But in this \"extremely unusual\" case, the patient was hospitalized with symptoms six times within five months and couldn't fully get rid of the virus, Li says. The patient had a disease that required him to take medications that suppress his immune system, making him immunosuppressed and unable to eliminate the infection, Li says. Results from Li's virology lab determined the patient had what's called persistent COVID-19. \"When we sequenced the virus over a period of several months, we realized very quickly that this person was not becoming infected with new strains,\" he says, \"but instead that we saw evidence that the one strain that he was initially infected with was evolving over time.\" The mutation occurred in one particular part of the virus, which then latched on to human cells. When SARS-CoV-2, an RNA virus, replicates itself, it makes mistakes, Li says. These errors can either harm the virus or the patient by helping it replicate faster or improve its ability to persevere inside of its host. Sequencing the virus revealed several interesting mutations, specifically around a region of the genome known as the spike gene, which coats the outside of the virus and interacts with host cells and antibodies, he says. Researchers saw this outer shell of the virus changing, allowing it to escape the patient's antibodies, he says. Some of the new coronavirus variants popping up around the world have an unusual amount of changes in the genome — which reminds Li of this patient's distinct case. \"The sudden appearance of these variants in different parts of the world really suggests an evolutionary jump from a hidden source of evolution in the community,\" he says. \"And we don’t know exactly how these variants arose in the community, but I think that it is quite possible that the source of some of these variants may have been patients who were immunosuppressed.\" Research efforts haven't focused on immunosuppressed individuals yet, but Li believes there are more similar cases out there. The findings from this case have many implications for research on public health and infection control measures, he says. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines use symptoms to determine how long a patient should stay isolated, for example, but these recommendations aren't based on data from immunosuppressed people. Based on Li's patient and several other published cases, \"immunosuppressed patients can have more prolonged viral shedding and more persistent symptoms than an average patient,\" he says. \"We should recognize that it’s not a one size fits all when it comes to infection control and that we should be more careful about monitoring our patients with immunosuppression,\" he says. Li argues immunosuppressant patients should be a priority when it comes to vaccinations in hopes of slowing down new mutations from forming and spreading. Many of the new variants are showing changes in the spike gene, which also interacts with the antibodies introduced by vaccines, he says. Studies on some of the vaccines show the overall efficacy drops against some of the new variants. \"It really, I think, speaks to how important it is for us to ramp up vaccine uptake and distribution, not only in the United States but also around the world,\" he says, \"because if you have uncontrolled infection anywhere in the world, it is a threat to our vaccines and vaccine efficacy everywhere.\" Christina Kim produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Todd Mundt. Allison Hagan adapted it for the web. This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "A trip to Disneyland is on many families' bucket lists, but that dream probably didn't including catching the measles. Nine people who visited Disneyland or Disneyland California Adventure Park during December have confirmed measles cases, state health officials said Wednesday. Seven of the patients live in California and two live in Utah. State and county health officers are investigating an additional four suspected cases — two in Utah and two in California. All of the patients visited the parks in Orange County between Dec. 15 and Dec. 20, California Department of Public Health officials said. \"If you have symptoms, and believe you may have been exposed, please contact your health care provider,\" Dr. Ron Chapman, CDPH director and state health officer, said in a statement. \"The best way to prevent measles and its spread is to get vaccinated.\" Kathleen Harriman, chief of vaccine preventable diseases for the state, said that \"it's our speculation that there was an [infected] international visitor at one of the parks, and that person or persons was able to infect a lot of people.\" Measles is very infectious because it spreads through the air, so you can catch it by, say, standing in line next to someone who is infected. Vaccination eliminated measles in the United States in 2000. \"So all the cases of measles in the United States originate with an imported case,\" Harriman said, \"even though there can be transmission once one of those cases gets here.\" The California cases are in Alameda, Orange, Pasadena, Riverside and San Diego. The patients range in age from 8 months to 21 years. Of the seven California cases, six had not been vaccinated. Two were too young to have been vaccinated; the first of two recommended measles vaccine doses is typically given at 1 year of age. Just one of the cases was fully vaccinated. Harriman said that while the measles vaccine is highly effective, conferring lifelong immunity in 99 percent of people who receive two doses, there will always be a small number of people who can get infected despite being vaccinated. One of the cases is in Alameda County. Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr. Erica Pan said officials there are \"working with the health facility where the patient was seen\" to identify other patients and health care workers who may have been exposed. Pan said health officers will quarantine susceptible contacts, especially those at high risk of developing disease, \"to make sure that contact stays home and away from other people to make sure that person does not infect others.\" Initial measles symptoms include fever, cough, running nose and red eyes. After a few days, a red rash appears on the face and then spreads downward to the rest of the body. People who are infected can spread the disease for days before the rash appears, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pan said if people are concerned, they \"should check on their immunization status and get vaccinated\" if needed. Disney officials told The Associated Press that they had received no reports of staff contracting measles. Park officials are working with the health department to provide any necessary information, according to Dr. Pamela Hymel, chief medical officer for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. This story was produced by State of Health, KQED's health blog.", "Just before Christmas, NASA released a photo of Saturn that we can't resist posting. Here's how the space agency describes the image: \"The globe of Saturn, seen here in natural color, is reminiscent of a holiday ornament in this wide-angle view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The characteristic hexagonal shape of Saturn's northern jet stream, somewhat yellow here, is visible. At the pole lies a Saturnian version of a high-speed hurricane, eye and all. ... \"This view was acquired at a distance of approximately 611,000 miles (984,000 kilometers) from Saturn.\" There's also a pretty impressive image of \"Saturn's largest and second largest moons, Titan and Rhea [which] appear to be stacked on top of each other in this true-color scene.\" (H/T to University Herald.) Related posts from the past year or so: -- LOOK: Cassini's Version Of 'The Pale Blue Dot' -- Look Up And Smile: NASA's Taking More Photos Of Earth -- Saturn Shows Off A Massive Spinning Vortex: 'The Rose' -- Infrared Views Of Two Of Saturn's Moons Reveal 'Pac-Man' Features -- On Saturn, Cassini Observes Huge Storm, Causing Incredible Temperature Spike" ]

[ "II think the answer to your Q is at about the 13th paragraph:\\n\\n\\n\\n\\nWorld's fate hangs on 35 acres: Hal Lindsey looks at growing strife in Israel \\n\\nNews/Current Events Editorial\\nSource: WorldNetDaily.com\\nPublished: Wednesday, February 21, 2001 \\nPosted on 02/21/2001 00:19:56 PST by JohnHuang2 \\n\\nI know this must sound crazy, but I believe the fate of the world will be determined by an ancient feud over 35 acres of land. As we look at all of the threats and dangers facing our planet, and evaluate how the major powers and nations fit in, it seems incredible that one small nation, which contains a plot of 35 unusual acres, holds the key to all our futures. \\n\\nThis may sound arrogant at best, and insane at worst, but I believe there are sound, logical reasons behind my opinion. You may not agree with the following history, but the important thing is, the feuding participants do. \\n\\nBack on the edge of known history, this area is first mentioned. A priest came to bless Abraham, the forefather of both the Israelites and the Arabs. It was written, \"Melchezidek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High.\" Salem was an early name for Jerusalem, which was a town in Canaan. The major part of this town was a special place called Mount Moriah. This was the beginning of our knowledge of this place. \\n\\nAbout 40 years later, Abraham was directed by God to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice on this very same mountain. When God saw that Abraham would by faith obey Him, He stopped the sacrifice and provided an animal as a substitute. In response, Abraham named the mountain, \"The place where the LORD will provide.\" \\n\\nAbout one thousand years later, in approximately 1005 BC, Israel's King David finally captured this city, which was then called \"Jebus\" and renamed it Jerusalem. Soon after that, David offered a sacrifice of repentance on Mount Moriah. He announced that God had directed Him to build a permanent temple of worship there. \\n\\nDavid's son Solomon did build a temple there that became the center of Israel's spiritual life. Israel's prophets soon began to warn future generations that their decline in faith and rebellion was going to bring a judgment that would destroy the Temple and Jerusalem. The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah even predicted that this judgment would come through Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. \\n\\nJeremiah predicted that the Israelites would be taken and held captive in Babylon for 70 years. Isaiah predicted that afterward a Persian King named Cyrus would allow them to return and begin the reconstruction of the Temple. This prophecy was made 200 years before Cyrus was born, and at a time when Babylon ruled the known world. \\n\\nAll of this happened precisely as it had been predicted. The Temple was rebuilt on the same site of Solomon's Temple. \\n\\nThen, a little more than 400 years later, Jesus of Nazareth exploded on the scene and began to claim that He was the long awaited Messiah of which Israel's prophets had all spoken. He showed signs and wonders and pointed to the many prophecies that were fulfilled in His life, works and teaching. \\n\\nWhen it became evident that He was rejected by the rulers, he made this prediction about the Temple and Jerusalem: \" … There will be great distress upon the land, and wrath to this people, and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled\" (Luke 21:23-24). Jesus was crucified on the edge of Mount Moriah, the very spot Abraham had named, \"Where the Lord will provide.\" \\n\\nThirty-seven years later, the Roman Tenth Legion under Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. The Israelites were scattered throughout the whole world for the next almost 2,000 years. But as predicted throughout by their prophe" ]

[ "Hate is a very strong emotion, I would sat that I have no use for what he stands for or has done. I do not trust or have any respect for a religion that was started by an individual of his sort. The religion of islam is nothing more than a perversion of judaism and christianity without recognizing the diety of Jehovah,Jesus Christ, or The Holy Spirit. Without Christ their is no salvation, therefore all muslims who do not recognize Jesus as the Christ are doomed to eternal hell.", "the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity, and is equal with God the Father and God the Son(Jesus Christ)", "I believe in God. As in the holy spirit, our father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.", "The word Chanukah comes from the Hebrew word Chanuk which means to dedicate. The Festival commemorates the miraculous victory of the Maccabean army over the pagan military forces that occupied Jerusalem.\\n\\nThis all dates back to the original \"Abomination of Desolation\" which the prophet Daniel wrote about (Daniel 11:31 and 12:11). A pagan military leader and man of lawlessness named Antiochus Epiphanes entered into the holy Temple in Jerusalem on December 25th and erected an idol and burned a pig on the altar which defiled the Temple.\\n\\nThis Abomination of Desolation is still practiced by many today. They understand that that their body is a Temple of God (1 Corinthans 3:16) and therefore on December 25th they will make a point of eating ham. Why they want to commemorate the Abomination of Desolation in this way on that day is a mystery (2nd Thes 2:7)\\n\\nBut the story doesn't stop there. A small group of priests and Jewish warriors led by Judah Maccabee (\"Judah the Hammer\") conquered the pagans and drove them out. They cleansed the Temple and had to remove the pork grease from the walls, so they ran fire over the entire surface of the walls to burn off the contamination. And on Kislev 25th they rededicated the Temple. So for this reason, Kislev 25th is celebrated each year as the Feast of Dedication or Festival of Chanukah. It is a \"Festival of Lights\" in the time of the dark winter months. It is a time for personal reflection and dedication for our own lives. Just as the Maccabees burned out the contamination from the Temple with fire, so too the Fire of the Holy Spirit is important for burning out the impurities within our \"Temple\" (our body).\\n\\nAnd the Abomination of Desolation will occur again - as you will read in Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14 - during the 4th year of the 7 years of Tribulation. It will again be a man of lawlessness who performs it. He will probably tell you that eating pig is okay, but don't be decieved.\\n\\nAnd just as that future Abomination of Desolation occurs in the \"midst of the week\", on the 4th \"day\", so too the original Abomination of Desolation occured on the \"4th day\". To the Lord 1000 years is as a day. Day 1 was from Adam to Noah, Day 2 was from Noah to Abraham (Abraham is said to have been born in the year 1948 from creation). Day 3 is from Abraham to King David. Day 4 was from King David to Messiah and it was during that day that Antiochus committed the Abomination of Desolation. Another 2 days have now passed from the time of Messiah. We are ready to enter into the 7th 1000 year day -- the Sabbath Day -- the time when Messiah will reign over all the earth for 1000 years. But first we have that 7 years of Tribulation, when even the Elect might be deceived. Study to show yourself approved and don't be deceived in that time.\\n\\nAs to where Chanukah is mentioned in the Bible, we find that Messiah travels to Jerusalem for this holiday in John 10:22 \\n \"Then came the Feast of Dedication {That is, Hanukkah} at Jerusalem. It was winter,\" \\n\\n(The footnote in the middle of the verse is found in the NIV.)\\n\\n So, yes, Chanukah is Biblical and is mentioned in the Bible, and in fact, has very important meaning for our understand of prophecy.", "The baptism of John was for repentance, but not for the forgiveness of sins. That wasn't available till after Jesus rose from the dead and the Holy Spirit was sent to comfort us.\\n\\nThey had to receive the baptism of Jesus Christ and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.", "Easter has nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is pagan sun worship. Read Ezek 8:16 this is talking about Easter Sun worship! God calls it an abomination. Jesus didn't resurrect on Easter Sunday Morning. I challenge anyone to prove it to me! When you email me make sure I can email you back if your not afraid of the truth! \\n Passover: read Revelation 13:8. The passover is a memorial of the death of Jesus Christ who died for our sins. Easter is Satans counterfeit. Read Matthew 26:26-28. Jesus gave Christians new symbols for the passover the bread and the wine. Read 1St Corinthians 11:23-26 Jesus was killed on the passover. Why is it that Christians want to keep Easter which is not commanded in all the bible, but don't take much thought in what Jesus said to do to remember Him, a memorial of His death. The Passover.", "Christ's teachings came directly from him (Gospels)aswell as other people like Paul (Whom Jesus spoke to after he went to take his place at the right hand side of God. \\n\\nSo I would have to say no. But you also have to treat things not written in the Bible with a lot of sceptisism.", "Baptism is the acceptance of Christ.\\n\\n1) Baptism by the Holy Spirit occurs when you have received Christ into your heart.\\n\\n2) Baptism by water is an outward expression that you trust Jesus Christ to redeem your soul after you die.", "2Tim 3:15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.\\n 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:\\n 17. That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. \\n \\nLiving bible 2Tim 3:15. You know how, when you were a small child, you were taught the holy Scriptures; and it is these that make you wise to accept God's salvation by trusting in Christ Jesus. \\n 16. The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us do what is right. \\n 17. It is God's way of making us well prepared at every point, fully equipped to do good to everyone.", "Definitions of holy spirit on the Web:\\n\\nAccording to the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit, sent by God, is the divine principle of activity in the world. For Christians the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity, which is three aspects of God, consisting of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Able to bestow gifts on individuals, especially the gift of prophecy, the Holy Spirit aided in the conception of Jesus (Matt. 1:18-20); descended to Jesus at his baptism (Matt. ...\\nwww.metmuseum.org/explore/Byzantium/glossary.html\\n\\nThe third person in the Christian Trinity. Some faith groups consider him to be an active force. Historically, Christianity has taught that the Holy Spirit is a person, along with God the Father, and Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus Christ).\\nwww.religioustolerance.org/gl_h.htm\\n\\nThe Universal Christ consciousness or Christ Principle. Spirit is all unnamed, unnumbered Universal Substance, ready to become. The Holy Spirit is the composite vibration of Equilibrium Harmony, and Balance.\\nmiriams-well.org/Glossary/\\n\\nRuach HaKodesh. Ha: The. Kodesh: Holy. Ruach: spirit, breath. The Breath of God. The Spirit of God. Yeshua is The Word of God. Yeshua breathed on them and said receive the Ruach HaKodesh (Yochanan 20:22).\\nwww.new-testament-study-bible.com/Dict-Ency.htm\\n\\n1. The third person in the Trinity. The Holy Spirit creates and strengthens faith by means of the Word and Sacraments.\\nwww.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/4855/jargon.htm\\n\\nOne of the three persons of the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). He is God and Christians believe that He comes to dwell in every believer.\\nwww.fitzwimarc.org.uk/glossary/h.htm\\n\\nThe Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. This Spirit helps us follow Jesus.\\nwww.blestarewe.com/glossary/index.cfm/section/parish/level/1", "ys, bt I sm t b mssng a lt in my lf ths wy, nd th dzzynss s awfl!", "Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour. The bible teaches clearly that Jesus Christ is the Son of God sent into to this world as a sin offering to redeem us from the power of sin. The journey to Heaven begins by us simply accepting the what the bible says about Jesus Christ and believing. We do not go to Heaven because of any good we may do on this planet. God has simply granted believers grace or unmerited favour. Anyone who says good work gets us into heaven has not grasped the nature of God and His plan to deal with sin in this world. I am a believer in Jesus Christ.", "I am a Mormon myself. I have been my whole life. Mormons are CHRISTIANS. The name of our church is The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day Saints. We basically have the same beliefs as other Christian religions. We belive in God, Jesus the Savior, and the Holy Spirit. We believe in baptisim. We believe strongly in the Bible. The main difference is that we have The Book of Mormon also that we have a testimony of, just like we do the Bible. The Book of Mormon is another testiment of Jesus Christ. When Jesus came to the American continent. \\n\\nWe do not critize any other religion, that is not Christian like to do so. Also because our beliefs are basically the same. We believe in Heaven and Hell. The Plan of Salvation that God has for us. We believe that Jesus Christ died for us, to allow us to be able to repent humbly and Jesus will remember our sins NO more if we do so. \\n\\nI hope this is not too confusing. I could go on for hours. Thanks for the question though\\n\\nKayla\\n\\nBTW-- We have not changed the Book Of Mormon over and over again. It was written by Latter-Day prophets back when Jesus was on earth. In order to see for yourself, contact a local active Mormon near you and ask them for a Book of Mormon. First read Moroni chapter 10. Pray to have understanding of The Book of Mormon and to be able to feel the Holy Spirit as you read The Book of Mormon. \\n:)", "Jesus is a name. Christ is an attribute. Christ comes from the Greek Χριστός (hristos), who is the one who has received the Χρίσμα (hrisma). In other words, one who has been \"ordained\". In the case of Jesus Christ and the Christian tradition, that would mean he was \"ordained\" (decreed, anointed) by God.\\n\\n\"Christ\" is closer to the importance and divinity attributed to Jesus than the name \"Jesus\" which is closer to his human nature. I assume that is why we have Christianity and Christmas.\\n\\nA more simple explanation would be to look at the meaning of the word Christmas(s) as a \"mass\" (gathering) of Christians - thus Christmas.", "I know you said this question is for those who don't celebrate any religious holidays, but I'm going to answer anyways. People seem to take great precaution to not offend anyone--unless, of course, they are Christians. Go figure. It can be so frustrating to see everyone try to take Jesus out of Christmas, isn't it? :( It may make you feel better to know that Happy Holiday means Happy Holy Day. And I think it is safe to say Jesus's birthday is a VERY holy day, wouldn't you? So... Happy Holy Day and a very Merry Christ-mas to you!", "I spoke in tongues before and I really knew what it means...\\nSpeaking in tongues is something that you want to shout out yet it comes out in other languages because of the Holy Spirit...next time you speak in tongues try to remember what do you want to say in your head...", "Yes. He lives in the heart of every true Christian (those who receive God's free gift of salvation and eternal life, in Jesus Christ). He inspired 40 authors to write 66 books, over hundreds of years. The Holy Spirit; He is, The Lord.", "I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, better known be nonmembers a Mormons\\n\\nIntroduction to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints \\n\\nWhen Jesus Christ lived on the earth, He organized His Church so that all people could receive His gospel and return one day to live with God, our Heavenly Father. After Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, His Apostles continued to receive revelation from Him on how to direct the work of His Church. However, after they were killed, members changed the teachings of the Church that He had established. While many good people and some truth remained, this Apostasy, or general falling away from the truth, brought about the withdrawal of the Church from the earth. The Apostle Peter prophesied that Jesus would restore His Church before His Second Coming (Acts 3:19–21). \\nJesus Christ began to restore His Church in its fulness to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1820. It has grown to become a worldwide Church with over 12 million members. It has the same teachings and basic organization as the Church established by Jesus in New Testament times. \\n\\nBasic beliefs \\n\\nYou may have questions about what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe. Some of the basic beliefs of the Church are: \\nGod is our Heavenly Father. He loves us and wants us to return to Him. \\nJesus Christ is the Son of God. He is our Savior. He redeems us from death by providing the Resurrection. He saves us from sin as we repent. \\nThrough the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can return to live with God if we keep His commandments. \\nThe Holy Ghost helps us to recognize truth. \\nThe first principles and ordinances of the gospel are faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. \\nThe Church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth. \\nThe priesthood authority of God exists in His Church today, just as it did in the original Church. \\nThe Bible and the Book of Mormon are the word of God. \\nGod reveals His will to prophets today, just as He did anciently. \\nOur life has a sacred purpose. \\nFamilies can be together forever. \\nThrough serving others, we can experience joy and draw closer to God. \\n\\nhttp://www.mormon.org/", "The Pope is nothing more than a Bishop (as are the Cardinals). Just a highly elevated Bishop (much like the Archbishop is an elevated Bishop).\\n\\nHe is the Bishop of Rome, because that is his diocese. There are other Bishops in Rome, to be sure. I think the title comes from St. Peter, who was the first Bishop of Rome (before there was the Holy See and before there was a Vatican City-State), and the Pope is the 265th(?) successor to Peter, and they keep the title of Bishop of Rome.\\n\\nAm I 100% sure of that? No, but it makes sense to me.\\n\\n** Edit **\\n\\nHe is the Holy Father because he is a Priest (and we call our priests Father). Holy because he is the head of the Church.\\n\\nWe call our Priests \"Father\" because they are the representatives of Christ on Earth, and at the Mass and at Confession he is acting \"In Persona Christi\" (In the Body of Christ). If you are Catholic and go to Mass you will hear it in the Eucharist. He says eat my body and drink my blood (as Jesus said in the last supper), not \"Jesus said. . .\"\\n\\nAs to whether or not he is \"holy\", I believe him to be. He was elected by his peers with guidance from the Holy Spirit. Not from political campaigning or the like (at least I don't remember signs saying \"Vote for Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger for Pope\" when I was at the Vatican - just a little humor).\\n\\nHis title is a little hard for some to accept. It is true that Jesus said \"call no man father on Earth\" but he was refering to those that would claim to be from Christs teaching, but really weren't. I think there is a clear, and unbroken, chain from Jesus, to St. Peter to Benedict XVI.\\n\\nI hope I helped clear it up.", "How about the out and out contraditions? Here they are...\\nBible and Book of Mormon Contradictions\\n\\nBy Sandra Tanner\\n\\n1.The Bible plainly states that the gospel, with its inclusion of Gentiles, was not fully revealed until after Christ's death. \\nEph. 3:3-7 Paul writes \"by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: whereof I was made a minister ...... (See also Col. 1:26; 1 Peter 1: 1-12; Romans 16:25-26)\\n\\nHowever, the Book of Mormon maintains that this knowledge was had in 545 B.C.\\n2 Nephi 25:19 \"For according to the words of the prophets, the Messiah cometh... his name shall be Jesus Christ, the Son of God. ... (v.23) For we labor... to persuade... our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.\\n2 Nephi 26:12 \"And as I spake concerning the convincing of the Jews, that Jesus in the very Christ, it must needs be that the Gentiles be convinced also that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God;\"\\n2 Nephi 30:3 \"For behold, I say unto you that as many of the Gentiles as will repent are the covenant people of the Lord; and as many of the Jews as will not repent shall be cast off,\"\\n2 Nephi 31:17 \"For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and the Holy Ghost.\"\\n\\n2.During Jesus' ministry He spoke of His church as something in the future. \\nMatthew 16:18 \"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.\"\\nAfter Christ's resurrection and the day of Pentecost we read \"And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.\" (Acts 2:47)\\n\\nHowever, the Book of Mormon claims the Christian church was established as early as 147 B.C.\\nMosiah 18:17 \"And they were called the church of God, or the church of Christ, from that time forward.\"\\n\\n3.The Bible says believers were first called Christians after Paul's ministry in Antioch. \\nActs 11:26 \"And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.\"\\n\\nHowever, the Book of Mormon claims people were known by this title as early as 73 B.C.\\nAlma 46:15 \"...yea, all those who were true believes in Christ took upon them, gladly, the name of Christ, or Christians as they were called, because of their belief in Christ who should come.\"\\n\\n4.The Holy Ghost was bestowed on the Christians at the time of Pentecost. \\nLuke 24:49 \"And, behold, I send the promise of my Father unto you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.\"\\nActs 2:1-4 \"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. ... And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,...\"\\n\\nYet the Book of Mormon claims that people received the gift of the Holy Ghost as early as 545 B.C.\\n2 Nephi 31:12-13 \"...the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me... Wherefore, my beloved brethren,... by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost;...\"\\n\\n5.In the Old Testament the only ones who could be priests were the descendants of Levi, one of the twelve sons of Israel. \\nNumbers 3:9", "Holiness in greek literally means to be separated from the world by God.\\nIf you read in the bible, surely you have heard Jesus said \"For you are not of this world..\"\\n\\nWhen we repent and receive Jesus Christ as our saviour, your sins are washed and your life basically becames a clean slate in the eye of the Father.\\nTherefore, you are deemed as holy not out of your personal conduct, but rather the blood of Jesus makes you holy.\\n\\nIf you are a believer, you becomes holy thru Jesus.\\nthat is what i called \"Holiness\" thru status.\\n\\nIn 2nd corinthians 7:1-NKJV(I am not going to post it because i want you to go look at your bible)\\nNotice that it is said in the end \"perfecting holiness in the fear of God.\"\\n\\nThe bible did not say \"achieving / to become holy in the fear of God\" but rather \"perfecting holiness.\"\\nIt is just like saying, you are already holy and now, you need to \"try\" to make it perfect.\\n\\nthat bring us to the second point:\\n\\nFrom gaining the status of holiness thru the sacrifice of Jesus, also using the same verse, come the term, which i called, Holiness thru intention.\\n\\nWhen you are saved, you achieve the status of holiness, but that does not mean you can abandon the work of Jesus by abusing your body, soul, and spirit by doing whatever you want.\\nBecause, being christian, or a \"follower of Christ\", means that you need to keep the holiness in you with the help from the Holy Spirit.\\nNotice that the verse says \"PERFECTING\" meaning that you should have the yearning and desire to be Holy, which is also can be translated as closer with God.\\n\\nfor God, Himself, is Holy. and He cannot be around things that are unholy. For we cannot see our God by coming to Him unclean.\\n\\nGod understands, however, that you are not perfect.\\nThat sometimes, even the holiest christian can fail by sinning. Therefore, it requires christians to live under the mercy of God day after day (thru daily repentance and prayer). Christians' attempts in keeping a holy life is appreciated and in fact required by God.\\n\\nDavid, the person that God favors much, fall into the sin of sexual temptation. But, David, then repents to God.\\nAnd David receives God's forgiveness and His favor.\\nWe can also learn this point by comparing Peter with Judas\\nOne who repented, and one who did not.\\n\\nThru repenting, we achieve, or rather, perfect our holiness by becoming closer and closer to the image of Christ.\\n\\nstandard of dress itself cannot be a single measurement of being holy. \\nWe cannot say one is holy just because one is wearing white suit.\\nor vice versa (unclean association thru black leather jacket, tattoo, chains, etc..)\\nBut, thru times, if one truly follows Jesus way of life, one will be separated more and more from one's flesh desire.\\n\\nthru our daily walk with God, we will be shaped closer and closer to the image of His firstborn.\\n\\nand, dressing more appropriately out of our love for God can be the manifestation of being holy (notice that i say manifestation, meaning that it can be one of the sign, not the ultimate standard)\\n\\nAnd, I believe, Holiness thru intention of perfection is\\nwhere we are right now, at least for the living believers.\\n\\nand the last step will be the ultimate Holiness.\\nin Rev 7: 9 -17 NKJV (again please read your bible)\\nThat's when the ultimate holiness is presented for us.\\nGod himself change us physically and spiritually.\\nand, Literally, separate us from the doomed world.", "What is \"mouth music\"? Is that something you made up? First of all, if you know anything about Christianity, you would know that Mormons are not a real religion. Second, I've never heard of \"Church of Jes\"! Do you mean Church of Christ. Jesus Christ! His name is Jesus Christ. Are you afraid to type his name. Third, who do you think you are to have to power to change the beliefs of these churches?!?!?!? I think you are the one who needs to change your religion!", "Christian beliefs\\nMembers of the ZCC generally believe that:\\n\\nA person may contact God through direct prayer, or through intercession by Christ, bishops of the ZCC and the ancestor spirits \\nPurification from sins may be obtained through prayer and other rituals \\nThe bishop of the ZCC to some degree replaces the figure of Christ as the Messiah \\nThe bishop of the ZCC preaches on peace and respect, humble of Jesus Christ \\nSpirit possession may be the work of either the Holy Spirit or of ancestor spirits", "First... lets define the term: Covenant...By definition, a covenant is a mutual obligation. It is a contract, an agreement with terms and obligations that bind both parties. \\n\\nToday we legalize a contract by signing our signatures to it... in ancient days, covenants were legalized by the shedding of blood of a sacrificial animal. The Hebrew said that they \"cut a covenant\" and when the blood was shed the contract became binding upon both contracting parties. \\n\\nWhen Abraham was commanded to take Isaac and sacrifice him, it was a test... but a ram was given by God in Isaac's place to complete the covenant between God and Abraham. \\n \\nWhen Jesus shed his blood, a new contract between God and human beings, a gospel covenant, was put into place and made valid and binding for all those who have agreed to its terms. \\n\\nOur covenant is a covenant of FAITH...To give our love to God the Father as taught by Jesus. Thereby we are free from having to shed blood to validate that covenant because Jesus, the Christ did it for us... All we have to do is form a partnership in our FAITH with God as taught by Jesus, the Christ thereby exchanging the burden of our sins for the obligation to love God and each other and to do the very best we can. \\n\\nWhat does God give to us... forgiveness and the promise of eternal life in His kingdom, as earned for us by Jesus's shedding of his blood for us.\\n\\n\\nThis is the NEW COVENANT that Jesus, the Christ gave to us. We do this by having FAITH in God through Jesus... REPENTANCE and keep trying to ot correct our faults... BAPTISM... the symbolic ordinance which conveys the removal of guilt in our inperfections... RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT... the source and path from where our strength to live a better life flows from.\\n\\nAnd as Jesus taught... this covenant is based upon our attitudes and desires that motivate our hearts to fulfill this covenant. This is the NEW COVENANT as I understand it!", "After his resurrection, Jesus Christ gave flashes of light regarding an obligation resting on all his followers. Most likely it was to the 500 disciples assembled in Galilee that he said: “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. \\n\\nThereafter, all followers of Christ were to be preachers, and their preaching commission was not to be limited to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 10:6) Nor were they to perform John’s baptism in symbol of repentance for forgiveness of sins. Instead, they were to baptize people “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit.”\\n\\nJesus commanded his followers to baptize new disciples “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) What did Jesus mean? Baptism “in the name of the Father” indicates that the person being baptized wholeheartedly accepts Jehovah God as the Creator and the rightful Sovereign of the universe. (Psalm 36:9; 83:18) Being baptized ‘in the name of the Son’ means that the individual acknowledges Jesus Christ—and particularly His ransom sacrifice—as the only means of salvation provided by God. (Acts 4:12) Baptism ‘in the name of the holy spirit’ signifies that the baptismal candidate recognizes Jehovah’s holy spirit, or active force, as God’s instrument for carrying out His purposes.\\n\\nJesus commanded, it is to be carried out “in all the nations.” To Jesus’ Jewish followers, that must have been a startling commission. He was telling his Jewish disciples that they would now have to go out to the “unclean” Gentiles of all the nations and teach them. It took some readjusting for them to absorb the impact of and act on that assignment. (Acts 10:9-35) But there was no getting around it; Jesus had told them in a parable that “the field is the world.” \\n\\nWhen we examine texts offered by Trinitarians as evidence that the Bible “implies” a Trinity, what do we find? An honest appraisal reveals that the scriptures offered do not speak of Christendom’s Trinity. \\nAn example of such texts is found at Matthew 28:19, 20. There the Father, the Son, and the holy spirit are mentioned together. Some claim that this implies a Trinity. But read the verses yourself. Is there anything in those texts that says that the three are one God equal in eternity, power, position, and wisdom? No, there is not. It is the same with other texts that mention the three together.", "Originally saturday was the sabbath and the holy day. After the resurrection of Christ early Christians changed the holy day to sunday to show respect for Christs resurrection. Jews not accepting Christ continued to worship on saturday and still do now. In the 19th century some Christian groups, including the Seventh-day adventists led by Ellen White, went back to the old day of Saturday. As far as which is correct and what the only one God thinks you have to ask which church you adhere too. In the Old Testament Saturday was the day but the New testament does not addressthis issue after Christ and it is more an issue of tradition than literal biblical interpretation as far as I know.", "It's true that scripture says that we know not the day nor the hour, but God has given us signs and wonders of the time of His coming. He said that He was coming as a theif in the night...but do you really think He would leave His church, His bride unaware, unarmed, unknowing, unprepared about His coming? No! Here are a few of Christ's words to His diciples when he communed with them on Mount of Olives. They were asking the same question we are pondering now...when will be His second coming???\\n\\n\"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And yea shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)Then let them which be in Judea flea into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. Matt: 24:4-21 \\n\\nThese scriptures talk about wars and rumors of wars...earthquakes in divers places, nations rising up against each other; but fear not, the end has not yet come. Then the last part of the scripture talks about the abomination of the desolation as read in the book of Daniel. The war that is happening in the middle East right now is a holy war. It is a holy war because it is being fought in the name of religion. It began over land that the Jewish people gave up and the same war is still happening over the same land. This about the weather, the Tsunami's, hurricaines; freak of nature? I think not. Bible prophecy. Things are unfolding. It's time to get serious about God. Another person before me mentioned a good website. The Bible is real. Prophecy is real. The Book of Revelations is real. Another person posted that people were making things up in the book of revelations and that scripture is being twisted to make objects look like helicopters and such. When John wrote the Book of Revelations and had the visions given to him by God, he had NO IDEA what he was seeing. Keep in mind that he had NEVER seen a helicopter before. So, if you are seeing all these fleets of helicopters coming....what would you describe them as??? \\nwww.endtime.com This is an awesome website.", "Hello SQL_DBA_Need... :)\\n\\nMy body is the church, in which the Holy Spirit resides..\\n\\nThe building where I go to church, is called Milton Assemblies of God..Milton, NH..and my Pastors's name is Pastor Alfred Weeden.. :)\\n\\nIn Jesus Most Precious Name..\\nWith Love..In Christ..", "Using the name of \"Jesus Christ\" as an oath has been common for centuries, but the precise origins of the letter H in the expression Jesus H. Christ are obscure. Whilst many explanations have been proposed, some serious and many humourous, the most widely accepted derivation is from the divine monogram of Christian symbolism, IHC or IHS. Since IHS already long ago gave rise to the pseudo-explanation Iesus Hominum Salvator (Latin for \"Jesus savior of men\"), it is plausible that JHC gave rise to \"Jesus H. Christ\".\\n\\nOne factor in the transmutation of the monogram into the expression Jesus H. Christ may be that when the first syllable of the phrase \"Jesus Christ\" is strongly emphasised (as some speakers of some English accents may do when cursing), the rhythm suggests a missing middle syllable between \"Jesus\" and \"Christ\". The H may have been adopted from the monogram to fill this gap.\\n\\nThere is a wide range of speculations on the origin of the expression, often intended as jokes, or else to be considered folk etymologies. Among the more common are\\n\\nthat the H stands for \"Harold\" or \"Howard\", as in \"Our Father, who art in Heaven, HAROLD be thy name\" (supposedly a child's mispronounciation of \"Hallowed\" in the Lord's Prayer). \\n\\nSimilarly in England, a common joke is that the H is for Henry - the letters INRI, seen on crosses and some graves, are a rough approximation of the Cockney \"Henry\". \\n\\nthat the H could stand for \"haploid\", owing to his mother's virgin birth.\\n \\nthat H simply stands for either \"Holy\" or \"Hebrew\", or that it was just chosen at random. \\n\\nthat the H stands for \"Hallowed\", implying he is indeed named after His Father.", "Your getting into some heavy duty stuff here, but I will try and keep this as brief and simplistic as possible.\\n\\nFirst we need to ask ourselves- what is a Christian? What are the bible standards and not our preconceived ideas or what we have been told and not proved?\\n\\nA Christian has and is led by the Holy Spirit!!! Anybody can call themselves a Christian or attend a church, but that does not make them a Christian. If we do not have the Holy Spirit in use, we are none of his. See below.\\n\\n\\n\\nWhat to do?\\n\\nActs 2:37. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38. Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.\\n\\nActs 3:19. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.\\n\\n\\nWhat is a true Christian?\\n\\nRomans 8:1-14\\n\\n1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.\\n 3. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:\\n 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.\\n 5. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 10. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. 12. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.\\n\\nI have read complete reports on whether gays and lesbians are born that way and they are not. It is a choice just like it is a choice for any other sinful habit we may have. The only way we can overcome any type of sin is through the power of the Holy Spirit working in us and depending upon Jesus the Christ to transform our unconverted thinking and lifestyle which includes forgiving us when we truly repent.", "The pastor of a church is to serve the body, not the other way around. They are to line up their lives according to the Word of God, not vice-versa. They should have high moral standards and have a heart after God's own heart. They should always have the church seeking God's face more and have a heart for the lost and suffering. They should not be covetous or greedy for material posessions. They should not have an \"eye\" for the ladies or gentlemen. They should not tolerate sin and adultery in the house of God. They should preach the full gospel of the Cross of Jesus Christ, His death and ressurrection and always praying that the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is directing them and is present through the body and services. When they start to boast and brag about themselves, their cars and homes, spending excessive time with single women (if the person is a male) and do not minister to the elderly and always asking for money and materialistic things...run like the dickens and pray to God to lead you to a Holy Spirit directed church where Christ Himself is the Head, and we are the body. Also pray for those fallen into sin that God will expose it and lead them out to repentance, true repentance.", "I am a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. Better known as Mormon. We believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost. They are 3 separate beings. We believe that Jesus was sent to suffer for our sins. We also believe that after he died he came to visit the Americas. That is what the Book Of Mormon is all about is Jesus coming to the American continents after he died.If you want a copy of the Book of Mormon I will send you one free of charge. jgeddes01@yahoo.com (just give me your address) We believe that God and Jesus both speak to Prophets on earth today. True Mormons are not those people down in Utah Practicing polygamy. They are the ones making us look bad." ]

[ "As long as a Java Environment is installed properly on the client machine, every .jar file will execute when opened. If an environment is not installed, there is no way for any Java file to execute.\\nHowever, you can wrap a Java .jar in a .exe wrapper for Windows machines: see JSmooth at http://jsmooth.sourceforge.net/ . There are also compilers that will compile to Windows binary for you: http://www.devdaily.com/java/edu/qanda/pjqa00004.shtml ." ]

[ "1. Java is highly secure:- Java applets cannot access memory space other than the one which is assigned to it on the host system. So, there is a reduced chance of applets running on your system and creating problems.\\n\\n2. Java is distributed:- Features like RMI (remote method invocation) allow a Java program to invoke a method of an object residing on a remote system (or a different JVM). This is needed in a distributed environment. JavaBeans and CORBA are also essential in a networked environment.\\n\\n3. Java is robust:- Java programs are quite sturdy (although compiling takes slightly more time time vis-a-vis C). The compiler converts the .java source codes into .class files which can be run on any OS with the appropriate interpreter. (This means compiling .java files into .class files in Linux and running them on Windows is possible.)", "Well, a jar file is a java executable file just like an exe in windows. A jad file has some info about the jar file written in plain text. Most of the times a jar file works without the jad file.\\n\\nHope it helps!", "Java is written in C and Mesa. see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_%28Sun%29\\n\\nit is perfectly possible to write an OO language with a non-OO language. Since OO is only a concept where Variables are stored in objects i.e stored in a structured way. It is however almost impossible to write OO-ly in that non-OO language itself.\\n\\nNote: it's class however is written on Java. Classes are reusable code that is written by the language developer to increase functionality. Most class for a language is written in it's own language", "Exe file is an executable file ehich can be executed on Microsoft OS.\\n\\nJar is very simmilar to Zip files.\\n\\nThe word Jar itself represent a container. Jar file is container of Java Class files. It has not only java class files but also other resources related to the project. Jar file can be executed only if Java is available with you.", "Java is a programming language for computers. Based on C++ it is a highly OOL (Object Oriented Language).\\n\\nIt allows developers to create programs you use every day... from calculators to advanced image editors to word processors.\\n\\nUnlike many other languages, Java is cross-platform. This means that the same code will work on a Windows machine, a Macintosh, or Linux/UNIX.\\n\\nThe first link below goes to Sun's Java developer site with information and documentation on the Java programming language.\\nThe second is a website based on Java technology. There are programs and applets, created using Java, that you can use. There are plenty of games for you to try.\\n\\nAn example of a large program written in Java is OpenOffice. OpenOffice is a free, open-source alternative to Microsoft's Windows Office suite. OpenOffice is written in Java.\\nThe third link leads to the OpenOffice website.", "When we compile a JAVA program using JAVAC command ( JAVA Compiler) the JAVA Compiler convert the JAVA source code to an intermediate code. Then to run the program we use JAVA command ( JAVA interpreter) which understand the intermediate code. Actually JAVA interpreter is the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) which convert the intermediate code to Machine Code which the OS can understand. So JVM lies above the Operating System.", "hello\\nthere is more then one possibility, the first is simply create a link to your music file with a bask HTML code are you can use the the HTML code <EMBED> there is option for this tag, also it lets you create a Small player on your page, the visitors can hear them on the spot.", "Java and C++ are remarkably similar in terms of syntax. Java has all of the same constructs that you are familiar with: for loops, while loops, pre- and post-increment, if-then-else, etc. So you should be able to pick up the syntax pretty quickly.\\n\\nThe differences between Java and C++ have more to do with structure than syntax: the way that files are arranged, the way that code is compiled and run, the way that rules are enforced, and the things that come with the package.\\n\\nWith Java, there is just one file to describe a class, with the interface and the implementation together in the same file. In C++ these parts are split into a header (.h) file and an implementation (.cpp) file. This makes things simpler, in that with Java there are half as many files to manage. It also makes it impossible to lose half of your class, as you can in C++ by losing either the .h or the .cpp file. It also makes your code more open: if you want to show someone your interface (API) code, then they can also see your implementation. There is a workaround for this, however, in that you can use the Java-Doc comments to automatically generate HTML-based documentation for your code that only describes your public API. (Another nice difference –- automatic documentation!)\\n\\nJava source code is compiled to .class bytecode files. These files are then run by the Java interpreter/JVM. This adds an extra layer between your code and the OS, but surprisingly causes very little deterioration in performance, mostly due to really smart JVMs. This buys you two things: portability and safety. The portability comes from the fact that code is written to the JVM, which is an idealized stack-based virtual machine, and not to the quirks of the underlying OS. This is what leads to the infamous “write once, run anywhere” claim. The safety comes from the fact that all bytecode is checked at run time for any malicious or mal-formed code, and the JVM can restrict the access of any piece of code so that it can't get to sensitive stuff (like your personal files, or the microphone, for instance).\\n\\nSafety is the common heading for several other differences between Java and C++: there are no pointers in Java (at least not directly), so there are no dangling pointers, uninitialized pointers, or bizarre pointer math errors; arrays are dynamically checked for staying within the boundaries, so there are no out-of-bounds errors; you can't cast an variable to an incompatible type in Java, so data structures can't get corrupted in that way; exceptions must be caught (this check is done at compile time), so there are no uncaught exceptions to bring down your application; and the list goes on!\\n\\nThus far it might seem like Java is missing a lot of things that are found in C++. So what would you probably miss if you made the move to Java? Pointers, templates, operator overloading, multiple inheritance, and a preprocessor. What wouldn't you miss? Pointers, templates, operator overloading, multiple inheritance, and a preprocessor. You might have noticed that these two lists are remarkably similar. How can this be? It is one of those things where you might miss some particular feature at first, and even wonder how in the world you will do without it, but once you are familiar with Java and the way that it works, you wonder why you ever bothered with that complicated stuff in the first place. Java has elegant replacements for many of these missing items, or better yet, makes them completely unnecessary by design. A good example is multiple inheritance – in Java there is only a single parent class for a given user-defined class, but a class can implement any number of interfaces, which are special classes that only specify methods and operations but have no implementation whatsoever. A class that implements a given interface can be passed anywhere that the interface is expected, regardless of its size or the way that it is implemented. It", "An application is based on a code (C,C++,Java,Perl,C#...). After the code is written it's compiled for a specific operating system. The role of the compiler is to translate the cod instructions into sequences that the CPU will understand. It's called assembling the application.\\nA driver doesn't have direct acces to the CPU. It's like a library that contains definition, methods so that if you would like to create an application that will make use of them or for another application (like the OS) to communicate with devices.", "try loading the image into your ide's source code folder that has all the .java files in it (or the bin folder that holds all the .class files), then see if its included when ur IDE builds the project into a jar file. Might work, might not.", "a Servlet is a pure Java Class, and compiled to ByteCode, Jsp is embeded into Html Code, before execution, a JSP is must compiled to Servlet code.\\nNormally a JSP is used to dynamically create a User Interface while servlet is used to implement Business Logic, and Data Access Logic.", "there are certain categories to consider in choosing a programming language, like readability, writability, reliability and cost, well first, if you're a first time programmer i think both language will do you no good, but if you have a background on c/c++ then you will find some of similarities with these two, both are reliable, the difference is when you create a c# program, after compiling, it creates an executable file that you can run right away and you can only program c# if you have a c# compiler, unlike in java in creates an executable jar file and you dont need to have a compiler application to program on java, you can start doin it on notepad save your file with an extention name .java then go to command prompt set your path to the location of you jdk (java development kit) folder then type javac (filename) .java to run it just search for the jar file or type java (filename).class, but you need to have java installed in your pc in order to program, the cost, java costs virtually nothing, and is under sun microsystems, it's free, while c#, you have to pay for the software coz it's licensed under microsoft, my vote goes to java :), coz java programs can run on most platforms and most pcs and gadgets today supports java applications and it's free and can be downloaded from the net :).", "codecs are not language specific and work on algorithms. but most of the codecs are written in C/C++ for the availability of free GNU compiler, and the thousands of optimizations you can do with it, and also that the code is very portable and compiles to the OS native executable format. It also provide ways for being architecture netural.\\n\\nThese days you can find the codecs written in most of the languages (if you wish to use them in your program, just merge the source code) such as VB, C-Sharp, Java etc.", "Java Runtime Environment creates a shell over your Operating System (e.g. Windows). When you want to run a Java applets (a kind of program written in Jave), it will not be dependent on your particular Operating System.\\n\\nThis techniques helps Java programmers to write applets that will run on any computer irrespective of their Operating System (e.g. Windows, Linux, Macintosh OS etc.). The applets will run as long as you have the appropriate Java Runtime Environment istalled on your computer.", "If you're going for free webhosting, you'll have a very hard time finding one that offers database technology. If PHP is allowed on your server, it is possible to create a database and store it to a file, although it depends on why you need the database.\\n\\nIf you are planning on using already written code that works off of a database such as PHPBB is made to use MySQL, you'll have a hard time imitating this with a custom coded database.\\n\\nAs the previous answer said, you can use a database on a different webhost, or set up your own web server.", "do u know connecting from java ? if u know that it is similar to connect access database from JSP. first create a dsn which refers to the mdb file ....\\nif the dsn name is mydsn then the sample code will be\\n\\n\\n<%@ page language=\"java\" import=\"java.sql.*\" %>\\n<% \\ntry{ \\nClass.forName(\"sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver\");\\nConnection\\ncn=DriverManager.getConnection(\"jdbc:odbc:mydsn\");\\nStatement st=cn.createStatement(); \\n}catch(Exception e){out.println(e);}\\n%>\\n\\nu can mail me 2 srinubanda2k@yahoo.co.in", "Looks like ur java path and classpath is fine.\\n\\nYou have created a new directory called java. Its ok but before compiling simple.java make sure that simple.java is saved in that directory. \\n\\nThis error occurs when the java file is not in that current directory.", "A java applet is a compiled java program that is suitable for running on a website. Swing is an Application Programmer's Interface (API) for creating windowed applications. You therefore could use the Swing API to create an applet.\\n\\nAn event in the context of Java is when the user (or the program) does something that your program responds to. For example the user clicks a button in your window. Your program would then detect the event and act on it accordingly.\\n\\nThere is lots of java documentation and tutorials at http://java.sun.com/\\nThey also have examples of working applets and code that demonstrates the swing api and event handling.", "As all executeable files are not binary files, because binary file doesnt contain loading routines and some extra information like executable files. Binary files are also known as .COM files in DOS world.\\n\\nThe -lt command from BCC will pass the /t switch to TLINK. TLINK will then generate a .COM file instead of an .EXE file. This must be done from a TINY code model. No floating point routines may be used, or graphics routines, or any FAR pointers, code or data.", "Coding generally refers to module or a set of modules compiled in the form of an .exe file for execution and they run independantly. While scripting is embedded text that is executed by the scripting engine for the container in realtime.", "JavaScript is a script language - a system of programming codes, created by Netscape, that can be embedded into the HTML of a web page to add functionality. JavaScript should not be confused with the Java programming language. In general, script languages such as JavaScript are easier and faster to code than more structured languages such as Java and C++. Examples of JavaScript use in web site development.\\n\\nIn website development, javascript can't do much alone. It needs the help of HTML and DHTML", "The only way I have been able to get rid of that virus is to manually delete all java folders {Directories} and reinstall run time java files. If you are not programing in java you do not need the FULL set of java programing files and programs. To display java contained in web sites you only need the \"Run Time\" java file/program.", "go to the location where you installed the messenger and then you would find the EXE file of messenger. create a shortcut of this file on the desktop and bingo !!! you got your work done.", "RMI is a mechanism for communicating (only) between two machines running Java Virtual Machines.When Java code on machine A needs a service or a method, respectively, of (remote Java object) objB on machine B it starts a remote method invocation. It does this the same way as invoking a local (Java) object's method.The whole communication behind the remote invocation is done by the RMI mechanism\\n\\nThe client and the server communicate through two special classes called the stub and the skeleton. The stub runs on the client and the skeleton runs on the server. These two programs act as \"middle-men\" in the communication between a client and the server. The stub behaves like a class file and fools the client into thinking the method it wants to invoke is local. The stub carries out all communication with the server's skeleton. \\n\\nTwo utility programs are needed to create an RMI application. The two programs are rmic.exe and rmiregistry.exe; rmic.exe creates the stub and the skeleton while rmiregistry.exe creates the registry of objects held on the server. \\n\\nMoreinfo Refer\\nhttp://www-db.stanford.edu/CHAIMS/Doc/Details/Protocols/rmi/rmi_description.html", "Check out eBay Developer's Program where they have more than 120 code samples written in PHP, C#, VB.NET, Java, and more -- all designed to make buying and selling on the Web easy. You may find a tool there that fits what you need.", "Why do I receive \"Class not registered\" (80040154 or 80004002)?\\nIf you receive this error message (or error codes 0x80040154 or 0x80004002) when playing AVI files, it's possible that there's a problem with the codec used to create the file. To determine which codec is required to play the file, first use a codec detection utility to determine the FourCC code of the file. Then, look up that code on the FourCC for Video Compression Web page, or on the codecs section of the FourCC Web site. After you determine which codec is required, you can then download it. However, keep in mind that some codecs can introduce instability with programs or your computer in general, so make sure that a codec is from a trustworthy source before downloading it.", "No, J# is not the same as standard Sun Java; problems compiling conformant Java code under J# are not at all uncommon.\\n\\nBut I don't think that is your problem here. It looks like you are using the JavaScript compiler, not the Java compiler. Java and JavaScript are not the same thing at all!\\n\\nYou should download the latest Java developer's kit from http://java.sun.com and use the \"javac\" command contained therein to compile your Java code.", "i think the messanger didnt create shortcuts wen u installed it...\\nif u cant find the icon to run the messanger go to\\nsystem drive:&#92;program files&#92;yahoo \\nand u would find the exe file there\\ncheers", "Java Runtime Environment is a 'sandbox', an interpreter environment for runninng programs written in Java programming language. So you must install JRE then you can run Java programs.", "A constructor is a piece of code that is called when an instance of a class is created.\\n\\nYou usually use the constructor to initialize the object's attributes and state, perhaps with some parameters passed to it.\\n\\nConversely, the destructor is called when the object is destroyed.\\n\\nYou only need to explicitly define a destructor if you have cleanup code you want performed. Perhaps your instance needs to free up additional memory elsewhere, or you want to close an open file or something.\\n\\nExpansion of what humill_bca states: It is not required for a constructor to be public, and I don't believe should be one of its criteria. I don't know if its a language constraint of C++, but I code in Java, and we see private constructors all the time, espcially when implementing the Singleton Design pattern, or prior to Java 1.5, building your own enumerated type-safe classes, where we want to prevent the programmer from explicitely instantiating an instance of a class.", "Mathematica programming language\\nThe Mathematica programming language is based on term-rewriting and supports both functional and procedural programming (though functional code is much more efficient in general). It is implemented in an object-oriented variant of C, but the bulk of the extensive code library is actually written in the Mathematica language that can be used to extend the system. Typically, new code is added in the form of Mathematica \"packages\" {e.g. text files written in the Mathematica language}.", "To have a quality start, you need to know the coding standards:\\n\\nyou Can find coding standards for Java at this link from Sun Micro systems, the creators of Java\\nhttp://java.sun.com/docs/codeconv/\\n\\nAlso refer to http://www.javapractices.com/index.cjp\\nThe above website covers all the areas that you can program with Java.\\n\\nJava2CompleteReference is a very good book to start learning Java from the ground.\\nAlso http://javasoft.com has good tutorials to learn java coding." ]

[ "Pakistan is a country where rumors are always flowing. So when President Asif Ali Zardari was rushed to a hospital in the United Arab Emirates on Dec. 6, it set off all sorts of speculation. His aides are doing their best to quell talk that he might step down. They say Zardari has been undergoing treatment and tests for a pre-existing heart ailment, and is recovering well in Dubai. But that hasn't stopped politicians from considering what Pakistan's political landscape might look like without him. Zardari won the presidency three years ago with an outpouring of public sympathy following the assassination of his wife, the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He's had a tumultuous term in office that has included widespread violence in Pakistan, the spillover effects of the war in Afghanistan and increasing friction with the United States. And like all Pakistani civilian leaders, he often appears to have less authority than Pakistan's military, the country's most powerful institution. 'Memogate' Scandal His latest problem is a scandal known as \"memogate.\" It refers to a letter that Pakistan's ambassador in Washington allegedly passed to Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The letter was sent in May, shortly after U.S. commandos killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. The U.S. carried out the raid without giving the Pakistanis advance notice, and angered many in Pakistan. The memo asked for U.S. help in preventing a military takeover in Pakistan, and promised that in return, Pakistan would align its policies with those of the U.S., especially when it came to Afghanistan. Akram Sheikh, a senior advocate before the Supreme Court of Pakistan, believes that Zardari himself approved the memo. Sheikh says that if that's true, then the president should be charged with something worse than treason for \"waging war against Pakistan and conspiring against Pakistan's solidarity [and] sovereignty.\" \"This constitutes a violation on the part of Mr. Asif Ali Zardari of the oath of his office,\" says Sheikh. Zardari was scheduled to appear before a joint session of parliament to testify about the memo affair. His sudden departure for Dubai fueled speculation he was trying to avoid what was sure to be a difficult public appearance. Zardari's Son: Treatment Going Well Mushahid Hussain Syed, is the secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League's so-called Q faction, and his party belongs to Zardari's ruling coalition. Syed says he spoke directly with the president's son, Bilawal, about Zardari's physical condition. \"It's not life-threatening,\" Syed says. \"[Bilawal] said that the treatment is proceeding well, and that he expects that his father will be back soon within a matter of days after the completion of the treatment.\" Zardari supporters insist that the president is coming back, and say he has nothing to fear from a parliamentary inquiry. Opposition parties sense that the episode will leave Zardari weakened politically. Ahsan Iqbal is the deputy secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League's N faction, named for its leader, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Zardari's departure could weaken his Peoples Party of Pakistan, the PPP, and provide an opening for its rivals, says Iqbal. \"It will be a new beginning for the Peoples' Party because the past three-and-a-half years have been dominated by his presidency and by his leadership of the party, which has come under a lot of criticism,\" Iqbal says. Regardless of Zardari's political fate, his coalition ally, Mushahid Husain Syed, says he thinks Pakistan's civilian political culture has gotten stronger and will survive. \"Please don't forget that Mr. Zardari was an accidental president,\" he said. \"He became president after the assassination of his wife, Ms. Benazir Bhutto. So in Pakistan, the political system has a certain resilience and a certain continuity, which I think would remain unaffected.\" Many observers think Pakistan's political system will need all the resilience it can muster should Zardari resign. Pakistan's constitution says elections for a new president would have to be held within 30 days. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: We are also following a president who is under pressure in Pakistan. Or to be more precise, we should say Pakistan's president is under pressure, but outside the country. President Asif Ali Zardari travelled last week to a hospital in the Persian Gulf city of Dubai. Aides say he is recovering well after undergoing treatment for a heart condition. His move, though, started rumors that he left the country to avoid an investigation. However strongly those rumors were denied, they prompted politicians to consider what Pakistan's politics would look like without Zardari. NPR's Corey Flintoff reports. COREY FLINTOFF, BYLINE: Zardari won the presidency three years ago on an outpouring of public sympathy following the assassination of his wife, the former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. Since then he's had a tumultuous term in o" ]

[ "Until last week, Pakistani Christians and Muslims on the outskirts of Islamabad lived side-by-side in peace — and in the tight quarters that come with extreme poverty. Then an Islamic cleric heard a rumor: A Christian girl named Rimsha Masih may have set fire to pages of Quranic verse. The girl's priest, Father Boota, says a Muslim neighbor claims to have witnessed it. \"He was the one who raised the alarm, and then there was a shopkeeper — he also started shouting, and he also started making calls, 'Get the Christians! Wage a jihad against them!' \" the priest says. Sebha Farooq, another Christian, looked out her window in horror. \"These people really thrashed the girl,\" she says. \"They tore her clothes and beat her up.\" The priest says he convinced her family's landlord to call police for Rimsha's safety. \"First it was a group of 500 people, which swelled to 1,000,\" the priest says. \"They were trying to get custody of the girl from police, but police refused. They were wanting to stone her to death.\" Rimsha is now in jail, awaiting trial. Neighbors say she's 11 years old and mentally disabled, possibly with Down syndrome. Police say she's 16 — an adult by law. But they won't let anyone see her, to sort out the conflicting claims. A Possible Death Sentence In Pakistan, defaming Islam or its holy book is punishable by death. The case has drawn international attention and has also raised larger issues, such as the influence that Muslim extremists have on the law in Pakistan and intolerance toward religious minorities. Farzana Bari is a human rights expert who waited outside the jail for hours, hoping to seee Rimsha, but was turned away. \"If she's a mentally challenged child, then there shouldn't be any question of [having] registered a case against her,\" Bari says. Amnesty International is also calling on Pakistan to ensure the girl's safety. Polly Truscott, the group's South Asia director, wants the government to reform its blasphemy laws. \"They're too broadly formulated, and as a result, this enables mobs spurred on by local preachers and others to continue abusing the system to settle personal disputes,\" Truscott says. Most blasphemy cases in Pakistan are eventually tossed out — ruled as grudges or the result of property disputes. But this law is on the books, and anyone who criticizes that could be in danger. There are plenty of precedents. Just last year, the governor of Punjab province, Salmaan Taseer, was gunned down by his own bodyguard for suggesting reforms to the blasphemy law. So police have reason to tread carefully, says Cyril Almeida, a Pakistani journalist at Dawn newspaper. \"It's really about fear, quite honestly. There's a lot of pressure going to be on the police. You may be, and I may be, seeing it from the side of human rights organizations, that they're just trying to get access and ascertain the facts,\" he says. \"Then there's a mob, willing to gather out there if somehow they perceive that this girl is now being given a chance to wriggle out of the punishment that's due her.\" Last month, police failed to stop a mob from beating to death a blasphemy suspect outside a station in southern Punjab. Police are currently protecting Rimsha. But under Pakistani law, and depending on her true age, she could face the death penalty if convicted of blasphemy. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Now to Pakistan, where a young Christian girl is behind bars. She's been accused of burning pages of a book used to teach children the Quran. Defaming Islam is illegal in Pakistan. It can result in the death penalty. As NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from Islamabad, the case has drawn international attention to religious intolerants and the influence of Muslim extremists on the law there. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken) LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: A Pakistani priest leads dozens of Christians in prayer on the roof of a compound where they sought refuge. The Muslim call to prayer wails from a mosque behind them. (SOUNDBITE OF SINGING) FRAYER: Until last week, these Pakistani Christians lived side-by-side with Muslims in peace and in the tight quarters that come with extreme poverty. Then, a local mullah got word of a rumor. A Christian girl named Rimsha Masih, while burning trash, may have ignited pages of Quranic verse. The girl's priest, Father Boota, says a Muslim neighbor claims to have witnessed it. FATHER BOOTA: (Through translator) He was the one who raised the alarm and then there is a shopkeeper. He also started shouting and he also started making call: Get the Christians and wage a jihad against them. FRAYER: Sebha Farooq, another Christian, looked out her window in horror. SEBHA FAROOQ: (Through translator) These people really thrashed the girl. They tore her clothes and beat her up. FRAYER: The priest says he convinced her family's landlord to call police for Rimsha's own safety. BOOTA: (Through translator) First, it was a group of 500 people, which soared to 1,000 and they were trying to get the custody of t", "Karachi is Pakistan's largest and richest city — and it has an appalling reputation. Karachi is witness to frequent sectarian attacks, gun battles and suicide attacks — a touch of Baghdad. Politically, Karachi is one of the few remaining bastions of support for Pakistan's increasingly unpopular president. The latest polls say 75 percent of Pakistanis want Pervez Musharraf out. MICHELE NORRIS, host: Pakistani police said today they had made what they're calling a major breakthrough in their investigation into the killing of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Bhutto was assassinated after an election rally last December. The police say they have arrested two Islamist militants and they have confessed to giving the attacker a suicide jacket and a pistol. Pakistan has been on high alert ever since the assassination. There are troops on the streets in advance of next week's parliamentary elections. And the tension is especially evident in Karachi. It's Pakistan's biggest city as well as its financial and commercial hub. And as NPR's Philip Reeves reports, Karachi has also become a byword for bombings and gun battles. PHILIP REEVES: Ubaid Khan(ph), a student of accounting, is sauntering along the beach. On one side lie the serene warm waters of the Arabian Sea. On the other, there's a McDonalds and a Kentucky Fried Chicken, and one of the world's great ports - Karachi. Karachi is a huge, vibrant place. But it has much the same reputation for political violence as Beirut. It's also Ubaid Khan's hometown, and he's tired of hearing it maligned. Mr. UBAID KHAN (Student): I don't know - people here, I don't know, they don't really go by what the image is being created. They want to be normal. I mean, they want to hang out with their friends. They want to do everything what a normal person in the West does. REEVES: If you explore the streets, you see what Ubaid means. Much of the city looks secular and surprisingly modern. You see unveiled women in boutiques and cafes, and signs from the top hotels advertising candlelit Valentine's Day dinners. Look a little closer, though, and you also see a city living on its nerves. (Soundbite of car horn) REEVES: Armed men guard the headquarters of the MQM, the political party that rules Karachi with an iron hand. The building's a fortress, barricaded by roadblocks and towering concrete blast barriers. In this city, Pakistan's competing ethnic groups collide. The MQM is the party of the muhajirs, Urdu speakers who migrated here after partition in 1947. It grew after the bloody rivalry between the muhajirs and people of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital. Karachi also has a large population of Pashtuns from Pakistan's northwest. Talat Aslam is editor of the Karachi bureau of the newspaper The News. He says the city can easily turn violent. Mr. TALAT ASLAM (Karachi Bureau Editor, The News): It has the potential and it can kind of explode into orgies of violence. The mix is really, really volatile. REEVES: Karachi is seen as a hiding place for al-Qaida. Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in this city in 2002, and later murdered. But Talat Aslam cautions against overstating the influence of violent religious fundamentalists. Mr. ASLAM: There is a population here which does support the extremists and things, but it is by no matter of means a very large section of the population. It is there in pockets, yes. (Soundbite of election campaign) REEVES: With elections only a few days away, the MQM is campaigning hard. All over the city, you see portraits of its leader. (Soundbite of election campaign) REEVES: Altaf Hussain has been in self-imposed exile in London for years. His opponents accuse him and his party of violent crimes including instigating this gunfight in May to stop Pakistan's now-sacked chief justice coming to town. (Soundbite of gunfire) REEVES: The city was brought to a standstill, 48 people died. The MQM denies it was responsible. The party is one of President Pervez Musharraf's diminishing pillars of support. Shoaib Bukhari, an MQM provincial minister, insists, though, that the polls are wrong when they say that most Pakistanis now want Musharraf to leave office. Mr. SHOAIB BUKHARI (MQM provincial minister, Liaquatabad, Pakistan): Personally, Pervez Musharraf is still popular. Even today, if you have an assessment here, you will find that every simple living Pakistani supports Pervez Musharraf on the ground. REEVES: Many Pakistanis are convinced the elections will be rigged. Benazir Bhutto's assassination has raised the temperature. Talat Aslam's worried that her party supporters will react violently if they don't get the big win they're expecting. Sindh is their stronghold. Trouble will be sure to spill into Karachi. Aslam says rumors are already flying. Mr. ASLAM: You can see it from the office window, you realize there's been a rumor because people just go berzerk trying to get home at all costs and create cha", "U.S. Southern Command announced the apparent suicide of a 37-year-old detainee at Guantanamo on Wednesday. The Afghan detainee was identified as Inayatullah: \"While conducting routine checks, the guards found the detainee unresponsive and not breathing. The guards immediately initiated CPR and also summoned medical personnel to the scene. After extensive lifesaving measures had been exhausted, the detainee was pronounced dead by a physician.\" Inayatullah, who was transferred to Guantanamo in September 2007, was one of the last detainees to arrive. At that time, the Pentagon stated that the \"dangerous terror suspect\" had admitted that he was the al-Qaida Emir of Zahedan, Iran, and planned and directed al-Qaida terrorist operations, as well as facilitated the movement of foreign fighters between Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Iraq. According to documents filed in federal court two years later, the government described his role as less central to al-Qaida operations: \"[Inayatullah] was an active participant in several terrorist facilitation networks responsible for moving al-Qaida fighters into Pakistan, knowingly delivered and facilitated the delivery of correspondence and supplies between senior al-Qaida leaders in Iran and Pakistan, and received money from al-Qaida operatives either as payment for his services or to finance his facilitation network.\" Exhibits in the case, Hajji Nassim v. Obama, describe him as the owner of a black market cellphone store in Zahedan, Iran. Born in Khandahar, Afghanistan, in 1974, he was the father of six. After The Jump: From Cooperative To Distraught... The court documents show that he was interrogated more than 60 times in custody at Bagram and at Guantanamo between 2007 and 2009, and describe him as vacillating between cooperation and deception. In January 2008, investigators described him as \"emotionally distraught,\" when they challenged his claims of innocence. Later, Inayatullah stated that he had lost all hope of ever going home, and that he did not want to give more intelligence because it put his family at risk. By the end of 2008, he refused to cooperate because he did not want fellow Afghans to spread rumors about him in Afghanistan when they are released, and he \"cannot afford his fellow Afghani detainees to believe that he cooperates with U.S. intelligence.\" Apparently, he then stopped talking to interrogators for some time. In March 2009, he was getting into fights with other detainees who said he was an American spy, and was concerned that this rumor would be leaked by the detainees to Afghanistan and Pakistan and put his family in danger. There have been seven previous deaths of men in custody at Guantanamo. NPR News Investigations correspondent Margot Williams is co-creator of the joint NPR/New York Times Guantanamo Docket database.", "The Bush administration has severely limited diplomacy options in the wake of the assassination of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. It reached out to her when she returned to Pakistan in October after eight years of exile but no one else. Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf is unpopular and he may have to postpone elections set for Jan. 8. Pakistan is an important ally to the U.S. war on terror. STEVE INSKEEP, host: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep. Today's news from Pakistan involves burning cars, burning buildings, police officers killed, and a wooden coffin being carried through a crowd. This is the day of the funeral for Benazir Bhutto. In the weeks before the opposition leader's assassination, she spoke about the terrorist threat in Pakistan. Ms. BENAZIR BHUTTO (Former Pakistan Prime Minister): We feel that we cannot accept and acquiesce to the rise of militancy and extremism in our country, which threatens our people's lives. And so although there are risks, we have to take those risks. INSKEEP: That's Benazir Bhutto speaking on NPR on November. Her killing adds to the tension in a nuclear-armed country that the United States wants very much to be stable. And this morning we'll talk about what that means for the United States. NPR's national security correspondent Jackie Northam recently returned from a reporting trip to Pakistan and she's been following the events surrounding Bhutto's death. Jackie, good morning. JACKIE NORTHAM: Good morning, Steve. INSKEEP: So where does Bhutto's death leave U.S. policy toward Pakistan? NORTHAM: In disarray, I think, would be the best way to describe it. Bhutto was a critical component on the Bush administration's plan for Pakistan to try to bring democracy to the country and stabilize it. Washington engineered her return to Pakistan in October and helped negotiate a power sharing deal between her and President Musharraf. And the idea was for her to counter Musharraf's increasing authoritarianism and give him a bit more legitimacy. Both Musharraf and Bhutto were pro-American and so this was seen as a good way to bring stability to Pakistan but it just never materialized. INSKEEP: And if she's dead, what's that mean for the war on terrorism? NORTHAM: Well, Washington considers Pakistan a frontline state in the war on terror. Al-Qaida and pro-Taliban militants are all along the boarder with Afghanistan. And U.S. intelligence says they've been able to regroup and build up their operations. Bhutto was very vocal. She often said that she was going to go after the insurgents and extremists, and the hope was that she might have had better success than Musharraf. And the other thing about Pakistan, too, is we can't forget that this was a nuclear-armed state. And so, you know, if you did have these extremisms sweeping through the country -that was something you could never forget about. INSKEEP: Okay. So Bhutto's gone, Musharraf is still there. He's unpopular. What options are left for the Bush administration? NORTHAM: Oh, well, they're severely limited. And in part, that's the fault of the U.S. For years, the Bush administration only dealt with President Musharraf and never made any significant ways into talking with other political figures. And so when it looked like Musharraf's regime was going to topple earlier this year, that's when the U.S. began to rekindle relations with Bhutto, but no one else. Not even in Bhutto's party. And now there's no clear successor to Bhutto. We understand that the U.S. is reaching out to Nawaz Sharif, and he's the third major political player in Pakistan. He's a former prime minister as well. But Sharif may not be as open to advances from the U.S. as Bhutto was. It hasn't been as warm a relationship as Bhutto had with the U.S. So in a short term, Washington may really just have to fall back on President Musharraf. But as you suggest, he is deeply, deeply unpopular in Pakistan. INSKEEP: Is he actually weaker today than he was a day ago? NORTHAM: Yes, he certainly is. I mean he's on extremely shaky ground. Bhutto's participation in the elections was seen as a way to help prop-up Musharraf's presidency To give him some sort of legitimacy. And now that gone. Maybe Musharraf can reach some accommodation with Nawaz Sharif but that's unlikely. I mean, Sharif made it clear that he won't deal with the man who overthrew him on a coup in 1999. The next few days are gong to be critical. We're going to see if there's some sort of backlash against Musharraf over Bhutto's death. I mean there have been rumors that he was somehow complicit to even just by not providing enough security for that. If things get out of hand, if there's a lot of violence, he - Musharraf may have to postpone the elections. He may reinstate, you know, the Martial Law in Pakistan. It is an extremely tenuous place right now - it's an extremely dangerous place right now. INSKEEP: Jackie, thanks very much. NORTHAM: Thank yo", "Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's crackdown on political dissent poses a difficult choice for the United States. Should it maintain support for a vital ally in the war on terrorism, or abandon Musharraf because his actions run counter to the essence of American policy? Rick Barton, co-director of the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project and senior adviser to the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, talks with Michele Norris. : U.S. Strategy and Assistance to Pakistan.\" Rick Barton, welcome to the program. RICK BARTON: My pleasure to be here. : Help us understand what kind of ally Pervez Musharraf has been in a broader fight against Islamic militants. BARTON: He was initially quite reliable. We went to him because we had left Pakistan for 10 years. The United States had really done nothing in Pakistan from about 1992 on to 2001 after 9/11. And suddenly, we recognized we wanted to do something again in Afghanistan. So, we keep coming back to Pakistan as a result of Afghanistan, in our interest there. And we haven't developed the sort of mature relationship we should have with the country of 160 million people. : He's often described as our good friend, our strong ally. Has he, indeed, been a strong ally and an effective force against Islamic terrorists, militants? BARTON: I think he has not been an effective force. He has done pretty much what we - at least this administration wanted him to do, but then it hasn't worked out. And so then we're wondering whether he's playing both sides. Whether he has militants inside of his intelligence service and they are, in fact, secretly helping out these people. But we just don't know very well. And so consequently, almost - we're left in this rumor world that your last reporter suggested, when you don't know what's going on, you're left with rumors. : You know, we heard something interesting yesterday. Senator Joe Biden said on \"Face the Nation\" that the Bush administration has, quote, \"a Musharraf policy, but not a Pakistani policy.\" Do you agree with that? And what might that mean now that Pervez Musharraf has declared the state of emergency? BARTON: I think in way too many cases, we find a friend that we think will deliver for us. And in a country of this size, finding a dictator, somebody who has basically violated the constitution to take office, is not really the way to ultimately reach the people of the country. So that's what we've done. We're stuck with him. We don't have a base beyond in the society even though there have been moments when we had popularity spikes, such as when we helped Pakistan after their terrible earthquakes a couple years ago. Suddenly, the United States was seen as being a constructive ally. : Is it realistic to expect that a possible successor, if you can even think about that, might be more sympathetic to U.S. interests? BARTON: A possible successor could be almost anything. But we should be planning for the post-Musharraf Pakistan. And it should start with our getting to know the country better from Karachi up to the northwest provinces not just the troublesome areas on the Afghanistan border, which is what most American policymakers now know. And then we should also get out and really help this moderate group of people that he's thrown in jail to develop and to thrive. And then we should connect to the young people of the country. Because 50 percent of the country is under 20 and their view of America is nowhere near ours. : So how do you help a successor, let's say a moderate successor, without straining their relationship with Islamic hardliners? It seems that that's a very difficult balance for whoever leads the country. BARTON: I think the best way to do it is not to do it as a political patron, but to do it as somebody who's worried about the people of Pakistan. So that if we align ourselves with, say, the teachers of the country, and the United States says that we know there's a shortage of teachers, and that's why there are madrasas, and that's why hundreds of thousands of kids who aren't going to school are having to take what's available. If we say that the development of teachers in Pakistan is America's priority, and then we put even one-tenth of the resources that we have in everything else in supporting their military, we might be credible. And then we'll see what political leadership is around that issue and we'll have a natural alliance. : Not much time left, but just quickly. So what are the options for the U.S.? BARTON: Well, we have a near-term agenda, which is we've got to get the people who are in jail. They are probably the best connectors to the hearts and minds of the average Pakistani. They've got to get out back on the streets and have the freedom of movement, open up the media. Those things have to happen. And then we have the longer-term process, which is let's get out and around the country, figure out what's going on, and start building wider fri", "Colin P. Clarke is the director of policy and research at The Soufan Group and a senior research fellow at The Soufan Center. He is the author of After the Caliphate: The Islamic State and the Future Terrorist Diaspora. President Biden's decision to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan no later than Sept. 11 sets in motion an end to the longest war in America's history. In announcing the withdrawal on Wednesday, Biden declared, \"Bin Laden is dead and al-Qaida is degraded in Iraq and Afghanistan.\" The president is correct that al-Qaida is degraded, but the transnational terrorist organization has not been defeated. According to the 2021 Annual Threat Assessment released this week by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, \"ISIS and al-Qa'ida remain the greatest Sunni terrorist threats to US interests overseas; they also seek to conduct attacks inside the United States, although sustained US and allied [counterterrorism] pressure has broadly degraded their capability to do so.\" Policymakers, high-ranking military officials and counterterrorism analysts are concerned that in the absence of a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, al-Qaida will metastasize and once again pose a direct threat to the U.S. homeland. CIA Director William Burns acknowledged the challenges that a U.S. withdrawal will present to intelligence collection and the ability to act on that intelligence. There are several difficulties in navigating what amounts to an offshore counterterrorism strategy. The first question is where the U.S. will place its military bases as part of the new strategy. Relying solely on existing U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf would be inadequate in terms of ferrying in quick reaction forces to strike high-value targets. The Pentagon is reportedly discussing several Central Asian countries, including Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. But both Russia and China exert significant economic and political influence in the region, and this option would put the U.S. at the mercy of internal politics in countries at risk of instability. The United States was forced to leave the Karshi-Khanabad Air Base in Uzbekistan in 2005 after fallout over Uzbek security forces' crackdown on protesters that killed between 200 and 700 people, according to the United Nations. There is speculation about whether Pakistan could be a viable option for U.S. military bases, given historic cooperation between the U.S. intelligence community and its Pakistani counterparts. Just prior to Biden's withdrawal announcement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly spoke with Pakistan's army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa. The Pakistani army says Blinken praised Pakistan's \"continuous efforts for peace and stability in the region and pledged to further enhance bilateral relations between both countries.\" The U.S. has relied on bases in Pakistan at various points of the so-called global war on terror, operating a clandestine drone campaign from western Pakistan in an effort to target high-ranking al-Qaida leaders in the northwestern region bordering Afghanistan. Despite being granted access to bases in Pakistan, Islamabad has been a partner in name only. In practice, Pakistan's elite spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, has long supported the Afghan Taliban and terrorist groups like the Haqqani network. Both of these organizations work closely with al-Qaida. Pakistan is a notoriously unreliable ally which demands a lot and delivers little, while its military and security services work at cross-purposes to U.S. interests throughout the region. To demonstrate how little faith Washington has in Islamabad, the Obama administration kept the Pakistanis in the dark about the operation targeting Osama bin Laden in May 2011, for fear that someone in the ISI would tip off the world's most wanted terrorist. As with Central Asian countries, staging the crux of U.S. counterterrorism operations from Pakistan would make the U.S. hostage to geopolitics. Pakistan's domestic population has demonstrated a strong anti-American streak. Pakistan and Russia recently announced closer security cooperation around counterterrorism. And Pakistan's close relationship with China means that Beijing could also have a say in what shape a U.S. presence in Pakistan might take. The perception of a U.S. overreliance on Pakistan might also complicate relations for Washington with Afghan security forces and militias, which would also be crucial to an offshore counterterrorism strategy. Finally, while Pakistan might be willing to aid the United States in its continued fight against al-Qaida, cooperation would stop short of operations that involve the Taliban. And if the Taliban comes to dominate large swaths of Afghanistan militarily, it will become more difficult to differentiate between the Taliban, al-Qaida and the Haqqani network. Curiously absent from much of the withdrawal discussion is the fate of the ISIS affiliate in Afghanistan, Islamic State Khorasan Prov", "The death of Osama bin Laden last month was a huge and much-needed boost for U.S. counterterrorism efforts, but it has also ignited a debate over the ongoing U.S. operation in Afghanistan. On Capitol Hill, many are questioning whether the mission there is worth the financial and human cost now that bin Laden is gone. It has been nearly 10 years since the first U.S. forces landed in Afghanistan in hot pursuit of bin Laden and his al-Qaida and Taliban affiliates. That manhunt has shifted over the decade, and so too has U.S. strategy and the number of troops — roughly 100,000 American service personnel are now on Afghan soil. Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, says bin Laden's death provides a new opportunity to re-examine U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. \"When you kill the leader of al-Qaida, I think this raises questions about what sort of strategic shifts do we need to make as a result of this,\" he said. Katulis says that's particularly true in light of the fact that U.S. intelligence agencies have determined the most imminent terrorist threat comes from Yemen, not militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Potential Courses Of Action Bin Laden's demise has invigorated debate about Afghanistan — from the White House to Congress to the many think tanks scattered across Washington. Daniel Markey, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, says there are essentially three schools of thought: One is that the U.S. should press the military advantage, going in harder and faster and more effectively than before. Another line of thought, Markey says, \"is that this killing of bin Laden might open the door to greater opportunities for reconciliation with members of the Afghan Taliban.\" Markey adds that the Afghan Taliban might now be feeling more vulnerable and perhaps less connected to the remaining parts of al-Qaida, and more open to negotiations in a way that they weren't before. The third school of thought is that in the wake of bin Laden's death, the U.S. should declare victory in Afghanistan and pull out, saving American blood and treasure. Retired Army Lt. Gen. David Barno, with the Center for a New American Security, says that would be dangerous short-term thinking. \"I think we're conscious that a precipitous withdrawal would be very destabilizing and we'd probably undercut a lot of the gains we've made in recent years,\" Barno says. He adds that there are very robust discussions going on between all sides of the administration about what's next not only for Afghanistan but also for Pakistan. Tackling The Pakistani Question The fact that bin Laden had lived for several years and was killed near a key military installation not far from Pakistan's capital will help shape the debate, says Markey, because the endgame in Afghanistan will require the help and cooperation of Pakistan. \"The United States, I think, woke up very dramatically after bin Laden's killing to a sense that Pakistan may be in even worse straits than we thought it was ... because there was always a question as to whether Pakistan lacked the capacity or the will to tackle some of the terrorist groups on its soil,\" Markey said. President Obama has a couple of months to consider his options. In July, he is due to announce the size of the initial drawdown of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. During an earlier strategy debate soon after he took office, Obama agreed to the Pentagon's demands to increase the number of troops. Katulis, with the Center for American Progress, says this time, it'll be different. \"The fact that he made this bold move and went after bin Laden and got him, I think, allows him to set the table in terms of what he wants to do next on Afghanistan,\" Katulis says. \"And despite the questions, quibbles and concerns that are being raised ... I think the president here really has enhanced maneuverability to do what he wants to do.\"", "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrapped up talks Friday with senior Pakistani leaders as the two sides continued to show strains in their relationship over the issue of combating terrorism. Clinton took part in high-level discussions Thursday night and met Friday with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. It was brief, and at a press conference afterward, the two women were cordial, if stiff. Clinton's visit was part of a high-profile delegation that included CIA chief David Petraeus and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey. Clinton said the discussions with the Pakistani leadership focused on Afghanistan and counterterrorism. At the press conference, Clinton hinted that progress was limited. \"It is no secret that the United States and Pakistan do not always see eye to eye,\" she said. \"And we will not resolve the differences in our views in any single visit.\" A major point of U.S. concern is Pakistan's ties with the Taliban and the so-called Haqqani network, Afghan insurgents who have bases in Pakistani territory. During the day, Clinton confirmed rumors that the U.S. had a meeting with members of the Haqqani network. State Department officials, speaking on background, said there was just one meeting over the summer, and it was at the request of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI. Since then, there have been attacks in Afghanistan blamed on the Haqqanis, including the prolonged assault on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul last month. At Friday's press conference, Clinton once again addressed the issue of insurgents who are based on Pakistani soil. Clinton Urges Pakistan To Act \"For too long, extremists have been able to operate here in Pakistan and from Pakistani soil,\" she said. \"No one who targets innocent civilians — whether they be Pakistanis, Afghans, American or anyone else — should be tolerated or protected.\" Clinton's comments about militant safe havens in Pakistan are similar to those made by other senior Obama administration officials over the past few weeks, and they have hit a nerve, putting the Pakistani military and civilian leadership on the defensive. Foreign Minister Khar denied the charge several times during the press conference. \"Let me reconfirm that there is no question of any support by any Pakistan institutions to safe havens in Pakistan. Let me be unequivocal, completely clear on that,\" she said. Khar and Clinton seemed to talk past each other at the press conference. Both voiced an abhorrence of terrorism, and the hope for a stable Afghanistan. But they approached the problems from different perspectives. At one point, Khar seemed annoyed by journalists' questions that suggested Pakistan was not doing enough to combat militants. \"There seems to be an impression that Pakistan does not look at this threat seriously and does not respond to this threat seriously,\" she said. \"We have taken this threat seriously — we have acted against this threat.\" As Clinton left Islamabad, U.S. officials said they were confident the Pakistanis heard their message about what they'd like to see happen. Whether or not the Pakistanis choose to act is another question. MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR news. I'm Melissa Block. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: And I'm Robert Siegel. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Islamabad earlier today, meeting with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. The meeting wrapped up a short but intense round of talks with top officials from both countries, and comes at a time of severe strain in U.S.-Pakistan relations. NPR's Jackie Northam is traveling with Secretary Clinton and has this report. JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: Today's meeting with Secretary Clinton and Foreign Minister Khar was brief. And at a press conference afterwards, the two women who were cordial if stiff. It was a far cry from the tone of the meeting with just 12 hours earlier that U.S. officials described as extremely frank and very detailed. Clinton led an unusually high-profile delegation that included CIA chief David Petraeus and General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Clinton said the discussions with the Pakistani leadership focused on Afghanistan and counterterrorism. At the press conference, Clinton hinted that progress was limited. SECRETARY HILLARY CLINTON: Now, it is no secret that the United States and Pakistan do not always see eye to eye. And we will not resolve the differences in our views in any single visit. NORTHAM: A major point of concern for the U.S. is Pakistan's ties with the Taliban and the so-called Haqqani network, Afghan insurgents who have bases in Pakistani territory. During the day, Clinton confirmed rumors that the U.S. had a meeting with members of the Haqqani network. State Department officials, speaking on background, said there was just one meeting, it happened in the summer, and that it was at the request of Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI. Since then, there have been attacks in A", "Venezuela's colorful and bombastic leader has reappeared after a long public absence. President Hugo Chavez, who frequently goes on air to accuse the U.S. of plotting against him, hadn't been seen since June 10 when he underwent surgery in Cuba. But now, he has surfaced in a video, spiritedly talking to Fidel Castro. \"Socialism or death — we'll be victorious,\" said Chavez, who appeared to be walking gingerly as he spoke to Castro. The video that aired Wednesday showed images of the two men holding Tuesday's edition of Cuba's state newspaper. But it did little to clear up the many questions concerning Chavez's health. For 18 days, officials had faced an increasingly anxious political class demanding to know what was happening with Chavez. What the officials said in public only fueled rumors. At one point, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro told reporters Chavez was in a \"battle for life.\" For many Venezuelans, it was hard to understand why the government was treating Chavez's health like a state secret. Carlos Correa, the head of the think tank Public Space, said that only generated more rumors. \"For Venezuelans,\" he said, \"it had all been strange because over his 12 years in power, Chavez has been on television practically every day.\" Indeed, with cameras rolling, Chavez inaugurates state projects, presides over summits, visits poor neighborhoods and hosts his weekly television show. On Hello Mr. President, he hectors opponents and warns of diabolical American plots to grab Venezuela's resources. The cameras had also followed Chavez to Cuba for a visit with Castro and other leaders. On June 10, though, he came down with abdominal pains and was rushed into surgery. Two days later, Chavez phoned Venezuelan state television to say he was recuperating. That was the last time Venezuelans heard his voice. That prompted some Venezuelans, among them Demetrio Boersner, a historian and former diplomat, to argue that Chavez's absence should trigger a temporary transfer of power. \"According to the constitution and the constitutional tradition of Venezuela,\" Boersner said, \"when the president is absent the vice president should take over almost automatically.\" Chavez's aides said there was no need, that the president was recuperating and running the affairs of state from Cuba. Until now, Chavez's health has never really been in question. The 57-year-old populist may love the rich food of his country and has clearly put on some pounds, but he's also known for his boundless energy. Still, even after the release of the videos, little is known about Chavez's condition. And Venezuelan officials have yet to say exactly when he'll return, though last week, Chavez's brother, Adan, said it could be this weekend. STEVE INSKEEP, host: One of Latin America's most visible leaders was invisible for much of this month. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez frequently goes on TV to accuse the U.S. of plotting against him. And then he vanished. He hadn't been seen in public since June 10th. That's when he underwent surgery in Cuba. Now he has reappeared in videos chatting with Fidel Castro. NPR's Juan Forero reports on what the videos show and do not show about the Venezuelan leader's health. JUAN FORERO: Chavez walks gingerly but his message to Castro is vintage Chavez. President HUGO CHAVEZ (Venezuela): (Spanish language spoken) FORERO: Socialism or death we'll be victorious, he tells Castro, a father figure to Chavez. (Soundbite of music) And with soft music from a daytime soap opera playing, the footage shows the two men standing close to each other and reading two Cuban state newspapers making sure that viewers are aware the papers were from Tuesday. Pres. HUGO CHAVEZ: (Spanish language spoken) Mr. FIDEL CASTRO (Former President of Cuba): (Spanish language spoken) FORERO: It's a proof-of-life video, Venezuela-style, which Venezuelan officials say is designed to end rumors about Chavez's health. Communications Minister Andres Izarra, presenting the video on Venezuelan state television, can hardly contain his joy. Mr. ANDRES IZARRA (Communications minister, Venezuela): (Spanish language spoken) FORERO: Let's see it again, Izarra says, let's see it again. It's easy to see why officials are so excited. For 18 days, they faced an increasingly anxious political class demanding to know what is happening with Chavez. What they said in public only fueled rumors as when the foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro, told reporters that Chavez was in a battle. Mr. NICOLAS MADURO (Foreign minister, Venezuela): (Spanish language spoken) FORERO: He called it, quote, \"a battle for life.\" For many in Venezuela, it's hard to understand why the government is being so secretive. Mr. CARLOS CORREA (Public Space): (Spanish language spoken) FORERO: Carlos Correa, the head of the think tank Public Space, said that had generated more speculation. Correa said it was strange because over his twelve years in power, Chavez has been on television practicall", "Sen. John Kerry took the foreign policy spotlight this past week, jetting off to Afghanistan, where he persuaded President Hamid Karzai to agree to a runoff vote, and meeting with officials in Pakistan. While he was getting most of the media attention, reporters and bloggers raised the question: Where is Richard Holbrooke? He is the Obama administration's special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, so shouldn't he be dealing with these issues? As if to answer that question, Holbrooke, 68, addressed a packed briefing room Friday at the State Department. The official reason for Holbrooke's briefing was to talk about plans for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to go to Pakistan soon. But it sounded mainly like an attempt by Holbrooke to stop a rumor mill that suggests he is on the outs with the Obama administration. \"I'd like to make a joke and say I'm always happy to be eclipsed by John Kerry, but then you'll take it seriously, and then I'll cause more problems,\" Holbrooke said. Holbrooke explained that he goes to Pakistan and Afghanistan every couple of months, but that he wanted to be in Washington while President Obama reviews U.S. strategy in the region. Obama and his national security team are reassessing the U.S. military effort and contemplating a request from the top U.S. general in Afghanistan to send tens of thousands more troops there. \"The period since I was last in Afghanistan has been, as I already said, the most intense policy-review period I've ever experienced in my government career. And my job was to be here to help Secretary Clinton and prepare for these extensive meetings in which she and I both participate,\" Holbrooke said. There is some truth to that, according to Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation, who has known Holbrooke for many years. Clemons described Holbrooke as the kind of guy who wants to be in the room when the president is making decisions. Holbrooke came to public prominence in the mid-1990s when he brokered a peace agreement among the warring factions in Bosnia that led to the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords. He was a top foreign policy adviser to Kerry during his 2004 presidential campaign and to Hillary Clinton during her 2008 presidential bid. Clemons added that Holbrooke has a notoriously bad relationship with Karzai, so having Kerry meet with the Afghan leader this past week made some sense. \"I think that Holbrooke put himself in to be the bad cop, and to some degree John Kerry has become the good cop, in part, to try to move Karzai forward. But that doesn't mean that [Holbrooke] is going to disappear from the scene,\" Clemons said. Holbrooke's job description has always been fairly vague. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has managed to put together an interagency team to better coordinate the U.S. approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan, another task that will keep him in Washington fairly often, Clemons said. \"He still remains a significant part of the picture, and I don't think there's anyone yet who can supplant him or take that role,\" Clemons said, adding that he expects Holbrooke to stay in the job as long as he wants, \"whether Karzai likes it or not.\" At his briefing Friday, Holbrooke tried to dispel the notion that his poor relations with Karzai are getting in the way of his job. \"They are fine. They are correct. They are appropriate,\" Holbrooke said. And, if Karzai is re-elected in the runoff election Nov. 7, Holbrooke said, \"we all look forward to working closely with him in pursuit of mutual goals.\" As for the runoff, Holbrooke said there is a reasonable hope that there will be less fraud this time around, in part because there are only two candidates now: Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister. There are also more U.S. forces in place than there were during the first round of voting in August.", "FEMA is rolling out a new tool as it begins to deal with now-tropical storm Florence. It's a rumor-control webpage. Unfounded rumors — what might be called \"fake news\" — have been a problem in coping with recent disasters, according to Gary Webb, a professor and chair of emergency management and disaster science at the University of North Texas. \"Disasters do create a great deal of uncertainty, confusion and anxiety,\" Webb said, \"and, as a result, there is the potential for rumors to propagate.\" For example, Webb said, during Hurricane Katrina, \"Vicious rumors circulated about violent assaults happening at the Superdome and convention center.\" Entirely unfounded, he said, they nonetheless \"painted a picture of lawlessness and disorder that profoundly shaped public perceptions of the disaster and its victims.\" The rise of social media has exacerbated both the ability and the speed at which rumors spread. While they can be used to share important — and useful — updates about evacuation routes or shelter and food locations, they can also be used for less-than-useful or flat-out wrong information. And this is the case with Florence. For instance, sharks. They've been a recurring hoax, with phony photos on Twitter of sharks swimming up water-covered highways or falling from the sky. The rumor has been so prevalent that FEMA Associate Director Jeffrey Byard was asked about it in a briefing this week. \"There are sharks in the [surrounding] water, that's not a rumor,\" he said. \"But, you know, I don't think there's a Sharknado effect or anything like that. \"Rumors for the sake of rumors doesn't help things,\" Byard said. \"That's just clouding a bandwidth that we have to cut through ... really BS ... and that's not needed.\" While pictures of sharks swimming are relatively harmless, \"rumors can impede emergency responders or divert attention and limited resources during a time of great need,\" said Frank Cilluffo, director of the McCrary Institute for Critical Infrastructure Protection and Cyber Systems at Auburn University. Cilluffo says it's difficult to gauge the efficacy of the webpage yet since it is still in the early stages, but \"this is a positive step in the right direction.\" So far, though, some of the rumors listed on the FEMA webpage look more like agency press releases, such as \"nearly $10 million was diverted from FEMA's hurricane relief fund to U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement,\" which the webpage goes on to explain was actually \"diverted from FEMA's operational budgets for travel, training, public engagement and information technology. The amount diverted is less than 1 percent of FEMA's annual operating budget.\" NTU's Webb said, \"To the extent that rumor-control page focuses on broader issues not related to a specific disaster, such as the information about the EPA and FEMA's budget, it loses some of its value and potential impact.\" President Trump has used Twitter this week to send out FEMA and Weather Service alerts and in fact retweeted a link to the rumor-control site on Friday morning. Still, the president himself was criticized for peddling a conspiracy theory earlier this week when he said he did not believe a study that showed nearly 3,000 died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and he falsely blamed Democrats for inflating the death toll.", "Thousands of protesting lawyers and activists have been detained since Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf placed his country under military rule on Saturday. Human rights lawyer Asma Jahangir, who is currently under house arrest in Lahore, talks to Madeleine Brand about her detention and Friday's scheduled protests. ALEX CHADWICK, host: This is DAY TO DAY. I'm Alex Chadwick. MADELEINE BRAND, host: And I'm Madeleine Brand. Today in Pakistan, President Pervez Musharraf said national elections will happen as planned within three months. He is responding to a wave of international and internal criticism of the state of emergency he declared last weekend. CHADWICK: The woman who is emerging as the chief opposition leader in Pakistan, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, says that his pledge is not enough. She's planning to lead another mass protest tomorrow. These protests begin with Pakistani lawyers; hundreds of them have been arrested since Saturday, when the state of emergency was declared. BRAND: One of those detained lawyers is Asma Jahangir. And she joins us now from her home in Lahore, Pakistan, where she is under house arrest. Welcome to the program. Ms. ASMA JAHANGIR (Attorney): Thank you very much. BRAND: Now, I understand you are actually speaking to us from your home phone. Ms. JAHANGIR: This is the landline that I am officially allowed to use till a certain period of time. BRAND: So the government is allowing you to make phone calls? Ms. JAHANGIR: Yes. They have not put restrictions yet. BRAND: How were you put under house arrest? Ms. JAHANGIR: The police came and surrounded my house. They told me that I couldn't leave. And an hour later they served me an order which says that I was under house arrest for 90 days and I couldn't leave because the government had credible information that I would make inflammatory speeches that would provoke people to go and disturb the law and order situation. BRAND: For 90 days you were under house arrest. And that is because you are the chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, correct? Ms. JAHANGIR: Yes, that's right. BRAND: And you've been very outspoken in your criticism of the government? Ms. JAHANGIR: Well, naturally. I mean, it's a military government. People's rights have been usurped. I have been one of the leading lawyers in the cases of disappearances of people. So I think the government is extremely unhappy about that case. And even in the past - I mean, human rights lawyers have to be constantly the watchdogs of any government. BRAND: What do you think of President Musharraf's concession today that he will hold national elections in February? Ms. JAHANGIR: Fine. He will hold elections but under what circumstances? You cannot just have, you know, elections and ballots in the front without really the props, which is a judiciary that upholds the rule of law - I'm not saying a perfect one, but some judiciary with some credibility there, and a reasonable freedom of the press. We want full freedom, but there has to be some freedom of the press. BRAND: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will hold demonstrations tomorrow. Her supporters, though, have been conspicuously absent from the latest demonstrations. Are you a supporter of hers? Ms. JAHANGIR: I don't support any political party as such. But I admire the courage of Benazir Bhutto. And I think she's a good politician. And she is in a very difficult situation because she is pressurized; on the one hand not only by international forces but also certain people within the country who will argue that if we take confrontation with this military we are going to be on the losing end. And if they can somehow do it through diplomacy, do it through persuasion, we may get some transition to democracy. Now, I don't buy that. I am of the view that the military will never go away, and they have no stomach for negotiations. BRAND: For the next three months, you'll be under house arrest. Personally, what are you doing all day and can you see your family and what is it like for you personally? Ms. JAHANGIR: Well, my family - I have my husband and one of my daughters is here. I myself - keeping myself very busy. I look at my e-mails that come from my office in the morning. I don't have access to e-mail here - that has been shut off. And I write a lot. Nowadays I am reading news. But I am going through an anguish when I see all these (unintelligible) images of lawyers being beaten up. I begin to think that all these years we have looked at this promising young people and one had hoped that we will begin to get new leadership. But if the crackdown kills their spirit, that would be a very sad day for Pakistan. BRAND: Thank you very much for speaking with us. Ms. JAHANGIR: Thank you. Thanks. BRAND: That's Asma Jahangir. She's a lawyer under house arrest in Lahore, Pakistan. She's also the chairwoman of Pakistan's Human Rights Commission.", "The arrest of the man considered to be the second in command of the Afghan Taliban could signal an important boost in cooperation between the U.S. and Pakistani intelligence services. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured in a secret joint operation between the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, known as the ISI. Wire service reports quoted Pakistani intelligence officials as saying that Baradar was arrested 10 days ago in the southern Pakistani port of Karachi and that he was talking with interrogators. NPR's Julie McCarthy reports that authorities have been questioning him for days and that he has been asked, among other things, about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar, the top Taliban leader. If Baradar is talking, experts say, it could be the most significant blow to the Afghan Taliban in years. Baradar is the most senior Afghan Taliban leader arrested since the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan began in 2001. A Leadership Gap? \"Everyone speculates as to how much the Taliban is decentralized,\" says Alex Thier, director of the Afghanistan and Pakistan programs at the United States Institute of Peace. \"But clearly there is a leadership role and the loss [of Baradar] would be an issue.\" Baradar was widely considered to be the Afghan Taliban's operational leader in recent years, and close to Omar. His capture comes as U.S. and Afghan forces press into a Taliban stronghold in Marjah, in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province. Parag Khanna, a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation, says the report that Baradar was captured in Karachi, far from the Afghan border, may suggest that his capture won't affect the Taliban's response to the U.S. military operation in Marjah. \"It probably means that the [Taliban] strategy has been set up for a while, and whatever they do has already been decided,\" Khanna says. Thier says the Pakistanis long tolerated the presence of Baradar and other Afghan Taliban leaders and may even have helped them, but the Pakistani cooperation in Baradar's arrest may signal a new calculation. \"The Pakistanis may have actually made a decision that they're going to start forcing the Afghan Taliban out of Pakistan, or into negotiations with the U.S.,\" Thier says. Khanna agrees that the ISI \"would have known for a long time where [Baradar] is.\" He says one school of thought is that Pakistan now sees its own version of the Taliban as an existential threat and wants the foreign version out as well. Khanna adds that the U.S. has more leverage with Pakistan now, because the U.S. is helping Pakistan fight Taliban insurgents, using unmanned drone strikes and providing the Pakistanis with intelligence from drone surveillance flights. An Intelligence Jackpot? Thier says there could be significant intelligence gains from Baradar's arrest, even if he refuses to cooperate with interrogators. \"It depends on what they found with him. He might have laptops and cell phones.\" One reason that intelligence officials didn't announce Baradar's capture right away, Thier says, might be the hope that people who were links in his communications network would try to contact him without knowing that he was already in custody. Rumors of Baradar's arrest would also have caused \"chatter\" among Taliban members that could have allowed intelligence officials to uncover more connections, he says. \"The final piece, as far as intelligence is concerned,\" Thier says, \"whether it's the ISI or some informant, is that [Baradar's arrest] has to scare the daylights out of all the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan, because they're no longer safe.\"", "Authorities search train wreckage in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) for clues in a series of bombings Tuesday that killed more than 180, injuring 700. Suspicion quickly fell on Kashmiri militants, although one group has already denied responsibility. Los Angeles Times reporter Henry Chu talks with Steve Inskeep. RENEE MONTAGNE, host: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne. STEVE INSKEEP, host: And I'm Steve Inskeep, good morning. Yesterday's commuter train bombings struck a city that could be seen as India's equivalent of New York City or Los Angeles. Mumbai is larger than either. It is India's financial center, and also home to Bollywood, the film industry. Maybe nothing could entirely stop such a city, but BBC reporter Dumeetha Luthra says it feels different today. Ms. DUMEETHA LUTHRA (Reporter, BBC): I'm actually outside one of the train stations that was targeted by the bombings. And what I'm seeing is, people are out on the street, but not in any way close to the numbers that are usually out on the streets. On the platforms there are hundreds of people there rather than the thousands that normally pack the platforms. And the people I've spoken to have said, we're not going to be cowed by this. We spent the night at the office. We're now going to go home, but we're going to come back to the office. But, although people are adamant that they're going to not be terrorized, it's still a lot quieter than it normally is. INSKEEP: Yesterday's commuter bombings killed nearly 200 people. Hundreds more were wounded. We're going next to Henry Chu, he's a reporter for the Los Angeles Times in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay. And Mr. Chu, what are you seeing on the streets? Mr. HENRY CHU (Reporter, The Los Angeles Times) It's fairly bustling here. People are out and about, I think. As one Mumbaikar said to me, that the people of Bombay are very practical; they still need to get on with their lives and need to go to work. And so, you do have people out on the trains and out on the streets again, as it would be, but perhaps not in the numbers as would normally be there. INSKEEP: How well-coordinated was this attack yesterday? Mr. CHU: I think a lot of people have been surprised at just how sophisticated it seemed to be, given that the explosions, eight in all, happened with rapid succession. I think all eight occurred within a span of about 20 minutes. And so, as a commuter said to me, they realized it must have been a very well-planned attack, where the attackers understood and knew the time schedules of the trains, and were able to detonate them in such close succession. INSKEEP: Are investigators giving any significance to the fact that these explosions took place in first-class cars on these trains? Mr. CHU: I don't know that there's any social significance that's being given to it right now, other than the fact that, the first class compartments, because they are slightly more expensive, are a little bit looser in terms of getting on and off. It's not the same kinds of crowds that pack into the second class compartments, and that, therefore, would make it, perhaps, more difficult for someone to maneuver and plant a bomb, or be more unnoticed as they would be in the first-class compartment. INSKEEP: Or if you weren't a suicide bomber, if you wanted to get away, the first-class compartment would give you more of a chance. Mr. CHU: That's right, although there is talk that these were detonated by remote, so it's not entirely clear whether any of the attackers were actually on the train when the explosions occurred. INSKEEP: Now, are Indian authorities saying anything about who they think might have carried out these bombings? Mr. CHU: No, there are always rumors after these kinds of events, and that almost always center on Kashmiri militant groups, that are Islamic militants who want Kashmir to be an independent state or part of Pakistan. And that's been raised here as well, just as it was after the bombings in New Delhi last October. There is one particular group called Lashkar-e-Toiba, which means, Army of the Pure, which always seems to be the center of suspicion. But nothing firm has come up yet. And the authorities here are quite concerned that no rumors swirl unnecessarily, because they're worried about the possibility of religious tension boiling over into riots, which we've seen in the past, here in India. INSKEEP: Large number of Muslims in Mumbai, right? Mr. CHU: There are. The Hindu population is still the majority, but there are large Muslim neighborhoods, and some of them are concerned about what might happen in the aftermath of these bombings. INSKEEP: Now, because the dispute over Kashmir is a dispute with Pakistan, is this causing heightened tensions with Pakistan today? Mr. CHU: I think what was important yesterday, was President Musharraf, of Pakistan, coming out immediately with a statement. Now, sometimes those statements condemning attacks like this are met wit", "With protests and arrests continuing in Pakistan, police in Karachi moved to shut down the News International in Karachi yesterday, but management forced them to back down. Journalists and lawyers have been at the center of the demonstrations, marching against the state of emergency declared this weekend by President Pervez Musharraf. Kamal Siddiqi, editor of the News International, says hundreds of press workers and journalists assembled at the printing press and made sure the paper went out. Siddiqi says reporters and editors are struggling against edicts from the government about what they can and cannnot say. \"We've got a written order that we cannot write anything against the president, the office of the prime minister, and also things against the national interest,\" Siddiqi says. \"These are very gray areas for us to who interprets what is national interest.\" Siddiqi says his paper has continued publishing reports about the unrest. Police continue to arrest attorneys protesting the suspension of the nation's constitution. Many of the arrests have involved physical force. The editor says he and his colleagues have been stunned by the ferocity of the attacks. \"Policemen are going all out and beating up lawyers and journalists whenever they get the chance.\" Earlier: Kamal Siddiqi tells what happened when the police showed up at his office. LUKE BURBANK, host: Well, more on these protests we started the show talking about in Pakistan. Lawyers and journalists have been protesting the suspension of the constitution and a clamp down on the media. Kamal Siddiqi is editor of reporting at the News International in Karachi, Pakistan. He's on the phone with us now from the press club in Karachi. Hi, Kamal. Mr. KAMAL SIDDIQI (Editor, News International): Hi. Hello. BURBANK: Thanks a lot for coming on. Yesterday, we talked to you, and you said the government was actually trying to shut down your printing press. Are you still up and running today? Mr. SIDDIQI: Well, we are up and running. What happened yesterday was the government backed off after hundreds of press workers and journalists assembled at the printing press and said that they would go ahead and print, anyway. We did manage to win a small battle there, but the noose is tightening on the press these days in Pakistan. BURBANK: You're at the press club right now. What exactly are the fellow journalists there talking about? Mr. SIDDIQI: Well, the journalists are talking about the fact that press freedoms are being restricted. There's a very cryptic, gray area where the government is saying a lot of things that we can do and we cannot do. And they feel that their job is being restricted. Overnight, it's been curtailed very much. BURBANK: When you say things you can do and not do, what aren't they allowing journalists to do? Mr. SIDDIQI: Well, first of all, we've got a written order that we should not write anything against the president, the office of the prime minister, and also things against the national interest. And these are very gray areas for us as to who interprets what is national interest. BURBANK: So what are you doing at your paper? Are you still writing things that are, you know, could be seen as critical of President Pervez Musharraf? Mr. SIDDIQI: Yes, we are. In fact, we're one of the only papers that's taking the lead in writing stories about what is actually happing in the country. You may recall there's a news blackout in terms of the broadcast media, almost all the news channels on TV has been asked not to broadcast. And because of which, people are hungry for information. And there a lot of rumors floating about about what's happening in the country. In such a situation, we are trying to give the most accurate picture available. ALISON STEWART, host: Kamal, is there any suggestion that you should report only positive news or promote what's going on? Mr. SIDDIQI: Yes, there are. We are getting advice on that count. For example, the stock market crashed yesterday. We were told to report only positive things and not go into too much detail about why it happened. And there are other instances as well, where we're being encouraged to write things that are not controversial. BURBANK: Well, the crux of the story seems to still be the clashes between lawyers in Pakistan and the police there. What's the latest today? Are they still rounding up lawyers and arresting them and that sort of thing? Mr. SIDDIQI: Yes. We have seen some of that happening in Karachi and other parts of the country as well today. Lawyers that were picked up yesterday, some of them have been released today. But we are more stunned by the ferocity of the attacks where policemen are going all out and beating up - mercilessly beating up lawyers and journalists whenever they get the chance. BURBANK: I was reading on CNN.com this morning that - they were reporting that police were being paid bonuses if they beat or, you know, sort of arrested journalists. Have you", "As fire fighters in California's wine country worked frantically to contain and put out devastating wildfires that killed at least 42 people in recent weeks, and while his officers were still evacuating residents and searching through the burned ruins of homes for missing persons, Sonoma County Sheriff Rob Giordano had another problem to address. \"I want to talk about something, there's a little rumor control issue,\" Giordano said during a news briefing updating the media and area residents on fire fighting efforts, evacuation orders and other urgent matters. Giordano explained that a couple of days earlier, his officers had arrested a homeless man for starting a small fire to keep warm in a local park where he was known to sleep. \"There's a story out there that he's the arsonist for these fires,\" Giordano said. \"That is not the case. There's no indication he is related to these fires at all.\" The erroneous story came from Breitbart News, the right-wing website run by President Trump's former political strategist Steve Bannon. It reported that an undocumented immigrant had been: \"arrested for suspicion of arson in Wine Country fires that have killed at least 40 residents.\" That, Sheriff Giordano said, simply was not true. \"I just want to kill that speculation right now so we didn't have things running too far out of control.\" After this story was shot down by the sheriff and was debunked by Politifact Factcheck.org, and Snopes, Breitbart eventually added a clarification. But the damage had been done — the original story had spun out of control. One version was shared nearly 60,000 times on Facebook and a follow-up piece with the same false narrative was shared 75,000 times. That does not include the number of times the story was tweeted out or shared through other social media platforms, nor does it include how often it was picked up and pushed out by other right wing sites, including Drudge Report and InfoWars. This is an example of how false information is being spread through the big social media platforms and it raises questions about whether companies such as Facebook and Twitter are doing enough to stop it. Because even as the wild fires still raged, the false stories ignited a squabble between the Sonoma County Sheriff and Trump Administration, as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement criticized the Sheriff's office as a \"non-cooperative jurisdiction\" that \"left their community vulnerable to dangerous individuals.\" Giordano again had to set the record straight, calling the ICE director's comment \"misleading, inaccurate, and inflammatory.\" This is not the only instance in recent weeks that law enforcement authorities have had to spend time and resources during a crisis trying to stop rumors and misinformation. In Houston after Hurricane Harvey, phony news photographs proliferated on social media supposedly showing the airport underwater and sharks swimming through flooded streets. Authorities also had to quell false rumors that levees had burst and that a dam had failed. After the Las Vegas massacre, officials angrily addressed virally-spreading conspiracy theories, including one about a second shooter. \"There is no conspiracy,\" Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said angrily in one briefing. \"Nobody is attempting to hide anything in reference to this investigation.\" With the advent of social media allowing people to tweet out rumor as fact, or to deliberately spread false information to promote a political point of view, law enforcement officials across the country increasingly find themselves in need of truth squads. \"We are hiring people to do just that,\" says Sheriff Sandra Hutchens of Orange County, Calif., and president of the Major County Sheriffs of America. \"[People] that just communicate with the public and try and get that information out there... to counter a lot of the negative and in some cases false news that is out there.\" \"It is resource intensive\" at a time law enforcement budgets are tight, Hutchens says, but she adds it is a good thing for law enforcement to develop a strong social media presence of their own, to provide urgent information on developing situations and quell misinformation that could put residents in danger. She acknowledges, though, that some people continue to believe a false narrative even after hearing the facts. \"You know, the political tempo is so high right now, I think that then people are just not listening to what the truth is,\" Hutchens says. To some degree, this is what the creators and disseminators of false content intend. They use automated systems to search for and push out misleading articles and misinformation reinforcing certain points of view, and then place them into people's social media feeds who read and share similar items. \"So if we see something and it agrees with our assumptions, we are more likely to believe it and share it,\" says Indiana University journalism professor Elaine Monaghan. Monaghan says social media user", "One of the most lethal militant groups in Afghanistan is expanding its influence: The Taliban-allied Haqqani network, which targets NATO troops in Afghanistan from its base in Pakistan in the tribal area of North Waziristan, has begun to flex its muscle in another of Pakistan's strategic border areas: Kurram. Members of the Haqqani clan have just resolved one of the thorniest issues in Pakistan's Kurram Agency: the abduction in July of a group of Shiites by Sunni militants. They were kidnapped in July as their convoy of vehicles rolled through the treacherous militant-controlled roads of Lower Kurram. This past week, all six were freed, and a Shiite elder proclaimed that \"it boosted the image of the Haqqanis.\" Two members of the Afghan fighting family, Ibrahim and Khalil Haqqani, are being hailed as peacemakers in Kurram, which has been long troubled by clashes between Sunnis and Shiites. Upper Kurram, which is predominantly Shiite, juts into Afghanistan like a thumb. Snow-covered mountains form the natural border. Small prop planes are the only way in as Sunni militants have blocked the land routes. A bumpy journey to the border passes through orchards and fresh pine forests. But the sectarian strife in Kurram has soaked the land in blood. From his home near the border, Shiite elder Aun Ali Turi says battles between the Shiites and the Sunnis killed several thousand people and displaced many more. He says the Pakistani Taliban fought alongside the Sunnis, and when the militants failed to take control of Upper Kurram, they sealed all roads leading in and out. \"It was the Taliban that fomented hatred and sectarian violence,\" he says.  \"We Shiites asked the authorities to stop them, but they didn't. So, there were clashes, killings and burned villages.\" Effects of the feud and the subsequent blockade can be seen in Upper Kurram's schools, where there is no furniture. Veiled and bright-eyed young girls sit on freezing floors in neat rows. Hospitals report shortages of medicine. Shops display empty shelves. Scarcities worsened when Pakistan closed several border crossings last month into Afghanistan where residents routinely stopped. In recent weeks, Sunni and Shiite elders convened a series of jirgas, or tribal gatherings, in a bid to reach a truce. Jirga members confirm that the two Haqqani brothers instrumental in freeing the Shiite hostages last week not only attended, but exerted powerful influence over the jirgas, which were quietly held in Pakistan's capital and other cities. Analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai says if the Haqqanis mediate an end to the blockade of Upper Kurram, they would be peace-brokers in a strategically situated district. \"If the Haqqanis can prevail upon the Sunni tribes and the Pakistani militants to lift this blockade, both sides -- the Shiites more than the Sunnis -- would be obliged,\" he said. \"And that I think will give the Haqqanis even more influence in this area.\" Many in violence-wracked Kurram express apprehension about why the Haqqanis have waded into their affairs. But as U.S. drone missiles target the Haqqani base in neighboring North Waziristan, and Pakistan's army considers an offensive there, the militant network may be desperate to secure a new sanctuary. Sources with knowledge of the recent jirgas say the Haqqanis are already establishing a foothold in Kurram. \"I think the Haqqanis know if there is a military operation, they could be harmed,\" Yusufzai said. \"So why not try to find a secure place before the action begins? If they can't move into Afghanistan, they'll try to find some place in Pakistan, some other place.\" The Haqqani network's center of activity in Afghanistan lies just across the border from Kurram. One prominent Shiite, who is in close contact with members of the jirgas, said the Haqqanis have demanded a safe corridor to Afghanistan. But, he says, no member of the jirgas dares acknowledge that out of fear of retribution. Jirga member Sajid Hussain Turi says that the Haqqanis made no such request -- yet. But if they do, the Shiite parliamentarian says, they will be rebuffed. \"Only local Shiite and Sunni should have free movement, no nonlocals,\" Turi says. \"And we will never accept any demand for free passage.\" He added: \"We can give life and take life as well, and we will not accept any pressure -- be it Haqqani ... or the [Pakistani Taliban].\" It may be that the Haqqani efforts at peacemaking ignite another conflict.", "President Obama plays host Wednesday to the leaders of two countries that have been a central focus of his administration's foreign policy: Afghanistan and Pakistan. Both are facing a resurgent Taliban, and Obama administration officials believe the two countries need each other to counter extremism in the region. When Obama chose Richard Holbrooke to be a special representative for both countries, the idea was simple: You can't fix Afghanistan without Pakistan's help. Now, Pakistan looks to be the more urgent problem for the United States. Holbrooke was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, trying to convince skeptical lawmakers that they should be helping a Pakistani president whom many feel is not a reliable partner. \"Our goal must be unambiguously to support and help stabilize a democratic Pakistan headed by its elected president, Asif Ali Zardari,\" Holbrooke said. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) was not easily convinced. \"Let me be blunt,\" Ackerman said. \"Pakistan's pants are on fire.\" Ackerman argued that rather than recognizing the urgent danger of extremism in Pakistan, the country's leaders \"seem convinced that if left alone or attacked piecemeal, the Islamist flame will simply burn itself out.\" A Balancing Act Holbrooke tried to tamp down the drama at a time when Congress is considering tripling nonmilitary aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year. \"We do not think Pakistan is a failed state,\" Holbrooke said. Rather, he said, it is a government that is facing tremendous challenges and needs U.S. help to counter the Taliban. Obama has a delicate balancing act Wednesday as well. On the one hand, the administration needs to persuade Congress to boost both military and nonmilitary aid to Pakistan and show that Pakistan's government deserves the support. On the other hand, the administration has been trying to turn up the heat on Zardari's government to take decisive action against extremists and ensure the safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Obama administration officials also have complicated relations with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, though he was upbeat on the eve of the trilateral meetings. Speaking at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, Karzai said that there have been difficult moments in U.S.-Afghan relations. \"We've had ups and downs,\" he said, referring to U.S. complaints about corruption in Afghanistan, and Afghan concerns about civilian casualties in the war. But, Karzai said, \"the fundamentals of this relationship are very, very strong.\" Holbrooke says Wednesday's meetings are \"historically important.\" The delegations from Afghanistan and Pakistan will meet separately and jointly with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the State Department and with Obama at the White House. Holbrooke pointed out that many of the government officials have never met each other, \"yet for the United States, our most vital national security interests depend on cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan.\" Holbrooke said the two countries have a long and complicated history of animosity, and the idea of these trilateral meetings is to come up with some concrete guidelines to cooperate in the fight against extremists. RENEE MONTAGNE, host: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. STEVE INSKEEP, host: And I'm Steve Inskeep. Like it or not, the fate of President Obama's foreign policy is linked to the performance of two men he meets today. They are the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan. One governs the country where President Obama is escalating a war. The other governs a country that's seen as the key to stability in the region. Both foreign leaders have come under sharp criticism and both face a resurgent Taliban. Our coverage begins with NPR's Michele Kelemen. MICHELE KELEMEN: When President Obama picked Richard Holbrooke to be a special representative for both countries, the idea was simple: You can't fix Afghanistan without Pakistan's help. But now Pakistan looks to be the more urgent problem for the U.S., and Holbrooke spent a couple of hours on Capitol Hill yesterday trying to explain why the U.S. needs to help a Pakistani president who many here don't see as a reliable partner. Mr. RICHARD HOLBROOKE (U.S. Special Envoy): Our goal must be unambiguously to support and help stabilize a democratic Pakistan headed by its elected president, Asif Ali Zardari. KELEMEN: But members of Congress, including Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from New York, need a lot more convincing. Representative GARY ACKERMAN (Democrat, New York): Let me be blunt. Pakistan's pants are on fire. Pakistan's leaders, rather than recognizing and moving to address the urgent danger to their constitution and country, instead seem convinced that if left alone that a - or attacked piecemeal, the Islamist flame will simply burn itself out. That hope is at best folly. KELEMEN: Ambassador Holbrooke tried to tamp down the drama at a time when Congress is considering tripling non-milit", "NPR correspondents are taking The Two-Way with them along the historic Grand Trunk Road that stretches from the Bay of Bengal in the east to the Hindu Kush mountains in the west, across the Indian subcontinent. They're preparing an upcoming Morning Edition series about life along the route, and we've been getting reports from them since April 14. Click here to see all of the team's posts. Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep, who is joining the team in Pakistan for his part of the effort, says that \"a new generation is growing up along that ancient road\" and that the show will be telling the stories of those young Indians and Pakistanis who face vast opportunities -- and vast problems. Today, we hear from one of the producers of the series about books that those on the team found useful as they've been working on the project: By Nicole Beemsterboer We've been reading a lot. When I asked our team to send me what's been sitting on their night tables, my in-box immediately filled with mentions of more than 30 books. This is by no means a complete list: Few accounts can capture the horror of British India's partition in 1947 -- it separated the country into today's India and Pakistan -- but Khushwant Singh's historical novel, Train to Pakistan, recommended by correspondent Philip Reeves, comes close. The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan, by British historian Yasmin Kahn, is another easy read that provides historical context and lays bare the atrocities of an oft forgotten catastrophe. And the first 40 or so pages of Arthur Herman's Ghandi and Churchill looks at partition through two leaders whose rivalry reveals just how similar they were. Steven Inskeep, by the way, reviewed the book for The Daily Beast. It \"had me from the first word,\" he says. Read More >> Correspondent Julie McCarthy recommends Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, which deconstructs the last year of British India. And, she says, historian Ramachandra Guha contends that modern India has been much less studied, a problem he remedies with his massive and readable India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy. There's also In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India by Edward Luce. If you have time to read only one book that demonstrates how modern Pakistan became what it is, you could do worse than Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan: His Life and Times, by Stanley Wolpert. It's the story of Benazir's father, a former president and prime minister who served military dictators and defied them, advanced democracy and undermined it. One New Year's Eve he told a gathering of businessmen they need not worry about him; there was no truth whatsoever to an evil rumor that he was about to nationalize all the banks. On New Year's Day, the businessmen awoke to news that Bhutto had just nationalized the banks. It's hard to separate South Asia's history from its military history, which goes back much farther than the wars of recent years. The armies of Pakistan and India were once the single Army of India, commanded by British officers. And in Kabul Catastrophe: The Invasion and Retreat 1839-1842, Patrick MacRory details one of their low points. For a more modern look, choose Military, Inc., by Ayesha Siddiqa. She exposes the way Pakistan's military has taken over the economy. A military government tried to stop the sale of her book. V. S. Naipul covered much more than the Grand Trunk Road while writing his travelogue, An Area of Darkness, in the early 1960s. The first of three books on India, Naipul takes a hard and unflattering look at his native country. His honest and stark writing would win him a Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001. Descent into Chaos is a remarkably detailed and comprehensive retrospective by Ahmed Rashid. There is no denying his extensive knowledge of south Asia and the political events surrounding it before and since 9/11. Chaos is unparalleled and insightful, but be warned: this not for the casual reader. Steve says that My Feudal Lord, by Tehmina Durrani, is \"the scandalous memoir of her life as the wife of 'the lion of the Punjab,' a great political boss in the Pakistani Peoples Party. Finding him abusive and unfaithful, she divorced him, and was ostracized by her own family. She got them all back by writing this bestseller in 1994.\" Then there are Days and Nights on the Grand Trunk Road by Anthony Weller and Rudyard Kipling's classic, Kim. Weller took his journey on the 50th anniversary of partition and takes the same road we will. When it comes to works of fiction, there are countless examples from Indian authors and several emerging from Pakistanis. I won't list them all here, but our producer for the India leg of the journey, Nishant Dahiya, who was born and raised there, says Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children is \"still perhaps the best book on India.\" He also says that Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, set in India in the second half of the 20th Century, sho", "Men and women were piling in to a panel at a recent book festival in Pakistani city Karachi, but a speaker was late. \"In a country which is infamous for missing persons,\" the moderator, Javed Jabbar, announced, \"we have a missing speaker.\" \"Khuda na khasta,\" Jabbar added, \"God forbid\" in Urdu — \"it is not due to the reason why people sometimes disappear from Pakistan.\" Jabbar, a prominent writer, was referring to the disappeared — shorthand for thousands of Pakistanis taken over the years by plain-clothed men who activists say are linked to intelligence services, some never to return. Their numbers include suspected militants, insurgents and increasingly, activists say, peaceful critics of Pakistan's military. Activists say it's a taboo issue in Pakistan and they can be punished for talking about it. But this was the Karachi Literature Festival, an annual event produced by Oxford University Press, held at a seaside hotel over the weekend. Writers and participants frenetically dissected Pakistan's pressing problems. What they couldn't say outright, they tucked into humor, winks and nods. \"We have a way of dealing with this kind of shrinking or diminishing space,\" said Bina Shah, a writer who hosted a panel on the #MeToo movement against the sexual harassment of women. She referred to the military dictator Zia ul-Haq, who ruled for a decade before he died in a plane crash in 1988. \"We learnt different ways of saying things. We learnt to speak around obstacles. We learnt to use code.\" The festival has been running for the past nine years, and the issues it raises in any given year offer a snapshot of Pakistani life. What's more, the way those issues are discussed signal the ebb and flow of freedoms in a country that's flipped between civilian rule and military dictatorship since its birth in 1947. Funded in part by corporate sponsors, the Karachi Literature Festival is considered the biggest, most dynamic of its kind in Pakistan. It's where writers hope to be showcased and speak on panels. The event is free and open to the public, giving it a rare buzz shared among the city's residents, from elites to provincial students. The mood among many liberal Pakistanis has turned quietly grim over the past year, after four middle-class bloggers who criticized the military vanished for several weeks in December 2016 and January 2017. Most recently, Reza Kahn, a man who advocated peace between India and Pakistan, was seized on Dec. 2. Khan's brother said the abduction came after he engaged in a heated political discussion at a public event. That was not the fate of the speaker in the panel that Jabbar was moderating. Minutes after he made his tongue-in-cheek announcement, the speaker entered. \"Welcome, welcome, you were marked absent!\" Jabbar said. \"Thank God, the agencies have returned you,\" he joked. The panel's speakers spoke carefully but critically about Pakistan's security problems, including what they claim is the government's support of militant groups. Pakistan's government denies the claim. Audience members pressed speakers on corruption in the government and the military. The atmosphere was set at the festival's opening ceremony. Writer Asif Farrukhi urged attendees to meditate on Pakistan's problems, even while celebrating books, poetry and music. \"We must not forget the looming darkness which dances all around these rings of light,\" he said. \"Look at the increased fragility of our society and the sense of crisis it generates. We are increasingly a society that nurtures monstrous figures of intolerance.\" That sense of urgency repeated across panels over 2 1/2 days, with discussions like \"Universities or Nurseries of Terrorism?\" A book launch for The Faltering State: Pakistan's Internal Security Landscape, and another for The Impact of Afghan-Soviet War on Pakistan. Pakistanis longed for these conversations, said Mehboub, 37, a philosophy teacher and devout Muslim, who only gave his first name. \"These are things that people are desperate to hear, desperate to discuss, desperate to have a dialogue.\" It's a balancing act, said Ameena Saiyid, founding director of the festival. Part of the event's mission is to debate. \"It's very important to have a discussion — to let off steam and also to arrive at some kind of decision,\" she said. But, she added, some issues could not be discussed openly. There are \"thousands of people who are going to attend this festival. We have to think of their security and their safety, and I feel there are some topics that would place them at risk.\" For those topics, there were other ways. \"Through drama or plays,\" she said, \"there are many issues that can be covered that you could not possibly cover, you know, in an outright lecture or outright debate.\" On Saturday, the literary festival staged a play, Chup (\"Silence\"), directed by Sunil Shankar, which refers to the disappeared, through the eyes of a family who receive mysterious calls. For some at the festival this did not go far enoug", "In the latest blow to already fragile ties between the United States and Pakistan, the Defense Department said on Saturday it has suspended $300 million in funding to Islamabad over what it calls the government's failure to take action against terrorists. The suspension is part of a broader pullback in military aid for Pakistan announced by the Trump administration in January. The administration says Pakistan is not taking strong enough steps to combat the Taliban and other groups. Pakistan, which serves as a key route for transporting supplies to U.S. forces in Afghanistan, has repeatedly denied harboring terrorists. The aid that's being suspended comes from the Coalition Support Fund (CSF), which is used to reimburse U.S. partners for logistical and military support to U.S. military operations in the region. \"Due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy,\" the $300 million was redirected to \"other urgent priorities\" before those funds were set to expire on September 30, U.S. Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Koné Faulkner told NPR. The South Asia Strategy, announced by President Trump last August, encompasses Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and the Central Asian nations and aims in part to \"stop the resurgence of safe havens that enable terrorists to threaten America,\" according to a press release from the Department of Defense. Extremists often use Pakistan to take refuge from American military action in Afghanistan. \"Pakistan has much to gain from partnering with [this effort] in Afghanistan,\" the president said during a speech last August. \"It has much to lose by continuing to harbor criminals and terrorists.\" Under the Department of Defense's Appropriations Act of 2018, signed by the president in March, Pakistan would not be refunded for any defense operations unless the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of State certified that it is \"cooperating with the United States in 12 counterterrorism efforts.\" The announcement over aid comes as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford are preparing to meet this week with Pakistan's newly elected prime minister, Imran Khan. From there, Pompeo and Dunford will travel to India, Pakistan's main rival, for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Khan inherited a struggling economy, and is expected to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout worth upwards of $12 billion, according to the New York Times. Last month, Pompeo warned that the IMF bailout shouldn't be used to pay off debts owed to China. Earlier this year, the U.S. accused Pakistan of sponsoring extremist groups, including the Taliban, and requested the country be placed on a global terror \"gray list\" that would make it more difficult to obtain international loans. Pakistan was able to avoid landing on the list. On Sunday, Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, said he hopes Pompeo's visit \"will be done in an amicable matter, strengthening the ties,\" reported local press. \"We continue to press Pakistan to indiscriminately target all terrorist groups, including the Haqqani Network and LET in the region,\" Lt. Col. Faulkner said, referring to the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. \"DoD is awaiting congressional determination on whether this reprogramming request will be approved or denied.\" The Defense Department will receive that congressional response before September 30, when the funds expire.", "President-elect Donald Trump spoke by phone with Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in one of the many routine, get-acquainted chats he'll have before entering the White House. These talks rarely if ever make news, but Wednesday's conversation raised eyebrows because Trump lavished praise on Sharif and Pakistan despite years of tension between the two countries. Here's part of the read-out of their conversation, as released by Pakistan's Press Information Department: \"President Trump said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif you have a very good reputation. You are a terrific guy. You are doing amazing work which is visible in every way. I am looking forward to see you soon. As I am talking to you Prime Minister, I feel I am talking to a person I have known for long. Your country is amazing with tremendous opportunities. Pakistanis are one of the most intelligent people. I am ready and willing to play any role that you want me to play to address and find solutions to the outstanding problems.\" Michael Kugelman, a South Asia associate at the Wilson Center, says it was not a full or verbatim transcript, but \"the tone of the conversation and even some of the words that were used were the type of language that Donald Trump would use.\" Dan Markey, with Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said it's remarkable Trump would be so effusive, given the troubled relationship between the countries. \"Calling into question what kind of ally Pakistan has been, war on terrorism, hiding of Osama bin Laden, criticizing them for that, suggestions that Pakistan is no kind of friend of the United States,\" said Markey, referring to previous remarks by Trump. Back in 2012, Trump tweeted, \"Get it straight: Pakistan is not our friend. We've given them billions and billions of dollars, and what did we get? Betrayal and disrespect — and much worse. #TimeToGetTough\" Markey said Trump's offer to help Sharif with \"any outstanding problems\" could be interpreted by Pakistanis to mean Kashmir, a territory claimed by both Pakistan and its arch-rival, India. The countries have fought two wars over Kashmir and still trade fire in the Himalayan territory. Markey says India is likely concerned about Trump's conversation with Sharif. \"When loose comments about helping Pakistan with whatever it needs are made, Indians can't help but wonder how the Pakistanis will try to use that to their advantage,\" he said. Kugelman, of the Wilson Center, said this shows it's hard to know what to expect from Trump, especially when it comes to foreign policy. \"Here we are expecting ... Trump would be in no hurry to reach out to Pakistan and then he happily accepts a call from its prime minister and says incredibly nice things,\" he said. \"So who knows what's in store?\" White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Obama has benefited from the expertise of career diplomats at the State Department in dealing with foreign leaders. \"I think President Trump would certainly benefit from it in the same way President Obama did when he took office,\" Earnest said. Trump's transitional team released its own read-out of the conversation, saying the talk was \"productive\" and that the president-elect looked forward to working with Sharif. The Pakistani government press office later released a second version of the conversation between the two men. It was more toned down than the first, but still mentioned that \"Pakistan is a fantastic country of fantastic people.\" ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Part of every president-elect's agenda is taking calls from foreign leaders. Those official conversations tend to be pretty dry - all careful talk about looking forward to working together. That was not how it played out on Wednesday when President-elect Donald Trump got a call from Pakistan's prime minister. NPR's Jackie Northam reports. JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: President-elect Trump has never been to Pakistan or met its prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, but he thinks the Pakistani leader has a very good reputation, is a terrific guy and doing amazing work. That's according to a readout of their conversation that was released by the Pakistani government's press office - two paragraphs of Trump gushing about Pakistan, saying he'd love to visit the fantastic country of fantastic people. MICHAEL KUGELMAN: I was completely surprised. NORTHAM: Michael Kugelman is a South Asia associate at the Wilson Center. He says it's not a verbatim transcript, but it has the ring of truth. KUGELMAN: The tone of the conversation and even some of the words that were used were the type of language that Donald Trump would use. NORTHAM: Dan Markey with Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies says it's remarkable Trump would be so effusive given the troubled relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan and Trump's own critical statements about the country. DAN MARKEY: Calling into question what kind of an ally Pakistan has been, the war on terrorism, the hiding of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan - c", "India celebrated 60 years of independence from British rule Wednesday in a triumphant mood, with a sense of pride that the nation was finally taking its rightful place among the world's leading powers. Wednesday's celebration came a day after neighboring Pakistan marked its independence from Britain with colorful displays of national pride. Tens of thousands rallied throughout the world's second most populous Muslim nation, waving Pakistan's olive-green flag with a white crescent. Others held prayer gatherings at home. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in a national Independence Day address, said \"the best is yet to come.\" But with many of India's 1.1 billion people being left behind by the country's lightning economic growth, Singh warned: \"we must not be overconfident.\" Britain's partition of the subcontinent in 1947 brought one of modern history's biggest mass migrations as some 10 million people crossed the newly created frontier, and one of its bloodiest chapters as sectarian and religious fighting killed hundreds of thousands. On Wednesday, the fault lines that have so long divided India also were apparent with security tight across the country, especially in places where insurgencies are simmering. In Kashmir, mobile phone service was shut down in a bid to prevent the usual Independence Day violence. Singh, however, focused on the challenges faced by a country where children are more likely to be malnourished than in Africa and that is home to about a third of the people in the world living on less than $1 a day. \"India cannot become a nation with islands of high growth and vast areas untouched by development, where the benefits of growth accrue only to a few,\" he told a crowd of thousands of dignitaries and schoolchildren dressed in the orange, white and green of the Indian flag. Singh spoke from behind a bulletproof screen atop the ramparts of the historic Red Fort, the massive 17th-century sandstone structure built by the Mogul emperors who ruled much of modern-day India before the British arrived. His speech touched on a range of domestic issues - from plans to invest $6.25 billion in agriculture, which provides a livelihood for two-thirds of Indians, to improving schools in the country where a third of the people remain illiterate. \"Gandhi's dream of a free India will only be fully realized when we banish poverty from our midst,\" Singh said, referring to independence leader Mohandas Gandhi. He also pledged to press ahead with industrialization and build \"first-rate infrastructure\" - moves that in the past year have led to repeated clashes between police and farmers who don't want their land plowed under to make way for factories. Conspicuously absent from his speech was any talk of neighboring Pakistan - India's longtime rival. From NPR reports and The Associated Press", "Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was in Washington, D.C., today to discuss upcoming elections in Pakistan. Bhutto, who leads the opposition Pakistan People's Party, plans to return to her home in mid-October, ending eight years of self-imposed exile. Bhutto said she is hoping to run for office again, and has been negotiating with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf about a power-sharing deal. The former leader indicated that those talks have not gone well. ROBERT SIEGEL, host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel. MELISSA BLOCK, host: And I'm Melissa Block. Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is in Washington today, talking about the upcoming elections in her country. Bhutto leads the opposition Pakistan People's Party. She plans to return to her home in mid-October, ending eight years of self-imposed exile. She's been negotiating with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf about a power-sharing deal. As NPR's Jackie Northam reports, today, Bhutto indicated that those talks have not gone well. JACKIE NORTHAM: Benazir Bhutto's address, organized by the Middle East Institute, was at turns a political campaign speech - an admonishment of the Bush administration's support for President Musharraf and a subtle warning to the Pakistani president that her patience and time to forge a power-sharing deal are running out. She referred to Musharraf as a dictator and his government as a military regime that has allowed terrorists safe havens to thrive along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan over the past few years. Ms. BENAZIR BHUTTO (Former Prime Minister, Pakistan): When I look back to the series of events following 9/11, it appears to me that military dictatorship has fueled extremism. NORTHAM: Bhutto chided the Bush administration for backing Musharraf, calling it a strategic miscalculation. Bhutto disputed that Musharraf was a vital asset in fighting extremism. Ms. BHUTTO: General Musharraf has tried convincing the world that he is the only one standing in the way of a extremist takeover of nuclear-armed Pakistan. In fact, military rule is the cause of the anarchic situation in Pakistan. Extremism thrives under dictatorship. NORTHAM: The Bush administration is pushing for a deal between Bhutto and Musharraf that could return her to power. Bhutto was ousted from office twice and faces a number of court cases in connection with corruption and money laundering. One of the conditions she's attached to any power-sharing deal is to have those cases in Pakistan against her dropped. Bhutto also wants Musharraf to give up his position as army chief of staff. He said he will do so only if he is reelected as president. For his part, Musharraf wants Bhutto's party, the PPP, not to resign from parliament as many other opposition parties say they will do if Musharraf runs. The negotiations between the two sides have gone on for months. Bhutto says they've now hit a wall. Ms. BHUTTO: The dialogue that we have held over so many months has stalled because extremist sympathizers and his party refused to accept a democratic process. NORTHAM: Bhutto issued a not-so-veiled warning that her party will meet in London on October 3rd, three days before Pakistan's presidential elections, to make a decision about a power-sharing deal. Either way, she says, she still plans to return home to Pakistan October 18th. Jackie Northam, NPR News, Washington.", "Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S. has resigned amid a brewing scandal involving his country's civilian leadership and its powerful military. Hussain Haqqani, a well-regarded ambassador for more than three years, is alleged to have been involved in writing a memo that asked the U.S. to prevent a military coup in Pakistan, something he denies. This latest crisis will do little to calm an already-turbulent relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. The scandal that has consumed Pakistan over the past few weeks has been dubbed \"Memogate.\" It pulls in officials from the highest offices in both Islamabad and Washington. The controversy centers on a memo sent to Adm. Mike Mullen, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shortly after the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in May. The note, according to some reports written on behalf of President Asif Ali Zardari, asks the U.S. to help prevent a military coup. In return, according to the memo, Pakistan's civilian government made a wide range of promises that would be detrimental to the country's military and intelligence networks. The memo only came to light after a Pakistani businessman, Mansoor Ijaz, wrote about it in the Financial Times. Ijaz said Haqqani asked him to have the letter delivered to Mullen. Daniel Markey, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, says it's a complicated plot that seems almost surreal. \"I guess it's one of those things that you wouldn't have believed if you hadn't seen it written somewhere,\" he said, \"and you might not believe if it weren't Pakistan. You see these kind of crazy crises come and go.\" A spokesman for Mullen said the admiral did see the unsigned letter, but essentially ignored it because he didn't consider it credible. The Pakistani media continued to run with the story, and the pressure built on both Haqqani and Zardari. Haqqani is close to Zardari, but is also known as a critic of Pakistan's powerful military. He told NPR he did not write or deliver the memo, but offered his resignation to help end the controversy. Anthony Cordesman, with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says Haqqani didn't have much choice. \"Once this whole idea that he was involved with the elected head of Pakistan and what appeared to be going to the United States to bypass the Pakistan military [caught on, it ] made it extremely difficult for him to stay,\" he said. \"And if he had stayed, [it] would have raised more and more questions about was this part of some plot between the president of Pakistan and the United States.\" Still, Cordesman says Pakistan will lose a strong voice in Washington. \"He was somebody who made very articulate cases for Pakistan's position,\" he said. \"What's not clear is a future ambassador who is more politically acceptable in Pakistan is going to be able to do anything as good a job in communicating between his country and the United States.\" Haqqani's departure may give Zardari a bit of breathing room, but it's unlikely to quell the uproar over Memogate, Markey says. He says the scandal is just part of a much larger problem in Pakistan — the struggle between the civilian and military leadership. \"The centerpiece of the crisis is the question about whether the military or civilians really run the country. And most analysts have concluded that the military calls the shots in Pakistan,\" he said. \"Even though you have an elected president and parliament, that when push comes to shove, the military decides how Pakistan's foreign policy and, in fact, a lot of its domestic politics will be decided.\" Pakistan's military has ruled the country for more than half its 64-year existence, and has either pushed out or seized power from several civilian governments. Markey says that could be what's developing now. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: A new diplomat will take over one of the hardest jobs in Washington. It's the job of representing Pakistan to the United States at a time of poisonous relations between the two countries. LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: The post goes to Sherry Rehman. She is a lawmaker who lately faced threats to her life in Pakistan for her stance in favor of basic human rights. Now she replaces an ambassador who lost his job in a tangled episode. INSKEEP: Hussein Haqqani was accused of involvement in writing a memo to the U.S. military. It asked for help in fending off the power of Pakistan's own army. Haqqani said he didn't draft that memo, but he was happy to give up his job. NPR's Jackie Northam reports. JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: The scandal that has consumed Pakistan over the past few weeks has been dubbed Memogate, and it pulls in officials from the highest offices in both Islamabad and Washington. The controversy centers around a memo that was sent to Admiral Mike Mullen, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shortly after the killing of Osama bin Laden in May. The note, according to some reports, written on behalf of President Asif Ali Zardari, and asks the U.S. to h", "The bio of David Coleman Headley reads like a spy novel. The Chicago man who pleaded guilty this month to a role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks is the character who straddles two worlds, and leads a double life. Headley's mother was an American, a Philadelphia socialite. His father was a Pakistani diplomat. Headley enjoyed all the benefits that such a life can provide. As a young man, he attended elite schools in Pakistan and the United States, traveled often to South Asia and, with his American passport, attracted little attention. In fact, he drew so little notice that U.S. officials were unaware until relatively recently that he was building ties with militant groups in Pakistan. Among other things, he attended training camps run by a Pakistan-based Islamist group called Lashkar-e-Taiba and met with operatives from al-Qaida. While Lashkar claims to be focused on the tensions between Pakistan and India, U.S. officials say Headley is just another example of how the group's aspirations are growing. Now the chief concern of those officials is that Lashkar has recruited other Americans and intends to eventually send them back to attack the U.S. \"The issue with David Headley was very serious,\" says Rick \"Ozzie\" Nelson, who tracks counterterrorism at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. \"Not only was he recruited but he actually went overseas and conducted some very technical operations vis-a-vis surveillance and mapping of targets. And that's a higher level of support than we've seen. I think LeT is very sophisticated and will continue to try to recruit individuals like the David Headleys of the world that can help them conduct attacks in India and elsewhere.\" Headley is considered so important because of what his ties reveal about Lashkar's ambitions. While India remains the group's principal target, experts say Lashkar has been waging a low-grade holy war against the United States for at least a decade. Consider the Virginia Paintball case from 10 years ago. In 2000 and 2001, the FBI arrested a group of men playing paintball in the woods of Virginia. The men were using paintball games to do their own form of military training. Court papers revealed they had a Lashkar connection. \"Two of those people trained with Lashkar-e-Taiba before 9/11, and four of them trained with them after 9/11,\" says Stephen Tankel, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has a book on the group coming out in June. \"This is again a very good example of how LeT not only trains Westerners but how it then used them. There are rumors that one of them might have asked to do reconnaissance in the U.S., but nothing ever came of it. Again, this was a way for LeT to grow its network.\" The group's network is already vast. While it is based in Pakistan, it has people in the Persian Gulf, Europe and North America, and operatives as far away as Australia. \"This is a group with transnational networks that they are not necessarily going to use for attacks outside of South Asia — but that they could,\" Tankel says. U.S. officials haven't been able to do much about Lashkar-e-Taiba for political reasons. While Lashkar was supposed to be outlawed in Pakistan in 2002, court papers in the Headley case show it still has ties to former Pakistani military officials. And that makes it difficult to short-circuit the group. \"We have been very reluctant, even after Mumbai, to put pressure on the Pakistanis because we understand very well that Lashkar-e-Taiba is the preferred organization of the army, the Pakistan army, and their intelligence agency, the ISI,\" says Christine Fair, a fellow at West Point's Combating Terrorism Center and a professor at Georgetown University. She says Lashkar will continue to be protected as long as it is seen as a hedge against what Pakistan sees as its No. 1 enemy: India. But the development that most worries U.S. intelligence officials is that Lashkar is running training camps specifically for Westerners, who then can find their way to al-Qaida and the Taliban. That's the route David Headley took. It turns out Lashkar-e-Taiba actually introduced him to an al-Qaida operative in Pakistan. U.S. officials uncovered Headley's connection to the Mumbai plot because they were watching the man from al-Qaida. NOAH ADAMS, host: Earlier this month, a Chicago man pleaded guilty to helping plot the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai, India. David Coleman Headley said he attended militant training camps in Pakistan, and was linked to a group called Lashkar-e-Taiba. Lashkar claims to be focused on the tensions between Pakistan and India, but U.S. officials say the group's aspirations are broader, and that David Headley is proof. They're concerned Lashkar will recruit other Americans to attack America. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports. DINA TEMPLE-RASTON: David Headley's bio reads like a spy novel. He's the character who can straddle two worlds. His mother was an American, a Philadelphia socialite,", "An American arrested in Pakistan after fatally shooting two men on a crowded Lahore street was a contractor working for the CIA, according to a U.S. official familiar with the investigation. The case of Raymond Davis has strained U.S.-Pakistan relations, and as reports mount of connections to the CIA, it is likely to trigger a fierce anti-American backlash. The CIA would not comment on the case. Davis, a former Special Forces soldier who left the military in 2003, shot the men in what he described as an attempted armed robbery in the eastern city of Lahore as they approached him on a motorcycle. A third Pakistani, a bystander, died when a car rushing to help Davis struck him. Davis was reportedly carrying a Glock handgun, a pocket telescope and papers with different identifications. The U.S. is deeply concerned about Davis' physical well-being. A U.S. official said Davis is being held at a jail on the outskirts of Lahore where there are serious doubts about whether the Pakistanis can protect him. Dogs were being used to taste or smell his food \"to make sure it doesn't contain poison,\" a U.S. official said. A senior Pakistani intelligence official said the government had taken measures to ensure the safety of Davis, stepping up security at the facility, removing certain inmates from the prison and sending a contingent of well-trained paramilitaries known as the Rangers. Meanwhile, the Obama administration insisted anew Monday that Davis had diplomatic immunity and must be set free. In a hastily arranged conference call with reporters shortly after details of Davis' employment were reported, senior State Department officials repeated the administration's stance that he is an accredited member of the technical and administrative staff of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. They said the Pakistani government had been informed of his status in January 2010 and that Pakistan is violating its international obligations by continuing to hold him. The report that Davis was an employee of the CIA comes amid a tumultuous dispute over whether he is immune from criminal prosecution under international rules enacted to protect diplomats overseas. New protests in Pakistan erupted after The Guardian newspaper in London decided to publish details about Davis' relationship with the CIA. The U.S. had repeatedly asserted that Davis had diplomatic immunity and should have been released immediately. The State Department claimed Davis was \"entitled to full criminal immunity in accordance with the Vienna Convention'' and was a member of the \"technical and administrative staff'' at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. The State Department said the Pakistani government was informed that Davis was a diplomat and entitled to immunity when he was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad. \"We notified the Pakistani government when he arrived in Islamabad,'' department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. Davis told police he was a \"consultant\" working for the U.S. when he was arrested. He \"has repeatedly requested immunity'' to no avail, Crowley said. The U.S. Embassy said he has a diplomatic passport and a visa valid through June 2012. It also said in a recent statement the U.S. had notified the Pakistani government of Davis' assignment more than a year ago. However, the senior Pakistani intelligence official says that Davis' visa application contained bogus U.S. contact information. Since Pakistani authorities took Davis into custody Jan. 27, U.S. officials said, the situation has slowly escalated into a crisis, threatening the CIA's ability to wage a dangerous war against al-Qaida and militants. Some members of Congress have threatened to cut off the billions in funding to Pakistan if Davis isn't released. Davis was attached to the CIA's Global Response Staff, which provides security overseas to agency bases and stations, former and current U.S. officials told the AP. In that role, he was assigned to protect CIA personnel. One of their duties includes protecting case officers when they meet with sources. A U.S. official told NPR that \"Davis is a protective officer ... someone who provides security to U.S. officials in Pakistan.\" \"Rumors to the contrary are simply wrong,\" he said, referring to reports that Davis was conducting surveillance on militant groups deep inside Pakistan. With reporting from NPR's Julie McCarthy in Islamabad, Pakistan. This story also contains material from The Associated Press.", "As Taliban militants wage a growing insurgency in Pakistan, U.S. officials are increasingly anxious about the deteriorating security situation in a fragile country armed with nuclear weapons and vital to U.S. strategy in the region. Pakistan and Afghanistan form the core of one of President Obama's toughest foreign policy challenges. This week in Washington, Obama will meet with the presidents of those countries in order to improve relations and plot a way to counter Taliban and al-Qaida gains. The Obama administration appeared caught off guard by the speed of the Taliban offensive in Buner in April, when fighters moved into an area just 60 miles from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The offensive sparked high level meetings at the White House and the National Security Council. Senior U.S. diplomats and military officials began pressuring their Pakistani counterparts to go after the Taliban, but the Pakistani government and military seemed hesitant, even reluctant. Worry in Washington mounted over whether Pakistan's fragile government could survive. Taken To Task By Clinton The level of concern was made clear by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on April 22, when she accused the Pakistani government of \"basically abdicating to the Taliban and the extremists.\" Shortly after that statement, the Pakistani military began a counteroffensive. Andrew Exum, with the Center for a New American Security, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, says that Clinton's statement obviously hit a nerve in Pakistan's military circles. \"The Pakistani military still sees itself as a national institute that all Pakistanis should be proud of. And certainly when Hillary Clinton said something, that certainly attracted a lot of attention in Pakistan,\" Exum says. For years — and especially in recent months — U.S. officials have sought to persuade Pakistan that the Taliban represents a threat to its stability. Historically, Pakistan has seen neighboring India as its greatest threat. The Agenda In Washington The Obama administration has asked Congress to quickly approve hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency military aid for Pakistan — in addition to the billions in assistance Washington has and will continue to direct there since the Sept. 11 attacks. Pakistan's security, and U.S. support, are sure to be on the agenda when Obama holds talks with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai later this week at the White House. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is somewhat hopeful that the recent Taliban offensive may have finally sounded an alarm bell in Pakistan. \"I won't go as far as optimism, but [there are] some grounds to believe there is a growing awareness in Islamabad and in Pakistan that this is a threat to them,\" Gates said. But other U.S. officials say they will wait and see what the Pakistani government and military do in the coming days and months — whether they continue to pursue the Taliban or hammer out yet another peace deal with the militants. Daniel Markey, a South Asia specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations, says the evolving situation should push the Obama administration to review its strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now, the emphasis of that strategy is on Afghanistan. Markey says some in the Obama administration realize that Pakistan should be the focal point for new initiatives. \"They recognize this, but I think they're at least a step and a half behind on the Pakistan piece of the story,\" Markey says. U.S. Lacking Leverage Part of the problem is the U.S. has limited options in Pakistan, Exum says. He says the U.S. gained leverage in Afghanistan by deploying tens of thousands of American forces. That's not how it is in Pakistan, he says. \"We don't have any leverage in Pakistan, and I don't think anybody thinks it'd be good for us to put tens of thousands of troops on the ground in Pakistan. That would just aggravate the situation,\" Exum says. The Pakistani government has resisted accepting conditions on U.S. aid and balks at what it regards as Washington meddling in its affairs. Anti-American sentiment is high in Pakistan, and the government in Islamabad is sensitive about being viewed by the populace as a puppet of the American administration. One of the ways the Obama administration hopes to win Pakistan's cooperation and trust is to open further the financial spigots, help build its democratic institutions, boost its economy and help the military battle Islamist extremists. But there is reluctance among some members of Congress to loosen the purse strings without conditions or assurances that Pakistan will live up to its end of the bargain. Markey says the U.S. has two options: First, to make significantly greater investments in Pakistan, despite the frustrations. Or, step back and take another approach — containment. But, he adds, he doesn't believe the U.S. should pursue containment, or that the time for that decision i", "Pakistan reacted angrily to President Trump's first tweet of 2018, in which he accused the country of taking billions of dollars in U.S. aid while continuing to harbor militants. \"The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years,\" Trump tweeted on Monday morning, \"and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!\" Pakistan's foreign secretary, Tehmina Janjua, summoned U.S. Ambassador David Hale to complain about the tweet. \"We have already told the U.S. that we will not do more, so Trump's 'no more' does not hold any importance,\" Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif told Pakistani news channel Geo. \"Trump is disappointed at the U.S. defeat in Afghanistan and that is the only reason he is flinging accusations at Pakistan.\" Pakistan's National Security Committee, formed of senior military officials and government ministers, also convened Tuesday and expressed \"deep disappointment\" over the tweet, which it said \"struck with great insensitivity at the trust between [the] two nations built over generations, and negated the decades of sacrifices made by the Pakistani nation.\" The president's tweet reflected tensions that have been growing between Washington and Islamabad since Trump outlined his new strategy for the war in Afghanistan in August. Back then, Trump accused Pakistan of offering \"safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror.\" The U.S. has delivered billions in aid to Pakistan since 2002, but a deepening sense of distrust has marred the relationship. Pakistan says it has paid an enormous price as an ally in the war on terrorism. \"Seventy thousand lives for the last 16 years,\" says Shahzad Chaudhry, a retired air vice marshal, referring to the number of Pakistani civilians and soldiers killed in militant attacks — widely seen in Pakistan as blowback for the country's allying with the U.S. in the war on terrorism. \"The U.S. looks at Pakistan as a transactional nation,\" says Chaudhry. \"Used when needed, and trashed when not needed.\" Trump reiterated his message that Pakistan harbors terrorists in December, and it was echoed by Vice President Pence during a Dec. 21 visit to Afghanistan. Previous U.S. administrations have also accused Pakistan of playing a double game of allying with the U.S. while harboring militant networks loyal to the Taliban, seen as security assets. \"But the tone is much sharper under the Trump administration,\" notes Michael Kugelman, South Asia senior associate at the Wilson Center. The administration appears to see Pakistan as the chief reason the U.S. is not winning in Afghanistan, says Mosharraf Zaidi, an Islamabad-based columnist on political affairs for Pakistan's The News and co-host of a podcast on political affairs called How to Pakistan. \"I think what we're seeing now is a substantial reordering of the relationship,\" says Zaidi. \"This is actually a process. And the process is a downward decline in the quality of trust,\" he says, between the U.S. and \"the Pakistani military, which is all-powerful and controls most of what happens with respect to these relationships.\" Zaidi describes Trump's tweets as \"rhetorical coercion to see if they can scare Pakistan into doing some of the things that the U.S. would like Pakistan to do,\" referring to a crackdown on militants in Pakistan's border areas. Pakistan is unlikely bow to pressure, he says. In recent days, Pakistan's military appeared to signal a certain defiance to the United States. Last week, Hafiz Saeed, a cleric designated as a terrorist by the U.S., participated in a rally in Rawalpindi, where Pakistan's military headquarters is based. On Dec. 29, the New York Times reported that Pakistan refused to hand over a militant affiliated with the Haqqani network that is linked with the Taliban. U.S. officials believed the militant could provide information about an American kidnapped along with an Australian in Kabul in 2016. In response, the Trump administration was considering withholding a payment of $255 million to Pakistan's military, the paper reported. Withholding aid is one of several actions the U.S. is considering. In August, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson openly mulled over stripping Pakistan's designation as a major non-NATO ally. Analysts say the U.S. could also increase drone strikes targeting militants on Pakistani territory. Analysts say Pakistan is betting that the U.S. will not take drastic steps because Pakistan serves as the chief air corridor for U.S. military supplies and troops to reach Afghanistan. It also still shares at least some intelligence with the U.S. \"There are significant costs to the United States of rupturing the U.S.-Pakistan relationship,\" says the Wilson Center's Kugelman. \"Pakistan would be very likely to retaliate in ways that would imperil U.S. interests.\" One retired Pakistani general who is close to serving m" ]

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[ "Just is een prima zorgverzekering als je weinig tot geen zorg verwacht en voor mensen die hun zorgzaken graag online regelen. Heb je zorg uit de basisverzekering nodig en ga je naar een zorgverlener waar Just geen afspraken mee heeft gemaakt? Dan vergoedt Just 65% van de rekening.", "IJs (eten) IJs is een koude lekkernij. Het wordt vaak gemaakt van bevroren room, waar onder meer suiker en eieren bij zijn gedaan. IJs wordt soms ook gemaakt van bevroren siroop (dan heet het waterijs).", "Emmers kunnen van hout, leer of metaal gemaakt worden, kunststof is tegenwoordig de gebruikte grondstof. De inhoud van een huishoudemmer is ongeveer 10 liter. De inhoud van een bouwemmer is circa 12 liter. Grijze emmers gebruikt in de veehouderij hebben een inhoud van 12 of 20 liter.", "De Franse wet verbiedt het gebruik en bezit van cannabis. Er wordt ook geen onderscheid gemaakt tussen bezit voor persoonlijk gebruik of voor smokkel.", "Is een MRI-scan schadelijk? Nee. Schadelijke effecten van een MRI zijn niet bekend. Er wordt geen gebruik gemaakt van röntgenstraling.", "Een Algemene Maatregel van Bestuur (AMvB) is een besluit van de regering waarin wettelijke regels nader zijn uitgewerkt. In de milieuwetgeving wordt veel gebruik gemaakt van AMvB's, omdat daarin uitvoeringsgerichte regelgeving kan worden opgenomen.", "Echo's zijn niet schadelijk voor de gezondheid van de baby. Met behulp van geluidsgolven worden de organen en contouren van de baby in de buik zichtbaar gemaakt.", "Vandaar dat men soms spreekt van 'land- en tuinbouw' waar het woord 'landbouw' kennelijk naar akkerbouw verwijst, of van 'landbouw en veeteelt' waarbij landbouw alleen op het bewerken van bouwland slaat. De uitbater van een landbouwbedrijf wordt boer genoemd, of ook wel landbouwer of agrariër.", "Nee, olifanten zijn zeer zeker niet bang voor muizen. Er zijn inderdaad wel filmpjes, waaronder die van Mythbusters waar ze terug lijken te schrikken van muizen, maar dat is zeker niet wetenschappelijk verantwoord getest.", "Patent-/patisseriebloem of zachte bloem is gemaakt van het binnenste van het meellichaam van de tarwe. Het wordt alleen fijner gemalen en gezeefd dan tarwebloem. ... Zelfrijzende bloem is patisseriebloem waaraan de producent al bakpoeder of bicarbonaat heeft toegevoegd.", "Nederland - waar van de Eerste Wereldoorlog geen sprake was - spreekt over Wapenstilstandsdag, Belgen en Vlamingen spreken over Wapenstilstand. In België, Frankrijk en Servië is Wapenstilstandsdag een nationale feestdag.", "Wat is Fuikdag? Hét feest waar iedereen op Curaçao naar toe leeft en waar veel toeristen speciaal voor naar Curaçao komen is toch echt wel Fuikdag. Het is het grootste ongeorganiseerde bootfeest in het Caribisch gebied en vindt altijd plaats op de eerste zondag van het nieuwe jaar op Curaçao.", "Aaiko waar te koop? NummerZestien.eu webshop en Nummer Zestien Generation Store in Bladel zijn jouw favoriete Aaiko verkooppunten. Daar waar je al je prachtige Aaiko kleding lekker overzichtelijk bij elkaar kunt vinden passen en kopen. Kenmerkend is de mix van prijzen.", "Geen giftige planten Denk aan kattenkruid, kattengras, salie, tijm of peterselie. Het zijn kruiden waar je kat goed tegen kan en waar hij ongestoord op mag knabbelen. Houd wel in de gaten dat hij niet teveel eet, vooral van het scherpe kattengras kunnen katten gaan overgeven.", "Je hebt bloem en meel, beide zijn niet hetzelfde en haal ze dan ook vooral niet door elkaar wanneer je aan het bakken slaat. Zowel meel als bloem is gemaakt van gemalen graansoorten. ... Wordt de meel echter nog verder gezeefd en worden de kiemen en zemelen eruitgehaald, ontstaat er bloem.", "Our Planet maakte ook gebruik van bewegingsdetectie camera's. Dit worden in de filmindustrie ook wel cameravallen genoemd. Camerabestuurders maken hierbij gebruik van infraroodstralen om bewegingen te detecteren en op te sporen. Vervolgens worden er shots gemaakt door op afstand bestuurbare camera's.", "Verander het woord eens in 'mij' of 'mijn'. jou = mij en jouw = mijn. De woorden 'mijn' en 'jouw' zijn bezittelijke voornaamwoorden. Er staat altijd een woord achter voor iets waar ik of jij de eigenaar van zijn.", "Het zetten van gelnagels Wens je verstevigende gelnagels, dan wordt de gel alleen op de nagels gebracht. Om de nagels te verlengen, wordt er gebruik gemaakt van ofwel de zogenaamde tips of sjablonen. In tegenstelling tot het poederige acryl, is gellak een stroperige substantie die uithardt onder UV-licht.", "Dit weten we over moord op Julie Van Espen en de moordenaar: al twee keer veroordeeld voor verkrachting en zwaar gerechtelijk verleden. Waar al voor gevreesd werd, is nu bevestigd: Julie Van Espen (23) is dood. Haar lichaam werd in het Albertkanaal gevonden.", "De formule van liter naar centiliter is: aantal liter vermenigvuldigen met 100. Dan heb je het gewenste aantal centiliters. Een centiliter (cl) is een inhoudsmaat en is één honderdste van een liter. Centiliter (cl) wordt veel gebruikt op verpakkingen van drinken, zoals kleine bierflesjes waar meestal 25 cl op staat.", "Geneeskracht van anijs Daarnaast kan anijs helpen tegen maagproblemen. Als je op reis gaat naar een land waar veel eten op het menu staat dat je lichaam niet gewend is, kan het helpen om af en toe anijsthee te drinken om je spijsvertering een handje te helpen.", "Een koudschuim matras kan alleen van koudschuim gemaakt zijn terwijl een traagschuim matras altijd een combinatie is tussen iets dat veerkrachtig is en opwaartse druk biedt zoals pocketveren, latex, polyether of koudschuim met een laag traagschuim.", "Basterdsuiker, ook wel bastaardsuiker genoemd, en de bruine variant in Nederland ook bruine suiker en in België cassonade, wordt gemaakt door aan fijngemalen, witte, geraffineerde suiker een oplossing van invertsuiker toe te voegen. ... De karamel geeft de basterdsuiker ook wat meer smaak en een bruine kleur.", "Voor de rest ken ik aeg als een betrouwbaar en kwalitatief goed merk. Aeg kookplaat waar ik zeer tevreden mee ben.", "Kosten en kwaliteit De IKEA keukens zijn vooral zo bekend door de aantrekkelijke prijs. Daarbij is ook de kwaliteit van de keukens prima. Er wordt weleens beweerd dat de IKEA keukens van een beduidend lagere kwaliteit zouden zijn. Dit is echter niet waar.", "Onderzoek toont aan, zoals wij al eerder schreven, dat olijfolie de gezondheid van het hart op meerdere manieren ten goede komt en de kans op hart- en vaatrisico's vermindert. Zonnebloemolie bevat veel meer meervoudig onverzadigde vetzuren waar overwegend enkelvoudig onverzadigde vetzuren in zitten.", "Voor de samenstelling van betonspecie kan gebruik worden gemaakt van het zogenaamde 1 - 2 - 3 beton. NB: 1 zak cement = 25 kg (in volume is dat 20 liter). Bij gebruik van kleine hoeveelheden kan een kant-en-klaar product worden gebruikt. Eerst moeten het zand en grind droog worden gemengd (foto 1- 2).", "Lijnzaadolie wordt gemaakt van lijnzaad, het zaad van vlas. Dit zijn kleine, bruine, ovaalvormige zaadjes die bekend staan als superfood. Lijnzaad bevat namelijk omega 3-vetzuren, vezels, vitamine B1 en B2, magnesium, kalium, zink en calcium. Die kleine zaadjes zitten dus volgepropt met voedingsstoffen!", "4G in vliegtuigen De vliegtuigen vangen dit signaal op en zetten het om tot een wifi-netwerk, waar jij als passagier gebruik van kunt maken. Passagiers moeten inloggen op dit wifi-netwerk. Je kunt dus niet je eigen 4G-verbinding gebruiken.", "Elk jaar maken wij de overstap via gaslicht.com dit jaar was opnieuw Oxxio een van de voordeligste en omdat we al enkele keren zonder problemen klant van oxxio zijn geweest was de keuze snel gemaakt. Goede klantenservice en een goede app om het verbruik e.d. bij te houden.", "We Are The World is een single van de ban Usa For Africa. Het liedje is geschreven door Michael Jackson en Lionel Richie. Het liedje was gemaakt voor liefdadigheid, namelijk honger in Ethiopië. ... Het liedje werd dan ook wereldhit Het kwam uit in 1985.", "Geklaarde boter is roomboter waar het schuim en de 'vaste' bestanddelen van af worden geschept. Dit wordt gedaan om zo de eiwitten en zouten uit de boter te halen, waardoor hij bij verhitting niet bruin of bitter wordt en hoger kan worden verwarmd (net als kokosolie)." ]

[ "obfs4 and obfs3, among others, are \"pluggable transports\", and the protocol they speak to Tor is well specified. You could write a program / script to implement that protocol in order to use any pluggable transport for your own purposes.\n\nShameless plug: I have written a Python 3 program that takes a pluggable transport binary and creates a standalone TCP tunnel, which can then be used to tunnel OpenVPN. The documentation is not done yet, but the code works." ]

[ "In your torrc there is the line\n\nClientTransportPlugin obfs4 exec /usr/bin/obfs4proxy --managed\n\n\nFurthermoer the log file states:\n\n\n Jun 08 21:33:05.000 [warn] Could not launch managed proxy executable at '/usr/bin/obfs4proxy' ('Operation not permitted').\n\n\nAccording to the manpage of obfs4proxy there is no option --managed. This was used for obfsproxy. So if you delete the option --managed and restart Tor, it will start and use obfs4proxy.", "&quot;What do I put in for the bridges, proxy type, ip, and port?&quot;\nAssuming you are configuring Tor Browser's Network Settings, you should only need to configure any of these settings if you can't connect to Tor without them due to your provider blocking the connections or requiring some local proxy to route out to the internet.\nBridges are only required if you cannot connect to Tor relays normally. If you can't connect without configuring them due to the connections being dropped or similar (check your logs) then first try the default bridges that are set in Tor Browser, preferrably using obfs4. If that doesn't work, try fetching some obfs4 birdges from BridgeDB. If these still don't work, meek should be what you try next. If meek doesn't work you're probably going to need to take some extra steps to connect, through perhaps creating some tunnel to an outside network that isn't blocked (ssh, for example) or some other bespoke solution.\nFor proxy type, IP, and port, these will depend on your local provider. As mentioned if you don't normally need to configure one, you won't need to set these at all.\nIf instead you're configuring another application to use the same connection provided by an already running and connected Tor Browser, then you should set the type to SOCKS5 or SOCKS4a, the IP to 127.0.0.1 and the port to 9150.", "Tor Browser runs a SOCKS proxy on port 9150, but OpenVPN Connect expects an HTTP proxy.\nThere are two types of HTTP proxies, GET proxies and CONNECT proxies. Tor only supports HTTP CONNECT proxies if you enable the HTTPTunnelPort option in your tor configuration file (the torrc file). I would think that OpenVPN expects an HTTP CONNECT proxy so I think this will work, but I can't find any actual documentation about what type it expects.", "What numbers to choose for OR and obfs4proxy ports?\n\n\nFor an obfs4 bridge I'd recommend:\n\n\nPicking a low numbered port that's used by a common service for obfs4 (it takes a few extra steps to allow obfs4 to bind to low ports) might help some user (and may hinder others, e.g. if their DPI reasons: \"I know that obfs4 traffic definitely isn't the service that normally runs on port 443\".)\nPicking a randomly chosen high numbered port that isn't used by any common services for the ORPort to make it more difficult to detect by someone performing internet wide scans on common ports. (e.g. python2 -c 'import random;print random.randint(1025,65535)')\n\n\nI'd strongly recommend that you implement 2, but 1 is more of an open question. By default obfs4proxy will pick a random high numbered port for itself.\n\n\n Does opening a DIR port on a bridge make sense, and if yes, on which port?\n\n\nNo, the client will use you as a directory guard but this communication is done over the obfs4 or OR connection. This doesn't require exposing a DirPort and exposing one is just adding more potential for your bridge to be detected as a bridge from some adversary scanning for bridges.\n\n\n Does using IPv6 provide any benefit over just IPv4?\n\n\nIt will allow users who are on IPv6-only connections to use your bridge. Anecdotally, since IPv6 isn't widely adopted some (of the crappier) DPI might have a tougher time censoring IPv6.", "I have found that this works pretty well:\n(For this, I'm assuming that you have installed tor using \"apt-get install tor\" and not using the Tor browser bundle.)\n\n\nAdd this line to the \"/etc/tor/torrc\" file to tunnel vpn traffic:\n\nSocksPort 9150 PreferSOCKSNoAuth\nThen you will need to tell OpenVPN to use a proxy.\nAdd this to your VPN config file:\n\nsocks-proxy localhost 9150\n socks-proxy-retry\nRestart tor:\nsudo service tor restart\n*you may need to reload the config for tor with: \"sudo service tor reload\"\nNow you should be able to run openvpn AFTER tor has established a connection to the tor network.\nsudo openvpn --config path/to/vpn/config/file\n\n\nHope this helps a bit :)", "I'll post this as an answer to my own question then, but a SOCKS proxy uses only one port and can be used in scenarios like this. A vpn of your choice can then be loaded over this proxy. (Specifically OpenVPN can be configured without security with auth=none and cypher=none)", "You do it the same way you block websites for users on your company\n network: Run a proxy server and force everyone's web traffic through\n it.\n\n\nSource: https://serverfault.com/questions/518374/website-filtering-for-openvpn-clients", "How could this be achieved? Should I then write my own proxy server? For example, it would accept traffic with some additional header (the destination header), unpack it and send it to the destination, and then, on request reception it would route the traffic back to the tor network.\n\nThis is what a SOCKS proxy does, there's no need to write it yourself. Just run a SOCKS proxy and connect to it through Tor. Be careful about running publicly available SOCKS proxy servers though since they may be abused by others.\n$ torsocks curl -x socks5h://publicsocksip:8001 https://www.google.com/", "Can you enable the Obfs4 or \"Tunnel through...\" Meek bridge option in Orbot? There are built in Obfs4 bridges now with the latest release of Orbot.", "obfs4-spec does a pretty decent job explaining how it actually works. The idea is to make your traffic look like nothing in particular. I strongly advise you to read the spec (specially the Threat Model section).\n\nNow about your question, it really depends on whether you are targeted by the government or not. Yes, one could argue that making a completely uncategorized traffic (from the DPI point of view), could be considered suspicious (but in that sense, so are any other non-plaintext traffic).\n\nBut here's my two cents: If you have reasons do believe that your life might be in danger because of it, I would just not use it.", "You should be able to build it natively, as per the README here or you can try to cross-compile from another architecture to armv5 using the method here.\n\nFor example\n\n export GOARCH=arm\n export GOARM=5\n mkdir ~/goarm\n export GOPATH=~/goarm\n go get -u github.com\n go get git.torproject.org/pluggable-transports/obfs4.git/obfs4proxy\n\n\nshould result in an ARMv5 obfs4proxy binary in ~/goarm/bin/obfs4proxy\n\nedit: Looking at some of the dependencies, there maybe issues with cryptographic operations that have been optimized in assembly. It does seem to have ARM assembly though.", "If you're not interested in remaining anonymous then a VPN or standalone proxy would probably suit your needs better. (It'd probably be faster, for a start.)\n\nThe instructions you've linked to are a bit old, and it might be easier and cleaner to build from the source directly, rather than using the package manager. To build from source, have a look at this thread.\n\nFinally, what you're trying to do has been discussed in the past. This thread concludes that it's probably a bad idea. It also mentions the AllowSingleHopCircuits config option, but that requires you to connect to a relay with AllowSingleHopExits set, and there probably aren't many of them...", "I'm not sure if it's working now, but I did it a time ago, in mac first, you need to have brew you could install via below command\n\n/usr/bin/ruby -e \"$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)\"\n\n\nthen install\n\nbrew install tor polipo privoxy\n\n\nso tor is installed now, but there further moves to touch.\n\napped below line in below file (if file dosn't exist create it):\n\n/usr/local/etc/polipo/config\n\n\nbelow lines:\n\nsocksParentProxy = \"localhost:9050\"\nsocksProxyType = socks5\n\n\nnow edit this file:\n\n/usr/local/etc/privoxy/config\n\n\nand uncomment below line from it:\n\n forward-socks5t / 127.0.0.1:9050 .\n\n\nnow\n\nbrew services start tor\n\nbrew services start polipo\n\nbrew services start privoxy\n\n\nFor checking if tor is connected or not\n\nuse this command:\n\ntail -f /usr/local/var/log/tor.log \n\n\nif not you have to get a non-obfs-bridge bridge, and it's now deprecated, so you must use obfs3, scramblesuit, fte, or obfs4.\n\nto get bridge just email get transport obfs4 to bridges@bridges.torproject.org.\n\nedit /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc file and append these below lines to the end of torrc file: \n\nUseBridges 1\nClientTransportPlugin obfs4 exec /usr/local/bin/obfs4proxy\nBridge `YOUR-OBFS4-BRIDGE`\n\n\nbefore doing last step dowload this file and make it as executable via chmod +x obfs4proxy command &amp; put the downloaded file in below directory:\n\n/usr/local/bin/obfs4proxy\n\n\nnow you can restart tor, and it's ready.\n\nbrew services restart tor\n\n\nresource", "In such cases proxies usually performing at least one of the bad tricks like that:\n\n\nMitM attack by intruding into SSL/TLS connecions. Tor will give you an error because for directories it has hardcoded keys and on another screinario proxy just ruins the SSL handshake that it can't intervene into\nby-ip blocklists for Tor entry guards and directories. Instead of the full list of Tor nodes, a list of directories and entry guards is relatively manageable to block by ip. Your connection will just die when trying to connect to these addresses - or maybe you'll see a 403 error\nfiltering remote/destination ports. If you're trying to connect to the port which is not in the \"white list\"/\"allowed ports list\" - it just dies or gets you 403\n\n\nAll this stuff makes it harder to use Tor, but you should try meek, obfs3 or obfs4 pluggable transports and bridges. This can help you. If they are blocking bridges too - try to use an unpublished bridge on port 443 with obfs3 or obfs4 - you can even make your own", "I downloaded Tor Alpha and used Snowflake,now the problem is solved. In some areas obfs4 or other bridge may have expired.", "You will likely need to set up Port Forwarding on the HomeHub itself, what is happening is that Tor is trying to connect into your Ubuntu computer, but the traffic is pointed at the HomeHub's IP.\n\nThe HomeHub is getting the traffic but it doesn't know what to do with it, you need to configure the HomeHub so that it knows that if it recieves traffic from the internet on port 9001, it should forward it to your Ubuntu systems LAN IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.2) on port 9001.\n\nBT have some guides for this on their customer support section.\n\nSince you're looking to be an obfs4 bridge, you should also know that obfs4proxy runs on another port entirely, it should report what port it is listening on in the Tor logs. You'll want to setup the same forwarding you did for 9001 but for the port that obfs4 is using.\n\nAnother step you'll likely want to take in Ubuntu is to open up the port in the local ufw packet filter (\"firewall\"), by issuing the command: sudo ufw allow 9001/tcp and again you need to do this for the obfs4 port, just changing 9001 for whatever port obfs4 is using.", "For the directories not found: That's because there is no /home/root. Instead you have /root as your home directory.\n\nBasically use your tutorial but replace everything having to do with /home/username to be /root. However, I suggest you don't use the root user for it all. It could be a security risk, make sure you drop the user perms used by the OpenVPN server to user &amp; group nobody. This can be done in the server's OpenVPN config file server.conf\n\nConfig File Copy (in lieu of the cp in the first article below):\n\nsudo gunzip -d /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/sample-config-files/server.conf.gz\nsudo cp /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/sample-config-files/server.conf /etc/openvpn\n\n\nFind the lines:\n\n# You can uncomment this out on\n# non-Windows systems.\n;user nobody\n;group nogroup\n\n\nReplace them with:\n\nuser nobody \ngroup nogroup\n\n\nThe tutorial you're using is not a very good one. It doesn't go into much detail, I recommend looking at the one I wrote: OpenVPN - The easy and secure way (Note: That's targeted for Arch Linux) but most of it's the same, or Digital Ocean's How to Install OpenVPN on Ubuntu.", "The default obfs4 bridges are normally heavily overused, they're the easiest to configure because they're built in which is great for accessibility but it means that most users use only a small set of obfs4 servers and so their resources are overstretched and as such the speed is reduced.\n\nYou would (likely) see an improvement if you fetched some bridges from BridgeDB, choosing the option for obfs4 and entered the bridge lines it gives you into Tor Browser under the custom bridges option during the configuration. The lines that BridgeDB provides should just be pasted into the provided text box exactly as BridgeDB presents them.\n\nYou should definitely see better performance from those bridges because there will be less contention of their resources.", "Its probably not your firewall rules if the connection gets established. Check that you can ping from one gateway to the other, specifying the interface. E.g. ping -I tun0 192.168.0.1. Try this both ways.\n\nIt would be good to see the VPN configuration of both the OpenVPN server and the client. There are several possible explanations:\n\n\nYou might be encountering MTU mismatch/compatibility issues.\nYou might be affected by traffic shaping by your ISP depending on the ports used.\nAre you using a proxy server?\nWhat are the routing rules (check \"ip route\")?\nPerformance varies by protocol in different situations. OpenVPN over UDP gives the best performance.\nTry both tunnel mode (TUN) versus bridging mode (TAP). These are explained on the OpenVPN site.\nTry turning off compression on both sides.\nCheck that you're using the latest/same version of OpenVPN on both sides.\n\n\nUse something like speedtest.net on each gateway side without the VPN in place. Once the VPN is established, measure the speed again from gateway to gateway, to rule out LAN troubles on either side.\n\nLast but not least, I suppose you don't want the LAN clients' Internet access to be routed through the other site? If you only want the VPN for site to site traffic, and not internet access, then the OpenVPN client should be configured not to change the default gateway to send all traffic. The routing rules should only redirect traffic bound for the other site through the VPN. The default gateway remains the original ISP connection.", "It does not matter how GPL licensed software is interacting with other parts of the system. Since ExpressVPN distributes an application (the iOS application) which contains OpenVPN and LZO, they must make available the source code.\n\nTake a look at the Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Licenses, search for available.", "In the definition of systemd service there is the path where to find it. In theory you can change it in the description / definition of the service.\n\nAnyway it is not really needed I think. You have request these structure:\n\n/etc/openvpn\n /client\n /intranet.example.com\n client-01.conf\n client-01.key\n client-01.crt\n ca.crt\n /intranet.foo.com\n ...\n\n\nWhat limit you from using these structure (this is how is openvpn-client designed):\n\n/etc/openvpn\n /client\n intranet.example.com.conf\n intranet.example.com.key\n intranet.example.com.crt\n intranet.example.com-ca.crt\n intranet.foo.com.conf\n intranet.foo.com.key\n intranet.foo.com.crt\n intranet.foo.com-ca.crt\n ...\n\n\nand related services:\n\nopenvpn-client@intranet.example.com\nopenvpn-client@intranet.foo.com\n\n\nThe important part is behind @ and this part point to /etc/openvpn/client/&lt;id&gt;.conf (in case of openvpn-client@id). Other related file names are depending only on the content of config file (which files you are mentioning / linking ).\n\n\n\nSo as example.\n\nopenvpn-client@id =&gt; /etc/openvpn/client/id.conf\n\n\n/etc/openvpn/client/id.conf :\n\n...\nca shared-ca.pem\nkey private.key\ncert public.crt\n...\n\n\nThe structure would be:\n\n/etc/openvpn/client\n id.conf\n shared-ca.pem\n private.key\n public.crt", "Don't use Rewrite for this, use a simple proxy. It seems you need something described here.", "There are a few ways you could solve this problem.I understand from your diagram and question your one of your client say client 1 is the server and your server is actually a proxy to redirect connections.The following solutions are in order of their complexity.\n\nFirst is a networking solution: If connectivity between client 1 and client 2 is all you need to achieve. All you need to do in your clients is to add a route to the other client,add a route to client 1 to reach client 2 and vice versa.you do not have to change design of your program.\n\nSecond is a web proxy server:If you are running a web server in your server then you can configure web server to act as a reverse proxy.(Apache proxy instructions).This is useful if you do not have a lot of control over networking but have administrative privilege to your servers\n\nThird is a programming solution:I guess you have the right solution in mind to write a program to \"forward\" the packets to the client.This is called proxy server so what proxy will do is receive requests from the client forward it to the server and receives the response from the server and forwards it to the client.But this does not guarantee performance you might have some performance issue.I would choose this way only when I have privileges that will allow me to change only the application I wrote and have restricted access to networking or servers and I will absolutely avoid going this road If at all possible for production systems.\n\nYour statement about Java not having nice web socket is not true, Java's socket API is probably one of the most useful sockets out there.", "Premise\nHow to configure Tor and Obfsproxy:\n- https://www.torproject.org/projects/obfsproxy-debian-instructions\n\nAccording with this bug report:\nhttps://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/6996\n ... the obfsproxy permission error is triggered by the tor init script ( at least on debian/ubuntu ) because of tor apparmor wrong script (/etc/apparmor.d/system_tor)\n\nso basically approuch is to stop the service and launch tor directly so a simple and straight:\n\nsudo service tor stop &amp;&amp; tor\n\n\nthis should work ( don't use sudo to launch tor or you will get a different error :( \n\nBetter solution\nis to fix the apparmor tor profile so that the tor service start correctly \n\n\nedit this file /etc/apparmor.d/system_tor\nadd this line /usr/bin/obfsproxy Ux,\nrestart apparmor service (sudo service apparmor restart )\n\n\nSo the profile should look something like this:\n\n# vim:syntax=apparmor\n#include &lt;tunables/global&gt;\n\nprofile system_tor {\n #include &lt;abstractions/tor&gt;\n\n owner /var/lib/tor/** rwk,\n owner /var/log/tor/* w,\n\n /usr/bin/obfsproxy Ux, ## this is the FIX\n\n /{,var/}run/tor/control w,\n /{,var/}run/tor/tor.pid w,\n /{,var/}run/tor/control.authcookie w,\n /{,var/}run/tor/control.authcookie.tmp rw,\n\n # Site-specific additions and overrides. See local/README for details.\n #include &lt;local/system_tor&gt;\n}", "You need to configure a Virtual Host for your app.\nWithin this one you can configure a reverse proxy.", "This is an obfsproxy bug on systems running Python &lt; 2.7.4.\n\nYou could try the branch linked off the tor trac entry associated with this problem or wait till obfsproxy 0.2.8.", "First, there is no such reference to proxy/proxying being mentioned in the AGPL, so whether or not a proxy is used in the chain that allows an external user to access features of an AGPL-licensed package does not make much of a difference to me. For instance network traffic will likely go through several routers and proxies even if I am not using a fronting proxy myself.\n\n\nIs this legal [when used unmodified]?\n\n\nYes, there is no reason why this would not be OK. But I guess the implied question may be what should I do then to comply with the AGPL?. If there is any notice or link or mechanism in the original software that ends up in the packets that I proxy, I would keep these and make these available to my end users in a way that is equivalent to a non-proxied access. I would also (though it is not a clear requirement when the code is used unmodified) provide some credits notice and the license text of the AGPL in the UI of my app.\n\nAfter the company makes changes to the AGPL software on server A,\n2.Is it then legal?\n3.Does the company need to release the changes it made back to the community?\n\nIt was OK before and it is still OK now: proxying does not have any impact IMHO. But the modification of the AGPLv3-licensed code will likely trigger the extra requirements of section 13 &quot;Remote Network Interaction&quot;.\n[...] if you modify the Program, your modified version must prominently offer all\nusers interacting with it remotely through a computer network (if your version\nsupports such interaction) an opportunity to receive the Corresponding Source\nof your version by providing access to the Corresponding Source from a network\nserver at no charge, through some standard or customary means of facilitating\ncopying of software.[...]\n\nTherefore, and again IMHO irrespective of proxying, I would notify my users of the modifications (in addition to what I was doing without the mods as explained above) and I would provide them with a mechanism to get access to source code that includes my modifications, most likely with a link to download an archive of the corresponding source code. Here I would not worry about the community at large (though it would be a nice thing to do) but instead ensure that my users have access to this download.\n\nJust as a follow up. In the Preamble of the AGPL it is said: Therefore, public use of a modified version, on a publicly accessible server, gives the public access to the source code of the modified version. Since in this example server A is not publicly accessible, wouldn't allow this the hypothetical company to keep it's changes for itself?\n\nThe AGPL &quot;Preamble&quot; is not part of the T&amp;C but is not something to ignore entirely. Yet this is a different context we have here: say I use a modified version of MongoDB strictly internally in my organization: I have no special obligations IMHO.\nIf this becomes available externally outside my organization, such as to a customer this is no longer internal use, even if this is not &quot;public&quot; use in the sense that only my customers can access it and not the &quot;general public&quot;.", "Yes, it's possible to monitor the status of a Xen DomU, and to run some arbitrary command if the DomU fails. You could run an instance of the Monit daemon on a third host (DomU or physical) that checks the primary OpenVPN DomU, and tells the Dom0 to fire up the secondary DomU if the primary has failed. The Monit documentation has a lot of examples that can show you how to implement this:\n\n\nhttp://mmonit.com/monit/\n\nYes, OpenVPN has some high-availability and/or load-sharing capabilities built in, and it's pretty simple to set up.\n\n\nFirst, you'll be running multiple OpenVPN servers, in parallel, with each server listening on its own IP address. The servers don't share state, and they don't know anything about each other.\n\nThen, you specify multiple '--remote' options, either on the command line or in the OpenVPN client's config file. When the client has multiple remote server options available to it, it'll randomly choose one and make a connection to it. If that server fails, it will re-try the connection, and then randomly choose a different server if it fails to connect. See the OpenVPN docs, here, for more information:\n\n\nhttp://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/documentation/manuals/69-openvpn-21.html\n\n\nYou may want to see my answer to a similar question, here:\n\n\nredundant openvpn configuration\n\n\nAs noted in my other answer, you'll probably want to pay attention to these client options, in particular:\n\n\nconnect-retry\nconnect-retry-max\nremote-random\nifconfig-pool-persist\n\n\nOf course, this isn't true load-balancing, because the OpenVPN client doesn't select the server with the lowest load, or the least clients--it just randomly picks a server. If you need true load balancing to ensure that the server loads stay equalized, you'll need to find some kind of dedicated load balancing solution, either hardware or software.", "Every time you call scrape_page() with some URL, you end up making at least two requests: at least one request to verify that the randomly chosen proxy works, and then to make the main request. Isn't that overhead a bit excessive? Why not optimistically assume that a proxy works, and verify the proxy only if the main request fails?\n\nIf many requests fail — for example, if your network is down — then your program would get stuck in a tight, infinite retry loop. Even a 0.1-second delay in the exception handler would be very helpful to prevent the CPU from going haywire.\n\nThe code in check_proxy() is a bit redundant with the code in scrape_page(). Also, check_proxy() is inappropriately recursive. I would create a set_proxy() function that has a more comprehensive mission.\n\nInstead of assuming that each proxy is HTTPS, I would write the URL of each proxy with the explicit protocol, then infer the protocol by parsing the URL.\n\nfrom bs4 import BeautifulSoup\nfrom fake_useragent import UserAgent\nfrom random import choice\nimport requests\nfrom time import sleep\nfrom urllib.parse import urlparse\n\nPROXIES = [\n 'https://128.199.254.244:3128',\n 'https://95.85.79.54:53281',\n 'https://128.199.125.54:2468',\n 'https://178.45.8.113:53281',\n 'https://206.189.225.30:3128',\n]\n\ndef set_proxy(session, proxy_candidates=PROXIES, verify=False):\n \"\"\"\n Configure the session to use one of the proxy_candidates. If verify is\n True, then the proxy will have been verified to work.\n \"\"\"\n while True:\n proxy = choice(proxy_candidates)\n session.proxies = {urlparse(proxy).scheme: proxy}\n if not verify:\n return\n try:\n print(session.get('https://httpbin.org/ip').json())\n return\n except Exception:\n pass\n\ndef scrape_page(url):\n ua = UserAgent()\n session = requests.Session()\n session.headers = {'User-Agent': ua.random}\n set_proxy(session)\n\n while True:\n try:\n response = session.get(url)\n break\n except Exception as e:\n session.headers = {'User-Agent': ua.random}\n set_proxy(session, verify=True)\n sleep(0.1)\n\n soup = BeautifulSoup(response.text, 'lxml')\n for items in soup.select(\".question-hyperlink\"):\n print(items.text)", "Yes, but only after we have stated what is considered memory used by an algorithm or program.\n\nFor this particular problem, I would like to use one of the simplest choices. The memory used by the program is the extra or temporary space used excluding the input and output. Furthermore, each variable (that does not share its storage with others) uses a unit of space. One might argue the output should count towards memory usage. My point is to let us choose a usage model so that we can concentrate on the most relevant and interesting part, although in another situation, how to reduce the memory used by the output might be the more significant part.\n\nHere is the snippet that use 3 units of memory, where I remove the call to sqrt(i). Each of $n$, $i$, $j$ uses 1 unit of memory. I comment out the output code to make it clear that its memory usage is not considered. \n\nint n = N; // N should be given elsewhere\nfor (int i=2; i&lt;n; i++) \n for (int j=2;; j++)\n {\n if ( j*j &gt; i) {\n // cout &lt;&lt; i &lt;&lt; \" \";\n } else if (i % j == 0) \n break;\n } \n\n\nBut wait, how can we check j*j &gt; i? Even if we assume the computing machine can compute j*j magically without using extra memory, it still needs to store the result of j*j so as to compare with i. So it is only reasonable that we add 1 or more unit of memory usage here. Then how about i % j? We would like add 1 or more unit of memory usage here.\n\nIf we dig deeper, we will ask whether those 2 and 0 in the program count towards memory or not. We may have to ask during the program execution, doesn't it need to use some space to remember where it is executing and how to jump around? If those memory are needed, can we reuse them during different execution time?\n\nThe more we study this way, the more uncertain the answer becomes. This is, in fact, the truth. It is almost impossible to get an accurate usage of memory theoretically unless we have an accurate model of storage and computation specified down to the bit. When we do have that accurate model, an accurate analysis to the bit may become so tedious and distracting we might lose the big picture. \n\nThe way out to get a healthy picture is the big $O$ or $\\Theta$ notation. We will simply say that this program use $O(1)$ or $\\Theta(1)$ memory. That is, for a reasonable model of storage and computation, there is a constant $C$, for any give $N$, the program will use less than $C$ units of memory. In practice, we usually mean a small or reasonable $C$.\n\n\n\nBy the way, the program in the question misses primes 2 and 3.", "The AM2301 and the DHT22(AM2303) are similar in a number of ways, both in price, specs, ranges and power consumption. They are usually cased a bit of a differently, with the DHT22/AM2303 being packaged with four pins (only three are in use), and the AM2301 (formerly called DHT21) is packaged with three cables and a small plug inside of the case.\n\nI would choose based on the usage, if I'm going to use the sensor on a breadboard or a socket (going for the DHT22 pinned version), or if I'm going to have it standalone (the cabled one).\n\nHere are links to the datasheets:\n\nhttps://kropochev.com/downloads/humidity/AM2301.pdf\n\nhttps://www.adafruit.com/datasheets/DHT22.pdf", "You'd need to run two Tor instances, one for the published relay and the other for the bridge.\n\nThe important part will be in specifying the correct IP address to bind to and listen on for the obfs4proxy and orports.\n\nAssuming you had two IP addresses with 1.1.1.1 being your relay and 2.2.2.2 being your bridge, your config would look something like this\n\n/etc/tor/torrc:\n\norport 1.1.1.1:9001\nnickname whatever\ncontact user@example.com\n...your other config options here...\n\n\nThis is just your current relay configuration.\n\nIf you're on debian using the Tor Projects repo, you should just be able to run (as root):\n\ntor-instance-create bridge\n\nThis should create the required settings, and give it a torrc located at /etc/tor/instances/bridge/torrc, edit it following the template below\n\n/etc/tor/instances/bridge/torrc:\n\n# some random, uncommon and high numbered port to frustrate discovery\norport 2.2.2.2:30393\n# change path as appropriate\nservertransportplugin obfs4 exec /usr/bin/obfs4proxy\n# some port of your choosing\nservertransportlistenaddr 2.2.2.2:443\n# who we are\nnickname whatever\ncontact user@example.com\n# disable socksport, we're not a client\nsocksport 0\n# if, as your question suggests you dont want to publish it to bridgedb\npublishserverdescriptor 0\n\n\nNow to enable and start the newly created tor daemon instance, run (as root):\n\nsystemctl enable tor@bridge\nsystemctl start tor@bridge\n\n\nYou should be able to view the logs and ensure everything is working correctly by running (as root):\n\njournalctl -u tor@bridge" ]

[ "The late singer was to have filmed new scenes for the TV series, but instead appears in archive footage in a dream sequence\nDavid Lynch has paid tribute to David Bowie in his drama series Twin Peaks, dedicating the most recent episode to the late singer.\nThe Film Stage 📽 (@TheFilmStage) David Lynch dedicates Part 14 of #TwinPeaks to David Bowie. pic.twitter.com/cIPxwpCV33\nBowie briefly appeared in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, the 1992 film prequel to the cult TV series, as the dapper-suited, mentally fraught FBI agent Phillip Jeffries. According to Harry Goaz, who plays Andy Brennan, Bowie was due to appear in the current series of the show, but didn’t film his scenes before his death. Lynch nevertheless included him in the latest episode, using Fire Walk With Me footage in a dream sequence.\nThe appearance puts Bowie in the company of numerous other musical guest stars in the current series, including Moby, Nine Inch Nails, Sky Ferreira and Hudson Mohawke." ]

[ "SHOWTIME\nThe atomic bomb ain’t got nothing on Film Twitter.\nLast week, the well-respected magazine Sight and Sound named Twin Peaks: The Return the second best movie of 2017, despite the fact that it aired on a television network in weekly installments. “David Lynch’s epic, mind-altering anti-detective TV series gave us exactly what we expected,” the publication explained, “by giving us nothing that we expected.” The TV vs. movie “debate” is a pointless argument (it also makes TV seem “less,” like it’s not as dignified an art form as The Cinema), but pointless arguments are why social media exists. Film Twitter had thoughts, TV Twitter had thoughts, and Sports Twitter breathed a sigh of relief that, for a brief moment, they weren’t the worst.\nEntertainment Weekly asked actor and Golden Globe nominee Kyle MacLachlan for his thoughts on the matter. “I think it’s kind of both,” he answered, unhelpfully. But! “David [Lynch] was very specific about calling them hours and not episodes. So they’re 18 hours, and the way it was written and directed was if it were a long film. In other words, we didn’t break it into pieces when we were filming. So I think structurally, it is a film.”\nSomewhere out there, our own Alan Sepinwall just smashed something.\n“Obviously, it was broadcasted on television and intended for television, but I think you could make the argument that it also works as a film,” MacLachlan continued. “The very first one that we did was episodic, but when they screened Twin Peaks, the original pilot, at the Television Academy, it held up as a film, which makes complete sense to me because it’s directed by David Lynch. It just felt like it was a feature. And when they screened the first two episodes [of The Return] in Cannes this year, it had exactly the same results. It was seamless. The first two hours felt as if they were a film. So I think you could definitely make that argument.” I’d normally say MacLachlan should stay off Twitter for awhile, but nope: he’s busy living his best life. All the power (and pie) to him.\n(Via Entertainment Weekly)", "US President Barack Obama has a special message for Chance the Rapper, David Bowie makes a return to Twin Peaks, festival chaos in Finland and London plus Kate Nash marks 10 years in the biz and a new music video from TLC.\nRead more by TAPPING HERE.", "It’s a joyous TV viewing season for “Twin Peaks” fans.\nThe series has returned after a 25-year break and Kyle MacLachan is back as Agent Dale Cooper. MacLachlan told ABC News he had no hesitations about taking on the role again.\n“Oh my gosh, was I excited. I was ready to jump in completely,” MacLachlan said in a recent appearance on “Popcorn With Peter Travers.\"\nMacLachlan said he got a call from “Twin Peaks” director David Lynch and \"he wanted to know if I was on board. And I said, ‘David, I never left.’ I said I wanted to go back and play Cooper since the last frame of the last episode of the first time around.”\nWHAT TO KNOW Kyle MacLachlan appears on Popcorn With Peter Travers\nTravers asked MacLachlan if it was tough getting back into character after the long break.\nDownload the all new \"Popcorn With Peter Travers\" podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play Music and Stitcher.\n“We were all different. The world is different now,” MacLachlan, 58, responded. “I tell you what was not that different. It was walking on the set that first day and seeing David [Lynch] sitting in the director’s chair. And walking up to him in the black suit and seeing his face, shaking his hand, and looking around and saying, 'We’re going back.' In that instant I was right back in Cooper. I was right back in 'Twin Peaks.' And that relationship with David was like we never stopped.\"\nMaryellen McGrath/ABC News\nMacLachlan added that he appreciates the buzz surrounding the return of the show.\n“Certainly the drum beat has been very strong on Twitter, on Instagram, talking about what’s coming. It’s been a lot of fun watching all the activity,” he said.\nBe sure to watch the full interview with Peter Travers and Kyle MacLachlan in the video above.", "By Jeff Giles\nUsing unreleased footage from ‘Fire Walk With Me,’ David Lynch was able to bring back David Bowie’s character of Philip Jeffries.\nContinue reading…\n…read more\nVia:: Diffuser", "Audible is releasing the audiobook on May 2.\nWe’re still three months away from the long-awaited “Twin Peaks” revival, but ardent fans will have something new to tide them over a little earlier. Audible is releasing an audiobook version of “The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer,” which Sheryl Lee will narrate herself, on May 2. First published in 1990, the spinoff novel was written by Jennifer Lynch.\nREAD MORE: ‘Twin Peaks’: David Lynch Hints What Laura Palmer Has to Do With the Showtime Revival\nHere’s the official synopsis: “The diary chronicles Laura’s life from age 12 to her death at 17 and provides a harrowing backstory to the event that set the entire series in motion. In intimate diary entries, Laura goes from a happy and naïve tween to a tormented soul posing behind the phony smile of homecoming queen. Plagued by visions of a creepy man with long hair – a demonic presence she comes to know as “BOB” – Laura falls into a world of drug addiction, sexual promiscuity, and prostitution to escape. But as she’s swallowed deeper and deeper into the abyss, Laura is forced to question the reality of who and what BOB really is.”\nREAD MORE: ‘Twin Peaks’ Trailer: First Look at the Return of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper — Watch\nThe third season of “Twin Peaks” will premiere on Showtime on May 21 with a two-hour episode, and the next two will immediately be available online after that. The revival consists of 18 episodes total.\nStay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our email newsletters here.", "Peaks TV is a new podcast from David Chen and Joanna Robinson. Every two weeks, we’ll be recapping the latest episodes of Twin Peaks: The Return on Showtime. This week, we recap the 5th and 6th episodes of season 3 of Twin Peaks. Be sure to check out Joanna’s interview with Chrysta Bell and Ben Pearson’s recap of eps 5 and 6.\nFind more episodes of the podcast at peakstv.com. Feel free to email us your theories at peakstv(AT)gmail.com.\nPlay Now in your Browser:\nSubscribe to Peaks TV:", "Getty Image\nTributes innumerable poured in to pay respect to the legacy and influence of David Bowie in the wake of his death in 2016. It’s to his immense credit as an artist and a human being that even two years later, the outpouring of both grief and respect have yet to abate. Take for instance the recent petition that’s been going around to rename the English city Aylesbury to “Aylesbowie” in his honor.\nThe petition, which currently has just over 100 signatures on Change.org, with a stated goal of getting 500, seeks to double-down on the town’s association with Bowie. As many of his fans know, it was there, at the Aylesbury’s Friars venue where Bowie debuted his now-iconic Ziggy Stardust persona for the first time back in 1971. According to the man behind the petition David Stopps, who spoke with the BBC, “since records began there have been 57 variations of the town’s name.” Stopps has already been successful in crowdfunding an appeal to build a statue of Bowie in Aylesbury that will be unveiled on March 25th, so who’s to say that a 58th change couldn’t be in the offering?\nIn other Bowie-related news, it was also revealed today that the theatrical cut of the London production of his musical Lazarus will debut at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn on May 2, soundtracked, in the flesh, by the actual band who brought the show to life originally in New York. Though Ziggy may have departed for the stars, his presence on this planet remains wholly intact.", "The popular Retro Summer Concert Series presented by Tourism Sun Peaks returns this summer from August 11 to 13. The event will feature live tribute bands for acts including David Bowie, The Eagles and Heart.\nStarting the show off on Friday evening is Janis Joplin performed by Janis Lives, a band founded by pacific northwest vocalist Sherrie “Voxxy” Johnson.\nSaturday holds the largest line-up of the weekend, hosting four bands. Bad Company performed by Shooting Star kicks off at 12:30 p.m., followed by Eagle Eyes performing the Eagles at 2 p.m. Santana performed by Supernatural begins at 4:30 p.m., and Victoria band A Night of Bowie pays tribute to the late and great David Bowie starting at 7 p.m.\nThe final day of the series begins at 11 a.m. with Barracuda returning for their second year to play tribute to Heart. The weekend finale begins at 11:45 a.m. with All Fired Up playing tribute to Pat Benatar.\nComments\ncomments", "DAVID Bowie’s former musical director and guitarist comes to Limerick to perform for a new festival this weekend.\nDubliner Gerry Leonard – musician, performer and solo artist – who was musical director for David Bowie from the A Reality Tour in 2003, and a member of the seminal artist’s inner circle for 15 years, will appear in conversation and performance in Dolan’s Warehouse this Sunday as part of the I.NY festival.\nHe will appear in conversation and performance with Professor Eoin Devereux, Assistant Dean for Research in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at UL.\n“Leonard: The Dubliner who became one of David Bowie’s six-string sidemen” promises to be a fascinating event. He has worked with Suzanne Vega, Laurie Anderson, Bowie, Roger Waters, Suzanne Vega and Cindy Lauper and was invited by Eoin Devereux to speak at I.NY.\n“Gerry features on David Bowie’s albums Heathen, Reality and The Next Day. He was the musical director for Bowie’s Heathen and Reality Tours. He co-wrote the songs ‘Boss of Me’ and ‘I’ll Take You There’ on The Next Day,” explains Prof Devereux.\n“The event will be in two parts. I will interview Gerry on stage about working with David Bowie. We will talk about writing songs with Bowie as well as touring with him. We will also talk about the making of Bowie’s “return” album – The Next Day. The second part will feature Gerry performing some David Bowie songs as well as some of his own compositions as Spooky Ghost,” he added.\nLeonard told the Leader: “I hope to speak about my career path and how New York has been such a defining experience for me. I also will play some solo pieces of my own composition from my \"Spooky Ghost\" project alongside some arrangements of Bowie songs that I got to perform with David over the years we worked together. New York is an incredible place for music and art and very welcoming for an Irishman. There is a special bond there and a mutual curiosity.”\nSee www.thisisny.com.", "One of David Bowie’s final works is coming to Brooklyn for one night only.\nA film version of “Lazarus,” the stage musical written by the late, legendary artist and the Irish playwright Enda Walsh, will be screened at Kings Theatre on May 2, and will feature accompaniment by a live band.\nThe “motion picture/live soundtrack experience” will be the first time the seven-piece band, which was hand-picked by Bowie, will play the nearly-20-song set since the closing night of the show’s Off-Broadway run in New York in January 2016.\nThe band will accompany a filmed performance of the London cast, which featured Michael C. Hall, Amy Lennox, Sophia Anne Caruso, Michael Esper and more.\n‘Smiley-faced’ spiders named for the Obamas, Bernie Sanders\nMichael C. Hall and Sophia Anne Caruso perform ‘Lazarus’ in London. (JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images)\nHall plays Thomas Jerome Newton, the character that Bowie portrayed in the 1976 film adaptation of Walter Tevis’ novel “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” which serves as the chief inspiration for “Lazarus.”\n“Lazarus” features re-worked versions of Bowie hits like “Changes” and “Life on Mars?” as well as songs written specifically for the show, including the title song, which appeared on Bowie’s final album, “Blackstar.\"\nRemembering the life and career of David Bowie\nTickets for the screening open to the general public on Tuesday.\nSign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing!", "Having completed the 2017 Aladdin Sane tour, celebrated pianist Mike Garson continues to pay tribute to his longtime collaborator David Bowie with A Bowie Celebration: The David Bowie Alumni Tour, featuring a number of musicians who have played with Bowie over the course of the late artist’s long career. Among the musicians participating are Earl Slick, Mark Plati, Carmine Rojas, and Gerry Leonard, a lineup that Westworld actress Evan Rachel Wood referred to be “as close are you’re going to get to Bowie.” Other musicians taking part in the tour are Joe Sumner (Fiction Plane), Corey Glover (Living Colour), Bernard Fowler (TACK>>HEAD, The Rolling Stones), and Lee John, with Gaby Moreno joining for the tour’s U.S. dates. Garson comments that although he had been asked to play with numerous Bowie tribute bands, he’d always rejected these offers, “because I could play with the real deal,” further elaborating that “the principal difference between us and the tribute bands out there and this is the only Bowie tour we’ll be taking part in.” The U.S. leg of the tour features three September dates in San Diego, CA, Reno, NV, and Saratoga, CA, while the European leg begins next year on January 9 in Dublin, Ireland, ending on February 1 in Zurich, Switzerland; tickets to the first 19 announced shows, as well as a full itinerary of dates are available via the tour’s website.\nA Bowie Celebration: The David Bowie Alumni Tour\nWebsite, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube\nMike Garson\nWebsite, Facebook, Twitter, ReverbNation, YouTube\nDavid Bowie\nWebsite, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud, YouTube\nIlker Yücel (Ilker81x)", "In 1991, Twin Peaks was abruptly canceled, and hearts — and probably more than a few television sets — were shattered. But over 25 years after ABC pulled the plug on the beloved cult murder mystery, director David Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost are drawing Peaks Freaks back into their surrealist small town fever dream. Twin Peaks is getting a third season on 21 May via Showtime. And while details about life in the Pacific Northwest lumber town are expectedly murky, not everything is… well, as it seems. This is what we've gleaned about the fervidly anticipated reboot so far.\nIt's basically Lynch's longest-ever movie.\nIn January, President and CEO of Showtime, David Nevins, announced that the Twin Peaks revival will debut with a two-hour premiere on Sunday, 21 May at 9/8c. Immediately following this double-bill, episodes three and four will be available to stream through Showtime's online streaming platform and On Demand service. Lynch has explained that he sees the project as a marathon movie split into 18 parts.\nDavid Lynch is directing every episode.\nJust six months after the Twin Peaks revival was first announced, Lynch announced that he was leaving the project because \"not enough money was offered to do the script the way I felt it needed to be done.\" The cast quickly launched a viral campaign to \"save\" the show's reboot, in the form of a two-minute compilation of clips explaining how Lynch's departure will affect the revival series (Sherilyn Fenn, aka Audrey Horne, accurately claimed that \"Twin Peaks without David Lynch is like eyes without brows.\") A month later, Lynch announced that he was back on board to direct all 18 episodes. He only directed six episodes of the original show.\nThe storyline is (naturally) shrouded in secrecy.\nThe plot will not shy away from the 25-year-old cliffhanger, according to a teaser trailer that you should probably avoid if you haven't seen the original episodes. Another teaser reveals that Laura Palmer's murder is still very much part of the story. Other than that, everything is typically mysterious. Apparently even the actors were only allowed to read the parts of the script directly concerning their characters.\nThe cast is a mix of old friends and (quite famous) new faces.\nLast year Showtime revealed the Twin Peaks revival's truly insane cast list, a motley crew of over 200 returning actors and new recruits. Mädchen Amick, Dana Ashbrook, Phoebe Augustine, Sherilyn Fenn, and Jan D'Arcy are all staging comebacks, as is the late Catherine E. Coulson as the forever iconic Log Lady (presumably her scenes were filmed prior to 2015.) They'll be joined by Michael Cera, Naomi Watts, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Amanda Seyfried, Jim Belushi, Tim Roth, Ashley Judd, and Laura Dern. And the musicians are just as exciting as the actors. Julee Cruise will return as the iconic siren of the series, with Sky Ferreira, Eddie Vedder, Sharon Van Etten, and Chromatics' Ruth Radelet all slated to make appearances. Even Nine Inch Nails' Robin Finck and Trent Reznor have signed on. David Bowie was also set to make a cameo as the long lost FBI agent Phillip Jeffries before he passed away last January.\nTwin Peaks isn't just set in Twin Peaks.\nTwin Peaks the town is set in the same fictional part of Washington — IRL, Snoqualmie and North Bend — as it was in the 90s original. But the reboot isn't limited to Seattle, nor even the West Coast. \"It takes place all over the country\", Nevins recently told Entertainment Weekly. \"Twin Peaks is an important locus, but it's not the only locus.\" Cherry pie teaser billboards for the Showtime series were certainly spotted many miles from The Evergreen State. Fans reported seeing them on the I-95 in Philadelphia, a city that has both terrified and inspired Lynch throughout his career, as well as in the director's birthplace of Missoula, Montana.\nAngelo Badalamenti will be returning for the reboot.\nOne of the most exciting Twin Peaks teasers dropped so far confirmed that Badalamenti will be creating another haunting original score for Lynch's small screen return. The composer's experimental soundscapes are as inextricably connected to Twin Peaks as Lynch is: Peaks Freaks who have explicitly referenced him as inspiration range from alt-pop outfit Xiu Xiu to Belgian fashion god Raf Simons. Check out Badalamenti's atmospheric remix of Laura Palmer's Theme below, and while you wait for the rest of the soundtrack, check out a decidedly less ambient Twin Peaks playlist from fellow music fan MacLachlan.\nCostume queen Nancy Steiner will be in charge of wardrobes.\nSteiner knew she had some big shoes to fill when she signed on to take over costume duties from beloved Lynch collaborator Patricia Norris, who passed away in 2015. But costuming the 200+ speaking parts in Twin Peaks is only the latest entry on Steiner's hefty, humbling, three-decade-long resumé. She has dressed everyone from David Bowie and Björk to Nirvana and No Doubt, as well as being responsible for the Lisbon sisters' exquisite 70s frocks in The Virgin Suicides and Scarlett Johansson's pink panties in Lost in Translation. \"I think I was the right person for the job. It really is a whole new Twin Peaks\" she teased last year of working with Lynch, though her contact naturally prevented her from elaborating further.\nThere's a whole slew of Twin Peaks-related releases.\nThe return of the cult series will bring fans far more than 18 hours of entertainment. Co-creator Mark Frost has written a whole Secret History detailing the events that followed the season two ambiguous finale, while Kyle MacLaughlan's Agent Cooper and a host of other original characters have narrated an audiobook based on that page-turner. Audiophiles can also get their hands on a reissue of the 1990 vinyl recording of Angelo Badalamenti's iconic soundtrack — released, naturally, on coffee-colored wax, and packaged in a Sam Smith-designed sleeve referencing the tiled floor of the Black Lodge. You can even pop an ollie on a Laura Palmer or Log Lady skate deck.\nFire Walk With Me will probably factor into the new series.\nThe series' divisive follow-up prequel Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me — featuring Bowie's cameo as the FBI agent Phillip Jeffries — will return to theatres to coincide with the drop of Badalamenti's milk-swirled vinyl soundtrack. If you don't manage to catch the controversial prequel in theatres, make sure to tune into Showtime's stream of Fire Walk With Me before 21 May. Both the cable network and Lynch himself are definitely hinting that the film is going to play a role in the Twin Peaks reboot. \"The story of Laura Palmer's last seven days is very, very important for this,\" Lynch said during a cryptic panel at the TCAs earlier this year, dropping the biggest clue he's revealed so far about the new storyline. Lynch will also supervise a new 4K restoration of Mulholland Drive, but this is likely just because it's awesome.\nThat Secret History has spawned some fascinating fan theories.\nThe expansive Secret History from Lynch's Twin Peaks co-creator is a secret dossier of backstories just for superfans. It's also spoiler territory. Most revelations about the fate of the characters are set in the years immediately following season two, rather than 25 years on, but Redditors have compiled a fairly exhaustive list of possible reboot giveaways if that's your jam. For an anecdote that won't necessarily ruin any surprises, there's also a touching story about how the beloved Log Lady discovered her mythical log.\nSomething's happening with Agent Cooper.\nAs the 21 May air date gets closer, Showtime's teaser trailers aren't getting any less cryptic. Yesterday four new video puzzles appeared on the official Twin Peaks YouTube channel, each lasting 30 seconds and containing seemingly random combos of letters. They in fact read: \"My log has something to tell you,\" \"Where we're from the birds sing a pretty song and there's always music in the air,\" \"What's happening with Agent Cooper,\" and… \"What's happening with Agent Cooper.\" Apparently seeing the same clue twice doesn't make it any less mystifying.\nLynch currently has no plans for a fourth season — but he never says no.\nWhile he has suggested that season three would be the last, the prolific director knows his own mind. \"Before I said I wasn't revisiting it and I did,\" Lynch said during a surprise appearance at a Showtime TCA press day in January. \"You never say no. But right now there are no plans.\"\nRelated link: Peaks Freaks: how the most devoted Twin Peaks fans are prepping for its return", "This post contains spoilers for Twin Peaks: The Return Part 14.\nYou have to hand it to David Lynch: he might love to torture his fans with tantalizing mysteries, but when he decides to move forward, he can advance a plot at full tilt. Sunday’s episode of Twin Peaks: The Return was jam-packed with details that seem to promise his viewers that at least a few loose ends will actually get tied up before the finale—which, need we remind you, is but four episodes away. There might still be plenty of questions up in the air—and Sunday’s episode did add a few more to the list, of course—but at least it seems Lynch has solved a few mysteries for us. Let’s review.\nHow are Dougie Jones and Agent Cooper related?\nThrough his trusty telephonic sidekick, Diane! As Laura Dern’s sardonic character informed Lynch’s Gordon Cole, Janey-E is actually her half sister—which would make Dougie Jones her (half) brother-in-law. Well, that explains the “E” in Janey-E. It’s possible that Diane and the original Dougie never met, as she and her sister are estranged. (That would explain why she never noticed the resemblance between Jones and Cooper.) Now that Gordon has called the Las Vegas F.B.I. bureau, perhaps there’s some hope he’ll actually meet Dougie Jones face to face. First, of course, Las Vegas will have to find the right Douglas Jones—but as the officer yells, “This is what we do in the F.B.I.!”\nWill we ever see Phillip Jeffries?\nEver since David Bowie’s death, Twin Peaks fans have wondered what kind of presence his character could have in The Return. Fans’ first glimpse at Jeffries this season came courtesy of a dream-flashback from Gordon Cole, co-starring Monica Bellucci. After hearing Jeffries’ name mentioned so many times, it was both jarring and heart-wrenching to finally see Bowie return onscreen via footage from Fire Walk With Me—but beyond that, his presence here seems significant. Lynch also dedicated the episode to Bowie, indicating perhaps that this will, indeed, be the only time we see him.\nWho is the Giant, and what on earth was happening in Part 8?\nThe series’s most bonkers episode so far was Part 8, which was largely a dream sequence involving the “Mother” figure from Part 3, the freaky Woodsmen, and the realization that Dark Cooper could not be killed with bullets alone. (More on “Mother” later.) It’s perhaps significant, then, that many moments in Part 14 seemed to recall that confusing installment.\nThe man that fans have known as “the Giant” is, it turns out, actually called “the Fireman.” When Andy, Hawk, Truman, and Bobby venture out into the woods to follow Major Briggs’s directions to Jackrabbit’s Palace, they find a familiar sight: a swirling portal in the sky. The eyeless woman Cooper encountered in Part 3, known to some fans as Naido, then appeared on the ground. As Andy held her hand, he was seemingly transported to the White Lodge to meet the Giant, who told him, “I am the Fireman.” He hands Andy something, and Andy peers into a screen in the ceiling that shows, among other things, the angelic face of Laura Palmer, the two Coopers, and several snippets from Part 8. As we wait for Andy to emerge back into the woods, we see all of the cops flitting about, somewhat translucent, almost like the Woodsmen. When Andy finally appears, carrying Naido, he seems resolute as he insists that she’s important and that she’s in danger; they must take her back to the jail to keep her safe.\nMany mysteries remain to be resolved when it comes to Parts 3 and 8, but at least now it seems all of the pieces from these dream-like sequences are coming together and colliding with the “real” world. Which brings us to our next seemingly solved mystery . . .\nWho the hell is Billy?\nIf you were paying attention when Andy and Lucy dropped off a newly robed Naido, you might have seen him! There were three inmates in the jail: Naido, Chad—whom they arrested earlier in the episode for doing Richard Horne’s dirty work, including snatching that incriminating letter from the mail—and an unnamed drunk. (Even in the credits, he is listed simply as “Drunk.”) Chad was more than a little frustrated by the drunk’s incoherent noises; apart from making what sounds like monkey chatter, all the drunk could do was spit Chad’s words back to him. It seemed possible that Naido was communicating with him in some way, but—like so many things in Twin Peaks—that’s unclear. But what does seem highly likely is that our drunk could, in fact, be that missing guy Billy everyone keeps talking about.\nWe first heard about Billy in Part 7, when a character named Bing came running into the Double R diner asking if anyone had seen Billy. Our first detailed description of Billy, however, came when Audrey Horne returned in Part 12. Turns out, she and Billy are lovers—and she’s very worried about him. Well, we might have just found him: at the end of the episode, two girls sit in the Roadhouse discussing how one of them was one of the last people to see Billy alive, along with her mother. Her mother’s name? Tina. For the record, it seems Tina and Billy were also hot and heavy before his disappearance, which might explain why Audrey hates Tina. The girl’s account of seeing Billy, however, offers an interesting detail: “there was blood coming out of his nose and mouth.” He bled all over their kitchen, then ran off. The “drunk” also seemed to have blood coming out of his mouth—or perhaps some runny garmonbozia. Either way, there might be more to that drunk than meets the eye.\nWho can defeat Dark Cooper?\nPerhaps the strangest moment of the episode is when Freddie, who apparently works alongside James Hurley as a security guard at the Great Northern, tells his co-worker the story of how he got the green rubber glove that gives him enough hand strength to crush walnuts: in a nutshell (sorry), he says he was sucked into a vortex, where he met the Fireman—who instructed him as to where, exactly, to go to get this single glove that would provide him super-human strength. Then, he was to come to Twin Peaks to fulfill his destiny. (Curiously, Freddie says that when he showed up to buy a plane ticket, it turned out he already had one.) Could Freddie and his super-hand be the key to stopping Dark Cooper? We already know that bullets won’t do the trick, but perhaps a mystical rubber glove will. It’s worth a shot, right?\nWhat’s wrong with Sarah Palmer?\nBut for all of this, there was one veritable scene stealer in this installment, and that was Sarah Palmer. We already know that Sarah hasn’t been feeling well. After her grocery store freak-out, we last saw her trapped in a fugue-like state, watching a boxing clip on a loop. This week, we find her sipping on a Bloody Mary when a long-haired man in a “Truck You” T-shirt comes over to harass her. That’s a bad call, to say the least. When she brushes off his advances, he accuses her of being a lesbian, asking if he likes to “eat c--t.” Her response? “I’ll eat you.”\nAnd when he lashes out at her? She pulls her face off, just like Laura did in Part 2. But while Laura’s insides appeared to be full of light, Sarah’s are nothing but wretched darkness. Before you know it, the guy is on the ground with part of his neck missing, while Sarah—who is panicking and, notably, not covered in blood—screams and jumps back. Soon after, however, she adopts a more bitter tone, deadpanning to the bartender, “Sure is a mystery, huh?”\nIt’s already seemed apparent that Sarah Palmer might be possessed, and now some fans are speculating that Sarah might be playing host to the same “Mother” figure who threateningly appeared in Cooper’s spirit journey—and who killed those two young spectators at the glass box in New York. (His missing chunk of neck does look a lot like their missing faces.) But what does that all mean?\nPerhaps Bellucci’s “ancient phrase” from Gordon Cole’s dream will be instructive here: “We’re like the dreamer who dreams and then lives inside the dream. But who is the dreamer?” This season has, indeed, unfurled much like someone else’s dream—in this case, David Lynch’s. It’s been confusing, whimsical, dark, and at times incomprehensible—but nonetheless, something truly dazzling and personal lies beneath the meandering exterior. With only four installments left, perhaps it’s simply best to savor the ride while it lasts.\nDo you have what it takes?\nTest your knowledge of the Seven Kingdoms with Vanity Fair ’s Game of Unknowns.\nMake your predictions", "One of the undisputed best shows on TV right now imho.\nI was away for just over a week, so 2 eps behind, but need to get a bottle of wine in and sit down for this because I can feel it's going to be heavy and necessary af. Reply\nThread\nLink\nAmen! One of the best shows on television, in a very long time. Reply\nParent\nThread\nLink\nhaven't watched last weeks episode yet but I'll try to get to it tonight Reply\nThread\nLink\ndoes it make sense to say that i didn't like this episode but found it moving and profound? Reply\nThread\nLink\nI also feel this way about the last episode. I thought the monologue was too long and it became exhausting to me partly because of the heavy subject. Reply\nParent\nThread\nLink\nIt didn't feel like an episode of a TV show imo, I mean, I find every ep of this show to be an experience but this was an EXPERIENCE. Reply\nParent\nThread\nLink\nIt's basically a standalone episode tbh. Anyone who isn't watching the show could watch this episode. Makes it even more meaningful and an experience like you said. I absolutely loved it. Reply\nParent\nThread\nLink\nYeah, that's a good point. With the exception of Elizabeth's presence, it's not directly related to the rest of the episodes in a way that makes watching prior ones a necessity. It was such powerful storytelling and acting. Reply\nParent\nThread\nLink\nthat still makes her look like ll cool j smh\nthis episode was so good. Reply\nThread\nLink\nJust watched the ep from last week and arrrggghhhh CATO. And that promo. ARRGGHHH CATO X2. Everything fucking Patty Cannon does stresses me out so much. Reply\nThread\nLink\ni need that bitch to die. and i'm still angry with rosalie for going back south and not telling noah anything! she's gonna have that baby in the woods somewhere. Reply\nParent\nThread\nLink\nI know! I really hope she dies a gruesome death sooner or later....cause she is doing the MOST! Reply\nParent\nThread\nLink\nAisha Hinds slayed in the last episode. It's amazing that she was able to pull that performance with only a week of preparation. Reply\nThread\nLink\nShow is so good Reply\nThread\nLink\nIf this was a 'mainstream \" show everyone would be talking about this and giving her all the awards. Reply\nThread\nLink", "The video will start in 8 Cancel\nGet daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nThis incredible image of the late David Bowie appeared in the sink of an Inverclyde bathroom to the surprise of a woman visiting her loo.\nGrandmother and Bowie fan Christine Carroll, 66, was heading to bed when she spotted some ch-ch-changes on her tap.\nChristine, from Gourock, said: “I was brushing my teeth before I went to bed and was about to clean the tap as I noticed some toothpaste marks my grandkids had left.\n“Just as I was about to clean it I noticed it resembled a man. Then I looked a bit closer and thought it looked really like David Bowie in his mid 80s phase.”\nChristine took a picture of the Thin Pearly White Duke, but has since cleaned her Aladdin Sane down the drain.\nShe added: “ I looked at the rest of the tap and the sink just to make sure Mick Jagger wasn’t there as well.”", "Near the end of 1971, an eclectic set of proto-glam rock stompers, intimate ballads, and love letters, collected under the title Hunky Dory, became David Bowie’s first masterpiece.", "As Bowie makes his tasteful, triumphant return to the screen, David Lynch offers a reminder that we can all be heroes – even the most unlikely of us\nSpoiler alert: this blog is for Twin Peaks viewers who have seen episode 14 of The Return, showing on Showtime on the US and Sky Atlantic in the UK. Do not read on unless you have watched.\n‘We’re like the dreamer who dreams and then lives inside the dream. But who is the dreamer?’\nIt was always too much to dream that David Bowie had reprised his role as the FBI’s Phillip Jeffries before his death – and that all involved had managed to keep a lid on it. Instead, Twin Peaks acknowledged his absence in the most tasteful way possible, using archive footage from Fire Walk With Me in Gordon’s dream sequence. It was bittersweet, making us miss Bowie all the more, but of course it offered no answers. This was the week the show indulged the reality of its narratives being all over the place more than ever.\nStories, dreams, tall tales, memories and the misremembered … what, Lynch and Frost ask amid this collection of unreliable narrators, is really the difference? So Lynch toys with us by having Director Gordon (himself) resort to solving cases via his dreams about screen siren Monica Bellucci (herself). It’s becoming less and less clear who can be taken at their word – but while you could hardly accuse part 14 of clarity, it’s no slouch when it comes to revelations.\nFacebook Twitter Pinterest The most virtuous individual of all? … Diane. Photograph: Suzanne Tenner\nMost significant is the discovery that Diane and Jayne-E are half-sisters, with little love lost. Laura Dern’s FBI veteran has been painted so on-the-nose disreputable, all cigarettes and builder’s mouth, that she was always going to end up one of the most virtuous individuals in this whole business, now serving as a direct counterpoint to Naomi Watts’ manipulative Stepford Wife.\nHere’s the thing. In one sense, there’s a hell of a lot going on this week. People are starting to cotton on to the reality of two Coopers, secrets of Blue Rose are coming to the surface, the Giant is named as the Fireman, the vortex returns and Sarah Palmer bites a man’s face off.\nFacebook Twitter Pinterest Secrets of Blue Rose are coming to the surface, the vortex returns – and Sarah Palmer bites a man’s face off. Photograph: Suzanne Tenner\nBut at the same time, it’s those on the fringes who dominate. Andy from the sheriff’s office had hardly been one of life’s winners, yet here he is, chosen by the Fireman for a trip to his realm and gifted a recap of the entire Twin Peaks mythology before emerging back in the forest somehow wiser, somehow instinctively knowing how to protect the eyeless lady.\nFacebook Twitter Pinterest All about the little guy … the Fireman. Photograph: Suzanne Tenner\nAnd yet … if Andy was not a character you would have predicted to be pivotal, spending so long with British Freddie telling the tall tale of the green glove to James Hurley was even more unlikely. Until you realise, whatever the Fireman’s motives, he’s all about the little guy. In a world so corrupted, this controlling hand seems preoccupied with the innocent. We’re all stories in the end. And some people’s are bigger than they realise.\n‘What’s your mother’s name?’\nSpeaking of those on the periphery, we close once again at the Roadhouse with more people we don’t know talking about other people we don’t know. This last interaction, between Tina’s daughter and David Lynch’s actual wife Emily Stofle, is notable not least because it’s the only allusion to whatever’s going on with Audrey and whatever happened to Billy – apparently scaling a six-foot fence to get away from somebody. Bringing back a character that iconic then just forgetting her would be more cause for criticism for a show with less characters to juggle. We’ve all now surely given up thinking they’ll ever tie this up in four hours. But perhaps that’s the point. Twin Peaks should have tied up the moment Laura Palmer’s murder was solved, and yet here these people still are, in their different ways still governed by that terrible event. Because life doesn’t tie up either. In that sense, Twin Peaks is possibly the most true-to-life show on television.\nPeaks and troughs\n• Gordon Cole moment of the week? The hearing aid, obviously the hearing aid.\n• Talking of the small moments that make this show sing – the Las Vegas FBI chief losing it with his clueless colleague was basically everything.\n• How figurative are we supposed to be treating Sarah’s retractable head? Or the vortex, for that matter?\n• This week’s musical guest at the Roadhouse comes in the form of Illinois country songbird Lissie, with Wild West.", "Sleater-Kinney rang in the new year with a special show at San Francisco’s Masonic, with support from the Thermals and a DJ set from Spoon’s Britt Daniel. During the show, they covered George Michael’s “Faith” in tribute to the late singer, then brought out Daniel and members of the Thermals to conclude with David Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel,” as Consequence of Sound points out. Watch it happen below, and scroll down to see them lead a new year’s countdown (around the nine-minute mark).\nLast January, Daniel covered Bowie’s “Never Let Me Down.”\nRead Pitchfork’s interview with Britt Daniel and feature “Sleater-Kinney: A Certain Rebellion.”\nWatch Sleater-Kinney perform “Bury Our Friends” at Pitchfork Music Festival 2015:", "3 weeks left to buy \"Somewhere in the Nowhere\" Limited Edition Vinyl. I will sell the ones I have left only after the airing of #TwinPeaks. Each vinyl shipment will contain a very special and personal souvenir. All photography by David Lynch. Packaging by Grammy- nominated designer Todd Gallopo. Vinyl is heavy. Visit : https://chrystabellanddavidlynch.bandcamp.com/album/somewhere-in-the-nowhere #chrystaBell #davidlynch #vinyl #album #cosmic #limitededition #SomewhereIntheNowhere #TwinPeaks #allthethings\nA post shared by Chrysta Bell (@chrysta_bell) on Jan 13, 2017 at 2:00pm PST", "In case you were in doubt about the fact that Recording Academy members don’t always make the best choices, consider that David Bowie had never won a musical award at the Grammys until the year following his death. His past laudations have been for a music video (1985’s “Jazzin’ for Blue Jean” clip), a Lifetime Achievement in 2006, and a Hall of Fame award for his formative 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust.\nThis year, however, not only did Bowie win awards for contemporary musical achievements, he won every category in which he was nominated: Best Alternative Rock Album, Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical), and Best Recording Package for Blackstar, and Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song for the album’s title track.\nPeople were mad that The Chainsmokers accepted Bowie’s Best Rock Song award for him. But, after doing the unthinkable and actually giving Bowie five awards, the Academy had to figure out a way to Grammy it up somehow.", "David Lynch’s “18-hour movie” approach to Twin Peaks: The Return means that the series has a pace unlike any other big show. Many scenes seem disconnected from the episodes around them, some episodes consist largely of dialogue, and some even break away from the story to conduct an experiment in form. Then there are episodes like Part 14, where events pour forth at such a furious rate, the whole episode feels like one of Gordon Cole’s delirious Monica Bellucci dreams.\nWhat comes in dreams?\nCole’s dream sequence in Part 14 is one of the most striking parts in an episode full of startling imagery, and given the primacy of dreams throughout Twin Peaks, it bears discussion. Dreams occupy a place of spiritual, thematic importance in the show. Cooper’s first trip to the Red Room — one of the original series’ most iconic scenes — occurs while he is dreaming, and it is there that the Man from Another Place and Laura Palmer give him clues to solve the mystery of Laura’s murder.\nCooper endorsed dream analysis as a means of investigating, and it seems to be a common trait among members of the Blue Rose squad, as Cole is preoccupied with his dream, laying out the details for Albert and Tammy. Traveling through a Paris rendered in grayscale, Cole meets actress Monica Bellucci for coffee. Gordon can see Cooper nearby, but his face is hidden.\nBellucci says “We are like the dreamer, who dreams, and then lives inside the dream … But who is the dreamer?”\nGordon then turns around to see himself and Cooper, in a scene from the film Fire Walk with Me, in which the long-missing Phillip Jeffries (David Bowie) walks into Cole’s office, pointing to Cooper and asking “Who do you think that is there?”\nThe first part of the dream expresses the show’s fascination with the different layers of reality, and Gordon’s concern regarding Cooper’s identity. It also reiterates the show’s focus on emotion, rather than reason; when Bellucci finishes her statement, Cole mentions a “powerful, uneasy feeling” washing over him. The emotion comes unbidden, and Cole can only accept it.\nThat the dream segues into a scene from Fire Walk with Me further establishes the importance of that film, once considered a misstep for Lynch, which has formed the backbone of the Cooper plot. Jeffries calls into question Cooper’s identity, a problem Cole has been trying to solve since finding Cooper’s doppelganger in prison, and along with the information he receives from Sheriff Truman — who calls to tell him about the missing pages of Laura Palmer’s diary, which mention “two Coopers” — Cole seems to be closing in on the truth.\nAll roads lead to Twin Peaks\nThe Return has had a noticeably grander scope than the original show, taking place largely in South Dakota and Nevada, but it still drifts back to Twin Peaks, creating a sense that the conflict is occurring on a global (or at least continental) scale. The show expands its scope all the way to Europe in Part 14, as James Hurley and his fellow security guard Freddie sit outside the Great Northern Hotel on break. James asks why Freddie always wears a green glove on his right hand, and Freddie tells him a story about how, one day in London, he was sucked into a portal in the air.\nOn the other side, he met a figure calling himself “The Fireman,” who tells Freddie to go to a nearby store and buy a box containing only one glove. After an unfortunate incident with an obstructionist clerk, Freddie acquires the glove, granting him superhuman strength in his right hand, but the item is also bonded to his flesh.\nIt’s a weird story, but makes a great deal of sense following a previous scene in Part 14, in which the Twin Peaks police finally reach the spot indicated to them by Major Briggs. They find the eyeless woman that Cooper met in Part 3, and a portal appears, pulling Andy into the Black Lodge. There, he meets the Giant, now calling himself The Fireman, who shows Andy a collection of images, including the Woodsman, the birth of BOB, and Cooper’s doppelganger, filling Andy with knowledge of what is happening and what he must do.\n“The Fireman” also provided Freddie with the knowledge to acquire the glove, and told him to go to Twin Peaks where he would find his destiny. Will Freddie actually have some great fate? Knowing the show, his destiny could be something as mundane as lifting a heavy box for Cooper. Regardless, the scene establishes that whatever is happening with the Black Lodge, it is happening in multiple locations, with Twin Peaks as the epicenter.\nWhat’s really going on with the Roadhouse?\nMost episodes of The Return end in the Roadhouse, where bands perform for the oddly hip people of Twin Peaks. Not all of the Roadhouse scenes are mere showcases of Lynch’s indie playlist, however. Often, characters will meet and talk during the performances. Some of these scenes have been important (the introduction of Richard Horne took place during a Roadhouse performance), while others concern characters we never see again, offering a glimpse into the lives of people not involved in the plot — a valuable reminder that there is a world outside of Cooper and the Twin Peaks P.D.\nAt the end of Part 14, before a lively performance from rock artist Lissie, two women, Megan (Shane Lynch) and Sophie (Emily Stofle), discuss the former’s drug habit before getting into a meatier topic: The whereabouts of Billy, Audrey’s unseen lover, mentioned in an earlier episode. Megan relates how Billy appeared outside her family’s house days earlier, bleeding profusely and washing his head in their sink before disappearing. She also reveals that her mother is the Tina referenced by Audrey previously, another of Billy’s lovers.\nAudrey’s role in The Return has, so far, been strange even for this show. A major character in the original series, she only returned in Part 12, apparently married to a man named Charlie, and her scenes have been disconnected from the rest of the show until now. Megan repeatedly mentions that she cannot remember if her uncle was present when Billy appeared, and that echoes Audrey’s crisis of memory in Part 13. Is the Roadhouse more than just a venue for music? Audrey’s isolation from the rest of the cast suggests that maybe she is not really in the “physical” world. Perhaps the Roadhouse is not entirely of this reality?\nFor more Twin Peaks discussion, check out our guide to the essential classic episodes.", "Now Playing Heather Graham on What She Thinks Happened to Her Twin Peaks Character\nIn keeping with Twin Peaks' unique ability to both confound and delight fans, there's been an intense debate waging on between entertainment aficionados as to whether the third season-slash-first sequel, Twin Peaks: The Return, qualifies as another installment in what was originally a TV series or if it's a standalone (albeit 18-hour-long) film that's just been broken into pieces.\nCreator David Lynch has openly suggested that he believes it's a film property and that he approached it as such when producing the new run. But things really got heated with the back-and-forth when certain film outlets started including Twin Peaks in Top 10 lists of the year's best movies.\nTop 10 2017 des Cahiers du Cinémahttps://t.co/vfyhPBgu8I pic.twitter.com/CQjFLNrP0M — Cahiers du Cinéma (@cahierscinema) December 6, 2017\nSome agreed the series easily qualifies as a film, despite being nine times the ordinary feature length.\n#TwinPeaks is an 18 hour film presented episodically on TV. Write it in your diary, or send a cassette to Diane... but not the tulpa Diane. She redacts things. pic.twitter.com/pWRRbemzaz — Dr. Hawk (@choppingwoodpod) December 8, 2017\nbest film of 2017 is @SHO_TwinPeaks episode 8 — J. Austin Wilson (@austin_wil) November 27, 2017\nOthers weren't so convinced that this medium selection is appropriate, given its origin and runtime.\n#controversial\nNo, Twin Peaks S3 isn't a film. However, it is spectacularly cinematic by turns, & inventive/creative in a way that cinephiles wish more films were. Lumping it in with film might be a category error but it also encourages us to think about the medium's potential. — Diane (@DianePodcast) December 9, 2017\nTHREAD: 1. Believe me, I'm aware that David Lynch said he's making an 18-hour movie. But I got news for folks who don't write about TV regularly: every single person of any ambition who's ever worked in series TV says they're making \"a long movie\" or \"a bunch of little movies.\" — MZS (@mattzollerseitz) December 5, 2017\nThe Hollywood Foreign Press Association has, however, unwittingly weighed in on the debate by nominating Twin Peaks' central star Kyle MacLachlan for the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.\nMacLachland, however, seems to think his nomination may be based on a false premise, telling IndieWire that despite him being nominated in a TV category, he believes The Return is a film.\n\"I lean toward the film example only because it was written as one story. We were all encouraged not to refer to it as episodes, but as hours. There was never an act break or anything like that in any of the writing, so it was constructed to be an 18-hour film experience. In that way, I do think of it as more of a film,\" he explained.\n\"In watching it on a large screen, which we did at the premiere and also in Cannes, it was like watching a film,\" MacLachlan continued. \"It wasn't like this was shot for a small screen and then blown up and the frame was inadequate. It was cinematic. So I think in that way, you can define it as a film, for sure.\"\nMacLachlan isn't ungrateful, however — category designation disagreements notwithstanding.-- and shared that he'll be celebrating this honor in character with, you guessed it, a steaming cup o' joe.", "(Each week, we’re going to kick off a discussion about Twin Peaks: The Return by answering one question: what was the best scene of the episode?)\nAfter despising the past couple of episodes of Twin Peaks, the elusive series connected with me in a big way with last night’s installment, trading narrative tangents and autuer-driven indulgences for a mythology-centric hour that made me breath a sigh of relief. Twin Peaks contains multitudes and part of its legend stems from the way it can represent many things to many people, but I’m partial to episodes like the one that aired last night, and I found it to be particularly satisfying – especially in the wake of what came before it.\nRead our Twin Peaks part 14 review below.\nThe Best Scene in Part 14\nFor me, the best scene in this episode came toward its end: the part featuring the Great Northern Hotel security guards. It’s James Hurley’s birthday, so he asks his young new co-worker Freddie to tell him the story of why Freddie always wears a rubber glove on his right hand. Turns out he was sucked into a void and met the Giant, who instructed him to buy a very specific glove at a nearby store and that when he wore it, he would gain superhuman strength in that hand. (This isn’t just nonsense, either: the glove works, as evidenced by Freddie destroying two walnuts between his fingers.) The Giant also told him to travel to the town of Twin Peaks to find his destiny, so I can’t wait to see how he factors in to the remaining four hours of this season. Actor Jake Wardle, who plays Freddie, did a terrific job delivering what must have been a multi-page monologue, and in an episode full of great scenes and supernatural happenings, I was the most mesmerized by a simple scene of these two guys just sitting outside having a conversation.\nBut let’s tackle this episode chronologically for the rest of this review. FBI chief Gordon Cole returns a call to the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department, in which Frank Truman tells him they have reason to believe there are two Coopers out there. Cole’s appreciative, and we quickly determine that this isn’t the first time he’s dealt with something like this. Albert’s detailing of the first “Blue Rose” case to Tammy was illuminating: we learn that Cooper and DoppelCooper aren’t the first to experience this strange doubling in the real world. Years before, FBI agents Cole and Philip Jeffries witnessed a double of a woman kill her counterpart, and the victim disappeared before their eyes. Sounds like some foreshadowing for a conflict between the two Coopers to me.\nThat scene is illuminating in an entirely different way as well: we find out that Cooper’s former secretary Diane is related to Janey-E. The two are half-sisters, but they’re estranged; I’m still thinking about what this connection could mean in terms of the larger story, but the idea that Diane is connected at all to the Dougie Jones storyline is a tidy way to tie those narrative threads together as the season heads toward its conclusion.\n(Side note: I laughed so hard when the Las Vegas office chief suddenly screamed at his underling for seemingly no reason, slamming his fist on his desk. That reaction was totally out of left field, and one of those moments that could only work in the world of Twin Peaks.)\nBut the best aspect of the scene was the way he relayed his latest “Monica Bellucci dream” to Albert and Tammy in their makeshift office. The sound design has been terrific across The Return (I’m still trying to figure out what Lynch and Frost were trying to say with the squeaking window cleaner before Diane arrived), but it was especially effective this week, with the unnatural humming of electricity and ominous tonalities in key moments adding immeasurably to the scenes in which they appeared. Cole’s dream – which, with its Parisian cafe setting, and self-awareness of dream logic is reminiscent of Inception – was not only beautifully filmed, edited, and executed, but it was one of the few recent scenes involving that character that wasn’t oppressively tedious.\n“We are like the dreamer who dreams, and then lives inside the dream,” goes the ancient saying, and there are so many ways to read this that it’s enough to make your head spin. My choice is to look at it as a meta commentary on Lynch and Frost’s story they’re weaving for us. It’s no mistake that Cole, the character played by Lynch himself, uttered these words. To me, it means that not only are we the audience visiting Lynch and Frost’s dream for an hour every week, but they too are living inside their own creation (and for Lynch as Cole, that connection is literal).\nCole’s dream continued with a memory of a moment we saw back in Fire Walk With Me, in which Agent Phillip Jeffries (David Bowie) points at Cooper and asks Cole, “Who do you think that is, there?” (In the film, Jeffries also specifically mentions the idea of living inside a dream, deepening the link even further.) Did Jeffries know then that Cooper wasn’t who he claimed to be? Was this moment destined to become fodder for Cole’s dream years later, so the dots could finally be connected at the proper time? Cole, shaken from his recollections, gets meta once again. “Damn! I hadn’t remembered that!” he says. “Now this is really something interesting to think about.” That statement may as well be coming from those in the audience who didn’t have Fire Walk With Me memorized, and are wondering about the various dream-within-dream connections that have been presented.", "It was 26 years ago when Kyle MacLachlan took home a Golden Globe for best actor in a drama series for his role as Agent Dale Cooper in David Lynch’s original Twin Peaks. On Monday, Maclachlan found himself nominated again — albeit in as best actor in a limited series — for his show-stopping performance in Twin Peaks: The Return.\n“I’m thrilled to be nominated,” says MacLachlan. “It’s the role — well, three roles — of a lifetime.” Humbly, he adds, “All credit goes to David Lynch and Mark Frost for writing these extraordinary characters.”\nShortly after hearing the news of his nomination, Maclachlan spoke to Entertainment Weekly and discussed his experience reprising his iconic role.\nENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Congratulations on your Golden Globes nomination! As a major Twin Peaks fan, I couldn’t be more excited for you. What were you doing when you found out the good news?\nKYLE MACLACHLAN: That’s very sweet of you. Thank you very much. I was actually dropping my son off at school. We were in the car, and he was so excited. He wanted to send a gif back [to my publicist]. So he found a couple of funny gifs to respond to the “Congratulations” text with. I didn’t know what he found, so of course, I looked at my phone after I dropped him off and was like, [laughing] “Oh, so that’s what we sent out. Okay.” I think there was a duck dancing that was very excited, and somebody else doing something else silly. It was pretty great.\nYou won a Golden Globe in 1991 for the role of Agent Cooper on Twin Peaks and here you are again at the ceremony. What does that feel like?\nIt’s very surreal, to be honest. I think it’s a testament to the power of that character. Dale Cooper has a resonance with people that I think is very special. And also I think the expectations of the Twin Peaks, let’s say, un-nostalgic return, which is what I think a lot of people thought what happened was not the case. This was an entirely new direction. Same characters, obviously, but a dramatically new story, new focus. The fact that that could also resonate in the same way that it did over 20 years ago I think speaks to the power of David Lynch and the creative genius that he is. You’ve got to have the words and the character and the story to be able to be even considered in any of these categories, and we certainly had that.\nHow would you say that TV has changed in the 20+ years since you first started working on Twin Peaks?\nThe obvious response, of course, is that there’s a tremendous amount more of opportunities. There are so many extraordinarily talented people working in television. So many auteurs are working in television, which back in the day was not the case. David was one of the first filmmakers to do something on episodic television, so he broke ground on that, for sure. I think at the end of the day, people really love the character, and they love story, and they love engaging with interesting people. There’s an abundance of that right now on television — almost so much that we don’t have time to catch up on everything, you know. I think that once again, we are seeing people who want stories. They want to go on a journey with these characters, and that’s never changed. There’s just more of it.\nIt’s become a heated debate as to whether Twin Peaks: The Return should be considered a TV show or a film. Where do you stand on the matter?\nI think it’s kind of both. David was very specific about calling them hours and not episodes. So they’re 18 hours, and the way it was written and directed was if it were a long film. In other words, we didn’t break it into pieces when we were filming. So I think structurally, it is a film. Obviously, it was broadcasted on television and intended for television, but I think you could make the argument that it also works as a film. The very first one that we did was episodic, but when they screened Twin Peaks, the original pilot, at the Television Academy, it held up as a film, which makes complete sense to me because it’s directed by David Lynch. It just felt like it was a feature. And when they screened the first two episodes [of The Return] in Cannes this year, it had exactly the same results. It was seamless. The first two hours felt as if they were a film. So I think you could definitely make that argument.\nAs you mentioned earlier, you play three completely different characters in The Return. Did you find one to be especially challenging, or one that you enjoyed playing the most?\nDougie was a lot of fun. All were challenging in different ways. There was an awful lot of patience and trust that I had to have with Dougie because most of it is nonverbal. I just did what I thought was right, and if David laughed, then I knew that I was in the ballpark. And then for Mr. C — I call him Mr. C — that is something I’ve never done before. There were shades of it earlier in my career, but never as complete as that. It was difficult because, as an actor, you want to engage with the other actors back and forth. And this guy existed in his own space and area and was not about any kind of relationship with anybody. He is a very dark being and it was challenging for me to do that, particularly when I was working with people I knew well, like Laura Dern and David Lynch. Having to maintain that character was really challenging.\nThe way that you were able to take on those three distinct roles at once and transition from each of them so seamlessly just blew me away as I watched every Sunday night.\nIt was challenging and exciting to be able to have the opportunity, I’ve got to say, because David didn’t have a choice with Cooper. It was me or nothing. So he really put his faith in me that I could go to the places that he needed me to go to. I’m very honored to have him think of me like that. It’s very special.\nWere you expecting there to be this much outpouring love and support from fans?\nThe social activity has been really strong and the fan base that engages with all of the cast members on the show is incredibly supportive and participative. One of the beautiful things I find is how the show is inspiring all of these creative people that are out there to create something with the Twin Peaks seed, whether it’s a drawing, or a Christmas tree, or a tableau, or a costume, or anything. It’s providing this inspiration to people to find their inner Peaks. It’s been really fun to watch that, and that is something that is purely in the world of social media. That was something that we obviously weren’t capable of enjoying in the original go-round 25 years ago. I find within the world of Peaks fans, there’s a wonderful back and forth between them. I may provide the outlet, but they are interacting amongst themselves and celebrating and sharing a show that they love so much.", "Spotify, in partnership with the New York City Metropolitan Authority (MTA) and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, has created an incredible, immersive takeover of the Broadway-Lafayette/Bleeker Street subway stop in memory of the late great David Bowie, who lived in the very same neighborhood that this station serves. This bittersweet experience runs between Tuesday, April 17 until Sunday, May 13. To make the experience fully complete, keepsake MetroCards bearing one of the artist’s most iconic personas (Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, and Thin White Duke), will be made available for purchase at the Broadway-Lafayette/Bleeker Street stop during the period of exhibition.\nCommuters and subway station visitors will also be able to fly away to their very own “Life On Mars” with “Tickets to Mars;” keepsake MetroCards that may be found available for purchase inside the Broadway-Lafayette station. These MetroCards, which each display one of five Bowie personas including Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, and Thin White Duke, will be great mementos for those lucky enough to snag them. Visitors can also create their own Bowie universe by posting photos of the experience with the hashtag #DavidBowieIsHere.", "David, Devindra and Jeff discuss the inspiring short film The White Helmets, the surprisingly good Riverdale, the disappointing Santa Clarita Diet, and the visually spectacular Legion. Be sure to see Louis CK on dancing as a profession, and David’s thoughts on Six Feet Under’s ending.\nYou can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Also, like us on Facebook!\nDownload or Listen now in browser:\nSubscribe to the /Filmcast:\nSHOWNOTES\nWhat We’ve Been Watching (01:00) David: Magicians: Life in the Impossible, Oscar-nominated short-documentaries, Six Feet Under\nDevindra: Riverdale, Girls S6 premiere\nJeff: Abstract, Santa Clarita Diet, Legion Film News (46:15) Mary Poppins is coming back\nCastlevania Netflix series\nFeatured Reviews (51:00)\nThe Lego Batman Movie\n(1:04:30) John Wick: Chapter 2\n(1:25:00) SPOILERS for John Wick Credits", "Showtime\nThe return of Twin Peaks is a lot to process. After each episode, Uproxx’s Alan Sepinwall and Keith Phipps attempt to hash out what we all just watched.\nKeith: A few weeks back, Kyle MacLachlan (he’s the guy who plays Dougie) gave an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in which he said of Twin Peaks: The Return, “ultimately everything will come back together and make sense.” I’m starting to think that wasn’t just crazy talk. The past few weeks have felt like the series is starting to draw all its narrative strands together. Lynch has never been a director you go to for narratives that work with a satisfying, clockwork precision — I’m not sure he and Christopher Nolan would have much to say to each other at a cocktail party — but this home stretch of The Return has felt like he and Frost are bringing out the best in each other. I’m not privy to how their collaboration works, but it seems like Lynch gets space to do strange, wonderful, stylistic excursions like this episode’s long encounter between Andy and The Fireman (Carel Struycken’s character is no longer billed as “? ? ? ? ?”) and the freedom to make everything part of a clash between good and evil as defined by a highly personal logical system. Frost keeps it pushing forward and makes sure it tells a story. The editing can be a bit shaggy at times, but I’m increasingly getting a sense that things will, in MacLachlan’s words, come back together.\nThat this episode just flat-out answered some lingering questions certainly added to that sense. Where to begin? I definitely want to get to Andy, Truman, Hawk, and Bobby’s mystical walk in the woods, but maybe we should start with the scene between Tammy and Albert and then Gordon and Diane: the origins of the Blue Rose and what it means to Bad Coop and Dougie.\nAlan: I’m a bit less confident than you that it will all fit together, if only because there are only four episodes left, and a lot of ground to cover. Even if you assume that Lynch and Frost intend to flat-out ignore some of what’s happened before — remember Beverly’s ailing husband? Or the question of who built the New York cube? Or when Red seemed like he might be a major new character? — we still have to have both the FBI and Hutch/Chantal arrive in Vegas, get Dougie to Twin Peaks, have some kind of confrontation between the two Coopers, have Andy explain at least some of what the Fireman told him, and get into more detail about what is going on inside of Sarah Palmer (about which we should have much to say in a bit), to name just a few events that seem inevitable and/or necessary. At the pace at which much of this season has moved, I could easily see it ending on a cliffhanger — maybe a reversal of “How’s Annie?” — to set up another season that may or may not happen, if only because there doesn’t feel like room for everything.\nThat said, last night’s episode certainly worked overtime to advance and explain things that had been lingering for months, though also was a reminder that straightforward exposition tends not to be the strength of either creator (but especially Lynch). It’s nice to have some clarity about the Blue Rose, Phillip Jeffries (even if David Bowie passed away before he could film a cameo, and thus had to be represented by Fire Walk With Me footage), and even the link between Diane and half-sister Janey-E, but even with Gordon’s strange Monica Bellucci dream mixed in — which felt a bit like an excuse for Lynch to fly to Paris to hang with Monica Bellucci (who can blame him?) — Andy’s trip into the White Lodge was by far the more compelling of the episode’s two big explanatory sequences, and that’s even though it didn’t explain much of anything! The Return has tended to work best in a dream-like state — to quote Bellucci, “You’re like the dreamer who dreams and then lives inside the dream” — when the sounds and images are so strange and compelling that the actual story becomes a distant concern. Andy sitting opposite the Fireman and seeing glimpses of all we’ve witnessed over the previous 13 hours was a thrill, and right when I was ready to mock the Fireman for picking the absolute worst member of the hunting party to give all this important information to, Andy materializes in the woods in full hero mode, clearly having understood everything. Maybe his simple-mindedness helped in this case, since his hard drive wasn’t quite as full as Bobby or Frank’s would have been?\nDid you find the Blue Rose explanation satisfying all these years after the movie, Keith? How did you feel to see the eyeless woman in the real world, and Andy of all people in one of the Lodges?\nKeith: On the first point, Albert just laying out the first Blue Rose case in such direct language felt a little anti-climactic — or set up to a great prequel series. (If nothing else, it would be fun to fan cast young Albert, Gordon, and Phillip.) On the second point, that was my first thought too: Why Andy? But the scene worked beautifully. Andy may not be the smartest Twin Peaks policeman — though Chad seems to be giving him a run for the title of its dumbest — but he has a soulfulness that Harry Goaz plays beautifully here, just like he always has. (Think back to the pilot, with Andy breaking down at the crime scene.)\nAnd what a scene, right? “We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives inside the dream,” Monica Bellucci tells Gordon. In a series filled with moments in which dreams and reality start to bleed together, Andy’s encounter with the Fireman doesn’t even make it into the top tier of Twin Peaks‘ strangest moments. But it’s a weirdly elegant swirl of past images that plays like a turning point, for Andy and for those in Twin Peaks working on the side of good. It’s not clear who the eyeless woman is or why she needs rescuing, but it feels heroic. There’s a lot at stake here, even if no one involved in the moment can articulate what. But the world of the Lodges and the world they call their own are starting to talk to each other in ways we’ve never seen before. The show is building to something.", "David Letterman honored his mother, Dorothy Mengering, with a eulogy on Saturday at her funeral in Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Star reports he shared a story of Mengering seeing a snake in her garden, going to get a hoe and returning to chop off its head.\nStart the conversation, or Read more at Hollywood Reporter.", "Xxx\nGARFIELD\nStephen, you have no idea what you have given me here.\nI love that you feel somewhat unburdened. It makes me think of lines from a favorite Rilke poem: “This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively, by constantly greater beings.” That’s how I feel about Tony’s play: I’m blessed to be crushed by its demands over and again.\nSo funny that your body feels like it should be limping. I remember a performance where I was in the wings, and I wasn’t limping, having forgotten to. As soon as I crossed the threshold to the stage the limp came without any thought. My body was saving me from messing up. Miraculous!\nThat’s what this play, in part, feels like to me. A grief-prayer-song-celebration. Letting those souls lost in the plague know that we remember them, helping them to continue their crossing over the sea of death and into their rightful place in the infinite. Especially that epilogue.\nI’ve truly felt lighter since we started this correspondence, Stephen. I’ve felt carried through the play each night. Carried on the wings of all you’ve so generously shared. This will of course make you feel once more like the queen on the Prior float, but please just wave and smile and accept my adulation and gratitude.\nThe image of you and your husband driving Highway 1 has me thinking of Northern California. It’s where I go to remember myself. When I, as Prior, describe the real San Francisco as being unspeakably beautiful, I’m actually conjuring that glorious dramatic natural coastline through Big Sur.\nSending you and the whole company all my love from the Neil Simon Theater. My hand is at your back as I feel yours on mine.\nI can’t wait to meet in person. Thank you, thank you, thank you.\nLove,\nAndrew. X", "David Bowie's widow Iman has posted a heartfelt tribute to the late musician to mark Valentine's Day. The 61-year-old model marked the romantic day by sharing an intimate black and white photograph of her sharing a kiss with David, who passed away in January aged 69 following a battle with cancer.\nStart the conversation, or Read more at WENN Blog.", "Speaking to media including Express.co.uk at a recent press day, the soap executive said: “There was just a nice symmetry to that and because this week is designed to be like the final chapter in the No Return story from last year.\n“We talked extensively about making even the pictures look quite similar, so that there is a deliberate parallel to be drawn there.\nHe continued: “That was pretty much the first thing that popped into my head. It was very deliberately an echo of all of that.\n“When you come to watch it – it’s weirdly pictorial and serene. It’s like James’ death, less anguished. She’s not screaming in terror in quite the same way she was.”", "Read more: The Norwalk Daily Voice\nWESTPORT, Conn. - To celebrate the first-ever coast-to-coast broadcast of \"Saturday Night Live,\" guest host Jimmy Fallon led a flash mob in a jubilant performance of David Bowie's classic \"Let's Dance.\"\nStart the conversation, or Read more at The Norwalk Daily Voice." ]

[ "Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin The Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin (FCI Dublin) is a low-security United States federal prison for female inmates in Dublin, California. The facility also has an adjacent satellite prison camp housing minimum-security female offenders." ]

[ "Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum The Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, often referred to as the Oakland Coliseum, is a multi-purpose stadium in Oakland, California, United States, which is home to both the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (NFL). It opened in 1966 and is the only remaining stadium in the United States that is shared by professional football and baseball teams. The Coliseum was also home to some games of the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer in 2008–2009 and hosted games at the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum complex consists of the stadium and the neighboring Oracle Arena.", "Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency. A subdivision of the U.S. Department of Justice, the BOP is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system handles inmates who have violated, or are accused of violating, federal law. The BOP also holds inmates who have committed felonies in Washington, D.C.", "Capital punishment in California On July 16, 2014, federal judge Cormac J. Carney of the United States District Court ruled that California's death penalty system is unconstitutional because it is arbitrary and plagued with delay. The state has not executed a prisoner since 2006. The judge stated that the current system violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment by imposing a sentence that “no rational jury or legislature could ever impose: life in prison, with the remote possibility of death.”", "California grizzly bear Less than 75 years after the discovery of gold in 1848, almost every grizzly bear in California had been tracked down and killed. One prospector in Southern California, William F. Holcomb (nicknamed \"Grizzly Bill\" Holcomb), was particularly well-known for hunting grizzly bears in what is now San Bernardino County. The last hunted California grizzly was shot in Tulare County, California, in August 1922, although no body, skeleton or pelt was ever produced. Two years later in 1924, what was thought to be a grizzly was spotted in Sequoia National Park for the last time, and thereafter, grizzlies were never seen again in California.[12][13][14]", "Thomas Silverstein Thomas Edward Silverstein (born February 4, 1952) is an American convicted murderer. He has been incarcerated continuously since 1977 and has been convicted of four separate murders while imprisoned, one of which was overturned.[1] He has been in solitary confinement since 1983, when he killed prison guard Merle Clutts at the Marion Penitentiary in Illinois. Prison authorities describe him as a brutal killer and a former leader of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. Silverstein maintains that the dehumanizing conditions inside the prison system contributed to the three murders he committed. He was held \"in a specially designed cell\" in what is called \"Range 13\" at ADX Florence federal penitentiary in Colorado.[2] He is currently the longest-held prisoner in solitary confinement within the Bureau of Prisons.[3]", "David Rainey On November 8, 2012, Rainey pleaded no contest to stalking an unidentified woman on February 22 of that year, and on November 8 was sentenced to two years in Wasco State Prison. Having received credit for 401 days already served, he was expected to be released in a little under a year.[20][21] As of 2013, Rainey was on felony probation and forbidden from leaving Los Angeles County, California.[4] By 2013 Rainey and his wife had a third child and lived \"off the grid\" in Neenach, California.[4]", "San Francisco Bay Area The \"East Bay\" is the densest region of the Bay Area outside of San Francisco and includes cities and towns in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, centered around Oakland. As one of the larger subregions, the East Bay includes a variety of enclaves, including the suburban Tri-Valley area and the highly urban western part of the subregion that runs alongside the bay.[19] The \"Peninsula\" subregion includes the cities and towns on the San Francisco Peninsula, excluding the titular city of San Francisco. Its eastern half, which runs alongside the Bay, is highly populated while its less populated western coast traces the coastline of the Pacific Ocean and is known for its open space and hiking trails. Roughly coinciding with the borders of San Mateo county, it also includes the northwestern Santa Clara county cities of Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Los Altos.[20] The \"South Bay\" includes all of the rest of the cities in Santa Clara county, centered around San Jose, the largest city in Northern California.[21] It is roughly synonymous with Silicon Valley due to its high concentration of tech companies, although the industry also has a significant presence in the rest of the Bay Area.[22] The \"North Bay\" includes Marin, Sonoma, Napa, and Solano counties, and is the largest and least populated subregion. The western counties of Marin and Sonoma are encased by the Pacific Ocean on the west and the bay on the east, and are characterized by its mountainous and woody terrain. Sonoma and Napa counties are known internationally for their grape vineyards and wineries, and Solano county to the east, centered around Vallejo, is the fastest growing region in the Bay Area.[23]", "Private prison Statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice show that, as of 2013, there were 133,000 state and federal prisoners housed in privately owned prisons in the U.S., constituting 8.4% of the overall U.S. prison population.[21] Broken down to prison type, 19.1% of the federal prison population in the United States is housed in private prisons and 6.8% of the U.S. state prison population is housed in private prisons.[21] While 2013 represents a slight decline in private prison population over 2012, the overall trend over the past decade has been a slow increase.[21] Companies operating such facilities include the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the GEO Group, Inc. (formerly known as Wackenhut Securities), Management and Training Corporation (MTC), and Community Education Centers. In the past two decades CCA has seen its profits increase by more than 500 percent.[22] The prison industry as a whole took in over $5 billion in revenue in 2011.[23]", "Cañon City, Colorado Colorado Department of Corrections operates the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City.[21] In addition to several correctional facilities near Cañon City in unincorporated areas in Fremont County, Colorado State Penitentiary, the location of the state death row and execution chamber[22] is in Fremont County.[23] Other state prisons in Fremont County include Arrowhead Correctional Center,[24] Centennial Correctional Facility,[25] Fremont Correctional Facility,[26] Four Mile Correctional Center,[27] and Skyline Correctional Center.[28]", "California California is a U.S. state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.5 million residents, California is the most populous state in the United States and the third largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 8.8 million residents respectively.[12] Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second-most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County; its largest county by area, San Bernardino County; and its fifth most densely populated county, San Francisco.", "2017 Oakland Raiders season Although the league approved the Raiders' eventual relocation to Las Vegas on March 27, 2017, the team still maintains its lease at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum and intends to use the stadium for at least the next two seasons and, perhaps, 2019.[2][3]", "California Golden Seals The California Golden Seals were a team in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1967 to 1976. Initially named California Seals, the team was renamed Oakland Seals partway through the 1967–68 season (on December 8, 1967), and then to California Golden Seals in 1970.[1] The Seals were one of six teams added to the league as part of the 1967 NHL expansion. Based in Oakland, California, they played their home games at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena. However, the Seals were never successful at the gate, and eventually moved to Cleveland to become the Cleveland Barons in 1976.[1]", "Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa (lit. Spanish for \"Saint Rose\") is a city in and the county seat of Sonoma County, in California's Wine Country.[10] Its estimated 2016 population was 175,155.[11] Santa Rosa is the largest city in California's Redwood Empire, Wine Country and the North Bay; the fifth most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area after San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont; and the 28th most populous city in California.", "California's 19th congressional district California's 19th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California, currently represented by Democrat Zoe Lofgren. The district covers much of Santa Clara County, including most of the city of San Jose.", "Orange Is the New Black The series is set in a fictional prison in Litchfield, New York, which is a real town in upstate New York, but it does not have a federal penitentiary.[23] The series began filming in the old Rockland Children's Psychiatric Center in Rockland County, New York, on March 7, 2013.[24] The title sequence features photos of real former female prisoners including Kerman herself.[25]", "Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics, often referred to as the A's, are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team plays its home games at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum. They have won nine World Series championships, the third-most of all current MLB teams. The 2017 season was the club's 50th while based in Oakland.", "Juaneño The Juaneño or Acjachemen are an indigenous people of California. They traditionally lived along the coast in what is now Orange and San Diego counties. The name \"Juaneño\" derives from the Spanish Mission San Juan Capistrano, founded to colonize the area in 1776. They traditionally spoke the Juaneño language, a variety closely related to the Luiseño language of the nearby Luiseño people, but this is extinct. In the 20th century, they organized as the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation, which is recognized by the State of California, but is not federally recognized.", "List of counties in California The state of California is divided into 58 counties.[1] The region was first divided into twenty-seven counties on February 18, 1850. These were further sub-divided to form sixteen additional counties by 1860. Another fourteen were counties formed through further sub-division from 1861 to 1893. The last, Imperial County, was formed in 1907. California is home to San Bernardino County, the largest county in the contiguous United States, as well as Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States.", "Presidio of San Francisco The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army military fort on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.", "Mission San Diego de Alcalá Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá was the first Franciscan mission in The Californias, a province of New Spain. Located in present-day San Diego, California, it was founded on July 16, 1769 by Spanish friar Junípero Serra in an area long inhabited by the Kumeyaay people. The mission and the surrounding area were named for the Catholic Didacus of Alcalá, a Spaniard more commonly known as San Diego. The mission was the site of the first Christian burial in Alta California. San Diego is also generally regarded as the site of the region's first public execution, in 1778. Father Luis Jayme, California's first Christian martyr, lies entombed beneath the chancel floor. The current church, built in the early 19th century, is the fifth to stand on this location.[16][17] The mission site is a National Historic Landmark.[14][18]", "June 1962 Alcatraz escape attempt One inmate, John Paul Scott, successfully swam a distance of 2.7 nautical miles (5.0 km; 3.1 mi) from the island to Fort Point, at the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, on December 16, 1962. Some teenagers who were on the beach at the time found him and called the police because they thought he was dead. When the police saw him, he was immediately identified as the escapee they had been looking for. He was recaptured the same day and sent back to the rock,[5] exhausted and hypothermic.[6] Today, multitudes of athletes swim the same Alcatraz–Fort Point route as part of one of two annual triathlon events.[7][8] Some inmates in Alcatraz include Al Capone, Robert Stroud, and Allen West.", "Federal Bureau of Prisons Currently, the Bureau of Prisons is headed by Hugh Hurwitz, who is the current acting director.[2] Mark S. Inch held the post from September 2017 until May 2018.[3]", "Vandenberg Air Force Base Vandenberg Air Force Base (IATA: VBG, ICAO: KVBG, FAA LID: VBG) is a United States Air Force Base 9.2 miles (14.8 km) northwest of Lompoc, California. It is under the jurisdiction of the 30th Space Wing, Air Force Space Command (AFSPC).", "San Francisco San Francisco (initials SF[17]) (/ˌsæn frənˈsɪskoʊ/, Spanish for Saint Francis; Spanish: [san franˈsisko]), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. The consolidated city-county covers an area of about 47.9 square miles (124 km2),[18] mostly at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is the fourth-most populous city in California, and the 13th-most populous in the United States, with a 2016 census-estimated population of 870,887.[13] The population is projected to reach 1 million by 2033.[19] As of 2016, San Francisco County was the 7th highest-income county in the United States, with a per capita personal income of $110,418.[20]", "Good Guys (American company) The Good Guys was a chain of consumer electronics retail stores with 71 stores in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. The company was headquartered in Brisbane, California in the Dakin Building in the early 1990s and subsequently in Alameda, California until it was bought in late 2003 by CompUSA. The Good Guys was founded in 1973 by Ron Unkefer on Chestnut Street, San Francisco. By 2006, all of the company's stores had closed.", "Capital punishment in California California voters reinstated the death penalty a few months later, with Proposition 17 legalizing the death penalty in the state constitution and ending the Anderson ruling. Since that ruling, there have been just 13 executions, yet hundreds of inmates have been sentenced. The last execution that took place in California was in 2006.", "The Matrix Reloaded The Matrix Reloaded was largely filmed at Fox Studios in Australia, filming began on March 1st, 2001 and ended on August 21st, 2002, concurrently with filming of the sequel, Revolutions. The freeway chase and \"Burly Brawl\" scenes were filmed at the decommissioned Naval Air Station Alameda in Alameda, California. The producers constructed a 1.5-mile freeway on the old runways specifically for the film. Some portions of the chase were also filmed in Oakland, California, and the tunnel shown briefly is the Webster Tube, which connects Oakland and Alameda. Some post-production editing was also done in old aircraft hangars on the base as well. The city of Akron, Ohio was willing to give full access to Route 59, the stretch of freeway known as the \"Innerbelt\", for filming of the freeway chase when it was under consideration. However, producers decided against this as \"the time to reset all the cars in their start position would take too long\".[10] MythBusters would later reuse the Alameda location in order to explore the effects of a head-on collision between two semi trucks, and to perform various other experiments. Around 97% of the materials from the sets of the film were recycled after production was completed; for example, tons of wood were sent to Mexico to build low-income housing.[11] Some scenes from the film Baraka by Ron Fricke were selected to represent the real world shown by the wallmonitors in the Architect's room.[citation needed] The scene where The Oracle (Gloria Foster) appears was filmed before her death on September 29, 2001.", "San Jose, California San Jose (/ˌsæn hoʊˈzeɪ/, Spanish for \"Saint Joseph\"; Spanish pronunciation: [saŋ xoˈse]),[14] officially the City of San José, is an economic, cultural, and political center of Silicon Valley and the largest city in Northern California. With an estimated 2016 population of 1,015,785, it is the third most populous city in California (after Los Angeles and San Diego) and the tenth most populous in United States.[15] Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley, on the southern shore of San Francisco Bay, San Jose covers an area of 179.97 square miles (466.1 km2). San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County, the most affluent county in California and one of the most affluent counties in the United States.[16][17][18][19] San Jose is the largest city in both the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area, which contain 7.7 million and 8.7 million people respectively.[20][21][22]", "Mission San Juan Bautista Mission San Juan Bautista is a Spanish mission in San Juan Bautista, San Benito County, California. Founded on June 24, 1797 by Fermín Lasuén of the Franciscan order, the mission was the fifteenth of the Spanish missions established in present-day California. Named for Saint John the Baptist, the mission is the namesake of the city of San Juan Bautista.", "History of United States prison systems Incarceration as a form of criminal punishment is \"a comparatively recent episode in Anglo-American jurisprudence,\" according to historian Adam J. Hirsch.[2] Before the nineteenth century, sentences of penal confinement were rare in the criminal courts of British North America.[3] But penal incarceration had been utilized in England as early as the reign of the Tudors, if not before.[4] When post-revolutionary prisons emerged in United States, they were, in Hirsch's words, not a \"fundamental departure\" from the former American colonies' intellectual past.[5] Early American prisons systems like Massachusetts' Castle Island Penitentiary, built in 1780, essentially imitated the model of the 1500s English workhouse.[5]", "Sacramento, California Sacramento (/ˌsækrəˈmɛntoʊ/ SAK-rə-MEN-toh, locally also /ˌsækrəˈmɛnoʊ/ SAK-rə-MEN-oh; Spanish: [sakɾaˈmento]) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. It is at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley, known as the Sacramento Valley. Its estimated 2016 population of 493,025 makes it the sixth-largest city in California, the fastest-growing big city in the state,[11] and the 35th largest city in the United States.[12][13] Sacramento is the cultural and economic core of the Sacramento metropolitan area, which includes seven counties with a 2010 population of 2,414,783.[10] Its metropolitan area is the fourth largest in California after the Greater Los Angeles area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the San Diego metropolitan area, and is the 27th largest in the United States. In 2002, the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University conducted for Time magazine named Sacramento \"America's Most Diverse City\".[14]", "Supermax prison Supermax (short for: super-maximum security) is a primarily U.S. English term used to describe \"control-unit\" prisons, or units within prisons, which represent the most secure levels of custody in the prison systems of certain countries. The objective is to provide long-term, segregated housing for inmates classified as the highest security risks in the prison system—the \"worst of the worst\" criminals—and those who pose a threat to both national and global security.[1]" ]

[ "More than 1,000 people have been killed in the earthquake.\nThe 7.8 magnitude quake struck an area of central Nepal between the capital, Kathmandu, and the city of Pokhara.\nBarry Torrens, from Portrush, said his party were crossing a river when the earthquake struck.\n\"It was a tremendous rumble and the local guides were quite concerned. It was a very guttural shake underneath the feet, the top of the mountain started to fall down onto the highway - rocks and bricks and half the mountain started to come down into the river,\" he said.\n\"We stepped onto the other river bank, they brought out their mobile phones - the lead guide and the second in command, their houses had been destroyed as quick as that.\n\"We made our way back to Kathmandu and it was just a scene of devastation the whole way through.\"\nMr Torrens said buildings they had been in earlier that day were gone when they returned to their hotel.\n\"We left this morning at 10 o'clock to go on the trek and bought lunch from a shop on the corner from our hotel,\" he said.\n\"That shop is no longer there, the whole corner of our block just dropped.\"\nHe said his thoughts were with the local people affected by the disaster.\n\"It's the Nepali people - who are a lovely, lovely people - that we feel for. They just don't have the infrastructure to deal with this at all,\" Mr Torrens said.\n\"It's irrelevant what happens to us, we will be safe. It's an absolutely devastating tragedy for the Nepalese.\"\nHe said there had been further tremors since the earthquake.\nThere were also victims in India, Bangladesh, Tibet and on Mount Everest, where avalanches were triggered.\nThe government has declared a state of emergency in the affected areas, and help has been offered by countries around the world.\nLittle information has emerged from the epicentre, where extensive damage has been reported, and there are fears the death toll could rise yet further." ]

[ "He had powder paint smeared on his face as part of the festival of Holi.\nHe was visiting Okhari, a village in the mountains, to see the Gurkha Welfare Trust's efforts to rebuild a school wrecked by an earthquake.\nOn his arrival Harry received a rapturous welcome by the villagers who decked him with garlands and scarves.\nThe prince had spent the previous night as the guest of Mangali Tamang, the 86-year-old widow of a former Gurkha rifleman.\nHe described the experience of sleeping under the same roof as the Nepalese family as \"peaceful, actually. Lots of dogs barking, but it didn't seem to bother them.\"\nThe prince visited the Gauda Secondary School in the village, to see how the British-based Gurkha Welfare Trust is helping to fund the rebuilding after it was damaged during last year's earthquake.\nThe prince's trip is celebrating 200 years of relations between Nepal and Britain. His tour comes as the country is rebuilding after last year's devastating earthquake which killed more than 8,000 people.", "Mike Hopkins, 56, from Cardiff, had reached Camp 1 when the 6.7 magnitude tremor struck, but he has contacted his wife to say he was safe.\nMore than 2,300 people died following Saturday's earthquake.\nJason Russell of Wrexham and ex-pat Huw Alexander Lashmar were unaccounted for on Sunday evening.\nRescue missions and aid material started arriving in Nepal following the earthquake, which was centred 60km (40 miles) east of the country's capital Kathmandu.\nIt caused avalanches around the base of Mount Everest, killing at least 17 people.\nA team of six officers from South Wales Fire and Rescue Service and one from Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service have flown out to assist the rescue mission.\nMr Hopkins contacted his wife Sarah after what she described as a \"traumatic day\" on Saturday.\n\"They felt the tremor and it shook everything but they're safe,\" said Mrs Hopkins, who lives in Whitchurch.\n\"He managed to call me on a sat phone for two minutes. He knew I would be distraught.\"\nMrs Hopkins said her husband was with with a group of nine other climbers and Sherpas on the north side of Everest.\nHe told her they were all safe and had now returned to Base Camp at 17,000ft (5,180m).\nOther injured climbers have now been airlifted out of Base Camp while aftershocks on Sunday have spread fear among those left in the area.\nMeanwhile, at least two people from Wales have been reported missing following the earthquake - the worst to hit the country in more than 80 years.\nMr Russell, from Ruabon, had been registered as missing online along with Mr Lashmar, who is believed to have moved to Australia from Wales.\nHis son, Jamie Alexander Lashmar, 32, from Victoria, Australia, was also reported to be missing in Nepal.\nAnother Welshman, 60-year-old Raymond William, who had initially been reported as missing, later indicated online that he was safe in Australia.\nAdrian Summers, another Welsh ex-pat who now lives in Sydney, was also reported to be safe after initial fears he was missing.\nA number of websites have been set up to help find those in the disaster area, including ones by the Red Cross and Google.", "\"I tried hard taking all my energy, but it took too much time to move in deep deep snow,\" Nobukazu Kuriki wrote on his Facebook page.\n\"I realised if I kept going, I wouldn't be able to come back alive,\" he wrote.\nHe took the decision after attempting a final push to reach the 8,848m (29,029ft) summit.\nThe 33-year-old was the first person to attempt the climb since Nepal's devastating earthquake in April.\nIt was the fifth time he had tried to reach the summit in the past six years.\nMr Kuriki wrote that he decided to abandon his attempt after leaving \"the final camp\" on Saturday evening.\n\"Thank you so much for all your support,\" he said.\nHe was following the same route used by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay when they became the first people to reach the summit in 1953.\nMr Kuriki prefers to climb in winter, alone and with minimal gear. \"This is the purest form of climbing and it is worth the extra danger,\" he said earlier.\nHe has taken on Everest alone four times in the previous six years but has been forced to abandon the climb each time with the summit in view.\nIn 2012, he lost all of his fingers and one thumb after spending two days in a snow hole at 8,230m in temperatures lower than -20C.\nHis injuries present significant challenges in even the most basic climbing manoeuvres.\n\"I do feel nervous and afraid,\" he told Reuters shortly after arriving in Nepal a more than a month ago for acclimatising.\n\"This is only natural before attempting the challenge of climbing Everest, particularly after the earthquake and at this time of year.\"\nNepal's lucrative climbing industry was destroyed by the 25 April earthquake which killed more than 9,000 people and the avalanches that followed.", "This comes weeks after much of Nepal was devastated by two earthquakes that left more than 8,000 people dead.\nTorrential rain in the Taplejung region caused the Mewa and Tamor rivers to burst their banks, triggering the landslides.\nLandslides are common during Nepal's monsoon season, which begins this month and lasts until September.\nOfficials and rescue workers say that the death toll could still rise. At least 15 people in the villages of Libang, Lingtep and Khokting remain unaccounted for.\nNepal's department of hydrology and meteorology told the BBC that it had recorded 130mm of rainfall in the area in the last 24 hours.\nMeteorologist Subash Rimal said they would \"officially declare the monsoon's arrival in Nepal within the next two days\".\nTaplejung had suffered little damage compared to the rest of the country from the April and May's earthquakes.\nLandslides triggered by the earthquakes caused massive destruction in other parts of Nepal.\nOne village was completely buried after an entire hillside collapsed onto it.", "According to one charity, Unicef, one million of those affected are children.\nHelp and supplies from all over the world are being flown into the country in South Asia. Nepal's government says it's doing all it can to help.\nThere's a lot to do: it's thought 1.4 million people are in need of food, the UN says.\nThousands in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, spent a third night outside and water and electricity are in short supply.\nThe Nepal government has pleaded for overseas aid - everything from blankets and helicopters to doctors and drivers.\n\"We urge foreign countries to give us special relief materials and medical teams. We are really desperate for more foreign expertise to pull through this crisis,\" said a senior official.\nAdvice if you're upset by the news\nThe country was hit by a massive earthquake on Saturday. At least 5,000 people have died and many people have been left homeless.\nNepal is a small country between India and China and is home to Mount Everest, one of the tallest mountains in the world.\nIt is also a very poor country and many of the houses there were not built to cope with an earthquake of this size.\nGuide: Why do earthquakes happen?\nAid agencies are using helicopters to get help and supplies to people who live in more remote mountainous areas, which are difficult to get to.\nThe priority for rescue agencies is to reach people who are trapped and injured, and provide shelter and protection to those who have lost their homes.\nIt's not just the towns and villages where people are in need of help. Hundreds have been rescued from near Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain.\nEven though the centre of the earthquake struck more than 120 miles away from the mountain it's had a major impact on climbers there.\nAvalanches caused by the tremors have killed at least 18 climbers and injured more than 60.\nHelicopters have been used to rescue mountaineers trapped on Everest.", "They want to secure an assessment from top geologists because of the increased risks from earthquake-torn mountains.\nThis type of tourism is a major source of income for Nepal.\nMajor destinations are still facing landslides, after the quake and its aftershocks left mountains unstable.\nPlaces seen as highly risky are mainly in the Manasalu, Langtang, Rolwaling and Helambu trekking areas in central Nepal. But there are also concerns for the Annapurna and Everest regions, which see the highest numbers of trekkers and mountaineers.\n\"Before we announce that the earthquake-hit areas are safe as tourist destinations, we are determined to get an assessment report from international geologists and experts who will be visiting the ground,\" said Ramesh Dhamala, president of Trekking Agents' Association of Nepal.\n\"Without them first saying which areas no longer have the risk of mountains coming down, we will not be doing this risky business just for an immediate benefit.\n\"We are also recommending to the government, in writing, that these areas should not be reopened (for trekking and mountaineering) before the team of experts make their assessment public internationally.\"\nTrekking agents say they are worried that if tourists are allowed to visit the earthquake-hit areas under present circumstances, and if disaster strikes such areas again, the country's tourism industry will suffer irrecoverably.\nMountaineering operators are similarly worried.\n\"We too think the same way, and we have joined forces with trekking agents and the government to ascertain a scientific assessment - because it is equally, if not more, risky for mountaineers to be in the region that has been so badly shaken by the earthquake,\" says Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of Nepal Mountaineering Association.\nBut there are some operators who believe business should resume as soon as possible, because not everywhere has been badly hit and that there are some areas with lesser risks.\nNearly 800,000 tourists visited Nepal in 2013, and a similar number in 2012. Around 13% of those visitors were trekkers and mountaineers.\nThe Annapurna region sees the highest number of trekkers, followed by the Everest region.\nThe April 25 quake had its epicentre in Gorkha to the west of Kathmandu, but it shook mountains as far away as Everest to the east.\nThat quake ruinously rattled mountains mainly in the Langtang valley, where entire villages were buried under avalanches and landslides and debris killed nearly 200 people including foreign trekkers.\nThe main quake zone also shook many mountains in the Annapurna region, where landslides have continued and one of them even blocked a major river on Sunday.\nThe biggest aftershock - a 7.3 magnitude quake on 12 May - had its epicentre to the northeast of Kathmandu where there are popular trekking regions including the Rolwaling and Helambu.\nThat tremor caused huge devastation in these areas and there was damage in the Everest region again.\nOfficials said a small glacial pond near Mount Everest burst its containment on Monday night, causing panic among villagers because they fear the earthquake and aftershocks may have destabilised bigger glacial lakes in the region.\nGeologists say the quakes triggered more than 3,000 landslides in the affected areas and the upcoming monsoon could worsen conditions.\n\"The reason why the mountains remain unstable is that earthquakes cause intense shaking of the landscape, which damages the rock and soils on hillsides,\" says Prof Alex Densmore from the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience at Durham University in the UK.\n\"This means that even hillsides that did not fail during the earthquake are more damaged, and thus more prone to failure, than they were before 25 April.\n\"In some cases this damage may be visible at the surface in the form of cracks or fractures in the ground, but this is not necessarily the case; the damage may be at depth and not immediately visible.\"\nProf Jeffrey Kargel, a glaciologist at the University of Arizona who has studied landslides on Nepalese mountains and their impacts on rivers, says an assessment of the situation is absolutely critical.\n\"We have seen so much activity of the earth following the main shock and the largest aftershock that we have to presume that there is going to be a state of greatly heightened activity during this monsoon, and quite possibly into coming years,\" he said.\n\"It's very clear that we have to do what's possible, not just to keep trekkers and climbers safe, but also the people who service the trekkers and climbers and the entire economic structure of these very hard-hit areas.\"\nBut given Nepal's difficult topography in the Himalayan region, assessing the risks would not be easy.\n\"It will take quite a bit of work because every valley, every glacier, every mountain is going to be different depending on the circumstances of the glaciers, the moraines and possible fracturing of the rocks,\" Prof Kargel said.\nInternational tour operators are waiting and watching as well.\n\"To rush out and simply say it's safe to come to Nepal without factual knowledge is a little bit foolhardy, potentially,\" said Nicholas Cowlie, Nepal general manager for Intrepid Travel - the largest international provider of trekking tourists to the country.\n\"At this point, our clients are holding on to their (Nepal) holiday bookings and our major focus is to report back to them and show them that we are ready for business when we know that it is operationally safe.\"", "In April, 18 mountaineers and support staff were killed when the earthquake triggered an avalanche which swept through Everest base camp.\nThe team, known as the Icefall Doctors, have begun surveying the mountain.\nThey plan to fix ropes through the Khumbu Icefall in the next few days.\nThe Icefall is a notoriously treacherous stretch of moving and cracking ice, which climbers must negotiate after they leave base camp on their way to Camp 1 on the mountain.\nWithout the ropes fixed by the Icefall doctors, this would not be possible.\nThe Icefall doctors say they hope the restored route will attract mountaineers back to Everest for the autumn season.\n\"We plan to begin rope fixing work in the treacherous icefall section after conducting a ground survey,\" leading icefall doctor Ang Kami Sherpa told the Himalayan Times earlier this week.\nA Japanese climbing team has already arrived in Nepal ahead of their planned attempt on the summit next month.\nOn Tuesday, climber Nobukazu Kuriki, 33, left Kathmandu for the Everest region, to begin acclimatising before his planned attempt on the summit next month.\nKuriki, who has lost all his fingertips and one thumb to frostbite, is so far the only person scheduled to climb Everest during the challenging autumn climbing season.\n\"I do feel nervous and afraid,\" he told Reuters.\n\"This is only natural before attempting the challenge of climbing Everest, particularly after the earthquake and at this time of year.\"\nNepal's lucrative climbing industry was destroyed by April's devastating earthquake and the avalanches that followed.\nThe government and Sherpa community, who depend on foreign climbers for a livelihood, are keen to rebuild it as soon as possible.\nBut some in Nepal criticise the decision to reopen the route so soon.\nThe president of Nepal's mountaineering association, Ang Tsering Sherpa, has described the Japanese expedition as \"risky and dangerous\", saying climbing in the autumn already brings the additional risks of cold temperatures and strong winds.", "The white-domed structure in Kathmandu was covered in prayer flags and flowers as monks chanted prayers and burned incense to mark the event.\nThe prime minister described it as a proud moment for Nepal.\nMore than 8,000 people were killed by the quake and ensuing aftershocks, causing widespread destruction.\nRestoration work on the stupa began in May 2015, has cost $2.1m (£1.70m) and included more than 30kg (66lb) of gold, according to the Boudhanath Area Development Committee.\nThe stupa was repaired without government funding - the money instead coming from private donations from Buddhist groups and help from volunteers.\nThe government for its part has been strongly criticised for the slow pace of reconstruction and for the fact that many quake-damaged temples and monasteries remain unrepaired.\nBut Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal was not going to let the criticism interfere with Tuesday's celebrations.\n\"This is a proud moment for us,\" he said after traversing the steps of the newly-painted stupa.\n\"The successful reconstruction of Boudhanath is an inspiration for what we have to achieve in quake-affected areas.\"\nDamaged historic sites reopened\nSatellites dissect Nepal quake\nNepal's Kathmandu Valley treasures: Before and after\nNepal earthquakes: Devastation in maps and images\nIn pictures: Nepal earthquake aftermath\nNepal has reopened many heritage sites in the Kathmandu valley to the public in a bid to attract tourists after the devastating earthquake of April 2015.\nAmong them was Kathmandu's historic Durbar Square, or \"noble court\", which was badly damaged.\nShortly after the quake, Unesco's director-general Irina Bokova described damage to the Kathmandu valley as \"extensive and irreversible\".", "A year ago, nearly 9,000 people died and more than 20,000 were injured when an earthquake struck the country.\nThe event, organised by Lakeland Mountain Guides, will see the spine of Catbells lit by people's head torches.\nMatt Le Voi, one of the organisers, said the \"euphoria\" once they reach the top will be \"absolutely incredible\".\nThe Catbells Festival of Light aims to get the Nepal Earthquake back in people's minds, organisers said.\nJohn Brooks and Mr Le Voi organised the event as they have both visited the country, and last year the group raised £5,000 for Community Action Nepal by climbing Blencathra.\nMr Le Voi said: \"[Nepal] has firmly cemented itself within our hearts as an amazing place to be. On top of this, we both have Nepalese friends, many of them Sherpas, who would have been directly affected by the earthquake.\n\"Immediately after the earthquake myself and John knew we had to try and do something to provide funds for the Nepalese people.\n\"We're expecting about 500 people to be with us, so imagine Catbells with 500 people with their head torches on all raising money for this great cause - it's going to be electric.\"\nThe event on Catbells near Keswick, will see a photograph taken in darkness which will then be sold to raise funds.", "The 7.8-magnitude quake struck on Saturday in the hilly district of Gorkha, west of Kathmandu.\nAid groups say the damage could be far worse in rural areas than in the capital.\nOne aid worker spoke of \"an entire village - all but gone\" - and there are fears others have suffered the same fate.\nThe United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it expected \"high and significant damage\" in the regions closest to the earthquake's epicentre, Gorkha and Lamjung.\nClose to 300,000 people live in Gorkha, which is normally around four hours' travel from Kathmandu. The region's most senior official, Udav Prashad Timalsina, said: \"There are people who are not getting food and shelter.\n\"I've had reports of villages where 70% of the houses have been destroyed.\"\nMr Timalsina said 223 people had been confirmed dead in the district but he said \"the number would go up because there are thousands who are injured\".\nOn Monday, an Indian journalist flew over the damage in Gorkha in an Indian army helicopter. The footage shows many low-lying houses, seemingly cut off in the middle of mountains and reduced to rubble.\nThe journalist, Jugal Purohit, said: \"What we are witnessing here are villages completely devastated, destroyed and, in a sense, rubbed off the map of Nepal.\"\nThe aerial images are the first recorded pictures of the destruction near the epicentre. Very few images of damage there have emerged, even on social media.\nMatt Darvas, of the charity World Vision, is in the town of Pokhara, further west from the epicentre. He told the BBC: \"I spoke to one man. He had been [evacuated] in to the hospital where I was, in the very first helicopter.\n\"In his village of 1,100 homes, almost every home was decimated. He estimated 90%. That's a village of over 2,000 people.\n\"There could be many other villages in a similar case where the entire village is all but gone.\"\nMr Darvas said he expected the death toll in Gorkha to rise \"significantly\".\nPokhara itself - Nepal's second city and a popular trekking destination - appears to have been spared significant damage, though there are reports of people sleeping outside due to a fear of buildings collapsing.\nTeams from many major charities have so far been unable to reach the more outlying areas of the country, but have plans to do so as soon as possible. Many are working with regional partners who are based in western Nepal.\nBut access to areas such as Gorkha and Lamjung, that are hilly, isolated and heavily forested, was difficult even before the earthquake, that caused landslides to block roads.\nMr Darvas said some parts of Gorkha could take up to five days to reach.\nChandra Kayastha is the programme unit manager for Plan International in Baglung, 270 kilometres west of Kathmandu. He told the BBC: \"The main problem of this area is damage of their houses and school buildings.\n\"Some of the area is very remote, it takes more than three hours, four hours on a wagon, there's no road facilities even before the disaster because it lies in the western hills of Nepal.\"\nPart of the effort to help relief teams reach distant areas will come down to space agencies.Rural Nepal prepares for the worst\nThe earthquake has led to the activation of the UN's International Charter on \"Space and Major Disasters\".\nMany of the world's space agencies are signatories to the charter, and they will now task their satellites to gather images of the country every time they pass overhead.\nThe images will be used to assess the scale of the damage, and to find roads not blocked by landslides.\nOne added factor, says Rupa Joshi, a communications officer with Unicef Nepal, is the fact that many men from rural areas are absent, having gone to work for more money abroad.\nShe said: \"In many of the villages in Nepal, many of the men are out of the country. So what you find in these villages are the elderly, women and children.\n\"They are now the ones who are having to deal with this massive thing - when their houses have come down, their homes wiped out - without men, who are usually the ones running around, setting things straight.\"", "Prime Minister Sushil Koirala says the government is doing all it can but is overwhelmed by the scale of the catastrophe.\nRescuers are still struggling to bring aid to remote Himalayan areas.\nHeavy rain is worsening the plight of hundreds of thousands of people camped out in the open.\nThe UN estimates that eight million people in 39 districts have been affected by the 7.8-magnitude quake - more than a quarter of the population.\nMore than 10,000 people have been injured.\nAmong the dead are 18 climbers who were at Mount Everest base camp when it was hit by an avalanche triggered by the quake.\nIn a televised address, Mr Koirala said: \"In memory of the Nepali and foreign brothers and sisters and elders and children who have lost their lives in this devastating earthquake, we have decided to observe three days of national mourning from today.\"\nEarlier, he said a lack of equipment and expert personnel meant the \"appeals for rescues coming in from everywhere\" in many cases could not be met.\nLandslips and aftershocks in remote mountainous areas around the epicentre of the quake are hampering rescue and relief teams.\nA government spokesman told the BBC that helicopters had been dropping tents, dry food and medicine to remote villages but they were yet to reach many isolated communities.\nWhen helicopters have managed to land, they are often mobbed by villagers pleading for food and water, or to be evacuated.\nNepal earthquake: Before and after\nNepal quake special report\nLandslide fears after Nepal quakes\nQuake 'was anticipated'\nSita Gurung, a resident in the village of Lapu, told AFP news agency: \"The ground keeps shaking. Every time it feels like we will be swallowed, that we will die. I want to get out of here.\"\nMilitary aircraft from several countries including the US, China and Israel have joined the rescue effort.\nA British RAF plane carrying aid supplies and troops is also on its way to Nepal.\nHowever, a logjam has been reported at the airport in the capital Kathmandu, with individuals trying to fly out while aid flights and rescue teams wait to land.\nMany families are spending another night in the open in the city, either having lost their homes or because they are too terrified of aftershocks to return.\nOther residents have packed on to buses to flee the city.", "Many countries and international charities have offered aid to Nepal to deal with the disaster.\nSeventeen people have killed on Mount Everest by avalanches - the mountain's worst-ever disaster.\nOfficials fear that the death toll could rise as the desperate search for survivors continues.\nThe 7.8 magnitude quake struck an area of central Nepal between the capital, Kathmandu, and the city of Pokhara on Saturday morning.\nThe latest home ministry figures say 1,805 people were killed and 4,718 people were injured.\nThere were also victims in India, Bangladesh, in the Chinese region of Tibet and on Mount Everest, where avalanches were triggered.\nLittle information has emerged from the epicentre, where extensive damage has been reported, and there are fears the death toll could rise yet further.\nIt is the worst earthquake to strike Nepal since one in 1934 which killed some 8,500 people.\n\"We have launched a massive rescue and rehabilitation action plan and lots needs to be done,\" Information and Broadcasting Minister Minendra Rijal told Indian television.\n\"Our country is in a moment of crisis and we will require tremendous support and aid.\"\nWorld leaders and global charities have offered emergency aid to Nepal, as the government grapples with the scale of the disaster.\nIts task is made harder because internet and mobile phone communications are erratic, with many roads closed due to quake damage.\nThe United States, China, Pakistan and European Union countries are among those who have pledged aid.\nThe US Embassy in Nepal pledged $1m (£660,000) in initial aid while the US Agency for International Development sent an urban search and rescue team.\n\"We are working closely with the government of Nepal to provide assistance and support,'' said Secretary of State John Kerry.\nChina on Sunday dispatched a 62-member search and rescue team.\nNepal Eyewitness accounts quake: 'I was so frightened'\nChallenges of Nepal's quake relief operation\nQuake levels Nepal landmarks\nA number of international charities including Red Cross, Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders and Christian Aid are also sending teams to quake-hit areas.\n\"We do not yet know the scope of the damage, but this could be one of the deadliest and most devastating earthquakes since the 1934 tremor which devastated Nepal and [the Indian state of] Bihar,\" said International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Asia-Pacific Director Jagan Chapagain.\nThe IFRC said it was especially worried about the fate of villages near the epicentre of the quake, some 80km (50 miles) from the capital Kathmandu.\nIn Europe, Britain, Germany and Spain pledged assistance, with Norway pledging $3.9m in humanitarian aid.\n\"The absolute priority must be to reach people who are trapped and injured, and provide shelter and protection to those who have lost their homes,\" UK International Development Secretary Justine Greening said.\nForeign climbers and their Nepalese guides around Mount Everest were caught by the tremors and a huge avalanche.\nAs well as the 17 confirmed deaths, 61 people were injured when part of the base camp was buried under snow.\nHelicopters trying to airlift the injured to Kathmundu were delayed by cloudy weather, but have now managed to land at the base camp.\nDan Fredinburg, a Google executive who described himself as an adventurer, has also killed, Google confirmed.\nAre you in the area? Are you affected by the earthquake? If it is safe to do so, you can share your story by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk\nIf you are willing to speak with a BBC journalist, please leave a contact number.\nYou can send a picture, video or message to our WhatsApp number +44 7525 900971\nYou can email your pictures, video or audio to us at yourpics@bbc.co.uk\nYou can upload pictures", "Min Bahadur Sherchan, a former British Gurkha soldier, was trying to reclaim the record from Japan's Yuichiro Miura, who climbed Everest aged 80 in 2013.\nMr Miura broke Mr Sherchan's own record set as a 76-year-old in 2008.\nIt comes a week after Swiss climber Ueli Steck, 40, died as he prepared to climb the mountain.\nMr Sherchan died at base camp on Saturday afternoon, officials at Nepal's tourism office said. Doctors suspect he suffered a heart attack, the Kathmandu Post newspaper reported.\nHis long rivalry with Mr Miura - a year his junior - included a 2013 attempt to reclaim the record aged 81 that had to be abandoned after late spring weather conditions worsened.\nIn 2015 he was on his way to base camp for another attempt when a devastating earthquake struck the country, forcing him and many other climbers to abandon their plans.\n\"I want to climb Everest to set a record so that it will inspire people to dream big,\" he told German news agency DPA in March. \"This will instil a sense of pride among old people like me.\"\n\"My climb will demonstrate that age doesn't stop you from realising your goal.\"\nMr Sherchan began climbing in 1960, when he ascended Mount Dhaulagiri, the world's seventh-highest mountain at 8,167m (26,795 ft), the Telegraph newspaper reported.\nHowever he was already 72 when he thought about climbing Mount Everest. To prepare, he walked 1,200km (745 miles) across Nepal in 2003, DPA said.\nHe told DPA that his inspirations were famous Nepali Sherpas Tenzing Norgay - who first reached the top of Mount Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953 - and Apa Sherpa, who has climbed the mountain the most times.\nMr Sherchan's guide, Shiva Sapkota, told DPA that he had been in good physical health but had not spent time at high altitude since 2015.", "The 7.8 magnitude quake struck an area of central Nepal between the capital, Kathmandu, and the city of Pokhara.\nThere were also victims in India, Bangladesh, Tibet and on Mount Everest, where avalanches were triggered.\nThe government has declared a state of emergency in the affected areas, and help has been offered by countries around the world.\nLittle information has emerged from the epicentre, where extensive damage has been reported, and there are fears the death toll could rise yet further.\nThe Nepalese information minister has told the BBC that 1,500 people had been killed in the disaster, but that the true casualty figure would probably be much higher.\nThousands of people are spending the night outside their houses, following a series of aftershocks.\nMany more people are trapped under rubble. Local television pictures showed rescuers in Kathmandu desperately digging through the rubble with their bare hands in search of survivors. Many historic buildings in the capital were also destroyed.\nKathmandu has been very badly affected by the earthquake. Some areas are completely destroyed.\nI am in the Thamel area and the Hotel Budget has been completely demolished with more than 50 guests inside.\nI have been helping to pull people and bodies out of the rubble, along with my friend. We pulled a child out with its grandmother earlier. They did not survive.\nI am most sad. It has been a very bad experience and a terrible and very difficult day.\nThere are not enough rescue teams here. The hospitals are out of control. We need help.\nNepal Eyewitness accounts quake: 'I was so frightened'\nChallenges of Nepal's quake relief operation\nQuake levels Nepal landmarks\nThe quake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing at least 10 people, and another five in Tibet, officials and reports say.\nAt least 40 people have been killed in India, Indian officials say, with one death also reported in Bangladesh.\nIt is the worst earthquake to strike Nepal since one in 1934 which killed some 8,500 people.\nAre you in the area? Are you affected by the earthquake? If it is safe to do so, you can share your story by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk\nIf you are willing to speak with a BBC journalist, please leave a contact number.\nYou can send a picture, video or message to our WhatsApp number +44 7525 900971\nYou can email your pictures, video or audio to us at yourpics@bbc.co.uk\nYou can upload pictures", "The government has provided 25,000 rupees ($250, £164) to families to buy corrugated sheets and warm clothes and paid out 40,000 rupees ($400) for the death of each family member.\nMost affected families have received this money.\nThe Himalayan nation has also assessed the loss and damage caused by the quake, but has yet to officially kick start its much-delayed reconstruction mission.\nThe National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) was only set up in December 2015. It will officially announce the start of reconstruction campaign in the coming week.\nThe authority is seeking 811 billion rupees ($8bn) to implement its reconstruction programme for the next five years.\nNRA spokesperson Ram Thapaliya told BBC Nepali that international donors are being asked to extend their commitment for reconstruction programmes.\n\"The donors have already pledged half of the amount ($4bn) and we are in the process of seeking commitment for the rest,\" he said.\nNearly 9,000 people died and 22,309 were injured in the two earthquakes that struck Nepal last year.\nThe first was on 25 April 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake which caused most of the damage and loss of life.\nA large number of aftershocks followed, including one that measured 7.3 on 12 May 2015.\nThe quakes destroyed or damaged more than 800,000 houses mainly in the western and central districts, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).\nThe country seemed totally unprepared for the disaster.\nGovernment buildings, some stretches of roads and Kathmandu Valley's famous historic monuments - Unesco world heritage properties - were destroyed or damaged with many villages north of Kathmandu flattened.\nIn the famous trekking destination of Langtang, which lies about 100km (62 miles) north of Kathmandu, an entire settlement was buried and washed away by a massive landslide, killing more than 100 people, including international trekkers and local villagers.\nSeveral people are still missing and have never been accounted for.\nMore than a dozen climbers also died in an avalanche near Mount Everest base camp.\nNepali government figures show that about 500,000 families were made homeless by the quakes.\nBut aid agencies say the true figure is much higher, with millions homeless.\nThe IFRC says \"an estimated four million people are still living in sub-standard temporary shelters\" where they're exposed to weather and health hazards.\nIt also estimates that more than 800,000 homes were damaged.\n\"Despite achievements in many areas of earthquake recovery efforts, little progress has so far been made in helping survivors to rebuild permanent homes,\" it said.\nBut Nepali officials blame a four month blockade at the Nepal-India border for hampering post-earthquake reconstruction programmes.\nThe unrest was due to Madhesi parties in southern Nepal protesting against a new constitution which they said disadvantaged them.\nRam Thapaliya of the National Reconstruction Authority says work is under way to help those in need and speed up the reconstruction process.\n\"In March, we started distributing grants, worth $500 in first stage, to around 800 families for reconstruction,\" he said.\n\"Now another 5,000 families are in the process of getting that amount.\"\nWhile preparing its Post Disaster Need Assessment (PDNA), the Nepali government estimated that it would need $7bn for reconstruction.\nBut now the reconstruction authority is raising that amount to $8.1bn, due to unspecified \"cost factors\".\nSoon after the earthquake struck Nepal last year, a large number of international aid agencies and individuals flew into Nepal and fanned out across the affected areas from Barpak, Gorkha, the epicentre of the 25 April earthquake to Dolakha in the east, near the epicentre of the 12 May earthquake.\nTheir main purpose was to focus on immediate rescue and rehabilitation.\nAccording to Himal news magazine, a popular Nepali weekly which has run an investigative cover story in its recent edition, the agencies spent an estimated $1bn.\nThe magazine wrote: \"Where did the money go? Of the 1 billion dollars that were raised, two-thirds were spent by donor agencies, international NGOs and their local partners, and only one-third of that amount actually reached the victims.\"\nBut aid workers say the main problem is bureaucracy - and that some donors have become frustrated and given up as a result.\n\"We just lost a donor who wanted to give $400,000,'' Unesco's representative to Nepal, Christian Manhart, told AP news agency.\n\"Everything seems to be blocked because there are very lengthy government procedures.''\nThe Unesco office has about $1.8m earmarked for Nepal which is still waiting to be spent, AP reports.\nBefore the earthquake, Nepal's tourism sector was doing well. In 2014, an estimated 800,000 tourists visited Nepal.\nNepal re-opened for tourism just two months after the quakes.\nBut the devastating earthquakes clearly scared many visitors and the number of arrivals dropped by about 30% in 2015, according to Department of Tourism figures.\nThe government is hopeful 2016 will be better.\n\"We are hoping for an improvement in the coming year,\" Sudarshan Prasad Dhakal, director general of Department of Tourism, told the BBC.\nHe said the government was encouraging Nepalis to visit their country's exotic natural and cultural sites this year.\n\"In the short term, this will help the local hoteliers, and in the longer term, it will help lay the foundation for future arrivals of international visitors.\"", "28 April 2016 Last updated at 01:40 BST\nHundreds of artisans have been helping to restore Nepal's temples and monuments. Recreating the intricate detail has helped them to connect with the generations of craftsmen who have gone before, while introducing a more modern touch.\nFilmmaker Oliver Wilkins went to Nepal with former British army officer Doc McKerr, who is a UK goodwill ambassador to Nepal, to see how the country is coping after the earthquake and to encourage tourists to return.\nFootage courtesy of returntonepal.com and music by Papu Sebastian.", "The eight-strong team, which includes experts in search and rescue, will travel to Nepal overnight.\nThe 7.8 magnitude quake struck just before midday local time and is thought to have killed more than 1,000 people.\nA number of British charities are assembling disaster teams to join the rescue effort.\nOxfam, Christian Aid, Save the Children, the British Red Cross and Plan International UK have all confirmed they are assessing the humanitarian need in the disaster struck area.\nPrime Minister David Cameron had said the UK would do all it could to help in the aftermath of the earthquake.\nThe Nepalese information minister has told the BBC that 1,500 people had been killed in the disaster, but that the true casualty figure would probably be much higher.\nWork to assess the scale of the damage and helping the Nepalese authorities direct the humanitarian response will begin on Sunday, International Development Secretary Justine Greening confirmed when announcing the dispatch of the team from her department.\nShe said: \"My thoughts are with the people of Nepal, in particular all those who have lost loved ones.\n\"The absolute priority must be to reach people who are trapped and injured, and provide shelter and protection to those who have lost their homes.\n\"Nepal needs our urgent humanitarian assistance.\n\"That is why we have rapidly deployed a team of humanitarian experts who will immediately begin work assessing the damage and helping the Nepalese authorities respond to this devastating earthquake.\"\nTom Trevelyan, a British tourist in Kathmandu, says he was in the centre of the old city when the quake struck.\nHe said he \"just saw a plume of dust in front of me as two of the big temples collapsed\".\nHe added: \"It was just locals and us and any sort of other tourists jumping in and trying to dig people up and help pull people out.\"\nThe Foreign Office has offered assistance to local authorities and advised British nationals in the area to stay \"in a place of safety\".\nThe majority of fatalities were reported in Nepal, but there have been deaths in India, Tibet, Bangladesh and at the Nepal-China border.\nMr Cameron took to Twitter to express the country's support and British charities are also preparing to help to deal with the disaster.\nThe prime minister tweeted: \"Shocking news about the earthquake in Nepal - the UK will do all we can to help those caught up in it.\"\nForeign Secretary Philip Hammond said: \"My thoughts are with the people of Nepal and everyone affected by the terrible loss of life and widespread damage caused by the earthquake.\n\"We are in close contact with the Nepalese government.\n\"The British Embassy in Nepal is offering our assistance to the authorities and is providing consular assistance to British nationals.\"\nA spokeswoman for Intrepid, which arranges treks in Nepal and around the Everest region, said it had some groups which included Britons in the area, and it was in the process of trying to get in touch with them.\nThe Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has released an emergency number +44 (0) 207 008 0000 for British nationals needing consular assistance to call.\nLabour leader Ed Miliband also expressed his sympathy, tweeting: \"The awful scenes in Nepal are heartbreaking.\n\"My thoughts go out to the people affected, and to those caring for survivors.\"\nDeputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg said his that heart goes out to \"all the people of Nepal\".\n\"My thoughts are also with all the Nepalese people living here in the UK worried about their loved ones, including our Gurkha community, who are a shining testament to the resilience and great spirit of the Nepalese people,\" he added.\nThe British Red Cross already had an 'earthquake preparedness project' in place in anticipation of a major quake, and Christian Aid has made an initial £50,000 available to help victims.\nChristian Aid's regional emergency manager Ram Kishan said today: \"Our partners are en route to establish where need is greatest, so that we can respond quickly and effectively.\n\"It's clear from what has emerged so far that there is an urgent need for emergency shelters, food and clean drinking water, warm clothing blankets and hygiene kits.\"\nTanya Barron, CEO of Plan International UK, who is in eastern Nepal on a scheduled visit, said she had been on the top floor of a building when it started to \"shake violently\".\nShe added: \"It was very scary. Our colleagues advised us that the quake felt much stronger than usual.\n\"We are safe and now we are working with our colleagues to respond. There are crowds of people on the streets here and the hospitals are already overwhelmed.\n\"Our immediate priorities are to assist the emergency services with search and rescue and to establish shelter.\"\nOxfam also has teams in Nepal already assessing the humanitarian need and a team of technical experts preparing to fly from the UK with supplies to provide clean water, sanitation and emergency food supplies.\nAmong those caught up in the disaster are two Scottish 21-year-olds, Joseph Feeney from Blarhill, Coatbridge and Calum Henderson from Edinburgh.\nBoth are students at Aberdeen University and were en-route to Annapurna base camp on a trekking holiday when the earthquake hit.\nThey have contacted their parents to say they are safe, but currently stranded.\nBen Pickering, Save the Children's humanitarian adviser in Britain, said the priority is to understand what the emergency needs are - right now, and in the coming weeks.\n\"We are treating it as a big emergency. Children will be affected in many ways. Physical injuries. Separated from families,\" he said.\nAbout an hour after the initial quake, a magnitude 6.6 aftershock hit, and smaller aftershocks could be felt through the region for hours.\nA senior mountaineering guide, Ang Tshering, said an avalanche swept the face of Mount Everest after the earthquake and government officials said at least 30 people were injured.\nGyanendra Shretha, an official with Nepal's mountaineering department, said the bodies of eight people had been recovered and an unknown number remain missing or injured.", "They were airlifted from a religious retreat, in a remote mountainside area of the country, by a team of experts using a chartered helicopter.\nAn RAF C-17 aircraft, which had taken aid to Nepal, separately flew another seven Britons out of the country.\nIt comes as a UK appeal for donations to help those caught up in the Nepal earthquake has raised more than £33m.\nThe government added £5m and pledged a further £12.5m to the fund raised by the Disasters Emergency Committee, making it the largest international donor.\nThe money will be used to help an estimated eight million people in need.\nThe rescue was carried out by emergency staff from a Department for International Development (Dfid) emergency team.\nInternational Development Secretary Justine Greening said the \"quick thinking and swift action\" of the team meant the eight British nationals had been saved from \"what could have been a life or death situation\".\nShe said the RAF C-17 aircraft and a commercial transport had also delivered more than 1,900 five-litre water purification jerrycans and more than 2,500 shelter kits.\n\"These latest aid flights have delivered much-needed shelter and water treatment equipment into Kathmandu. These are vital to stop disease from spreading and to prevent an even bigger health crisis from emerging,\" Ms Greening added.\nIt comes as the death toll has risen to over 6,600 and the Nepalese authorities have ruled out finding more survivors.\nThey said more than 14,000 people were injured in the 7.9 magnitude quake on Saturday.\nRose Caldwell, executive director of the charity Concern Worldwide - which is part of DEC - told the BBC the relief effort has been a \"huge challenge\" since 3m people are in need of food aid and 130,000 houses have been destroyed.\nShe said: \"Before the earthquake happened it was estimated that a third of the population lived four hours from a main road. This has increased dramatically.\n$415 million\nneeded for humanitarian relief\n3 million people in need of food aid\n130,000 houses destroyed\n24,000 people living in makeshift camps\n20 teams working to reunite lost children with their families\n\"We have to transport bulky materials, shelter, food and drinking water.\"\nMs Caldwell explained that the UK donations had been distributed to non-governmental organisations and DEC agencies already working in Nepal and had not been passed directly to the Nepalese government.\n\"Many of the agencies were already on the ground and they had stockpiles which they have started distributing. But those stockpiles are depleting,\" she added.\nThree British Chinook military helicopters are being sent to Nepal to assist in the humanitarian effort. The Nepalese government has called for more foreign help, particularly aircraft, to access remote communities.\nThe Foreign Office has confirmed that British dual national Hemchandra Rai, 42, was killed in the disaster while reports of another British victim killed at Mount Everest base camp are still being investigated.\nThe whereabouts of 1,000 EU citizens were still not known and according to a Red Cross missing persons list posted online, 28 people from Britain and Ireland remain unaccounted for.\nAn EU official said most of the missing Europeans are thought to have been trekking near Mount Everest or in the remote Langtang mountains.\nOn Thursday 120 Britons caught up in the quake landed on a returning aid flight. Others are on their way home.\nSteve Douglas, who was on Mount Everest, was evacuated to Lhasa in Tibet with the British army.\nHis father Gareth told the BBC that he had heard from his son before news of earthquake hit the media: \"He described massive earthquakes, rocks crashing all around.\"\nThey were one of the lucky ones, he was at north base camp unlike the mess at south camp, where three avalanches hit them.\nSebastian Lovera, 22 was en-route to Mount Everest when the earthquake struck. He was unable to get on one of the helicopters so is trekking 38 miles to get to an airport to return to the UK.", "After a fourth day of searches, 384 people have been rescued from the Annapurna trail, 216 of them foreigners, in the country's worst-ever trekking disaster.\nHelicopters have been searching parts of the trail high as 5,790m (19,000ft) for survivors.\nThe government said the priority was to rescue 22 stranded hikers.\nThe trekkers are stranded at Thorung La pass, and face a shortage of food and water. Army helicopters tried to rescue them but failed after being unable to land.\nThe BBC's Andrew North in Nepal says that it is still unclear which climbers have been accounted for and which are still missing.\nThe task of the authorities is made more complicated because there are thousands of climbers in Nepal at this time of the year.\nArmy helicopters tried unsuccessfully to rescue them on Saturday between the Mustang and Dolpa districts, government rescue coordinator Suresh Acharya said.\nTwenty bodies have been recovered but 19 bodies are still in the snow and a rescue team will be deployed on Sunday to dig them out and retrieve them by air, he said.\nOne of the main trekking routes - the Thorung La pass, the high point of the Annapurna Circuit - is now \"relatively safe\" after the army cleared snow, he said earlier.\nRescuers have only limited resources and most of the missing and dead are believed to be at the maximum heights that helicopters can reach.\nNepalese, Japanese, Israeli, Canadian, Indian, Slovak, Vietnamese and Polish trekkers are said to be among the dead.\nMany survivors have been left with severe frostbite and will have to have limbs amputated.\nNepal earns huge revenues from the tens of thousands of trekkers and climbers who flock to the Himalayas every year.\nHowever, it remains a very poor country and the authorities here have struggled to cope with the scale of this disaster, our correspondent says.\nThis has been a particularly deadly year for Nepal's trekking and mountaineering industry.\nAn avalanche on Mount Everest in April killed 16 Sherpa guides and resulted in a significant drop in the number of expeditions to the world's highest peak.\nThe latest disaster comes at the height of the trekking period.\nNepal blizzards: Survival guide", "He arrived in Kathmandu on Saturday evening, and met the country's president the next morning.\nThey discussed climate change and conservation, Kensington Palace said.\nPrince Harry will meet survivors of the earthquakes - which killed nearly 9,000 people - as well as Gurkhas who helped the rescue efforts.\nHe praised the Nepalese people for what he called their \"resolve and resilience\" in the wake of the disaster.\nHe visited artisans and apprentices working to restore the royal palace at Patan Durbar Square, which was heavily damaged by the quake.\nThe Unesco World Heritage Site was among many damaged by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake on 25 April and the second tremor on 12 May.\nThe prince held talks with Nepal's first female president, Bidya Devi Bhandari, on Sunday morning.\nHe told her the flight was long, but \"worth the hours to be in Nepal, finally\".\nA Kensington Palace spokesman said: \"The prince very much enjoyed his meeting with the president.\"\n\"They had a wide-ranging and friendly conversation, covering earthquake recovery, the importance of tourism, conservation and climate change.\"\nThe UK has been one of the largest bilateral donors to Nepal, with a total commitment of £70 million in earthquake relief, according to figures released by the Department for International Development (DFID).\nThat relief helped provide over 250,000 people with shelter in the past year, DFID said.\nIt is the prince's first official visit to the country.\nThe trip is celebrating 200 years of joint relations between Nepal and Britain.\nPrince Harry served with the Gurkhas in Afghanistan, as a soldier in the British Army, and will meet members of the brigade during his visit.\nThe Gurkhas - whose name comes from the Nepalese hill town of Gorkha - began joining the East India Company, and later the British army.\nThey have since served in every major conflict involving British forces for two centuries, and won 13 Victoria Crosses - the highest British military decoration for valour.\nMore than 200,000 Gurkhas fought in the two world wars, and there are about 2,600 Gurkhas currently in the British armed forces.", "The 7.8-magnitude quake struck more than a week ago and has claimed more than 5,000 lives.\nShaun Moody is one of six South Wales Fire and Rescue Service officers who are out there working in a UK team of 67 rescuers.\nHe told BBC Radio Wales some areas have suffered \"total devastation\".\nThe rescuers have been working on securing the roof of an 800-bed hospital in the capital, Kathmandu.\nHe added: \"It is a lot worse out of the city, where 100% of properties have been destroyed in some areas.\n\"But the people are very resourceful and when the rescuers are getting to them, the first thing they are doing is offering them food. It is very humbling.\"", "The highest number of deaths - two Israelis, two Poles and eight Nepalese - happened when a blizzard hit a point on the Annapurna Circuit.\nMany trekkers returning from the circuit remain out of contact.\nBBC South Asia Editor Charles Haviland says it is one the deadliest spells of bad weather ever seen in the region.\nAvalanches to the east and west have left 10 more people dead or presumed dead, among them Canadians, Slovaks and an Indian as well as local people.\nA French man also died after slipping into the Budhi Gandaki river in heavy rains.\nSevere rain and snowstorms in Nepal appear to have been triggered by Cyclone Hudhud in neighbouring India.\nAnalysis: Phanindra Dahal, BBC Nepali, Kathmandu\nIt has not been good a year for Nepal's trekking and mountaineering industry. An avalanche on Mount Everest in April killed 16 Sherpas - and resulted in a massive reduction of expeditions to the world's highest peak during the spring season.\nThe latest disaster comes during the peak trekking period. Thousands of tourists head to Nepal in October, many to enjoy its high altitude mountain passes and pristine beauty. The freak heavy snowfall caught the trekkers off guard.\nThe tragedy will badly hurt Nepal's tourism, with officials worried about the wider negative message it sends. Trekking and mountaineering are the key backbones of the industry - the major foreign exchange earner for Nepal.\nHudhud hit south-east India earlier this week - satellite pictures now show it moving away from Nepal towards China.\nThe bad weather hit a resting place 4,500m (14,800ft) above sea level, not far below the Circuit's highest point, the Thorung La pass.\nThe trekkers who were killed or remain missing were on their way down.\nAn army official co-ordinating the search operation said two military helicopters had been sent from the capital Kathmandu to assist the rescue operation.\nThousands of trekkers visit the Annapurna Circuit every October, when weather conditions are usually favourable for hiking trips.\nWhat appears to be a freak snowstorm a little under the highest pass caused mayhem, with many people still believed to be trapped in snow.\nOnly a little to the east, near Mount Manaslu, a French man died after being swept into a river.\nThe deaths come just months after 16 Sherpa mountain guides died in Nepal's worst ever accident on Mount Everest.\nNepal's high peaks attract some of the world's best climbers - but trekking is generally safe and appeals to masses of ordinary outdoor enthusiasts.", "Former Gurkha Kashi Rai from Swindon said at least three of the four victims were Nepali citizens from the town who had indefinite leave to live in the UK.\nHis brother and his sister-in-law were among those who had died, he said.\nMore than 7,000 people died in the 7.8-magnitude quake on 25 April. Officials have ruled out finding more survivors.\nIt comes as the UK government announced a new £5.3m contribution to the United Nations emergency appeal, to provide additional help to people hit by the disaster.\nPrayers were said for for the four victims at St John's Church, in Swindon, and a candle was lit in remembrance.\nMr Rai said his brother, Ratna - who was also a former Gurkha - and his wife, Mina, had gone to Nepal two weeks ago to visit relatives.\nThey were killed when a church in Kathmandu, the country's capital, collapsed after the earthquake struck, he said.\nAlso killed was Elia Ghale - another former Gurkha - who was also originally from Nepal. He had left Swindon a year ago to set up a church in Nepal, Mr Rai said.\nMr Ghale's son, who had gone back to Nepal with his father, also died, he added.\nThe duo were also killed when a different church collapsed following the earthquake.\n$415 million\nneeded for humanitarian relief\n3 million people in need of food aid\n130,000 houses destroyed\n24,000 people living in makeshift camps\n20 teams working to reunite lost children with their families\nEight Britons stranded in a monastery in Nepal were rescued on Saturday - a week after the devastating earthquake.\nThey were airlifted from a religious retreat in a remote mountainside area of the country by a UK team of experts using a chartered helicopter.\nAn RAF C-17 aircraft, which had taken aid to Nepal, separately flew another seven Britons out of the country.\nA British mountaineer caught up in the earthquake in Nepal has also returned to the UK.\nGareth Doulas, 37, from Bridgnorth in Shropshire, had been preparing to climb Mt Everest when the earthquake struck a week ago. He flew into Heathrow on Saturday.\nA UK Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) public appeal for donations has so far raised more than £33m - including £5m from the government to match the first public donations.\nThe UK government has now committed £22.8m in humanitarian aid - including the £5m appeal donation - making it the largest international donor so far.\nThe Foreign Office has confirmed that British dual national Hemchandra Rai, 42, was killed in the disaster. The married father of three lived in Hong Kong.\nReports of another British victim killed at Mount Everest base camp are still being investigated.", "Evie Markham, 18, from Albrighton in Shropshire, made it to the embassy in Kathmandu on Friday evening only to be told it was closed, her mother said.\nSue Markham said her daughter was now safe in a hostel.\nThe Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said it was looking into her case.\nIn a statement, a spokesperson said FCO teams were \"working around the clock\" to to help British nationals in Nepal and had assisted more than 350 people, arranging flights for 140 of them.\nSue Markham, however, said her daughter had received \"no help whatsoever\" after arriving at Kathmandu airport.\n\"Most countries had representatives there taking people to the embassies and sorting them out,\" she said.\n\"Evie got there and there were no British people out there at all. She made her way to the embassy and was told it was closed.\n\"They said 'our doors are closed, we work nine to five'.\n\"She's 18 and on her own completely. When she got upset they got her inside and gave her a drink and a Snickers bar and that's all the help she's had.\"\nEvie has been on a gap year since September, visiting a number of countries.\n\"She met up with some people she'd previously met in Cambodia and she decided to join them trekking to Everest base camp,\" Mrs Markham said.\nShe said her daughter had just left base camp when the earthquake struck a week ago.\n\"They had to run for their lives to a village, where they stayed for a couple of days.\n\"Food was running low and and they had no access to money, so they decided to trek to Lukla, nine hours away, which was quite hazardous.\"\nWith no access to money, a British man she met at Lukla airport stepped in and offered to pay the $130 for her flight to Kathmandu.\nMrs Markham said her daughter was now safe and hoped to fly back to the UK on Monday or Tuesday.\nShe said she had spoken to the FCO and would be lodging a formal complaint.\nThe FCO said it was still heavily involved supporting British nationals in Nepal.\n\"Helicopter airlifts continue to assist Brits in remote areas. We have emergency response teams working to locate British nationals and they have assisted several groups in the mountains over the past 48 hours,\" a spokesperson said.\n\"An RAF C-17 is on its way to Kathmandu and will take British nationals out of Nepal and to New Delhi.\"", "We'd travelled on a reconnaissance mission with two British Gurkhas.\nYou can watch our report here but be warned, it is very upsetting.\nUntil last week Langtang village was one of the most popular trekking destinations in Nepal. It was home to 435 people and 55 hotels and guest houses.\nNow just one house remains.\nThe earthquake triggered a catastrophic avalanche and landslide that submerged the village under a great plume of ice and rock.\nSatellite images taken five days after the earthquake show the entire hillside collapsed more than 700 metres (2,300ft) down onto the village.\nIn Kathmandu a friend and colleague who works for the BBC Nepali Service, Surendra Phuyal, showed me a picture he'd taken when he was trekking in Langtang in September.\nComparing his picture to our helicopter images of the area now, the epic scale of the landslide became apparent.\nOne villager said he thought it was at least 100m (350ft) deep. But it is only on the ground that the loss becomes viscerally real.\nThere were 52 bodies laid out under ragged plastic sheets and tarpaulins when I was there.\nI am an emotional man and I'll admit I struggled to contain the sense of horror I felt. At least one villager has lost every single member of his near family.\nAccording to the villagers, 178 local people died.\nNo one knows how many foreign tourists have lost their lives.\nIt was almost lunchtime when the quake struck and trekkers would have been arriving at the tea houses and restaurants in the village.\nOne of the Nepalese officers helping the villagers recover bodies from the area said the working estimate was that as many as 150 trekkers could have died in the disaster.\nAt least one British man is known to be missing, 23-year-old Mathew Carapiet, but the British government believes there may be more.\nLangtang has been the focus of a massive airlift, with more than 200 people brought out of the area in helicopters.\nThere is a very vivid account of the tragedy here.\nThe villagers who are still there do have food and shelter but they want to bury their dead. They say they want help to bring the bodies up from Langtang village to a site at the top of the valley.\nThey say they need a grand lama to perform the service. Meanwhile they continue to dig in the devastation for the dead.\nWhile we were there they brought out another victim, a young female tourist.\nThe rescue teams say it could be weeks before they recover all the bodies.\nClick here to donate to the appeal launched by the UK's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).", "It said the situation had been worsened by more than two months of political unrest in the south of the country.\nA blockade has severely hit the import of key goods by land from India.\nThe blockade is led by ethnic communities angered by Nepal's recently promulgated new constitution.\nThe Madhesi communities say the new constitution does not represent them properly.\nWhy is Nepal's new constitution controversial?\nFuel crisis threatens Nepal's forests\nThe government accuses India of deliberately worsening the embargo, but India denies this.\nThe blockade is being enforced while Nepal is still recovering from powerful earthquakes earlier this year which left up to 9,000 people dead.\nIn a stark warning, Unicef says supplies of vaccines and antibiotics in the country are now critically low - and the fear is that children could be the worst hit.\nMore than 200,000 families affected by the earthquakes are still living in temporary shelters at an altitude above 1,500m (4,920 ft) where weather conditions will be harshest this winter.\n\"The risks of hypothermia and malnutrition, and the shortfall in life-saving medicines and vaccines, could be a potentially deadly combination for children this winter,\" Unicef Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a media statement.\n\"During my recent visit to Nepal, I witnessed first-hand the precarious living conditions of many of the earthquake survivors. They could now be facing a new disaster - without adequate food, protection from the cold, or healthcare.\"\nThere are also fears that the rising dependence on firewood - triggered by the fuel crisis - is increasing indoor pollution, which in turn could lead to a rise in pneumonia cases.\nLast year more than 800,000 children under five suffered from the condition in Nepal, Unicef says, and about 5,000 died.\nAlready stocks of the inoculation against tuberculosis have run out completely in regional medical centres.\nThe blockade along the border with India began in September.\nAround 60% of Nepal's medicine is imported from India, along with large amounts of fuel, food and other supplies.", "The wreckage of the helicopter that disappeared this week while delivering aid near the Chinese border in Nepal was found on Friday morning.\nSix US marines and two Nepali soldiers were on board. Three bodies have so far been recovered.\nTuesday's 7.3-magnitude quake killed at least 110 people.\nIt came as Nepal was reeling from the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake of 25 April which killed more than 8,000 people and injured many more.\nThe editor of the Nepal Times, Kunda Dixit, said the helicopter wreckage was found 56km (35 miles) from Kathmandu.\nLieutenant General John Wissler, head of the US task force in Nepal, said it was \"unlikely\" any survivors would be found at the site, which he said was in dense forest near the village of Charikot at an elevation of 3,352m (11,000 feet).\nThe helicopter went missing in the hours after the second quake.\nAlthough the cause of the crash is not yet known, a nearby Indian helicopter heard radio chatter about a possible fuel problem, said Pentagon spokesman Steve Warren.\nThe marines had been working in the vicinity of Charikot, a village that was hit hard by the first quake, a spokesman for the US Pacific Command said.\nThe helicopter had been flying from Kathmandu airport as part of the US Operation Sahayogi Haat, which means \"helping hand\" in Nepali.\nMore than a dozen US military aircraft have been deployed to help carry out deliveries to areas cut off by the earthquakes.\nTwo Nepalese army helicopters were deployed in the search for the missing UH-1Y Huey helicopter, as well as 400 troops on the ground.", "Matt Carapiet, 23, from Kent, was trekking north of the capital Kathmandu just before the disaster.\nHis sister Christina Carapiet said the family had called the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) several times after it lost his details.\nThe FCO said it was \"in regular contact with the family\".\nAccording to the latest figures from Nepal, 6,204 people are known to have died in the 7.8-magnitude quake and 13,932 were injured.\nMr Carapiet, a student from Bearsted, last made contact with his family on 25 April, five days before the earthquake, telling them he would be out of contact as he was trekking to the Langtang Valley.\nHis sister said the past few days had been \"unbearable\" and the family were desperate for news.\n\"The Foreign Office haven't been doing what we think they should be doing,\" Ms Carapiet said.\nShe claimed the FCO had lost information and also had the wrong details for her brother.\n\"We really want the government to realise that there are still British people out there, like Matt, stranded,\" she said.\nMs Carapiet said the family had been contacted on Facebook saying he had been staying at a guest house the day before.\n\"The next day, the day of the earthquake, Matt was going to go to a cheese factory nearby, and we believe that is only one of the things in the Langtang village that is still intact,\" she said.\nMs Carapiet said the family were trying to keep positive, and had been relying on Facebook for information.\n\"Matt's a very clever boy, very resourceful, and I just pray that he's found some other people and he's found some shelter somewhere and he's doing ok.\"\nAn FCO spokesman said: \"Our teams are working round the clock to assist British nationals and have given practical assistance to more than 350 so far.\n\"We've deployed two emergency response FCO teams to locate and assist British nationals in remote areas.\n\"They've assisted eight British nationals who were rescued from Dhunche and who are now in Kathmandu being supported by embassy staff.\"\nHe added that the Foreign Office continued to work closely with the Nepalese search and rescue teams, and was providing them with all the details it had on British nationals and their locations.", "But the setting is not actually Nepal, it is in fact Egypt.\nThe BBC's own team of verifiers noticed the footage doing the rounds on social media at the time of the April quake, but quickly spotted the signs that identified the scene as Egyptian.\nIt's not the only misidentified imagery to be picked up at the time.\nFacebook's year in review uses a mix of video and still pictures to give viewers a visual tour of the big stories of 2015.\nThe clips include the Pluto flyby, the migration crisis, the shootings in Paris, sporting successes and stories that were big on social media.\nBut a few seconds of video highlighting the devastating earthquake that killed 9,000 people and devastated many communities in Nepal is not all that it might appear.\nOmayma el Zulafi, a journalist with the BBC's User Generated Content (UGC) verification hub, spotted the video around the time of the quake and quickly noticed it could not be from Nepal.\n\"There's a shot [in the full version] showing an Arabic sign and you can see an Egyptian policeman. If you listen carefully you can hear an Egyptian Arabic accent,\" she said.\nThe BBC's UGC team says the incident highlights the importance of close verification of images.\nIt was not the only fake image to appear at the time purporting to be of the earthquake.\nA video of waves in a hotel swimming pool also got a lot of attention, but was in fact from Mexico, as BBC Trending found out.\nAnd a widely-shared image of a little boy comforting his sister was also debunked as it emerged the photograph was taken in Vietnam in 2007.\nThe BBC has informed Facebook about the footage in its year in review video and they say they are looking into it.", "Were you in Nepal when the earthquake struck?\nIt is nearly one year since a massive earthquake hit Kathmandu and its surrounding areas, killing thousands of people.\nThe 7.8-magnitude earthquake was followed by a large number of aftershocks, including one that measured 7.3 on 12 May 2015.\nMany of the country's historic sites were severely damaged, including temples and monuments.\nIf you lived through the disaster we would like to hear from you. We want to tell the story of what happened during the quake - and how things have changed since then.\nYou can email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your stories. You can email your pictures from the earthquake or more recent ones showing Nepal now to yourpics@bbc.co.uk\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:\nIf you are happy to be contacted by a BBC journalist please leave a telephone number that we can\n contact you on. In some cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as\n you provide it and location, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published.\n When sending us pictures, video or eyewitness accounts at no time should you endanger yourself or others,\n take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions.\nTerms and conditions", "The event, in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London, is the highlight of a year of celebrations marking the anniversary.\nThe evening featured battle re-enactments and musical performances by the Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas.\nVictims of the recent Nepal earthquakes were remembered in a minute's silence.\nThe Queen was accompanied by Prince Philip, while Prince Charles - Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Gurkha Rifles - and Prince Harry - who lived with a Gurkha battalion in Afghanistan - also attended the event.\nThe Sultan of Brunei was among the other dignitaries invited to the Gurkha 200 pageant.\nIt was organised by the Gurkha Welfare Trust, which gives financial and medical support to former servicemen and their families.\nThe Prince of Wales, a patron of the Gurkha Welfare Trust, paid tribute to \"these remarkable men and their extraordinary service to our country\".\nHe added: \"The Brigade of Gurkhas is more than just a fighting force, it is also - in every sense of the word - a family.\n\"As with every family, they have lifetime responsibilities to one another and especially in times of great need. This has been painfully illustrated by the appalling earthquakes which have recently struck Nepal, with devastating consequences across the traditional Gurkha heartlands.\"\nThe 1,400 guests watched the open-air event, which chronicled 200 years of Gurkha service with the \"story of the Gurkha soldier\".\nIt was narrated by historian Dan Snow and actress Joanna Lumley, who campaigned to allow Gurkhas settlement rights in the UK in 2009.\nThe Queen was also introduced to veterans and serving Gurkhas and was shown artefacts from the regiment's history.\nCaptain Dillikumar Rai, of the Royal Gurkha Rifles, had the prestigious role of carrying the Queen's Truncheon at the pageant.\nHe said: \"I am immensely proud to be serving as a Gurkha during the celebrations of 200 years of service to the Crown and to have Her Majesty present at today's event is an amazing honour.\"\nMore than 8,000 people died after the first quake hit Nepal on 25 April. A second tremor hit the country on 12 May.\nCol William Shuttlewood, director of the Gurkha Welfare Trust, said: \"The event raises funds not only in support of Gurkha veterans and their families in need and distress, but also to help them rebuild their communities after Nepal's recent devastating earthquakes.\"\nAfter suffering heavy casualties in the invasion of Nepal, the British East India Company signed a hasty peace deal in 1815, which also allowed it to recruit from the ranks of the former enemy.\nGurkhas - whose name comes from the Nepalese hill town of Gorkha - began joining the East India Company, and later the British army.\nThey have since served in every major conflict involving British forces for two centuries, and won 13 Victoria Crosses - the highest British military decoration for valour.\nMore than 200,000 Gurkhas fought in the two world wars, and there are about 2,600 Gurkhas in the British armed forces now.\nThe Gurkha Welfare Trust says becoming a Gurkha is a \"matter of great pride\", with tens of thousands of young Nepalese men applying and only a few accepted.\nClick here to listen to a BBC Radio 4 programme on the history of the Gurkhas.", "Sushil Koirala said the government was doing all it could but was overwhelmed.\nThe UN has estimated that eight million people have been affected - more than a quarter of the population. Foreign aid is arriving but being hampered by congestion at Kathmandu's sole airport.\nThe death toll from the 7.8-magnitude quake is now 4,356, but Mr Koirala said it could reach 10,000.\n\"The government is doing all it can for rescue and relief on a war footing\" in a \"difficult hour\" for Nepal, Mr Koirala told Reuters news agency.\nHe has also admitted that lack of equipment and expert personnel meant the \"appeals for rescues coming in from everywhere\" in many cases could not be met.\nAlmost 8,000 people are known to have been injured when the quake hit and in numerous powerful aftershocks which have sent people fleeing from their homes to camp on open ground.\nWater, food and electricity are in short supply and there are fears of outbreaks of disease.\n\"According to initial estimations and based on the latest earthquake intensity mapping, eight million people in 39 districts have been affected, of which over two million people live in the 11 severely affected districts,\" said the most recent report from the UN Office of the Resident Co-ordinator.\nLandslips and periodic bad weather in the remote mountainous region around the epicentre are adding to the challenge.\nRebecca McAteer, an American doctor who was one of the first to arrive in the district of Gorkha close to the epicentre, told Associated Press that 90% of houses there were \"just flattened\".\nShe said most residents were older men and women and children, as the younger men had left to find work elsewhere.\nMany have also lost livestock and have little food.\nHowever, a spokesman for Nepal's home ministry told the BBC that helicopters were air-dropping tents, dry food and medicine - though they were yet to reach many isolated communities.\nThis camp had been set up on a playground and even now there are quite a few children playing. But it no longer resembles a safe place. There's rubbish everywhere, paper plates, wrappers and plastic glasses are strewn all over.\n\"It's getting quite bad,\" says one man who is here with his wife and four daughters. \"We've been here for three days and we've been living on instant noodles. There's nothing else to eat.\"\nHis house is not badly damaged, but he is adamant that he will not go home despite the challenging conditions in the camp.\n\"We've heard all these rumours about more earthquakes and aftershocks. We will not leave this place, not for a while.\"\nHomeless and hungry survivors\nThe day the quake hit my home\nHow long can survivors last under rubble?\nNepal quake special report\nThe Nepal government has pleaded for overseas aid - everything from blankets and helicopters to doctors and drivers.\n\"We urge foreign countries to give us special relief materials and medical teams. We are really desperate for more foreign expertise to pull through this crisis,\" said Chief Secretary Leela Mani Paudel.\nMany countries have sent aid including India, China, the UK and US.\nBut there is a logjam at Kathmandu airport, with individuals trying to fly out of the country while flights of aid and rescue teams wait to land.\nOn Monday, four Indian air force aircraft had to return to Delhi international airport after encountering \"congestion\" at Kathmandu, tweeted a spokesman for India's defence ministry.\nNepal earthquake: Before and after\nIn pictures: Devastation after the quake\nQuake 'was anticipated'\nAlmost the entire Nepali army and police have joined the search and rescue operations, officials say.\nPeople are still being pulled from the rubble more than 50 hours after the tragedy.\nHospitals are unable to cope with the huge numbers of people in need of medical attention and some Nepalis have complained of aid being slow to reach them.\nThe country's most deadly earthquake in 81 years triggered avalanches that have killed 18 people on Mount Everest - the worst disaster in history on the world's highest peak.\nMore than 200 people had been trapped on the mountain but all the injured have now been evacuated, along with the dead.\nExpedition leader Chris Harling described experiencing the quake on the north side of Everest, telling the BBC the camp \"started to vibrate underneath us which increased in intensity up to the point where the ground was literally shaking backwards and forwards like a giant jelly.\n\"It was absolutely incredible.\"\nAre you in the area? Are you affected by the earthquake? If it is safe to do so, you can share your story by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk\nIf you are willing to speak with a BBC journalist, please leave a contact number.\nYou can send a picture, video or message to our WhatsApp number +44 7525 900971\nYou can email your pictures, video or audio to us at yourpics@bbc.co.uk\nYou can upload pictures" ]

[ "between 1966 and 1973 croce released five studio albums and numerous singles his first two albums were commercially unsuccessful failing to chart or produce any hit singles during this period croce took a series of odd jobs to pay bills while he continued to write record and perform concerts after forming a partnership with songwriter and guitarist maury muehleisen his fortunes turned in the early 1970s his breakthrough came in 1972 his third album you don t mess around with jim produced three charting singles including time in a bottle which reached no 1 after his death the follow up album life and times contained the song bad bad leroy brown which was the only no 1 hit he had during his lifetime the day before the lead single to his fifth album i got a name was released croce along with five others were killed in a plane crash at the height of his popularity croce s music continued to chart throughout the 1970s following his death his wife ingrid croce was his early songwriting partner and she continued to write and record after his death and his son a j croce himself became a singer songwriter in the", "the deal with polygram was made after team attorney phil kurnit approached a contact within the record company who then had polygram executives to listen to the demo tape after having the finished album rejected by up to 40 record labels croce was signed to abc records after cashman west had a chance meeting with abc promotion man marty kupps kupps urged label head jay lasker to sign croce after hearing cuts from a cassette tape of the finished album the record spent 93 weeks on the charts longer than any other jim croce album due to the strong performance of the posthumous single release time in a bottle 1 pop 1 ac you don t mess around with jim was the best selling album in the u s for five weeks in early 1974 it was listed at 6 on the 1974 cash box yearend album charts two singles were originally released from the album in 1972 the title track 8 pop and operator that s not the way it feels 17 pop the album was issued on cd by the rhino flashbacks record label on september 30 2008 the lyrics of the title track concern the fate of", "released as part of his 1973 album life and times the song was a number one pop hit for him spending two weeks at the top of the billboard hot 100 in july 1973 billboard ranked it as the no 2 song for 1973 croce was nominated for two 1973 grammy awards in the pop male vocalist and record of the year categories for bad bad leroy brown it was his last number one single before his death on september 20 of that year the song s title character is a tall man from the south side of chicago whose size attitude and tendency to carry weapons have given him a fearsome reputation he is said to dress in fancy clothes and wear diamond rings and to own a custom lincoln continental and a cadillac eldorado implying he has a lot of money one day in a bar he makes a pass at a pretty married woman named doris whose jealous husband proceeds to beat leroy brutally in the ensuing fight which leroy loses badly the story of a widely feared man being bested in a fight is similar to that of croce s earlier song you don t mess", "croce wrote the lyrics after his wife ingrid told him she was pregnant in december 1970 it appeared on his 1972 abc debut album you don t mess around with jim and was featured in the 1973 abc made for television movie she lives abc originally did not intend to release the song as a single but when croce was killed in a plane crash in september 1973 its lyrics dealing with mortality and the wish to have more time had additional resonance the song subsequently received a large amount of airplay as an album track and demand for a single release built when it was eventually issued as a 7 it became his second and final no 1 hit after the single had finished its two week run at the top in early january 1974 the album you don t mess around with jim became no 1 for five weeks in 1977 time in a bottle was used as the title for a of croce s love songs the arrangement features a harpsichord that producer tommy west discovered had been left in the mixing studio the night before we were going to mix i was watching a horror movie", "the first two tracks are from an album released by villanova and the third is a live concert recording from the period the remaining four tracks on side one are from an album croce recorded in 1966 entitled facets sides two and three include the periods 1967 70 and after 1970 respectively side four includes the raps or croce s storytelling in a live setting additional examples of this storytelling can be found on his other live releases the album title comes from a line from croce s song the hard way every time the album is the first release on lifesong records a company formed by croce production team terry cashman tommy west and attorney partner phil kurnit in 1975 the faces i ve been lifesong records ls 900 1975 side 1 side 2 side 3 side 4 this side consists of raps which were featured in jim croce s concert appearances", "the song was written by croce and was originally released on his album i got a name it entered the billboard hot 100 chart at position 73 in march 1974 it peaked at 9 in april 1974 becoming his fifth top 10 hit in addition the song went to 1 on the billboard adult contemporary chart and reached 68 on the billboard country music chart croce s only song to chart there this song is noted for the use of male backup singers as well as a string section that plays a counterpoint melody during the concluding instrumental croce was killed in a small plane crash in september 1973 the same week that a 45rpm single the title cut from his studio album i got a name was released after the delayed release of a song from his previous album time in a bottle in late 1973 i ll have to say i love you in a song was chosen as the second single released from his final studio album croce wrote the song in early 1973 when he arrived home and got into a disagreement with his wife ingrid instead of arguing with her she has stated that croce", "the song was also croce s debut single when it was released in june 1972 on abc records as abc 11328 the song first aired on khj 930 am in los angeles when abc records promotion man marty kupps took the single to the radio station where it appeared on the khj 30 chart at number 27 during the week of june 6 after spending 11 weeks on the billboard hot 100 chart the song peaked at no 8 on the week ending september 9 croce performed the song on american bandstand on august 12 1972 billboard ranked it as the no 68 song for 1972 the lyrics are set at an underground pool hall on 42nd street in new york city big jim walker a pool hustler who is not too bright but is respected because of his tough reputation his considerable strength and size and his skill at pool has formed a sort of gang of bad folks who regularly gather at night in the pool hall their recurring word of advice is as follows a fellow pool player named willie slim mccoy comes from south alabama to the pool hall to get his money back from jim", "this album is a compilation of unreleased tracks and demos this compilation was the first new material of jim croce s work released since 1973 the album also contains liner notes written by croce s son a j croce and his wife ingrid croce the material was originally recorded in 1967 at his pennsylvania kitchen table on an old wollensak reel to reel tape recorder a j croce who co produced the album told billboard it was a very emotional experience for me i really got to know a piece of my father that i d never known i m influenced by old american music of course and by british pop music and rock n roll i felt he was influenced by troubadours like woody guthrie and knew of his influences from the 20s and 30s but never really heard them in his music but he made a lot of home tapes of things he loved and when i listened to them i heard him play songs i had played when i was that age he was discovering what he was about in these tapes you can hear all these classic folk songs or jazz or blues or drinking songs", "it was released in 1973 as the first single from his album life and times it reached a peak of 37 on the billboard hot 100 spending ten weeks on the chart the song describes a failing relationship between the narrator and his lover and his realization that it is time for him to leave throughout he recounts the fact that they have been knowingly moving apart but have been unwilling to recognize it openly running away from something they both know in fact he hints that she may have been seeing other men during their time together and that he is just one of many to walk in that his may be just one more pair of jeans hanging on her door while it seems clear that the narrator has put up with his lover s infidelity for a time he has decided to finally move on refusing to accept her silence about what has happened between them he acknowledges that it s what we ve done that makes us what we are pointing out that their different choices in life have led them to become different types of people he goes on to announce that his lover s", "it was the first single from his album of the same title and also croce s first posthumous single released the day after his death in a plane crash on september 20 the song reached a peak of 10 on the billboard hot 100 after spending 17 weeks on the chart it also hit 3 on the cash box top 100 i got a name was also the theme song for the 1973 movie the last american hero it was also featured in the movies the ice storm invincible django unchained logan and the lego ninjago movie croce composed most of his own material however he did not write i got a name in an interview with billboard magazine writer norman gimbel revealed the reason croce chose to record the song stating that jim liked it because his father had a dream for him but had died before his son s first success the song features a narrator who is proud of who he is and where he is going in life undeterred by the naysaying of others he begins by declaring that like any plant or animal he has a name of which he can be proud the narrator", "originally released early that year as the b side of the one less set of footsteps single it was reissued that december as the third and final single from the album as well as croce s second posthumously released single it reached a peak of 64 on the billboard hot 100 spending five weeks on the chart because of its christmas setting and the wintery images associated with its lyrics the song is often played during the holiday season in the song the narrator reveals himself to be a man who has recently ended a relationship as the holiday season approaches the christmas atmosphere in his town is evident nearly everywhere including such things as falling snow christmas lights the corner santa claus sidewalk bands icy windowpanes tinsel and caroling choirs as the narrator walks down the windy winter avenue and encounters these holiday festivities he admits that he wishes he and his lover could reunite instead of encouraging the holiday spirit the narrator hints that these elements remind him of past christmases with his lover only making him sad that they are no longer together he notes that these once cheerful things no longer seem the same but that", "it was the third single released from his album i got a name it reached a peak of 32 in july 1974 on the billboard hot 100 it was also the fourth single released including christmas themed release it doesn t have to be that way after jim croce s passing in september 1973 jim croce described this song as having a funky street feel during a performance he explained the song as a story about a guy who thinks he thinks he should be ruling the universe somewhere but he is really working at a car wash croce explained he came up with the idea for the song while in the military at fort jackson running telephone cables on poles and thinking he should be doing something else while on top of the pole he thought about everyone in the same situation thinking they should be doing another gig and have a different job in the song a man has just been released from a 90 day prison sentence for non support and believing himself to be an undiscovered howard hughes and a genius tries to smooth talk his way into an executive position every company he tries turns", "his posthumously released fifth studio album was completed just prior to his 1973 death and six singles were also posthumously issued one of which was time in a bottle from a previous album you don t mess around with jim his popularity continued long after his death with the release of numerous compilation albums and new material from the vaults being portioned out sporadically over the years two live albums as well as a live dvd have also been published croce s first two studio albums facets and croce aka jim ingrid croce did not chart but his third you don t mess around with jim peaked at no 1 on the billboard 200 following his death this album featured three singles you don t mess around with jim operator that s not the way it feels and time in a bottle his fourth album life and times peaked at no 2 in the united states but reached no 1 in canada in late december 1973 it featured the singles one less set of footsteps bad bad leroy brown and it doesn t have to be that way bad bad leroy brown achieved great success reaching the no 1 position" ]

[ "maury muehleisen january 14 1949 september 20 1973 was an american born musician songwriter and artist best known for his studio work live accompaniment and impact on the music of jim croce he died in the same plane crash that killed croce maury was born maurice t muehleisen into a large family in trenton new jersey he received classical piano training at the age of nine and began playing guitar when he was 17 he briefly attended glassboro state college in glassboro new jersey muehleisen had written several songs and was introduced to producers terry cashman and tommy west who offered to produce an album of his songs at that time jim croce was out of the music industry and was working a series of odd jobs muehleisen and croce were introduced by a mutual friend and developed an immediate and lasting rapport with steady gigs and a growing fan base muehleisen invited croce to back him up as a second guitarist at local philadelphia area venues just prior to the release of the gingerbreadd album by capitol records in november 1970 though commercial results were minimal muehleisen s music and songwriting began to have a significant impact the emergence", "he is best known for signing the beach boys to capitol records and scheduling their recordings in the first few months of their contract mentored by lee gillette john hammond and richard bach he worked with such notables as chet baker lord buckley nat king cole stan getz chico hamilton stan kenton lambert hendricks and ross peggy lee gerry mulligan ravi shankar and kay starr at 21 he joined capitol records giving them their first hits in a decade with the lettermen as well as being a producer he was head of a r at capitol nik produced a number of important capitol clients including ray anthony the buddies glen campbell cashman pistilli and west jim croce ingrid croce king curtis karen dalton bobby darin the four preps george gerdes jimmie haskell hearts flowers with bernie leadon hedge and donna the hondells the honeys the kingston trio the leaves the lettermen lothar and the hand people mad river maffit davies ian matthews and matthews southern comfort onzie matthews les mccann fred neil vince martin ricky nelson dinsmore payne lou rawls billy lee riley murray roman linda ronstadt jack scott maxine sellers serendipity singers john stewart the stone poneys allan taylor", "in 1974 35 songs topped the chart then published under the title easy listening based on playlists submitted by easy listening radio stations and sales reports submitted by stores the first number one of the year was time in a bottle by jim croce it was a posthumous chart topper for the singer who had died in an airplane crash in september of the previous year croce achieved a second posthumous number one in april with i ll have to say i love you in a song chicago gordon lightfoot anne murray and charlie rich also achieved two number ones in 1974 as did the three degrees who had one chart topper in their own right and another as featured vocalists on the song tsop the sound of philadelphia by mfsb john denver and helen reddy each had three number ones during 1974 with denver s total of seven weeks in the top spot being the highest by any act country rock singer denver was at the peak of his career in 1974 selling millions of records and achieving number ones on the hot 100 easy listening and country charts many of 1974 s easy listening number ones also topped", "it is a paean to several deceased singers such as jimi hendrix janis joplin and otis redding and has been rewritten a number of times to include other singers the song was first recorded by the band climax in 1973 but it failed to chart it was then covered by the righteous brothers in 1974 and reached number three on the u s billboard hot 100 the righteous brothers recorded rock and roll heaven a few weeks after they decided to reform the duo in 1974 they signed with haven records run by dennis lambert and brian potter and were given the song to record lambert and potter rewrote a verse updating the song to include jim croce and bobby darin who had died within three months of each other in late 1973 according to bill medley they were dubious about the song because they didn t think the song had the old righteous brothers feel nevertheless it became a hit for them and quickly reached number three on billboard hot 100 in canada it spent three weeks at number four the lyrics involving jim croce and bobby darin replaced climax s lyrics for buddy holly peggy sue and ritchie", "carradine recorded a slightly faster version that became a popular music hit in 1976 in the united states the song is a ballad about a lover who is guileless and in awe of the object of his love the film juxtaposes these lyrics by presenting the song in the context of tom a character played by carradine who is a manipulative womanizer in the film when tom performs the song at the exit in a real life nashville music club where the scene was shot he dedicates it to a special someone several women in the audience past recent and future conquests believe the song has been written for them i m easy was initially released as an acoustic guitar ballad with a cello accompaniment it was re recorded by carradine at a slightly faster tempo with the addition of percussion keyboards and synthesizer accompaniment on asylum records the album was issued late fall 1976 the song is often mistakenly associated with jim croce due to the similarity of carradine s voice vocal style and guitar playing all of which bear strong similarity to croce who had died in a plane crash two years before nashville was released i m", "the album was released in february 1973 on dot records and was produced by fargo s husband and manager stan silver the album spawned two number one singles on the billboard country chart and was one of two albums donna fargo would release in 1973 my second album was recorded in two sessions between october and november 1972 at the jack clement recording studio in nashville tennessee united states the october recording sessions produced the songs superman how would i do i d love you to want me a song i can sing among others the november 1972 session produced the final two songs for the album the album s name was derived from the fact that it was fargo s second studio album seven of the ten tracks included on my second album were written entirely by fargo herself the second track you don t mess around with jim was a cover of the pop single by jim croce and the third track don t be angry was a cover version of the original stonewall jackson single fargo would later release don t be angry as a single in 1976 that would reach the top 5 on the billboard", "after parting ways with rca according to bobice com he signed with the indie label ugarmoney stratart a partnership between bo and the label of strategic artist management his management company the album was released as a wal mart exclusive bice stated about the sound of see the light that it s a star studded cast and i m the only one on there who s not famous the ever humble bice joked i picked and co wrote the songs that if i was a guy who would be spending my hard earned money buying an album i would want to hear that means original back to basics southern rock and country tinged singer songwriter tunes co written with a j croce son of 1970s singer jim croce and chris tompkins carrie underwood s before he cheats bice also stated that he wrote thirty one songs for the album and narrowed it down between ten and twelve songs the songs will feature session performances by classic and southern rock luminaries keyboardist chuck leavell the black crowes s drummer steve gorman and guitarist waddy wachtel who has worked with just about everyone including the rolling stones bryan ferry stevie nicks and", "fuller first recorded the song in 1954 released 1955 for a small label called world song the song was brought into wider popularity in the early 1960s by club performances by ramblin jack elliott bob dylan and jim kweskin recorded covers have been performed by many artists including the blues band paul jones jim croce the weavers sammy walker the brothers four the dapper dans paul clayton richie havens eric clapton the flatlanders paul mccartney hot tuna janis joplin john lennon peter paul and mary mungo jerry glenn yarbrough george ellias phoebe snow the wave pictures the halifax iii and eva cassidy a one man band rendition of the song featuring a kazoo solo was recorded by fuller himself in a 1962 concert this has been included in a smithsonian folkways compilation friends of old time music topic records issued the original jesse fuller version on a 10 inch vinyl lp called working on the railroad in 1959 and included it as track six of the first cd of the topic records 70 year anniversary boxed set three score and ten the song was one of many california related songs played throughout sunshine plaza in the original disney california adventure", "he is one half of the tag team the nasty boys along with brian knobbs sags graduated from whitehall high school in pennsylvania he started his career in the american wrestling association as a referee in 1985 in 1986 he formed a tag team called the nasty boys with brian knobbs and wrestled in the tennessee territory until they moved to championship wrestling from florida where they won the tag team titles five times from 1988 through 1990 in 1990 they went to the nwa s jim crockett promotions which had been purchased by ted turner and would be renamed world championship wrestling before the nasty boys left a few months later they feuded with rick and scott steiner over the u s tag team titles but could not defeat them in late 1990 they went to the world wrestling federation where they were managed by jimmy hart they won the world tag team titles from the hart foundation before feuding with and losing the titles to the legion of doom knobbs and sags then feuded with all of the wwf s top face tag teams including the rockers and the bushwhackers they turned face in the fall of 1992", "however the work is no more document for centuries and was considered to be lost in the 19th century however it was found in the archives of the museum of santa croce of florence and identified thanks to a cartouche on it saying badia di firenze which was added in 1810 the dating of the work is disputed ranging from the early 14th century to a period following giotto s work in the cappella degli scrovegni in 1940 during the safe hiding of various works during world war ii ugo procacci noticed the polyptych being carried out of the santa croce basilica he reasoned that it had been removed from the badia fiorentina during the napoleonic occupation and accidentally re installed at santa croce procacci also realized that the altarpiece was too large for the site of the altar then at the badia he discovered that a 1628 renovation had resulted in a change of the altar s location leading to his discovery of a hidden fresco in the badia the polyptych was restored in 1958 with layers of overpaint and a later top concealing the gables removed after surviving the 1966 flood of the arno the polyptych was again", "1945 november 8 1984 was an american singer songwriter and actress known for her role as aunt em in the original broadway production of the wiz thomas also had a hit single shoot me with your love from her 1979 album midnight rendezvous her birthplace is often cited as jeutyn alaska though no such town exists thomas breakthrough came when she was cast in the original broadway production of the wiz in the role of aunt em her performance on the cast album singing her soulful rendition of the ballad the feeling we once had earned her wide critical acclaim in 1972 tasha sang backup vocals along with singer songwriter song writers hall of famer ellie greenwich 1949 2009 for jim croce s debut album you don t mess around with jim she appears on slade s 1976 nobody s fools lp providing backing vocals on several songs including the title track tasha also provided backup vocals on the 1977 kiss album love gun as one of the kissettes in 1978 on the basis of her growing popularity as a singer capable of performing in many different styles and genres producers james r glaser aka jimmi hood and peter rugile", "in the next season croce made his debut in the first team in 2004 05 serie c1 he was spotted by f c internazionale milano in january 2005 he was the member of primavera under 20 team scoring 4 goals in 2005 torneo di viareggio as topscorer premio miglior cannoniere del torneo eventually inter was the fourth however he only scored once in the primavera league in the playoffs round croce was the starting forward along with matteo moment he scored once in the round of 16 in that rebuild season of inter primavera the regular season top scorer was matteo lombardo with 5 goals and dino marino was the playoffs top scorer of the team with 2 goals only inter was eliminated by empoli in quarter finals inter did not purchase croce and promoted players from its own youth system instead on 31 august 2005 croce was signed by serie b club modena but immediately farmed to marche club fermana in a co ownership deal in june 2006 croce was re signed by emilia club modena but he was released to serie d team riccione the team also located in emilia romagna region croce once again failed to score", "ruocco roo co born november 18 1986 is an emmy award winning american television and radio sportscaster he serves as a play by play announcer for the nba and wnba on espn the new york yankees and brooklyn nets on yes network and boxing for dazn he hosts the podcast r2c2 with yankees pitcher cc sabathia on lebron james s digital media network uninterrupted he previously hosted the stephen a smith ryan ruocco show on espn radio 98 7 fm ruocco is the secondary play by play television announcer for the brooklyn nets and new york yankees he joined the nets broadcast team in 2011 he also does select college basketball games for yes and was the host of this week in football for the yes network that focused on the new york giants and jets his analysts were howard cross gary myers and ross tucker he joined the network in 2007 as the new york yankees statistician ruocco saw his first action as a lead play by play man for the yes network when he called a series between the new york yankees and houston astros in june 2015 during the 2019 baseball season ruocco stepped up as the", "his mother maria anna croce was the great aunt of philosopher benedetto croce when croce s parents died in an earthquake in 1883 silvio became his guardian an experience that had a deep influence on croce in 1836 silvio joined his brother at the diocesan seminary in chieti in 1838 he moved along with bertrando to montecassino to study at the benedictine seminary it is probable they were sent to montecassino because new political and religious ideas were allowed to flourish there silvio befriended the philosopher antonio tari in 1840 in collaboration with two other seminary students he began his political career by writing a petition to the king demanding a constitution in 1843 he moved to naples to work as tutor to the children of the magistrate benedetto croce his maternal uncle and grandfather of the famous philosopher of the same name like his elder brother silvio became interested in liberalism and the thought of hegel and soon had to leave naples on account of his political views moving to tuscany he forged strong links with a number of local moderate politicians after returning to naples in february 1848 following the granting of a constitution he founded il nazionale", "born september 25 1954 is a retired american football coach he was previously the running backs coach for the nfl s tennessee titans he was the head coach at mississippi state university from 2004 to 2008 and the first african american head football coach in the southeastern conference his father sylvester croom sr was himself an all american football player at alabama a m later the team chaplain at the university of alabama and has been recognized by that school as one of the state s 40 pioneers of civil rights after his time at mississippi state croom jr served as running backs coach for three teams in the national football league croom a native of tuscaloosa alabama starred at tuscaloosa high school as a linebacker and tight end he was named outstanding player his senior year 1971 he then played those same positions before settling in at center for paul bear bryant at the university of alabama where in 1974 he was a senior captain earned the jacobs blocking trophy and like his father years earlier earned kodak all american honors during his playing career there alabama garnered three sec championships from 1972 to 1974 and a national title", "crumpton born 1957 was a central intelligence agency operations officer for 24 years rising to deputy director of the counterterrorism center and then heading the cia s national resources division which focuses on operations in the united states he was appointed by president george w bush as coordinator for counterterrorism at the department of state with the rank of ambassador at large on august 2 2005 he is the author of the art of intelligence lessons from a life in the cia s clandestine service he founded and is ceo of the business intelligence firm crumpton group llc crumpton grew up in rural georgia and left home at age 16 for alabama where he worked at night in a carpet factory while studying for his high school diploma during the day he attended st john s in santa fe new mexico and then transferred to the university of new mexico where he earned a ba in political science he has a master s in international relations from johns hopkins university s school of advanced international studies where he graduated with honors after graduating he traveled in asia the soviet union and western europe in 1981 at the age of 22", "james e moser was executive producer the program telecast on cbs was nominated for a golden globe award slattery s people is mainly notable for having been one of the few american television series spotlighting the travails of local politicians a topic that other programs of the period mainly avoided episodes opened with the following admonition democracy is a very bad form of government but i ask you never to forget all the others are so much worse many television critics highly praised the series many politicians also approved of the program u s representative james c corman said in a congressional record statement on september 30 1964 i am pleased that they have taken the high road to show a legislator s life and have not pandered to sensationalism or unreality to stimulate an audience following this series was a major career change for crenna following more than a decade as a lead actor in two popular network comedies our miss brooks and the real mccoys his role as jim slattery opened doors for later guest appearances in several dramatic programs and feature films moser s script for the pilot question what is truth was printed as an appendix", "it was released on august 9 1994 by gee street records the album was re issued in 1997 6 feet deep received generally positive reviews with critics praising its ominous production and lyrics and is considered an influential album in the horrorcore subgenre the album peaked at number 36 on the billboard 200 and spawned three singles diary of a madman nowhere to run nowhere to hide and 1 800 suicide the original title of the album was niggamortis but it was changed to have a better reaction with the american crowd however the record was called by its original title overseas the european version also included the bonus song pass the shovel the last question on 360 questions is a reference to tommy boy records to which each band member had been signed at one point grym reaper s first couple of lines from here comes the grave diggaz you don t pull on superman s cape you don t spit into the wind you don t pull the mask off the old lone ranger are from the song you don t mess around with jim song originally by jim croce killah priest and shabazz the disciple made their", "when performing with slipknot he is also known as 6 as of 2013 crahan is the last remaining original member in slipknot crahan is the oldest member of slipknot with extensive involvement in slipknot s media production directing slipknot s music videos outside slipknot crahan had two side project bands called to my surprise and dirty little rabbits he also directed the 2016 film officer downe crahan was born in des moines iowa in 1969 he majored in creative writing he performed in bands such as heads on the wall and one cup of fat before forming the pale ones which would later become known as slipknot crahan married his wife chantel in june 1992 in des moines iowa they had four children together alexandria gage gabrielle and simon crahan is also a filmographer and photographer having published a slipknot photo album the apocalyptic nightmare in 2012 in 2012 he also made his debut acting appearance in the film the devil s carnival he is also a collector of baseball cards he is a smoker and has been willing to break the law to smoke inside venues along with other members of slipknot even when subject to a significant fine", "the villa donated to the city by the croce family in 1951 is surrounded by public park with sea views overhanging the fiera di genova exhibition center it contains more than 3000 works of arts villa croce in its current appearance was remodeled in the neoclassical style in the 19th century for giovanni giacomo croce modifying a preexisting 17th century villa which belonged to the spinola family it was donated in 1951 to the municipality to be transformed into a museum opened in 1985 the museum exhibits a permanent collection of italian and international contemporary art gathered by maria cernuschi ghiringhelli wife of the italian painter and art collector gino ghiringhelli from 2012 it is managed through a cooperation between public and private funds involving the municipality of genoa the palazzo ducale foundation and a group of private supporters from june 2012 to december 2017 the curator of the museum was ilaria bonacossa from january 2018 the curator of the museum is carlo antonelli in the vanguard and always interested in the work of young emerging artists the villa croce museum annually hosts a series of contemporary art exhibitions accompanied by incursions into the world of music cinema theatre and", "credico is an american perennial political candidate comedian radio host activist and the former director of the william moses kunstler fund for racial justice credico was once active on the comedy circuit and at the age of 27 he made an appearance on the tonight show starring johnny carson during the appearance he criticized u s foreign policy and compared ambassador jeane kirkpatrick to eva braun credico was not invited back to the show and some believe this is due to the kirkpatrick impersonation he was featured on the 1988 comedy album strange bedfellows comedy and politics along with jimmy tingle barry crimmins and will durst credico spent four years in tulia texas bringing national attention to a racially charged mass drug arrest the kunstler fund produced an award winning documentary on the subject entitled tulia texas scenes from the drug war written directed and edited by emily kunstler and sarah kunstler the daughters of famed attorney william kunstler credico is the subject of the film sixty spins around the sun directed by comedian laura kightlinger credico produced directed and wrote the radio program 60 mimics and is a frequent guest on live from the state capitol with fred dicker", "she represented venezuela at the miss international 2017 pageant and finished as 2nd runner up diana is a top model since she was 14 years old she has been practicing equestrianism since was little diana has modeled in great walkways two consecutive years in the new york fashion week of mercedes benz croce competed as miss nueva esparta 2016 one of 24 finalists in her country s national beauty pageant where she obtained the miss glamour award at the interactive beauty gala the preliminary of miss venezuela 2016 the final night of the contest was on october 6 2016 in caracas where she placed 1st runner up croce was appointed by osmel sousa the national director of the miss venezuela pageant to represent venezuela at the miss world 2016 pageant in national harbor in washington d c united states on december 18 2016 where she unplaced croce was officially crowned miss world venezuela 2016 by the outgoing titleholder anyela galante miss world venezuela 2015 on november 5 2016 in estudio 1 of venevision croce was appointed by osmel sousa the national director of the miss venezuela pageant to represent venezuela at the miss international 2017 pageant which was held in", "there are 442 franchised and corporately owned restaurants in 32 states in november 2015 the company began a new marketing campaign which included the renaming of the company to cicis by dropping the apostrophe and making the second c lowercase along with the addition of a new logo and redesigned website joe croce and mike cole founded cicis in 1985 in plano texas in 2001 with 363 restaurants at the time the chain expanded its buffet offerings and began remodeling restaurants four years later cicis had more than 500 locations and was the fastest growing pizza chain in the united states in 2003 croce retired from the business and passed ownership of the company to the company s executive team craig moore who was a general manager in dallas became vice president of the company a position he held for five years before he was named president after the sale croce gave 20 of his proceeds to gateway church where he was a member as president of the chain moore oversaw the company s operations and franchise growth eventually announcing his retirement in 2009 after 17 years with the company michael shumsky took over after moore retired in late 2009", "krenn and former partner scott paulsen provided most of the voices for the nickelodeon stop motion animation series action league now jim krenn began on wdve radio in 1988 he worked with scott paulsen until 1999 paulsen and krenn dominated the ratings holding the 1 spot in the advertising coveted 25 to 54 demographic for the last ten years of their 12 year partnership krenn then partnered with randy baumann of erie pa in 2000 and continued dominating the ratings in the 25 to 54 demographic beating every local and national competitor until his surprising dismissal from the wdve morning show in december 2011 in spite of the ratings dominance krenn was quoted in several pittsburgh publications as saying i must be the only radio personality that has ever won a readers poll award got his bonus check for being number one in the ratings and then fired all in the same week read jim krenn s press conference press release following his departure from wdve he began a successful comedy podcast called no restrictions in 2008 he mobilized a large portion of his listening audience to successfully locate his lost dog gizmo he and his wife are well known", "it was released in 2013 on three one three records this album features the five songs previously released on sponge s 2010 ep destroy the boy these five songs are dare to breathe destroy the boy come in from the rain star and before the end however these songs appear in a different order than they did on destroy the boy also on this album sponge does their own rendition on a classic jim croce song time in a bottle this album was first only sold at summerland tour show but the national release was on september 17 and now can be found everywhere sponge announced that they would be touring with everclear live and filter on the 2013 summerland tour the summerland tour was put together by art alexakis of everclear for 90s alternative bands the tour was originally created in 2012 and the reception was so good that it was revived in 2013 this tour is currently the only place that you can buy stop the bleeding sponge announced on their website that they had signed with the end records and will release stop the bleeding nationally on that record label instead of one three one three records", "musicians liam lynch and matt crocco created and performed the series the first episode aired on mtv in 1997 the show was cancelled in 1999 the characters along with new material currently appear on liam lynch s podcast entitled lynchland the origins of the sifl olly show go back to the 1980s as children crocco and lynch would create and perform funny songs and sketches to entertain themselves they remained friends through high school and college even though they saw little of each other while they attended kent state university lynch left kent state and the duo was separated for a few years but they reunited in nashville tennessee in the 1990s and recorded the comedy album camp sunny side up on a 4 track during this period they were also constantly recording funny conversations interviews sketches and songs soon after lynch moved to liverpool england to attend the liverpool institute of performing arts but the friends continued to make funny recordings and send them to each other in 1995 while lynch was still in liverpool he found some broken 4 track tapes and repaired them these tapes contained conversations and material intended for his and crocco s second comedy", "he won ten grammy awards as a member of the manhattan transfer hauser was born in troy new york when he was seven he moved with his family to the jersey shore he lived in ocean township new jersey and asbury park and attended st rose high school in belmar where an award in his name has been given every year since 1989 to students who excel in theater arts when he was fifteen he began to sing professionally he founded a doo wop quartet named the criterions for the cecilia label the criterions recorded two singles i remain truly yours and don t say goodbye the group appeared on the big beat show hosted by alan freed in 1959 hauser entered villanova university with tommy west and jim ruf both from the criterions he formed the folk group the troubadours three he was a member of the villanova singers and the villanova spires coventry lads with classmate jim croce he spent four years on the staff of college radio station wwvu in 1963 he graduated from villanova with a degree in economics in 1964 hauser served in the united states air force and the new jersey air national guard", "crover is best known as the drummer for the melvins he s also been the drummer for men of porn shrinebuilder crystal fairy and for a brief time nirvana he is also guitarist and vocalist for altamont he has also toured with fant mas filling in for dave lombardo off and redd kross melvins recruited crover on drums in 1984 from an iron maiden cover band following original drummer mike dillard s departure in late 1985 crover played bass in fecal matter a band he formed with kurt cobain and greg hokanson after hokanson left the band cobain and crover recorded illiteracy will prevail on a 4 track in december 1985 at cobain s aunt s home in seattle washington crover played bass and drums on the demo spank thru from this demo appears on the nirvana album fecal matter disbanded in 1986 crover drummed on nirvana s ten song demo recorded january 23 1988 at reciprocal recording studios in seattle nine of these songs have been officially released nirvana and crover played a 14 song show in tacoma washington the night of the demo session three cuts from the show downer floyd the barber and raunchola moby dick appear", "he was the youngest person at age 18 to play on the main stage at the woodstock music art fair in 1969 gross was born in brooklyn new york city new york his mother s love for music encouraged his pursuit of a performing career by age 14 he was playing regularly in local clubs in the new york area and spending his summers playing at catskill mountains resort hotels at age 18 while a student at brooklyn college gross became a founding member of sha na na playing guitar and wearing the greaser clothes he wore while a student at midwood high school gross broke from sha na na to become a solo singer songwriter in 1970 he signed a recording contract with abc dunhill records in 1971 while there he did some session work for producers tommy west and terry cashman he played electric lead guitar on the jim croce album i got a name his own debut album had little commercial success he continued to play at clubs and colleges until in 1973 he was signed with a m records his first self titled a m album sold well it made several regional hits including simone come", "he was formerly the ninth bishop of the diocese of newark based in newark new jersey croneberger was serving as rector at the church of the atonement in tenafly new jersey in june 1998 when he was elected as bishop of newark he was consecrated as bishop coadjutor on november 21 of the same year croneberger succeeded bishop john shelby spong on february 26 2000 in an installation ceremony at trinity st philip s cathedral newark as diocesan bishop he continued spong s agenda of radical inclusion croneberger directed the creation of an established liturgy for the blessing of same sex relationships oversaw the massive diocesan response to the september 11 attacks and brought christ hospital in jersey city back under diocesan control on accepting homosexual practice by anglicans croneberger said on april 6 2005 he announced his intention to retire in january 2007 citing the health of his wife marilyn the diocese held a special convention to elect his successor on september 23 2006 mark beckwith the rector of all saints episcopal church in worcester massachusetts was elected on the third ballot croneberger has since become an assistant bishop in the diocese of bethlehem", "he is a four time tony award nominee winning once for his performance in tom stoppard s the coast of utopia in 2007 he has starred in numerous high profile films including without limits almost famous big fish watchmen public enemies spotlight jackie the stanford prison experiment justice league and in both lead and supporting roles he also starred in the netflix original series gypsy opposite naomi watts he has been nominated for an independent spirit award for best male lead and a screen actors guild award from 1998 to 2005 crudup was the narrator for priceless a u s television ad campaign for mastercard crudup was born in manhasset new york his parents georgann n e gaither and thomas henry crudup iii divorced during his childhood and later remarried before divorcing a second time on his father s side he is a descendant of congressman josiah crudup of north carolina his maternal grandfather was william cotter billy gaither jr a well known florida trial lawyer and his maternal grandmother later remarried to episcopal bishop james duncan crudup has two brothers tommy an executive producer and brooks also a producer he left new york with his family when he was", "they played in binghamton new york usa at the broome county veterans memorial arena the team logo was designed by johnny hart artist of the comic strip b c and a native of nearby endicott n y the team was known for using the jim croce song bad bad leroy brown as their entrance theme the broome county dusters originated as a north american hockey league team nahl in its inaugural season in 1973 74 this coincided with the first season the fledgling nahl was in existence the nahl was born out of the eastern hockey league ehl which was formerly the eastern amateur hockey league and ran for 40 years from 1933 to 1973 7 teams comprised the new nahl with four holdovers from the from the ehl including cape cod cubs johnstown jets syracuse blazers and the long island cruisers changed from the ducks new teams to join in 1973 74 season included the maine nordiques and the mohawk valley comets in its first season the broome county dusters hired larry kish who was the head coach of the rhode island eagles of the ehl the season previously kish eventually found his way to coaching the hartford whalers" ]

[ "In 2005, we isolated a new species of virus from mosquitoes in the Philippines. The virion was elliptical in shape and had a short single projection. The virus was named Tanay virus (TANAV) after the locality in which it was found. TANAV genomic RNA was a 9562 nt+poly-A positive strand, and polycistronic. The longest ORF contained putative RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP); however, conserved short motifs in the RdRP were permuted. TANAV was phylogenetically close to Negevirus, a recently proposed taxon of viruses isolated from haemophagic insects, and to some plant viruses, such as citrus leprosis virus C, hibiscus green spot virus and blueberry necrotic ring blotch virus. In this paper, we describe TANAV and the permuted structure of its RdRP, and discuss its phylogeny together with those of plant viruses and negevirus." ]

[ "We describe the isolation of a paramyxovirus from three species of flying fox in Queensland. The species are Pteropus alecto (black flying fox), Pteropus scapulatus (little red flying fox) and Pteropus poliocephalus (grey headed flying fox). The virus appears to be identical to the equine morbillivirus which was associated with acute equine respiratory syndrome and two human deaths in two Queensland outbreaks. The isolation of this new virus suggests that flying foxes may be the natural host for the virus that causes acute equine respiratory syndrome. Comm Dis Intell 1996;20:476.", "Objective: To Study the transovarial transmission of dengue virus in Aedes albopictus of Mawei strain. Methods: Adult A. albopictus of Mawei strain was orally infected with dengue-2 virus. Adults of parents and F1～F3 generations of A. albopictus mosquitoes were collected. The total RNA was isolated from the samples collected and the envelope gene of DEN-2 was detected with RT-PCR, and identified with HinfI digestion. Results: Virus nucleic acid were detected from F1～F3 generation of the mosquitoes. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that infected A. albopictus is capable of transmitting dengue virus vertically.", "Abstract In this review, Steve Higgs, Ann Powers and Ken Olson describe how alphavirus expression systems, based on infectious cDNA clones of Sindbis virus, constitute a novel RNA virus delivery system suitable for the efficient expression of heterologous gene products or RNA sequences in mosquito cells or adult mosquitoes. The technique permits ready assessment of molecular genetic-based methods of intracellular interference to infection and provides a powerful new tool for molecular biological studies in arthropods.", "An RNA virus was isolated from Trichoplusia ni larvae infected with inoculum of the baculovirus of Autographa californica. Physicochemical characterization has revealed a 35-nm virus with a density in", "We report the complete genome sequence of a novel virus, tentatively named \"actinidia seed-borne latent virus\" (ASbLV), isolated from Actinidia chinensis in Auckland, New Zealand. The complete genome of ASbLV is 8,192 nucleotides long, excluding the 3' poly(A) tail, contains four open reading frames, and is most closely related to Caucasus prunus virus (56% nucleotide sequence identity), a member of the genus Prunevirus. Based on the demarcation criteria of the family Betaflexiviridae, ASbLV is a new member of the genus Prunevirus.", "The object of this article is to describe techniques used for the study and maintenance of the virus of yellow fever in the laboratory at Villavicencio, Colombia. The characteristics of ye- Howfever virus are briefly described. The susceptibility of white mice of the \"Swiss\" strain is discussed, and the technique of their routine use for tests of the presence of virus described. The methods of virus titration, specificity tests and protection tests are explained in some detail. The susceptibility of Colombian monkeys to yellow fever virus and their use as laboratory animals in virus studies are described. The isolation of yellow fever virus from suspected cases of human infection is discussed and the technique of preserving virus by desiccation described. Methods of handling mosquitoes in the laboratory are described, with special reference to techniques adapted to transmission studies with Haemagogus mosquitoes.", "Investigations on Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus in the West Indies and British Guiana are reported. In Trinidad the virus was isolated from Culex mosquitoes in 1959 and 1960. In British Guiana the virus was isolated from horses in 1959 during an outbreak of Equine Encephalitis in Rupununi Savannah. Immunity to Eastern Equine virus has been demonstrated in man, birds and domestic chickens from Trinidad. (Summary)", "We report West Nile virus (WNV) activity from a new area on Hispaniola, in the vicinity of Monte Cristi National Park in northwest Dominican Republic. Specific anti-WNV antibodies were detected in 12 of 58 (21%) resident birds sampled in March 2003, representing six species in the orders Cuculiformes (cuckoos), Strigiformes (owls), and Passeriformes (song birds). This seroprevalence is the highest reported from any site in the Caribbean Basin. Virus was not detected in any mosquitoes or tissues from bird specimens. Testing of 20 sick or dead birds was negative for WNV. Undetermined flavivirus antibodies were detected in four resident birds at Monte Cristi, as well as in five resident birds at Sierra de Baoruco National Park in southwest Dominican Republic. These data suggest that an unidentified flavivirus, as well as WNV, is active in the Dominican Republic.", "To the Editor: Zika virus, a mosquito-borne flavivirus, causes, a usually self-limiting febrile and exanthematic arthralgia syndrome that resembles dengue and chikungunya (1). This arboviral disease has emerged in tropical areas of Latin America, particularly in Brazil and Colombia (2), as a public health threat in 2015 and has spread into areas to which dengue virus (DENV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) are endemic (1–4).", "Zika virus (ZIKV) is the most recent mosquito-transmitted virus to cause a global health crisis following its entrance into a naïve population in the Western Hemisphere. Once the ZIKV outbreak began investigators rapidly established small and large animal models of pathogenesis, developed a number candidate vaccines using different platforms, and defined mechanisms of protection. In this review, we characterize the adaptive immune response elicited by ZIKV infections and vaccines, the status of ongoing clinical trials in humans, and discuss future challenges within the field.", "West Nile Virus(WNV) is a member ofthe Flaviviridae family and a positive single-strand RNA virus;the major route of its transmission is by mosquito bites.With the increasing prevalence of infection in recent years,concerns have increased with regard to transmission routes besides mosquito bites,such as blood transfusions;the laboratory diagnosis of WNV has made progress,and related WNV vaccines are being developed.This article reviews the current research on WNV regarding its molecular biology,epidemiology,infection and immunity,laboratory diagnosis,and vaccines.", "There are three human pathogenic bird-viruses transmitted by Culex mosquitoes in Europe: the alphavirus Sindbis and the flaviviruses West Nile virus and Usutu virus. Cases of Sindbis fever occur in the north while the flaviviruses are reported from southern Europe. In this study, 7933 Culex pipiens/torrentium mosquitoes from southern Sweden were screened by RTqPCR for these viruses. None of the mosquitoes were positive for viral RNA. The importance of mosquito species composition is discussed as a potential explanation to the lack of detection of mosquito-borne viruses in southern Sweden. However, continued surveillance of mosquitoes for Flaviviruses would be valuable as an early warning for public health awareness.", "It is now generally agreed that in the Philippine Islands malaria is transmitted by stream-breeding mosquitoes. The work of Walker and Barber (1), Barber et al. (2), Tiedeman (3), Mieldazis (4), Manalang (5), and Holt and Russell (6) leaves little doubt that in the stream-breeding funestus-minimus subgroup of King (7) are found the chief local carriers of the disease. Anopheles maculatus is also occasionally a vector. It, too, is a stream-breeding mosquito. The anophelines from ricefields, swamps, stagnant water, and salt-water fishponds do not carry malaria in the Philippines. The classical picture of a malarial “marsh-dragon” rising from low-lying, miasmal swamps is completely wrong as far as this country is concerned. Here malaria is found only in the attractive foothill country fed by fresh running water from mountain streams; the flat land, high or low, is never malarious; neither are localities with an altitude of more than 2000 feet.", "Genetic characterization of a human cerebrospinal fluid West Nile virus isolate from Beaumont, Texas, revealed several nucleotide changes and amino acid substitutions that differentiated it from all other North American strains isolated to date, suggesting that isolates from the Texas Gulf Coast may form a unique genetic group among North American strains.", "Viruses of extreme thermophiles are of great interest because they serve as model systems for understanding the biochemistry and molecular biology required for life at high temperatures. In this work, we report the discovery, isolation, and preliminary characterization of viruses and virus-like particles from extreme thermal acidic environments (70-92 degrees C, pH 1.0-4.5) found in Yellowstone National Park. Six unique particle morphologies were found in Sulfolobus enrichment cultures. Three of the particle morphologies are similar to viruses previously isolated from Sulfolobus species from Iceland and/or Japan. Sequence analysis of their viral genomes suggests that they are related to the Icelandic and Japanese isolates. In addition, three virus particle morphologies that had not been previously observed from thermal environments were found. These viruses appear to be completely novel in nature.", "A tospovirus causing necrotic streaks on leaves was isolated from Alstroemeria sp. in Colombia. Infected samples reacted positively with tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) antiserum during preliminary serological tests. Further analysis revealed a close serological relationship to tomato chlorotic spot virus (TCSV) and groundnut ringspot virus (GRSV). A major part of the S-RNA segment, encompassing the nucleocapsid (N) protein gene, the 5′ untranslated region and a part of the intergenic region 3′ of the N gene, was cloned and sequenced. The deduced N protein sequence showed highest amino acid identity (82%) to that of TCSV, indicating that the virus represents a new tospovirus species, for which the name Alstroemeria necrotic streak virus (ANSV) is coined. Phylogenetic analysis based on the N protein sequence revealed that this Alstroemeria-infecting tospovirus clustered with tospoviruses from the American continent. Frankliniella occidentalis was identified as potential vector species for ANSV.", "Dengue virus, which is transmitted by an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito, is one of the most rampant arboviruses that have been infecting millions of people around the world. Previous studies showed that the virus propagated in different cell lines showed diverse results in different experiments conducted. Hence, the aim of this study is to compare the growth of all four dengue virus serotypes in both C6/36 and Vero cell lines. Three main parameters that were observed and analysed were the differences in cytopathic effect, virus titers and RNA concentration obtained from the experiment. The results obtained showed that the growth of DENV was significantly higher in C6/36 cell line compared to Vero cell line for all four DENV serotypes. Hence, this study allowed a better understanding on the susceptibility differences that occurred where high rate of viral propagated indicated a high affinity of the cell line towards dengue virus.", "Background ::: Aedes mediovittatus mosquitoes are found throughout the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean and often share the same larval habitats with Ae. Aegypti, the primary vector for dengue virus (DENV). Implementation of vector control measures to control dengue that specifically target Ae. Aegypti may not control DENV transmission in Puerto Rico (PR). Even if Ae. Aegypti is eliminated or DENV refractory mosquitoes are released, DENV transmission may not cease when other competent mosquito species like Ae. Mediovittatus are present. To compare vector competence of Ae. Mediovittatus and Ae. Aegypti mosquitoes, we studied relative infection and transmission rates for all four DENV serotypes.", "Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne alphavirus which causes fever, rash, and arthralgia. In the past, life-threatening complications were very rarely reported. However, during the recent worldwide outbreaks, there have been several reports of unusually severe complications and deaths. Malaysia is experiencing a nationwide outbreak of CHIKV, with over 10 000 patients affected since April 2008. We report the first case of culture-confirmed CHIKV-associated death in Malaysia, in a patient with fever, rash, acute exacerbation of pre-existing heart failure, rhabdomyolysis, and multiple organ failure. CHIKV infections may cause atypical, severe or fatal presentations.", "The masked palm civet (Paguma larvata) has been suspected to be the host of a SARS-like CoV virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome in humans. In China, the palm civet lives wild and is farmed, but even though the species is a potential carrier of the virus, its geographic distribution and genetic diversity have never been studied. We report the isolation and characterization of six polymorphic microsatellite markers for P. larvata. To characterize each locus, two farmed masked palm civet populations from Shanxi and Guangxi provinces in China were genotyped. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 3 to 15, and the observed heterozygosity for these populations was 47.1 and 68.7%, respectively.", "Dengue is the most wide-spread arthropod-borne viral disease of humans in the tropic and sub-tropic regions.In this study,genomic sequences of more than 3 000 dengue viruses available in the GenBank were aligned and analyzed by serotype.According to phylogenetic trees generated by the minimum evolution method of MEGA5.0,dengue viruses were divided into 4-6 genotypes within the four serotypes,respectively.Meanwhile,it was indicated that the distribution of most genotypes was associated with geographic origins of dengue viruses.Probable origins for most of the 39 strains from China with genomic sequences were deduced from relevant ancestral strains in the context of ME trees.These results revealed that the genotype distribution of dengue viruses was geographic origin-specific at genomic level,and that diverse introduction sources were attributed to dengue outbreaks in China.", "Junín virus, the etiological agent of Argentine hemorrhagic fever, causes significant morbidity and mortality. The virus is spread through the aerosolization of host rodent excreta and endemic to the humid pampas of Argentina. Recently, significant progress has been achieved with the development of new technologies (e.g. reverse genetics) that have expanded knowledge about the pathogenesis and viral replication of Junín virus. We will review the pathogenesis of Junín virus in various animal models and the role of innate and adaptive immunity during infection. We will highlight current research regarding the role of molecular biology of Junín virus in elucidating virus attenuation. We will also summarize current knowledge on Junín virus pathogenesis focusing on the recent development of vaccines and potential therapeutics.", "Use of insecticides has led to the fixation of alleles for single amino acid changes in the voltage gated sodium channel (VGSC) associated with knockdown resistance (kdr) in insects of agricultural or medical importance. In this short note, we study allele frequencies of 5 kdr loci, S989, I1011, L1014, V1016 and F1534 in a population of the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera Culicidae), collected in the only identified location with persistent infestations in Costa Rica. We found no mutant alleles associated with kdr resistance, and a synonymous point mutation was observed at loci V1016. Our results likely reflect the recent invasion of the Asian tiger mosquito in Costa Rica, and also provide a baseline for future studies looking at the global distribution of kdr mutations in this important vector of dengue and chikungunya viruses.", "Two isolates of a new classical swine fever virus (CSFV) subgenotype, 2.1c (HNLY-2011 and HNSD-2012), were recently isolated from pigs in Hunan Province, China. The most significant difference in the amino acid sequences of the polyproteins from subgenotypes 2.1a and 2.1b is an SPA → TPV amino acid substitution at positions 777 and 779 in the E2 protein.", "Toscana virus (TOSV) is an arthropod-borne virus transmitted by sand flies of Phlebotomus species that has been recognized as an agent associated with acute meningitis and encephalitis around the Mediterranean. We report the first imported case of meningoencephalitis due to TOSV in a traveler returning from Central Italy to France.", "Background ::: Human T-lymphotropic virus type 4 (HTLV-4) is a new deltaretrovirus recently identified in a primate hunter in Cameroon. Limited sequence analysis previously showed that HTLV-4 may be distinct from HTLV-1, HTLV-2, and HTLV-3, and their simian counterparts, STLV-1, STLV-2, and STLV-3, respectively. Analysis of full-length genomes can provide basic information on the evolutionary history and replication and pathogenic potential of new viruses.", "ABSTRACT Dengue virus (DENV) is an arbovirus belonging to the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae. In Brazil, the reemergence and spread of DENV type 4 (DENV-4) across the country were responsible for a significant outbreak in Guaruja, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Here, we report the first genomic sequences of DENV strains circulating in Guaruja during the 2013 outbreak.", "In 2007, lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum) plants with necrotic ringspots on the leaves were found in Kochi Prefecture, Japan. Tospovirus-like spherical enveloped particles with ca. 160 nm in diameter were observed with electron microscopy. The complete nucleotide sequence of the S RNA segment of the virus was determined, and phylogenetic analysis using deduced amino acid sequences of the nucleocapsid protein and the nonstructural S protein indicated that the virus is phylogenetically distinct from any known tospovirus species. The results suggest that the virus is a new member of the genus Tospovirus, in the family Bunyaviridae. The virus is the fifth distinct tospovirus occurring naturally in lisianthus in Japan. The necrotic symptoms were reproduced on lisianthus seedlings after mechanical inoculation. The host range of the virus isolate on several test plants was also examined.", "Garlic plants are naturally infected by a mixture of viruses, including allexiviruses. Symptomatic garlic plants with mosaic and distorted leaves from garlic producing regions in Brazil were analyzed for the presence of Garlic virus A (GarV-A), Garlic virus B (GarV-B), Garlic virus C (GarV-C), Garlic virus D (GarV-D) and Garlic mite-borne filamentous virus (GarMbFV), five allexivirus species previously reported in the country. Fifty-nine virus isolates from five distinct allexivirus species were identified and the complete coat protein region of each genome was sequenced. Mixed infections were very frequent and corresponded to 43% of the positive samples. The nucleotide identity of the coat protein ranged between 75% and 98% for GarV-A isolates, 83% and 90% for GarV-B, 69% and 98% for GarV-C, 87% and 97% for GarV-D, and 72% and 91% for GarMbFV.", "A spotlight has been focused on the mosquito-borne Zika virus (ZIKV) because of its epidemic outbreak in Brazil and Latin America, as well as the severe neurological manifestations of microcephaly and Guillain–Barre syndrome associated with infection. In this review, we discuss the recent literature on ZIKV-host interactions, including new mechanistic insight concerning the basis of ZIKV-induced neuropathogenesis.", "Nuclei isolated from cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) infected turnip leaves contain subgenomic CaMV DNA species in addition to the genome length CaMV DNA. These subgenomic CaMV DNA species are present as covalently closed circles (form I), relaxed circles (form II) and linear (form III) molecules. The subgenomic form I DNA species range in size from about 10% of genome length to nearly genome length. These subgenomic DNA species appear in tissue infected with cloned CaMV DNA, indicating that they arise rapidly and have not accumulated in the virus population from serial propagation of CaMV. No specific region of the CaMV genome appears to be preferentially deleted to form the subgenomic CaMV DNA species. At least three distinct subgenomic species appear to accumulate preferentially in nuclei isolated from infected tissue. Two of these abundant subgenomic CaMV DNA species are form I and the other one is form III. Some of the subgenomic CaMV DNA species appear to be minichromosomes.", "Arboviruses continue to be major human pathogens in the Australian region. This report provides a summary of the activities of these viruses over the past eight years, and comments on new findings relevant to their respective ecologies. Of particular interest and concern is the propensity of these viruses to spread. The examples discussed include the initiation of dengue epidemics in north Queensland by virus imported in viraemic travellers; the spread of Japanese encephalitis virus to the Australasian region and its probable enzootic establishment in the south-west of Papua New Guinea; the potential spread of Ross River virus to other countries, as demonstrated by the 1979-80 outbreak in the South Pacific, and the recent occurrence in military personnel from the United States of America after an exercise; and the recent spread of Barmah Forest virus into Western Australia." ]

[ "Mbombela" ]

[ "capital", "provinces", "capitalization", "capitation", "province", "What's Up?", "capitalism", "What a Friend", "What's Happening!!", "What's in It for Me", "things are what they are", "What If Nothing", "capitalized", "What a Life!", "What A Night", "What If It's You", "What Are Words", "What Not to Wear", "What Car?", "what is visible", "What Part of No", "Ghazni province", "Manisa Province", "What So Not", "Province of Pennsylvania", "What If We", "Qinghai province", "What a Waste", "Granma Province", "Catamarca Province", "the Litoral province", "What Is a Youth" ]

[ "As Gambia's new president Adama Barrow settles into his new role, he is also taking steps to resuscitate international ties cut off by his predecessor Yahya Jammeh, including membership to the International Criminal Court and the Commonwealth of Nations.\nThe tiny West African nation has now formally informed the United Nations that it is reversing its request to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, made by Jammeh last October.\nThe new government issued a statement announcing its reversal on state television, Reuters reported. \"As a new government that has committed itself to the promotion of human rights ... we reaffirm The Gambia's commitment to the principles enshrined in the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court,\" the government said.\nJammeh's withdrawal from the ICC had not yet taken hold — according to the terms of the Rome Statute, a state's withdrawal goes into effect a year after initial notification.\nAt the time, Gambia had accused the court of being biased against Africans, with one government minister going so far as to describe it as the \"International Caucasian Court,\" as The Two-Way reported. Gambia, like South Africa and Burundi, accused the court of ignoring crimes of non-African nations and took steps to withdraw late last year. Here's more from our previous reporting:\n\"Every person tried by the ICC since the treaty creating it was adopted in 1998 has been African. \"Other war crimes trials have been carried out by ad hoc tribunals created after a specific conflict, such as those created for Yugoslavia and Cambodia, or for the Nuremberg trials conducted after World War II.\"\nClément Capo-Chichi, Africa regional coordinator with the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, told The Associated Press that the move is a \"crucial victory for victims of grave crimes and the rule of law.\"\nBarrow's road to the presidency was extremely tumultuous. In December's presidential election he defeated Jammeh, the leader of Gambia for 22 years. But then Jammeh refused to step down, eventually resulting in West African military troops crossing Gambia's borders. After Barrow was sworn into office in neighboring Senegal, Jammeh eventually succumbed to massive international pressure and left the country.\nHe fled to Equatorial Guinea – incidentally, a country that is not a member state of the ICC.\nNow, the new Gambian government is also receiving high-profile diplomatic visits and pledges of international support.\nU.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson paid Barrow a visit Tuesday, which the BBC describes as \"the first to the Gambia by a British foreign secretary.\" On the agenda: Gambia's request to rejoin the Commonwealth of Nations, an international organization comprised of 52 nations that were once British colonies.\nThe former leader pulled Gambia out of the Commonwealth in 2013, according to a statement from the organization. Now, a Commonwealth spokesperson said it welcomed the move: \"We looked forward to the country's eventual return because it was part of our very close knit family and our doors have always remained open.\"\nThe European Union has also declared a \"new chapter of relations with The Gambia.\" It froze assistance nearly three years ago, according to the BBC. But last week, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica traveled to Gambia and announced a $79 million package of immediate support.\nJammeh had a dismal human rights record. Barrow appears to be taking steps to change that pattern. As Reuters reported, \"police opened their first investigation on Monday into unresolved deaths and disappearances under Jammeh.\"\nIn a recent press conference, Barrow also stated that he intends to convene a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address human rights violations of his predecessor.\nHe was also candid about the scope of obstacles he faces: \"There was a government here for 22 years. 22 years is a long time. And we are able to change the government after 22 years, so obviously there will be a lot of challenges. To look at all the system, and make a complete overhaul. I think that is a big challenge to my new government.\"" ]

[ "Days after apologising to Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday tendered apologies to BJP leader Nitin Gadkari and Congress leader Kapil Sibal's son Amit, in an apparent effort to escape the slew of defamation cases from his political opponents.\nBoth Gadkari and Sibal accepted the apology, and said they will submit applications in the court to request withdrawal of their respective cases.\nEven after the withdrawal of these cases, Kejriwal and other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders currently face 20-odd civil and criminal defamation cases in various courts in Delhi, Varanasi, Amethi, Punjab, Guwahati, Mumbai and Goa, most of which require personal appearances.\n\"In tendering an apology to Majithia, and with indications that he would be doing the same in all defamation cases, is Arvind Kejriwal saying that he is no longer a political challenger and is part of status quo? Or is he making a decision not to get trapped into the politics of bullying-by-defamation that will drain his time, money and attention?\nWhile every political observer would have to decide this for themselves, Kejriwal seems to have made up his mind: that he will live to fight another day and to use his political energy to battle vested interests rather than caught into their trap of a draining politics of bullying-by-defamation. The people most upset by this move would be those who thought they could ring-fence him by occupying him in courtroom battles instead of political ones,\" senior AAP member Atishi Marlena wrote.\nHere are some of the defamation cases against the chief minister and his party that are yet to be resolved:\nFinance Minister Arun Jaitley\nJaitley filed a Rs 10-crore defamation suit against Kejriwal and AAP leaders Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai for accusing him of the irregularities, and has denied all the allegations. A civil defamation case was filed in the Delhi High Court, and a criminal defamation case was filed at a lower court in Delhi. A separate case of defamation was also filed against Kejriwal after remarks that Ram Jethmalani — Kejriwal's former lawyer — made during the trial.\nIn February, the Delhi High Court directed Kejriwal to wind up the cross examination of Arun Jaitley by 12th of the month.\nSubhash Chandra, Rajya Sabha MP\nThe Delhi High Court in December 2017 exempted Kejriwal from personal appearance before a trial court in a criminal defamation case filed by Rajya Sabha MP and Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra.\nChandra had sought Kejriwal's prosecution for allegedly defaming him by levelling false allegations in the wake of demonetisation. Chandra had said in his petition that Kejriwal made \"false, fabricated and defamatory allegations\" against him while addressing a press conference on 11 November 2016. Chandra sought Kejriwal's prosecution under Section 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code.\nRamesh Bidhuri, BJP MP\nBidhuri had filed a criminal defamation case, alleging that Kejriwal had falsely claimed in a television interview that Bidhuri was not being arrested even though there were serious cases pending against him. In 2016, a court granted exemption from personal appearance to the Delhi chief minister.\nBidhuri told the court that Kejriwal's defamatory statements had maligned his image.\nAnkit Bhardwaj, BJP youth leader\nAnkit Bhardwaj, a state executive member of Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM), had filed a criminal defamation petition against Kejriwal and AAP spokesperson Sanjay Singh, claiming he was wrongly projected as the person who had assaulted former minister Kapil Mishra.\nThe plea said that due to the publication of \"false and defamatory\" remarks and statements of Kejriwal and Singh, the reputation of Bhardwaj has been tarnished in the minds of party leaders, relatives, friends and public at large, whosoever has seen the news.\nThe remarks were \"deliberately made with a malafide intention\" to defame the plaintiff and it was also \"re-tweeted by defendant No 2 (Kejriwal) from his Twitter account,\" it said.\nPawan Khera, former political secretary to Sheila Dikshit\nIn the first defamation case against Kejriwal, then political secretary to former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, filed a defamation suit for alleged “derogatory remarks” in connection with the increase in power tariffs, during protests in 2012.\nKhera had earlier sent a legal notice to Kejriwal, asking him to withdraw the remarks he had made against Dikshit (Kejriwal referred to her as a dalal). He alleged that the remarks were intended to \"maliciously defame the chief minister and thus all those working in close proximity with her\". After Kejriwal refused to withdraw the statements, Khera went ahead with the legal proceedings.\nWith inputs from agencies", "Rights group claims EU is financing Libyan system that routinely acts in collusion with militia groups and people traffickers\nEuropean leaders stand accused by Amnesty International of being knowingly complicit in the torture and exploitation of thousands of migrants and refugees by the EU-financed Libyan coastguard and officials running the country’s detention camps.\nIn an attempt to stem the flow of people across the Mediterranean to Europe, the EU is financing a system that routinely acts in collusion with militia groups and people traffickers to “make money from human suffering”, a report from the human rights group claims.\nEU's policy of helping Libya intercept migrants is 'inhuman', says UN Read more\nFollowing the provision of ships, training and funding from the EU and Italy to the Libyan coastguard, the number of arrivals to Italy fell by 67% between July and November compared with the same period in 2016. Deaths at sea have been reduced commensurately.\nYet Amnesty claims the coastguard and those to whom they hand over refugees, migrants and asylum seekers, are often acting in cahoots with criminal gangs and militia.\nAgreements between the coastguard and smugglers are signalled by markings on boats that allow specific vessels to pass through Libyan waters without interception, it is claimed. The coastguard has also been known to escort boats out to international waters.\nThose are who are intercepted on their way to Europe are sent to camps run by the Libyan general directorate for combating illegal migration (DCIM), where torture for the purposes of extracting money is almost routine, Amnesty reports.\nOne man from Gambia, who was detained for three months, told Amnesty how he was starved and beaten in a detention centre. “They beat me with a rubber hose because they want money to release me,” he said. “They call the family while beating [you] so the family send money.”\nAfter interviews with refugees, asylum seekers and migrants and meetings with Libyan officials and others with knowledge of the abuses, Amnesty claims it now has sufficient evidence to take leaders of EU states to international courts over alleged abuses of human right obligations.\n“You will see us in court,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty’s Europe director. “Hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants trapped in Libya are at the mercy of the Libyan authorities, militias, armed groups and smugglers often working seamlessly together for financial gain. Tens of thousands are kept indefinitely in overcrowded detention centres where they are subjected to systematic abuse.\n“European governments have not just been fully aware of these abuses; by actively supporting the Libyan authorities in stopping sea crossings and containing people in Libya, they are complicit in these crimes.”\nLibyan path to Europe turns into dead end for desperate migrants Read more\nUp to 20,000 people are currently held in what the Amnesty report, Libya’s Dark Web of Collusion, says are overcrowded, unsanitary centres, often under the control of militia and criminals.\n“For some time there has been concern that the price for stemming migration has been the human rights of those seeking to come to the EU,” the report says.\nLast month the French president, Emmanuel Macron, described the abuse of migrants as “a crime against humanity” and said the EU and the African Union would “launch concrete military and policing action on the ground to dismantle those networks”.\nIn March, a review by the UK Independent Commission for Aid Impact said the UK role in the capacity-building programme with the Libyan coastguard was “deliver[ing] migrants back to a system that leads to indiscriminate and indefinite detention and denies refugees their right to asylum”.\nThe UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, has described the suffering of migrants in Libyan camps as an “outrage to the conscience of humanity”.\nIt is claimed by Amnesty that the EU member states “cannot plausibly claim to be unaware of the grave violations being committed by some of the detention officials and coastguard agents with whom they are so assiduously cooperating”.\nBrussels stands accused of failing to install the necessary rights protection mechanisms and guarantees from its Libyan counterparts.\nThe reports says: “The lack of any judicial oversight of the detention process and the near total impunity with which officials operate has facilitated the institutionalisation of torture and other ill-treatment in detention centres.”\nLast month Mohamed Alkoni, the Libyan charge d’affaires, said any proven allegationof slavery was “an act of an individual, and not a systematic practice”.", "International relations minister Lindiwe Sisulu has hinted that South Africa might yet flip-flop on a decision by the governing party that the country should withdraw from the International Criminal Court.\nSpeaking at a briefing at the Department of International Relations on Wednesday, Sisulu said the decision to leave the ICC was taken \"under the previous administration\", led by former president Jacob Zuma. She said the matter \"is still continuously serving before Cabinet. A final decision has not yet been taken\".\nREAD: Leaving the ICC would have had 'catastrophic international consequences' - Zak Yacoob\nOf late there have been \"other views\" that South Africa could do more to change the skewed bias against Africa in the ICC if it remained a party to the Rome Statute than if it withdrew.\n\"Perhaps we might be married to staying in there if only to make sure that our voices are heard in the ICC,\" she said.\n\"It is at that point that we are right now, so we are reopening the debate, we are still discussing, and when the debate is closed, it will be taken to Parliament. Either then by that, we will see if we are going forward or going back.\"\nWithout referring to the ANC and the administration of former president Jacob Zuma by name, she said \"at the point when the decision [to withdraw from the ICC] was taken, it was a unanimous decision on that matter\".\n'We might change our decision'\nHowever, now there were other voices \"that say now that the anger has gone down, why don't we revisit the situation, and I think we are open to revisiting the situation.\n\"We might come up with the same decision, or we might change our decision. I'm not in a position to determine how it will come out.\n\"The decision to withdraw was also confirmed by an ANC resolution during its national conference in Nasrec in December, and it is unclear how this will be dealt with now.\nSisulu, however, admitted that Justice Minister Michael Masutha \"is determined that this matter (i.e. withdrawal) should go on\".\nThe issue has, for the past few months been subject to a parliamentary process which also involved public consultations.\nMasutha appeared before the Portfolio Committee of Justice and Correctional Services in Parliament last month, where he made a presentation on the International Crimes Bill, tabled in December and making provision for South Africa to repeal the Implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Act, 2002, which would enable South Africa to withdraw from the ICC.\n'A culture of human rights'\nThe South African government previously attempted to withdraw from the ICC by informing the United Nations of its intention to do so but was forced to abandon the process after a court ruled that such a decision had to go through Parliament.\nSouth Africa's fallout with the ICC started after a visit by Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir to the country in 2015 to attend the African Union summit.\nAl-Bashir is considered an international fugitive of justice and signatories to the Rome Statute, which includes South Africa, are obliged to arrest him in their countries, but this would have been politically embarrassing for South Africa.\nREAD: South Africa should have arrested Al-Bashir - ICC\nAfrican Union member states in January last year resolved to withdraw from the ICC as a bloc, but even Kenya, who led this campaign after its president Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, were charged by the court, subsequently turned lukewarm on this.\nSisulu said when South Africa joined the ICC (in 2002), it \"was to make sure that we can change the world, that we create a culture of human rights and accountability on an equal basis\".\nShe said the ICC ended up going after the \"small fry\" in Africa and ignoring the \"big fry\", whom she declined to name.", "Citing her alleged role in torture, Amnesty International on Monday called on President Donald Trump to withdraw his nomination of Gina Haspel to head the CIA, and said that rather that sit before Senate for a confirmation hearing, she should face a Justice Department investigation.\nThe rights group warned that having her at the helm of the spy agency could pave the way for the president's \"rhetoric on torture\" to become reality.\n\"If there is sufficient admissible evidence that she is criminally responsible for crimes under international law, including torture or complicity in torture, [Gina Haspel] must be brought to trial.\" —Amnesty InternationalShe oversaw a secret \"black site\" in Thailand where torture took place, and allegedly was directly involvedin the agency's efforts to destroy evidence of torture.\nGiven her background, Margaret Huang, executive director at Amnesty International USA, said, \"Gina Haspel should be investigated, not nominated.\"\nIn a document (pdf) outlining the group's stance, Amnesty says that impunity \"remains all but total\" for those who committed abuses including torture authorized under President George W. Bush, and though \"the use of classification renders it impossible to get at the full truth, there are serious and credible allegations that Gina Haspel was closely involved in aspects of the CIA secret detention program.\"\n\"If there is sufficient admissible evidence that she is criminally responsible for crimes under international law, including torture or complicity in torture, she must be brought to trial,\" the group added. \"Her nomination to head the very agency which has a festering impunity scandal at its heart—which she may have an interest in perpetuating—should be withdrawn pending this investigation.\"\nIf the president fails to withdraw her name, and if a DOJ investigation doesn't begin, Amnesty argues that the Senate should refuse to hold a confirmation hearing.\n\"We cannot allow a backslide into serious human rights violations like torture or rendition. Without full declassification of information about her alleged role and pending the results of a proper investigation, Amnesty is calling on the Senate to vote against Haspel's appointment as CIA director,\" Huang said.\n\"President Trump's dangerous rhetoric on torture is profoundly troubling. In this role, Haspel could be tasked with making this rhetoric a reality. There is too much at stake to entrust this role to someone whose alleged role in crimes under international law is being shrouded in secrecy,\" she added.\nDespite the background that reportedly earned her the nickname \"Bloody Gina,\" it's not clear at this point if Haspel will face much opposition from Democrats if she makes it to a hearing, and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said last week he was not calling on his fellow party members to oppose her.", "Women and child development (WCD) minister Maneka Gandhi’s plan to punish NRI husbands who desert their wives by, among other things, cancelling their passports could hit an interesting hurdle according to a senior law ministry official — her own case, dating back to 1978, in which the SC made it difficult for the state to confiscate or cancel passports.\n“The guidelines issued by the SC in her own case make it difficult to confiscate or cancel passports unless the due process of law is followed,” the law ministry official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.\nThe 1978 case involves the confiscation of Maneka Gandhi’s passport by the government on the grounds as “public interest” without citing reasons. The SC observed that section 10 (3) of the Indian Passports Act under which the passport was confiscated violated her fundamental rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the constitution pertaining to right to equality and right to freedom and personal liberty. It became a famous legal precedent as the Maneka Gandhi versus Union of India case.\nLast year, Gandhi pushed for stringent punitive measures against NRI husbands who desert their Indian wives including cancellation of their passports and confiscation of their relatives’ properties in India.\nThe proposal is now being thrashed out by the law and external affairs ministries. Even the other part of the punishment, the confiscation of “property that belongs to an offender’s relative” will be “difficult to justify”, the law ministry official said.\nThe law currently allows for passports to be seized on court orders in criminal matters.\nSC advocate-on-record Sunil Fernandes said abandonment of a woman by her husband could be a civil matter if it is dealt with under the Hindu Marriage Act. “There are other problems with revocation of a passport. It can become grounds for seeking asylum in another country,” he said.\nA senior WCD ministry official familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified said the ministry isn’t privy to the conversations the law and external affairs ministries may be having internally, but added that the two will have to work out the details, if necessary, by “amending the concerned laws”. The official added a passport does get revoked in a criminal case or where the accused refuses to join the investigation. “Revocation of passport happens notwithstanding the Maneka Gandhi versus Union of India case,” the officer said.\nThe WCD ministry also wrote to the MHA seeking an amendment in the Code of Criminal Procedure that will allow notification of a summons put on the website of the ministry of external affairs to be treated as “deemed to have been served,” Gandhi said at a media briefing on February 12.\nA second government official said, “A high-level committee went into the details of the issue. Some of the outcomes are the following: With an aim to provide financial and legal assistance by all missions and posts to distressed women married to NRI spouses, the Indian Community Welfare Fund Guidelines were revised in September 2017.”s\n“The amount of legal and financial aid to distressed Indian women has also been increased to US$4,000 per case... The missions/posts have also been empo-wered to provide emergency lod-ging and boarding to distressed Indian women,” this person added, asking not to be identified.\n(With inputs from Moushumi Das Gupta)", "The video will start in 8 Cancel\nGet daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe See our privacy notice Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email\nMark Acklom, one of Britain's most wanted fugitives, has been arrested in Switzerland.\nThe National Crime Agency (NCA) confirmed that the alleged fraudster was apprehended at a luxury apartment in Zurich where he had been living under a false name after more than two years on the run.\nAcklom, 45, is said to have fleeced a woman out of £850,000 in life savings after posing as an MI6 agent in a romance scam.\nCurrently in custody awaiting extradition, he faces criminal proceedings for a total of 20 fraud offences when he goes before a British court.\nA European Arrest Warrant was issued for Acklom in June 2016 and he was believed to be at large in Spain, having been released from a Spanish prison over a £200,000 property fraud.\nIn May last year he was spotted in Geneva, where he was believed to have been with his family.\nIan Cruxton, head of international operations for the NCA, said the hunt for Mark Acklom \"started in Spain but as soon as intelligence indicated he had moved to Switzerland, we utilised our assets there and worked closely with the Swiss authorities and Avon and Somerset Police to track him down\".\n\"We are committed to protecting UK citizens from criminals who seek to exploit them and, likewise, we are equally committed to protecting citizens in other countries.\n\"Like many fugitives Acklom believed he could remain at large by travelling around Europe, but our international reach means there is no safe place to hide.\"\nAcklom was arrested late on Saturday night after an operation involving the NCA, Avon and Somerset Police and the Swiss authorities.\nVideo Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now\nHe is accused of 12 offences of converting or removing criminal property and eight of fraud by false representation.\nAccording to police he posed as a Swiss banker and MI6 agent during a year-long relationship with Carolyn Woods, 61.\nAcklom allegedly duped her into lending him her life savings for renovation work at a number of properties in Bath.\nAvon and Somerset Police Detective Inspector Adam Bunting said: \"Acklom thought he could continue to evade capture by moving around Europe but we were determined to locate him and bring him back to this country.\"\nHe added that they will continue to work with the relevant authorities to ensure he is extradited as soon as possible.\nDownload our all-new mobile app to get the latest news, sport and what's on. Click here for iPhone and here for Android\nLooking for an older story? Search our archives\nSearch for jobs, motors and property, or place an advert or family notice here", "Days after apologising to former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal continued with his string of apologies today, the latest recipients being senior advocate Amit Sibal, son of former Union minister Kapil Sibal, and Union minister Nitin Gadkari.\nFollowing the apologies, Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia were acquitted in two separate defamation cases lodged against them by Gadkari and Sibal.\nAlthough Sisodia said they were not interested in any \"fight of ego\" and did not want to spend time in legal wrangling but in the service of people, former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Anjali Damania attacked Kejriwal, asking him why had he published a list of 20 \"corrupt politicians\", if he wanted to \"back off meekly\".\nKejriwal had recently apologised to Majithia for accusing him of being involved in a drug racket. This had not gone down well with several senior AAP leaders.\nThe party's Punjab president, Bhagwant Mann, and co-president Aman Arora had resigned in protest against Kejriwal's apology to Majithia.\nHowever, at a meeting yesterday, Kejriwal tried to pacify his party MLAs from Punjab to avert a split in the state unit.\nKejriwal and Sisodia tendered an apology to Sibal, in a criminal defamation case filed against them by the senior advocate.\nThe duo, in a letter, apologised for making \"unfounded allegations\" against Sibal. The letter was submitted to Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal.\nSibal and the AAP leaders also filed a joint application in the court, seeking the withdrawal of the criminal defamation case filed in 2013.\nMeanwhile, the court was also informed that Kejriwal had written to Union Transport Minister Gadkari, expressing regret over certain statements he had made against the BJP leader, who had filed a defamation suit against him.\nKejriwal and Gadkari also submitted a joint application before the court, seeking the withdrawal of the defamation case filed against the AAP supremo.\nThe application was moved after Kejriwal's counsel submitted that the AAP leader had expressed regret for making statements without regard to their verifiability.\nLater in the day, Kejriwal was acquitted in two separate defamation cases lodged against him by Gadkari and Sibal respectively.\n\"If someone is hurt by our remarks, we will apologise. We will not make it a fight of egos. We are here to work for the people,\" Sisodia told reporters on the Assembly premises.\nDamania attacked Kejriwal, asking him why had he published a list of 20 \"corrupt politicians\", if he wanted to \"back off meekly\".\nShe also rejected Kejriwal's contention that he wanted to focus on his strength in Delhi.\n\"Ideally, with a strong force of 67 of the 70 MLAs, he should have entrusted the functioning of the Delhi government with his trusted legislators, fought each one of the cases, ensured a victory in every single matter and punished these corrupt politicians,\" she said.", "OTTAWA — The federal government has tailored its highly anticipated marijuana legislation to ensure younger teens don't wind up with criminal records for pot possession.\nCurrently, people between 12 and 17 can be charged for having any amount of marijuana, but the newly tabled legislation proposes that people under age 18 would not face criminal prosecution for possessing or sharing up to five grams.\nBill Blair, a Liberal MP working with federal ministers on the legislation, said Monday the ultimate goal is to give provinces and territories flexibility to prohibit young people from possessing any amount of cannabis, with the option to introduce non-criminal sanctions for having a small amount.\n\"There are far better ways to deal with those offences that don't result in a criminal record, which are quite frankly more straightforward to enforce, less onerous to enforce, less costly to enforce but also achieve a much better social outcome by not giving those kids a criminal record,\" he said.\nProvinces could bring in a regulatory ticketing system — much like the one in Ontario for those under 19 caught purchasing, possessing or drinking alcohol, he noted.\nThis requires \"basic regulation\" for the provinces, said Blair, a former Toronto police chief.\n\"I'm not minimizing the amount of work that needs to be done,\" he said. \"This is pretty straightforward . . . I've enforced those laws for 40 years so I'm familiar with how they work.\"\nHe also challenged the suggestion responsibilities have been downloaded on the provinces.\n\"Actually, we want to make sure the rules and regulations that are put in place, in order to be effective, in order to achieve what it is we want to achieve, they've got to be at the right level of governance.\"\nThe possession changes are among the many issues Ottawa and the provinces and territories need to iron out before marijuana is legalized next year including distribution, licensing and retail sales.\nToronto-based criminal lawyer Daniel Brown said Monday courts generally don't prosecute minor marijuana possession charges for people under or over 18, noting these cases are often dealt through a diversion program designed to steer them out of the court system.\n\"Normally, what it takes is someone to do some community service or in some instances they will make a donation to charity in order to secure a withdrawal of their charges,\" Brown said.\nThe problem is this approach still requires resources to bring these people into the court system, whether they are young offenders or adults facing minor marijuana charges.\n\"By making it not a criminal act, they are going to ensure the resources that are otherwise spent dealing with these individuals in the court system can be better used elsewhere, especially given there are so many cases in the court system that are in jeopardy of being throw out due to delay,\" he said.\nNDP justice critic Alistair MacGregor said Monday he very much agrees that criminal sanctions for marijuana possession can have detrimental impacts, particularly for young people, but he expressed frustration about why government did not address the problem sooner.\n\"It is going to take another 18 months to bring it into effect,\" MacGregor said. \"These are provisions that could have been brought in as an interim measure long ago. ... The federal government had the ability to act.\"", "Poland's international isolation and political uncertainty at home deepened on Wednesday as a purge of the Supreme Court's justices took effect, with the chief justice defiantly refusing to step down.\nFirst President Malgorzata Gersdorf arrived for work as usual at the court in Warsaw, vowing to continue her constitutionally mandated term, which runs through 2020. The court's judges support this view.\nThousands of anti-government protesters cheered Gersdorf on and vowed to defend the constitutional order and fight what they see as the erosion of their democratic system.\nWhile she was allowed in to the modern glass Supreme Court building in Warsaw and oversaw a meeting with other judges, it was not clear how Gersdorf could continue in her role following a new law that lowers the mandatory retirement age to 65 from the previous 70.\nJaroslaw Kaczynski, the ruling party leader, said in an interview published Wednesday by the Gazeta Polska daily that the judges' \"action\" will result in their \"shameful disaster.\" An adviser to President Andrzej Duda also insisted that Gersdorf has no choice but to step down.\nMeanwhile, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki faced a grilling in the European Parliament for what many European lawmakers see as Poland's violations of democratic standards with a broader overhaul of the judiciary that gives the ruling party vast political control over courts and judges.\nManfred Weber, a German member of the conservative European People's Party group, hailed Poland's great democratic legacy, praising the 10 million Poles who joined Solidarity in the struggle against communism in the 1980s.\n\"Their great achievement — a sovereign, democratic Poland — is at stake today,\" Weber said.\nHe also mentioned the ruling party's transformation of state media into a propaganda tool and the prosecution of peaceful anti-government protesters even as authorities have failed to act against nationalists who had attacked the protests.\nUdo Bullmann, head of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, praised Gersdorf for defending the Polish constitution, and criticized Morawiecki for dismantling \"the last bastion of the judiciary in Poland.\"\nGuy Verhofstadt, president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, said that putting judges under political control was reminiscent of Soviet practices and said Poland should abandon its \"illiberal\" illusions.\n\"I ask you personally, really, to turn the wheel and bring Poland back into the family of democratic nations,\" Verhofstadt told Morawiecki.\nMorawiecki defended the changes the populist Law and Justice party has brought to the justice system, insisting his government is working to make judges more accountable to the democratic will of the people and that Poland's democracy \"has never been as alive as it is today.\"\nThough calm, he did not take the criticism well.\n\"We are a proud nation and we know the price of freedom,\" he said. \"It is not good when proud nations are being lectured to by others, because that produces deadlocks.\"\nSpeaking later to reporters he insisted the forced retirements were \"perfectly in line with the constitution.\"\nIn the debate that was to be dedicated to Europe's future, Morawiecki also got support from some who backed Warsaw's arguments that an overreaching EU was meddling in a sovereign state's internal affairs.\nThe new law lowers the mandatory retirement age from 70 to 65 for the Supreme Court justices. That forces Gersdorf, who is 65, and as many as one-third of the court's 73 sitting judges to step down, unless they obtain from the president a special permission to remain.\nAfter having taken control of common courts and the constitutional court, Law and Justice now takes control of the top court, which handles appeals for all civil and criminal cases and authorizes election results.\nProtesters expressed fears that the party will use its political sway over the court to falsify future elections.\n\"We have the right to live in a free country with a constitution,\" said Monika Czerniakowska, 50. She said once a government violates the constitution, \"anything can happen. Look what's happening in Hungary. How far can we go?\"\nMore protests were held late Wednesday in a number of cities and Lech Walesa, the legendary pro-democracy fighter and Solidarity leader in the 1980s, addressed the cheering crowd in front of the Supreme Court building.\n\"He who breaks the constitution and the division of powers is a criminal, they are criminals,\" he said.\n\"We must do everything to send these people away and vote to choose different people,\" Walesa said, apparently referring to the ruling party.\nOn Wednesday, 63 justices were working, meaning that 10 of the 27 covered by the new legislation have accepted their retirement under the new law, according to the court's press office.\n\"I still hope that the legal order will be restored in Poland,\" Gersdorf said as she arrived at the court.\nThe European Commission, which polices compliance with EU laws, opened an infringement procedure Monday against Poland over the Supreme Court law.\nGovernment critics now are putting their hopes in the EU to preserve the rule of law in their homeland — a message that was reflected in the chants and slogans at the protest.", "BELGRADE: Calling their dead “second-class victims”, Serbian families of civilians killed by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian rebels in the late 1990s hope a new court at The Hague will finally bring them justice.\nNineteen international judges were appointed this month to the tribunal, which will try crimes allegedly committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in its fight for independence from Serbia, a conflict that left 13,000 dead.\nGlobal attention has long focused on the mass killings and atrocities by the Serbian forces of the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.\nAn 11-week Nato bombing campaign pushed the troops out of predominantly ethnic Albanian territory in 1999, and Kosovo declared its independence a decade later.\nBut alleged crimes committed by the Kosovo rebels, against Serbians but also against Roma and fellow Albanians deemed to be collaborators, have attracted relatively little scrutiny.\n“No one has been adequately punished or justly condemned” over missing family members, said Natasa Scepanovic, who leads an association for families of Serbian victims.\n“We have been discriminated against since the beginning of our sad story,” she told AFP.\nThe claims were raised in a 2008 book by Carla del Ponte, the ex-pro secutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).\nA few years later, a Council of Europe report reiterated the allegations against several former KLA leaders, some of whom had become high-ranking Kosovo officials.\n“There cannot and must not be one justice for the winners and another for the losers,” Dick Marty, a Swiss prosecutor who led the council’s inquiry, said in his report.\nIn particular, he accused Hashim Thaci — now the president of Kosovo — of leading a mafia-style network involved in assassinations and unlawful detentions.\nThaci has denied the accusations and said he is willing to cooperate with the tribunal, telling AFP last year that he had “nothing to hide”.\nThe Council of Europe report noted the disappearance of almost 500 people, including about 400 Serbs, after Milosevic’s forces withdrew from Kosovo in June 1999, when the KLA had “virtually exclusive control on the ground”.\nSome of the possible indictees at the new court in The Hague, including former KLA commanders Ramush Haradinaj and Fatmir Limaj, have already been tried and acquitted by the ICTY.\nThe United Nations and NATO-led forces in Kosovo wanted “to promote short-term stability at any price, thereby sacrificing some important principles of justice”, the report said.\nNato forces were not yet on the ground when Serbian troops started to withdraw, leaving a security vacuum in which retaliations against Serbian civilians went unchecked.\nBut seven relatives of Marinko Djuric, including his father, decided to stay in Istok, in northwestern Kosovo.\n“Since they were not responsible for any crime, they believed themselves to be safe,” Djuric, now 58, told AFP in Belgrade.\nBut the situation worsened, and an evacuation was promised for June 29. No one saw them again.\n“Six were killed, the seventh disappeared and we know nothing of his fate,” Djuric said.\nFor Beriana Mustafa, a 35-year-old ethnic Albanian journalist, The Hague tribunal is her “last hope”.\nHer father, Xhemajl Mustafa, was an adviser to the former Kosovo president Ibrahim Rugova and a political opponent of the KLA, was assassinated at the entrance of his apartment in 2000, after he wrote articles critical of the rebels.\nIf the court “fails to establish responsibility, I will close this chapter of my life without waiting any longer,” she said.\nBut many Serbs from Kosovo remain sceptical about what the court can achieve.\n“We are considered responsible for the conflict, and our victims are second-class victims,” said Misko Deverdzic, 42, whose father disappeared after being taken to a KLA interrogation centre in March 1999.\nDeverdzic left the area, but later returned to ask an Albanian neighbour for information about his father.\nHe said he was told, “I know what happened but I can’t tell you”.\nThe tribunal will have to work with patchy evidence, as some witnesses have died, while others may struggle to remember exact details of the events.\nSecurity is also a concern: During previous trials of KLA members, several witnesses disappeared or died in suspicious circumstances.\nThe court, which operates under the laws of Kosovo, was set up in The Hague to ensure that witnesses are protected.\n“My message is that no one should doubt that this is a very serious undertaking,” David Schwendiman, an American who is chief prosecutor of tribunal, said in September." ]

[ "The man is playing a board game." ]

[ "The man is playing chess.", "Young men are playing Scrabble.", "Some people sitting down playing Scrabble.", "The teens are playing Scrabble.", "Two ladies play scrabble.", "A guy is walking down the street playing Scrabble.", "Six women playing a game of scrabble with one another at a dinning hall.", "some play the game.", "Two elderly men playing Scrabble.", "Some people play a game.", "A man stealing some vegetables.", "Some people are playing games.", "Two women and a boy are playing Scrabble.", "Some people are playing a guitar and some are playing a game.", "Some men play a game.", "Some boys play a game.", "Some vegetables are sitting.", "A person preparing some vegetables", "Some people playing a card game.", "Some kids are playing a game.", "Some people playing video games.", "a man plays a card game", "Some men play a game outside.", "Some children are playing a ball game.", "Some people play a board game.", "A young man playing a game.", "A man plays a computer game.", "An old man has some root vegetables.", "Some people are playing a game outside.", "Some kids are playing a game at a fair.", "A man is playing a game in public.", "A man carries vegetables." ]

[ "Light does not have mass. It does have momentum though, and so it can impart a force." ]

[ "Yes. It's not actually mass that produces a gravitational field, it's the mass-energy tensor. In our everyday experience, the mass of an object is by far the largest component of that. Light doesn't have mass, but it does have energy, so it does produce a gravitational field. _URL_2_ _URL_0_ _URL_1_", "> because photons have mass photons *do not* have mass. Wind is the bulk motion of gas molecules. When a photon interacts with an atom or molecule it is either absorbed or does not interact. If light does not interact, we say the gas is transparent. If it does interact with the gas it is either absorbed or scattered (which is why the sky is blue).", "Photons being particles does* not imply that they have mass. When photons interact with materials, the electromagnetic field causes atoms to oscillate at different frequencies, which in turn produce EM fields which interfere with the original light. This system of photons interacting with atoms is called a polariton, and can be thought of as a quasiparticle with mass. (note at no time does a photon ever have mass) This is why the speed of light in materials is less than the speed in a vacuum. In certain materials, like clouds of very cold atoms/ions, the speed of light can be slowed dramatically. Light can essentially be 'captured' in these clouds and released once the system is perturbed.", "Your question does not have to be specific to light. In your diagram, the light could just as well be a bullet. In either case energy/momentum is conserved by Newton's 3rd law: the large mass feels an equal and opposite force that the photon/bullet feels. The large mass exerts a gravitational pull on the photon/bullet, and the photon/bullet exerts a gravitational pull on the large mass.", "We know that dark matter has mass because mass lenses light and nothing else does, and [so does dark matter](_URL_0_).", "Energy is not mass, though mass has energy. More than mass causes spacetime curvature. The entire [stress-energy tensor](_URL_1_) does. One component of this is energy (density), but other things, e.g. momentum (density) also contribute. Propagating light does curve space-time, because the corresponding stress-energy tensor is not zero. (However because it is propagating at light speed, it does not produce quite the same effects that something massive does). Gravitational radiation is produced when there is a changing [quadrupole moment](_URL_0_), which will happen for certain configurations of light, but not others.", "no, you have a misconception of Einstein's equation. It means that because you have mass, then you have energy, but it has nothing to do with any interaction of any sort. So any mass have a certain energy associated to it. Energy does not only means electromagnetic waves or light. Dark matter is not necessarily completely dark, anyway, it just interacts very weakly with other type of matter (not in the gravitational sense).", "Light sails do not violate conservation of momentum. Light has no mass, but it does have momentum.", "Technically, gravity *is* the bending of space. Light doesn't have mass, but it does have momentum, which is still affected by gravity.", "This question has been asked and answered literally dozens of times. Here are a few examples revealed by a simple search on the sidebar: * [If light has no mass, then how is it affected by the gravity of a black hole?](_URL_4_) * [Why is light affected by gravity if photons are massless?](_URL_5_) * [Why is light affected by gravity](_URL_7_) * [If Light has no mass, why is it affected by gravity?](_URL_2_) * [If photons are massless, how does gravity bend light?](_URL_3_) * [How do black holes attract light if photons have no mass?](_URL_0_) * [If photons are massless, why are they effected by gravity](_URL_1_) * [Why (or how) does gravity bend light?](_URL_6_)", "It's not light that's special in this case. There is a special speed in this universe, and because light does not have mass it goes at that speed.", "Light travels faster than anything else in the universe because it has no mass. For anything with mass, the energy required to increase velocity increases exponentially, such that it would require infinite energy to reach the speed of light. The property of having mass prohibits an object from moving at the speed of light, because something can only move that fast if it does not have mass.", "Fire is in itself a really fast reaction with oxygen, releasing energy in the form of heat and light. The answer to your question depends on what you mean by fire. If you mean the reaction, no, that doesn't have mass, just like walking doesn't have mass. If you mean the flame though, that is actual chemical compounds giving off light - and that does have mass.", "The speed of light does not actually have any special connection to light. It would perhaps be more correct to call it the speed of massless objects. Any object that has zero mass must travel at the speed of light, and no object that has mass may reach it. The photons, which are massless, were the first such object to be studied, hence the name. Actually, out of all of the four fundamental interactions, only the weak interaction does not communicate at the speed of light because its carriers gain mass from the Higgs mechanism. In the standard model (which does not include gravity), the only massless particles are the photon (carrier of the electromagnetic force) and the gluinos (carriers of the strong force). The neutrinos were thought to be massless but a recent Nobel prize winning experiment proved that they have a very small mass.", "The formula E = mc^(2) holds only when in the rest frame of the particle (or system of particles). A single light particle has no rest frame, and so it's not the correct formula. The full formula, valid for all particles (massless or not) and in any frame is E^(2) = (mc^(2))^(2)+(**p**c)^(2), where **p** is the momentum. A light particle has no mass, but it does have momentum, given exactly by p = E/c = hf/c.", "> If that's the equation, then does light in a black hole have no energy because it's without mass and without momentum? Would light still exist as a massless, energyless thing? Why would light inside a blackhole carry no momentum?", "Nothing. Light has no mass, it does not need to be propelled. It doesn't accelerate to light speed, it exists at light speed.", "No. > Since particles at least have some kind of mass This is not true, a particle need not have mass. Photons (quanta of light) are massless. > shouldn't gravity act upon these particles Gravity does act on them. Gravity is the result of curved spacetime which depends on the energy distribution *including* massless particles like light. > By this would you break the speed of light ever so negligibly by shining a flashlight downwards because you have the speed of light along with the accelerated particles? No. The speed of light is the same for *all* observers. What does *change* is that nobody no longer has to agree on time and length or if two events were simultaneous or not. Please check out the [**Astronomy FAQ**](_URL_0_) and the [**Physics FAQ**](_URL_1_) for more popular discussions on these topics. If after going through those, feel free to post any followup questions you may have--though please search for them first using our search-bar.", "You can accelerate without expelling mass, because light does not have mass but does have momentum equal to planck's constant divided by its wavelength. In fact if you were able to point all the light from a standard 100W incandescent light bulb in one direction, your 1000kg spaceship could get up to 1 m/s in about 2000 years (the bulb only gives off less than 5W of light). The light beam from the top of the Luxor Hotel in Vegas will take about 12 hours to push the 1000 kg spaceship one kilometer (from rest).", "Light is a particle and a wave because it has properties of both. The wave properties of light allow it to be split through a prism into the rainbow pattern we know, and allow there to be different kinds of like like UV, X-ray, and radio waves. It also allows light to move through the vacuum of space. Light is a particle because it has energy when it hits something. Light doesn't have mass, otherwise we would feel it pelting us when we went outside! Light does transfer energy, though, which is why it can heat things up or allow plants to do photosynthesis.", "> Why an object's mass grows while approaching the speed of light This is no longer a popular way of explaining things, because it isn't really correct. The object's mass does *not* grow. It does take more energy to accelerate the object, the same way it would if it's mass had grown, but this isn't the same thing. > and becomes infinite when it achieves it. There is no such 'when'. An object with rest mass *cannot* accelerate to the speed of light, or travel at that speed by other means. So even if relativistic mass increase was a real thing, that infinity isn't relevant.", "I assume you're asking \"how can a photon have energy, but no mass?\". E = mc^2 is only an approximation for low speeds/momenta. E^2 = m^2 c^4 + p^2 c^2 is the real equation, and light has both momentum and energy, perfectly proportional to each other. For other discussions, see _URL_0_", "> Does relativistic mass bend space-time to the same degree as inertial mass does? No it doesn't, and that's exactly the reason why the idea of relativistic mass is no longer widely accepted. It's more of a lazy way to explain why massive objects can't be accelerated to the speed of light in a vacuum.", "Photons are massless particles. They don't have mass, but they do have momentum. As to whether you're heavier in the light or shade, I can't really say.", "The \"relativistic mass\" idea is getting unpopular for exactly this reason - your mass does not *really* increase as you approach the speed of light. Otherwise, there's always a frame in which you are going fast enough to be a black hole... It's better to think of *force* changing instead of *mass*. So we add an extra factor to F=ma so that the force required to give a something a certain amount of acceleration *increases* as you approach the speed of light, even though the mass does not change. Then these sorts of problems fade away!", "We're fairly confident that light is massless. From experiment we know it must be at most [ < 1×10^−18 eV](_URL_0_). The reason gravity effects light is that gravity is based on massenergy, not just mass which is just one form of energy. Since light has energy, it interacts with gravity. On a more fundamental level, gravitation defines what a \"straight line\" is, which light happily follows, which happens to be a curve.", "This was already covered by [The Straight Dope](_URL_2_) in... hold on to your hats. 1989. tl;dr - It's the space dust and small particles that the Earth attracts with its gravitational field and just plain runs into that adds mass. 10's of thousands of tons worth of mass every year. And in answer to your question: Light has no 'real' mass. This is a subject for Physics class though, it's the basis of wave theory (AKA - wave-particle duality). [Here](_URL_0_) is a short primer, but it just scratches the surface. Edit: Someone actually worked out the [theoretical mass gain from sunlight](_URL_1_) over the last 4.5 billion years! NASA of course, those guys get bored.", "You have probably heard of Einsteins formula E=mc² : Energy is Mass times the speed of light squared. The \"speed of light squared\" part is a very, very big number. So if you manage to turn some mass into energy, you get quite *a lot* of energy. And a fusion or fission bomb does exactly that: A very small amount of mass is turned into energy - the Hiroshima bomb got its destructive power from turning about eight grams of mass into energy.", "Although light has no mass, it can still have energy and momentum. In fact, special relativity tells us that massless things have energy and momentum that are simply proportional to each other: E=pc. Since light has momentum, when it bounces off an object it can transfer some momentum to the object, and thus push the object through space.", "This is through [radiation pressure](_URL_0_). Light still has momentum despite not having mass, and its momentum is transferred to the sails as the light is reflected. If that doesn't sit well with you, you can also describe it in terms of field electromagnetics, as that link does. For F=ma as applied to this situation, F would be the radiation pressure integrated over the area of the sails. m would be the mass of the spaceship.", "Yes. If an object with mass M has a radius less than 3GM/c^(2), [light can circle entirely around the object](_URL_0_). The density required for this is pretty extreme; it's limited mostly to black holes.", "Light is massless, but it is affected by gravity. Two ways to understand this: Light has energy, and gravity acts on energy. OR Gravity is the curvature of spacetime, and so the paths that light can travel are determined by gravitational effects." ]

[ "We had a 98 year old tech teacher that only used internet explorer and written us up for using Google" ]

[ "How little I know", "Money Matters (Optional class at my school and it teaches you about how banks work and other aspects of using money)", "\"Oh, you lost weight! Know how I can tell? Your skin isn't as \"full\" as before so the cellulite shows!\"", "Before you ask what it is like, how about telling us what it is.", "I realized just how powerful online learning is, and I'm not talking about school.", "Someone I knew in middle school once made an fb post about how I used to be so ugly in middle school but then they don't know how I came to look so much better now. I don't even know how to feel about that.", "Not listening about how serious covid-19 is.", "How little all the bullshit at school actually mattered.", "\"what is the most advanced technology you have, how does it work?\"", "How about living And covid free?", "Because your parents didn't know how to use condoms", "What is online school", "As little as possible, even before Covid.", "Millennials, joking about wanting to die and what your therapist told you shows how normal it became for both to occur", "Not how they show US handling attacks in the movies", "If they brag about how few students pass their class.", "How about crying to the camera about how hard it was to stay at home during COVID in their palatial estate.", "almost dropped out of high school last year but because of covid and online school my grades went up and i took a bunch of online summer classes and now i’m actually going to graduate early :)", "Education. There’s nothing you learn in school that’s not available online for free. You basically pay the school to show you what to learn", "My dog used to be extremely upset about it. I simply explained to her that this is how I show her affection and she seems a little more understanding now.", "Because these people know so little about the topic, they don't know what they don't know, and assume they know everything because they literally cannot fathom there being more to it.\n\nAnyone who has taken the \"Gen Ed\" version of a class in your major, then took upper level classes in it, know exactly what I'm talking about.", "Ted Bundy. I did a CSI class at school, and learning about how he got caught was really fascinating.", "Know how to be quiet. Shut your mouth. Want to say something? Don't. Shut your mouth.", "Started with going out of my room. Go out of your comfort zone. Realizing that the more you think about your problem, the more it breaks your heart. I tried doing something productive. It made me feel good about myself little by little. Before you know it, you’re back on your feet. Time heals a broken soul. Invest in yourself. You are worth it, no matter how f*cked up you think you are.", "No matter what, if you look at an object, you know exactly how it will feel on your tongue, even if you’ve never licked it before", "To know how to use turn signals", "Teleportation it’s actually just so useful if you start thinking about how much you would utilize it in your daily life", "Proper Sex-ed. People are really going around not knowing how to have sex, let alone how to do it safely.\n\nSchool just says “don’t do it” and shows you some STD pics then you’re on your way.", "Basically, we have practice making a flu vaccine, the virus evolves every year but only by a little bit\n\nCovid is something we've never seen in humans before because it jumped species(bats to people), we just don't know how exactly it works, or how a vaccine can be made out of it that's both effective and safe", "Internet was down yo! You know how crazy covids been!", "I use it to give that little bitch at my school that keeps misgendering me hiccups during class.", "Think about how little it affects you personally." ]

[ "This webpage for 16- to 18-year-olds on the official Education Scotland website talks about [Emigration and Scottish Society](_URL_0_) and mentions a scheme that would get a person to Australia for £1 in the 1850s. Before then, landowners wanting to remove tenants to make way for sheep farming funded some emigration. The webpage is worth a read for an interesting overview of emigration from Scotland." ]

[ "Re-arrange it first: The distance travelled from constant acceleration is 1/2 at^2 , so your question is the same as asking why there is a 1/2 there, why is it just not at^2 . The distance traveled during constant acceleration is the same as travelling at the average velocity of the trip. You spend half the time going slower than average, and half the time going faster. The average speed is halfway between zero and max velocity (a t), so it's 1/2 at. The distance traveled is the average velocity times time, so 1/2 (at)t or 1/2 at^2 . If it were just at^2 then the total distance would be (at)t, where at is equivalent to the *maximum* velocity reached. But you don't go as far as you would if you had been travelling the maximum velocity the whole time.", "When we look at something a million light years of distance away, we are seeing it as it was about a million years in the past. (It's not *exactly* a million because the universe has been expanding during the time the light has been travelling). So, using redshift to measure distance, we can figure out how far radiation has travelled, and how far in the past we're looking. So with sufficiently powerful telescopes, you can look back almost as far as you want. The \"almost\" is the trick though - we can't actually see the inflationary period because the universe was still so dense that it was opaque. What we can see is the \"cosmic microwave background\", which is the light from the \"last scattering surface\" - the light from when the universe became transparent.", "short answer, because birth rate > > > > > death rate. long answer, china and indian are very rural/poor in many areas, and rural/poor people tend to have more children. it also could be due to historical factors such as china having 4000 years of recorded history. and/or no signifcant diseases that wiped out a lot of people, such as the plague which killed 1/3 of population in europe.", "Quite a long time as they are not actually located next to each other. See this pretty nice [animation](_URL_1_). I used the program [Celestia](_URL_0_) to travel to each star and find the distances between each. From L to R, the stars are Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. The distances from Earth to each of those are 736, 1977, and 693 lightyears (ly) respectively. Alnitak to Alnilam is 1241 ly, Alnilam to Mintaka is 1285 ly, but Alnitak to Mintaka (so left star to right star) is only 55 ly. A lightyear is the distance light can travel in a year. Light travels to the Earth in 8.3 minutes and covers 93 million miles (150 million km). Neptune's orbit is 30 times this distance, so you're talking about a little over 4 hours. In one year, light can travel 63,2340 times the Earth-Sun distance, and the shortest distance between these three stars is about 55 times that amount.", "> how exactly is the universe traveling faster than the speed of light? It's not. It's traveling **through** space that has a limit, and the metric expansion of space is a change **of** space, and not something moving **through** space. The expansion of the universe means that the actual measurements of distance are increasing. The universe itself is getting \"bigger\". But there is no motion involved. > And, How would we not theoretically be able to harness that power? The expansion of space is overwhelmed by local forces. For instance, galaxies that are millions of lightyears away from each other are still close enough for their gravity to prevent them from drifting apart because of expansion. So the only way we could harness this power would be to build a device larger than galaxies, and that's simply not possible.", "Unions support one of the major political parties. So it has less to do with workers' rights, and more to do with politics. There's a saying out here that in the US, poor people don't think of themselves as poor, but temporarily embarrassed millionaires. As such, people who could really benefit from union representation will oppose it because their politics supports giving money to the wealthy (because they're soon to be wealthy, right?), and wealthy people with more money make more jobs (this has never been the case, but that's their economic model).", "North Korea is a poor country, but they still have a GDP of about $12 billion a year. That's not enough for a lot of people to have computers, but if you take $50 million of that a year and invest it in a cyberwarfare program, it's going to be pretty effective. It's not the NK doesn't have access to modern technology...they just can;t afford to make it available to many people.", "It depends on your viewpoint. Are you talking about Europe? America? The world? This is the most important question. I would agree (quite arguably) that Hitler's death was a cause for the most celebration, simply because the Europeans could be happy that the war was over for them, but the Americans could also be happy that their boys could be pulled out of Europe. The surrender of the Japanese ultimately ended World War One, but it was at the cost of millions of innocent civilians, including hundreds of thousands of children. How many people in Europe really followed the war in the Pacific after their war had ended? I don't think the Japanese surrender would have been celebrated as much as Europe as it was in America.", "First, it is important to level set on the distance. The closest galaxy to the Milky Way is the Andromeda galaxy. It is around 2.5 million light years away. A light year is the distance that light travels in a year. Since light travels at roughly 300,000,000 meters per second, a light year is a very far distance. Now to answer how galaxies such distances away can be viewed and photographed. Time. The universe has been around for billions of years and has been expanding during that time. This means that billions of years ago when the light was emitted from very distant galaxies and started making its way to Earth, it didn't have as far to travel. This is how we can see things that are farther away in light years than the age of the universe.", "$1 million seems like a lot of money. I'll be set when I have $1 million. Shit, $1 million is hardly enough to have a decent retirement, I need $2 million. Hmm, $2 million is nice, but I could have a nice cottage on the lake travel to Europe regularly if I had $4 million. Well, $4 million is good, but what if the market crashes or I have a terrible health problem? I need $6 million to be safe. And this can go on and on. No matter how much you have, there is always something more you could have or could achieve with more money. Most people are subject to this way of thinking. I would be willing to bet that even very wealthy people who have given billions to charity would fire their money manager if he happened to fall short of his benchmark return a couple years in a row. Even people who just want more money to give away still want more money.", "Heres a page from the American mosquito control association with some info on their flight ranges: _URL_0_ Seems like it varies by species, but in general they arent going to go very far. In addition, their ability to seek out a host at distance is probably going to limit how \"willing\" they are to travel long distances. Mosquitos rely heavily on body temperature and CO2 emission as cues for host seeking, and obviously these stimuli cant be tracked over great distances. When the animal goes to lay it's eggs, it also must find an appropriate body of water, which ideally would also require minimal travel. In general, the approach proposed by the government is a good one. By forcing the animals to travel much greater distances, you effectively limit their access to food supplies and reproduction sources.", "There is almost no effect from temperature, but sunlight charges particles in the ionosphere and allows radio waves to bounce or skip between the atmosphere and the Earth's surface to travel long distances (mostly at shortwave frequencies, approx 2~28 MHz, or so)", "_URL_0_ The sensitivity of the GPS signal is quite high. The following is to give you some perspective: Light travels around 30 cm in a nanosecond. The height GPS of satellites is listed as 20,200 km. Light travels that distance in 67,379,947 nanoseconds (the shortest distance between the ground and a satellite, in practice this will be longer due to the satellite not being directly overhead). A 10 meter inaccuracy can be caused by a discrepancy of around 33 nanoseconds. That's around an error of about 1 in 2 million. So, things like atmospheric variations can affect the travel time. Not to mention that GPS has to account for time dilation due to *both speed and gravity*. And it's likely so sensitive that some error is introduced due to natural variation of Earth's surface gravity. So, how can GPS co-ordinates have poor precision?", "Obamacare is a colloquialism for the Affordable Care Act, which does many things but primarily makes it illegal for insurance companies to gouge customers for pre-existing conditions which historically has made it difficult for them to afford insurance. Medicare is a system funded by payroll tax that helps old people (who have paid into Medicare for decades) afford the expensive and long-term medical bills of being old. Medicaid is a program to help poor families and individuals afford healthcare.", "A light year is a measure of distance. It is the distance light travels in a vacuum in one year. Light travels at 186282 miles per second(iirc) so take that number and multiply it by how many seconds are in a year and you have the distance in miles light would have traveld in one year. Edit: too many per seconds....not enough hoes.", "Um, we don't know. All current theories about wormholes rely on \"negative energy\" which has not been proven to be possible. Moving on from the practical to how they would work in theory. Imagine travelling between 2 points on a piece of paper. You would think the fastest way would be a straight line but if you could fold the paper up, connecting the 2 points and punch a hole through the paper you could travel instantaneously. If we could do this we could travel vast distances while never locally exceeding the speed of light. It should also be possible to do this in time allowing time travel.", "It's mostly historical. Data used to travel the wire as single bits and all that was really changing was how fast (e.g. 9600 baud RS-232 - > 115200 baud RS-232). In terms of encoding for longer distance we've been encoding multiple bits per \"symbol\" on the wire via things like FSK/QAM/etc for a long time. So nowadays it'd be just as legitimate to say symbols/sec or bytes/sec if you wanted to normalize it. Storage doesn't work on \"bytes\" either and hasn't for a very long time. Strictly speaking your hard drive has a number of 512 [or 4096] byte sectors. So the correct way to describe it would be as an N sector disk. But we normalize that too to bytes because I guess people are used to it.", "> I was thinking, sense there are basically infinite earths and infinite versions of me in this idea, wouldn’t there be a me, who travels to this dimension? I know this is somehow wrong so please clear me up. Considering how many decisions are taken of all people, it seems that there should be so many possibilities that they'd have managed to travel between the dimensions at this point in some of them, right? There are two catches here (apart from how farfetched the whole idea is that stuff could split infinitely and keep existing across dimensions). 1) Maybe it's impossible to travel across these dimensions. 2) Even if it was possible, considering how many splits there are by now, the chance that one of the dimension travelers decide to travel to exactly this dimension is infinitely small.", "You are standing in front of a wall throwing tennis balls at it. Now, you start sprinting towards the wall while continuing to throw tennis balls (but you're compensating for your running speed when you throw, so the tennis balls aren't moving any faster because of your run). What happens to the rate at which tennis balls hit the wall? It shifts. Tennis balls hit the wall more frequently. The first tennis ball had to travel from your starting point all the way to the wall. The second tennis ball has less distance to travel even though it is travelling at the same rate. This same principle explains redshift/blueshift. The light is not travelling any faster, but different photons are travelling different distances. The photon emitted at time T will have less distance to travel than the photon emitted at time T+1 if the thing emitting the photons is moving towards you.", "This is an excellent question! The reason is that the Universe is expanding. Think about it like this. In the first million years after the Big Bang, light would have travelled about a million light years. But that distance has since expanded, and today is quite a bit bigger than a million light years. So when you add up all the distances that that light has travelled over 13.8 billion years, it's going to add up to more than 13.8 billion light years, because the distance it's travelled has expanded behind it.", "It cross references the distance that needs to be traveled with speed limits. The more advanced navigation systems use real time traffic data from highway monitoring stations. Many roads have sensors to detect how many cars are passing per minute and what speed they are going, this information tells the navigation system whether there is heavy traffic or to expect delays.", "Yes. Light doesn't travel instantaneously, although it does travel pretty fast (3 x 10^8 m/s). From that speed you could calculate the lag depending on how far the light travels from one mirror to the other. The calculation would look something like: (distance from you to the mirror in meters + average distance the light travels from mirror to mirror in meters x (999,999))/(3 x 10^8 m/s) = _____ seconds of lag", "There are two kinds of muscle fibers, white and dark/red, they are used for different things. White muscle fibers are fast twitch, they work without or with very little oxygen and are very fast, but have very little endurance. (good for escaping immediate danger, but not for long distance travel) Dark/red muscles are slow twitch and work with a constant supply of oxygen, they aren't as fast, but they have high endurance. It gets it's color from Myoglobin, which binds with oxygen. (good for long distance travel, less so for immediate danger) Ducks need to have the endurance to fly for kilometers with very few breaks, so slow twitch muscles fits their lifestyle much better, hence why their meat is mostly dark, chickens run around a little and don't fly/run long distances", "There is no point of zero gravity. Otherwise how would the moon orbit? Things in orbit are in *free fall*, accelerating downwards just like any other object, but they are also travelling sideways so that the distance they gain from travelling on a tangent cancels the distance that they fall.", "Well it's not that different to making a phone call. Most communication with space crafts are done via radio communication. Radio waves travel at the speed of light which is about 300 000 km/s or 190 000 mi/s so even if the space craft is millions of miles away you just have to wait a minute or two to get a reply. There are other problems with communication of such vast distances how ever such as the radio signals will get weaker the further away from the source they travel. There are also problems regarding stuff that gets in the way like asteroids and planets and then there's also a lot of noise from stars and other celestial bodies which might drown out the radio signals over long distances.", "It's because the Universe is expanding. The radius of the observable Universe is the distance a single photon would have travelled from the Big Bang until today. So early on in the history of the Universe, that photon would have moved, say, a million light years in a million years. But because the Universe has been expanding since that time, those million light years are now a much bigger distance. Add all these distances up and you'll find something bigger than 13.8 billion light years. If the Universe *weren't* expanding, then a photon would indeed travel 13.8 billion light years in 13.8 billion years. But because it is expanding, that distance has to be larger. By the way, as /u/rantonels says, it doesn't make sense to say the Universe is expanding at a speed. It expands at a speed *per distance*, meaning that faraway galaxies move away from each other more quickly than ones that are nearby.", "Dental Hygienist here: Refined sugar has more to do with caries (cavities) than bad breath. Interestingly enough, caries used to be a disease of the wealthy because they were the only ones who could afford refined sugars, but now it is seen more in the poor because of poor education and it is cheap. People probably did have bad breath because of calculus (tartar) buildup on the teeth and on the tongue. [Here] (_URL_0_) is a picture of a jawbone from many hundred years ago with dental calculus and periodontal disease. My guess is breath was affected by diet (think onions and garlic).", "Force doesn't have to be conserved. Energy does. There are a couple ways to maybe make that idea more intuitive. Let's sweep a lever in a circle by applying force F perpendicular to the lever at a distance x. The circumference at that distance is 2•pi•x, so we'll travel that full distance. How much work (energy) was done? F•D = 2•pi•F•x. How much energy was added if we compute at half that distance? You know that the force at half the distance is 2F. How far do we travel? 2•pi•x/2. Energy? F•D = 2•pi•2•F•x/2 = 2•pi•F•x. Same! All the work that was done over the longer distance is packed into the smaller distance, which you can only do with greater force. A better way to think of it is in terms of torque and rotational energy. T=F•radius, and torque is the same no matter where you are on the lever. Work=T•theta (theta being the angle of rotation).", "If we assume you have some sort of magical telescope that can resolve surface objects, then it becomes a simple math problem. Light takes 1 year to travel 1 light year. To travel 65 million light years, takes 65 million years. ~65 million years ago, there were dinosaurs on the surface of the earth. So the light reaching the telescope now would (presumably) contain light reflected off of living dinosaurs. However, you'll never be able to enjoy this, as you can't travel faster than light, so it would always take you greater than 65 million years to get to that distance, and thus the earliest you could conceivably see would be some time after you had already left.", "As far as we know they evolved from one evolutionary path. For instance there was a hominid species called Sahelanthropus tchadensis (from around 7 million years ago) that was still very hairy, but was bipedal (walked on two feet). As bipeds moved away from an arboreal lifestyle, they grew taller with eyes pointing forward to see prey etc. from long distances. This continued on a relatively linear evolutionary path with a few species sprouting off leading up to Homo sapiens, which originated in Africa. They then migrated to Europe, Asia, then North and South America. There are a variety of estimates on how long ago Homo sapiens evolved, but I believe it's around 200,000 years old but it could be longer, based on theories saying they couldn't have moved through the world so quickly.", "The distance traveled by sound depends on its frequency. Lower frequencies are able to travel further than low frequencies. This is why certain animals like elephants and whales communicate across vast distances using very deep noises, at or below the limit of normal human hearing. So when you hear music far away, the higher tones have been filtered out because they didn't carry as far, and what remains is the bass.", "> By efficiency I mean the longest in time/distance traveled by the pendulum in one \"drop\" To a first approximation, the time traveled by a pendulum is T=2 pi sqrt(L/g). So the longest time traveled by one period of a pendulum will always be an infinitely long pendulum. > By ratio I mean arm length, amount of weight, the weight size, and the weight's shape. Again to first approximation, pendulums are typically modeled as having a weightless arm, with a point weight on the end. In this case, it doesn't matter how much weight there is, it will move at the same rate. If you start to care about aerodynamic drag, the shape of everything will matter, but that gets rather complicated quickly and would depend a lot on physical size factors, but generally something larger will be better. There is no \"golden ratio\" for pendulums." ]

[ "We are passionate about social impact, adept at analysis, and skilled at facilitating change. We partner with all types of organizations to create a more equitable and sustainable future. FSG is a mission-driven consulting firm for leaders in search of large-scale, lasting social change. Through our combination of customized consulting services, powerful ideas, and learning communities, we help foundations, businesses, nonprofits, and governments around the world accelerate progress." ]

[ "FSG rent… what on God’s green Earth does that mean? When renting commercial real estate there are 3 types of leases, Full Service Gross (FSG), Triple Net (NNN) and Modified Gross (MG). What does FSG stand for? FSG stands for Full Service Gross rent. FSG rents are most typically found in leases with Office Space buildings where there are multiple Tenants and there is no way to separately meter the utility usage of their respective spaces.", "FSG Technology. State of the art is now entry level. Trust the experienced professionals of FSG Technology for all of your infrastructure and audio-visual services.SG Technology. State of the art is now entry level. Trust the experienced professionals of FSG Technology for all of your infrastructure and audio-visual services.", "Guided by FSG and a global network of funders, the Shared Value Initiative was created in 2012 to drive the adoption and implementation of shared value strategies by organizations around the world. Learn more about FSG's contribution to shared value here.", "State of the art is now entry level. Trust the experienced professionals of FSG Technology for all of your infrastructure and audio-visual services.tate of the art is now entry level. Trust the experienced professionals of FSG Technology for all of your infrastructure and audio-visual services.", "More than 5400 patients are diagnosed with FSGS every year, however, this is considered an underestimate because: 1 a limited number of biopsies are performed. 2 the number of FSGS cases are rising more than any other cause of Nephrotic Syndrome.1.", "NephCure Kidney International ® is the only organization committed exclusively to support research seeking the cause of the potentially debilitating kidney disease Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and Nephrotic Syndrome, improve treatment and find a cure.", "FSG lsb_release v2.0 prints certain LSB (Linux Standard Base) and Distribution information.", "Finally, FSG drew extensively on the guidance. and feedback of an advisory group consisting of a broad. cross-section of turnaround actors, including state and. district leaders, philanthropic funders, human capital. providers, school operators, education entrepreneurs, and researchers. Please note that we use the term.", "Federal Supply Classifications To be successful in federal marketing, It is necessary to know the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and the Federal Supply Classification (FSC) code for your product or service.This is also referred to as a Procurement Classification Code (PSC).Each FSC code is derived from the category of Federal Supply Groups (FSG) or Service Codes that the product or service falls under. A list of major FSG codes appears below.his is also referred to as a Procurement Classification Code (PSC). Each FSC code is derived from the category of Federal Supply Groups (FSG) or Service Codes that the product or service falls under. A list of major FSG codes appears below.", "FSC is the Federal Supply Classification code and is derived from the Federal Supply Groups (FSG). These four digit codes help to classify and identify the products you sell. To find your FSC code, use the search utility at http://www.dlis.dla.mil/H2/ .AICS, PSC, FSC … The government certainly likes to assign seemingly random numbers to everything. However, these codes are how government agencies determine what your business does and if they have a need for your products or services. One digit out of place and your company could go from landscaping to event catering!", "FSGS is a kind of disease that the glomeruli has been damaged. Maybe people don't know what kind of disease FSGS is exactly, here we will take a simple example: there is a box, and it has many apples in it. Here the box stands for your kidney, and these appears are your glomerulis.", "Family Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (FSGLI) is a program provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs for the Spouses and dependent Children of members insured under the Servicemembers Group Life Insurance (SGLI) program.", "Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is a disease in which scar tissue develops on the parts of the kidneys that filter waste from the blood (glomeruli). FSGS can be caused by a variety of conditions. FSGS is a serious condition that can lead to kidney failure, for which the only treatment options are dialysis or kidney transplant. Treatment options for FSGS depend on the type you have. Types of FSGS include:", "FSGS: Dehydration And Protein In The Urine. Protein in urine (proteinuria) is one common symptom among FSGS patients and it will worsen renal damages and speed up illness progression if left untreated, therefore it is very important to know what will cause or worsen protein in urine so as to have targeted treatments and measures.", "Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) Expertise and rankings. Mayo Clinic treats more than 600 people each year who have FSGS. The large number of kidney specialists (nephrologists) at Mayo Clinic allows doctors to subspecialize in specific aspects of kidney medicine, including glomerular diseases such as FSGS.", "Change the General Ledger profile option Currency:Positive Format. This option determines how General Ledger and FSG display positive numbers. For example, if your positive format profile option is currently +xxx, FSG will print a positive number with a plus sign in front of it. If you change the profile option to xxx, FSG will print the number without the plus sign.", "Primary fsgs is not associated with positive ana. An elevated c4 is an acute phase reactant, meaning a protein that can be increased with a variety of diseases. Acute lupus erythematosus is associated with decreased c4. Moderate hypertension and elevated glucose do not explain the findings.", "About half of FSGS patients who do not respond to steroids go into ESRD each year, requiring dialysis or transplantation.6. Approximately 1,000 FSGS patients a year receive kidney transplants7 however, within hours to weeks after a kidney transplant, FSGS returns in approximately 30-40% of patients.8.", "Other simulators have 0.5 to 2 seconds of latency, which really disconnects the golfer from the feel of the chip and gives the short game in golf simulation a bad rap. A chip on the FSG sim flies, lands, and rolls in a natural, seamless, realistic way. – the way that you’d expect it to look and feel around the greens.", "Flue-gas desulfurization. Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) is a set of technologies used to remove sulfur dioxide (SO 2) from exhaust flue gases of fossil-fuel power plants, and from the emissions of other sulfur oxide emitting processes.", "FSGS Facts. More than 5400 patients are diagnosed with FSGS every year, however, this is considered an underestimate because: a limited number of biopsies are performed; the number of FSGS cases are rising more than any other cause of Nephrotic Syndrome.1 NephCure estimates that there are currently 19,306 people living with ESRD due to FSGS2 , in part because it is the most common cause of steroid resistant Nephrotic Syndrome in children,3 and it is the second leading cause of kidney failure in children.4", "Ferrell Gas Partners(FGP) is a propane supplier in the US, which serves approximately one million customers in all 50 states. FGP activities are operated through its partnership, Ferrellgas, L.P, and are conducted in only one segment. The Company focuses on the distribution and sale of propane and related equipment and supplies. FGP was founded in 1939, and is headquartered in Overland Park, KS.", "Power Generation. 1 First Gen Corporation- is the holding company of First Holdings in power generation and energy related businesses. 2 First Gas Holdings Corporation - First Gas Holdings Corporation (FGHC) is the holding company for the development of gas-fired power plants and other non-power gas related businesses. FGHC is now a wholly owned subsidiary of First Gen after the sale of the 40% interest of BG Philippines Holdings, Inc. this year.", "The U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) on Friday April 30, 2004 sent to Congress. significant changes to the federal sentencing. guidelines (FSG). The changes will take. effect November 1, 2004 unless Congress. disapproves them during the six-month. review period. The changes of interest to. audit and compliance professionals are the. amendments to Chapter 8, which address. sentencing guidelines for organizations.", "FSRU (Floating Storage Regasification Unit) is special floating vessel that stores gas and regasifies the LNG tanker. Studies on FSRU have been developed by many engineering and oil & gas company and some of them have been approved by ABS (American Bureau Standard). Currently several FSRU is under construction and will be operating in the near time. FSRU incorporate many of the same safety features as an LNG carrier and each of the technologies and components involved are tried, tested, and reliable.", "Natural Gas Service Group, Inc. Combined with innovative product advancements, cutting edge design, state-of-the-art equipment, exclusive product affiliations, and superior service, Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. (NGSG) is a premier provider of natural gas compression equipment and industrial flare systems.", "The GHIN service is a handicap system developed by the USGA and serviced by the FSGA. Over 500 clubs in Florida use the GHIN system, these clubs contribute annual dues that fund the activities of the Florida State Golf Association including the Florida Junior Tour.", "additional requisition(s) with new document number(s) shall be prepared and submitted for the remaining balance. AP2.6.3. Exception rule for ammunition and ammunition related items (federal supply group (FSG) 13 and federal supply classification (FSC) 1410, 1420, 1427, 1440, 5330, 5865, 6818 or 8140).", "FSGLI is an insurance plan for dependent spouses and children of active-duty service members who are covered by SGLI. FSGLI provides up to a maximum of $100,000 of insurance coverage for spouses and $10,000 for dependent children. However, you cannot purchase more coverage for your spouse than you have for yourself.", "LSG can refer to: 1 LSG (band), an R&B group. 2 L.S.G., a Techno-Trance project by Oliver Lieb. 3 LSG Sky Chefs, an airline catering company. League of Saint George, a far right 1 group. Loss of Strength Gradient, used in the context of military might; a theory that strength declines as distance increases.", "Segmental = sections. Glomerulo = of kidney filters. Sclerosis = are scarred. FSGS is a rare disease that attacks the kidney’s filtering units (glomeruli) causing serious scarring which leads to permanent kidney damage and even failure. FSGS is one of the causes of a serious condition known as Nephrotic Syndrome.", "Golar Spirit is a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU). It is the world's first FSRU converted from an liquified natural gas (LNG) carrier." ]

[ "traveling to Brazil, Canadian nationals with a valid Canadian Passport. are exempt of the Visitor's Visa (VIVIS)" ]

[ "Indian Citizens Will No Longer Need Brazil Visa, Says President. For now, visitors to Brazil with an Indian passport need a visa to enter the country. However, it has recently been announced that India and China will soon join the list of countries whose citizens can visit Brazil visa-free.", "Do Trinidad and Tobago citizens need a Visa to enter Brazil? Trinidad and Tobago citizens do not need Visas to travel to Brazil for visits up to ninety (90) days. However, for work and students visas, candidates must consult the Embassy of the Federative Republic of Brazil in Port of Spain.", "Canadian citizens traveling with a Canadian passport do not need a visa to enter Uruguay. Diplomatic, Service and Official Passports need a visa, and the request must be done through the Official Travel Section of the Government of Canada to any Consulate of Uruguay in Canada.", "Visa waiver for Indian tourists According to a Government of Brazil website, the country first waived visa requirements for tourists from Japan, Australia, US, and Canada on June 17 this year. The citizens of these countries do not need a visa to enter Brazil for a period of 90 days, extendable for another 90 days.", "As of June 16, 2019, U.S. citizens do not need a visa if they are traveling to Brazil for tourism, business, transit, artistic or sport activities, with no intention of establishing residence.", "Beginning June 17, U.S. citizens will no longer require a visa to visit Brazil. U.S. citizens will no longer need a visa to get into Brazil, Brazil Tourism said Wednesday. Beginning June 17, American citizens will no longer be required to obtain the passport stamp granting entry.", "Like US, Canadian or Australian citizens, Brazilians can visit the UK for up to six months without a visa. ... Brazil is fifth in the top 10 of illegal immigrant nationalities in the UK, according to Home Office figures for 2011, and is the only country on the list for which short-term visitors do not need a visa.", "You will need: A valid U.S. passport. As of June 16, 2019, U.S. citizens do not need a visa if they are traveling to Brazil for tourism, business, transit, artistic or sport activities, with no intention of establishing residence. ... Find a Brazilian consulate abroad.", "Visa requirements for Canadians Canadian citizens using Canadian passports do not need a visa to enter this country for limited stays.", "Canadian citizens traveling to Portugal for tourism do not need a visa as long as they spend 90 days or less in an Schengen Country. ... The Visa is issued directly by the Government of Portugal.", "Turkish Visa Information For Brazil Citizens. Brazil citizens - Official and ordinary passport holders are exempted from visa for their travels up to 90 days.", "Brazil visa for citizens of Ghana is required. For more information please contact the nearest Brazil embassy. Brazil Visa category as defined by Brazil Embassy. ... Brazil Consulate that issued a visa.", "Yes, Canadian citizens need a visa to enter Egypt, but this can be an electronic visa.", "If you are a Canadian citizen with a Canadian passport (travel document not accepted) and would like to travel to Sweden for a visit (tourism or business travel) and your stay will not exceed 90 days, you do not require a visa. ... For non-Canadian citizens a Schengen visa is needed.", "Brazil visa for citizens of Zimbabwe is required. For more information please contact the nearest Brazil embassy.", "Do Canadian citizens need a Tourist Visa to enter Malaysia? ... no, no visa required. You will get a 90 day permit to stay.", "Brazil visa for citizens of Zambia is required. For more information please contact the nearest Brazil embassy.", "NO. Only tourists are allowed to enter Brazil with an electronic visa.", "Do Canadian passport holders need a visa to go to Turkey? Yes, Canadian citizens need to apply for an eVisa to enter Turkey. You can check requirements here.", "Do Canadian Citizens Need a Visa for New Zealand? ... For trips of up to 90 days, Canadians must apply online for their New Zealand eTA. For longer visits, or to move to New Zealand, Canadians need to obtain a relevant visa through an embassy or consulate.", "Brazilians, Bulgarians and Romanians will still need a visitor visa if driving to Canada from the U.S. or arriving by bus, train or boat, including a cruise ship from Alaska (even if someone is not leaving the ship).", "Portuguese citizens, like 53 other nationalities, are exempt from getting a visa when they travel to Canada. Instead, if you plan to go there by air, you must obtain a Canada ETA.", "Mexicans don't need a visa to visit Brazil anymore. They used to. Americans do need a visa to visit Brazil. If one has two passports, then the Mexican one has to be used in order to skip the visa step. ;)", "Do Canadians need Visa to Russia? Yes, they do. A Russian visa for the citizens of Canada can be obtained either at the embassy or a consulate, wherein it is necessary to present an invitation to do this. One must also fill in an application form and pay a consular fee.", "MEXICO VISA FOR THE CITIZENS OF BRAZIL. The citizens of Brazil, like many other nationalities, are exempt from getting a visa when planning a trip to Mexico for tourist reasons. Nevertheless, you are still required to purchase a Mexico tourist card.", "Canadian Citizens If you are a Canadian citizen, you do not need a visa to enter the US unless you plan to work, study, invest or immigrate. Canadian citizens should carry a valid Canadian passport when entering the US or transiting through the US to another country.", "Brazil Cruise Visas As of June 17, 2019, visas are no longer required for American citizens traveling to Brazil.", "Regular entry requirements British nationals can normally enter Brazil without a visa as a tourist. ... If you wish to extend your stay while in Brazil, you should apply to the Federal Police for an extension.", "Canadian passport - Canadian citizens DO NOT need a visa to travel to the Republic of Serbia. It is allowed to stay up to 90 days in a 180 days period. Canadian Travel Document (Refugee Travel Document) require a visa for entry into the Republic of Serbia.", "Brazil Transit Visa. To enter Brazil, even if only for a few hours, you will need a visa. However, if you are only in transit through a Brazilian airport on your way to another country and do not plan to leave the transit area of the airport, you do not need a visa.", "South African citizens South African. passport holders do not need a visa to enter Brazil fot stays of up to 90 days for transit, tourism or business purposes. Nevertheless, it is recommended that.", "Canadian citizens using a Canadian passport do not require a visa to enter Colombia for tourism purposes. ... A Canadian tourist stay can range from 30 to 90 days." ]

[ "the Louvre" ]

[ "\"The Jewel In The Crown\"", "French", "a French cuff", "the French", "French Stewart", "a French stench", "French's", "french horns", "the French Revolution", "French doors", "a French manicure (or French tip)", "French Quarter", "\"The French Chef\"", "French fries", "French Open", "French & English", "French dressing", "French Cooking", "a french braid", "French Francs", "French & Russian", "a French dip", "The French Chef", "a French horn", "the (French) Academy", "Louisiana French", "French Guiana", "French (manicure)", "Samuel French", "French Toast", "a jewel case", "(Pierre-Auguste) Renoir" ]

[ "Is there life after death?" ]

[ "What do you think of life after death?", "What is the life after death?", "What evidence suggests there is life after death?", "How's life after death?", "Can we ever know if there is life after death?", "How would life be after death?", "Why do/ don't you think that there is (or should be) a life after death?", "Is there any tangible evidence for life after death?", "Is there any thing to prove life after death?", "Is there any solid evidence to suggest that there is life after death?", "Is there a heaven after death?", "Is there any hard proof of life after death?", "How well proven is life after death?", "What does life after death look like?", "If there is life after death, why do I live?", "How can you prove that life exits after death?", "How can we prove life after death?", "Do you believe that there's an afterlife?", "What do you believe in life?", "What evidence is there that there is something after death?", "Can science ever unlock the mysteries of death & life after death?", "What occurs after death?", "Setting aside religious teachings, what do you consider as possible evidence for life after death?", "What wil happen after death?", "How can you prove the existence of hereafter (life after death)?", "What happens after the death?", "Where we go after death?", "What are the theories as to what happens after death?", "Is there life after death? Can we revive our life once again as next avatar of ourselves?", "What will happen to us after death?", "Is there any purely scientific evidence that supports the idea that there may be life after death, in any form?", "Will we ever know what happens after death?" ]

[ "The prince visited the Mants'ase Children's Home in Maseru, Lesotho.\n\"Festive cheer! Despite it being 32 degrees, someone gave out Christmas hats and inevitably one found its way on to my head,\" he wrote.\n\"All the children, orphaned for one reason or another, absolutely loved the hats and balloons.\"\nPrince Harry was supporting the charity Sentebale which assists projects that work with disadvantaged children, many of whom have Aids or have become orphans because of the disease.\nHe was also photographed participating in the building of Mamohato Children's Centre.\nThis will give emotional and psychological support to young people affected by HIV and Aids.\nThe prince visited a Mamohato Network Club in Maseru and said: \"These are children who have never had the chance to talk about their illness, and who had no idea that they were one of so many in their age group.\n\"It was really emotional watching them interact with each other. Some really outgoing chatty kids, others slightly overwhelmed, but all with huge smiles.\n\"This confirmed to me again that what we're doing is going to change thousands of children's lives, and hopefully save a generation.\"\nPrince Harry also revealed his own love of photography and shared some images that he had taken.\n\"I have always enjoyed photography and the challenges that come with trying to capture the perfect shot, although privately I don't take many photos,\" he said.\n\"The best photos I have are in my head - I have some very special memories, mostly from Africa.\n\"But on this visit, I had the time and opportunity to be on the other side of the camera and take some photos in the stunning country of Lesotho for my charity, Sentebale.\"\nFollow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube" ]

[ "Speaking in an ITV documentary about his charity work in Lesotho, the prince said losing his mother at a young age made him question his position.\nHe said he used to \"bury his head in the sand\" but now views life \"very, very differently\".\nHarry co-founded the Sentebale charity with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho to help young people affected by HIV/Aids.\nThe 32-year-old prince told the programme: \"I always feel like I need to make something of my life.\n\"I was fighting the system, going 'I don't want to be this person; my mother died when I was very, very young and I don't want to be in this position'.\n\"But now I'm just so fired up and energised to be lucky enough to be in a position to make a difference.\"\nSentebale has delivered adolescent HIV testing and counselling services to more than 21,000 people since it was founded in 2006, and plans to expand into several sub-Saharan African countries by 2020.\nHarry was interviewed by broadcaster Tom Bradby, who shadowed the prince when he first visited Lesotho 12 years ago.\nThe prince said it was \"fun to be good and boring to be bad\".\n\"If you're me, if you're your Average Joe, whoever you are, if you can't affect politics and change the big things in the world then just do whatever you can do.\n\"Whether it's in your local community, your village, your local church, walking down the street, opening a door for an old lady, helping them cross the road.\n\"Whatever if it is, just do good. Why wouldn't you?\"\nThe programme, due to be broadcast on Monday 19 December, also features contributions from musicians Sir Elton John, Joss Stone and Chris Martin of Coldplay.\nHarry is reunited with a teenager he met on his first visit and is seen dancing with local children.", "The prince met staff and patients from east London's Mildmay Hospital, which has treated those living with the illness for more than 25 years.\nHe highlighted how his mother helped break the stigma around the illness when she kissed an Aids patient there.\nThe visit marked the official opening of the new £6m Mildmay Hospital.\nHarry, who put his signature in a visitors' book beneath a picture of Diana signing a photograph of herself during a 1991 visit, was told stories of his mother making private late-night visits to the hospital.\nKerry Reeves-Kneip, Mildmay's fundraising director, told Harry that Diana made 17 visits to the centre in Shoreditch - three publicly - and that staff faced discrimination from some neighbouring shops which refused to serve them.\nShe said: \"She [Diana] came at such an important time - around this area local barbers wouldn't cut staff's hair. She really did break down the stigma.\"\nMs Reeves-Kneip also told a story of one of Diana's visits. Speaking about Harry and his brother William, she said: \"There was a telephone call from a school - one of you had clambered on to a school roof.\"\nHarry joked that \"it was probably me\", and when told his mother \"found it amusing\", replied \"phew\".\nThe new hospital admitted its first patients in September.\nThe prince also cut a cake marking the charity's 150th anniversary, which is next year.\nMildmay began as a mission hospital in the mid-19th Century, providing care during a cholera outbreak in London, and became part of the NHS after World War Two before being closed down in 1982.\nIn 1988 it reopened as the first dedicated hospice for people dying of Aids-related illnesses.", "He joined families of fallen Special Air Service Regiment members to lay wreaths at Campbell Barracks in Perth.\nPrince Harry was accompanied by Australia's PM Tony Abbott when he flew into the city for the last engagement of his 36-hour official visit.\nHe is now heading to a Dubai fundraiser for his aids charity, Sentebale.\nPrince Harry, a captain in the British Army who has served twice in Afghanistan, met and had lunch with current and former members of the Australian SAS unit and toured their base.\nWreaths were laid in the Garden of Reflection at the barracks, and he also met members of groups which provide support to the unit.\nThe commanding officer, whose identity was only given as \"Lieutenant Colonel G\", said the unit was \"humbled and grateful\" that the prince had \"made the time to join us\".\n\"Prince Harry knows what it means to serve his nation on operations and most importantly what it means to the families of those serving,\" he said.\n\"Today's visit by His Royal Highness and the prime minister represents a unique opportunity to recognise the broader SAS regimental family that provides the back-up and support at home.\n\"Families play a critical role for those serving in the SASR, and indeed the whole of the Australian Defence Force, and we are thankful that the families of some of our serving, former and fallen members were able to be here today.\"\nOn Saturday, Prince Harry begun his first official trip to Australia by joining celebrations to mark its navy's arrival at Sydney Harbour 100 years ago.\nHe attended the International Fleet Review, featuring some 40 warships from 17 countries, including the Royal Navy's type 45 destroyer, HMS Daring.\nThousands of people flocked to the harbour as Prince Harry met crowds before boarding a boat for a reception with Mr Abbott at his official residence in the city.", "He has attempted to walk the line between his public and private lives. Inevitably, he has had to embrace publicity at times in order to promote the good causes he supports, but has also drawn a line when the attention has become too much.\nHarry's military career came to an end in June 2015, shortly after he was pushed down to fifth in line to the throne by the birth of his brother Prince William's second child, Charlotte.\nDuring his 10 years in the Armed Forces, Captain Wales, as he became known, saw action in Afghanistan twice, most recently in 2012 to 2013 as an Apache helicopter co-pilot and gunner.\nThe prince, now 32, has said his Army experience will \"stay with me for the rest of my life\".\nIn this new phase of his life centred around voluntary work, he has worked with conservation experts in sub-Saharan Africa.\nAnd, like his mother before him, his work in Africa has also focused on humanitarian causes, via the charity he set up, Sentebale, to help children affected by HIV and Aids.\nLast autumn, Harry continued his support of the charity Walking With the Wounded by joining five wounded service personnel for part of their 1,000-mile (1,600km) trek around Britain.\nThis follows a previous trek with the charity in which he walked 200 miles to the South Pole as patron of the South Pole Allied Challenge 2013.\nHarry has publicly supported a number of other military charities too, including Help for Heroes and ABF the Soldiers' Charity.\nIn March 2014, he launched the Invictus Games for injured members of the armed forces and in May 2016 the second incarnation of the event was held in Orlando.\nBut as well as his military and charitable work, the prince has previously been in the spotlight for less admirable reasons.\nAn early upset involved Harry smoking cannabis.\nSt James's Palace confirmed in January 2002 that the then 17-year-old had \"experimented with the drug on several occasions\" but said the use was not \"regular\".\nIn October 2004, there was a scuffle with a photographer outside a club.\nA royal spokesman said at the time that the 20-year-old prince \"was hit in the face by a camera when photographers crowded around him\".\n\"In pushing the camera away, it's understood that a photographer's lip was cut,\" the spokesman added.\nIn 2005, there was widespread outrage when an image came to light of the prince at a fancy dress birthday party dressed as a Nazi.\nClarence House later issued a statement saying: \"Prince Harry has apologised for any offence or embarrassment he has caused. He realises it was a poor choice of costume.\"\nAnd in 2009, Harry was forced to apologise for using offensive language to describe an Asian member of his Army platoon after video footage of the incident emerged.\nSt James's Palace said the prince was \"extremely sorry for any offence his words might cause\" but said he had \"used the term without any malice and as a nickname about a highly popular member of his platoon\".\nClarence House complained in 2005 that the prince's safety was put at risk when paparazzi followed Harry and his then girlfriend, Chelsy Davy, as they were driven along a dirt track in Botswana.\nThere was further difficulty for the prince when a former art teacher at Eton claimed she had done some of Harry's A-level coursework - allegations later rejected at a tribunal.\nHarry was a constant presence at the London 2012 Games, during which he was an Olympic ambassador.\nHe was highly visible during the Queen's Jubilee in the same year, and as part of the celebrations completed his first royal solo tour overseas with visits to Belize, the Bahamas, Brazil and Jamaica.\nHowever, photos appeared in August 2012 of the prince and a young woman naked in a Las Vegas hotel room - a reminder of his partying image.\nThe two photos, first published on US gossip website TMZ, were taken on a private break with friends, with the site reporting the prince was in a group playing \"strip billiards\".\nHe later said he had \"probably let myself down, I let my family down, I let other people down\".\n\"But at the end of the day I was in a private area and there should have been a certain amount of privacy that one should expect.\"\nPrince Harry's military career has undoubtedly been affected by media attention.\nHe was left disappointed in May 2007 when Army chiefs decided not to send him to Iraq because of \"unacceptable risks\".\nHe then spent 10 weeks serving in Afghanistan in 2008 - the first royal in more than 25 years to serve in a war zone - but had to pull out amid concerns for his safety after news leaked of his unpublicised deployment.\nHe returned to Afghanistan as an Apache helicopter pilot from September 2012 to January 2013, before qualifying as an Apache commander in July 2013.\nDespite his decision to leave the Army, Harry will return to work in a voluntary capacity with the Ministry of Defence's Recovery Capability Programme, supporting wounded or sick servicemen and women.\nBorn at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, on 15 September 1984, the prince was christened Henry Charles Albert David by the Archbishop of Canterbury in December 1984 in St George's Chapel, Windsor.\nBut it was officially announced from the start of his life that he would be known as Harry.\nHe attended the same schools as his brother William, starting at Jane Mynors' Nursery School in London in September 1987.\nIn 1989 Prince Harry joined Prince William at Wetherby School, moving to Ludgrove School in Berkshire in September 1992 and entering Eton in 1998.\nHe left Eton with a grade B in his art A-level and a D in geography. He had dropped his third A-level subject, history of art, after taking the AS-level exam.\nBefore joining the Army, Harry took a gap year, working on a sheep farm in Australia and with Aids orphans in Lesotho.\nAlthough he is now 32, many people around the world will find it hard to forget the image of him as a 12-year-old at the funeral of his mother, Princess Diana, in 1997.\nHe walked behind the hearse that carried his mother's coffin to Westminster Abbey, accompanied by his brother, father, grandfather and uncle.\nHarry was best man at his brother William's wedding in April 2011 and has since spoken of how hard it was not to have his late mother there.\nIn recent years he has had counselling to help him deal with his grief.\nIn a candid interview with the Daily Telegraph, he describes shutting down all of his emotions for nearly 20 years and refusing to thinking about his mother.\nThis, he said, had a \"quite serious effect\" on his personal life and his work, and brought him close to a breakdown \"on numerous occasions\".\nAs one of the world's most high-profile bachelors, Harry's love life has drawn much interest over the years.\nIn early 2014 speculation had been mounting that he might propose to girlfriend Cressida Bonas, but the couple then split up.\nIn late 2016, he confirmed a new relationship with US actress Meghan Markle, but felt forced to issue a statement accusing journalists of harassing her.\nHe described nightly legal battles to keep defamatory stories out of papers, attempts by reporters and photographers to get into her home and the \"bombardment\" of nearly every friend and loved one in her life.\nMs Markle, 35, may not have been a familiar name to British audiences, but she is better known in the US for her role as Rachel Zane in TV drama Suits.", "The Patron's Lunch will be attended by 10,000 guests - many from charities supported by the Queen - in London's The Mall, on Sunday 12 June next year.\nThe Duke of Edinburgh, Prince William and Prince Harry will attend the party.\nOrganiser Peter Phillips - the Queen's grandson - said his grandmother was \"excited\" at the prospect of the event.\nThe street party will be the culmination of a weekend of national events next summer to celebrate the Queen's official 90th birthday.\nA service of thanksgiving - which will be attended by the Queen and Prince Philip - will be held at St Paul's Cathedral on Friday 10 June.\nThe following day the traditional Trooping the Colour ceremony will be staged in Horse Guards Parade.\nCelebrations are also being held in May next year, including four events inside the grounds of Windsor Castle.\nThe Mall will be lined with picnic tables for the street party, during which guests will enjoy a hamper-style lunch, organisers say.\nOf the 10,000 tickets, 7,500 will be allocated guests from the Queen's charities and organisations, 1,000 will be made available for public ballot, and 1,500 will be provided to the event's official partners.\nMembers of the public will also be able to share in the festivities at live sites situated in Green Park and St James's Park.\nThe street party will raise money for the new Patron's Fund, which will be used to support specific initiatives and projects run by the Queen's charities.\nMr Phillips, who is helping to organise the street party in his role as director of events agency Sports Entertainment Ltd, said the celebration would emphasise the Queen's support for her charities.\n\"We want to reflect the service she's given to all her organisations and charities,\" he said.\nSpeaking of his grandmother, he added: \"She's obviously been kept abreast through her office about all the developments, and the times I've had the chance to talk to her she's been excited by it.\"\nThe Queen is patron of a wide range of organisations, including children's charity Barnardo's, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, and Great Ormond Street Hospital.\nThe Patron's Organisations is a collection of 626 charities and organisations that span 16 different sectors and are represented across the UK and the Commonwealth.", "Touching photos captured at last October's WellChild awards showed the prince embracing Ollie Carroll, six, who has Batten disease.\nThe rare condition means he is unable to speak or walk, but his parents said he \"found the strength\" to throw his arms around Prince Harry at the bash.\nThey spent an hour \"making memories\" at Great Ormond Street Hospital earlier.\nOllie, from Poynton, Cheshire, and his family, said they would \"treasure\" the experience forever.\nA Kensington Palace spokeswoman described the reunion at the London hospital on Tuesday as a \"private visit\".\nThe occasion was not an official engagement.\nOllie and his sister Amelia, who also suffers from Batten disease, were in the hospital getting treatment.\nWriting on their Facebook page, Ollie's mum Lucy said he and his sister had been granted access to a pioneering treatment for CNL2 Batten Disease and she had written to the prince to tell him they \"finally had some hope\".\n\"We thanked him for giving our son the strength to stand when we thought this was no longer possible,\" she said.\n\"On Tuesday whilst at Great Ormond Street Hospital getting treatment, Ollie and Amelia got a very special personal visit from Prince Harry.\n\"For an hour Prince Harry sat with us talking and playing with our children, laughing and making memories.\n\"The love, the support and the laughter within that treatment room will stay with us forever.\"\nThe prince is patron of WellChild, which provides specialist care and support for chronically-ill children.", "The event, marking Mother's Day in the US, involved around 50 children making gift bags for their mothers.\nThe prince's appearance was a surprise for the children and their parents.\nHe also visited an exhibition highlighting the work of a landmine charity supported by his mother, Princess Diana.\nMrs Obama, along with Vice-President Joe Biden's wife Dr Jill Biden, hosted the event in the White House's state dining room to honour military mothers.\nIt was part of their Joining Forces project, an initiative to encourage Americans to support the military and their families.\nMrs Obama said: \"It is an honour to welcome Prince Harry to the White House today.\n\"As you all may know, Prince Harry is a captain in the Army Air Corps in the British armed forces.\"\nThe reference to the prince's military role received a loud cheer from the guests.\nThe first lady added: \"We are absolutely thrilled he could be with us today. He just arrived in DC. He only has a limited time here. But when he heard about this tea and all of you, he wanted to be here to personally thank you for all your service.\"\nBy Peter HuntRoyal correspondent\nTake one British prince. Place him on American soil. Add some female admirers. And the seeds of \"Harry mania\" are planted.\nIt is not Beatlemania. Nothing like it. But it is an indication of the interest there is here in the unmarried son of Diana.\nFor an ancient institution that needs to be noticed, the cheering of wannabe princesses does not harm.\nBut from a palace perspective, this trip will have failed if the talk is only about an eligible bachelor and the suitors who want to settle down with him.\nThe prince - a more complex character than the caricature of a playboy prince conveys - is in the US to focus attention on landmines, on the work being done with injured service personnel, and on some other charities he supports.\nThat will be his focus in the coming days. Others, in a land where fairytales are regularly committed to film, may have a different focus.\nThe White House was a memorable place for his mother, she famously danced with John Travolta at a dinner hosted there by Ronald Reagan in 1985 on her first official visit to the US.\nPrince Harry helped the children to construct goody bags including bouquets of roses, edible salted dough jewellery and baked crisps.\nHarry also attended an exhibition by the Halo Trust, an anti-landmine charity his mother supported when she visited a minefield being cleared by them in Angola in 1997.\nThe prince became patron of the Trust's 25th anniversary appeal this year.\nThe exhibition featured photographs detailing the story of landmines, including an amputee landmine victim, Halo staff clearing ordnance and land cleared from mines being used.\nThe images came from a range of countries including Sri Lanka, Angola and Afghanistan.\nFiona Willoughby, the Halo Trust's marketing manager, welcomed the prince's presence: \"People have forgotten about it and we think Prince Harry following in his mother's footsteps is a worthy cause and will raise the profile of what we are doing.\n\"He's a soldier he's been to Afghanistan so he understands landmines, he understands conflict and the landmine clearance that's needed.\"\nPrince Harry had previously promoted the charity's work in 2010 in Mozambique, where he detonated mines under supervision and visited victims.\nMrs Willoughby is hopeful that the problem of landmines can be resolved if governments pledge support: \"We don't want to be here in another 25 years, we are looking for government support, if it comes and the funds come in the job can be done and we can get it finished.\"\nPrince Harry is in the US on a week-long tour and will also be promoting his own charities and attend the Warrior Games, a sporting championship for injured servicemen and women.", "The pictures were taken in late November and show the prince in a courtyard at Kensington Palace.\nThe young Prince is now almost 17 months old.\nThe shots of the prince were taken by Ed Lane Fox who works for Prince Harry and is also a photographer.\nBBC royal reporter Peter Hunt said one reason Prince William and Catherine have shared the photos is to say thank you to the media.\nThe couple is pleased that unofficial pictures of Prince George, taken by paparazzi photographers, have not been published.\nThey want Prince George to grow up without newspapers and television cameras intruding on his life.", "She became Prince William's girlfriend in 2001, the couple having met while studying at St Andrews University, Fife, where they shared student digs.\nTheir wedding at Westminster Abbey some 10 years later, in April 2011, was watched on television by millions of people around the world.\nThe announcement in December 2012 that the couple were expecting their first child - and the subsequent arrival of Prince George, and then his sister Princess Charlotte - thrust the duchess into the media spotlight like never before.\nCatherine Middleton was born on 9 January 1982.\nShe grew up in Bucklebury, Berkshire, where her parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, run a mail-order business selling toys and games for children's parties from a converted barn close to their home.\nThe eldest of three children, she was educated at the exclusive Marlborough College in Wiltshire, where she was described as level-headed, popular and talented, and captained the school hockey team.\nHer younger sister Pippa has raised her profile since she was maid of honour at the royal wedding. She has written a party-planning book and also writes for magazines.\nHer brother James has founded a number of companies, including one that makes personalised marshmallows.\nAfter they met at St Andrews, where Catherine studied art history, the young couple's relationship apparently flourished during weekends together on the Queen's Balmoral estate.\nFor a while, at least, they were guaranteed some privacy, following an agreement worked out between the palace and press while Prince William was a student.\nBut the media silence did not last, and Catherine was first brought to the public's attention after several tabloids pictured her beside Prince William and Prince Charles at the Swiss ski resort of Klosters in 2005.\nThe photographs appeared despite efforts by aides to keep the holiday private.\nNewspaper interest grew when Catherine graduated, moved to London and started work as an accessory buyer for High Street clothes shop Jigsaw.\nIn October 2005, after the publication of a photo which showed her looking out of a window on a London bus, her lawyers wrote to newspaper and magazine editors asking them to respect her privacy.\nThey claimed photographers had followed Catherine almost every day and night since she left university.\nSpeculation over an engagement was sparked in February 2006, when it was suggested she would receive her own royal security.\nIn December 2006, Catherine was again in the headlines after she and her mother attended a ceremony at Sandhurst Royal Military Academy, to watch Prince William being commissioned as an army officer.\nThe occasion was notable as the first time she had been seen at a high-profile public event attended by the Queen and other senior royals.\nRumours of an engagement reached a peak around the time of Catherine's 25th birthday in January 2007, when the media scrum took up residence outside her Chelsea home.\nThe paparazzi free-for-all drew inevitable comparisons with the prince's late mother, killed in a car crash in Paris while being pursued by photographers.\nPrince William and Prince Charles appealed for her to be left alone, and some newspapers agreed to stop using paparazzi shots of her.\nMedia pressure appeared to take its toll and was blamed when the couple split in April 2007, although no official statement was issued by either.\nReports of a reconciliation were denied in June 2007, with the couple insisting they were \"just good friends\" after being spotted together at the Concert for Diana at Wembley.\nThey were then seen in public on a number of occasions.\nCatherine was present when the prince received his RAF wings from his father at RAF Cranwell in April 2008, and in Windsor when he became a Knight of the Garter in June.\nThe couple announced their engagement in November 2010, and at the time Catherine said joining the Royal Family was a \"daunting prospect\".\n\"Hopefully I'll take it in my stride,\" she added.\nThe duchess supports a number of charitable organisations through her own charity, the Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.\nShe is also patron of Action on Addiction, East Anglia's Children's Hospices, the Art Room, National Portrait Gallery, Place2Be, SportsAid, The 1851 Trust, 100 Women in Hedge Funds, and the Natural History Museum.\nIn December 2012, St James's Palace announced that the Duchess of Cambridge was expecting a baby, and that Catherine had been admitted to hospital with acute morning sickness.\nShe stayed in hospital for several days before being discharged, but her stay was marred by the suicide of nurse Jacintha Saldanha after two Australian DJs made a hoax call to the hospital.\nBaby Prince George was born on 22 July 2013 at 16:24 BST, weighing 8lbs 6oz, in the private Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, west London - where Princess Diana gave birth to her sons.\nThe couple spent the first few years of married life on Anglesey, north Wales, where the Duke of Cambridge worked as a search and rescue pilot with RAF Valley.\nBut, following the announcement that the duke was leaving the military, the couple left the island to set up home in a refurbished apartment in Kensington Palace, London.\nThey also have a home on the Queen's Sandringham Estate - Anmer Hall.\nPrince William now works as an air ambulance pilot, flying with the East Anglian Air Ambulance, a job he started in July 2015.\nThe duchess's second pregnancy was announced in September 2014, with the duchess again suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum.\nPrincess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana was born at the Lindo Wing on 2 May 2015 at 08:34 BST, weighing 8lb 3oz.\nShe has rarely been seen in public, although photographs have been released sporadically, including one in which she is sat on her great-grandmother's knee to mark the Queen's 90th birthday.\nWhile George was already a royal tour veteran by the time of his first birthday, having accompanied his parents to Australia and New Zealand in April 2014, his sister is yet to take part in an overseas visit.\nThe duke and duchess's most recent official overseas tour was a seven-day trip to India and Bhutan in April 2016.\nAs part of the visit, they were photographed on the bench at the Taj Mahal where Diana, Princess of Wales, had been pictured 24 years previously.\nThe couple have also undertaken official visits to North America and Canada in 2011, to South East Asia in 2012 to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, and to the east coast of the United States in December 2014.\nIn October 2015, the pair attended their first state banquet since their marriage. The Buckingham Palace event was held during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping.\nThe duke and duchess then jointly hosted - along with Prince Harry - a dinner for US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle when they visited the UK in April 2016.\nThe duchess's interests include scuba diving - she became an advanced scuba diver in August 2015 - and photography, having taken the photographs to mark Princess Charlotte's first birthday and a set released when her daughter reached six months old.\nThe duchess was chosen as the cover star of the June 2016 edition of British Vogue, in her first sitting for a magazine.", "These diseases were \"not always as a result of lifestyle choices\", he said, adding they \"deserve higher priorities then they have been given at present\".\nMr Wilson's comments came in an e-mail sent last week to a constituent who had asked his MP if he would wear a red ribbon supporting a campaign in relation to World Aids day.\nThe DUP MP told his constituent that considerable resources had been put into dealing with AIDS \"sometimes at the expense of other illnesses which affect people, such as dementia and cancer, and which are not always as a result of their own behaviour\".\nMr Wilson said he appreciated his constituent's concerns about AIDS but added: \"You will appreciate that there are people who suffer from mental health problems, dementia and cancer which also have a huge impact on their lives and which are equally deserving of resources\".\nOn Tuesday, the Stormont Assembly passed a motion brought by the DUP which expressed concern at \"the levels of stigma experienced by people living with HIV\" and acknowledged \"the need for a new campaign to promote awareness and prevention, specifically tailored to Northern Ireland\".\nDuring the debate, the DUP MLA Trevor Clarke admitted that he had not known that heterosexuals could get HIV until it was recently pointed out to him by a local charity.\nMr Clarke is a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly's health committee.\nHowever, another of the motion's proposers, health committee chair Paula Bradley, told MLAs she knew personally how HIV affects people because it affected someone she loves.\nThe DUP MLA for North Belfast said she would \"stand up and fight and do whatever I can to help anybody who is living with HIV or is at risk of contracting it\".", "He will visit Washington DC in October for events linked to the Orlando 2016 Invictus Games.\nIn November and December, he will open a Lesotho children's centre and fulfil a \"programme of engagements\" in South Africa on behalf of the UK government.\nThe prince, 30, left the Army in June after 10 years' service.\nHe is currently working on conservation projects in southern Africa.\nHe is due to return to the UK in mid-September, when he will do voluntary work helping injured soldiers with their rehabilitation.\nThe visit to Lesotho will be on behalf of Harry's charity Sentebale. During the visit he will officially open its Mamohato Children's Centre, which will help vulnerable children.\nHis trip to South Africa is at the request of the Foreign Office, and while there he will represent the UK government.\nJudith Macgregor, British High Commissioner to South Africa, said: \"The visit will showcase the wide range of co-operation between our countries as well as offer an excellent platform to further develop the partnerships between the UK and South Africa and Lesotho.\"\nHarry had the idea for the Invictus Games, which was first held in London in 2014.\nThe 2016 games will be held from 8-12 May next year in Orlando, Florida.", "On Tuesday, the DUP's Trevor Clarke admitted he did not know heterosexual people could contract HIV until a charity explained the facts to him.\nSir Elton was appearing on the Victoria Derbyshire programme on Friday.\nShe asked him about his charity foundation and a survey that showed many myths about Aids and HIV endure in the UK.\n\"I'm not surprised,\" Sir Elton replied. \"A Northern Ireland politician said the other day he didn't know that heterosexual people could get Aids, or HIV.\n\"So, it's like: 'What planet are you living on?'\"\nSir Elton did not refer to Mr Clarke by name.\nMr Clarke made the admission in a Northern Ireland Assembly debate calling for a new HIV awareness campaign.\nHe was later accused of \"unconscious homophobia\" by Foyle MLA Eamonn McCann.\nThis was after Mr Clarke claimed an amendment by Mr McCann, stressing the disproportionate impact on gay and bisexual men, added to \"stigma\" on HIV.\nAddressing the assembly, Mr Clarke said: \"When I came here in 2007, I would have dismissed the possibility that I would speak about HIV today, because I was one of those who did not understand the stigma attached to it.\"\nThe DUP MLA added: \"I have to put on record my thanks to Jacquie Richardson from Positive Life. Meeting her for the first time was a turning point for me, having been ignorant of the fact that the disease also affects heterosexual people.\n\"For that reason, I have no difficulty supporting what the motion calls for,\" he said. \"The work that Positive Life did in changing my opinion - not only my opinion but that of many others - helped to remove the stigma.\"", "The duke said he wanted his children to be able to express their feelings.\nPrince William's comments come after Prince Harry revealed he had sought counselling after spending nearly 20 years \"not thinking\" about the death of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.\nPrince Harry has been praised for speaking out by the prime minister and mental health charities.\nTheresa May said his decision would help \"smash the stigma\".\nPrince William's comments came in an interview - alongside Prince Harry - with a magazine produced by the charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (Calm), which is dedicated to preventing male suicide.\nThe future king and his brother are using the intense interest they generate to focus attention on a cause they are increasingly passionate about, BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt says.\nPrince William talked about his \"tipping point\", which was his exposure to suicide - the biggest killer of men aged under 45 in the UK - through his work as an air ambulance pilot.\nHe told Calm that while there might be a time and a place for the \"stiff upper lip\", it should not be at the expense of people's health.\nThe duke highlighted the importance of role models opening up about their mental health, including grime artist Stormzy.\n\"The recent interview by Stormzy about his depression was incredibly powerful and will help young men feel that it's a sign of strength to talk about and look after your mind as well as your body,\" he said.\nHe added that he and the Duchess of Cambridge wanted their children - George and Charlotte - to grow up able to talk about their emotions and feelings.\nPrince Harry has acknowledged his own failure to do that.\nIn an interview with the Daily Telegraph on Monday, he said it had not been until his late 20s that he had processed the grief of losing his mother when he was 12 1997.\nBefore reaching that point, he had endured two years of \"total chaos\" and come close to a \"complete breakdown\", he said.\nMrs May said: \"Mental health problems affect people of all ages and all backgrounds.\n\"The bravery of those in public positions who speak out about their experiences helps smash the stigma around mental health and will help thousands of people to realise they are not alone.\"\nMental health charity Mind described the interview as a \"true turning point\".\nFiona Pienaar, director of clinical services at children's mental health charity Place2Be said: \"Prince Harry's willingness to talk so intimately about the impact of the loss of his mother 20 years ago, as well as how he has processed his grief, is a gift from the young royal.\"\nThe two princes, along with the Duchess of Cambridge, are promoting the Heads Together mental health campaign, the London Marathon's charity of the year.\nA two-part series, Mind Over Marathon, starts on BBC One at 21:00 BST on Thursday 20 April, as part of a Minds Matter series of programming about mental health issues.", "The four pictures show the princess being cradled by her elder sibling as they sit on a cream couch at Anmer Hall in Norfolk, their family home with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.\nThe pictures were taken by Catherine just weeks after Princess Charlotte was born on 2 May.\nIn an earlier tweet, Kensington Palace said the images were \"very special\".\nIn each of the pictures, Charlotte is lying on her brother's lap, wearing white. The prince is wearing a white shirt, blue shorts and blue socks.\nIn one, he appears to be kissing his sister on the forehead.\nThe Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children have been at Anmer Hall since leaving London shortly after the birth of the princess.\nPrince William and Catherine are expected to be based there for the next few years as they raise Princess Charlotte and Prince George, who is almost two, with the help of a full-time nanny.\nPhotography is listed as one of the duchess's hobbies in her biography on the royal website. The pictures were taken on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera.\nThe first official images of Prince George, released in 2013, were taken by the duchess's father, Michael Middleton, in the garden of their home in Bucklebury, Berkshire.\nCommentary: BBC Royal Correspondent Peter Hunt\nThe photographs provide a rare glimpse of, as things stand, the future of the British monarchy.\nSuch glimpses will remain reasonably rare as these royal children grow up.\nThey'll next be captured together when Princess Charlotte is christened in July.\nIn all of these four images the baby princess - just a few weeks old at the time the photos were taken by her mother - is in the arms of her brother, Prince George.\nAs the toddler destined to be king continues to adjust to having a new addition to his family, his parents will hope the 22-month-old and the one-month-old will forge a bond as strong as the one enjoyed by Princes William and Harry.\nHarry has spoken of how they understand each other and give each other support.\nHis older brother told someone recently that George was very lively and Charlotte had given her parents a \"few sleepless nights\".\nRead more from Peter on his correspondent page\nOn Friday, it was announced Princess Charlotte will be christened on 5 July.\nThe christening will take place at St Mary Magdalene Church at the Queen's Sandringham estate.\nPrincess Charlotte was born on 2 May at London's St Mary's Hospital, weighing 8lbs 3oz (3.7kg).\nThe fourth in line to the throne, her full name has been registered as Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge.", "His tentative steps were captured on Sunday as princes William and Harry lined up on opposing sides in the Jerudong Trophy at Cirencester Park Polo Club.\nIt is believed to be the first time the baby prince has been seen taking to two feet in public.\nGeorge - who is third in line to the throne - will turn one next month.\nHe was also seen playing football on the sidelines of the charity polo match.\nIt was an \"impromptu family day out\", Clarence House said.", "The images show the prince at the family's Norfolk home, Anmer Hall, and were taken in mid-July by photographer Matt Porteous.\nOne image shows the prince playing with the family dog Lupo.\nPrince George Alexander Louis - known as His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge - was born on 22 July 2013.\nA Kensington Palace spokesman said: \"The Duke and Duchess hope that people will enjoy seeing these new photographs.\n\"They would like to thank everyone for all the lovely messages they have received as Prince George celebrates his third birthday.\"\nHowever, the RSPCA has criticised the picture of Prince George holding an ice cream close to the mouth of the family dog.\n\"It is lovely that Prince George is trying to help keep his family dog, Lupo, cool in these high temperatures,\" a spokesman said.\n\"We would advise people to be cautious when giving their dogs food meant for human consumption as some items, like chocolate, can be highly toxic to dogs and dairy items can be difficult for them to digest.\n\"Instead of ice cream we would suggest making an ice lolly from pet-friendly ingredients. Making these can be really fun for children and the end product is both safe and enjoyable for dogs.\"\nPaula Boyden, veterinary director at the Dogs Trust charity, agreed.\nShe said she \"would always advocate seeking methods to keep your dog cool, but possibly not in the form of an ice cream, unless it is a dog-friendly version\".\n\"The cow's milk and sugar content in ice cream can sometimes lead to digestive issues. Whenever you do treat your dog, do consider the ingredients and always seek the advice of your vet,\" she added.", "On Sunday, the royal couple will visit Sheway, which has helped vulnerable mothers since 1993 in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, an area of the city that has become synonymous with urban poverty and substance abuse.\nThe visit is part of the upcoming Canadian tour by Will and Kate, and one of their first engagements over the week-long visit.\nManager Patti Zettel, who described the duke and duchess's planned visit as \"mind-blowing,\" noted Sheway was modelled on a facility in Glasgow, Scotland, that had received Princess Diana's support.\n\"It shows a commitment to a particular group of marginalised individuals - women and addiction - for a quarter of a century now by the royal family,\" she said.\nPrincess Diana, Prince William's mother, embraced a wide range of humanitarian causes before her death in 1997. She advocated for the homeless and vulnerable youth, and took a personal interest in some unpopular causes of the time, including people with HIV/Aids.\nThe Sheway stop itself is brief - it's expected to last about an hour - but is important to the programme's clients.\n\"It's a validation that their lives and their experiences have meaning and that their stories deserve to be told,\" Zettel said.\nBesides the visit to Sheway, over the course of some 30 separate engagements the duke and duchess will pay tribute to veterans of the Afghanistan conflict, will visit staff and volunteers who helped support Syrian refugees recently welcomed to Canada, will meet first responders, will travel to the Great Bear Rainforest - the world's largest temperate rainforest - and will meet a number of First Nations communities.\nWhile the tour itinerary nods to Princess Diana's legacy and doesn't shy away from social issues, it also offers many opportunities to showcase the breathtaking natural beauty of British Columbia - Canada's western-most province - and the Yukon, a territory in the country's north.\nNathan Tidridge, who has written extensively on the monarchy, said Canadians rarely spend time thinking about the royal family despite the fact that Queen Elizabeth is the Canadian monarch.\nStill, Tidridge said Canadians will tune in due to the \"glossy magazine\" aspect of the youthful royal family. By highlighting efforts towards reconciliation with Canada's First Nations, conservation and charity work, these tours help \"tell our national story\".\n\"Any moments that gather us together as a community are really, really, important. It's those intangible moments that royal tours really offer us,\" he said.\nThis is Will and Kate's second visit to Canada as a couple. They were previously in Canada in 2011, shortly after their wedding.\nThe Duke and Duchess will travel with their two young children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.\nAs during the 2011 visit, the family is expected to be a popular draw.\nShachi Kurl, executive director of the polling group Angus Reid Institute, said coverage of royal tours in Canada tends to be positive, and Canadian opinion on the royal family tends to be personality driven - many like and respect the Queen and her grandson Prince William, though have lukewarm feelings towards the Prince of Wales.\nBut they are divided over the role of the monarchy in this country.\n\"When you remove the personalities from the equation and ask the bigger question about who should be our head of state, should we continue as the monarchy, or is that an outdated notion - there you do see some pretty big division in this country,\" she said.\nCarolyn Harris, an historian and author, said that Will and Kate, as young, modern and relatable royals, have sparked a renewed interest in the royal family among Canadians.\n\"There is a sense now of there being a very clear future for the royal family [in Canada].\"\n24 Sept Victoria, British Columbia: Their Royal Highnesses, accompanied by their children Prince George and Princess Charlotte, arrive in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia.\n25 Sept Vancouver, British Columbia: The Duke and Duchess will visit Sheway, the Immigration Services Society of British Columbia, an event celebrating young leaders in Canadian arts, music, sport, charity, business, and film, and finally the visit the Kitsilano Coastguard Station.\n26 Sept Bella Bella and the Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia: The Duke and Duchess will travel to the Great Bear Rainforest, visit with the Heiltsuk First Nations community and attend a reception hosted by the province of British Columbia at Government House.\n27 Sept Kelowna, British Columbia and Whitehorse, Yukon: They will tour the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia and take part in the BC Government's \"Taste of British Columbia\" festival at Mission Hill Winery before flying to Whitehorse, where they will be greeted by members of the Canadian Rangers.\n28 Sept Whitehorse and Carcross, Yukon: Will and Kate will visit the MacBride Museum and meet members of Whitehorse's cultural community before travelling to Carcross, where they will be welcomed by the Carcross/Tagish First Nation.\n29 Sept Victoria, British Columbia: The royal couple and their children attend children's party in the grounds of Government House, which will be attended by military families.\n30 Sept Haida Gwaii, British Columbia: The Duke and Duchess visit Haida Gwaii, the archipelago on the northern coast of British Columbia and is home to the Haida Nation. They will attend the opening of the new Haida Gwaii Hospital and Care Centre. They will join local youth for a fishing expedition on the waters of Hecate Strait.\n30 Sept Victoria, British Columbia: The royal couple will visit the Cridge Centre for the Family, which provides services and support for women who have experienced domestic violence. They will then meet families who have received support from the Kelty Mental Health Resource Centre and later youth working with the Sail and Life Training Society. They end their tour with a public official departure ceremony at Victoria Harbour Airport.", "BBC News readers and people on social media have been sharing their photos. Here is a selection:", "13 January 2017 Last updated at 15:58 GMT\nSend your photos to nipics@bbc.co.uk.", "World events, and \"the idea of not being around to see your children grow up\", affected him much more since the births of Prince George and Princess Charlotte, the 33-year-old prince said.\n\"The smallest things\" now made him well up, he said in an ITV documentary about his father's Prince's Trust charity.\nPrince Charles said he hoped his sons would take over the trust one day.\nSpeaking to presenters Ant and Dec - Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly - alongside his brother Prince Harry, the Duke of Cambridge said: \"I'm a lot more emotional than I used to be, weirdly.\n\"I never used to get too wound up or worried about things. But now the smallest little things, you well up a little more, you get affected by the sort of things that happen around the world or whatever a lot more, I think, as a father.\n\"Just because you realise how precious life is and it puts it all in perspective. The idea of not being around to see your children grow up and stuff like that.\"\nDuchess' portraits of Princess Charlotte released\nPrince William 'very happy' with daughter\n'Prince William adamant over George privacy'\nIn the 90-minute programme When Ant and Dec Met The Prince: 40 Years of the Prince's Trust, which will be aired on Monday evening, the Prince of Wales said people initially \"didn't see the point\" of his charity.\nThe trust's early history had been the \"same story of my life\", Prince Charles added - of having to \"overcome\" people who did not believe in it.\nHe recalled setting up the charity in 1976, using the £7,400 he received in severance pay when he left the Royal Navy to fund a number of community schemes.\nSince then, the Prince's Trust has grown to become one of Britain's leading youth charities and has reached more than 825,000 young people.\nHowever, the prince said getting the trust off the ground had been \"quite difficult\", adding: \"It is a bit of the same story of my life really, you had to overcome all these people who didn't see the point.\"\nAsked about the possible involvement of his sons in the charity, he said: \"I hope one of them might take an interest in it because I am probably getting past my sell-by date now.\"\nIn the documentary, Princes William and Harry also paid tribute to their father's charity work, saying he had an \"insurmountable amount of duty in him\".\n\"He is incredibly driven to do his duty and that from a very young age has been instilled in him,\" Prince William said, adding: \"It is where a lot of his passion and his drive comes from.\"\nPrince Harry said the advice he has given his two sons throughout their lives had been \"incredible\" - although the brothers joked that he had at times made them cringe.\nPrince William said on one occasion his father had convulsed with giggles when a pyrotechnic explosion went off at the wrong moment as he was playing the role of narrator in a Christmas play.\n\"He couldn't stop laughing the whole way through the production,\" he said.\n\"Several times I'd stop... I'd cast an eye across, like you know, a big death stare, and then I'd try and get back to my lines, it was terrible.\"\nSpeaking in the same documentary, the Duchess of Cornwall said she was \"really proud\" to be married to somebody who \"had the vision\" to launch the Prince's Trust when aged 27.\n\"I mean it was an incredible idea then,\" Camilla said.\nAsked how Prince Charles maintains his enthusiasm for the charity, she replied: \"I don't know, he just has that energy.\n\"You know if you're passionate about something you can do it, he cares so much about these young people.\"\nWhen Ant And Dec Met The Prince: 40 Years Of The Prince's Trust, will be screened on ITV on Monday at 21:00 GMT.", "1 December 2011 Last updated at 17:02 GMT", "Prince William joked that it was \"good to get out of the house\" - but said he had to buy some nappies for his son, born on 22 July, on his way home.\nHe also added: \"I've got to make sure I'm not too late back!\"\nThe prince said his son \"likes to move around a lot, he wriggles a lot, he keeps us on our toes\".\nHe scored the winning goal in the match, which was his first public appearance since Prince George was born.\nThe match, in which his brother Prince Harry also played, was the 11th annual challenge game in support of charities SkillForce and the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, of which Prince William is patron and president respectively.\nThe duke is currently on paternity leave from his job as an RAF search and rescue pilot.\nMeanwhile, Prince Charles received presents and cards for his grandson from well wishers as he attended the Mey Games - the world's smallest Highland games competition - in Caithness.", "Catherine visited the Anna Freud Centre, in London, which conducts research into the issue, along with caring for children and young people.\nWhile there, she donned a pair of 3D glasses to take part in a game to aid concentration and co-ordination.\nThe duchess also met senior managers and chatted with parents and children.\nDuring the visit - her first since giving birth to her daughter in May - Catherine joined 12-year-old Capone in a game to keep track of a tennis ball jumbled up among a group of others.\nShe also tried her hand at the centre's cardio wall where pupils are encouraged to hit coloured lights in a given time period.\nThe duchess then met parents and their children on a tour of the school, and discussed the charity's plans for a new centre of excellence.\nBy Peter Hunt, BBC royal correspondent\nAll senior royals need causes to champion. It's not enough nowadays to just turn up to major events.\nAt the start of his long wait to fulfil his destiny, Prince Charles solved the problem of what to do with his time by founding the Prince's Trust.\nYounger royals are encouraged to support existing organisations, rather than launch one themselves.\nPrince Harry obviously ignored that advice when he set up his charity in Lesotho.\nWith this visit today, the Duchess of Cambridge is signalling that one of her key focuses will be the care of children and young people who are experiencing mental health problems - problems said to affect one in 10 of that age group.\nThe hope among those she met today is that Catherine's involvement will help to de-stigmatise a problem and bring light to something which, to a degree, has been in the shadows.\nRead more from Peter Hunt\nCatherine visited one classroom to watch as parents reviewed their children's behaviour.\nAmong the children who met the duchess was Mia, 12, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and a condition known as oppositional defiant disorder.\nMia, who has been attending the school for a year, said: \"I thought she was going to be very, very posh but she's actually really, really nice. I didn't expect that.\"\nShe added: \"Coming here has really helped me with my self control and temper and confidence.\"\nNeil Dawson, one of the co-founders of the school, said the royal visit had been \"very helpful\" to the charity.\n\"Anything to do with mental health is very much at the bottom of the pile in medical terms,\" he said.\n\"To get somebody who puts a lot of emphasis on supporting it, that's absolutely brilliant.\"\nArriving at the centre, the duchess was greeted by Peter Fonagy, the charity's chief executive, who praised her visit as a milestone for his organisation.\nThe visit is \"a very significant step on our journey to try and establish a good mental health for children and young people in England\", he said.\nMichael Samuel, chairman of the charity's trustees, told Catherine and other guests it was \"no secret to anyone in this room that mental health is fast becoming an overriding priority for us all\".\n\"The attention that mental health is now getting is long overdue but the harsh reality of the situation is this - one in 10 children and young people, and one in four adults experience mental issues at some time in their life,\" he said.\nThe centre, which began life in 1941, is named after Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychoanalysis and daughter of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.\nIt is planning the development of a new centre of excellence in London's King's Cross, which will see experts in mental health, neuroscience and education work with children and families to develop new treatments and approaches.\nThe family school, which opened on a temporary site in September last year, provides alternative education for children who are at risk of exclusion and are struggling to achieve.", "The four photographs were taken in April at their family home in Norfolk.\nThe princess, who turns one on Monday, is seen walking - with the aid of a baby walker filled with blocks - for the first time in one of the images.\nKensington Palace said the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were \"delighted\" to share the new pictures of Charlotte.\nThe princess was last seen in public at her christening last July - the first time the Cambridges had been seen as a family of four.\nPhotographs of the princess have been released sporadically, the most recent before her birthday pictures being one in which she is sitting on her great-grandmother's knee to mark the Queen's 90th birthday last month.\nThe Duchess of Cambridge took a series of photographs in the weeks after Charlotte's birth, in which she is seen being cradled by brother Prince George, and another set to mark her daughter's six-month milestone.\nIn March, the duke and duchess released a series of photographs taken on their skiing holiday to the French Alps.\nKensington Palace said in a statement: \"The duke and duchess are very happy to be able to share these important family moments and hope that everyone enjoys these lovely photos as much as they do.\"\nThe new photographs show Charlotte wearing a blue collared dress with matching tights and white cardigan, and a similar outfit in pink.\nThe duke, duchess, Charlotte and Prince George live at Anmer Hall, on the Queen's Sandringham Estate.", "Harry told a welcoming reception that he wanted to \"shine a spotlight on the resilience\" of the Nepalese people.\nThe prince will meet survivors of April and May's earthquakes - which killed nearly 9,000 people - and Gurkhas who helped the rescue efforts.\nIt is the prince's first official visit to the country.\nThe trip is celebrating 200 years of joint relations between Nepal and Britain.\nSpeaking at a reception held by the Nepal government to welcome him, Prince Harry said: \"I pay my respects to those who perished and hope to do what I can to shine a spotlight on the resolve and resilience of the Nepalese people.\n\"I want to show all those people around the world who want to help that this is a country open for business - so please come and visit again.\"\nBy BBC royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell\nHe is someone who likes to help if a cause has moved him.\nHe's demonstrated that with his campaigning for injured veterans and his support for his own HIV charity in Southern Africa.\nThe calamity which befell Nepal almost exactly a year ago is another of those events with which Harry has felt instinctive sympathy.\nThe earthquake which struck Nepal on 25 April last year caused more than 8,000 deaths and left hundreds of thousands homeless.\nPerhaps in part Harry's affinity with Nepal is rooted in the Gurkha connection.\nHe served with Nepal's famous fighting men during his first tour of duty with the British army in Afghanistan in 2007 and he will meet Gurkha families when he visits the mountain villages from which these soldiers are recruited.\nBut his first task on this short visit was to express solidarity with the country as it struggles to recover from last year's earthquakes.\nIn a speech at a reception shortly after his arrival in Kathmandu, Harry paid his respects to the victims of the earthquake and said he hoped to highlight what he called the \"resolve and resilience\" of the Nepalese people.\nThat resilience has been tested over the past year. Reconstruction work has, people say, been painfully slow.\nIn Harry, Nepal has someone who gives every sign of wanting to fight their corner.\nHarry is due to visit heritage sites hit by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake on 25 April and the second tremor on 12 May.\nHe served with the Gurkhas in Afghanistan, as a soldier in the British Army, and will meet members of the brigade during his visit.\nThe Gurkhas - whose name comes from the Nepalese hill town of Gorkha - began joining the East India Company, and later the British army.\nThey have since served in every major conflict involving British forces for two centuries, and won 13 Victoria Crosses - the highest British military decoration for valour.\nMore than 200,000 Gurkhas fought in the two world wars, and there are about 2,600 Gurkhas currently in the British armed forces.", "10 September 2014 Last updated at 16:41 BST\nThe games are the brainchild of Prince Harry and will bring together inspiring athletes from around the world.\nIt's a special sporting competition for people injured when serving in the armed forces.\nThe prince has served in the Army in Afghanistan and said he was proud to help organise the event.\nThe word \"invictus\" is Latin and means \"unconquered\" - so the games symbolise strength in adversity.\nIt will go on for four days with more than 400 competitors from 13 nations competing in nine different sports.\nHayley's got more on the games.", "BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt tweeted that the break-up was \"said to be 'amicable' and they remain 'the best of friends'\".\nHe said the prince was \"keen, according to those who know him, to make it clear the relationship didn't end because he found Cressida 'too needy'.\"\nTheir attendance at their first official engagement together in March had prompted engagement speculation.\nThe pair sat together and embraced in the stands at Wembley Arena at a We Day UK charity event.\nSpeculation had since mounted that the fourth-in-line to the throne would pop the question with his 30th birthday looming.\nNews of the split came as Clarence House announced Prince Harry would embark on a three-day official visit to Estonia and Italy next month.\nThe trip, from 16 to 19 May, will see the prince meet a range of servicemen from World War Two veterans to serving military personnel.\nPrince Harry and Miss Bonas, 25, were reportedly introduced by Princess Eugenie in the summer of 2012.\nIt was not long after their meeting that photographs of a naked Prince Harry partying with a group of girls in a Las Vegas hotel room were front-page news across the world.\nThe couple then endured a five-month separation when the prince was deployed to fly Apache helicopters with the British army in Afghanistan.\nTheir relationship resumed when he returned and the pair were often photographed together attending various events, like the Glastonbury music festival and a society wedding.\nAccording to the Daily Telegraph, it was unwanted media attention and engagement speculation that led to the pair's split, while the Press Association reported the couple decided to go their separate ways to allow Miss Bonas to focus on her career.\nShe completed a year-long contemporary dance course at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire in Greenwich, south London, last year, before securing a marketing job in the city's West End.\nMiss Bonas is the daughter of Old Harrovian businessman Jeffrey Bonas and Sixties \"It girl\" Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon, who once posed semi naked, streaked in engine oil, for a coffee table book called Birds of Britain in homage to her racing driver grandfather Francis, the 5th Earl Howe.\nNews of the split coincided with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's third wedding anniversary. Prince William and Kate famously broke up for several months four years before they married in 2011.\nOn Tuesday, Prince Harry visited Tedworth House in Tidworth, Wiltshire, where he met 25 athletes hoping to take part in the Paralympics-style Invictus Games.\nThe sporting championship for injured members of the armed forces, which the prince launched in March, will see servicemen and women take part in sports like wheelchair basketball, indoor rowing and sitting volleyball.\nHarry's visit to Tedworth House marked the beginning of a selection process for the event.\nThe prince has further commitments over the coming months. On top of visiting Estonia and Italy, he will travel to Brazil and Chile in June on a trip expected to coincide with the World Cup.\nThe prince's most serious previous girlfriend was Zimbabwe-born Chelsy Davy. They had an on-off relationship while Harry was training in the Army and overseas, and while Chelsy was at university in her home country.", "The prince said the images had been taken in circumstances in which he had a reasonable expectation of privacy, as it was on a private beach.\nPrince Harry was on the beach with his girlfriend Meghan Markle.\nMail Online said it had been provided with credible information that the prince had been on a public beach.\nPrince Harry also complained that he was engaged in private activities unconnected to his public role and was unaware that he was being photographed.\nThe prince said Mail Online had made no attempt to seek his consent or to establish the circumstances in which the photographs had been taken before publication.\nThe article, published on 4 March, was headlined: \"Time to cool off! Happy (and hunky) Prince Harry enjoys a dip in the ocean as he and Meghan relax on the beach in Jamaica.\"\nIt included several photos showing Prince Harry wearing swimming shorts, at a beachside bar and in the sea.\nMail Online said it had relied on the information it received and had published the images in good faith.\nIt added that it was unfortunate and regrettable that it had been misinformed about the circumstances in which the images had been taken and it had not been its intention to cause distress to the prince.\nIn its ruling, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) said: \"The complainant had been photographed during his leisure time on a private beach at a private resort.\n\"Indeed, the article itself stated that the complainant was staying at a private resort.\"\nIt continued: \"The images, which had been taken without consent, showed the complainant wearing swimwear and engaging in private leisure activities in circumstances in which he had a reasonable expectation of privacy.\n\"Photographing an individual in such circumstances is unacceptable, unless it can be justified in the public interest.\n\"The publication had not sought to justify the publication of the images in the public interest.\"\nIpso ordered Mail Online to publish the adjudication on its website.\nPrince Harry also complained to the watchdog on the basis of accuracy but this was not upheld.", "The prince was welcomed to the village of Surama in the Iwokrama rainforest with a feathered headdress, before he watched a cultural dance around a pole.\nHe met rangers to learn about the steps being taken to protect the rainforest and the benefits of eco-tourism.\nPrince Harry later visited a school and the Kaieteur Falls - one of the world's largest freefall waterfalls.\nOn the penultimate day of his Caribbean tour, the prince took a flight to the Iwokrama International Centre which has a close link to the Prince of Wales, who has been its patron since 2000.\nHe then visited Fairview village to pay his respects to its elders, as well as going to the local school.\nThe prince was also taken to an open-air community hall, where he was given presents including a painting of traditional homes.\nHe gave a speech which praised the people of the remote community, saying: \"My father told me what an amazing time he had here, when he was far younger and had far more hair.\n\"The positive thing you are doing here, it's incredible, your leadership is so important to ensure the protection of this place.\"\nThe final stop of the day was the Kaieteur Falls, which has a drop of 250 metres - five times as high as Niagara Falls.\nEarlier in the week, the prince met Barbados's biggest star, Rihanna, when the pair sat side by side at a celebratory concert. They also both took part in a HIV test to highlight World Aids Day in Bridgetown.\nGuyana is the only English-speaking country in South America.\nBetween 1780 and 1813, Guyana changed hands between the Dutch, French and British.\nGuyana was home to the 1978 Jonestown massacre - a mass suicide by more than 900 members of the People's Temple religious sect led by Jim Jones.\nClick here to read more about the country of Guyana", "Media playback is unsupported on your device\n9 July 2015 Last updated at 09:20 BST\nThe Patron's Lunch will be attended by 10,000 guests - many from charities supported by the Queen - in London in June next year.\nThe Duke of Edinburgh, Prince William and Prince Harry will be at the party too.\nOrganiser Peter Phillips - the Queen's grandson - said his grandmother was \"excited\" about the event.\nThe street party will be the finale to a weekend of national events to celebrate the Queen's official 90th birthday.", "Lennox accepted the award for her \"outstanding contribution to British music\" and her charity work.\nThe former Eurythmics frontwoman is one of the UK's most successful solo artists, selling in excess of 80 million records and winning eight Brit awards.\nPaying tribute, singer Adele called her \"an example of a brilliant talent\".\n\"So many of her songs have been the soundtrack to my life,\" she added.\nMore than 1200 guests attended the charity event in Aid of Nordoff Robbins and The BRIT Performing Arts & Technology School.\nLennox, 58, said she was \"very touched and honoured\" to receive the award.\n\"Music has given me a lifetime of experiences and opportunities that I would never have dreamed possible, and I feel very privileged to have been able to become an artist and communicator, especially as a woman.\"\nShe performed a number of her hit singles including There Must Be An Angel, No More I Love You's and Here Comes The Rain Again.\nBorn in Aberdeen, Lennox trained at the Royal Academy of Music before becoming lead singer of the band The Tourists. Along with her fellow band member Dave Stewart, she went on to form the Eurythmics, who enjoyed a string of hits throughout the 80s.\nLennox released her acclaimed debut solo album Diva in 1992 and went on to record Medusa in 1995, both of which topped the UK album chart.\nIn 2004, she won an Oscar for her song Into the West which appeared in the Lord of the Rings film sequel, The Return of the King.\nLennox's charity work includes her support of Greenpeace and Amnesty International but she is best known for her work fighting Aids. In 2007 she established the SING campaign, dedicated to raising funds and awareness for women and children affected by HIV and Aids.\nIn 2010, Lennox was named as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Aids.\nIn another recorded tribute, Archbishop Desmond Tutu called her \"one of those exemplary human beings who chose to put her success in her chosen career to work in order to benefit others\", adding \"she is a true friend of Africa and of South Africa.\"\nSir Elton John called the award \"well deserved\" while actor Stephen Fry added: \"She shines, that's what she does, she has her lustre and gleam. As a humanitarian, Annie stands alone.\"\nPretenders singer Chrissie Hynde said: \"The world is a better place when you sing.\"\nThe Music Industry Trusts Award has raised over £4.5 million for Nordoff Robbins and the BRIT Trust. Past recipients include Sir George Martin, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir Tom Jones.", "3 January 2016 Last updated at 12:39 GMT\nIt was set up by Prince Charles 40 years ago and has become one of Britain's biggest youth charities and has helped more than 825,000 young people.\nIn the programme, William and Harry tell Ant and Dec how they go to their Dad for help and advice and how becoming a father has changed William.\n\"I'm a lot more emotional than I used to be, weirdly.\n\"I never used to get too wound up or worried about things. But now the smallest little things, you well up a little more, you get affected by the sort of things that happen around the world or whatever a lot more, I think, as a father.\"\nPrince Charles said he hoped his sons would take over the trust one day.\nWhen Ant & Dec Met The Prince: 40 Years of The Prince's Trust, will be broadcast on Monday 4th January, 9.00pm, ITV" ]

[ "Both are a form Of coercion" ]

[ "Helping someone for free and having someone else paying me for doing it.", "Doing something to help someone else, without any thanks or other reward, because it needed to be done", "You can't fake being someone else forever. Go somewhere to have fun. Be sure there's something to do in between conversations so things don't get dull.", "Stop focusing on being better than someone. Just... you do you.", "Stop being a terrible person and try to do something that is not for your benefit or pleasure. Try doing something that benefits someone else. You will be amazed at the feeling of satisfaction in helping someone else just for the sake of helping someone and not doing it for the recognition.", "Being the catalyst for someone else's rock bottom.", "Get someone else to do it.", "Not do that to someone else.", "Doing someone else's chores", "How do I delete someone else's post?", "Do you have a better word to use when someone is being - cringey?", "Being reborn continually. I just think that the environment around you really shapes who u are. I just wanna try being someone else", "Having the power to do something doesn't mean you can't be lazy as fuck and want someone else to do it for you anyway", "When someone tells you to do something when you were about to do it", "I guess that depends on how much you understand where your opponent is coming from and how harmful you perceive their views/actions to be.\n\nThe more you understand the more you can tolerate even if you do not condone.\n\nI guess the other way would be out of necessity where you have work with someone but they either have more power than you or equal and therefore you can't risk your livelihood.", "Oooooh someone’s weighing whether or not to do something.....", "Instinct more than anything I'd say, are they making unreasonable requests of you? treating you or behaving around you in an uncharacteristic way that puts you under stress of any kind? , if you feel it in your gut that you are being coerced or manipulated, you likely are.", "When you'd get anybody - and I mean *anybody* - so long as they belong to a specific ethnicity.\n\nDoesn't matter if you don't actually like them or they rape pigeons a living. Gotta catch 'em all!", "How do I delete someone else's comment?", "How do I delete someone elses Reddit account?", "Being loved by someone", "There is no failing at being you. Attempt to be someone else and you have very few chances of succeeding.", "Marketing vs. insulting vs. medical determination", "Killing. You can't exactly effectively change behavior if someone is dead, but if you threaten, you might just be golden.", "If people are just laughing and it's genuine, they're just expressing themselves. fuck you for being annoyed by someone else's expression of joy. Why would you even attempt to stifle someone's joy just because you're annoyed by it. ass.", "I think society should help them to have the desire to help themselves but shouldn't hand out things to them. This tells them they can use other people. They receive without giving.", "I don’t think that’s something you can make someone do", "When someone is being a dick to you for no reason.", "Wouldn't the latter technically lead to the former, and/or vice versa?", "It depends on the situation, i have met someone who was fed with a golden spoon needless to say but was amazing and would help people if they were in need (buying groceries for people, buying families-in need winter clothes, etc.) so I really think its amazing to see people like that, that understand what they have and do good with it, on the other hand i use to work with a guy who could have been passed down a million dollar company that his father owned but would only let him have the company if he got sober, guy was bouncing around rehab to rehab and couldnt kick the drugs because he \"was born to run the streets\". People like that i hold alot of distaste for and dont even try to associate with, considering i grew up with the lights and water consistently going out and having something like that would be the opportunity of a lifetime that would realistically never happen in my life.", "music. \n\nit's horrible to force people to sing in front of other people if they don't want to.\n\nIf someone likes or has a talent for music they'll figure it out on their own.", "Because there is an underlying assumption that in order to succeed you must do some unethical and borderline illegal things. \n\nTake the \"walmart\" or \"amazon\" argument. The idea is that they got big and successful was by paying their employees \"slave wages\". Nevermind the fact that they both have fantastic business models, and provide a needed and valuable service." ]

[ " How to make a duct tape belt. It's really easy. " ]

[ " An easier way to make a duct tape bracelet by folding duct tape in half and make a little tab at the end so it is retractable. ", "Ever wanted make a bullwhip, but didn't want to pay for thirty feet of leather? Then a duct tape bullwhip is the way to go! Duct tape is extremely durable, cheap, and waterproof!", "A duct tape flower can make a great addition to a duct tape dress, outfit, bag, or it can be a fun accessory for any given outfit. If you want to make a duct tape flower, all you need is duct tape, scissors, a stapler, and the desire to flex your creativity muscle.", " For anyone who wants to make an awesome crown with duct tape. ", "If you want to make a big statement at your next party, a duct tape purse is just the ticket. Duct tape purses are a cheap and easy way to stand out from the crowd, and making accessories with duct tape has become surprisingly trendy.", " Making a duct tape skirt is fun, easy, and cute! Just follow these steps, and you'll be on your way. ", "Making your own wallet may seem like a daunting task, but this guide will show you how to make a clean duct tape wallet with a colored stripe and four card pockets.", "Here's a cool craft - making a necklace out of duct tape flowers is a fun project, and comes out looking great. Make one for yourself, or make one as a gift for a friend or a loved one!", "Have a random ball and some duct tape? Or do you want to know how so you can teach your friends? Read on to find out how to make your very own duct tape ball!", "The duct tape challenge is a game that originated online, where the one person is wrapped in duct tape by someone else or a group of friends and is filmed as they try to break free from the duct tape.", "Duct tape is like the force. It has a dark side, and a good side, and it holds the universe together. Here's a how-to on selling your duct tape stuff.", " Need a snoot to focus your light? Don't have a snoot handy and need it now? Here is how to make one with duct tape! ", "Duct tape crafts make great projects for kids (as well as for grown-up duct tape fanatics). Since turtles are generally liked by everyone, here you'll learn how to make two turtles from duct tape--a simple, flat one and a more realistic, three-dimensional one.", "Duct tape is an inexpensive, everyday household item that can be used for almost anything including fashion. Whether you’re bored, searching for a new look, or want to give your dad a funny gift for father’s day, create a fun and simple alternative to the traditional tie with one made entirely from duct tape.", "Have an emergency need for a band? Need a way to fasten something to something. Duct tape will do just about anything. Here is how to make one that you can use with your photographic gear (no sticky edges).", "Duct tape accessories continue to fascinate the DIY crowd. With a range of amazing colors and patterns now available for duct tape, you can easily whip up neat duct tape bracelets in a variety of colors and styles for yourself and friends.", "Duct tape purses are just one of the many crafts in the duct tape world, but they are certainly one of the most useful ones. Punky and cool, they can be used as real purses, and last a long time too thanks to their sturdy nature.", "If your duct tape wallet isn't enough to hold what you carry with you, make something bigger. This duct tape tote is waterproof, perfect for your small yappy dog and whatever else you carry in your purse , and can be made to match with your duct tape miniskirt.", "Duct tape crafts are super fun to do and there is nothing easier than a duct tape bow! These bows are very pretty and you can be as creative as you like when it comes to experimenting with different colors and patterns.", "Duct tape was initially created during the World War Two era as a waterproof tape for the army to use. Now however, duct tape is widely available to the public and can be used for a variety of fun crafts projects.", " Want to make a Xbox 360 duct tape skin. Here's how to do so. ", "With duct tape craft mania still in full throttle, it only seems fitting to make yourself a Game Boy or DS case from duct tape too! It's a strong and protective case that will keep your Game Boy or DS snug inside.", "These cute little accessories are adorable and fun! They're made out of patterned duct-tape, and are a fun way to stand out! There are many ways to decorate them too!", " Do you have some colorful duct tape left over after making a wallet or other project ? Use it to create and decorate your own custom pencil case. ", "If you have a taste for the unconventional, enjoy do-it-yourself, or simply love arts and crafts, whip out that roll of duct tape and turn it into something useful.", "Both a crafty fashion statement and utilitarian chapeau, a duct tape top hat is a fun craft project. Grab a roll of the do-it-all tape in any color and get ready to look dapper.", "This guide explains how to make a duct tape 'scene' bow. What exactly makes 'scene' is left entirely to the reader's imagination. If you enjoy simple, quick crafts and have a penchant for decorating yourself or your possessions with duct tape, get started at step number one below.", " Sometimes, when making something with duct tape, you need the edges to be square. This is how you do it. ", "Have you ever wanted to create a useful, funky decoration for your room? A duct tape bowl is perfect. Follow these steps to create a basic bowl that you can add your own personal flair to.", "You can make just about anything out of duct tape, from bookmarks to wallets to prom dresses, but did you know that you can make flip flops too? Because they are made out of duct tape, they are not quite as durable as regular flip flops, but they are a fun craft to make, and perfect for a costume, event, or party.", "Duct tape jewelry has become a loved craft and the end results can be quite stylish. Tear down the walls of fashion and welcome the do-it-yourself aesthetic.", "Have you ever needed a pencil pouch, but didn’t have the money or the time to get one? If so, you’ll be pleased to know that you can make a pencil pouch out of something you likely have in your house right now: Duct Tape!" ]

[ "Publishing Shakespeare | Folger Shakespeare Library Editors in every ageincluding the presenthave addressed a variety of ... Poems | Early quartos | The First Folio | Later editions | A variety of forms .... Classroom editions of the plays appeared as English literature became a standard school...", "June 26, 2008 Dextran, starch & glycogen are examples of these, meaning \"many sugars\" ... Standard editions of Shakespeare contain these numbered 1-154 Sonnets;sonnet...", "Jeopary Questions page 1746 - SAMS OF THE CINEMA - Trivia Bistro CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST: For zavtrak in this country, you might have tea, black bread ... Standard editions of Shakespeare contain these numbered 1-154.", "Rare and Collectible Books by William Shakespeare - AbeBooks While quarto editions of some of the plays and poems were published during ... Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies (Fourth Folio) by William Shakespeare ... many of these collector's editions are also illustrated by well known artists, such as Salvador ... Limited, numbered edition of Hamlet, in German, published in 1928 by...", "WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE SONNETS with text of each sonnet Sonnets are formal poems and consist of 14 lines (3 quatrains and a couplet) ... The title page to the second edition contains the inscription \"By W. Shakespeare\" but ... in which they were written and in all probability were numbered by the printer ... The text of these famous William Shakespeare sonnets can be accessed by..." ]

[ "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes (Sonnet 29) - Poems ... When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes (Sonnet 29) - When in ... That edition, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, consists of 154 sonnets, all written in the form...", "William Shakespeare - Wikipedia William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the ... Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy ..... A third narrative poem, A Lover's Complaint, in which a young woman ... the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote...", "WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE SONNETS with text of each sonnet Educational resource with full text of all William Shakespeare Sonnets. ... The publisher, although reputable, clearly wanted to make use of the celebrity of ... the inscription \"By W. Shakespeare\" but only five of the poems appear to be his. ... and Sonnets 153-154 are fairly free adaptations of two classical Greek poems.", "Shakespeare's sonnets - Wikipedia Shakespeare's Sonnets is the title of a collection of 154 sonnets by William Shakespeare, ... The capital letters and periods following each word were probably intended to ... \"Our Ever-Living Poet\", according to Foster, refers to God, not Shakespeare. .... The Sonnets rose steadily in reputation during the nineteenth century.", "William Shakespeare | Poetry Foundation While William Shakespeare's reputation is based primarily on his plays, he ... quality to his repudiation of Venus's treatise, her idle over-handled theme. .... Unlike the narrative poems, they enjoyed only limited commercial success ... The 154 sonnets are conventionally divided between the young man ...... Renaissance.", "List of Shakespeare Sonnets | William Shakespeare Facts Click here for a complete list of all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets, with links to the full ... Sonnet 1 - From fairest creatures we desire increase ... Sonnet 24 - Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd ... Sonnet 37 - As a decrepit father takes delight ... Sonnet 60 - Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore.", "Manchester University Press - Shakespeare's storms Shakespeare's storms - Browse and buy the Hardcover edition of ... Category: Literature, Literature: history & criticism, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, English,...", "Shakespeare's sonnets - Wikipedia Shakespeare's Sonnets is the title of a collection of 154 sonnets by William Shakespeare, which covers themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man; the last 28 to a woman. The sonnets were first published in a 1609 quarto with the full stylised title: .... With the famous Sonnet 18 (\"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day\") the...", "Publishing Shakespeare | Folger Shakespeare Library When William Shakespeare died in 1616, only about half of his plays had ever been ... Poems | Early quartos | The First Folio | Later editions | A variety of forms ... as a playwright, published two long poems, Venus and Adonis and Lucrece. .... well enough that it was followed nine years later by the 1632 Second Folio, full of...", "The Sonnets and A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare ... Leslie said: Sonnet #29 is a perfect example of why these poems are really not for ... ... William Shakespeare is a global icon for his plays such as Hamlet, Macbeth and ... on love are among the most powerful and evocative poems ever written. .... The book contains 154 sonnets and A Lover's Complaint (I am sure we could...", "Bacon, Shakespeare and Henry VIII - Sir Francis Bacon's New ... Jun 29, 2016 ... Malone(1) in the Prolegomena to his edition of Shakespeare, 1790, was the first to draw ... of familarity with Tudor law can readily show that there is hardly a single play ... was performed by the King's Players in 1613, together with a lost play, licensed for .... \"I come no more to make you laugh; things now", "Chronology of Shakespeare's plays - Wikipedia This article presents a possible chronological listing of the composition of the plays of William Shakespeare. Shakespearean scholars, beginning with Edmond Malone in 1778, have attempted to reconstruct the relative chronology of Shakespeare's oeuvre by various means, primarily ..... The 1619 text was printed with the 1594 quarto of 2 Henry VI under the title...", "Director's Notes Vol. III - The Brewing Dept. Oct 1, 2014 ... I have ripped the raw text from the lovely MIT Shakespeare site. ... What I've done is relabel each scene while retaining the scene divisions most editors have adopted. ... first capital roman numeral is the act, the lower case roman numeral ... on stage only once in the entire play and its for about three lines.", "orson welles' intermedial versions of shakespeare in theatre, radio ... CHAPTER 1: 1937-1939: THE FEDERAL THEATRE PROJECT AND FAUSTUS; ..... when he provided illustrations for Roger Hill's editions of Shakespeare plays for high- ... The stage version showed the actors in fascist-like .... 9 The series changed its name to The Mercury Shakespeare, taking advantage of the...", "PlayShakespeare.com Forum: Library of Congress: Shakespeare on ... U.S. Paul Gregory & Associates, 1953. ... Guy Burgess. HALLMARK HALL OF FAME: Hamlet. ... OMNIBUS: \"To Be or Not To Be: Some Views of Shakespeare's Hamlet.\" ... Adapted from the first folio edition of Shakespeare's play performed in 1600, The ..... A filmed presentation of Prokofiev's ballet, made in a studio with the", "William Shakespeare facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com ... Shakespeare's first extant play is probably The Comedy of Errors (1590; like most dates for ... characters with convincing representations of the human life he knew. ... this time in love; and in 1600 the pastoral As You Like It, a mature return to the ... despite its one strong character a relatively weak play; and the second and...", "The Elements - Site Index Alphabetical Chart of Chemical Elements contained in the Standard Periodic Table. ... of Elements, Elements Symbol & Atomic Number. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11", "All About Bingo - Arrow International contained numbers from 1 to 9 in the first row, 10 to 19 in the second row, etc.., up to 90. ... players would cover the number if it appeared on their card. ... it was going to be called Bingo! .... FREE SPACE NUMBER - enables you to verify the winning ..... standard. These features include the Cash Pay Out and. Win Guard...", "Shakespeare authorship question - Wikipedia The Shakespeare authorship question is the argument that someone other than William ... Shakespeare's authorship was first questioned in the middle of the 19th .... published with the author unnamed) and in two of the five editions of poetry, .... was meticulous in his efforts to attribute books and plays to the correct author,...", "The Secret Love Story in Shakespeare's Sonnets | Helen Gordon ... Two fine scholars specializing in the Elizabethan Era, Dorothy and Charlton Ogburn, made a ... These plays were not published during the author's lifetime, though a few pirated .... As a professor of English, I have long recognized Shakespeare's genius and loved ... Who is the \"dark lady\" referred to in Sonnets 127-154? 4.", "Who were Shakespeare? | Francis Bacon Society Prior to the First Folio of 1623, twenty of the Shakespeare plays including Macbeth, .... The Lord Treasurer, the Duke of Lennox, and the Earls of Pembroke and Arundel. ..... normally allow, and will form the theme of a future edition of Baconiana. 2. ... of Pembroke and Montgomery and chief dedicatees of Jonson's dedication.", "Where does \"Hamlet\" take place? | Reference.com The play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, takes place in Denmark. The bulk of the play takes place within Elsinore Castle, seat of the King of ... A: Most scholars accept that William Shakespeare wrote 38 plays and 154 sonnets.", "Henry IV, Part 1 - Shakespeare in quarto - British Library The creation of Henry IV, Part 1 - Shakespeare's works and plays. ... It was first published in 1598 as The History of Henrie the Fourth, apparently to advertise a ... In the earliest quarto, Shakespeare's character had become Sir John Falstaff. ... This quarto exists only as a fragment of four leaves, quire C. The manuscript from...", "William Shakespeare 38 plays 154 sonnets. - ppt download Reflected in his work: The Rape of Lucrece in 1594 Romeo and Juliet in .... \"What we see there are not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms ... if a man may so say, of generous in them; there are vices wherein there is a .... The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century 1660-1800 Holt 6 th Course By C.F Main.", "William Shakespeare - Wikipedia William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the ... He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, where he ..... In 1623, in conjunction with the publication of the First Folio, the Droeshout ... In the early 17th century, Shakespeare wrote the so-called \"problem plays\"...", "William Shakespeare facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com ... The English playwright, poet, and actor William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is ... survive from Shakespeare's school years, his literary work shows the mark of the ... and his twin, Judith, 1585-1662) and who was to survive him by 7 years. ..... act in 1623 of gathering his plays together and publishing them in the Folio edition.", "Shakespeare on Audio - WordPress.com Orson Welles's innovative Mercury Text Records series issued by Columbia Records in ..... Concise Acting Versions of Five Great Shakespeare Plays: Hamlet, Macbeth, ... While still in his late teens, Orson Welles collaborated with Roger Hill, his ... available on CD, but without the accompanying Mercury Shakespeare texts.", "154 Km - Distance from Bitterfontein to Loeriesfontein 154 Km - Distance from Bitterfontein to Loeriesfontein.", "Henry VI, Part 1 - Wikipedia Henry VI, Part 1, often referred to as 1 Henry VI, is a history play by William Shakespeare, and ... 1 Characters; 2 Synopsis; 3 Sources; 4 Date and text ... Richard then goes to see his uncle, Edmund Mortimer, imprisoned in the Tower of London. .... Due to the publication in March 1594 of a quarto version of 2 Henry VI (under...", "Theobromine - Wikipedia Theobromine, formerly known as xantheose, is a bitter alkaloid of the cacao plant, with the chemical formula C7H8N4O2. It is found in chocolate, as well as in a number of other foods, including the ... Sources[edit]. A chocolate bar and ... Cocoa beans naturally contain approximately 1% theobromine. The plant species with...", "Books by John Wyndham (Author of The Day of the Triffids) John Wyndham has 154 books on Goodreads with 206689 ratings. John Wyndham's ... 3.36 avg rating 179 ratings published 1954 5 editions. Want to...", "As You Like It Act 1 Summary and Analysis | GradeSaver As You Like It study guide contains a biography of William Shakespeare, ... Orlando spitefully tells Oliver that he has as much of their father's blood in him as Oliver does. ... The old Duke left with several lords and now lives in the forest of Ardenne .... Arden also happens to the be maiden name of Shakespeare's mother." ]

[ "Colombian" ]

[ "Chuck Rio", "Rio Grande National Forest", "The Rio Protocol", "What's Up?", "artistic swimming", "What a Friend", "What's Happening!!", "What's in It for Me", "things are what they are", "What If Nothing", "What a Life!", "What A Night", "What If It's You", "What Are Words", "Artistic gymnastics", "What Not to Wear", "What Car?", "what is visible", "What Part of No", "the Rio Grande Valley", "El Rio Canal", "What If We", "What So Not", "Flying Down to Rio", "What a Waste", "What Tingsamitr", "The Rio Grande Trail", "For What It's Worth", "At What Cost", "Rio Tinto Stadium", "What to Audit", "The Rio Grande del Norte National Monument" ]

[ "GFRIEND is popular in KOREA and why not. They are known as the DANCE QUEENS cause their dances are flawless and amazing and their synchronization is amazing too. Their vocals are pretty good and they are so beautiful." ]

[ "BTS and GFriend are also said to be friends off-stage. GFriend is the only girl group to have ever starred in a CF with BTS. Their comeback dates are usually close to each other, and their concepts do have things in common.", "BREAKING: GFRIEND Finally Disband After 4 Years - CBS-NEWS.US.", "GFRIEND, \"There's no dating ban, but we're not thinking about dating.\" [Interview]", "[\"EXO's D.O.\", \"VIXX's Ken.\", \"GFRIEND's Yuju.\", 'Soyou.', \"FTISLAND's Lee Hong Ki.\", 'Hoya.', \"SEVENTEEN's Wonwoo.\", \"MONSTA X's Shownu.\"]", "BTS isn't attending the show as they will be performing in New York and fans believe that MBC is trying to take revenge on them by punishing TXT and Gfriend. ... TXT is one of the most famous groups that debuted this year winning multiple awards. Gfriend released two albums this year and won #1 on multiple award shows.", "TWICE Is The Most Popular Korean Girl Group In Japan, And It's Not Even Close. They're in a league of their own. TWICE is currently the most popular girl group in Korea, even earning the title of “Nation's Girl Group” for the new generation.", "In Korea, EXO is generally considered the most popular K-pop group, even earning the title “The Nation's Pick.” EXO's Baekhyun sang the National Anthem for the Olympics twice, and EXO represented South Korea in Pyeongchang Olympics 2018.", "You could argue that KakaoTalk, YouTube, Band, Facebook or KakaoStory are the most used social networks in Korea. It depends on the demographic. Facebook and YouTube are popular with younger people, Band and KakaoStory is used more by older people. Everyone in Korea uses KakaoTalk (messaging app).", "Jeongyeon was the most popular TWICE member during this time according to the Brand Reputation Report by the Korea Corporate Reputation Research Institute. ... Jeongyeon was ranked third by Gallup Korea in these three months of 2016 when she had a short, blond hair with bangs.", "KARD. KARD is extremely popular in the West, gaining attention for being one of the few co-ed groups in the Korean market. While they had garnered some attention with their pre-debut releases, they are still considered unknown in Korea.", "The band Arashi is also very popular in Korea; 12,000 tickets for their four-day concert were sold out within one hour. Japanese actors are also attractive in Korea, too.", "Blackpink is not the most famous girl group in Korea, but they are definitely one of the most popular. They have not yet reached that domestic popularity with their music.", "BTS's label Big Hit Entertainment just announced that it has acquired Source Music, a Korean entertainment company that houses the K-pop girl group GFriend. ... “Source Music's management team will remain at the helm in order to maintain the label's independence and unique colors.”", "In Korea, one fan stated that some of the most popular members are generally the younger ones. The most popular BTS member in Korea is most likely Jungkook. As one of the lead singers of the group, Jungkook earns many lines in BTS' songs.", "Reaching out of Korea's territory, IZone is also hugely popular in Japan. Whenever they released an album, the group always topped Oricon's weekly chart and Oricon Daily Singles chart.", "MONSTA X is big internationally, but their popularity in Korea sadly fades. Many Korean netizens have said that the members of the group are more well-known for their physiques rather than their music, specifically member Shownu.", "BTS is of course, “VERY” famous, and popular in South Korea. Unarguably, they are one of the top idols in South Korea, their fandom is strong at least as much as EXO, or even more now. ... Currently, most of lyrics from other K-pop idols are about love, or self indulgence (so called Swag-thing).", "Jessica Jung and f(x)'s Krystal are probably the most popular sisters in South Korea. Although the latter has been said to resemble Girls' Generation Yoona and Seohyun, it's not hard to tell that Jessica and Krystal are the real sisters.", "iKON. ... Another stated that WINNER was much more popular in South Korea while iKON was more popular internationally. In addition, individual members of WINNER seem to be loved by the South Korean public slightly more than members of iKON as well, due to their frequent appearances on TV shows.", "LOONA is actually more popular worldwide outside of Korea because many communites, for example the U.S., are very supportive of these topics and K-pop groups rarely bring attention to such an important topic such as this. In addition, BlockBerryCreative is a sub-company that branched off from Polaris Entertainment.", "IZONE and TWICE have the highest album sales and IZONE even beat TWICE for most sales. RV is more popular internationally but in Korea and Japan IZONE is more popular. ... RV was more popular than IZONE in 2018–2019. But now it's IZONE.", "GFRIEND Announces Fan Club Name at Comeback Showcase They showed a special video to fans that they'd filmed themselves, in which they thanked fans for all their support, during which they called their fans “Buddy.” After the video, the members revealed that this has been chosen as their fan club name!", "Leading to the 3rd generation (i.e: BTS, TWICE, WINNER, Red Velvet, Mamamoo, BLACKPINK, GFriend, GOT7, Monsta X, Seventeen, KARD, AKMU, CLC, iKON, Day6) from 2013 till now.", "Tzuyu became the first native Taiwanese idol to debut in Korea and has quickly become one of the most popular young idols in K-Pop. And although many K-Pop artists are popular Taiwan, Tzuyu is perhaps the most popular idol among Taiwanese fans. ... She is a member of the Korean girl band, TWICE.", "Both groups are great! All the members put in a lot of effort and hard work for their group. Both have viral songs, Love Scenario and DNA/Fake Love etc. Outside of Korea, Bts is definitely more popular but ikon still has plenty of fans!", "Yes they are very well recognized in Korea and have the huge fan following known as Exo-ls ! They have set the history to got most desangs (major/important awards) in Korea! So yes EXO are the main rivals of BTS!", "Yes they are. They're one of the top groups in Korea. Their music often charts high and they've swept music show wins time and time again. They actually have the second most music show wins for a single song by a girl group with 15 wins with Rough.", "The term \"K-pop\" became popular since the 2000s. Previously, South Korean pop music was called Gayo (가요). While \"K-pop\" is a general term for popular music in South Korea, it is often used in a narrower sense for the genre described here.", "China manufactures the Apple iPhone and many other popular smartphones, but there are lots of other options made in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and India.", "There's no denying the talent of K-pop groups like EXO and BTS. With music videos raking in millions of views and sold-out live performances, it's no surprise these boys are some of the biggest names in K-pop. However, some fans noted that EXO is more popular in South Korea, while BTS is more popular globally.", "Mid-level popular. They were ranked by the Korean Business Research Institute (which measures based on sales and endorsements) as the 10th most popular girl group halfway through 2019. Sales aren't bad. Their two albums sold decently (I Am hit no.", "Arranged marriage and matchmakers A brand of arranged marriage is popular in South Korea. Koreans usually refer to this type of marriage as seon (선). Generally, parents arrange a meeting, but it is ultimately up to the couple to decide if they want to marry. ... Matchmakers are also common in South Korea." ]

[ "The usefulness of the quantum chemical descriptors, calculated at the level of the DFT and HF theories using 6-31G* basis set for QSAR study of anti-viral Nucleoside Analogues drugs was examined. The QSAR model developed contributed to a mechanistic understanding of the investigated biological effects. Biological activities contain the logarithm of the ratio of the steady-state concentration of a compound in the brain to in the blood, logBB. A multi-parametric equation containing maximum five descriptors at HF/6-31G* and four descriptors at B3LYP/6-31G* method with good statistical qualities (R max = 0.988, R max 2 = 0.977 at HF/6-31G* and R max = 0.996, R max 2 = 0.991 at B3LYP/6-31G*) was obtained by Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) using stepwise method. Also, GA-MLR regression (GA—genetic algorithm) was used to model the structure—activity relationships." ]

[ "The invention discloses intermediate compounds expressed as a general formula 1 for synthesizing thiophane nucleoside analogues and a preparation method thereof. In the general formula, Ac represents acetyl. The intermediate compounds can be used for synthesizing new thiophane nucleoside analogues. The thiophane nucleoside compounds or pharmaceutically acceptable salts, solvates, optical isomers or polymorphic substances thereof have good anti-tumor effect.", "We have used crude preparations of N-deoxyribosyl transferases (NdRT-II) from Lactobacillus helveticus to catalyze the transfer of a glycosyl moiety from a donor nucleoside to an acceptor base. Optimal conditions for the transglycosylation reaction to make D-D4FC starting from D-D4T and 5-FC were determined after the analysis of several experimental parameters including reaction time, concentration of substrate, pH and the type of buffer. For the first time, a practical procedure for enzymatic synthesis of β-D-2′,3′-unsaturated-5-fluorocytidine (β-D-2′,3′-didehydro-2′,3′-dideoxy-5-fluorocytidine, D-D4FC) from β-D-2′,3′-unsaturated thymidine (D-D4T) has been established. This method will be useful in the manufacture of important nucleoside analogues for anti-viral therapy.", "Experiments were performed on white rats. It was demonstrated that overheating is connected with significant increase of permeability of blood capillaries in internal organs and in the brain to Akrikhin. Reflex processes play an important role here and the change of permeability depends on the functional condition of the organism.", "With the aid of vital contact microscopy of the brain cortex, a sharp increase up to 613.2% in the total length of capillaries for a space unit by the 60 th day of training was shown to occur in the pia and the cortex in the course the training for hypoxia. Also the excessive blood volume, enlargement and lengthening of the small arteries and veins as well as increase in the capillaries diameter by 25-30%, were noted. In the course of the training, the blood flow speed increases considerably in cortical vessels. Study of the cortical blood-brain barrier by means of supravital microfluorimetry showed that, in the course of the training, the acid stainer (fluorescin) permeability through the barrier does not decrease. The readjustment of the cortical vascular net during the training does not affect the blood-brain permeability.", "Abstract During the course of our study on the synthesis of new pyridine-C-nucleosides with potential anti-viral and/or anti-tumourai properties, the preparation of 2-carbamoylmethyl-6-β-D-ribofuranosylpyridine 1, by means of a lithiation reaction on 2-(2,3-0-isopropylidene-β D-nbofuranosyl)-6-methylpyridine 2, was investigated (Scheme I). The latter compound was prepared by treating 6-methyl- toluenesulphonic acid. 2-(& D-ribofuranosyl)pyridine 1 2 with 2.2-dimethoxypropane in the presence of p-", "Close study of 3-hydroxybutyrate uptake by brain suggests that its metabolism is limited by permeability. Furthermore, the permeability characteristics vary from region to region; areas known to have no blood-brain barrier show the highest rate of utilization. The results imply that rather than substitute fuels, ketone bodies should be considered supplements which partially supply specific areas but are incapable of supporting the entire energy requirement of all brain regions.", "In situ recovery methods for many of our hydrocarbon and mineral resources depend on the ability to create or enhance permeability in the resource bed to allow uniform and predictable flow. To meet this need, a new branch of geomechanics devoted to computer prediction of explosive rock breakage and permeability enhancement has developed. The computer is used to solve the nonlinear equations of compressible flow, with the explosive behavior and constitutive properties of the medium providing the initial/boundary conditions and material response. Once the resulting computational tool has been verified and calibrated with appropriate large-scale field tests, it can be used to develop and optimize commercially useful explosive techniques for in situ resource recovery.", "The cellular enzyme S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine (SAH) hydrolase has emerged as a target enzyme for the molecular design of anti-viral agents.1 Recently, SAH hydrolase has been considered as an attractive target in parasite chemotherapy for malaria. We report synthesis of several carbocyclic purine nucleosides and their inhibitory activities against human and malaria recombinant SAH hydrolascs.", "Proceedings of an American Chemical Society Carbohydrate Division Symposium (Tohru Ueda Memorial Symposium), held in San Francisco, April 1992. Among the topics in 17 papers: lithiation chemistry of uridine derivatives access to a new anti-HIV-1 lead; approaches to novel isomeric nucleosides as anti", "The HIV/AIDS pandemic has existed for >25 years. Extensive work globally has provided avenues to combat viral infection, but the disease continues to rage on in the human population and infected approximately 4 million people in 2006 alone. In this review, we provide a brief history of HIV/AIDS, followed by analysis of one therapeutic target of HIV-1: its reverse transcriptase (RT). We discuss the biochemical characterization of RT in order to place emphasis on possible avenues of inhibition, which now includes both nucleoside and non-nucleoside modalities. Therapies against RT remain a cornerstone of anti-HIV treatment, but the virus eventually resists inhibition through the selection of drug-resistant RT mutations. Current inhibitors and associated resistance are discussed, with the hopes that new therapeutics can be developed against RT.", "We have been generating Epstein-Barr virus specific cytotoxic T cells for patients at high risk of developing EBV driven lymphoma. To discover the fate of the cells in vivo, we first marked them genetically, using a retroviral vector. Our results in 51 patients show that the approach is safe, that the CTL persist for several years and that they are able to mediate anti-viral and anti-tumor effects. We are now studying other virally-linked malignancies to discover whether a similar approach will be of therapeutic value.", "OBJECTIVE To study the protective effects of EGb injection on brain ischemia in rats.METHODS The imperfectible brain ischemia model was produced in rats by occluding the double internal carotid.Some indices related to lipid peroxidation of brain tissue were measured with biochemical methods.RESULTS The infarct size and the water content in the brain tissue with brain ischemia were reduced.It also elevated the activity of SOD and decreased the MDA contents in brain tissue.The permeability of capillary vessel was decreased.CONCLUSION EGb can protect the injury of brain ischemia of rats.Its mechanism may be due to the anti-peroxidative function of lipid.", "Abstract : The Madsen and White (1976) analytical model of wave transmission through permeable breakwaters is combined with a wave transmission by overtopping formula to provide a method of predicting wave transmission coefficients for permeable breakwaters. Comparison of this combined prediction technique with physical model laboratory tests shows that the technique is useful for estimating transmission coefficients for design. A computer program was found the most convenient method of making predictions. The computer program and an example showing program use are included in an Appendix. (Author)", "Central nervous system diseases influence people’s lives seriously,burdening family and society heavily.The bottleneck for treating central nervous system diseases is blood-brain barrier,precluding pharmaceuticals from blood to brain.One of possible efficient approaches for overcoming blood-brain barrier and treating central nervous system diseases is to develop the brain-targeted nanoparticles.The new techniques of cross-linking between biomolecules(protein,peptide,surfactant and lipid) and classical nanoparticles produce types of brain-targeted nanoparticles.Although these novel nanoparticles have different transmembrane mechanisms,they can accumulate in the brain and achieve desired effects for CNS diseases.", "Abstract Synthetic TRH and thirty TRH analogues were subjected to enzymic degradation by rat serum or brain homogenate. Synthetic TRH and thirteen TRH analogues were similarly inactivated in both serum and brain extracts. Four TRH analogues were more stable than synthetic TRH in both serum and brain homogenate. Eight TRH analogues modified at the level of the pyroglutamic acid or histidyl residue were more stable in serum than in brain tissue. Five TRH analogues modified at the level of the prolineamide end were less degraded in brain homogenate than in serum.", "Compared to cholesterol, hydroxycholesterols contain an additional hydroxy group in the alkyl chain and are able to efficiently cross the brain-blood barrier. Therefore, they are responsible for the sterol transfer between brain and circulation. The current study compares the membrane properties of several hydroxycholesterols with those of cholesterol using 2H NMR spectroscopy, a membrane permeability assay, and fluorescence microscopy experiments. It is shown that hydroxycholesterols do not exert the unique impact on membrane properties characteristic for cholesterol with regard to the influence on lipid chain order, membrane permeability and formation of lateral domains.", "Glioma is the most common primary tumor in the brain, accounting for about 40~50% of intracranial primary tumors. Most chemotherapeutic drugs have difficulty in penetrating the blood-brain barrier, and their clinical applications are greatly limited. We evaluated the effects of methylmercury-L-cysteine (MeHg-L-cys) and methylmercury chloride (MMC) on apoptosis of C6 glioma cells. L-type amino acid transporter (LAT1) was used to investigate the targeted transport function and cytotoxicity of MeHg- L-cys in glioma. MeHg-L-cys enhanced the ability of targeting glioma cells and reduced the adverse reactions to normal brain tissues. Therefore, it is significantly important to develop new anti-glioma drugs targeting the blood-brain barrier.", "Readily available proline derivatives can be transformed in one step into β-iodinated iminosugar-based nucleosides, under very mild conditions. The method couples a tandem radical decarboxylation-oxidation-β-iodination to the addition of nitrogen bases. The iodo group is introduced into the previously unfunctionalized 3-position. The resultant β-iodo derivatives are useful precursors of highly functionalized nucleoside analogues.", "Tumor-associated neovascularization allows tumor cells to express their critical growth advantage, whereas lymphatic invasion is crucial for the metastatic process. Various growth factors stimulate blood and lymphatic neovascularization and modulate vessel permeability in tumors. The first anti-angiogenic drugs are already in routine use, and new anti-vascular therapeutics are evaluated in clinical trials. Conversely, pro-lymphangiogenic therapy could be implemented to treat cancer survivors suffering from secondary lymphedema.", "The aim of the work was to study the influence of pregnancy induced arterial hypertension (PIH) on hermetic aspects of the blood-brain barrier. Neurological consultation was followed by cranial computed tomography which revealed changes within structures of central nervous system. The observations were performed in 6 pregnant women, assigned to control group--C, and study group--G. All women had caesarean section performed in conductive anaesthesia. The method included collection of 15 ml venous blood and 4 ml cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Albumin and immunoglobulin G (IgG) serum concentrations, micro-albumin and IgG CSF concentrations, and permeability indexes for albumin and IgG--Qalb and QIqG, were estimated. In contrast to group C, increased Qalb and QIgG indexes proved lack of integrity of blood-brain barrier in the group G. Control cranial CT scans revealed partial subsidence of changes after 3-5 days, and complete subsidence after 9-14 days.", "Gout is a metabolic disease, and does serious harm to human beings. In recent years, gout prevalence rate assumes upwards trend. Hyperuricemia caused by decreased uric acid excretion or increased formation of uric acid may account for gout. While high uric acid is closely related to various diseases. Therefore reducing blood uric acid level is the important measure to treat gout and prevent the recurrence of gout. So far, there are three kinds of anti-hyperuricemic drugs, including xanthine oxidase inhibitors, Urate anion exchanger 1(URAT1) inhibitors, and urate oxidase analogues. The present situation and research progress of anti-hyperuricemic drugs are reviewed in this paper, in order to provide a reference for the development of anti-hyperuricemic drugs.", "Objective:to investigate the protective effects of Shouwu soft capsule on D-galactose-induced subacute mice.Methods:adopt D-galactose-induced subacute mice model.Hypodermic inject1.2% D-galactose liquor(0.1mL/10g) by the nape of mice for 40 days.Observe:the ponderal index of brain,thoracic gland and spleen and the content variation of SOD and MDA in blood serum and brain tissue.Results The ponderal index of brain,thoracic gland and spleen and SOD activity are significantly decreased,while the MDA content increased(P0.01) in D-galactose-induced subacute mice.Shouwu soft capsule can improve the ponderal index of brain,thoracic gland and spleen and the SOD activity in blood serum and brain tissue and reduce MDA content.(P0.01).Conclusion:Shouwu soft capsule has a certain anti-aging effect,to provide a clinical experimental basis.", "Cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNA loads in paired leukocyte and plasma samples from 199 patient visits by 66 patients with CMV retinitis were determined. Leukocyte CMV load determinations had a greater range of values (mean, 24,587 copies/10(6) leukocytes; maximum, 539, 000) than did plasma CMV load determinations (mean, 10,302 copies/ml; maximum, 386,000), and leukocyte viral loads were detectable in a greater proportion of patients at the time of diagnosis of CMV retinitis prior to initiation of anti-CMV therapy (82%) than were plasma viral loads (64%) (P = 0.0078). Agreement with CMV blood cultures was slightly better for plasma (kappa = 0. 68) than for leukocytes (kappa = 0.53), due to a greater proportion of patients with detectable viral loads in leukocytes having negative blood cultures.", "Epoxidation of 1-phenylcyclohept-4-ene-1-carbonitrile gives mostly E-isomer of the desired epoxy derivative, whose ring opening with adenine or thymine proceeds stereoselectively providing access to novel cycloheptane nucleoside analogues.", "Nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDPK) catalyzes the transfer of the γ-phosphate from nucleoside triphosphates to nucleoside diphosphates. In addition to biochemical studies, a number of crystal structures of NDPK from various organisms, including both native proteins and complexes with nucleotides or nucleotide analogues, have been determined. Here, the crystal structure of Ynk1, an NDPK from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, has been solved at 3.1 A resolution. Structural analysis strongly supports the oligomerization state of this protein being hexameric rather than tetrameric.", "Many inflammatory mediators are known to contribute to increased vascular permeability during various phases of inflammation. Among these mediators, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), also known as vascular permeability factor, plays an important role in vascular hyper-permeability, and several studies have demonstrated that modulation of VEGF function might contribute to a successful therapeutic approach to the treatment of inflammatory diseases. VEGF receptor monoclonal antibodies, glucocorticoids, leukotriene modifiers, cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been studied for many years as VEGF-blocking drugs in inflammatory diseases in vitro and/or in vivo. The molecular and biological understanding of VEGF and preclinical or clinical trials of VEGF-blocking therapies raise hope that they may be useful as adjuncts to existing anti-inflammatory approaches in the regulation of inflammatory diseases.", "Interferon,a kind of soluble protein,displays a variety of bioactivities such as anti-virus,anti-tumor and immunomodulation,which is known as an effective medicine in viral hepatitis and liver cancer. However,owing to the less enriched in liver,the therapeutic effect of interferon is not ideal. This paper will review recent liver-targeting interferon development.", "An analogue computer model has been constructed for the analysis of the interrelationship between blood glucose and plasma insulin concentrations during glucose infusion. The model presented gives quantitative information on the effect of plasma insulin on glucose uptake, the total amount of glucose taken up by the tissues at a given time, the effect of blood glucose on the release of stored and newly formed insulin, and the rapidity by which plasma insulin is increased in response to hyperglycaemia. Such an analogue computer model might be a useful tool in the investigation of the various dynamic factors involved in the glucose- insulin interrelationship.", "The development and implementation of the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) technique for the treatment of patients in critical conditions make it possible to effectively and safely support gas exchange processes in the blood for a long time. One of the main components of the ECMO unit is a gas permeable membrane which is a barrier separating the blood from the gas phase. Since the 1950s, the development of this technology has been aimed at improving the safety and duration of use of membranes, which led to the creation of oxygenators that provide life support for several weeks. This review is devoted to the development of the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation technology including the choice of materials, methods to improve their hemocompatibility, and approaches to the design of the membrane contactor.", "Bone marrow transplantation is complicated by a sequential occurrence of viral infections, the predictability of which influences disease management. Among these infections are herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus, varicella zoster virus, Epstein-Barr virus, respiratory viral infections, hepatitis viral infections, and gastrointestinal infections. The approach to the treatment and prevention of these infections is discussed.", "This disclosure provides methods and compositions for treating disorders or injuries that affect motor function and control in a subject. In one aspe ct, the invention a transgene product is delivered to a subject's spinal cor d by administering a recombinant neurotrophic viral vector containing the tr ansgene to the brain. The viral vector delivers the transgene to a region of the brain which is susceptible to infection by the virus and which expresse s the encoded recombinant viral gene product. Also provided are compositions for delivery of a transgene product to a subject's spinal cord by administe ring a recombinant neurotrophic viral vector containing the transgene to the subject's brain.", "Summary Modeling permeability in heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs may be challenging due to often extreme spatial variations in pore geometry. This paper introduces a method to model permeability in terms of Flow-Zone Facies, and demonstrates this approach in a case study. The method is utilized to model facies and permeability across thirty wells in a field with limited data availability. Rock physics relationships and a modified Kozeny-Carman permeability equation are used to define facies and predict permeability. The results indicate that capturing complex variations in pore geometry within a rock is the key to the successful application of this method." ]

[ "La Danimarca vorrebbe ospitare i Mondiali di basket del 2014. Lo annuncia la federbasket internazion..." ]

[ "La Spagna ha presentato la candidatura ad organizzare i Mondiali di basket del 2014. La Spagna &egra...", "Ora &egrave; ufficiale: il Brasile si candida ad ospitare i Mondiali di calcio del 2014. A comunicar...", "La Cina vuole candidarsi per i Mondiali di calcio del 2014. Lo ha annunciato il direttore del dipart...", "La Spagna si &egrave; laureata campione del mondo di basket. Nella finale dei mondiali giapponesi la...", "La Francia chiude al quinto posto i mondiali di basket. Nella finale per la quinta piazza la formazi...", "La Spagna si &egrave; qualificata per la finale dei mondiali di basket battendo in semifinale l'Arge...", "La Russia si &egrave; qualificata per la finale dei Mondiali femminili di basket battendo in semifin...", "Gli Stati Uniti battono 85-65 la Germania e si qualificano alle semifinali dei Mondiali di basket in...", "I Mondiali di calcio del 2014 in Brasile. Sar&agrave; il mitico Pel&egrave; a parlarne la prossima s...", "La presentazione dell'85° campionato di basket di serie A si terr&agrave; a Roma sabato 7 ottobre al...", "Grecia in festa per la vittoria sugli Usa e la qualificazione alla finale dei Mondiali di basket. Mi...", "Pau Gasol &egrave; stato nominato miglior giocatore dei mondiali di basket. Il centro spagnolo dei M...", "C'&egrave; anche la Colombia in corsa per l'organizzazione dei Mondiali di calcio del 2014. Lo ha co...", "Risultati degli incontri dei Mondiali di basket femminili in corso in Brasile.", "La VidiVici Bologna si &egrave; qualificata per la finale scudetto del campionato di basket. In gara...", "La Grecia &egrave; la prima finalista dei mondiali di basket. I campioni d'Europa hanno battuto in s...", "Risultati della 14/a giornata del campionato di Legadue di basket:", "La Vidivici Bologna si &egrave; qualificata per la finale di Coppa Italia di basket, battendo in sem...", "Il Cras Taranto si &egrave; qualificato per gli ottavi di finale dell'Eurocup di basket femminile. L...", "Bernd Schuster si candida per la panchina del Real Madrid, fresco campione di Spagna. Il tedesco, at...", "Risultati della 14/a giornata di andata del campionato di serie A di basket. Da segnalare la 14/a vi...", "Come tutti si aspettavano, l'Uefa ha decretato il 3-0 a tavolino per la Svezia sulla Danimarca, dopo...", "Risultati ddegli anticipi serali del campionato di serie A di basket", "Successi di Bologna e Rieti negli anticipi della 14/a giornata del campionato di serie A di basket. ...", "Risultati della 14/a giornata del campionato di serie A1 femminile di basket.", "L'Italia si &egrave; qualificata per la finale per il quinto posto ai Mondiali maschili di pallavolo...", "Condizioni economiche mondiali presentano grosse sfide", "La Russia si &egrave; qualificata per la finale degli Europei di basket battendo la Lituania 86-74. ...", "Roma si prepara ai mondiali di nuoto del 2009. Questa mattina &egrave; stata presentata la campagna ...", "I Mondiali del 2010 in Sudafrica inizieranno l'11 giugno per concludersi l'11 luglio. Lo ha annuncia...", "La Danimarca ha battuto la Slovenia 2-1 (1-1) in un'amichevole giocata a Nova Gorica (Slovenia).In g...", "\"Vogliamo lottare per entrambi i titoli mondiali. Puntiamo ad essere competitivi anche nella prossim..." ]

[ "Samsung Galaxy S5 USB 3.0 SuperSpeed A to Micro B USB Cable, White. Samsung Galaxy S5 USB 3.0 SuperSpeed A to Micro B USB Cable, White." ]

[ "2. Use the USB cord. Using the USB cord that may have come with your cell phone, connect your phone to your computer. You may need to load a program to work this, but usually not.Open up your phone from My Computer and copy and paste the photos into your desired file.. Use the USB cord. Using the USB cord that may have come with your cell phone, connect your phone to your computer. You may need to load a program to work this, but usually not.", "1 Download and install the USB drivers for the Galaxy S6. 2 If you own a Mac, no need to install any software. 3 Connect the Galaxy S6 to a computer with a USB cable. 4 A window will show up on the Galaxy S6 phone screen.5 Drag the notification area down, and make a selection of your choice. Download and install the USB drivers for the Galaxy S6. 2 If you own a Mac, no need to install any software. 3 Connect the Galaxy S6 to a computer with a USB cable. 4 A window will show up on the Galaxy S6 phone screen.", "I have a new Galaxy S5 with a 64GB SD card that I'm trying to load up with my music library. I formatted the SD card in the phone, created a Music directory on the card, plugged the phone into the PC using the USB cord and started moving files using Windows.When I tried to play the songs, some of the files were fine and other sounded skippy or choppy. formatted the SD card in the phone, created a Music directory on the card, plugged the phone into the PC using the USB cord and started moving files using Windows. When I tried to play the songs, some of the files were fine and other sounded skippy or choppy.", "Hey Guys, My Galaxy S3 wont turn on for some reason and i cant figure out what to do about it. I have some phone numbers and sms that i really need so hard reset is not an option.ey Guys, My Galaxy S3 wont turn on for some reason and i cant figure out what to do about it. I have some phone numbers and sms that i really need so hard reset is not an option.", "Importing pictures from samsung galaxy s4 to my pc with the new windows 10 home. dray538 asked on August 8, 2015. DR. DR. I have been trying all after noon to import pictures from my Samsung galaxy s4 to my pictures or to the photo gallery with a usb cord to my phone.everything seems like it is working.I can see the pictures as they are being downloaded.R. I have been trying all after noon to import pictures from my Samsung galaxy s4 to my pictures or to the photo gallery with a usb cord to my phone. everything seems like it is working. I can see the pictures as they are being downloaded.", "How can I transfer photos on Samsung galaxy note 2 to computer? I'd like use my new note 2 cell phone to take photos, So I want to backup all the pictures to the computer.I can't do this easily since USB mass storage is not supported natively in the Samsung galaxy note 2.samsung-galaxy-note-2 mtp data-transfer. share | improve this question.'d like use my new note 2 cell phone to take photos, So I want to backup all the pictures to the computer. I can't do this easily since USB mass storage is not supported natively in the Samsung galaxy note 2. samsung-galaxy-note-2 mtp data-transfer. share | improve this question.", "How to recover deleted photos videos from Samsung galaxy mobile phones. If not, you need to remove the SD card from Samsung galaxy phone and then connect the samsung galaxy phone to computer with usb card reader, or insert it to cart reader slot on computer.ow to recover deleted photo video files from Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, Active, S5, Note 4, Edge, Note 3, Ace, Tab, Galaxy Nexus, Gear Fit android phone and tablet. I accidentally deleted all photos from my samsung galaxy S3, I wanted to delete one pictures, but I hit deleted all by mistake.", "Step 2 Connect iPhone 4/4s/5/5s/5c and Galaxy S6 to the Computer. Select Phone to Phone Transfer mode by clicking Start button, which prompts you to connect your source phone and destination phone via USB.Plug in your devices with USB cords. Then, the program will detect your device automatically.tep 2 Connect iPhone 4/4s/5/5s/5c and Galaxy S6 to the Computer. Select Phone to Phone Transfer mode by clicking Start button, which prompts you to connect your source phone and destination phone via USB.", "To transfer pictures from Android Samsung Galaxy to laptop, you need to have an USB cable which you connect to your phone and laptop.You will see an installation bubble pop up in the bottom right of your screen. On your Android phone pull down the notification window and tap USB connected.n your phones notification window tap Turn off USB storage and then unplug your phone. And you can also use some program to transfer them from galaxy to laptop, here I recommend you the *Removed* which can help you transfer all photos as well as other data from Samsung Galaxy to laptop.", "Re: Galaxy S4 won't charge. Maybe it has nothing to do with this problem, but right after the phone boots up, I get a notification that usb is connected (when nothing is connected to the micro usb plug) in the notification bar for a second. After that, I cannot find that notification anywhere.", "How to establish a music library. You can load music files on your Galaxy S4 by moving music files from your computer to your phone. To do so, you need to do the following: 1 Download and install Samsung USB drivers to your computer.2 Connect your phone to your computer via USB cable. Parts: Play music using your Samsung Galaxy S4 Music Player Create playlists on your Samsung Galaxy S4 Edit playlists on your Samsung Galaxy S4 Questions and Answers Comments. Contents. 1 1 This is part of the VisiHow on how to use the Samsung Galaxy S4.", "What phone/bank/card/carrier do I need? Samsung Pay works with higher-end Samsung phones: the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, S6 Edge+, S6, S6 Edge, S6 Active and Galaxy Note 5. It is also available on the Gear S2 smartwatch, but only for transactions on NFC terminals.", "To start our work on PC, the first thing we need to do is copy the pictures on GS3 to computer. With a USB cable that comes with the phone, all will be done in minutes. Here is how to do it. Free Download Buy Now. Preparations: 1. Connect the Samsung Galaxy S3 to the computer using the USB cable. 2.Slide down the Notifications panel at the top of screen. 3. Tap to turn on USB storage on the handset.ith a USB cable that comes with the phone, all will be done in minutes. Here is how to do it. Free Download Buy Now. Preparations: 1. Connect the Samsung Galaxy S3 to the computer using the USB cable. 2. Slide down the Notifications panel at the top of screen.", "I had a user with a Samsung Galaxy S2 and was having a hard time trying to get the pictures from his phone onto his computer. I thought this would be as simple as connecting the phone via a USB cable and then opening up my computer and download the pictures.) ** Important: Make sure you have not connected your phone to the computer via the USB cable. You will do this in a later step.**. 2) In the Settings menu go to Wireless and network and open. 3) Now go to USB utilities and open.", "Set USB debugging mode on Samsung Galaxy S3. Enable USB debugging mode on your Samsung Galaxy S3, then connect it to the computer using the included USB cable. 2. Connect Samsung Galaxy S3 to Kies. Open Kies on your PC, the program will automatically connect your phone with it.After connected, the main information of your phone will appear in the main screen of Kies. 3. Transfer pictures from Samsung Galaxy S3 to PC.et USB debugging mode on Samsung Galaxy S3. Enable USB debugging mode on your Samsung Galaxy S3, then connect it to the computer using the included USB cable. 2. Connect Samsung Galaxy S3 to Kies. Open Kies on your PC, the program will automatically connect your phone with it.", "Hi. Cannot connect my Samsung Galaxy S5 KitKat 4.4.2 to PC Win8.1 via USB: PC and phone does recognize each other. Tried every solution, mentioned in forums. No one knows reliable solution. I see no option on the phone to setup connection via USB.But it recognizes USB when tethering mode is enabled.i. Cannot connect my Samsung Galaxy S5 KitKat 4.4.2 to PC Win8.1 via USB: PC and phone does recognize each other. Tried every solution, mentioned in forums. No one knows reliable solution. I see no option on the phone to setup connection via USB. But it recognizes USB when tethering mode is enabled.", "How do I transfer my SIM card from one Samsung Galaxy to a new Samsung Galaxy. I got a new Samsung Galaxy 4. My old phone is also a Samsung Galaxy 4. How do use my SIM card from my old phone after I installed it into my new phone. I can't find my contacts.e: How do I transfer my SIM card from one Samsung Galaxy to a new Samsung Galaxy. Short answer. Turn both phones off. Take the card out of the current phone. Put it into the new phone.", "How can i activate 3g network on my samsung galaxy s3 phone. I want to ask how to activate 3g on my samsung galaxy s3 cell phone. I am located in India. Is there anything extra that i need to need to connect internet.ow can i activate 3g network on my samsung galaxy s3 phone. I want to ask how to activate 3g on my samsung galaxy s3 cell phone. I am located in India. Is there anything extra that i need to need to connect internet.", "You'll need a USB cable to import pictures from your cell phone to your Microsoft Windows powered laptop. Here's what to do: 1 Turn on your phone and your laptop. 2 Connect the small end of the USB cable to your phone. 3 Connect the standard end of the USB cable to your laptop's USB port.", "To recover Samsung Galaxy Phone data on computer. You need to choose one tool ,like Coolmuster Samsung Recovery software. And you need to have an USB cable which you connect to your phone and computer.Next, you will see an installation bubble pop up in the bottom right of your screen. Then, you can scan and recover data from Samsung.How to Recover Lost Photos from Samsung Galaxy. Written Tue • View Upvotes.o recover Samsung Galaxy Phone data on computer. You need to choose one tool ,like Coolmuster Samsung Recovery software. And you need to have an USB cable which you connect to your phone and computer.", "Via USB. Connect the Galaxy S3 to the computer using the USB cable that came with the phone. Step 2. Swipe your finger downward on the phone's Home screen to display the Notifications panel, and then tap the USB Connection alert.Related Reading: How to Close the Internet on a Samsung Galaxy S3. Step 3. Tap Media device (MTP) to indicate that you want to transfer media files to a Windows computer.ia USB. Connect the Galaxy S3 to the computer using the USB cable that came with the phone. Step 2. Swipe your finger downward on the phone's Home screen to display the Notifications panel, and then tap the USB Connection alert.", "Galaxy S7. It's not just a new phone. It brings a new way of thinking about what a phone can do. You defined the possibilities and we redefined the phone. The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. Rethink what a phone can do.", "If you want to keep a copy of your photos on the PC, you can directly copy the photos in Galaxy S6 to the PC when you connect Galaxy S6 to the PC with a USB cable. Photos and videos taken with Galaxy S6 camera are in the folder of DCIM/Camera.ackup Galaxy S6 messages (SMS and MMS) to the phone. If you want to backup Galaxy S6 messages (SMS and MMS) to the phone, you need use third-party apps to do this. You may try SMS Backup & Restore. Again, the free version is sufficient.", "1 Laptop screen stays black but external screen works - Tech Support. 2 Phone screen stays black and I need help - Forum. 3 Phone Works but the Screen is Black - Forum. my samsung galaxy s3 fall down yesterday,the phone is work but the screen is black .what shoul i do - Forum.", "1 how do i move my apps to my sd card in samsung galaxy core 2 - Forum. 2 my phone (samsung galaxy trend) cant move apps to my sd card-Forum. 3 samsung galaxy reverb help... 4 I cant figure out how to move apps to sd either! my phone has 2g of storage itself, Do I need to-Forum. I also do not have the option of moving apps to the sd Forum. 2 am currently using samsung galaxy S5…i had inserted my old sd card to the phone…but i couldn't find any of the apps that a Forum. 3 Have a Samsung Boost Galaxy Rush phone. 4 cannot transfer pics to sd card.", "5 Parts: Play music using your Samsung Galaxy S4 Music Player Create playlists on your Samsung Galaxy S4 Edit playlists on your Samsung Galaxy S4 Questions and Answers Comments. Contents. 1 1 This is part of the VisiHow on how to use the Samsung Galaxy S4.ow to establish a music library. You can load music files on your Galaxy S4 by moving music files from your computer to your phone. To do so, you need to do the following: 1 Download and install Samsung USB drivers to your computer.", "1 How do you reset your phone if you forgot the password to a samsung galaxy Forum. 2 how to check gamil account password in samsung galaxy tab 2 Forum. 3 Google for samsung galaxy s email reset and password Forum. 4 i forgot my samsung gts3850 password....! what i do please help i have to reset my phone Forum.", "How to Transfer Photos From a Galaxy S3 to a Computer. Use one of two methods to transfer your phone's photos to a computer. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images News/Getty Images. The Galaxy S3 enables you to transfer photos in two ways: via USB or via Share Shot.ia USB. Connect the Galaxy S3 to the computer using the USB cable that came with the phone. Step 2. Swipe your finger downward on the phone's Home screen to display the Notifications panel, and then tap the USB Connection alert.", "my phone stuck/crash. I need to restart it. The best way would be to remove the battery but i cant seem to crack open the backlid to remove the battery. How do i remove the battery to restart my phone on galaxy tab 3. Follow. need to restart it. The best way would be to remove the battery but i cant seem to crack open the backlid to remove the battery. How do i remove the battery to restart my phone on galaxy tab 3. Add your answer. Source.", "To transfer pictures from Samsung Galaxy S2 to computer, you need to have an USB cable which you connect to your phone and laptop. You will see an installation bubble pop up in the bottom right of your screen.On your Android phone pull down the notification window and tap USB connected.ou can also just do a search on the drive for any and all .jpg files and that will lead you to the pictures. Copy and paste them onto the laptop hard drive. The screen shots below show how I get to the pictures on my Android phone. This is Windows 7 but the idea is the same.", "I need to restart it. The best way would be to remove the battery but i cant seem to crack open the backlid to remove the battery. How do i remove the battery to restart my phone on galaxy tab 3. A. First off, the Galaxy Tab 3 is a tablet, not a phone.Its isnot very easy to pop off the back cover and remove the battery as i do not suggest that.Instead, Hold the power button and the volume up button for 10 to 20 seconds. need to restart it. The best way would be to remove the battery but i cant seem to crack open the backlid to remove the battery. How do i remove the battery to restart my phone on galaxy tab 3. A. First off, the Galaxy Tab 3 is a tablet, not a phone.", "What's in the box: HP ENVY 7640 e-All-in-One Printer; HP 62 Black Ink Cartridge; HP 62 Tri-color Ink Cartridge; Software CD; Setup instructions; Power cord; Recycle envelope; Phone cord. Cable included: No, Please purchase USB cable separately; 1 Phone cord." ]

[ "Preserves have pieces of fruit in them, jams are made from crushed fruit and jelly is based on fruit juice." ]

[ "Jams and jellies didn’t come out of taste preference. They were invented so people could enjoy that fruit year round. Since Bananas are good all year people never preserved them, and therefore, never became a type of jam or jelly.", "Jams/jellies etc are very high in sugar content. In the presence of high sugar content water can be pulled out of the cell walls of the fungus/bacteria. If this happens, the fungus/bacteria is killed. Ultimately a high sugar content can almost be as good as high salt content at preserving a substance.", "_URL_0_ > Is jelly just a traditional Australian ingredient Pretty much. Especially back in the day when Australia's economy was based a lot on agriculture - gelatin was readily available so Jelly was cheap and readily available. Especially during world war 2 when rationing hit - groups like the CWA (Country Women's Association) would hand out ideas for cheap and easy recipes to help out - and jelly featured in a lot of them. And it's just stuck. Parents give their kids jelly so then those kids grow up and give their kids jelly, and so on and so on. Well that and Jelly tastes good. Edit: Also Jelly in the US and Australia are different things - In the US Jelly refers to the spread, in Australia Jelly refers to what you guys call Jello", "Jelly is liquid but how liquid it is (the viscosity) changes with how much stress it's under. If you shake a jelly or throw it at something it will become more liquid during the moment of inpact but will soon become less liquid as the stress decreases. This is a property know as Thixotropy _URL_1_ and is an example of a non-Newtonian fluid _URL_0_ Food such as butter, cheese, jam, ketchup, mayonnaise, soup, taffy, and yogurt are also have non-Newtonian flows.", "Very few bacteria or other microorganisms can grow on such a high concentration of sugars and fats. Compare to jam/jelly or peanut butter. Neither support the growth of microbial life particularly well.", "Each of the things that you mention are [colloids](_URL_0_), which are relatively stable mixtures of multiple substances. Peanut butter is a suspension of peanut solids in oil; jelly is water suspended in either pectin or gelatin (depending on your definition of \"jelly\"); cream cheese is … more complex. Edit: A few people have pointed out that I have failed to classify them as liquids or solids. The point is that they're neither. They are, literally, a combination of both.", "It’s because of the consistency—or viscosity—of the honey. It’s properties make it hard to stay on a spoon. A honey dipper works because the honey gets into the grooves and stays there as you swirl it. Jam, on the other hand, has a completely different viscosity. Not only does it typically stay on a spoon just fine, it wouldn’t stay on a grooved dipper even (especially?) when it’s in motion.", "The way that people usually scoop jam from a jar forms a cone shaped depression. Over time water will diffuse (i.e leak) out of the jam, due to concentration differences and gravity, and pool at the lowest possible point. Consider if you kept the surface of the jam completely flat. This would make it more difficult for water to leak out of the jam, but may happen given enough time.", "Jellies have muscles but no hard skeletal structures against which to pull. A ring of muscle around the mouth (and simultaneously, anus, as jellies have only one hole) can contract and force water out of the mantle, propelling the jelly. Relaxation and elasticity of the medusa bell allows the muscle ring to re-expand.", "All of these are made by freezing a liquid while stirring it to prevent the formation of large ice crystals. * Sorbet is fruit juice, sometimes diluted. * Sherbet (no r) is fruit juice with milk (in North America, this is a weird word internationally) * Ice cream is light custard (milk, cream, sugar, egg) * Frozen yogurt is yogurt (milk allowed to grow a bacterial culture, sugar)", "Sugar and salt are natural preservatives. To determine whether you need to refrigerate something, you need to think about the growth factors for bacteria and mold. Jelly, for example, has a high sugar content, making it an unsuitable environment for bacteria, but a high water content, making it highly suitable for mold. For this same reason, you can leave things like cakes and pies out for extended periods of time. (You can, in fact, leave jelly unrefrigerated for awhile as well.) Peanut butter has a very low moisture content, a high sugar content, and a high salt content, making it undesirable for both mold and bacteria. Thus, it does not require refrigeration. (100% natural peanut butter, on the other hand, has no preservatives and does in fact require refrigeration.) Source: layman food buyer", "They are all solids (or, because they're so complex, *mostly made up of solids with some moisture*), because they do not change shape to fill out a container they're in. Let's say you have a substance, X. You put X in a jar with a cover. If X just sits there and doesn't change shape, it's a solid. If X spreads out along the bottom, it's a liquid. If X expands to fill up the entire container, it's a gas. Marshmallows, flesh, bread, and Jello would just sit there, not changing shape, therefore they're all solids--or items that are comprised mostly of solid but a large amount of liquid.", "Bacteria differences, milk origin differences, storage temperature differences, length of time left sitting, whether it was stored above ground or in a cave, and on and on and on. Primarily the different types of bacteria though.", "There's a jelly between the bones and that jelly creates air bubbles. When you crack your knuckles, the bubbles pop and that creates the sound.", "Imagine it’s not an application, instead, You and your friends are making a cake. You take the eggs. They have to be shelled, separated, and whisked. One friend takes the frosting. Even though it doesn’t go on until the end, rolling, chilling, and dying take time. One more friend cleans the kitchen, sets the oven, makes sure everyone has enough bowls, utensils, etc. Another friend handles the filling, boiling down fruit and pectin to make jam. All of you know what kind of cake you’re making, so your friend making the frosting knows what flavor of filling the other is making. Everyone knows how to make dough. Even though they’re all handling very different things, they come together at the end and combine well, because you and your friends have been making cake together for a while and you followed a very detailed recipe.", "Pickling and canning are both forms of food preservation, so canning already preserved food is redundant. Its like putting an unopened jar of jam in the freezer.", "Male bees are called drones and like all larvae are fed with royal jelly for a while. The difference is that some larvae will be selected to become queens and will be fed a lot of royal jelly for a long time. I don't know and haven't found anything about what happens when you feed a drone with royal jelly for an extended period of time but the effects of jelly are mainly on ovaries so it might be that drones do not have the necessary receptors for the jelly to have an effect. Also, drone's sole role is to fertilize queens and they do not live in the hive, they are created from unfertilized eggs and therefore only possess one set of chromosom. Here is the wiki article: _URL_0_", "fruit cakes, rum cakes, panettone all tend to be very rich, and/or including alcohol. instead of refined white sugar, they usually used molasses (or 'treacle' in England), honey, blackstrap, etc. this gives them very long shelf lives. they were often further wrapped in linen soaked in alcohol. sugar and especially honey are preservatives (think jams and jellies for example), as is alcohol. alcohol also keeps the cake feeling moist, where that moisture (as if from water) would evaporate. and sugar additionally is hygroscopic, it holds moisture (retains it), again keeping the cake from going dry and hard. an example of the way that sugar keeps things moits would be to compare prosciuttio to an amercian country ham. both are salt cured and allowed to air dry. but the country ham incorporates sugar. this keeps the meat much more moist than prosciutto. it does the same for cake.", "It's not a straightforward question. [This website](_URL_0_) has a fairly good list of the differences.", "They have zero calories that are usable by our bodies, that's the difference. There's clearly energy stored away in terms of the chemical bonds that hold things like sucralose together, but our bodies can't break them down to extract said energy.", "To quote from the Simpsons: If it's clear and yellow, you got juice there, fellow. If it's tangy and brown, you're in cider-town. Now,of course, there are two exceptions...", "Do you mean 'asp'? An aspic is a savoury jelly.", "When you jam a cell phone, you're jamming the radio signal, which is light. There are different [methods](_URL_0_) by which you can do so.", "The bees which look after the larva start feeding one of the larva a different diet - I believe it is fed royal jelly. And this makes that larva into a queen instead of a drone or a worker.", "Not an expert but most preservatives work by creating an environment that is hostile to bacterial life by being either too salty, too sugary or too acidic, which covers three common methods of preservation (salted/dried, marmalades/jams and pickles/lactic acidity to nsame three). So more biochemistry than just chemistry", "It doesn't. It's just some farce that you've seen people do. Shake two cans of pop violently and tap a can for x seconds while the second sits there. Open them at the same time. No difference.", "It's because the hook that is attached to the vehicle's door jam has 2 notches on it. The latch on the door goes over these two notches when you close it and it hooks the door closed. If you open the door just a little the door latch then catches on the second notch of the door jam and stays hooked and bounces between the 2 notches in the door jam.", "Different ingredients, different storage situations, different flavirong, different length of time they are aged.", "When jam and pickles are jarred, the company makes sure their are no contaminants like bacteria in the container. There's nothing in there to make it go bad. However, once you open it, things can get in. This is why you put it in the fridge. The cold slows down the bacteria. It makes them reproduce slower, ensuring the jam is still good for a lot longer.", "From what I understand it had to do with typewriters and the letters jamming up. They tried to put common letter combinations on different areas of keyboard to prevent the typewriter from jamming...that is at least what I've always heard.", "Jello is a form of matter called a *colloid*, which is a semi-rigid structure suspended in a liquid. Whipped cream (and other such things) are a mixture of a liquid cream and gaseous nitrogen (can also be called a colloid, as it's gas suspended in a liquid).", "There really aren't a difference. They are synonyms for the same thing. The difference comes with what the words are usually describing, and because of that, the associations the words have to them." ]

[ "Share this item with your network: An upcharge is an additional fee that is added to a bill after a contract has already been negotiated. Upcharges, which are also known as accessorial charges, are levied to cover the cost of unforeseen circumstances." ]

[ "What kinds of quarks are protons and neutrons made of? What was the old name for the Top and Bottom quark? Protons are made of two Up and one Down quark. The neutron is made of two Down and one Up quark. The Up quarks have a 2/3 positive charge and the Down has a 1/3 negative charge. Fractional charges are a pretty funny concept, but remember we (humans) made up the unit of charge that a proton has, so its very possible that there could be a smaller division of charge. If you add those charges you will see that sum is positive one for the proton and 0 for the neutron.", "Could there be anything smaller inside of an electron or inside of a neutron or a proton? What kinds of quarks are protons and neutrons made of? What was the old name for the Top and Bottom quark? What is the charge of an up quark and the charge of a down quark? How many quarks make up a proton and a neutron? Are quarks confineable for study?", "electric charge-the quantity of unbalanced electricity in a body (either positive or negative) and construed as an excess or deficiency of electrons; the battery needed a fresh charge. charge.lectric charge-the quantity of unbalanced electricity in a body (either positive or negative) and construed as an excess or deficiency of electrons; the battery needed a fresh charge. charge.", "What subatomic particles make up the nucleus of an atom and what are their charges?", "The plasma membrane is the membrane that surrounds cells and controls what comes in and what goes out of that cell. It is made up of layers of phospholipids whos tails are non … polar (no charge) and the heads of the Phospholipids are Polar (have a charge).", "Consider charge to be the amount of water in a bucket (the battery). If that water starts to flow out, the speed at which it flows is the current. The greater the speed (larger the current) the quicker the bucket is empty (battery flat).onsider charge to be the amount of water in a bucket (the battery). If that water starts to flow out, the speed at which it flows is the current. The greater the speed (larger the current) the quicker the bucket is empty (battery flat).", "An up quark (+2/3) would have a positive (+) charge type mono-charge with a +1 charge strength join a negative charge type mono-charge with a -1/3 charge strength to get a net +2/3 charge for that formed elemental particle. Conversely, a down quark would have a -2/3 mono-charge joined with a +1/3 mono-charge for a net -1/3 charge.", "It means they are charging him with a felony but he is not a felon untill it goes up to a higher court or in front of grand-jury for inditement. But it does not tell what the charge is. tomisohere · 8 years ago.Thumbs up.t means they are charging him with a felony but he is not a felon untill it goes up to a higher court or in front of grand-jury for inditement. But it does not tell what the charge is. tomisohere · 8 years ago.", "What is the charge of the ion that phosphorus would form? The phosphide ion, meaning phosphorous by itself not bound up in a poly-atomic ion, has a charge of -3 in ionic compounds.", "charge up; charge up to; charge upon; charge us up; charge us with; Charge Vom Tag; charge with; charge with; charge with a duty; charge with a trust; charge with an errand; charge with an offense; charge with offense; charge with one’s share; charge with the commission of a crime; charge you up; charge you with; Charge' des affaires or charge' d'affaires", "charge - the quantity of unbalanced electricity in a body (either positive or negative) and construed as an excess or deficiency of electrons; the battery needed a fresh charge", "Keep in mind that each state has different laws about what kind of pending charges show up in a background check. In Arkansas, any pending felony charges will show up in a background check, but misdemeanor charges will not. California, on the other hand, allows all pending charges to be included in a background check, and employers can even opt to be notified should those pending charges result in conviction.", "I've had my tablet in charge for up to a hour now and it won't turn on. It doesn't even show the battery charging loading screen. I've held down on the power button for long periods of time but it ends up as just a black screen.I don't know what to do ...'ve had my tablet in charge for up to a hour now and it won't turn on. It doesn't even show the battery charging loading screen. I've held down on the power button for long periods of time but it ends up as just a black screen. I don't know what to do ...", "A level 2 charger safely delivers AC power to your electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid so you’re always “fueled up” and ready to go. Charge nearly 3 to 5 times faster than a level 1 cordset and get more miles in less time. Reliable, safe, convenient, and energy efficient charging.", "Now compare that to the overweight bag fee you might get charged by an airline: Delta, for example, has overweight bag charges of $75 and American AAL, +6.74% $100 for bags that are 51 to 70 pounds — both higher than what UPS might charge you over a short distance.ow compare that to the overweight bag fee you might get charged by an airline: Delta, for example, has overweight bag charges of $75 and American AAL, +6.74% $100 for bags that are 51 to 70 pounds — both higher than what UPS might charge you over a short distance.", "Uprating is the way to maximise the energy produced from existing hydropower plants and often may offer a cheap opportunity to increase hydropower production. Gains between 5% and 10% are realistic and cost-effective targets for most hydropower plants.", "However, when they do not accept assignment, they can charge more than the Medicare-approved amount for that service. There is a limit to what they can charge called the limiting charge.. The provider can only charge up to 15% over the amount that non-participating providers are paid.", "The stock system gives the actual charge of the ion What is the difference between the anions sulfite and sulfate? The sulfite ion has one less oxygen atom than the sulfate ion How many atoms make up the oxalate ion and what is its charge? It is made up of 6 atoms *2 carbon and 4 oxygen) and it has a charge of 2- What three hydrogen-containing polyatomic anions are essential components of living systems? 1. hydrogen carbonate ion", "Trickle charging means charging a fully charged battery under no-load at a rate equal to its self-discharge rate, thus enabling the battery to remain at its fully charged level. A battery under continuous float voltage charging is said to be under float-charging.For lead-acid batteries under no-load float charging (such as in SLI batteries), trickle charging is achieved naturally at the end-of-charge, when the lead-acid battery takes in a trickle charge to keep itself fully charged.rickle charging means charging a fully charged battery under no-load at a rate equal to its self-discharge rate, thus enabling the battery to remain at its fully charged level. A battery under continuous float voltage charging is said to be under float-charging.", "Fixed and Floating Charge. Definition: A fixed and floating charge is a form of security interest usually taken by a lender from a company to secure repayment of a loan.The company granting the charge is usually referred to as the Chargor and the person in whose favour the charge is granted is typically called the Chargee .This form of security is called fixed and floating because the chargee has:The true ingenuity of the fixed and floating charge is that it permits the chargor to deal with and sell their stock etc in the ordinary course of business without requiring consent from the chargor.his form of security is called fixed and floating because the chargee has: The true ingenuity of the fixed and floating charge is that it permits the chargor to deal with and sell their stock etc in the ordinary course of business without requiring consent from the chargor.", "In the original theory, two up quarks and a down quark add up to make a charge of positive one - or a proton. Two downs and an up have charges that add up to zero, and make neutrons. But if three quarks have positive two-thirds charges and three quarks have negative one-third charges, then why aren't there just two quarks total? What's the difference? Each of the quarks have just slightly different masses.", "Upcoding is when medical coders fraudulently charge medical bills. It is a criminal act that can cost patients and insurance companies thousands of dollars.", "Up, charm, and top quarks (collectively referred to as up-type quarks) have a charge of + 2 ⁄ 3 e, while down, strange, and bottom quarks (down-type quarks) have − 1 ⁄ 3 e. Antiquarks have the opposite charge to their corresponding quarks; up-type antiquarks have charges of − 2 ⁄ 3 e and down-type antiquarks have charges of + 1 ⁄ 3 e.", "To make things sleeker, Energous wants companies to build the charging technology right into gadgets, and the company is having its first transmitter and receiver chips manufactured. Energous faces plenty of challenges, though. Currently, the WattUp system charges a device in twice the time it takes a wall charger to do the same job, Holmes says. And end-to-end, the company’s technology isn’t yet that efficient: about 20 percent of the power siphoned from a wall outlet is delivered to gadgets.", "Free-standing uplighting is the ideal accessory to wash an area with light or back light specific decor details. Clip on lighting can provide a similar effect. In LED, halogen and incandescent styles, these designs attach easily to wall moldings and furniture, making them great for lighting bookcases, artwork and more.", "Most 25 lb. plastic containers ship as 25 or 26 lbs. We charge a base of $13.00 + 50 cents per lb to cover the cost of shipping and packaging. Since a shipping and handling / packaging fee is included in calculations for the shipping charges the actual charge you pay may be more or less than what UPS charges.ost 25 lb. plastic containers ship as 25 or 26 lbs. We charge a base of $13.00 + 50 cents per lb to cover the cost of shipping and packaging. Since a shipping and handling / packaging fee is included in calculations for the shipping charges the actual charge you pay may be more or less than what UPS charges.", "Below is a list of the coverage and benefits for Medicare Supplemental Plan N. The chart will show both what is and is not covered by this Plan N Policy. The co-pay basically consists of up to a $20 office visit charge and up to a $50 emergency room charge.", "Charging for access. An access charge is a charge made by a local exchange carrier for use of its local exchange facilities for a purpose such as the origination or termination of network traffic that is carried to or from a distant exchange by an interexchange carrier.", "exists and is an alternate of . Making the world better, one answer at a time. Good question. Charge-ware is a new way for programmers to make an extra dollar off of unsuspecting down loaders like us, who download for example, Free MP3 download. Not the popular version, which provides a genuinely awesome method by which to obtain Free music. Its the version by Mobile Kings.", "What describes the subatomic particles that make up the atom's nucleus? The 2 Particles that make up an Atomic Nucleus are: 1. The positively charged Proton. and 2.", "It’s worth noting that the lithium-ion chemistry used in smartphone batteries happily copes with having short bursts of energy to charge them up – which is exactly what wireless charging can provide as you lift your smartphone up from the charging pad and replace it throughout the day.", "I always tell me clients it is not what you pay in commission, it is what you end up with on the sale of your home. When you interview an agent you have to compare what they are offering to the commission they charge.I usually charge 6% but my clients get a lot for that! always tell me clients it is not what you pay in commission, it is what you end up with on the sale of your home. When you interview an agent you have to compare what they are offering to the commission they charge." ]

[ "Maybe as part of a government." ]

[ "Pele played for Sao Paulo, Brasil for majority of his career and also finished with the Cosmos Team in NY on the side of the USA.", "Aaron is best known for setting the Major League record for most home runs in a career (755), surpassing the previous mark of 714 by Babe Ruth. Aaron also holds the career marks for RBI (2,297), extra base hits (1,477) and total bases (6,856).", "I have wondered this myself and have come up with a couple of answers. I think the major reason for people watching is curiosity and just to see who has potential to go on further with their career - and who's going to get canned or not go anywhere. I also believe that there are people out there who watch the games who played in H.S. and are living vicariously through the players. It's almost like watching a street game, though - except for the (over) coaching, of course." ]

[ "Biaowiea National Park - Wikipedia Biaowiea National Park (Polish: Biaowieski Park Narodowy) is a National Park in Podlaskie Voivodeship, in Eastern Poland adjacent with the border with Belarus.", "\"Across a Divide\" by Sochaczewski, Paul Spencer - International ... On the uneasy border between Poland and Belarus, can a 'peace park' unite distrustful. ... Conservationists hope that the Bialowieza National Park on the Polish side ... park that will unite these formerly mutually distrustful neighbors in common ... demarcated the Iron Curtain separating Western Europe from the Soviet bloc.", "Biaowiea Forest - Wikipedia Biaowiea Forest is one of the last and largest remaining parts of the immense primeval forest ... It straddles the border between Poland (Podlaskie Voivodeship) and Belarus (Brest and Grodno voblasts) ... On the Polish side, part of the Biaowiea Forest is protected as the Biaowiea National Park (Polish: Biaowieski Park...", "J! Archive - Show #2980, aired 1997-07-11 It's West Virginia's capital, not its state dance .... Bialowieza National Park straddles the border of Belarus & this western neighbor...", "The Real Threat to Europe's Last Primeval Forest: Bark Beetles or ... May 23, 2016 ... Across the street at a luxury Best Western a crowd of about a ... Straddling the border between Poland and Belarus, Biaowiea ... The 2/3 of the forest that lies outside the national park is open to .... Locals with tourism-related businesses in Bialowieza fare much better than their neighbors in other villages..." ]

[ "Europe - Encyclopedia of the Nations Belarus is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe bordering Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia ... Belgium is a nation located in Western Europe. ... Denmark, and the Baltic Sea to the north; Poland and the Czech Republic to the east; ... Hungary is a landlocked country in eastern Central Europe bordered by Austria, Slovakia, the...", "Borders of Poland - Wikipedia The Borders of Poland are 3511 or 3582 kilometers long. The neighboring countries are Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and Lithuania and the Russian province of Kaliningrad Oblast to the northeast. To the north, Poland is bordered by the Baltic Sea. ... See (Jezioro Nowowarpieskie), a lake divided by a border between Poland...", "Belarus - Wikipedia Belarus officially the Republic of Belarus, formerly and sometimes known as Byelorussia is a ... blrus/ bel--ROOSS; Belarusian: , tr. ... Much of the borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939 when some lands of ... member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR.", "Belarus - Wikipedia Belarus officially the Republic of Belarus, formerly and sometimes known as Byelorussia is a ... In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Belarus declared ... Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland after the Polish-Soviet war of ... Much of the borders of Belarus took their modern shape in 1939 when some...", "Borders of Poland - Wikipedia The Borders of Poland are 3511 or 3582 kilometers long. The neighboring countries are Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and Lithuania and the Russian province of...", "BelarusUkraine border - Wikipedia Belarusian-Ukrainian border is the state border between Belarus and Ukraine with a length of about 1084 km and completely situated in a region of Polesia. It starts from the triple junction with Poland to the west and stretches to the triple junction with Russia to the east.", "Belarus travel guide - Wikitravel It has borders with Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. ... decades as a constituent republic of the USSR, Belarus attained its independence in 1991.", "Belarus The country is in Eastern Europe. In the east borders with Russia (border length 959 km) in the south - with Ukraine (891 km), in the west - with Poland (605 km), .... Country is divided into 6 provinces: Brest, Homiel, Hrodna, Minsk, Mahilyow and Vitebsk. ... The total length of the railways is 5,570 km, including electrified.", "Banff National Park - Wikipedia Banff National Park /bmf/ is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885 in the Rocky ..... Banff National Park is located in the Rocky Mountains on Alberta's western border ... Other scenic lakes near the parkway include Bow Lake, and Peyto Lakes, ... The high peaks west of Lake Louise are part of the Bow Range.", "Belarus - Country Profile - Nations Online Project The former Soviet republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered ... a constituent republic of the USSR, Belarus attained its independence in 1991. It has retained closer political and economic ties to Russia than any of the other ... Ethnic groups: Belarusian (81%), Russian (11%), Polish, Ukrainian, other (8%).", "Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Wikipedia Reference no. 259. State Party, United States. Region, North America. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a United States National Park and UNESCO World ... The border between Tennessee and North Carolina runs northeast to southwest through .... Unlike most other national parks, there is no entry fee to the park.", "Death Valley National Park - Wikipedia Death Valley National Park is a national park in the United States. Straddling the border of ... The second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere is in Badwater Basin, which is 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. The park is home to many species of plants and animals that have adapted to this harsh desert environment.", "Death Valley National Park - Wikipedia Death Valley National Park is a national park in the United States. Straddling the border of California and Nevada, located east of the Sierra ... the hottest and driest of the national parks in the United States. The second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere is in Badwater Basin, which is 282 feet (86 m) below sea level.", "Featured Entry in Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine Even prior to 1917 many Ukrainian and Belarusian circles proposed a ... The western boundaries of the country generally correspond to the ethnic borders (about 300,000 ... In the east, Belarusian ethnic territories are part of Pskov oblast, Smolensk ... living outside their republic, it is difficult to define the Russian-Belarusian...", "Belarus - Wikipedia Belarus officially the Republic of Belarus, formerly and sometimes known as Byelorussia is a ... Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Hrodna (Grodno), Homiel ..... Belarus is divided into six regions (Belarusian: , Russian: ), which .... Minorities also speak Polish, Ukrainian and Eastern Yiddish.", "PolandRussia border - Wikipedia The modern PolandRussia border is a nearly straight-line division between Poland and the ... Following World War I, the new Second Polish Republic shared a border with the Soviet Union (USSR), shaped ... Poland-Soviet Union border into a Poland-Russia, Poland-Lithuania, Poland-Belarus and Poland-Ukraine border.", "Death Valley National Park - Wikipedia Death Valley National Park is a national park in the United States. Straddling the border of California and Nevada, located east of the Sierra Nevada, it occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts in the United States. The park protects the northwest corner of the Mojave Desert and contains a...", "Kaliningrad - Wikipedia Kaliningrad (Russian: ; IPA: [klnngrat]) (former German name: ... Oblast, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. ... 14.1 Small border traffic law; 14.2 Twin towns and sister cities; 14.3 Partner ... as the westernmost territory of the USSR, the Kaliningrad Oblast became a...", "J! Archive - Show #4910, aired 2006-01-06 As the supreme Turkmen leader, Saparmurat Niyazov holds this ... This economically important body of water forms Turkmenistan's western border ... Of the 4 countries Turkmenistan borders, the one that isn't a \"stan\"...", "Belarus - Wikipedia Belarus officially the Republic of Belarus, formerly and sometimes known as Byelorussia, is a ... Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Hrodna (Grodno), Homiel ... In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Belarus declared ... The name Belarus is closely related with the term Belaya Rus' , i.e., White Rus'.", "Regions of Belarus - Wikipedia At the top level of administration, Belarus is divided into six regions and the city of Minsk, which ... In Soviet Belarus, new administrative units, called voblast (cognate of Russian word ... to the west, Baranavichy, Belastok (Bialystok), Brest, Pinsk, and Vileyka oblasts. ... First-level administrative divisions in European countries.", "International Peace Garden Straddling the US-Canadian border between North Dakota and Manitoba, this expansive park features lawns, vistas, and floral displays. History, on-site...", "Jeopary Questions page 763 - IT BORDERS RUSSIA - TriviaBistro ... IT BORDERS RUSSIA: The Caucasus Mountains straddle the border between Russia & this country, y'all SUPER BOWL BETS: In 1986 Mayor Harold...", "Best Trails in Yoho National Park | AllTrails.com These are the western slopes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. ... Yoho, named for a Cree word expressing awe, is a park of rock walls, waterfalls and ... of the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, and borders Banff National Park to the east...", "Death Valley National Park - Wikipedia Death Valley National Park is a national park in the United States. Straddling the border of ... It is the largest national park in the lower 48 states and has been declared an .... Desert and abandoned radiator water tank near Grapevine ..... Death Valley on February 11, 1933, setting aside almost two million acres (8,000 km2)...", "Belarus - Government and society | history - geography | Britannica ... May 13, 2016 ... Country of eastern Europe. ... The largest consists of six voblastsi (provinces) and one municipality (horad), Minsk. The provinces in turn are divided into rayony (sectors) and cities, with some ... Political youth organizations include the government-sponsored Union of .... World War II monument, Brest, Bela.", "Death Valley National Park - Wikipedia Death Valley National Park is a national park in the United States. Straddling the border of California and Nevada, located east of the Sierra Nevada, it occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts in the United States. ... There are two major valleys in the park, Death Valley and Panamint Valley.", "Belarus Censuses: Population Declines, National Identity ... Oct 10, 2012 ... Official population censuses in Belarus conducted in 1989, 1999 ... Unlike in western countries, in Belarus the decreasing native population is not replaced by an inflow of immigrants. ... Identity: Belarusianisation without Belarusian Language ... While in the 1990s, before the Lukashenka regime had set in,...", "Basque Country (greater region) - Wikipedia The Basque Country is the name given to the home of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees that straddles the border between France and Spain ... It can be translated as nation; country, land; people, population and town, village, settlement. The first ..... The (C)agots also were found north and south of the mountains.", "Upper Silesia - Wikipedia Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. ... Gate, which form the southern border with the historic Moravia region. ... In the north, Upper Silesia borders on Greater Poland, and in the west on the ... Polish and the smaller Czech Silesian part, which is located within the Czech...", "J! Archive - Show #4268, aired 2003-03-05 It's the largest country in area that borders Russia ... The Caucasus Mountains straddle the border between Russia & this country, y'all...", "Regions of Belarus - Wikipedia At the top level of administration, Belarus is divided into six regions and the city of Minsk, which ... In 1926 the eastern part of Gomel region was added. ... with Belarus gaining territory to the west, Baranavichy, Belastok (Bialystok), Brest, Pinsk, ... In 1944 Belastok was eliminated and the new oblasts of Babruysk, Grodno, and..." ]

[ "Evaluation of: Kizer JR, Barzilay JI, Kuller LH, Gottdiener JS: Adiponectin and risk of coronary heart disease in older men and women. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 93, 3357–3364 (2008). Adiponectin has insulin sensitizing, anti-inflammatory and antiatherogenetic properties. On the basis of this, it is proposed that adiponectin could protect against the development of coronary heart disease (CHD). However, in a nested case–control population-based study, it was demonstrated that high not low adiponectin is associated with increased CHD risk in older adults, challenging earlier studies and suggesting higher adiponectin to be associated with lower risk of CHD. The increased risk is not explained by renal dysfunction or weight loss, factors that may increase adiponectin and mortality. The reason underlying this paradoxical finding in older adults is unclear. Future epidemiological and clinical studies are required to better address the potential mechanisms underlying the link between elevated adiponectin and C..." ]

[ "Objective To observe the TFPI concentrations before and after percutaneous coronary intervention in elder patients with coronary heart disease.Methods The study was conducted in 24 elder and 24 adult patients with coronary heart disease.TFPI levels were assessed at coronary artery and coronary sinus before and after percutaneous coronary intervention.Results TFPI levels were significantly increased both in the elder and adult groups after PCI(P0.05);In addition,the increment in the elder group was significantly higher than in the adult group(P0.05).Conclusions TFPI levels are significantly increased after PCI and play the important role in anticoagulant and antithrombosis.", "Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in older adults. Clinical and subclinical disease increase in prevalence with age and impose a significant burden on this population. Given the increase in absolute cardiovascular risk with age, there is tremendous potential for benefit from primary and secondary cardiovascular disease preventive interventions in the elderly. Recent clinical trials focusing on preventive therapies targeting cardiovascular disease risk factors, including hypertension and cholesterol, have shed light on the potential gains from these measures in older adults. This article briefly reviews several of the current issues and unanswered questions relating to cardiovascular disease prevention in the elderly.", "To the Editor: ::: ::: We read with interest the report by Sattar and colleagues1 that shows no significant relationship of plasma adiponectin levels with risk of coronary heart disease in the British Regional Heart Study. In a summary of published studies, Sattar et al1 also report only a modest inverse association. However, we have concerns about their pooling of only a few studies when several different methodologies, populations, and analysis methods were used. For example, the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study was the only study that had blood specimens stored in liquid nitrogen at temperatures <−130°C. …", "We evaluated the association between visceral adiposity and left ventricular (LV) diastolic function in association with plasma adiponectin levels in 213 subjects without overt cardiac diseases. Abdominal visceral fat area was quantified by computed tomography. Excessive visceral fat was significantly associated with impaired diastolic parameters including E/A, E′ and E/E′. Although serum adiponectin levels decreased with increased visceral adiposity, there was no independent association between serum adiponectin levels and diastolic parameters, which suggest that the role of adiponectin in this association might be indirect.", "Summary As the elderly population increases worldwide and the aged population itself becomes older with more people surviving to advanced ages, cardiovascular diseases will increase in prevalence. The presentation of cardiovascular disease in elderly patients reflects both its superimposition on the physiologic and structural cardiovascular changes of aging and its typical association with multisystem disease; these variables also influence the response of elderly cardiac patients both to specific cardiac diseases and to therapies. Prompt recognition and implementation of appropriate, often high technology, interventions for properly selected elderly patients can enhance both the quality and the quantity of their lives.", "The Resistin and Adiponectin all is the fat secretion fatty cell factor,the research indicated that,They and obese,insulin resistance,cardiovascular disease close correlation.This article summarized to has in recent years Resistin and Adiponectin the research progress which affected in the insulin resistance and coronary artery disease.", "The combination of age-related increases in obesity and inflammation can lead to chronic disease, decreased strength, and physical disability. Lifestyle interventions that include moderate caloric restriction along with aerobic and resistance exercise have shown improvements in metabolic outcomes, strength, and physical function in obese older adults. Although few weight loss studies have addressed diet quality, evidence summarized in this review suggests that encouraging intake of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, high-quality protein, low-glycemic index carbohydrates, and omega-3 fatty acids may further ameliorate obesity-related inflammation. Future controlled trials are indicated to examine the effects of incorporating these foods into multimodal weight loss interventions.", "The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the adiponectin levels and various characteristics of the metabolic syndrome (MS) in a sample of the Tunisian population. Three hundred and fifty-four individuals were included in this study. Body mass index, blood pressure, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, insulin, and adiponectin concentrations were measured. Insulin resistance was assessed by homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). MS was identified with the NCEP-ATP III criteria. Subjects with MS showed significantly lower adiponectin levels compared to those without MS. For both genders, the prevalence and the number of MS components increased significantly as the adiponectin concentrations decreased. Subjects with the lowest adiponectin quartile had an increased risk of MS adjusted for age, gender, and HOMA-IR. Our findings suggest that hypoadiponectinemia is strongly associated with the risk of MS independent of insulin resistance.", "Purpose: Although human studies have failed to reveal an increased risk of clinical cardiovascular disease in men who undergo vasectomy, the possibility exists that an association may be detectable only after a long followup, or it may be more evident for subclinical than clinical disease. We assessed the association of vasectomy with inflammation and coagulation factors, carotid intimal-medial thickness, carotid plaque, prevalent peripheral arterial disease, and incident coronary heart disease and stroke in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities cohort.Materials and Methods: Included in the study were 3,957 white men 45 to 64 years old who were free of coronary heart disease at the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) baseline examination in 1987 to 1989. Data on vasectomy was collected at baseline by self-reporting. High resolution B-mode ultrasound was done to assess carotid intimal-medial thickness and carotid plaque. The cohort was followed an average of 9 years for incident cardiovascular eve...", "Objective:The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between the polymorphism in ALOX5AP gene and the risk for coronary heart disease.Methods: We analysised the polymorphism in ALOX5AP by using of high resolution melting(HRM) to genotype in 150 patients with coronary heart disease and 280 healthy controls.Results: CC in A22879C,AA and TA in T8733A increased the risk of coronary heart disease with an odds ratio of 2.691,2.718 and 2.962,respectively.Conclusions: Polymorphism in ALOX5AP gene is an independent and significant predictor of coronary heart disease.", "Acute myocardial infarction during pregnancy is associated with high maternal and fetal mortality. Coronary atherosclerosis is the most common cause due to an increase in the age of the patients and the association with cardiovascular risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, preeclampsia, and the existence of family history of coronary disease. However, thrombosis, coronary dissection or coronary vasospasms are other causes that may justify it. We report the case of a 33 weeks pregnant first-time mother, without cardiovascular risk factors, who presented an acute coronary event in the context of atherosclerotic disease and coronary dissection after percutaneous coronary intervention.", "Introduction: While the relationship between obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is well-established, mechanisms underlying this relationship are not well elucidated. Hypothesis: Our hypothesis is that visceral adipose tissue (VAT) volume, aortic inflammation and the risk of subsequent cardiovascular events are linked together. Methods: Individuals who underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging were included. VAT volume, subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) volume and aortic FDG uptake were measured while blinded to clinical data. Cardiovascular events were adjudicated by independent cardiologists. Thereafter, the relationship between VAT volume and aortic FDG activity and cardiovascular events was evaluated using Cox proportional hazard models. Results: The final analysis included 415 patients with a median age of 55 (P25-P75: 45-65) years and a median BMI of 26.4 (P25- P75: 23.4-30.9) kg/m2. VAT and SAT volume were significantly higher in obese individuals. 32 subjects experienced cardiovascular event during a ...", "Objective To investigate the influencing factors of coronary atherosclerosis in aged patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods Analyze retrospectively on the clinical materials,total coronary artery calcification score(TCS) and serum homocysteine(HCY) of 45 patients. All patients were divided into TCS normal group(TCS 50) and TCS abnormal group(TCS ≥ 50) ,compare HCY and other data between the 2 groups,and explore the influencing factors of coronary atherosclerosis. Results HCY,triglyeride and coronary heart disease history are higher in TCS abnormal group than TCS normal group(P 0.05) ,HCY and coronary heart disease history are influencing factors of coronary atherosclerosis. Conclusion HCY might be an influencing factor of coronary atherosclerosis in aged patients with type 2 diabetes,decreasing serum HCY might be helpful in preventing coronary heart disease in those people.", "Diabetes is associated with an increased incidence of heart failure that is not associated with other risk factors, such as atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, or hypertension [1–3]. Under conditions where the disease is not well controlled, there may also be an elevation in the concentration of circulating ketone bodies. This information, coupled with the observations that isolated rat hearts are unable to sustain physiologic workloads when presented with ketone bodies as the sole energetic substrate, have led some to suggest that the myocardial dysfunction associated with diabetes could be the result of the elevation in ketone body concentration [4].", "Atrial flutter is a frequent complication in patients with adult congenital heart disease either during natural history or after surgical repair.1 2 The incidence of such an arrhythmia increases postoperatively with time and is usually associated with complex atrial surgery.3 4 When it occurs, atrial flutter compromises haemodynamics, reduces exercise tolerance, and is often resistant to medical treatment. The P wave has been found to change its electrical characteristics before atrial fibrillation supervenes in patients with coronary artery disease.5 We sought to study the same hypothesis in 39 adult congenital heart disease patients, 31% of them with Mustard or Fontan surgery, who developed atrial flutter long after surgical …", "Adiponectin (ApN) is a white adipose tissue hormone that has insulin sensitizing effects. ApN exerts its actionsthrough specific receptors, AdipoR1 and AdipoR2, thereby contributing to reduce hepatic glucose production and increaseglucose uptake and fatty acid oxidation. ApN level is decreased in obesity and is inversely correlated to obesity, type2 diabetes and other insulin-resistant states. Hypoadiponectinemia is implicated in the pathogenesis of the metabolicsyndrome and atherosclerosis. Experimental evidences indicate that ApN possesses anti-diabetic, anti-atherogenic andanti-inflammatory properties. In the future, ApN may be used beneficially as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker aswell as the promising therapeutic target to prevent and treat these disorders. Key words: Adiponectin, Metabolic syndrome, Obesity, Insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes, Atherosclerosis", "The incidence of renal disease is increasing at alarming rates. Older adults with co-morbid conditions are at increased risk for end stage renal disease with the resulting need for renal replacement therapy. Nurses who care for the older adult must know how chronic kidney disease will affect the older adult and must be able to provide compassionate care at the end stage of life.", "Arterial stiffening characterizes ageing and several diseases related to increased cardiovascular (CV) risk such as the metabolic syndrome (MetS), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), hypertension, obesity and smoking. Several studies have shown that arterial stiffness is a strong, independent predictor of CV morbidity and mortality risk in such patient populations. Lifestyle measures and drugs frequently prescribed in MetS and T2DM patients such as hypolipidaemic, an- tihypertensive, hypoglycaemic and antiplatelet agents, may improve arterial stiffness, thus further reducing vascular risk. The current review considers the effects of these drugs and lifestyle changes on arterial stiffness in MetS and T2DM pa- tients. The potential clinical implications of such effects on treatment decisions in clinical practice remain to be estab- lished. Multifactorial interventions may be even more beneficial in terms of CV risk reduction and thus their impact on ar- terial stiffness should also be evaluated.", "Down's syndrome (DS) is the most frequent chromosomal aberration in men. Moreover DS is considered an atheroma-free model. Plasma levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha high sensitivity (hsTNF-alpha), leptin and adiponectin from non-demented DS subjects of three different age cohorts (2-14, 20-50 and above 60 years) and healthy controls were measured. No clinical and sub-clinical inflammation was apparent in DS patients. Plasma levels of hsTNF-alpha, IL-6 and leptin were higher in children than in adult and old DS subjects. Instead, serum levels of adiponectin were increased in older DS patients than in DS children and adults. High levels of circulating adiponectin might protect DS from clinical complications of atherosclerosis.", "Abstract Concerns regarding deleterious cardiovascular effects of caffeine have largely not been supported. Regarding coronary artery disease, the risk may be increased in individuals who are slow metabolizers of caffeine and drink two or more cups of coffee per day. The ingestion of large quantities of caffeine might be associated with arrhythmic and cardiovascular events, especially in patients with underlying heart disease.", "Abstract The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of resistance training on inflammatory levels, lipid and glycemic profile in obese older women. Thirty-eight obese older women (68.2 ± 4.2 years, and 41.0 ± 6.2% of body fat) were randomly assigned to one of two groups: A training group (TG, n = 19) that performed 8 weeks of RT; or a control group (CG, n = 19) that did not perform any type of exercise. The RT program consisted of 8 whole-body exercises for 3 sets of 10–15 repetition maximum (RM) carried out 3 times a week. Anthropometric, body composition (DXA), muscular strength (1RM), and blood sample measurements were performed pre- and post-training. After the intervention period, the TG demonstrated significantly ( P P", "AbstractBackground: Despite the growing body of evidence on growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15) reference values for patients with existing cardiovascular disease, limited investigation has been dedicated to characterizing the distribution and prognostic impact of GDF-15 in predominantly healthy populations. Furthermore, current cutoff values for GDF-15 fail to account for the well-documented age-dependence of circulating GDF-15.Methods: From 810 community-dwelling older adults, we selected a group of apparently healthy participants (n = 268). From this sample, circulating GDF-15 was modeled using the generalized additive models for location scale and shape (GAMLSS) to develop age-dependent centile values. Unadjusted and adjusted Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the association between the derived GDF-15 reference values (expressed as centiles) and all-cause mortality.Results: Smoothed centile curves showed increasing GDF-15 with age in the apparently healthy participants. An appr...", "Background ::: The metabolic syndrome (MS) is associated with increased risk for diabetes mellitus and coronary heart disease, and is highly prevalent among schizophrenia patients. Given concerns over antipsychotic metabolic effects, this analysis explored MS status and outcomes in phase 1 of the CATIE Schizophrenia Trial.", "The objective of the study was to determine the effects of repeated bouts of supramaximal exercise on plasma adiponectin, interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α levels in sedentary men. Fourteen healthy, nonsmoking, and sedentary men aged between 18.4 and 21.4 years participated in the study. All the subjects performed 5 Wingate tests (WTs) with 75 g per kilogram body weight load with 2-minute intervals between the tests. Blood samples were collected at preexercise, immediately after, 15 and 60 minutes after the fifth WT. Serum and plasma samples were stored at -80°C until the time of analysis for myoglobin, adiponectin, IL-6, and TNF-α. Plasma adiponectin levels decreased, whereas IL-6 levels increased postexercise compared with that preexercise. The TNF-α levels were not changed with supramaximal exercise. In conclusion, repeated bouts of supramaximal exercise cause an inflammatory response in exercised muscle and increase in plasma IL-6 levels and decrease in adiponectin concentrations.", "Objective To assess the association between bone mineral density and coronary heart disease in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes.Methods To mensure bone mineral density and T score of 176 postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes,we divided these women into two groups according to whether they had coronary heart disease or not,and analysed the association between osteoporosis and coronary heart disease.Results Bone mineral density,and T score of patients with coronary heart disease were much lower than those of patients without it.Osteoporosis was related to coronary heart disease by logistic regression analysis,regardless of age,pressure,triglyceride,body mass index,the duration of diabetes,and menopause time.Conclusion The louer of bone mineral density of postmenopausal women with tgpe 2 diabets is related to coronary heart disease.", "The absorption, action, and metabolism characteristics of drugs change in older adults due to factors including the normal process of aging and the impacts of disease on organ functions. Changes in the profile and proportions of drug use among older adults increase with increases in the severity of functional decline and the prevalence of chronic diseases. Drugs that are classified as \"potentially inappropriate medications\" (PIMs) carry a higher risk of causing adverse reactions in older adults, provide uncertain therapeutic benefits, or may be substituted by alternative drugs that are generally safer to use. Researchers have developed criteria for PIMs in geriatric medicine that are applicable to clinical practice and research. This article introduces the development and application of the PIM-Taiwan criteria to help nurses better understand the current knowledge related to medication use among older adults and the results of related research in Taiwan.", "Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in postmenopausal women in Western countries. Despite preventive strategies, in the past decades, the incidence of cardiovascular events has shown a decline in men but a rise in women, matching the growth of the population of postmenopausal women. Several epidemiological findings suggest the causative role of ovarian hormone deficiency in the development of cardiovascular disease in women. Observational and randomized studies have suggested that initiation of hormone replacement therapy in early postmenopause could be beneficial from a cardiovascular point of view. Conversely, aging, time since menopause and presence of cardiovascular risk factors or cardiovascular disease may decrease its efficacy and increase the risk of cardiovascular events. It is plausible that the unfavorable effects of the estrogen/progestin combination used in the randomized studies are not related to the hormone preparation per se but rather to the use of hormones in the less r...", "Abstract Cardiac rehabilitation programs (CR) are standard treatment for patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), yet a large variation in risk factor and lipoprotein changes exists. We investigated the role of three common genetic polymorphisms ( CETP Taq1B, LIPC −514 and apo E ) associated with alterations of lipoprotein metabolism, in patients before and after standardized CR. Three-hundred and seven patients were recruited for this study. DNA samples were collected and all three genotypes were determined for every patient. While the hepatic lipase LIPC promoter polymorphism and apo E genotype showed little or no correlation with response to CR, CETP Taq1B showed significant association with changes in plasma lipid and lipoproteins. The B1 homozygotes for CETP Taq1B genotype showed significant reduction in TC (−0.25 ± 0.07, p p p", "Background ::: Epidemiological data on obesity are needed, particularly in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and high cardiovascular (CV) risk. We used the baseline data of liraglutide effect and action in diabetes: evaluation of CV outcome results—A long term Evaluation (LEADER) (a clinical trial to assess the CV safety of liraglutide) to investigate: (i) prevalence of overweight and obesity; (ii) relationship of the major cardiometabolic risk factors with anthropometric measures of adiposity [body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC)]; and (iii) cardiometabolic treatment intensity in relation to BMI and WC.", "Atrial fibrillation is associated with an increased risk of stroke, and a growing body of literature suggests that women and men experience risk factors differently. Smoking and diabetes are associated with greater risk of coronary heart disease in women than in men, for example, while diabetes is associated with a greater risk of stroke in women than in men.", "Background—Obesity and cardiometabolic dysfunction are associated with increased risk of heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases. We sought to examine the association of cardiometabolic tra...", "Objective To investigate the association of adiponectin gene(apM1)rs6773957(A/G)polymorphism with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM).MethodsAdiponectin gene rs6773957(A/G)polymorphism were identified by means of PCR-direct sequencing in 452 unrelated Han Chinese residents in Jiangsu region,including 242 patients with T2DM and 210 normal subjects.The association of adiponectin gene rs6773957(A/G)polymorphism with clinical and biochemical characteristics were also analyzed.ResultsAdiponectin gene rs6773957(A/G)polymorphism were identified in Han Chinese in Jiangsu region;the percentage of AG and GG gene type in T2DM group patients were significantly higher than that in normal subject group.ConclusionAdiponectin gene rs6773957(A/G)polymorphism may associate with T2DM in Han Chinese of Jiangsu region." ]

[ "Ernie Banks" ]

[ "the First Crusade", "the First World War", "The First Wives Club", "the first woman in space", "the First Punic War", "Rowing", "the first line of Romeo and Juliet", "Sir Lancelot (\"First Knight\")" ]

[ "Stocks are a share in a company.\\nThe stock market is where those shares are sold." ]

[ "The alpha and the beta are used to measure the risk of a stock (they are more commony used with mutual funds and money managers). The beta of a stock measures the volatility of the stock compared to the overall market, sector, or other index. The beta for the market (S&P 500) = 1.00. If a stock has a beta of .85, it means that the stock is 15% less volatile than the market. If the stock has a beta of 1.5, it means that the stock is 50% more volatile than the market.\\n\\nThe Alpha is used to measure the risk adjusted return of a stock. In other words, if a stock has a beta of 1.5, it should give you 1 1/2 times the return of the underlying index. If it doesn't, then why take the extra risk if it is not going to provide you with the same amount of extra return. Obviously you want to find investments with the most amount of return with the least amount of risk.\\n\\nFor a more technical explanation, click on this link and then scroll down to Alpha.\\n\\nhttp://biz.yahoo.com/f/g/g.html", "A stock exchange is an organization of which the members are stock brokers. A stock exchange provides facilities for the trading of securities and other financial instruments. Usually facilities are also provided for the issue and redemption of securities as well as other capital events including the payment of income and dividends.\\n\\nThe securities usually traded on a stock exchange include the shares issued by companies, unit trusts and other pooled investment products as well as corporate bonds and government bonds.\\n\\nUsually there is a central location at least for recordkeeping, but trade is less and less linked to such a physical place, as modern markets are electronic networks, which gives them advantages of speed and cost of transactions. Trade on an exchange is by members only; a stock broker is said to \"have a seat\" on the exchange.\\n\\nA stock exchange is often the most important component of a stock market. There is usually no compulsion to issue stock via the stock exchange itself and nor must stock be subsequently traded on the exchange: Such trading is said to be \"off exchange\".\\n\\nThe initial offering of stock to investors is by definition the primary market and subsequent trading is the secondary market.\\n\\nIncreasingly all stock exchanges are part of the global securities market.\\n\\nSupply and demand in stock markets is driven by various factors which, as in all free markets, affect the price of stocks (see stock valuation).\\n\\nIn francophonic European countries stock exchanges are called bourses.", "the meaning of Mid cap Stock is a stock the market capitalization of which is medium and large cap is market capitlization is large. the market capitalization is equity multiplied by its price, www.valueresearchonline.com and www.moneycontrol.com", "Points on the stock market index represent the trend, business sentiment and the healthiness of the market. Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange are the two main exchanges in india and their daily trend is represented by the BSE Index and NSE Index. \\n\\nBasic idea behind the points of Sensex is the stock exchange has identified few big companies like reliance etc that represent the major volume of trades in the exchange and the capital market. Sensex points are calculated by computing the market capitalization of these few compaines on each single day.\\n\\nSmall Cap means small capitalization stocks. Stocks which are small in terms of price and total number of shares. Example is a stock with a value of Rs. 15 and total number of shares is 1,00,00,000. so market cap would be 15,00,00,000\\n\\nMedium Cap means medium capitalization stocks. Stocks which are not very small nor very big in terms of price and total number of share. Example is a stock with a value of Rs 85 and the total number of shares is 1,00,00,000. So market cap would be 85,00,00,000", "It can refer to one of three things:\\n\\n* the Nikkei 225 Stock Market Index:\\n\\n* a descendant of a Japanese person born outside Japan;\\n\\n* the Nihon Keizai Shimbun Newspaper.\\n\\nThe most commonly used is the stock market index. It is the leading index of the Japanese stock market.", "The stock market will go up in the next few months.\\nThe stock market will go down in the next few months.\\n\\nThe key is to make money regardless of the markets direction.\\n\\nJ", "Beta is a measure of the market's risk measured by randomness of data. Correlation is whether stocks lose or gain value with each other. Similarity is that a risky stock is more likely to be uncorrelated with the market.", "The Saudi Arabian Stock Market ('Tadawul')", "Barchart.com- is a great site to research data on all markets; stocks, currencies, futures. Lots of really good data, although not too much commentary.\\n\\nMarketwatch.com- Run by Cbs, a good site with lots of articles, data and opinions on the stock market the financial sector, and various companies.\\n\\nMorningstar.com- A good site with tons of articles, learning centers and opinions on stocks mutual funds. Mainly focuses on stock markets/mutual funds though.", "Start with a billion and enter the stock market", "About common stock, the market will set the price on common stock. The buyer puts bid price and the amount of stock he or she willing to buy. The stock holder puts sell price and amount of stock on sale. In the market, you can see bid price and sale price. Once the two price becomes the same, the transaction would make base on the amount of stock. When the transaction occur , the stock price will show on the market. \\n\\nOther stock type\\npreferred stocks: Capital stock which provides a specific dividend that is paid before any dividends are paid to common stock holders, and which takes precedence over common stock in the event of a liquidation. Usually does not carry voting rights.This stock price is set by company.\\n\\nmarket price: A security's last reported sale price (if on an exchange) or its current bid and ask prices (if over-the-counter); i.e. the price as determined dynamically by buyers and sellers in an open market.", "Speculation in the 1920s caused many people to by stocks with loaned money and they used these stocks as collateral for buying more stocks. Broker's loans went from under $5 million in mid 1928 to $850 million in September of 1929. The stock market boom was very unsteady, because it was based on borrowed money and false optimism. When investors lost confidence, the stock market collapsed, taking them along with it.\\n\\n\\ncheck out the source, it has more information", "Stay away from the Chinese stock market. The companies there make Enron look like a minor mistake. To make matters worse, the Chinese government held as much as 80% of the stocks and is slowly selling them off. Even the Chinese don't put their money in their stock exchange. That's why their stock market has been going down even though thier country is growing economically.", "The bull is the symbol for a good market, the stock prices are high.\\nThe bear is a symbol for low stock rates.", "There are several possible reasons for this. People who make markets in options are effectively making markets in the uncertainty underlying the stock price. If the bid- ask spread is widening, then that could mean that the market makers have less certainty about the future volatility (price-swingyness) of the stock. If there is a big story in the company, that could lead to such an effect. \\n\\nAnother potential reason could be that the stock itself has got a wider bid-ofer spread. The option market maker has to base his price partially on the stock price, and if the bid offer of the stock is widening, then the bid-offer of the options will generally get wider by an ratio called the \"delta\" of the option, which is between 0 and 1.", "A \"stock option\" is a set price for a group of stocks in a company. Usually given to employees, sometimes to investors directly realted to a company. With a stock option, you can get say a group of 100 stocks at an option to purchase for $5 each. The option matures at some point in time where you can actually make this purchase at said price. But, there is a possibility that the market price for the stock could be $100 at that time. You just made $95 per stock on the purchase. A real incentive for employees to work harder to make their company worth more in the market place.", "You could do it in the stock market trading volatile stocks like Google. You could make it fast, but you could also lose it fast.", "Generally speaking, there is no such thing as cheapest way to invest in stocks.\\n\\nYou need to have plenty of fluff and lot of knowledge to really make it in the stock market", "Invest $500 a month in a diversified stock mutual fund (I like Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund). Wait ~30 years and you will have around a million dollars. Most people would hedge their bets by putting some money in bonds, in which case it will take longer. This assumes you have the stomach to handle the volatility of the stock market.", "Forecasts in this case is just guessing. Look at the beta of the stock. That gives you some idea of how Costco performed in relation to the market as a whole in the past.\\nNow all you have to do is figure out what leve the stock market will be a year from now. If you think it will be up 10% multiply that number by the beta and then by the current price of Costco stock. Of course, there might be some revelation that will have either a positive or negative impact on the price of Costco stock.", "read a book. it changed my mind about wanting to play the stock market.", "so far this year the stock market is up compared to last year.", "... and it's the same as the Dow Jones for NY stock exchange, the Nikkei for Tokyo's, the DAX for Frankfurt, etc. It's the reference index for the French stock exchange (40 biggest firms on the market).", "You're right, spectroscopy is the proper method...Below you'll find a link to a quick and simple explanation.", "Stock market! You can invest in high risk or low risk stocks, it is up to you. If you decide to do day trading or trade penny stocks, that is where the highest risk lies, but also the best profit can be made!", "Good question. First off, depending on who you talk with, US stocks have had a fairly strong bull run from late 2002. There are several schools of thought as to the current market trend. My view is that leading US stocks that drove this rally (GOOG, EBAY, YHOO, APPL, etc.) are being distributed, if this continues, the general market is probably going lower. Could change at any time.\\n\\nThe US and western Europe have the best developed, most liquid equity markets. Other markets have excellent potential, however there is more risk as well. For the most part, financial statements released by US companies are reliable. Other countires may not be as rigorous. There may be other risks in less developed markets as well.\\n\\nThere are so many different ways to invest in stocks, it's very hard to determine if you should start now.\\n\\nYou need to learn about the market and develop the skills to decide what is best for you.\\n\\nWarren Buffett and William O'Neil are examples of people very successful investing in stocks. They share some similar views, but are very different investors. Search them on Yahoo! O'Neil's book \"How to Make Money in Stocks,\" is excellent.\\n\\nTaking a position in a stock or market takes research, planning and courage. Mutual funds, ETFs and hedge funds are excellent alternatives.", "Invest in many stocks from a sector or sectors of the market in order to increase capital.", "The best way to protect yourself against a stock market crash is to have a diversified portfolio and practice asset allocation, stocks, bonds and CDs and money markets. If you have a long time horizon, ten years or more, you shouldnt worry about a stock market crash. Because you have time to make up for it. The closer you are to retirement, or the time you will need the money, the more of your portfolio that you should have in safer investments like bonds, CDs and money markets. If you have a long time horizon, a well diversified and balanced portfolio, then a crash is a buying opportunity.", "A stock split is generally resorted to when the company wants to increase the liquidity of its shares in the market. \\n\\nWhen a stock is highly priced retail participation in the stock may reduce so as to encourage retail participation &#92;, a stock is split so that it can be purchased by small investors also\\n\\nThere are no price limit when a stock should split.", "The smaller the stock (small market cap, # of shares floating around, etc.), the bigger the effect. He's really popular right now and based on his recommendation of a small stock, the stock could go through the roof. But for a large stock (such as an Intel, MS, etc.), the effect would be marginal and short-lived at best.", "Market capitalization, often abbreviated to market cap, is a business term that refers to the aggregate value of a firm's outstanding common shares. In essence, market capitalization reflects the total value of a firm's equity currently available on the market. This measure differs from equity value to the extent that a firm has outstanding stock options or other securities convertible to common shares. The size and growth of a firm's market capitalization is often one of the critical measurements of a public company's success or failure. However, market capitalization may increase or decrease for reasons unrelated to performance such as acquisitions, divestitures and stock repurchases.\\n\\nMarket capitalization is calculated by multiplying the number of outstanding common shares of the firm and the current price of those shares. The term capitalization is sometimes used as a synonym of market capitalization; more often, it denotes the total amount of funds used to finance a firm's balance sheet and is calculated as market capitalization plus debt (book or market value) plus preferred stock.", "Its not on the stock market. Its privately owned. Here's Yahoo's information on Giorgio Armani." ]

[ "Bhim Sen Sachar" ]

[ "the Who", "batter who bats first in the lineup", "The Who by Numbers", "Betty Who", "first in, first out", "The Who's Tommy", "who is singing", "finance minister", "Who Dat", "Dr. Who", "The Guess Who", "Who You Are", "Who Is Fancy", "Who's That Girl", "Council of Ministers", "who is and who is not a New Zealand citizen", "European ministates", "The Minister for Defence", "Who We Are", "Minister for Justice", "cabinet of ministers", "Congregationalist ministers", "Minister for the Environment", "by officiating ministers" ]

[ "Istanbul" ]

[ "University", "the University of Rome", "University of Vienna", "Oxford University", "Universal", "Universal City", "Universe", "Transylvania University", "the University of Michigan", "the University of Pennsylvania", "(University of) Michigan", "the universe", "University of Chicago", "University of Maryland", "the University of Missouri", "Delhi University", "a universal joint", "Howard University", "(the University of) Kansas", "the Hagia Sophia", "Yale University", "Brown University", "Princeton University", "the University of Kansas", "(University of) Oregon", "Leiden", "Universal Studios", "beriberi", "University of Hawaii", "Greek & Turkish", "Turkish", "Ataturk" ]

[ "Go Back. Selena was nominated in 1994 for her first Grammy for her album Selena Live that was recorded in February of 1993. She was nominated in the Best Mexican Album category. She beat out such artist as Vicente Fernandez and Los Tigres Del Norte. Selena was also the first Tejano Artist to win a Grammy! In 1995 Selena returned to the Grammy's because she was nominated in again in the same category for Amor Prohibido, but Vicky Carr won. Grammy Winner ~ Selena, Artist Genre ~ Latin Grammy", "American actress and singer Selena Gomez has won more than ninety awards during her career. Gomez won three Teen Choice Awards for her lead role in the fantasy teen sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place. She won the Kids' Choice Award for Favorite TV Actress, five times in a row. At the 30th Young Artist Awards, she won a Young Artist Awards for her role in the film Another Cinderella Story. At the 11th ALMA Awards, she won the Year in TV Comedy – Actress award. She also won a Gracie Award, and ..." ]

[ "Selena Gomez, One Direction, Ariana Grande win big at Kids’ Choice Awards. Selena Gomez received her sixth consecutive Kids’ Choice Award. The green slime flowed freely at the Kids' Choice Awards on Saturday, where boy band One Direction and actress-singer Ariana Grande took home orange blimps handed out by youth cable channel Nickelodeon.", "Grammy award-winning Tejano music superstar Selena, 23, died 20 years ago Tuesday. Photo: Reuters. Tuesday marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Selena Quintanilla-Perez, a famous Latina singer fatally shot in 1995 by her fan club's founder.", "I thought the whole cast in the movie were great, Jennifer Lopez played Selena really well and deserved any award she received or got nominated for. The rest of the cast including, Edward James Olmos, who played Selena's father and Jon Seda, who played Selena's husband Chris Perez did really well too.", "Selena and her group Los Dinos created a unique sound by mixing in Colombian cumbia, pop and R&B winning them fans all over the United States, Latin America and the world. Selena is loved by her fans for her kindness, her love of her fans, her positive attitude and, of course, the wonderful music she made.", "Making the world better, one answer at a time. The question of whether the Grammy Award-winning singer, Selena Quintanilla Perez, died because her father refused to consent to blood transfusions still makes the rounds on the internet. The quick answer is NO. On March 31, 1995, 23 year-old Selena was shot in the back by former employee, Yolanda Saldivar.", "Born on April 16, 1971 in Lake Jackson, Texas, Selena Quintanilla made her recording debut in the '80s, going on to become an award-winning recording artist in the Latin music scene with albums like Amor Prohibido and Selena Live.In 1995, she was murdered by the founder of her fan club.orn on April 16, 1971 in Lake Jackson, Texas, Selena Quintanilla made her recording debut in the '80s, going on to become an award-winning recording artist in the Latin music scene with albums like Amor Prohibido and Selena Live.", "Did fight club win an academy award. Fight Club was nominated for an Academy Award in 2000 for Best Effects, Sound... Did Leonardo DiCaprio win an Academy Award for What's Eating Gilbert Grape? Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a...", "Selena Gomez got emotional while performing her new single, The Heart Wants What It Wants, at the 2014 American Music Awards at L.A.'s Nokia Theatre on Sunday, Nov. 23.", "Related Martin Scorsese Questions. What Movie did Martin Scorsese Win an Academy Award for what tittle? He won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed. ! How many Academy Awards has Martin Scorsese been nominated for? Martin Scorsese has been nominated for best director 6 times. He won his first... What movies has martin Scorsese won an Oscar for? Martin Scorsese has won an Oscar for the movie The Departed. He has been... Did Angelina Jolie ever win an Academy Award? Angelina Jolie won an Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science award in 1999 for... What film did Quentin Tarantino win an academy award for? Quentin Tarantino won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1994 for...", "Grammy-Winning Singer Selena Killed in Shooting at Texas Motel. CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex., March 31— Selena, the 23-year-old reigning queen of the Tejano music world, was shot and killed today at a Corpus Christi motel.", "Dale Murphy Awards. What awards did Dale Murphy win? This page lists every known baseball award won by Dale Murphy in chronological order. Click the award name and up comes a comprehensive history of that award along with every winner of that particular baseball award.", "Selena Gomez Net Worth is $4 Million. 1 Selena Gomez is an actress, singer and songwriter with a net worth of $4 million. Selena Gomez has accumulated her net worth through her singing/songwriting career as well as her role on Wizards of Waverly Place Selena Marie Gomez is an American actress and singer best known for portraying Alex Russo in the Emmy Award-winning Disney Channel television series Wizards of Waverly Place.", "How tall is Selena Gomez. Selena Gomez 5.00/5 (100.00%) 3 votes. Selena Gomez is an American actress and singer-songwriter best known for her portrayal of Alex Russo on the Emmy Award winning Disney Channel Original Series, Wizards of Waverly Place. She has starred in the television movies, Another Cinderella Story and Princess Protection Program. Date of Birth.", "What awards did Carlos Santana win? This page lists every known baseball award won by Carlos Santana in chronological order. Click the award name and up comes a comprehensive history of that award along with every winner of that particular baseball award.", "What awards did Troy Tulowitzki win? This page lists every known baseball award won by Troy Tulowitzki in chronological order. Click the award name and up comes a comprehensive history of that award along with every winner of that particular baseball award.", "Selena Gomez proved she’s fierce in every way on Thursday night as she accepted her award for Billboard’s 2017 Woman of the Year.", "Orwell did not win any awards. The George Orwell Award, however, is named after him.", "What CMA awards did george strait win? He hasn't won one since 2008 but has more overall wins and nominations than any other artists in the CMA's 44 year history. He has 18 wins in his CMA career.", "Their seemed to be a ‘friends with benefits’ kind of an affair that did not last long. They, however, were seen partying a lot together but it all ended the way it started. Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. Justin Bieber started Dating Selena Gomez in the year 2010, but it was confirmed by the stars only in 2011.", "What award did John F. Kennedy win in 1943? JFK received 3 awards in 1943 the marine corps award.the navy corps award,and the purple heart award for rescuing his men with a broken back after a Japanese destroy cut the p…t-109 that he was lieutenant of in half in ww2.", "Answers.com ® WikiAnswers ® Categories Entertainment & Arts Celebrities Comedians George Lopez What awards did George Lopez win? What would you like to do? Flag", "Answers.com ® WikiAnswers ® Categories Entertainment & Arts Movies Movie Awards and Events Oscars What year did casablanca win an Oscar for best picture? What would you like to do? Flag", "How many Academy Awards does Meryl Streep have and for what movies did she win? Meryl Streep holds the overall record with 19 Academy Award nominations. She has won three times. Her nominated roles and movies are as follows (Oscar wins in bold): … Linda in The Deer Hunter (1978).", "The true story of Selena Quintanilla-Perez, a Texas-born Tejano singer who rose from cult status to performing at the Astrodome, as well as having chart topping albums on the Latin music charts.", "What awards did Ozzie Smith win? This page lists every known baseball award won by Ozzie Smith in chronological order. Click the award name and up comes a comprehensive history of that award along with every winner of that particular baseball award. Baseball Almanac started in 1999. Today, we have more than 500,000 pages of baseball history.", "How many Oscars has the film Matilda won? The film Matilda did not win any Oscars. Follow the related link below to read a list of the awards that this film did win.", "What was President Theodore Roosevelt against in 1902? What Nobel Prize did Theodore William Richards win and when was it awarded? Did Roosevelt Using his executive authority Roosevelt tripled the amount of national land reserved for forests? What are some major contributions that Theodore Roosevelt made? Weknowtheanswer.com © 2014.", "Did glee win an Emmy? At the 2011 Emmy Awards, the only award that Glee received was for 'Outstanding... What categories did the show Glee get nominated for the 2010 Primetime Emmy's? Glee was nominated for Outstanding Comedy, Lead Actor in a Comedy (Matthew... Did Glee receive a 2010 Emmy nomination for costume design? Nominees for 2010 Outstanding Costumes For A Series: Glee, The Good Wife, Mad Men,...", "Fifteen years after her death racked the emotions of Mexican-Americans across the country, albums by Tejano star Selena are still selling. less. Selena Quintanilla performs for the crowd during a dance following the Feria de las Flores queen's contest at Memorial Coliseum Aug. 12, 1989, in Corpus Christi, Texas.", "Memorialized in music and film, Mexican-American Tejano music singer Selena was the first Latina to become an American pop icon. Selena was poised to cross into the lucrative English language pop music market, but tragedy abruptly ended her bright career. Her untimely death gave her legendary status in the United States and Mexico. She is considered one of the most popular and influential Latino musicians.", "Ames Anytime Fitness wins national award. Last summer, Chad Aaron did not anticipate his south Ames Anytime Fitness location would be winning any awards in the near future after one of the founders of Anytime Fitness stopped by the gym, and was not overly impressed with what he saw. It was about one of the worst feelings you could have, Aaron said.", "Click/tap elsewhere to exit, or press ESC. Selena Gomez/YouTube. Selena Gomez was a big winner at Saturday's Radio Disney Music Awards! The fan-voted event took place at the Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE and featured performances by Ariana Grande, Austin Mahone, Becky G, Fifth Harmony, R5 and Zendaya. Famous attendees included Gigi Hadid, Lucy Hale, Julianne Hough, Emily Osment, Cody Simpson, Ava Sambora and Richie Sambora." ]

[ "Works well for mixing essential oils! It fits my 2oz and 4oz bottles" ]

[ "I love these little beakers! Work very well for mixing essential oils with carrier oils. They are so cute too!", "This stuff is great. Much easier to have one gas can for gas and oil mix for all your two cycle engines.", "I purchased this dispenser to hold my homemade body oil blend and it's perfect for this use. The glass container is nice and the metal pump works well.", "They work very well. I like them for spraying magnesium oil.", "Replacement for cinnamon oil mix in glass sprayer I use to annoy ants. Works perfect. Much better than original sprayheads which quit right away. Seems able to take essential oil corrosion much better.", "The color is gorgeous. They roll really well. The cap fits on nicely, and is easy to take off, without being so loose that my essential oils spills out. I love that I can mix my own roller blends in these.", "Works well with my Twin Air, easy to apply and easy to see coverage. Works better than the K&N oil on foam filters", "Use this oil in my Polaris 900 trail. Works great. Best price for high quality oil.", "I use these for mixing the weedkiller that I use for my yard (acetic acid and orange oil). They stayed up on my arms without sliding down and protected my hands from the caustic acid. That is the purpose so I give 5 stars.", "Really well thought out design. With this oil pan, I hardly have to work at all to keep oil stains off the driveway when changing my oil. and then it can stand up after you fill it.", "Great oil, I use this in my home made beard oil and it works great to help stop itching and flaking.", "What happens when a workaholic meets her match in a ranch foreman? Well that would be pure oil and water mixing together to learn that at just the right ratio you can get it just right. After he breaks down the walls she puts around herself that is.", "I have ordered this product before and continue to re-order. It works great in my small popper. It is easy to pour and no mess cleanup of measuring out oil and corn.", "Good product - smooth flavor and stands more heat than the usual oils - use if for frying and in homemade bread mostly.", "works well. as described, with zero issues. i deep fry with coconut oil only. i put this on the stove for a few seconds to melt the coconut oil enugh to transfer into my fry pot.", "Works for liquids that are not viscous, like vinegar. For oils, not so good. For oils, I need to take the top off to pour.", "Works well to keep stuff from getting in the keyboard & keeps finger oils off the keys. Good product and price.", "This oil definitely works! When I first tried it out it was a complete disaster. LOL it was messy it was thick and it got everywhere LOL. So I read up did some research and I found a proper way to use it. I mix it with another oil. Tea tree, almond, olive oil, you name it whatever you prefer. Mixed just a little bit with another oil and it's less messy and it's not as thick. And for the most part the oil definitely helps with my hair growth it also keeps my hair moisturized and my scalp feels so much better than what it was. Definitely would recommend this oil!", "cheap and was very useful for changing my car oil without getting oil all over my hands.", "Very pretty bottles. They're incredibly useful for so many different things. I store many essential oil mixes in them as well as other tinctures. No problems with the eye dropper or leaking.", "These are cheap and work fine for many different kitchen liquids:\nOils\nSoap\nAlcohol\nMixers\netc\n\nOnly downside is I have some older ones that dried out and fell apart. Given how cheap they are and the fact that the old one took a year or two to \"die\" I am fairly happy with them.", "not used to the larger ratio of oil to butter. also was hard as a rock except for the oil and it took 4 hours in a boiling water bath to get all of it softened and mixed together. The price was good but I think I prefer Artisana. I am not sure if it is going to stay soft now that I worked so hard to get it there or if it will separate again.", "Has the fragrance and taste of a summer peach. Wonderful mixed with olive oil on a salad.", "Amazing stuff. My Sicilian grandmother used to make a garlic, anchovies, and olive oil sauce for pasta. Only recently did I discover that she was using anchovies merely as a simulated substitute for colatura. Mix this 3:1 with olive oil (3 parts olive oil to 1 part colatura), add a few cloves of crushed garlic and a teaspoon or two of crushed red pepper and mix with Cappelini.. Delicious! I will keep two bottles ready in my kitchen from now on.", "Works great. Slightly press the bottom, and get small drips of oil. Completely press the buttom and make it \"click\" and the oil squirts out. Works exactly as you would expect. I am using mine for mineral oil. And for a very reasonable price. Happy with my purchase.", "Exactly what I was after. I use it in my shop for mixing finish and it's perfect for that. Fast shipping and very reasonable in cost.", "Very pleasant and sweet smelling oil. Great for mixing in with Shea butter or cocoa butter. Takes away the dry skin. Massage the scalp and my hair is fluffy and shiny.", "This thing works great for mixing matcha tea and frothing hot milk", "Great for when you need to put one drop of oil somewhere. We use this when maintaining antique Teletype machines. It's a tool for a specific job, and it does that well.", "This thing is great! I have only used it without oil and it does the job. I usually make 2 bowls of it and the second go-round is as good as the first batch!", "Great oil for popping in kettle. I went through a lot of the popcorn kits and tried a couple different ones to see if the \"all-in-one\" package that includes popcorn, oil and flavorcol would be better, but this coconut oil makes very light tasting popcorn. I mix this with flavorcol then add no-name popcorn from kroger and the popcorn comes out just like it was from the movie theater.", "Awesome stuff!! I use it for making soap, and this works wonderfully.\nI also use it for cooking, it doesn't impart any flavor to the cooking, and is much healthier for us than regular cooking oils!!\nMuch easier to access and store than the 1 gallon tubs that are hard to open and difficult to reseal!!" ]

[ "At one time, commercial software applications were released as single binary executable files. Discussions of the notion of a \"software component\" were almost always limited to the context of source code. However, with the proliferation of numerous new technologies, applications are now more typically released as collections of cooperating binary components. While there is significant industrial emphasis on binary component technologies, computer science curricula have not yet standardized upon a corpus of fundamentally sound concepts to support education within this paradigm. In this paper, we describe our efforts to define a fundamental core set of concepts to support this important programming paradigm, as well as our efforts to integrate these concepts into a typical undergraduate computer science curriculum." ]

[ "As software engineering (SE) is becoming increasingly important as a discipline for computing professionals, so is it becoming an increasing emphasis in undergraduate computing education. The curricular revisions described here represent an attempt to incorporate SE principles throughout an undergraduate curriculum in Computer Science (CS). The emphasis here, however, is not one of wholesale overhaul into a SE program, possibly to the detriment of other strengths in the previous curriculum. Rather this is a non-radical augmentation and change of focus in certain aspects of a strong, but somewhat traditional CS curriculum.", "In this paper, we present an overview on how to reshape the software engineering education in our undergraduate study program (i.e., curriculum program, software engineering curriculum package, and learning process) so that our graduates have sufficient skills to be the 2020 software engineers. We believe that the corner blocks to produce fine engineers are good understanding in the following areas: basic fundamentals and principles of science and computing, methodology, techniques-tools-platform, capability to understand domain problems, communication and personal skill, attitude to be a good learner and self disciplined. We translate these values to our undergraduate curriculum with an aim to produce general software engineer who are quick to master specific platforms/technologies and devices and to understand domain problems.", "The purpose of this paper is to describe, from a historical perspective, the development of tools for the visualisation of concepts forming part of an undergraduate course in computer science. Efforts at providing graphical support for teaching and learning in the field have, in the past, often been piecemeal and user-friendly. This project affords a simple, familiar and uniform visualisation environment for students across several units (and semesters) in the course. An additional benefit is that students can learn how to write graphics programs by using the software shell to create new applications.", "Computer Science (CS) Unplugged activities have been deployed in many informal settings to present computing concepts in an engaging manner. To justify use in the classroom, however, it is critical for activities to have a strong educational component. For the past three years, we have been developing and refining a CS Unplugged curriculum for use in middle school classrooms. In this paper, we describe an assessment that maps questions from a comprehensive project to computational thinking (CT) skills and Bloom's Taxonomy. We present results from two different deployments and discuss limitations and implications of our approach.", "The use of Open Source Software (OSS) has grown rapidly within the past decade. Despite the increased importance of OSS in the information technology/Computer Science (IT/CS) field, the OSS has not been sufficiently addressed in the IT/CS education. At this time, the IT/CS curriculum still employs mainly proprietary Software Engineering (SE) methodologies. This discrepancy for OSS skills acquisition creates a knowledge gap in our IT/CS graduates. The gap will reduce our IT/CS graduates current and future employability if the do not acquire the necessary skills to develop and implement OSS. To anticipate this chalenge, the authors propose a framework to combine the advantages and minimize the negative aspects of both OSS and SE environments. The main components of our proposed framwork includes proper introduction to basic OSS skills, formation of diverse skills groups, system development using modularity principles, and using the SE methodology for monitoring.", "This paper describes the design and implementation of a junior-level course in formal languages and automata theory which satisfies CSAB guidelines for the computer science core curriculum in the area of theoretical foundations of computer science. The optimal prerequisites for such a course, as well as its impact on advanced computer science courses, are discussed. Several suggestions on how to present the subject matter in such a formal languages course, which has traditionally been considered too difficult to be taught below the senior level, are also discussed.", "Software Engineering, as a discipline has made significant progress towards becoming an engineering profession over the last 45 years. As evidence of this the 3rd version of the guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge was recently released. Additionally there are reference curricula for undergraduate and graduate education in software engineering. During the past 45 years the state of the practice has made significant progress as well. Some of that progress is reflected in the SWEBOK and associated curriculum, but the software engineering practice in the segment of industry that produces internet scale systems is not well supported by the guide to the SWEBOK, reference curriculum, or current software engineering degree programs. This paper presents a study of the current state of the practice in software engineering organizations and compares the results with the core body of knowledge recommended by the software engineering reference curriculum.", "Computer architecture serves as a gateway for upper level undergraduate computer science and engineering courses. Computer architecture courses for computer science, information systems and engineering programs focus on the details of transforming basic high-level programming constructs learned in lower level classes for high performance CISC and RISC instruction set architectures. It should also help students understand upper level courses such as operating systems, security, theory of computation, parallel computing, embedded systems. As a result of the work performed over many years, a computer architecture course suitable for e-learning with hands-on activities based on the tools available on the web has been evolved. This paper describes our experience.", "Currently object-oriented technology (OOT) plays only a minor role in the computer science curriculum at most universities. This is because the curriculum is already crowded and OOT is just one of many new topics competing for a place. This paper describes reasons for including OOT in the curriculum and strategies for doing so. The experiences of two universities which teach OOT are described. The first university emphasizes OOT, while the second offers only a single course on the subject.", "The universities in Taiwan include the ability to program as the key competency in response to the new curriculum for Basic Education announced by Taiwan's Ministry of Education. However, for students without computer science backgrounds, the traditional programing courses which emphasis on the coding statement and algorithm theory could lead to the lack of learning motivation. Therefore, this exploratory work-in-progress study try to propose an undergraduate programming language course to conduct empirical evidence-based research in universities. The study focus on the integration of flipped classroom and live-coding video to explore the programming education. We focus on the online course in combination with Live Coding and multiple annotations, which explores the advantages of skill-based learning, live coding, program annotation and note sharing. Moreover, the programming materials and strategies suitable for general education curriculum have be developed.", "Due to the new possibilities it opens up on the Web, the Java paradigm has received much attention. As a result, many universities and colleges have introduced Java into their undergraduate computer science curriculum. However, the novelty and popularity of a language do not automatically imply its suitability for the learning of introductory programming. The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the suitability of Java as a first language for students with no programming background.", "Universities around the world have modified their computer engineering curricula to include courses and modules focusing on the design of embedded systems including reconfigurable hardware, real-time processing, embedded processors, and firmware/software systems. This paper describes a different approach to embedded systems education - the development of an embedded systems track within an existing computer science program. This approach allows for an intentionally designed balance of computer science, computer engineering, mathematics, and science courses deemed necessary for a comprehensive embedded systems program", "Digital logic design is an essential topic in the computer science curriculum. A major challenge in teaching the logic design is to have the students connect their theoretical knowledge with the practical experience. Many useful computer programs are available that can help overcome this issue while covering various aspects of the logic design. The programs range from simple simulators to advanced and specialized software. This paper presents our experience in selecting and incorporating a few simulation tools for teaching of the logic design. The improvement in the results of the course final examinations provide a solid evidence that using the simulation tools does benefit the students learning the logic design.", "The paper analyzes the problem of undergraduate education existing in electronic science and technology. Some advice and suggestions have been brought forward, from discipline location,curriculum system design, teaching team construction, teaching reform, scientific research and campus culture.", "Undergraduates are guided to practice significantly what are learnt in electronic curriculum. For that purpose,this design is about vending machine controller using the finite state machine of VHDL. It sales tree merchandises with different prices and also provides merchandises,gives change and withdraws money and so on.", "Distributed video sensor networks offer a great opportunity to put more science into the Computer Science curriculum. This includes discussion and application of the scientific method, the development and application of models, and consideration of how validation of models can be achieved. A wide range of mathematics is applicable: partial differential equations, probability theory, information theory, and geometry are just some related topics. Finally, useful hands-on experience can be gained by students trained in system building which includes hardware, software, experiment design, verification, validation and simulation.", "In the fall of 1996, the Rochester Institute of Technology (USA) began admitting students to the nations first baccalaureate program in software engineering. One of the curriculum's primacy themes is software design, ranging from the very concrete (e.g., code, data structures and algorithms) to the more abstract (e.g., subsystems, architectural designs). At each of these levels the authors are able to address the variety of software quality issues that arise at different points in the software development process. This paper describes the structure of their introductory course in software architectures and their experience teaching it. They also speculate on how the course could evolve over time.", "The Department of Computer Science at the University of Alabama has undergone significant revisions in its introductory course sequence for computing majors. This included the construction of a new technology-enabled classroom and a complete shift in the instructional paradigm. This paper examines the course format and instruction mode, and also looks at student behaviors and attitudes (as captured through end-of-semester surveys) regarding these courses.", "The purpose of this guide is to provide curriculum support and resources to BSU students enrolled in Computer Science 110 - Computer Literacy & Applications, and second, to be a resource to other students and to the public who are seeking credible resour", "Traditional model theory (Chang and Keisler 1973, Bell and Slomson 1971), like classical predicate logic, is static in nature. Models, valuations of variables, and truth values of predicates are regarded as fixed and immutable. This tradition has surely contributed to the dominance of denotational over operational semantics in programming languages. It is somewhat ironic that first-order predicate logic is in general inadequate for handling even the most elementary and pervasive of logical constructions in computer science, namely induction. For this reason, and for its general lack of programmability, one might argue that the emphasis on first-order predicate logic in the undergraduate computer science curriculum may be detrimental to the development of sound algorithmic reasoning.", "Engineering education is confronted with two realities which call for a rethinking of the undergraduate curriculum: (a) the baccalaureate degree, as the terminal degree for practice, has received much criticism in both industry and academia, and (b) the typical undergraduate student generally requires more than nine semesters to complete a curriculum designed for eight. We propose that the current highly impacted curriculum must give way to a reduced program oriented toward engineering science, which can be completed in four years. Such a curriculum must be based on a limited set of core educational outcomes and would educate engineers within an integrated, liberal framework while preparing graduates for a wide variety of career options. Also included in this proposal is a formal role for the masters degree as the first professional degree and a restructuring of the professional registration process.", "This paper describes our experience to date and current plans for a senior-level microelectronics laboratory course on hardware/software codesign. The course utilizes an open-source, soft-core processor deployed on the FPX platform as an integral component of the students' designs. Students write software to execute on a Leon SPARC-compatible processor and write VHDL to implement hardware-accelerated computational functions in FPGA hardware.", "Computer Science is a discipline in a state of continual change. As a discipline that borders on many other disciplines such as engineering, mathematics, physics, and psychology, and more recently, as a science that can be applied to many fields such as biology, entertainment, commerce, and communication, Computer Science continues to reinvent itself every 5--7 years. In this context, it is only prudent for Computer Science educators to scan the horizon for emerging areas of the discipline that might affect their curriculum and the way they teach. Emerging areas today include computer and network security, information assurance, robotics, bioinformatics, animation, game programming, web application development, embedded computing, and wireless computing, to name just a few. The value that offering courses in these emerging areas will add to a student's education may make all the difference in an increasingly global job market.", "This paper describes the use of 8-bit computers (circa 1980's) in a learning module as part of a CS-2 course. The overall goal of the described module is to give students the opportunity to apply their problem solving strategies in a completely foreign programming situation. Other potential lessons from using old computing hardware such as computing history, programming language design, interface design, and computer architecture are also discussed. Finally, student reaction to this innovative module is presented.", "Computer software is typically developed according to software engineering methodologies. However, it has been noted that many software development projects fail to achieve their goals. Further it has been stated that some estimates of the failure rate to produce a software product is as high as 60 percent. Many of these problems can be attributed to poor communication between customers and system developers or between end-users and developers. However, many software development life cycles do not focus on understanding the business needs of an organization or how organizational issues may influence system development. As educators of the next generation of computing professionals it is our responsibility to train students in development methodologies where careful attention is paid to understanding the needs of stakeholders. The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual framework for training undergraduate", "Properly educating computer scientists involves teaching effective means to properly engineer a system. An important part of such engineering work is ensuring that the computing system is both useful and usable. While many systems out there today are difficult to use, performing usability engineering on a system during its development has been shown to be an effective way to make a system more usable. The problem is fitting practical experience into the curriculum. This paper discusses a case example of how a team of undergraduate students learned to take a software system during its developing stages and perform effective usability engineering following the \"thinking out loud\" methodology.", "First-year computer science students need to know and use a considerable amount of mathematics. A corequired course in discrete mathematics is a good solution.", "The growth of online resources and the advances Web 2.0 technology are changing the information landscape and impacting teaching and learning. While information literacy has been recognized as a critical component of undergraduate learning, little if any discipline-specific research is done in the lower division mathematics/computer science courses during the first two years of college. The authors of this article collaborated on an instruction project that used course blogs as a new methodology to enhance faculty-student interaction geared to the millennial student. The project, which integrated expository research in core and major mathematics/computer science courses with information literacy learning outcomes, extended the traditional classroom as well as the roles of the participants.", "This paper summarized that compositive system database of college physics teaching software is an important part of college physics teaching reformation. Exploitation, construction and application of the database are discussed.", "This paper presents an extensive and careful study of the software implementation on workstations of the NIST-recommended elliptic curves over binary fields. We also present the results of our implementation in C on a Pentium II 400MHz workstation.", "TinyLink is a holistic system for rapid development of IoT applications. It adopts a top down approach for both hardware and software designs of IoT applications. Taking the application code as input, TinyLink automatically generates the hardware configuration as well as the software binary code executable on the targeted hardware platform. Objective of this demo is to present how the the hardware configuration and software binary code are automatically generated, as well as how to assemble the hardware components, burn the binary code and validate the functionalities.", "Many computer science (CS) undergraduate programs have experienced dramatic reductions in the number of incoming freshman and transfer students in recent years. Simultaneously, industry feedback informs us that graduating students should have experience working with others and on long-term software projects. This requirement is due to the fact that most industry projects are team-based, often take months or years to complete, and are often global in nature. Institutions have addressed these issues in a number of ways. Cal Poly Pomona's CS department created a one-term ten-week project course in game programming offered during spring 2006. Teams were assembled comprising of four or five students. The final deliverable for each team was a CD which included a working 3D game and all design documentation (i.e. UML diagrams, source code, etc). This paper discusses the design, implementation, and results of this course. It also describes the outstanding efforts put forth by the students." ]

[ "On my Word 2000, Outlook Express MUST be set as the email application. It will not allow another." ]

[ "How are you trying to send the Paint file? Through email? What email are you using? Yahoo, Hotmail, Outlook?\\n\\nYou should be able to attach any file to an email without opening it. You'll want to compose the email, then try to attach the file by browsing to it, not opening it.\\n\\nHope that helps, since I need more information otherwise...", "do a google search on how to block emails, and see which explanation will fit your case. what kind of email do you use? outlook? yahoo? hotmail?", "Technically no according to Yahoo, \\nI have heard of programs that get around it somehow. Yahoo, wants you to PAY for the premium email service, which does allow you to use your POP mail in Outlook Express. Or else you have another TSA running to serve Yahoo in Outlook Express.\\nMay as well set up a Hotmail account, which obviously does allow it. Also, I think http://www.gmail.com allows it as well. Gmail is a google promoted email site, with a tremenduous amount of free storage. I really like the interface. It is fast, and easy to use.\\n\\nGreat thing about gmail as well, is they are limiting the amount of accounts which will keep it from being mis used by bots and email spammers.", "This can be a bit tricky because people that send spam usally do not do it from their computer. They have infected some poor user and are using his computer to send out mass emails.. \\n\\nTo answer your question you could look at the header of the email and see what the ip address its comming from. Or if its someone that doesn't know what there doing their email address could be there.\\n\\nIf your using Outlook express right click on the email then go to properties and pick the detail tab. In Outlook right click on the email then go to options. You should see the email header at the bottom of the option window. This will show you exactly the way it was recieved. If you look at the from field it will have the email address. It most likely will be a string of characters @ some free email service.", "check out the followings\\n\\nhttp://www.hushmail.com/\\nhttp://www.fastmail.fm/\\n\\nBtw, beside that you can simply do a trick with your MS outlook or outlook express to send an email to your friends with a different or fake email address.\\n\\nopen outlook, add an account\\n\\nput a fake full name \"etc..\"\\nput a fake email address\\nput your own outgoing and incoming smtp server address\\nput your own user and pass\\ntry sending an email to yourself and see from where it appears.\\n\\nany problem do contact me via I.M or email me.", "read this or check here\\nhttp://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/pop/pop-06.html\\n\\n\\nMicrosoft Outlook Express \\nYahoo! Mail users can read their email in Outlook Express by subscribing to the Yahoo! Mail Plus service. This service allows you to use Outlook Express or another POP3 client to access and manage your Yahoo! Mail messages. \\n\\nIf you are a Mail Plus user, then follow the directions outlined below: \\nOutlook Express allows you to add a new email account to your existing profile. This means you do not have to replace your current settings in order to send and receive Yahoo! Mail messages. Here's how: \\n\\nFrom the Tools menu, choose \"Accounts.\" \\nSelect the \"Mail\" tab. \\nClick the \"Add\" button. \\nFrom the Add menu, click \"Mail.\" \\nIn the text box labeled Display Name, type your name and click \"Next.\" \\nIn the Email Address box, type your Yahoo! Mail address (be sure to include \"@yahoo.com\") and click \"Next.\" \\nUnder \"My incoming mail server is a...\" select \"POP3.\" \\nType \"pop.mail.yahoo.com\" in the Incoming Mail (POP3, IMAP, or HTTP) Server box. \\nType \"smtp.mail.yahoo.com\" in the Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server box. \\nClick \"Next.\" \\nIn the Account Name box, type your Yahoo! Mail ID (your email address without the \"@yahoo.com\"). \\nIn the Password box, type your Yahoo! Mail password. \\nIf you want Outlook Express to remember your password, check the \"Remember password\" box. \\nDo not check the boxes labeled \"Log on using Secure...\" \\nClick \"Next.\" \\nClick \"Finish.\"\\nImportant: The Yahoo! Mail SMTP server now requires authentication. To turn this setting on: \\n\\nFrom the Tools menu, choose \"Accounts.\" \\nSelect the \"Mail\" tab. \\nDouble-click the account labeled \"pop.mail.yahoo.com.\" \\nSelect the \"Servers\" tab. \\nCheck the box next to \"My Server Requires Authentication.\" \\nClick \"OK.\" \\nTo control deletion of messages from the Yahoo! Mail Server: \\n\\nFrom the Tools menu, choose \"Accounts.\" \\nSelect the \"Mail\" tab. \\nDouble-click the account labeled \"pop.mail.yahoo.com.\" \\nSelect the \"Advanced\" tab. \\nIn the Delivery section at the bottom of the window, check \"Leave a copy of messages on server\" if you want to save your Yahoo! Mail messages on the Yahoo! Mail server as well as on your local computer. Do not check this box if you want your messages to be deleted from the Yahoo! Mail server once you have received them in Outlook Express. \\nIf your ISP blocks port 25 or if you're unable to send email, then you will need to use port 587 when sending via Yahoo!'s SMTP server. To make this change, please follow the directions below: \\n\\n\\nFrom the \"Tools\" menu, select \"Accounts\" \\nSelect your Yahoo! POP account and click on the \"Properties\" button \\nClick on the \"Advanced\" tab \\nNext to \"Outgoing server (SMTP), change port 25 to 587 \\nClick \"Apply\", then click \"OK\" and \"Close\"", "Yahoo! Mail users can read their email in Outlook Express by subscribing to the Yahoo! Mail Plus service. This service allows you to use Outlook Express or another POP3 client to access and manage your Yahoo! Mail messages.\\n\\nIf you are a Mail Plus user, then follow the directions outlined below:\\n\\nOutlook Express allows you to add a new email account to your existing profile. This means you do not have to replace your current settings in order to send and receive Yahoo! Mail messages. Here's how:\\n\\n 1. From the Tools menu, choose \"Accounts.\"\\n 2. Select the \"Mail\" tab.\\n 3. Click the \"Add\" button.\\n 4. From the Add menu, click \"Mail.\"\\n 5. In the text box labeled Display Name, type your name and click \"Next.\"\\n 6. In the Email Address box, type your Yahoo! Mail address (be sure to include \"@yahoo.com\") and click \"Next.\"\\n 7. Under \"My incoming mail server is a...\" select \"POP3.\"\\n 8. Type \"pop.mail.yahoo.com\" in the Incoming Mail (POP3, IMAP, or HTTP) Server box.\\n 9. Type \"smtp.mail.yahoo.com\" in the Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server box.\\n 10. Click \"Next.\"\\n 11. In the Account Name box, type your Yahoo! Mail ID (your email address without the \"@yahoo.com\").\\n 12. In the Password box, type your Yahoo! Mail password.\\n 13. If you want Outlook Express to remember your password, check the \"Remember password\" box.\\n 14. Do not check the boxes labeled \"Log on using Secure...\"\\n 15. Click \"Next.\"\\n 16. Click \"Finish.\"\\n\\nImportant: The Yahoo! Mail SMTP server now requires authentication. To turn this setting on:\\n\\n 1. From the Tools menu, choose \"Accounts.\"\\n 2. Select the \"Mail\" tab.\\n 3. Double-click the account labeled \"pop.mail.yahoo.com.\"\\n 4. Select the \"Servers\" tab.\\n 5. Check the box next to \"My Server Requires Authentication.\"\\n 6. Click \"OK.\" \\n\\nTo control deletion of messages from the Yahoo! Mail Server:\\n\\n 1. From the Tools menu, choose \"Accounts.\"\\n 2. Select the \"Mail\" tab.\\n 3. Double-click the account labeled \"pop.mail.yahoo.com.\"\\n 4. Select the \"Advanced\" tab.\\n 5. In the Delivery section at the bottom of the window, check \"Leave a copy of messages on server\" if you want to save your Yahoo! Mail messages on the Yahoo! Mail server as well as on your local computer. Do not check this box if you want your messages to be deleted from the Yahoo! Mail server once you have received them in Outlook Express. \\n\\nIf your ISP blocks port 25 or if you're unable to send email, then you will need to use port 587 when sending via Yahoo!'s SMTP server. To make this change, please follow the directions below:\\n\\n 1. From the \"Tools\" menu, select \"Accounts\"\\n 2. Select your Yahoo! POP account and click on the \"Properties\" button\\n 3. Click on the \"Advanced\" tab\\n 4. Next to \"Outgoing server (SMTP), change port 25 to 587\\n 5. Click \"Apply\", then click \"OK\" and \"Close\"", "If you don't have MS WORD or WORDPERFECT, try this \"office suite\" from http://www.openoffice.org , it's from sun microsystems to allow you write, draw, math, calculate and much more. It's free to use.\\nor\\nIf you have email, just type it in web-based email or email client like outlook or outlook express, and print it out after you finish.", "How do I POP my mail? \\nThe ability to access Yahoo! Mail via a POP3 email client (such as Outlook or Outlook Express) is only available to customers of our premium Yahoo! Mail Plus service. \\nIf you have not purchased the Yahoo! Mail Plus service, you will be unable to retrieve messages via an email client. To determine whether or not you have purchased this service, please visit the My Services page. \\n\\nFor Outlook clients", "Are you asking if you can receive emails from yahoo addresses then yes. If you are asking if you can view your email from the yahoo page, no. Where did you get the email address (hotmail, gmail etc.)?", "The ability to access Yahoo! Mail via a POP3 email client (such as Outlook or Outlook Express) is only available to customers of our premium Yahoo! Mail Plus service. \\n\\nMore at the source.", "If you're talking about snail mail, as in a regular letter, it may be because of the poor reliability of the courier in the region. If you are talking about emails, the other way is to create a new email account like a Yahoo! or a hotmail account and send it from that address. It might be your daughters email service unfortunately.", "add his email address to your block list. If you are using yahoo mail, just click on the spam button and it will go to the trash and you will never see it again. If it is Outlook Express or something on that order, there should be an options file where you can make a rule to send to the trash an email with that email address. Check that out.", "Access a Yahoo! Mail Plus Account with Outlook Express\\nProcedure\\n\\nFirst in yahoo mail plus\\n\\nEnable pop3 in your mail id.For this go to mail, mail options, POP Access and Forwarding ,Enable Web pop access. then go to outlook express ,\\n\\nSecond in out look\\nTools-->Email Accounts-->Add New Email\\n\\n* Enter U r Mail ID\\n* Enable POP3 radio button\\n* Your Information\\n* Incoming Mail Server (POP3): pop.mail.yahoo.co.in \\n* Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP): smtp.mail.yahoo.co.in \\n* port : 587\\n* Ok\\n\\n... njoy \\n\\n\\n------------------------------...\\n\\nAccess a Free Yahoo! Mail Account with Outlook Express\\nOutlook Express Tip\\n\\nIf you subscribe to Yahoo! Mail Plus, you can download messages received at your Yahoo! Mail account to any email program using POP. If you do not, you cannot. \\nAt least not directly. A number of smart tools can translate your web-based Yahoo! Mail account into a POP account Outlook Express understands. One of the smartest of these tools is YPOPs!. \\n\\n\\n\\n\\nAccess a Free Yahoo! Mail Account with Outlook Express (Down Load YPOPs)\\nTo access a free Yahoo! Mail account with Outlook Express: \\nTo access a free Yahoo! Mail account with Outlook Express: \\n\\n›› Step by Step Screenshot Walkthrough \\nInstall YPOPs! and make sure it is running. \\nOpen Outlook Express. \\nSelect Tools | Accounts... from the menu in Outlook Express. \\nClick Add and select Mail.... \\nType your name. \\nClick Next >. \\nEnter your Yahoo! Mail address (\"hmmzl34@yahoo.com\", for example). \\nClick Next > again. \\nMake sure POP3 is selected under My incoming mail server is a ___ server.. \\nEnter \"localhost\" under Incoming mail (POP3, IMAP or HTTP) server:. \\nType \"localhost\" under Outgoing mail (SMTP) server: as well. \\nClick Next >. \\nType your Yahoo! Mail user name under Account name:", "The \"Date:\" part of the message header does come from the email client. If you're using a web service to send email (like Hotmail or Yahoo mail) it will most likely reflect the time at the server itself and not from your pc. (This may be where you're getting vastly different times reflected.)\\n\\nIf you're using an SMTP/POP service through Outlook or other non-web mail client, you should get something approximating your local pc time with a time zone indicator after the timestamp, like -0500 for U.S. Eastern, etc.\\n\\nHope that helps.", "Yes, cause web based is you sign in to a web page and send/check email there,\\nNo, Yahoo provide pop and smtp server, which you can send/receive email with email client like outlook express, but thats for pay users only\\nNo to the above no and yes, if you know a 3rd party software call ypop, you can enjoy the convenience of the pay user and cost you nothing", "Unfortunately, it looks like a user must upgrade to Yahoo Mail Plus (http://mailplus.mail.yahoo.com/, $19.99/year) to get mail forwarding and POP access. The latter would let you read Yahoo email through Outlook Express just as you read email from your ISP.\\n\\nYou can also consider getting a gmail email account, which allows for both mail forwarding and POP access for free.", "What software are you using to check your email? Usually there is a setting in preferences or options that allows you to select \"do not open suspicious attachments\" or something to that extent.\\n\\nGo into your preferences and find that. Uncheck it and you should be good to go. I know Outlook Express has this checked by default.", "What is your email domain? Whatever your email domain is, send a message to them. So if you had a hotmail account, email hotmail and send them all the information you can about it.", "I do not believe you can send a message through outlook when it is offline. Be it SMS or otherwise it's still an email if it goes through outlook, need to be online.", "Email, or electronic mail is the exchange of messages between you and other people or computers. All users of email have to use an email client, a program that allows you to send and recieve electronic messages. Many email clients are programs that you run directly on your computer like Outlook, Outlook Express, or Eudora and you have to install them before you can use them.\\n\\nA webmail client is a set of web pages that provide you the same basic functions that your email client provides you without having to install software on the computer you are using. Yahoo, and many other services and ISPs provide email accounts that can be accessed by using a web browser. This allows you to get your email when you are not on your regular computer.", "if you are using yahoo mail when you open the email click on spam and then that address is blocked from sending you email", "You can export your calendar from Outlook in various formats, presumably at least one of which will be importable by whatever calendar program you end up using. I think Excel .xls and comma separated value text file at least are supported as Outlook calendar export formats.\\n\\nThe email you can export from Outlook and import into Outlook Express.\\n\\nThere should be many reviews online comparing and contrasting the various email and/or calendar programs that you can use.\\n\\nHave you considered Google Gmail and Google Calendar? And of course there is also Yahoo mail and Yahoo Calendar.\\n\\nand\\n\\nEvolution for Windows\\nhttp://evolution-win32.sourceforge.net/", "Depends on what software you are emailing from. Usually... you both have to be on the same email... like yahoo, hotmail or whatever. so whatever you use, check their FAQ.", "sure,its very simple you can send and recieve emails through outlook before that u have to configure outlook follow the steps assuming you want to recieve emails from your yahoo account.\\n\\nMicrosoft Outlook 2002 (XP) & 2003\\n \\nYahoo! Mail users can read their email in Outlook by subscribing to the Yahoo! Mail Plus service. This service allows you to use Outlook or another POP3 client to access and manage your Yahoo! Mail messages. \\n\\nIf you are a Mail Plus user, then follow the directions outlined below: \\n\\nTo configure your POP settings for Microsoft Outlook 2002 (sometimes referred to as Outlook XP) and 2003, follow these steps: \\n\\nFrom the Tools menu, select \"Email Accounts.\" You may have to click the arrows. \\nSelect the radio button next to \"Add a new email account\" and click the \"Next\" button. \\nSelect the radio button next to \"POP3\" and click the \"Next\" button. \\nEnter the following information: \\nUser Information \\n\\nYour Name: Enter your name as you would like it to appear in the \"From\" field of your outgoing messages. \\nEmail Address: Enter your full Yahoo! Mail address (for example, \"user@yahoo.com\"). \\nServer Information \\n\\nIncoming mail server (POP3): \\npop.mail.yahoo.com \\n\\nOutgoing mail server (SMTP): \\nsmtp.mail.yahoo.com \\n\\nLogin Information \\n\\nUser Name: Enter your Yahoo! ID (your email address without the \"@yahoo.com\"). \\nPassword: Enter your Yahoo! password. \\nDo not check the box next to \"Log on using Secure Password Authentication (SPA).\" \\nClick the \"More Settings\" box and select the \"Outgoing Server\" tab. \\nCheck the box next to \"My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.\" \\nIf you would like to keep a copy of your email messages on the Yahoo! Mail server, select the \"Advanced\" tab. Check the box next to \"Leave a copy of messages on the server.\" \\nClick the \"OK\" button. \\nClick the \"Next\" button on the Email Account Wizard, then click \"Finished.\" \\nImportant: The Yahoo! Mail SMTP server requires authentication. To turn this setting on, follow these steps: \\n\\nClick \"Tools,\" then select \"Email Accounts.\" \\nSelect \"View or change existing email accounts\" and click \"Next.\" \\nSelect your Yahoo! Mail account and click the \"Change\" button on the right. \\nClick the \"More Settings...\" button in the bottom-right corner of the Email Accounts window. \\nIn the Internet Email Settings window, click the \"Outgoing Server\" tab. Ensure that the box is checked next to \"My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.\" \\nClick the \"Advanced\" tab and ensure that you have not selected \"This server requires a secure connection (SSL)\" under the incoming (POP3) or outgoing (SMTP) port settings. \\nTo control deletion of messages from the Yahoo! Mail Server, follow these steps: \\n\\nFrom the Tools menu, choose \"Email Accounts.\" \\nSelect the radio button next to \"Edit an existing account\" and click the \"Next\" button. \\nDouble-click the Yahoo! account. \\nSelect the \"Advanced\" tab. \\nIn the Delivery section at the bottom of the window, check \"Leave a copy of messages on server\" if you want to save your Yahoo! Mail messages on both the Yahoo! Mail server and on your local computer. If you want your messages to be deleted from the Yahoo! Mail server after you have received them in Outlook, do not check this box. \\nIf your ISP blocks port 25 or if you're unable to send email, then you will need to use port 587 when sending via Yahoo!'s SMTP server. To make this change, please follow the directions below: \\n\\nFrom the \"Tools\" menu, select \"E-mail Accounts\" \\nSelect \"View or Change existing email accounts\" and click on \"Next\" \\nSelect your Yahoo! POP account", "POP3 means Post Office Protocol\\nSMTP means Simple Mail Transfer Protocol\\nBoth POP3 and SMTP addresses are usually provided by the ISP(Internet Service Providers). \\n\\nOtherwise, if you want to download your yahoo, gmail, inbox and like other mails you can configure according to their guidelines. For example if you want to configure your yahoo! mail plus account to your Outlook Express... below is the procedure....\\n-------------------------------------------\\nOutlook Express allows you to add a new email account to your existing profile. This means you do not have to replace your current settings in order to send and receive Yahoo! Mail messages. Here's how: \\n\\nFrom the Tools menu, choose \"Accounts.\" \\nSelect the \"Mail\" tab. \\nClick the \"Add\" button. \\nFrom the Add menu, click \"Mail.\" \\nIn the text box labeled Display Name, type your name and click \"Next.\" \\nIn the Email Address box, type your Yahoo! Mail address (be sure to include \"@yahoo.com\") and click \"Next.\" \\nUnder \"My incoming mail server is a...\" select \"POP3.\" \\nType \"pop.mail.yahoo.com\" in the Incoming Mail (POP3, IMAP, or HTTP) Server box. \\nType \"smtp.mail.yahoo.com\" in the Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server box. \\nClick \"Next.\" \\nIn the Account Name box, type your Yahoo! Mail ID (your email address without the \"@yahoo.com\"). \\nIn the Password box, type your Yahoo! Mail password. \\nIf you want Outlook Express to remember your password, check the \"Remember password\" box. \\nDo not check the boxes labeled \"Log on using Secure...\" \\nClick \"Next.\" \\nClick \"Finish.\"\\nImportant: The Yahoo! Mail SMTP server now requires authentication. To turn this setting on: \\n\\nFrom the Tools menu, choose \"Accounts.\" \\nSelect the \"Mail\" tab. \\nDouble-click the account labeled \"pop.mail.yahoo.com.\" \\nSelect the \"Servers\" tab. \\nCheck the box next to \"My Server Requires Authentication.\" \\nClick \"OK.\" \\nTo control deletion of messages from the Yahoo! Mail Server: \\n\\nFrom the Tools menu, choose \"Accounts.\" \\nSelect the \"Mail\" tab. \\nDouble-click the account labeled \"pop.mail.yahoo.com.\" \\nSelect the \"Advanced\" tab. \\nIn the Delivery section at the bottom of the window, check \"Leave a copy of messages on server\" if you want to save your Yahoo! Mail messages on the Yahoo! Mail server as well as on your local computer. Do not check this box if you want your messages to be deleted from the Yahoo! Mail server once you have received them in Outlook Express. \\nIf your ISP blocks port 25 or if you're unable to send email, then you will need to use port 587 when sending via Yahoo!'s SMTP server. To make this change, please follow the directions below: \\n\\n\\nFrom the \"Tools\" menu, select \"Accounts\" \\nSelect your Yahoo! POP account and click on the \"Properties\" button \\nClick on the \"Advanced\" tab \\nNext to \"Outgoing server (SMTP), change port 25 to 587 \\nClick \"Apply\", then click \"OK\" and \"Close\" \\n-------------------------------------------", "yahoo has one also that will alert you as well as outlook express. Yahoo messenger can do it if its running but the outlook you have to leave open all the time otherwise it doesn't notify you", "Most accounts allow for around 8 email accounts. Check with your service provider. In addition, there are several free email providers like:\\n - yahoo!\\n - gmail (from google)\\n - hotmail (from Msft).", "That depends. Are you getting any email? Then it might be a problem with your ISP or a configuration problem with your email client. \\n\\nIf you are getting some email, but none from certain individuals, make sure they have your email address correct. Send them an email and ask them to reply to it. \\n\\nAlso check your SPAM folder, sometimes emails get sent there, especially if they're from Yahoo/hotmail addresses. \\n\\nIf you are getting some mails from an individual, but not every email from them, again check the SPAM folder, that's usually a culprit. If not, call your ISP. They may be able to help", "I assume from the way that your question is worded that you only have a problem when you attach a digital picture and not when you just send an email.\\n\\nYou say that you get \"kicked off\" the internet. Sending email with or without attachment will not get you \"kicked off\" unless the email and/or attachment contained illegal or obscene material against the terms of service with your provider. But then you wouldn't be able to use the Internet for anything else anyway so it probably isn't that.\\n\\nAll I can guess is that the attachment was too large to include with your mail message and was refused by your email provider (ISP, Hotmail, Yahoo mail etc.) or if using a dialup connection, the connection timed out due to the size of the attachment.\\n\\nThe next time you ask a question, please be clearer. It's hard to guess what you meant to say.\\n\\nBy the way, DNS has nothing to do with it.", "I had the same problem. It seems that Outlook Express doesn't do photos. Try Outlook instead as an email program", "Headers are the part of the message that the various computers use to route the message from its source to its destination and you really do not want to remove those (I don't think it is even possible) because your message could never find out where it is supposed to go! I'm betting it is something else you want to remove so please provide some more details and also include what you use to read mail (outlook, Outlook express, yahoo web email, etc)." ]

[ "The logarithmic asymptotics for the growth of the number of periodic orbits, such that the norm of the corresponding renormalization matrix does not exceed a given constant, is computed for the Teichmueller flow on Veech's moduli space of zippered rectangles. The rate is equal to the entropy of the flow with respect to the absolutely continuous invariant measure." ]

[ "We study the $\\mathrm{SL}_2(\\mathbb{R})$-action on the moduli space of (triangulable) dilation tori with one boundary component. We prove that every orbit is either closed or dense, and that every orbit of the Teichmuller flow escapes to infinity.", "Accurate spectral asymptotics for the family of com muting pseudo-differential operators are obtained. Some applica tions for highly accurate spectral asymptotics for operators with periodic Hamltonian flow is given.", "We study sectional-Anosov flows on compact $3$-manifolds. ::: First we prove that every periodic orbits represents an infinite order element of ::: the fundamental group outside the strong stable manifolds of the singularities. ::: Next, in the transitive case, we prove that the first Betti number of the manifold is positive, that the number of singularities is given by the Euler ::: characteristic and that every boundary's connected component has nonpositive Euler characteristic. Moreover, there is one component with negative ::: characteristic if and only if the flow has singularities. These results will be used to discuss the existence of transitive sectional-Anosov flows on ::: specific compact 3-manifolds with boundary.", "For a Riemannian manifold (M, g) which is isometric to the Euclidean space outside of a compact set, and whose trapped set has Liouville measure zero, we prove Weyl type asymptotics for the scattering phase with remainder depending on the classical escape rate and the maximal expansion rate. For Axiom A geodesic flows, this gives a polynomial improvement over the known remainders. We also show that the remainder can be bounded above by the number of resonances in some neighbourhoods of the real axis, and provide similar asymptotics for hyperbolic quotients using the Selberg zeta function.", "We study the longitudinal permeability of unidirectional disjoint circular cylinders, when a Newtonian fluid is flowing at low Reynolds number along these cylinders; the longitudinal velocity satisfies the Poisson equation. The cylinders are arranged according to a doubly periodic structure. The number of cylinders in each rectangle can be arbitrary as well as their positions and radii. The method of functional equations yields analytical formulae for permeability in terms of these quantities. These formulae are written also in continuous form to study the flow for large numbers of cylinders. Special attention is paid to the case of the square unit cell, equal radii and lognormal distribution of radii.", "We prove logarithm laws for unipotent flows on the homogeneous space $\\Gamma\\backslash G$ with $G=S0_0(n+1,1)$ for $n\\geq 2$ and $\\Gamma\\subset G$ any non-uniform lattices in $G$. Our method relies on the estimate of norms of certain incomplete Eisenstein series.", "We investigate numerically the time evolution of a two-dimensional flow submitted to a spatially periodic shear force. Initially, the flow is at equilibrium, the forcing balancing viscous stresses. At Reynolds numbers slightly above critical, a large-scale, linear instability drives the fluid towards a stable laminar state. At larger Reynolds number turbulence finally develops after several transient states. These transient states are described by measuring the divergence rate of linearized trajectories from the turbulent flow. This rate gives asymptotically a measure of the first Lyapunov exponent of the flow. We find that the first Lyapunov exponent scales as the characteristic frequency of the flow at large scale. We show here data on incompressible, isothermal and perfect gas (subsonic) two-dimensional flows with unit Prandtl number, and Reynolds number around 30.", "In this paper we continue the study of a fluid-structure interaction problem with the non periodic case. We consider the non stationary flow of a viscous fluid in a thin rectangle with an elastic membrane as the upper part of the boundary. The physical problem which corresponds to non homogeneous boundary conditions is stated. By using a boundary layer method, an asymptotic solution is proposed. The properties of the boundary layer functions are established and an error estimate is obtained.", "ABSTRACTThe singular periodic integro-differential equation of peridynamics in logarithmic scale of Hilbert spaces is considered. The existence and uniqueness of solution are proved.", "We show the the existence of noncontractible periodic orbits for every compactly supported time-dependent Hamiltonian on the open unit disk cotangent bundle of a Finsler manifold provided that the Hamiltonian is sufficiently large over the zero section. This result solves a conjecture of Irie \\cite{I} and generalizes the previous results \\cite{BPS,We0,Xu} etc. ::: We then obtain a number of applications including: (1) preservation of Finsler lengths of closed geodesics by symplectomorphisms, (2) existence of periodic orbits for Hamiltonian systems separating two Lagrangian submanifolds, (3) existence of periodic orbits for Hamiltonians on noncompact domains, (4) existence of periodic orbits for Lorentzian Hamiltonian in higher dimensional case, (5) partial solution to a conjecture of Kawasaki in \\cite{K}, (6) results on squeezing/nonsqueezing theorem on torus cotangent bundles.", "Abstract The non-steady Navier–Stokes equations with Dirichlet boundary conditions are considered in thin tube structures. These domains are connected finite unions of thin finite cylinders (in the 2 D case respectively thin rectangles). The complete asymptotic expansion of the solution is constructed. It contains a regular part and three types of the boundary layer correctors: “in-space”, “in-time” and “in-space-and-in-time”. The estimates for the difference of the exact solution and its J th asymptotic approximation are proved.", "Abstract The generic isolated bifurcations for one-parameter families of smooth planar vector fields { X μ } which give rise to periodic orbits are: the Andronov–Hopf bifurcation, the bifurcation from a semi-stable periodic orbit, the saddle-node loop bifurcation and the saddle loop bifurcation. In this paper we obtain the dominant term of the asymptotic behaviour of the period of the limit cycles appearing in each of these bifurcations in terms of μ when we are near the bifurcation. The method used to study the first two bifurcations is also used to solve the same problem in another two situations: a generalization of the Andronov–Hopf bifurcation to vector fields starting with a special monodromic jet; and the Hopf bifurcation at infinity for families of polynomial vector fields.", "Consider a Lagrangian of the form ::: L(x,x,q,q)=12(x2−x2)+12q2+(1+δ(x))V(q), ::: where x, q∈R. Assuming that δ is bounded and V, periodic in q, is such that V′(0)=0, we prove existence of infinitely many solutions homoclinic to periodic orbits in the center manifold q=0, q=0 of the corresponding system.", "The model of the universal Teichmuller space T1 by the derivative of logarithm is the union of infinitely many disconnected components.In this paper,the geometric property of the boundary of T1 is investigated and it is obtained that e-iθ/(1-e-iθz) ∈ -L ∩ -Lθ.In addition,by ‖·‖1 it is proved that the distance between the boundary of T1 is 2.", "We prove the existence of common fixed points for three relatively asymptotically regular mappings defined on an orbitally complete ordered metric space using orbital continuity of one of the involved maps. We furnish a suitable example to demonstrate the validity of the hypotheses of our results.", "Abstract The existence of periodic orbits for Hamiltonian systems at low positive energies can be deduced from the existence of nondegenerate critical points of an averaged Hamiltonian on an associated “reduced space.” Alternatively, in classical (kinetic plus potential energy) Hamiltonians the existence of such orbits can often be established by elementary geometrical arguments. The present paper unifies the two approaches by exploiting discrete symmetries, including reversing diffeomorphisms, that occur in a given system. The symmetries are used to locate the periodic orbits in the averaged Hamiltonian, and thence in the original Hamiltonian when the periodic orbits are continued under perturbations admitting the same symmetries. In applications to the Henon-Heiles Hamiltonian, it is illustrated how “higher order” averaging can sometimes be used to overcome degeneracies encountered at first order.", "We give effective estimates for the number of saddle connections on a translation surface that have length $\\leq L$ and are in a prescribed homology class modulo $q$. Our estimates apply to almost all translation surfaces in a stratum of the moduli space of translation surfaces, with respect to the Masur-Veech measure on the stratum.", "We consider a bisingular initial value problem for a system of ordinary differential equations with a single small parameter, the asymptotics of whose solution can be constructed in the form of power-logarithmic series on several boundary layers and an external layer. To use the method of matching asymptotic expansions, we prove theorems that permit one to make the passage between two adjacent layers and obtain a uniform estimate of the approximation to the solution by a composite asymptotic expansion.", "Using the identification of the symmetric space $\\mathrm{SL}(n,\\mathbb{R})/\\mathrm{SO}(n)$ with the Teichm\\\"uller space of flat $n$-tori of unit volume, we explore several metrics and compactifications of these spaces, drawing inspiration both from Teichm\\\"uller theory and symmetric spaces. We define and study analogs of the Thurston, Teichm\\\"uller, and Weil-Petersson metrics. We show the Teichm\\\"uller metric is a symmetrization of the Thurston metric, which is a polyhedral Finsler metric, and the Weil-Petersson metric is the Riemannian metric of $\\mathrm{SL}(n,\\mathbb{R})/\\mathrm{SO}(n)$ as a symmetric space. We also construct a Thurston-type compactification using measured foliations on $n$-tori, and show that the horofunction compactification with respect to the Thurston metric is isomorphic to it, as well as to a minimal Satake compactification.", "We study connecting orbits of a natural Lagrangian system defined on a complete Riemannian manifold subjected to the action of a nonstationary force field with potential U(q, t) = f(t)V(q). It is assumed that the factor f(t) tends to ∞ as t→±∞ and vanishes at a unique point t 0 ∈ ℝ. Let X +, X − denote the sets of isolated critical points of V (x) at which U(x, t) as a function of x distinguishes its maximum for any fixed t > t 0 and t < t 0, respectively. Under nondegeneracy conditions on points of X ± we prove the existence of infinitely many doubly asymptotic trajectories connecting X − and X +.", "We consider the equations of motion of $n$ vortices of equal circulation in the plane, in a disk and on a sphere. The vortices form a polygonal equilibrium in a rotating frame of reference. We use numerical continuation in a boundary value setting to determine the Lyapunov families of periodic orbits that arise from the polygonal relative equilibrium. When the frequency of a Lyapunov orbit and the frequency of the rotating frame have a rational relationship then the orbit is also periodic in the inertial frame. A dense set of Lyapunov orbits, with frequencies satisfying a diophantine equation, corresponds to choreographies of the $n$ vortices. We include numerical results for all cases, for various values of $n$, and we provide key details on the computational approach.", "For a compact surface $X_0$, Thurston introduced a compactification of its Teichm\\\"uller space $\\mathcal T(X_0)$ by completing it with a boundary $\\mathcal{PML}(X_0)$ consisting of projective measured geodesic laminations. We introduce a similar bordification for the Teichm\\\"uller space $\\mathcal T(X_0)$ of a noncompact Riemann surface $X_0$, using the technical tool of geodesic currents. The lack of compactness requires the introduction of certain uniformity conditions which were unnecessary for compact surfaces. A technical step, providing a convergence result for earthquake paths in $\\mathcal T(X_0)$, may be of independent interest.", "To any periodic and full C *-dynamical system \\(\\), an invertible operator s acting on the Banach space of trace functionals of the fixed point algebra is canonically associated. KMS states correspond to positive eigenvectors of s. A Perron–Frobenius type theorem asserts the existence of KMS states at inverse temperatures equals the logarithms of the inner and outer spectral radii of s (extremal KMS states). Examples arising from subshifts in symbolic dynamics, self-similar sets in fractal geometry and noncommutative metric spaces are discussed.", "methode hybrideLow Reynolds number fluid flow past a cylindrical body of arbitrary shape in an unbounded, two-dimensional domain is a singular perturbation problem involving an infinite logarithmic expansion in the small parameter e, representing the Reynolds number. We apply a hybrid asymptotic-numerical method to compute the drag coefficient, C D and lift coefficient C L to within all logarithmic terms. The hybrid method solution involves a matrix M, depending only on the shape of the body, which we compute using a boundary integral method. We illustrate the hybrid method results on an elliptic object and on a more complicated profile.", "In this paper we discuss the Mather problem for stationary Lagrangians, that is Lagrangians $L:\\Rr^n\\times \\Rr^n\\times \\Omega\\to \\Rr$, where $\\Omega$ is a compact metric space on which $\\Rr^n$ acts through an action which leaves $L$ invariant. This setting allow us to generalize the standard Mather problem for quasi-periodic and almost-periodic Lagrangians. Our main result is the existence of stationary Mather measures invariant under the Euler-Lagrange flow which are supported in a graph. We also obtain several estimates for viscosity solutions of Hamilton-Jacobi equations for the discounted cost infinite horizon problem.", "Hoeffding proved that Kendall's and Spearman's nonparametric measures of correlation between two continuous random variables X and Y are each asymptotically normal with an asymptotic variance of the form sigma^2/n -- provided the non-degeneracy condition sigma^2>0 holds, where sigma^2 is a certain (always nonnegative) expression which is determined by the joint distribution (say mu) of X and Y. Sufficient conditions for sigma^2>0 in terms of the support set (say S) of mu are given, the same for both correlation statistics. One of them is that there exist a rectangle with all its vertices in S, sides parallel to the X and Y axes, and an interior point also in S. Another sufficient condition is that the Lebesgue measure of S be nonzero.", "In this article, we consider a continuous review perishable inventory system with a finite number of homogeneous sources of demands. The maximum storage capacity is S. The life time of each items is assumed to be exponential. The operating policy is (s,S) policy, that is, whenever the inventory level drops to s, an order for Q(=S-s) items is placed. The ordered items are received after a random time which is distributed as exponential. We assume that demands occurring during the stock-out period enter into the orbit. These orbiting demands send out signal to compete for their demand which is distributed as exponential. The joint probability distribution of the inventory level and the number of demands in the orbit are obtained in the steady state case. Various system performance measures are derived and the results are illustrated numerically.", "We study the Kronecker sequence $\\{n\\alpha\\}_{n\\leq N}$ on the torus $\\T^d$ where $\\alpha$ is uniformly distributed on $\\T^d.$ We show that the discrepancy of the number of visits of this sequence to a random box, normalized by $\\ln^d N$ converges as $N\\to\\infty$ to a Cauchy distribution. The key ingredient of the proof is a Poisson limit theorem for the Cartan action on the space of $d+1$ dimensional lattices.", "Taking, as an example, the solution of the drag problem of a slitlike channel, the change in flow characteristics with increase in intensity of rotation is shown. The form of the asymptotic drag formulas is determined for rapidly rotating channels with sides in a finite ratio, at Rossby numbers of the order of unity. Good agreement with experimental data is found. The final form of the asymptotic solution, valid at small Rossby numbers, is found.", "In this paper, we analyze the asymptotic behaviour of the Hermitian-Yang-Mills flow over a compact non-Kahler manifold (X, g) with the Hermitian metric g satisfying the Gauduchon and Astheno-Kahler condition.", "For functionsg(z) satisfying a slowly varying condition in the complex plane, we find asymptotics for the Taylor coefficients of the functionformula]when?>0. As applications we find asymptotics for the number of permutations with cycle lengths all lying in a given setS, and for the number having unique cycle lengths.", "We obtain the double scaling asymptotic behavior of the recurrence coefficients and the partition function at the critical point of the $N\\times N$ Hermitian random matrix model with cubic potential. We prove that the recurrence coefficients admit an asymptotic expansion in powers of $N^{-2/5}$, and in the leading order the asymptotic behavior of the recurrence coefficients is given by a Boutroux tronqu\\'ee solution to the Painlev\\'e I equation. We also obtain the double scaling limit of the partition function, and we prove that the poles of the tronqu\\'ee solution are limits of zeros of the partition function. The tools used include the Riemann--Hilbert approach and the Deift--Zhou nonlinear steepest descent method for the corresponding family of complex orthogonal polynomials and their recurrence coefficients, together with the Toda equation in the parameter space." ]

[ "Maja Salvador" ]

[ "Who Made Who", "seasoning", "batter who bats first in the lineup", "Play No Games", "playing technique", "Playing in the Shadows", "The Band Played On", "slowing the play", "a halt in the play", "playing cards", "Playing with the Boys", "playing the bagpipes", "revenge play" ]

[ "(CNN) -- The history of U.S. sanctions against Iran dates as far back as 1979, when hostages were held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Over the years, the U.S. government has approved other sanctions. In 2010, amid increasing tensions of Iran's nuclear program, the United States instituted sanctions that U.S. officials described as \"unprecedented.\" The United Nations and the European Union, and other countries around the world also have sanctions against Iran. The following are some key steps in the efforts to sanction Iran. U.S. sanctions: . -- As a result of the hostage crisis in 1979, the U.S. government froze Iranian government assets in the United States and U.S. banks overseas, totaling $12 billion, according to the U.S. Treasury. That freeze was eventually expanded to a full trade embargo until an accord was signed with Iran in 1981. Most assets were unblocked and the embargo was lifted. -- In 1987, the United States imposed a new embargo on Iranian goods and services, \"as a result of Iran's support for international terrorism and its aggressive actions against non-belligerent shipping in the Persian Gulf,\" the U.S. Treasury says. -- In 1995, the United States banned \"involvement with petroleum development in Iran,\" the U.S. Treasury says. Two years later, the United States banned \"virtually all trade and investment activities with Iran by U.S. persons, wherever located.\" -- In 2010, the United States passed the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act. It revoked, for example, permission to import \"certain foodstuffs and carpets of Iranian origin,\" the U.S. Treasury says. Those who violated the law could face a fine of up to $1 million and 20 years imprisonment. -- The law established that Iranian goods or services may not be imported unless they are gifts valued $100 or less; informational materials, or personal property of someone coming into the United States. -- U.S. citizens may not export goods or services to Iran or, in general, to a third country knowing it is intended for Iran. There are exceptions for \"donations of articles intended to relieve human suffering,\" gifts valued at $100 or less, certain agricultural products, medicines, and informational materials, the Treasury says. -- The U.S. government prohibits \"servicing accounts of the government of Iran,\" including the country's central bank. -- In 2011, the United States added further sanctions, including tightening restrictions on companies that provide Iran with equipment and expertise to run its oil and chemical industry. It prohibited groups that do business with financial institutions in Iran from holding accounts in the United States. -- U.S. sanctions also targeted groups in Iran -- such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Basij Resistance Force, and Iran's Law Enforcement Forces -- as well as several individuals in Iran. U.N. sanctions: . -- Current U.N. sanctions against Iran are the result of a series of resolutions dating back to 2006. -- Material related to Iran's \"proliferation-sensitive nuclear and ballistic missile programs\" are embargoed, the United Nations says. -- One of the resolutions bans the export or procurement \"of any arms and related material from Iran,\" the U.N. Security Council says. -- A long list of individuals and entities are subject to a travel ban and assets freeze. \"The assets freeze also applies to any individuals or entities acting on behalf of, or at the direction of, the designated persons and entities, and to entities owned or controlled by them,\" the council says on its website. EU sanctions: . -- The European Union announced Monday it will ban the import of Iranian crude oil and petroleum products. -- Assets of Iran's central bank in the European Union will be frozen, and trade with Iran in gold, diamonds, and precious metals will be blocked, the union said. -- The export to Iran of \"key\" petrochemical equipment and technology from the European Union will be blocked, the it said. -- The European Union already had in place a series of sanctions as well, targeting the oil and gas industry, nuclear industry, financial sector and more. -- Measures put in place in 2010 include restrictions on \"equipment which might be used for internal repression,\" the official text said." ]

[ "It was once a symbol of U.S. supremacy before becoming a prison cell for 52 Americans for 444 days. Now, the former embassy in Tehran is a chilling museum complete with a skeletal Statue of Liberty and ghostly waxworks. Every year, Iran commemorates the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution with its Ten Days of Dawn celebrations. On the final day, mass rallies and anti-western protests take place and the country's president addresses his people in Tehran's Freedom Square. The embassy garnered worldwide attention in November 1979 when revolutionary students stormed in and took dozens of U.S. staff hostage - the story which inspired the film Argo, starring Ben Affleck. Australian photographer Brook Mitchell, 36, who lives in Bali, embarked on a trip to Iran and captured these incredible pictures of the celebrations and the macabre museum. Ghoulish: A mural of the Statue of Liberty on the wall of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran, where 52 hostages were held for 444 days . Bizarre: Wax figures supposedly represent former U.S. embassy staff inside the so called 'Glassy Room for Secret Negotiations' in Tehran . Liberty: A statue at the entrance to the former U.S. embassy in Tehran, which the Iranian government dubbed the 'U.S. Den of Espionage' A display depicting the storming of the former U.S. embassy in 1979. Thousands of protesters pressed around the compound, responding to a call by the country's new leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, to attack U.S. and Israeli interests . The rooms where secret state missions were planned have been covered in graffiti. But apart from the most minor of cosmetic changes, the building that caused a global diplomatic crisis is frozen in time - and looks almost identical to its portrayal in the Oscar-winning Ben Affleck movie Argo. In 1979, thousands of protesters pressed around the compound, responding to a call by the country's new leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, to attack U.S. and Israeli interests. Of the 90 people in the compound, six Americans managed to escape the building and flee to other embassies. Other non-U.S. citizens captured when the embassy was seized were released, but 66 were captured, including three at the Foreign Ministry, and held hostage for 444 days. 'Glassy Room for Top Secret Negotiations' in which former embassy staff are said to have conversed in total privacy from the outside world . Stark: A woman walks into the former U.S. embassy in downtown Tehran, Iran in 2013. The building is now somewhat of a museum complete with waxwork figures . Art as protest: An Iranian Journalist climbs the stairs inside the former US embassy in downtown Tehran in 2013. Painted on the walls are anti-American murals . In 1979, thousands of protesters pressed around the compound, responding to a call by the country's new leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, to attack U.S. and Israeli interests . Dramatic: Iranian students climb over the wall of the U.S. embassy in Tehran just before the hostage crisis, in which 52 Americans were held hostages for 444 days in 1979 . The students paraded the blindfolded hostages for the cameras to humiliate the ‘Great Satan’ that Washington had become in the eyes of the Iranian revolutionary leaders. They demanded that the Shah of Iran be expelled from the U.S., where he had been taken for cancer treatment after he was overthrown. Freeing the hostages became a priority for the administration of U.S. President Jimmy Carter - but nothing could be done apart from enforcing ineffective economic sanctions. Mr Carter pledged to preserve the lives of the hostages and conducted intense diplomacy to secure their release. But his failure ultimately contributed to his losing the presidency to Ronald Reagan in 1980. Paraded: One of the hostages, blindfolded and with his hands bound, is displayed to crowds outside the US Embassy in 1979. On the day of President Ronald Reagan's inauguration, January 20 1981, the hostages were set free . Starring role: Ben Affleck starred as a CIA agent in the film Argo, about the crisis which won the Oscar for Best Picture at the Academy Awards . The embassy garnered worldwide attention in November 1979 when revolutionary students stormed in and took dozens of U.S. staff hostage - the story which inspired the film Argo, starring Ben Affleck . Two weeks into the crisis, Ayatollah Khomeini ordered the release of 13 female and black hostages, mostly clerical staff and members of the marine guard who guard US embassies around the world. Another hostage, vice consul Richard Queen, was released in July 1980 after falling ill with multiple sclerosis. But the remaining 52 were deprived of their freedom for 444 days. In February 1980, Iran issued a new set of demands for the hostages' freedom. It called for the Shah to be handed over to face trial in Tehran, as well as other diplomatic gestures, such as a U.S. apology for its actions. The hostages were finally set free on January 20 1981. A Bandari woman in the Panjshambe Bazaar. The bright masks are unique to this part of Iran - a cultural adronment rather than a religious one . The Ten Days of Dawn celebration saw mass rallies and many children were involved in this government propaganda-driven event . A father and his young daughter in Yazd, celebrating the 36th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. Every year, Iran commemorates the anniversary with its Ten Days of Dawn celebrations . A crowd gathers as this strongman theatrically struggles to break free of chains in Minab, Southern Iran . Yet Mr Mitchell, who embarked on an enlightening trip, said: 'After visiting some of the most remote and supposedly conservative parts of the country, areas that very few outsiders see, I cannot equate the term 'axis of evil' with my experiences, at least when it comes to the people I met. 'Travelling through Iran as an outsider was an unforgettable, immersive experience. 'Open, curious hospitality was the norm. Despite being proud of their country and history, the people were largely ashamed of their government. 'There's rebellion going on all the time; it's just for the most part it's happening behind closed doors. 'My favourite image is probably one of the lady in the striking red mask staring down the camera. After having some breakfast together she was happy for me to take her picture, and she had a really lovely way about her. 'It was the second morning of the trip and I was kind of reassured that it was all going to work out after that.' Hormuz island, Persian Gulf. 'Travelling through Iran as an outsider was an unforgettable, immersive experience,' Mitchell explained . The Iranian flag flies in the town centre of the city of Yazd. Officials estimated around 20,000 people attended the celebrations . He added that in many areas there was a sense of desperation at the current state of the economy, with many young adults unsure of their future. 'I was frequently asked about the current migration laws back in Australia, and what I thought of the government. This was usually followed up with an invitation to share some tea,' he said. 'Even at mass anti-Western rallies I was welcomed with smiles and curiosity, which was a surreal experience in itself.' The photographer travelled along the ethnically diverse Persian Gulf coast region, which is rarely visited by outsiders, and spent time on Qeshm and Hormuz islands, the former the site of recent military exercises from where missiles were fired from the coast to destroy a mock U.S. carrier. Mitchell says a highlight for him was a visit to the Panjshambe Bazaar, a weekly market in the desert town of Minab, which draws some of the most remote and ethnically diverse groups in Iran to sell their wares. Remains of the chapel at the Portuguese fort on Hormuz Island. Many battlements were constructed in southern Iran after the Portuguese viceroy Alfonso de Albuquerque attacked in 1507 . An elderly man relaxes in the quiet surrounds of Park Laleh in central Tehran during Iran's Ten Days of Dawn celebrations . A father and his daughter attend a rally. The man said that his daughter had coloured in the drawing of the Iranian flag she was holdin . Women and children attend a rally. The Ten Days of Dawn appeals to a sense of nostalgia, national pride and Islamic unity . Smoking tobacco from a waterpipe is now banned for women throughout Iran in public places, but it remains popular with the vendors at the weekly Panjshambe Bazaar, in Minab . A young girl in a helps her parents with the business trading livestock in the Panjshambe Bazaar, Minab . The Khaju Bridge and banks, in Isfahan, are a popular meeting place for local families . The stirking ruins of Hazareh Castle in Bibi Minoo, overlooking Minab, in Hormozgan province . A group of school children visit the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, Isfahan. Rays of light illuminate the intricate tile work of the building . 'In the Gulf region many Bandari - literally meaning 'people of the port' in Persian, women wear distinctive masks made of metal which are covered with fabric, the colour and style depending on the woman's ethnic group and town,' Mr Mitchell added. 'This is a stark contrast to the black tent like outfits seen in the rest of the country. 'There was little in the way of tourist infrastructure for outsiders for much of the trip, which made daily organisation pretty challenging.' During the trip Mitchell visited the Persian Gulf Coast and Islands: Bandar Abbas, Hormuz, Qeshm and Minab and travelled to the desert cities of Yazd and Shiraz, Tehran, including the ancient Zoroastrian centre of Chak Chak, Ruins at Persepolis and the city of Isfahan. The intricately decorated Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque in Isfahan (left) and a vendor at the Panjshambe Bazaar in Minab (right) In a city of nearly one million, only around 20,000 showed up for the rally, and dispersed after just a few hours, the photographer said . 'Down with Israel': The sight of children holding placards such as these was a confronting element to the protest, the photographer said . Men and boys training in a traditional gym for the Iranian martial art of Zurkhaneh. The practice dates back more than 800 years . Working on a traditional Lenge at low tide, Bandar Abbas. Mitchell, 36, travelled around the Iran during February . Protesters at a rally on Febuary 11th for the 36th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, in Yazd .", "Washington (CNN) -- Just nine months into his tenure as Secretary of State, John Kerry successfully delivered an interim deal with Iran on its nuclear program. It is the most significant level of cooperation between the United States and the Iranians in decades and it could impact the remainder of his tenure. While the deal that also includes other world powers has been panned by Israel -- one of the biggest U.S. allies in the region -- and some members of Congress, Kerry has praised it as a good first step. \"We believe very strongly that because the Iranian nuclear program is actually set backwards and is actually locked into place in critical places, that that is better for Israel than if you were just continuing to go down the road and they rush towards a nuclear weapon,\" Kerry said in an interview that aired Sunday on CNN's \"State of the Union.\" Related: Iran reaches nuclear deal with world leaders - now what? The leg work . On Iran, Kerry did not have to start from zero. A series of events helped to shape the outcome. Talks with Iran hit a high point in 2009 when it and the United States reached a tentative agreement for Tehran to export three quarters of its nuclear stockpile. But the Iranians walked away, according to Robert Einhorn, a former State Department official involved in Iran negotiations. Stalled talks led to strict sanctions that economically hurt Iran. And in June, Hassan Rouhani, who is considered a pragmatist, won the Iranian presidency. Related: President Barack Obama's legacy moment on Iran . A senior administration official confirmed that since the election, U.S. and Iranian officials have been holding private, previously secret discussions to generate ideas for the wider nuclear negotiations. The détente climaxed in a telephone conversation between President Barack Obama and Rouhani in September during the United Nations General Assembly - the highest contact between leaders of the two countries since the Islamic revolution that led to the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979. After that phone call, President Barack Obama ordered Kerry to restart talks. But Kerry's involvement in the negotiations quietly began even before he was named Secretary of State at the beginning of this year. While chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he became a player in the stalled -- and secret -- negotiations. The White House realized that the government of Oman could play a critical role in talks with Iran. So Kerry made an unannounced trip to Oman to talk to Omani officials about Iran to see if they were interested in helping facilitate a dialogue between the U.S. and Iran. The resume . Kerry's career is steeped in foreign policy. As a decorated Vietnam veteran, he protested the war and testified before the Senate Foreign Relations committee about it. He later chaired the panel during his nearly three-decade Senate career. Kerry immersed himself in details of world affairs, including Iran and its nuclear program. He served on the committee when President George W. Bush refused to negotiate with the Iranians in 2003 and in 2010, when Congress and the Obama administration ramped up economic sanctions. In succeeding Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, Kerry hit the ground running. Related: One agreement, wildly different reactions . He has already logged more than 200,000 miles, rivaling Clinton, who was the most-traveled Secretary of State. \"In general, Kerry is more of an activist in terms of negotiations,\" Einhorn said. Related: Meet the American 'badass' leading negotiations with Iran . Accomplishments . Kerry's enthusiastic attitude toward negotiations has yielded significant success. When Obama was on the verge of a military strike against Syria, Kerry spearheaded the U.S. side of negotiations involving Russia to turn Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons over to international control. The Syria and Iranian agreements in the volatile Mideast are notable. \"I think Kerry came in determined to pursue diplomacy,\" Einhorn said. A sign of the future? Still, the accord with Iran is only an interim deal to last six months. The real work begins now on a broader, long term agreement. That's going to be a real test for Kerry and the Obama administration. \"We're in the first stage of a long and difficult road,\" said Suzenne Maloney, senior fellow, at the Brookings Institution. As for the rest of the region, Michele Dunne, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the Iran issue is a silo and not connected to other issues in the region, especially the Israeli-Palestinian talks. Related: Deal may define Barack Obama's legacy, for better of worse . Kerry came into office determined to make progress on the Mideast Peace Process. While Israel is fuming about the Iran deal, calling it a \"historic mistake,\" Dunne said \"the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations already were not moving forward.\" If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu uses the Iran deal as a reason to not engage in peace talks, Dunne said it would make little difference because the talks \"were not that meaningful in the first place.\" While he's had some success, he still has a challenging road ahead. CNN's Jim Sciutto and Conor Finnegan and Jim Sciutto contributed to this report .", "By . Sara Malm . PUBLISHED: . 17:18 EST, 25 February 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 07:07 EST, 26 February 2013 . A group of Americans held hostage at the U.S. embassy in Iran for 444 days in 1979, are taking their battle for justice to Congress. The 52 embassy workers were taken hostage on November 4, 1979, when revolutionary militants stormed the Teheran building and suffered more than a year of physical and mental torture at the hands of their captors. More than three decades later the victims and their survivors have yet to receive compensation, prohibited to bring a case against Iran due to the terms of the release . agreement from 1981. Survivor: Steven Lauterbach cut his wrists during his 444 days held hostage, in the hope that he would be so badly hurt that he would be released from solitary confinement . Captive: One of the 52 U.S. hostages is displayed to the crowd outside the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by his captors, a few days into their ordeal . However, they are hoping to end their . 33-year-long battle for justice by persuading Capitol Hill to aid them . in their quest for a court judgment against Iran as a state sponsor of . terrorism. Steven Lauterbach, 61, was the assistant general services officer at the US Embassy in 1979. His statement to the Congress begin with the words: ‘I slashed my wrists in Iran’. Locked in solitary confinement Mr Lauterbach, 28 at the time of the seige, believed it was his only way out. ‘I wanted to hurt myself bad enough that they would panic,’ he told the National Journal. He was found covered in blood and says he was ‘ready to die,’ but the militants managed to get him to a hospital in time. Now he suffers from recurring nightmares that the deal has been rescinded and he will have to go back to his captors. 'It’s never completely in the past,’ he says. ‘You’re always in the shadow of it psychologically.’ Scarred for life: Rodney 'Rocky' Sickmann was only 22 when he was taken hostage in November 1979 and says Iran 'raped' him of his freedom . Blame: Deborah Firestone, daughter of a hostage says the 444 days as a hostage changed her father and is the reason why she has not seen him for eight years . Paraded: The blindfolded and bound man from the 52 held hostage is taken outside the embassy by the young militia in the early days of the hostage-taking . Held: A photograph from November 1979 shows two Iranian militants with a female hostage at the U.S. embassy . ‘Iran raped us of our freedom,’ says Rodney 'Rocky' Sickmann, who, aged 22, was the youngest hostage taken. Mr Sickmann spent the first month in . captivity sleeping with his hands tied to his feet, and describes . how the hostages were forced to watch torture videos of people being . dipped in boiling tar or shot in the head in front of the camera. To this day he still suffers from flashbacks, has trouble being alone and say he will never forget his time in captivity. The Iranian hostage crisis began on November 4, 1979 when young militants calling themselves Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, supporters of the Iranian Revolution, stormed the U.S. Embassy in Teheran. The storming of the embassy was a result of mounting hostility against the U.S. after the exiled Shah of Iran was allowed to enter the America for cancer treatment . Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was installed and supported by both the U.S. and the UK governments but his rule was overthrown shortly after his exile in January 1979 and replaced with an Islamic republic. In April 1980 there was a failed attempt to rescue the hostages which resulted in the deaths of eight American servicemen, one Iranian civilian, and the destruction of two aircraft. The release of the hostages was prompted by the invasion of Iran by Saddam Hussein, then leader of Iraq, in combination with the death om the exiled Shah. The Algiers Accords was signed on January 20, 1981 by President Ronald Reagan, just minutes after he was sworn into office. All hostages were released the following day after one year, two months, two weeks and two days in captivity. Army . Colonel Leland Holland who died in 1990, would tell his children of being . beaten with rubber hoses and telephone books. Thrice in the years . following his release, his family found him kneeling against a wall in . the basement with his hands over his head as if he was handcuffed. Former . hostage Bruce German, 76, says he was under constant threat during his . time as a hostage. He recalls how the group would be awoken in the . middle of the night, stripped and blindfolded for mock-executions. His daughter, Deborah Firestone wrote a letter to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during her father’s capture begging for his release. ‘Dear Ayatollah,' she wrote 'I wish you could convince your people to let my dad come home to his family. ‘It is very difficult for me not having my dad around.’ When her father finally returned, he was a changed man. Ms Firestone recalls watching her parents marriage fall apart, after which Mr German moved away. He missed her college graduation as well as both her and her brother’s weddings. She has not seen her father for eight years. Over the years the 52 hostages, 12 of which have passed since they were freed, have tried and failed to get justice and relief in American courts multiple times. This is due to the 1981 Algiers Accords, a deal brokered between the U.S. and Iran by Algeria, which saw the hostages released. President Carter signed the agreement which included a clause prohibiting the 52 hostages from bringing a lawsuit against Iran in a US court. The hostages and their families did . bring a case against Iran in 2000 and won a default liability ruling . after the state of Iran failed to mount a defense. However, the State Department argued to dismiss the case as it would violate an agreement signed by a U.S. president. Compensation and justice: Bill Daugherty is estimating that each hostage should be awarded nearly $18million for their ordeal . Arguing . that the Congress has never specifically invalidated the Algiers . Accords, District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled to dismiss the case in . 2002. In his ruling he wrote: ‘Were . this Court empowered to judge by its sense of justice, the . heart-breaking accounts of the emotional and physical toll of those 444 . days on plaintiffs would be more than sufficient justification for . granting all the relief that they request.’ ‘However, . this Court is bound to apply the law that Congress has created, . according to the rules of interpretation that the Supreme Court has . determined. There are two branches of government that are empowered to . abrogate and rescind the Algiers Accords, and the judiciary is not one . of them.’ Judge Sullivan dismissed a second case in 2010 for the same reason, which was later rejected by the Supreme Court. In . the forthcoming weeks the hostages and their families will put forward a . dossier of information to the Congress, containing interviews with . survivors and families about their 444-day long ordeal. Former . hostage Bill Daugherty estimates that each hostage is owed $18million in . compensation, but says he does not expect to get anywhere near that.", "New York (CNN) -- In a recent interview, Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition candidate spearheading the Green Movement in Iran, said that early in the momentous revolution of 1979 the majority of Iranians were convinced that dictatorship had ended in Iran. \"I was one of those people,\" Mousavi said. \"But today I no longer believe that to be the case.\" Today, he said, we can see both the signs of dictatorship and the resistance to that dictatorship. He then claimed this resistance as a legacy of the Islamic Revolution. \"It must be said that people's resistance is a heritage of the Islamic Revolution. People's discontent with deceit, deception, and corruption, which we witness today, are among the clear signs of this heritage,\" Mousavi said. But the history and the political culture of revolt against tyranny actually predate the Islamic revolution of 1977-1979. The young Iranians pouring into the streets of their homeland in recent months to demand their civil liberties are nourished and inspired by the same fountain of liberty that moved their parents in the years leading up to the 1979 revolution. It is the same hunger for freedom that the Islamic Republic, for eight crucial years under the steady hand of Mousavi himself as prime minister in the 1980s, had brutally repressed. What we are witnessing in the streets of Iran and among Iranians around the globe is the resurgence of a vibrant political culture that gave rise to the 1979 revolution, and that has been violently eclipsed under the absolutism of a militant Islamic theocracy. The history of the Islamic Republic over the last three decades has been a sad scenario of suppression and brutality. The regime has mismanaged one crisis after another, benefiting at times from the follies of neighbors and superpowers. Before the creation of the Islamic Republic, the revolution was driven by Iranians rebelling against the tyrannical monarchy of the Shah. But for the new regime in Iran, the American hostage crisis of 1979-1980 was the first opportunity to create a smoke screen to divert the world's attention while taking Iran's entire political culture hostage to their single-mindedly Islamist approach. The American hostage crisis had not ended yet when the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) started -- yet another prolonged and brutal distraction that Ayatollah Khomeini used to eliminate all his internal opposition. He did not start the war with Iraq. Saddam Hussein did, with the full support of the Reagan administration and its European and Arab allies. But Khomeini prolonged it for his own reasons. Two years into the Iran-Iraq War, the Israelis invaded Lebanon in 1982, and thereby offered the Islamic Republic the best opportunity to help create the Lebanese Hezbollah and extend its regional power base. The Iran-Iraq War was still raging when the First Intifada (1987-1993) provided the Islamic Republic with yet another opportunity to expand its influence in occupied Palestine. The Iran-Iraq war had barely ended when in 1989 Ayatollah Khomeini issued his infamous fatwa against Salman Rushdie. This provided another diversion to distract the world's attention from his having ordered a crucial revision of the constitution of the Islamic Republic that would perpetuate the absolutist reign of a Supreme Leader. Just about the same time, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the Taliban took over Afghanistan, and the two monsters the United States and its European, regional, and Arab allies had created to control the spread of the Iranian revolution came back to haunt them all and turn against their own creators. The tragic events of September 11, 2001, plunged the United States into a deep quagmire of mismanaging one crisis after another in Afghanistan and Iraq, as the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2008-2009 added fuel to the fire among Arabs and Muslims. With every turn of the screw and as the United States was bogged down in the region, the Islamic Republic did what it does best: It took advantage of one crisis after another in the region to stay afloat and disguise its fundamentally weak claim to legitimacy among its own citizens. Today the Green Movement is threatened by a number of factors and forces. A brutal suppression by the security apparatus of the Islamic Republic is only the most immediate and evident threat. Equally dangerous is to think the Green Movement is an American-inspired, or \"pro-Western\" uprising that will turn Iran into a satellite state of the United States and make it safe for neoliberal economics. It is not -- and to drive that point home, it is still good to read Mir Hossein Mousavi invoking the memory of a vast social revolution that had a fundamental commitment to social and economic justice at its heart. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Hamid Dabashi.", "(CNN)Less than a month after French President François Hollande mused that sanctions on Russia should be lifted (apparently reflecting the prevailing sentiment in much of the European Union), Russia has launched a new offensive through its proxies in Ukraine. Facing a full-blown crisis, with the Russian economy estimated to be contracting by at least 5% this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be unconcerned about further economic pressure and diplomatic isolation. Is he irrational? As the only one making important decisions in Russia today, does Putin not care about the sanctions? He is not and he does. His is a multiphased, well-calibrated endgame to destabilize Ukraine and to weaken the sanctions at the same time. The first thing for the West to understand is that, in the short run, no amount of sanctions will force Russia to leave Ukraine -- not until the Kremlin achieves victory, which Putin appears to have defined as Ukraine's almost unconditional capitulation. Until then, any \"peace initiatives\" and \"accords\" signed by Russia are not worth the paper they are written on. Having raised the propaganda pitch to a \"motherland-in-danger\" level unheard of since World War II, Putin has been telling Russians that the war in Ukraine is about \"defending our independence and our right to exist,\" and that the Ukrainians are nothing more than the first line of NATO's attack. The popular mobilization to protect the motherland from the alleged \"NATO aggression\" has become the key to Putin's popularity and, by extension, to the regime's legitimacy. Climbing down from such rhetorical heights without a clear victory in sight, especially during an economic crisis, could be very dangerous politically. What sort of victory could Putin be envisioning? First, humiliated and bled dry on the battlefield, Ukraine would be forced to agree to a \"federated\" structure and recognize the \"autonomy\" of its southeast region that would make it a de facto Russian protectorate inside Ukraine. The \"people's republics\" of Donetsk and Luhansk would have their own political, legal and security systems and their \"defense forces\" would not be disarmed. Nor would Russian \"volunteers\" be repatriated. Completely controlled by Moscow, the republics' authorities would be in charge of all elections within their territories. A permanent bloc of seats in the Ukrainian parliament would be set aside for them, giving them (that is, Russia) de facto veto power over Ukraine's key political, security and foreign policy choices. Finally, there would be no restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty over the Russo-Ukrainian border and no end to the flow of Russian military and civilian supplies into Ukraine. With these arrangements in place, the Kremlin would be able to re-ignite the conflict instantaneously whenever it did not like what Kiev is doing or, more importantly, whenever Russia's domestic political situation called for another round of propaganda-induced patriotic hysteria and anti-West paranoia. With such a victory, Putin would get very close to achieving his goal since the Ukrainian revolution 11 months ago: punish, humiliate, dismember, destabilize and, ultimately, destroy a Europe-bound Ukraine. Ukraine's de facto surrender would also put pressure on the West to weaken and ultimately lift the sanctions. How could the United States and the European Union continue to punish Russia when the government in Kiev had agreed to such a \"peace\"? Given Putin's determination and the resources he has put behind it, his endgame will have a high probability of success, but it is not preordained. The only way to thwart Putin's ambitions is through Russian domestic politics. A strong resistance by Kiev would force Putin to intensify and widen the scope of the campaign. This would require an increase of regular Russian troops in Ukraine (estimated last year by NATO at 1,000 and by the Ukrainians last month at 9,000) to at least 15,000 to 20,000. Russian casualties are likely to rise proportionately to the number of troops, reminding the families of Russian soldiers of the bloody 1979-'89 Soviet war in Afghanistan, which greatly contributed to the unraveling of the Soviet regime's legitimacy. Putin will be reluctant to choose this option, and the extreme political sensitivity of the issue explains the secrecy about Russian casualties and the creation earlier this year of a Russian \"foreign legion\" to minimize the losses of regular Russian troops. But in the short run, Russia's defeat on the battlefield is anyhow unlikely because of the continuing disarray in the Ukrainian defense establishment. This stems largely from the Soviet or Russian-trained top brass, which is not especially anxious to fight their comrades, as well as from the lack of manpower, poor training and the absence of modern defense weapons, especially anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. So what can the West do? For the moment, keeping up sanctions is critical. While they are far from the most damaging of the Kremlin's economic maladies, they raise the stakes for Moscow at a time of deepening economic crisis and rapidly shrinking budgets. By preventing Russian companies from borrowing or selling debt in the West, they force Putin to choose between bailing out, for example, the oil giant Rosneft or the huge VTB Bank, or keeping hospitals open even in Moscow, which is relatively well-off compared to the rest of the country; between paying the kontraktniki \"volunteer\" soldiers who fight in Ukraine and raising the pensions of tens of millions retirees and the salaries of doctors and teachers to keep up with inflation. Far from being the product of a delusion of grandeur, Putin's endgame is based on hard military and geopolitical realities. If Kiev, Brussels and Washington are serious about resisting it, they ought to be as realistic, as determined and as creative.", "Washington (CNN) -- It won an Academy Award, made people forget \"Gigli\" when they think Ben Affleck, and now the movie \"Argo\" may even pull off another feat -- help move legislation through Congress. Ex-Iran hostages hope 'Argo' win boosts quest for reparations . The frustrated Foreign Service officer on the phone as the U.S. embassy in Iran was under assault at the beginning of \"Argo\" was in real life John Limbert. \"That part of it was quite real. I mean, very much speeded-up but quite real,\" Limbert said from his home in suburban Washington. The keepsakes and collages on the walls of Limbert's study constantly remind him of his harrowing 444 days as a hostage in Iran 34 years ago. Not that he would ever forget. But for most people in America, the Iran hostage crisis was a distant memory until \"Argo\" brought it all back. Iran to add lawsuit over 'Argo' to cinematic response . Unlike the six Americans who hid with the Canadian ambassador who were the focus of \"Argo,\" Limbert was one of the 52 Americans held -- and tortured -- by Iranians for 14 months. \"I had a gun to my head, I was in solitary for nine months,\" recalled Limbert, who said that as a political officer at the embassy, he was not beaten and physically tortured as much as CIA officers were. \"Ten minutes before this happened, I was thinking about what's going to happen in Iran, what's going to happen to the left, what's going to happen to the right, what's going to happen with the former Shah, what's going to happen with U.S. relations. All the things that, sort of, all the inside the Beltway stuff that we think about. \"Ten minutes later, all that was gone,\" he continued. \"That didn't matter at all, and I thought about only one thing...Get me out of here. How am I going to get out? How am I going to get out of here? And frankly, I didn't care what it took.\" He was subjected to the mock executions depicted in \"Argo.\" \"They came in at 2 in the morning with, I think, masks and guns, pulled us out together to a place, lined us up against the wall, started chambering rounds into their guns, yelling orders. We didn't know what was going to happen... I thought we were gone,\" Limbert said. When Limbert and his fellow hostages were finally freed on January 20, 1981, they learned the U.S. government gave up something big in return: As part of the Algiers Accords agreed to a day earlier, the hostages were barred from suing Iran in U.S. court to seek compensation for their ordeal. Decades of court challenges have gone nowhere and appeals to administrations in both parties have failed. The Obama administration has said it stands by the promise in the Algiers Accords not to sue Iran. Now, Sen.Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, is pushing legislation to get the former hostages financial reward in a different way. He wants to put a surcharge on fines against companies that violate sanctions against Iran and use that money to create a compensation fund. Isakson says the popularity of \"Argo' is helping. \"A lot of people have seen it. They understand the abject horror that these people went through. I think most everybody will identify with the crisis and the suffering these people went through, and hopefully it will give us the impetus and the momentum to see to it that all these many years they're actually compensated for their treatment,\" Isakson said. His bill would allow hostages to get $10,000 a day for each day of captivity, which comes to $4.4 million total for each hostage. Isakson argues that finally compensating the hostages will send a message to Iran and to U.S. personnel around the world, especially after four were killed at the U.S. consulate in Libya. \"It just magnified that our diplomats overseas in harm's way day in and day out are in constant danger,\" Isakson said about the Benghazi attack. \"They need to also know that if they get violated, if they are captured, if they are tortured, that we'll have their back -- that America will stand strong for them.\" After Limbert was freed, he returned to the foreign service for the rest of his career. He knew Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was one of the four killed in Benghazi. \"He was one of our best. What a tragic loss, from him and the others who were there. They need protection. There has to be protection, and also there has to be accountability for what goes on,\" he said. Limbert acknowledges that getting compensation from companies that violate sanctions against Iran is not ideal, but says decades of failed attempts to get direct accountability from Iran make him and other former hostages believe it is not in the cards. But he argues Iran needs to get the message once and for all that storming a U.S. Embassy and holding Americans hostage for more than a year has consequences. \"The message has been so far, frankly, has been to the Islamic Republic: You got away with it. You can do these things and there are no consequences. Well, what kind of message does that send on a moral level, on a human level, and on a political level? If someone can get away with this, they can get away with worse. What kind of a foreign policy do you run? What kind of a moral policy do you run when people can do something as outrageous as this, as shameful as this, that something violates every principle, not just of international law and conventions?\" Isakson now has a Democratic co-sponsor, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, so the effort is now bipartisan. Still, Democratic Senate sources say the legislation will likely need to be tweaked before Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, will move it through his committee. For example, $4.4 million appears excessive to some lawmakers. But Limbert agrees with Isakson that the climate is now different thanks to \"Argo.\" \"Before the film came out and before this renewed interest, we frankly had difficulty getting anyone to listen to our case,\" Limbert said. \"We got expressions of sympathy, we got, you know, praise for our bravery, our service to our country. But frankly, that's not what we were looking for,\" he said.", "By . Jason Groves, Deputy Political Editor In New York . David Cameron will plead with Iran for help in smashing Islamic State today as he prepares to order air strikes on the terror group. In a major diplomatic gamble, the Prime Minister will hold talks with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani in New York to discuss co-operation over the escalating crisis in neighbouring Iraq. The talks, due to take place at the United Nations today, are the first of their kind since anti-Western Islamic fundamentalists seized power in Tehran in the 1979 revolution. Islamic State has murdered three Western hostages in recent weeks and threatened to kill British taxi driver Alan Henning, who is currently being held . Mr Cameron will also meet Barack Obama to finalise plans for British involvement in US-led air strikes against IS fanatics. The terror group has murdered three Western hostages in recent weeks and threatened to kill British taxi driver Alan Henning, who is currently being held. MPs could be recalled to Parliament for an emergency session at the end of this week to approve RAF bombing raids. Iran is a close ally of the Shia-led government in neighbouring Iraq and is already involved in fighting IS extremists on the ground in the north of the country. But Tehran’s support for other terror groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, has made it an international pariah . Until now, it has been excluded from diplomatic efforts to build an international alliance against IS. British sources last night acknowledged that dealing with Iran will be fraught with difficulty, not least because of its support for Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad and its efforts to build a nuclear bomb. But Britain views Mr Rouhani as a relative moderate and officials believe it will be worth the risk of trying to co-operate to defeat IS. Mr Rouhani’s election last year has led to a slight thawing in relations between London and Tehran, which have been frosty for the past 35 years. The Prime Minister will hold talks with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations in New York to discuss co-operation over the escalating crisis in neighbouring Iraq . Iranian protesters set fire to the Union Jack and Israeli flag during a demonstration outside the British embassy in 2011 . Iran is seen as a key player in shoring up the new government in Baghdad, which is struggling to deal with the onslaught from the terror group. A senior Downing Street source last night said Mr Cameron would tell Mr Rouhani to drop his support for Assad, and warn him that developing nuclear weapons remains unacceptable. ‘We are under no illusion about the dangers of Iran’s nuclear programme and our approach on that is not changing,’ the source said. ‘However, if Iran is willing to join the international community to defeat IS, then we will work with them on that. ‘But we will be clear that you cannot take one approach in Baghdad and another Damascus. You need a political solution in both if you are serious about defeating IS.’ Britain and Iran have had a fractious relationship since the overthrow in 1979 of the Shah by Islamic radicals led by Ayatollah Khomeini. Britain suspended diplomatic relations after militants stormed the US embassy. The Iranians branded the US ‘The Great Satan’ and the UK ‘the Little Satan’. Ties were only resumed in 1988. Further trouble was caused by Tehran declaring a fatwa against Salman Rushdie and then by suspicions that it was trying to build nuclear weapons. In one of the most humiliating episodes in the Royal Navy’s recent history 15 British sailors and Marines were seized in 2007 in another confrontation. In 2011 Britain imposed sanctions to try to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions – a decision that led to the expulsion of the British ambassador and the storming of his embassy. However, relations have improved following the election of a moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, in 2013 and an agreement on how to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions. In June the embassy reopened. Mr Cameron is expected to hold separate talks with a string of world leaders over the next 36 hours in New York, as part of the drive to build a global alliance to destroy the terror group. These will include discussions with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi today on tackling the Islamist threat in his country. In a keynote speech to the UN General Assembly tomorrow night, Mr Cameron will call on the world to unite to tackle the rise of Islamic extremism. He is also expected to indicate that Britain is ready to join the US and France in carrying out air strikes against IS forces in Iraq, at the request of the government in Baghdad. But Number 10 is still weighing up the political, military and legal risks of extending any bombing campaign to attack IS bases in neighbouring Syria without the support of Assad. Downing Street has all but ruled out deploying regular British combat troops to take on IS. But Tony Blair yesterday warned that ground troops may be needed. In a 6,500-word essay setting out the case for war, the former prime minister called for a ‘willingness to take casualties’ and warned: ‘Airpower alone will not suffice.’", "It has been 35 years since a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took a group of Americans hostage. You have seen this story play out in movies like \"Argo\" and shows like \"Homeland,\" but here are six things about the Iran hostage crisis that you may not have known. 1) This conflict is often described as the United States' first brush with political Islam. In 1979, the Ayatollah Khomeini installed an anti-Western Islamic theocracy, which replaced the pro-Western monarchy of the Shah of Iran. The U.S. was referred to as \"the Great Satan\" by the new Iranian government, and Iranians looked at the United States with suspicion because of its role in keeping the Shah in power. Iranians felt the United States meddled too much in Iran's internal affairs, and were afraid the CIA was plotting to return the Shah to power. The Ayatollah himself blessed the hostage-taking at the embassy, further fueling the government's hard line against the United States. 2) The U.S. Embassy in Tehran warned Washington the embassy would be attacked. By October 1979, the Shah had fled Iran and was staying in Mexico. There, doctors discovered the Shah was suffering from an aggressive cancer and recommended he be admitted to a hospital in the United States. The situation in Tehran was already tense, and the head of the diplomatic mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran sent several cables to Washington, saying that if the Shah was allowed to come to the United States for treatment, the embassy would be taken. President Jimmy Carter allowed the Shah into the United States, with much hesitation, and the Iranians were outraged. They saw this as an excuse to bring the Shah to the United States to plot his return to power. This was just weeks before the embassy was attacked. 3) Some of the hostages were beaten and tortured, and even underwent a mock execution. Iran has maintained a narrative that the hostages were treated well, but that is not true. Not all the hostages were treated the same. The two women, Ann Swift and Kathryn Koob, said they were treated \"correctly\" by their captors, but others, including Al Golacinski, John Limbert and Rick Kupke, were subject to a mock execution, where they were awakened in the middle of the night, forced to strip to their underwear and marched to a room in the basement where their guards made it seem they were about to be executed by firing squad. The guards fired their weapons, but they were not loaded. Then the guards laughed. Why did they do it? Limbert said it was because \"they thought it would be fun.\" 4) The hostages were released only after President Reagan was sworn in. Ted Koppel described this as the Iranians' last act of cruelty toward President Carter. Even though the United States and Iran had come to an agreement to free the hostages in December, the Iranians waited literally until the hour President Reagan was sworn in before allowing the plane with the hostages to take off. The Iranians had a deep hatred of Carter and wanted to deny him this last moment of victory as President. 5) After the hostages were released, they met with President Jimmy Carter. William Daugherty, who was held in solitary confinement for almost the entire time he was a hostage, said, \"It was not a warm welcome\" when Jimmy Carter flew to the U.S. military base in Germany to meet the hostages right after their release. The hostages were split on their thinking. Many felt they were left unprotected in the embassy after Carter made the decision to allow the Shah into the United States. Daugherty said that during the meeting, Carter went around to hug all the hostages, and many remained still with their arms at their sides and did not return his hug. 6) The former U.S. Embassy in Tehran has been preserved as a museum. The embassy in Tehran is now an Islamic cultural center and a museum, preserved from the days when it was a prison in 1979. It stands as a symbol of the Iranian revolution, and is known in Iran as the \"den of spies.\" Old typewriters, communication equipment, even old visa photos, are on display. Every year on the anniversary of the hostage taking, Iranians hold rallies where \"Death to America\" is chanted, just as it was in 1979.", "Nearly 35 years ago, Iranian revolutionaries stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and began a painful chapter for America as the \"Great Satan.\" Today, the building where anti-Americanism raged and captives were held for 444 days is now an Islamic cultural center and a propaganda museum of sorts for the Islamic Revolution. CNN's Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto visited the complex this week. It is rare for westerners to walk its halls. Although the two-story building shows no signs of terror from the 1979-81 hostage crisis, it remains a symbol of mistrust that still endures for many. Upon entering, the counter area where U.S. Marine guards had been posted when the embassy was seized is intact, as is the colorful tile work on some of the walls. There are offices on the first floor, while exhibits are displayed on the second. Upstairs is an office where CNN's guide says the CIA was housed. The entrance is the door to a vault. \"Is it the same combination that it was?\" Sciutto asks. \"Yes,\" the guide responds, explaining the students who stormed the building extracted the combination from hostages during what he said were \"negotiations.\" Past the vault door, the Iranians claim was the secure section where the CIA worked. That's a reason the guide gives for the takeover, which was dramatized in the Oscar-winning film Argo. While many Iranians have grown disillusioned with the Islamic revolution, anti-American anger endures. \"Do you still believe it was justified to hold the Americans as hostages?\" the guide is asked. \"Definitely, yes.\" he says. \"Based on international law the U.S. embassy should function as the embassy and not interfere in internal affairs. It's like somebody is snooping around your house. What would you do?\" Each room and every piece of equipment is an exhibit. There is a sound-proof meeting room, encrypted Telex machines -- one marked as belonging to the National Security Agency -- and the shredders said to have been used by embassy staff to destroy secret documents as the diplomatic facility fell to the revolutionaries. Revolutionary propaganda is everywhere. Bright red murals cover the main stairway walls leading to the second floor. The paintings tell a familiar Middle Eastern conspiracy theory claiming the United States was behind the September 11, 2001, attacks. \"Do you believe America brought down the twin towers?\" the guide is asked about the World Trade Center in New York. \"For sure, yes,\" he replies adamantly. Why would America would kill its own people? \"They wanted to make their people believe they are in danger so they could attack other countries,\" he says. \"Do you think that it's possible a plane can crash such a building?\" Officially, the United States and Iran have softened their tone more recently. The two are participating in international negotiations to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions over the long term in exchange for easing economic sanctions. An interim deal is in place for the next six months. \"Let's say America and Iran both abide by the agreement. Can you ever imagine American diplomats returning to this embassy?\" Sciutto asks the guide. He smiles and laughs. \"You cannot trust America,\" he says. \"America is the Great Satan.\"", "Ahmadinejad said the banking embargo has affected Iran's ability to supply basic needs such as meat . By . Daily Mail Reporter . PUBLISHED: . 02:33 EST, 5 September 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 05:08 EST, 5 September 2012 . The West's oil and banking sanctions imposed against Iran are a declaration of 'all-out-war', President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said. In July, the EU banned oil imports from Iran, just after the US enacted tough measures against Iran's central bank. The sanctions, aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear development program, have severely harmed Iran's economy. Ahmadinejad said the banking embargo has affected Iran's ability to supply basic needs such as meat. Outburst: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused The West of launching 'all-out ... war' on his country . Appearing on a live TV talk show, Ahmadinejad said: 'It is an all-out, hidden, heavy war.' Ahmadinejad admitted that the West's sanctions have created problems in oil exports and banking. 'There are barriers in transferring money, there are barriers in selling oil,' said Ahmadinejad. 'We are going ahead, and God willing we will succeed.' 'We are removing the barriers', he added - but without saying how. The West's sanctions are supposed to press Iran to stop enriching uranium. The West suspects Iran is aiming for nuclear weapons production. Iran denies the charge, insisting its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes like power generation and cancer treatment. Iran relies on crude oil exports for some 80 percent of its foreign revenue. Issue: Ahmadinejad watches as nuclear fuel rods are loaded into the . Tehran Research Reactor. The West suspects Iran is developing nuclear weapons . Oil workers at Tehran's oil refinery. Ahmadinejad admitted that the West's sanctions have created problems in oil exports . According to the International Energy Agency, Iran's crude oil production has fallen steadily from nearly 4 million barrels a day in May to 2.9 million barrels a day in July. Imports of Iranian oil by major consumers plunged to 1 million barrels a day in July from 1.74 million barrels a day in June. Ahmadinejad also repeated his previous statements that Iran is a friend to the American people and other nations - except Israel. 'We have no argument with Americans. We like them like other nations,' said Ahmadinejad. He said 'ruling groups' in the U.S. have worked against relations with Iran, an apparent reference to the pro-Israel lobby. The remarks preceded Ahmadinejad's trip to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly later this month. The U.S. and Iran have had no diplomatic relations since hardliners stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held hostages there for more than a year, after Iran's Islamic Revolution that ousted a pro-Western monarchy.", "(CNN)The unspeakable terror that began with the Charlie Hebdo massacre in France again invaded the lives of ordinary citizens on Friday with separate violent standoffs that thrust a jittery nation into a new crisis. The twin episodes -- one outside the French capital involving the suspects who shot and killed 12 people Wednesday at the offices of the satirical magazine, the other at a kosher grocery store -- ended simultaneously with staccato bursts of gunfire and blasts of what appeared to be stun grenades by small armies of law enforcement officers. \"France is living through a trial, when we see the worst massacre of this kind in the last 50 years,\" President Francois Hollande said in and address to the nation Friday. One of the most terrifying weeks in modern French history culminated with the shooting deaths of the suspects in the Charlie Hebdo slaughter -- brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi -- and scenes of still-stunned hostages being led to freedom by heavily-armed security forces from the kosher supermarket, after the man who police say took hostages there was killed. \"It's like a war,\" a man who identified himself only as Teddy said as the episodes unfolded. \"I don't know how I will explain this to my 5-year-old son.\" This father lives across the street from a school in the village of Dammartin-en-Goele, where security forces launched an assault on a graphics/printing business where the Kouachi brothers had holed themselves up. Country riveted by hostage drama . For hours Friday, there was no teaching in the classrooms in the small town northeast of Paris. Dozens of schools were on lockdown. Teachers and their pupils hid in fear. Mothers approached officers seeking assurances that their children were safe. Some students were later allowed to leave. Police officers accompanied them, holding their hands as they guided the children away. The littlest ones were lifted onto an awaiting bus that would deliver them to the safety of nearby sports facilities. The two suspects told police by phone that they wanted to die as martyrs, Yves Albarello, a member of Parliament, said on French channel iTele. Shortly before 5 p.m., helicopters swooped down on the building where the Kouachi brothers holed themselves up. Explosions and gunfire echoed through the industrial area. Smoke rose from the building. At the grocery store in Paris, four people were killed when police stormed the business near Porte de Vincennes, Hollande said. Earlier, a salesman, who identified himself only as Didier, told France Info radio that he had shaken hands with one of the gunmen about 8:30 a.m. Friday as they arrived at the printing business. Didier at first thought the man, who was dressed in black and heavily armed, was a police officer, he told the public radio station. As he left, the armed man told Didier, \"Go, we don't kill civilians.\" \"It wasn't normal,\" Didier said of his encounter. \"I did not know what was going on.\" Relief, but hunt continues for another suspect . Fear of the unknown has gripped France. The dread Friday reached an eastern Paris kosher grocery store where a man suspected of a killing a police officer a day earlier took a number of hostages, including children. The hostage-taking suspect, Amedy Coulibaly, was a close associate of Cherif Kouachi, a Western intelligence source told CNN. Coulibaly demanded freedom for the Kouachi brothers. About the time security forces killed the Kouachi brothers, other officers, guns blazing, moved in on the kosher market. Police shouted \"get down!\" and \"we've got him,\" according to video from CNN affiliate BFMTV. Some hostages were killed, according to French radio reports. A man who presumably was a hostage got out with an infant, as did others. Among those who may have escaped the building was a female accomplice of the grocery store hostage-taker and suspect in Thursday's fatal police shooting. On Friday night, the words \"Paris est Charlie,\" French for \"Paris is Charlie\" were triumphantly projected on the iconic Arc de Triomphe. A new manhunt was launched, meanwhile, for the only surviving suspect from the two hostage situations, police union spokesman Pascal Disant said. That suspect, Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, was allegedly an accomplice of Coulibaly in the standoff at the kosher market. In a televised address to the nation later, Hollande warned: \"France is not done with threats that are targeting (the country).\"", "By . Louise Boyle . California native Steven Beitashour is playing for his parents' home country of Iran during the FIFA World Cup 2014 (pictured in his Iranian kit) An American soccer player who wasn't picked for the U.S. World Cup team is playing for his parents' native country Iran. Steven Beitashour, who was born in San Jose, California, is the only American playing for the Iranians in Brazil this summer - a decision which has outraged some fans. The 27-year-old player, whose current club is the Vancouver Whitecaps, is able to play for Iran because his parents were born in the Islamic state. He told the San Jose Mercury News: 'I'm not there to cause any problems. I'm not there for any flash. I'm there for the love of the game.' He told the paper that he understands Farsi more than he speaks but hoped his decision would help improve U.S.-Iranian relations. Despite his own neutrality, Beitashour's decision to play for Iran has drawn strong criticism. One fan accused him of 'selling his soul' for the chance to play at the World Cup, according to the New York Times, while another Bob Bagheri tweeted: 'You are a disgrace to America. Shame on u. I was born in Iran and left in 1979, and would never play for Iran.' Despite reports today that the U.S. and Iran could join forces for a military operation over . deteriorating security conditions in Iraq, the two countries have a . hostile history. In . 1979, a diplomatic crisis was sparked after 66 Americans were held . hostage in the country for 444 days. More recently, Iran has been . subjected to heavy U.S. sanctions over its nuclear program. Beitashour's parents, Edward and Pari, immigrated from Iran to the U.S. in the 1960s. Soccer players qualify to play for other countries if they have a parent or grandparent from that country. U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann has selected seven foreigners for Team USA . Although Beitashour attended U.S. national team training camps in August 2012 and the . following January, he never got into a game. Iran and Nigeria line up prior to their game at Arena da Baixada in Curitiba, Brazil on Monday . Iran's players, including Steven Beitashour (front row, second left) pose for a team photo prior to the friendly football match Iran vs Angola in preparation for the FIFA World Cup 2014 on May 30 . In October 2013, Beitashour made the decision to join Iran who face Argentina, Nigeria and . Bosnia and Herzegovina in Group F at this year's World Cup. The player did not start for Iran in today's match against Nigeria. Iran has a 2,000-1 shot to win the World Cup. Beitashour started his career at the San Diego State Aztecs, going on to . play professionally for the San Jose Frogs and San Jose Earthquakes . before ending up in Vancouver. Although he is the only American on the pitch for Iran, he is not the only American on the Iranian team. Portugese-American Dan Gaspar from Connecticut has been Iran's goalkeeper coach for three years. Mr Gaspar told the AP: 'I believe they find me more interesting. In three-plus years working in Iran, I have never have had any issues as a result of my nationality, Portuguese-American. I have been impressed by the Iranian hospitality and kindness.' Some Americans were unhappy with Beitashour's decision to play for the Iranian team in this year's World Cup . Beitashour (pictured front row, far left) playing in an MLS All-Star Game in July 2012 alongside David Beckham (back row, second left) and Thierry Henry (front row, far right)", "What does Hollywood have against the British? Once again on Oscar night, Tinsel Town gave warmly to us with one hand — while cynically taking away with the other. The good news is that at least nine Britons will fly back across the Atlantic with coveted golden statues. But the bad news is that Argo — the movie that won Best Film — is yet another piece of Hollywood’s Brit-bashing junk history that casts us in a poor light. Scroll down for video . Winner: Argo, starring and directed by Ben Affleck picked up Best Picture Oscar, but plays fast and loose with the facts of the British involvement in the Islamic revolution in Iran . According to the Affleck version of the rescue mission, the U.S. Embassy staff were turned away by British diplomats . The film, directed by and starring Ben Affleck, tells the story of how the Canadian government and the CIA managed to rescue six American diplomats from the clutches of the Iranian students who occupied the U.S. embassy during the 1979 Islamic revolution. Although the movie is a cracker — tense and terrifying — like so much that comes out Hollywood, Argo plays fast and loose with the facts. And unsurprisingly, the Brits are given a real pasting. For, according to the Affleck version of the rescue mission, the six embassy staff were refused refuge by British diplomats. ‘Brits turned them away,’ says a senior CIA character in the film. You can imagine the outraged comments over industrial buckets of popcorn in movie theatres from Alabama to Alaska. ‘Goddamn Limeys! So that’s what we get for bailing them out during World War II.’ The truth, however, could not be more different. The British did give their American colleagues sanctuary. Far from being cowards, the Brits were heroes. Many of the British diplomats then stationed in Iran are still alive — and they’re fuming. ‘When I first heard about this film, I was really quite annoyed,’ says Sir John Graham, 86, who was our man in Tehran at the time of the crisis. Sir John is understandably concerned that Argo will become accepted as the definitive history of what happened. He may have a point. The movie also stars 'Breaking Bad' star Bryan Cranston (left) Remember U-571 — the U-boat thriller set in World War II — which saw the Yanks, and not the British and the Poles, capture an Enigma coding machine and turn the course of the war? Or how about the abysmal piece of faux-history that was Mel Gibson’s Braveheart, which depicted the British as the rapacious, murderous oppressors of the noble and romantic Scots? Who can forget Saving Private Ryan, . Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic, that effectively presented D-Day . as an exclusively American effort? The . sad irony is that what really happened in Tehran in 1979 is just as . thrilling as Argo, if not more so — and it involved astonishing British . pluck. Ben Affleck may have won the Oscar for Best Film, but the movie won't be picking up any awards for being historically accurate anytime soon . When the . American Embassy was overrun by armed students on November 4, 1979, five . members of staff managed to escape by a side exit. The remaining 55 . embassy staff were to be held captive for a further 444 days. The . most senior member of the escaped group was Robert Anders, who worked . in the visa department. He decided the best place to find refuge was the . British Embassy. The group made its way through the bustling streets, only to find the British embassy was also surrounded by an angry mob. Thinking . on his feet, Anders quickly took the group back to his flat and from . there tried to contact anybody who might help rescue them. After . a tense night, a call came through from the British embassy informing . the five terrified Americans that it could give them refuge in its . residential compound, which was known as Gulhak. As . Argo neglects to mention, this was an exceedingly brave offer. Both the . British embassy and residential compounds were under serious threat. After what had happened to the Americans, the British understandably . feared an attack on their own staff. The Iranian revolutionaries had . dubbed Britain the ‘Little Satan’, and for our officials to shelter . diplomats from the ‘Great Satan’ (America) meant running a huge risk. The caller told Anders that a British car would come for them later that morning. The Americans sat and waited . . . and waited. What the five anxious Americans could not have known was that the British rescuers had got lost.Diplomats . Martin Williams and Gordon Pirrie spent hours fruitlessly negotiating . the thronging streets in, of all cars, an orange 1976 Austin Maxi one of . them had driven to Tehran all the way from England. But they were . unable to find Anders’s flat. At . around 5pm, the Americans called the British embassy, only to be told . by a diplomat that the Iranians were ‘coming over the walls’. A U.S. hostage, blindfolded and with his hands bound, being displayed to the crowd outside the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by Iranian hostage-takers in 1979 . The Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 saw demonstrators climb the wall of the U.S Embassy to burn a flag in defiance . Indeed they were. For as the city . grew dark, an army of students invaded the embassy compound. They broke . into offices and houses, smashing windows and doors. Among . those who witnessed the attack was Imelda Miers, wife of the British . Political Counsellor, David Miers. That night, Lady Miers was in her . house with her son, Thomas, who was aged just seven. ‘My . little boy was terrified, and so was I,’ she recalls. ‘We hid in my . bedroom, but then I decided that was not a great place to hide, in case . they set fire to the house.’ Lady . Miers left her room, hiding Thomas under her coat. She was soon . accosted by six students, all clutching Kalashnikovs, one of whom she . swore could be no older than 12. ‘I . thought they were going to shoot me,’ she says, ‘but when I realised . that they weren’t, I grew angry with them, and asked them if their . mothers knew they were out!’ Along with the other British embassy staff . and their wives and children, Lady Miers and Thomas were taken to a . single building where they were held captive. Although . he was in London at the time, the ambassador Sir John Graham today . suspects the students who attacked the British embassy were looking for . the Americans. ‘They claimed they were after arms,’ says Sir John, ‘but I . don’t think that was true.’ The 10 American hostages being presented to the media at the occupied U.S. Embassy shortly before their release . The American hostages being paraded outside the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 . Meanwhile, Williams and Pirrie had . finally found Anders and his group after hours of driving around the . backstreets of Tehran. The Americans were taken in an edgy drive to the . as-yet-untouched British residential compound. ‘The . Americans were very nervous,’ Williams recalls, ‘and they kept trying . to duck down, which in my view would only look suspicious.’ Happily, they arrived at Gulhak undetected and received a warm welcome. As . the CIA officer Antonio Mendez, who helped to mount the eventual . rescue, recalls in his book, Argo: ‘The British were kind hosts, and . offered them a house of their own, fed them a warm meal, even prepared . cocktails.’ So much for . Affleck’s suggestion that the British ‘turned away’ the Americans. Martin Williams’s wife Sue cooked that meal and the Americans went to . bed. But while they slept, the Iranian students were approaching Gulhak. Fired up with the success of  storming the British embassy, they were now ready to seize the residential compound. Standing . at the gate was a Pakistani guard in his 50s called Iskander Khan, who . brilliantly convinced the students the compound was empty — and they . went away. ‘We and the Americans had a very lucky escape,’ says Martin . Williams. ‘We were very grateful to Iskander Khan.’ The . following morning it was decided the Americans would have to move on . for their own safety. Anders and his group were told that they would . have to go, as Gulhak was clearly not secure. According . to the account written by Antonio Mendez, the Americans felt they were . ‘being kicked out’ by the British, but Williams says this is not the . case, as the reasons for leaving Gulhak were ‘self-evident’. Freed American hostages, landing at Frankfurt Airport after a flight from Iran on their way home to the U.S. Argo tells the story of how 6 American diplomats were rescued from the occupied U.S. Embassy during the 1979 revolution . For a few days the five Americans were placed in an empty house belonging to a U.S. official, where they were joined by a colleague who had also escaped from the embassy and had been in hiding. This group of six was eventually saved by the rescue mission organised by the Canadians and the CIA. After the rescue, the story remained secret, kept in classified files. However, the diplomatic community knew the British — and others — had done their bit. A recently-released State Department Briefing Memorandum from February 6, 1980, states that the British embassy was involved in the rescue of the Americans. Many of the British embassy staff from that time have seen Argo. ‘It does not bear all that much relation to the facts,’ observes Sir David Miers drily. ‘It is not a true story.’ Ben Affleck has acknowledged the film casts Britain in a bad light. ‘But I was setting up a situation where you needed to get a sense that these six people had nowhere else to go. It does not mean to diminish anyone,’ he said. Such a defence cuts little ice with Sir John Graham. ‘I can’t see why the film-makers couldn’t have acknowledged that we and others did actually help the diplomats,’ he says. ‘It wouldn’t have ruined the drama at all.’", "These are troubled times for President Barack Obama. He's a lame duck president. The latest CNN/ORC poll has his approval rating at 41% -- the lowest of his presidency. And the Affordable Care Act, his signature legislation, has been hobbled by the botched and much maligned rollout of the signup website. So, the historic deal that Iran reached with six world powers over Tehran's nuclear program couldn't come at a better time. 20 questions about the Iran nuclear deal . \"Today, diplomacy opened up a new path toward a world that is more secure,\" Obama said in a televised address from the East Room of the White House, after the deal was announced. \"A future in which we can verify that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful and that it cannot build a nuclear weapon.\" But will the agreement be enough to help distract the public from the Obamacare rollout debacle and potentially improve his image? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Read the deal (.PDF) In a CNN/ORC poll released Thursday, 56% of Americans said they'd favor the kind of interim deal with Iran that was eventually reached. Another 39% said they'd oppose it. The agreement -- described as an \"initial, six-month\" deal -- includes \"substantial limitations that will help prevent Iran from creating a nuclear weapon,\" according to the president. \"Simply put, they cut off Iran's most likely paths to a bomb,\" he said. But there are drawbacks as well. Kerry: Israel is safe under new deal . The deal complicates Obama's relationship with Israel, a key ally in the region. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly oppose any deal, and the Israeli government had strong words Sunday. \"The current deal ... is more likely to bring Iran closer to having a bomb,\" Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz, a close Netanyahu associate said. \"Israel cannot participate in the international celebration, which is based on Iranian deception and the world self-delusion.\" A senior administration official told reporters, \"You can be sure that President Obama will speak to Prime Minister Netanyahu\" on Sunday. The President also faces skepticism from Congress, where there were talks of increased sanctions as recently as this week. Netanyahu: Iran nuclear deal 'historic mistake' The deal says that the U.S. will provide $6 to $7 billion in sanction relief in exchange. And Obama can do so by executive order -- bypassing Congress altogether. Reactions poured in late Saturday night, with Republicans slamming the administration for appeasing the Iranian regime. \"This deal appears to provide the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism with billions of dollars in exchange for cosmetic concessions that neither fully freeze nor significantly roll back its nuclear infrastructure,\" said Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois. Fareed Zakaria: What critics are getting wrong about the Iran deal . U.S.-Iranian relations have been thawing for months now, since the election of Hassan Rouhani as Iran's seventh president in June. A senior administration official confirmed Saturday that since the election, U.S. and Iranian officials have been holding private, previously secret discussions to generate ideas for the wider nuclear negotiations. The détente climaxed in a telephone conversation between Obama and Rouhani this fall during the United Nations General Assembly -- the highest contact between leaders of the two countries since the Islamic revolution that led to the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979. \"While today's announcement is just a first step, it achieves a great deal,\" Obama said. \"For the first time in nearly a decade, we have halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program and key parts of the program will be rolled back,\" Ultimately, however, the outcome -- and part of Obama's legacy -- hinges on what happens next: Negotiations will continue over the next six months to reach a comprehensive solution to the Iran's nuclear program. \"The success of interim deals will be measured in months and years, not in minutes,\" said Karim Sadjadpour, a leading researcher on Iran for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. All eyes, of course, will be on the president through then. One agreement, wildly different reactions .", "A 29-year-old former U.S. Marine who has been jailed in Iran since 2011 and accused of being a CIA spy says in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that his confession was made under duress. \"For over 2 years I have been held on false charges based solely on confessions obtained by force, threats, miserable prison conditions, and prolonged periods of solitary confinement,\" Amir Hekmati says in the letter, which was obtained and published by the Guardian and whose authenticity the family vouched for to CNN. \"This is part of a propaganda and hostage taking effort by Iranian intelligence to secure the release of Iranians abroad being held on security-related charges.\" Hekmati adds that Iranian intelligence told his court-appointed lawyer that he could be released in exchange for two Iranians being held abroad. \"I had nothing to do with their arrest, committed no crime, and see no reason why the U.S. Government should entertain such a ridiculous proposition,\" writes Hekmati, who has dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship. \"I do not wish to set a precedent for others that may be unlawfully (obtained) for political gain in the future. While my family and I have suffered greatly I will accept nothing but my unconditional release.\" Father fears he may never see his son imprisoned in Iran . Though Hekmati has been able to send and receive letters, it was not clear how this letter -- dated September 1 -- was sent. The newspaper reported Wednesday that the letter had been smuggled out. Born in Arizona and raised in Nebraska before settling with his family in Flint, Michigan, Hekmati joined the Marines in 2001 out of high school. He finished his service four years later as a decorated combat veteran with tours in Iraq. Afterward, he translated Arabic as a contractor and helped train troops in cultural sensitivity. Hekmati's family said he had gone to Iran to visit his grandmother but was arrested in August 2011, accused by Iran's Intelligence Ministry of working as a CIA agent. In December 2011, Hekmati appeared on Iranian state television maintaining that he had been sent to Iran by the CIA. Family pleads for his release . At trial, whose proceedings were not public, prosecutors accused him of trying to infiltrate Iran's intelligence system in order to accuse Iran of involvement in terrorist activities, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. In January 2012, he was convicted and sentenced to death. Two months later, an Iranian court dismissed the lower court's death sentence and ordered a retrial. In Washington, spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said the State Department had received a copy of the letter from Hekmati's family. But, she added, \"We have not had any communication with Iran on the issue of a prisoner exchange.\" In a statement issued last month, Kerry said the espionage charges were false and urged the Tehran government to release him \"safely and as soon as possible.\" Hekmati's mother has visited her son in Tehran's Evin Prison; she says his father has terminal cancer. Diplomatic relations between Washington and Tehran have been broken since 1980, during the hostage crisis that followed the 1979 Islamic revolution. Iran claims it hanged CIA, Mossad spies .", "At least 39 people were killed on Sunday when an Iran-140 Sepahan Air passenger plane crashed after take-off from Tehran's Mehrabad airport on a flight to Tabas in northeast Iran, state media reported. Initial reports said that all of the 48 passengers and crew had been killed, but state media later reported that some passengers had been injured and transferred to hospital. Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said that eight or nine had survived and quoted a doctor as saying that one of the injured had regained consciousness. Iranian security forces next to the wreckage of the plane as they secure the scene of the crash . Iranian rescue personnel inspect the site of a passenger plane crash near the capital Tehran, Iran . Bodies of victims of the passenger plane crash near the capital Tehran, Iran, side-by-side . Iran's airlines have been plagued by crashes, which Iranian politicians blame on international sanctions that block the airlines from replacing their ageing fleets. About 14 crashes involving Iranian planes were reported in the decade to January 2011. President Hassan Rouhani ordered a halt to all flights of the Iran-140 pending full investigation, IRNA said. The pilot detected technical issues four minutes after takeoff and tried to return to the airport, state television said, but the twin-engine turboprop crashed on a road at 9.18 am local time. One eyewitness said the plane crashed into a wall. State television said 37 people died instantly, two died on the way to hospital and nine others were undergoing medical treatment. Iranian police officers and soldiers inspect the tail of the crashed airplane in Tehran, Iran . Relatives of victims stand near the tail of a crashed airplane in Tehran this morning after the crash . Officials and relatives of victims stand at the crash site of a passenger airplane in Tehran . The aircraft, an Iran-140 used for short domestic flights, crashed near Mehrabad airport, west of Tehran . The Civil Aviation Authority said the passengers included two infants and three children under the age of 12, IRNA reported. Mashallah Shakibi, 63, a former member of parliament from Tabas was among the fatalities, according to reports from the Iranian state news channel IRINN. One survivor said he was saved by falling through a hole in the plane's body created by a blast. 'The force of the blast threw us out of the plane,' Mohammad Abedzadeh was quoted as saying on IRINN's website. 'Seconds later, I saw the entire plane in flames,' he said through tears. A photograph on IRNA's website showed a huge plume of black smoke billowing over traffic standing at a road intersection. A photograph from the Iranian Student News Agency showed a charred tail fin lying on the ground. The plane that crashed - an Iran-140 - is a locally assembled version of the Antonov-140. Its safety record has come into question in the past. In December 2002, an Iran-140 test flight crashed, killing at least 46 people, including engineers who had helped design it. The government said human error caused the crash, but many expressed worries about the aircraft. More than a dozen large airlines and several fledgling carriers operate in Iran. The state carrier, Iran Air, has a fleet of about 40 planes including nine Boeing 747 jets, some of which were built before the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The safety record for the carriers has led to most Iranian flights being prevented from landing in the EU. Mehrabad is located in a western suburb of Tehran and mainly functions as a domestic airport, although it also serves some international routes. The plane, operated by Sepahan Air, was heading to Tabas, a town in eastern Iran . An Iranian police officer and firefighter stand at the crash site of a passenger airplane in Tehran . Iranian security forces stand next to the remains of a plane as they secure the scene of the crash . The aircraft, an Iran-140 used for short domestic flights, crashed near Mehrabad airport . Iranian onlookers gather at the scene of a plane crash near Tehran's Mehrabad airport . Iranian security forces secure the scene of the plane crash near Tehran's Mehrabad airport . Iranian Revolutionary Guards and security forces stand next to the wreckage of the plane . Iran has suffered a series of plane crashes, blamed on its ageing aircraft and poor maintenance . Many of the Boeing aircraft in Iran Air's fleet were bought before the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution . The plane's black box was found according to IRNA reports. Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash. For years, planes have been kept in service through parts imported on the black market, cannibalised from other planes or reproduced locally, aviation sources say. Iran's four largest carriers - Iran Air, Iran Aseman Airlines, Mahan Air and Iran Air Tours - all have average fleet ages above 22 years, Iranian media have reported. They serve a market of 76 million people. U.S. companies Boeing Co and General Electric Co have said they are seeking to export parts to Iran under the agreement for sanctions relief. The chief of Iran Air said the airline will need at least 100 passenger jets once sanctions against the country are lifted. Old: The aircraft was an Iran-140 which is usually used for short domestic flights . The plane went down in a residential area after its engine failed near Mehrabad in Tehran .", "The bright yellow ribbons are tied tightly to the metal bars of the main gate at Danwon High School. Nearby, they are attached to trees and posts. Altogether, there are thousands of them. More than 300 students from the school were on a field trip on the Sewol, the ferry that sank last week off the coast of South Korea. Most of them are dead or missing. The ribbons symbolize solidarity with the missing teenagers' families and hopes that some of the students -- who went to school in Ansan, a city near Seoul -- might still be found alive. The approach borrows from a practice that became popular in the United States during the Iranian hostage crisis that began in 1979. The tradition was used again in the United States during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In South Korea, the ribbons have also spread into the realm of social media. Many people have posted an image evoking them as their profile photos on services like Facebook and Naver. The image is a bold yellow square with a black border. In the center sits a simple design of a bow in black with a line of Korean written underneath. \"One small step, big miracle,\" it reads. Celebrities join in . The online movement was started Saturday by a local student club, according to The Korea Herald, an English-language newspaper in South Korea. The group wanted \"to support the families of the missing and offer a hopeful message to the Korean public that the missing passengers could still be found alive,\" the newspaper reported. Other variations of the yellow ribbon image have also begun to circulate on popular social media sites. And Korean celebrities have helped spread the word. The K-pop star G-Dragon posted an image of a yellow ribbon on his Twitter feed, and the actress Park Shin-hye changed her profile picture to a ribbon picture with the popular hashtag #prayforsouthkorea written underneath. Ribbons spread . Clusters of real ribbons have also reportedly sprung up in other cities, such as Seoul and Chuncheon. Some of the ribbons have messages and tributes written on them. FC Seoul, a top local soccer team, will don the ribbons for a Saturday game against the Jeonnam Dragons, according to local media. The hopes the ribbons symbolize are fading fast. Rescuers saved 174 people on April 16, the day the ship sank, but no other survivors have been found since. Divers say they have found no air pockets that could have kept people alive inside the submerged vessel. Raising donations . The ribbons are also being used as a rallying point to raise money for the families who are grieving or still anxiously waiting for news of their loved ones. National soccer player Park Chu-young, Olympic figure skater Yuna Kim and LA Dodgers pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu each donated 100 million won (roughly $100,000), according to Wow TV, a local broadcaster. Naver, a popular Web search portal, has a yellow ribbon page allowing users to leave messages and make donations to a fund organized by the National Disaster Relief Association. The ribbon campaign \"evolved organically in the social media sphere and is the term people seem to be using in reference to all different kinds of efforts being made on behalf of the victims and families of the disaster,\" said Chung Seo-yoon, a representative from the association, which was founded in 1961 by media groups. The organization is aiming to raise 500 million won. So far, tens of thousands of people have donated, raising nearly 350 million won. Evolving symbol . In the United States, yellow ribbons were widely used to demonstrate a desire for the return of American hostages held in Tehran between 1979 and 1981. Before that, they had been associated with convicts returning from prison. According to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, the yellow ribbon practice originated in a modern folk legend, which was turned into a popular song, \"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,\" which was in turn transformed \"into a ritual enactment.\" Since the Iranian hostage crisis, it has reportedly been picked up in other countries, for a variety of movements and causes. In its 1991 article, the American Folklife Center noted the ribbon's ability to take on new meanings: . \"Ultimately, the thing that makes the yellow ribbon a genuinely traditional symbol is ... its capacity to take on new meanings, to fit new needs and, in a word, to evolve.\"", "(CNN) -- Relations between the United States and Iran, already strained by U.S. sanctions on Iran's central bank and Iranian naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz, are on the verge of spinning out of control. What can push the two nations into a military confrontation is the fate of a former Marine, Amir Mirzaei Hekmati. A Revolutionary Court in western Iran sentenced the dual U.S.-Iranian citizen to death on January 9, claiming that he is a CIA spy. It is not often that the fate of entire nations hinges on that of a single individual, but the execution of a Marine by Iran will almost certainly inflame public opinion and tilt the balance toward war. But perhaps what will save the day is an incident that placed friendship and trust, rather than enmity and paranoia, between Iranians and Americans. Days before the death sentence was passed on the Marine, American sailors rescued 13 Iranian fishermen held hostage for several weeks by Somali pirates who had seized their fishing vessel off the coast of Oman. Those Somali pirates may have pulled off a diplomatic stunt that has eluded American and Iranian politicians for more than three decades. For a brief moment, the pirates healed the wounds of history. Two nations split since the hostage crisis of 1979 found their fishermen and sailors forced into each other's arms by a turn of fate. It was a most embarrassing embrace, with both governments trying to figure out how to handle the threat of friendship. Even the pretense of hostility came down. It fell upon one of the rescued fisherman, Fazel Ur Rahman, to revel in the twists and turns of fortune. As devout seamen are wont to do, he interpreted his miraculous rescue by the Americans as an act of God. \"It's like you were sent by God,\" he told the American sailors. \"Every night we prayed for God to save us. And now you are here.\" Like Sinbad the Sailor, Rahman and his shipmates vanished in time. But then they found themselves returned to an Iranian port. They will no doubt relate their encounter, not with predator drones but a giant and gentle American whale. One can already hear the peels of laughter and shrieks of disbelief as Rahman tells the story of how they were disgorged out of the belly of the Somali shark because the American whale spoke Urdu. It may be that our fate is determined by crusty histories and fixed ideologies. But given the gulf separating Iranians and Americans, this metaphor is worth reflecting upon. The rescue of the fishermen also evokes memories of a distant past and dreams of a hopeful future. While the Islamic Republic's ideologues portray America as a belligerent and hostile power, most Iranians recognize that if it were not for America's defense of Iran's sovereignty in 1946, Joseph Stalin would have devoured northern Iran. Many ordinary people in Iran, far from seeking a war with the United States (or Israel), silently pray to God for an end to their hardships. They dream of an Iranian Spring. Sadly, in the modern Middle East, divine interventions -- God's creativity and compassion -- have taken on an ugly tone. If God favors this tribe or that faith, then must it mean that other faiths and tribes are to be destroyed? The acts of God -- earthquakes, floods, plagues, famine and such -- veer from the minor to the massive. Add nuclear weapons to God's arsenal and there is very little room left for tiny fishermen and their benevolent God. But what if the fisherman Rahman was right? With a Marine's life and so much else at stake, what if the whole rescue incident was an act of God, his way of shaming world leaders by showing how even the most clueless of pirates can turn sworn enemies into friends, however temporarily? For helping the hapless Iranians and the Americans find common ground, even if it's at sea, the pirates deserve a toot, a hoot and quite possibly a salute. Whether the future of U.S.-Iran relations will be stormy or turn hopeful, only God knows. Centuries before, Hafiz, the greatest of Persian poets, may have captured the essence of the fishermen rescue incident in describing what it means to offer friendship and show humanity. His wisdom can perhaps draw Iranians and Americans together: . \"Plant the Tree of Friendship for It Brings Forth Boundless Joy. Uproot the Saplings of Enmity for It Summons Countless Sorrows.\" Follow CNN Opinion on Twitter . Join the conversation on Facebook . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Amir.", "(CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he would take a phone call from Iran's president, if he called, but warns that he would have tough words for the man he described this week as \"a wolf in sheep's clothing.\" \"We're not averse to calling,\" Netanyahu said in an interview Thursday with CNN's Piers Morgan in New York. \"I'll tell you what I'll tell him,\" he said. \"'You want the sanctions lifted? Stop your nuclear program.'\" Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who took office in August, has projected a more moderate image than his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Western leaders have expressed optimism about Iran's more conciliatory tone under Rouhani, whose comments in recent weeks have raised hopes that a deal could be struck over the country's controversial nuclear program. Rouhani has called for the lifting of international sanctions, imposed over the nuclear program, that have taken a heavy toll on the Iranian economy. In an indication of the shifting mood, he spoke with U.S. President Barack Obama by phone last week, the first direct conversation between leaders of the two countries since the Iranian revolution in 1979. CNN Poll: Most in U.S. favor negotiations with Iran . The 15 minute conversation, which included translations, was described by Obama's National Security Advisor Susan Rice as \"cordial and constructive.\" Questions for Rouhani . But Netanyahu remains skeptical about Rouhani's intentions. In a speech at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, he described him as \"a wolf in sheep's clothing, a wolf who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community.\" He told Morgan on Thursday that he would have plenty of questions for Rouhani, including why Iran needs underground bunkers and intercontinental ballistic missiles. \"Why do you need to enrich uranium?\" he asked, listing countries that operate civilian nuclear energy programs without enrichment, including Canada, Mexico and Indonesia. Netanyahu: Iranian president is 'wolf in sheep's clothing' \"They don't have enrichment because enrichment -- uranium enrichment -- is how you make nuclear weapons,\" he said in the interview, which will air at 9 p.m. ET on Friday. Iran has repeatedly insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Khodadad Seifi, an Iranian representative at the United Nations, said this week that Tehran is cooperating with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and that its work is carried out under surveillance cameras. Unperturbed by U.S. shutdown . Asked if he was concerned about the partial shutdown of the U.S. federal government this week, Netanyahu seemed unfazed. \"They'll work it out,\" he said. \"Been there, done that.\" And despite the crisis in Washington that has paralyzed many public services, Netanyahu defended the U.S. democratic system. \"I think, with all its flaws, the American political system has a lot riding for it,\" he said. \"It's probably the best political system in the world.\" Watch Piers Morgan Live weeknights 9 p.m. ET. For the latest from Piers Morgan click here.", "Former President Jimmy Carter recently said he 'could have wiped Iran off the map with the weapons we had' during the Iranian hostage crisis. Carter also claimed that if he proved himself 'manly' and used military force, a second term in the Oval Office would have been possible. Carter made the remarks during an episode of CNBC Meets after Tania Bryer asked him 'Do you feel there were any choices you would have made differently?' 'I think I would have been re-elected easily if I had been able to rescue our hostages from the Iranians,' Carter said on the program. 'And everybody asks me what would do more, I would say I would send one more helicopter because if I had one more helicopter we could have brought out not only the 52 hostages, but also brought out the rescue team, and when that failed, then I think that was the main factor that brought about my failure to be re-elected. So that's one thing I would change.' Scroll down for video . Big birthday! Former President Jimmy Carter blew out birthday candles on his birthday cake Wednesday . Carter also said 'I could've been re-elected if I'd taken military action against Iran, shown that I was strong and resolute and, um, manly and so forth. 'But, er, I think if I, I could have wiped Iran off the map with the weapons that we had, but in the process a lot of innocent people would have been killed, probably including the hostages and so I stood up against all that, er, all that advice, and then eventually my prayers were answered and every hostage came home safe and free. And so I think I made the right decision in retrospect, but it was not easy at the time.' Carter lost in the 1980 presidential election to Republican candidate Ronald Reagan. The fifty-two hostages were eventually released in January 1981. Sixty-six Americans were originally taken hostage from a US embassy in November 1979, CNN reported. Carter also celebrated his 90th birthday Wednesday in Atlanta, blowing out three candles representing the past, present and future and thanking family and friends for their support and love. 'It's been a good first 90 years,' the 39th president joked before telling the crowd gathered in a chapel on The Carter Center grounds that he is looking forward to much more work. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, founded the international health and human rights organization after leaving the White House. Not 'manly' enough? Carter, seen here with his family in 1980, claimed that if he proved himself 'manly' and used military force, a second term in the Oval Office would have been possible . Carter is the second-oldest of the five living U.S. presidents. Carter said his life was most shaped by his marriage to Rosalynn and growing up in Plains, Georgia, where he worked and played with black children who didn't have the same rights as he because of their race. Carter said he still feels guilt for not realizing sooner how wrong that was. Being elected president, he said, was the highlight of his political life. However, he said he's had the 'best times' of his life since establishing The Carter Center, 'this beautiful place on earth that has set moral and ethical standards that exemplify what a superpower like America ought to be.' Rosalynn Carter choked up while introducing her husband, telling him she's proud of him for both his work and the family they built together. As for what's next, Rosalynn Carter said only one thing is certain. 'It will be something because Jimmy Carter is miserable if he's not doing something,' she said, laughing with the crowd. Carter is the second-oldest of the five living U.S. presidents. He was born 111 days after President George H.W. Bush, who celebrated his 90th birthday earlier this year.", "The U.S. objected Wednesday to Iran's anticipated selection of a former hostage-taker at the American Embassy in Tehran as its newest ambassador to the United Nations. But the Obama administration stopped short of saying it would refuse him a visa to enter the United States. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf called the potential nomination of Hamid Aboutalebi 'extremely troubling' and said the U.S. has raised its concerns with Tehran. Lawmakers in Congress who usually disagree on everything — ranging from liberal New York Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer and conservative Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz — have demanded that Aboutalebi be barred from living and working in the United States. But Harf noted that except in limited cases, the U.S. is generally obligated to admit the chosen representatives of member states to U.N. headquarters in New York. Unpopular decision: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (pictured) is set to appoint Hamid Aboutalebi as the country's ambassador to the UN. Aboutalebi participated in the U.S. hostage crisis of the late 1970s, early 1980s . Dark time: Aboutalebi was part of a Muslim group that stormed the U.S. Embassy in 1979, taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days . 'We're taking a close look at the case now, and we've raised our serious concerns about this possible nomination with the government of Iran,' Harf told reporters. She added: 'But we do take our obligations as host nation for the United Nations very seriously.' Hamid Babaei, a spokesman for Iran's Mission to the United Nations, said Wednesday, 'It has been a usual practice in the Iranian Foreign Ministry to formally announce and appoint ambassadors — to all foreign postings — once all the formalities are completed.' Aboutalebi was a member of a Muslim student group that stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. He reportedly has insisted that his involvement in the group — Muslim Students Following the Imam's Line — was limited to translation and negotiation. But lawmakers have derided Aboutalebi as a terrorist and a key conspirator in the hostage crisis, and warned that his nomination would escalate tensions in already delicate negotiations aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear program. 'Deliberately insulting and contemptuous': U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer (left) and Ted Cruz (right) have both voiced their displeasure in Aboutalebi's appointment . In a letter Wednesday to Secretary of State John Kerry, Schumer said Aboutalebi's association with the student group should make him ineligible for a visa or diplomatic immunity in the U.S. 'This man has no place in the diplomatic process,' Schumer said in a separate statement. 'Iran's attempt to appoint Mr. Aboutalebi is a slap in the face to the Americans that were abducted, and their families. It reveals a disdain for the diplomatic process and we should push back in kind.' Earlier this week, Cruz questioned the wisdom of negotiating with the Iranian government in light of what he called its \"deliberately insulting and contemptuous\" choice for U.N. ambassador. The nuclear negotiations are set to resume next week in Vienna. Harf insisted the nuclear talks and the U.N. envoy were separate issues, even as she noted Washington's ongoing concerns with Iran on multiple fronts. 'On the nuclear issue, they have upheld their commitments,' Harf said. 'We hope they will continue to.'", "A group of international military observers captured by pro-Russian rebels are being held as ‘human shields’, according to the Ukrainian government. Kiev said the eight foreigners, who were in Ukraine to gather information about the worsening security situation, were being detained in ‘inhuman’ conditions. But last night the hostages were denounced by their captors as Nato spies. The escalating tension heightened fears of an imminent Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine. Foreign observers were gathering information about security situation, the Ukrainian government has claimed . The eight detained OSCE observers take part in a press conference organised by pro-Russian separatist leaders of the eastern Ukrainian city of Slaviansk . The separatist leader and self-proclaimed 'People's Mayor' of Slaviansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov . A masked pro-Russian protestor stands behind a barbed wire barricade. The barricade is blocking an occupied government building in Donetsk . As the two sides traded insults in increasingly bellicose language: . The main flashpoint yesterday was the seizure by pro-Moscow paramilitaries of monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe, a Vienna-based body whose 57 member states include Russia. The monitors included German, Swedish, Danish, Polish and Czech nationals, as well as Ukrainian army officers accompanying them. The Ukrainian State Security Service said the hostages were being detained ‘in inhuman conditions in the basement of the terrorists’ headquarters’ in the eastern city of Slaviansk. It claimed the operation had been planned and co-ordinated by a Russian special services agent, though this was denied by Moscow. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk cut short a visit to Rome, where he asked the Pope to pray for his country, to fly home to face the crisis . Mr Yatsenyuk said: ‘Russian military aircraft overnight crossed and violated Ukrainian air space seven times. The only reason is to provoke Ukraine to start a war.’ He said Moscow, which has sent thousands of troops to the border, was looking for a pretext to invade. Meanwhile, leaders of the Group of Seven major economies agreed  to impose additional sanctions on Russia. US officials said new measures aimed at Putin ‘cronies’ could be unveiled tomorrow unless Moscow took immediate action to defuse the crisis. Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite yesterday welcomed 150 US paratroopers. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have been members of Nato since 2004 but until now have not allowed foreign troops to be stationed on their territory, partly to avoid antagonising Russia. But that policy has now been abandoned and 600 American soldiers are being sent to the Baltic states and Poland as Washington attempts to reassure its European allies about their security after Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine. Ukraine fears a Russian incursion on the pretext of guaranteeing security for referendums next month on whether eastern regions of the country should split from Kiev and become part of the Russian Federation. A source in Moscow said last night: ‘The crisis is at its most critical.’", "Britain is preparing to reopen its embassy in Iran in a dramatic thawing of relations between the West and Tehran. Foreign Secretary William Hague said the circumstances were right to restore the embassy, closed in 2011 after it was ransacked by an angry mob, insisting: 'Iran is an important country in a volatile region.' In another dramatic development, US secretary of state John Kerry indicated that the Obama administration is 'open to discussions' with Tehran if the Iranians can help end the violence and restore confidence in the Iraqi government. Scroll down for videos . British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the circumstances were right to reopen the UK embassy in Tehran, as US secretary of state John Kerry indicated that the Obama administration is 'open to discussions' with Iran . The need for closer working with Iran comes amid the deepening crisis in Iraq, where jihadist militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) have seized several major cities. In a fresh worrying development, pictures have emerged of children taking up arms in Iraq against the Isis threatening to march on Baghdad. Images coming out of Iraq today show youths brandishing automatic rifles as they march with the militias forming in the capital to fight back against the forces of ISIS. The US has signalled it too could work with Iran in an extraordinary alliance to deal with the threat posed by the unrest in Iraq. Mr Hague spoke to Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday when significant progress was made on repairing relations. The Foreign Secretary stressed the ‘common interests’ with Iran, including stability in Iraq and in Afghanistan and tackling the drugs trade. Anti Shah rioters in Tehran attack the British Embassy in December 1978 . The British embassy in Tehran has long been the centre of tensions between the UK and Iran. In November 2011, under hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, Iran announced it was expelling the UK's ambassador in retaliation for British support for tougher sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme. Hundreds of protesters stormed embassy compounds two days later, smashing windows, torching cars, burning Union Flags, and chanting: 'The embassy of Britain should be taken over',' and 'Death to England'. The riots had echoes of an uprising in 1979 uprising when the pro-Western Pahlavi dynasty was deposed and replaced with a theocratic regime. In 1980, six Iranian gunmen took 22 people hostage at the Iranian embassy in London. After a stand-off lasting six days, elite SAS troops stormed the building killing five gunmen and arresting another. One hostage was killed and two were injured. It was eight years before the UK government re-opened its embassy in Tehran. The rapprochement was short lived with diplomatic ties being severed again in 1989 when Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill British author Salman Rushdie in retaliation for his controversial novel The Satanic Verses. It took a decade for the embassy to be reopened. Today he announced said the 'circumstances are right' to restore the diplomatic base after a significant thawing in relations over recent months. 'Our two primary concerns when considering whether to reopen our embassy in Tehran have been assurance that our staff would be safe and secure, and confidence that they would be able to carry out their functions without hindrance,' Mr Hague told MPs in a written statement. 'There has never been any doubt in my mind that we should have an embassy in Tehran if the circumstances allowed. 'Iran is an important country in a volatile region, and maintaining embassies around the world, even under difficult conditions, is a central pillar of the UK's global diplomatic approach... 'I have therefore now decided the circumstances are right to reopen our embassy in Tehran.' However, the UK remains concerned about Iran's nuclear programme and its sponsorship of terrorism. David Cameron later rejected the idea that the diplomatic rapprochement was connected to the crisis in Iraq. Speaking at a press conference in Downing Street, he said: 'Britain believes in and I believe in step by step building our relationship with Iran because we need to have proper dialogue with that country. 'We are having dialogue over the nuclear weapons issue and I think we should be having dialogue with it on issues of regional security,' the premier said. 'Obviously our relationship was at a low point after the appalling things that happened with respect to our embassy, but it is right step by step with a clear eye with a hard head, to rebuild that relationship. 'Now we would be doing that anyway irrespective of what is happening in Iraq, but I think what is happening in Iraq is certainly not a reason for not taking that step.' It came amid reports that Tehran is considering military support to the Shia-led administration in Iraq. Representatives of Iran and the Western powers met in Vienna to discuss international concerns about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. In the Commons yesterday, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said: ‘There is now an urgent case for ensuring an effective British diplomatic presence in Tehran to help co-ordinate discussions and to advance dialogue.’ Mr Hague said he had discussed 'a number of matters, including the situation in Iraq' with Iranian counterpart Mr Zarif. Britain has not had a diplomatic presence in Tehran since 2011, when an angry mob ransacked offices and carried away a royal coat of arms . The anti-British protests saw flags burned in the street outside the embassy in November 2011 . Mr Hague spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday to discuss taking further steps on improving bilateral relations . 'He said that there was a case for a further step forward in our bilateral relations. 'I have discussed that with him, and I shall have something more to say about our discussions imminently,' Mr Hague told MPs. 'However, our work on that is distinct from discussions on Iraq, which is partly why I shall address those separately.' Meanwhile, US secretary of state John Kerry has indicated that the Obama administration is willing to talk with Iran over the deteriorating security conditions in Iraq. The president announced last night that around 275 US military personnel could deploy to Iraq to provide support and security for the US embassy and its staff in Baghdad. Mr Kerry said in an interview with Yahoo! News that Washington is 'open to discussions' with Tehran if the Iranians can help end the violence and restore confidence in the Iraqi government. He said he would not rule out military co-operation, and a senior US official revealed American and Iranian diplomats have already discussed the Iraq issue during nuclear talks in Austria. Mr Kerry said: 'We're open to discussions if there is something constructive that can be contributed by Iran, if Iran is prepared to do something that is going to respect the integrity and sovereignty of Iraq and ability of the government to reform.' On military co-operation, Mr Kerry said: 'At this moment, I think we need to go step-by-step and see what in fact might be a reality. But I would not rule out anything that would be constructive in providing real stability, a respect for the constitution, a respect for the election process and a respect for the ability of the Iraqi people to form a government that represents all the interests of Iraq. 'We are open to any constructive process here that would minimise the violence.' But the Pentagon says it has no plans to co-ordinate with Iran on possible military action in Iraq despite Mr Kerry's comments about engagement with Tehran. In a sign of Iran's deepening involvement in the Iraqi crisis, the Associated Press reported the commander of the country's elite Quds Force is helping Iraq's military and Shiite militias respond to the insurgency. The Iranian general Ghasem Soleimani, has been consulting in Iraq on how to roll back the al Qaida breakaway group, according to Iraqi security officials.", "Washington (CNN)If it looks like a treaty, walks like a treaty and talks like a treaty, is it a treaty? According to the White House, only if the President of the United States says it is. That's infuriating Republicans and even some Democrats, who are demanding that the Obama administration submit any final nuclear deal with Iran to Congress for approval. \"This is clearly a treaty,\" Arizona Sen. John McCain told reporters Tuesday. \"They can call it a banana, but it's a treaty.\" Kerry denounces GOP letter to Iran leaders . The GOP position could jeopardize the long-term survival of any Iran deal, and it represents the party's newest clash with President Barack Obama over the limits of executive authority, as Republicans object to a pact they warn could eventually give Tehran a nuclear bomb. It's that skepticism that has largely led the White House to define the deal as a \"nonbinding agreement\" rather than a \"treaty,\" which the Constitution requires Senate \"advice and consent\" on. The distinction -- and whether it can legitimately be used to shut out Congress -- turns on complicated and unresolved questions of constitutional law. While Republicans call foul, the administration defends the differentiation as perfectly sound, and no surprise. Secretary of State John Kerry stressed Wednesday that the administration never intended to negotiate a treaty. \"We've been clear from the beginning. We're not negotiating a 'legally binding plan.' We're negotiating a plan that will have in it a capacity for enforcement,\" he said at a Senate hearing. That doesn't sit well with Republicans, many of whom believe the Senate's constitutional role is being bypassed. Idaho Sen. James Risch dismissed the administration's argument: \"Let there be no mistake, this is a treaty that is being negotiated. It's a treaty and should be treated as such.\" Did 47 Republican senators break the law in plain sight? Republicans see criticism of the administration's maneuver as a way to gum up the works on the current deal, and to push their larger assault on the White House's exercise of power. At the Senate hearing Wednesday, Kentucky Republican Rand Paul explicitly tied the administration's bid to keep the deal away from Congress to other accusations of White House overreach. \"This is an administration that seeks to legislate when that is not in their purview, whether it be immigration, whether it be health care,\" he charged, noting that he had joined 46 other GOP senators in signing a letter to the Islamic Republic informing them of Congress's role in approving binding agreements. \"I signed the letter to Iran. But you know what? The message I was sending was to you,\" he told Kerry. \"I signed it to an administration that doesn't listen, to an administration that, every turn, tries to go around Congress because you think you can't get your way.\" But legal experts say that though a court challenge along the lines of pending GOP cases on immigration and health care is possible in theory, it would be a long shot. There is no currently no suit on the issue being discussed on Capitol Hill, and it's far from clear that Republicans would be standing on firm legal ground with such a challenge. The debate, rumbling for decades, has yet to be definitively resolved in case law. \"It is a very interesting question,\" said Nicholas Burns, a former senior U.S. diplomat, arguing that it is essentially up to the administration to decide whether it is negotiating an agreement that formally binds the United States to commitments under international law; i.e., a treaty, or a less stringent arrangement. Senators grill Obama officials on Iran . Jim Walsh, a specialist on the Iran nuclear program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the Iran deal, which commits the United States to waive or lift sanctions, does not rise to the level of a formal treaty. \"Treaties traditionally have involved reductions in armaments, nuclear weapons, conventional forces. They require us to take something away that we have already built or established.\" In this case, the United States would lift sanctions, but would not be changing its military posture. \"We have had all sorts of agreement that were never ratified by Congress,\" Walsh said. But David Rivkin, a constitutional and international law expert who worked for President George H.W. Bush, said that any international agreement requiring major undertakings on the part of the United States -- such as the proposed Iran deal -- must be sent to the Senate for advice and consent. \"The Constitution is quite clear,\" he said. Republicans point to none less than the vice president of the United States to bolster their case. When Vice President Joe Biden was a senator in 2002, he wrote a letter to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell charging that a planned strategic arms reductions deal with Russia constituted a treaty subject to Senate approval since it would require \"significant obligations by the United States.\" But Biden's 2002 letter didn't keep him from unleashing his fury at the GOP letter to Iran on Monday. \"Around the world, America's influence depends on its ability to honor its commitments,\" Biden said in a statement. While Congress approves some agreements, \"as the authors of this letter must know, the vast majority of our international commitments take effect without congressional approval.\" Indeed, in the letter he penned to Iran, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton acknowledged that the administration could seek a mere \"executive agreement\" free of congressional review. Obama, Iranian official slam GOP letter on deal . Presidents claim inherent powers to conclude executive agreements under Article II of the Constitution. U.S. law stipulates that an agreement is only viewed as a treaty once it has been made with \"the advice and consent of the Senate,\" a study by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service noted. But administrations often choose to conclude deals with foreign states that don't satisfy that requirement. Such an \"executive agreement\" is still considered a treaty that is binding under international law, but does not reach the same standard under U.S. law, according to the study. Examples of \"nonbinding\" documents include a U.S.-Russia to remove Syria's stocks of chemical weapons and the Proliferation Security Initiative to stop the global shipment of the weapons of mass destruction components. Biden argued Monday that this practice is as old as the United States itself. \"Under presidents of both parties, such major shifts in American foreign policy as diplomatic recognition of the People's Republic of China, the resolution of the Iran hostage crisis, and the conclusion of the Vietnam War were all conducted without congressional approval,\" he said in his statement opposing the GOP letter. The White House would clearly prefer a binding agreement with Iran, which would have a better chance of longevity. But the strength of opposition in Congress makes that route impossible. According to Republicans such as Cotton, the only deal the Senate would approve is one that completely bans Iranian uranium enrichment. Obama has said that goal is simply not realistic. So Republicans, dissatisfied with what's emerging from negotiations, are seizing on the vulnerability of a deal that lacks treaty status. Many see that as a more viable path for disruption than the case on administration overreach. \"If Congress doesn't approve this deal, Congress won't accept this deal, now or in the future,\" Cotton told CNN. In the letter, he informed Iranian leaders that many senators will serve terms longer than Obama, so they would have to reckon with the Senate at some point. Lawmakers can refuse to lift sanctions down the road or try to choke off funds for the deal's implementation. The administration acknowledges that Congress will have to get involved at some point. Obama currently has the power to lift or waive certain sanctions against Iran for the duration of his presidency and encourage U.S. international partners to follow suit. But he does not have the power to lift sanctions imposed by Congress, which include some of the most punitive measures against Iran. \"Part of the agreement is going to involve sanctions relief to the Iranian government that is meted out over time,\" Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told CNN. \"At some time in the duration of this agreement, Congress will have to be heard on sanctions relief.\" Senior U.S. officials have acknowledged that the clamor among lawmakers for a role, as well as their public criticisms, also implicitly highlights the vulnerability of their case and an ultimate agreement. Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator from Virginia who has signed onto a bill calling for the White House to put any deal up for a vote in Congress, said that Obama is within his rights to do what he is doing -- up to a point. \"It is not a treaty. If it were a treaty, there is a clear process. It would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate.\" But Kaine told CNN on Wednesday that lawmakers did have a role to play at the point when sanctions mandated by Congress are bargained away to ensure Iran sticks to limits on its nuclear program. \"Congress has got to weigh in at some point,\" Kaine said.", "President Barack Obama said Monday that Iran might join Cuba as a second rogue state to enjoy normalized diplomatic relations with the United States under his administration. In a 40-minute interview with National Public Radio conducted on December 18 – but held back for 11 days – the radio network's senior morning host quizzed Obama in the Oval Office about a wide range of policy positions, including his plans for the Middle East. 'Is there any scenario under which you can envision, in your final two years, opening a U.S. embassy in Tehran?' asked NPR's Steve Inskeep. 'I never say never,' Obama replied, while allowing that 'I think these things have to go in steps.' SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS . ROGUE NATIONS? Obama aired the astonishing possibiity of normalized U.S.-Iran relationsjust a few days after announcing that he would restore formal diplomatic ties with the communist enclave of Cuba . STRATEGY: President Barack Obama sat down in the Oval Office with NPR's Steve Inskeep on December 18, but the public radio network held its interview back for 11 days . The unprecedented olive branch pointed in the direction of Iran's mullahs will stoke controversy among older Americans who recall the 1979 hostage crisis in the last embassy Washington maintained there. Fifty-two Americans, mostly diplomatic personnel, were taken hostage in November of that year and held for 444 days but a group of student revolutionaries. In Iran the event is still celebrated as the 'Conquest of the American Spy Den.' Few observers believe Iran is interested in proving its stated intentions to abandon its nuclear-weapons ambitions by the time Obama leaves office in January 2017. But the president believes there's a chance. 'We have to get this nuclear issue resolved – and there's a chance to do it,' he said, 'and the question's going to be whether or not Iran is willing to seize it.' If the country's anti-America hardliners yield to more moderate voices, he predicted, 'there's incredible talent and resources and sophistication inside of Iran, and it would be a very successful regional power that was also abiding by international norms and international rules, and that would be good for everybody.' 'That would be good for the United States, that would be good for the region, and most of all, it would be good for the Iranian people.' Obama shocked the world – and angered America's Cuban emigres – with a December 17 announcement that he would re-establish formal ties with the Raul Castro regime in Havana. But speaking to NPR eleven days ago, he painted Iran differently – noting that a more recent history of aggression makes U.S.-Iran relations 'different from the history between us and Cuba.' 'And the strategic importance of Tehran is – or Iran – is different from what we face with Cuba.' The Islamic republic, he reminded Inskeep, 'has a track record of state-sponsored terrorism, that we know was attempting to develop a nuclear weapon.' But in the same breath Obama said 'Tehran is a large, sophisticated country.' Tehran is Iran's capital city. NOT THE SAME THING: Obama insisted that 'the strategic importance of ... Iran is different from what we face with Cuba' WINNERS: Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (center) and the Islamic republic's political class will gain global clout from Obama's pronouncement . That lapse aside, Obama emphasized Monday a theme that he has grappled with since the heady days of his first presidential campaign: the prospect of changing the global diplomatic map by bringing unfriendly nations under America's wing. 'I was asked very early in my presidential race back in 2007 – would I meet with these various rogue regimes?' he recalled. 'And what I said then remains true: If I thought it advances American interests, yes. I believe in diplomacy, I believe in dialogue, I believe in engagement.' He also claimed credit for what he characterized as a realignment of global attitudes toward Iran . 'When I came into office, the world was divided and Iran was in the driver's seat,' Obama said. But through economic sanctions, 'now the world's united because of the actions we've taken, and Iran's the one that's isolated.' 'I mean, there's a reason why we've been able to get this far in the negotiations,' he said: 'We mobilized the international community at the start of my presidency – a classic example of American leadership.' But Iran's supreme religious authorities, who run the country despite the fig leaf of a constitutional government, has 'a path to break through that isolation,' Obama declared. 'And they should seize it.' Obama drew criticism in 2008 for subtly changing his positiion on negotiating with antagonistic countries. Speaking to an audience of Jewish advocates in June of that year, he insisted that he had 'no interest in sitting down with our adversaries just for the sake of talking.' 'But as president of the United States, I would be willing to lead tough and principled diplomacy with the appropriate Iranian leaders at a time and place of my choosing if and only if it can advance the interest of the United States.' But during a debate eight months earlier he was asked whether he would be willing to meet Iran's leaders 'without precondition,' during the first year of his administration. 'I would,' then-Senator Obama replied. 'And the reason is this: the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them – which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this [George W. Bush] administration – is ridiculous.'", "London (CNN) -- All eyes in show business will turn to London on Sunday, as the stars of films from Steven Spielberg's political drama \"Lincoln\" to the Bond extravaganza \"Skyfall\" gather for the British Academy Film Awards ceremony. The Baftas, as the awards are known, are seen as one of the indicators for success in the Oscars. \"Lincoln\" leads the field with 10 Bafta nominations, while Tom Hooper's film version of the long-running stage musical \"Les Miserables\" and Ang Lee's \"Life of Pi\" each have nine nods. All three are in the running for best film in the British movie awards, along with \"Argo,\" (seven nominations) a thriller set during the Iran hostage crisis, and \"Zero Dark Thirty,\" (five nods) directed by Katheryn Bigelow -- the only woman to win a best director Oscar -- about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. \"Argo,\" a thriller centered on the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, last month landed the best film award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Golden Globes. Daniel Day-Lewis is nominated for best actor for his role as the U.S. president who led his country during the civil war and worked to end slavery. Having already won the Golden Globe and SAG best actor awards for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln, he is strongly tipped to win an Oscar later this month. If he succeeds, Day-Lewis would be the first male actor to win three best actor Oscars. He won previously for \"My Left Foot\" in 1989 and \"There Will Be Blood\" in 2007. In the Baftas, Day-Lewis is up against \"Argo\" star Ben Affleck, \"Hathaway\" co-star Hugh Jackman, Bradley Cooper for \"Silver Linings Playbook\" and Joaquin Phoenix for \"The Master.\" Oscar winner Helen Mirren is nominated in the best actress category for her role in \"Hitchcock,\" playing the wife of the British suspense filmmaker. Mirren is joined by \"Amour\" star Emmanuelle Riva, Jennifer Lawrence for \"Silver Linings Playbook,\" \"Rust and Bone\" star Marion Cotillard and Jessica Chastain for \"Zero Dark Thirty.\" Quentin Tarantino is nominated for best director and original screenplay for his slavery action-drama \"Django Unchained.\" Affleck is also recognized for directing \"Argo,\" along with Bigelow, Lee and Michael Haneke. Javier Bardem was nominated as best supporting actor for his role as the villain in the latest and most commercially successful James Bond movie, \"Skyfall,\" but that film was overlooked in the best film category. Bardem was among eight \"Skyfall\" Bafta nominations that also included best supporting actress for Judi Dench who plays spy boss M and best British movie. The awards ceremony takes place at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, central London. CNN's Peter Wilkinson and Alan Duke contributed to this report.", "The French president today called for the lifting of the West's economic sanctions on Russia, saying: 'Mr Putin does not want to annex eastern Ukraine. He has told me that.' Saying the sanctions 'must stop now', Francois Hollande said he was expecting progress on a resolution to the Ukraine crisis at international talks in Kazakhstan in 10 days. The crisis in Ukraine has prevented cash-strapped France from completing the delivery of two Mistral-class warships to Russia, a deal left in limbo since accusations Russia has interfered in Ukraine's civil war. French President Francois Hollande, left, today called for the lifting of economic sanctions on Russia, saying that Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, had told him he had no intention of annexing east Ukraine . France, already struggling economically, could be liable for hefty fines if it breaches the 1.2-billion-euro contract. 'I think the sanctions must stop now,' President Hollande said during a wide-ranging two-hour interview with France Inter radio station. 'They must be lifted if there is progress. If there is no progress the sanctions will remain.' Ukraine's Western-backed leader Petro Poroshenko is to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin at a meeting in the Kazakh capital Astana in ten days, which will also be attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Mr Hollande said: 'I am going to Astana on January 15 on one condition, that there be fresh progress. And I think there will be. If it is to meet and talk without making headway, it is not worth it.' The French president said that while Europe should keep lines of communication open with President Putin, 'he must know where to stop, and it has been costly for him.' Sanctions imposed by the European Union and the U.S., along with plunging oil prices, have sent the rouble crashing by some 40 per cent against the dollar. The punitive measures were slapped on Ukraine's former Soviet stablemate after Moscow annexed Crimea, and was subsequently accused of stoking separatist conflict in the east of the country. Moscow denies it has backed the conflict which has left over 4,700 dead, as well as a charge it has supplied weapons and troops to rebels. Pointing out that Mr Putin had told him he had no intention of annexing east Ukraine, Mr Hollande said: 'What he wants is to remain influential. What he wants is for Ukraine not to fall into the NATO camp. 'What we want is that he respects the territorial integrity of Ukraine. What we want is that he does not support the separatists.' Paris in November pushed back the delivery of the high-tech Mistral class 'vessels' bought by Russia 'until further notice'. Just before Christmas celebrations, the some 400 sailors training to operate the ships left for Russia.", "Russia is demanding an investigation into the alleged use of ‘chemical weapons’ against separatists in the east of Ukraine as the two countries agreed to extend their ceasefire. Pro-separatist rebels have claimed that people showing symptoms of chlorine poisoning had been admitted to hospital following an alleged attack carried out by Ukrainian Special Forces near Slavyansk. The accusations, which follow claims of 'phosphorous fire bombs' being dropped on villages in southeastern Ukraine this month, led to Russian diplomats urging an investigation. Scroll down for video . What ceasefire? A woman cries in front of her house destroyed by shelling carried out by government forces in Slolyansk, Donetsk region as leaders of Ukraine and Russia agreed to work towards ceasefire . ‘This is horrible. This case must be investigated,’ said Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin. The Russian ambassador to Holland, Roman Kolodkin, said a complaint could be submitted to the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons amid claims that Chloropicrin was used by pro-Kiev forces. Earlier there was claims that ‘phosphorus fumes’ led to poisoning. One rebel leader in Donetsk, Igor Strelkov, said there had been a number of cases. ‘We are collecting sample materials and are going to present them as evidence.’ The demands came as the leaders of Russia and Ukraine agreed to work towards extending a fragile ceasefire between Kiev and pro-Kremlin militias. Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko also promised to set up effective border controls, French president Francois Hollande's office said on Monday. Head to head: Vladimir Putin and newly elected Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko will now try to work towards extending ceasefire and to work on the liberation of more hostages and prisoners . Under fire: A man rescues his cat from his house, destroyed by government shelling in Slovyansk on Monday morning, ahead of the talks between Poroshenko and Putin . Still fighting: Both sides have been accused of ignoring the agreement of ceasefire, particularly in the eastern regions where support for rebels is strong . The two men spoke during a four-way teleconference call that also included Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. After . what Hollande's office said was a long conversation, Putin and . Poroshenko also agreed to work on the liberation of more hostages and . prisoners and the organisation of 'substantial tripartite negotiations,' the statement said. Petro . had urged Putin on Sunday to strengthen Russian control over its borders . to prevent militants and arms entering Ukraine after violence broke a . truce there. The ceasefire, . declared by Poroshenko on June 20 to allow for peace talks with the . pro-Russian rebels, was due to expire on Monday, a deadline also set by . EU leaders considering new sanctions against Russia. However, just Monday morning, the city of Slovyansk, in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine came under shelling from government forces. The . European Union, which signed an historic free-trade pact with Ukraine . on Friday, has warned it could impose more sanctions on Moscow unless . pro-Russian rebels act to wind down the crisis in the east of the . country by Monday. Potential proof: This video was released by Russian media earlier this month, and allegedly shows white phosphorous bombs being dropped on a Ukranian city . White light: According to witnesses of the shelling on June 12, the bombs dropped were incendiary phosphorous bombs, a type of weapon which is banned by the UN, something firmly denied by Kiev . Putin again urged an extension of the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and setting up a control mechanism to monitor the truce with the participation of the OSCE security body , the Kremlin said in a separate statement after the talks. 'The leaders spoke in favour of convening a third round of consultations between Kiev and south-eastern regions as soon as possible,' it added. Killed: Russian cameraman Anatoly Klyan, 68, died from injuries after being shot in the stomach outside a military compound in Donetsk . However, later on Monday, Moscow accused Ukraine of breaking the ceasefire after a cameraman working for Russian state television was killed. Anatoly Klyan, 68, was shot in the stomach outside a military compound in the city of Donetsk, Moscow’s Channel One TV reported. He was among a group of journalists that had been allowed to enter compound to film soldiers being picked up by their mothers, when an unidentified gunman opened fire. Mr Klyan, 68, who had worked for the state channel for 40 years, is the fifth journalist to be killed since the fighting began in April between Ukrainian government troops and armed pro-Russia separatists. Russia's Foreign Ministry blamed the attack on Ukrainian soldiers and demanded an objective investigation into the attack and for those responsible to be punished. Video footage of the attack broadcast on Channel One showed Klyan continuing to film inside the bus even after he was shot in the stomach, stopping only when he grew weak and telling his colleagues: 'I can't hold the camera any longer.' Other journalists helped him into a passing car to be taken to a nearby medical center, but the television station said doctors were unable to save him.", "Kiev (CNN) -- Russia's lower house of parliament overwhelmingly approved a treaty Thursday to annex the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine, prompting tougher sanctions from the United States. Russia responded with its own sanctions against a list of U.S. officials and lawmakers. After Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had presented the treaty and urged lawmakers to accept the region as a part of the Russian Federation, the document was approved on a vote of 443 to 1. Speaking \"on behalf\" of Putin, Lavrov had told the State Duma that folding Crimea into Russia was needed to protect ethnic Russians there. \"I am certain that passing the document will become a turning point in the destiny of multi-ethnic nations of Crimea and Russia, who are related with close ties of the historical unity,\" Lavrov said. The political crisis has been the biggest blow to Russia's relations with the West since the Cold War. Approval of the treaty in the State Duma was in no doubt as Russia has stood defiant despite Western leaders denouncing Moscow's actions as a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and a breach of international law. European Union leaders said Thursday they will sign a political association agreement with Ukraine and add 12 more people to the list of individuals targeted for sanctions, including Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. EU member states also are threatening possible tougher targeted measures, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy told reporters. \"We make clear that failure to settle the crisis peacefully, and any steps by Russia to destabilize Ukraine, will have far reaching consequences,\" he said. \"And by that we mean consequences on relations in a broad range of economic areas.\" U.S. and EU officials had already imposed sanctions on more than two dozen Russian and Crimean officials, and urged Russia to avoid escalating the crisis -- a call Moscow has ignored. But U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday announced more sanctions on individuals and one bank in response to Russia's annexation moves. He also signed a new executive order that authorizes possible further sanctions on what he called \"key sectors\" of the Russian economy if Moscow does not act to deescalate the situation. \"This is not our preferred outcome. These sanctions would not only have a significant impact on the Russian economy, but could also be disruptive to the global economy,\" he said. \"However Russia must know that further escalation will only isolate it further from the international community.\" Russia must respect \"basic principles\" of sovereignty and territorial integrity, he said, adding that the United States should also provide financial support for Ukraine's government and people. \"We want the Ukrainian people to determine their own destiny and have good relations with the United States, Russia, Europe -- anyone they choose,\" he said, calling for continued diplomatic efforts. Sanctions lists . The new U.S. sanctions target 20 officials, including senior Russians and \"cronies\" who hold significant influence in the Russian system, as well as one bank that holds \"significant\" resources, a senior U.S. administration official told reporters. That bank was listed by the U.S. Treasury Department as Bank Rossiya. The individuals named by the Treasury include major Putin allies, both in the Kremlin and in business. Among the 16 government officials listed are Putin's chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov; the speaker of the State Duma, Sergey Naryshkin; and Viktor Ozerov, chairman of the Security and Defense Committee of the Russia parliament's upper house. Four others were named as members of the government's inner circle. They are financier Yuri Kovalchuk, labeled Putin's personal banker by a senior U.S. administration official; magnate Gennady Timchenko, whose activities in the energy sector have been directly linked to Putin, according to the Treasury; and businessmen Arkady and Boris Rotenberg. Besides Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin, The expanded EU sanctions target list includes two advisors to President Putin, Sergey Glazyev and Vladislav Surkov, as well as the chairwoman of the Russian Senate Valentina Matvienko. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that the new round of U.S. sanctions would be \"significantly more powerful than the first one.\" The latest round \"hits significant economic interests that are fairly close to the ruling circles in Moscow. It will be noticed,\" he said. Russia responded with sanctions against nine U.S. officials and lawmakers, including speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and Sens. John McCain, Robert Menendez, Daniel Coats and Mary Landrieu, according to a list published by the Russian Foreign Ministry. Boehner's spokesman, Michael Steel, said the lawmaker was \"proud to be included on a list of those willing to stand against Putin's aggression.\" McCain responded, \"I guess this means my spring break in Siberia is off, my Gazprom stock is lost, and my secret bank account in Moscow is frozen. Nonetheless, I will never cease my efforts on behalf of the freedom, independence, and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea.\" The U.S. Treasury said Bank Rossiya is controlled by Yuri Kovalchuk and is the 17th-largest bank in Russia. It has $10 billion in assets and handles the accounts of some top government officials, the Treasury said, adding that the bank has relationships with banks in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. The bank also provides services to the oil, gas and energy sectors, it said. \"As a result of Treasury's action, any assets of the persons designated today that are within U.S. jurisdiction must be frozen,\" the Treasury said. British Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters at the EU Heads of State or Government summit there would likely be more asset freezes and travel bans. Finland's Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb told CNN more names would be added Thursday. \"There will probably be over 10 new names on the list and then of course people are going to argue, are these people good to be on the list, bad to be on the list are they to be taken seriously and so on, but there will be more names,\" Stubb said. Lavrov told lawmakers that sanctions \"have never brought any positive results\" and that there were no legal grounds for them. Kiev defiant . Russia's defense minister assured U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in phone call Thursday that Russian troops on the Ukraine border do not intend to cross the border or take aggressive action, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said. Hagel made it clear in the lengthy and sometimes \"direct\" talk with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu that the Russians bear responsibility for what happens in Crimea, including the recent violence, since they are in control there, Kirby said. While Russia insists its actions are legitimate, Ukraine's parliament said Thursday that Kiev will never stop fighting for Crimea, even if the country's new leaders have discussed evacuating military personnel from the region. In a declaration published online, the Kiev parliament said \"Crimea was, is and will be part of Ukraine.\" \"The Ukrainian people will never, under no circumstances, stop fighting for the liberation of Crimea from the occupants, no matter how hard and long it is.\" Putin announced the annexation of Crimea after voters in the semi-autonomous territory approved a hastily called weekend referendum on separating from Ukraine. Kiev officials unveiled new measures against Russia and the \"self-proclaimed\" authorities in Crimea. In a televised briefing, Andriy Porubiy, secretary of the national defense and security council, said that if the United Nations designates Crimea a \"demilitarized zone,\" Ukraine is prepared to evacuate its military personnel and family members. Ukraine has facilities ready to accommodate 25,000 evacuees. A statement on the Ukrainian presidential website said former Presidents Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma had asked Turchynov to redeploy soldiers who are still in Crimea to the mainland. The call was \"to protect and save lives of Ukrainian servicemen who bear service in difficult and dangerous conditions in Crimea,\" the statement said. Porubiy had also said the measures included a full-scale visa system for Russians. Speaking in Brussels on Thursday, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Kiev was in no hurry to impose a visa regime on Russia, since it could negatively affect Ukrainians living in the predominantly Russian-speaking east of the country. Yatsenyuk is in Brussels to sign the political part of an association agreement with the European Union. Lavrov said the intention to introduce visa regulations was \"surprising and regrettable.\" As diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis continue, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon traveled to Russia Thursday, where he met Putin and Lavrov. He will then head to Kiev where he will meet acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov and Yatsenyuk on Friday. Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Ban as saying during a meeting with Putin that he was \"deeply concerned\" by the situation involving Ukraine and Russia. Navy chief released . Ukraine's navy commander, detained when supporters of Russia took over the naval headquarters in Crimea, was released, the presidential website said Thursday. Amid signs the uneasy standoff between pro-Russian and Ukrainian forces could ignite into bloody conflict, about 300 armed men stormed the naval base in Sevastopol on Wednesday. They took away Ukrainian navy chief Sergey Gaiduk. Turchynov issued a 9 p.m. (3 p.m. ET) deadline for Crimea to release all hostages and stop all provocations. Kiev's new leaders had warned that if all hostages, including Gaiduk, were not released by then, authorities would take action of \"technical and technological character,\" probably meaning turning off utilities. A statement on the presidential site said Gaiduk and several other hostages had been freed. They were released during the night and were on their way to Kiev Thursday. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu had asked authorities in Crimea to free Gaiduk and allow him safe passage out of the region. The incident at the navy headquarters came a day after one member of the Ukrainian military was killed when masked gunmen seized their base near the Crimean regional capital, Simferopol. After that fatality -- the first Ukrainian military death since the Crimean crisis erupted about three weeks ago -- Ukraine's Defense Ministry authorized its forces to open fire in self-defense. Opinion: Putin's breathtaking lies about Russia . Editors' Note: This article has been edited to remove plagiarized content after CNN discovered multiple instances of plagiarism by Marie-Louise Gumuchian, a former CNN news editor. Journalist Victoria Butenko reported from Kiev, CNN's Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Laura Smith-Spark from London. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, Tom Cohen, Deirdre Walsh, Lisa Desjardins, Talia Kayali, Alex Felton, Mick Krever, Carol Jordan and Boriana Milanova contributed to this report.", "Geneva, Switzerland (CNN) -- Guardedly positive tones were sounded Tuesday as Iran and six world powers met in Geneva for the first of two days of talks about Iran's nuclear ambitions -- talks conducted amid a spirit of new optimism since President Hassan Rouhani took office this summer. Iran, which wants the six powers to recognize what it says is the peaceful nature of its nuclear energy pursuits, laid out confidential proposals in the morning. A spokesman for the European Union's foreign policy chief called the presentation \"very useful.\" The two-day talks in Geneva bring together Iran's representatives with those from the so-called P5+1 -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain, all countries with permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany. Talks continued in the afternoon, and will resume on Wednesday. \"For the first time, we had very detailed technical discussions,\" a senior U.S. State Department official said. Ahead of the talks: U.S. hopeful but 'clear-eyed' Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who is taking a lead role in the negotiations, said Tuesday that the \"negotiation's environment was positive,\" according to Iran's semi-official Fararu news agency. Many in the West fear Iran is pursuing the development of a nuclear bomb, but Iran -- slapped with sanctions because of its program -- has always maintained that it is developing nuclear energy capabilities for peaceful purposes only. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is chairwoman for the talks for the P5+1 bloc, while Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is leading the Iranian delegation. Ahead of Tuesday's meeting, Zarif said he hoped that together, Iran and the West would be able to work out a \"road map\" toward a final resolution by Wednesday. Ashton's spokesman, Michael Mann, said that the mood was one of \"cautious optimism\" but that the \"ball is in Iran's court\" to respond to the bloc's concerns. The P5+1 bloc put forward its own proposals at a meeting with Iran in Kazakhstan in the spring, and these remain on the table, Mann told reporters earlier. 'Verifiably proven' The talks, which are being conducted in English for the first time, are due to last two days, but the timetable is fluid, Mann said. \"We have said we want Iran to engage constructively with proposals we have put forward. Or, if they want to, they can come up with their own proposals,\" he said. \"What matters is the end result -- that they address the international community's concerns about the purely peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program. \"We have to reach a situation at the end where they have proven, and verifiably proven, that there is no nuclear military program. That is the end result that is being sought.\" The Iranians' PowerPoint presentation, laid out in English, was titled \"Closing Unnecessary Crisis, Opening New Horizons.\" Araqchi said Iran's goal is to guarantee its citizens' rights to \"enjoy nuclear energy, including enrichment, along with the verification of its peaceful program,\" according to the Fararu news agency. Critics have expressed suspicions about Iran's uranium enrichment, fearing that Iran may secretly be transforming nuclear fuel into atomic bomb-grade materials. During a visit to the U.N. General Assembly in September, Rouhani's diplomatic approach raised hopes in the West of a thaw in relations with Tehran and progress in negotiations on its nuclear program. Rouhani's visit culminated in a phone call with U.S. President Barack Obama and a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Zarif. Iran nuclear talks are key topic as Obama, Netanyahu meet . It was the first such high-level contact between the two sworn enemies since Iran's 1979 revolution, which sent relations between the two into a deep freeze. Israel: Don't relax sanctions too early . Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the international community not to relax too soon the painful economic sanctions that have put Iran's leaders under \"intense pressure\" to return to talks. \"I think it would be a historic mistake to ease the sanctions when they are so close to achieving their goals,\" he said. \"Now is an opportune moment to reach a genuine diplomatic solution that peacefully ends Iran's military nuclear program. \"This opportunity can only be realized if the international community continues to place pressure on Iran, because it is that pressure that has brought Iran back to the negotiations in the first place. And it is that pressure which makes the peaceful dismantling of Iran's military nuclear program possible.\" Iran's president: We're open to nuclear talks, but don't make threats . Israel's Security Cabinet also warned Tuesday against conceding too much too soon to the Iranians. \"Israel does not oppose Iran having peaceful nuclear energy. This does not require uranium enrichment or plutonium. Iran's nukes prog does,\" Netanyahu spokesman Ofir Gendelman said via Twitter. Could Revolutionary Guards sabotage Iran-U.S. thaw? A country that \"regularly deceives the international community\" does not have a \"right to enrich\" as Iran claims, he said. A senior Obama administration official told reporters in Geneva that the administration would be willing to consider quick relief on sanctions \"targeted in proportion\" to what Iran puts on the table, should it be prepared to curtail the pace and scope of its uranium enrichment program, offer steps to improve transparency of its nuclear program, and address concerns about its stockpile of enriched uranium. Larijani: 'We are ready' Ali Larijani, Iran's powerful parliamentary speaker and a close associate of the nation's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said last week that Iran is serious about resolving the dispute over its nuclear program. It is keen to resolve the issue \"in a short period of time,\" Larijani told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview from Geneva. \"From Iran's side, I can say that we are ready,\" he said. Rouhani: Nuclear weapons have no place in Iran's security . \"If the Americans and other countries say that Iran should not develop a nuclear bomb or should not move towards that, then we can clearly show and prove that. We have no such intention. So it can be resolved in a very short period of time.\" Nonetheless, Larijani said, the West must accept Iran's right to enrich nuclear fuel for civilian purposes, as allowed under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, to which Iran is a signatory. Building trust . Some believe that Iran's recent apparent willingness to negotiate seriously over its nuclear program is a result of the crippling sanctions on its economy. Shortly after this year's U.N. General Assembly ended, a U.S. State Department official said the United States would be prepared to consider relaxing certain sanctions on Iran if it took confidence-building steps to prove its sincerity to negotiate over its nuclear program. But this will take time and the building of trust. U.S. Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who is in Geneva, stressed that the entire sanctions regime targeting Iran would not be lifted \"any time soon\" unless the array of concerns about Iran's nuclear program was fully addressed. CNN's Jim Sciutto reported from Geneva, Elise Labott from Washington, and Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported from London. CNN's Michael Schwartz and Andrew Carey and journalist Banafsheh Keynoush contributed to this report.", "(CNN) -- The Organization of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria Wednesday from membership. \"There is a strong concern over the massacres and the inhumane acts that are being committed against the Syrian people,\" said Nizar bin Obaid Madani, Saudi Arabia's state minister for foreign affairs. \"Therefore, the leaders agreed on the importance of preserving the unity of Syria, the immediate end of all acts of violence and the suspension of Syrian membership within OIC,\" the minister said after a two-day summit of OIC heads of state. Syria violence fuels kidnapping threats in Lebanon . Iran and Algeria were the sole opponents in the 57-nation body, which represents 1.5 billion Muslims. The organization's move sends a message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that its members will not accept the regime killing its people, OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told CNN. He also called on the U.N. Security Council to approve tougher resolutions against the regime. Asked if OIC members supported military intervention, Ihsanoglu said he heard few such calls. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland commended the move. \"Today's action underscores the Assad regime's increasing international isolation and the widespread support for the Syrian people and their struggle for a democratic state that represents their aspirations and respects their human rights,\" she said in a statement. The development came as would-be rescuers searched for survivors amid the rubble left after Syrian government forces shelled a town in Aleppo province near the border with Turkey, killing 40 people, a spokesman for the rebel Syrian National Council told CNN. \"We have no special equipment to search or lift the wreckage,\" said the spokesman, Abu Omar, by Skype from the province. \"People are doing it using their bare hands and rudimentary tools.\" Another 40 people in the town of Azzaz were missing after the shelling, which targeted a popular food market, Omar said. Among the dead were four Lebanese hostages who had been taken by an armed group called \"the revolutionaries of Aleppo\" that is not affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, he said. He described the victims as civilians, including women and children, and said the town was without electricity. The attack came after government had warned members of the al-Tawheed Brigade, the main rebel group fighting in the city of Aleppo, to pull its fighters out of the city or face shelling from warplanes, Omar said. Inside Aleppo, Syria's largest city, the rebels \"continued clashes today with the regime forces in Salaheddine district\" and Bab el-Nasr neighborhood, killing a rebel commander, he added. Opinion: To save Syria, work on Russia, Iran . Meanwhile, a United Nations commission concluded Wednesday that both Syrian regime forces and anti-government rebels have committed war crimes in the Syrian conflict. The U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry said government forces and their Shabiha militia allies committed crimes against humanity such as \"murder and torture, war crimes and gross violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including unlawful killing, indiscriminate attacks against civilian populations and acts of sexual violence.\" For Syria's neighbors, impact is growing with each refugee . In the town of Houla on May 25, the commission said, al-Assad's forces and militia allies were responsible for killing more than 100 civilians, nearly half of them children. The anti-government armed groups that have emerged over the past year also have committed war crimes, including \"murder, extrajudicial killings and torture,\" the report says. But the commission says these actions \"were not of the same gravity, frequency and scale as the ones perpetrated by government forces and the militia.\" Since February 15, the report says, \"the situation in the country has deteriorated significantly with armed violence spreading to new areas and active hostilities raging between rebels and the government and the militias.\" The violence continued Wednesday, with at least 205 people killed, the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said. Ninety of them were in Aleppo province, and most of them were in Azzaz, a town near the Turkish border that was shelled by regime warplanes. Opposition activists have put the death toll in the 17-month crisis at more than 20,000. U.S. lifts sanctions on former Syrian prime minister . CNN's Arwa Damon in Beirut, Amir Ahmed and Holly Yan in Atlanta, Ben Wedeman in Aleppo, Nic Robertson in Jeddah contributed to this report.", "The European Union has imposed sanctions related to the crisis in Ukraine on another 15 people, bringing the total number targeted to 48. The EU said the people are collectively responsible for actions that \"undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.\" The targets include Dmitry Kozak, Russia's deputy prime minister; Russian military chief Valery Gerasimov; and pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, including Denis Pushilin, the self-declared leader of the \"Donetsk People's Republic.\" EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she was alarmed by the worsening security situation in eastern Ukraine, and she called on Russia to take \"concrete steps\" in support of an international deal signed this month aimed at easing tensions. She warned that if necessary, the European Union \"will look at possible additional individual measures\" related to the crisis. Ashton also condemned an attack on the mayor of Kharkiv on Monday and the continued detention by pro-Russian militants of a team of military observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. \"All persons still illegally detained by armed groups in eastern Ukraine need to be immediately released,\" she said. On Tuesday, pro-Russian activists in eastern Ukraine took control of the regional government headquarters in Luhansk. Video shows them as they approach the building, smash doors, wave flags and chant \"Russia! Russia!\" Pro-Russia activists also tried to break into that city's police headquarters by ramming a truck at the entrance, according to state-run news agency Ukrinform. A local reporter for Ukrinform, who was on the scene at police headquarters, described a fight, involving an explosion and gunfire. The activists demanded that police surrender their weapons and exit headquarters. They also claimed that the Luhansk police chief had submitted his resignation and that a new \"people's police\" chief had been \"assigned,\" though not everyone in the crowd agreed with the selection, the news agency reported. On his official website, Acting President Oleksander Turchinov said the events in eastern Ukraine \"illustrated inactivity, helplessness, and sometimes criminal betrayal of the law enforcement agencies in the Donetsk and (Luhansk) regions.\" He said, \"It is hard to admit, but it is true. The vast majority of the law enforcement officials in the East are not able to fulfill their obligations to protect our citizens.\" New heads of security have been appointed in Donetsk and Luhansk, he said. Western nations accuse Moscow of supporting the separatist gunmen who are occupying official buildings in cities across the region and are holding the OSCE team hostage. Russia disputes that claim, saying it has no direct influence over the pro-Russian activists. Russia: 'Aren't you ashamed?' In a statement on its website Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the EU sanctions \"cannot but cause rejection\" and show a lack of comprehension of Ukraine's internal political situation. \"Instead of making the Kiev faction sit at the negotiating table with southeastern Ukraine, our partners follow Washington's lead with new unfriendly gestures regarding Russia,\" it said. The EU action is \"a direct invitation for local neo-Nazis to continue to promote anarchy and outrages regarding the civilians of the southeast,\" it said, repeating Russia's contention that ultranationalist groups are behind the unrest in Ukraine. The statement concluded with the question, \"Aren't you ashamed?\" On Monday, Russia promised a painful response to sanctions imposed by the United States. Sergei Ryabkov, Russia's deputy minister for foreign relations, called the U.S. measures \"meaningless, shameful, and disgusting.\" \"It will only intensify all the processes in Ukraine which it intends to change or stop,\" Ryabkov told CNN, speaking English. \"The U.S. does literally nothing to impress its cronies and clients in Kiev on whom there is full responsibility for constant deterioration of the situation in Ukraine. This is what needs to be changed and not the policy of Russia. \"A response of Moscow will follow, and it will be painfully felt in Washington.\" Russia has not specified what measures it will impose against Western interests. According to Russia's state-run ITAR-Tass news agency, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his government has proposed imposing sanctions against the EU and the United States, but that he has not yet authorized them. \"The government of the Russian Federation has already proposed some retaliatory steps. I think there's not a need,\" the President reportedly told journalists. \"We would not like to resort to some steps -- retaliatory measures. I hope there will be no need,\" Putin said, according to ITAR-Tass. Ukraine crisis: The full sanctions list . U.S. sanctions . But U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry appeared unfazed. He pledged Tuesday in an address to the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank, that NATO would stand united to defend its members' territorial integrity. In its latest round of sanctions, the United States targeted seven Russian government officials and 17 companies linked to Putin. The White House said the seven Russians, including two from Putin's inner circle, are subject to a freeze on any assets they may hold in the United States and a ban on U.S. travel. The two seen as closest to Putin are Igor Sechin, chairman of Russian oil giant Rosneft, and Sergey Chemezov, director general of Rostec, a state-owned industrial conglomerate in Russia. The companies the United States named are linked to officials and oligarchs who were designated last month, and the list included neither Rosneft itself nor gas exporter Gazprom. In addition, the United States will deny export license applications for any high-technology items that could contribute to Russian military capabilities. The Commerce and State departments will revoke any existing export licenses that meet these conditions, the White House said in a statement. The move, Obama told reporters in Manila, Philippines, was intended to spur Putin to \"walk the walk, not just talk the talk\" in resolving the crisis in Ukraine. If the latest round of sanctions does not work, the next phase could target economic sectors like banking, Obama said. In all, the United States and European Union have imposed asset freezes and travel bans on 66 individuals, most of them senior Russian officials. The United States has sanctioned 18 companies in total. Analysis: Sanctions-lite won't move Russia . 'Stolen assets' Meanwhile, Britain is hosting a two-day international meeting aimed at helping Ukraine's government recover stolen assets, following claims of widespread corruption within the government of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. UK Home Secretary Theresa May, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the head of the Ukrainian delegation, acting Prosecutor General Oleh Makhnitskyi, are all taking part in the London forum. \"What we have committed to do is to persevere, to follow leads wherever we can find them,\" said Holder. Makhnitskyi said investigators were focused on years when Yanukovych and his associates were in charge. \"The Ukrainian society already demands results from the government,\" he said. Yanukovych fled to Russia in February after months of street protests that were sparked by his decision to drop closer trade ties with Europe and turn instead toward Moscow. In Ukraine, presidential elections have been called for May 25. But Oleg Tsarev said he had dropped out of the race. On his website, he said that he received death threats when he arrived in Kiev and that Ukrainian National Television turned down his request to participate in televised debates. \"In this regard, I have decided to withdraw my candidacy, because in such circumstances, being a candidate is not helpful,\" Tsarev said. \"We will seek other channels and opportunities to convey our thoughts and positions to residents of the central and western Ukraine.\" Ukraine crisis: Who will blink first, Vladimir Putin or the West? Kharkiv mayor being treated in Israel . Kharkiv Mayor Gennady Kernes, who underwent surgery after being shot in the back Monday, is being treated in Israel, a hospital official said Tuesday. Kernes arrived overnight at Elisha Hospital in Haifa, the hospital's chief accountant Jacob Karwasser told CNN. The mayor was in stable condition, he said, and has family members with him. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the shooting. Police said an investigation was under way. Mayor of Ukrainian city shot; West prepares more sanctions ." ]

[ "This is a wonderful steamer. I don't know what I'd do without mine, just as irreplaceable as\nthe coffee pot :)" ]

[ "this steamer is so amazing, i'll never have to take stuff to the cleaners to have them do the pressing. unless you require a crease, you'll never use another iron. it's really worth double what i paid.", "I wouldnt know what to do without this carpet cleaner..Its great for spills and it cleans really good...Great purchase, highly recommend.", "I gave it 3 stars because I didn't get all the parts but it is a great steamer. Works really well", "I met Regi in Head Case. I laughed, I cried, and I blushed. I yelled at Regi, \"DON\"T do it!!!\" I suggest getting all 3 books at once so you don't have to wait to learn what happens next!", "I know that this is somewhat of a novelty, but not totally. I can tell when the water is hot and don' t have to stand and keep feeling it. It looks so pretty and the water comes out fast.", "I have always wanted a steamer and read a good review of this one. I am very happy with it. Works much better than an iron on sweaters.", "Just a fantastic item , the only thing its missing is an even lower setting, it really does generate great heat.", "Work great in the rain but when the sun came out, The material got hot the glue came off the Velcro , could put back on called company where no help. Don\"t know what to do. Do not buy as a veteran this company did not care. would do the right thing.", "The steamer does a wonderful job with cooking vegetable quickly. The only gripe I have is the loss of one of the handling rings within a month of using it (probably due to the risky practice of having my kids wash the dishes). It was easily replaced and I constantly use the steamer.", "This is a small streamer, but it is all I need. It does a wonderful job on everything I have used it on, I would recommend this to anyone.", "Just received this steamer. It is perfect for quick, easy jobs. It is not something I would use for an item with lots of wrinkles as it would take a while to get it smooth.", "I bought this steamer about a year and a half ago, and for various reasons (including a move and a whole-house renovation) it stayed in the box and I didn't didn't start using it until about six months ago. This steamer was FABULOUS, while it worked. It conked out a few weeks ago. The water heats but steam won't come out. So far, customer service hasn't been great. The McCulloch rep, while very nice, was not very helpful. She said it probably was the hose, and I could buy a new one for $21.99 plus shipping. After spending $120 on the machine, and not sure it will even work, I hesitate to throw good money after bad. A word on steam-cleaning: once I tried it, I LOVED it. Yes, I had to wipe with a cloth a bit, in addition to blasting with the steam, to get off tough dirt, but it's better than scouring with chemicals. I have asthma, and for anyone who doesn't want to breath chemicals, this is the way to clean. And, it kills germs as well. The dirt melts off my stove top. No danger of scratching the finish. And, everything feels so much cleaner, including my kitchen floor. Best of all, I know the dogs' little paws (and mine) won't be picking up chemical residue. Just make sure to get a tough machine that lasts longer than this one did.", "Takes to long to get to the meat of the story. If you don\"t know Italian, you are wasting your time...", "Not as good as my old ones. Really disappointed in Waterford. Don ' t think they are the real crystal I know from the past. Have them put away in closet.", "Don\"t know how i survived without one. Keeps the sweat out of your eyes and keeps your head cool at the same time. I just dip it in some cool water and throw on. For the extra hot days i soak in water in my cool lunch pail. Definately a must if you work outside in the heat. Goog quality fabric!", "I don;t know what sort of person left the other review. everyone knows kid;s costumes run small. Most peter Pan costumes are FELT for crying out load. this is a good costume IMHO as it has pants instead of tights. tights would be more traditional but would only last five minutes on most boys if you could get them to wear tights in the first place. costume looks very much like the beloved Disney one without the high Disney price. You should add a belt pouch and a rubber dagger to this for authenticity", "Love this steamer. Easy to handle and very effective in getting caked- on dirt off floor.", "Can not rate this because it did not download. I do love Gary Clark Jr. So don,t judge the three stars to mean anything other than the download part.", "Don't know why I did not buy one of these years ago. It is wonderful. Easy to load and operate.", "I love my PurStream steamer!!! Love it so much, I got one for a friend!! Easy to use, quick, better for clothing, and easy to clean and store.", "not bad for the price. Extremely light weight, which I don;t know if it's due to real Titanium(no way to be sure) or just cheap building material. so far working fine.", "\"David Sheff takes us on a \"ride\" that no parent wants to endure. For those of us who have \"been there\", this book offers hope, camaraderie and comfort.\"\n\nAnother resource that is similar but directed more toward the families of those addicted is the book/DVD Why Don't They Just Quit? What families and friends need to know about addiction and recovery.\n\n~Judy Herzanek\nDir. Creative Development and Marketing/Changing Lives Foundation\n<a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Why-Don-t-They-Just-Quit-What-families-and-friends-need-to-know-about-addiction-and-recovery/dp/0578041197/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Why Don't They Just Quit? What families and friends need to know about addiction and recovery.</a>\nDVD:<a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Why-Don-t-They-Just-QUIT-DVD-Roundtable-Discussion-What-families-and-friends-need-to-know-about-addiction-and-recovery/dp/B0017X1WGK/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Why Don't They Just QUIT? DVD Roundtable Discussion: What families and friends need to know about addiction and recovery.</a>\nKindle Edition:<a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Why-Don-t-They-Just-Quit/dp/B0012FBWHW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Why Don't They Just Quit?</a>", "Love this steam canner---makes job so much easier and I don't have to worry about moving a heavy pot of hot water", "I purchased 2 and used in my fifth wheel. I don;t know if it will work with Windows 10. I had a hard time setting it up when I purchased it. The disc didn't work for set up and had a hard time getting someone on the phone due to their hours for customer service", "Seems to be a decent quality product. Has small blades only at bottom, it does not do a good job blending contents from top to bottom. I had to stop and stir down pieces from the top that did not get circulated down to get blended. I don;t know why they do not design a taller blade or a muti-level blade. I guess I get what I paid for.\nHave not used this to blend frozen drinks yet, but I assume I will have the same issues,", "Good yarn tends to separate when knitting don\"t know if it\"s because it is a bulky yarn but color very true and very soft to touch. Would purchase again.", "Use it constantly. Don't know what I did without it.", "They don,t look like our old trusty incandescent s, but they do last a long, long time and leave us feeling no guilt for leaving lights on all day!!", "Overall, I think this is a good product. It heats up really fast. It's small and very portable. You can basically use it and store it anywhere. I used to own another steamer that was much larger and it was a hassle bringing it from one room to the other. This is much easier to store and clean.", "Has aided in organization of my life! I don't know what I would do without it or what I did before having it. Have recommended numerous times and heard only great appreciation in return.", "the Clifton Chronicles series are a great read, can't wait for what I presume is the fifth and conclusion to the series. But we never know do we?\nHopefully Mr Archer will create a new family series!\nDon Lucham", "Great product! I have had one for years, and I cannot live without it." ]

[ "A new Consumer Reports tool offers people a chance to research a hospital before choosing a facility for medical treatment." ]

[ "Amdocs, provider of customer experience systems, released the findings of a global research report that showed that 73 percent of service providers plan to expand their prepaid offerings to include services that are traditionally offered only to postpaid customers.", "Woolworths will report its 3Q sales today, with figures likely to offer clues about consumer sentiment.", "So much for brand loyalty; new research reveals that over half of consumers would buy from an unfamiliar brand if offered the right deal at the right time.", "In light of health care reform measures, Rush University Medical Center has launched a study of its program to help older adults transition from hospital to home.", "Drunk drivers hide out in hospitals, says a recent study that appears in the BC Medical Journal.", "Researchers at one of the top five hospitals in the United States have developed an advanced search tool called the Queriable Patient Inference Dossier that helps radiologists and other physicians extract useful data from a patient's electronic medical record in a timely and efficient manner, according to an article in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.", "Hospital patients are routinely treated in TV rooms, mop cupboards and corridors because hospitals are too full, a survey has suggested.", "A private research group reports consumers' confidence in the economy has fallen unexpectedly in June as shoppers fret about job security.", "Use of electronic health records by hospitals across the United States has had only a limited effect on improving the quality of medical care, according to a new RAND Corporation study.", "Chinese consumer confidence is expected to keep growing in the coming year as most consumers believe the recession is behind them, according to a survey released by global marketing research firm ACNielsen, the China Daily reported today.", "BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion is not exiting the consumer market.", "The study, which is published in the December issue of Health Affairs, calls for reform of Medicare reimbursement rates and hospice eligibility requirements.", "Stores and restaurants throughout New Mexico are no longer offering tomatoes after 17 people were hospitalized with salmonella from consuming raw Roma and large round varieties.", "Older hospitals patients with pressure ulcers stay significantly longer than other older patients, say German researchers from University Hospital Aachen.", "Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital recently took it upon themselves to research the impact meditation has on a person's brain.", "Research which suggests that patients are more likely to die in hospital if they are admitted at the weekend has been backed up by a major study.", "The quality of emergency medical care at the nation's hospitals varies widely - both individually and by state - according to a new HealthGrades study released today that, for the first time, examines mortality rates for patients entering hospitals through emergency departments.", "A new Arizona State University study has found that American hospitals are making preventable medical errors that kill thousands of Americans each year.", "A new study of patient demand in Harris County has found that the hospital district is bursting at the seams.", "Irish consumer confidence indicator improved in June from the previous month, a latest report from the KBC Bank Ireland and the Economic and Social Research Institute showed on Tuesday.", "Apple responds to NPD's research report which recently suggested that Android was more popular amongst US consumers than the iPhone in Q1 2010.", "Patients prefer to challenge nurses rather than doctors about safety issues related to their care, reveals research in the journal Quality and Safety in Health Care.", "Millward Brown, the WPP-owned market research firm, has launched a consumer neuroscience research service in Australia.", "A newly-revamped audit of medicine sales in the country shows that drugs are selling faster in hospitals than in chemist shops suggesting that hospitals are gaining in importance as customers of pharmaceutical companies.", "Consumers are jeopardising their health by cutting back on dental and eye tests to save money as the nation struggles with its finances, according to new research.", "A Columbia hospital is offering free stroke screenings next week as part of a month long awareness campaign.", "The majority of consumers fail to use data archiving strategies on a regular basis, according to new research.", "Patient panel characteristics are linked to quality ratings of primary care physicians, according to the results of a study reported in the September 8 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.", "AOTMP's latest research report offers key benchmarks for evaluating ROI and cost savings from enterprise telecom expense management programs.", "Hospitals like Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center are looking more and more like luxury hotels.", "Porter Hospital reported no medical errors in 2007, while Memorial Hospital of South Bend, which is planning a new hospital in Valparaiso, reported two errors.", "More hospitals have been operating in the red this year as they grapple with economic conditions and treat more people who are unable to pay for care, according to a recent survey of the NH Hospital Association." ]

[ "Add the install information required for the new module version in the hook_install and hook_schema.\n\nUsers upgrading presumably won't be re-installing the module, so you'll need to use hook_update_N for those users. Check if the upgrade path is required for that installation and proceed with the update as needed." ]

[ "1.I have read somewhere you cannot use some 3rd party modules in Commerce version... First question would be: is it correct? If so, then I have lot of doubts at this point\n===== Yes it possible and that is depend on the different vendor how they developed the extension.\n2.This is purely because of code differences (code which exists in Commerce core version, but it doesn't in Open Source version), or is it some kind of legal thing about modules licensing?\n===== You can check the vendor extension policy for this one.\n\nIs there any way or tool to test that upgrade process to have a preview about errors we'll face &amp; be able to plan something to fix them?\n\n===== Yes, you can create stage website and try to upgrade that one.\n\nAny way to know which modules (apart from the Marketplace ones) we'd need to remove / rewrite?\n\nApart from the code differences, is there any other requirement about coding quality (such as including testing, etc...) to have a module working in Commerce version?\n====== The only way is after doing the migration you need to test the extension, so you get idea.", "There are two conditions in which I've encountered that relate to updates and patches.\n\nUpgrade with Updates\n\nUpgrade Sitecore versions using the .update package when moving from Sitecore 8.2u4 to 8.2u6. The update nomenclature may appear as a revision with a date or simply an update number. The use of \"update\" and \"upgrade\" may be used interchangeably. Sitecore announces the updates through communication channels such as Sitecore Slack Chat, Twitter, and the Community site.\n\nPatches\n\nPatch Sitecore libraries with files provided by Sitecore Support. These are tested specifically with the version of Sitecore you are running and the version of other modules. I had a case where I needed a patch to fix the Switching provider used with the Active Directory module. After upgrading Sitecore, the patch was no longer necessary. You must reach out to Sitecore Support directly for patches.", "\"client\" property can be defined in the extension tag. For example:\n\n&lt;extension type=\"module\" version=\"3.5\" client=\"site\" method=\"upgrade\"&gt;\n\n\nTo install the module in the administrator area:\n\n&lt;extension type=\"module\" version=\"2.5\" client=\"administrator\" method=\"upgrade\"&gt;", "If it is a full IOS-XE upgrade, then no, you will need to restart the stack to run the new code. Remember that all the switches in the stack must be running the same code version.\n\nIf it is a SMU (Software Maintenance Upgrade), then it may be possible to upgrade a module without restarting the stack, but you will probably have some downtime, depending on the specific upgrade. The 9300 series was designed so that separate modules of the code can be individually upgraded, but as far as I know, Cisco has not yet released any such upgrades.\n\nIn any case, you should always anticipate needing to have some downtime when performing a software upgrade on a switch or switch stack (including switches that support ISSU), even if it is only a few seconds. You should only do such work during a network maintenance window.\n\nCisco has many documents regarding upgrading software on the 9300 switch series if you simply search.", "Kernel modules are installed on a per-version basis. After you upgrade to a new kernel version, you need to re-install the VirtualBox modules (and any other out-of-tree modules, such as closed-source video drivers).", "As far as I know, the only way to upgrade a feature is by calling the Upgrade() method. Any other operation, including deactivation/reactivation, solution upgrade/update etc should in no way force a feature upgrade. I have upgraded some feature after a solution update in the past and they were NOT automatically upgraded by the Update-SpSolution cmdlet (I had to use my edited version of the Feature Upgrade page that Chris developed ^_^). This post on Chris blog also seems to confirm my experience - but anyone, fell free to add further references to Microsoft offical documentation as needed.\n\nTo elaborate on your second question - feature upgrade and solution update - they are different concepts.\n\nTo keep the same nomenclature used by the page you referenced Solution update is a special case of solution upgrade. You -upgrade- the solution any time you deploy a new version, but only some deploy may qualify for solution update (and even then you may chose to do a full retract/add cycle). As you can see from the linked page when you want to \"install a new version of a solution\" (the operation MSDN call upgrade - at last most of the times -_-') you have two options: \n\n\nRetract solution / Add solution (solution Replacement): the most common option, you retract (/remove) the solution and then procede to add the new version. This procedure often requires additional action to be taken to avoid common problems (features deactivated on the solution retract etc).\nSolution Update: you update the solution without retracting it. In this case, features remain untouched (no deactivation will be performed) but your assembly and other solution files will be updated.\n\n\nAs you see, most time solution update is the easier path to follow, but it isn't always possible due to the limitations that a new version must follow to qualify for solution update. To be clearer, you may want to use solution update to semplify a deploy process when:\n\n\nyou have only fixed some bugs in you codebehind, so only your solution dll have changed (please - DO NOT think about \"I will just drop them in gac\" ^_^).\nyou have only changed the layout of a custom control (moved a button, changed a label)\nany other case that fits the requirement for update.\n\n\nFeature upgrade on the other hand is something you may want to use to perform additional action when a new version of a feature is installed in the farm (remember, -you- must trigger the upgrade). Please refer to the documentation for further details - by using the feature upgrade framework you may (only some examples here):\n\n\nAdd a new field to a deployed site content type and have the change propagated to the derived list content types.\nRename a file in a module\nAdd a receiver handler that will execute your custom code when the feature is upgraded\n\n\nThose were only some samples of what you can do. Basically with feature upgrade you may define an upgrade path - a set of operation that must be performed to allineate an already active feature to the current version. Just remember that deactivating the feature and then reactivating it will NOT execute any of the upgrade logic.", "Unfortunately there is no upgrade path 1.4 -> 2.0\nSo there is no option to just upgrade.\n\nHowever most of the templates remain the same, with some additional fields, that usually have standard values.\nSo in my opinion the best option will be:\n* serialize/package your custom provider and all tenant branches you've configured\n* Uninstall DEF 1.3 and proceed with platform upgrade\n* In your solution upgrade sitecore and DEF references to 9.2 and 3.0 ant fix all issues.\n* Install DEF 3.0 on top of upgraded 9.2 and try to install your custom provider and tool.\nI've just done some similar upgrade for open source DropBox provider, so you can use this little pull request as reference:\nhttps://github.com/ianjohngraham/sitecorehackathon2017/pull/1/files", "In principle, different versions of license X are different licenses. This means that a \"version upgrade\" of a license should in principle be treated as a license change.\n\nHowever, some licenses explicitly contain provisions for version upgrades. In that case, a version upgrade of the license can be applied at any time by anyone who legally obtained a copy of the code.\nThe MPL license contains such an version upgrade clause, but the Apache license does not.", "When I did an upgrade from 7.2 to 8.1 earlier this year, I followed these steps:\n\n\nSetup a new instance of Sitecore 8.1 and configure it according to the documentation.\nGet my settings/layouts into some sort of source control (using Unicorn or TDS)\nApply those settings/layouts to my new instance\nCompile the existing code against the new version of Sitecore, making whatever programming changes were necessary. This took a long time.\nApply a content package from Production, and make sure that the site is working.\nFreeze content, generate a final content package, apply it to your new servers.\nRun an automated smoke test against the site to make sure that everything in the site is working as expected.\n\n\nFor me, making sure that I had some level of automated end-to-end test was a requirement before we could do a big site-wide upgrade. We had to have all of the major functionality automatically tested before I would entertain an idea of upgrading. \n\nFor us, we didn't use any of the \"Big Data\" features in Sitecore prior to 8.1, so keeping that data was not a priority for us. If it is, then you will have to go through the painful process of upgrading one version at a time.", "Once upon a time, there was an sObject called FeedPost that stored a Chatter feed post. The Great Maker of sObjects at salesforce.com deemed this good. \n\nUntil API version 21. When the Great Maker of sObjects deemed FeedPost to not include enough functionality as we now wanted new things in the feed and so FeedPost became FeedItem. And all were happy...\n\n...including developers who had Apex classes using FeedPost who were secure in the knowledge that their code would work provided they didn't need this fancy newfangled FeedItem functionality. Inevitably they upgraded their API versions, but they were grateful to the Apex API version that only made them refactor code when their business requirements forced them to do so and that the new release of API version 21 didn't arbitrarily break their code. \n\nFor ten major releases, developers were happy and coded blithely away with this wonderful sObject called FeedItem. But 'lo and behold, a new sObject has recently been foretold in the &lt;safeharbor&gt;pre-release notes for Winter 15&lt;/safeharbor&gt;. Soon, the Great Maker will beget a new sObject called FeedElement. What will this portend for our Salesforce developers? \n\nIn all seriousness, if you arbitrarily update API versions you are giving yourself work arbitrarily. There is no benefit. We try very hard to give a predictable API so that it doesn't break integrations and code, so customers and app providers can refactor when they need as requirements dictate, or when they decide to perform a technical debt cleanup. This is the whole purpose of the API version: to make your code/integrations predictable. To just go and update because an API version seems too old is just giving yourself headaches and work for no reason. \n\nBut if a customer really insisted upon this, here is what I would suggest: \n\n\nRun an upgrade script as per the comments above via the Metadata API. See which classes fail to compile outright. Fix them. \nRerun the upgrade script now that you've fixed the compile problems. Now run all unit tests, and find what you've broken. Fix that. \nRun some end user tests to try to get to test cases not covered by your test code. Collect bugs, fix them\nRealize that you never ever want to do this process again. \n\n\nThe reality is changes to the standard data model are infrequent at best. And I am exaggerating a bit. But there is no real gain from upgrading API version ever, unless you need to take advantage of a new feature on the platform. I can tell you that we still have customers running integrations against every API version out there and running Apex code against every API version that runs Apex. \n\nTake for example the changes to the Chatter ConnectApi Apex classes coming in Winter15. If you want to use those (and there are some really good reasons to like bulk Chatter updates!), then fine, upgrade those classes to the API Version 32.0 when it goes GA. But if you have a class that is performing some lowly Apex Managed Sharing on an Account record...then why bother!?", "Excellent :-)\nYou will want to find out where your module lives -&gt; determine whether it lives in /sites/all/modules or in /sites/default/modules\nDownload a copy of the latest 7.x-5.x from our drupal.org project page: https://www.drupal.org/project/webform_civicrm\nUnpack that tar.gz\nThen replace what you have in /sites/all/webform_civicrm or /sites/default/modules/webform_civicrm with that new copy you just downloaded/unpacked using sftp or scp (depending on your access to your site)\nRunning database updates is a good idea - always do that after you update any module. You can do that by typing /update.php behind your base URL in the browser - or go to Reports -&gt; Status Report and follow link (it should be reporting to you whether there are any pending database updates).", "While upgrading via apt-get, one usually gets a prompt of what to do with the config file (Install new version, Keep the old version, etc).\n\nIf we choose to keep the current version, the new config files get stored with an extension (.dpkg-dist).\n\nThe following command can be used to list the new files:\n\nfind /etc -type f -name \"*.dpkg-dist\"\n\n\nAnd to take action on these config files, we can use the provided ucf tool. Its syntax is:\n\nucf &lt;new-file&gt; &lt;old-file&gt;\n\n\nFor example,\n\nucf /etc/sysctl.conf.dpkg-dist /etc/sysctl.conf\n\n\nSee also,\n\nhttps://raphaelhertzog.com/2010/09/21/debian-conffile-configuration-file-managed-by-dpkg/", "UPDATE: Note this is now slightly out of date but the gist is correct, so follow the spirit if not the exact details. In particular if I was doing it again now there is a non-roundearth way to also install D8+civi, e.g. https://civicrm.stackexchange.com/a/35608/181 (official docs are in the works), and that method will set different path settings in civicrm.settings.php for you than described below, e.g.\n\n$civicrm_paths['civicrm.files']['url'] = 'http://example.com/sites/default/files/civicrm';\n$civicrm_paths['civicrm.files']['path'] = '/full/filesystem/path/to/sites/default/files/civicrm';\n\n\n\n\n\nStart creating a new D8+civi site by using the installer at https://gitlab.com/roundearth/drupal-civicrm-project.\nWhen doing the D8 install part, just install a minimal site and don't further configure it - just what's needed to get D8 installed.\nFollow the standard drupal instructions to upgrade. https://www.drupal.org/docs/8/upgrade/upgrading-from-drupal-6-or-7-to-drupal-8. The short version is enable the Migrate UI module on the new site and then go to /upgrade.\nDo not enable civicrm yet.\nFrom your old site, export the civicrm_xxx tables.\nThere is probably a better way to do this step but it worked for me to manually update any urls and paths in the export file (taking care with php-serialized strings) and then import the sql file into the new database. Note that any references to sites/all/modules/civicrm are now under vendor/civicrm/civicrm-core. URLs for sites/default/files/... can stay as is, but note that filepaths will now be web/sites/default/files. Also userFrameworkResourceURL is now libraries/civicrm.\nCopy civicrm.settings.php to the new site under web/sites/default. Edit the file:\nChange CIVICRM_UF from \"Drupal\" to \"Drupal8\".\nChange the mysql connection strings.\nChange paths and urls as above. Again note civicrm_root is now under vendor/civicrm/civicrm-core, and you need to put \"web/\" in front of filepaths to \"sites/XXX\".\nEnable the civicrm module.\nClear caches at admin/config/development/performance and also the civicrm caches at civicrm/admin/setting/updateConfigBackend?reset=1. I also ran /civicrm/menu/rebuild?reset=1 but I'm not sure it's necessary here.\nThe UI will look all messed up because it was a minimal drupal install but you can change the theme and set things as you normally would.\nYou may also need to set these settings in civicrm.settings.php:\n$civicrm_setting['URL Preferences']['userFrameworkResourceURL'] = CIVICRM_UF_BASEURL . '/libraries/civicrm/';\n$civicrm_paths['civicrm.root']['url'] = CIVICRM_UF_BASEURL . '/libraries/civicrm/';\n$civicrm_setting['domain']['userFrameworkResourceURL'] = CIVICRM_UF_BASEURL . '/libraries/civicrm/';\n$civicrm_paths['cms.root']['path'] = '/full/path/to/web'; // the \"web\" folder at the root of the install", "If two modules are altering the same menu item / form / page etc, last one will \"win\". \n\nIf you need some control over this, and are expecting collisions, you need to implement hook_module_implements_alter:\n\n\n This hook is invoked during module_implements(). A module may implement this hook in order to reorder the implementing modules, which are otherwise ordered by the module's system weight.\n\n\nDo your best to have your hook fire last, and if menu item you are altering does not look like the one you are expecting (it was altered already), write a warning message to watchdog.", "One of example of upgrade schema and data\n\nPath should be like this: app/code/Vendor/YourModule/Setup/UpgradeSchema.php\n\n&lt;?php\nnamespace Vendor\\YourModule\\Setup;\n\nuse Magento\\Framework\\Setup\\UpgradeSchemaInterface;\nuse Magento\\Framework\\Setup\\SchemaSetupInterface;\nuse Magento\\Framework\\Setup\\ModuleContextInterface;\n\nclass UpgradeSchema implements UpgradeSchemaInterface\n{\n public function upgrade( SchemaSetupInterface $setup, ModuleContextInterface $context ) {\n $installer = $setup;\n\n $installer-&gt;startSetup();\n if(version_compare($context-&gt;getVersion(), '1.0.1', '&lt;')) {\n $installer-&gt;getConnection()-&gt;dropColumn(\n $installer-&gt;getTable('data_example'),\n 'created_at'\n );\n }\n\n $installer-&gt;endSetup();\n }\n}\n\n\nNote: We have to check module version of in upgrade function. In this example we upgraded module from version 1.0.0 to 1.0.1. Drop created_at column from data_example table.\n\nPath should be like this: app/code/Vendor/YourModule/Setup/UpgradeData.php\n\n&lt;?php\nnamespace Vendor\\YourModule\\Setup;\n\nuse Magento\\Framework\\Setup\\UpgradeDataInterface;\nuse Magento\\Framework\\Setup\\ModuleDataSetupInterface;\nuse Magento\\Framework\\Setup\\ModuleContextInterface;\n\nclass UpgradeData implements UpgradeDataInterface\n{\n protected $_exampleFactory;\n\n public function __construct(\\Magestore\\DataExample\\Model\\ExampleFactory $exampleFactory)\n {\n $this-&gt;_exampleFactory = $exampleFactory;\n }\n\n public function upgrade( ModuleDataSetupInterface $setup, ModuleContextInterface $context ) {\n if ( version_compare($context-&gt;getVersion(), '1.0.1', '&lt;' )) {\n $data = [\n 'title' =&gt; \"The second example title\",\n 'content' =&gt; \"The second example content\"\n ];\n $example = $this-&gt;_exampleFactory-&gt;create();\n $example&gt;addData($dalogta)-&gt;save();\n }\n }\n}\n\n\nI hope this will help", "When upgrading check all customised files include all the correct changes for your current version.\n\nI was missing a section of code in the membership template.", "Based only what you have said so far 40 hours is excessive and 4 hours is more reasonable. But some further discovery or prior knowledge of the kind of customizations you have in your site might make 40 hours a reasonable quote. For example, needing to upgrade a few extensions so they are available for 4.6 and do some advanced theming might require 40 hours.\n\nOur upgrade process involves:\n\n\nReviewing the standard native CiviCRM extensions and CMS modules/plugins used and ensuring they are available for the new CiviCRM version,\nFinding and analyzing the native CiviCRM extension built just for the site as well as the custom CMS modules/plugins developed just for the site - they may need adjustment, perhaps significant, \nReviewing whether there is custom code and / or templates overriding CiviCRM or even using jQuery to adjust the DOM - this is often where some developer time is required during an upgrade,\nReviewing the theme for CiviCRM customizations and noting they will need to be checked post-upgrade - the more extensive the more risk of breakage during the upgrade,\nOn Drupal sites, checking for tweaks and customizations within the views using CiviCRM, or any non-views blocks etc that pull in CiviCRM data,\nOn multilingual or non-English sites, checking for the availability of translations for CiviCRM, native extensions, and CMs modules/plugins,\nOn a complex upgrade this is where we would provide the scope and estimate to the client.\n\n\nIn terms of the actual upgrade process, it involves:\n\n\nBacking up the site and restoring it locally, \nRunning the upgrade process,\nAddressing issues identified in 1 to 6 above, \nQA of result,\nUsually deploying site to staging for signoff by other JMA staff and client (skipped for simple upgrades)\nAfter signoff, upgrading production site, usually by taking it offline during night in primary site timezones, doing the upgrade, deploying the changes from 9 to 11 above, and putting it back online.\n\n\nTo summarize the factors affecting the cost of upgrades:\n\n\nIn browser CiviCRM configuration changes like creating custom fields and profiles don't require extra work to upgrade.\nMore references to pages in CiviCRM from the CMS don't create extra work on upgrades.\nThe use of each additional native extension from the CiviCRM extensions directory and standard downloaded CMS module/plugin that interacts with CiviCRM slightly increases the risk of extra work.\nThe more code in extensions, modules/plugins, themes and especially custom PHP and Smarty template override files developed just for this site the more likely that developer time will be needed, and that more of it will be needed.", "It can be time consuming and thus expensive to do security upgrades, especially on a site that has custom code. Monitoring requires some setup and sometimes an ability to respond quickly when something goes wrong.\n\nSome providers bundle these services with hosting. Others provide them without the hosting.\n\nI would compare the full cost of migration + hosting + security upgrades + monitoring between providers. You might also find that your site doesn't need every security upgrade - ask about options here since some providers want to upgrade all sites on every security release, while others will evaluate if the security vulnerability applies to your site given its configuration. And you might be willing to risk your site having troubles or being offline for a while before you notice in order to save some money on monitoring.\n\nMigrating a site to a new server can be fairly simple, or sometimes not, depending alot on the server setups and the age of the site. Moving from an old server with an old CMS to a new one might cause issues with version of PHP for some custom or old Drupal 6 modules, etc. However, some hosting providers are willing to do the migration for free on the expectation that the costs can be amortized over the length of your time hosting with them.", "I think what you're looking for is the ASF Conversion Wizard. According to the linked page, this wizard is supposed to be launched whenever the ASF version changes. If is not launching for you, you can open the ASF Wizard in your existing project, and under the Version tab, you can change the ASF version for your current project. Make sure the \"Trigger upgrade of modules\" box is checked:\n\n\n\nImage is from ASF Wizard documentation.\n\nFor viewing changes before you upgrade the ASF version, I think the release notes for a given ASF release are your only resource. They're admittedly not very complete, but I can't find any other documentation about them.\n\nI don't know of any way to cherry-pick different sections of an ASF release. I don't think this is a great idea anyway, unless you're willing to wade through a lot of dependencies. Not all components of the ASF are direct windows between your software and the hardware; some of it is middleware that other components of the same ASF release may rely on. By picking and choosing which aspects of the ASF to update, you risks losing APIs, structure definitions, and other code that you may need in a non-obvious way.\n\nLast note: the only ASF git repository I can find is here: https://spaces.atmel.com/gf/project/asf/scmgit/. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have been updated since 2012. I can't find any more up-to-date repositories.", "In answer to part (a) there is the Resource Conflict module, which appears to be similar in goal to the modules you mention above.\n\nAs for part (b) I'd argue that it is typically better to update or replace custom spaghetti code in such a way to work with existing modules--doing so will greatly ease the work of future maintainers of your code, and allow it to benefit from future enhancements to the Bookings API.", "This is conceptually off. Possibly a hidden assumption is that modifying your code is an option. \n\nI'll explain the default conditions and then touch on some edgy workarounds. \n\nDefault case\n\nContracts are immutable. You don't get to amend them. If you could arbitrarily change them then they wouldn't be contracts. A good deal of the trust that arises from a contract is the knowledge that no one, not even the author can change anything. \n\nEven a minor defect can have non-trivial consequences and this implies the need for a renewed focus on quality-assurance because it may be difficult or impossible to change a line of code after a contract is published. \n\nWork flow\n\nIt goes without saying that there is always plenty of iteration during inception and development. Mainnet isn't the place for experimentation. Tools like ganache and private chains you can set up with one node are appropriate. When you think it's ready for a public debut, you can deploy on a testnet. These are all precursors to what should be a ceremonious occasion when you publish the contract on mainnet. Generally, this closes the door on further evolution of the code. It has been described as launching a spacecraft. What's on board is beyond your reach from then on. \n\nNew contracts are new instances\n\nYou can use the same source code to deploy another version of the same contract. It gets it own address and follows the same logic. It doesn't replace or interfere with the original. In some cases, user-bases have been migrated to new instances. This usually involves reading the complete dataset in the original, writing the data to a new implementation and redirecting users to the new contract. It can be confusing and controversial. \n\nUpgradable contracts\n\nThere are several approaches to upgradable contracts. Modular design is a good start. A contract can hold the addresses of component contracts and pass messages back and forth. Addresses are data (address myServantl) so they are potentially changeable, and that can be used to create a workflow for possible upgrade. \n\nThe eternal storage pattern separates immutable data from potentially amendable logic contracts. The ENS name service can help sort out which logic contracts are \"official\". \n\nThere are proxy contract patterns that use a not-upgradeable entry point that delegates all operations to interchangeable implementation contracts using DELEGATECALL. \n\nCountless other combinations of libraries and modular design are possible. \n\nTL;DR;\n\nContracts are upgradable to the extent that you design upgrade processes. The default is no upgradability exists in the append-only universe. \n\nMeta concerns\n\nMost upgradable patterns imply a privileged user who can decide to change the rules of the contract at will. This implies reintroduction of a non-trivial degree of centralization. Have a look at this: https://medium.com/consensys-diligence/upgradeability-is-a-bug-dba0203152ce\n\nTrustless upgrades\n\nThe trustless upgrade pattern severely restricts the author's authority. Rather being the contract owner who (for some reason) gets to decide for everyone, the privileged user (or organization, or DAO) can only propose an upgrade. Individual users decide if they wish to accept it. In the case that the upgrade resolves a major issue or substancially improves matters, this is a solution. In the case that author wishes for everyone to switch to a new version that steals their money, the users would be expected to reject it. It allows for the case that some users want the upgrade and some don't. \n\nAs the software architect, your task is to choose among these options the best combination of properties for your project. For example, many cases should not be upgradable. Consider a value token. It is probably a defect if the rules can be changed. In other cases, it will not be sensible for users to simultaneously use different versions of logic. In some cases, trustless will provide an upgrade path for periodic iteration of the production code. \n\nhttps://github.com/rob-Hitchens/TrustlessUpgrades \n\nProceed on the basis that nothing can every be changed and then carefully consider the justification and method, especially the authority and the limits on authority that should exist when deciding which upgradable patterns to use. \n\nHope it helps.", "Your idea is similar to the way that I used to perform upgrades before TDS. The below is the strategy that I used to use, which I call the &quot;Hybrid-Clean Upgrade Strategy&quot;:\nHybrid-Clean Upgrade Strategy\n\nIdentify your upgrade path (all the versions that you will need to &quot;pass through&quot; as you iteratively upgrade to your target version) and set your current solution (everything but your databases) aside for later\nBack up your databases with a unique name that includes the Sitecore version (don't overwrite existing backups)\nDownload a clean instance of the current Sitecore version in your upgrade path (the one your instance is currently on) and install it on your machine\nSet the clean databases for the downloaded instance aside, back up the clean instance's configs to a zip (with a name containing the Sitecore version) and connect your existing databases to the clean instance\nInstall the Sitecore update package to update to the next version in your upgrade path on your newly set up instance (clean instance connecting to your existing databases). You can skip all manual steps for the file system, configuration, etc., except for those that require database schema changes, database script executions and/or other content changes that will be stored in the database\nDelete the newly upgraded instance's website, keeping only the clean databases (set aside for later), the backed up clean configs (set aside for later), and your existing databases\nRepeat steps 2-6 until your existing databases have been upgraded to the target version\nAt this point, you should have a clean copy of the databases for each instance in your upgrade path, as well as your existing databases (now upgraded to the target version), and backups of them from each step along the way. Set your existing (upgraded) databases aside for later, along with their backups (don't delete the backups until you are finished and certain that the entire upgrade was successful)\nBack up the current state of your solution to a zip with the Sitecore version number in the name, and/or commit its current state to a source control repository/branch with the Sitecore version number in the commit comment (or tag name, etc. - just make sure you can identify the Sitecore version at each revision)\nNow go back to your solution and connect it to the clean Sitecore databases (the ones you set aside, earlier) for the version that it is currently on\nInstall the update package to upgrade your solution to the next version in your upgrade path\nFollow all of the manual steps, except for those that involve database schema changes, database script executions, or other content changes that will be preserved in the database\nNow compare the configs in your solution to the clean configs for the new current version (I recommend either KDiff3 or WinMerge, but you can use whichever diff-viewer your heart desires). Make sure that everything matches up with what you would expect to see. If anything is awry, fix and test before continuing\nRepeat steps 9-13 until your solution has been upgraded to the target version\nConnect your upgraded solution to your upgraded databases, both of which should be at the targeted version\nTest, test and test some more!\n\nWhat you should end up with\nAt this point, you should have all of the following:\n\nUpgraded solution\nUpgraded databases\nBackup of upgraded solution for each version in upgrade path\nBackup of upgraded databases for each version in upgrade path\nCopy of clean configs for each version in upgrade path\n\nTesting\nGiven what you have at the end, you can now test to make sure that your solution is working in the target version and if not you can test each version that you upgraded to in the upgrade path to find out where things went wrong and fix them for each subsequent version.\nIf desired, you can optionally modify the strategy and run both the database and solution upgrades at the same time, reconnect them after each version upgrade and test before upgrading to the next version. I usually don't do this, unless something went wrong (which is rare), in which case I simulate this with my backups.\nPros\n\nSpeed: because either the databases or the website is always clean, each update packages installs a bit quicker than it would otherwise (though still slower than a fully-clean instance). You can start the upgrade for the databases while you set up the upgrade for the solution, so that they both run at the same time. Depending on the complexities of your databases and your solution, you may want to alternate which you do first, based on the amount of time each takes\nReduced errors: since either the databases or the website is always clean, you have less errors on each update to go through, and there are also less errors thrown by Sitecore for things that it didn't expect/doesn't recognize\nUpgrade record: you have a historical record of the upgrade process and the state of your solution at each step along the way. You can stand up an instance of the historical state of your site at any version in the upgrade path that you might need, on demand with little to no effort.\n\nCons\n\nAt the end of the day, you are still running each update package twice\nRequires more hard-drive space\n\n\nImproving the Hybrid-Clean Upgrade Strategy with TDS\nWhen performing a Sitecore upgrade using the Hybrid-Clean Upgrade Strategy TDS can cut the time and effort required for the upgrade down by almost half!\nChanges to the Upgrade Strategy\nIf you have TDS, you can ignore the entire database side of the upgrade and simply serialize your existing (old) Sitecore databases using TDS and then deserialize them into a clean copy of the databases for your targeted version of Sitecore.\nChanges to Testing Procedures\nIf you want to test at each step along the way, or if you need to roll back to retest at a particular version in your upgrade path, don't fret about not having copies of the databases at those versions! TDS can help with that too! All you would need to do is the same thing that you are planning to do at the end of the upgrade: attach a clean copy of the databases at the desired version, point TDS at them and deserialize your site tree into those databases. You should now be ready for testing.\nAdditional Considerations\n\nIf you are using Sitecore membership then you may need to come up with an upgrade/migration strategy for users, which may mean running the upgrade with clean master and web databases but your existing core database\nIf you are using analytics then you may need to come up with an analytics upgrade/migration strategy", "What are you expected to do with the older versions...?\n\n\nThat is something that is decided by every project maintainer. Some projects will only provide support and updates for the latest release, others may also provide updates for several past releases.\n\nYou have provided an update and documented a known issue, even for an old version released before you started your fork of the project. I would say you have done more than what is expected of you. It is now up to the users to update what they have installed.\n\nIf the issue is of big enough scope, then taking steps to hinder acquiring older versions of the code will help to prevent additional vulnerable installations and encourage packaging systems to be updated. That is the most you can be expected to do.", "You need to setup (and subscribe to) Sitecore Device Detection.\n\n\nYou must have Sitecore 8.1 or later installed. From Sitecore XP 9.0 and onwards, the Device Detection functionality is available by default without needing to purchase an additional subscription.\nTo optimize access to the Device database in a scaled environment, it is best practice to store the database in a location where all of your Sitecore instances can access it. You can do this by setting the common path for each Sitecore server as shown:\n\n\n&lt;setting name=\"DeviceDetection.DatabasePath\" value=\"/App_Data/DeviceDetection\" /&gt;\n\n\nIf you are running Sitecore Experience Platform 8.0, you must upgrade to the latest version to use Device Detection. The device functionality is upgraded automatically.", "The documentation advises:\n\n\n Minor releases never change the internal storage format and are always compatible with earlier and later minor releases of the same major version number. For example, version 10.1 is compatible with version 10.0 and version 10.6. Similarly, for example, 9.5.3 is compatible with 9.5.0, 9.5.1, and 9.5.6. To update between compatible versions, you simply replace the executables while the server is down and restart the server. The data directory remains unchanged — minor upgrades are that simple.\n\n\nIn addition, you should check the release notes for additional requirements.\nIn your case, additional activities are necessary if you are using the intarray contrib module.", "So probably the best thing you can be doing is doing your updates locally, testing them, and then pushing them to the production environment.\nYou can read more about it in the Updating Craft CMS without Headaches article.\nYou still have the opportunity to do this here... get a local dev environment set up, pull down your code and database, then get it up and running on a PHP version such as PHP 7.4 that will work with older versions of Craft as well as Craft 3.6.\nThen do the update locally, and deploy the update to your production server.", "Try the examples module: \n\n\n This project aims to provide high-quality, well-documented API\n examples for a broad range of Drupal core functionality.\n \n The Examples project contains many modules which hopefully illustrate\n best practices for implementing various Drupal APIs. These modules can\n be enabled individually, and will typically add menu items to your\n site, which should guide you through their features. You can then look\n through the code to see what they are doing.\n\n\nIt has a drupal 7 &amp; 8 entity example in which has a test as well.", "You can do this with the Locale module, which is provided by core. Steps are for Drupal 7. This assumes you want to completely replace the built-in English with your own custom version of English (which will still show the strings for the built-in English unless you have translated/edited them).\n\n\nEnable the locale module.\nGo to languages admin (/admin/config/regional/language).\nClick edit for the English (built-in) language. Add en as the Path prefix (this will allow you to add your own language without a path prefix.) Save.\nClick \"Add a language\"\nChoose \"Custom language\", set a language code, set both language names to English, leave Path prefix and Language domain blank, and choose Left to right for the Direction.\nGo back to the language list (/admin/config/regional/language) and set your new English as the default language. Then uncheck Enabled for the built-in English.\nTranslate all the strings you want to modify on the translation screen (/admin/config/regional/translate/translate).", "When making structural changes to tables there are 2 basic approaches:\n\n\nadd versioning in the data from day 1 and then support old versions of the data well enough to do \"just in time\" upgrades.\ndeploy a migration contract in-between version N and N+1 which can read the data and convert it, OR ingests transactions with data converted in an out-of-chain process; then issue the setcode with the N+1 code\n\n\nBoth of these require some pre-planning (like the ability to put your contract into a maintenance mode for user feedback)", "I'm pretty sure there's nothing to be done. You can rely on a Pre-Depend:, but these are to be avoided unless absolutely necessary, as they're a heavy burden on the dependency chain.\n\nYou can pre-process the scripts, if there's code to be shared. The debhelper tools already do this, inserting boilerplate into the various maintainer scripts.\n\nIt's rare to need to do complicated things in preinst or postinst. The main adhockery tends to be handling tricky upgrades, and that's usually custom code in a preinst.", "It sounds you are dealing with some 3rd party's application. In other words, the app vendor and your predecessor are not the same person.\n\nThe 3rd party would generally provide you with two things, an installer to use for new customers, and an upgrade process to upgrade the schema between versions of their app for existing customers. You either need to use one, or the other, not some bastardized combination between them. Restoring a dump of the old schema+data over the top of a newly-initialized schema for new customers would not be expected to work, unless the vendor said it does. \n\nThe vendor might also provide instructions on how to upgrade your PostgreSQL version, either by itself or coupled with upgrading the application version. If they do, then find and follow those instructions. If they don't then you have a few options.\n\n\nGo back to using the old database. Run the upgrade scripts against it. Worry about migrating that to a new database server later.\nCreate an empty database cluster (completely empty, not using the vendor's new-customer initialization stuff) and restore to that database cluster. The easiest way to do that is probably to use the \"-C\" (note upper case) flag to pg_restore. This will create the new database for you, with the name, encoding, etc. which was recorded in the dmp file. Alternatively, perhaps you just use your existing cluster (initialized with the app vendors new-customer schema) and add the -C flag to your restore. What that will do is drop the database they provided in-bulk (which will get around the dependency problems) and recreate it from what is in the dump file, meaning you get the old schema not the new one. Either way, you will now have the old application schema running in a new PostgreSQL database. Once this is working, then run the application upgrade script against this.\nAsk the 3rd party app vendor what to do.", "Jack,\n\nThere seems to be problem with the extensions you have installed. Try upgrading CiviCRM after disabling all the extensions. Some extension might not be compatible with latest version of CiviCRM. As a best practice we disable all the extension or plugin of CiviCRM and then perform CiviCRM upgrade. Once finished with upgrade we turn on extension or plugin one by one.\n\nHTH\n\nPradeep" ]

[ "Hollywood Walk of Fame A fee of $40,000 (as of 2018[update]),[37] payable at time of selection, is collected to pay for the creation and installation of the star, as well as general maintenance of the Walk of Fame. The fee is usually paid by the nominating organization, which may be a fan club, or a film studio, record company, broadcaster, or other sponsor involved with the prospective honoree.[21][136] The Starz cable network, for example, paid for Dennis Hopper's star as part of the promotion for its series Crash. The star was unveiled in March 2010 shortly before Hopper's death.[21][137]" ]

[ "Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame comprises more than 2,600[1] five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California. The stars are permanent public monuments to achievement in the entertainment industry, bearing the names of a mix of actors, musicians, directors, producers, musical and theatrical groups, fictional characters, and others. The Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and maintained by the self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust. It is a popular tourist destination, with a reported 10 million visitors[2] in 2003.", "Hollywood Walk of Fame Radio personality, television producer and Chamber member Johnny Grant is generally credited with implementing the changes that resuscitated the Walk and established it as a significant tourist attraction.[21][35] Beginning in 1968, he stimulated publicity and encouraged international press coverage by requiring that each recipient personally attend his or her star's unveiling ceremony.[21] Grant later recalled that \"it was tough to get people to come accept a star\" until the neighborhood finally began its recovery in the 1980s.[32] In 1980 he instituted a fee of $2,500, payable by the person or entity nominating the recipient, to fund the Walk of Fame's upkeep and minimize further taxpayer burden.[21] The fee has increased incrementally over time; by 2002 it had reached $15,000,[36] and stood at $30,000 in 2012.[4] The current (2017) fee is $40,000.[37]", "Hollywood Walk of Fame While Joanne Woodward is often singled out as the first to receive a star on the Walk of Fame,[25] in fact there was no \"first\" recipient; the original stars were installed as a continuous project, with no individual ceremonies. Woodward's name was one of eight drawn at random from the original 1,558 and inscribed on eight prototype stars that were built while litigation was still holding up permanent construction.[26][27][28] The eight prototypes were installed temporarily on the northwest corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in August 1958 to generate publicity and to demonstrate how the Walk would eventually look.[14] The other seven names were Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, and Ernest Torrence.[14][29] Official groundbreaking took place on February 8, 1960.[17] On March 28, 1960, the first permanent star, director Stanley Kramer's, was completed on the easternmost end of the new Walk near the intersection of Hollywood and Gower.[14][30] The Joanne Woodward legend may have originated, according to one source, because she was the first to pose with her star for photographers.[25]", "Hollywood Walk of Fame Each year an average of 200 nominations are submitted to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Walk of Fame Selection Committee. Anyone, including fans, can nominate anyone active in the field of entertainment as long as the nominee or his or her management approves the nomination (a letter of agreement from the nominated celebrity or representative must accompany the application). Nominees must have a minimum of five years' experience in the category for which they are nominated and a history of \"charitable contributions\".[72] Posthumous nominees must have been deceased at least five years. At a meeting each June, the committee selects approximately 20 celebrities to receive stars on the Walk of Fame during the following year. One posthumous award is given each year as well. The nominations of those not selected are rolled over to the following year for reconsideration; those not selected two years in a row are dropped, and must be renominated to receive further consideration. Living recipients must agree to personally attend a presentation ceremony within five years of selection. A relative of deceased recipients must attend posthumous presentations. Presentation ceremonies are open to the public.[4]", "Hollywood Walk of Fame The Walk of Fame runs 1.3 miles (2.1 km) east to west on Hollywood Boulevard from Gower Street to La Brea Avenue, plus a short segment of Marshfield Way that runs diagonally between Hollywood and La Brea; and 0.4 miles (0.64 km) north to south on Vine Street between Yucca Street and Sunset Boulevard. According to a 2003 report by the market research firm NPO Plog Research, the Walk attracts about 10 million visitors annually—more than Sunset Strip, TCL Chinese Theatre (formerly Grauman's), the Queen Mary, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art—and has played an important role in making tourism the largest industry in Los Angeles County.[3]", "Hollywood Walk of Fame The original selection committees chose to recognize some entertainers' contributions in multiple categories with multiple stars. Gene Autry is the only honoree with stars in all five categories.[52][53] Bob Hope, Mickey Rooney, Roy Rogers, and Tony Martin each have stars in four categories—Rooney has three of his own and a fourth with his eighth and final wife, Jan,[54][55] while Rogers also has three of his own, and a fourth with his band, Sons of the Pioneers.[56][57] Thirty-three people, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Dinah Shore, Gale Storm, Danny Kaye, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Jack Benny, have stars in three categories.[52]", "Canada's Walk of Fame Canada's Walk of Fame (French: Allée des célébrités canadiennes) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a walk of fame that acknowledges the achievements and accomplishments of Canadians. It is a series of maple leaf-like stars embedded in 13 designated blocks' worth of sidewalks in Toronto in front of Roy Thomson Hall, The Princess of Wales Theatre, and The Royal Alexandra Theatre on King Street as well as Simcoe Street.", "Allison Janney In 2004, she began lending her voice to television and radio spots created by Kaiser Permanente in the health maintenance organization's broad \"Thrive\" media campaign, and in a radio campaign for the American Institute of Architects.[16] In September 2010, it was announced that Janney would be the voice of the Aly San San spokesdroid in the Disney attraction Star Tours – The Adventures Continue.[17] The attraction later opened at Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disneyland. In October 2016, Janney became the first woman to receive the Alumni Award of The Hotchkiss School[18] and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in the television industry, located at 6100 Hollywood Boulevard.[19][20]", "Grauman's Chinese Theatre Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, United States. Originally known as Grauman's Chinese Theatre, it was renamed Mann's Chinese Theatre in 1973; the name lasted until 2001, after which it reverted to its original name. On January 11, 2013, Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL Corporation purchased the facility's naming rights, under which it is officially known as TCL Chinese Theatre.[2]", "Hollywood Sign In 1949, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce began a contract with the City of Los Angeles Parks Department to repair and rebuild the sign. The contract stipulated that \"LAND\" be removed to spell \"Hollywood\" and reflect the district, not the \"Hollywoodland\" housing development.[9] The Parks Department dictated that all subsequent illumination would be at the Chamber's expense, so the Chamber opted not to replace the lightbulbs. The 1949 effort gave it new life, but the sign's unprotected wood and sheet metal structure continued to deteriorate. By the 1970s, the first O had splintered and broken, resembling a lowercase u, and the third O had fallen down completely, leaving the severely dilapidated sign reading \"HuLLYWO D.\"[10][11]", "Jack Albertson Harold \"Jack\" Albertson (June 16, 1907 – November 25, 1981)[2] was an American actor, comedian, dancer and singer who also performed in vaudeville.[3] Albertson is known for his role as John Cleary in The Subject Was Roses (1968), for which he received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971); Manny Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure (1972); and Ed Brown in the television sitcom Chico and the Man (1974–78). For his contributions to the television industry, Albertson was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1977 at 6253 Hollywood Boulevard.[4]", "Hollywood Sign \"HOLLYWOOD\" is spelled out in 44-foot (13.4 m)-tall[1] white capital letters and is 352 feet (107.3 m) long. The sign was originally created in 1923 as an advertisement for a local real estate development, but due to increasing recognition, the sign was left up.[2] The sign has been a frequent target of pranks and vandalism across the decades, but it has since undergone restoration, including the installation of a security system to deter vandalism. The sign is protected and promoted by The Hollywood Sign Trust,[3] a nonprofit organization, while its site and the surrounding land are part of Griffith Park.", "Paul Rudd In addition to his film career, Rudd has appeared in numerous television shows, including the NBC sitcom Friends as Mike Hannigan, along with guest roles on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and Parks and Recreation (as businessman Bobby Newport), and hosting Saturday Night Live. Rudd received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 1, 2015.", "Jane Darwell Jane Darwell (born Patti Woodard, October 15, 1879 – August 13, 1967) was an American actress of stage, film, and television.[1] With appearances in more than one hundred major motion pictures spanning half a century, Darwell is perhaps best-remembered for her portrayal of the matriarch and leader of the Joad family in the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, for which she received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and her role as the Bird Woman in Disney's musical family film, Mary Poppins. Darwell has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.", "Mickey Mouse Mickey first appeared in the short Plane Crazy, debuting publicly in the short film Steamboat Willie (1928), one of the first sound cartoons. He went on to appear in over 130 films, including The Band Concert (1935), Brave Little Tailor (1938), and Fantasia (1940). Mickey appeared primarily in short films, but also occasionally in feature-length films. Ten of Mickey's cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which, Lend a Paw, won the award in 1942. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.", "WWE Hall of Fame The WWE Hall of Fame is a hall of fame for professional wrestling personalities maintained by WWE. It was announced on the March 22, 1993 episode of Monday Night Raw where André the Giant, who had died nearly two months prior, was announced as the sole inductee.[1][2][3] The 1994 and 1995 ceremonies were held in conjunction with the annual King of the Ring pay-per-view events. In 1996, the ceremony was held with the Survivor Series event, for the first time in front of a paying audience as well as the wrestlers, after which, the Hall of Fame went on hiatus.", "Rocky United Artists liked Stallone's script, and viewed it as a possible mode of transportation for a well-established star such as Robert Redford, Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds, or James Caan.[10] Stallone insisted upon portraying the title character himself, to the point of issuing an ultimatum. Stallone later said that he would never have forgiven himself, had the film become a success with somebody else in the lead. He also knew that producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff's contract with the studio enabled them to \"greenlight\" a project if the budget was kept low enough. The producers also collateralized any possible losses with their big-budget entry, New York, New York (whose eventual losses were covered by Rocky's success).[11][12] The film's production budget ended up being $1,075,000, with a further $100,000 spent on producers' fees and $4.2 million on advertising costs.[13]", "Holly Hunter Hunter became an executive producer, and helped develop a starring vehicle for herself with the TNT cable-network drama Saving Grace, which premiered in July 2007. For her acting, she received a Golden Globe Award nomination, two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, and an Emmy Award nomination. On May 30, 2008, Hunter received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2009, she was awarded the Women in Film Lucy Award.[4] In 2016, Hunter played Senator Finch in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.[5][6] Hunter's likeness was used to portray Senator Finch in the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice tie-in prequel comics, released by Dr. Pepper on February 3, 2016.", "American Idol The winner received a record deal with a major label, which may be for up to six albums,[46][47] and secures a management contract with American Idol-affiliated 19 Management (which has the right of first refusal to sign all contestants), as well as various lucrative contracts. All winners prior to season nine reportedly earned at least $1 million in their first year as winner.[47] All the runners-up of the first ten seasons, as well as some of other finalists, had also received record deals with major labels. However, starting in season 11, the runner-up may only be guaranteed a single-only deal.[48] BMG/Sony (seasons 1–9) and UMG (season 10–15) had the right of first refusal to sign contestants for three months after the season's finale. Starting in the fourteenth season, the winner was signed with Big Machine Records. Prominent music mogul Clive Davis also produced some of the selected contestants' albums, such as Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Fantasia Barrino and Diana DeGarmo. All top 10 (11 in seasons 10 and 12) finalists earn the privilege of going on a tour, where the participants may each earn a six-figure sum.[49]", "Met Gala Anna Wintour, Vogue editor-in-chief and a chair of the event since 1995 (excluding 1996 and 1998), oversees both the benefit committee and the guest list, with Vogue staffers helping assemble the list of invitees.[2][13] According to Cathy Horyn of The New York Times, the gathering rivals the West Coast's Vanity Fair Oscar Party, which is said to have more \"star power\" but less fashion panache.[22] In 2014, the individual tickets cost $30,000 for those outside the official guest list, after prices were raised $10,000 to increase the exclusivity of the event.[23][13][24] The annual guest list includes only 650–700 people.[25][26]", "Earth, Wind & Fire The band was founded in Chicago by Maurice White in 1970, having grown out of a previous band known as the Salty Peppers.[4][5] Other members have included Philip Bailey, Verdine White, Fred White, Ralph Johnson, Larry Dunn, Al McKay and Andrew Woolfolk. The band has received 20 Grammy nominations; they won six as a group and two of its members, Maurice White and Bailey, won separate individual awards.[2] Earth, Wind & Fire has 12 American Music Awards nominations and four awards.[2] They have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and have sold over 100 million records, making them one of the world's best-selling bands of all time.[6][7][8][4][9]", "List of Super Bowl halftime shows The NFL does not pay the halftime show performers an appearance fee, though it covers all expenses for the performers and their entourage of band members management, technical crew, security personnel, family, and friends.[9] Super Bowl XXVII halftime show with Michael Jackson provided an exception, as the NFL and Frito-Lay agreed to make a donation and provide commercial time for Jackson's Heal the World Foundation.[10][11][12][11] According to Nielsen SoundScan data, the halftime performers regularly experience significant spikes in weekly album sales and paid digital downloads due to the exposure.[13] For Super Bowl XLIX, it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that league officials asked representatives of potential acts if they would be willing to provide financial compensation to the NFL in exchange for their appearance, in the form of either an up-front fee, or a cut of revenue from concert performances made after the Super Bowl. While these reports were denied by an NFL spokeswoman, the request had, according to the Journal, received a \"chilly\" response from those involved.[14][15]", "David Clayton-Thomas David Clayton-Thomas (born David Henry Thomsett; 13 September 1941) is a Grammy Award-winning Canadian musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the American band Blood, Sweat & Tears. Clayton-Thomas has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and in 2007 his jazz/rock composition \"Spinning Wheel\" was enshrined in the Canadian Songwriter's Hall of Fame. In 2010 Clayton-Thomas received his star on Canada's Walk of Fame.", "Personality rights Some states recognize the right through statute and some others through common law. California has both statutory and common-law strains of authority protecting slightly different forms of the right. The right of publicity is a property right, rather than a tort, and so the right may be transferable to the person's heirs after their death. The Celebrities Rights Act was passed in California in 1985 and it extended the personality rights for a celebrity to 70 years after their death. Previously, the 1979 Lugosi v. Universal Pictures decision by the California Supreme Court held that Bela Lugosi's personality rights could not pass to his heirs.[37][38]", "Kaley Cuoco Kaley Christine Cuoco (/ˈkeɪli ˈkwoʊkoʊ/ KAY-lee KWOH-koh; born November 30, 1985)[1] is an American actress. After a series of supporting film and television roles in the late 1990s, she landed her breakthrough role as Bridget Hennessy on the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules, on which she starred from 2002 to 2005. Thereafter, Cuoco appeared as Billie Jenkins on the final season of the television series Charmed (2005–2006). Since 2007, she has starred as Penny on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, for which she has received Satellite, Critics' Choice, and People's Choice Awards. Cuoco's film work includes roles in To Be Fat like Me (2007), Hop (2011) and Authors Anonymous (2014). She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2014.[2] In October 2017, Cuoco founded Yes, Norman Productions.", "The Ellen DeGeneres Show The program combines comedy, celebrity, musical guests, and human-interest stories. The program often features audience participation games where prizes are awarded. During her Twelve Days of Giveaways promotion, audience members receive roughly $1,000 worth of prizes on each of twelve episodes. Because the show has become so popular, not all who arrive hoping to see a taping can fit into the studio, so an offshoot space, dubbed by Tom Hanks \"The Riff Raff Room\", was created. Persons seated here are often referenced and shown briefly on camera but watch the taping from off-stage. Other non-celebrities have been featured in an attempt by DeGeneres to give them 15 minutes of fame. Guests in this role have included intelligent children, small business owners, etc. In the show's third season, DeGeneres began surprising fans by introducing them to their favorite celebrities.", "Hollywood Sign The Hollywood Sign (formerly the Hollywoodland Sign) is an American cultural icon and landmark located in Los Angeles, California. It is situated on Mount Lee, in the Hollywood Hills area of the Santa Monica Mountains. The sign overlooks Hollywood, Los Angeles.", "Phil Hartman Hartman had been divorced twice before he married Brynn Omdahl in 1987; the couple had two children together. However, their marriage was fractured, due in part to her drug use. On May 28, 1998, Brynn Hartman shot and killed Hartman while he slept in their Encino, Los Angeles home, then killed herself several hours later. In the weeks following his death, Hartman was celebrated in a wave of tributes. Dan Snierson of Entertainment Weekly opined that Hartman was \"the last person you'd expect to read about in lurid headlines in your morning paper [...] a decidedly regular guy, beloved by everyone he worked with.\"[1] Hartman was posthumously inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2012 and the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2014.", "The Room (film) Wiseau has been secretive about how he obtained funding for the project, but told Entertainment Weekly that he made some of the money by importing leather jackets from Korea.[3] According to The Disaster Artist (Greg Sestero's book based on the making of The Room), Wiseau was already independently wealthy at the time production began. Over several years, he had amassed a fortune through entrepreneurship and real estate development in Los Angeles and San Francisco.[9] Wiseau spent the entire US$6,000,000 (equivalent to about $8,000,000 in 2017) budget for The Room on production and marketing.[3] Wiseau stated that the film was relatively expensive because many members of the cast and crew had to be replaced.[10] According to Sestero, Wiseau made numerous poor decisions during filming that unnecessarily inflated the film's budget—Wiseau built sets for sequences that could have been filmed on location, purchased unnecessary equipment, and filmed scenes multiple times using different sets.[11] Wiseau also forgot his lines and place on camera, resulting in minutes-long dialogue sequences taking hours or days to shoot. Wiseau's actions further caused the film's cost to skyrocket, according to Sestero.[12]", "Tears Dry on Their Own The song's music video was shot in Los Angeles,[3][4] and was directed by David LaChapelle on 22 May 2007.[5] The clip features footage of Winehouse making her way down Hollywood Blvd and in a dim motel room. The hotel is the Grand Motel at 1479 S La Cienega Blvd, in Los Angeles. She doesn't pay attention to her surroundings (Why people walk into her) as she goes down Hollywood Blvd, and in the hotel room there are empty bottles and cigarettes hinting at her real life habits. The video for this song was the second to last filmed prior to Winehouse's death on 23 July 2011.", "People (magazine) For the first decade or so, the feature appeared at uneven intervals. Originally awarded in the wintertime, it shifted around the calendar, resulting in gaps as short as seven months and as long as a year and a half (with no selection at all during 1994, however 21 years later People selected Keanu Reeves to fill the 1994 gap, the runners up for that year included Hugh Grant and Jim Carrey). Since 1997, the dates have settled between mid-November and early December.", "Haters Back Off Haters Back Off is a television comedy series starring Colleen Ballinger, based on her character Miranda Sings, that was released on Netflix on October 14, 2016. The \"surreal and absurd\" series centers around the family life of Miranda Sings, a sheltered, self-absorbed, overconfident and untalented young performer who seeks fame on YouTube.[3][4] The half-hour episodes depict Miranda's road to fame, and the price she pays for trampling on the feelings of others. Season 1 follows Miranda from the time she uploads her first video until one of her videos goes viral. The show co-stars Angela Kinsey as Bethany, Miranda's mother, Steve Little as Jim, Miranda's uncle, Francesca Reale as Emily, Miranda's sister, and Erik Stocklin as Patrick, Miranda's best friend. Netflix describes the show as \"a bizarre family comedy, and a commentary on society today and our fascination with fame.\"[5]" ]

[ "Old Reading Pike, Stowe, PA is a multiple occupancy home that contains 1,861 sq ft and was built in 1910. It contains 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The Zestimate for this house is $188,198, which has decreased by $2,995 in the last 30 days. The Rent Zestimate for this home is $1,175/mo, which has decreased by $25/mo in the last 30 days." ]

[ "Where The Pike Are: There are many places where you will find Northern Pike in Northern Ontario Lakes. Generally, you will find small to medium size pike in the back of bays where there is thick weeds, lily pads and wild rice. The small to medium size pike are feeding on small minnows, bugs, frogs and each other.", "I had a sonversation with one of the employees at the Fish Connection in Preston. He says he has hooked, but not been able to land, several pike below the Greenville Dam. I've read that pike can handle some 'brackishness' so it would not be too surprising to me that pike have been caught in the Thames.", "Pikeville-Pike County, Kentucky. Enjoy a day out on the water or an afternoon of horseback riding where the Hatfields & McCoys called home, Pike County, Kentucky. Zipline atop the 8 th wonder of the world, the Pikeville Cut-Through. Plan your Pike County getaway today, “Where Beauty Abides & Hospitality Flows!”.", "SHOCK: Shortly after family members were told of the second explosion at the Pike River mine. A Pike River Coal company vehicle sits at the closest safe point to the entrance of the mine where 29 workers were trapped inside after an explosion.The entrance to the Pike River Coal mine where 29 workers were trapped after an explosion.NGUISH: A woman grieves after relatives were told the trapped Pike River miners were dead. A community's support for the 29 miners and contractors who were trapped in the Pike River mine is summed up by a sign in a Greymouth shop. An images taken by one of the robots in the Pike River mine.", "Pike in Training. Pike was born in New Jersey in 1779. He grew up around military outposts as his father was an American Revolutionary War veteran and remained in the army afterwards. Pike had little formal education though he was known to enjoy reading.", "Pike's First Expedition. Pike ended up at Fort Bellefontaine in St. Louis, where General James Wilkinson was Governor of the Louisiana Territory. He ordered Pike to find the northern source of the Mississippi River.", "Reading about Pike. One of the best books about Pike and his life has been written by Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Arkansas in Fayettville. A Life of Albert Pike is available directly from the Scottish Rite at this link as well as from Amazon and other online booksellers.", "Pike Township, Bradford County, Pennsylvania. For other other Pennsylvania townships with similar names, see Pike Township, Pennsylvania (disambiguation). Pike Township is a township in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 671 at the 2010 census. Pike Township is located in eastern Bradford County and is bordered by Warren Township to the north, Orwell Township to the west, Herrick Township to the southwest, Stevens Township to the south.", "The county seat for Pike County is beautiful Pittsfield, Illinois. Since we are a countywide Chamber, Pittsfield is also where our office is located. In the center of the Pittsfield square sits our magnificent Pike County Courthouse, home to our county government and the symbol of Pike County to many people.", "crowne plaza reading the red brick crowne plaza reading is perfectly nestled amongst the trees on the bank of the river thames the hotel is an elegant retreat primed for business success lavish banquets and a strategic base for unlocking london", "1 Rather like the French, where brochet is the fish, but broche is a spit. Other common names include: Common Pike, Great Northern Pike, Jack, Jackfish, Northern, Pickerel, Pike, Snake, Gädda (Swe), tika obecná (Czech), kinoje (Ojibwe)", "Shared activity and fishing reports on and near Pike Lake. 1 Posted to Pike Lake. Ice Fishing Tournament on Pike Lake! 2 Marked a spot on Pike Lake. Details: flag. 3 Marked a spot on Pike Lake. Details: flag. Added a catch on Pike Lake. Hammered 1 it. Marked a spot on Pike Lake. Details: 3 flags. Marked a spot on Pike Lake. Details: lead foots spot.", "Reading Terminal Market is an enclosed public market found at 12th and Arch Streets in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Over one hundred merchants offer fresh produce, meats, fish, artisan cheese, groceries, ice cream, flowers, grilled cheese, baked goods, crafts, books, clothing, and specialty and ethnic foods. Every space in the market is rented out; three of the vendors are descendants of original market merchants.", "Pike: In a pike a gymnast is bent only at the hips. Sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you. Pikes of varying degrees including where a gymnast is esentially folded in half at their hips are used in gymnastics.Planch: This is a handstand in which the body is parallel with the ground.Puck: A puck is a cross between a pike and a tuck.ridge: A bridge is attained by lying on your back. Place your hands on the floor by your ears and bend your legs. Push your hips towards the ceiling and arch back. Ideally a bridge should have straight legs and shoulders pushed out over the hands.", "Shelves: fiction, 2005, ya-childrens, 1980-2004. the first book i finished in 2005 was the immortal by christopher pike. i read it back in 1993 when i was way in to mr. pike and was buying all of his books. i really liked it then. it was a little creepy, a little hot, and a good story.", "Shortly after family members were told of the second explosion at the Pike River mine. Gerry Brownlee and Peter Whittall leave a meeting where they told family of a second explosion today. After family members were told of the second massive explosion at the Pike River mine.NGUISH: A woman grieves after relatives were told the trapped Pike River miners were dead. A community's support for the 29 miners and contractors who were trapped in the Pike River mine is summed up by a sign in a Greymouth shop. An images taken by one of the robots in the Pike River mine.", "GRIEF: Family members of miners trapped underground in the Pike River coal mine react after learning of a second explosion in the mine at a briefing by mine authorities and police. ANGUISH: Prime Minister John Key holds a press conference after the second explosion at Pike River mine where no miners have survived.NGUISH: A woman grieves after relatives were told the trapped Pike River miners were dead. A community's support for the 29 miners and contractors who were trapped in the Pike River mine is summed up by a sign in a Greymouth shop. An images taken by one of the robots in the Pike River mine.", "Pike /pike/ [1 syll.] as a boys' name is of English origin, and the meaning of Pike is a spear .", "The summit of Scafell Pike. A view from the summit. Other pages you might like: Scafell Pike from Wasdale Facts about Scafell Pike Travelling to and Stay near Scafell Pike Holidays in the Lake District Foggy Scafell Pike Dogs on Scafell Pike The Wainwrights.he summit of Scafell Pike. A view from the summit. Other pages you might like: Scafell Pike from Wasdale Facts about Scafell Pike Travelling to and Stay near Scafell Pike Holidays in the Lake District Foggy Scafell Pike Dogs on Scafell Pike The Wainwrights.", "But depending on where you hop on and off the Pike, you may not have to pay a dime -- digitally or not. MassDOT is replacing the 32 toll booth locations on Mass. Pike entryways and exits with 16 electronic toll gantries along the highway. But there isn't a toll gantry between every exit.", "Elysium (2013). In Trek lore, Elysium was the name of a Federation colony where Captain Pike once lived-away from the Mojave Desert on Earth. Matt Damon was initially considered for the role of Pike's successor, Captain Kirk in,Star Trek.. Faran Tahir (President Patel) was also in the film.", "Berks County (Pennsylvania German): Barricks Kaundi) is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the population was 411,442. The county seat is Reading. Berks County comprises the Reading, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which is also included in the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD Combined Statistical Area.", "The Greater Reading Area and Berks County offer a myriad of things to do and see with the small town charm of Robesonia, Sinking Spring, and Kutztown or with the big city feel in downtown Reading and historic Hamburg.", "Welcome to Reading Health System. Reading Health System includes Reading Hospital, a 647-bed acute care hospital located in West Reading, Pennsylvania, and Reading Health Rehabilitation Hospital, a facility in Spring Township, featuring a 50-bed skilled nursing unit and a 62-bed inpatient rehabilitation unit.", "Northern Pike The northern pike is a very popular fish in Wisconsin also referred to a Northern or Pike. If you like to go ice-fishing, then you should fish for northern pike.", "For the terminal in Reading, see Reading Franklin Street Terminal. The Reading Terminal (/ˈrɛdɪŋ/ RED-ing) is a complex of buildings and former railroad station located in the Market East section of Center City in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.", "Crenicichla also known as the Pike cichlids is a genus of cichlids native to South America where they are found in most of tropical and subtropical areas between the Andes and the Atlantic.", "Pennsylvania Route 562 (St. Lawrence Avenue) is the main road through the community, leading east to Boyertown. Route 562 ends at the west end of St. Lawrence, where it intersects U.S. Route 422 Business, which continues west through Mount Penn into the city of Reading.", "Walking to the Summit of Scafell Pike. Click here for a description of the walk from Wasdale to Scafell Pike. Scafell Pike is located in the beautiful Lake District National Park. The seemingly innocuous hills and peaks are deceptive, and walks should not be undertaken lightly.To climb Scafell Pike you need to be properly equipped.he summit of Scafell Pike. A view from the summit. Other pages you might like: Scafell Pike from Wasdale Facts about Scafell Pike Travelling to and Stay near Scafell Pike Holidays in the Lake District Foggy Scafell Pike Dogs on Scafell Pike The Wainwrights.", "The closest town to the halfway point is Lawn, PA, situated 42.52 miles from Reading, PA and 42 miles from Carlisle, PA. It would take 59 minutes to go from Reading to Lawn and 1 hour to go from Carlisle to Lawn.", "The 500-block of Court Street in Downtown Reading, with Berks County courthouse on the left.", "Pike Township & Leraysville Borough. There is LOTS of room for growth on this Pike Township Page, Your help is needed to find and submit historical materials for this page. Pike Township Histories. Named for Gen. Zebulon Pike of the War of 1812. Formed 1813 from Orwell and Rush (now extinct) -." ]

[ "cow's milk" ]

[ "grain milk made from rice", "Milking", "that which burns", "Typee", "that which purifies", "by type", "made of parts from different sources", "cheese quesadilla", "that which is heard", "the state from which the territory wishes to secede", "Pot cheese", "pizza with cheese", "pimento cheese", "cheese sandwich", "cheese skippers", "cheese dog", "melted cheese", "meats and cheeses", "flamed cheese", "Made In Katana", "cheese toastie", "Made in Heaven", "Made in China", "fresh cheese", "Made in England", "Cheese in the Trap", "made in USA", "Made in Chelsea", "cheese and biscuits", "green cheese", "made by God", "Self Made" ]

[ "Ealing Studios" ]

[ "being", "Where's the beef?", "Where Is the Love?", "mythological beings", "Being - in - itself", "Where's Waldo?", "being smitten", "scale of being", "being established", "celestial beings", "being widowed", "where they terminate", "being primaried", "For the Time Being", "Where Are the Children", "being sufficient", "act of being", "Being Human", "rational beings", "supernatural beings", "by being dismembered", "not being well", "being convicted", "primitive beings", "by being cloned", "Where I'm From", "being in the zone", "Where Are Ü Now", "not being sweet", "univocity of being", "the Supreme Being", "Where It All Begins" ]

[ "Hydrophobic material does not actually \"repel\" water, per se. It simply causes the water to be more prone to cohesion (sticking to itself) than adhesion (sticking to the surface). So yes, water can condense onto a hydrophobic surface, but it would immediately bead up and roll off." ]

[ "Yes. The asperities on the surface should cause momentum transfer between the water and the surface, and that is the origin of friction. Specifically, if a solid body is moving in water, I don't think there is any reduction in friction if the body is made hydrophobic. Somebody correct me if I am wrong. On the other hand, a small droplet of water on a hydrophobic surface forms a sphere, and can run over some asperities without interacting with them, so it does experience less friction.", "Water will condense on a surface if the temperature of that surface is lower than the dew point. The higher the humidity, the higher the dew point and thus the smaller the delta needs to be between surface temp and air temp to have condensation. Then its just a matter of wet corrosion. Salts are hygroscopic(absorb moisture from air) and can accelerate the process quite a bit.", "the reverse, actually. water is polar. Oil is nonpolar. Something that is oleophobic has a polar surface, so that nonpolar oils will not bind with it. Conversely, hydrophobic surfaces are nonpolar, and so have nothing with which the polar water can bind.", "Your skin deposits oils onto the glass when you draw with your finger. These oils are hydrophobic, which means they don't like water and water doesn't like them. The next day, when the hot air comes in contact with the cold mirror, the water droplets condensing will prefer to go condense/land somewhere else or stay in the air rather than having to deal with interacting with the hydrophobic oil.", "Water molecules are pretty well attracted to each other through hydrogen bonding *(a weak electrostatic interaction between one molecule's positive and an adjacent molecule's negative pole of the slightly polar bond between a hydrogen and an oxygen atom).* If a surface is not covered with molecules that have strong electrical dipoles to attract water molecules more forcefully than adjacent water molecules can, then the water will tend to bead up and \"stick to itself.\" Surfaces that repel water are called \"hydrophobic\" while surfaces that attract water are called \"hydrophilic\"", "Are you sure it is not water condensing on a cold surface or a layer of ice on the surface melting?", "Good question. The fog on mirrors is not steam. It's condensation. Condensation occurs when humid air touches a cold surface. Some of the water in the air loses heat to the cold surface, and this causes it to turn back into a liquid. But if the light keeps the glass warm, then water won't condense on it anymore.", "Yes, but not much, and only under pressure. [Here is a phase diagram](_URL_0_). At ~2000 times the atmospheric pressure water can exist up to 22 K below the usual (atmospheric pressure) freezing point.", "Water is a polar molecule, meaning it has positive and negative sides, kind of like a mini-magnet. Hydrophilic surfaces are usually polar too, so they attract the water molecules like magnets clicking together. So water will easily “stick” to the hydrophilic surface and, if the substance is porous, be absorbed into it. Hydrophobic substances are usually non-polar, so water doesn’t stick to them like how magnets on wood won’t stick. Since there is no attraction between the water molecule and the surface, it easily rolls off the material.", "If there is a possible surface, yes. Un the lab we use this a lit to purify a sample. Heat it and use just enough solvent to dissolve everything and then cool, the product will crystallize and the impurities will (hopefully) not. However when there is a perfect surface the solution will be supersaturated. An example of this are chemical handwarmers which have a little metal piece in them and when you knick the piece an imperfect surface for crystllisation results in the formatiom of huge crystals and lots of exothermal energy.", "This demonstrates the process: _URL_0_ Basically, the pattern is printed onto a film that can be floated on top of the water, then the film is dissolved leaving just the ink. The ink is hydrophobic, so it doesn't mix with the water and will stick to any dry surface that comes in contact with it.", "Yes. The air next to the glass is cooled, which makes its relative humidity go above one and the water condensates. You can check this. Take your glass in the winter outside: no droplets, to cool. Take your glass to the atacama desert: no droplets, too dry. Take your glass to the jungle: water all over it. Ok, here is more pedestrian experiment. Take a large air-tight plastic box. Open it. Put it in a fridge. Wait a while. Close it. The air in the box is now very dry. Take it out. Wait a while. The air is now room teperature but so dry that it still does not condensate at freezing temperatures. Now very fast, open the container, put your glass in, close it again, without stirring up too much air. There will be no droplets.", "Your finger leaves a coating of oil on the surface of the glass. This coating affects how water sticks to the surface. The oil will change the contact angle between the droplets and the surface, which will make the oil-coated and clean areas look different. (There might be other effects contributing to the difference in appearance too - I'm not sure how the condensation of water differs between hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces).", "It's because the wooden spoon dissipates heat well, and when boiling bubbles come in contact with a cooler surface, they condense back into water. Also the wooden spoon is hydrophobic (unable to absorb water) this also \"pops\" the bubbles.", "The indoor (Evaporator) portion of the AC is so cold, that the water in the air collects on the cold fins as the air is blown through it. Just like how water in the air condenses onto a cold glass of water. That water falls down into a pan, which has a pipe, which either flows outside into the ground and waters your yard, or down the drain into the sewer/septic.", "Hot air carries more moisture than cold air. When hot air full of moisture approaches a window (or any cold surface), the air cools and the water in the air condenses onto the surface. To counter this, buildings either have air vents next to the windows (similar to a windshield in a car) or have double/triple pane windows that are insulated enough to keep the interior surface of the window near the indoor temperature instead of the outdoor temperature.", "Yes! This changes the structure of the solid-liquid interface, necessarily affecting electron transfer across the interface. Also, the isoelectric point of the surface almost certainly changed when moving from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. This effective \"pH\" of the surface can greatly affect a reaction.", "There are several simultaneous things that influence the result: [condensation](_URL_2_) (why vapour condense in the first place) + either infrared radiation [emmissivity](_URL_1_)/[absorptance](_URL_0_) or [thermal conductivity](_URL_4_) (why there is a temperature difference for various materials) + [adsorption](_URL_3_) (why water stays on the surface) + [hydrophobicity](_URL_5_) (why visible dew drops form). Due to difference in properties of materials those latter result some materials covered in more visible dew on their surfaces than other.", "No. Water (at room temperature) in a vacuum will boil, forming steam, which will disperse. If the water is cold enough it will freeze into ice. The phase diagram of water looks like [this](_URL_0_); liquid water is not possible below about 0.006 atmospheres. A droplet requires surface tension and mobile particles, which are only both present as a liquid.", "I'm sure there's a better explanation, but here's my stab at it. :) Hot water vapor in the air hits the cooler surface of glass and condenses back into water. It's the same concept that causes condensation to form on the outside of a glass/can/bottle with a cold liquid in it. In my experience fog-free is better described fog-prevention. It will make it harder for water to condense and thus keep the lenses clean. **edit:** spelling", "Yes it can. Look at [the phase diagram of water](_URL_0_). As you can see, at any temperature lower than the critical point a solid phase of ice will be thermodynamically stable, which means that you can solidify liquid water by just increasing the pressure sufficiently. Note, however that this phase while solid would be different from the type of ice you obtain by cooling down water at atmospheric pressure below 0C. As for the ice being \"cold,\" well, that depends on what temperature you keep the solid at. There is nothing inherently \"cold\" about ice.", "Are you asking about condensation? I'm not sure what kind of \"watery blur\" you mean otherwise. Condensation occurs when air with water vapor contained in it is cooled to the point where that water can no longer remain in the air (cold air can hold less water than warmer air).", "Because the adhesive on the sticker only remains sticky when it is in a semi liquid form. Once it is too cold it becomes too hard to stick on anything. Alternatively, frozen surfaces also usually have moisture on them. When those surfaces get cold, warmer moisture in the air condenses onto the surface and freezes, and stickers don't stick to wet surfaces either.", "Because the \"steaming up\" is condensation of water vapour (water in it's gaseous state). Condensation is caused (or more specifically, vastly increased) because of changes in temperature. The water vapour cools quickly once it comes into contact with the cold surface of the mirror. Heating up the mirror diminishes this effect.", "Fogged up glass happens when humid air gets in contact with a cold surface and condensates there. Our eyes have a. a layer of water in front of them, that's because you keep blinking, and b. are not cold enough to cause the humid air to condensate.", "Steam refers to gaseous water, and is invisible. What you refer to is water condensing in the air - gaseous water forming droplets when it turns from gas to liquid. This occurs when the water vapour cools down enough to return to liquid form. You commonly encounter this in two scenarios: 1. When you're boiling water, water vapour escapes from the pot. However, when it hits the air and loses energy, it condenses back into visible \"steam\". 2. When you have a very cold surface. The cold surface cools down the air immediately around it, and if you cool it down below its [dew point](_URL_1_), the air cannot hold the water vapour and they condense. You will observe this on top of ice cubes alone. Adding water to the ice cubes just pushes this air/condensation mixture up the bottle. More extreme examples would be the condensation you see from [liquid nitrogen](_URL_2_) and [dry ice](_URL_0_).", "It is largely controlled by the molecular interactions between the water and the surface. Water will ball up if the interaction with the surface is comparable in strength to the interaction between water molecules or if it is significantly weaker than the interaction between water molecules. If the interaction with the surface is stronger the water will actually spread out across the surface. You can have a near perfect water mono-layer if the surface has a particularly strong interaction. In fact surfaces like table salt can actually have a smooth layer of water that is invisible to the eye because of how thin it is. It will tend to be that on surfaces with hydrophobic interactions that it will be harder to get a large droplet because the water will ball up which makes it more prone to splitting, but on a hydrophilic surface you can get a perfect covering across the surface.", "Yes. Water has a certain vapor pressure depending on temperature. When the ambient pressure is greater than the vapor pressure, condensation will occur. If the ambient pressure is lesser, evaporation will occur. As long as there is enough water, air pressure in a closed system will tend to exactly the vapor pressure of water, which is 100% humidity. At that point the amount of water being evaporated and condensed is equal and no net change is observed.", "Absolutely! This is called a \"fallstreak hole.\" Basically what is happening is a macroscale version of the Bergeron process where an ice crystal in a liquid droplet environment grows via net deposition. The altocumulus clouds around the feature are liquid water droplets while the fallstreak is mostly ice crystals. The space in between them is void of cloud droplets and is instead water vapor that has evaporated from the altocus and will then deposit onto the ice crystals. This happens because the equilibrium vapor pressure with respect to ice is lower than that for liquid water so there is net evaporation from the water surface and net deposition onto the ice surface. Edit: The fallstreak tends to be lower than the altocumulus deck because the icy feature is more dense than the liquid droplets, so they will \"fall\" and create this feature.", "Hot water has less surface tension. This is also why it is better at cleaning. The molecules of warm water move around more than cold water and as a result are less tightly bonded. Soap works by bonding the hydrophilic end of a soap molecule to a water molecule. The other end of the soap molecule is hydrophobic and will bond to grease and dirt. The soap reduces surface tension even more making the water 'stretchy'. This is what makes bubbles. Because the warm water has less surface tension to begin with, the soap can more easily bond with the warm water molecules than the cold ones. This means the soap is more effective at bonding to the water and as a result more foaming action.", "The pressure in the interstallar medium is exceedingly low. These molecules will just sublimate. At exceedingly low pressures, you can still condense single layers of molecules onto exceedingly cold particles, but I don't think this really counts as \"solid\" or \"liquid\" in the everyday sense. You'd have to wait for a lot of accumulation before that occurs.", "its is condensation. Air has a certain amount of moisture in it, when the warm air outside the fridge meets the cold air inside your fridge the water in the warm air condensates out and forms tiny droplets of liquid water. This is not dissimilar to how some clouds form. Or how when your warm air from your breath (that has lots of moister/water vapour in it) meets the cold surface of a glass and condensation forms." ]

[ "The Good Housekeeping Institute says you should wash your sheets -- and other bedding -- at least once every two weeks. If you have night sweats, or just sweat a lot in general, bump washing up to once a week." ]

[ "It is recommended to wash your weighted blanket three to four times a year. However, due to stains, dust, and musty odor on the sheet, we can't avoid washing the weighted blanket frequently.", "Wash bedding daily Because ringworm is highly contagious, you should wash your sheets daily to get rid of the infection faster. Fungal spores can transfer to your sheets and comforter.", "How often? While you should wash your pillowcases every two weeks, at least, along with your sheets and other bedding, you can get away with leaving your actual pillow for longer.", "How often should you co-wash? You should co-wash with a conditioning cleanser at least once or twice a week, depending on your texture and the amount of product you tend to style your hair with. Remember, it's a cleanser, so you should use it as frequently as you would a shampoo.", "On average, you should aim to wash your throw blankets about once a month. But if your throw blankets frequently come into contact with food or pets, you might want to do it more frequently. (Once every two weeks should do it!)", "However, you do need to wash your bed and pillow sheets in hot water. This should be done the morning after applying the medication at night. You should not shower until you have put the sheets in the wash.", "The simple answer is no, you should not wash your dirty sheets and towels together in the same load of laundry. ... It's best not to wash sheets and towels together, but why?", "The good news is, linen sheets are pretty hearty: Linen is about 30 percent more durable than cotton, and though they may feel crisp at first, they'll soften over time. (Just one of many reasons it's important to know how often you should wash your sheets.)", "The best temperature to wash towels and sheets A good temperature for washing towels and sheets is 40 degrees, but a 60 degree wash will be better at killing germs. Be sure to change your sheets and towels once a week to keep things fresh.", "Q: How often should lab coats be washed? Frequency of washing will depend on the type and amount of use. Routine washing is suggested to ensure cleanliness of coats. For heavy use a weekly wash schedule may be recommended; for less frequent use washing can be done biweekly or monthly.", "Duvets should be washed every few months – or at least twice a year, says Sara Wadsworth from The Fine Bedding Company, and replaced every five years, pillows more frequently – every two to three years, How to clean them: If the duvet has synthetic filling, wash at 60C to kill off dust mites.", "Sweaters. How often you should wash them: After two to five wears. Washing guidelines: You should wash cotton, silk, and cashmere after two to three wears, since these pieces are more delicate.", "You should be washing and replacing your sponges frequently First things first: You should really be replacing your kitchen sponge anywhere from once a month to once every two weeks depending on how much you use it, according to Stapf.", "Washing new Sheets removes harmful chemicals Even if your sheets don't have a label that tells you to wash them, you definitely should. This will help to remove the chemical treatments placed on the fabric during the manufacturing process. We know that bedsheets right out of the packaging look crisp and clean.", "Writing off the possibility of sleep gardening, perhaps you scratch yourself while sleeping. Dead skin cells sure do look like dirt and are called “body soil” by bed sheet and detergent manufacturers. Skin cells continue to come off no matter how frequently you wash.", "The one swears by it, not too often washing your hair is better for your hair and scalp. The other thinks that frequent washing is the only option. And should you wash with shampoo or only with conditioner. ... Do not wash your hair for two weeks.", "Once you have finished the treatment period, take the sheets and pillowcases off the bed for washing before you shower. You will also need to wash any clothes you have worn over the past 48 hours, or set them aside for at least that period of time. The wash cycle should be with hot water.", "If you keep a duvet cover on the duvet, you'll rarely need to clean the duvet itself. You should wash the cover as often as you change your sheets. It's usually recommended that when necessary, you wash your duvet in a large commercial washing machine. ... Dry a duvet using the gentle heat setting on the dryer.", "How often should you wash your bra? Right off the bat, you should plan on washing your bras every one to two weeks, but there is no hard and fast rule for this as there are a lot of factors in play.", "If you intend to do a beer wash regularly, restrict it to 1-2 times a week as more frequent washes can dry out your hair. To learn how to enhance your beer wash with essential oils or apple cider vinegar, read on!", "How often should I wash my baby's hair? You don't need to wash his hair every day. Your baby's hair produces very little oil, so once or twice a week is fine (Blume-Peytavi et al 2016). If your baby has cradle cap, you may want to wash his hair more frequently with a mild baby cradle cap shampoo .", "Horse blankets and sheets not only can be washed but should be regularly cleaned, at least once a year to help prolong their effectiveness. Some blankets can go in your washing machine, some will need to be hand-washed or professionally cleaned.", "So, how often should you wash your bra? “The 'rule' is that a bra should be washed after every wear, since it's directly in contact with the body,” says laundry expert Mary Marlowe Leverette.", "How often should you wash jeans? Not too often – if you usually wash them once a week, try once every two weeks or every month instead. That said, if a pizza slice lands face-down on your lap, then it's time to say hello to the washing machine.", "How often should you wash hair extensions? You should wash your hair extensions every 30 wears, or when there is major product build-up to the point where it becomes unmanageable to style.", "Keep the infected area covered. (If you can't cover the wound completely, avoid daycare centers and don't take part in contact sports.) Wash your sheets, towels and washcloths often to avoid infecting family members. Keep your fingernails short and clean, take regular baths and wash your hands frequently.", "Cotton sheets are more breathable than microfiber and won't trap heat as easily, providing a more comfortable sleep. However, microfiber sheets can be more durable than cotton sheets, as natural fibers–particularly less expensive cotton options–can break down more easily with frequent washes.", "In summer we recommend to wash your bed linen every 7-10 days. In winter you can wash them every two weeks. Things to remember: First, always wash your bamboo bedding in cold water, at 30C max and on gentle cycle.", "Blanket and comforter: Wash at least every two weeks Another commonly-stained type of baby bedding is your baby's blanket and comforter. You also have to wash them often, but not as often as your sheets. Washing these items every two weeks would be enough.", "Wash your jeans when they stink. Shutterstock There's been a lot of discussion over how often you should wash your jeans. Levi's CEO Chip Bergh claims machine washing is completely unnecessary, but science demands that you should wash your jeans every four to six days, according to Tech Insider.", "King agreed, noting that the American Academy of Dermatology recommends washing sheets once per week, and changing pillow cases two to three times per week.", "Hand towels Recommended washing: Every two or three days. (No, really.) Since hand towels are usually A) hung in a high-traffic, germ-friendly room, and B) used by multiple people for a variety of reasons, it's just good sense to throw them in the washing machine more frequently than most linens." ]

[ "2. Keystroke Dynamics. Keystroke dynamics refers to the process of measuring and assessing human's typing rhythm on digital devices. Such device, to name a few, usually refers to a computer keyboard, mobile phone, or touch screen panel. A form of digital footprint is created upon human interaction with these devices." ]

[ "the BH Keystroke Dynamics database and benchmark ex-periments are introduced in Sections 3 and 4, respectively. Section 5 gives some discussions with future work. 2. The Keystroke Dynamics system In this section, we introduce the preprocessing, feature reduction and benchmark recognition methods used in the commercialized keystroke dynamics system. 2.1.", "Contents: 1 This webpage is a benchmark data set for keystroke dynamics. It is a supplement to the paper Comparing Anomaly-Detection Algorithms for Keystroke Dynamics, by Kevin Killourhy and Roy Maxion, published in the proceedings of the DSN 2009 conference [1].", "Data needed to analyze keystroke dynamics is obtained by keystroke logging. 1 Normally, all that is retained when logging a typing session is the sequence of characters corresponding to the order in which keys were pressed and timing information is discarded.", "Finger vein ID is a biometric authentication system that matches the vascular pattern in an individual's finger to previously ... See complete definition. keystroke dynamics. Keystroke dynamics are the patterns of rhythm and timing created when a person types...(Continued) See complete definition.sk your biometrics questions at ITKnowledgeExchange.com. Authentication by biometric verification is becoming increasingly common in corporate and public security systems, consumer electronics and point of sale (POS) applications.", "Approved for Public Release; Distribution Unlimited. Cleared for Open Publication on 3/26/2012. Abstract. In this paper we investigate the problem of user. authentication using keystroke biometrics. A new distance. metric that is effective in dealing with the challenges. intrinsic to keystroke dynamics data, i.e., scale variations, feature interactions and redundancies, and outliers is. proposed.", "Definition - What does Keystroke mean? A keystroke is the pressing of a single key in a physical or virtual keyboard or any other input device. A single key press, in other words is considered as a keystroke. The keystroke is an important component considering typing speed, keystroke logging, hardware, software, acoustic analysis and other studies based on human-computer interaction.", "Keystroke Recognition. TypeSense is a software-only authentication solution based on the science of typeprint recognition that uses keystroke dynamics to accurately identify a user by the way they type characters across a keyboard. How it works", "However, an up-to-date extensive survey and evaluation is not yet available. The objective of this paper is to provide an insightful survey and comparison on keystroke dynamics biometrics research performed throughout the last three decades, as well as offering suggestions and possible future research directions.", "Keystroke Logger. Definition - What does Keystroke Logger mean? A keystroke logger is a device or program that allows the user to monitor what another user types into a device. In some cases, a keystroke logger is hardware that attaches to the keyboard or another part of a hardware system.", "A keylogger (keystroke logging) is a type of surveillance software that records every keystroke you make to an encrypted log file.", "What is the average rate of data entry keystrokes per hour? Keystrokes per minute can be calculated by multiplying one's words per minute score by five. Multiplying this product by 60 results in the number of keystrokes one produces in an hour.", "A keystroke is typing one character on a keyboard (not stroking your keyboard like a cat). Every time you hit a key, you perform a keystroke. Therefore, 5400 keystrokes in one hour means hitting 5400 keys in one hour, or 90 keys a minute (5400 ÷ 60 minutes). Sometimes keystrokes per hour (KSPH) or keystrokes per minute (KSPM) are used to measure typing speed instead of words per minute (WPM).", "A keystroke (or combination of keystrokes) which symbolizes and is replaced by a series of keystrokes; -- a convenient feature of some advanced programs, such as word processors or database programs, which allows a user to rapidly execute any series of operations which may be performed multiple times.", "If KPH means keystrokes per hour, then we can convert 336 keystrokes per 120 seconds to KPH. [(336 k) / (120 sec)][(60 sec) / (1 min)][(60 min) / (1 hour)] = [(336)(60)(60)] / [(120)(1)(1)] = (10,080 k) / (1 hour)] So, 336 keystrokes per 120 seconds is the same as 10,080 keystrokes per hour.", "Mobistealth Keystroke logger software helps you dig down deep and uncover the secrets that your kids and employees try to hide on company owned computers. Once installed, Mobistealth Invisible Keylogger Software will not only record keystrokes but it will also tell you what applications were used and exactly what was typed into each of them.", "these conditions ended up resulting in average keystroke rates of 229 per minute 260 per minute and 250 per minute respectively equivalent to 13740 15600 and 15000 keystrokes per hour meaning the type harder group ended up typing faster as well as using more force", "Keyboard macros and mouse macros allow short sequences of keystrokes and mouse actions to be transformed into other, usually more time-consuming, sequences of keystrokes and mouse actions. In this way, frequently used or repetitive sequences of keystrokes and mouse movements can be automated.", "Quick Answer. The low-average 10-key speed is 8,000 keystrokes per minute. Typing at 10,000 keystrokes per minute is considered to be at the higher end of the average 10-key speed. Keystrokes per minute can be calculated by multiplying one's words per minute score by five.", "5 Best Free Keyloggers. Here are 5 Best Free Keyloggers to record all the keystrokes on your computer. Keystroke logging (often called keylogging) is the action of tracking (or logging) the keys struck on a keyboard, typically in a covert manner so that the person using the keyboard is unaware that their actions are being monitored. Here are some free keylogging software to record keystrokes.", "Definitions for keystrokeˈkiˌstroʊk. Here are all the possible meanings and translations of the word keystroke. Wiktionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: keystroke(Noun) The act of pressing an input key; a keypress on a computer keyboard or a typewriter, or a similar input device.", "Best Answer: You did 336 keystrokes in 120 seconds which is 2 minutes. Multiply both sets of figures by 30 to get an equivalent value. 2 minutes X 30 = 60 minutes 336 X 30 = 10080 By the looks of things, you did over 10,000 keystrokes per hour (KPH).", "Companies look for speed and accuracy in data processing. The average keystrokes per hour in the U.S. is considered to be 12,000, according to a 2006 report by Viking Software Solutions, a data-entry software manufacturer.", "The average person working at a keyboard may perform 50,000–200,000 keystrokes a day. Small, repetitive movements can disturb the delicate balance of muscles, tendons, and ligaments in the hand and cause cumulative-trauma disorders (CTDs), also known as repetitive-strain injuries (RSIs) or musculoskeletal disorder (MSDs).", "Biometric solutions can be divided into two groups, based on the type of biometric factor they use solutions based on a physiological factor, examples are fingerprint recognition and iris recognition solutions based on a behavioral factor, examples are voice pattern recognition and keystroke dynamics", "What does 97 keystrokes per minute mean? What does 97 keystrokes per minute mean - does it also count empty spaces (Bar space being used), I gave a test online and it says 47 words per minute without any error. Where I am at to quality for 97 keystrokes per minute ?", "the faster you can type with accuracy the more keystrokes you generate per hour and the more work you can complete on time companies expect data entry workers to reach the national keystroke average with at least 90 percent accuracy", "Divide your KPH by 60. The result is your number of keystrokes per minute because 60 minutes are in one hour. Divide your keystrokes per minute by 5 to find your WPM. The WPM measurement is based on five-letter words. So every five keystrokes equal one word.. If your keystrokes per minute total is 400, for example, then your WPM is 80.", "Does the hardware key-logger record keystrokes of the login to Windows? How can I check for the presence/absence of keystroke logger on my Chromebook? What is a key logger?", "Instead, you will type more common words, such as «the,» «that,» «with,» and so on. And soon you will learn how to type the «th» combo really fast. Second, Keybr.com measures your keystroke dynamics and collects comprehensive typing statistics. For example, it measures your typing speed for each individual key, and uses this data to generate random words putting emphasis on the weakest key.", "The longer it takes for work to be performed, the more money is lost to the process. Companies look for speed and accuracy in data processing. The average keystrokes per hour in the U.S. is considered to be 12,000, according to a 2006 report by Viking Software Solutions, a data-entry software manufacturer.ompanies expect data-entry workers to reach the national keystroke average with at least 90 percent accuracy. The faster you type, the more keystrokes you generate per hour. Many programs and classes available to help you learn to type faster and more efficiently.", "KeyStrokes offers shortcut expansion, is able to speak what you type and. automatically adjusts to US and international keyboard layouts and has. multiple resizable keyboard models. It handles command-key combinations, dead-keys, and modifier key - click combinations.", "Below is an explanation of the terminology used by transcriptionists in measuring and counting lines, and what rate of pay to charge for the work: A Keystroke is any stroke of a key – including the space bar, carriage return, underscore, bold, etc.ome transcription services will use a per-page rate for invoicing purposes. Using the afore-mentioned example, a per-page rate of, say, $4 would be more profitable to a medical transcription vendor. However, the next patient record could very well have 30 or more lines, in which case $4 would be under-billing." ]

[ "Federal organizations can adopt practices to address computer-based vulnerabilities." ]

[ "Private organizations can adopt practices to address computer-based vulnerabilities.", "Coordination among organizations and information sharing are important aspects of combating computer-based attacks.", "Best practices for improvement was the main objective.", "Comprehensive and practical approaches start with information sharing among organizations.", "FFC had an objective to identify a range of best practices.", "Our task team got information regarding GAO and other federal organizations' practices.", "Securing the information being shared was a concern of the organizations.", "There are methods to identify vulnerabilities in systems.", "Views of officials were received to identify challenges with information sharing.", "Infrastructure challenges need to be addressed to maximize information sharing.", "Federal officials who know about information security practices have helped our body of work.", "There are several organizations with experience in developing information sharing procedures.", "There is something that encourages federal agencies to improve management practices.", "The organizations shared sensitive information on regular websites.", "Our team got information from every other federal organizations' practices, save for GAO.", "The Federal Computer Incident Response is found at fedcirc.gov.", "There are 11 organizations short listed for computer-based vulnerabilities and incidents.", "We were interested in identifying CIO management practices.", "Management approval was needed before individuals could share information about incidents and vulnerabilities", "Our objective is not to identify anything", "Computer Security Act of 1987 addresses improving the security of sensitive information in federal computer systems.", "An understanding of the information technology and management practices of leading organizations could contribute to the development of improved CIO management practices.", "Some IT practices were indicated.", "We discuss local information security practices.", "The goal of improving information dissemination was added.", "Information on threats and incidents experienced by others are often useless to an organization.", "Our second objective was to identify the implementation approaches that the agencies find helpful.", "The results need to be used in order to improve the security program.", "Sensitive information was shared using secure websites that the organizations had.", "One of the objectives was to identify and describe practices helpful to implementing GPRA.", "Federal CIO organizations can evaluate those aspects.", "We work to identify problems and mitigate them." ]

[ "This usually happens if xdebug is installed with the default nesting limit. You can either disable xdebug as PHP itself does not have a function nesting limit,\n\nchange the setting in your php.ini:\n\nxdebug.max_nesting_level = 400\n\n\nor in your PHP code:\n\nini_set('xdebug.max_nesting_level', 400);" ]

[ "MATL, 36 34 bytes\ntnq?`t&amp;+stn:*sytn2/)+ 7M(6Lt3$)tnq\n\nInput is a 2D array with ; as row separator\nTry it online! Or verify all test cases.\nExplanation\ntnq % Take input. Duplicate, get number of elements, subtract 1\n? % If greater than 0\n ` % Do...while\n t % Duplicate\n &amp;+ % Sum matrix with its transpose\n s % Sum each column. Gives a row vector\n tn: % Vector [1 2 ...] with the same size\n * % Multiply element-wise\n s % Sum of vector. This will be added to center entry of the matrix\n y % Duplicate matrix\n tn2/ % Duplicate, get half its number of elements. Gives non-integer value\n ) % Get center entry of the matrix, using linear index with implicit rounding\n + % Add center entry to sum of previous vector\n 7M % Push index of center entry again\n ( % Assgined new value to center of the matrix\n 6Lt % Array [2 j1-1], twice. This will be used to remove shell\n 3$) % Apply row and col indices to remove outer shell of the matrix\n tnq % Duplicate, number of elements, subtract 1. Falsy if matrix has 1 entry\n % End do...while implicitly. The loop is exited when matrix has 1 entry\n % End if implicitly\n % Display stack implicitly", "Finally figured this out, I had to delve into the matrix field and get the individual block ids for the Supertable fields.\n\n$matrixBlocks = Craft::$app-&gt;getFields()-&gt;getFieldByHandle('eventPerformances')-&gt;getBlockTypeFields();\n$ticketBlockId = (int)$matrixBlocks[2]['id'];\n$linkBlockId = (int)$matrixBlocks[3]['id'];\n\n$ticketsField = Craft::$app-&gt;getFields()-&gt;getFieldById($ticketBlockId);\n$ticketsBlockTypes = SuperTable::$plugin-&gt;getService()-&gt;getBlockTypesByFieldId($ticketsField-&gt;id);\n$ticketsBlockType = $ticketsBlockTypes[0];\n\n$linksField = Craft::$app-&gt;getFields()-&gt;getFieldById($linkBlockId);\n$linkBlockTypes = SuperTable::$plugin-&gt;getService()-&gt;getBlockTypesByFieldId($linksField-&gt;id);\n$linksBlockType = $linkBlockTypes[0];\n\n\nAfter casting these to integers and then using that value as the type value when saving the matrix block, it all works!\n\nFull code below, hopefully it will help others out in this situation:\n\n$matrixBlocks = Craft::$app-&gt;getFields()-&gt;getFieldByHandle('eventPerformances')-&gt;getBlockTypeFields();\n$ticketBlockId = (int)$matrixBlocks[2]['id'];\n$linkBlockId = (int)$matrixBlocks[3]['id'];\n\n$ticketsField = Craft::$app-&gt;getFields()-&gt;getFieldById($ticketBlockId);\n$ticketsBlockTypes = SuperTable::$plugin-&gt;getService()-&gt;getBlockTypesByFieldId($ticketsField-&gt;id);\n$ticketsBlockType = $ticketsBlockTypes[0];\n\n$linksField = Craft::$app-&gt;getFields()-&gt;getFieldById($linkBlockId);\n$linkBlockTypes = SuperTable::$plugin-&gt;getService()-&gt;getBlockTypesByFieldId($linksField-&gt;id);\n$linksBlockType = $linkBlockTypes[0];\n\n$performancesMatrix = array();\n$ticketsMatrix = array();\n$linksMatrix = array();\n$performances = $event['schedules'][0]['performances'];\n$i = 1;\n\nforeach ($performances as $performance) {\n\n if (array_key_exists('tickets', $performance))\n {\n $t = 1;\n\n foreach ($performance['tickets'] as $ticket) \n {\n\n $ticketsMatrix['new'.$t] = array(\n 'type' =&gt; $ticketsBlockType-&gt;id,\n 'enabled' =&gt; true,\n 'fields' =&gt; array(\n 'ticketType' =&gt; $ticket['type'],\n 'minPrice' =&gt; (array_key_exists('min_price', $ticket) ? $ticket['min_price'] : ''),\n 'maxPrice' =&gt; (array_key_exists('max_price', $ticket) ? $ticket['max_price'] : ''),\n 'currency' =&gt; (array_key_exists('currency', $ticket) ? $ticket['currency'] : ''),\n ),\n );\n $t++;\n }\n }\n\n if(array_key_exists('links', $performance))\n {\n $l = 1;\n foreach($performance['links'] as $link) \n {\n\n $linksMatrix['new'.$l] = array(\n 'type' =&gt; $linksBlockType-&gt;id,\n 'enabled' =&gt; true,\n 'fields' =&gt; array(\n 'linkType' =&gt; (array_key_exists('type', $link) ? $link['type'] : ''),\n 'linkUrl' =&gt; (array_key_exists('url', $link) ? $link['url'] : ''),\n ),\n );\n $l++;\n }\n }\n\n $performancesMatrix['new'.$i] = array(\n 'type' =&gt; 'performance',\n 'enabled' =&gt; true,\n 'fields' =&gt; array(\n 'performanceDate' =&gt; date_create($performance['ts']),\n 'duration' =&gt; (array_key_exists('duration', $performance) ? $performance['duration'] / 60 : ''),\n 'tickets' =&gt; $ticketsMatrix,\n 'performanceLinks' =&gt; $linksMatrix\n ),\n );\n $i++;\n }\n\n$entry-&gt;setFieldValue('eventPerformances', $performancesMatrix);", "We ran into the same issue with Transcribe and Playa fields. We had a 'staff' channel (amongst many others) so we had lots of identically named entries for each person in each language (4 x John Smiths, etc), so it was tricky trying to pick the correct language 'John Smith' in a Playa field.\n\nFirst of all, the ideal solution would be if there was a Transcribe extension that had the option to automatically filter the Playa/Relationship entries by language, or else add a language column or label to these fields so you can easily choose the correct language entry. I think that's a feature request though.\n\nIn the meantime, Tom from EE Harbour suggested the following workaround to us:\n\n\n Most people end up adding the language prefix to the title of the entry. From there, they create a \"Display Title\" field that they use in the template to actually display the title without the language prefix.\n\n\nThis is probably the simplest workround and the one that we'd recommend if we did this again. At the time though, we weren't keen on using the Title field in this way, and having to create a Display Title field. It seemed like extra work and extra copying and pasting for the client. It would have been the most simple solution for us to implement though.\n\nSo rather than use the above workaround, we created a 'Language' category group, and created a category for each language that's being used on the site. We then used the Category Field add-on to add a 'Language Helper' custom field (showing a single option category drop down) to each channel that appears in Playa fields:\n\n\n\nThen when the client is using a Playa field, they can use the category filters to filter the entries by language:\n\n\n\nThe client wasn't 100% happy with having to manually set this additional dropdown field for every entry, so we added the following JS to the control panel (adding it to the Custom Javascript field within the CP CSS &amp; JS add-on) to make this field automatically populate itself based on the Transcribe Language Association dropdown (and we made sure our category names exactly matched the labels in this dropdown).\n\nIn the following code, field ID's 95-106 are all the 'Language Helper' custom fields we added to the various channels on the site, so you might not need so many if you have a smaller site).\n\n$(window).on('load', function() {\n var transcribeModule = (function() {\n\n var $hold_field = $('#sub_hold_field_transcribe__transcribe_language').find('select');\n if(!$hold_field.length) {\n return false;\n }\n\n var $target_field = $('#hold_field_94.publish_category_field, #hold_field_95.publish_category_field, #hold_field_96.publish_category_field, #hold_field_97.publish_category_field, #hold_field_98.publish_category_field, #hold_field_99.publish_category_field, #hold_field_100.publish_category_field, #hold_field_101.publish_category_field, #hold_field_102.publish_category_field, #hold_field_103.publish_category_field, #hold_field_104.publish_category_field, #hold_field_105.publish_category_field, #hold_field_106.publish_category_field').find('select.category_field_select');\n\n if(!$target_field.length) {\n return false;\n }\n\n function mirrorFields() {\n var selected_text = $hold_field.find(':selected').text();\n $target_field.find('option').each(function() {\n var $this = $(this);\n $this.removeAttr('selected');\n if($this.text() == selected_text) {\n $this.attr('selected', true);\n }\n });\n }\n\n mirrorFields();\n\n $hold_field.on('change', function() {\n mirrorFields();\n });\n }());\n});\n\n\nSo all in all, there's no ideal solution that we know of here, but hopefully, one these two workaround are of use to you.", "Eigen's LDLT class actually performs a U^T.D.U factorization if the input matrix is column-major with the symmetric entries stored in the upper triangular part:\n\nMatrixXd A;\n// fill at least the upper triangular part of A\nLDLT&lt;MatrixXd,Upper&gt; udu(A); // Only the upper part of A is read to form U\nudu.matrixU(); // returns an expression of the triangular matrix U (column major)\nudu.matrixL(); // returns an expression of the triangular matrix U^T (row major)\nudu.vectorD(); // expression of the diagonal coefficients of the matrix D as a vector\nudu.vectorD().asDiagonal(); // an expression of the diagonal matrix D", "The whole point is that CNOT cannot be written in the form $A\\otimes B$. This is absolutely essential because if we only ever had operators of the form $A\\otimes B$, states of the form $|\\psi\\rangle\\otimes|\\phi\\rangle$ would always remain separable. There's be no entanglement, and all quantum circuits would be easy to simulate on a classical computer.\n\nAs for the Toffoli construction you describe, we require that in a quantum circuit, all gates are reversible. The AND gate is not reversible as you can see from the way the number of outputs is smaller than the number of inputs (so it's impossible to know what the inputs were just by looking at the outputs).\n\n\n\nThe above answers the question actually asked. However, I infer from the follow up comments of the OP, both here and on other questions, that there's something else that they're trying to get at. Here's my attempt to resolve some confusion.\n\n\n Any $N\\times N$ matrix can be composed as a product of \"two-level matrices\".\n\n\nThis is the normal matrix product, not the tensor product. A \"two-level matrix\" in this context is a matrix which is the identity everywhere except for two basis elements $s$ and $t$, on which the $2\\times 2$ matrix is an arbitrary unitary matrix. The controlled-not is by no means an exception to this rule. In fact, it's a particularly simple example because controlled-not is a two-level matrix where $s=10$ and $t=11$. That makes it a particularly natural building block which allows the further statement\n\n\n Any $2^n\\times 2^n$ two-level matrix can be decomposed in terms of $2\\times 2$ two-level matrices and the special case $4\\times 4$ two-level matrix that is controlled-not.\n\n\nremembering that any system on which the gate does not act requires us to take the tensor product of the operator with identity in order to make it act on the correct dimension.", "This algorithm suffers from similar numerical stability problems as the \nsymmetric Lanczos tridiagonalization algorithm, \nsee here\n\nIn exact arithmetic, after $k$ steps the following holds: $U_k^T U_k =I$, $V_k^T V_k =I$,\nand $U_k^T A V_k = B_k$, where $B_k$ is the bidiagonal matrix with diagonal elements $\\alpha_i$ and superdiagonal elements $\\beta_i$. \nHowever, in floating point arithmetic, even for modest $k$, the matrices \n$U_k$ and $V_k$ may become far from orthogonal. \nMoreover, $U_k^* A V_k$ may have relatively large entries not only on the bidiagonals, \nbut also at positions far away from the diagonal.\nNevertheless, the largest singular value of $B_k$ is often a quite good approximation of \nthe largest singular value of $A$, even for relatively small $k$. \n\nA much more stable bidiagonalization algorithm is the Householder bidiagonalization\nalgorithm, which is described in Paragraph 5.4.8 of Matrix computations by Golub and \nVan Loan, 4th edition. This method uses Householder reflections\nto bidiagonalize matrix $A$, which is relatively expensive but also very stable.\n\nIt is possible to improve the Lanczos bidiagonalization algorithm,\nand to maintain the orthogonality, \nby reothogonalization\nSee also: Some remarks on bidiagonalization and its \nimplementation.\nNote that Lanczos bidiagonalization only needs matrix vector products with $A$ and $A^T$,\nwhile the Householder bidiagonalization algorithm needs explicit access to the matrix entries of $A$, which is a disadvantage", "For passing values to forms:\n\nThere is a Drupal Module called Prepopulate which allows you to prefill fields on node forms using $_REQUEST variables. \n\nIt is quite simple to use and merely requires you to rewrite the links to contain the field values you want to pass along. If you want to fill field_your_fieldon your ticket node, the link would need to look like this:\n\nhttp://www.example.com/node/add/ticket?edit[field_your_field]=desired field value\n\n\n\n\nThat said, this wont hide any fields on the form, merely provide default values for them. If you want tickets with different fields, you could always use multiple node types. \n\n\n\nIf you want to actually hide fields based on the url, you could reuse the node form on custom pages and manipulate their fields there as you need.\n\nYou will need menu entries for your different node displays to distinguish which node form you want to call.\n\nfunction ticket_module_menu() {\n $items['ticket/add/tech-ticket'] = array(\n 'page callback' =&gt; 'drupal_get_form',\n 'page arguments' =&gt; array('ticket_module_tech_ticket'),\n 'access callback' =&gt; 'create ticket content', //or put a custom permission\n );\n\n $items['ticket/add/support-ticket'] = array(\n 'page callback' =&gt; 'drupal_get_form',\n 'page arguments' =&gt; array('ticket_module_support_ticket'),\n 'access callback' =&gt; 'create ticket content', //or put a custom permission\n );\n\n return $items;\n}\n\n\nAnd then create a form for each entry:\n\nfunction ticket_module_tech_ticket() {\n module_load_include('inc', 'node', 'node.pages');\n\n //get node add form for node type ticket\n $form = node_add('ticket');\n\n //Hide fields you do not want to display\n $form['field_your_field1']['#access'] = 0;\n $form['field_your_field1']['und'][0]['value']['#disabled'] = TRUE;\n\n return $form;\n}\n\nfunction ticket_module_support_ticket() {\n module_load_include('inc', 'node', 'node.pages');\n\n //get node add form for node type ticket\n $form = node_add('ticket');\n\n //Hide fields you do not want to display\n $form['field_your_field2']['#access'] = 0;\n $form['field_your_field2']['und'][0]['value']['#disabled'] = TRUE;\n\n return $form;\n}", "For clarity, I'm going to generalize your question to be over characteristic $p\n&gt; 0$ (with base field $\\mathbb{F}_q$) instead of the specific case of $p=q=2$.\nI'll take $p$ and $q$ as a fixed constants;\nI'll leave it to the reader to figure out what the exact dependence on these parameters is,\nas there are some tradeoffs that can be made.\nThe end result here is that your problem is roughly equivalent to the discrete\nlog problem for finite fields of characteristic $p$.\n\nTo be more specific,\nlet the ordinary discrete log problem over extensions of $\\mathbb{F}_q$ be,\ngiven an extension field $\\mathbb{F}$ of $\\mathbb{F}_q$, and $a,b \\in \\mathbb{F}$,\nfind any integer $t$ so that $a = b^t$,\nor report that none exists.\nLet the strong discrete log problem over extensions of $\\mathbb{F}_q$ be,\ngiven $\\mathbb{F},a,b$ as before, find integers $z,m$ so that\n$a = b^t$ for an integer $t$ iff $t = z \\pmod{m}$,\nor report that no $t$ exists.\nThen the following reductions exist:\n\n\nThere is a deterministic mapping reduction from discrete log over extensions of $\\mathbb{F}_q$ to your problem.\nThere is an efficient, deterministic algorithm which solves your problem\nwhen given access to an oracle computing the strong discrete log problem\nover extensions of $\\mathbb{F}_q$.\n\n\nAccordingly, I'd consider it unlikely that somebody will post a proof of\n$\\mathsf{NP}$-hardness or a proof that your problem is in $\\mathsf{P}$ in the\nnear future.\n\nRemark: The strong discrete log problem over extensions of $\\mathbb{F}_q$\ncan be Turing-reduced to the following ostensibly weaker form\n(though still seemingly stronger than the ordinary discrete log problem):\nGiven an extension field $\\mathbb{F}$ of $\\mathbb{F}_q$, and $a,b \\in \\mathbb{F}$,\nfind the least, non-negative integer $t$ so that $a = b^t$.\nThis follows from the fact that the order of $b$ is one plus the smallest\nnon-negative $t$ so that $b^{-1} = b^t$.\n\n\n\nFirst reduction:\nThe claim is that the ordinary discrete log problem over extensions of $\\mathbb{F}_{q}$ mapping-reduces to this problem.\nThis follows the fact that multiplication in $\\mathbb{F}_{q^n}$ is a linear transformation\nwhen we view $\\mathbb{F}_{q^n}$ as an $n$-dimensional vector space over $\\mathbb{F}_q$.\nHence a question of the form $a = b^t$ over $\\mathbb{F}_{q^n}$\nbecomes $\\vec{a} = B^t\\vec{e}$ over $\\mathbb{F}_q$, where $\\vec{a},\\vec{e}$ are $n$-dimensional vectors,\nand $B$ is an $n\\times n$ matrix, all over $\\mathbb{F}_q$.\nThe vector $\\vec{a}$ can be easily computed from $a$, $B$ from $b$, and\n$\\vec{e}$ is just the representation of $1 \\in \\mathbb{F}_{q^n}$, which can be\nwritten down efficiently.\nThis appears to still be a hard case of the general discrete log problem,\neven with $p=q=2$ (but growing $n$, of course).\nIn particular, people are still competing to see how far out they can compute it.\n\n\n\nSecond reduction:\nThe claim is that your problem reduces to the strong discrete log problem over extensions of $\\mathbb{F}_q$.\nThis reduction has a few pieces to it, so forgive the length.\nLet the input be the $n$-dimensional vectors $x,y$ and $n\\times n$ matrix $A$, all over $\\mathbb{F}_q$;\nthe goal is to find $t$ so that $y = A^tx$.\n\nThe basic idea is to write $A$ in Jordan canonical form (JCF),\nfrom which we can reduce testing $y = A^tx$ to the strong discrete log problem\nwith some straightforward algebra.\n\nOne reason for using a canonical form under similarity of matrices\nis that if $A = P^{-1}JP$, then $A^t = P^{-1}J^tP$.\nHence we can transform $y = A^tx$ to $(Py) = J^t(Px)$,\nwhere now $J$ is in a much nicer format than the arbitrary $A$.\nThe JCF is a particularly simple form, which enables the rest of the algorithm.\nSo from now on, assume that $A$ is already in JCF,\nbut also allow that $x,y,$ and $A$ may have entries in an extension field of\n$\\mathbb{F}_q$.\n\nRemark: There are some subtleties that arise from working with the JCF.\nSpecifically, I'll assume that we can do field operations within any extension\nof $\\mathbb{F}_q$ (no matter how large) in one time step,\nand that we can compute the JCF efficiently.\na priori, this is unrealistic, because working with the JCF may require\nworking in an extension field (the splitting field of the characteristic polynomial)\nof exponential degree.\nHowever, with some care, and using the fact that we're working over a finite field,\nwe can circumvent these issues.\nIn particular,\nwe will associate with each Jordan block a field $\\mathbb{F}'$ of degree at most $n$ over $\\mathbb{F}_q$\nso that all the entries in the Jordan block and the corresponding elements of $x$,$y$\nall live within $\\mathbb{F}'$.\nThe field $\\mathbb{F}'$ may differ from block to block,\nbut using this ``mixed representation'' allows for an efficient description of the JCF,\nwhich moreover can be found efficiently.\nThe algorithm described in the remainder of this section only needs to work\nwith one block at a time,\nso as long as it does its field operations within the associated field $\\mathbb{F}'$,\nthe algorithm will be efficient.\n[end remark]\n\nThe use of JCF gives us equations of the following form,\nwith each equation corresponding to a Jordan block:\n$$\n\\begin{bmatrix}\n y_1 \\\\\n y_2 \\\\\n y_3 \\\\\n \\vdots \\\\\n y_{k-1} \\\\\n y_{k} \\\\\n\\end{bmatrix}\n=\n\\begin{bmatrix}\n\\lambda &amp; 1 &amp; &amp; &amp; &amp; \\\\\n &amp; \\lambda &amp; 1 &amp; &amp; &amp; \\\\\n &amp; &amp; \\lambda &amp; 1 &amp; &amp; \\\\\n &amp; &amp; &amp; \\ddots &amp; &amp; \\\\\n &amp; &amp; &amp; &amp; \\lambda &amp; 1 \\\\\n &amp; &amp; &amp; &amp; &amp; \\lambda \\\\\n\\end{bmatrix}^t\n\\begin{bmatrix}\n x_1 \\\\\n x_2 \\\\\n x_3 \\\\\n \\vdots \\\\\n x_{k-1} \\\\\n x_{k} \\\\\n\\end{bmatrix}$$\n\nThe algorithm will handle each block separately.\nIn the general case, for each block, we'll have a query for our strong discrete log oracle,\nfrom which the oracle will tell us a modularity condition, $t = z \\pmod{m}$.\nWe'll also get a set $S \\subseteq \\{0,1,\\cdots,p-1\\}$ so that\n$\\bigvee_{s\\in S}\\left[ t = s \\pmod{p} \\right]$\nmust hold.\nAfter processing all the blocks,\nwe'll need to check that there is a choice of $t$ that satisfies the conjunctions of all these conditions.\nThis can be done by making sure there is a common element $s$ in all the sets $S$\nso that the equations $t = s \\pmod p$ and $t = z_j \\pmod{m_j}$ are all simultaneously satisfied,\nwhere $j$ ranges over the blocks.\n\nThere are also some special cases that arise throughout the procedure.\nIn these cases,\nwe'll get conditions of the form $t &gt; \\ell$ for some value of $\\ell$,\nor of the form $t = s$ for some specific integer $s$, from certain blocks,\nor we might even find that no $t$ can exist.\nThese can be incorporated into the logic for the general case without issue.\n\nWe now describe the subprocedure for handling each Jordan block.\nFix such a block.\n\nBegin by focusing on just the last coordinate in the block.\nThe condition $y = A^tx$ requires that $y_k = \\lambda^t x_k$.\nIn other words, it's an instance of the discrete log problem in some field extension of $\\mathbb{F}_q$.\nWe then use an oracle to solve it,\nwhich either results in no solution,\nor else gives a modularity condition on $t$.\nIf \"no solution\" is returned, we return indicating such.\nOtherwise,\nwe get a condition $t = z \\pmod{m}$,\nwhich is equivalent to $y_k = \\lambda^t x_k$.\n\nTo handle the other coordinates,\nwe start with the following formula\n(see, eg, here):\n$$\n\\begin{bmatrix}\n\\lambda &amp; 1 &amp; &amp; &amp; &amp; \\\\\n &amp; \\lambda &amp; 1 &amp; &amp; &amp; \\\\\n &amp; &amp; \\lambda &amp; 1 &amp; &amp; \\\\\n &amp; &amp; &amp; \\ddots &amp; &amp; \\\\\n &amp; &amp; &amp; &amp; \\lambda &amp; 1 \\\\\n &amp; &amp; &amp; &amp; &amp; \\lambda \\\\\n\\end{bmatrix}^t\n=\n\\begin{bmatrix}\n\\lambda^t &amp; \\binom{t}{1}\\lambda^{t-1} &amp; \\binom{t}{2}\\lambda^{t-2} &amp; \\cdots &amp; \\cdots &amp; \\binom{t}{k-1}\\lambda^{t-k+1} \\\\\n &amp; \\lambda^t &amp; \\binom{t}{1}\\lambda^{t-1} &amp; \\cdots &amp; \\cdots &amp; \\binom{t}{k-2}\\lambda^{t-k+2} \\\\\n &amp; &amp; \\ddots &amp; \\ddots &amp; \\vdots &amp; \\vdots\\\\\n &amp; &amp; &amp; \\ddots &amp; \\ddots &amp; \\vdots\\\\\n &amp; &amp; &amp; &amp; \\lambda^t &amp; \\binom{t}{1}\\lambda^{t-1}\\\\\n &amp; &amp; &amp; &amp; &amp; \\lambda^t\n\\end{bmatrix}$$\nFirst, let's take care of the case in which $x_k = 0$.\nSince we already have the modularity condition which implies $y_k = \\lambda^t x_k$,\nwe can assume that $y_k = 0$ also.\nBut then we can just reduce to focusing on the first $k-1$ entries of $x$ and $y$,\nand the top left $(k-1)\\times (k-1)$ submatrix of the Jordan block.\nSo from now on, assume that $x_k \\ne 0$.\n\nSecond, we'll handle the case in which $\\lambda = 0$.\nIn this case,\nthe powers of the Jordan block have a special form,\nand force either $t = z$ for some $z \\le k$,\nor else $t &gt; k$, with no other conditions.\nI won't belabor the cases, but suffice it to say that each can be checked for efficiently.\n(Alternatively, we could reduce to the case where $A$ is invertible; see my comment on the question.)\n\nFinally, we arrive at the general case.\nSince we already have the modularity condition which implies that $y_k = \\lambda^t x_k$,\nwe can assume that condition holds, and use $y_k x_k^{-1}$ as a stand-in for $\\lambda^t$.\nMore generally, we can use $y_kx_k^{-1}\\lambda^{-z}$ to represent $\\lambda^{t-z}$.\nThus we need to check if the following system holds for some choice of $t$:\n$$\n\\begin{bmatrix}\n y_1 \\\\\n y_2 \\\\\n y_3 \\\\\n \\vdots \\\\\n y_{k-1} \\\\\n y_{k} \\\\\n\\end{bmatrix}\n=\n\\begin{bmatrix}\ny_kx_k^{-1} &amp; \\binom{t}{1}y_kx_k^{-1}\\lambda^{-1} &amp; \\binom{t}{2}y_kx_k^{-1}\\lambda^{-2} &amp; \\cdots &amp; \\cdots &amp; \\binom{t}{k-1}y_kx_k^{-1}\\lambda^{-(k-1)} \\\\\n &amp; y_kx_k^{-1} &amp; \\binom{t}{1}y_kx_k^{-1}\\lambda^{-1} &amp; \\cdots &amp; \\cdots &amp; \\binom{t}{k-2}y_kx_k^{-1}\\lambda^{-(k-2)} \\\\\n &amp; &amp; \\ddots &amp; \\ddots &amp; \\vdots &amp; \\vdots\\\\\n &amp; &amp; &amp; \\ddots &amp; \\ddots &amp; \\vdots\\\\\n &amp; &amp; &amp; &amp; y_kx_k^{-1} &amp; \\binom{t}{1}y_kx_k^{-1}\\lambda^{-1}\\\\\n &amp; &amp; &amp; &amp; &amp; y_kx_k^{-1}\n\\end{bmatrix}\n\\begin{bmatrix}\n x_1 \\\\\n x_2 \\\\\n x_3 \\\\\n \\vdots \\\\\n x_{k-1} \\\\\n x_{k} \\\\\n\\end{bmatrix}\n$$\nObserve that whether the equation holds depends only on $t \\pmod{p}$;\nthis is because the dependence on $t$ is only polynomial,\n$t$ must be an integer,\nand the above equations are over a field of characteristic $p$.\nHence we can just try each value of $t \\in \\{0,1,\\ldots,p-1\\}$ separately.\nThe set $S$ we will return is just the choices of $t$ for which the system is\nsatisfied.\n\nSo now, except for some special cases, the per-block subprocedure has found a modularity condition $t = a \\pmod{m}$,\nand a set $S$ so that one of $t = s \\pmod{p}$ must hold for some $s \\in S$.\nThese conditions are equivalent to $y = A^tx$ within this specific Jordan block.\nSo we return these from the subprocedure.\nThe special cases either conclude that no $t$ can exist (in which case the subprocedure immediately returns an indication of that),\nor else we have a modularity condition $t = a \\pmod{m}$ and some special condition like $t = s$ for an integer $s$,\nor $t &gt; \\ell$ for some integer $\\ell$.\nIn any case, the conditions involved are all equivalent to $y = A^tx$ within this Jordan block.\nSo, as mentioned above, the subprocedure just returns these conditions.\n\nThis concludes the specification of the per-block subprocedure,\nand of the algorithm as a whole.\nIt's correctness and efficiency follow from the preceding discussion.\n\n\n\nSubtleties with using JCF in second reduction:\nAs mentioned in the second reduction, there are some subtleties that arise from\nworking with the JCF.\nThere are a few observations for mitigating these problems:\n\n\nExtensions of finite fields are normal.\nThis means that if $P$ is a an irreducible polynomial over $\\mathbb{F}_q$,\nthen any extension of $\\mathbb{F}_q$ containing a root of $P$\ncontains all the roots of $P$.\nIn other words, the splitting field of an irreducible polynomial $P$\nof degree $d$ has degree only $d$ over $\\mathbb{F}_q$.\nThere is a generalization of the Jordan canonical form,\ncalled the primary rational canonical form (PRCF),\nwhich does not require field extensions to be written down.\nIn particular, if $A$ is a matrix with entries in $\\mathbb{F}_q$,\nthen we can write $A = P^{-1}QP$ for some matrices $P,Q$ with entries in $\\mathbb{F}_q$,\nwhere moreover $Q$ is in PRCF.\nAdditionally, if we pretend that the entries $A$ live in a field $\\mathbb{F}'$\nextending $\\mathbb{F}_q$ which contains all the eigenvalues of $A$,\nthen $Q$ will in fact be in JCF.\nThus we can view computing the JCF of $A$ as a special case of computing the PRCF.\nUsing the form of the PRCF,\nwe can factor computing the JCF of $A$ as\n\n\ncomputing the PRCF of $A$ over $\\mathbb{F}_q$\ncomputing the PRCF of each block $C$ (borrowing the notation from the Wikipedia article) in the PRCF of $A$,\nover an extension field $\\mathbb{F}'$,\nwhere $\\mathbb{F}'$ is chosen to contain all the eigenvalues of $C$\n\n\nThe key advantage with this factorization is that the characteristic\npolynomials of the blocks $C$ will all be irreducible,\nand hence, by our first observation,\nwe can choose $\\mathbb{F}'$ to have degree the size of $C$ (which is at most $n$) over $\\mathbb{F}_q$.\nThe downside is that now we have to use different extension fields to\nrepresent each block of the JCF, so the representation is atypical and complicated.\n\n\nThus, given the ability to compute the PRCF efficiently,\nwe can compute a suitable encoding of the JCF efficiently,\nand this encoding is so that working with any particular block of the JCF can be done within\nan extension field of degree at most $n$ over $\\mathbb{F}_n$.\n\nAs for computing the PRCF efficiently,\nthe paper\n\"A Rational Canonical Form Algorithm\" (K. R. Matthews, Math. Bohemica 117 (1992) 315-324)\ngives an efficient algorithm to compute the PRCF when the factorization of the characteristic\npolynomial of $A$ is known.\nFor fixed characteristic (such as we have),\nfactoring univariate polynomials over finite fields can be done in deterministic polynomial time\n(see eg \"On a New Factorization Algorithm for Polynomials over Finite Fields\" (H. Niederreitter and R. Gottfert, Math. of Computation 64 (1995) 347-353).),\nso the PRCF can be computed efficiently.", "I've just found this: https://craftcms.stackexchange.com/a/25961/9344.\n\nAfter reading Robins comments, I can see where I was going wrong.\n\nMy working example code now looks like this:\n\nprotected static function createNewEntry()\n{\n Event::on(\n Elements::class,\n Elements::EVENT_AFTER_SAVE_ELEMENT,\n function(ElementEvent $event) {\n\n // Ignore any element that is not an entry\n if (!($event-&gt;element instanceof Entry)) {\n return;\n }\n\n // Ignore entries that are new because they have no id\n if ($event-&gt;isNew) {\n return;\n }\n\n // Fetch current entry and assign siteid\n $masterEntry = Craft::$app-&gt;entries-&gt;getEntryById($event-&gt;element-&gt;id, $event-&gt;element-&gt;siteId);\n\n // Fetch matrix fields by handle\n $masterEntryMatrix = Craft::$app-&gt;getFields()-&gt;getFieldByHandle('matrixSchedule');\n // get the existing matrixSchedule value\n $masterEntryMatrixQuery = $masterEntry-&gt;getFieldValue('matrixSchedule');\n // serialize the data in order to get an array\n $masterEntryMatrixSerialized = $masterEntryMatrix-&gt;serializeValue($masterEntryMatrixQuery, $masterEntry);\n\n // Basic Craft fields...\n $newEntry = new Entry();\n $newEntry-&gt;sectionId = $masterEntry-&gt;sectionId;\n // more craft fields here...\n\n // Custom fields \n $newEntry-&gt;contentLongtitle = $masterEntry-&gt;contentLongtitle;\n // more craft custom fields here...\n\n // Matrix field \n $newEntry-&gt;setFieldValue('matrixSchedule', $masterEntryMatrixSerialized);\n\n $success = Craft::$app-&gt;elements-&gt;saveElement($newEntry);\n // Handle success/failure logic here...\n\n }\n );\n}", "There are two challenges that you will have to address. First is localization of the robot relative to the Bluetooth source; second is the controller that will drive the robot to the source.\n\nTo localize the robot, I would consider using a triangulation method. One robotic platform that addresses a similar problem is the Kilobot, which is used in swarm robotics research. The Kilobot has an IR sensor, which it uses to determine the distance to its neighbours--this sensor is very susceptible to noise. Furthermore, the Kilobot uses vibrating motors to move, which are even worse for control than low quality motor encoders. The triangulation method is given on page 794--the only difference will be that your robot will be green and the source will be blue. To triangulate, you must take a minimum of three relative distance measurements from the source at different known locations (approximated due to dubious encoder quality)--you can now use this coordinate as a desired position for the controller. \n\nTo control the robot, we need to drive the robot to the source by applying control inputs. Because you don't have any specific robot in mind, let's assume that you have a two-wheeled differential drive robot (TWDDR). TWDDRs can be modeled with unicycle dynamics of the following form: $$\\dot{z}=\\left[\\begin{matrix}\\dot{x}\\\\ \\dot{y} \\\\ \\dot{\\theta} \\end{matrix}\\right] = \\left[\\begin{matrix}cos(\\theta)&amp;0\\\\sin(\\theta)&amp;0\\\\0&amp;1\\end{matrix}\\right] \\left[\\begin{matrix}v\\\\\\omega\\end{matrix}\\right],$$ where $x$ and $y$ are Cartesian coordinates of the robot, and $\\theta \\in (-\\pi,\\pi]$ is the angle between the heading and the $x$-axis. The input vector $\\left[v, \\omega \\right]^T$ consists of linear and angular velocity inputs. For simplicity, I will assume that you can specify these inputs directly, which is reasonable for most off-the-shelf robots--if you want to implement this from scratch, then you have to specify velocities for the left and right wheels.\n\nDriving the robot to the source is equivalent to shifting the origin of the state and driving the state of the robot to 0. For unicycle robots, a easy method of control is achieved by controlling a point, which is holonomic, some small distance $l$ away from the center of the the two wheels rather than controlling the unicycle robot directly. To do this, we can derive the following rotation matrix to transform the control law of the robot to the control law of the point: $$\\dot{p}=\\left[\\begin{matrix}\\dot{p_x}\\\\\\dot{p_y}\\end{matrix}\\right]=\\left[\\begin{matrix}\\text{cos}(\\theta)&amp;-l\\text{sin}(\\theta)\\\\\\text{sin}(\\theta)&amp;l \\text{cos}(\\theta)\\end{matrix}\\right]\\left[\\begin{matrix}v\\\\\\omega\\end{matrix}\\right]$$\n\n$\\dot{p}$ is the velocity of the point being controlled, and it is decomposed into its $x$ and $y$ components. \n\nAt this point, control is quite simple; we control the point directly! The dynamics become: $$\\dot{z}=\\left[\\begin{matrix}\\dot{x}\\\\ \\dot{y} \\\\ \\dot{\\theta} \\end{matrix}\\right] = \\left[\\begin{matrix}cos(\\theta)&amp;0\\\\sin(\\theta)&amp;0\\\\0&amp;1\\end{matrix}\\right] \\left[\\begin{matrix}v\\\\\\omega\\end{matrix}\\right]=\\left[\\begin{matrix}cos(\\theta)&amp;0\\\\sin(\\theta)&amp;0\\\\0&amp;1\\end{matrix}\\right] \\left[\\begin{matrix}cos(\\theta)&amp;sin(\\theta)\\\\-\\frac{sin(\\theta)}{l}&amp;-\\frac{cos(\\theta)}{l}\\end{matrix}\\right]\\left[\\begin{matrix}\\dot{p}_x\\\\\\dot{p}_y\\end{matrix}\\right],$$Setting $$\\dot{p}=u=\\left[\\begin{matrix}x_{desired}\\\\y_{desired}\\end{matrix}\\right],$$ accomplishes the objective of driving the robot to the desired pose, where $u$ is the input, and $[x_{desired},y_{desired}]^T$ is the location of the source.\n\nThe gif below uses this controller, driving all of the robots from arbitrary initial positions to the desired position at $(-5,-5)$.\n\n\n\nI have glossed over the challenges of noisy sensor and actuators, but the core idea has been presented--both triangulation and control should be possible in simulation, and with a little tweaking, it should work on a physical system.", "The following partial answer applies to matrices $A \\ \\in \\ M^{n \\times n}$ of the question, if $A$ is also symmetric (semidefinite in the narrow sense), but the principles will be useful to understand the general case, I suppose. \n\nThe first version contained a stupid mistake, which I corrected after I found my first solution to be inconsistent with the solution to the second problem linked to in the question.\n\nAs our matrix $A$ in question is symmetric, it can be written as\n\n$$ A \\ = \\ \\lambda_1 v_1v_1^T + \\lambda_2 v_2v_2^T + \\ldots + \\lambda_k v_kv_k^T \\, ,$$\n\nwhere the $\\lambda_i$ are its non-vanishing singular values and eigenvalues in this special case $(k \\ \\leq \\ n)$, which we have arranged in decreasing order, so $\\lambda_1$ is a Perron root of $A$, and the $v_i$ are corresponding orthonormal eigenvectors. We allow a multiple Perron root, hence there is no irreducibility assumption. We can take $v_1$ to have non-negative entries though, which we shall do.\n\nThe Moore-Penrose inverse is then given as\n\n$$ A^\\dagger \\ = \\ \\frac{1}{\\lambda_1} v_1v_1^T + \\frac{1}{\\lambda_2} v_2v_2^T + \\ldots + \\frac{1}{\\lambda_k} v_kv_k^T \\, .$$\n\nThe key observation following an elementary and simple computation is \n\n$$ e^T(xx^T)e \\ = \\ (c_x)^2 \\, ,$$\n\nwhere $x$ is an arbitrary column vector and $c_x$ is its component sum, so the result is non-negative, if $x$ contains real numbers as entries. \n\nAs the entries of $v_1$ are non-negative and $v_1$ has unit length, its component sum is at least $1$ and at most $\\sqrt{n}$, which occurs if and only if all components are equal. But as the $v_i$ form an orthonormal system, all other $v_i$ must have vanishing component sums in this case, as they are orthogonal to $e$ in particular. Therefore we have\n\n$$ e^T A^\\dagger e \\ = \\ \\frac{n}{\\lambda_1}$$ \n\nin this case, while we have\n\n$$ e^T A^\\dagger e \\ = \\ \\sum_{i=1}^k \\frac{(c_{v_i})^2}{\\lambda_i}$$\n\nand therefore\n\n$$ \\frac{1}{\\lambda_1} \\ \\leq \\ e^T A^\\dagger e \\ \\leq n \\sum_{i=1}^k \\frac{1}{\\lambda_i}$$\n\nin general.\n\nIn particular, we have $$e^T A^\\dagger e \\ = \\ n$$ if $A$ is doubly stochastic.", "There exists a clever algorithm for doing this, based on ideas due to Cayley, using the Bézout matrix. I learned this from [1], which describes an algorithm for a generic version of this problem.\n\nIf we want to find all the critical points of the function $\\|f(s)-f(t)\\|^2$ (viewing $f$ as a function $\\mathbb{R}\\to\\mathbb{R}^2$), a sufficient condition is that\n$$ P_s(t) := (f(s)-f(t))^\\top f'(s) = 0, \\qquad Q_s(t) := (f(s)-f(t))^\\top f'(t) = 0, $$\nwhich is a pair of simultaneous trigonometric equations in $s$ and $t$.\n\nForm the Bézout matrix as the matrix with entries $B_{ij}(s)$ defined by the expansion\n$$ \\frac{P_s(x)Q_s(y) - P_s(y)Q_s(x)}{x-y} = \\sum_{i,j} B_{ij}(s) \\phi_i(x) \\phi_j(y). $$\nHere $\\phi_i$ are a suitable basis for the function $f,P,Q$. Typically they are either monomials, or Chebyshev polynomials, but presumably can also be elementary trigonometric functions.\n\nThose values of $s$ for which the exists a solution $t$ to the pair of equations $P_s(t) = Q_s(t) = 0$ cause the matrix $B_{ij}(s)$ to be singular. In other words, if we expand the matrix $B_{ij}(s)$ in the basis $\\phi_i(s)$ as\n$$ B_{ij}(s) = \\sum_k B_{ij}^{(k)}\\phi_k(s), $$\nfor a solution $s$ to exist it is necessary that\n$$ \\det B_{ij}(s) = 0, $$\nwhich is a polynomial eigenvalue problem (the polynomial's coefficients in the basis $\\phi$ are the matrices $B_{ij}^{(k)}$). This is a well-known problem, and has standard, although possibly difficult algorithms, such as the polyeig function in Matlab. In particular it can turned into a linear eigenvalue problem for $s$ by constructing the block-companion matrix (if $\\phi$ are monomials) or the block-colleague matrix (if $\\phi$ are Chebyshev), and solving that linearized version of the PEP.\n\nIt may also be helpful to partition the $(s,t)$-square into some number of subsquares and use the Bézout matrix approach on individual subsquares, as this can substantially lower the degree of the polynomial eigenvalue problem and its linearized version.\n\nReferences\n\n\nComputing the common zeros of two bivariate functions via Bézout resultants by Yuji Nakatsukasa, Vanni Noferini, Alex Townsend", "This's a too broad question including continuous time systems, discrete time systems, control systems, convolution operation, difference operation and differentiaiton operations.\n\nHowever your main focus is on convolution. Therefore I will state in plain simple terms that the operation of convolution defines and calculates the output of a linear time invariant system to a given input from the impulse response of the system. This is performed by the convolution integral for continuous time systems and convolution sum for discrete time systems. Therefore convolution forms the core of signal processing. Just as integration or differentiation forms the core of calculus.\n\nControl theory is an application of extensive signal processing, feedback theory, linear algebra, calculus, matrix theory, transform theory and probability theory. Therefore it will naturaly utilize convolutions in its many formulations. Nevertheless convolution is nothing more than a tool for the control field point of view.\n\nA physical process requires an analog (continuous time) system to control it. But modern technology enables digital computers (sampled data systems) to be used instead. As a consequence, integrations and differentiations of the continuous time system are replaced by sums and differences in digital software implementation of analog systems. Whereas the link between the digital and continuous time systems can be defined via sampling theorem or some other mapping relations.", "I've run up a test and can confirm this bug.\n\nAdditionally I can see that if you edit/submit (no change) the parent (playa holding) entry the child title is updated.\n\nSo in order to fix I beleive the easiest approch would be to develop an extension, look for entry_saved events on entries with ID's that are in the exp_playa_relationships.child_entry_id column, and if so 'touch' the parent too.\n\nAnd of course, report it to P&amp;T as a bug... \n\nRelated Posts : How can I bulk update the Matrix search index without re-saving each entry? (same effect, different module!)\n\nFound a nice little bit o info to help you out, you'll have to create your extension, hook the entry_submission_end event in your extension, then you'll need a function like this : \n\nfunction _ChekcUpdateParentChannelData($entryId, $meta){\n $res = ee()-&gt;db-&gt;select('parent_entry_id')\n -&gt;where('child_entry_id', $entryId)\n -&gt;get('playa_relationships');\n if ( $res-&gt;num_rows() &gt; 0 ) {\n //aha, this is a child entry, get all the children of the parent!\n //you'll need to fetch ALL the child entry_id's, url_titles and \n //Titles, assuming we have these in an array now called $children\n\n //from ft.playa.php line 2714, this is the code that sets the channel_data table\n $keywords = \"\";\n foreach ($children as $entry)\n {\n $keywords .= ($keywords ? \"\\n\" : '') . \"[{$entry['entry_id']}] [{$entry['url_title']}] \".str_replace('\\'', '', $entry['title']);\n }\n\n //we now have a data to stick back into the channel_data\n //so here write an update query, where entry_id = parent \n //entry_id set the field_XX to $keywords \n\n }\n}\n\n\nLots to fill in there, but you should get there. Let us know if you contact P&amp;T and if they are going to patch or not. If they don't I might be inclined to write a 3rd party utility for this, and also for grid n matrix too if they still exhibit the same behaviour!", "As I pointed out in the comments, what you ask is a particular case of more general algorithms concerning Gröbner bases of submodules of free modules over polynomial rings. But let me address the particular case you asked about. We can divide the question you ask into two problems (where $k$ is a field and $q$ an indeterminate), which are then solved separately:\n\nGiven elements in $k(q)^n$ generating a $k(q)$-vector subspace $M \\subseteq k(q)^n$, find generators of the $k[q]$-submodule $N := M \\cap k[q]^n$ of $k[q]^n$.\n\nGiven elements in $k[q]^n$ generating a $k[q]$-submodule $N \\subseteq k[q]^n$, find generators of the $k$-vector subspace $N \\cap k^n$ of $k^n$.\n\n\nConcerning problem 1. By multiplying by a common denominator, we can assume that the given generators of $M$ are in $k[q]^n$. See their matrix as a $k[q]$-linear map $T\\colon k[q]^m \\to k[q]^n$ (with $m$ being the number of generators given, the generators being $T(e_1),\\ldots,T(e_m)$; and we have $M = \\operatorname{im}(T\\otimes_{k[q]} k(q))$). Now using the Smith normal form algorithm, we can algorithmically find $U\\colon k[q]^m \\to k[q]^m$ and $U'\\colon k[q]^n \\to k[q]^n$ invertible such that $T = U'DU$ with $D\\colon k[q]^m \\to k[q]^n$ being diagonal: here, $U$ is just a change of generators (having no effect on $M$), and $U'$ is a change of coordinates that preserves $k[q]^n$, so we are reduced to the case where the given matrix $T$ of generators is diagonal, say $T(e_i) = d_i e_i$ with $d_i \\neq 0$ in $k[q]$ for $1\\leq i\\leq r$ and $T(e_i) = 0$ for $i&gt;r$. But in this case the $k(q)$-vector subspace $M$ is simply spanned by the $e_i$ for $1\\leq i\\leq r$, and $M\\cap k[q]^n$ is too.\n‣ To summarize, to solve problem 1, write down your generator matrix, multiply by a common denominator to get its coefficients in $k[q]$, apply the Smith normal form algorithm over $k[q]$ and just replace nonzero coefficients in the diagonal matrix by $1$'s.\nConcerning problem 2. See the given generators of $N$ as a $k[q]$-linear map $T\\colon k[q]^m \\to k[q]^n$ (with $m$ being the number of generators given; and we have $N = \\operatorname{im}(T)$). This time using Hermite normal form, we can find $U\\colon k[q]^m \\to k[q]^m$ invertible such that $T = HU$ with $H\\colon k[q]^m \\to k[q]^n$ being in Hermite normal form (see below), so again we are reduced to the case where the given matrix $T$ of generators is in Hermite normal form. What this means precisely is that these generators $T(e_i)$ satisfy:\n\n$T(e_i)$ is nonzero for $1\\leq i\\leq r$ and zero for $i&gt;r$,\n\nfor $i\\leq r$, we have $T(e_i) = \\sum_{j=n_i}^n a_{i,j} e_j$ where $1\\leq n_1 &lt; \\cdots &lt; n_r \\leq n$ is an increasing sequence, the lead coefficient $a_{i,n_i}$ is unitary, and $\\deg(a_{j,n_i}) &lt; \\deg(a_{i,n_i})$ (†) when $1\\leq j&lt;i$.\n\n\nBut if a combination $z = \\sum_{i=1}^m T(c_i e_i) = \\sum_{i=1}^m c_i\\, T(e_i)$, with $c_i \\in k[q]$, of such vectors, belongs to $k^n$, then necessarily all $c_i$ belong to $k$: indeed, otherwise, if $s$ is the smallest $i$ such that $\\deg(c_i)&gt;0$, then coordinate $n_s$ of $z$ is $\\sum_{i=1}^s c_i a_{i,n_s} = \\big(\\sum_{i=1}^{s-1} c_i a_{i,n_s}\\big) + c_s a_{i,n_s}$, the term $\\sum_{i=1}^{s-1} c_i a_{i,n_s}$ has degree $&lt;\\deg(a_{s,n_s})$ by (†) and because all $c_i$ have degree $0$ here, and the last term $c_s a_{i,n_s}$ has degree $\\deg(c_s) + \\deg(a_{s,n_s}) &gt; 0$, a contradiction. Now once $c_i$ all belong to $k$, it is clear that $\\sum_{i=1}^m c_i\\, T(e_i)$ belongs to $k^n$ exactly when the $T(e_i)$ with $c_i\\neq 0$ themselves belong to $k^n$.\n‣ To summarize, to solve problem 2, write down your generator matrix, apply the Hermite normal form algorithm, and only keep generators which are in $k^n$.\n(A reference for the Hermite and Smith normal form used here is: Adkins &amp; Weintraub, Algebra: An Approach via Module Theory (1992, Springer GTM 136), §5.2–5.3. Note that there is a typo in definition 2.8, their $n_r\\leq m$ should be $n_r\\leq n$. I wrote things using linear maps in order to avoid confusion between rows and columns of a matrix, but here we want column echelon form, so take the transpose of their table 2.1.)\nMaybe we can avoid subdividing the problem in 1 and 2 as I did, or at least avoid doing a Smith normal form and then a Hermite normal form (there's probably a lot of redundancy involved here), I didn't think about this. Also, I'm pretty sure all of this is already implemented in Sage, though it might be a not completely trivial problem to bring the various bits together.", "The reason is that GMRES can only be used for solving linear equations, i.e. equations of the form $Ax=b$, where $A$ is some matrix and $x,b$ are vectors. What GMRES does, essentially, is it approximates multiplication by the matrix $A^{-1}$ using a matrix polynomial of $A$.\n\nIn this case (I assume) $f(y^{n+1},t)$ is not necessarily linear in the vector $y^{n+1}$, and so $y^n=G(y^{n+1},t)$ can't be written in the form $y^n=A(t)y^{n+1}$, where $A(t)$ is a matrix-valued function of time. So you can't use GMRES directly.\n\nThe \"Newton step\" is actually the formation of the linear system of equations with the Jacobian; the point of Newton's method is that it approximates the solution of a nonlinear equation with the solution of a sequence of linear equations. GMRES is just a tool that is used to implement Newton's method.", "In order to do this, you'll need to convert inequalities to equality constraints by introducing slack variables and then add these slack variables to your matrix variable as an additional LP block. \n\nLet \n\n$\nX=\\left[ \\begin{array}{ccc}\nW_{1} &amp; B &amp; 0 \\\\\nB^{T} &amp; W_{2} &amp; 0 \\\\\n0 &amp; 0 &amp; \\mbox{diag}(v) \\\\\n\\end{array} \\right]\n$\n\nwhere \n\n$\nv=\\left[ \\begin{array}{c}\ns_{1} \\\\\ns_{2} \\\\\n\\vdots \\\\\ns_{p} \\\\\nt \\\\\n\\end{array}\n\\right]\n$\n\nIn SDPT3, your $X$ matrix will be a block diagonal matrix with an $m+n$ by $m+n$ symmetric positive semidefinite block for $W_{1}$, $W_{2}$, $B$, and $B^{T}$, and a diagonal (or LP variable) block $v$ of length $2mn+3$ for the slack variables and $t$. \n\nIt's easy to express the objective $\\min t$ as the minimum of the trace of $CX$, where $C$ is a matrix with a 1 in the lower right corner and all other entries 0. \n\nYour constraints will then be\n\n$X \\succeq 0$\n\n$\\mbox{diag}(W_{1})+v_{1} - v_{p+1} = 0$\n\n$\\mbox{diag}(W_{2})+v_{2} - v_{p+1} = 0$\n\n$A_{i,j}-B_{i,j} - v_{2+i+(j-1)m} = -\\epsilon $ for $i=1, 2, \\ldots, m$, $j=1, 2, \\ldots, n$.\n\n$A_{i,j}-B_{i,j} + v_{2+mn+i+(j-1)m} = \\epsilon $ for $i=1, 2, \\ldots, m$, $j=1, 2, \\ldots, n$.\n\nEach of these linear equality constraints can be easily written as a linear equality constraint involving entries in $X$.", "The Heston model is represented by the bivariate system of stochastic differential equations\n\\begin{align}\n &amp; dS_t=rS_tdt+{\\sqrt\\upsilon_t}S_t dW_1(t) \\\\\n &amp; dv_t=\\kappa(\\theta-v_t) dt+\\sigma{\\sqrt v_t}dW_2(t) \\tag 1\\\\\n&amp;\\mathbb{E}[dW_1(t),dW_2(t)]=\\rho dt\n\\end{align}\nset $x_t=\\ln S_t$, By application of Ito's lemma, we have\n\\begin{align}\n &amp; dx_t=\\left(r-\\frac12 v_t\\right)dt+{\\sqrt\\upsilon_t} dW_1(t) \\\\\n &amp; dv_t=\\kappa(\\theta-v_t) dt+\\sigma{\\sqrt v_t}dW_2(t) \\tag 2\\\\\n\\end{align}\nLet $B_1(t)$ and $B_2(t)$ be two independent Wiener processes, we have\n\\begin{align}\n &amp; dx_t=\\left(r-\\frac12 v_t\\right)dt+{\\sqrt\\upsilon_t} dB_1(t) \\\\\n &amp; dv_t=\\kappa(\\theta-v_t) dt+\\sigma{\\sqrt v_t}\\left(\\rho\\,dB_1(t)+\\sqrt{1-\\rho^2}dB_2(t)\\right) \\tag 3\\\\\n\\end{align}\nNow we can write the Heston model as follow\n$$dy_t=\\mu(t,y_t)dt+\\Sigma(t,y_t)dB_t\\tag 4$$\nwhere\n$$y_t=\\left( \\begin{matrix}\n {x_t} \\\\\n {v_t} \\\\\n\\end{matrix} \\right)$$\n$$\\mu(t,y_t)=\\left( \\begin{matrix}\n r-\\frac{1}{2}{{v}_{t}} \\\\\n \\kappa (\\theta -{v_t}) \\\\\n\\end{matrix} \\right)\n\\\\\n\\Sigma (t,y_t)=\\left( \\begin{matrix}\n \\sqrt{{{v}_{t}}} &amp; 0 \\\\\n \\sigma \\rho \\sqrt{v_t} &amp; \\sigma \\sqrt{1-{{\\rho }^{2}}}\\sqrt{{{v}_{t}}} \\\\\n\\end{matrix} \\right)\\tag 5$$\nand\n$$B(t)=\\left( \\begin{matrix}\n {{B}_{1}}(t) \\\\\n {{B}_{2}}(t) \\\\\n\\end{matrix} \\right)$$\nThe drift $\\mu$ and the matrix $\\Sigma\\Sigma^{\\text{T}}$ can both be written in the affine form\n$$\\begin{align}\n &amp;\\quad\\,\\, \\mu (t,{{y}_{t}})={{\\alpha}_{0}}+{{\\alpha}_{1}}{{x}_{t}}+{{\\alpha}_{2}}{{v}_{t}} \\\\ \n &amp; \\Sigma {{\\Sigma }^{\\text{T}}}(t,{{y}_{t}})={{\\beta}_{0}}+{{\\beta}_{1}}{{x}_{t}}+{{\\beta}_{2}}{{v}_{t}} \\\\ \n\\end{align}\\tag 6$$\nwhere\n$${{\\alpha }_{0}}=\\left( \\begin{matrix}\n r \\\\\n k\\theta \\\\\n\\end{matrix} \\right),\\,{{\\alpha }_{1}}=\\left( \\begin{matrix}\n 0 \\\\\n 0 \\\\\n\\end{matrix} \\right),{{\\alpha }_{2}}=\\left( \\begin{matrix}\n -0.5 \\\\\n -\\kappa \\\\\n\\end{matrix} \\right)\\tag 7$$\nand\n$${{\\beta }_{0}}={{\\beta }_{1}}=\\left( \\begin{matrix}\n 0 &amp; 0 \\\\\n 0 &amp; 0 \\\\\n\\end{matrix} \\right),{{\\beta }_{2}}=\\left( \\begin{matrix}\n 1 &amp; \\rho \\sigma \\\\\n \\rho \\sigma &amp; {{\\sigma }^{2}} \\\\\n\\end{matrix} \\right)\\tag 8$$\nThe result of Duffie, Pan, and Singleton (2000) is that the characteristic function has the log-linear form\n$$f(\\phi_1,\\phi_2,x_t,v_t)=\\exp\\left(A(\\tau,\\phi_1,\\phi_2)+B(\\tau,\\phi_1,\\phi_2)x_t+C(\\tau,\\phi_1,\\phi_2)v_t\\right)$$\n\n\n\nNote\n\n\n Duffie, Pan, and Singleton (2000) show that the characteristic\n function of a wide class of multivariate affine models (of which the\n Heston model is a special case) has a log linear form .\n\n\nFor more details, see it:\n\n\nAffine concatenation", "You can create a custom plugin with Pluginfactory.io and check the box for Controllers but leave the name blank. Copy the downloaded files into your path/to/craft/craft/plugins/&gt;&gt;nameofyourplugin&lt;&lt;/ directory and install it in your cp. \n\nThen you'll insert a function like this in your controller\n\npublic function actionRenderTemplate(){\n $id = craft()-&gt;request-&gt;getParam('id');\n // do some checks if the id is valid or not here...\n\n $html = '';\n $success = false;\n $message = '';\n\n if($entry = craft()-&gt;entries-&gt;getEntryById($id)){\n // as example to render different templates based on entry type\n $entryType = $entry-&gt;getType()-&gt;handle; \n $html = craft()-&gt;templates-&gt;render('path/to/your/template/' . $entryType, array(\n 'entry' =&gt; $entry\n ));\n if($html){\n $success = true;\n }\n }else{\n $message = Craft::t('could not find entry with id ' . $id);\n }\n\n $this-&gt;returnJson([\n 'message' =&gt; $message,\n 'success' =&gt; $success,\n 'html' =&gt; $html\n ]);\n}\n\n\nAnd your Javascript could be this \n\n$('.load-instrument').click(function(){\n var data = {\n action: \"pluginname/actionRenderTemplate\",\n id: $(this).data('id')\n };\n $.ajax({\n type: \"post\",\n url: '',\n data: data,\n success: function(data){\n if(data.success === true){\n $(\"#idOfYourDiv\").html(data.html);\n }else{\n // display error messages here\n }\n },\n error: function (XMLHttpRequest, textStatus) {\n console.log(\"Status: \" + textStatus);\n }\n });\n});\n\n\nHowever I would recommend you to read the docs about Controllers and about templates to fully understand what you have to do here\n\nedit: your html could be \n\n&lt;button data-id=\"{{instrument.id}}\" class=\"load-instrument\" value=\"click me\"&gt;Click me&lt;/button&gt;", "First, just note that it's safe to assume that adding more memory / faster servers for both your EE/Apache and MySQL will make things work better. 100k+ entries is enough to require more horsepower than a smaller site, but that generally can be addressed through reasonable upgrades.\n\nThat said, I was just working on a site with 75k+ entries--and we were definitely seeing performance issues around adding fields (especially because there were hundreds of fields already, with a lot of data in most of them). EE sticks all of your entry data (\"custom fields\") in one MySQL table, and every field change and entry change has to compete for lock access (and new fields = new MySQL columns which lock the whole table while it's being restructured).\n\nAnd, just to add: this is a kind-of tricky situation where there's no one solution that matches every site's content and archiving needs.\n\nSo, you have some options, depending on what you mean by \"archived.\" \n\nWhat worked for me:\n\nFor the site I was just working on with 75k \"archivable\" entries, we simply made a usable backup of the site and DB, and then deleted the 75k entries and corresponding channel fields from the live site. These entries already were not visible on the live site, but they do need to be stored indefinitely for business reasons. \n\nNow, we are able to bring up this backup copy of the site on a development machine if we need to access those entries. And the live site is much happier.\n\nOther options:\n\nIf you want to make the Edit list faster when you're using filter by channel, you can move the old entries to a different channel(s). You need to create a new channel that has the exact same field, category and status groups as your current channel. Then, you should be able to go into an entry, and select between the current and archive channel in the Channel drop down. \n\nIf this works, then you can use MySQL to mass update change the channel_id for the entries that you want to move to the archive channel. The channel_id field is used in these tables in EE MySQL:\n\n\nexp_channel_data\nexp_channel_entries_autosave\nexp_channel_form_settings\nexp_channel_member_groups\nexp_channel_titles\nexp_channels\nexp_comments\nexp_entry_versioning\nexp_layout_publish\n\n\nAt a minimum, you'll need to update the channel_id for entries in exp_channel_titles and exp_channel_data. You'll need to update it in other tables if you're using the relevant featurs--e.g., if your entries have comments, you'll need to update in exp_comments, too. Also, some add-ons use channel_id, like Low Search stores the channel_id in exp_low_search_collections.\n\nBut, generally, you can handle the new channel configuration via the EE control panel, and then do a mass update via MySQL of the entry_id &lt;-> channel_id relationships.\n\nOr:\n\nYou could split your site into two EE installs, one with current entries, and one with the archived entries. These could live on two sets of Apache / DB servers. You could have these live at separate domains (e.g., example.com and archive.example.com), or use a reverse proxy to have one domain access both sites.\n\nThis would be easy to create from a MySQL backup. If your site continues to grow such that you eventually have to figure out how to move entries from the current to the archived copies of the site, that will be a little harder to deal with. But, again, developing queries in MySQL for selecting the relevant data, and then exporting it, will work.", "I think I found your misunderstanding, but it's IMHO based on a little inconsistency (or at least lack of clarity) in the book.\n\n\n But, the θ is always zero vector because J+J=I, so θ=0z.\n\n\nThis is not true, $J^+J$ is not necessarily $I$. $JJ^+=I$ but the multiplication by the pseudoinverse is not commutative. Let's look at this in more detail:\n\n$JJ^+ = JJ^T(JJ^T)^{-1}= (JJ^T)(JJ^T)^{-1} = I$\n\n$J^+J = J^T(JJ^T)^{-1}J = ?$\n\nThe underlying misunderstanding comes from the assumption that the matrices $J^T(JJ^T)^{-1}$ and $(J^TJ)^{-1}J^T$ are equal (since the latter would produce $I$ if right-multiplied by $J$), which is not true. They are both pseudoinverses of $J$ but they are not necessarily the same matrices, in fact they don't necessarily both exist.\n\nAs the book says, the $(JJ^T)^{-1}$ only exists if the rows of $J$ are linearly independent, and in turn Wikipedia says that $(J^TJ)^{-1}$ exists if the columns of $J$ are linearly independent. However, they can't both exist if the matrix is not square, since one of the dimensions would necessarily have more vectors than the dimension, which can't all be linearly independent. Specifically, for a normal redundant joint system you probably have more columns than rows, making only the pseudoinverse $J(JJ^T)^{-1}$ exist.\n\nWe can, however, see that for a square matrix they are indeed the same and actually the real inverse:\n\n$J^T(JJ^T)^{-1} = J^TJ^{-T}J^{-1} = (J^{-1}J)^TJ^{-1} = I^TJ^{-1} = J^{-1}$\n\n$(J^TJ)^{-1}J^T = J^{-1}J^{-T}J^T = J^{-1}(JJ^{-1})^T = J^{-1}I^T = J^{-1}$\n\n(But in that case the system would have a unique solution and there's no point to angle control anyway.) But you cannot resolve the brackets with a non-square matrix, since the individual matrices aren't square and don't have an actual inverse. The only situation when both matrices exist are square $J$s and then they are indeed equal, but then there's also no point to angle control.\n\nBut I understand why you are confused and I am a little, too, since Parent actually seems to use the alleged identity $J^T(JJ^T)^{-1}=(J^TJ)^{-1}J^T$ in equation 5.20, where he derives the pseudoinverse's relevance for solving the inverse kinematics problem. He computes everything with the left inverse but than concludes with using the right inverse. I guess that works conceptually because they're both pseudoinverses, even if it doesn't make complete mathematical sense (to me and you at least). He seemed to have used the assumption of a square matrix as a trick for transforming the problem and then used the conclusion for a non-square matrix, which might be conceptually correct.\n\nI guess it simply doesn't matter which of the two pseudoinverses we use, since only one of them ever exists (for a non-square Jacobian) anyway and if the left inverse would exist (making your above assumption true), that means you have more constraints than DoF and thus your system is overconstrained and there's no point in angle control." ]

[ "With so much land under federal control in the West, it's long been said the secretary of the Interior has much more of a direct affect on most people's lives than the president. This experience could arguably be multiplied tenfold on reservations. In her confirmation hearing earlier this year, Deb Haaland of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico nodded to the fact that the department she now leads was historically used as a tool of oppression toward tribes. \"This moment is profound when we consider the fact that a former secretary of the Interior once proclaimed his goal to, quote, civilize or exterminate us,\" Haaland said quoting an Interior report from 1851, under then-Secretary Alexander H.H. Stuart. \"I'm a living testament to the failure of that horrific ideology.\" Haaland, the former Democratic congresswoman, made history Monday by becoming the first indigenous Interior secretary. She's promising to begin repairing a legacy of broken treaties and abuses committed by the federal government toward tribes. It's one pillar of a long and ambitious to-do list of reforms the administration is planning at the sprawling agency that is the federal government's most direct contact with the nation's 574 federally recognized — and sovereign — tribes. In much of Indian Country, the history is more than just symbolic. \"It feels like we are moving and we are claiming what we could have done a long time ago,\" said Mary Jane Miles, 81, a member of the Nez Perce Tribal Executive Committee in Idaho. Miles said a traditional song was sung and there was an impromptu celebration at her tribe's headquarters the moment Haaland was formally confirmed by the Senate. The Nez Perce, or Nimiipuu in their native language, consider much of the Northwest their ancestral land. But through a series of treaties they're now confined to a small slice of remote Idaho river country. Like most tribes, their land is held in trust by the federal government and leaders here say the U.S. has long shirked its obligation to protect the land, its wildlife and other issues of cultural importance to the tribe. Today, the salmon and steelhead trout that were once abundant on the Snake and Clearwater rivers are nearing extinction. Miles also pointed to a legacy of toxic messes from mining that occurred on ancestral Nez Perce land often with little or no consultation by the tribe. \"Sometimes when we look at some of the things that the past has done for our tribe, we've noticed that maybe we've been taken,\" she said. Nationwide, tribal leaders believe the injustices of the past might start to be reversed under Haaland. The Biden administration has indicated it's reinstating an Obama-era rule requiring consultation with tribes, meaning that any future lands development or right of way projects like pipeline must be signed off on by affected tribes. \"Protection of this government-to-government relationship is all important to the tribes,\" said Jon Echohawk, executive director and attorney with the Native American Rights Fund in Colorado. Echohawk said that relationship is fraught because Interior agencies like the Bureau of Indian Affairs have been chronically underfunded. He says the previous administration also spurned tribal input on major lands decisions like the opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, the Keystone Pipeline and the 85% reduction of the Bears Ears National Monument. There is already pressure on the new administration to reinstate Bears Ears in Utah or possibly even expand it beyond its original boundaries. The land is rich with artifacts and other cultural resources considered sacred to many tribes. Haaland has said only she's planning to travel there next month for a listening tour. Traci Morris, executive director of the American Indian Policy Institute at Arizona State University, said she expects Haaland to take a measured approach on a lot of controversial issues at Interior given the historic nature of her appointment. \"If she goes in and is radical, you know, who comes behind her, what native comes behind her, all of us will get judged by what she does,\" Morris said. For sure, there is a lot of pressure on Haaland in even just the first few days of her tenure. Back on the Nez Perce, tribal leaders like Casey Mitchell want Haaland's ear on saving the salmon. \"She would be able to give the indigenous people a voice, the indigenous people have always been on the other side,\" Mitchell said. And he's optimistic because unlike with with many previous administrations, he said, there's no learning curve with the new secretary. \"There's always so much high turnover within government entities that sometimes that plays in as an excuse,\" Mitchell said. \"As a government entity there should not be any excuse for the trust responsibility that you hold to the tribes.\" For the Nez Perce, that trust responsibility is at the heart of a new deal brokered by Idaho Republican Congressman Mike Simpson to remove four dams on the Snake Rive" ]

[ "President Biden's historic pick to manage the nation's public lands and natural resources promised to strike a balance between fossil fuel and renewable energy development during her confirmation hearing Tuesday. Congresswoman Deb Haaland would be not just the first Native American Interior secretary, but also the first in a presidential cabinet. She faced tough — and, at times, misguided — questioning from Republican lawmakers worried about the president's climate goals. Numerous Republican senators focused their questioning on Biden's oil and gas leasing \"ban\" on federal lands, citing projected economic and job losses from the executive action. Haaland repeatedly pointed out that the president has not banned new oil and gas leasing, but paused it while his administration reviews the federal leasing program. Biden has promised to move the country away from climate-warming fossil fuels and invest in renewable energy, \"but that isn't going to happen overnight,\" Haaland said. Fossil fuels, the Democrat said, \"will continue to play a major role in America for years to come.\" The Interior Department manages one-fifth of the land in the U.S., including national parks, wildlife refuges and tribal lands held in trust. Those lands generate billions of dollars of revenue not only in energy production but from recreation. They are also the source of roughly one-quarter of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions. The Biden administration has made the climate crisis one of its top priorities. To limit global warming, scientists say we need to rapidly cut greenhouse gas emissions and conserve wild spaces. As Interior secretary, Haaland would play a key role in accomplishing that goal, and she'd come to the position with a unique perspective. As a 35th generation New Mexican, Haaland was the second Native American woman ever elected to serve in Congress. She also represents a fossil fuel-rich state, which is aiming to make a similar transition to cleaner energy sources. Haaland's nomination comes on the heels of a broad grassroots campaign, spurred by environmental and tribal interests who advocated for her to lead the Interior Department — an agency that has historically been used to suppress and disenfranchise Native Americans. Interior is responsible for managing the government-to-government relationship between the U.S. and its 574 federally recognized tribes. Haaland has promised to improve that relationship and restore tribal consultation on development and projects that would affect tribal land. But most of the questioning during her hearing was on the country's energy production, and potential changes to it. \"I almost feel like your nomination is this proxy fight for the future of fossil fuels,\" said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. As a congresswoman, Haaland took an aggressive stance on climate change, calling it \"the challenge of our lifetime.\" She spoke out against fracking, pipelines and fossil fuel development on federal lands — statements that Republican lawmakers cited in their opposition to her nomination. Asked about those comments, Haaland repeatedly deflected, saying that if she was confirmed as secretary she would move forward Biden's agenda, \"not my own.\" Biden has said that he would not ban fracking or permanently halt oil and gas development on public lands. Republican opposition to Haaland's nomination has grown in recent weeks. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called some of her views \"radical.\" Congressman Don Young of Alaska, the longest-serving Republican in Congress, spoke on Haaland's behalf, though. They'd formed a friendship, he said, while working on bipartisan issues in the House of Representatives, even when they disagreed. \"She'll work for us and she'll reach across the aisle,\" Young said, pointing out his state also depends heavily on fossil fuel development. \"If we have people at the Department of Interior such as Deb, maybe we'd have a balance.\"", "At the end of March, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, set aside $8 billion for tribes. But the money came with restrictions. It can only be used to cover expenses that are \"incurred due to the public health emergency.\" On the Navajo Nation, the public health emergency is inherently related to some basic infrastructure problems. Navajo President Jonathan Nez says the way to address this public health emergency is to make sure people can wash their hands with clean running water. \"Over 30% of our Navajo people don't have running water,\" Nez says. \"If there is a second surge or any future pandemics, it's very critical that we begin to plan for the future.\" It's like demanding the second floor of a house be built before the first floor. And it's not just what the money can be spent on, it's how quickly the money needs to be spent. The Treasury Department is giving tribes until the end of the year to spend the money. But building water lines takes time. \"It's literally impossible to have it completed,\" says Jason John, who manages the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources. John says each step must be approved by the tribal council and its federal counterparts. \"Building water lines just to get it to construction, to bid it out and select the construction company that process takes between two to two and a half years alone,\" John says. \"And then construction after that could take a year to a year and a half.\" New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland is working on a fix, a statute, that wouldn't require a whole new law. \"I was a tribal administrator for several years so I understand what that means,\" Haaland says. \"You win a grant and that's just the beginning. It might take you five years to get your project through. This is the problem and one of the things we are absolutely working on is to cut some of that red tape.\" Haaland, who is a member of the Laguna Pueblo, says the tribes don't need to go through other entities to get the work done, especially during a public health emergency. \"If tribes come to us and tell us we want more time on this, we'll absolutely go to bat for them,\" Haaland says. But building water lines is just the beginning. Navajo Council Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty says many basic needs on the Navajo Nation could help combat the coronavirus — electricity, more hospitals, doctors and nurses, better housing, broadband, grocery stores, agriculture and economic development. The Navajo Nation has the highest coronavirus infection rate per capita in the country. \"I mean I put together myself a $2 billion plus package just to address coronavirus,\" Crotty says. \"This is a Band-Aid. Six hundred million is a lot but it's a Band-Aid.\" Crotty is looking at how West Africa dealt with the ebola crisis and says it's time to address the long standing inequities on the Navajo Nation and take a holistic approach to fighting the pandemic. \"This definitely has to be the time where we do a paradigm shift and think about instead of being reactive we now have the opportunity to be very proactive,\" Crotty says. The tribe's legislative and executive branches have gone back and forth over how best to spend the federal funds and expedite that spending. Navajo Nation Speaker Seth Damon says the president's line-item veto has unnecessarily delayed the release of coronavirus relief funds to programs. President Nez says the tribe has to work together. \"This is no time to play games,\" Nez said. \"This is no time to play politics. This is the time to unify and unite.\" That unity is necessary to begin building a public health infrastructure on the Navajo Nation from the ground up.", "President Trump has called on Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., to resign after she made comments on social media that were criticized as \"anti-Semitic\" by lawmakers from both parties, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. \"Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes,\" Omar said Monday. \"This is why I unequivocally apologize.\" She also said, \"At the same time, I reaffirm the problematic role of lobbyists in our politics, whether it be AIPAC, the NRA or the fossil fuel industry.\" Trump described the apology as \"lame,\" according to The Associated Press. \"Anti-Semitism has no place in the United States Congress,\" Trump said Tuesday. \"I think she should either resign from Congress or she should certainly resign from the Foreign Affairs Committee.\" Omar, along with freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib, is one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. As NPR's Susan Davis reported, \"Omar questioned the financial relationship between AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobby, and members of Congress in tweets over the weekend.\" The initial tweet that sparked the outrage happened Sunday, in Omar's response to a tweet about how she and Tlaib could face action over criticizing Israel. She said \"It's all about the Benjamins baby.\" When asked who she thought was paying lawmakers, she replied: \"AIPAC!\" Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., one of the first indigenous representatives, told NPR's Here & Now on Tuesday that she is \"really happy\" that Omar apologized. \"Any type of anti-Semitism in any form needs to be soundly rejected,\" Haaland said. \"I thought [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi did what she needed to do to make sure that we stop this in its tracks, because the Democrats, we support Israel. We support Israel's right to exist.\" Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders issued a statement describing Omar's tweets as \"deeply offensive.\" Omar is a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The committee's chairman, Democrat Eliot Engel, said Monday that \"it's shocking to hear a Member of Congress invoke the anti-Semitic trope of 'Jewish money.' ... Criticism of American policy toward any country is fair game, but this must be done on policy grounds.\" Engel stopped short of calling for her to resign from the committee.", "After the remains of more than 1,300 First Nations students were discovered at the former sites of Canada's residential schools earlier this year, the U.S. is now facing its own moment of reckoning with its history of Native American boarding schools. In response to these findings, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (a member of the Pueblo of Laguna) announced a Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to review \"the troubled legacy of federal boarding school policies.\" In Carlisle, Pennsylvania, efforts have been underway since 2016 to return the remains of Native children to their proper resting places. Carlisle was home to the first off-reservation Indian boarding school in the U.S. — Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Today, it's an army barracks, home to the US Army War college for senior officers. But from 1879 to 1918, it housed Native students from tribes across America, with the express purpose of assimilating them into American culture. Barbara Landis, a retired biographer and historian who has studied the school extensively, gives tours of the barracks on occasion. During a tour I attended earlier this month, she pointed out a row of white houses that surround a grassy commons. \"These three cottages you see down along the perimeter of the southern portion of the school grounds,\" Landis said, \"were cottages that were built by Native American children as part of their industrial training.\" The Carlisle school had academic training for half the day and industrial training the other half - essentially cheap manual labor. Many of the buildings were constructed by students as part of this program, but they would also be sent out into the surrounding community to provide work for non-Native families. The boys were given construction and farm work, while the girls would serve in the home. But upon entering the barracks, the first thing one will notice is the cemetery: rows of white headstones where students are buried. Over four decades, roughly 8,000 students attended the school, and nearly 200 were buried here. Now, the number of graves at Carlisle is incrementally dropping, since efforts began several years ago to return the remains of students to their tribes and families. At times, parents of students at Carlisle would receive notice of their child's passing only after they had been buried. The cause was often attributed to disease, although abuse was often rampant at these schools. The entire system of Indian boarding schools has long been condemned by Native Americans as a form of cultural genocide. The idea for the school, the first of its kind in America, began in 1879 with Richard Henry Pratt, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. \"It was born out of his experience as the jailer of a group of Kiowa, Comanche, and Arapaho prisoners of war who were arrested by the United States and sentenced to a three-year imprisonment at Fort Marion, which is now the old Castillo de San Marcos Fort down in Saint Augustine, Florida,\" Landis said. \"And while working with these prisoners, Pratt developed his philosophy in Indian education.\" That philosophy is best summed up with a phrase he is often attributed to: \"Kill the Indian, save the man.\" Pratt was influenced by Puritan beliefs, and in the POW camp converted 12 prisoners to Christianity. He was able to get those 12 prisoners to help him recruit children for the Carlisle Indian School, which became the first class at Carlisle. \"Students, when they came into the school, their hair was cut,\" Landis said, \"They were put in uniforms. They were organized into regiments and units and battalions. Pratt being a military man, he designed the program to be this very regimented structure.\" Part of that regimented structure was a ranking system in which the more senior students would mete out punishment to their subordinates if they disobeyed orders. \"So, you can just imagine the psychological impact of that kind of a structure among Native American children and their peers. That was all part of the process of keeping discipline and keeping order at the school.\" The government created these schools to assimilate American Indians into the dominant culture of the day - white American culture - says Matthew Sakiestewa Gilbert, professor and head of the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona, and an enrolled member of the Hopi tribe from Northeast Arizona. \"The government had created these schools to teach Indian students, some as young as four or five years old, industrial trades so that they could be 'useful members of American society' and take that training back to back to their communities, or take that training into predominantly white communities that surrounded the Indian school.\" Gilbert said he believes Haaland will be in a pivotal position to lead the effort to uncover potential gravesites in America's Indian boarding schools. Denise Lajimodiere, recently-retired associate professor of Educational Leadership at NDSU, a", "The United States is about to undertake a national investigation into hundreds of American Indian boarding schools that from the 1800s through the 20th century served to \"kill the Indian to save the man,\" according to one school's founder. On June 22, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative in an address to the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) during a virtual conference. It came weeks after the discovery of 215 Indigenous children's remains were found at a school site in British Columbia. \"To address the intergenerational impact of Indian boarding schools and to promote spiritual and emotional healing in our communities, we must shed light on the unspoken traumas of the past,\" Haaland said in her announcement. \"No matter how hard it will be.\" The Department of the Interior oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs which, along with denominations of the Christian church, was responsible for boarding school practices starting with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819 until the late 1970s and after. Now the DOI will now oversee an investigation into more than 365 boarding school sites in the U.S. From 1869 when the Peace Policy was enacted through 1978, the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition estimates that hundreds of thousands of Native children were removed from their families and sent to these schools, which spanned 30 states, the majority in Oklahoma (83), Arizona (51), Alaska (33), and New Mexico (26). By 1926, nearly 83% of Indian school-age children were attending boarding schools, according to the organization. What the investigation will entail On its own, the federal initiative doesn't address the full spectrum of injustice inflicted by the government on Indigenous people, but Indigenous leaders say it's a start. \"We don't know where this is going to lead, but we do know that it is going to lead us down a path of truth, and a path of justice, and a path of righteousness,\" said Fawn Sharp, NCAI president. The initiative will identify school sites where there may have been student burials, as well as the tribal affiliations of the children; search through DOI records of boarding school oversight dating back to 1819; consult with Tribal Nations, Alaska Native corporations, and Native Hawaiian organizations; and result in a final report to Haaland by April 1, 2022. \"The legacy of Indian boarding schools remains, manifesting itself in Indigenous communities through intergenerational trauma.\" Haaland wrote in a secretarial memo dated June 22. To date, more than 1,000 remains of mostly Indigenous children have been found at four American Indian boarding school sites in Canada, since May, schools where Native students were forced to assimilate to \"white\" culture. That's almost a third of an estimated 3,213 student death toll documented in one of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final reports in 2015. It is, however, also just 2.5% of the more than 150 school sites in Canada. \"The fallout of what we are witnessing is not only of the skyrocketing numbers as the body count climbs,\" Sharp said. \"But the realization that there's a direct connection between that and every element of suffering and oppression that we've felt (for generations). \"Nobody escapes from the historical trauma of the boarding schools\" Many boarding school students never returned to their families; some were placed in foster care while others went missing. For generations, the descendants of students who survived have been living with a legacy trauma. \"Nobody escapes from the historical trauma of the boarding schools,\" said Agnes Williams, an elder with the Seneca Nation of Indians who served as an International Indian Treaty Council delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 1983. \"The substance abuse and addiction is, is, is what is part of that right now.\" A former social worker, Williams was the executive director of a child welfare agency, the Urban Indian Child Resource Center, in the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid 1970s. There she recruited Native foster parents. \"When people were brought up in the boarding school, nobody taught them how to parent,\" she said. \"So then the next generation of unparented Indians becomes foster care and adoption, which is the next travesty.\" Then in 1978, compulsory attendance for Indigenous children at boarding schools, which was established in 1891, was abolished with the Indian Child Welfare Act, but Native family separations did not end there. Very little work was done to help families rehabilitate \"As the boarding school era began to wane and change, it then turned really into a different kind of system, but one that still removed children, often for unnecessary reasons, and that was through state and private child welfare agencies.\" said David Simmons, director of government affairs and advocacy for the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA). \"There was very little work", "As the White House slows down fossil fuel development on public lands and offshore, it's ramping up renewable energy with a push to jump-start the offshore wind energy business. Monday's announcement is part of President Biden's effort to fulfill the ambitious climate plan he campaigned on, including making the nation's electricity sector carbon neutral by 2035. As with much of Biden's climate message, a key focus is on creating jobs. \"President Biden believes we have an enormous opportunity in front of us to not only address the threats of climate change, but use it as a chance to create millions of good-paying, union jobs that will fuel America's economic recovery,\" White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy said in a statement before the announcement. The Interior Department plans to start selling leases later this year for a new \"wind energy area\" in the New York Bight, the relatively shallow waters between Long Island and the New Jersey coast. A study last summer by the research firm Wood Mackenzie showed that constructing offshore wind turbines there would support about 32,000 jobs from 2022 to 2030. It also found it would support about 6,000 permanent jobs. The National Ocean Industries Association, which represents offshore wind as well as oil companies, praised the announcement, saying the benefits will be felt across the country. \"In areas like the Gulf Coast, you will find steel fabricators, heavy lift vessel operators, subsea construction companies, helicopter service providers and more who built their experience in the oil and gas industry but will be vital in building offshore wind,\" Erik Milito, the association's president, said in a statement. Louisiana's governor has proposed developing wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said the country needs to boost the offshore wind industry because \"for generations, we've put off the transition to clean energy, and now we're facing a climate crisis.\" Scientists said most of the world's fossil fuels will need to stay in the ground to avoid the worst effects of climate change. In the future, the administration wants to see a thriving offshore wind industry up and down the East Coast, in the Gulf of Mexico and along the West Coast. It's setting a target of employing tens of thousands more workers to deploy 30 gigawatts of turbines by 2030. That's enough to meet the demand of more than 10 million American homes for a year, according to the White House. Also Monday, the Interior Department announced plans to complete reviews for at least 16 more areas where offshore wind could be developed by 2025. That will require new investments in ports, and new factories to build wind turbines and parts. The administration's eventual goal is for the U.S. to generate 110 gigawatts of electricity offshore by 2050. Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey all have their own plans for a domestic offshore wind industry. New Jersey announced in January plans for a \"wind port\" to supply projects along the East Coast. The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management already is working on environmental reviews for the Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts and South Fork Wind off Rhode Island. The bureau announced Monday it will start preparing an environmental impact statement for the Ocean Wind project off New Jersey. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also has signed an agreement with Ocean Wind's Danish developer Ørsted to share environmental data, such as ocean mapping. One challenge new offshore wind projects face is local opposition. The group Save Our Shoreline NJ has opposed the Ocean Wind project, saying it would hurt local tourism, recreation and commercial fishing industries. The administration said $1 million in grants will be available to study effects on fishing and local communities. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management hopes to speed up environmental reviews for these projects by removing the most contentious areas from consideration. As part of Monday's announcement, the Department of Energy also plans to offer $3 billion in government-backed loans to the offshore wind industry. It expects to award $8 million to 15 research and development projects through an existing program.", "The U.S. Interior Department approved the country's first large-scale offshore wind project Tuesday, a final hurdle that reverses course from the Trump administration and sets the stage for a major shift in the energy landscape. This \"is a significant milestone in our efforts to build a clean and more equitable energy future while addressing the climate emergency,\" Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said during a press briefing. She said an expansion of wind energy is critical to President Biden's ambitious climate goals to make the electricity sector carbon-neutral. The $2.8 billion project, known as Vineyard Wind 1, will consist of 62 turbines spaced about a mile apart, each standing about 837 feet above the water's surface. Cables buried beneath the ocean floor will connect the power from these turbines with the New England grid onshore. The project is expected to produce enough renewable electricity to power 400,000 Massachusetts homes every year while also saving ratepayers billions of dollars and reducing annual carbon dioxide emissions in the state by about 1.68 million metric tons. Lars Pedersen, Vineyard Wind's CEO, recently told public radio station WBUR that he expects offshore construction to begin next year, with renewable energy flowing to the grid by the end of 2023. Pederson called Vineyard Wind's approval \"the launch of a new industry.\" More than a dozen wind farms are being developed in federal waters off the East Coast, and states along the seaboard are eager for the economic development that could bring. In March, the Biden administration announced a national goal of installing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030. According to the White House, hitting this target would create thousands of jobs and provide enough clean electricity to power about 10 million homes in the U.S. every year. It's an ambitious target for a nascent industry that has lagged far behind its European counterpart. The U.S. currently has just seven wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean, off Rhode Island and Virginia. Europe, by contrast, has more than 5,000. Fishing industry concerns Not everyone is celebrating this expansion. Fishermen worry that large groups of gigantic turbines in the Atlantic will disrupt sea life and their livelihoods. The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, which represents the New England fishing industry, said it \"condemns in the strongest possible terms\" the project's environmental review. Fishermen's concerns have been met with \"silence,\" said Anne Hawkins, the group's executive director, \"a clear indication that those in authority care more about multinational businesses and energy politics than our environment, domestic food sources, or U.S. citizens.\" Both Vineyard Wind and federal officials said they have considered the industry's concerns and made modifications. Vineyard Wind, for instance, altered the spacing and orientation of its turbines. But fishermen had asked for more spacing between turbines and a 4-mile transit lane through the federal lease area. Tuesday's announcement likely marks the end of the fight over Vineyard Wind, but several other projects are in the federal review pipeline right behind it. According to a report from the American Clean Power Association, East Coast states have so far pledged to build 25 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2035. NPR's Jennifer Ludden contributed to this report.", "I am famous for this recipe, but this is the first time I'm divulging it in print. For decades, people have wondered how I make my famous Cheeseburger with Cheese on the Bottom, which orients the cheese tongue-ward in order to maximize cheesy goodness. The secret is out. --Dan Pashman, TheSporkful.com Ingredients 1 hamburger seasoned to taste (I recommend salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder) 1 slice cheese 1 hamburger bun Directions Place the hamburger on the grill and cook it. When the burger is nearly cooked to your desired temperature, place the slice of cheese on top of it. At the same time, place the bun halves on the perimeter of the grill, interior sides down, where they will get lightly toasted without getting burnt. (Do not use the grill's top rack for bun toasting, that only dries out a bun without really toasting it.) Close the grill so the cheese melts on the burger. When the cheese is melted, take the bottom bun and place it on top of the burger, so the interior side of the bottom bun is laid against the cheese, and the exterior side of the bottom bun is facing skyward. Remove the top bun from the grill and place it on a plate, upside down, so the interior side is facing skyward. Use a spatula to remove the burger and place it on the top bun on the plate. Now use your hand to flip the burger over, so the cheese is facing tongue-ward. Look at what you just created. Admire it. Eat it.", "Just two weeks before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, the Trump administration is trying to lock-in oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with a hastily scheduled and controversial lease sale. The event, January 6, marks a major moment in a 40-year fight over whether to develop the northernmost slice of the refuge's coastal plain, home to migrating caribou, birds and polar bears. Biden, as well as his pick for Interior Secretary — Rep. Deb Haaland — oppose drilling in the refuge. The hand-off of drilling rights to the highest bidders could make it more difficult to reverse course. But despite the high stakes, uncertainty looms over how much oil is actually trapped under the million acres of tundra up for leasing, and how much industry interest there is to go find it. 'We don't know very much about this area' The data on what's under the coastal plain is decades old. \"We don't know very much about this area,\" says David Houseknecht, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Oil seeps and rock formations seem promising, but he says the agency hasn't estimated the coastal plain's oil potential since the late 1990s. Back then, it relied on seismic testing from a decade prior, technology that's now outdated. It found that anywhere from about 4 to 12 billion barrels of recoverable oil could lie beneath the federal lands. That's a whole lot of oil, but also \"a very large range of uncertainty,\" Houseknecht says. \"The seismic data that we have are quite old, low resolution and a sparse grid.\" The other challenge, he says: There's no data from actual wells in the refuge. Just one exploratory well has been drilled in the coastal plain, on Alaska Native land in the 1980s, and the results are a closely-guarded secret. Mark Myers, a former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, is among only a few people who have seen the well results outside of the oil companies that paid for it. \"I signed a confidentiality agreement, and it didn't have an end date on it,\" he says with a small laugh. \"I can't comment on it, in terms of what I saw.\" A New York Times investigation based on interviews and legal documents suggested the results were not promising. Houseknecht says geologists don't know more about the coastal plain's oil potential because it wasn't until late 2017 that Congress decided to allow drilling there, after decades of debate. In recent years, he says, USGS had the 1980s seismic data commercially reanalyzed and planned to use it for a new oil assessment. But after the opening of the refuge three years ago the Interior Department called off the work without providing a reason why. Bidding could be \"fairly lukewarm\" As for who will bid in the lease sale, that's another mystery. Oil and gas companies aren't talking about their plans publicly, which isn't surprising, says Kara Moriarty, head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, an industry trade group. \"Participation in lease sales is one of the most competitive and secretive things between companies,\" she says. Bidding has already taken place, but Moriarty says she doesn't expect to know more until the federal government unseals companies' bids during the January 6 event, which will be streamed online. Oil industry analyst Rowena Gunn, with the research firm Wood Mackenzie, believes enthusiasm could be \"fairly lukewarm.\" Controversy is one reason. \"It wouldn't necessarily be good PR for them to be seen as drilling in the Arctic, or drilling in environmentally-sensitive areas,\" she says. Environmental organizations and some tribal groups have been lobbying oil companies, banks and other financial institutions to stay away from developing the refuge. A number of major banks say they won't fund oil projects in the Arctic. Opponents have also filed multiple lawsuits seeking to block drilling. They've raised concerns about its impacts on Indigenous people, the global climate, and wildlife, including the caribou that give birth in the coastal plain and the polar bears that den there. Even if leases are sold, legal experts say it's possible that courts could later cancel them. In response to concerns about wildlife, as well as oil industry interest, the Bureau of Land Management recently removed nearly a third of the original 1.6 million acres from the sale. Geologist Houseknect says those areas do not have high potential for oil. 'Very little capital for exploration' Supporters of drilling the refuge, including many Alaska politicians, argue that it's good for the economy and jobs. Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski worked with the White House to open the coastal plain to drilling as part of Trump's massive 2017 tax bill. The idea was to create revenue to offset tax cuts, so the legislation directed the federal government to carry out two oil and gas lease sales by 2024. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the leasing program could generate a windfall of $1.8 billion over a decade, to be split ", "With 2020 in the rearview mirror, the 117th Congress is now getting under way as members take their oaths of office on Capitol Hill Sunday. For many, the process will be familiar territory. But for most of the incoming lawmakers, it's the beginning of a brand new chapter. Here's a look at that group of lawmakers and what their first few days will look like: Pandemic looms large The first day brings with it considerably less pomp and celebration than typical opening day proceedings, where Capitol Hill is flooded with newly elected lawmakers and their families. Instead, the atmosphere will likely be quite somber, especially in light of the death of Congressman-elect Luke Letlow, who died from complications of COVID-19 just five days before he was scheduled to be sworn in. The pandemic's presence will also be felt through strict social distancing procedures members will follow on their first day of work, limiting access to the floor. Incoming freshmen are allowed one guest each in the gallery to watch as they take their oaths. Returning members aren't allowed to have any guests present this year. After electing a speaker of the House, one of the first orders of business for the new Congress will be adopting a set of rules to govern the much-talked-about Jan. 6 joint session, when both chambers meet to formally count the votes of the Electoral College. Several House members and a group of senators have said they plan to object, which will cause a delay in the proceedings. Most diverse Congress yet A record number of women, racial minorities and members of the LGBTQ community make the 117th Congress the most diverse in history. Just two years after Democrats had a record-setting year electing women, it's now Republicans that are heralding inroads as a slate of Republican women will be sworn in. There are notable \"firsts\" this cycle as well. For the first time, women of color will completely comprise New Mexico's House delegation, including Democratic Rep.-elect Teresa Leger Fernandez, who becomes the first woman to represent the 3rd district since its creation in 1983. Rep.-elect Yvette Herrell, R-N.M., becomes the first Republican Native American woman in Congress. It's not clear who will be selected to fill the seat of Rep. Deb Haaland, who won reelection and was subsequently tapped by President-elect Joe Biden to lead the Department of the Interior. Rep.-elect Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., will be the first Black woman to represent her state in Congress. She is also one of the first Korean American women elected to Congress, along with California Republican Reps.-elect Young Kim and Michelle Steel. Republican Sen.-elect Cynthia Lummis will be the first woman to represent Wyoming in the Senate. Rep.-elect Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., is the first Iranian American elected to Congress. New York Democratic Reps.-elect Mondaire Jones and Ritchie Torres will become the first two gay Black and Afro-Latino members of Congress, respectively. Incoming Republican North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn, 25, has replaced Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., as the youngest member of Congress. It should be noted that while significant strides have been made in diversifying Congress, Capitol Hill is still overwhelmingly white and male. Some familiar faces Three of the incoming freshman class on the House side don't actually count as congressional newcomers. Reps.-elect David Valadao, R-Calif., Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Pete Sessions, R-Texas, are all former U.S. representatives. As for the Senate, incoming Sens.-elect Roger Marshall (Kansas), Ben Ray Luján (New Mexico) and Lummis (Wyoming) all have served in the U.S. House. Lummis was a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus. QAnon believers in Congress Reps.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., made headlines earlier this year for their support of QAnon, a fringe movement that has launched baseless, far-right conspiracy theories about the U.S. government. President Trump, for his part, called Greene a \"future Republican star.\" In October, the House overwhelmingly approved a resolution condemning QAnon. \"We all must call it what it is: a sick cult,\" House Rules Chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said at the time. A new NPR/Ipsos poll finds that significant numbers of Americans believe conspiracy theories like QAnon. The poll asked respondents whether they believe the false allegation at the heart of the conspiracy: whether \"a group of Satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media.\" Seventeen percent said it was true and another 37% said they didn't know. Progressives to watch Several younger, more diverse and progressive candidates ousted longstanding Democratic incumbents this year. It's quite possible some of these progressives will quickly become household names in the way that Ocasio-Cortez and members of the so-called \"squad\" have (which includes Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., ", "In a move that critics say will hurt plants, animals and other species as they face mounting threats, the Trump administration is making major changes to how the Endangered Species Act is implemented. The U.S. Department of Interior on Monday announced a suite of long-anticipated revisions to the nation's premier wildlife conservation law, which is credited with bringing back the bald eagle and grizzly bears, among other species. Republican lawmakers and industry groups celebrated the revisions, some of the broadest changes in the way the act is applied in its nearly 50-year history. They come at a moment of crisis for many of the world's plant and animal species. As many as 1 million species are at risk of extinction — many within decades — according to a recent U.N. report. Wildlife groups and Democratic lawmakers, pointing to that document, are promising to challenge the new rules in Congress and in court. \"Now is the time to strengthen the ESA, not cripple it,\" said New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall on a press call. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt says the revisions will help conservation efforts and increase transparency around the law. One of the changes will allow an economic analysis to be done while determining whether a species warrants protection, though that analysis will not be a part of the listing decision. Another will weaken the initial protections given to species deemed to be threatened, one step shy of being endangered. The changes will apply only to future listing decisions. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says the changes fit \"squarely within the president's mandate of easing the regulatory burden on the American public, without sacrificing our species' protection and recovery goals.\" The Endangered Species Act has maintained broad bipartisan support since its inception in 1973, but it has long drawn the ire of some who see it as being overly restrictive to business. Ranchers, developers and fossil fuel companies have urged Republican lawmakers to change the act for decades. The regulatory overhaul announced by federal officials addresses some of their concerns, but some say it doesn't go far enough. \"These final rules are a good start, but the administration is limited by an existing law that needs to be updated,\" said Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso in a statement. \"We must modernize the Endangered Species Act in a way that empowers states, promotes the recovery of species, and allows local economies to thrive.\" Modernizing the act is something that is discussed by Democrats, Republicans and career staff at federal and state wildlife agencies, but there is little agreement on what that modernization should look like. Republicans talk about improving efficiency. Democrats talk about increasing protections. Both, at times, talk about the need for more money to fund wildlife conservation. A bipartisan effort to increase that funding is in Congress now. Many of the changes the Trump administration is rolling out address shared administrative concerns about the act, says Jake Li, the director for biodiversity at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center. Others, he says, are problematic and weaken the bedrock law's effectiveness. Among them is limiting which habitat — and how much of it — gets considered in determining whether a species is endangered. Land a species currently occupies would be the priority. But wildlife advocates say that could make it harder to account for threats from the warming climate, which has shrunk habitat for some species and will force others to migrate to new areas. Numerous environmental groups and state attorneys general vow to sue the administration over the changes, alleging they are illegal because they're not grounded in scientific evidence. \"We don't take these challenges lightly,\" said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra during a conference call. \"We don't look to pick a fight every time this administration decides to take an action. But we challenge these actions by this administration because it is necessary.\"", "Updated at 1:55 p.m. ET Thursday With women making up only 20 percent of Congress, there are many types of women — especially women of color — who have never been represented on Capitol Hill. The record-breaking wave of female candidates in 2018 comes with a list of firsts among those women. Here's a list of some of those firsts, which we will keep updating as results come in. First Muslim women: Democrat Rashida Tlaib, in Michigan's 13th District, and Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar, from that state's 5th District, both became the first Muslim women elected to Congress tonight. Tlaib will also be the first Palestinian-American woman to serve in Congress. Youngest woman: Twenty-nine-year-old Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman elected to Congress, in New York's 14th District. The woman currently holding that distinction is Rep. Elise Stefanik, also from New York, who was elected in 2014 at age 30. Still another under-30 women was elected this year — Democrat Abby Finkenauer, in Iowa's 1st District, who is also 29. However, she will turn 30 in December, so Ocasio-Cortez will still be younger when the new Congress begins in January. First Native American women: Democrat Sharice Davids won the House seat from Kansas' 3rd District, unseating incumbent Republican Kevin Yoder, and Democrat Deb Haaland won the seat in an open race in New Mexico's 1st District. That makes both of them the first Native American women elected to Congress. First black woman from Massachusetts: Democrat Ayanna Pressley became the first black woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts, in that state's 7th District. She unseated incumbent Democrat Mike Capuano in a surprise upset in September. First women House members from Iowa: Democrat Abby Finkenauer in Iowa's 1st District defeated Republican incumbent Rod Blum, and Democrat Cindy Axne in the state's 3rd District defeated Republican incumbent David Young to become the Hawkeye state's first two women elected to the House. Iowa elected its first woman to the Senate in 2014 — Republican Joni Ernst. First Latina Congress members from Texas: Democrat Veronica Escobar, in the state's 16th District, and Democrat Sylvia Garcia, in the state's 29th District, will be the first Latinas to represent the state in Congress, according to the Texas Tribune. First woman governor of Maine: Democrat Janet Mills defeated Republican Shawn Moody and will become the first woman governor in that state. First woman elected governor of Iowa: Republican incumbent Kim Reynolds became the first woman elected governor of Iowa. She served as lieutenant governor of the state from 2011 through 2017, then became governor when then-Gov. Terry Branstad was appointed ambassador to China for the Trump administration in 2017. First woman senator from Tennessee: Republican Marsha Blackburn defeated Democrat Phil Bredeson and will be the first woman to serve as a Senator from the Volunteer State. First woman governor from South Dakota: Republican Rep. Kristi Noem defeated Democrat Billie Sutton to become the first woman elected governor from South Dakota. First woman senator from Arizona: Republican Rep. Martha McSally currently holds a slight lead over Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema in a too-close-to-call race for Arizona's open Senate seat. Whichever candidate wins will be the first woman to represent Arizona in the Senate.", "A coalition of progressive groups say they are organizing a sweeping network to mobilize around climate change, racial and environmental justice, making a new unified push as President-elect Joe Biden is days away from taking office with Democrats set to control both the House and the Senate. The group, the Green New Deal Network, plans to invest in partner organizations in 20 key states to mobilize grassroots power to pressure elected officials to support their goals; introduce Green New Deal-related legislation at the state and local level, spearhead federal legislation that would implement parts of the Green New Deal agenda, and to pressure the incoming Biden administration to enact a series of executive actions related to climate, jobs and justice. \"Every day [SEIU members] confront the crisis of climate, as well as environmental racism and economic inequality, so the Green New Deal is not something that is abstract to them,\" said Rocio Sáenz, the executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union. \"For our members the Green New Deal means clear air, clean water, safe communities, good jobs and a growing economy. So this, for us, is why we are part of this network. What we see, especially now more than ever, is that we cannot think about these issues in siloes.\" Named for the sweeping proposal for cutting U.S. contributions to climate change over the next decade, the coalition has already raised more than $20 million, organizers say. Introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, the Green New Deal sparked a fierce political debate on how to best combat climate change. The plan drew significant attention from President Trump and Republican lawmakers, who have panned the plan as costly and unrealistic and used the policy to cast Democratic supporters of the framework as socialists. The Green New Deal was introduced as a nonbinding resolution, written with out some specifics, making it challenging to specify a price tag. Supporters say the plan will pay for itself through economic growth, and that the urgency of the climate crisis requires a bold and immediate response. The groups coming together to back it now include the Center for Popular Democracy, Climate Justice Alliance, Grassroots Global Justice, Greenpeace, Indigenous Environmental Network, Indivisible, the Movement for Black Lives, MoveOn, People's Action, Right to the City, Service Employees International Union, the Sierra Club, Sunrise Movement, US Climate Action Network and the Working Families Party. Leaders of the coalition say they plan to put the majority of their resources into a coordinated campaign stitched-together across key states, that rely on local activists and organizers. \"We have a shot to create millions of green jobs, to transform the way our economy works so it actually helps working people,\" said Kaniela Ing, the climate justice campaign director for People's Action. \"Change doesn't happen from the top down. You can't just hire a bunch of experts and lobbyists if you want something to be lasting. We're not just lobbying D.C., we're actually lobbying on the ground in all 50 states.\" They are also applying pressure at the federal level. The Green New Deal Network has already written a letter to President-elect Biden and his transition team, arguing that \"there is a dire need for action beyond legislation.\" \"Massive federal investment is past due and a down payment on a regenerative future is urgently needed,\" the coalition wrote, calling on the incoming Biden administration to do \"everything within its authority to ensure healthy communities, a more just economy and a livable planet.\" The letter calls for a number of steps that the coalition argues that Biden could take unilaterally, including an executive order upgrading public buildings, transportation and energy in a transition to a clean energy economy; an executive order that requires federal agencies to secure informed tribal consent from Indigenous nations; declaring a national climate emergency; and banning new fossil fuel projects on federal and tribal lands and waters, as well as in environmental justice communities. For his part, Biden has announced his own climate change agenda that stops short of endorsing the Green New Deal. It includes trillions of dollars in spending on green initiatives and calls for the elimination of greenhouse gas pollution by 2050. Late last year, he named key members of his climate change team, including former Obama-era EPA director Gina McCarthy to lead a new White House Office of Climate policy and New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland to lead the Department of the Interior. Haaland is a congressional co-sponsor of the Green New Deal. \"We're going to call on President-elect Biden to lean into the agenda that he ran on, which was bold with a vision for addressing climate change and racial and economic justice,\" said Saenz. \"We know that our job will continue to be to hold him acc", "The al-Qaida-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has played a key role in the war against Syria's government but now faces a major onslaught from other rebel forces. ISIS militants are also under fire in neighboring Iraq. NPR's Scott Simon and correspondent Deb Amos discuss how ISIS arose and what it wants to achieve.", "As outrage on the left continues over President Trump&#8217;s immigration policies, some progressive Democrats are calling for more oversight of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some are even calling for ICE to be abolished. Here & Now&#8216;s Meghna Chakrabarti takes a step back to look at the history of ICE with Deborah Kang, associate professor of history at California State University San Marcos and author of the book &#8220;The INS on the Line: Making Immigration Law on the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1917-1954.&#8221; Interview Highlights On calls to abolish the agency &#8220;I understand it. I understand where it&#8217;s coming from because when you look at how removals have been conducted since 9/11, the vast majority of removals today, or the bulk of removals today, are conducted by ICE, not [Customs and Border Protection]. So what our nation&#8217;s immigration agencies are doing is they&#8217;re targeting these long-term permanent residents for deportation, for removal. And that really casts a pall on on our nation&#8217;s immigration agencies, our nation&#8217;s immigration history. &#8220;So I am in full sympathy with these critiques of ICE, but I think it&#8217;s unrealistic to think that if we eliminate ICE, we will get rid of the problem. Because I think Congress will then turn around and expand the powers of CBP, and basically restore its powers to conduct interior enforcement. That&#8217;s what it was doing before 9/11. It was doing both border and interior enforcement. So Congress will either do that, or they&#8217;ll create a new agency. I think the solution is to create some kind of permanent oversight body, and ideally by Congress, and an oversight body that has some kind of enforcement power.&#8221; On the creation of ICE in 2003 &#8220;ICE was very much a product of 9/11. What happened is, shortly after the terrorist attacks, Congress commissioned an investigation into the attacks that became the 9/11 Commission Report. And that report recommended the reorganization of the nation&#8217;s immigration agencies. At that time, these agencies were known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and under the Immigration and Naturalization Service, you had an agency called the Border Patrol. So as a result of the 9/11 Commission Report Congress, in 2003, dissolved the INS and rearranged the nation&#8217;s immigration agencies. Congress housed them under a brand-new agency that we now know as the Department of Homeland Security. And the three immigration agencies, which exist today, are Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.&#8221; On the scope of ICE&#8217;s power &#8220;A 1996 immigration law gave the nation&#8217;s immigration agencies the power to deport larger numbers of people and to deport them more easily. When this measure was passed in 1996 &#8212; it&#8217;s the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act &#8212; when it was passed in 1996, the nation&#8217;s politicians and immigration agencies didn&#8217;t use it to its full effect. And what&#8217;s happening now is that the nation&#8217;s immigration agencies are using that measure, as well as several other measures that were passed in the &#8217;90s and after 9/11, to expand immigration law enforcement. Now what ICE has done in using these laws is that it&#8217;s created this kind of massive interior enforcement complex. This is a complex on which we spend approximately $7 billion to $8 billion a year. It&#8217;s composed of 20,000 ICE agents. It also consists of approximately 200 detention centers. And then the scope and scale of interior enforcement, meaning the pursuit, arrest, detention and removal of individuals from the interior, that&#8217;s unprecedented. &#8220;And also, because of that &#8217;96 law, what ICE&#8217;s able to do with these interior enforcement operations is it not only focuses on removing immigrants who&#8217;ve, say, just crossed the border illegally. It now has the power, because of that &#8217;96 law, to pursue, arrest and remove long-term permanent residents who have committed some kind of crime. And it&#8217;s because of that &#8217;96 law that you see this huge spike in the number of removals from the interior.&#8221; On whether ICE has become more than what it was originally intended to be &#8220;That&#8217;s a very difficult question to answer because, especially as somebody who&#8217;s studied the history of the INS and the Border Patrol, the pattern seems to be that the Border Patrol, and later CBP and ICE, really get to call the shots. They really get to define the parameters of their authority to conduct immigration law enforcement. And this is very much the case because for almost 100 years now, very little oversight has been exercised over the nation&#8217;s immigration agencies. And over the course of 100 years, numerous reports and investigations have been issued identifying widescale cases of abuse", "The Interior Department has decided that global warming is threatening the Pacific walrus, but the government has decided not to list the animal on the endangered species list yet. Instead, the Interior Department is putting walruses in a kind of purgatory where they join some 250 animals and plants that deserve the protection of the endangered species list, but aren't getting it. \"Where walrus fall on this priority system is they're a little bit low on the totem pole, you might say,\" says Rosa Meehan, who manages marine mammals in Alaska for the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service. She says there's no question that walrus numbers will be reduced as sea ice declines in northern Alaska. But the government has limited money and uses it for species most likely to become extinct. Meehan says the condition of walruses is less dire because they live a long time and still are numerous. The Interior Department did list polar bears as a threatened species two years ago because of shrinking sea ice. But Meehan says unlike polar bears, walruses don't need the ice to feed themselves. \"They can rest on land and go out and feed in the water and return to land,\" she says. \"And so because they have that ability to continue feeding even if there's no ice, that's a pretty dramatic difference between walrus and polar bears.\" But some biologists say melting sea ice threatens walruses even more than polar bears because walruses depend on sea ice for reproduction. \"The ice is disappearing. If they've got no ice, they've got to go on land. They go on land in the thousands,\" says Carleton Ray, a professor at the University of Virginia who has studied walruses for 50 years. \"That would seem like it's all right, but it's not because they get in these huge herds and if they are disturbed in some way, they tend to rush into the sea, and they trample a lot of the animals. Some calves get killed.\" It's also much harder for walruses to feed themselves on land. Most of their food sources are in the water. Two years ago, the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the Interior Department to put the walrus on the endangered species list. Shaye Wolf, the group's climate science director, is considering suing the department to make it move more quickly. \"Delaying protection for the walrus means that we increase the chances of losing the walrus forever,\" she says. Nobody seems to like the decision. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) says it stands to hurt native Alaskans who hunt walruses. It could limit tourism, which is important for the state's economy, and it could jeopardize plans to explore for oil in the Chukchi Sea. \"It adds to the delay, it adds to the cost and it limits development,\" Murkowski says. The Interior department says it will keep close tabs on walruses and will review its decision every year. Meanwhile, walruses are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. ROBERT SIEGEL, host: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. The Interior Department has decided that global warming is threatening the Pacific walrus. But as NPR's Elizabeth Shogren reports, the government has decided not to add it to the Endangered Species List, yet. ELIZABETH SHOGREN: The Interior Department is putting walruses in a kind of purgatory. They join some 250 animals and plants that deserve the protection of the Endangered Species List, but they aren't getting it. Dr. ROSA MEEHAN (Supervisor, Marine Mammals Management. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service): Where walrus fall on this priority system is they're a little bit low on the totem pole, you might say. SHOGREN: Rosa Meehan manages marine mammals in Alaska for the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service. She says there's no question, walrus numbers will be reduced as sea ice declines in northern Alaska. But the government has limited money and uses it for species most likely to go extinct. Meehan says the condition of walruses is less dire. That's because they live a long time and there are still lots of them. The Interior Department did list polar bears as a threatened species two years ago because of shrinking sea ice. Meehan says unlike polar bears, walruses don't need the ice to feed themselves. Dr. MEEHAN: They can rest on land and go out and feed in the water and return to land. And so, because they have that ability to continue feeding even if there's not ice, that's a pretty dramatic difference between walruses and polar bears. SHOGREN: But some biologists say melting sea ice threatens walruses even more than polar bears because walruses depend on sea ice for reproduction. University of Virginia professor Carleton Ray has been studying them for 50 years. Professor CARLETON RAY: (Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia): The ice is disappearing. If they've got no ice, they've got to go on land. They go on land in the thousands. And that would seem like it's all right but it's not, because they get in these huge herds and if they are disturbe", "With everything going in the country — from the unrest in many cities after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police to the coronavirus pandemic — it's easy to have missed that elections are being held. But several states and the District of Columbia have primaries up and down the ballot: Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Dakota. Pennsylvania is holding primary voting on Tuesday, though Gov. Tom Wolf extended the deadline for voting by mail by one week, until June 9. Here are the races to watch. Live results will appear Tuesday evening. Presidential primaries press on. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has not yet officially clinched the nomination. He went into the day 425 delegates short of the magic number of 1,991. With 500 delegates at stake Tuesday, he needs 85% of the delegates up for grabs, which he's unlikely to get. More likely, Biden will cross the threshold next week, June 9, when Georgia and West Virginia vote, with their 133 delegates at stake (and when we'll get the results of Pennsylvania's primary, with its 186 delegates). Rep. Steve King on the ropes. The controversial Iowa conservative faces real danger in his primary for reelection from Iowa's 4th Congressional District. After racist and pro-white nationalist remarks, much of the Republican establishment abandoned King. They've come for him before in his almost 20 years in Congress unsuccessfully. But this has been their best chance so far. King has trailed in the polls, with only $30,000 cash on hand and no TV ads running. The favorite among his challengers has been state Sen. Randy Feenstra, who has painted King as ineffective in the House, given that he was stripped of key committee assignments. But King is well known as a familiar choice for conservatives in western Iowa and has been resilient. Polls close at 10 p.m. ET In Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, Democratic Rep. Dave Loebsack is retiring, opening up his seat. Former state Sen. Rita Hart will be the Democratic nominee and will face either state Sen. Mariannette Miller-Meeks or ex-Illinois Congressman Bobby Schilling, who moved to Iowa in 2017. Miller-Meeks got the backing of Gov. Kim Reynolds and Sen. Joni Ernst, as well as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Former Sen. Rick Santorum and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a top Trump ally, have backed Schilling. Polls close at 10 p.m. ET Steny Hoyer faces a challenge from the left. A veteran lawmaker from Maryland's 5th Congressional District and No. 2 in House Democratic leadership, Hoyer faces a progressive primary challenge from 29-year-old Mckayla Wilkes. Wilkes, a single mother, was inspired by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's victory in New York in 2018 over another veteran white male Democratic leader. Wilkes raised $300,000 and said Hoyer, who has been in Congress almost 40 years, is out of touch with the district. The Democratic establishment has remained behind Hoyer, though, including the Congressional Black Caucus, which endorsed him. He has outspent Wilkes $2.7 million to $237,000. Polls close at 8 p.m. ET Spy games in New Mexico. The announced retirement of New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall set off a domino effect. Democratic Rep. Ben Ray Luján declared for Udall's Senate seat, leaving open his seat in the 3rd Congressional District. Enter: Valerie Plame, the ex-CIA agent. She has raised and spent more than any candidate in this race and gained national attention with her glossy campaign ad showing her racing backward in a Chevy Camaro on a dusty road. But locally, her candidacy has looked less like an easy Sunday drive. She faced criticism for being a relative newcomer, moving to the area in 2007; the district is 41% Latino and 19% Native American, and another candidate, Teresa Leger Fernandez, got the endorsements of the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and EMILY's List. Polls close at 9 p.m. ET It is very possible that New Mexico sends an all-female House delegation to Congress in 2021, as freshman Democrats Deb Haaland and Xochitl Torres Small are the incumbents in the state's other two districts. But Torres Small has to win what's expected to be a tough reelection race in the 2nd District. Trump won there by 10 points in 2016, and the primary to decide who will take on Torres Small this fall is a contest between two Republican women. It has been a nasty primary between Yvette Herrell, the 2018 nominee, and Claire Chase, an oil executive. Both have campaigned on who's the most pro-Trump; Herrell got the backing of the House Freedom Caucus, but Chase has outraised and outspent Herrell, with support from Defending Main Street, a group with ties to establishment Republicans. Polls close at 9 p.m. ET Senate matchups to be set in Iowa and Montana. Democrats are hoping to take back the Senate this fall. They have an outside shot at that right now, but their odds have looked increasingly better of late. Partially, that'", "On Thursday, Democrat Rashida Tlaib became the first Palestinian-American woman to serve in Congress. She wore an intricately embroidered red and black robe to her swearing-in ceremony and laid her left hand upon a Quran as she took her oath of office, inspiring legions of Palestinian-Americans who saw themselves in the attorney from Michigan. In December, Tlaib posted a photograph to Instagram showing her wardrobe choice for the ceremony: a thobe, a floor-length black robe covered in red embroidery. She writes in Elle magazine that people from all over the country messaged her and planned to tweet pictures of themselves with the hashtag #TweetYourThobe. Tlaib adds that the garment was an integral part of her childhood: \"As a young girl, I watched my mother hand stitch thobes while sitting on the floor with a lamp at her side. She would make the small designs of flowers and different shapes. Just thinking about it brings up so many memories of my mother and how proud she was of being Palestinian. My mom is a woman who grew up in a small farming village in the West Bank called Beit Ur El Foka. She only went up to 8th grade and then dropped out to go work in a tailor shop that made dresses and different embroidered designs to make money for her family.\" Tlaib writes wearing the thobe was \"an unapologetic display of the fabric of the people in this country.\" As Tlaib took the oath in her robe, hundreds of women posted photographs of themselves in matching style. One Lebanese-Palestinian law student tweeted a photograph of herself in a thobe dancing the traditional Arab folk dance called the dabke and wrote, \"count one young Palestinian woman with a lump in her throat thinking about how far our people have come.\" MSNBC anchor Ayman Mohyeldin tweeted a picture of his daughter and niece in thobes. He said it was in homage to his Palestinian mother. Thobes are elaborate garments. The stitching, known as tatreez, can take months and the most intricate sell for more than $1,000. They are commonly worn by older women, but younger women also wear them, especially at special events. Instagram user bellqees wrote that \"a Palestinian thobe is a love letter to the gardens we played in as children and picked fruit from as adults.\" The thobe is also a symbol of Palestinian nationalism. In 2009, women in the West Bank city of Hebron sewed and embroidered a black and red dress that was 107 feet long and aimed to get recognized by the Guinness World Records, according to the BBC. Palestinian folk artist Feryal Abbasi Ghnaim told the Institute for Palestine Studies that in traditional rural life, girls were often confined to the home while boys played outside and went to school, and so they learned the handicrafts from their mothers and grandmothers. Ghnaim said the cross-stitch is the mainstay of Palestinian embroidery patterns, and colors and patterns could signal women hailed from certain regions or were married or pregnant. Author Lena Khalaf Tuffaha‏ wrote that she wore a thobe that dated more than 100 years from Beersheba. History teacher Hanna Alshaikh tweeted that she wore a thobe when she graduated from her master's program. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., are the first Muslim women elected to Congress. Omar takes the seat of Democrat Keith Ellison, who was the first Muslim elected to Congress in 2006. Tlaib and Omar are among the most diverse class of congressional lawmakers in U.S. history, including the first Native American women, Reps. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., and Deb Haaland, D-N.M., and the first openly bisexual senator, Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. Haaland wore a traditional Pueblo dress for her swearing in. The junior lawmakers are also among the more liberal flank of the party. On Tlaib's first day in office, she published an op-ed in the Detroit Free Press titled, \"Now is the time to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump.\" Moderate voices in the party, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have warned against impeachment unless the measure is bipartisan. Later in the day, Tlaib provoked more controversy when she issued a profane impeachment threat against the president during a reception hosted by the progressive advocacy organization, MoveOn.org. Tlaib told the crowd: \"... we're gonna go in there and we're gonna impeach the motherf*****.\" The crowd roared. Tlaib often speaks about her Palestinian heritage, but as a representative of a district where fewer than 5 percent of voters identify as Arab-American, she campaigned on broader issues. As an attorney, she has focused her career on environmental advocacy, reports NPR's Camila Domonoske. Tlaib led the charge against Koch Carbon for heaping petroleum coke on the banks of the Detroit River. She has also pledged to fight for Medicare for all.", "Americans increasingly see decently fast Internet as more like a functioning sewer line than a luxury. And a number of cities are trying to get into the Internet provider business, but laws in 19 states hamper those efforts. President Obama announced this week that he wants to lift those restrictions, and supporters of what is known as municipal broadband can't wait. During a speech in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the president presented a plan promoting high-speed Internet for the country's more remote cities and towns. The executive director of Next Century Cities, a coalition promoting high-speed Internet, Deb Socia, says dependable high-speed broadband has become a social justice issue. \"This is about people, and people in communities who need resources for businesses, for e-government, for participatory democracy, for health care, for transportation, for education,\" she says. \"Everything we do is related to our access to technology.\" Anyone who's waited for a page to load or a stalled movie to resume wants faster Internet. But the major Internet service providers don't face much competition in many places, so they're not that motivated to upgrade. Faced with that, some towns have gotten into the Internet service business themselves. \"They started their municipal electric utility over a century ago, long before we had computers and toasters and microwave ovens, on the faith that this electricity thing was going to be important to the local economy,\" says Mikel Kline, who works for a municipal broadband company in Chanute, Kan. \"Well today, the city fathers have that same vision about this broadband network.\" Chanute's broadband network runs about 100 times faster than typical American Internet. Kline says it's given his remote Kansas town one of the fastest growing junior colleges in the country, and connected its hospital to distant specialists. Kline, who's an engineer, says all of this was feasible because Chanute already ran its own electric utility. \"They already have line workers, they already have utility poles, the rights of way. The infrastructure is largely in place,\" he says. But the cable industry has a warning for towns that don't have that ready-made infrastructure, says Brian Dietz of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. He says there have been \"several examples where government-run networks have failed because they aren't able to compete effectively with private-run networks.\" Dietz points to Provo, Utah, which spent more than $39 million building a fiber network. The system lost money, and the city wound up selling it to Google for $1. Dietz says Internet service providers have invested more than $230 billion nationwide building networks. They've also been pretty successful at convincing state legislators that taxpayer-funded municipal broadband is a bad idea. Nineteen states now prohibit or at least discourage public involvement in the broadband business. \"We've got the largest city-wide, robust, gigabit network in the country,\" says Ken Hays, who works with the gigabit network serving Chattanooga, Tenn. The city built it on its publicly owned electric utility, just like in Chanute. Chattanooga wants to expand service to outlying areas, where Internet speeds plunge, but it ran into one of those prohibitive state laws. \"Our electric utility actually petitioned the [Federal Communications Commission], along with Wilson, N.C., to ask the FCC to use their authority to override the legislatures,\" Hays says. That's what Obama wants in all 19 states, but Internet service providers and some Republican members of Congress say the FCC has no authority to meddle in the way states regulate the Internet. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Americans increasingly see reliably fast Internet as being a utility - more like a functioning sewer line than a luxury. A number of cities are trying to get into the Internet provider business, but laws in 19 states hamper that. President Obama announced this week that he wants to lift those restrictions. And supporters of what's known as municipal broadband can't wait. Frank Morris of member station KCUR reports. FRANK MORRIS, BYLINE: While President Obama talked in Iowa about municipal broadband, an auditorium full of people in Kansas City, attending something called a Gigabit City Summit, cheered him on. (SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH) PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Leaders from 50 cities and towns across the country - it's a coalition called Next Century Cities. (SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING) MORRIS: It's a coalition promoting high-speed Internet. Its director, Deb Socia, says fast, dependable broadband has become a social justice issue. DEB SOCIA: This is about people and people in communities who need resources for businesses, for e-government, for participatory democracy, for health care, for transportation, for education. Everything we do is related to our access to technology. MORRIS: Anyone who has ever died a little waiting for a page to load or a stalled movie to resume wants faste", "Updated on Feb. 6 at 8:40 a.m. ET President Biden pledged to make his Cabinet the most diverse in U.S. history, better representing the makeup of the country. An NPR analysis of the past three administrations' initial Cabinets shows that so far, he has kept his word, with an inner circle that outdoes his two most recent predecessors in matters of representation of race and gender. See full details below. When broken down by race and gender, Biden's desired Cabinet is nearly 55% nonwhite and 45% female. (Confirmation hearings are still underway or have not yet started for a number of positions.) Former President Donald Trump's initial confirmed Cabinet was 82% white and 82% male. Former President Barack Obama's first-term Cabinet, meanwhile, was 55% white and 64% male. Biden's Cabinet also includes multiple historic nominations that aren't highlighted in these overall numbers, including in Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay secretary confirmed to the Cabinet; Janet Yellen, the first woman to lead the Treasury Department; and Deb Haaland, who, if confirmed, would be the first Native American in a president's Cabinet. \"Numbers don't tell you everything. And so in this small sample size, just looking at the scene, it looks like he's doing OK with [diversity]. But in fact ... there are some historic firsts,\" said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a nonresident senior fellow with Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, who has compiled data on the diversity of presidents' Cabinets. Tenpas noted that Biden's nominees included a number of breaks from past administrations, appointing women and racial minorities to positions that have historically been held exclusively by white men. \"I think he gets extra credit for putting them in positions that historically never happen,\" she said. \"I would describe it as a determined commitment to diversity.\" Even before his nominees were announced, Biden had been under pressure from activists and civil rights groups to not only have a diverse Cabinet but also to pursue concrete policies to address inequality in the U.S. He has also received criticism from the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus for not nominating an Asian Cabinet secretary. Trump, a longtime businessman, sought to run the country like a corporation and built a Cabinet more reflective of a typical C-suite than a traditional administration. Nominees like Rex Tillerson, the energy executive Trump tapped to lead the State Department; and Betsy DeVos, who led the Department of Education, faced criticism for their lack of prior government experience — which Trump saw as an asset. Biden and Obama, however, turned to people with robust government experience to lead key departments. In fact, many of Biden's nominees played a role in Obama's administration, too. Less than 5% of Biden's Cabinet nominees do not have prior government experience. Some 14% of Obama's Cabinet was new to government, compared to about 32% of Trump's team lacked government experience. Explore more details in the chart below. (Note: What presidents consider part of their Cabinet varies across administrations. We have compared the same set of key positions for consistency.) NPR Washington Desk intern Claire Oby contributed to this report.", "Faced with criticism at home and abroad, Turkey has decided to delay new Internet restrictions that were due to take effect this month. The government also has reduced the number of filters, which it says will target adult content. Critics call the filters another blow to freedom of expression. Scores of Turkish journalists are already in jail, and thousands more are under investigation. The issue is clouding Turkey's reputation as a model for the region. For months now, Turks have been protesting the government's plan to force Internet users to choose from among a list of filtering packages designed to block certain unspecified websites. Some of the largest demonstrations were held in May. Government websites have also been hacked as activist groups seek to bring international attention to what they see as a threat to free expression. Ozgur Uckun, a professor at Bilgi University, says thousands of websites may already be blocked in Turkey, including an unknown number of political sites. Publicly, Turkish officials are vigorously defending both the Internet restrictions and the way Turkish media are treated. When the U.S. ambassador raised concerns about press freedom earlier this year, Interior Minister Besir Atalay was vigorous in his response. \"In terms of press freedom, Turkey is well ahead of America. Turkey has a very progressive press law, and compared with the rest of the world, press freedom here is lived to the fullest,\" he said. Now The Law, Not Bombs, Used To Intimidate But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ratcheted up the pressure during her visit to Turkey last month. She told an audience on CNN's Turkish channel that a country as strong and stable as Turkey should be able to withstand opinions it doesn't care for — something U.S. politicians have long learned to live with. \"People say or do things in my country that personally I find just offensive, and unpatriotic and anti-American, and it makes my blood boil,\" Clinton said. \"But we know that, over time, that basically gets overwhelmed by other opinion.\" Turks, however, have never embraced the notion that the cure for infuriating free speech is more free speech. Veteran journalist and author Ertugrul Mavioglu remembers the days when the threats were old-fashioned: bombs exploding in a newspaper office, reporters being murdered. These days, he says, the authorities tend to rely on the judiciary. He can't remember if he has seven or eight cases pending against him at the moment. \"There are 2,000 court cases pending against journalists in Turkey right now, and roughly 10,000 ongoing investigations,\" he says. \"And all of this makes doing your job very difficult. You have to spend time getting prepared, writing your defense, dealing with the police; it's extremely difficult.\" International Pressure Not Enough Mavioglu believes international pressure can help, but he says Turkish journalists will have to risk their careers and possibly their liberty to confront the government. \"The overt abuses of the press under the junta in the 1980s are now a bit more subtle,\" he says. \"But the government is using everything in its power — economic pressure, law enforcement, judicial pressure — to create only a single voice in the country. And their efforts have been paying off.\" He said that comments by Clinton and other prominent Western officials would not persuade Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to change his mind. The prime minister's office released a statement after Clinton's visit saying that as someone who experienced threats for his words in the past, Erdogan would not allow journalists to be punished for properly doing their jobs. And it said that Turkey would not allow freedom of the press to be threatened. Analysts say they will be closely watching to see what the government does in November, when it now plans to proceed with the Internet filter proposal. MICHELE NORRIS, Host: NPR's Peter Kenyon has the story from Istanbul. PETER KENYON: For months now, Turks have been protesting the government's plan to force internet users to choose from among a list of filtering packages designed to block certain unspecified websites. Some of the largest demonstrations were held in May. (SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING PROTESTORS) KENYON: Professor Ozgur Uckun, of Bilgi University, says thousands websites may already be blocked in Turkey, including an unknown number of political sites. Publicly, Turkish officials are vigorously defending both the internet restrictions and the way Turkish media are treated. When the U.S. ambassador raised concerns about press freedom earlier this year, Interior Minister Besir Atalay was having none of it. BESIR ATALAY: (Through Translator) In terms of press freedom, Turkey is well ahead of America. Turkey has a very progressive press law, and compared with the rest of the world, press freedom here is lived to the fullest. KENYON: But for those who would hold Turkey up as a model for Arab protesters demanding reforms, the issue ", "Veterans Face Challenges When Returning To Civilian LifeIt's a rare time in U.S. military history; during the longest period of sustained warfare, members of the military make up just one half of one percent of the U.S. population. With fewer people sharing the burden and exposed to military life, many veterans are having a difficult time adjusting to civilian life. That's just one of the disconnects between military veterans and civilians revealed in a new survey by the Pew Research Center. Guest Host John Donvan talks with recent veterans, retired Army Maj. Gen. Mike Davidson and Paul Taylor, Executive Vice President of the Pew Research Center. Obama and Civil LibertiesLaw professor Jonathan Turley argues in a recent op-ed that \"the election of Barack Obama may stand as one of the single most devastating events in our history for civil liberties.\" As president, he says, Obama continued or expanded many of the most controversial programs begun in the Bush administration. Even worse, Turley wrote, is what President Obama has done to the civil liberties movement itself — many civil libertarians don't speak out against this president. Turley joins guest host John Donvan on the Opinion Page to talk about his Los Angeles Times op-ed entitled \"Obama: A Disaster for Civil Liberties.\" The New IndiaYears after leaving his small village in northern India, journalist Siddhartha Deb went back to work undercover in an Indian call center and set out to explore the true impact of globalization on his homeland. In a new book, Deb exposes the dark side of the many images of Indian prosperity through the lives of a rural farmer, an ambitious hotel worker and an affluent movie producer. Inevitably, he found, the globalization that helped make India a global player continues to leave millions behind. Guest host John Donvan talks with Deb about his experiences in India and his book, The Beautiful and the Damned: A Portrait of the New India. Food Stamps, Fast Food And DignityThe number of Americans relying food stamps jumped 70 percent over the past four years. As more people join the program, there's a growing debate over whether or not recipients should be able to use food stamps at fast food restaurants. In a recent op-ed for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sherrie Tussler, executive director of Milwaukee's Hunger Task Force, argues that too many people don't have access to grocery stores and should be able to use their benefits at fast food restaurants in an effort to give them \"access, choices and dignity.\" Tussler joins guest host John Donvan to talk about fast food, food stamps and dignity.", "Why is labor history so boring? Left-leaning intellectuals have worried at this question for decades. Back in 1983, Irving Howe suggested that the field's notorious leadenness stems from a deep-seated attraction to ideas over people. \"The Marxist mind finds itself drawn, with an almost punitive willfulness, to such abstractions as 'social forces,' 'political positions,' and 'relations of production,'\" he wrote in a New York Review of Books piece about turn-of-the-century labor leader Eugene V. Debs. \"Before these formidable categories, the actual figures of history tend to fade.\" Fortuitously, Howe added, a new wave of historians was striving to inject some life into the genre. The struggle continues today. No one reading Eugene V. Debs: A Graphic Biography could doubt that authors Paul Buhle and Steve Max have accessibility in mind. Both are powerhouses of the left, so it's no wonder they're acutely aware of the movement's people problem. Max helped found Students for a Democratic Society and has worked with numerous organizations including the Democratic Socialists of America. Buhle literally wrote the book on the movement, with the Encyclopedia of the American Left. Over three decades he's also authored and edited dozens of volumes on left-wing politics, theory and people, several of them — like 2017's well-received Johnny Appleseed — graphic novels. Unfortunately, in this case the authors' decision to illustrate Debs' life seems driven less by an appreciation of the artistic possibilities as by a hope of attracting a spectrum of readers. Buhle and Max seem to see comic art as a way to dress up what they're really interested in — and what they're really interested in is exactly what Howe mocked back in 1983. Throughout this biography, men at podiums spout ideological manifestoes and brave, interchangeable workers shake their fists at police. The authors even intersperse the graphical parts of the book with chunks of written narrative, as if they simply can't trust the drawings to convey meaning on their own. It's hard to know how much artist Noah Van Sciver had to do with this book's shortcomings. Would any artist, much less one as gifted and experienced as Sciver, repeatedly choose to illustrate the most boring parts of anecdotes while describing the interesting parts in words? Whether it was Sciver's decision or the authors', that's what this book does. \"The deaths and injuries caused by poor equipment and long hours made even skilled work on the railroads dangerous,\" notes one caption. But instead of some terrible accident, the panel merely depicts several men (one missing a leg) standing with their shovels. It may well have been copied straight from a period photograph. Elsewhere Sciver copies old newspaper cartoons, and once — as if to show how little they value their artist — Buhle and Max even include one of those cartoons, unaltered. It's an unwise decision. That drawing (apparently by caricaturist William Allen Rogers) is elegant in a way Sciver's work is not, and it casts Sciver in a bad light. Sciver draws with a looseness that can seem sloppy, especially when he's stuck producing page after aforementioned page of men at podiums spouting ideological manifestoes. He does better with strikes and battles, but these scenes are too few and too cramped. Meanwhile, half a page is given to Debs sitting on the porch of a sanitarium, explaining that he's too sick to give speeches. Debs' poor health is a constant theme, unsurprisingly. A history of illness is a useful element in a hagiography — which this undoubtedly is. Its hero is miraculously free of inner conflicts and bad impulses. Buhle and Max seem to think you make someone heroic by scrubbing them clean of flaws and having them deliver stirring oratory, so poor Sciver had to copy out line upon line of speeches. There's even a hand-drawn chart comparing the 1932 Socialist platform with programs adopted by the Roosevelt administration. It's hard to know what makes Marxists so much more interested in ideas than people — or, for that matter, in words over art. In this case, both proclivities are fatal. 35 years after Howe pondered the boredom problem, it remains as formidable as ever. Etelka Lehoczky has written about comics for The Atlantic and The Los Angeles Review of Books. She tweets at @EtelkaL.", "David Glickman, who bought Red Rock Island in San Francisco Bay in 1964 for less than $50,000, hopes to sell it for $22 million. He says he bought the island because he is interested in unusual, off-beat places. The island is reached by traveling north from the San Francisco waterfront, heading past Alcatraz Island. Deb Self, the executive director of an environmental group called Bay Keeper, says the island has great environmental significance. \"It's a major corridor for migrating fish, and home to a lot of birds,\" Self said, \"and close to some important seal rookeries and also is home to a fair sized population of black-crested night Herons. The fate of the 6-acre piece of rock, and its spectacular views, remains in question as it awaits a buyer. As for David Glickman, he currently lives in Thailand. Scott Shafer reports from member station KQED in San Francisco. JOHN YDSTIE, Host: Last month, we talked to a gentleman who's trying to sell a private island he owns in San Francisco Bay. David Glickman bought Red Rock Island in 1964 for less than $50,000. Now, he's hoping to sell it for $22 million. On the phone from Thailand, where he now lives, Glickman told us why he bought the island in the first place. DAVID GLICKMAN: I was interested in the unusual, offbeat ones, which with some imagination could be made into something worthwhile. YDSTIE: Red Rock Island is not easy to get to. But we sent Scott Shafer from member station KQED into San Francisco Bay to have a look at it. SCOTT SHAFER: The environmental group Baykeeper offered the realtor and me a ride to Red Rock Island on its 26-foot catamaran. We leave from the San Francisco waterfront, heading north past Alcatraz Island. Baykeeper's executive director Deb Self described the environmental significance of Red Rock Island. DEB SELF: It's a major corridor for migrating fish, and home to a lot of birds and close to some important (unintelligible). Also it is home to a fair size population of black crested night herons. SHAFER: And it has really nice views. Just ask Steven Higbee. He's the realtor for the six-acre piece of rock, and he's working on his sales pitch. STEVEN HIGBEE: People have talked about like, would it make a great casino or, you know, a lavish hotel or something? So I guess one is limited by their imagination and the permit process. SHAFER: All right, Steven, here it is, your latest listing. HIGBEE: Right. Soon to be. SHAFER: Really healthy-looking poison oak. HIGBEE: Yeah, good thing we have long pants, huh? SHAFER: I've got to tell you, the birds have been following us around the island since we got here. I would imagine they're not used to seeing people walking around on this island. SHAFER: A half hour or so later, Higbee is back on the shore. His shirt is a little bloody and the seat of his pants are filthy. He slid downhill. So now that he's got a better sense of this property he's trying to sell, what does he think? HIGBEE: A guy who love to (unintelligible), this real estate is a conversation. And that's really all it is. I mean if something fits, then it works. It's not an impulse item. SHAFER: One of the tricky things about developing this island, it's in three different counties. So, want to build something here? Think public hearings, codes, concerned citizens and environmental regulations. Baykeeper's Executive Director Deb Self has a different vision. SELF: I hope that whoever buys it is willing to keep it in this natural state. That would be ideal. SHAFER: For NPR News, I'm Scott Shafer.", "A wildlife biologist is continuing to face questions about an influential paper he wrote on apparently drowned polar bears, with government investigators reportedly asking whether he improperly steered a research contract to another scientist as a reward for reviewing that paper. \"They seem to be suggesting that there is some sort of conspiracy that involves global warming and back scratching that appears to be frankly just nuts,\" says Jeff Ruch, a lawyer with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Ruch's group is providing legal representation to Charles Monnett, a wildlife biologist with an agency of the Department of the Interior. Monnett was flying over the Arctic in 2004, doing a routine survey of whales, when his team spotted an unusual sight — dead polar bears floating in the water. Monnett's report on what he observed raised public alarm about the threat of climate change and melting ice, and the sighting of dead bears was cited by Al Gore in his movie An Inconvenient Truth. The dead bears became a potent symbol of the perils that the bears face as the sea ice retreats. But now Monett is under an official investigation by the Department of Interior's Office of Inspector General. In February, agents from that office questioned Monnett about the dead bear sightings and his 2006 report on them in a scientific journal. \"We're not sure why the Inspector General felt it needed to open an investigation on this. They indicated there are allegations,\" says Ruch. \"We don't know who they're from or why, after review, they thought this 2006 note was worth assigning criminal investigators to.\" Investigators again quizzed Monnett about that polar bear paper during a second interview on August 9, Ruch says. As part of his job, Monnett helped manage contracts for government-funded research. Ruch says in this latest interview, the investigators seemed to accuse Monnett of improperly steering a contract for a new study of polar bears to the University of Alberta. They pointed to the fact that a university scientist who got the contract gave Monnett comments on his polar bear paper. \"They asked whether there was a quid pro quo or whether there was some connection between the University of Alberta professor providing some sort of peer review on the polar bear paper and his getting the award of the contract,\" says Ruch. Ruch says the investigators focused on one exchange between the two scientists about the polar bear paper that took place on the same day that the research contract was being finalized. \"That was the big A-ha moment for them,\" Ruch says. \"And if that's all they have, then this has been a colossal waste of time.\" The research contract had been in negotiations for months and that Monnett's supervisors had signed off on it, says Ruch, who added that the University of Alberta was the only organization considered for this new polar bear tagging project because the contract piggybacked on research it was already doing. And while Monnett asked the university scientist to read his soon-to-be-famous paper on dead polar bears, Ruch says others--both agency officials and the scientific journal--reviewed it before it was published. The University of Alberta research project being funded by the contract in question received a stop-work order around the same time that Monnett was put on administrative leave by his agency last month. But that stop-work order was rescinded and the research is now continuing. A spokesperson for Monnett's agency has stated that \"the agency placed Mr. Monnett on administrative leave for reasons having nothing to do with scientific integrity, his 2006 journal article, or issues related to permitting, as has been alleged. Any suggestions or speculation to the contrary are wrong.\" The Inspector General's office did not return calls requesting comment. Some advocacy groups say, this whole episode looks like political interference with science and it will intimidate other government researchers. \"There's no way this can have anything but a chilling effect on the ability of other scientists to carry out their work,\" says Kassie Siegel, director of the Climate Law Institute with the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit that campaigned to have the polar bear listed as a threatened species. Her group has teamed up with Greenpeace to ask the administration for an investigation into this investigation. But others caution against rushing to any judgments. \"We won't know, until the [inspector general] is done, exactly what the charges are and exactly what they are finding,\" says Francesca Grifo, director of the scientific integrity program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. She says in the past, the inspector general's office has actually uncovered political interference with science. \"In previous administrations, we've been very grateful for what the inspector generals at Interior have found,\" says Grifo. \"They've brought to light a lot of things that we just wouldn't have known", "After New York and New Jersey, the place with the highest coronavirus infection rate in the U.S. is the Navajo Nation. Dr. Deborah Birx of the national coronavirus task force told the White House press corps the tribe is using strike teams to address the issue. \"They're really doing amazing work at their public health institutions with their governors and their mayors,\" Birx says. \"They are in full contact tracing.\" But contact tracing — or tracking all the people that COVID-positive patients may have infected — has been a challenge on the Navajo Nation. \"We are doing the best we can,\" says Shawnell Damon, the Navajo epidemiology chief for the COVID-19 strike force. \"There are some cases where a number of people have been exposed to some people, and so we're trying to find those people and yeah, that's where the shortcomings come from.\" Damon says the tribe has about 80 contact tracers. And they are working hard to do their job. But some realities of life on the reservation make such tracing difficult. Not everybody has a phone, and it takes hours to drive to one home. Damon is trying to train more contact tracers to cover the vast geography and lack of telecommunication infrastructure. Other long-standing problems have contributed to the rapid spread of the disease on the Navajo Nation. Many households lack clean, running water, which makes frequent hand-washing difficult. Some homes do not have reliable electricity. And hospitals are few and far apart for a reservation the size of West Virginia. 'Forgotten by our own government' All these issues, the tribe says, can be traced to broken promises. \"We are United States citizens but we're not treated like that,\" says Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez. \"You can hear the frustration, the tone of my voice. We once again have been forgotten by our own government.\" More than 150 years ago, the Navajo and many other tribes signed treaties with the federal government giving up their land in exchange for funding of things like housing, infrastructure and health care. But for decades that hasn't happened. Now, the Navajo Nation is suing the federal government for what it calls its fair share of federal COVID relief money. On March 25, Congress passed the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, which includes $8 billion to help tribes fight the coronavirus. The Navajo Nation and 10 other tribes are suing the federal government, arguing they shouldn't have to share these relief funds with for-profit Alaska Native corporations. The Indian Health Service, or IHS, is responsible for providing medical and other health-related services to enrolled Native American tribal members. But tribes and watchdog groups often point out the money allocated to the IHS is insufficient for the size of the population it serves and the scope of health conditions, such as obesity, diabetes and asthma, prevalent in that population. \"Native American communities are often invisible in terms of their health inequities. When you look at IHS per capita spending, it is much lower than we see for veterans medical spending or Medicare spending,\" says Dr. Laura Hammitt, the director of Infectious Disease Programs at the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health. \"IHS is chronically underfunded.\" The federal government spends $2,834 per person on health care in Indian Country, while it spends $9,404 per person on veterans health and $12,744 per person on Medicare, according to the most recent data. Limited scope for 'strike teams' The IHS works off the motto: Make the best of what you've got, even in a crisis. That's meant converting offices to patient rooms and relying on the National Guard to staff facilities in some cases. But there's still an acute nursing shortage on the Navajo Nation, and the tribe is desperately lacking in equipment. IHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Loretta Christensen says they're forced to fly COVID-19 patients to hospitals in Albuquerque, N.M.; Flagstaff, Ariz., and Phoenix, which comes at an extremely high cost. \"Our goal is to get our patients to a higher level of care as quickly as possible so that we can get them stabilized,\" Christensen says. \"We do realize there's finite capacity, and that's why we've made plans that we may have to manage many of these patients here on Navajo and we have ramped up that service.\" Christensen says the tribe is putting together a critical care strike team. But up until now strike teams have only been used to deliver food and supplies to people who have been exposed to the virus. \"We need this administration to consult with tribes, to listen with tribes, to work in understanding them far more than they do,\" says Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M. The congresswoman is a member of the Laguna Pueblo Tribe, which has also seen deficiencies in federal health care funding. As sovereign nations, tribes do have the ability to work government to government. For example, the Navajo president is working wi", "Some members of Congress are asking for a pullout of U.S. troops in Iraq, but they are still falling short of votes. President Bush has said he would veto such a move. The president is also butting heads with Congress over executive power. He took the position that two aides did not have to answer questions about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. With the defense spending bill, the Iraq report and the testimony of a former White House aide on the U.S. attorney firings, it has been a very busy week on Capitol Hill. President GEORGE W. BUSH: I believe we can succeed and I believe we are making security progress that will enable... Unidentified Man #1: This president cries progress. What progress? Unidentified Woman: If we pull out now, it's going to say that the U.S. is weak. Unidentified Man #2: This benchmark assessment report which we've received doesn't give us much hope. DEBORAH AMOS, host: Those were some of the voices we heard this week from Washington debating the war in Iraq. But those aren't the only fireworks flying between Capitol Hill and the White House. President Bush claimed his former aides did not need to testify before Congress about the firing of federal prosecutors because they qualify for executive privilege. We're joined by NPR's senior correspondent Juan Williams to sort through this eye-popping week. Juan, welcome. JUAN WILLIAMS: Always good to be with you, Deb. AMOS: There were two votes in Congress already calling for withdrawal from Iraq. And these were within hours of a very mixed progress report from the White House about the region. The numbers in Congress still aren't enough to withstand a Bush veto. Has the president bought himself some time? WILLIAMS: Well, he's still trying to buy himself some time. There are more votes coming next week. The question is whether or not the Republicans can hold the line here. The Democrats, as you know, this week had one vote in which they got 56 votes, so they're making some progress in getting Republicans to come with them. But they need 60 to end filibusters and get a vote on the floor. Now, this week we've already seen one vote in the House in which Democrats were able to succeed in getting four Republicans to go along with them in a vote. And the vote really has tried to set a deadline, April 1st of next year, for getting troops out of Iraq. The president says he'll veto. The question is whether or not a similar vote could take place in the Senate, and next week the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, says he's going to make every effort to get that vote. AMOS: At the same time, there was a showdown between Bush and the Senate Judiciary Committee. This one was over the issue of executive privilege that the president feels very strongly about. First, we had Sara Taylor appearing -she claimed she couldn't respond to most of the questions. Harriet Miers didn't even show up. Does this tell us something about how the Bush presidency is using power both on executive privilege and on Iraq? WILLIAMS: I think it's evidence of the fact that they're trying to conserve power. They want the executive branch to be an island onto itself. Vice President Cheney has taken the lead on this, doesn't want people to see his records in terms of who visits him, who speaks to him, even who come to his home. And the whole effort is to say that executive privilege and executive power is to be preserved. And if it's not preserved, then it comes as a cost to the nation because it will weaken the presidency. That argument is going to be tested on this - just this point about these subpoenas, Deb, because I think what you're seeing from the Democrats on the Hills is a willingness to challenge this White House in court. And if it becomes a court issue - I don't know who wins, obviously, but I do think that it puts pressure on the president and this presidency at a time when they're already weak, and especially weak at the polls. And that will have consequence for Republicans who - and the Republicans on the Hill then I think are going start to speak to the president about the damage he's doing to their prospects in '08. AMOS: And finally, Juan, the real talk of Washington - David Vitter, a conservative Republican from Louisiana. We learned that he was on the clients list of the alleged Washington Madame. What kind of ripples does that have politically? WILLIAMS: You know, on just a pure political basis, nobody thinks that David Vitter is going to be thrown out by the voters of Louisiana. Obviously he's going to have trouble at home and he's going to be the subject of great ridicule. He's been in hiding, I should tell you, Deb. You can't find hide or hair of him around Washington. (Soundbite of laughter) AMOS: He'll have to come out at some moment. WILLIAMS: Well, and the cameras will collapse on him. But nobody thinks that the Republicans are going lose this seat or anything like that. There are lots of charges of hypocrisy flying around and lo", "What did news media get wrong while covering the Boston Marathon and what lessons does that crisis offer for future live breaking news coverage? Here & Now&#8217;s Jeremy Hobson discusses those questions with Deborah Becker, senior correspondent and host at WBUR, and Scott Helman, reporter and editor at the Boston Globe. Interview Highlights On how to know what information to trust in a breaking news situation Scott Helman: &#8220;I think it’s very difficult, I will add that in full disclosure I think the Globe was one of the news outlets that had information about that allegedly arrest as well. And I know we put it out there briefly. So I mean I think everybody in general performed very well in those chaotic days and hours after the bombing. But there was a lot of things that people got wrong. And you know, it’s so difficult because in that situation people turn to these trusted news sources because they were so panicked, that feeling of anxiety because we didn&#8217;t know at that point, was there one bomber, two bombers, were there 10? We had no idea that the extent of it and I think having to be that sort of voice of reason but also get that information out to people very quickly is so difficult.&#8221; Deborah Becker: &#8220;I was actually at the Weston Hotel that day and so the officials there were supposed to hold a press conference but kept pushing it back. And they said we’re having a press conference at 1, nope it’s gonna be at 2, nope its gonna be at 2:30, nope, and they just kept pushing it back. And there were planes surrounding the federal court house, there were boats coming in, everybody thought that there was an arrest and someone was going to be brought into the federal courthouse and be charged with the bombings. So it was just wild speculation. I think the big lesson from that is, you know, watch how fear can sort of fuel all of these things, and anxiety. And there was a little snip-it of a report here, and a little snip-it of a report there and you can’t necessarily put those threads together and make a narrative. On whether media outlets need to change their crisis reporting policies Scott Helman: &#8220;I think there’s more awareness about this than there is in years past, in part because some of the disastrous election nights that we&#8217;ve had. I think you&#8217;ve seen this tremendous rush, everybody wants to be the first one to say he won Florida or he didn&#8217;t Florida or whatever. And so I do think there’s a little more consciousness about this. But still, I don’t know in some sense if it&#8217;s totally fixable because there&#8217;s always going to be that desire to be first and to be that one that everyone turns to and then we kind of lionize those news outlets and those reporters who do get it right afterward, and we say &#8216;Deb Becker was the first one to report that.&#8217; So I don’t know if it is totally something that can be repaired completely.&#8221; Deborah Becker: &#8220;Right, but I do have to say, I just did a story about preparedness and how folks are preparing for this year&#8217;s marathon, and I&#8217;m surprised at these preparedness plans for crises. And we really don’t have them, quite honestly, and I think it’s a good idea to sort of tell journalists, look, you know, this is a checklist of what might be beneficial, and these are the lessons that we did learn from the marathon bombings, of what we should do and how we should verify, who we should trust.&#8221; Guests\n\nDeborah Becker, senior correspondent and host at WBUR. She tweets @wburdebbecker.\nScott Helman, reporter and editor at the Boston Globe, and co-author of &#8221;Long Mile Home: Boston Under Attack, the City&#8217;s Courageous Recovery, and the Epic Hunt for Justice.&#8221; He tweets @swhelman.\n JEREMY HOBSON, HOST: Well, tomorrow will mark one year since two pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed; more than 200 were injured. Investigators say the bombings were carried out with two brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The older brother, Tamerlan, died after a gun battle with police. Twenty-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev faces a federal murder trial with the possibility of the death penalty. Now, a lot of the details are clear now that the dust has settled. But on the day the bombings happened and in the days that followed, there was a lot of confusion. Here is then-Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis facing a series of questions from reporters. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED PRESS CONFERENCE) HOBSON: Well, joining us now to talk about the media coverage of the bombings and what lessons we should learn for future crises are two people who covered the bombings as they happened: Deborah Becker, senior correspondent and host at WBUR in Boston. Deb, welcome. DEBORAH BECKER, BYLINE: Thank you. HOBSON: And Boston Globe reporter and editor Scott Helman. And he's co-author of \"Long Mile Home.\" Scott, welcome. SCOTT HELMAN: It's great to be ", "A decision on the fate of what would be the first offshore wind farm in the United States is expected from the federal government in the next several weeks. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he's ready to decide whether a private developer can install 130 wind turbines off Cape Cod, Mass. But as the government gets closer to a decision, after nearly nine years of review, the intensity of the debate is increasing. 'State Of Indecision' \"I think the worst thing we can do for the country is to be in a state of indecision, and this [project] has been in a state of indecision for a long time,\" Salazar said recently, on his first visit to the proposed site. Cape Cod is the arm-shaped peninsula that extends out from Massachusetts. The developers of the proposed project, called Cape Wind, say the closest 440-foot-tall turbine would be five miles to its south in Nantucket Sound. It's shallow there, less than a foot deep in some places, which is one of the reasons Cape Wind officials insist it's the region's best location for an offshore wind farm. Whether that's true or not is now up to Salazar. And no matter what he decides about this project, Salazar says offshore wind power is coming to the United States. \"As I've always said with respect to renewable energy on the onshore, it's important to do wind energy in the right places,\" he said. \"And that is the critical question that we are addressing here at Nantucket Sound.\" Threat To Tourism For the past year, Cape Wind has been on a winning streak with court victories, state approvals and a mostly favorable environmental impact statement from the federal government. Mark Rodgers, the communications director for Cape Wind, says that since it first was announced in 2001, the billion-dollar project has garnered strong statewide support with its promise to meet two-thirds of the Cape's electricity needs, while offering energy independence and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. \"Cape Wind has wider and deeper support than any energy project in the history of New England,\" Rodgers says. Leading environmental organizations, trade associations, labor unions and much of the general public all endorse the project, he adds. But most local officials oppose its location in an area used by fishermen and boaters, and the local Chamber of Commerce says Cape Wind is a threat to the region's only industry — tourism. Opposition From American Indians Until his death last year, the most prominent opponent was Sen. Ted Kennedy, whose family life on Nantucket Sound was well-documented. Now the loudest voice against the project comes from two local American Indian tribes. \"We are the Wampanoag, 'People of the First Light,' and it's our responsibility to greet that day,\" says Bettina Washington, the historic preservation officer for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Washington says the project would infringe on the tribe's religious and cultural rights by interfering with its view of the rising sun, and it also may disturb archaeological evidence of tribal life. \"The waters now cover what we know were ancestral homelands that we walked,\" says Washington. \"We lived there, we went to the edge of those shores to fish, and we interred our dead in those lands that are now covered by water.\" The strong American Indian opposition may present the final hurdle for the project. Last fall, the Wampanoag successfully petitioned to have Nantucket Sound declared eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, which makes the permitting process more difficult. Salazar met with the tribes for a sunrise ceremony during his visit to the Cape. He says he's taking their concerns seriously as he wades through all the issues, with an eye toward releasing his decision sometime in April. STEVE INSKEEP, host: For nine years now, a private developer has been working to get approval for 130 wind turbines on Cape Cod. Local opposition has been strong. Now, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is poised to decide whether the country's first offshore wind farm can be built there. Sean Corcoran reports from member station WCAI. SEAN CORCORAN: The waters of Nantucket Sound were unseasonably calm when the interior secretary stood near the bow of the Coast Guard Vessel Ida Lewis recently on his first visit to the proposed wind farm site. Here, the wind typically blows at an average speed of 19 miles per hour, making it popular with recreational sailors. But during Salazar's visit, not even a brief gust threatened his trademark black Stetson as he announced that after nearly a decade of review, it was time to decide the fate of the project called Cape Wind. Secretary KEN SALAZAR (Department of the Interior): I think the worst thing that we can do for the country is to be in a state of indecision, and this application has been in a state of indecision for a very long time. CORCORAN: Cape Cod is that arm-shaped peninsula that extends out from Massachusetts, and Cape Wind'", "NPR Music's Tiny Desk series will celebrate Black History Month by featuring four weeks of Tiny Desk (home) concerts and playlists by Black artists spanning different genres and generations each week. The lineup includes both emerging and established artists who will be performing a Tiny Desk concert for the first time. This celebration highlights the beautiful cornucopia of Black music and our special way of presenting it. We hope you enjoy. \"Just bear with me while I just enjoy this and soak in it,\" GIVĒON admits with a laugh. Switching between the demeanors of a seasoned, nonchalant crooner and a giddy-grinned newbie, the fast-rising R&B star makes a point to show his humility during his long-awaited debut at Tiny Desk. Accompanied by a minimal, masked-up band and only one background vocalist (a fellow Pisces at that), the baby-face baritone fills the set with resonance and light. He radiates gratitude with every note. Against a blue, moody backsplash of projected music video stills, GIVĒON notes the divine timing of this performance. \"Any moment to do this would be special,\" he says between songs, \"but I think Black History Month ... just celebrating Black culture for this month, I'm really excited to get to do this on this platform.\" Through the throes of the pandemic, GIVĒON has remained remarkably busy. In a span of eight months, the Long Beach, Calif. newcomer has released two solid EPs, the Grammy-nominated Take Time and When It's All Said And Done. (The latter included one of our favorite songs of 2020, \"Still Your Best.\") For his Tiny Desk (home) concert, he borrows from each project to arrange a tantalizing 14-minute sampler — showing off just enough to get you to do your Googles and discover more. Much like the moment he's trying to savor, GIVĒON's strength as a singer-songwriter is his ability to make his listener feel suspended in time. As fans quickly discovered on his breakthrough \"Chicago Freestyle\" feature last year, the peaks and valleys of GIVĒON's tone and the satisfying patterns of his runs don't just serenade; They immerse, they engulf. GIVĒON's star rising during a time of such sustained uncertainty is no accident, either. Between vulnerable storytelling and clear vocals, GIVĒON's work provides so many with what they're craving right now: intimacy and consistency. SET LIST \"THE BEACH\" \"LIKE I WANT YOU\" \"Stuck On You\" MUSICIANS GIVĒON: vocals Deondre Ellis: keys Ivan Chatman: bass Andre Montgomery: drums James Murray: guitar RaVaughn Brown: vocals CREDITS Video: Jan Lim, Mitchell Schultz, Will Houlihan Producer: Zack Warren Director: Eric Longden Audio: Jeremy Gray, Reggie Jones, Al Richardson TINY DESK TEAM Producer: Bobby Carter Video Producer: Maia Stern Audio Mastering: Josh Rogosin Art Director: CJ Riculan Tiny Production Team: Bob Boilen, Kara Frame, Morgan Noelle Smith Executive Producer: Lauren Onkey Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann", "When was the last time you wrote a letter? If the answer is \"not recently,\" then you can count yourself among the millions of Americans who just don't write letters anymore. The post office says the average American home receives only one personal letter about every two months. But there are a few determined people who are doing their best to wreck that average. \"It's becoming a lost art,\" says Deb Bruzewski. Every day she curls up on her plaid couch in her home in Auburn, Mich., to write a few of her 60 letters for the week. Bruzewski started her hobby in sixth grade with a single pen pal. Today she writes to friends, family and students she has met in her 50 years as a teacher. To hear her talk, she'll write to anyone. \"When my kids were in college I wrote them a letter every day,\" she recalls. \"And the joke became that the mailroom would say, 'You guys get mail every day!' So one day I wrote the mailroom.\" Bruzewski covers her envelopes in stickers: Turkeys and pilgrims are big right now. And her handwriting — there's no other way to describe it but pretty. That aside, she says it's all about the thought. \"I'm sure young people think, 'Ugh, that's so old-fashioned. Who wants to bother with that? It takes too long. You have to think about what you're saying.' That's OK,\" she says. \"And you never know who you're going to connect with or who you're going to meet.\" A 'Different Feeling' One group Bruzewski might like to meet is at Central Michigan University. They call themselves A Letter for Better, and their aim is to spread positivity across the United States. Ten students recently gathered in a classroom for their weekly meeting. Travis White started this group last fall — with a bang. A police officer visited him at his student job in the provost's office, he says. \"I was in the middle of writing letters when he walked into my office, and he said, 'What is this about?' and I told him. I said, 'It's my student organization — you know, we write letters to random strangers across the U.S. to spread positivity.' And he goes, 'You know, I kind of thought that it was something like that.' He goes, 'But the person who was on the other end of your letter was about in her 60s, she lived alone, and she was afraid someone was stalking her.' \" Now the group includes a business card with each letter. Freshman Carly Walter says getting a letter in the mailbox beats seeing a text on a phone screen any day. \"It's like a totally different feeling when you get mail, like, 'Oh, somebody really cares about me' than if you get a text and it's just like, 'Oh, another person texted me,' \" she says. According to a Pew survey, the average college student sends about 2,000 texts every month. It's likely that they don't write even one letter. Meanwhile, Bruzewski says she writes about 2,000 letters a year. She hopes more people will take the plunge — and at least write one or two. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: See if you can remember the last time you wrote a letter - not an email, an actual letter on paper, sealed in an envelope and sent. Millions of Americans just don't do that anymore, meaning that millions of Americans don't receive very many letters, either. It's reached the point where, according to the post office, the average American home receives just one personal letter about every two months. Yet some people are doing their best to keep a dying art alive. Here's Jennifer Weingart of member station WCMU in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. JENNIFER WEINGART, BYLINE: A tweet is 140 characters, a text is 160. Emails, Facebook messages - these things are all designed to be quick, to convey information efficiently. But what if you don't want to be efficient? What if you want to go full retro with a good, old-fashioned letter? You know, those things you don't get in your mailbox anymore. DEB BRUZEWSKI: It's becoming a lost art. WEINGART: So, maybe you can think of Deb Bruzewski as a language artist. Every day, she curls up on her plaid couch in her home in Auburn, Michigan to write a few of her 60 letters for the week. Bruzewski started her hobby in sixth grade with a single pen pal. Today, she writes to friends, family, students she's met in her 50 years as a teacher. To hear her talk, she'll write to anyone - really, anyone. BRUZEWSKI: When my kids were in college, I wrote them a letter every day. And the joke became that the mailroom would say: You guys get mail every day. So one day, I wrote the mailroom. WEINGART: Bruzewski covers her envelopes in stickers. Turkeys and pilgrims are big right now. And her handwriting? There's no other way to describe it: It's pretty. But, that aside, she says it's all about the thought. BRUZEWSKI: I'm sure young people think, oh, that's so old-fashioned. Who wants to bother with that? It takes too long. You have to think about what you're saying. That's OK. And you never know who you're going to connect with, or who you're going to meet. WEINGART: Maybe Deb Bruzewski should meet this group of people. (", "President-elect Donald Trump's pick to head the U.S. Department of Interior, Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., says he does not believe climate change is a hoax and promises to bring a Teddy Roosevelt-style approach to managing federal public lands. Zinke made the comments at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Tuesday. The congressman and decorated former Navy SEAL commander faced about four hours of questioning. Zinke's response to a question from independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on climate change is drawing particular attention because it seems to run counter to what his prospective boss, Trump, has said on the matter. \"I don't believe it's a hoax,\" Zinke told Sanders. He added: \"The climate is changing. Man is an influence. I think where there's debate on it is what that influence is [and] what can we do about it.\" Environmentalists have criticized Zinke's record on climate issues since he was elected to Congress in 2014. But many conservation and sportsmen groups have also praised the interior nominee, for his opposition to a Republican-backed plan to transfer ownership of millions of acres of federal public lands to states. That plan has drawn broad opposition in the West especially over concerns that public access to that land could be taken away. Last year, Zinke resigned his seat on a GOP platform-writing committee when the Republican National Committee included the language calling for the transfer. But earlier this month, the congressman voted with fellow House Republicans for a rule change that could make that transfer easier. Pressed by Democrats on the committee to explain, Zinke said he wouldn't have voted for it if it had been a stand-alone measure; rather, he noted, it was part of a bigger package of broader changes. \"I want to be clear on this point, I am absolutely against [the] transfer or sale of public land,\" Zinke said today. The Department of Interior and its agencies like the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management have combined control of hundreds of millions of acres of public lands, mostly in the West. During the Obama administration, fights over control of federal land boiled over into armed standoffs led by rancher Cliven Bundy and his sons in Nevada and Oregon. If confirmed, Zinke pledged he would \"hit the road\" immediately and seek to start cooling those tensions over land use. \"Outside of Washington, D.C., when you start going west, there is a lot of anger; there is a lot of mistrust,\" he said. Zinke said one of his top priorities would be to give local land managers and rangers more flexibility in land management decisions. Too often, he said, local decisions are reversed by higher-ups in the agencies back in Washington. That's a complaint that's long been uttered from those on both sides of the aisle when it comes to federal land decisions on issues including ranching, mining and wilderness protections. And it's one of the biggest challenges facing the new administration with urban and rural America as polarized as ever. \"We all love our public lands, and the duty of the Department of Interior as a secretary is to make sure that we have a broad consensus on what we're doing,\" Zinke said. Zinke is a relative political newcomer in Washington and to politics generally. During his short tenure as a state lawmaker in Montana, he developed a reputation as a moderate on some issues. And his repeated nods to the conservation legacy of President Theodore Roosevelt Tuesday seemed to set him apart from the interior nominees of several earlier Republican administrations. It's already clear there could be some friction between an Interior Secretary Zinke and some Republicans in Congress especially when it comes to spending. Zinke hinted at the hearing that one priority in an expected Trump-backed infrastructure bill will be to address a $12 billion backlog in maintenance at national parks. Senate committee member Mike Lee, R-Utah, also wondered whether the incoming administration would try to nullify President Obama's recent use of the Antiquities Act to designate ancestral tribal lands in Utah and Nevada as protected national monuments. Utah has been a flashpoint in the lands transfer debate, even passing a state law that tries to wrest control of most federal lands there. Zinke told Lee that there's nothing explicitly in that law that allows a president to authorize rescinding a monument from federal protection. \"I would think that if a president would nullify it, it would get challenged,\" Zinke said. He went on to say that he thought the country has benefited greatly from a lot of national monument designations, including in his home state of Montana. He is expected to be confirmed to the Cabinet post as early as next week." ]

[ "Stocks to watch Thursday: PEPSICO INC. :" ]

[ "Stocks to watch on Friday: DOUBLECLICK INC. :", "Stocks to watch on Wednesday: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY :", "Stocks to watch on Friday: BOEING CO. :", "Stocks to watch on Wednesday: ANTHEM :", "Stocks to watch on Wednesday: MICREL INC.:", "Stocks to watch on Wednesday: CITIGROUP INC. :", "Stocks to watch on Wednesday: ORACLE CORP. :", "U.S. stocks to watch on Friday: TASER INTERNATIONAL INC. TASR.O:", "Stocks to watch on Wednesday: FOREST LABORATORIES INC.", "U.S. stocks to watch on Wednesday include Sears, Roebuck & Co., Kmart Holding Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Network Appliance Inc.", "Stocks to watch: KRISPY KREME DOUGHNUTS INC.", "U.S. stocks to watch on Wednesday include H&R Block Inc., Michaels Stores Inc., Tech Data Corp., and Microsoft Corp.", "U.S. stocks to watch on Thursday: DELTA AIR LINES DAL.N: The air carrier's pilots union said late Wednesday it reached a tentative agreement with the airline on cost savings.", "Stocks to watch: HOME DEPOT INC. (HD.N):", "Stocks to watch Tuesday: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY :", "Stocks to watch on Tuesday: JOHNSON & JOHNSON JNJ.N, GUIDANT CORP. GDT.N", "U.S. stocks to watch on Wednesday: UNITED PARCEL SERVICE INC. : The world's top parcel delivery group cut fourth-quarter guidance.", "Stocks moving on Thursday: EXXON MOBIL , ROYAL DUTCH PETROLEUM CO. :", "U.S. stocks to watch on Friday: UNIVISION COMMUNICATIONS INC. : The Spanish-language broadcaster forecast earnings below Wall Street expectations.", "Stocks to watch on Friday: DELL INC. : The top personal computer maker's earnings on Thursday reflected slow sales in the consumer market, and its revenue missed analysts' estimates. Its forecast for the first quarter was also disappointing to Wall Street.", "Stocks to watch on Tuesday: ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES INC. AMD.N, INTEL CORP. INTC.O:", "Stocks to watch on Tuesday: MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL INC. :", "NEW YORK - U.S. stocks are seen in a watchful mood at the open Thursday as investors weigh oil's latest push higher and digest the latest flurry of third-quarter profit reports...", "Stock futures pointed to a flat to slightly weaker opening on Thursday, with investors watching same-store sales from retailers for signs of a spending slowdown.", "Stocks to watch on Tuesday: AMAZON.COM INC. :", "Stocks to watch on Monday: CATO CORP. :", "Stocks to watch on Monday: CITIGROUP INC. :", "U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher opening on Thursday, helped by optimism that momentum will drive the Dow to a new record high, while U.S. gross domestic product data will be watched for signs of economic growth.", "U.S. stocks to watch on Friday: UNIVISION COMMUNICATIONS INC. UVC.N: The Spanish-language broadcaster forecast earnings below Wall Street expectations.", "Stocks to watch on Tuesday: CIRCUIT CITY STORES INC :", "A stock for dividend investors to put on their watch lists.", "Stocks to watch on Tuesday: INTEL CORP :" ]

[ "I think you mean UMD\\n\\nUMD = Universal Media Disc. It is like a CD, but only about 3\" in diameter.\\n\\nAs far as I know, the PlayStation Portable is the only UMD player" ]

[ "It all depends on what format it is (mp4,3gp,3gpp etc) and what program you are trying to open it with. Generally, an up to dat copy of Quicktime on your computer will open any mobile phone format you throw at it. Give it a try and it should work. Quicktime is also the best video player for other formats, it plays virtually anything!", "1. are your audio/video cards working properly? \\n\\n2. have you formatted your pc recently? if so, are you sure that your audio/video drivers are installed successfully?\\n\\n3. are you using the proper media player to see or hear the videos or sounds: that is, some players are not compatible with certain audio or video formats..\\n\\n\\nthink about these...", "SURE! Video cards can send out the video signal to RCA, S-video, Digital or VGA. The trick will be getting the signal converted to a format that your VCR will accept as an input. Possible solutions: A video card with an RCA out or a scan converter that will convert VGA to a format that a TV will accept will work for you. The scan converter would probably be the easiest solution.", "yes you can but first you have to convert them into mpeg-4 format unless you cant and for that you need a software called\\npsp video 9\\ndownload this software and connet your psp\\nthe convert it into that format and it will automaticly send the video into the psp after converting", "neun und neunzig-99 luft bollons", "They use it as tradition, and the basis of truth, hell and damnation if you lie unde oath.", "Use Total Video Converter. Latest version i guess is 2.5 and website is http://www.effectmatrix.com. \\n\\nTotal Video Converter supports reading the following file formats:\\n\\nVideo Formats:\\n\\n¡¤ Rmvb(.rm,.rmvb) \\n¡¤ MPEG4(.mp4) \\n¡¤ 3gp(.3gp, 3g2) \\n¡¤ Game Psp(.psp) \\n¡¤ MPEG1(.mpg, mpeg) \\n¡¤ MPEG2 PS (.mpg, mpeg, vob) \\n¡¤ MPEG2 TS (DVB Transport Stream) \\n¡¤ Ms ASF(.asf, .wmv) \\n¡¤ Ms AVI(.avi) \\n¡¤ Macromedia Flash video FLV (.flv) \\n¡¤ Real Video (rm) \\n¡¤ Apple Quicktime(.mov) \\n¡¤ FLIC format(.fli, .flc) \\n¡¤ Gif Animation(.gif) \\n¡¤ DV (.dv) \\n¡¤ Video Formats Dx9 Directshow can open \\n\\n \\nAudio Formats:\\n¡¤ CD audio(.cda) \\n¡¤ MPEG audio(.mp3, mp2) \\n¡¤ Ms WAV(.wav) \\n¡¤ Ms WMA(.wma) \\n¡¤ Real Audio (.ra) \\n¡¤ OGG(.ogg) \\n¡¤ Amr audio(.amr) \\n¡¤ AC3(.ac3) \\n¡¤ SUN AU format (.au) \\n¡¤ Macromedia Flash embedded audio(.swf) \\n¡¤ Audio Formats Dx9 Directshow can open \\n\\n\\nGame Video Formats:\\n¡¤ Technologies format, used in some games(.4xm) \\n¡¤ Playstation STR \\n¡¤ Id RoQ used in Quake III, Jedi Knight 2, other computer games \\n¡¤ format used in various Interplay computer games,Interplay MVE \\n¡¤ multimedia format used in Origin's Wing Commander III computer game,WC3 Movie \\n¡¤ used in many Sega Saturn console games, Sega FILM/CPK \\n¡¤ Multimedia formats used in Westwood Studios games, Westwood Studios VQA/AUD \\n¡¤ Used in Quake II, Id Cinematic (.cin) \\n¡¤ used in Sierra CD-ROM games, Sierra VMD \\n¡¤ used in Sierra Online games, .sol files \\n¡¤ Electronic Arts Multimedia, Matroska \\n¡¤ used in various EA games; files have extensions like WVE and UV2 \\n¡¤ Nullsoft Video (NSV) format \\n\\n\\n\\nTotal Video Converter supports generating the following file formats:\\n\\nVideo Formats:\\n¡¤ MPEG4(.mp4) \\n¡¤ 3gp(.3gp, 3g2) \\n¡¤ Game Psp(.psp) \\n¡¤ MPEG1(.mpg, mpeg) \\n¡¤ NTSC, PAL DVD mpeg \\n¡¤ NTSC, PAL SVCD mpeg \\n¡¤ NTSC, PAL VCD mpeg \\n¡¤ Ms Mpeg4 AVI(.avi) \\n¡¤ Divx AVI(.avi) \\n¡¤ Xvid AVI(.avi) \\n¡¤ H264 AVI(.avi) \\n¡¤ Mjpeg AVI(.avi) \\n¡¤ HuffYUV AVI(.avi) \\n¡¤ Swf Video(.swf) \\n¡¤ Flv Video (.flv) \\n¡¤ Gif Animation(.gif) \\n¡¤ Mpeg4 Mov(.mov) \\n¡¤ Apple Quicktime(.mov) \\n¡¤ FLIC format(.fli, .flc) \\n¡¤ Gif Animation(.gif) \\n¡¤ DV (.dv) \\n\\n\\n\\nAudio Formats:\\n¡¤ MPEG audio(.mp3, mp2) \\n¡¤ Ms WAV(.wav) \\n¡¤ Ms WMA(.wma) \\n¡¤ OGG(.ogg) \\n¡¤ Amr audio(.amr) \\n¡¤ AC3(.ac3) \\n¡¤ SUN AU format (.au) \\n¡¤ m4a(mp4 audio)", "ugh, wdy, cky, gue?, ily, man?, oky, pey, bot?, und, ver, yal", "Stupid,asshole and all bad thinks on him!!!!!\\n\\n\\nUrs Meier \\nGeburtsdatum: 22. Januar 1959 \\nWohnort: Würenlos/Aargau (Schweiz) \\nBeruf: Unternehmer mit eigenem Fachgeschäft für Haushaltgeräte \\nZivilstand: Verheiratet, zwei Kinder, Marcia (1988) und Cyrill (1990) \\nHobbys: Schiedsrichterei, Fussball, Reisen, Lesen, Motorradfahren \\nAndere Sportarten: Leichtathletik, Skifahren, Gymnastik \\nLieblingsessen: Meeresfrüchte \\nLieblingsgetränk: Rotwein \\nKarriere als Referee: • Im Einsatz seit 1977, seit 1991 in der Nationalliga A,\\nseit 1994 FIFA-Schiedsrichter. \\n• 1994 erster internationaler Einsatz: U16 England gegen Irland. \\n• Regelmässige Einsätze in der Champions League und im Uefa-Cup. \\n• Pfiff die letzen fünf Halbfinals der Champions League in Serie. \\n• Leitete an der WM 1998 die brisante Partie USA – Iran und den Achtelfinal Dänemark – Nigeria. \\n• An der EM 2000 arbitrierte er Holland – Dänemark und England – Rumänien. \\n• Im Jahr 2001 wurde er von einer Fachjury in die Top-Ten-Referees der Welt gewählt. \\n• Im Jahr 2002 wurde er von einer Fachjury zum zweitbesten Schiedsrichter der Welt gewählt. \\n• An der WM in Südkorea/Japan leitete er das Vorrundenspiel zwischen Südkorea und USA. \\n• Und als Höhepunkt arbitrierte er den Halbfinal zwischen Deutschland und Südkorea", "If you only have a CD burner then you have two choices of disc format: VCD and SVCD. I'd suggest SVCD if your disk burning software (Nero, Roxio, Sonic, Ulead, etc.) supports it.\\n\\nThe format that WMM burns to CD is HighMAT Video CD which isn't supported except by a few old models of Panasonic DVD players. Or if you just burn the movie to a CD, you again aren't creating a video CD, just a data CD. The file will be playable on a computer, but unless it is saved in *video* CD format (VCD/SVCD) it won't work.\\n\\nThe best option though, if you have a DVD burner is to burn a video DVD... again, the solution is your separate disk burning software since WMM can't do this directly.", "Je m´appele Gisela ...\\n\\n... und: Wie heißt du?", "well convert them to mp4 format and then u can easily copy and play them in ipod. u will need a software like Plato Video Converter 2.13", "Use this software to convert your video files to flash file, here's more details:\\n\\nVideo2Flash 4.2 - MultiPower Software\\n\\nConvert video movies to Flash SWF and Flv files. Video To Flash Converter can help you convert all video formats to Flash SWF and FLV format, such as AVI, RM, WMV, ASF, and MOV. All you need to do is just a few clicks. Support control Flash video size, video bit rate, video frame rate, audio sampling rate and bit rate.\\n\\nhttp://www.download.com/Video2Flash/3000-6676_4-10477744.html?tag=lst-0-1\\n\\nWanna find more software, see it here: http://www.download.com/3120-20_4-0.html?tg=dl-2001&tag=srch&qt=wmv%20to%20flash", "All forms for immigration and student visas are here:\\nhttp://www.bmi.gv.at / Fachbereiche / Niederlassung und Aufenthaltsrecht / Formulare", "You will have to convert almost any video you download from anywhere (except iTunes) for use on the iPod, a freeware program called Videora will convert all your video files for use on the iPod, http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/\\n\\nYes you can but as I said you will have to convert them from whatever format they are in to a format the iPod supports using Videora.", "iPod initially was an audio player created by Apple that can play audio files in format such as .wmv, or mp3. Then apple created other versions of it, such as iPod photo (that can shows pictures in format such as .jpg or .gif), and iPod shuffle (the one without a screen). Late last year, Apple retired the original iPod and released 2 new versions: iPod nano (smaller and thiner iPods that is as thin as a credit card), and iPod video (which allows users to play video files in mpeg4 format).\\n\\nTo make them work you have to download iTune onto your computer, and then it will allow you to categorize your music/video collection, and allow you to transfer them to iPod.", "In some ways yes. Flash animation is higher quality than video formats. Flash uses a file type that utilizes vector graphics. Video on the other hand does not. But this difference is not really noticeable under normal circumstances. I would suggest to go ahead and give it a try.", "Yeah, first you'll know by looking on your computer ROM cover, It'll say \"DVD-RW\" if you see this there then you can burn but if it say CD-RW then you can only burn cd and not dvd. Knowing what entension your video can play, first look at your video player manua if you still have it, you'll see all kind of format your video support, then you'll know which format to use and yeah you can freeware to convert them, Nero software can also burn movie that you can play on most DVD player so if you have Nero software you can use it and choose the DVD option and let it do the rest.\\ngood luck.", "The question's pretty vague, but most website hosting places like Geocities have a 'File Upload' button on the main screen. But a music video wouldn't be in gif format.", "You will need to get quicktime pro and convert your video files into an Mpeg4 format. Once they have been converted you will be able to upload easily to iTunes.", "Wait, did you copy it in Europe, etc. In Europe, they have a different format for movies, video games, and so on. If you did, it would probably be in another format, one that your DVD player isn't set up to work with. Try buying one here, and then see if it works.", "Ich spreche Duetsch und Englisch. Du kann e-mail mich. \\n\\nLiebe, \\n Amanda", "Locate where you put your put your music video....sorry ran out of time I'll be answer this tommorrow. I'm back. If your music video is not already in mp4 file then conver them. Plug the PSP into computer. When you click on it you'll find 2 folders. Click MP_ROOT, and then click on 100MNV01. Put your video music, should be in mp4 format, in it. Rename you music video to M4V00001 where the 00001 are random numbers. Enjoy", "Do a search for \"WM Recorder\" in LimeWire (or any Peer-to-Peer application you may have) or through Yahoo or Google, if you want a paid/registered copy. You can load this small, but powerful program, then open IE (Internet Explorer), hit record, then visit any web-site with embedded videos and it'll record them locally to your computer. The caveat is that it only records videos in WMV and AVI format. But, there are other applications this company offers that can record other formats. See the link below:", "You can convert them to vcd or svcd and burn them with your cd burner in that format but you need burning software that will burn a disk in that format. I have nero and have had no problems. Also you need a dvd player that supports vcd's and svcd's and then you can play them on your dvd player. I have been doing it for years now. Vcd stands for video Compact Disk and svcd stands for super video compact disk.", "Well, you cant actually “view” audio files but downloading and installing quicktime is a sure fire way to take care of this issue. It will play audio and video in almost any format.", "Hi! hey, your address is wrong, when you go there, there is a mistake....I´ve looked around and you have to look here:\\nhttp://www.sprachenzentrum.fu-berlin.de/sprachbereiche/bereiche_de/daf_de.php\\nThen, there is specified that once you are there you have to make an einstufungstest or a test that proofs in which level are you and then you get the course level that you need. here is not specified what levels do they have but i can imagine they have from A1 to C1. If you are going on a program then you can do that.\\nIf you are planning to register with out the support of an international program, then you have to make te DSH test. Which is a German for University level that you have to pass in order to study in ANY university in Germany. For this you need a level B2 or C1, it is a very complicated exam. \\nAnd another thing. The Berlin University is Free because it is free to teach what they think it is right. I mean the Freie thing has nothing to do with gratuity, but with liberty. \\nI am not sure if this University is free anymore because there are some changes in this context all around Germany. And it depends on what party governs... probably for the next semester it is \"free\" but next year not anymore. And it is not fully free..you have to pay hat is called \"sozialbeitrag\" aprox. 125 euros each semester (even if the Uni is free).\\n\\nYou should call or write here:\\nSprachenzentrum\\n(ZE Sprachlabor) \\nBereich Deutsch als Fremdsprache\\nHabelschwerdter Allee 45 \\n14195 Berlin \\nKL 25 301- KL 25 306 \\n(2. Stock)\\nTelefon: +30/838-55686, -55687 oder -54504 \\nE-Mail: dafze@zedat.fu-berlin.de \\n\\nand Info Service der FU Berlin:\\nÖffnungszeiten (Persönliche Informationen am Info-Counter und am Telefon): Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch, Freitag: 9-15.00 Uhr; Donnerstag: 9.00-17.00 Uhr (ganzjährig*)\\nSprechzeiten der Sachbearbeitung (Iltisstr. 1) und der Studienberatung (Brümmerstr. 50, Einzelgespräche ohne Voranmeldung): Montag und Dienstag: 9.30-12.30 Uhr; Donnerstag: 14.00-17.00 Uhr. Die Vergabe der Wartenummern in der Iltisstr. 1 erfolgt Montag und Dienstag bis 12.00 Uhr und Donnerstag bis 16.00 Uhr.\\n\\n\\nInfo-Counter der Bereiche \"Studierendenverwaltung\" und \"Bewerbung und Zulassung\" im Foyer der Iltisstr. 1, 14195 Berlin (U-Bhf. Dahlem-Dorf) und Info-Counter der Allgemeinen Studienberatung in der Brümmerstr. 50, 14195 Berlin (U-Bhf. Thielplatz) \\nInformationen am Telefon unter (030) 838 700 00 \\nE-Mail: Info-Service@fu-berlin.de \\nStudieninformationen per Chat: Montag 15-16 Uhr \\n\\nGOOD LUCK", "the best is you get a good book about initial value problems... go und get one at your closest library...\\n1.- A First Course in Partial Differential Equations With Complex Variables and Transform Methods by Hans F Weinberger\\n2.- A First Course In Differential Equations With Modeling Applications by Dennis G Zill\\n3.- Calculus: Concepts and Contexts (with Tools for Enriching Calculus, Interactive Video Skillbuild... by James Stewart\\n----------------------\\nmany sites haves definitions about the topic:\\nhttp://mathworld.wolfram.com/InitialValueProblem.html\\nhttp://planetmath.org/encyclopedia/InitialValueProblem.html\\nhttp://laps.fsl.noaa.gov/~jedwards/thesis/sectionA_2.html", "What I would do is first check the camera to see what format that the pictures are being saved in. Make sure that they're jpg or jpeg formats. It just might be a format unique to a particular program associated with the camera. Certainly something to consider.", "Video CD\\nFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia\\n(Redirected from Video CDs)\\nJump to: navigation, search\\n\\n This article is about the all-digital 'Video CD' format. For the earlier (and less successful) analog/digital hybrid, see CD Video.\\n\\nVideo CD or VCD, or Compact Disc digital video, is a standard digital format for storing video on a Compact Disc. View CDs, as VCDs are sometimes referred to, are playable in dedicated players, personal computers, and many DVD players.\\n\\nThe VCD standard was created in 1993 by Sony, Philips, Matsushita, and JVC and is referred to as the White Book standard.\\n\\n * 1 Technical specifications\\n * 2 Similar formats\\n * 3 Adoption\\n * 4 See also\\n * 5 External links\\n\\n\\n\\nTechnical specifications\\n\\nVCD display resolution is 352 × 240 pixels (NTSC) or 352 × 288 pixels (PAL), approximately one quarter of full TV resolution (720 × 480 and 720 × 576 respectively). VCD video is in MPEG-1 format; audio is encoded as MPEG Layer 2 (MP2); video is stored at 1150 kilobits per second, audio at 224 kbit/s. Overall picture quality is intended to be comparable to VHS video, though visual artifacts may be noticeable in some cases. Poorly compressed video in VCD tends to be blockier than VHS video.\\n\\nSince the overall bit rate of VCD is approximately equal to the bit rate of an ordinary audio CD, the length of video that can be stored is similar to that of a CD: a standard 74-minute CD can hold about 74 minutes of VCD-format video.\\n[edit]\\n\\nSimilar formats\\n\\nDesigned to squeeze the most out of a CD is the DVCD or Double VCD where an ordinary CD is overburned to include up to 100 minutes of video. This format is seen only in China and the DVCDs are playable on any DVD or CD player though some CD-ROM drives have problems with this CD.\\n\\nA variant of the standard Video CD encoding known as KVCD is also supported by some (but not all) standalone DVD players.\\n[edit]\\n\\nAdoption\\n\\nWhile never gaining a foothold in the United States, Europe or Japan, commercial VCDs are very popular throughout Asia (except Japan) because of the low price of the players, their tolerance of high humidity (a notable problem for VCRs), and the lower-cost media. The negligible cost of the media gave rise to widespread unauthorised copying in these areas, which is probably the reason it was never widely supported by the entertainment industry in the United States. The advent of recordable CDs and inexpensive recorders has spurred a rapid growth of their acceptance in the US, since most DVD players can play them.\\n\\nThe VCD format allows home computer users to create home movies on CD. Almost all DVD players are capable of playing regular VCDs. However, not all DVD players can read the CD-R media, hence homemade VCDs produced by CD burners (versus those produced by pressing) may not be playable on some DVD players. Such incompatibility is a major problem that prevents consumers from distributing their home-made VCDs such as their Christmas or other holiday greetings to relatives.\\n\\n\\nMany commercial Video CDs of blockbuster Hollywood and Asian movies and television series are not widely available in the Western countries; however, they are available in certain ethnic communities and several commercial web sites (although quality and authenticity may sometimes be questionable). These VCDs are often produced and sold in Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Mainland China, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. In many Asian countries, major Hollywood studios have licensed companies to officially produce and distribute the VCDs, such as ERA of Hong Kong or Sunny Video in Malaysia, as well as HVN in both Malaysia and Singapore. Legal Video CDs can often be found in established video stores and major book outlets in most Asian countries.\\n\\nDue to relative small storage capacity, feature-length films sold on VCD are usually divided into two or three discs and television series may come in a box set pack", "ok well it isnt the disc's then if maxell didnt work cause those r number 1 disc's but other possiblities to keep u from being able to burn it onto a disc would be ur formatts take alook on how ur video formats burner is set up be4 burning a video if there wrong they will not play in ur dvd player but in computer it will", "Hi CoffeeBean, At average, it takes 4 days to get your video verified at Google Videos. All videos submitted for inclusion in Google Video must be reviewed and pass their technical requirements and policies in order to be verified. This process may take several weeks depending on the number of\\nsubmissions in our system and your video content. If you assign a price to your video or submit a video in an undesirable file format, it may take longer for your video to be included in Google Video. \\n\\nSome people have been lucky enough to get their videos uploaded within 8 hours. Some like me had to wait for around 45 days before it got included (http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=anirudh&btnG=Search+Video)\\nHowever at average, it takes 4 days. Google Video team has improved upon its services to decrease the number of days waiting, which is quiet frustating for the user. Hope this answers your query." ]

[ "RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina regulators are discussing tests to measure how much of a little-studied industrial compound may have gotten into backyard garden vegetables near a plant that's been producing that and similar chemicals for decades, a state environmental official said Monday.\nState agencies are discussing how to structure any test of vegetable gardens near The Chemours Co. plant near Fayetteville, state waste management director Michael Scott told a scientific advisory panel. The talks come after Dutch researchers recently reported finding GenX and some older, related chemicals in vegetables near one of the company's factories in the Netherlands.\nThe Dutch study released earlier this month concluded that the chemicals released into the air were found in about 40 per cent of the food samples collected within about 2 1/2 miles (4 kilometres ) of the European factory. The report concluded that garden crops were safe to eat, but the national public health institute advised people living closest to the plant to limit how much they consumed.\nGenX and related chemicals also have been made for years at the Fayetteville complex.\nThe inter-agency discussions in North Carolina haven't yet concluded whether to test nearby gardens or how any test would be conducted. The talks came in response to neighbours wanting answers about their potential health risks from plants, fish and venison, Scott said. Later steps could lead to further testing of commercial agricultural production.\n\"Our focus has been on the home gardens, at least initially,\" Scott told the board, which is studying ways to protect public health from new and emerging chemicals, including GenX and hexavalent chromium.\nTests on fish collected from waterways near both the North Carolina and Dutch Chemours plants should be available within a couple of months, he said.\nGenX has been used since 2009. It replaced perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA — a chemical that was shown to stay in the body longer and which was blamed for increased cancer risks. Both compounds were used in making non-stick Teflon and other materials.\nStudies point to GenX and related chemicals as having toxic effects in animals, but its effects in humans aren't known. There are no federal health standards for GenX and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies it as an \"emerging contaminant\" to be studied.\nSpokesmen for Wilmington, Delaware-based Chemours did not respond to a request to comment.\nMichael Watters said he's quit eating any of the wide variety of fruits and vegetables he grows on his five-acre lot about a mile (.6 kilometres ) from the Chemours plant. Tests of his well water found GenX and more than a dozen other chemicals, and something he can't explain has forced him to replace spouts on his shower and bathtub twice in nine months, he said.\n\"Something's really gone weird in the water,\" he said.\nLack of information about GenX, its prevalence and health effects has disturbed people across eastern North Carolina. The chemical was detected in the treated drinking water for about 200,000 people in Wilmington, about 100 miles (160 kilometres ) downstream from the plant along the Cape Fear River.\n___" ]

[ "FILE PHOTO -- The Dupont logo is displayed on a board above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S. on December 22, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo\nDuPont and Chemours Co have agreed to pay $671 million in cash to settle thousands of lawsuits involving a leak of a toxic chemical used to make Teflon, the companies said on Monday.\nShares of Chemours jumped 13 percent. The company said it would pay half of the settlement, although liability for litigation connected with the chemical was passed onto it when DuPont spun it off in 2015.\nIn addition, Jefferies analyst Alexander Laurence said the liability was $300 million below Wall Street estimates, and DuPont shares rose 1 percent.\nThe companies settled about 3,550 personal injury claims arising from the leak of perfluorooctanoic acid, which is also known as PFOA or C-8, from its plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia.\nThe leak allegedly contaminated local water supplies and has been linked to six diseases, including testicular and kidney cancers.\n\"We look forward to working with DuPont to finalize this settlement and get these injured class members paid as quickly as possible,\" plaintiffs' lawyer Rob Bilott said in a statement.\nBoth companies denied any wrongdoing.\nDuPont said in a statement that it had stopped using C-8 in operations at the West Virginia plant more than a decade ago. It had used the chemical there since the early 1950s.\nChemours General Counsel David Shelton called the settlement a \"sound resolution.\"\nThe settlement comes as DuPont and Dow Chemical Co expect to close their $130 billion merger later this year.\nIn 2001, residents brought a class action against DuPont over C-8 exposure. The company agreed in 2004 to fund medical monitoring programs and install new water treatment systems.\nDuPont convened a panel of scientists to determine whether any diseases were linked to C-8. The panel concluded that there was a probable link with six illnesses: kidney and testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, pregnancy-induced hypertension and high cholesterol.\nMembers of the class action lawsuit also sued DuPont individually, and the litigation was consolidated in federal court in Columbus, Ohio. The company agreed not to challenge whether C-8 can cause the diseases.\nThree verdicts in the litigation totaled $19.7 million. Most recently, a jury last month ordered DuPont to pay a plaintiff $12.5 million, including $10.5 million in punitive damages.\nThe case is In re E.I. Du Pont De Nemours and Company C-8 Personal Injury Litigation, U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio, No. 13-2433.\n(Additional reporting by Erica Teichert in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)", "Brockville is getting $220,000 from the provincial government to help the community rebound from the impending loss of Procter&Gamble.\nCity council on Tuesday authorized the necessary measures to formalize a Communities in Transition funding agreement with the province.\nThe money is meant to help the city figure out its next steps for attracting employers following the P&G hit.\nThe company, Brockville’s biggest industrial employer, announced last May 24 that it is closing its Brockville production plant, affecting all of its 480 employees.\nThe closure, to be done in phases, remains on track to be completed late in 2020, Mayor David Henderson said Tuesday.\nCity council approved the agreement without discussion following a brief presentation by economic development director Rob Nolan.\nA report to council by Nolan notes there have since been other closures, “which though not of the same scale, add to the need for creating new employment opportunities.”\nThey include Sears Canada, which had 60 employees; Transcom, a closure that effected 80 people; Chemours in Maitland (33 employees), and most recently the announcement of the coming closure of Donaldson Filtration Solutions (20 employees).\nLast August, the city started working with the office of the Minister of Economic Development and Growth “to identify ways that the provincial government could support Brockville in responding to this significant impact,” added Nolan.\nThe Communities in Transition program was the ministry’s main suggestion, Nolan adds, describing it as “a discretionary program which helps communities and industries facing economic challenges such as: Plant closures, significant job losses, and or industry-wide restructuring.”\nThe program is “flexible and tailored to individual communities and industries to allow them (to) address specific challenges and opportunities,” the report adds.\nCity officials developed the application in coordination with the St Lawrence Corridor Economic Development Commission, a regional development effort that includes the city, as well as Prescott and the townships of Edwardsburgh/Cardinal, Augusta, Elizabethtown-Kitley, Front of Yonge and Leeds and the Thousand Islands.\nThe city will be “the accountable body for this project and will be responsible for all funds and reporting,” Nolan’s report adds.\nThe money will be used to hire consultants with expertise in economic analysis to develop a strategy for the region “to understand its economy and to identify its innovative industrial clusters that can be the focus for future economic and employment growth,” it continues.\n“The outcome of the research will be the delivery of an implementation plan for the City and the Corridor that will guide the creation of new employment opportunities, new businesses and new investment.”\nThe economic development ministry is providing $220,000 for this research, while the city has committed $45,000 of in—kind contributions, in staff time for managing the project and in hosting a number of “stakeholder engagement sessions.”\nWhile the loss of P&G will leave the city with a sprawling industrial site that could be marketed to potential new employers, and while the money will flow through the city, Henderson said Tuesday that, with the corridor commission now at work, Brockville’s focus really is on that region as a whole.\n“Our response to the P&G issue is primarily through the corridor,” said the mayor.\n“The corridor is about marketing and attracting industry to the area.”", "HOUSTON, March 29 An aging California refinery is testing PBF Energy Inc's reputation as a turnaround whiz, with mounting production woes and costly repairs at the 88-year-old plant throwing a wrench into efforts to quickly revive profits.\nThe refinery, acquired from Exxon Mobil Corp for $537.5 million, has reported frequent breakdowns since the deal closed last July. On April 1, a regional air-quality regulator expects to consider the plant's frequent breakdowns and emissions, along with a plan to enhance safety with an expensive phase out of a chemical used in gasoline production.\nPBF is spending $100 million this year to improve operations, and is budgeting another $50 million for upgrading its electric power to prevent outages. Phasing out the use of modified hydrofluoric acid at the plant presents a potentially larger bill that was not on the table when PBF bought the refinery last July.\nThis week, the company lowered its estimate of first-quarter crude throughput at Torrance by 16 percent. It has said the overhaul would allow the Torrance refinery to boost production and hit profitability goals. \"These things will be fixed,\" PBF Chief Executive Tom Nimbley assured analysts on an earnings call last month.\nThe problems are weighing on earnings. Last year, the company missed its earnings goals due at least partly to outages at Torrance and at PBF's Delaware City, Del., refinery. It posted an operating loss of $61.7 million in the fourth quarter compared with earnings of $168 million a year earlier.\n\"We left $75 million on the table in the fourth quarter and more than $300 million in terms of lost profit opportunities for the year,\" Nimbley said, discussing fourth quarter results.\nThe push to phase out hydrofluoric acid, widely used in refining and semiconductor industries, came after a tank holding the chemical suffered a \"near miss\" from a 2015 explosion, according to a federal probe of the blast.\nHydrofluoric acid can form a toxic cloud at room temperature and exposure can cause severe health problems and lead to death. An estimated 330,000 people live or work near the refinery.\n(Graphic - Sulfur Oxide Emissions From Southern California Refineries: tmsnrt.rs/2nxFE4e)\nThe South Coast Air Quality Management District may push to adopt a rule to phase out use of the acid by December. A study commissioned by the air regulator estimated switching to sulfuric acid would cost around $100 million for each of the refineries in the region that use it.\nPBF said in a statement that figure was \"exceptionally low,\" and called a switch to sulfuric acid for gasoline output cost-prohibitive. A company executive has said the switch could worsen the plant's emissions.\nA refiner in Texas is building a similar unit for $300 million.\n\"I see no way they could avoid doing the upgrade if they wanted to stay in the gasoline business,\" said Robert Campbell, an analyst at consultancy Energy Aspects.\nAcquisitions made PBF the fourth largest independent refiner in the United States. It proved its skills by buying a Delaware City refinery, overhauling it and quickly cutting annual expenses by $200 million.\nBut the Torrance deal was troubled from the start. Closing was contingent on the plant running 15 days straight without a breakdown, but PBF went ahead despite an incident 10 days ahead of closing, saying it was not material and Exxon covered repair costs.\nSULFUR EMISSIONS\nLocal residents are pressuring elected officials and PBF due to noticeable gas-flaring and emissions.\nLast year, the facility released 487 tons of sulfur oxide, nearly 20 times greater than Valero Energy Corp, Southern California's second biggest polluter, which released just under 25 tons, according to figures from SCAQMD, which may be subject to revisions.\nPBF disputes the regulator's figures. It said 16 tons of the sulfur releases were under its ownership. It expects that figure to decline to less than 4 tons if its requests for revisions are upheld.\n\"They will turn things around eventually,\" said a person familiar with the plant, adding: \"It's going to take time.\"\nInvestors are not patient. In the last year, PBF's share price has slid 35.1 percent to $21.11 per share, more than peers Tesoro, which is down 9 percent, or Valero, which is up 1.6 percent over the same period.\n(Reporting by Liz Hampton, Jessica Resnick-Ault, Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Gary McWilliams and David Gregorio)", "The world's largest field trial on the control of Japanese knotweed, conducted in Wales, has found that eradicating the plant is not possible.\nResearchers from Swansea University have carried out extensive trials on the invasive plant at sites in Taff's Well, near Cardiff, and Swansea.\nOver a five year period, the team tested all nineteen of the main methods of controlling the plant.\nThey say working with the plant's biology produces the best results.\nThe methods used were physical, chemical and an integrated approach.\nProfessor Dan Eastwood from the project said: \"Basically, we're discovering how best to tackle invasive plants in real world conditions, informed by evidence of what actually works. We began focusing on knotweed at a time when there was a great deal of hysteria surrounding it.\n\"At the time, most information for people affected by the plant was largely based on anecdote. This led to the prospect of unscrupulous companies offering expensive and ineffective treatment solutions.\n\"It was incredible to us that there was no long-term, large-scale field trial analysis of the treatment methods used to control Japanese knotweed.\"\nImage caption One of the field trial sites at Taffs Well\nDr Dan Jones, the founder of a consultancy that solves complex invasive plant species problems, said: \"Off the back of the first three years of data we've found that eradication is not possible. Hopefully over the longer term we may move towards that by using new chemicals we're looking at.\n\"But it's not a question of eradication, it's a question of sustained control and management and well informed control and management.\n\"Claims made by companies, stating that they could eradicate Japanese knotweed using herbicides in short spaces of time have now been proven to be false, based on our experiments.\n\"Furthermore, we have shown that applying the wrong herbicides at the wrong time of the year leads to greater herbicide use and environmental impacts.\"\nThe trials covered the four main herbicide groups used in weed control. The chemical found to be the most effective was glyphosate. However, very low doses were applied - the lowest of all the other herbicides used.\nDr Jones added: \"There's a range of issues in terms of risk and hazard. There's a political issue around glyphosate as well.\n\"What we've done is work with the biology of the plant to minimise the amount of herbicide we're using over a treatment life cycle. Although we're using quite a contentious herbicide in that respect, we are using far less of that herbicide than you would use for other products that don't work on Japanese knotweed.\"\nDavid Gregson a chartered surveyor who provides specialist advice on the issue, said the plant was a very common problem in the south Wales Valleys areas, with Swansea particularly badly affected.\nHe added: \"The main problem is mortgage lenders are very reluctant to lend on properties where knotweed is present and obviously that means in turn people can't sell their properties and it might sometimes be because knotweed is present in the next door garden.\n\"A typical situation is a couple wanting to get divorced. They've got a lot of knotweed in their garden, they both want to move on with their lives and they've got a house they can't sell.\"", "Safety is a major concern in any industry since the beginning. Whether it is for food processing or packaging, manufacturers are being sure that all edible products are kept fresh and good until they are consumed. It is the responsibility of the manufacturers of the product to provide safe packings with lining to avoid spillage or contamination. It is important to remember that any item may be subjected to environmental stimulus, edible or not, that enters the confines of a food while producing, processing, transporting or storage facility, has the probability to cause harm, to human beings, pets, products and businesses if not treated, validated for suitability, wholesomeness from a regulatory and industry standards standpoint.\nMany manufacturers manufacture polycoated and wax papers for the packaging of food products either ready to eat or package foods or other dry or wet raw foods. These packaging papers are grease proof treated in the form of bags and pouches that hold processed, semi-processed or raw foods. Asian consumers are more concerned about staying green and majority of the food packagings are providing eco-friendly packagings. Manufactures are providing more natural coloured and recycled papers in food packagings with lining to meet the increasing environmental concerns.\nAccording to the study “Asia Packaging Lining Industry Situation and Prospects Research Report”, the packaging lining market in Asia is divided based on type of products such as paper, plastic, rubber and other. The market is categorized based on applications such as food, beverage, electronics, industrial use and many more. Packaging lining market in Asia is geographically spread across China, Japan, India, Korea, Saudi Arabia and other regions. The leading players in Asia’s packaging lining market are JMP Holdings, Arena Products, Linertech, Protective Lining Corp., LC Packaging, Plascon, DS Smith, Shenzhen Dongtai Sponge Products, Kadary, Ian Bicking, Green Light Packaging, Rongyeda, Nantong Xinyi Sponge, Jiaxing Packing and Shanghai Zhongfan.\nAsia is witnessing urbanisation, huge investments in housing and construction, development of retail chains, developing healthcare and cosmetics sectors are driving packagings with lining in economies such as China, India, Brazil, and Russia. It was observed that there is an increase in living standards and personal disposable income that encourages the consumption of package food and various other ranges of products which subsequently adheres the growth in packaging lining. The major market trends that drive Asia’s packaging lining are smaller households, demand for easy or ready to eat foods, demand for unadulterated products, and smaller pack sizes. These trends will drive the growth in the packaging lining market in Asia over the next few years.\nTo know more, click on the link below:\nhttps://www.kenresearch.com/metal-mining-and-chemicals/chemicals/asia-packaging-lining-industry-situation-and-prospects-research-report/147782-101.html\nRelated Reports:\nhttps://www.kenresearch.com/metal-mining-and-chemicals/chemicals/china-packaging-lining-industry-situation-and-prospects-research-report/147783-101.html\nhttps://www.kenresearch.com/metal-mining-and-chemicals/chemicals/global-packaging-lining-industry-situation-and-prospects-research-report/147779-101.html\nContact Us:\nKen Research\nAnkur Gupta, Head Marketing & Communications\nsales@kenresearch.com\n0124-4230204", "AkzoNobel reduces CO2 emissions thanks to new bio-steam facility\nDutch Minister of Economic Affairs Henk Kamp, Eneco and Groningen Seaports opened a facility which will supply steam from biomass to the chemical park at Delfzijl in the Netherlands – primarily for AkzoNobel’s Specialty Chemicals site.\nEneco has converted its biomass plant into a combined heat and power (CHP) plant, which provides both electricity and steam from renewable biomass. The steam is transported via a pipeline constructed by Groningen Seaports.\nThe conversion has increased the efficiency of the Netherlands’ largest biomass plant – the same amount of biomass now produces twice as much renewable energy. The transition from fossil fuels to sustainably-produced steam means an additional 10 percent of AkzoNobel’s energy consumption in the Netherlands now comes from renewable sources, resulting in a reduction of 100,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year.\nMinister Kamp said: “The North of the Netherlands is leading the way in the transition to sustainable energy. The Northern provinces and municipalities were the first to have a plan for implementing the Dutch Energy Agreement. The chemical park in Delfzijl is underlining these ambitions by switching to sustainably produced steam. By doing this, the parties involved are not only investing in energy reduction and lower CO2 emissions, they are also contributing to the regional economy by enabling the sustainable growth of the chemical cluster.”\nAround 10 percent of total Dutch chemical production comes from Delfzijl and the industry is a major employer in the region. The project is further improving the long-term competitiveness of the cluster of chemical companies at the site. The three parties have jointly invested around €40 million in the project.\nEneco’s biomass plant processes around 300,000 tons of timber each year scrapped from demolition projects and waste to produce sustainable electricity and steam. AkzoNobel was already a significant consumer of electricity produced by the plant.\nGroningen Seaports has built the required infrastructure to bring the steam to the chemical park, including the steam piping, which is also accessible to third parties. This makes the site more attractive for (future) factories, which will need steam for their production and supports the sustainable development of regional industries.\nEneco has entered into a 12-year contract with AkzoNobel for the supply of bio-steam. In addition, AkzoNobel will invest in the required infrastructure at the chemical park, offering continuity in the provision of a vital utility for other chemical companies at the location." ]

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[ "\"I am extremely humbled and honored to accept this award on behalf of the entire PenFed team: 2,500 employees who give more of themselves each and every day than they ever ask in return. I am personally energized to come to work each day because I work for PenFed and we live and lead by a simple philosophy: 'People Helping People,'\" Schenck said. \"If there is one thing I learned in life and as CEO, it is that driven, passionate people can really make a difference. Together as a team, they are unstoppable.\"\nThe annual Business Philanthropy Summit, held at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, was established to promote the businesses, nonprofits and government entities working together with residents of Alexandria to increase community wellbeing.\nPenFed supports citizens in the Washington metro area through the credit union and its philanthropic arm, the PenFed Foundation. Among the charitable donations PenFed Credit Union and the PenFed Foundation recently made are: $300,000 to Serve our Willing Warriors to provide respite for wounded warriors at a retreat in Haymarket, Virginia; $125,000 to the Kennedy Center to support free concerts for military families; $100,000 to DC Habitat for Humanity to provide affordable first-time homeownership for local veterans; $75,000 to the Alexandria-based Military Officers Association of America to train veterans in financial literacy; $15,000 to Bunker Labs in Alexandria to deliver educational programming for veteran entrepreneurs.\nAdditionally, PenFed seized the opportunity to help build accessible homes for wounded warriors in the DC area through donations to the Gary Sinise Foundation and recently launched the Veteran Entrepreneur Investment Program (VEIP), an initiative designed to support veteran-owned startups.\n\"James Schenck continues to set the example by selflessly serving others; first as a soldier serving our nation and now as a business leader serving our community. I can't think of a better example of Volunteerism and Philanthropy in business and I am thrilled that he is receiving this award at the 20th annual Volunteer Alexandria Business Philanthropy Summit. His work to expand the PenFed Foundation's scope and reach while promoting volunteerism has had significant positive impact and is inspiring,\" said Marcy Anderson, Founder and President, Federal Professional Solutions Inc., and Volunteer Alexandria Board member.\nHeadquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, the PenFed Foundation is a national nonprofit organization committed to helping members of the military community secure their financial future. Since 2001, the PenFed Foundation has provided more than $30 million in financial support to veterans, active duty service members, families and caregivers.\nSchenck volunteers his time as CEO of the PenFed Foundation without compensation and many other charities and business groups. He recently served as Chairman's Circle Sponsor of the USO's 75th Anniversary Gala, and chaired the Washington Business Hall of Fame campaign which raised $1.3 million for Junior Achievement. He also serves on the boards of the US Chamber of Commerce, National Symphony Orchestra, Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Northern Virginia Technology Council, Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Carriage Services (NYSE: CSV).\nSchenck was elected National Credit Union Hero of the Year in 2017 in a nationwide vote conducted by Credit Union Magazine based on his embodiment of the credit union ethos of service, advocacy and commitment to community.\nA graduate of U.S. Military Academy at West Point and Harvard Business School, Schenck flew Blackhawk helicopters in Korea. He remains an active advocate on behalf of military and veterans' issues nationwide. In 2015, Schenck was selected by HillVets as one of the 100 most influential and impactful veterans in the United States.\nSchenck was honored to share the stage with Jen Walker of the Jen Walker Team who was named the Small Business Philanthropist of the Year.\nAbout PenFed Credit Union\nEstablished in 1935 as the War Department Credit Union, Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) is America's second-largest federal credit union, serving over 1.6 million members worldwide with $23 billion in assets. Our long-standing mission has been to provide superior financial services in a cost-effective manner, while being responsive to members' needs. PenFed Credit Union offers market-leading mortgages, automobile loans, credit cards, student loans, checking, certificates, and a wide range of other financial services with members' interests always in mind. PenFed Credit Union serves a diverse population, and no military service is required to join. PenFed Credit Union offers many paths to membership, including numerous employee groups and association affiliations. PenFed Credit Union is federally insured by the NCUA and is an equal housing lender. To learn more about PenFed Credit Union, visit PenFed.org, like us on Facebook and follow us @PenFed on Twitter. Interested in working for PenFed? Check us out on LinkedIn. We are proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.\nView original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/penfed-credit-union-president-and-ceo-james-schenck-named-large-business-philanthropist-of-the-year-by-volunteer-alexandria-300656814.html\nSOURCE PenFed Credit Union\nRelated Links\nhttp://www.PenFed.org", "A group of judges at Small Business Monthly selected Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan St. Louis Business Counselor Gabriela Ramirez-Arellano as one of their “Top 100 St. Louisans To Know to Succeed In Business.” The nominees were selected based on their efforts, contributions and experiences with giving back to the community and helping business owners achieve their potential.\nRamirez-Arellano has been at the Hispanic Chamber for 11 months. During that time she has helped members and small business owners with starting a business, minority certification, identifying opportunities for growth and discussing all aspects of running a business.\n“I feel really honored,” Ramirez-Arellano said. “I didn’t know anybody even noticed what I did so it feels good to be appreciated for the work I’m doing in the community.” Because she hasn’t been in St. Louis for a whole year, she appreciates it more that someone else is recognizing her work as outstanding.\nRamirez-Arellano makes it a point to help minorities with understanding how systems work here so they can take advantage of the opportunities present. In other countries, things like banking systems are not always trustworthy. But knowing how the banking system works here can lead to better organized financing strategies. Understanding how valuable networking is leads to the opportunity to access people at different levels. Having more Hispanic/Latina women in businesses, in turn, benefits the entire region, Ramirez-Arellano says.\nAnd the national figures support this claim.\nThere are 787,914 Hispanic women-owned businesses in the United States, according to the National Women’s Business Council. This reflects a tremendous 45.7 percent increase in number since 2002 and a 133.3 percent increase since 1997. In comparison, Hispanic men-owned businesses grew 84.1 percent from 1997 to 2007. “Hispanic women-owned businesses are leading the way as job creators and economic propellers throughout the country, although there are still many challenges to overcome,” Ramirez-Arellano said.\nAs a Latina, assuming leadership positions often comes with getting over barriers, Ramirez-Arellano explains. Assuming leadership positions can often seem intimidating because it’s seen as breaking away from the norm for women. Ramirez-Arellano, however, said she encourages women to be confident and take the risk. What helped Ramirez-Arellano get ahead was understanding the cultural differences to where she can use different lingo to get the same point across and help both cultures come to a mutual understanding. “As a Latina woman, you face a lot of challenges, but also a lot of rewards when you take the risk,” she said.\nNominees will be featured in the Special April “Top 100” edition. Small Business Monthly will host a luncheon in their honor on Wednesday, April 19th. The luncheon will be held at the St. Charles Convention Center from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The nominees will be presented with an award in front of an audience. The keynote speaker will be Performance Coach and International Speaker, Ben Newman. For more information regarding the event, please go to http://www.sbmon.com/.", "COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rockbridge announced its roster of speakers for the seventh-annual RTRX (Rock the Road Experience) to be held August 2-4, 2018, in Columbus, Ohio, benefitting Pelotonia. RTRX is a leadership and innovation experience where attendees unite to network, be inspired and share a commitment to supporting cancer research.\nRTRX18 speakers feature Doug Ulman, President and CEO of Pelotonia; John O'Leary, President / Author of Live Inspired; Jake Harriman, CEO of Nuru International; Jeni Britton Bauer, Founder and CCO of Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream; Chris Waddell, 13-time Paralympian and CEO of One Revolution; Joe DeLoss, Founder of Hot Chicken Takeover; Dr. David Cohn, Chief Medical Officer / OSUCCC.\nRTRX features a fast-paced, high-energy format of speaker presentations called X-Talks. Based on the Ted-Talk format, the RTRX platform spotlights seven speakers who will share thoughts and insights on a variety of topics focused on leadership and innovation.\nRockbridge founded RTRX to unite business leaders and to provide an opportunity for strong networking, to be inspired, and to be immersed in purposeful change, all while sharing a commitment to supporting high-risk, high-reward cancer research. It's a social enterprise built to create transformative change across a diverse set of communities.\n\"The value of this leadership and innovation event is built around our triple-bottom-line: business, inspiration and purpose,\" said Jim Merkel, Rockbridge CEO and Rock the Road Experience founder. \"RTRX is a passion for us. We put significant effort into creating an incredible experience for our guests. Attendees come away thinking differently, doing good and feeling great.\"\nThe event directly supports Pelotonia, the nation's largest cycling event benefitting cancer research. Over the last six years, RTRX has contributed more than $3.2 million to the cause. For its seventh year, RTRX has again set the bar high, announcing a goal of raising $1.1 million for Pelotonia.\nRTRX18 SPEAKERS\nAs President and CEO of Pelotonia, Doug Ulman will update attendees on Pelotonia's mission, purpose, and status of cancer research fundraising. He is responsible for overseeing the strategic vision and direction of Pelotonia and also serves as an advisor to The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.\nJohn O'Leary will speak on inspiration. At age nine, he was severely burned on 100% of his body and was not expected to survive the first night. But he did. He then survived months in a hospital bed, dozens of surgeries, and years of therapy. His journey proved more empowering and rewarding than he could have ever imagined. It gave him strength and taught him compassion and understanding. John now lives to share his story and to spark the stories of others living boldly, so that together we can forge an extraordinary future by finding the possibility in the present.\nJake Harriman will discuss leadership and innovation. He graduated with distinction from the US Naval Academy and served seven and a half years as an Infantry and Special Operations Platoon Commander in the Marine Corps. Jake's experiences convinced him that the \"War on Terror\" can't be won on the battlefield alone. Jake left the military and enrolled at Stanford Graduate School of Business and created Nuru International. Nuru is a social venture committed to ending extreme poverty in remote, rural areas by offering locally-led training in agriculture, household savings, healthcare, and education.\nChris Waddell will talk about leadership. A 13-time Paralympic medalist and the first \"nearly unassisted\" paraplegic to hand-cycle to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Chris is a world-renowned motivational speaker and the author of Things I Want to Remember Not to Forget and Is It Lonely Being a Four Leaf Clover? Waddell was inducted into the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame and the Paralympics Hall of Fame. The Dalai Lama honored him as an \"Unsung Hero of Compassion.\"\nJeni Britton Bauer will address leadership and innovation. She founded Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams in 2002. Her \"ahead-of-the-trend\" vision—using whole ingredients and dairy from grass-pastured cows, rather than synthetic flavorings and commodity ice cream mix—coupled with inspired flavors, sparked the artisan ice cream movement more than a decade before it would become a top food trend. Jeni is a James Beard Award-winning author of two cookbooks and has been recognized by Fast Company as one of the most creative people in business.\nJoe DeLoss will share his thoughts on innovation. In 2014 he founded Hot Chicken Takeover, a community business bringing together great food and great people. The menu is known for featuring juicy, perfectly fried chicken, that's rubbed with a secret cayenne-infused paste. The business extends its mission by employing adults affected by poverty in a transformative work environment.\nDr. David Cohn will share critical mission updates on The James Cancer Hospital and how the funding from Pelotonia is making a difference in the lives of cancer patients. Dr. Cohn is the Chief Medical Officer at The James. He is a professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine since 2001.\nCONNECTING TO RTRX\nThe event's web site, https://www.rtrexperience.com, provides a seamless \"one-stop shop\" experience for sponsors, attendees, riders and those wishing to make a donation.\nSome of the website's functionality includes:\nSponsor and attendee registration\nEasy payment options\nRider information with a direct link to Pelotonia's website\nMobile optimization for access using personal electronic devices\nUpdated statistics such as speaker bios, videos, funds raised, attendee and rider counts\nABOUT ROCKBRIDGE\nRockbridge has been investing in and building brands for nearly 20 years. The business has made 223 hotel investments in 38 states worth $5.8 billion in capitalization. Rockbridge's continued success is a result of building a team and culture that is intensely collaborative, innovative, curious, and focused. These attributes are among a strong set that have positioned Rockbridge as a leading investor and partner. Rockbridge was just recognized as the top company in Central Ohio by size for its philanthropic efforts. Learn more about Rockbridge at www.rockbridgecapital.com.\nFOLLOW-UP:\nFor interviews with Rockbridge executives or additional statements, please contact:\nWilliam Black\nDirector of Marketing\nRockbridge\n614.403.8274\nBJBLACK@ROCKBRIDGECAPITAL.COM\nIMAGERY:\nFor high-res imagery of RTRX, please click here.\nView original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rockbridge-announces-2018-new-speaker-platform-for-rtrx-300675938.html\nSOURCE Rockbridge", "NORWALK, Conn., March 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Savoy magazine, a leading African-American business and lifestyle publication, has named Perry Jones, Senior Vice President of Manufacturing and Distillation at Diageo North America, a global leader in beverage alcohol, as one of its 2018 \"Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America.\"\nMr. Jones has extensive food and beverage industry experience in applying innovative approaches to end-to-end operations, supply chain management, change management, procurement, supply planning, commercialization, and contract manufacturing.\n\"We are honored that Savoy magazine has recognized Perry for his leadership and accomplishments,\" said Alessandra Ginante, Executive Vice President of Human Resources for Diageo North America. \"Celebrating diversity and fostering an inclusive environment for everyone is at the core of Diageo's values.\"\nSelection of the \"Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America\" begins by examining the landscape of spheres of influence impacting Savoy's readership including: corporate sector influence, scholastic achievement, career growth, community outreach and recognition. The information received from over 500 prospective candidates in diverse fields was pre-screened by the selection committee.\n\"Savoy is proud to present the 2018 'Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America.' In this issue, we assembled an elite representation of African-American men and women who have been recognized for their executive and business leadership in national and global-leading corporations,\" said L.P. Green, II, Publisher of Savoy magazine. \"These innovative trailblazers have led efforts to foster growth for some of the country's highest-performing companies throughout and beyond the US market.\"\nSavoy's full 2018 \"Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America\" listing is available online at www.savoynetwork.com.\nDiageo has been an early and active supporter of equal rights of all people. On March 1, Diageo North America CEO Deirdre Mahlan joined more than 350 of her peers in pledging herself and Diageo to take action to cultivate a workplace where diverse perspectives and experiences are welcomed and respected by signing the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™ Pledge.\nThe Savoy Magazine recognition is part of a growing list of honors Diageo has earned for its commitment to diversity and inclusion. Additional recent honors include:\n2018 - Diageo earned 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Annual Corporate Equality Index for LGBTQ Workplace Equality for the 10th consecutive year.\n2018 – Diageo received the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Award.\n2018 – Diageo listed as a Top Company for Executive Women by National Association of Female Executives (NAFE) for eighth year.\n2017 – Diageo named on Diversity MBA's 2017 \"50 Out Front for Diversity Leadership\" list of the best places for women and diverse managers to work for the sixth consecutive year.\n2017 – Diageo named one of Working Mother Magazine's \"100 Best Companies\" for the ninth consecutive year.\n2017 – Diageo listed on Great Place to Work® Top 25 Best Global Companies for fourth consecutive year.\n2016 – Diageo named as one of the Best Places to Work for New Dads Report by Fatherly.\nAbout Diageo\nDiageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit and Buchanan's whiskies, Smirnoff, Cîroc and Ketel One vodkas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness.\nDiageo is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: DEO) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE: DGE) and our products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands, and performance, visit us at www.diageo.com. Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com, for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practice. Follow us on Twitter for news and information about Diageo North America: @Diageo_NA.\nCelebrating life, every day, everywhere.\nAbout Savoy magazine\nSavoy magazine is a national publication covering the power, substance and style of African American lifestyle. From entertainment to sports, business to politics, design to style, Savoy is a cultural catalyst for the African-American community that showcases and drives positive dialogue on and about Black culture. Savoy is published quarterly and distributed via subscriptions and newsstands worldwide. Visit Savoy at www.savoynetwork.com.\nCaroline Dennis, Diageo\n203.247.3598\nView original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/diageo-north-americas-perry-jones-named-as-one-of-savoy-magazines-2018-most-influential-blacks-in-corporate-america-300616103.html\nSOURCE Diageo North America", "Employers in Highland, Fayette and Clinton counties have been recognized by the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) for going at least six months and 500,000 man-hours without a workplace safety incident that caused a worker to miss a day or more of work.\nEach employer received the bureau’s Special Award for Safety during the Highland/Fayette/Clinton Safety Council’s annual awards ceremony April 5.\n“Maintaining a safe workplace requires real work and commitment, which isn’t easy given all the challenges related to operating a business,” said BWC Administrator/CEO Sarah Morrison. “I commend these employers and their workers for making safety a top priority and for their example to other businesses. We want all workers in Ohio to return home safely each day after their shift.”\nLocal employers recognized with the Special Award for Safety include:\n• Alkermes – 922,777 hours worked;\n• TimberTech – 606,156 hours worked;\n• Clinton County – 546,373 hours worked;\n• PC Connection, Inc. – 1,826,157 hours worked;\n• Village of Blanchester – 744,221 hours worked;\n• Greenfield Research Inc. – 519,741 hours worked;\n• Bagshaw Enterprises, Inc. – 549,982 hours worked;\n• Fayette County Commissioners – 678,531 hours worked;\n• Highland County Commissioners – 537,963 hours worked;\n• Highland County Community Action – 701,508 hours worked;\n• Valero Renewable Fuels Company, LLC – 682,488 hours worked.\nIn addition to the Special Award for Safety, the council also honored local businesses in three other award categories, including: The Group Award for Safety — Recognizes businesses with the lowest incident rate within its business/industry type; The 100% Award — Recognizes businesses with zero injuries or illnesses resulting in a day or more away from work in the previous calendar year; The Achievement Award — Recognizes businesses with a 25-percent or more reduction in incident rates from the previous year.\nThe Highland/Fayette/Clinton Safety Council is one of more than 80 across the state that partner with BWC to educate employers and workers about the importance of workplace safety. Organized by local business groups, the councils educate members on new safety standards and regulations, products and services and the latest on a variety of related topics, including occupational safety and health, workers’ compensation and risk management.\nVisit bwc.ohio.gov to learn more about Ohio’s one-of-a-kind Safety Council Program.\nSubmitted by Melissa Ohio Bureau or Workers’ Compensation.", "WORTHINGTON, Ohio, July 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Central Federal Corporation (CFBK) (the \"Company\") and its wholly-owned banking subsidiary, CFBank, N.A. (\"CFBank\") are pleased to announce that David L. Royer will serve on the Central Federal Corporation and CFBank Board of Directors, effective July 1, 2018.\nDavid L. Royer is the Executive Vice President of Development for Continental Real Estate Companies. He has also served as Vice President of Finance and Development for CREC across a diverse set of commercial development projects. Prior to Continental, David served as Vice President for Fifth Third Bank in their commercial real estate group. He earned his finance degree from Miami University (1989) and an MBA from The Ohio State University (1993).\nDavid currently serves as a board member for Scioto Country Club, First Community Village Foundation and NAIOP of Central Ohio (a national commercial real estate development association). David is a Past President of The Athletic Club of Columbus (2010) and NAIOP of Central Ohio (2017). Prior bank board experience includes serving on various Columbus area Advisory Bank Boards. He also served on the Board for Junior Achievement of Central Ohio. David is a member and advisor for the Columbus real estate firm, Kohr Royer Griffith, Inc. David is also a current member of the Columbus Board of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors.\nTimothy O'Dell, President and CEO commented, \"David's depth of Commercial Real Estate experience and expertise will be a great asset to our bank as we continue to grow and expand. His CRE business and development expertise skills along with his prior bank real estate lending background provides him with unique perspectives on the Commercial Real Estate industry.\" Additionally, David is well connected within the Central Ohio Business Community.\nChairman of the Board of CFC and CFBank, Robert E. Hoeweler, added \"The Board and I are highly enthused that David will be joining us. His Commercial Real Estate background and insights will be valuable to both the Board and Management team.\"\nAbout Central Federal Corporation and CFBank\nCentral Federal Corporation (NASDAQ: CFBK) is the holding company for CFBank, N.A. a national bank formed in Ohio in 1892. CFBank has a presence in four major Metro Ohio markets – Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Akron markets – as well as its two locations in Columbiana County, Ohio. CFBank provides personalized Business Banking products and services including Commercial loans and leases, Commercial and Residential Real Estate loans and Treasury Management Depository services. Our products and services are particularly focused on serving the banking and financing needs of closely held businesses, and our business model emphasizes Personalized Service, Customer access to decision makers, quick execution, and the convenience of Online Internet banking, Mobile Banking, Remote Deposit and Corporate Treasury management.\nAdditional information about the Company and CFBank is available at www.CFBankOnline.com\nView original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/central-federal-corporation-announces-new-director-300675990.html\nSOURCE Central Federal Corporation", "Please follow and like us:\nThe Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame will add eight people — seven former athletes and one current coach — to the 418-person hall in the fall, Ohio State announced announced Wednesday morning.\nThe eight-person class of 2017 will be inducted at a dinner on Oct. 6, and will be recognized at halftime of the Ohio State-Maryland football game the next day on Homecoming weekend.\nThe seven former players who will be inducted include LeCharles Bentley (football), Mike Conley (men’s basketball), Tom Byers (men’s track and field), Chelsea Davis (women’s diving), Bryce Keough (wrestling), Christina Manning (women’s track and field) and Nancy Pearson (women’s swimming).\nPete Hanson, Ohio State’s men’s volleyball coach since 1985, is the first coach to be inducted into the hall of fame since former Buckeyes football coach Jim Tressel in 2015. Hanson’s teams have won back-to-back NCAA championships. Last season, Ohio State had its 42-match win streak snapped, the third-longest streak in in NCAA men’s volleyball history.\nBentley, the first Ohio State player to ever win the Rimington Award – given to the nation’s best center – is the 122nd member from the football program in the hall. The three-year starter was a consensus All-American as a senior in 2001.\nConley, a point guard who played for Ohio State for one season before heading to the NBA, helped lead the Buckeyes to the 2007 NCAA Championship. He averaged 11.3 points per game and holds the record for most assists (238) and steals (87) by a freshman in Ohio State men’s basketball history.\nByers, a mid-distance runner from 1973-1976, holds multiple school and meet records. The three-time indoor All-American in the 1,000-yard run owns the school record in the 1,500 meter run (3:37.50).\nDavis won the national championship in 2008 and was named the NCAA Tri-Diver of the Year. In 2010, Davis was awarded the Big Ten Medal of Honor. Only one other member of Ohio State’s women’s swimming and diving program has been awarded the award before.\nAs a senior in 1951, Keough was the captain of Ohio State’s Big Ten championship-winning team. He won individual conference titles at 155 pounds in 1949 and 147 pounds in 1951.\nManning, who ran for Ohio State from 2008-2012, in an 11-time All-American, 10-time Big Ten champion and two-time national champion. She holds school records in the 60-meter dash (7.23), 60-meter hurdles (7.91), 100-meter hurdles (12.68) and 400-meter relay (43.70).\nPearson was an All-American swimmer in 1982 and twice was a Big Ten champion as a member of the 800-meter freestyle relay team.\nThe hall of fame, which was created in 1977, includes 305 men and 121 women. Women weren’t inducted into the the hall until 1993.", "Analysis\nKhanyisile Kweyama, the SABC's new interim board chairperson, has been very decisive and clear in the direction the SABC needs to take moving forward. She's also been honest about the broadcaster's dire financial position.\nKweyama is the CEO of Business Unity South Africa. She was previously executive director of Anglo American SA, the first woman to hold such position at the company, and also served on the Telkom board.\nShe immediately won over the respect of many South Africans when she admitted that the SABC is not going to wing their way to finding a better suited and comprehensive policy to replace Hlaudi Motsoeneng's 90 percent local content policy -- which she added was not working.\nImpressed by Khanyisile Kweyama. There are plenty capable individuals who can chair SOE boards, why all the politically-compromised duds? — Phumzile Van Damme (@zilevandamme) June 12, 2017\nKweyama announced Motsoeneng's dismissal on Monday, an action which has been deemed long overdue. This announcement came after the SABC's former COO was found guilty of bringing the public broadcaster into disrepute in April.\n#SABC chairperson Khanyisile Kweyama says the rest of fired #HlaudiMotsoeneng's 1 year contract will NOT be paid out. pic.twitter.com/GWLtGNsdf8 — TVwithThinus (@TVwithThinus) June 13, 2017\nVIDEO | SABC interim board chair, Khanyisile Kweyama outlines future plans https://t.co/adjnA5AVge — SABC News Online (@SABCNewsOnline) April 21, 2017\nA look at the chairperson's track record, affirms that she knows what she is doing.\nKweyama has a wealth of business experience which means she will bring a multifaceted approach to the public broadcaster. She was recognised as one of the most influential women in mining in Africa by CEO Communications and was listed as one of the Top 100 women to watch in the FTSE 100 Companies 2014 report.\nKweyama's strong voice in the country's business powerful business community is an indication that she more than capable of chartering the SABC into a journey of freeing the SABC from the clutches of state capture.\nKhanyisile Kweyama pure diligent, fearless & humble soul...seeing her makes me miss corporate sector. — Lucky Neneh (@LuckyNeneh) May 10, 2017\nKweyama said the interim board has already made progress in the appointments of key positions at the SABC, saying there are \"some good CVs\" for the positions of CEO and COO. She also expressed on Monday that the \"SABC interim board is not anti-transformation,\" in reference to the restructuring of the SABC's policy framework.\nIt would seem Kweyama's leadership may at least give the public broadcaster more than a fighting chance of picking itself up.", "HURON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 23, 2018--Ohio-based edtech company, n2y, won two categories at the OHTec 12th annual Best of Tech Awards. n2y, a pioneer in effective special education, was named the “Best Use of Tech for Social Good” and the “Best Tech Team.” These awards add to a stream of industry recognition that n2y has received over the past quarter, including EdTech Digest and a BESSIE that showcase the most effective and innovative technology offerings.\nThis press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423006473/en/\nOhio-based n2y - pioneer in special education - wins 2 \"Best of\" Awards by OHTec (Photo: Business Wire)\n“n2y was founded on a social mission: to serve the needs of students that are often overlooked,” explained company CEO Chrissy Wostmann. “Winning the ‘best of social good’ category is particularly rewarding since it recognizes the success we have had in serving n2y’s end-user, the students with special learning needs. The ‘best tech team’ award shows that our innovation in special education and our commitment to our customers continue to advance in both efficacies and in deployment. This is the winning combination that propels our growth and our work.”\n“n2y’s highly talented tech department designs and builds creative and innovative solutions for both its external and internal customers. The team is grateful for the recognition that comes with OHTec's ‘Tech Department of the Year’ award,” stated Steve Lubowicz, n2y’s Chief Technology Officer.\nOHTec is a technology industry advocate and support resource within the Greater Cleveland Partnership, that focuses on building relationships and a strong technology industry within Northeast Ohio. As a voice for the technology community, OHTec’s goal is to ensure a high level of engagement among the companies and individuals in the industry.\n“Being honored by our peer companies at OHTec with two ‘best of’ awards is a high point for n2y’s ongoing stream of recognition and awards,” CEO Wostmann continued. “The best reward for n2y and its nearly 100 employees is knowing that the student population we serve is successfully learning with our breakthrough product solutions.”\nMore than 220 tech leaders from across Northeast Ohio gathered last week to celebrate the highest performing and most innovative technology companies in Greater Cleveland.\nAbout n2y\nn2y® is changing the way special education is taught by enabling students with special needs access to the general education curriculum through its award-winning curriculum, Unique Learning System® and with News-2-You®, a weekly current events newspaper where students are engaged with current and relevant news. SymbolStix PRIME®, a symbol database and creation platform, and newly-launched L3 Skills™ deliver resources specifically designed for learners outside the general education spectrum. With age-appropriate learning solutions, n2y is committed to impacting and advancing the lives of individuals with special needs. With n2y solutions, everyone can learn. For more information, visit n2y.com.\nView source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423006473/en/\nCONTACT: n2y\nMargaret deBoer, 419-616-5228\nVP, Marketing\nMDEBOER@N2Y.COM\nKEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA OHIO\nINDUSTRY KEYWORD: EDUCATION PRIMARY/SECONDARY OTHER EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY SOFTWARE PRESCHOOL\nSOURCE: n2y\nCopyright Business Wire 2018.\nPUB: 04/23/2018 04:31 PM/DISC: 04/23/2018 04:31 PM\nhttp://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180423006473/en", "“We are pleased to honor each of these recipients and their contributions to their professional communities, and the world,” said President Mary Ellen Mazey. “I am humbled to be surrounded by so many talented and dedicated people. They serve as wonderful role models for our students.”\nFor more than 100 years, Bowling Green State University has celebrated accomplished individuals for service to their professions, their communities and to the University. On March 18, ten alumni were honored for their contributions at the 2017 College Alumni Awards. A committee chose the honorees based on the recommendations of their peers, and each has achieved exceptional accomplishments in his or her career, bringing distinction to himself or herself and BGSU.\nOutstanding College Alumni were chosen to represent each of the University’s colleges, highlighting the diverse disciplines of a comprehensive university. This year’s honoree nominated by BGSU Firelands was William M. Tuttamore of Marblehead.\nWilliam Tuttamore began his 40 year career in finance in 1976 shortly after graduating from BGSU. In 1992, He started his 25 year tenure at The Marblehead Bank, as Vice President of Loans. After serving in various capacities, Tuttamore was appointed a Bank Director in 1998. He was promoted to President- CEO of the bank in 2010.\nTuttamore graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science degree in communication after receiving an associate degree from BGSU Firelands in 1974. He also received advanced banking education certificates from the American Institute of Banking and Ohio Banking Schools. He has taught financing, banking and economic classes at BGSU Firelands, OSU Lima, The American Institute of Banking, and Ohio Banking Schools.\nDuring his career, Tuttamore has been recognized with the Northwest Ohio Bank Auditors Association’s Founding President Award, American Institute of Banking President Award, Marblehead Peninsula Chamber of Commerce President Award, the Kirkpatrick Award for Community Service and many other honors.\nHe has served on the BGSU Firelands advisory board and on a fundraising committee for a new nursing facility on the Firelands campus. While at BGSU Firelands, Tuttamore was president of the broadcasting club, a student senator, a campus newspaper sports editor, and a basketball TV announcer.\nTuttamore has continued to broadcast local high school sporting events for the past 40 years and also serves as a deacon for Truth Ministries. He and his wife, Lois live in Lakeside-Marblehead. They have raised four children and enjoy spending time with their eight grandchildren.", "Youngstown State vs. Cleveland State\nFebruary 2nd, 2018\nBeeghly Natatorium, Youngstown, Ohio\nFull Meet Results\nScores\nWomen:\nYoungstown State – 167\nCleveland State – 129\nPress Release Courtesy Youngstown State:\nThe Youngstown State swimming and diving team closed out its dual season with a strong performance against Cleveland State on Friday night at the Beeghly Natatorium. The Penguins won the dual 167-129.\nThe Penguins won both relays, both diving events and seven swimming contests on the way to finishing the year with a 7-6 dual mark under first-year Head Coach Ryan Purdy.\nThe Guins opened the night winning the 200-yard medley relay to build momentum for a strong meet. YSU claimed first by 0.04 seconds winning with a time of 1:48.87.\nAida Jurinovics picked up her first victory of the dual in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:29.89. She finished first by 12-and-a-half seconds in the race.\nZsani Csado gave the Guins another win in a narrow victory in the 200-yard freestyle. Csado swam a time of 1:55.60 to take first by 0.24 seconds in the event.\nTaylor Bishop, who swam the 1,000-yard free earlier in the night, picked up a win in the short 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.73 seconds. In the short race she won by a modest 0.30 seconds.\nTiphanie Saint-Gilles earned a win by more than three seconds in the 200-yard breaststroke. Saint-Gilles posted a winning time of 2:22.50 in the 200.\nBishop picked up her second victory of the meet placing first in the 500 free with a time of 5:12.99. She won the event by nearly three seconds.\nJurinovics followed with a pair of wins to give her three for the evening. She won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 57.92 seconds and the 200-yard IM clocking a 2:08.31.\n“I couldn’t think of a better way to send off the senior class,” Purdy said. “I would like to thank all of them for a great season. Cleveland State is a program that we are going to see in a few weeks at the conference meet, and this was a great test for our team. Our athletes are doing an incredible job. We are prepared to have a great Horizon League meet, and I am excited for the potential of the YSU program moving forward.”\nIn the diving events, McKenzie Stelter won the one-meter with a score of 255.10 while Bethany Glick took first in the three-meter dive with a score of 287.40. Stelter was second in the three-meter and Glick was second in the one-meter.\nYSU capped off the meet with a win in the 200-yard freestyle swimming a time of 1:38.76 to win by more than a second.\nThe YSU divers will be in action on Saturday when they play host to the YSU Diving Invitational at 1 p.m. The contest will be the final event at the facility before it undergoes a multi-million-dollar renovation beginning in March.\nThe Horizon League Championships are Feb. 21-24 at Cleveland State.\nPress Release Courtesy Cleveland State:\nCLEVELAND, Ohio – Sophomore DJ Arslanian of the Cleveland State University men’s swimming & diving team was named Horizon League Men’s Swimmer of the Week as announced by the League office Tuesday afternoon.\nIt is the second such honor of the season for Arslanian.\nArslanian won both individual events he entered in Cleveland State’s dual at defending League champion Oakland this past weekend and also had top-notch performances on a pair of relays.\nArslanian swept the butterfly events against the Golden Grizzlies. He began by winning the 200 fly by nearly 1.5 seconds, finishing first in 1:52.03. He then held off a late charge by his Oakland foe in the 100 fly to win in 49.61 seconds. In the 200 medley relay, Arslanian posted the fastest split on the third leg (21.83) in the relay. Arslanian closed the day by anchoring CSU’s 400 free relay, where he posted a split of 44.50 seconds. His split tied for the fastest leg swam by any of the 32 competitors that contested that relay.\nArslanian is among the top eight fastest times in four individual events in the League this season: the 50 and 100 freestyle and the 100 and 200 butterfly.\nThe CSU men have won four swimmer of the week honors from the League this season, a League high. CSU has seven weekly HL awards when combining swimming & diving honors.\nThe CSU men will resume action on the second weekend of February at the Ohio State Winter Invitational.", "Friday marks the 100th birthday of late civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.\nTo celebrate Hamer’s life and honor her contributions, nonprofit GirlTrek has organized a series of walks across the country. More than 300 black women, aptly dubbed #FanniesArmy, will lead 100 marches in various U.S. cities at sunset on Friday.\nHamer, who died at age 59 in 1977, was a pivotal figure in the fight for black rights. She co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and tirelessly worked to encourage black people to register to vote at a time when voter suppression was overt. She was a fierce, outspoken force who dedicated her life to fighting for her people.\n“In the iconic words of Fannie Lou Hamer, we’re ‘sick and tired of being sick and tired,’” co-founder T. Morgan Dixon said in a press release. “She died too soon putting her body on the line for our freedom and we want to celebrate her life in a big way. In her honor, we are going to raise an army of sisters, #FanniesArmy, who will lead 100 walks across America at sunset on October 6th.”\nGirlTrek\nDixon and Vanessa Garrison, who founded GirlTrek as a national health movement for black women, will travel to Hamer’s hometown of Ruleville, Mississippi, on her birthday to walk with the community to the civil right icon’s memorial and hold a ceremony.\n“While the country reels from conflict in Charlottesville, this is an opportunity to herald the legacy of an American hero who brought us together,” Dixon said. “Fannie Lou Hamer died too early at 59, her body riddled with heart disease and cancer. I’m reminded of the words of R. Boylorn, [Hamer] ‘never saw death coming because she was too busy taking care of others.’ She worked tirelessly in field offices and late hours registering people to vote. When pain rendered her homebound, she taught Freedom Riders the ways of resistance in her night gown from her front porch.”\nJewel Bush, GirlTrek’s national director of communications, told HuffPost that they’re anticipating thousands of participants in cities including New York, Atlanta, New Orleans and Columbus, Ohio.\n“One of the things that’s important to GirlTrek is acknowledging and uplifting our ancestors, our black women ancestors,” Bush said. “From Harriet Tubman, from Ella Baker, from Rosa Parks, Septima Clark and to Fannie Lou Hamer, we want people to know that women were at the forefront and continue to be at the forefront for creating change. And we always say when black women walk, things change.”", "SIDNEY — Sidney City Council was introduced to Jim Hill, the new executive director of Sidney-Shelby Economic Partnership, (SSEP) during Monday evening’s meeting.\nHill’s first day in his new role was Monday, April 23. He will be shadowing Executive Director Mike Dodds until he retires on May 11.\nPreviously, Hill served as economic development director in Miami and Darke Counties, and as business incubation manager at The Entrepreneurs Center in Dayton.\nCity Manager Mark Cundiff told council most recently Hill had “successfully led the Sinclair Community College launch of Ohio TechNet, which is a collaborative effort to create and deliver a new innovative competency-based model for advanced manufacturing.”\nAlso on Monday, the city of Sidney received a commendation for being recognized by Site Selection Magazine as one of 10 communities to tie for 18th place among the top 100 micropolitans in the nation in 2017. Elaine Herrick, regional liaison for the Ohio Secretary of State, presented the honor to Mayor Mike Barhorst and Dodds.\nDodds, who was attending his last City Council meeting Monday as executive director of SSEP, thanked council for the experience over the last 11 years of working with Sidney’s city staff and council.\nBarhorst thanked Dodds for his good work and welcomed Hill.\nIn other business, council was introduced to and adopted an ordinance as an emergency to establish general procedures and standards for the underground or overhead siting, construction, placement, collocation, or modification, of small cell facilities and/or wireless support structures within Sidney.\nThe city of Sidney recently joined 42 other Ohio communities in a lawsuit declaring a senate bill that removes the cities’ authority to regulate and control the placement of cell phone towers within the public right-of-way unconstitutional.\nGary Clough, assistant city manager/public works director, told council the ordinance is required to protect the city’s interests with passage of a house bill pertaining to the placement and operation of small cell towers within municipalities. He said the ordinance must be in effect at least 90 days prior to the submittal of a small cell tower application for the standards to be applicable.\nThe ordinance was adopted as an emergency because it must be in effect before the House and Senate bills, yet to be signed by the governor, becomes effective. Gov. John Kasich is expected to sign the bills before the end of the month; the legislation will then will become effective 90 days afterward, Clough said.\nCouncil also adopted eight resolutions, and they are:\n• To reappoint Ann Asher to the tree board to a new three-year term that will expire on April 30, 2021. Barhorst noted that she has served on the board for some time (since 2007) and does a “perfect job.”\n• To reappoint Mardie Milligan and Gregory Bonnoront to the downtown design review board for new three-year terms that will expire on May 1, 2021. Both members have served on the board since its inception on May 12, 1997.\n• To authorize Cundiff to enter into a special event agreement with Sidney Alive in connection with the Kentucky Derby Affair on the Courthouse Square on Saturday, May 5, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The event will feature a foot race along city sidewalks. During the event, Cundiff said there will also be a bourbon tasting within the confines of the Courthouse Square, which is county property. For this purpose, a liquor permit has been filed with the county.\n• To adopt the following goals council set during the biennial retreat: continuing to develop an underground water source; continuing to pursue enhanced recreational opportunities by developing recreational trails; focusing on downtown revitalization; find ways to revitalize neighborhoods, including the downtown; and to effectively communicate the need for permanent tax levy funding to provide for improved public safety services and the need for permanent tax levy funding to provide for an ongoing aggressive street maintenance program.\n• To accept a waterline easement for the operation, maintenance and replacement of waterlines from Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores Inc. on the southeast corner of South Vandemark and and Fair Road.\n• To accept the recommendations from the Tax Incentive Review Council regarding enterprise zone, community reinvestment area, and tax increment financing agreements.\nCommunity Development Director Barbara Dulworth said all of the companies are in compliance with their agreement except for Edgewell Personal Care, which is 14 employees below the number it committed to employ. She said difficulty recruiting new employees and the automation of existing production lines to make room for a new production line are their two primary issues.\nDulworth responded to Council member Ed Hamaker’s question of whether a new production line would to bring up the number of employees, by saying that the business hopes but is not 100 percent certain they will get a new production line.\nShe said the Tax Incentive Review Council determined, due to the factors related to Edgewell’s investment and job commitments, allowing the business to continue with another year under review is appropriate.\n• To authorize Cundiff to enter into a community investment area (CRA) tax abatement agreement with Sunrise Hospitality Inc. It is for a proposed 79-guest extended stay hotel development to be located on a county parcel to the south of Holiday Inn Express on Folkerth Avenue. The CRA recommended a 10-year, 90 percent abatement based on the amount of the investment and benefit to the community.\nThe total investment for which tax abatement is requested is estimated at $6,800,000. The business is expected to create eight full-time and 12 part-time positions.\n• To accept the repat of the undeveloped lot at the southeast intersection of Michigan Street and Lester Avenue in the community business district. The replat will result in one 1.805 acre lot and one 0.599 acre lot. The city is currently reviewing a site plan for a Verizon Wireless store on the smaller lot.\nSidney-Shelby Economic Partnership’s out-going Executive Director Mike Dodds, pictured left, and Mayor Mike Barhorst, right, receive a commendation presented to the city of Sidney for being recognized by Site Selection Magazine as one of 10 communities to tie for 18th place among the top 100 micropolitans in the nation in 2017 by Elaine Herrick, regional liaison for the Ohio Secretary of State. Dodds is set to retire from the Sidney-Shelby Economic Partnership on May 11. http://www.sidneydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2018/04/web1_Sec-State-presentation.jpg Sidney-Shelby Economic Partnership’s out-going Executive Director Mike Dodds, pictured left, and Mayor Mike Barhorst, right, receive a commendation presented to the city of Sidney for being recognized by Site Selection Magazine as one of 10 communities to tie for 18th place among the top 100 micropolitans in the nation in 2017 by Elaine Herrick, regional liaison for the Ohio Secretary of State. Dodds is set to retire from the Sidney-Shelby Economic Partnership on May 11. Sheryl Roadcap | Sidney Daily News Council meets Jim Hill, pictured right, the new executive director of Sidney-Shelby Economic Partnership during Monday’s Sidney City Council meeting. Hill is shadowing Mike Dodds, pictured on the left, the out-going executive director, until Dodds retires on May 11. http://www.sidneydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/47/2018/04/web1_Jim-Hill.jpg Council meets Jim Hill, pictured right, the new executive director of Sidney-Shelby Economic Partnership during Monday’s Sidney City Council meeting. Hill is shadowing Mike Dodds, pictured on the left, the out-going executive director, until Dodds retires on May 11. Sheryl Roadcap | Sidney Daily News\nBy Sheryl Roadcap sroadcap@sidneydailynews.com\nReach the writer at 937-538-4823.\nReach the writer at 937-538-4823.", "Saluting: Sylvia Rhone, Jeanne Wardford, Vera Moore, Dyana Williams, Glynda C. Carr, Kimberly Peeler-Allen, Jodie Patterson, Dr. Aletha Maybank and La-Verna J. Fountain\nEvent Sponsors: Airbnb, Harlem Community Development Corporation, City National Bank and Barefoot Wine and Bubbly\n36th Annual Harlem Business Alliance Honorees\nContact\nKaren Taylor Bass\n917-509-3061\n***@taylormademediapr.com\nPhoto:\nhttps://www.prlog.org/ 12633665/1 Karen Taylor Bass917-509-3061\nEnd\n-- For the past 36 years, the Harlem Business Alliance (HBA) has honored black brilliance with their annual awards gala. This annual must attend celebration is the pinnacle fundraising event for the non profit. This year's theme,shines the spotlight on excellence – honoring nine outstanding women, a first for the organization, which traditionally honors both women and men. Saluting the magic, brains, grace and determination of black women, the organization will acknowledge them in the following categories: business, communications, government, community service and newly added science technology engineering, art and math (STEAM). The 36Annual Harlem Business Alliance Awards Gala is scheduled for Wednesday, May 3, 6:30-10:00|PM at Mist Harlem (46 West 116Street). Tickets can be purchased at: https://blackwomendidthat.splashthat.com . Sponsors for the event include: Airbnb, Harlem Community Development Corporation, City National Bank and Barefoot Wine and Bubbly.This year's honorees are:(Business Person of the Year, Music Executive Icon)(Chairman's Award, W.K. Kellogg Foundation),(Entrepreneurship Award, CEO, Vera Moore Cosmetics),(Percy Sutton Award, Entertainment powerhouse and CEO, Influencer Entertainment)(Government Service Award, Advocate and Political Strategist),(Government Service Award, Political Fundraiser and Event Planner),(Community Service Award, Entrepreneur and Activist),(STEAM Award, Deputy Commissioner for New York City Department of Health) and(Woman of Action Award, VP for Strategic Communications & Construction Business Initiatives at Columbia University).Past honorees include:(Chef & Restaurateur)(Founder, Carol's Daughter) and(President and Founder of Red Rabbit).\"Growing up surrounded by strong,intelligent Black women, running thriving businesses and organizations throughout Harlem – Black Girl Magic was always the rule. Not the exception\" says Regina Smith, Executive Director of HBA. This year's themerecognizes the silent power of countless black women who fueled numerous movements from the Underground Railroad, Civil Rights, and to innovations in space, science, arts and entrepreneurship. In recognition of the success and inspiration they have brought to world, the HBA celebrates Black women for all that they do and will continue to do.The Harlem Business Alliance has pledged its service as an advocate for the preservation and retention of Harlem's business community for over 36 years. Programs includebut are not limited to: Harlem's first co-working space; first adult stem program; 10,000 entrepreneurs served through programs and services; 2,000 entrepreneurs received one-on-one counseling and over 1,200 workshops. With HBA's guidance, their client's small businesses bloomed from concept to tangible product, street vendor to store owner and food enthusiast to food artisan. Disrupt Harlem Code Squad was launched in Fall 2015, the first hyper focused program to connect young adults with entrepreneurship options via technology. Lastly, the HBA acknowledges when you educate a woman, you educate a generation; this inspired thegroundbreaking Lillian Project, a tailored entrepreneur incubator for native born African American women.Share in the magic as we saluteat the 36Annual Harlem Business Alliance Awards Gala, scheduled for Wednesday, May 3, 6:30-10:00|PM at Mist Harlem (46 West 116Street). Tickets can be purchased at: https://blackwomendidthat.splashthat.com . Tweet and follow the event live at", "\"We're very excited to have an individual with Larry's deep experience in the homebuilding industry joining Mattamy's Board of Directors,\" says Peter Gilgan, Mattamy's Founder & CEO. \"In particular, we look forward to benefiting from his advice on a range of opportunities and issues as we grow our US business by a significant amount over the next five years. His recent experience in the important US marketplace will be invaluable on our Board as we continue to pursue our ambitious growth plans.\"\n\"Among private builders, Mattamy Homes has an exceptionally strong balance sheet and is in the best position to grow exponentially. As such it represents a great opportunity,\" says Mr. Nicholson. \"I have observed a great culture and leadership team, and a number of respected industry players have noted to me what a great company Mattamy is. I'm excited to be joining and look forward to contributing.\"\nMr. Nicholson was President and CEO, and a member of the Board of Directors, of CalAtlantic Group, a firm that was formed after the merger of The Ryland Group and Standard Pacific Corp. in 2015. From 1996 to 2015, he held a number of executive positions with The Ryland Group, including President and CEO, Chief Operating Officer, President Southeast Region, President Orlando Division and VP Operations South Region. Before joining Ryland Mr. Nicholson served as the VP Construction for Transeastern Properties in Florida, and Vice President and Apartment Developer for the Berman Development Corporation. He began his career in the homebuilding industry in 1983 with Fairfield Communities as a Construction Manager.\nMr. Nicholson is a member of the Policy Advisory Board, Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University and a member of the Executive Committee of Leading Builders of America. A native of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, he earned a Bachelor's degree from Ohio University in 1979.\nPrivately owned Mattamy Homes chose to establish an external Board of Directors of knowledgeable advisors in 2010 as a governance best practice. In addition to Mr. Nicholson, the other external members of Mattamy's Board also have significant experience and expertise:\nDave Williams (Lead Director), former non-Executive Chairman of Shoppers Drug Mart, and former CFO and President, Eastern Canada Operations, of Loblaw Companies Ltd.\n(Lead Director), former non-Executive Chairman of Shoppers Drug Mart, and former CFO and President, Eastern Canada Operations, of Loblaw Companies Ltd. Rupert Duchesne , former Group Chief Executive of Aimia\n, former Group Chief Executive of Aimia The Honorable David H. Wilkins, former US Ambassador to Canada and Partner, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP\nand Partner, & Scarborough LLP Margaret Whelan , CEO of Whelan Advisory LLC\nAbout Mattamy Homes\nMattamy Homes is the largest privately owned homebuilder in North America, with a 40-year history of operations across the United States and Canada. Every year, Mattamy helps 7,000 families realize their dream of home ownership. In the United States, the company is represented in 10 markets – Charlotte, Raleigh, Phoenix, Tucson, Jacksonville, Orlando (where its US head office is located), Tampa, Sarasota, Naples and Southeast Florida – and in Canada, those communities stretch across the Greater Toronto Area, as well as in Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton. Visit www.mattamyhomes.com for more information.\nView original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mattamy-homes-welcomes-larry-nicholson-to-its-board-of-directors-300635513.html\nSOURCE Mattamy Homes Limited\nRelated Links\nhttp://www.mattamyhomes.com/", "The students who survived the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, were honored along the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kobt and Ronan Farrow at the TIME 100 Gala.\nThe event in New York City celebrates the TIME 100 issue, out on Friday, which is the magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.\nNamed on the list were David Hogg, Cameron Kasky, Emma González, Alex Wind and Jaclyn Corin, all of whom survived the February 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.\nThe students who survived the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, were honored along at the TIME 100 Gala\nNamed were (left to right) Alex Wind, Cameron Kasky, Jaclyn Corin, David Hogg and Emma González all of whom survived the February 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School\nThe five teenagers have called for stricter gun control laws and organized the March 24 March For Our Lives demonstration in Washington, DC\nThe event in New York City celebrates the Time 100 issue, out on Friday, which is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world (Pictured, left to right: Megyn Kelly, Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker)\nThe list included journalists Ronan Farrow (pictured, left, with mom Mia Farrow), Jodi Kantor, and Megan Twohey who broke the story about the years of sexual assault allegations brought against Harvey Weinstein\nThe five teenagers started the #NeverAgain movement, reigniting a debate about gun violence and calling of stricter gun control laws.\nOn March 24, hundreds of thousands of people converged for the March For Our Lives demonstration organized by the students.\n'I think from that event (the shooting_, I've become more of a citizen and more of an activist,' Hogg said. He added that he'd like to visti more American cities that experience gun violence, such as Chicago, to help people 'raise their voice.'\nCameron Kasky, another Parkland survivor, said Tuesday that he hopes President Obama, who wrote about them in the 2018 TIME 100, 'goes out and votes in November.'\nThe list has a record of 45 women and 45 people under the age of 40 (Pictured, Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez (left) and Megyn Kelly (right))\nSix of the top 100 will be featured on covers of the magazine's special issue, including tennis champion Roger Federer; actress Nicole Kidman; singer Jennifer Lopez (pictured); and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella\nPresident Barack Obama wrote an accompanying blurb about the Parkland activists for the TIME 100 list.\n'By bearing witness to carnage, by asking tough questions and demanding real answers, the Parkland students are shaking us out of our complacency,' he wrote.\n'As these young leaders make common cause with African Americans and Latinos—the disproportionate victims of gun violence—and reach voting age, the possibilities of meaningful change will steadily grow.'\nThe list from Tesla CEO Elon Musk to TODAY show co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kobt to journalists Ronan Farrow, Jodi Kantor, and Megan Twohey who broke the story about the years of sexual assault allegations brought against Harvey Weinstein.\nMillie Bobby Brown (left) and Nice Nailantei Leng'ete (right) were visions in white at the TIME 100 gala\nAlso in attendance was Tavana Burke, founder of the Me Too movement\nRuPaul (left) and Georges LeBar attend the TIME 100 Gala celebrating the 100 most influential people in the world\n'The TIME 100, always a reflection of its moment, looks quite different than in the past,' Time Editor-in-Chief Edward Felsenthal wrote, explaining how the 100 were chosen. 'Influence increasingly knows no single zip code and no minimum age.'\nThe list has a record of 45 women and 45 people under the age of 40.\nSix of the top 100 will be featured on covers of the magazine's special issue, and include: Tavana Burke, founder of the Me Too movement; tennis champion Roger Federer; comedian and actor Tiffany Haddish; actress Nicole Kidman; singer Jennifer Lopez; and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.", "Hillcrest Hospital is the newest location for the E&G Brand\nMayfield, OH (RestaurantNews.com) Erbert & Gerbert’s Sandwich Shop will open its latest non-traditional franchise location at Hillcrest Hospital located at 6780 Mayfield Rd in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. The Dec. 11th opening marks the 45th non-traditional location for the beloved franchise chain known for its delightful theme originally based on a child’s storybook. Aside from the company’s new push toward non-traditional sites, Erbert & Gerbert’s restaurants can also be found in urban centers and rural areas.\nJason Chamoun is the franchise owner who is no stranger to the restaurant business and is also the franchisor of Georgio’s Oven Fresh Pizza Co. which he and his family have operated since 1999.\n“We are excited to add the Erbert & Gerbert’s brand to our business portfolio,” said Chamoun. “The sandwiches and products are amazing and distinctive. We enjoy owning and operating restaurants and are elated about the potential for growth in non-traditional locations such as hospitals, corporations and universities.”\nWith more than 100 locations operating in 16 states, Erbert & Gerbert’s is on the fast track to becoming one of the fastest-growing sandwich chains in the U.S. The chain was recently named among the Top 200 Restaurant Franchises by Entrepreneur Magazine.\n“We are thrilled with Jason as a partner and a franchisee who is helping grow the brand locally,” said Eric Wolfe, president and CEO of Erbert & Gerbert’s. “Soon area residents, patients and hospital staff will get the opportunity to experience our unique sandwiches.”\nAt Erbert & Gerbert’s, flavor is not just a word, but a way of life. Fresh-baked breads, meats and cheeses that are hand-sliced for freshness and chef-inspired soup and sandwich recipes all combine to pack a flavorful punch for customers. Where else would you find sandwiches like the Spartan with chicken, Cherrywood smoked bacon and Peppadew mustard or the Quatro with chicken and bacon, as well, but also cranberry wasabi that combines the tangy sweetness of cranberries with the heat of horseradish? The uniqueness of every Erbert & Gerbert’s sandwich extends to how it is prepared. After the bread is cut, the soft, white dough part – referred to as “the guts” in Erbert & Gerbert’s vernacular – is removed and put on top of the sandwich. Leaving a pocket in the sandwich helps to hold in the ingredients and improves portability.\nAbout Erbert & Gerbert’s\nFounded in 1988 in Eau Claire, Wis., and themed originally from a child’s storybook, Erbert & Gerbert’s has grown to more than 100 locations in 16 states. Locations range from urban centers to rural areas. President and CEO Eric Wolfe, led an investment group to acquire the company in 2004. Growth for 2017 is targeted in Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, North and South Dakota and Michigan. For franchising information, visit http://www.erbertandgerberts.com.\nContact:\nSanderson & Associates\nLana Simon\n847-727-8177\nLana.Sandersonpr@gmail.com\nJason Chamoun\n216-831-3777\njasonchamoun@gmail.com", "Tuition for four-year degree will be less than 11 out of 14 public colleges in Ohio\nUnder a new partnership between Otterbein University and Columbus State Community College (CSCC), Central Ohio students will be able to earn both an associate degree and a bachelor’s degree in four years for less than the cost of attending most of Ohio’s public four-year universities.\nA cornerstone of this dual admission program is shared academic advising so that students are always aware of the progress they are making on both their two-year and four-year degrees. The program also connects student services on both campuses, as well as creating shared curricular and co-curricular opportunities.\n“Students will have two campuses, but one unified student experience,” said Kathy Krendl, president of Otterbein University. The public-private partnership was announced at the 2017 Central Ohio Compact Summit by Krendl and CSCC President David Harrison.\nFor several years, Otterbein and CSCC have offered great transfer opportunities, and students transferring from CSCC to Otterbein have successful retention and graduation rates. Many 2+2 agreements are offered that align curriculum between different colleges, but don’t address the social and cultural issues related to transferring, nor do they do anything specifically about affordability.\n“This program addresses the other issues, as well as simplifying the transfer process itself,” said Jefferson Blackburn Smith, vice president for enrollment at Otterbein. “Students in the program don’t need to apply to transfer to Otterbein once they earn their associate degree. They will already be Otterbein students.”\nOtterbein is investing in students coming through the partnership by creating a special, reduced tuition rate for students who earn an associate degree and a 2.75 grade point average. The four-year cost of the program, based on current tuition costs, including books, is just $43,188. Neither CSCC nor Otterbein have raised tuition in at least the last four years.\n“College affordability has become a limiting factor for many,” said Rebecca Butler, vice president of enrollment management and student services at CSCC. “This partnership offers a tremendous opportunity for students to earn two meaningful degrees without incurring deep loan debt.”\nAs part of a dual admission program, participants will not need to complete a transfer application to Otterbein if they initiate and complete the program at CSCC. The initial pilot covers five academic areas: Business, Communication, Education, Engineering and Health and Sport Sciences. The program will expand to include most other academic programs in future.\n“This is all about access and affordability,” said Blackburn Smith. “It is student-centered one hundred percent. It’s designed to eliminate as many barriers to student success as possible.”\nThe program will be non-residential to help with overall costs. Students will live at home to reduce costs but have access to resources at both campuses, including faculty and advising.\nRecruitment for the program will start this fall.\nOtterbein University is a small private university nationally-recognized for its intentional blending of liberal arts and professional studies through its renowned Integrative Studies curriculum and its commitments to experiential learning and community engagement. Otterbein is a recipient of the 2015 Carnegie Community Service Classification; a finalist for the 2014 President’s Award for Economic Opportunity Community Service; and has been honored With Distinction by the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll since the list’s inception in 2006. It stands in its category’s top 10 percent in U.S. News & World Report’s guide to “America’s Best Colleges.” Otterbein offers more than 70 undergraduate majors; seven master’s programs; and a doctorate in nursing practice (DNP). Its picturesque campus is perfectly situated in Westerville, Ohio, America’s fifth friendliest town (Forbes), just minutes from Columbus, the 15th largest city in the country.\nOtterbein’s commitment to opportunity started with its founding in 1847 as one of the nation’s first universities to welcome women and persons of color to its community of teachers and learners, which now numbers 2,400 undergraduate and 500 graduate students.\nOtterbein remains committed to its relationship with the United Methodist Church and its spirit of inclusion, and welcomes people of all backgrounds to Otterbein’s Model Community. To learn more about Otterbein, visit www.otterbein.edu.\nKrendl http://sunburynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/web1_thumbnail_President-Kathy-Krendl.jpg Krendl", "Hough announces nursing home award, new additions\nBy Sarah Pridgeon\nMore positive changes are taking place within Crook County Medical Services District, says CEO Nathan Hough. As well as the start of a renovation project for the emergency department and CT scanner, the hospital boasts a new bus for transporting long term care patients and end-of-life rooms for the comfort of patients and their families.\nThanks to a grant secured by Long Term Care Manager Jamason Schmidt, matched by a donation from a family through their loved one’s trust, the district has been able to purchase a new van for patient transport.\n“It was truly community funded. It’s wheelchair accessible, ADA compliant – just what we needed,” says Hough.\n“It’s pretty clear to me that the community is telling us what they want done at this organization.”\nThe van will replace the older vehicle that has been used for many years to transport patients for appointments in other healthcare facilities.\n“It’s very uneconomical and not very user-friendly. This is going to be a really nice addition,” he says.\nThrough donations from the families of patients of the Long Term Care unit, the district is also ready to unveil new family rooms intended to provide care and comfort in end-of-life situations.\n“One of the things that have been recognized by our community is that we really didn’t have anywhere to support the families and patients during the process of end-of-life,” Hough says.\n“They used to have a hospice program here at the hospital but they don’t have that any more – and I don’t know that we need one anymore.”\nBacked by the USDA and Sundance State Bank, Hough says, the project to renovate the CT scanner and emergency department is projected to start this month and will hopefully be complete by September.\n“It’s exciting to be this close to getting it done,” Hough says. “It’s going to be a really improved patient environment, we won’t have to go outside to do our CTs and we’ll have all of our imaging equipment right by the emergency department if somebody needs access to that quickly after coming in on an ambulance.”\nAt the moment, two old operating rooms are used as overflow for the emergency room – but walking into one is like stepping back in time, Hough jokes. Those two rooms will become homes for the CT scanner and x-ray machine, while the current x-ray room will become an updated and modernized trauma room.\n“The quality of the equipment that we’re getting as part of the Helmsley Foundation grant, there’s not even a comparison, really,” he adds. “It’s much more detailed, much clearer pictures and less exposure for the patients – it’s absolutely a step in the right direction and a big advancement for this organization.\nMeanwhile, Hough says, the nursing home has received a Women’s Choice Award as one of America’s Best for Extended Care.\n“We’ve been recognized as one of the top in the nation by that organization,” he says.\nThe Women’s Choice Award is described as a symbol of excellence in customer experience, awarded by “the collective voice of women”, according to the organization.\n“One of the things they do is check the federal registries on our survey data. The way healthcare is set up is that it’s governed under the federal government and the state has some of its own laws,” explains Hough.\nStates perform surveys of healthcare facilities following those federal rules, he continues, and can add in rules of their own. The results are reported to the federal governing bodies.\n“Women’s Choice looks for the top-performing organizations in the nation, that’s one piece of it,” he says.\nThe other pieces include reports on staffing levels, quality, infections and other items. These are all taken together to create a picture of the care given at a particular facility and the top rated are selected for waters.\nThe news follows hot on the heels of another “outstanding” annual survey for the nursing home, Hough says; rule changes that have hit other facilities in the region hard were successfully met in Crook County’s facility. Most issues that were noted on the survey were very small indeed, he says.\n“I’m proud of my guys,” Hough smiles. “We did such a good job here that they actually got written up for a cigarette butt out on the street in front of the nursing home – that’s the kind of thing they had to look hard to find.”", "The fit is so obvious — the NFL draft being held in Cleveland and Canton — that a less-than-stellar sports commission could figure out a way to sell it.\nBut Cleveland is fortunate to have a sports commission that's regarded as one of the best in the country, and Northeast Ohio's track record of landing and excelling in hosting big events the last few years bolsters an already strong case.\nNot surprisingly, when the Browns, the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission and the Pro Football Hall of Fame met with the league about the possibility of Canton and Cleveland hosting the 2019 or 2020 NFL draft, the 2016 Republican National Convention, the recent NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, the 2019 MLB All-Star Game and plenty of other feathers in the region's proverbial cap were prominently mentioned.\n\"When we made our presentation and our bid, we made sure that was very, very important — that they know that our community knows how to do this — and many of those same organizations and people who put on the RNC were the same people who were sitting in front of them who will put this on,\" David Gilbert, the sports commission's president and CEO, told a small group of media members on Monday, April 23, in Berea. \"It wasn't just, 'Hey, a long time ago, or we happen to have the facilities to do it,' it was 'Here's the people who know how to do it and we've all developed such a strong partnership over the years.'\n\"I believe very strongly, I think they understand how well we work together,\" Gilbert added. \"You can't sit in front of somebody and fake it. We have example after example of events that we've worked on together, and it's just genuine relationships that come through, and we hope that gives them a sense of trust. And obviously the NFL comes in and so much of it they run, but they need the community to provide them everything they need to do it and make it easy. If we were to get it for 2019, we'd have about a year (to prepare). That's not a lot of time on their end or our end, so they have to have confidence that our community can come together very quickly and provide them everything they need in an easy way.\"\nThe sports commission and the Browns gave us a look at a promotional packet that was prepared for Northeast Ohio's draft bid. As we wrote Monday, the groups are hoping to hear some good news next month, when the league is expected to announce the 2019 and '20 draft hosts during its spring meetings in Atlanta.\nHere are a few of the highlights from the local bid:\n• Fan fest: This element, which Philadelphia worked to perfection during a 2017 draft that set attendance records, is a key for the Cleveland-Canton bid.\nThe groups believe downtown Cleveland's 780,000 square feet of \"walkable, connected\" spaces, with the malls serving as the epicenter, will be an ideal fit for the festival. The Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and FirstEnergy Stadium would also serve as key elements of the fan fest.\n\"We feel like the site is so tailor made, especially because you have the indoor elements of the convention center that you don't have to build out, so you don't have to build a tent city,\" Gilbert said. \"What they said is with the fan fest, there are certain things that really need to be weather protected if you have virtual reality and other expensive items. That site just seems so perfect.\"\n• Diversity efforts: The groups said they \"will develop a database of minority-, women- and veteran-owned local small businesses and vendors whose products and services can be used by the NFL\" during draft week. That database would then be maintained \"for use by other organizing entities as they host future events in the area.\"\nThere would also be lead-in events that would focus on diversity in sports management, which the bid says could include a minority job fair, local youth sports programs and programming \"focused on honoring Cleveland- and Canton-born trailblazers in football and sports history.\"\n• Community ties: The five synthetic turf football fields that the Browns have installed in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District could be used for football clinics during draft week. Clinic attendees would include members of the Cleveland Browns Adapted Football League, which was launched in 2011 and is geared toward children with disabilities.\n\"Another element of impact that doesn't necessarily get cited is there is a pretty strong community impact element to all of this,\" Browns executive vice president and chief financial officer David Jenkins said. \"We'll see youth football programming throughout that entire week, and then there's a lot of programming around including minority and female-owned businesses in the process. So the NFL definitely has a focus on making a legitimate impact.\"\n• Draft demo: This event would teach different methods of the game, from flag football to tackle, and stress proper, and safer, techniques.\n• Northeast Ohio's Super Bowl: The region's ties to football, and its rabid following of the sport, are — surprise, surprise — prominent themes. (One line from the packet: \"Cleveland and Canton are two cities built by football, and the history of the NFL is intrinsically tied to our communities.\")\nThe Cleveland market producing the top TV ratings for Round 1 of the draft in each of the previous four years is touted, as is the packed crowd at the Muni Lot for the Browns' draft tailgate party.\n• Hall isn't a concern: The sports commission and the Browns are confident that enough components of Johnson Controls Hall of Fame Village — an $899 million project that recently made national headlines for stalled work and delays in contractors getting paid — will be completed, even if Northeast Ohio is selected as the 2019 draft host.\n\"I don't think it's imperative that the project's done to be awarded this event and to do it well,\" Jenkins said. \"I think they'll look at holistically, what's best for those two years for the NFL fanbase and award accordingly. I think the timing of the 100th anniversary (of the league) is also a really nice tie-in.\"\nAdded Gilbert: \"The upgrades to the hall have already been done, the upgrades to the stadium have already been done, they've put in many of their turf fields, so a lot of the most important things are already done for them.\"\n• Putting some names behind it: The packet has a page featuring the signatures of seven prominent executives who have pledged their \"full support\" for the region's NFL draft bid.\nThat group features Rock and Roll Hall of Fame president and CEO Greg Harris, Playhouse Square president and CEO Art Falco, House of Blues Cleveland general manager Scott Kapp, Jacobs Investments GM Paul Ertel, Greater Cleveland Aquarium GM Tami Brown, Cavs CEO Len Komoroski and Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti.\n• Doubling down?: The assumption is that the NFL will announce two cities as its hosts for the 2019 and '20 drafts. Gilbert, though, said \"it's not out of the question that they could pick one location for both.\"\nAdded Jenkins, the Browns' CFO: \"We would be prepared for that, but the sense is it would be one in '19 and a separate city in '20.\"\n• The I-77 express: There would a free shuttle between Cleveland and Canton that Gilbert said could leave \"maybe every 10 or 15 minutes.\" Guests on the shuttle likely would be shown football-themed movies.\n\"It creates one experience\" between the two hosts, Gilbert said.\n• Take their word for it: \"I think we all feel very confident that if they choose Cleveland, that we are going to deliver in a big way. We're not going to be learning on the job,\" Gilbert said.\n• Crowded calendar: If Northeast Ohio is selected as the 2019 host, the draft would be held here about nine weeks before Progressive Field is the site of the MLB All-Star Game next July. That event has an estimated economic impact of at least $60 million.\n\"There aren't many cities that can have as impactful a year of major sporting events at any time,\" Gilbert said. \"It's exciting to think about that.\"\nThe sports commission president and CEO also told us that Cleveland could find out if it's going to be selected as a host of an upcoming NBA All-Star Game in the next six-plus weeks.\nThe earliest Cleveland could bring the NBA showcase to the region is 2022.\nBy then, we might have the RNC, a repeat trip by the MLB All-Star Game AND the NFL draft under our belts.\nYou can follow me on Twitter for sports information and analysis, and come Wednesday night, likely some Jeff Green-related complaints.", "Sharon Callahan is CEO of TBWA\\WorldHealth, a global agency network that she re-founded in 2016. Sharon also serves as Chief Client Officer of Omnicom Health Group. In that role, Sharon helps clients access Omnicom’s deep healthcare talent and develop engaging innovative approaches for teamwork to maximize results for Omnicom’s largest healthcare clients.\nSharon’s 30-plus years of healthcare marketing is a synthesis of strategic skills developed in consumer and professional advertising, medical education, clinical programs, publishing, and digital.\nConsistently helping clients to leverage their value through the seamless integration of multiple communication channels, Sharon’s boundless energy is credited with promoting excellent communications and maximized sales.\nInnovative and entrepreneurial, Sharon built her career at Omnicom as Executive VP and Director of DAS Healthcare and CEO of LLNS (now TBWA\\WorldHealth New York).\nPrior to her 10 years at Omnicom, Sharon was Chief Digital Strategist at Grey Healthcare Group and President of the interactive agency Summit Grey, born out of The Summit Group, a company she co-founded. Previously, Sharon honed her talents at Medsite.com and SCP Communications.\nIn both 1997 and 2005, Sharon served as President of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA), the industry’s largest professional organization. Sharon currently sits on the boards of the HBA Metro Chapter, the Arthritis Foundation, Women Against Alzheimer’s, the 4A’s Government Relations Committee, and the LGBTQ Victory Fund.\nIn June 2014, the Women’s Venture Fund recognized Sharon with its “Highest Leaf Award” for her strong business leadership and substantial contributions to the advertising and healthcare industries.\nConsistently rated a trusted advisor to clients and a dedicated mentor to colleagues around the world, Sharon defines what it means to be a leader in today’s rapidly changing healthcare communications industry.\nSharon lives in New York City with her partner and fiancée, Taryn Miller-Stevens, is the proud mother of Henry and Ben, and can often be found yelling at the refs at a high school basketball game.\n“Sharon is a true disruptor – she has clarity of vision for what healthcare marketing should be, and she pushes the boundaries of creativity and innovation to get there,” says Troy Ruhanen, president and CEO, TBWA\\Worldwide. “Her collaborative leadership style, business acumen and passion for this important sector of our business have led TBWA\\WorldHealth to thrive. I can think of no one more deserving of this esteemed honor.”\n“I have had the pleasure of working alongside Sharon for many years,” says Ed Wise, CEO Omnicom Health Group. “Her ability to help clients solve their most complex marketing challenges is unparalleled, and her commitment to overturning the conventions in the healthcare category is not only inspiring, it is changing the game. She is a compassionate leader and a valued partner, and all of us at Omnicom extend our warmest congratulations to Sharon on this great honor.”", "The Minority Business Partnership will lead the collaborative. Other partners include the Dayton Area Chamber's 29 Committed Buying Organizations, the University of Dayton's Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, The Entrepreneurs Center and Small Business Development Centers.\n\"We are very excited to partner with JumpStart and the KeyBank Business Boost & Build program,\" said Belinda Stenson, Director for the Minority Business Partnership for the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce. \"This collaboration makes natural sense as part of our shared mission to build a strong community full of thriving minority and women-owned businesses and access to good jobs.\"\n\"These three organizations are such important pieces of our community,\" said KeyBank Dayton Market President Joey Williams. \"We are proud to be able to support their collaboration in a way that will help drive business growth and job creation.\"\nFunded by a grant from the KeyBank Foundation in 2017, the KeyBank Business Boost & Build program is designed to stimulate economic growth in Ohio and Upstate New York by helping startups and small businesses grow and preparing the workforce for the needs of those companies.\nAbout KeyCorp\nKeyCorp's roots trace back 190 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $137.0 billion at March 31, 2018.\nKey provides deposit, lending, cash management, insurance, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,200 branches and more than 1,500 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.\nAbout JumpStart Inc.\nJumpStart unlocks the full potential of diverse and ambitious entrepreneurs to economically transform entire communities. For more information, visit www.jumpstartinc.org and follow @JumpStartInc on Twitter.\nAbout Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce\nThe Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce brings together more than 2,400 businesses and organizations in a nine-county area surrounding Dayton, Ohio. The Chamber strives to improve the region's business climate and overall standard of living through public policy advocacy, economic development initiatives and providing networking and training opportunities for its members. The Minority Business Partnership (MBP) is an economic development initiative of the Chamber, focused on growing the local economy and strengthening area businesses by leveraging the Dayton region's minority talent and assets. For more information about the Chamber, visit www.daytonchamber.org or call 937-226-1444.\nAbout the Dayton Minority Business Assistance Center (MBAC)\nThe MBAC is hosted by the City of Dayton's Human Relations Council and is one of seven programs funded by the State of Ohio's Development Services Agency. MBAC provides free managerial, certification, technical and procurement assistance to minority, women and small local enterprises in Montgomery, Greene, Clark, Darke, Preble, Mercer, Auglaize, Shelby, Logan, Champaign, Madison and Miami counties of Ohio. For more information, visit www.DaytonMBAC.org.\nAbout the Wesley Community Center\nThe Westley Community Center is a nonprofit faith-based organization offering education services for youth, job placement for adults and nutrition and healthy lifestyle activities for seniors. For more information visit our website at www.wesleycenterdayton.org.\nView original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/keybank-business-boost--build-program-powered-by-jumpstart-awards-100k-to-three-dayton-organizations-to-launch-new-workforce-development-initiative-300635546.html\nSOURCE JumpStart Inc.\nRelated Links\nhttp://www.jumpstartinc.org", "HUDSON, Ohio - Nearly 75 years after Jo-Ann Stores was started by two Cleveland families, the fabrics and crafts retailer is launching a revitalized brand today and a new digital marketing campaign with videos and a new app that encourages customers to publish their own projects.\nAt a time when retailers continue to struggle in a tough economic landscape, the Hudson-based retailer continues to open brick-and-mortar stores, with 867 locations nationwide. But the craft store is also ramping up its eCommerce business with an online learning community and mobile applications.\nChris DiTullio, senior vice president, marketing and omni-channel at Jo-Ann, said customer participation in in-store classes is up 10 percent from the previous year at 600 stores nationwide. At the same time, new technologies are helping the retailer build a seamless, personalized experience across the business. The company recently acquired Creativebug, a subscription-based online video provider that offers a wide range of how-to crafting classes.\n\"As shoppers' behaviors and preferences evolve, we need to adapt the way we connect with them,\" DiTullio said. \"We're committed to the longtime loyalists coming in to our stores, as well as the next generation of creators who want to shop, learn and share wherever they are.\"\nThe company reports its new app is an industry-first tool that enables users to publish their own projects with photos, videos and even music. It's exciting, DiTullio said, because it offers something no other craft retailer does, \"the ability for customers to confidently share their finished projects with us, and with friends, family and one another as well.\"\nUsers can also shop for supplies, find project ideas and redeem mobile coupons as they find and share their project How-To's.\nThe new customer feature series, includes a YouTube video that illustrates how the retailer is rapidly adopting new technologies to succeed in the competitive retail marketplace, while celebrating and staying true to its founders' core purpose: inspiring creativity in everyone.\nFrom a master seamstress whose favorite music is her sewing machine, to a social knitter whose stitches mend hearts, to an apparel entrepreneur who employs refugee women, the company highlights a wide range of customers in it's latest marketing efforts.\nSeven years ago, the company founded in 1943, was acquired by Leonard Green & Partners LP, a Los Angeles private equity firm, for $1.6 billion. A major rival of Michaels, Jo-Ann now operates more in 49 states, as well as its e-commerce site Joann.com, and three distribution centers in Hudson, Visalia, California and Opelika, Alabama. Jo-Ann employs more than 23,000 nationwide.\n\"We are incredibly proud to be a creative retail mainstay for more than seven decades,\" said Jill Soltau, president and CEO of Jo-Ann, said in a statement.\n\"As we approach our 75th year in business, we are revitalizing the brand while celebrating our history and telling the story behind our core purpose. Because it isn't only our story - it's the story of each of our customers, and how they are finding their passions, inspiring others and creating lasting memories,\" she said.\n\"It's a unique honor to be a part of something that's special to so many, and we are thrilled to celebrate the handmade legacies of past, present and future generations.\"", "DOWNERS GROVE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 2018--DeVryWORKS, the workforce solutions group within DeVry University, honored State Auto Insurance with its 2018 TEACH Partner Award. The award recognizes employer partners who exemplify the university’s TEACH values (teamwork, energy, accountability, community and heart) by supporting their employees with professional development opportunities.\nThis press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530006017/en/\n(Left to right) State Auto Insurance TEACH Partner winner Katlynn Henry, DeVryWORKS Strategic Account Manager Patrick Wentworth, State Auto TEACH Partner winner Brian Ahearn and DeVryWORKS Vice President Joe Mozden (Photo: Business Wire)\nHeadquartered in Columbus, Ohio, State Auto was founded in 1921 and is now a nearly $2 billion company selling personal and business insurance products in 33 states. Energy and accountability have a unique focus at State Auto. Its coaching programs have replaced the annual performance appraisals and its training sessions are designed to instill confidence, integrity, professionalism and a personal power base centered on honesty, fairness and openness.\n“At State Auto, we believe in bringing together all parts of the organization, breaking out of silos, and giving all associates a voice,” said Mike LaRocco, State Auto president and CEO. “We’re striving to become a truly transformative organization. To do that, we have to change the way we communicate with one another, and that begins with coaching in a culture where everyone is treated as professionals, with respect and trust.”\nDeVry’s TEACH values:\n“At DeVry, our TEACH values define us. We serve each other and our students with passion, respect and care,” said Joe Mozden, vice president of DeVryWORKS. “Helping employees prepare for their future through professional development opportunities is an act of care. Giving support to employees to help fulfill a passion or dream is a value that benefits everyone involved. It takes significant work and dedication, which is why we want to recognize our employer partners who are aligned with our TEACH values.”\nAbout DeVryWORKS\nDeVryWORKS consults with today’s leading companies to build custom talent solutions capable of solving real business challenges. This comprehensive service offers strategic guidance and support to help companies execute around talent acquisition, talent development and skills-gap training.\nDeVry University has decades of experience working in close collaboration with leading companies to ensure students acquire in-demand skills needed in the employees of tomorrow. DeVryWORKS builds on that heritage with tailored partnerships including custom curriculum to target specific education and training needs, on-site class offerings, and qualified candidates emerging from DeVry University with the qualifications sought by growing companies. To learn more about DeVryWORKS strategic solutions to talent business challenges, go to www.DeVryWORKS.com.\nView source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530006017/en/\nCONTACT: DeVry University\nAnne Unger\n630-353-7009\naunger@devry.edu\nKEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA ILLINOIS OHIO\nINDUSTRY KEYWORD: EDUCATION UNIVERSITY CONTINUING OTHER EDUCATION AUTOMOTIVE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES HUMAN RESOURCES TRAINING GENERAL AUTOMOTIVE\nSOURCE: DeVryWORKS\nCopyright Business Wire 2018.\nPUB: 05/30/2018 12:00 PM/DISC: 05/30/2018 12:01 PM\nhttp://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530006017/en", "PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Participants at the 2017 Fusion Conference walked away with new and rekindled friendships, and a broader support system of people inspiring and challenging them to enhance their own lives.\nThe American Farm Bureau Federation hosted the Fusion Conference Feb. 10-13 at the David Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh.\nThe conference brought together three AFBF groups for professional development and networking: Women’s Leadership, Young Farmers and Ranchers, and Promotion and Education.\nMore than 1,120 Farm Bureau members joined to discuss best practices, compete and celebrate the year’s successes.\nSessions\nProfessional development workshops were organized around advocacy, business, communication, education, leadership, rural development/entrepreneurship, technology and a focus on the collegiate age group.\nPaige Pratt, Ph.D., with the Kansas Farm Bureau Federation, discussed Family Farm Transitions: The Good, the Bad and the In-Laws. She spoke to a standing-room-only crowd about the challenges and rewards of family farm transitions. Sharing her own experiences, she kept the crowd and engaged and amused.\n“The first question you must ask before going back to the farm is, ‘Are they done living their own dream, so they can help you live yours?’’’ she said. “If the answer to this question isn’t yes, then you’ll be nothing more than a laborer.”\nPratt went on to discuss identifying qualified legal and accounting experts, improving communication between generations and the importance of making a plan.\nTell your story\nIn another session, Jean Lonie, director of student recruitment and activities at Pennsylvania State University, discussed Owning Our Story.\nShe asked the crowed, “Who here has heard something ridiculous while standing in the dairy section of your local grocery store?” Heads nodded in agreement as the audience raised their hands.\n“We must take advantage of teachable moments,” she said, encouraging the crowd to tell the story of agriculture. “We must meet consumers where they are, not where we want them to be.”\nFarm Bureau members of all ages jotted notes and shared their own stories of advocacy.\nThis conference occurs every other year,with the three AFBF groups sharing the conference space.\n“We want these three groups to interact, collaborate and share ideas,” said Zippy Duvall, American Farm Bureau president. “The enthusiasm from young farmers is contagious.”\nDuvall spend time chatting with members one-on-one.\n“I recognize a good leader is a good listener,” said Duvall. “I try to make myself accessible to our grass-roots members, hear them share their stories, so I can share them in my travels with other members to make a difference.”\nHarvest for All\nYF&R members also made a difference in the fight against hunger this year. As part of Farm Bureau’s 2016 Harvest for All program, they raised more than $1.1 million and donated more than 28.9 million pounds of food to assist hungry Americans.\nCombined, the monetary and food donations also reached a record level of the equivalent of more than 31 million meals.\nThe California Farm Bureau took top honors for donating the most food, 15.1 million pounds. Illinois Farm Bureau raised the most money, $978,000. Illinois Farm Bureau also tallied the most volunteer hours, 3,292.\nEach of those state organizations received a $750 grant from Nationwide to donate to a local food bank of their choice or for another Harvest for All project.\nSecond-place winners were the New York Farm Bureau for food donated at 13.2 million pounds; Tennessee Farm Bureau for donated funds at $48,000; and Michigan Farm Bureau for volunteer time at 1,815 hours. Each of these winners received a $500 grant.\nIn addition, three state YF&R committees received $250 grants from Nationwide for “most innovative” programs. Those winners were from Michigan, New Hampshire and Tennessee.\nDiscussion meet\nFifty-three young farmer members from across the country competed in the National Collegiate Discussion Meet.\nLocal contestants were Kameron Rinehart and Meghan Bruns, Ohio; Simon Itle, Pennsylvania; Carriel Schmitt, New York; Michael Mann, Kentucky.\nThe winner of the meet was Ryan O’Reilly, a student at Colorado State University.\nMillennials\nReaching members age 20-30 is a challenge for many membership organizations, and AFBF works with strategies to keep this age group engaged.\n“That age group likes fun activities they can take their families to, or that are informative, so they don’t feel like they are wasting their time,” said Duvall.\nIn an effort to stay current, AFBF asks their interns how they would like to be communicated with and works with them to brainstorm new ideas.\n“We have to ask questions and keep the conversation going and stay open to new ideas. It’s not your grandfather’s Farm Bureau,” Duvall said.\nNational committee\nAlso keeping AFBF fresh with grass-roots engagement ideas is the national YF&R Committee. The committee is comprised of 16 positions representing all regions of the U.S. Committee members are responsible for young farmer program planning, which includes the coordination of competitive events during AFBF’s annual convention and the Harvest for All program.\n“One of the best parts [of serving on the committee] has been to see the growth to us professionally, in advocating, public speaking and our ability to tell our story. Being on the committee has given us the tools,” said Katie Farley of Dayton, who serves with her husband, Latham.\nThis is the fifth year the Farleys have attended this conference. They operate a hog and grain farm and both work off the farm.\n“It has been wonderful to learn from the other members. We come from around the country, we have our differences, but also a lot of similarities. We learn from them and talk through issues we all face,” Katie said.\nThe Farleys are retiring from the committee this year as it welcomes another Ohioan, Brad Heimerl.\nHeimerl is from Johnstown, Ohio, in Licking County. When asked why he applied for the national committee he said, “Those who show up get to drive the future. I want to make a difference.”\nHeimerl works in the hog division of his family’s farm. He represented Ohio in the collegiate discussion meet in 2013, getting his feet wet and was hooked.\n“With my background in 4-H, FFA and public speaking, I enjoy sharing about what we do. I am proud and willing to advocate. Serving on this committee as my next step was a no-brainer and I’m excited to see what’s next,” Heimerl said.\nNational committee members are nominated by their respective state Farm Bureaus. They study farm and food policy issues, participate in leadership training exercises and hone other professional skills during their two-year terms.\nPolitics\nIn 2017, AFBF is pushing engagement, from the local level to the White House, said Duvall.\nAFBF is involved in advocating for issues and bills at all levels, currently focusing on issues such as taxes, trade, estate taxes, labor laws and regulatory reform.\n“We, rural America, paved the road for Mr. Trump, but we have to recognize it was only half the job. Now we must get to work, confirming Gov. Perdue, working on our relationships and keeping our seat at the table,” Duvall said.\nDuvall shared Sonny Perdue’s qualifications to be the next U.S. secretary of agriculture.\n“As a vet, he understands sound science; as a farmer in his adult life, he knows the hours and the hard work, he owns businesses that buy and sell grain. We will continue to build on our positive relationship with him.”\nDuvall’s advice for Farm Bureau members moving forward in the political arena, “Be patient, supportive and engaged.”\nAFBF is currently discussing how best to communicate its policy positions with the administration, particularly on issues such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which President Donald Trump opposes. Duvall said the farm group will work to keep the positive qualities of such trade agreements, fix what’s not working and develop something even better.\n“We’ve been promised a seat at the table on such issues and, on behalf of our members, we’ll be there,” Duvall said.\nAFBF Fusion concluded Feb. 13 with business and industry tours in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Next year’s YF&R conference is scheduled for Feb. 16-19 in Reno, Nevada.", "WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., April 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, Better Business Bureau Serving Southeast Florida and the Caribbean (BBB) celebrated the inaugural edition of the Torch Awards for Ethics. The BBB Torch Awards seek to elevate and highlight the commitment made by for-profit enterprises to the highest standards of leadership character and organizational ethics. The awards bring attention to the practices that organizations employ to generate a high level of trust, among their employees, customers and their communities.\nBBB CEO Rod Davis, welcomes attendees to the inaugural edition of the Torch Awards.\nThe recipients of this year's Torch Awards are Universal Landscape, Inc., from Royal Palm Beach in the small business category, AccuDock, from Pompano Beach in the mid-size business category, and White Glove Moving, Storage & Delivery in the large business category. BBB also recognized two finalists in the small business category and one finalist in the midsize and large categories. The recognized finalists are Honest Air, Inc., Eco Restoration and Construction, LLC, Innova Eco Building Systems, LLC, and Empathy Care, Inc. respectively.\nThe winners and finalists were nominated for the Torch Awards by their peers and were given the opportunity to submit information regarding their ethical relationships with customers, employees and vendors and the practices that they employ to generate a high level of trust, among their communities. The awarded businesses were chosen by an independent panel of judges appointed for their own commitment to high ethical standards.\nThe awards portion of the event was preceded by an inspirational speech from Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Linnington, CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project, who emphasized the importance of maintaining trust and high ethical standards in any organization. BBB's CEO Rod Davis and Vice President Michele Mason were presented with a Proclamation of Business Ethics Day from Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary Lou Berger.\nThe Torch Awards 2018 winners will be able will be eligible to enter CBBB's International Torch Award contest that takes place later this year.\nFor information on the Torch Awards process please visit www.bbb.org/sefl.\nABOUT BBB: For more than 100 years, Better Business Bureau has been helping people find businesses, brands and charities they can trust. The Council of Better Business Bureaus is the umbrella organization for the local, independent BBBs in the United States, Canada and Mexico, as well as home to its national and international programs on dispute resolution, advertising review, and industry self-regulation. BBB Serving Southeast Florida and the Caribbean serves 11 counties in South Florida as well as the territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.\nMedia Contact: Cinthya Lavin 305-827-5363 ext. 204. clavin@bbbsefl.org\nRelated Links\nBBB Torch Awards SEFL\nBBB Website\nView original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bbb-honors-south-florida-businesses-with-ethics-award-300635517.html\nSOURCE Better Business Bureau Serving Southeast Florida and the Caribbean\nRelated Links\nhttps://www.bbb.org/en/us", "Memorial Hermann Health System has named Malisha Patel, FACHE, as the new senior vice president and chief executive officer of Memorial Hermann Southwest and Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospitals, effective Aug. 1.\n“As vice president of operations, Malisha has contributed significantly to the success and growth of Memorial Hermann Sugar Land and Memorial Hermann Southwest. She has proven to be engaged with staff and physicians, and possesses a deep understanding of the needs of each campus,” said Chuck Stokes, president and CEO of Memorial Hermann Health System. “Malisha’s passion for the communities we serve makes her a strong advocate for the needs of patients across the region.”\nIn her current role, Patel has operational and business development oversight for both clinical and non-clinical departments, ranging from perioperative services to engineering. She has successfully led strategic planning and key operational improvements, and has advanced the campus on its Level II trauma verification journey.\n“I am honored and humbled by this appointment, and so grateful for the opportunity to serve and lead exceptional teams of dedicated, inspiring healthcare professionals who choose to work every day caring for our patients in the Southwest Harris and Fort Bend communities,” Patel said.\nPatel joined Memorial Hermann in 2007 and has previously served as vice president of operations for both Memorial Hermann Sugar Land and Memorial Hermann Southwest. She is replacing current CEO Greg Haralson, who has been appointed to become the new CEO at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center.\n“It has been an honor to lead our efforts to provide safe, high-quality care for our patients in the Southwest Houston and Fort Bend communities, and I am thankful to the talented employees and affiliated physicians at the Memorial Hermann Southwest and Memorial Hermann Sugar Land campuses for allowing me the opportunity to work alongside them,” said Haralson. “As I transition to a new role within our system, I have every confidence that Malisha will continue to act as a champion of excellence of our clinical and non-clinical departments. With her experience managing operations at both campuses, I have no doubt her guidance will ensure that we continue to deliver on our pledge to advance the health of the populations we serve.”\nPatel has been a driving force behind the successes at each campus, including overseeing a $93 million expansion project at the Sugar Land campus that added 60 beds, an additional medical plaza and expanded services. In addition, she was the executive champion for Memorial Hermann Sugar Land’s adoption and integration of a framework for operational excellence, which resulted in the hospital earning recognition as a 2016 Malcolm Baldrige Award recipient, the highest award for performance excellence given in the country.\nThe hospital was the first in the Houston area to earn this award.\nIn addition, the Sugar Land campus became the first Houston-area hospital to be awarded the Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE) from the Quality Texas Foundation. The TAPE award recognizes an organization as one of the best in Texas based on the Baldrige Excellence Framework.\nPrior to joining Memorial Hermann, Patel held positions with the Veterans Administration Hospital in Dallas as well as with Tenet Healthcare. She has been recognized by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston as its 2016 “Young Professional of the Year,” The National Women’s Council of the National Diversity Council as one of the Top 15 Business Women in Houston, and she earned an honorable mention for the Houston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2017. She currently serves as the chair of the Fort Bend Chamber of Commerce.\nPatel earned her bachelor of arts in biological sciences from the University of Texas at Austin and her master of healthcare administration from Trinity University.", "Bankers in tuxedos and sparkling gowns on Thursday evening sipped cocktails and mingled in a ballroom on Wall Street, a setting that, for a financial services gala, felt almost cinematically scripted.\nBut when honorees at American Banker’s Most Powerful Women dinner took the stage at Cipriani — an event space once home to the New York Stock Exchange — the prim party turned into a passionate celebration of gender diversity in the industry.\nBank of America’s Cathy Bessant, this year’s top woman in banking, urged attendees to embrace the label “woman banker” and proudly advocate for female colleagues.\n“I loved every minute of it – I loved the deals; I loved the winning; I loved the competition; I loved building market share,” said Cathy Bessant, chief operations and technology officer for Bank of America.\nBessant also recounted the story of why she became a banker in the first place more than three decades ago. She had her sights set on law school after college, and didn’t intend to stay in the industry for long. Like other women in the audience, though, she found a calling in the hard-charging, high-powered work.\n“I loved every minute of it — I loved the deals; I loved the winning; I loved the competition; I loved building market share,” said Bessant, head of operations and technology, who joined the Charlotte, N.C., company in 1982. “But the real reason I loved banking is the nobility of what we do.”\nVideo 'I go to work to change the world': BofA's Bessant Cathy Bessant, the winner of American Banker's most powerful woman in banking, talks about the \"nobility\" of banking and how the business helps to change people's lives.\nBankers have the “ability to change the world” by putting families in homes and helping businesses grow, she said.\nThe annual awards dinner honored 25 women in banking and finance for their achievements over the past year. In many ways, the setting for the event in New York’s financial district was fitting, as it was just down the road from the famous Fearless Girl statue.\nThe bronze statue, unveiled in March, features a young girl in a dress and a ponytail, staring defiantly at the masculine Wall Street bull. The piece was commissioned by State Street to showcase the Boston firm’s diversity efforts. Hannah Grove, the marketing executive who oversaw the project, was honored this year as one of this year’s top women in banking.\nEmpowering young women was a big focus of the night. Cate Luzio, global head of international subsidiary banking at HSBC, hosted 10 high-school mentees from Girls Inc., along with their HSBC mentors, at the event. It was part of a program she initiated, inspired in part by the Most Powerful Women event, to encourage young women to consider a career in banking.\nIn her speech, Bessant urged attendees to recruit bright women to the industry. She also called on attendees to promote more women, as gender parity in the C-suite remains persistently subpar.\n“I have to admit, I’ve had those moments myself where I was reluctant to be the woman in the room pulling for other women,” Bessant said. “Those days have to be over.”\nThroughout the evening, honorees shared lessons about what they’ve learned on their way to the C-suite.\nMary Callahan Erdoes, CEO of asset management at JPMorgan Chase, spoke lightheartedly about the challenge of finding work-life balance.\nVideo Women in Banking: On IQ, EQ and the LQ JPMorgan's Mary Callahan Erdoes outlines the secret to motivating employees that she learned from businessman Jack Ma.\nShe shared a story from the financial crisis, a time when she spent most of her weekends in her New York office. She often brought along her two children, Morgan and Mason, who were 2 and 5 years old at the time.\n“I would stick them in my office and say, ‘Don’t talk, and don’t move. And here’s a whole lot of candy,” Erdoes said.\nThere was one day, however, when she came back from a meeting and found her office empty. So she looked down the hallway, where she saw her 2-year-old “with no bottoms on,” and her 5-year-old “doing handstands” in Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon’s office — and he was watching.\n“At that moment, you just had to laugh,” Erodes said. “The more human you are, the more superhuman you are to the rest of people.”\nTD Bank Group’s Linda Verba, who accepted a lifetime achievement award, also offered advice to attendees. Among the tips she shared was to remember the simple power of dressing well at work.\nVideo TD Bank's Verba on a 'great pair of shoes and a pop of lipstick' Linda Verba, head of service strategy for TD Bank, discussed how the right look can build confidence and credibility.\n“Never underestimate the power of a great pair of shoes and pop of lipstick,” said Verba, TD’s head of service strategy, describing the confidence it provides. “Dressing well, wearing a great pair of shoes and some makeup, does not make you any less a feminist.”\nShe added that \"diversity is not a buzzword.\"\n\"Diversity is the fabric of our being,\" she said. \"It is part of who we are.\"\nThe evening’s other lifetime achievement honoree, Mary Navarro from Huntington Bancshares, emphasized the importance of finding the right company. Navarro retired earlier this year, after 42 years in retail banking.\n“Choose the company or bank you work for carefully,” Navarro said, praising her colleagues at the Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington.\nAs women walked up to the stage throughout the evening, several joked that they didn’t choose the music that played in the background. Some of the walk-up songs included hits such as Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off,” and Destiny’s Child’s “Independent Woman.”\nBessant, meanwhile, walked on stage to Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s 1973 classic rock song “Takin’ Care of Business” — a song she told the audience she personally requested.", "By Brandon Scalea\nThe men’s swimming and diving team continued dominating its conference, winning its sixth-straight MAAC Championship since 2012.\nIn the four-day conference tournament held at Erie Community College from Feb. 8-11, the Rider men steamrolled to the title, earning 840.5 total points while breaking two MAAC records on the final day. There was a significant disparity between the Broncs and second-place Marist, which finished with 635 points.\nOn the women’s side, Rider finished in second place for the 15th time in 19 years, with a total of 616 points. Marist took the crown, totaling 810 points.\nFreshman diver Meg Tomayko said her first collegiate season was a memorable one, especially after watching the men’s team rack up championships before she even came to Rider.\n“I’m glad I’ve been able to experience the success first-hand this season,” she said. “It has been an unforgettable year and I can’t wait for the next three.”\nFor the second time in his three-year career, junior Zack Molloy earned Most Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet honors, thanks in large part to his role in shattering two records. On Feb. 14, he was also handed the prestigious honor of National Male Swimmer of the Week by collegesmimming.com, the second time he’s earned this feat.\nIn the 100-free, he eased his way to a time of 43.47, taking gold and putting his name in the history books. At the 2016 MAAC Championships, Molloy also broke the conference record in the 200-free with a time of 1:36.47.\nMolloy was also part of this year’s 400-relay quartet that finished in first and broke the conference mark.\nThe other three members of the relay team were sophomore Vincent Gibbons and seniors William Molloy and Matthan Martir. The team’s time of 2:59.18 was four seconds faster than Marist. The same four Rider athletes took gold in this event last year.\nIn the final meet of the season, freshman Justin Carey continued to have an impressive run and was one of two Rider athletes to earn Rookie of the Meet honors. Freshman Natalie Carter earned this award for the women after a victory in the 200-back.\nTomayko was named Freshman Diver of the Meet.\n“The award shows that the hard work and rough times this season have paid off,” Tomayko said. “Getting this honor means that I’m going to have to strive for bigger dives and higher scores on them for next season.”\nCarey took first place in the 200-back with a time of 1:48.60, with sophomore Luke Musselman at his heels for a close second (1:49.92). The duo earned the Broncs 17 points.\n“It’s been pretty great,” Musselman said. “Winning has become a tradition here at Rider and I couldn’t be happier to contribute to the success. My goals moving forward are just to continue our dominance in dual meets and keep our streak alive. We want to win another title next year.”\nAnother Rider rookie made significant contributions, with freshman Cole May finishing first in the 200-fly. Senior Sam Cramer won the 1650-free for the second consecutive season (15:27.72).\nAlso for the men, Gibbons finished second in the 100-free right behind Zack Molloy, with a time of 45.06. The Broncs had two other swimmers in the top four of that event.\nIn the 1650-free, senior Michael Regan finished seventh.\nFor the women, freshman Casey Wrabley came in first place in the 200-fly with a time of 2:07.88, earning Rider 20 points. Junior Hannah Bayer finished top-eight in the same race, earning the Broncs another 11 points.\nIn the women’s 100-free, senior Ariana Palmer finished third (52.49). In the 200-breaststroke, the Broncs had two top-three finishes: juniors Julianna Runk and Tara Maniace, respectively. The women’s 400-relay team finished third overall (3:32.63). The team was made up of Palmer, Wrabley, Carter and freshman Olivia Iswalt.\nTomayko said it’s only a matter of time before the women get over the second-place hump and earn a title of their own.\n“Every year, we’ve been getting closer and closer to first place,” she said. “To achieve this, we’ve just been working together and becoming more of a family.”\nAt the men’s tournament, Bryant, Canisius and Iona, respectively, were tightly bunched to round out the top five. The Golden Griffins, the Gaels and the Niagara Purple Eagles followed second-place Rider on the women’s side.\nOn March 3-5, Rider will compete in the ECAC Championships hosted by the United States Naval Academy.\nMusselman said the team’s closeness is what makes it special.\n“Our team spirit makes us different,” he said. “We are always behind each other and we support each other during every race. That connection makes us a family.”", "Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE Here are some of the stories we're following for Friday October 6th. 10/6/17 Damian Giletto/The News Journal\nBuy Photo Incyte's new 190,000 square foot Global Headquarters in Wilmington houses office and lab space with an expansive roof-top area that has a pickleball court, putting green, walking trail and community gardens. (Photo: Jennifer Corbett, The News Journal)Buy Photo\nThe third-floor rooftop is home to a pickleball court, a putting green, a walking trail and community green space, all with views of downtown Wilmington.\nIncyte, one of the nation's most innovative companies, cut the ribbon Friday at its new, 190,000-square-foot-global headquarters on the Augustine Cut-Off.\nCongresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester referred to the campus as the \"Silicon Valley of the East Coast.\" Blunt Rochester said she once worked at the old Wanamaker building long before it became Incyte's home.\nA ceremony hosted by Incyte CEO Herve Hoppenot was attended by employees, politicians and others.\nBACKGROUND: Incyte expansion gets approved\nMORE: Incyte joins prestigious Standard & Poor's 500 index\nU.S. Senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons spoke at the ceremony, along with Hoppenot, Blunt Rochester and a woman from Ohio, who told an emotional story about her myelofibrosis diagnosis and thanked Incyte for its creation of Jakafi, the drug that helped save her life.\n\"We're honored and indebted to you,\" Carper told employees of Incyte. \"This is just a building. At the end of the day it's all about you.\"\nMORE: Anti-cancer drug sales push Incyte's revenue past $1B\nMORE: State doles out $3M to Sallie Mae; Incyte founder\nIncyte, founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991, is on the forefront of biopharmaceutical research, primarily focused on cancer research.\nHoppenot, along with Cancer Support Community Delaware, announced Friday the establishment of the Incyte Cancer Care Assistance Fund for Delaware. The fund will provide emergency financial assistance for cancer patients, their caregivers and family members living in Delaware.\nIncyte has committed to providing a maximum of $100,000 each year to CSCDE over the next 5 years, beginning in 2018.\nContact reporter Jeff Neiburg at (302) 983-6772, jneiburg@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @Jeff_Neiburg.\nRead or Share this story: http://www.delawareonline.com/story/money/business/2017/10/06/incyte-moves-forward-expansion-announces-cancer-fund/739603001/", "LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 2018--AmericanTours International (ATI) was honored by the U.S. Travel Association (USTA) and Brand USA as one of America’s highest-volume tour operators at the Chairman’s Circle Honors Awards ceremony during the association’s 50th annual IPW in Denver, Colorado. This elite awards event —co-hosted by Brand USA— honored international travel buyers for outstanding efforts to bring the world to America.\nThis press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530006439/en/\nL-R Chris Thompson CEO of Brand USA, Nick Hentschel COO of ATI, Noel Irwin Hentschel CEO of ATI and Roger Dow President USTA (Photo: Business Wire)\n“IPW’s goal is to bring the world to America, and this year’s Chairman’s Circle honorees do all that they can to make that vision a reality,” said USTA President and CEO Roger Dow. “The honorees do tremendous work to ensure that travelers all around the world know that the U.S. is a great place to visit and they have my deepest gratitude for their contributions to the U.S. travel industry.”\nPresented with the award by Roger Dow, ATI Chair/CEO Noel Irwin Hentschel stated, “It is an honor to be recognized by USTA and Brand USA for ATI’s passionate work in showcasing America to the world. ATI appreciates our partnerships with all the international tour operators, hotel companies and great destinations like Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Parks. We roll out the red carpet welcoming travelers to visit all 50 states with ATI-every visitor to the USA is a VIP.”\nHentschel was recently appointed to the board of directors of Brand USA by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. Brand USA is the destination marketing organization for the United States and a public-private partnership created by the Travel Promotion Act to increase incremental international visitation to fuel the nation’s economy and enhance the image of the USA worldwide.\nATI revolutionizes the inbound travel industry setting standards for quality of service, product innovation, and technological expertise. ATI creates and operates unique motorcoach tours, creative incentives, customized special interest group experiences and DriveAmerica fly-drive itineraries in multiple languages. ATI packages wholesale hotel and attraction inventory from 30,000 suppliers across all 50 states in over 70 international markets.\nATI is America's largest privately held, American-owned, full-service Visit USA destination management and marketing organization. Headquartered in California and Florida with offices in New York and Hawaii, ATI serves nearly one million visitors generating an estimated $3 billion into the U.S. economy annually.\nView source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530006439/en/\nCONTACT: AmericanTours International\nRebecca Rueseler\n310-590-4118\nRebecca_rueseler@americantours.com\nKEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA CALIFORNIA\nINDUSTRY KEYWORD: TRAVEL DESTINATIONS VACATION COMMUNICATIONS ADVERTISING MARKETING\nSOURCE: AmericanTours International\nCopyright Business Wire 2018.\nPUB: 05/30/2018 04:27 PM/DISC: 05/30/2018 04:27 PM\nhttp://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530006439/en", "Ohio Wesleyan University welcomed two new alumni to its ranks May 19 when it presented Delaware residents C. Joseph and Linda Diamond with an Honorary Alumni Award in recognition of their “endless dedication to and support of the Delaware community and OWU.”\nThe award was presented to the Diamonds by university President Rock Jones and Alumni Board of Directors President Sheila Fagan Plecha, Class of 1984, during Ohio Wesleyan’s 2018 Reunion Weekend.\n“This award is so well-deserved,” said Jones, Ph.D. “Joe and Linda are tireless supporters of both Ohio Wesleyan and Delaware. They make a difference in their community every day by their willingness to help others, to serve as hands-on volunteers, and to share their considerable expertise to improve the world around them. Joe and Linda exemplify the engaged citizens, lifelong learners, and big thinkers that we want our students to become.”\nThe Diamonds’ ties to Ohio Wesleyan include creation of an endowed scholarship in 2016 to aid Delaware County students with an interest in the arts, sciences, or humanities. They also are members of the Bishop Backers executive committee and of the Tower Society, which recognizes donors who make estate gifts to the university.\nIn 2017, the OWU Athletics Department awarded the Diamonds with its Town-Gown Award by in recognition of the couple’s longstanding relationship with, and outstanding support of, Battling Bishop student-athletes and programs.\nThe Diamonds’ ties to the Delaware community are equally significant and strong.\nJoe Diamond is a founding member and past president of Main Street Delaware and serves on its Design Committee. He also is a founding member of the executive board of the Strand Theatre and Cultural Arts Center and volunteers as its facility manager.\nHe is a former assistant preservation officer for the City of Columbus, Ohio; planning director for the City of Oberlin, Ohio; city planner for Delaware, Ohio; and regional planning director for Delaware County, Ohio. Today, he is the principal and owner of Diamond Design and Planning, which specializes in downtown revitalization, historic preservation, and master planning.\nLinda Diamond taught elementary school for 20 years, and owned and operated Beehive Books for seven years. She is a former executive director of the Ohio State Board of Sanitarian Registration and a former director of communications and development officer for the Delaware General Health District. In 2001, the Delaware Area Chamber of Commerce recognized her as its Citizen of the Year.\nTogether, the Diamonds own Rosebud Properties, a real estate holding and management company that specializes in historic commercial and residential properties. In 2006, Rosebud was named the Delaware Chamber’s Small Business of the Year, and it was recognized five years in a row by Main Street Delaware for improvement projects in downtown Delaware. Rosebud also has been honored with Best Historic Commercial Restoration in the State of Ohio and 2011 Spirit of Main Street awards from Heritage Ohio.\nFounded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. The private university offers more than 90 undergraduate majors. Learn more at www.owu.edu.\nOhio Wesleyan recognized Linda and C. Joseph Diamond, center, with an OWU Honorary Alumni Award during Reunion Weekend. Presenting the award to the Delaware couple are Sheila Fagan Plecha, Class of 1984, and President Rock Jones. https://www.delgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/40/2018/05/web1_-Diamonds.jpg Ohio Wesleyan recognized Linda and C. Joseph Diamond, center, with an OWU Honorary Alumni Award during Reunion Weekend. Presenting the award to the Delaware couple are Sheila Fagan Plecha, Class of 1984, and President Rock Jones. Courtesy photo | Paul Vernon\nSpecial to The Gazette delnews@aimmediamidwest.com\nFollow The Delaware Gazette on Twitter @delgazette. Like The Gazette on Facebook.\nFollow The Delaware Gazette on Twitter @delgazette. Like The Gazette on Facebook." ]

[ "the college consisted of the pontifex maximus and the other pontifices the rex sacrorum the fifteen flamens and the vestals the college of pontiffs was one of the four major priestly colleges originally their responsibility was limited to supervising both public and private sacrifices but as time passed their responsibilities increased the other colleges were the augurs who read omens the quindecimviri sacris faciundis fifteen men who carry out the rites and the epulones who set up feasts at festivals the title pontifex comes from the latin for bridge builder a possible allusion to a very early role in placating the gods and spirits associated with the tiber river for instance also varro cites this position as meaning able to do the pontifex maximus was the most important member of the college until 104 bc the pontifex maximus held the sole power in appointing members to the other priesthoods in the college the flamens were priests in charge of fifteen official cults of roman religion each assigned to a particular god the three major flamens flamines maiores were the flamen dialis the high priest of jupiter the flamen martialis who cultivated mars and the flamen quirinalis devoted to quirinus the", "this was the most important position in the ancient roman religion open only to patricians until 254 bc when a plebeian first occupied this post a distinctly religious office under the early roman republic it gradually became politicized until beginning with augustus it was subsumed into the imperial office its last use with reference to the emperors is in inscriptions of gratian reigned 375 383 who however then decided to omit the words pontifex maximus from his title although in fact the most powerful office of roman priesthood the pontifex maximus was officially ranked fifth in the ranking of the highest roman priests ordo sacerdotum behind the rex sacrorum and the flamines maiores flamen dialis flamen martialis flamen quirinalis the word pontifex and its derivative pontiff later became terms used for catholic bishops including the bishop of rome and the title of pontifex maximus was applied within the catholic church to the pope as its chief bishop and appears on buildings monuments and coins of popes of renaissance and modern times the official list of titles of the pope given in the annuario pontificio includes supreme pontiff in latin summus pontifex as the fourth title the first being bishop of", "the term pontiff was later applied to any high or chief priest and in roman catholic ecclesiastical usage to a bishop and more particularly to the bishop of rome the pope or roman pontiff the english term derives through old french pontif from latin pontifex a word commonly held to come from the latin root words pons bridge facere to do to make and so to have the literal meaning of bridge builder presumably between mankind and the deity deities the role of bridges in ancient religions associated with resurrection redemption and the judgement day is already too well known uncertainty prevailing this may be only a folk etymology but it may also recall ancient tasks and magic rites associated with bridges there were four chief colleges of priests in ancient rome the most illustrious of which was that of the pontifices the others were those of the augures the quindecimviri sacris faciundis and the epulones the same person could be a member of more than one of these groups including the pontifex maximus who was president of the college there were originally three or five pontifices but the number increased over the centuries finally becoming 16 under julius caesar", "the names of pontifices maximi for the roman republic are listed below as known the last pontifex maximus of the republican era was lepidus the triumvir upon his death augustus acquired the office consolidating an additional source of power and authority for the princeps in the imperial era it was customary for the emperor to serve as pontifex maximus the pontifex maximus held his office for life but the date of death is not known for every man who held the office and the name of the pontifex is not recorded for every period unless otherwise noted dates and citations of primary sources are from t r s broughton s three volume the magistrates of the roman republic american philological association 1951 1986 on 6 march 12 bc augustus became pontifex maximus following the death of lepidus thereafter it became customary for the emperor to hold the post constantine reigned 306 337 is known as the first emperor to convert to christianity but gratian 375 383 is recorded as the first emperor to decline the office of pontifex maximus of the traditional state religion", "each curia was led by a curio who was admitted only after the age of 50 and held his office for life the curiones were required to be in good health and without physical defect and could not hold any other civil or military office the pool of willing candidates was thus neither large nor eager in the early republic the curio maximus was always a patrician and officiated as the senior interrex the earliest curio maximus identified as such is servius sulpicius consul 500 bc who held the office in 463 the first plebeian to hold the office was elected in 209 bc the election of a plebeian to succeed an impeccably pedigreed aemilius papus was predictably controversial even though the office of curio maximus had become anachronistic and somewhat bizarre and the election of both a plebeian pontifex maximus as early as 254 bc and rex sacrorum just the previous year would have seemed to clear the way when the patricians objected to the candidacy of c mamilius atellus the tribunes of the plebs who normally withheld themselves from religious affairs were called in they followed procedure by referring the matter to the senate who promptly tossed it", "these lists or books probably described the nature of the various deities who might be called on under particular circumstances with specifics about the sequence of invocation the earliest indigitamenta like many other aspects of roman religion were attributed to numa pompilius second king of rome the books of the pontiffs are known only through scattered passages preserved throughout latin literature varro is assumed to have drawn on direct knowledge of the lists in writing his now fragmentary theological books which were used as a reference by the church fathers for their mocking catalogues of minor deities as william warde fowler noted the good fathers tumbled the whole collection about sadly in their search for material for their mockery having no historical or scientific object in view with the result that it now resembles the bits of glass in a kaleidoscope and can no longer be re arranged on the original varronian plan georg wissowa however asserted that varro s lists were not indigitamenta but di certi gods whose function could still be identified with certainty since by the late republic some of the most archaic deities of the roman pantheon were not widely cultivated and understood another likely source" ]

[ "it superseded pope paul vi s 1975 apostolic constitution romano pontifici eligendo and all previous apostolic constitutions and orders on the subject of the election of the roman pontiff universi dominici gregis the lord s whole flock from the opening statement the shepherd of the lord s whole flock is the bishop of the church of rome subtitled on the vacancy of the apostolic see and the election of the roman pontiff deals with the vacancy of the see of rome i e the papacy the constitution modified or in some cases confirmed the rules for the conclave it also clarified during a sede vacante which matters could be handled by the college of cardinals and which matters were reserved for the future pope universi dominici gregis consists of an introduction followed by a body of 92 numbered sections normally just one paragraph but occasionally more than one and a concluding promulgation which activates the document the body is divided into two parts but the 92 sections are numbered continuously during a sede vacante the college has no power in things which pertain to the pope during his lifetime or of his office any such act that the college exercises", "its current membership is 224 cardinals are appointed by the pope for life changes in life expectancy partly account for the increases in the size of the college since the emergence of the college of cardinals in the early middle ages the size of the body has historically been limited by popes ecumenical councils and even the college itself the total number of cardinals from 1099 to 1986 has been about 2 900 excluding possible undocumented 12th century cardinals and cardinals appointed during the western schism by pontiffs now considered to be antipopes and subject to some other sources of uncertainty nearly half of whom were created after 1655 the word cardinal is derived from the latin cardo meaning hinge the office of cardinal as it is known today slowly evolved during the first millennium from the clergy of rome the first time that the term cardinal appears in the liber pontificalis is in the biography of pope stephen iii iv when in the roman synod of 769 it was decided that the roman pontiff should be elected from among the deacons and cardinal priests in 845 the council of meaux required bishops to establish cardinal titles or parishes in", "epul feasters arranged feasts and public banquets at festivals and games ludi they constituted one of the four great religious corporations quattuor amplissima collegia of ancient roman priests the college was founded in 196 bce the need for such a college arose as the increasingly elaborate festivals required experts to oversee their organization there were four great religious corporations quattuor amplissima collegia of ancient roman priests the two most important were the college of pontiffs and the college of augurs the fourth was the quindecimviri sacris faciundis the third college was the epulones their duties to arrange the feasts and public banquets for festivals and games ludi had originally been carried out by the pontiffs the college of epulones was established long after civil reforms had opened the magistracies and most priesthoods to plebeians who were thus eligible from its beginning initially there were three epulones but later their number was increased to seven hence they were also known as the septemviri epulonum seven men of the epulones julius caesar expanded the college to ten but after his death it was reduced back to seven the patera was the sacred bowl used by the epulones it was shallow with a", "he was educated at st john s college waterford in 1827 he began studying at the roman colleges in rome one of his fellow students was vincenzo gioacchino pecci the future pope leo xiii in 1833 he was ordained a priest at the archbasilica of st john lateran for service in his native diocese of roman catholic diocese of waterford and lismore but he spent hardly any significant part of his long ministry there in 1837 he was appointed vice rector of the irish college and was accorded the title monsignor in 1840 in 1849 he succeeded cardinal cullen as rector of the college in total he spent 41 years as rector and the college holds his entire collection of letters regarded by some as one of the most important private collections for the history of the nineteenth century in the english speaking world in recognition of his long service and partly as a consequence of his long friendship with the then reigning pontiff he was appointed titular bishop of lete in 1881 and titular archbishop of ephesus in 1885 when kirby eventually retired in 1891 he was succeeded by michael kelly 1850 1940 kirby died in rome on 20", "under the auspices of this organization are running more than 172 institutions right from nursery to the engineering college all over the state of karnataka nearly 32 thousand students are studying in various schools and colleges of this organization which is one of the biggest private educational organization in karnataka more than 6 000 students are provided with free boarding and lodging sri taralabalu jagadguru brihanmath sirigere is situated in chitradurga district and is having a very large number of followers it was founded by saint marulasiddha popularly known as viswabandhu marulasiddha during the 12th century the saint blessed his successor with the divine words tarala balu long live my lad and that is how the pontiffs of this sacred seat are came to be known as sri taralabalu jagadguru true to the spirit of the blessings of their founder the pontiffs of this brihanmath have been rendering yeoman service for the upliftment of the society for the last eight centuries the reservation to the scheduled caste tribe people and other backward communities was given even before independence under the guidance of sri taralabalu shivakumara swamiji many students belonging to these communities were benefited by the mutt the present pontiff", "it was founded as the collegio ecclesiastico at the palazzo dei convertendi in 1852 by pope pius ix and is intended for older men often convert clergymen wishing to prepare for the roman catholic priesthood this college was moved in 1854 to the english college to accommodate a larger number of clergymen from england who had joined the roman catholic church from other christian denominations and wished to prepare for the catholic priesthood they came only for four years because they were seen to have significant experience already here the college became known as the collegio pio it also included lifelong catholics drawn to the priesthood later in life and priests studying for post graduate degrees in rome pope leo xiii issued a new constitution in 1898 and placed the college under the patronage of the venerable bede the eighth century anglo saxon monk and scholar cardinal howard bequeathed to the two colleges his valuable library it was decided by the sacred congregation of studies 1917 that it should be completely separated from the venerable english college and that it should have a corporate life entirely of its own under a rector and staff of its own and in its", "under canon law a college is a collection latin collegium of persons united together for a common object so as to form one body the bishop of rome the pope is the head of the college in roman catholic teaching the college of bishops is the successor to the college of the apostles while the individual members of the college of bishops are each directly responsible for pastoral care and governance in their own particular church the college as a whole has full supreme power over the entire church the college exercises this supreme and full power in a solemn manner in an ecumenical council but also through united action even when not gathered together in one place by present day canon law it is for the pope to select and promote the ways in which the bishops are to act collegially such as in an ecumenical council and it is for him to convoke preside over personally or by his delegates transfer suspend or dissolve such a council and approve its decrees the catholic church teaches that the college of bishops gathered in council or represented by the pope may teach some revealed truth as requiring to be held", "roughly the titles archpriest in greek archipresbyteros protoiereus protoiereus protopresbyteros protopope may be taken as meaning the same thing though they have occasionally been distinguished the general idea is that the archpriest has the highest rank in his order he comes immediately after the bishop in the fifth century he appears as head of the college of priests as the bishop s delegate for certain duties of visitation and canonical judgment as his representative in case of absence or death sede vacante he therefore combined the offices of the roman catholic dean of the chapter vicar general and vicar capitular the title recurs constantly in the early middle ages at imperial constantinople there was an elaborately organized court of ecclesiastical persons around the ecumenical patriarch whose various places in choir when the patriarch celebrated are given in the euchologion together with a statement of their duties among these the protopope had the first place on the left the protopope stands above the left choir when the pontiff celebrates he gives to him the pontiff holy communion and in the same way the pontiff to the protopope and he has all first places ta proteia panta in the church goar 225", "according to cicero it was an old law introduced by the tribunes that forbade the dedication of a temple and for religious purposes or of an altar without permission of the popular assembly by the late 3rd century bc the legal procedure for dedicating a temple apparently required introduction in the roman senate reference of the petition to the college of pontiffs and then proposal to the popular assembly for final approval by the mid 2nd century the lex papiria probably was used as precedent to decide what approval was necessary to dedicate a statue what is unclear is whether the lex papiria governed dedications generally or only by imperatores and other magistrates of at least praetorian rank it is also unclear whether the lex expressly forbade dedications by magistrates of lower rank such as the tribunes and the aediles much of what we know about the law is due to its importance in cicero s action for deconsecration in 57 bc before the college of pontiffs cicero s opponent clodius had dedicated cicero s house in rome as a shrine to libertas and cicero sought relief on the grounds that clodius dedication had violated the lex papiria clodius defense", "1660 was a hindu philosopher scholar and saint he served as the pontiff of shri uttaradi matha from 1638 1660 he was the 19th in succession from madhvacharya satyanidhi tirtha ruled the pontificate with a remarkable distinction his life was a saga of supreme spiritual achievements most of the information about his life is derived from two hagiographies one is gurucarya a hagiological work on the pontiffs of the uttaradi matha and the other one is satyanidhivilasa by sarkara srinivasa born as kaulagi raghupatacharya to purushothamacharya and satyadevi in puntamba maharashtra he studied vyakarana and shastras under kumbhari vasudevacharya he was ordained and was made the pontiff of uttaradi matha in 1638 he served as pontiff of mutt for 21 years and 9 months after his death in 1660 his mortal remains were enshrined in the mutt at kurnool he was succeeded by satyanatha tirtha satyanidhi tirtha authored three works consisting of commentaries on the works of vyasatirtha and a few hymns they are as follows satyanidhi tirtha has been eulogised by sarkara srinivasa in his contemporaneous kavya satyanidhivilasa a kavya in honor of satyanidhi in 8 cantos his disciple satyanatha tirtha sets forth the purvapaksa and siddhanta views under", "it was established in 1399 and maintained at the vatican for the education of future ecclesiastics of the catholic church of german nationality the german college is now divided into two separate colleges the pontificio collegio teutonico di s maria dell anima was created in 1399 when theodoric of niem founded a hospice for german pilgrims a confraternity in aid of the suffering souls in purgatory was soon after formed and in 1499 the first stone of the beautiful church santa maria dell anima was laid near the santa maria della pace in 1859 this pia opera was reorganized a college of chaplains to officiate in the church was established the chaplains were to remain only two or at the most three years and at the same time were to continue their studies they devote themselves chiefly to canon law with a view to employing their knowledge in the service of their respective dioceses and they receive living and tuition gratis other priests also are admitted who come to rome at their own expense for the purpose of study at present there are 8 chaplains and about 10 other priests residing there the college continues to assist poor germans who", "the college is located in via dei santi quattro 1 and serves as a residence for clerical students from all over the world designated a pontifical college in 1948 it is the last irish college in continental europe in 1625 the irish bishops in an address to pope urban viii expressed a desire for a college for irish students in rome cardinal ludovisi who was cardinal protector to ireland resolved to realize at his own expense the desire expressed to the pope by the irish bishops a house was rented opposite sant isodoro and six students went into residence 1 january 1628 eugene callanan archdeacon of cashel was the first rector father luke wadding ofm being a sort of supervisor cardinal ludovisi died in 1632 he was of a princely family with a large patrimony and he made provision in his will for the college it was to have an income of one thousand crowns a year a house was to be purchased for it and he left a vineyard as castel gandolfo where the students might pass their villeggiatura the cardinal s will directed that the college should be placed under the charge of the jesuits both the heirs", "since 1580 its full name has been pontificium collegium germanicum et hungaricum de urb e the collegium germanicum was established on 31 august 1552 by pope julius iii with the bull dum sollicita cardinal giovanni morone and saint ignatius loyola were instrumental in its establishment and saint ignatius formally opened it on 28 october the direction of the college was given to the jesuits after the almo collegio capranica this is the oldest college in rome the initiative towards its foundation was taken by cardinal giovanni morone and ignatius loyola pope julius iii approved of the idea and promised his aid but for a long time the college had to struggle against financial difficulties the first students were received in november 1552 the administration was confided to a committee of six cardinal protectors who decided that the collegians should wear a red cassock in consequence of which they have since been popularly known as the gamberi cotti boiled lobsters during the first year the higher courses were given in the college itself but in the autumn of 1553 st ignatius succeeded in establishing the schools of philosophy and theology in the collegio romano of his society he also drew up", "there have been various corps of auxiliary officers in various institutions by that name at universities the term has been used for the candidates for the license this was the latin title of the ecclesiastical heralds or pursuivants pertaining to the papal court their origin is placed in the twelfth century and they fulfilled for the pontifical government the duties entrusted to heralds by civil states from the sixteenth century onward they formed part of the roman curia in its broader sense and are reckoned members of the pontifical family they carried a club shaped beaten silver mace mazza like the mazzieri and the swiss guard vergers their number has been fixed at nineteen and they are subject to the major domo the principal duties of the cursores are to invite those who are to take part in consistories and functions in the papal chapel to act as servitors in the pontifical palace and as doorkeepers of the conclave to affix papal rescripts to the doors of the greater roman basilicas to issue the summons for attendance at canonizations the funerals of cardinals etc as representatives of the pope the cursores must be received with the respect becoming the personage", "based in vatican city it normally comprises twenty men tenors and basses and thirty boys sopranos and altos the latter receiving free tuition on 19 january 2019 pope francis transferred responsibility for the choir from the papal household to the office for the liturgical celebrations of the supreme pontiff as early as in the pontificate of sylvester i 314 335 a regularly constituted company of singers under the name of schola cantorum lived together in a building devoted to their exclusive use the word schola was in those days the legal designation of an association of equals in any calling or profession and did not primarily denote as in our time a school it had more the nature of a guild a characteristic which clung to the papal choir for many centuries hilarius 461 468 ordained that the pontifical singers live in community while gregory the great 590 604 not only made permanent the existing institution attached to st john lateran and including at that time in its membership monks secular clergy and boys but established a second and similar one in connection with the basilica of st peter the latter is supposed to have served as a sort of", "it is described in the code of canon law cic as a group of bishops who have been chosen from different regions of the world and meet together at fixed times to foster closer unity between the roman pontiff and bishops to assist the roman pontiff with their counsel in the preservation and growth of faith and morals and in the observance and strengthening of ecclesiastical discipline and to consider questions pertaining to the activity of the church in the world the synod of bishops is permanent even when not in session periodically it holds assemblies which are either general if called to consider matters directly concerning the universal church or special if called for problems of a particular geographical area the general assemblies are either ordinary held at fixed intervals or extraordinary held to treat of some urgent matter the synod of bishops also has a permanent secretariat headquartered in rome but is not part of the roman curia pope francis greatly increased both the authority and influence of the synod in september 2018 in 1959 cardinal silvio oddi proposed a permanent consultative body of priests drawn from many parts of the world to discuss major concerns of the", "he was the 38th pontiff of uttaradi matha and served the pontificate from 1911 1942 he was considered most active and zealous pontiffs of 20th century he was an untiring propagandist the best debater of his days and almost a terror to his adversaries in philosophical polemics it was at his initiative and inspiration that a splendid marathi translation of madhva s brahmasutra bhashya with the tatvaprakashika of jayatirtha was published for the benefit of a large number of followes of madhvacharya in maharashtra he made extensive tours all over india held disputations and published polemical tracts and phamplets in many languages in north and south india for free distribution he started sriman madhva siddhanta abhivruddhikarini sabha around 1905 06 and registered in 1930 to promote the study of sanskrit literature and philosophy particularly the study of dvaita philosophy to hold meetings and conferences of madhva scholars satyadhyana tirtha was born into an ancient family of erudite scholars on 24 december 1872 in a village called chikodi in karnataka to korlahalli jayaramacharya purvashrama name of satyadhira tirtha and krishnabai satyadhyana tirtha s purvashrama name was korlahalli sethuramacharya his father satyadhira tirtha was 37th pontiff of uttaradi matha satyadhyana tirtha had", "catholicos gregory ii had moved to tarsus far from the center of armenian civilization for the past many centuries so the eastern armenians considered themselves without a pontiff gregory had previously visited ani and set up his nephew parsegh as bishop there and so later they gained gregory s sanction to elect parsegh their pontiff around this time two other rivals named themselves pontiff of their own regions theodorus and one named paul in marash there was much enmity between them and much confusion among the people paul saw this and decided to relinquish his seat and retire to his convent at which time the nation at large recognized gregory ii alone as pontiff with parsegh as his deputy in 1087 parsegh deposed theodorus and settled at edessa in 1103 after many requests gregory ii finally accepted the invitation of basilius the crafty lord of marash and kesoun to move his residence to rapan near kesoun to spend his last years gregory ii took with him his wards gregory iii of cilicia and nerses iv the graceful in whom he recognized future greatness he entrusted the two boys to the care of his nephew and deputy parsegh and his host", "he was consul for the year ad 16 with lucius scribonius libo as his colleague most of our information about sisenna comes from inscriptions sisenna was the grandson of titus statilius taurus consul in 37 bc and 26 bc his father is attested as a tresviri monetalis but died before he could accede to the consulate his mother has not been identified sisenna was also the younger brother of titus statilius taurus the name of his wife has also failed to come down to us but he is known to have children who include cornelia tauri f the wife of the consul titus axius the tombstone of one of his freedmen found in modern croatia provides us a few clues about his life one is that it supplies sisenna with the title of pontiff not only indicating he was a member of the prestigious college of pontiffs another is that it indicates he or his family owned estates in the province of dalmatia tombstones for other freedmen suggest he owned estates near aquileia the historian velleius paterculus not only mentions him alive in ad 30 but as owning the mansion once owned by cicero in rome", "the simpulum was the sign of roman priesthood and one of the insignia of the college of pontiffs the simpulum appears on a coin from patras struck under augustus it is placed before the head of vesta as a mark of that goddess on a coin of the domitian family and is seen in the hand of a vestal virgin on coins of the julio claudian dynasty a man in a toga holds a simpulum in his hand on a coin of antonio drusi the simpulum is commonly shown with the lituus and other sacrificial and augural instruments on coins of julius caesar mark antony marcus aemilius lepidus augustus caligula vespasian nerva antoninus pius marcus aurelius caracalla publius septimius geta volusianus saloninus valerianus minor domitius calvinus and pontius pilate as well as on many consular and colonial medals", "the position was established in the early 12th century the dean presides over the college of cardinals serving as primus inter pares in the college he always holds the rank of cardinal bishop the dean of the college of cardinals is assisted by the vice dean in those roles they act as the president and vice president of the college respectively both are elected by and from the cardinal bishops who are not eastern catholic patriarchs and their election is subject to papal confirmation except for presiding the dean and vice dean have no power over the other cardinals in the order of precedence in the catholic church as the senior cardinal bishops the dean and vice dean are placed second and third respectively after the pope the dean is often but not necessarily the longest serving member of the whole college it had been customary for centuries for the longest serving of the six cardinal bishops of suburbicarian sees to be dean this was required by canon law from 1917 until 1965 when pope paul vi empowered the six to elect the dean from among their number this election was a formality until the time of pope john paul", "their post nominal letters are asc the institute operates the newman university in wichita kansas the institute of the sisters adorers of the blood of christ was established by maria de mattias on march 4 1834 in acuto italy she founded it as an active apostolic teaching community and opened a school for girls before long she was joined by others and schools were opened in the small towns of the papal states and the kingdom of naples on may 30 1855 pope pius ix issues a decree of praise approving their work in 1866 maria de mattias died in rome of tuberculosis by then sixty four schools had been opened including one in london in 1875 sisters from italy established a house in ruma illinois and a second in 1902 in wichita kansas sisters from both wichita and ruma served the catholic school in rulo nebraska in 1933 the adorers of the blood of christ founded sacred heart junior college in wichita kansas which eventually became newman university in march 2014 the order donated 2 5 million dollars to the university the gift will be used to support emerging science initiatives on the newman campus in october 1992 sisters", "playground formerly metairie playground is a jefferson parish public playground located at 1521 palm street in metairie louisiana it is jefferson parish s oldest public playground the playground offers multiple baseball fields for team and recreational use the gymnasium is used for basketball games volleyball games and other recreational uses the pontiff playground cross country course is a 3 mile 4 83km cross country course in and around pontiff playground the playground has two football soccer fields for team and recreational use the playground was the home football venue for the metairie high school yellowjackets from 1952 to 1954 the largest crowds were standing room only against kenner high school in 1952 and against behrman high school in 1954 the playground offers multiple softball fields for team and recreational use tennis is played at the pontiff playground tennis courts a running track used for track and field meets is located in the playground the playground contains six baseball diamonds two football fields one track two tennis courts and a gymnasium in addition to these sports facilities a spray fountain meditation labyrinth meeting center picnic shelters playground equipment dog park and bird sanctuary are located in the facility development of metairie", "he joined the benedictines at vend me and was professed there in 1658 after teaching humanities for a short time to the junior monks at pontlevoy he was at the instance of dom luc d achery sent to the abbey of st germain des pr s paris there he met dom mabillon whose intimate friend and fellow worker he became together they journeyed on foot through flanders visiting all its chief monastic libraries in 1670 he was made sub prior of st martin s pontoise in 1684 he was appointed procurator for his congregation in the curia romana which post required his residence in rome for the remainder of his life during the fifteen years he lived in italy he saw to many matters of ecclesiastical business he enjoyed the confidence of several popes and other high officials of the catholic church he died at d at rome in 1699 and was buried in the church of the minims of ss trinit de monti a history of st martin s pontoise in three volumes was his first published work between 1673 and 1682 he compiled his chief work entitled antiquit s b n dictines in which the monastic traditions of", "to this the pontiff responded in a private letter also published in the jesuit journal civilta cattolica denouncing antisemitism the supreme pontiff as head of the catholic church which faithful to its divine doctrines and its most glorious traditions considers all men as brothers and teaches them to love one another he never ceases to indicate among individuals as well as among peoples the observance of the principles of the natural law and to condemn everything that violates them this law must be observed and respected in the case of the children of israel as well as of all others because it would not be conformable to justice or to religion itself to derogate from it solely on account of divergence of religious confessions the letter had asked the pope to exert his authority to halt the mistreatment of jews throughout the world in particular the pogroms on the russian front the pope declined to do so since he said he had no way of confirming the facts claimed in the letter the pope s letter said nothing about equality in civil rights nor any rejection of social political or legal restrictions on jews so long as such restrictions did", "in 1766 ad nala naama samvathsara on the day of magha shukla panchami the pontiff of shiroor math at the time lakshmi manohara theertha established a separate math exclusively for the followers of shukla yajurveda under the aegis of the shiroor at a place called hunasi hole pronounced hunasee holay the shiroor pontiff ordained a devotee and a scholar by name venkateshacharya and installed him as the pontiff for the new math under the name maadhava theertha hunasi hole is in today s kalburgi district gulbarga district surapura taluk and continues to be a center for kanva school of thought and philosophy the main deity at the above kanva math is the thaandava vittala krishna as also gopalakrishna in consort with rukmini and satyabhama the brindavana of the maadhava theertha was constructed in the village buddinni in ad 1810 since at the time it is said that the maadhava theertha was persecuted and had sought refuge at buddinni the above madhwa kanva math follows dwaita siddhanta and madhwa philosophy under the dvaita system with the sampradayas of the madhwacharaya tradition the saint sage madhava theertha is said to appear in the form of sesha swarupa or in the sacred serpentine", "for twenty years he served as master of pontifical liturgical celebrations in charge of the office for the liturgical celebrations of the supreme pontiff in that capacity he worked for popes john paul ii for 18 years and benedict xvi for two years marini was born in valverde italy and was ordained a priest of the catholic church on 27 june 1965 he holds a doctorate in liturgy from the benedictine run college of sant anselmo in 1975 marini became personal secretary to archbishop annibale bugnini the chief architect of the liturgical reforms that followed vatican ii from 1987 to 2007 marini was the master of the office for the liturgical celebrations of the supreme pontiff the group responsible for organizing the details of papal liturgies and other celebrations he was seen at the pope s side in every such celebration he was appointed titular bishop of martirano on 14 february 1998 and was consecrated on 19 march by pope john paul ii on 29 september 2003 he was raised to the rank of archbishop on 1 october 2007 after marini had served twenty years as master pope benedict appointed him president of the pontifical committee for international eucharistic congresses", "during his service in the vatican he was officially titled archiatra pontificio the pope also made him an honorary member of the pontifical academy of sciences he managed to be present at the 1958 death of pius xii and created a scandal in this context with his attempt to publish pictures and stories about the dying pontiff he was also a member of the international society for the history of medicine born in rome galeazzi lisi was the half brother of the influential architect and banker enrico galeazzi lisi who was instrumental in the excavations under st peter s basilica after the death of pius xii galeazzi lisi gave an article and photographs of the dead pope to a french magazine paris match and to an italian magazine he also tried to publish a diary which he had composed of the last four days of pius xii in a controversial press conference galeazzi lisi described in great detail the embalming the body of the late pontiff he claimed to have used the same system of oils and resins with which the body of jesus christ was preserved however heat in the halls where the body of the late pope lay", "colleague is taken to mean a fellow member of the same profession a group of colleagues united in a common purpose and used in proper names such as electoral college college of cardinals and college of pontiffs colleagues are those explicitly united in a common purpose and respecting each other s abilities to work toward that purpose a colleague is an associate in a profession or in a civil or ecclesiastical office collegiality can connote respect for another s commitment to the common purpose and ability to work toward it in a narrower sense members of the faculty of a university or college are each other s colleagues sociologists of organizations use the word collegiality in a technical sense to create a contrast with the concept of bureaucracy classical authors such as max weber consider collegiality as an organizational device used by autocrats to prevent experts and professionals from challenging monocratic and sometimes arbitrary powers more recently authors such as eliot freidson usa malcolm waters australia and emmanuel lazega france have shown that collegiality can now be understood as a full fledged organizational form this is especially useful to account for coordination in knowledge intensive organizations in which interdependent members", "with the exception of the conclaves of the western schism this conclave was the first since 1305 to feature a working two thirds majority of italians within the college of cardinals in no small part because of the absence of six non italian cardinals this was in part due to the unexpectedness of the death of paul ii the two main factions were those of d estouteville and orsini the latter of whom secured a major pre conclave victory in managing to persuade the rest of the college to exclude the cardinals created by paul ii in pectore in explicit defiance of the last will and testament of the previous pontiff such creatures would be allowed to participate for example in the papal conclave 1492 paul ii had created at least eight cardinals in secret at least five of whom were alive at the time of the conclave pedro ferriz pietro foscari giovanni battista savelli ferry de clugny and jan vitez a conclave capitulation was drawn up at the beginning of the conclave but unusually it contained no explicit limitations on papal power except to continue the crusading war against the turks the aforementioned factions can more specifically be referred", "these institutions commonly offer degrees at various levels usually including bachelor s master s and doctorates often alongside other academic certificates and professional degrees the most common undergraduate degree is the bachelor s degree although in some countries there are lower level higher education qualifications that are also titled degrees e g associate degrees and foundation degrees the doctorate latin doceo i teach appeared in medieval europe as a license to teach latin licentia docendi at a medieval university its roots can be traced to the early church when the term doctor referred to the apostles church fathers and other christian authorities who taught and interpreted the bible the right to grant a licentia docendi was originally reserved to the church which required the applicant to pass a test to take oath of allegiance and pay a fee the third council of the lateran of 1179 guaranteed the access now largely free of charge of all able applicants who were however still tested for aptitude by the ecclesiastic scholastic this right remained a bone of contention between the church authorities and the slowly emancipating universities but was granted by the pope to the university of paris in 1231 where it", "the magisterium is a reference to the authoritative teaching body of the roman catholic church the phrase appears in lumen gentium 25a in the following context here translated as both religious assent and religious submission bishops teaching in communion with the roman pontiff are to be respected by all as witnesses to divine and catholic truth in matters of faith and morals the bishops speak in the name of christ and the faithful are to accept their teaching and adhere to it with a religious assent this religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the roman pontiff even when he is not speaking ex cathedra that is it must be shown in such a way that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to according to his manifest mind and will his mind and will in the matter may be known either from the character of the documents from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine or from his manner of speaking the magisterial teachings of the catholic church are graded according to a hierarchy of truths the more essentially linked" ]

[ "Go to bed at the same time every night. Wake up at the same time every morning" ]

[ "I've discovered sleeping next to someone I love helps me fall asleep faster and way earlier", "Try to get some sleep.", "Nice guy gets the girl. That's some real BS.", "Keep my mouth shut and get some sleep.", "get some sleep while you can.", "Real nice way of getting a *yeast infection*.", "no way that mf real", "There’s no way you’re a real human", "What are some effective subtle ways to annoy someone?", "I'm good, just bored. Go get some sleep :)", "You're gonna have to be way more specific about what you mean in order to get any real answers to your question.", "When Ron gives Harry \"10 Failsafe ways to Charm Witches\" and he says \"There's some really good stuff in there! And it's not all wand work!\"\n\nGet it...? \"*Wand*\" work?", "sleep in cause no work", "What the fuck did I do in real life to get this hell?", "Sleep your way to the top.", "No, I sleep most of the day since it’s the only day I get off work", "It’s really not hard. 8 hours of sleep is 8 hours of sleep regardless as to what time of day you get them.", "Work, so I can get some money", "\"Real G's move in silence like lasagna\" \n\nwill always get me, no matter what", "Idk. If someone says \"I also choose this guy's dead wife\" in real life they'll get some shit for real.", "whats a sleep?", "attempting to sleep. didnt work", "I appreciate your sentiment but isn't there a better way to ask aside from seriously offending people who disagree with you? You are not going to get any real answers this way, just some abuse back.", "Trying to sleep for work tomorrow", "My dad uses one. Took some getting used to but he's sleeping better and rarely gets a cold anymore.", "Ask, “What’s my real name?” \n\nReal friends and family members know my real name. Acquaintances know the name I prefer to be called which is just way the fuck more normal.", "How do we know whats real is real?", "Get up, go to work, eat, sleep, drink, die. Same as we do now.", "Not everywhere does this. I just got off work where I work 12 hour shifts. The place has to stay occupied 24/7 so leaving an hour earlier would not work. \n\nYes I basically worked 13 hours because of the roll back on the hour and yes I get paid for the extra hour.\n\nJust because your work does it one way absolutely does not mean everywhere is the same way", "Take the kids money and get some gas. To show them real consequences and not because I'm greedy.", "You know some real assassins ?", "I'm finishing my masters earlier because I work from home, I've spent more time with my family, and have had more time to socialize and sleep. Covid has been awesome for me" ]

[ "Per impatto proiettile - rete metallica che divide corsie" ]

[ "COGNE (Aosta) - Appartiene a uno dei quattro consulenti svizzeri della difesa di Anna Maria Franzoni la nuova impronta trovata nel luglio scorso nella villetta di Cogne, dove fu ucciso il piccolo Samuele Lorenzi. Lo ha accertato la Procura di Torino.", "Fu reso celebre dall'attrice francese Brigitte Bardot", "Fu il primo browser commerciale, non sara' piu' sviluppato", "With the success of &quot;Kill Bill&quot; and the rise of the kung-fu film genre, Quentin Tarantino has planned a full-out martial arts movie as homage to the &quot;chopsocky&quot; kung-fu films of the seventies.", "A Milano, fu il primo studio creativo della Maison", "Fu il primo a scalare l'Everest, aveva 88 anni", "Imad Mughniyeh è morto ieri sera. L'annuncio dato dall'emittente Al Manarche accusa il governo israeliano. Dall'ufficio di Olmert nessun commento Autobomba a Damasco ucciso capo Hezbollah Fu il leader della Jihad islamica, che negli anni '80 realizzòdecine di attentati e coordinò il rapimento di molti occidentalidi VINCENZO NIGRO", "Fu anche ministro dell'Interno con Dini nel 1995-1996", "'Per mio padre la matrice fu esterna alla mafia'", "A dieci anni dalla morte del Vescovo Pierre Claverie: incontro a Roma sul suo insegnamento Roma (Agenzia Fides) - Mons. Pierre Clavarie, Vescovo di Oran, in Algeria, fu ucciso il 1° agosto 1996 A dieci anni dalla sua morte l’Association Les Amitiés Pierre Clavarie con il patrocinio dell’Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa, promuo...", "Morta due anni fa, fu la prima moglie di Carmelo Bene" ]

[ "Easy to serve dry Bonito Flakes are a wonderful snack for my 2 year old cat who loves them after each meal. They are dry and easy to serve in dish or hand feed." ]

[ "My cat loves these actually! He likes to bat them around the floor before conquering and eating them. Does leave a dust/flakes trail but it keeps kitty happy.", "I sprayed this on our cat toys and the cats liked it, mostly just licked it off though. It didn't really get them excited about playing with them. I like the flakes of catnip better because the cats will really play with the toy if its got that in it and have a lot more fun.", "I like that its a pate' . i have fragile animals that can not tolerate \"flakes\" etc. They toss them up...not that you really need to know the particulars..\nMy only concern is that if its like people who have removed beef from there diet, then people stop producing the enzyme to break it down, so I don't know if cats are the same way. ???? With a varied Iams, emphasis on\"varied\", wet food diet and the fact that it is a pate'....we are all good on this home front!!", "I use these flakes on everything! From pasta to soups to salads. If you are trying to stay away from dairy, they are the perfect substitute. For the price you can't really beat 4 bags. This is a great deal!", "It was lacking in fresh taste in comparison to Flott and especially Ortiz. As I was having the Tonino alongside an opened can of Ortiz bonito del Norte, there was a clear difference in taste and quality which leaves me quite disappointed with the order. I wonder if it has to do with just the batch I was receiving which was a little sort of stale.", "Large flakes, just like I like. Same product I bought in a health food store where I used to live, but now that I moved I can't find it locally. So glad it's available here.", "We have two very finicky kittens and this is the only wet food they will eat. It's flaked, so it gives a nice texture and it is made of solid, responsible ingredients that are necessary for a kitten's growth.", "Buena calidad, bonitos colores, excelente planta muy comoda.....", "First note tastes vaguely like raw protein powder. Definitely funky - - good if you absolutely need an alternative to cheese puffs. Tortilla chips are killer, probably won't buy these again.", "Delicious and expensive for a small snack. I make them myself now, but these are worth a try. Kitty loves them (then pukes them), dogs love them, kids love them, even my dad who doesn't like coconut loves them.", "Used to play man size nerf basketball with the justintymesports basketball hoop. Perfect size for the hoop but it is a indoor ball, the outter layer is flaking off after a month of use", "This gathering of Doo Wop Greats is remarkable, these guys are all in their late 50's and sixties and they all sound very good! The Legends of Doo Wop stole the show! Jimmy Gallagher, Tony Passalacqua, Frank Mancuso and Steve Horn were Fantastic! One reviewer on here said Jimmy was painfully off key, Jimmy Gallagher off key??? I doubt it! I don't know what Doo Wop 50 you watched sir but the one I saw Jimmy, Frank, Tony and Steve were Amazingly Good, their performance is worth the price of the DVD alone. You can't go wrong buying Doo Wop 50! Doo Wop at it's finest!", "All I can say is that the entire DOO WOP CLASSICS series is worth every penny. Each volume is loaded with great, and sometimes, hard to find doo wop. Each volume spotlights a single label and is chock full of gems. You some groups you may not have heard of and some went on to be national acts, but each is showcased doing what they did best, street corner doo wop.\n\nIf you love oldies you have to buy this series.", "Cat might need rehab from these treats!!!!!!! Maybe 60 minutes needs to do a show on just what the heck is in these?", "My cat had a really bad reaction to this collar. When I put the collar on my cat large pieces started flaking off all over my cat and the poor thing became extremely agitated and upset, either running high speeds around the house or hiding wherever it could. The opposite of calm. This is supposed to be a CALMING collar. The poor cat didn't calm down until I gave it a bath.", "EDIT: Itsumo, not only refunded my purchase without me asking, but they sent me two additional Items for me to try free of charge. A+ in customer service!!!!!\n\nI really had high hopes for this, but these are not good at all. I ate 3 pieces and here I am. It has this weird chemically taste and doesn't taste like tuna nor Ahi tuna for that matter, which I enjoy very much. It taste and chews and looks like sweet chemically treated beef jerky.\n\nI eat a lot of jerky, Pork, Buffalo, Beef, Venison, Pheasant, Boar, Alligator, Elk, Turkey. This sadly is not only more expensive then those, It was inedible for me.", "Completely took apart my opas system, to find out the smaller plate is too big for my 2003 Sea-Doo gtx 4tec. The screws holes will not align. They are off by about an 1/8\" . The larger outside plate fits, but damn it man!", "A bizzar little treat that is definitely worth a try, maybe not a whole 12 pack but I ate all of them alone as my 3 cats watched me in disgust.", "these taste great and are wotrh the price. i mix them w/ other nuts and they realy bring out the flaver.", "Heeeeello, this is Runforthecube. Today we have Lucky Charms Cereal Treats, Lucky Charms Cereal Treats. Cute leprechaun, cute leprechaun. Time to open the package, time to open the package. Slice it open. *sniff sniff* Mmm, smells very tasty! Cut it in half, cut it in half. Time to spin the treat, time to spin the treat. Very fun to play with food. I think this is a red heart and this is a yellow star, and this is I don't know what is that? Mmm, treat dandruff, treat dandruff. Time to cut out the marshmallow booger, time to cut out the marshmallow booger. Please don't make me eat this, please don't make me eat this. Rainbow marshmallow, rainbow marshmallow. Peace, Peace Out!", "Well, if you make granola like I do, you'll want these organic corn flakes. The case is the way to buy them. They stay fresh for weeks and weeks.", "Purchased for my 8 year old niece. She loves Scooby Doo!", "Be careful you don't leave any \"doo\" in the crevice because it will harden and thats the end of the game,", "Granted.....we don't eat this, our cat does....barely. I think it's a bland formula, so we switched back to the turkey/salmon mix. Our feline is back on track....", "Thank you, Andy Field, for including cats, anecdotes about Coca-Cola as a spermicide and that poor man and the eel (poor eel and the man?). Statistics is as dry as the surface of Mars, but this book keeps me engaged.", "These Spelt flakes have a nutty, sweet flavor and a very pleasing texture even when\npartially drowned in milk. These are sweetened with fruit juice. They're great with golden raisins or dried cherries. They are\na nice alternative to some of the standard breakfast fare found on supermarket shelves.\nThey are not Gluten Free", "Gold flakes were on the outside of the container. Im not sure how much of the gold flakes were lost out of the container.", "When this barney arrived i was so excited for my 17 month old to finally get this for christmas. But when it arrived it looked nothing like the picture. The eyes are wayyy to high on the face, not to kention their kind of crooked. The gave looks up instead of facing more downward and straight. This is a rip off for $50, this was straight doo doo! So disappointed!!", "The heading on the page says these are \"Whiskas Temptations Hearty Beef Flavour Treats for Cats\". Everywhere else they are referred to as Savory Salmon Flavor. I hope when they arrive they are the Salmon Flavor because that is the only flavor my cats will eat. I am buying one only to get the container and see how it works out. The price is no bargain. I get ten 6.3 ounce bags of the salmon flavor treat by subscription through Amazon for 27.54. The same amount in these containers at the subscription price for four 16 ounce units would be 30.32.", "Cadbury flakes are probably my family's favorite chocolate, but not readily available in the US, so I was very happy to find a box of 80 offered for a reasonable price on Amazon. It's possible that the descriptive photo for the item is of crunchies, not flakes, but I am writing about flakes here. The box was happily received by my family and unfortunately disappeared very quickly, so I will likely be ordering again soon.", "My Cats LUV this stuff. Might be a \"little\" pricey but...you can tell the difference in their coats. And I'd rather this than them eating that \"frittos\" and cheerios stuff they luv but does nothing for them.", "This might be my only favorite \"What's New Scooby-Doo?\" movie. Soo happy to have it." ]

[ "Mexico" ]

[ "Oliver North", "Bank of America", "Lord North", "America Ferrera", "United Steelworkers of America", "Jay North", "Writers Guild of America", "North & south", "the Future Farmers of America", "the America First Committee", "Directors Guild of America", "the Justice League of America", "\"North By Northwest\"", "Girl Scouts of America", "Miss America the Beautiful", "Volunteers in Service to America", "AOL (America Online)", "the Mystery Writers of America" ]

[ "CNN - NATO confirms U.S. soldiers captured, Serbian TV shows ... Apr 1, 1999 ... Serbian TV released pictures of what it said were three missing US soldiers ... On CNN March 31, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana ... April 1, 1999 ... are three U.S. soldiers who were missing on the Yugoslav-Macedonia border. ... of a larger patrol near the Macedonian village of Kumanovo when the...", "Stone, Christopher J. SSgt. USA, released - POW Network Name: Christopher James Stone Branch/Rank: United States Army/Staff Sgt Unit: ... Date of Loss: 31 March 1999 Country of Loss: Macedonia/Serbia Yugoslavia Loss ... three American soldiers it said its forces captured near the Macedonian border. The men were identified as Sergeants James Stone and Andrew Ramirez...", "CNN - Three U.S. soldiers captured by Yugoslav army - April 1, 1999 Apr 1, 1999 ... BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Three U.S. army soldiers were held ... on a routine vehicle patrol \"in fairly rugged terrain near Kumanovo when they ... the rugged terrain near the Yugoslav-Macedonia border searching for the three. ... on March 31, three U.S. Army soldiers were captured on Serb territory.", "CNN - Captured U.S. soldiers face Serb military trial - April 2, 1999 Apr 2, 1999 ... ALSO: Clinton: Milosevic responsible for safety of 3 U.S. soldiers ... March 31 ... The soldiers were captured while on what NATO says was a routine patrol on the Macedonian side of the Yugoslav- Macedonia border. ... He said NATO will hold Serbian authorities accountable for the soldiers' treatment and is...", "Kosovo War - Wikipedia The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (by this time .... Kosovo's borders did not precisely match the areas of ethnic Albanian ..... The tide turned in mid-July when the KLA captured Orahovac." ]

[ "United States Border Patrol - Wikipedia The United States Border Patrol (USBP) is an American federal law enforcement agency. ... In March 1915, Congress authorized a separate group of mounted guards, .... Agent Silvestre Reyes started a program called \"Operation Hold the Line\". ..... Although up until 1994 Patrol Agents could purchase a weapon from the...", "UNDER ORDERS: War Crimes in Kosovo - 4. March-June 1999: An ... Jun 12, 1999 ... On March 24, 1999, the eyes of the world turned to Kosovo as aircraft .... According to the OSCE, which still had its monitors in Kosovo, February ... perceived as unstable and, at the same time, as a pivotal country for regional stability. ..... Approximately 440,000 refugees crossed the border to Albania and...", "Serbia travel guide - Wikitravel Most tourists come to Serbia in the summer and you can often hear German, Italian, ... territory most of the Roman emperors were born after Italy (about one in five). ... Croatia, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia all split from the ..... the Hungarian border guards a fee to let the bus go faster over the border.", "Broadcasting Board of Governors 1999-2000 Annual Report 1999-2000 Broadcasting Board of Gov e r n o r s ... A Lebanese listener of VOA's Special English ... IN early January 2000, Radio Free Europe/Radio Libert y ..... countries. Jamming of RFA Vietnamese was. o b s e rved as early as January 23, and interf e re n c e of VOA ..... Even before NATO bombs began falling on Serbia.", "World Events of the 1960s - Angelfire March 2-15 Soviet and Chinese forces clash on the Manchurian border, ... June 5-17 - Delegates from 75 countries attend the World Communist ... Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announces that 215,000 U.S. troops are now in .... pop song (3 minutes) at 6 minutes total and was the number 2 song in the country.", "Page 7 Clare Sentinel, 7 March 1901 Michigan Newspaper ... March 4 dawned under clouds, ' threatenting rain. ... Following this, In the presence of the assembled multitude,, he. made his inaugural address. ... With our near neighbors we must remain close friends. .... U. S. N,; Eleventh U. S. Infantry, Major R. C. Irvine; regiment U. S. Artillery, Colonel F. G. Guenther, U. S. A.; battalion of...", "Jeopary Questions page 1566 - FIRST NAMES - TriviaBistro.com MAY DAY: The Croats opened fire again May 1, 1995 after the ceasefire negotiated by this ex-U.S. ... SOUTH AMERICAN CAPITALS: Fueled by the oil industry, this capital has sprawled into the state of Miranda ... AMERICAN MUSEUMS: Bill Clinton may know there's an oil and brine museum in Smackover in this state.", "He obtained 1,093 patents, the most the U S Patent Office has ever ... Jun 23, 2016 ... In 1999 this country began 3 golden weeks of vacation for its vast ... In 1999 'N Sync performed at the 17th annual pageant to crown Miss this...", "U. S. Coast Guard History These agencies, the Revenue Cutter Service, the Lighthouse Service, the Steamboat ... While many of the lighthouses have changed little since their completion, the light ... safe roads for maritime travelers (below, left: a clamshell-type Fresnel lens). .... (Left: a Coast Guard patrol boat returns to port with vessels seized for...", "J! Archive - Show #3363, aired 1999-03-31 Ask a Cockney barber for a dig in the grave & he should give you one of these ... A 1961 home run king, 5 letters: M---s ... An 1881 assassin, 7 letters: G-----u...", "U.N. Details Its Failure to Stop '95 Bosnia Massacre - The New York ... Nov 16, 1999 ... The fall of Srebrenica and other towns that the Security Council had ... The country is now divided into an ethnic Serbian republic and a ... Srebrenica was then under the guardianship of 110 Dutch peacekeepers, who were no match ... however, feared that its troops might be taken hostage and, at least on...", "War of 1812's last battle fought at Fort Bowyer in what became ... Jul 23, 2012 ... Instead, the last battle of the war involving significant British and American ... the Battle of New Orleans, at which U.S. troops led by Andrew Jackson ... More than 2,000 British soldiers were killed, wounded or captured, while...", "The War in Bosnia, 19921995 - Milestones in the History of U.S. ... Guide to Countries ... Serbian forces executed widespread ethnic cleansing in occupied areas, creating horrific scenes of ... The population of Bosnia-Herzegovina was comprised of three ethnic groups: Serbian, Croatian, and Muslim. Initially ... Shifts in territorial control were accompanied by widespread ethnic cleansing.", "Jeopary Questions page 1597 - \"B\" WITH \"U\" - TriviaBistro.com CELEBS: Yep! He made his \"Soul Patrol\" fans very proud when he became 2006's \"American Idol\" ASIAN BODIES OF WATER: One of the world's longest rivers...", "Repertoire of the Practice of the Security Council United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) ... Participation of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) in the work ... on the safe area at Bihac on the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. .... In December 1946, Greece informed the Security Council of a situation of friction...", "Capture of the Frigate USS Philadelphia - NHHC - Navy Mar 31, 2015 ... Capture of the Frigate USS Philadelphia ... Battle of Tripoli Harbor, 3 August 1804: Selected Naval Documents Battlecruisers in the United ... The Defense and Burning of Washington in 1814: Naval Documents of the War of 1812 ...... To Secretary of the Navy from Captain William Bainbridge, U. S. Navy...", "Never Ending Great War | Alternative History | Fandom powered by ... Pro-Central Powers forces win a major victory in Greece. ... He orders all forces loyal to Russia to stop fighting the Germans and help ... Japanese troops seize Vladivostok and the rest of the Sakhalin Island. ... Not only that but also most of the territory they claim is being chewed away. ...... 3,000 Serbian civilians are killed.", "National Guard > About the Guard > Today in Guard History ... Nearly every schoolboy knows Lieutenant Murphy is America's most highly .... Since 1953 Air Guard fighter-interceptor units took on an air defense mission, ... coast near Atlantic City, New Jersey - The cruise liner Morro Castle, which sailed a .... 1847Chapultepec, Mexico - The United States and Mexico had gone to war in...", "Of the 101 medals the U. S. won at the 1996 Summer Olympics in ... Jul 7, 2016 ... Of the 101 medals the U. S. won at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, 44 were of # Quiz # Question. video. 0:28 0 likes, 0 dislikes. No views.", "The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War ... Apr 30, 2014 ... Tim Butcher brings his own experience of Yugoslavian conflict to bear on ... shots triggered the escalations that brought war to Europe in 1914. ... the border to Belgrade, the capital city of neighbouring Serbia. ... In one arresting passage, he recalls stepping out of his jeep in 1996, a year after the fall of the...", "Tutorial 8 - Quarks - the Antonine Education Website Particle Physics Tutorial 8 - Classification of Particles (Quarks). Home ... Strangeness (S). Down (d). -1/3. 1/3. 0. Up (u). +2/3. 1/3. 0. Strange (s). -1/3. 1/3. -1.", "How Britain and the US decided to abandon Srebrenica to its fate ... Jul 4, 2015 ... Until now, it has always been asserted that the so-called endgame strategy ... In the spring of 1992, Bosnian Serb troops had launched a .... The Observer has independently verified this and the two countries were the US and the UK. .... a report after the encounter saying: Mladic readily agreed to most of...", "Republic of Serbian Krajina - Wikipedia The Republic of Serbian Krajina commonly known as Serbian Krajina or simply Krajina, was a ... Legislature, National Assembly ... Its main portion was overrun by Croatian forces in 1995 and the Republic of Serbian ... and the Krajina region became part of the People's Republic of Croatia until 7 April ...... Sui generis body.", "Ta Mok - Wikipedia Ta Mok was a Cambodian military chief and soldier who was a senior figure in the Khmer Rouge. He was best known as \"Brother Number Five\" or \"the Butcher\". ... On 6 March 1999, the general was captured by the Cambodian army near the ... Ta Mok was the last leading member of the Khmer Rouge to remain at large in...", "Ca.'s Liberty Hill was so named because in 1923 this muckraker ... Jun 29, 2016 ... Norbert Pearlroth met this man in 1923 & researched his Believe It Or Not! ... The U S statesman seen here was born in 1923 in this country...", "Breakup of Yugoslavia - Wikipedia Yugoslavia (19431992) Croatia (1991) Slovenia (1991) Republic of Serbian Krajina .... During World War II, the country's tensions were exploited by the occupying Axis forces which established a Croat puppet state spanning much of ..... Both Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence on 25 June 1991. On the...", "Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA / UCK] - GlobalSecurity.org Nov 7, 2011 ... The Kosovo Liberation Army -- KLA in English acronym or UCK in the ... During the war in former Yugoslavia, over 5,000 ethnic Albanians ... In April and May 1998 there were a number of attacks on police units .... some weapons from the Serb forces -- both the army forces [VJ] and the special police [MUP].", "Bosnia and Herzegovina - Wikipedia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Listen/bzni nd hrtsovin, -hrt-, --/ or .... The Sava is the largest river of the country, but it only forms its northern natural border with Croatia. ..... This Assembly established the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 9 January 1992, which became Republika...", "Croatia: Happy Statehood Day Croatia, the War, and the Future Jun 25, 2014 ... 23 years ago, on 25 June 1991, the Croatian Parliament delivered a .... They can and must be put back into place and that place is away from any ... operation Storm the Bosniak and Croats broke Down the Serb army lines if...", "FORCES - warzone The Kosovo Liberation Army (abbreviated KLA) was an ethnic-Albanian paramilitary organisation which sought the separation of Kosovo from Yugoslavia during the 1990s. ... Yugoslav military crackdown which led to the Kosovo War of 19981999. ... The Serbia and Montenegro Forces (abbreviated SAF) were the armed...", "1860s | Select Hymns sorted by year St. Gertrude | Arthur S. Sullivan Onward, Christian Soldiers (#510) ... Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, / With the cross of Jesus going on before.", "This Japanese luxury brand debuted in the U S with the Legend ... Jun 27, 2016 ... This Japanese luxury brand debuted in the U S with the Legend sedan in 1986 # Quiz # Question. 28.06.2016 00:00" ]

[ "NPR's Julie McCarthy reports on increasing demands in Indonesia for a public accounting of the vast fortune amassed by former President Suharto and his family. People are demanding to know what the family owns, and how the fortune was built. Suharto and his family are worth billions of dollars, with holdings in industries and development projects throughout the country. He was forced to resign two weeks ago following bloody demonstrations against corruption and the government's resistance to political and economic reform." ]

[ "Patricia Nunan of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports on renewed violence and unrest in Indonesia. Property owned by the Suharto family has been seized by angry and hungry farmers, while police have been called in to stop looting in East Java.", "GUESTS: Julie McCarthy NPR Tokyo Correspondent reporting from Jakarta, Indonesia Donald Emmerson Professor of Political Science, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin in Madison Fortuna Anwar Dewi (An-waa Day-we) Head of the Regional & International Affairs Division, Center for Political and Regional Studies, Indonesia Institute of Science Tomorrow (Thursday) Indonesia is set to hold parliamentary elections. Violence has escalated during the month leading up to the elections, due to political corruption and discontent with the first family. Some say this once-every-five-year election could prove to be the start of real change. Join host Melinda Penkava for a look at the six-term reign of President Suharto, the political culture and human rights in Indonesia ...on the next Talk of the Nation, from NPR News.", "NPR's Julie McCarthy reports that students in Indonesia have a tradition of protest against corrupt or unfair government. But the repressive Suharto government has spent more than 30 years instilling fear in the general public. Today's Indonesian students say they want to speak out against their country's economic and political problems, but their voices are muted by the knowledge of what will happen if they go too far.", "NPR's Julie McCarthy reports that Indonesia's ruling party dominated today's parliamentary elections, despite seething ethnic, religious and economic tensions. The parliament is largely ceremonial, but will help to choose a president next year. The elderly President Suharto is still firmly in control after 30 years in power, but faces a growing challenge from Indonesians who are fed up with repressive government and corruption at the top.", "an expert on Indonesia, about President Suharto's crackdown on political opponents, in advance of next spring's presidential election. Last month, government troops stormed an opposition party's headquarters in Jakarta. The response was a riot that resulted in the worst violence in Indonesia in more than 20 years. Since then, the Suharto government has detained and questioned prominent opponents.", "The strategically important nation has been ruled by one man for the past 30 years, but President Suharto, is now 75, and recent rumors of his ill health are affecting the country's financial strength.", "Patricia Nunan reports from Jakarta that Indonesian military chief Wiranto has announced the dismissal of the son in law of former President Suharto Prabowo Subianto . He's been inplicated in disappearances and tortures of political activists.", "-- NPR's Mary Kay Magistad reports from Jakarta on the opposition to President Suharto. Though he remains strong, several other leaders have large followings. If financial instability continues, their movements' power could grow.", "Talk of the Nation covers Indonesian President Suharto's resignation after 32 years in office. The news came after two weeks of student protests during which more than 500 people died and thousands of buildings in Jakarta were burned down. Suharto's vice-president B.J. Habibie will serve out the remainder of his term. Join host Ray Suarez for an hour of open phones to discuss the latest developments in Indonesia's polical crisis and prospects for real democratic reform in the future.", "Former Indonesian dictator Suharto was buried Monday at a state funeral with full military honors. The former army general presided over a brutal regime. As many as 1 million political opponents died in purges.", "-- Host Bob Edwards talks with NPR's Vicki O'Hara from Jakarta about talks between Indonesian President Suharto and a high official from the International Monetary Fund. Suharto agreed to follow the IMF's economic recovery plan. Questions about his committment shook confidence in Indonesia's stock market and currency.", "-- NPR's Mary Kay Magistad reports on the latest developments in Indonesia, where student protests have been called off in the wake of announced reforms. President Suharto has announced that he will step down from his office at the end of the year and to hold parliamentary elections within the next three to six months. Suharto has been president of the nation for the last thirty-two years. Opposition leaders and reformists are now faced with determining who his successor will be.", "-- Host Bob Edwards talks with Donald Emerson, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, about the possibility of Indonesian President Suharto stepping down. Emerson is co-author of the forthcoming book, \"Indonesia Beyond Suharto\".", "-- Host Bob Edwards talks with NPR's Julie McCarthy on the latest developments in Indonesia. Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie has succeeded President Suharto and will serve out the remainder of the presidential term, which concludes in 2003. The announcement has met with mixed reactions from the beleaguered nation's citizenry. Critics fear that Habibie's placement represents an extension, rather than a conclusion, of Suharto's influence over the country.", "Host Renee Montagne talks with NPR's Michael Sullivan about the trial of former Indonesian President Suharto in Jakarta. The accused was not present because his doctors say he's too frail to stand trial.", "NPR's Howard Berkes reports from Sydney, Australia that the International Olympic Committee has lobbied the Indonesian government to allow Mohamad Hasan to attend the Olympic games. Hasan, head of former President Suharto's investment company faces trial next week for allegedly embezzling 87 million dollars of state money.", "-- NPR's Mary Kay Magistad reports on the resignation of Indonesian ruler Suharto and has reactions from the nation's citizenry on this event.", "Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri plans to authorize the expansion of the country's national intelligence agency. Officials defend the move as a way to prevent terrorist attacks in the sprawling Muslim country. Critics see it as a regression to Indonesia's recent past under longtime dictator Suharto. Kelly McEvers reports.", "-- Host Bob Edwards talks with NPR's Julie McCarthy about the current political unrest in Indonesia. The government is bracing itself for another week of protests, with many civilians joining the student demonstrators in a call for President Suharto to resign. Military forces of the impoverished nation have placed a particularly crucial role in stemming the riots which have erupted due to economic instability.", "This week, the President of Indonesia called on President Clinton to restore their traditionally friendly relationship. This relationship was damaged by the Suharto dictatorship as it collpased last year and by the bloodletting in East Timor when it opted for independence from Indonesia this past summer. NPR's Ted Clark reports.", "Suharto, the general who emerged from obscurity to rule Indonesia with an iron fist after brutally suppressing a 1965 communist uprising, died Sunday in Jakarta at age 86. The former president, who was forced out of office 10 years ago after three decades in power, entered the hospital Jan. 4 after his heart, kidneys and lungs weakened. Doctors prolonged his life through dialysis and a ventilator, but he stopped breathing on his own overnight before slipping into a coma Sunday. He was declared dead at 1:10 p.m. when his heart stopped. The cause of death was multiple organ failure, Chief Presidential Dr. Marjo Subiandono said. \"My father passed away peacefully,\" sobbed Suharto's eldest daughter, Tutut. \"May God bless him and forgive all of his mistakes.\" Suharto's regime was widely regarded as one of most corrupt and brutal of the 20th century. He came to power after a group of left-wing army officers and leaders of the Indonesian Communist Party tried to seize control in Jakarta. Suharto narrowly escaped the fate of many of his fellow generals who were assassinated during the uprising. In the coming days, he rallied loyal troops and crushed the uprising, massacring hundreds of thousands in the process. Then-President Sukarno, who had led the sprawling archipelago nation to independence from the Netherlands in 1949, was weakened by the political crisis and Suharto deftly exploited the chaos. By March 1967, Suharto outmaneuvered Sukarno and took over the presidency. Sukarno died under house arrest three years later. During his years in office, Suharto brutally dealt with dissenters and was accused of siphoning off billions of dollars of state funds for himself, family and close associates. Even after leaving office, Suharto steadfastly rebuffed the allegations as \"empty talk.\" In 2004, however, he topped a \"most corrupt\" list put out by the nongovernmental organization, Transparency International, which said he had taken between $15 billion and $35 billion during his years in power. The Berlin-based group tracks corruption worldwide. The former strongman had been previously charged with graft but escaped prosecution when he was deemed too ill to stand trial. The deterioration in his health in the days before his death prompted some senior politicians and one of Suharto's daughters to call for all remaining legal proceedings against him to be dropped. During the Cold War, Suharto's anti-communist credentials made him a key U.S. ally; he enjoyed close relations with several U.S. administrations. In 2001, declassified documents confirmed a long-held suspicion that in a December 1975 meeting with President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Suharto was given the green light to invade the breakaway region of East Timor. Suharto also forged secret agreements with Washington to share intelligence and allow U.S. nuclear submarines passage through key sea lanes around Indonesia. By 1997, a meltdown in Asian currencies sent economic shockwaves through the region, and Indonesia's rupiah was among the hardest hit. Years of pent-up anger against Suharto's regime boiled over into the streets of Jakarta and by 1998, the capital was wracked by riots amid a collapsing economy. Still, Suharto clung to power, running unopposed for reelection in March 1998. The sham vote sparked further protests and dissention within Suharto's own Golkar party. To avoid a potential civil war, Suharto agreed in May 1998 to step down and hand power to his deputy, B.J. Habibie. Since stepping down as president, Suharto had lived a quiet and secluded life in a leafy Jakarta suburb, rarely venturing from his mansion. Despite the brutality of his rise and years in power, Suharto did preside over unprecedented growth in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. That has led many to suggest that his legacy comprise equal doses of praise and criticism. \"He brought Indonesia into modern world,\" said Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a professor at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. Salim Said, a political analyst said that, as a young man, he saw first-hand the rapid economic progress spawned by Suharto's policies, but the other side of the leader \"enriched himself, as well as his cronies.\" \"That is the black part, (the) dark part of Suharto,\" he said. With additional reporting from NPR's Michael Sullivan and The Associated Press.", "NPR's Kenneth Walker reports from Johannesburg on a corruption scandal related to a large South African arms deal. In exchange for approving the purchase of arms from European suppliers, high level government officials and their families allegedly received lucrative subcontracts and bribes.", "Suharto, the former Indonesian leader, is credited with greatly improving the country's economy, literacy rates and public health in the first part of his 32-year rule. But he is also blamed for massive human rights abuses in East Timor, Papua and Aceh, as well as an anti-communist purge in the mid-1960s that left half a million dead. The U.S. government looked the other way because Indonesia was regarded as an anti-communist ally during the Cold War. Suharto, the general who emerged from obscurity to rule Indonesia with an iron fist after brutally suppressing a 1965 communist uprising, died Sunday in Jakarta at age 86. The former president, who was forced out of office 10 years ago after three decades in power, entered the hospital Jan. 4 after his heart, kidneys and lungs weakened. Doctors prolonged his life through dialysis and a ventilator, but he stopped breathing on his own overnight before slipping into a coma Sunday. He was declared dead at 1:10 p.m. when his heart stopped. The cause of death was multiple organ failure, Chief Presidential Dr. Marjo Subiandono said. \"My father passed away peacefully,\" sobbed Suharto's eldest daughter, Tutut. \"May God bless him and forgive all of his mistakes.\" Suharto's regime was widely regarded as one of most corrupt and brutal of the 20th century. He came to power after a group of left-wing army officers and leaders of the Indonesian Communist Party tried to seize control in Jakarta. Suharto narrowly escaped the fate of many of his fellow generals who were assassinated during the uprising. In the coming days, he rallied loyal troops and crushed the uprising, massacring hundreds of thousands in the process. Then-President Sukarno, who had led the sprawling archipelago nation to independence from the Netherlands in 1949, was weakened by the political crisis and Suharto deftly exploited the chaos. By March 1967, Suharto outmaneuvered Sukarno and took over the presidency. Sukarno died under house arrest three years later. During his years in office, Suharto brutally dealt with dissenters and was accused of siphoning off billions of dollars of state funds for himself, family and close associates. Even after leaving office, Suharto steadfastly rebuffed the allegations as \"empty talk.\" In 2004, however, he topped a \"most corrupt\" list put out by the nongovernmental organization, Transparency International, which said he had taken between $15 billion and $35 billion during his years in power. The Berlin-based group tracks corruption worldwide. The former strongman had been previously charged with graft but escaped prosecution when he was deemed too ill to stand trial. The deterioration in his health in the days before his death prompted some senior politicians and one of Suharto's daughters to call for all remaining legal proceedings against him to be dropped. During the Cold War, Suharto's anti-communist credentials made him a key U.S. ally; he enjoyed close relations with several U.S. administrations. In 2001, declassified documents confirmed a long-held suspicion that in a December 1975 meeting with President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Suharto was given the green light to invade the breakaway region of East Timor. Suharto also forged secret agreements with Washington to share intelligence and allow U.S. nuclear submarines passage through key sea lanes around Indonesia. By 1997, a meltdown in Asian currencies sent economic shockwaves through the region, and Indonesia's rupiah was among the hardest hit. Years of pent-up anger against Suharto's regime boiled over into the streets of Jakarta and by 1998, the capital was wracked by riots amid a collapsing economy. Still, Suharto clung to power, running unopposed for reelection in March 1998. The sham vote sparked further protests and dissention within Suharto's own Golkar party. To avoid a potential civil war, Suharto agreed in May 1998 to step down and hand power to his deputy, B.J. Habibie. Since stepping down as president, Suharto had lived a quiet and secluded life in a leafy Jakarta suburb, rarely venturing from his mansion. Despite the brutality of his rise and years in power, Suharto did preside over unprecedented growth in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. That has led many to suggest that his legacy comprise equal doses of praise and criticism. \"He brought Indonesia into modern world,\" said Dewi Fortuna Anwar, a professor at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. Salim Said, a political analyst said that, as a young man, he saw first-hand the rapid economic progress spawned by Suharto's policies, but the other side of the leader \"enriched himself, as well as his cronies.\" \"That is the black part, (the) dark part of Suharto,\" he said. With additional reporting from NPR's Michael Sullivan and The Associated Press.", "-- Host Bob Edwards talks with Jeffrey Winters, a political science professor at Northwestern University, about the effects monetary reforms might have on Indonesia's economy and business practices. President Suharto agreed to the reforms last month, in exchange for a 43-billion-dollar bailout from the International Monetary Fund.", "NPR's Eric Weiner reports from Jakarta on the campaign to win Indonesia's upcoming presidential election. The \"Democratic Party for Struggle\" won a general election in June. But their leader is by NO means guaranteed to win the presidency. The president will be chosen by a 700-member legislature, many of whom are still loyal to former President Suharto's Golkar party. Suharto was forced to resign last year.", "NPR's Michael Sullivan reports that the Indonesian military is under increasing pressure to get out of politics and stick to the business of defense. Under what is known as \"dual function,\" the military holds a certain number of seats in the national assembly as well as some governorships. But critics, citing human rights abuses by the powerful military under former President Suharto, demand change. Analysts predict the military WILL lose some assembly seats in the re-distribution next month but say the military will not get out of politics altogether.", "Jakarta Gov. Joko Widodo won 53 percent of the vote in Indonesia's presidential election, according to a final tally released Tuesday by the country's Election Commission. Widodo, a former furniture maker who entered national politics only two years ago, received 70,997,859 votes of the nearly 133 million valid ballots cast; his rival former Gen. Prabowo Subianto, received 46.85 percent of the votes. Turnout was high — nearly 71 percent. The figures were reported by The Associated Press. But just before Tuesday's results were announced, Subianto said he was withdrawing from the election, calling it unfair and undemocratic. As we told you earlier this month, Widodo, who is widely known as Jokowi, claimed victory citing early results in the world's most populous Muslim nation. NPR's Anthony Kuhn profiled the former furniture salesman in December 2012. Here's what he said: \"Jokowi built his political track record as mayor of the Javanese city of Surakarta. He won the Jakarta gubernatorial election with a populist touch and an effective social media campaign.\" The AP noted at the time that Widodo is the first presidential candidate with no connection to former dictator Suharto's 1966-'98 regime. \"Widodo's appeal is that despite a lack of experience in national politics, he is seen as a man of the people who wants to advance democratic reforms and is untainted by the often corrupt military and business elite that has run Indonesia for decades,\" the news agency said. By contrast, it noted, Subianto was a former Suharto-era general with \"a dubious human rights record during his military career.\"", "Robert talks with Dennis DeTray, the director of the World Bank's Indonesia Program. They discuss the food shortages in financially-strapped Indonesia, and how those shortages could ultimately threaten President Suharto's regime.", "NPR's Vicki O'Hara reports on allegations that campaign contribuitions to President Clinton by a wealthy Indonesian family may have been illegal. In Indonesia, the contributions would be perceived as business as usual. But in the U-S, they have prompted renewed calls for campaign finance reform.", "Indonesian President Joko Widodo took office a little more than 100 days ago, buoyed by sky-high expectations for political change. He's seen as very different from the strongmen and power brokers who have dominated the country for decades. And he's certainly unconventional. He's an avid fan of heavy metal groups like Metallica and Megadeth. He's been photographed wearing black Napalm Death T-shirts and flashing the \"devil's horns\" hand sign. But some of his supporters are dismayed by the unexpectedly strong stance he has taken in favor of the death penalty. Last month, Indonesia executed six convicted drug traffickers — five of them foreigners — by firing squad. Two Australians and a British grandmother are among the foreigners still on Indonesia's death row. So far, Jokowi, as he's known in Indonesia, has refused all appeals for clemency. Before being elected president, Jokowi served as a mayor and governor with a solid track record of listening to his constituents and delivering services. He promised accountability for the human rights abuses under Gen. Suharto's military dictatorship, which ended in 1998. Suharto presided over the killing of up to a million suspected communists and their sympathizers in the mid-1960s. In the elections last November, Jokowi beat Prabowo Subianto, a former general who was accused of human rights violations under military rule. No Mercy In The War On Drugs As a declared metal head, Jokowi and his supporters celebrated their election win at a rock concert headlined by Indonesian metal band Slank. Now one of his favorite bands, Napalm Death, is appealing to him over the death penalty cases. Mark \"Barney\" Greenway, front man of the British-based band, wrote to Jokowi, asking him to scrap the death penalty and spare the lives of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. The two Australians, along with Briton Lindsay Sandiford, are currently on death row after being convicted of smuggling heroin onto the resort island of Bali. \"Capital punishment is revenge culture, it's not justice culture,\" Greenway explained by phone while on tour in Canada. \"And I think it doesn't break the cycle of violence, whether it's from the state or an individual.\" Jokowi has yet to respond to Greenway's request. But the president says he intends to show no mercy in his war on drugs, which he says are killing up to 50 Indonesians a day. Andreas Harsono, a researcher with the group Human Rights watch, says the accuracy of that statistic is suspect, as is Jokowi's attempt to look tough on law and order issues. \"It is easier for him to execute these foreign drug traffickers — who are basically weak people, they're not drug barons — rather than dealing with legal reform,\" Harsono says. A Political Outsider The fact that Jokowi is a political outsider, a positive in the minds of many ordinary Indonesians, also has a serious downside. \"He is politically the weakest post-Suharto president,\" Harsono says. \"Why? He is not in control of his own party. And his ruling coalition is not controlling the majority in parliament.\" Rafendi Djamin, who represents Indonesia on the Southeast Asian Association of Nations Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, argues that Jokowi should start by tackling official corruption, which is part of Indonesia's drug problem. That corruption, he adds, also raises the possibility of fatal miscarriages of justice when the death penalty is applied. \"There are very serious flaws in our judiciary, Rafendi says. \"We are still working on it. And with this flawed judiciary, you believe you are not, you know, killing the wrong people? This is the tragedy of our society now.\" Rafendi says that Jokowi's move is basically a populist play, as the majority of Indonesians support the death penalty. But he adds that Indonesia has been moving fitfully toward a moratorium on the death penalty. \"We are joining the international community,\" he says, \"thinking seriously in becoming a human, civilized world to actually eliminate the death penalty as a form of punishment.\" There are 133 people still on Indonesia's death row, 57 of them convicted of drug crimes. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Indonesia's president Joko Widodo took office just over a hundred days ago amid expectations for political reform and human rights. But Jokowi, as he is often known there, has taken an unexpectedly strong stand in favor of the death penalty. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Jakarta that this has dismayed some Indonesian human rights advocates, foreign governments and one very loud heavy metal band. ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Jokowi brought hope to many Indonesians because he's different. He's not a military strongman or powerbroker like his predecessors. Instead, he was a mayor with a solid track record of providing urban services. He's promised accountability for the human rights abuses under General Suharto's military dictatorship, which ended in 1998. And, he's a fan of heavy metal music. One of his favorite bands is the U.K. group N", "-- NPR's Julie McCarthy reports on the latest developments in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Anti-Suharto protests intensified upon the return of the country's president from Cairo last Friday, and this morning House Speaker Harmoko has formally advised the 76-year-old leader to step down.", "Following a fierce presidential battle in Indonesia, both candidates — Jakarta Gov. Joko \"Jokowi\" Widodo and his rival, former Gen. Prabowo Subianto — are declaring victory. Official results won't come out for another two weeks. The vote marks the country's third direct presidential election since Suharto, Indonesia's last dictator, was ousted in 1998. Nearly two decades after his brutal rule, how does the world's third-largest democracy fare in terms of global health and development markers?" ]

[ "HarlemRenaissancePoets - Example It was during this time that he wrote his first \"jazz poem\" (\"Hughes\"), a lively, free form, ... He had more interest in the neighborhood of Harlem than school, so he left to ... as a \"new negro poet\" by the poet Vachel Lindsay, who helped him get published. ... The poem, \"The Negro Speaks of Rivers,\" became his signature piece.", "Selected Poetry Langston Hughes 19021967 whom literature had generally ignored. ... grade, when his classmates elected him ... The Negro Speaks of Rivers. ... took a job busing tables at a hotel restaurant. One day Vachel Lindsay, a well- ... reported Lindsay's discovery of the ... A year later, Hughes published his first ... Hughes kept his language direct; he made.", "Langston Hughes Langston Hughes He wrote about common people in ordinary jobs, people who experienced just as ... his father urged him to go to an international school and learn a more manly trade. ... time he already had published The Negro Speaks of Rivers in The Crisis, the ... Poet Vachel Lindsay was dining in the restaurant one night and Hughes...", "Langston Hughes Timeline of Important Dates - Shmoop Hughes's parents split up when he is very young, and his father moves to Mexico. ... On the train to see him, Hughes pens the poem \"The Negro Speaks of Rivers. ... tables at the Wardman Park Hotel, Hughes notices the poet Vachel Lindsay dining ... Hughes's second poetry collection, Fine Clothes to the Jew, is published.", "The Negro Speaks of Rivers - Dictionary definition of The Negro ... Written when he was only 19, The Negro Speaks of Rivers treats themes Hughes ... In May and August of 1925 Hughes's verse earned him literary prizes from both ... of poet Vachel Lindsay by placing three of his poems on Lindsay's dinner table. ... By asserting that he has known rivers ancient as the world, the speaker..." ]

[ "Vachel Lindsay - Wikipedia Nicholas Vachel Lindsay was an American poet. He is considered a founder of modern singing ... Lindsay was born in Springfield, Illinois where his father, Vachel Thomas Lindsay, worked as a medical ... In his 1914 poem \"Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight (In Springfield, Illinois)\", Lindsay specifically places Lincoln in...", "Vachel Lindsay - Wikipedia Nicholas Vachel Lindsay was an American poet. He is considered a founder of modern singing poetry, as he referred to it, ..... this poem (with a couple of additional text alterations) shortly after its publication; \"In Praise of Johnny Appleseed\"...", "Vachel Lindsay - PoemHunter.com Vachel Lindsay. - poems -. Publication Date: 2004. Publisher: PoemHunter.Com - The World's Poetry Archive. Page 2. www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive ...... I watched his wandering hands .... In Praise of Songs that Die.", "Jeopary Questions page 2164 - AMERICAN LITERATURE ... AMERICAN LITERATURE: This legendary fruit tree planter was the subject of a work by Vachel Lindsay .... NEW YORK CITY MAYORS: Mayor George McClellan was subjected to scathing newspaper attacks when running against this mogul.", "Jeopary Questions page 2164 - AMERICAN LITERATURE ... AMERICAN LITERATURE: This legendary fruit tree planter was the subject of a work by Vachel Lindsay RUNNING ON \"M.T.\": He was always \"A-Team\" player.", "September 12, 2008 ... gland is inside this organ brain Best known for \"Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight\", he published at least a dozen volumes of poems Vachel Lindsay;Lindsay...", "King, Stoddard (1889-1933) - HistoryLink.org Oct 28, 2014 ... Poet Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931) and King mutually admired, promoted, ... from around the nation in praise of his personal charm and his humorous books of verse. ... Soldiers and entertainers including Enrico Caruso (1873-1921) and .... The poem ends by wondering whether \"he / Is as solicitous of me.", "J! Archive - Show #5027, aired 2006-06-20 A 1921 poem by Vachel Lindsay was \"In Praise of\" this wandering planter. $400, 21. 1970s bodybuilding documentary & Avengers member...", "W. E. B. Du Bois - Wikipedia William Edward Burghardt \"W. E. B.\" Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights ..... Du Bois soon founded and edited another vehicle for his polemics, The .... He accepted the job in the summer of 1910, and moved to New York after ... was editing the NAACP's monthly magazine, which he named The Crisis.", "Jeopary Questions page 1704 - MOVIE TITLE NAMES - TriviaBistro ... LITERARY JOHNS: A 1921 poem by Vachel Lindsay was \"In Praise of\" this wandering planter BRANDS: Yuban says it's 100% this type of coffee.", "This legendary fruit tree planter was the subject of a work by Vachel ... Jun 29, 2016 ... This legendary fruit tree planter was the subject of a work by Vachel Lindsay # Quiz # Question. video. 0:28 0 likes, 0 dislikes. No views.", "Three Kinds of Deception | This American Life Dec 15, 2000 ... By Date From the radio archives; By Tag Organized lists; By Contributor Listen ... Greenwich Country Club the only way they'd allow a black man like him: as a busboy. ... the dishes insteadso invisible that people make racist remarks right in front of him. ... The story's from his book Me Talk Pretty One Day.", "Tom Wolfe - The Greatest Literature of All Time - Editor Eric But, the thing is, Tom Wolfe does have an uncanny ability to show people's lives this way. ... and Harlem in The Bonfire of the Vanities, his first novel two decades later. ... The editor ran the mix of reportage and subjectivity as it was, under the title ... a book-length account of author and LSD-advocate Ken Kesey's adventures...", "Alice Malsenior Walker - Biography in Context - Gale Nov 4, 2005 ... My Library: Indian River State College; Gale Databases .... teacher in the Black Studies program at Jackson State College (1968-1969) and Tougaloo College (1970-1971). ... She then moved north and taught at Wellesley College and the ... Walker's third novel, The Color Purple was published in 1982, and...", "Chapter 16. Lewis, Sinclair. 1922. Babbitt - Bartleby.com Nothing gave Babbitt more purification and publicity than his labors for the Sunday School. ... short little pants for the children of the poor while Mrs. Drew read aloud from earnest novels. ... burglary or used cocaine or had mistresses or sold non-existent real estate, ... If you had studied your lesson you wouldn't be so fidgety.", "Tom Wolfe - Wikipedia Thomas Kennerly \"Tom\" Wolfe, Jr. (born March 2, 1931) is an American author and journalist, ... His first novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, published in 1987, was met with ... The very title of Wolfe's undergraduate thesis, \"A Zoo Full of Zebras: ... More specifically, Wolfe experimented with four literary devices not normally...", "There Was an Old Derry Down Derry, Who Loved to Make - Digital ... ral history on his own, wrote poetry, and began to earn his own way by making ... friends, \"The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo,\" \"The Pobble Who Has.", "William Harvey - Biography, Facts and Pictures - Famous Scientists William Harvey was the first person to correctly describe blood's circulation in the body. ... He showed that arteries and veins form a complete circuit. ... (Interestingly, when Harvey arrived in Padua, Galileo Galilei had already been there for ... Fabricius had discovered valves in human veins in 1574, although he did not...", "Johnny Appleseed | American History Lives at American Heritage Vachel Lindsay, In Praise of Johnny Appleseed. ... But, legendary walker that he was, he is fabled as much for abusing his feet as for sporting tin pots on his head or cardboard headgear. ... somebody jumped one of his land claims, his main concern seemed to be whether they would still let him take care of his apple trees.", "Spectacles of Well Known People in History (Part Five) Any discoveries in this realm would be considered world-class treasures and if objects of this ... He eventually commanded all Confederate armies as general-in-chief. ... Two pair of spectacles with their cases, at the Library of Congress. .... and humanist, his most famous work is the collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass.", "History of the Periodic Table - Royal Society of Chemistry Incidentally, although he is often regarded as the father of the Periodic Table, ... only did he leave spaces for elements that were not yet discovered but he predicted ... predictions had been incorrect but fortunately for him three of these missing ... an element, atomic number 101, has been named after Mendeleev, an even...", "pausanias 9. 23 - 40 - Theoi Greek Mythology When his reputation had already spread throughout Greece he was raised to a greater ... Immediately on waking out of her sleep she wrote down all she had heard him singing in her dream. ... There is here too a cool stream of water rising from a rock. ... Crossing the river you reach the ruins of the house of Pindar, and a...", "FolkWorks - PAUL ROBESON AND THE JEWS They took life as slave songs, which Robeson learned from his father. ... Indeed, by the time the civil rights movement reached its crest at the 1963 March on ... Jerome Kern wrote, and here she pounded the keyboard, \"Bom, bom, bom bom,\" ... I must keep fighting until I'm dying, for Old Man River he just keeps rolling along.", "Manaus - Wikipedia Manaus or Manas before 1939 or (formerly) Lugar de Barra do Rio Negro, is the capital city of the state of Amazonas in the North Region of Brazil. It is situated at the confluence of the Negro and Solimes rivers. ... The Solimes and Negro rivers meet in Manaus and join to form the Amazon River (using the Brazilian...", "Carl Sandburg - United States History He left school after his eighth-grade year and, at the age of 13, became a day laborer. ... who not only encouraged Sandburg's writing, but paid for publication of his first ... where, in 1917, he became an editorial writer for the Chicago Daily News. ... With the printing of his Chicago Poems (1916), Cornhuskers (1918), Smoke...", "Amazon River - Wikipedia The Amazon River in South America is the largest river by discharge of water in the world, and ... The Amazon enters Brazil with only one-fifth of the flow it finally discharges into the Atlantic Ocean, yet already ..... Near the mouth of the Rio Negro to Serpa, nearly opposite the river Madeira, the banks of the Amazon are low,...", "The Poetry of R.E. Slater: Carl Sandburg - Biography & Poems Oct 26, 2011 ... Carl Sandburg, 1955 ... This successful book propelled Mr. Sandburg's career as a poet and an author. .... Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Iowa, and works on railroad section gang, as farmhand, as dishwasher .... Chicago Poems, Holt, 1916, reprinted, Dover, 1994. ... Prairie-Town Boy, Harcourt, Brace, 1955.", "Whitman Making Books/Books Making Whitman: A Catalog and ... He became a journeyman printer in Manhattan in the mid-1830s while still a teenager. ... Whitman, later in his life, recalled how much he \"liked printing\" in those days ... Major historical events like the Civil War and Reconstruction had a visible ... When he published his Civil War poems in a separate book called Drum-Taps,...", "Jeopary Questions page 2181 - LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION ... NONFICTION: Famous for his \"Filmgoer's Companion\", he also wrote an autobiography, \"Seats in All Parts\" HOT WATER: From old Norse for \"gush\", these...", "Development of the periodic table - Royal Society of Chemistry Discover the key scientists behind the periodic table including Dmitri ... The modern periodic table lists the elements in order of increasing atomic number (the ... of the table that we would recognise today, but does he deserve all the credit? .... but element 101 was named Mendelevium after him, an even rarer distinction.", "'Spoon River' voices speak from grave for a century; who's still ... Nov 30, 2015 ... \"Spoon River Anthology,\" a collection of 244 poems, was published ... \"When his book first came out, Masters' own mother was on the ... In his early 20s, he left for Chicago to practice law and to write. Initially, some poems that ended up in \"Anthology\" were published under the pseudonym Webster Ford in...", "THE JOYS OF READING - NYTimes.com May 16, 1982 ... He continued down the Ohio to the Mississippi at Cairo, Ill., and down ... Search All NYTimes.com ... I had found the Homewood Library, stumbled across ''The Field Book ... I never saw her there, but I did see Henry, my grandmother's chauffeur. ... Mark Twain accused Andrew Carnegie of purchasing fame." ]

[ "And some vanilla, raspberry and strawberry artificial flavourings. Who ate beaver ass and thought mmmm raspberry?" ]

[ "SOMEBODY cares how you feel.", "But if you prepare yourself for that do you even belived they were gonna come true ? And did you give up on you goals how did it go?", "Why did you have me if you didn't have any idea about how to be parents?", "I will show the world of 1912 a modern penny", "What a Wonderful World", "Everybody is lovely, even if you might not feel like it, I'm sure you make somebody's day when you show up!", "Doesn't make sense. In Harry's world, if you weren't a wizard, you likely have no idea about dark wizards or how to deal with them. If you knew something, the best the wizarding world expects from you is not to involve more muggles and pretend you don't know much.", "It was cruel. There was no technology, no modern inventions, only metalworkings. Many people were burnt to death in the name of religion.", "We're explicitly talking about world domination, world leaders are gonna come up", "Somebody once told me, the world is gonna roll me", "Why did you come here?", "Welcome to the wonderful world of YouTube advertising", "How much meth did you have to make to go to jail for 11 years?", "\"Somebody\" ONCE TOLD ME THAT THE WORLD WAS GONNA RULE ME!", "HOW DID YOU KNOW!?", "Becaus the world is a harsh harsh place and no mater how mean I am the world will come upnwith something worse.", "I wonder how they got that stat. Like did they measure themselves or did they just trust alot of people sending in info? Lol.", "Taking a break? Account got compromised? Died?\n\nMakes you wonder how many accounts on Reddit belong to dead people.", "because the rest of the world isn't nice and loving either, dude.\n\nat the end of the day, somebody has to stand up for what's right.", "Just try and make their world a little better than the one you grew up in", "It might seem like a waste of time if you expect a thank you, but you contribute to making the world a little bit better which is never a waste of time.", "Because, someBODY once told me, the world is gonna roll me...", "The problem is not a problem, the problem is your attitude about the problem.\n\nBut seriously, everyone's have their own personal world and you're in no place to judge how minor somebody's problem look for you.", "Well somebody has to make quiche no matter how many people hate quiche some folks enjoy it.", "How did you know?", "I bet you did Nazi this coming", "How did it turn out for you?", "“Makes you wish it did.”", "He'd probably wonder about it for a bit then wonder off.\n\nNow if somebody shot him with the glock, he would react by ceasing to exist either right then and there or eventually.", "Wonder what they did to deserve their kicking this time.", "Dude that’s not happening \n\nYou have no idea how difficult it is to make a major shift like that in the American government, especially in 4 years", "Hey man if you feel depressed you should talk to somebody. Better times will come eventually, but you have to be there to see it." ]

[ "JavaScript everywhere" ]

[ "term paper", "long term", "Trinity term / Easter term", "to explore what it means to be in two places at once", "Terms of Endearment", "two terms", "terms of trade", "A term of office", "The Meaning of Love", "biochemical means", "term limits", "means tested", "life terms", "rolling mean", "physical means", "contractual terms", "The Golden Mean", "a term deposit", "mean motion", "academic term", "population mean", "The Meaning of Life", "This Means War", "mechanical means", "Mean Girls", "by means of friction", "Carey Means", "mean or average", "What's Up?", "Russell Means", "What a Friend", "the arithmetic mean" ]

[ "Abstract The article proposes a generalized high cycle fatigue evaluation methodology for solder joints based on a local stress finite element method (FEM) and compares with experimental results. A method to predict the damage initiation of surface mount technology (SMT) solder joints is accomplished in this article by making use of generic coupon level SAC387 solder specimens. High cycle fatigue (HCF) experiments conducted on generic solder specimens are followed by means of FKM guidelines, which are translated to microelectronic elements for the first time. The FEM predicted lifetime values of solder joints agree with the experimental results performed on SMT components. In addition, the overall results show that the predicted values act as a threshold damage line from which the solder joint failure regimes can be differentiated. The results also show the differences in the predicted damage line and failure line for SMT solder joints." ]

[ "A mechanical reliability of the solder joints is a serious concern. Intermetallic compounds are formed during reflow process between solder and electrical pads and gradually grow in service. Due to it's brittle manner, the reliability of solder joints are supposed to degenerate. By using the Cu-plates on which Cu or Ni or Ni+Au plating was deposited, and solders (Sn-Pb solders or Sn-Ag-Cu solders), specimens of solder joints were fabricated. After aging it in an isothermal chamber, tensile tests were performed and the relationships between solder joint strength and aging period were considered. From SEM microscope observation and EDX microprobe analysis, the growth and components of the intermetallic compounds layer were examined. To investigate the stress condition on the solder joint interface, the finite element analysis was also carried out.", "The scope of the paper is to present the result of the determination of mechanical material properties of a SAC based solder at high strain rates. Miniature bulk specimens which have a diameter comparable to BGA joints are used to investigate the solder behaviour experimentally. Stress and strain data are recorded at high strain rates using a high resolution tensile test setup. Explicit FEM methodology enables the FEM analysis of this kind of highly dynamic scenario and is therefore used for the evaluation of the recorded data. The material parameters of a material model covering the strain rate dependency of the solder behaviour are derived. Finally conclusions for the mechanical behaviour of the used SAC solder alloy under high strain rate loads will be drawn.", "The thermo-mechanical behavior of near eutectic lead-free SnAgCu (SAC) solder joints under Deep Thermal Cycling (DTC) and in-situ thermal loading was examined. Crossed polarizer, optical microscopy revealed that in ball grid array (BGA) solder joints, these Sn rich, Pb-free solders exhibit large grained Sn structures. After imaging, these SnAgCu solder joints were subjected to repeated thermal stresses under an inert atmosphere. Subsequent to this thermal loading, the samples were again examined with optical microscopy. Using both data sets, the intergrain strains and deformations were quantified by Digital image correlation, a full field optical measurement technique. The relations between the positions of grains as well as intermetallics compounds, their boundaries and Sn deformation fields were examined.© 2005 ASME", "Derivations of the triaxial state of stress and relative strain rate within the solder agree with the types of strengthening found in soft lead-tin solder butt joints. But for the dental gold casting alloys and hard gold solders tested, joint strengths were only influenced by porosity and not by size or rate of testing.", "The creep analyses of solder-bumped wafer-level chip-scale package (WLCSP) on printed circuit board (PCB) subjected to temperature cycling loading are presented. Emphasis is placed on the effects of PCB thickness on the solder joint reliability of the WLCSP assembly. Also, the effects of crack-length on the crack tip characteristics such as the J-integral in the WLCSP solder joint are studied by the fracture mechanics method. Finally, the effects of voids on the crack growth in the WLCSP solder joint are investigated.Copyright © 2002 by ASME", "Abstract Thermal stresses in aluminum-to-composite, symmetric, double-lap joints are studied using a three-dimensional variational, finite element analysis technique. The joint configuration considers aluminum adherend in combination with four different unidirectional laminated composite adherends subjected to uniform temperature loading. When the free expansion of the joint was permitted the aluminum plate had much higher magnitude of the thermal stresses for the cases when the upper adherends were either boron/epoxy or graphite/epoxy composite laminates as compared to the cases when the upper adherends were either glass/epoxy or the GLARE ™ laminates. When the joint was restrained against its free expansion in the inplane coordinate directions the magnitudes of the inplane stress components in the lower aluminum adherend and the upper boron/epoxy adherend increased many fold. In this case both the joint corners were found to be critical regions for debonding initiation.", "Nanoindentation tests were conducted on lead-free solders of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu,Sn-0.7Cu and Sn-3.5Ag to investigate the strain rate sensitivity at room temperature.For the lead-free solders,indentation load under the same indentation depth increases with increasing loading strain rate.The contact stiffness during loading increases with indentation depth approximatively linearly,and the elastic modulus of the lead-free solders under different strain rates basically remains unchanged.The hardness increases as strain rate increases,indicating the strain rate hardening effect of viscous solders.During the holding stage,creep displacement increases with increasing strain rate during loading,while the creep strain rate firstly declines sharply and then stabilizes.Effects of stain rate on the mechanical properties of lead-free solders was systematically studied,providing valuable information for the reliability evaluation of lead-free solder joints in the service process.", "Thermal cycle tests for solder joints of electronic devices are generally performed to investigate their reliability under field service (design) conditions. It is important to clear a relationship between an accelerated test condition and a service condition and to determine a practical accelerated test condition. The relationship between an accelerated test condition and a service condition is explained by use of the solder joint fatigue curve. An accelerated reliability test condition is shown taking account of several factors such as a number of test samples, strain ranges of solder joints under accelerated test temperatures conditions, standard variations of fatigue life of solder joints, reliability and confidence level of devices under service conditions. Moreover, the cases that the standard deviation of fatigue life is known or unknown are investigated. A specific analytical and experimental result for single outline packages is shown.", "The fracture strengths of thin solder joints were investigated experimentally and with Finite Element Analysis. Due to a constraining effect, thin solder joints can carry loads which are much higher than the ultimate tensile strength of bulk solder material. On the other hand, thin solder joints show a tendency of being brittle. In fact, the tensile properties show a dependence on the quality of the intermetallic compound at the interface to the base material. Consequently, the size of microscopic defects in the intermetallic compound has a dominant influence on the fracture stress. This behavior could nicely be explained with Finite Element simulations based on strain gradient elasticity.", "According random theory, a random fatigue semi - experimental model of SMT solder joint in random vibration condition is created. Compared with random vibration test results of Ref. Its results is good e-nough to predict solder joints' fatigue.", "The mechanical properties performance of SnSb8.5 welding wire which is a kind of Pb-free material has been studied.Because its deformation is big and is tested in mid-temperature environment,normal extensometer isn't suit to test it.For these,we discussed a method called Digital Speckle Correlation Method of non-contact strain measurement.DSCM has its own advantages of full-field,high-accuracy and easy-operate.We apply DSCM to strain test of SnSb8.5 Pb-free solder wire in mid-temperature environment.The method is proved to be reliable by experiment first.Then,we apply DSCM to testing mechanical property of SnSb8.5 solder wire in mid-temperature environment.Finally, we get the stress and strain data successfully that will offer theory basis for wide application of Pb-free material.", "Fatigue failure of wire-bonds is one of the key factors limiting the lifetime of power electronic devices. In IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor) modules, wire-bonds are exposed to repeated temperature changes leading to thermo-mechanical stresses in the constituent materials. Due to the geometry, stress concentrations arise at the interfaces of aluminum wires and silicon chips. In the framework of classical continuum mechanics, these stress concentrations show the characteristics of stress singularities. Nevertheless, IGBT modules reach lifetimes of about 30 years under service conditions. Therefore, it seems that classical continuum mechanics exaggerates the stress concentrations occurring at the material transitions. Hence, it is the subject of the present investigation to calculate more realistic stress distributions using a novel strain gradient theory.", "The increasing integration of power electronic systems in highly stressed spaces to reduce interfaces, e.g. in the wheel hub or near the gearbox, leads to high demands for implemented electrical and mechanical components. To ensure field reliability new approaches predicting lifetime already in the development phase are necessary. The paper describes and applies a tool chain combining analytical, numerical and experimental methods to estimate the design life of an \"Inverter Building Block\" in a high-vibration environment. First, analytical models of bending beam and vibration theory are derived to pre-estimate its dynamic behavior. Second, a numerical model based on the finite element method is experimentally verified and power spectral density analysis applying standard loads are conducted. Third, a lifetime model referring to the linear damage accumulation thesis is implemented and compares the effects of different mounting scenarios in a passenger vehicle on the expected lifetime.", "Abstract A series of uniaxial and multiaxial ratcheting experiments have been conducted on 63Sn–37Pb solder alloys. It is shown that eutectic tin–lead solder is cyclic softening under uniaxial, pure torsional and axial/torsional ratcheting loading. Even low-level stress can cause high ratcheting strain. The rate of ratcheting strain remains steady and does not decay rapidly. Under constant axial stress and cyclic shear strain, the axial ratcheting strain and its rate rise with increase of the axial stress and shear strain range, but loading history and its sequence have no clear influence on the ratcheting behavior. The axial ratcheting strain rate is found to be strongly dependent on applied shear strain rates in axial/torsional ratcheting experiments. Axial ratcheting strain rates increase with decreasing shear strain rates.", "A stress analysis of superconducting solenoids is presented which includes a generalized plane strain (GPS) condition for the axial strain. The GPS condition is introduced on the assumption that the deformation of a solenoid from a right circular cylinder is small. The GPS assumption results in an analytic solution for all three components of stress and strain in a solenoid. The work is presented in the context of the historical development of stress analysis for solenoids. The general stress equations for a magnetic solenoid are formulated. The relationship between a right cylinder deformation and the generalized plane strain condition is examined for the physical conditions in the central region of a solenoid magnet. The general analytic solutions of the stress equations are given for the cases of magnetic and thermal loading. The constant coefficients are determined for cases of common interest in solenoid magnet design. The analytic results are compared with numerical analysis results for an example s...", "The response of elastic plastic solids (or structures) subjected to cyclic loads is investigated in the hypothesis of small displacements and trains. Results previously obtained by the author for temperature independent material data are reviewed and improved. These results include a variational method for the evaluation of the post transient residual stresses (i.e. residuals stresses at the end of the transient response), as well as a sensitivity analysis of the steady state response to the loads. Methods for analysing the plastic shakedown state are provided, including the direct determination of the border between the non ratchetting and ratchetting load domains. The above results are extended to materials with temperature dependent yield stress", "Double shear lap joints made with eutectic Sn–Ag solder were cooled from 270 °C at different rates ranging from air-cooling to iced-brine quenching. These joints were subjected to reversed stressing with constant shear strain amplitude at room temperature. Shear strain amplitudes between 0.75 and 1 were imposed during the course of this investigation. Role of microstructural features on the surface damage accumulation and stress–strain behavior was investigated as a function of shear strain amplitude and number of cycles of repeated stressing. Shear banding was found to be along Sn dendrites in air-cooled specimens, while it cut across the small Sn grains present in the quenched specimens.", "The paper proposes an engineering method for calculating the local principal stresses, elastic viscous plastic strains and energies in areas of concentration under prolonged stretching of structural elements. The example of using the method at short-term and prolonged stretching of the rod with a circular notch is considered. It is shown that increasing the duration of loading leads to an increase in local strains and energies, and it reduces the long-term strength of the rod.", "Abstract The prediction of the behaviour of pressurized cracked thin shells to static or fatigue fracture requires a definition of a crack parameter more general than the stress intensity factors, in order to take into account the local three-dimensional effects of the pressure which causes a local bulging in the cracked area. It is shown that the generalized strain energy release rate derived from an overall energetic balance is a parameter particularly suitable for this problem. Its expression for a non-linear elastic structure is derived and two experimental tests carried out on plates and shells cracked under pressure are described. This proof being obtained, this concept is used in an investigation of sub-structure of a cracked shell in order to estimate this effect of local bulging and to build-up a series of reference results.", "An approach developed to solve boundary-value stress problems for noncircular cylinders is used to analyze the stress state of elliptical cylinders in the case where their eccentricity and thickness change under uniform and local loads.", "In the study, a proprietary strain-controllable dynamic bending method was adopted to verify the memory package effects on the solder joint reliability in the PoP package, instead of electrical resistance monitoring in the JESD22-B111 using mechanical shock testing of package on board at a single shock pulse for handheld electronic device dropping simulation. Two test vehicles were designed for comparison. One is flip chip BGA as bottom package with memory package stacked on the top, another one is same flip chip BGA package.The PoP package with SnAgCu based interconnection on the bottom and top package underperformed same bottom flip chip BGA package in terms of solder joint life between package and PCB in the dynamic bending test, which illustrated the top memory package will affect adversely the solder joint reliability of bottom package.", "The knowledge of the residual stress field in the vicinity of the notch of shot peened fatigue specimens is of paramount importance to understand the fatigue resistance of components carrying stress raisers and subjected to surface treatments aimed at introducing compressive residual stresses. For this purpose, residual stresses were measured along the notch bisector using two experimental techniques, namely micro-XRD and FIB-DIC micro-slot cutting and micro-hole drilling. The measurements were used to reconstruct the residual stress field through FE analyses. The obtained results accord with both experimental techniques and indicate an increasing concentration of the longitudinal residual stress component with increasing sharpness of the notch. The proposed approach can be very useful to estimate the notch fatigue resistance of shot peened component on the basis of local stress and fracture mechanics approaches.", "The knowledge of the mechanical behavior is essential to predict the lifetime of components in order to avoid any sudden break in service. In this context arises our study which aims firstly to study the behavior of an ABS plate reliability(acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) artificially damaged and subjected to uniaxial tensile loading and with the aim to predict the lifetime and know the limits that must not be exceeded as this can cause failure. To measure the criticality of the damage we based this work on the theory of the unified damage, secondly to consider the stress concentration phenomenon in the sample in the presence of a discontinuity. We will also treat in this manuscript the evaluation of the stress intensity factor by an analytical calculation using the method of superposition about a combined defect. The results obtained in the light of this study allowed us to determine the different stages of damage and critical defect size which leads to the ruin of the structure.", "Flip-chip (FC) light-emitting diode (LED) filaments with a silver conductive layer are impeded by heat dissipation, with the flip-chip junction temperature of reaching up to 423.15 K. To overcome this problem, we simulated aging of SAC305 solder joints at a high temperature of 433.15 K. Scanning electron microscopy was performed to analyze the changes in the microstructure of the solder joints with aging time. Moreover, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy was performed to analyze changes in the element content of the solder joints with aging time. The shear force of solder joints was measured using a strength tester. Results revealed that the Ag/Au content of the solder joints increased under the high-temperature conditions, resulting in the formation of cracks and holes in the solder joints. Furthermore, the reliability of the FC LED filaments was affected by the maximum shear stress that can be tolerated by the solder joints.", "In this study, elastic analyses are carried out to investigate the effects of different rock joint inclinations (0°, 30°, 60°, 90°) and spacings (1 m, 4 m and 5 m) on the elastic behavior of the concrete gravity dam under static loading condition. Discrete element simulations are performed using UDEC (1993) for two specific static load combinations (LC-A and LC-B) as per Indian Standard: 6512 (1984). The orientations of the single joints in the rock masses are found to play vital roles regarding stress generation within the dam body. From the results, the magnitude of principal stresses is found to increase as the spacing between the joints decreases for all the rock foundations. The principal stresses are found higher in magnitude at heel of the dam than the toe under load combination A. However, for load combination B, the zone of stress concentration is observed to be more at toe than heel of the dam.", "The effect of temperature on isothermal fatigue of low-tin lead-based and lead-tin eutectic solders is discussed. The study was conducted at low strain ranges (0.3-1.0% total strain) in tests without and with hold time in the cycle. While temperature has almost no effect on the fatigue life of eutectic solder, the fatigue life of low-tin lead-based solder is a complex function of temperature. Extrapolation of fatigue data for this older was only possible in a 25-80 degrees C temperature range, using values of apparent activation energy for 25 to 45 kJ/mole depending on strain range, strain rate, and presence of hold time in the cycle. Variation in the values of activation energy was found to be associated with different failure modes under various testing conditions. Higher activation energy for the fatigue of low-tin lead-based solder was associated with mixed transgranular-intergranular failure. Failure in grain boundaries was characterized by lower values of activation energy. >", "Abstract In this paper the subjects of loads, load combinations, and behavior limits of metal containments are discussed, with all such discussions fully recognizing the prime importance of containment system safety. The load probabilities associated with both individual loads and load categories are dealt with and are used as a basis for a rational evaluation of those stresses allowed under ASME Code Section III Division 1 and other applicable USNRC Regulatory Guides. In addition, the author presents some current observations on the design of local stress areas and the limits of buckling behavior.", "The most commonly used lead-free solders contain large amounts of tin, which makes them incompatible with the conventional Cu-based underbump metallization (UBM) schemes. The tin in the solder reacts with the copper layer of the UBM, depleting the UBM of copper and causing loss of adhesion and a weak interface. Use of new under bump metallization schemes with Ni or CuNi alloys as the solderable layer were investigated in this study. Instead of Cr, a Tibased adhesion layer was used to decrease the amount of stress in the CuNi layer. Flip chip solder joints were made in which three Sn-Bi-Ag based lead-free solders were reflowed to several UBM pads of different compositions. The resulting interfacial microstructures were examined by SEM/EDX analysis of cross-sectioned samples. The joints were also mechanically tested in fatigue and shear to assess the quality and reliability of the interface.", "Abstract : This thesis investigates the mechanical behavior of the copper-solder interface when subjected to dynamic axial loads at strain rates between 10.0 s-1 and 0.05 s-1. The copper is alloy 101 and the lead-free solder has a composition of 96% tin and 4% silver. The tests results revealed that as the strain rate increases so do the ultimate and yield strengths but the elastic modulus diminishes. When the specimens were heated to 65.5 degrees Celsius, the ultimate and yield strengths were significantly lower. Specimens were also tested at varying strain rates to compare and contrast the differences with the single strain rate data. Analysis of the fracture strain of the single and multiple strain rate tests revealed that the fracture strain from multiple-strain rate loadings fell between the fracture strains of the two single-strain rates. From this observation, simple averaging could be utilized to predict the fracture strain when a copper-solder specimen was subjected to varying strain rates.", "In order to investigate whether the two fatigue processes, crack initiation and propagation, can be combined, and the change of local notch-root strain. And its history are measured as well as the change of local crack-tip strain and the local strain history of a fatigued element ahead of the propagating crack-tip up to failure in a polycarbonate subjected to low-cycle fatigue tests by the fine grid method. As a result, the existence of a unified local strain field where the two fatigue processes can be substantially combined is experimentally confirmed. Therefore, the local crack-tip strain may be examined by a simpler, one-parameter approach for fatigue life estimation.", "The local stress singularities for laminate composite material at concentrated loads are studied by the method of optical caustics. The parametric equations of the caustic and its initial curve surrounding the stress concentration zone are derived by the closedform elastic theoretical solutions and the principle of reflective caustics. Theoretical formulae for determining the relation between the concentrated load and the characteristic size of caustic curve are obtained. Theoretical caustics and initial curves for laminate orthotropic composites are then simulated and analyzed. To justify the numerical results, a reflective caustic experiment is performed to investigate the local stress singularities in braided carbon fibre/epoxy composites subjected to concentrated loading.", "ABSTRACT Reddy's layerwise theory is used to investigate analytically the interlaminar stresses near the free edges of general (unsymmetric and symmetric) cross-ply composite laminates with various boundary conditions subjected to mechanical and hygrothermal loadings. Laminates with finite dimensions are considered and full three-dimensional stresses in the interior and the boundary-layer regions are calculated. The results obtained from this theory are compared with those available in the literature. It is found that the theory can predict very accurately the stresses in the interior region and near the free edges of both finite and long laminates." ]

[ "Netanyahu Vs. the President—of Israel - The Daily Beast Bitter Rivalry Netanyahu Vs. the President—of Israel Israeli President Reuven Rivlin is a man of contradictions and a bitter rival of the prime minister’s. He is set to make a call that will determine the country’s future—and Netanyahu’s political career. Nira Yadin 03.16.15 9:15 AM ET The man who will ultimately determine who Israel’s next prime minister will be will get zero votes in the national elections on Tuesday. He is not running for office and no longer sits in parliament. Reuven “Ruvi” Rivlin, elected Israel’s 10th president eight months ago, now holds a largely ceremonial office and is no longer part of the legislature. Indeed, he has few key powers—but he’s about to exercise his most important one. A popular political hawk from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party for some 30 years, he was a bitter rival of the incumbent Israeli leader and falls to his right. He was a fierce opponent of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, remains firmly against the creation of a Palestinian state, and is a staunch defender of Israel’s settlement enterprise in the West Bank. Despite his unabashed nationalism, he also may be Israel’s most vocal and highest-ranking critic of anti-Arab racism and discrimination, a province generally left to Arab and left-wing politicians. Before he was president, as speaker of the Israeli parliament, he routinely voted against bills he deemed anti-democratic and harmful to Arabs, who make up 20 percent of the Israeli population. After the votes are counted on March 17, Rivlin will meet with the head of each party to receive his or her recommendation for prime minister, and will then decide which party leader to tap to assemble a coalition. Rivlin has already indicated that he will confer the task on the leader with the best prospects of forming a coalition and not necessarily the party with the highest number of seats. This is good news and bad news for Netanyahu, who seeks a fourth term as Israel’s prime minister. His ruling Likud party is falling behind in the polls but he retains the best chance of assembling a stable coalition. The Likud and its biggest rival, the center-left Zionist Union party led by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni, Israel’s former chief negotiator with the Palestinians, have been running neck and neck in recent weeks, but a most recent poll put the Likud at up to four seats behind its main opponent. However, the ruling party still has more natural allies among the far-right, center-right and religious parties and should still have an easier time than the Zionist Union assembling the 61 mandates out of 120 needed for a majority. But in the event of a close race, Rivlin is expected to call for a unity government, a nightmare scenario for Netanyahu who in a recent TV interview ruled out the option. Just three months ago Netanyahu called for early elections, claiming he was unable to govern due to ideological differences with his coalition partners, including Livni. In a unity government, Likud is set to weaken further and Netanyahu may regret the day he decided to dissolve Israel’s 19th Knesset less than two years after it took office. In a widely quoted but unconfirmed TV report, Rivlin is said to have indicated that he would ask the would-be unity government to push through legislation on electoral reform to amend the current system by which large parties must court smaller parties, often with opposing perspectives, to cobble together a coalition. We want to avoid “turning into Italy,” Rivlin is reported to have told a group of visitors, where elections are held even more often than in Israel. Though they are from the same party, Rivlin and Netanyahu have been bitter rivals and had a long history of locking horns. As a senior Likud politician, Rivlin was often defiant of Netanyahu, voting against bills backed by the prime minister even when coalition discipline was invoked, as was the case in 2013 when the government voted in favor of releasing convicted Palestinian terrorists as a gesture to Pales" ]

[ "Top 10 Most Famous Women Political Leaders by Ejaz Khan Politics they say is not a woman’s cup of tea, however there have been many who have proved this stereotyping statement wrong. If you do not agree, below is a list of ten women political leaders who have been very famous for their time in the politics. Let’s get started: 10. Golda Meir Belonging to Israel, Meyerson was a teacher and a politician who was later appointed as Israel’s fourth prime minister. She was elected Prime Minister of Israel on March 17, 1969, after serving as Minister of Labour and Foreign Minister. Israel’s first and the world’s third woman to hold such an office, she was described as the “Iron Lady” of Israeli politics years before the epithet became associated with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion used to call Meir “the best man in the government”; she was often portrayed as the “strong-willed, straight-talking, grey-bunned grandmother of the Jewish people”. 9. Dilma Rousseff The current and 36th president of Brazil, Rousseff is the first woman to hold the office. She was previously the Chief of Staff to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from 2005 to 2010. She is the daughter of a Bulgarian entrepreneur. Rousseff became a socialist during her youth, and following the 1964 coup d’état joined various left-wing and Marxist urban guerrilla groups that fought against the military dictatorship. She was eventually captured and jailed between 1970 and 1972. 8. Johanna Sigurdardottir She is the prime minister of Ireland. Sigurdardottir has also served as the minister of social affairs and security. This woman is also known to have become Iceland’s first prime minister and the world’s first openly lesbian head of government. In 2009, Forbes listed her among the 100 Most Powerful Women in the world. 7. Yingluck Shinawatra Nicknames as PU, Yingluck Shinawatra is a Thai businesswoman and politician, member of the Pheu Thai Party, the 28th and current Prime Minister of Thailand. She is Thailand’s first female Prime Minister and at 45 is the youngest Prime Minister of Thailand in over 60 years. 6. Sonia Gandhi As president of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi heads the ruling political party of the world’s second largest population. She is an Italian-born Indian politician. She is the widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi who belonged to the Nehru–Gandhi family. In 2013, Forbes listed her at #21 among the most powerful people, and was ranked as the world’s 9th most powerful woman. >> Political Leaders who were Assassinated . 5. Angela Merkel The world’s most powerful woman is the backbone of the 27-member European Union and carries the fate of the euro on her shoulders. Angela Merkel is a German politician and former research scientist, who has been the Chancellor of Germany since 2005 and the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 2000. She is the first woman to hold either office. She was ranked as the world’s second most powerful person by Forbes magazine in 2012, the highest ranking ever achieved by a woman, and is now ranked fifth. >> Powerful Female Politicians . 4. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf The 24th and current president of Liberia, Sirleaf is one of the founders of National Patriotic Front of Liberia. She is also famous for being the first female head of state in Africa. She was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakel Karman of Yemen. The women were recognized “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.” She was conferred the coveted Indira Gandhi Prize by President of India Pranab Mukherjee on 12 September 2013. 3. Isabel Martinez de Peron Former president of Argentina, better known as Isabel Martínez de Perón or Isabel Perón, spent a controversial life. She was the third wife of the former President, Juan Perón. During her husband’s third term as president from 1973 to 1974, Isabel served as both vice president and First Lady. Following her husb", "Jan Fischer: Europe's 1st Jewish president? - Jewish World - Jerusalem Post Jan Fischer: Europe's 1st Jewish president? ByJTA 09 January 2013 10:30 Czech 'Joe Liberman' is neck and neck in the polls with another former government head as nation holds first round of elections. Former Czech prime minister Jan Fischer 370. (photo credit:REUTERS/David W Cerny) PRAGUE -- If the pundits are correct, the Czech Republic may become the first European country to elect a Jewish president. Jan Fischer, 62, an understated former prime minister who led a caretaker government following a coalition collapse in 2009, is neck and neck in the polls with another former government head as the nation holds its first round of presidential elections on Friday and Saturday. Be the first to know - Join our Facebook page. The two front-runners advance to a runoff, and political prognosticators are predicting that Fischer will reach the second round. If elected, \"He's like our Joe Lieberman,” said Tomas Kraus, chairman of the Czech Federation of Jewish Communities, referring to the failed US vice presidential candidate. “Whether or not you support him, you can't help but be proud he has come this far.” Also in Jewish World: EJC head blasts 'Spiegel' writer for 'Israel hatred' Technically speaking, Europe has had a Jewish president: Ruth Dreifuss, who was president of the Swiss Confederation in 1999. But the Swiss presidency is a one-year rotating post, not a popularly elected position, and the president doesn't really have broader powers than the other members of the Swiss Federal Council. Europe has had other Jewish heads of government, aside from Fischer: Leon Blum, who was prime minister of France in the 1930s and '40s, and Austria's Bruno Kreisky, who served as prime minister from 1970 to 1983. Britain's Benjamin Disraeli came from Jewish stock, but his family converted out of the faith before he was born. Fischer, whose career highlights include running the Czech Statistical Office and serving as vice president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, slipped from first to second in the polls following a lackluster performance last week in a televised debate. His ascent from skilled technocrat to high-echelon politics -- and possibly to Prague Castle -- sheds light on the region's nuanced relationship with Judaism and Israel. Running on a platform promoting economic growth and political transparency, Fischer also is known for his pride in what he calls the Czech Republic’s “very friendly relations with Israel.” He noted that the Czech Republic was consistently one of Europe's most ardent supporters of Israel in times of crisis, a tradition dating back to the 1920s when the first Czechoslovak president, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, endorsed the creation of the Jewish state. More recently, the Czech Republic was among only a handful of countries in the world to vote against upgrading the Palestinians' status at the United Nations. Fischer thus finds it unnecessary to bluster in the same way as his chief presidential rival, Milos Zeman, who has declared his support for a preemptive strike against Iran. \"I have no need to demonstrate my friendly attitude towards Israel because everyone is familiar with it, so I don’t need to say something very strong,\" he told JTA in a wide-ranging interview, adding that he is well aware that \"Iran is the dark force in the region.\" Fischer’s professions of devotion to Israel weren't always so robust. Before the Communist regime collapsed in 1989, it was dangerous for anyone -- especially a government employee -- to sympathize with Israel because the authorities toed the Soviet anti-Zionist line. His upbringing is a case study of post-World War II Jewish life in Central Europe. His father survived Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps, and his mother was Catholic. He celebrated Czech Christmas and attended synagogue. “My father brought me to the synagogue for Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah and Purim,” Fischer recalled. “During Pesach we didn't organize a seder, but we did have matza", "BBC NEWS | Special Reports | Suez Crisis: Key players Special Reports Printable version Suez Crisis: Key players The Suez Crisis began on 26 July 1956 when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal. The move was in response to a decision by the United States and Britain to withdraw finance for the Aswan High Dam - a massive project to bring water to the Nile valley and electricity to develop Egypt's industry - because of Egypt's political and military ties to the Soviet Union. GAMAL ABDEL NASSER, EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT Gamal Abdel Nasser, a military man, was elected president of Egypt in 1956 after serving as Egypt's prime minister for two years. Nasser became a hero throughout the Arab world Previously, he had been the leader of the Free Officers Organisation - a group of soldiers who seized power in Egypt by toppling the British-backed monarchy and turning the country into a republic. It soon became clear that Colonel Nasser had broader goals than simple control in Egypt. He strove to put himself on top of the Arab nationalist movement that was gaining pace throughout the Arab world. During his first years in office, he played Western and Soviet powers off against each other to gain concessions for his country. In October 1955, Nasser signed a major arms deal with Czechoslovakia that threatened Israel's military superiority. Soviet strategy changes Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had also agreed to provide Nasser with more arms, marking a shift in Soviet policy. Stalin had never been interested in providing nationalists who were not Communists with arms. In his memoirs, Khrushchev says that at first, Nasser came across as a bourgeois Latin-American style dictator. The Czech arms deal angered the West and by way of punishment, Britain and the US withdrew an offer of financial aid to finance the building of the Aswan High Dam. The Egyptian president retaliated by taking control of the Suez Canal zone - the crucial shipping lane linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea - away from the British and French companies which owned it. Apart from finding an alternative way to fund the dam project, Nasser was keen to assert Egyptian independence. At the same time, as part of his ongoing struggle with Israel, Egyptian forces had blocked the Straits of Tiran, the narrow waterway that is Israel's only outlet to the Red Sea. The Suez move was popular both at home and throughout the Arab world. An electrifying speaker, Nasser was already admired by Arab nationalists. He had fought in the 1948 war with Israel and had demanded that the British leave bases and troops stationed in the Canal Zone. The Suez Crisis helped elevate him to hero status in the Arab world. Although Nasser was not banning freedom of passage through the canal - except for Israeli ships or foreign ships bound for Israel - he knew his move would provoke a strong reaction from the West. He was undeterred. Today, when many Arabs feel humiliated by Israel and the American superpower, there is a certain nostalgia for Nasserism. But to his critics, Nasser led the Arabs down a cul-de-sac by aligning Egypt with the Soviet Union. After the Suez crisis, the Soviets eagerly rushed in to provide the aid for the Aswan Dam that Egypt needed. Relying on Soviet aid, he built up a monolithic state-run economy - which his successors have ever since been struggling to demolish. ANTHONY EDEN, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Between the two world wars, Anthony Eden was the golden boy of British politics. He was charming, suave and handsome. Eden developed a personal animosity towards Nasser, comparing him with Mussolini and Hitler He first entered Parliament in 1923. He became Foreign Secretary in 1935 but resigned three years later in protest at what he saw as Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. He returned to the cabinet under Churchill's war leadership. When the Conservatives were elected in 1951, he became Churchill's foreign secretary again. He succeeded Churchill in 1955 and was a popular prime minister at first. A year later, he made what", "Henry A. (Heinz Alfred) Kissinger - People - Department History - Office of the Historian Henry A. (Heinz Alfred) Kissinger - People - Department History Biographies of the Secretaries of State: Henry A. (Heinz Alfred) Kissinger (1923–) Introduction Henry Alfred Kissinger was appointed Secretary of State on September 21 by President Richard M. Nixon and served in the position from September 23, 1973 to January 20, 1977. With his appointment, he became the first person ever to serve as both Secretary of State and National Security Adviser, a position he had held since President Nixon was sworn into office on January 20, 1969. However, on November 3, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford removed him from his National Security Adviser position while keeping him as Secretary of State. Henry A. Kissinger, 56th Secretary of State Rise to Prominence Kissinger was born as Heinz Alfred Kissinger in Germany. After the Nazis seized power, state sanctioned anti-Semitism made life for the Kissinger family, which was Jewish, very difficult. In 1938, Kissinger’s family immigrated to the United States and settled in New York, and Kissinger’s name was changed to Henry. During World War II, Kissinger became a naturalized citizen and served in the U.S. Army as a German interpreter. After the war, he attended Harvard University, earning a B.A. in 1950 and a Ph.D. in 1954. He stayed at Harvard to join the faculty and in 1957 he became the Associate Director of Harvard’s Department of Government and Center for International Affairs. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he served as a consultant to several government agencies, including the National Security Council’s Operations Coordinating Board, the Department of State, the Operations Research Office, and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. In 1968, President-elect Richard Nixon chose Kissinger to be his National Security Adviser. After working closely with Nixon during his first presidential term, Nixon decided to make an unprecedented move by appointing Kissinger as his new Secretary of State while also keeping him in the role of National Security adviser. Influence on American Diplomacy Kissinger entered the State Department just two weeks before Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel. The October War of 1973 played a major role in shaping Kissinger’s tenure as Secretary. First, he worked to ensure Israel received an airlift of U.S. military supplies. This airlift helped Israel turn the war in Israel’s favor, and it also led members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to initiate an oil embargo against the United States. After the implementation of a United Nation’s sponsored ceasefire, Kissinger began a series of “shuttle diplomacy” missions, in which he traveled between various Middle East capitals to reach disengagement agreements between the enemy combatants. These efforts produced an agreement in January 1974 between Egypt and Israel and in May 1974 between Syria and Israel. Additionally, Kissinger’s efforts contributed to OPEC’s decision to lift the embargo. On August 9, 1974, the Watergate scandal compelled President Nixon to resign, but Kissinger stayed on in his dual roles under President Gerald Ford. Kissinger helped Ford acclimate to the international scene and both men worked to continue policies implemented by Nixon and Kissinger", "What Happened in 1978 including Pop Culture, Prices, Events and Technology History of Mobile Phones is introduced in Illinois and Space Invaders appears in arcades Launching a Craze for Computer Video Games . Sweden is the first country in the world to recognize the effect of aerosol sprays on the Ozone Layer and bans the sale. The Serial killer David Berkowitz, \"Son of Sam,\" is convicted of murder after terrorizing New York for 12 months. 1978 is also a great year for movies with Grease summer opening on June 16th , Saturday Night Fever and Close Encounters of the Third Kind all showing in Movie Theatres around the world. Cost of Living 1978 Star Wars Family Pajamas $6.49 - $11.99 Marion, Ohio Ranch Home, 3 beds , den, 1 1/2 baths, double detached garage $24,500 What Events Happened in 1978 United States Egypt and Israel sign the Camp David Accords in an effort to secure peace between the two nations. More Information for the Camp David Accords Egypt and Israel sign the Camp David Accords, a crucial step in bringing peace to the two warring nations, during September of 1978. The terms of the accords were negotiated at Camp David during an important summit between the leaders of Egypt, Israel, and the United States. They were signed at the White House by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and United States President Jimmy Carter. The Camp David accords created a framework under which a peace treaty was agreed to during the following year ending a 31 year state of war between the two nations that had existed since the creation of the state of Israel. UK Public Service strikes in UK causes major disruption to all services U.S. US Teachers strike extend summer holidays for thousands of students Germany After nearly 30 years The Volkswagen Beetle stops production having manufactured 20 million cars World Worldwide Unemployment rises after several decades of near full employment World Gold reaches an all time high of $200.00 per ounce U.S. The US Dollar plunges to record low against many European currencies U.S. The Japanese car Imports account for half the US import market following the energy crisis and increase in fuel prices that fuels demand for economy cars European Union The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland Sweden Sweden becomes the first nation to ban aerosol sprays that are thought to damage earth's protective ozone layer. Rhodesia / Zimbabwe Rhodesia's prime minister Ian Smith and three black leaders agree on the transfer to black majority rule. France on the coast of Brittany. causing an ecological disaster with A slick 18 miles wide and 80 miles long covered about 200 miles (320 km) of Brittany coastline U.S. Serial killer David Berkowitz, the \"Son of Sam,\" is sentenced on June 12th to 25 years to life in prison U.S. The US stops production of the Neutron Bomb ( Kills People but leaves buildings and infrastructure standing ) U.S. The first Susan B. Anthony Dollar is minted on December 13th India Indira Ghandi faces fraud charges in India India India faces it's longest and worst monsoon season in modern times leaving 2 million homeless UK Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov assasinated by Bulgarian Secret Police using poisoned umbrella tip Iran Earthquake strikes Tabas, Iran and surrounding villages killing nearly 20,000 U.S. Roman Polanski flees to France in February 1978, hours before he was to be formally sentenced for rape and other charges against a child United States The first Garfield comic strip debuts in U.S. newspapers. More Information for Garfield. 1. The very first “Garfield” comic strip is published in 41 U.S. Newspapers during June of 1978. 2. Created by cartoonist Jim Davis, the comic strip focused on the life of a lazy and often sarcastic cat named “Garfield.” 3. The comic quickly grew in popularity and was featured in 100 newspapers only a year after its debut. 4. Featuring several other characters including Garfield’s owner John and the cat’s rival pet, a dog named Odie, t", "Israeli elections: Kadima emerges with most seats | World news | The Guardian Israeli elections 2009 Israeli elections: Kadima emerges with most seats Tzipi Livni's party holds 28 seats, one more than Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud, which is predicted to form coalition government Tzipi Livni, right, led her Kadima party to win 28 seats but Binyamin Netanyahu, left, is expected to govern Israel. Photograph: Reuters Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem, David Batty and agencies Thursday 12 February 2009 13.35 EST First published on Thursday 12 February 2009 13.35 EST Close This article is 7 years old Final results in Israel's general elections were announced today, confirming that the centrist Kadima party of the foreign minister, Tzipi Livni , won only one seat more than Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud party. With military and overseas ballots counted, Kadima had 28 seats – far short of the 61 needed to govern alone. Likud won 27 seats, while the far-right Israel Our Home party won 15 seats, making its leader, Avigdor Lieberman, a likely kingmaker. The final results, which include the votes of several thousand soldiers and Israelis living abroad, were unchanged from the preliminary results. As Israeli leaders tried to break out of their political deadlock, a senior figure in Livni's Kadima party said today that it would not join an extreme rightwing government led by Netanyahu. Livni is struggling to form a majority coalition that would see her become only the second female prime minister in Israel's history. Most analysts expect Netanyahu will eventually emerge as the country's next leader, although there are still days of tough negotiations ahead. \"We won the battle, but lost the war,\" one Kadima minister was reported as saying. Netanyahu is thought to want to form a broad coalition that includes Kadima, rather than relying on a narrow majority of rightwing parties that would oppose any peace moves with the Palestinians and bring confrontation with Washington. Reports said Netanyahu might offer Livni the job of foreign minister and her deputy, Shaul Mofaz, the post of defence minister. However, Meir Sheetrit, the current interior minister and number seven on the Kadima list of candidates, made it clear today that Kadima would not submit easily. \"We will join a Netanyahu government only if it is not an extreme rightwing government,\" he told Army Radio. \"We are not afraid to sit in the opposition.\" Sheetrit said Livni was still working to form her own coalition. \"We need to think about what's best for Israel and get away from the politics,\" he said in an interview with Israel Radio. \"Currently, it seems most likely that the government to be formed will be an extremist religious coalition led by Netanyahu. If a government like this is established I anticipate it will have a very hard life, and the lives of Israel's citizens will be even harder ... With all due respect to Netanyahu, he cannot manage a government like that. He will have trouble in every realm.\" Livni herself said she was still working on a coalition that she could lead, but said she would not pay \"an exorbitant price\" to have other parties join her. \"I can also put together a coalition that is united around the peace process. Netanyahu doesn't want that, and couldn't do it even if he did, with his rightwing partners,\" Livni said. Last autumn, Livni failed in her first attempt to put together a majority coalition that would have made her prime minister following the decision by Ehud Olmert to stand down. Now she is heavily reliant on wooing Lieberman, whose party came in a strong third, buoyed by its anti-Arab stance. Lieberman wants the country's 20% Arab minority to swear an oath of loyalty to Israel as a Jewish state or lose their citizenship. Livni has reportedly offered to adopt some of his policies on civil marriage and on creating a presidential style of government. But Netanyahu, who also needs Lieberman's support, has reportedly offered him the job of finance minister. Lieberman met both Livni and Netanyahu yesterday but has not said publicly whom he will back. \"I know", "Q&A: Investigation into Yasser Arafat's death - BBC News BBC News Q&A: Investigation into Yasser Arafat's death 26 December 2013 Close share panel Image caption Yasser Arafat was flown to France for treatment 17 days into his illness Palestinian President Yasser Arafat died in hospital in France in November 2004, weeks after falling ill at his compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah. French doctors said Arafat had an unidentified blood disorder and gave the cause of death as a stroke. Since then there have been allegations that Arafat was poisoned, possibly with the radioactive element, polonium-210. A series of investigations has been trying to establish whether he was murdered. How did Arafat die? In 2005, the New York Times obtained a copy of Arafat's medical records from two Israeli journalists, Avi Isacharoff and Amos Harel, who had been given them by a senior Palestinian official. According to the records, the 75-year-old's illness began four hours after he ate a meal on the evening of 12 October 2004 inside the Muqataa presidential compound in Ramallah. Israeli forces had kept him isolated there for three years, accusing him of sponsoring a wave of deadly attacks by Palestinian militants. For the next two weeks, he vomited and had abdominal pain and diarrhoea, but did not have a fever. He became stuporous and lost 3kg (6.6lb), according to the records. He was seen by a team of Palestinian, Egyptian, Jordanian and Tunisian doctors, and was treated for flu and thrombocytopenia, an abnormally low blood platelet count. The records indicated that Arafat did not receive antibiotics until 27 October - 15 days after the onset of his illness. Two days later he was flown by helicopter to Jordan and then private jet to the Percy Military Training Hospital in Clamart, outside Paris. It was only once Arafat arrived in Paris that he was diagnosed with a serious blood disorder - disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) - which the French doctors were never able to control and which led to his death. Arafat did improve for a time at Percy hospital, but he slipped into a coma on 3 November, when he was moved to intensive care. He had massive haemorrhagic stroke on 8 November and died three days later . Why do people think he was poisoned? Many senior Palestinian officials claim that Arafat was poisoned by Israel. Israel's prime minister at the time of Arafat's death, Ariel Sharon, saw the Palestinian leader as a terrorist and an obstacle to peace. In 2002, Mr Sharon told the Maariv newspaper that he regretted not \"eliminating\" Arafat during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982. But he also stressed that Israel had later made a \"commitment\" not to harm him. However, Mr Sharon is alleged to have told former US President George W Bush in April 2004 that he no longer felt bound by this promise. Israel has strenuously denied that it had anything to do with Arafat's death. On 8 November 2013, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told the BBC: \"I will state this as simply and clearly as I can: Israel did not kill Arafat, period. And that's all there is to it. The Palestinians need to stop levelling these accusations without a shadow of proof. Enough is enough.\" What do Arafat's medical records say? Despite extensive testing, the French doctors never discovered the specific cause of the infection that led to the DIC, according to the medical records obtained by the New York Times. Biopsies performed did not show evidence of any infectious agent or cancer, the records state. Tests carried out by a laboratory in Tunis on cultures of blood, stool, urine and bone marrow were also negative. Specimens were sent to three laboratories for standard toxicology tests to detect metals and drugs, but none were found. No post-mortem was performed because Arafat's widow, Suha, did not request one. The Palestinian Authority also chose not to ask for the procedure because they felt it would \"turn what is a martyrdom case into a police criminal case\", senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath told al-Jazeera . Independent Israeli and American expert", "Revealed: Olmert's 2008 peace offer to Palestinians - Diplomacy & Politics - Jerusalem Post Revealed: Olmert's 2008 peace offer to Palestinians ByAVI ISACHAROFF 24 May 2013 13:38 'Post' obtains copy of Abbas' sketch of proposed Palestinian state; Former PM Olmert blames Livni, Barak for breakdown of talks. Olmert, Bush, Abbas370. (photo credit:Reuters) Shortly after the dramatic meeting between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and then-prime minister Ehud Olmert at the latter's Jerusalem residence on Tuesday September 16, 2008, the Palestinian entourage returned to Ramallah. Despite the relatively late hour, Abbas’s advisors and the heads of Fatah arrived at his office; they understood the importance of the moment. Less than an hour earlier, Olmert presented the details of his offer for a peace deal between the nations, an unprecedented Israeli offer to be tendered to a Palestinian leader. Be the first to know - Join our Facebook page. Olmert essentially agreed to forgo sovereignty of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest site, and proposed that in the framework of a peace agreement, the area containing the religious sites in Jerusalem would be managed by a special committee consisting of representatives from five nations: Saudia Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, the United States and Israel. The advisors and Fatah officials heard from Abbas that Olmert laid out for him not only the details of the agreement but also a large map upon which he outlined the borders of the future Palestinian state. Abbas silenced those present at the late hour meeting so that he could concentrate. He asked for the map that Olmert described to be drawn from what he remembered because Olmert refused to give him a copy. The Israeli prime minister told him that he would not give Abbas the map until the Palestinian leader was willing to ink his initials on it, or in other words, agree to the borders that Israel offered. The Palestinian leader took a piece of the Presidential Office stationery and sketched the borders of the Palestinian state from memory. Abbas marked the settlement blocs that Israel was asking to keep: the Ariel bloc, the Jerusalem-Ma'aleh Adumin bloc (including E1) and Gush Etzion, all together consisting of 6.3% of the West Bank. On the other hand, the Palestinian president also sketched the areas that Israel offered in exchange for the settlement blocs: around Afula-Tirat Tzvi, the Lachish region, an area near Har Adar, and areas in the Judean desert and the Gaza envelope. These areas consist of 5.8% of Israeli territory. Abbas wrote on the left hand side of the sketched map, what turned out to be the incorrect figures that he remembered, 5.5% and 6.8% representing the amount of land to be swapped. On the other side of the piece of paper he wrote the other details of the offer: a secure corridor between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by way of a tunnel, the five nation committee to oversee the holy sites of Jerusalem, Israeli evacuation from the Jordan valley and the absorption of around 5,000 Palestinian refugees into Israel, 1000 every year for five years. Sof Hashavua magazine, published by The Jerusalem Post Group, obtained a copy of Abbas's sketch during an investigation into the secret negotiations between Olmert and Abbas and published it for the first time on Friday. The two leaders met thirty six times mainly in Jerusalem and once in Jericho and reached a draft agreement that would clearly constitute the basis for any future peace deal between the parties. But in the end no peace deal was signed between Israel and the Palestinians despite Olmert’s far-reaching offer. Until today, the Palestinian Authority has not responded either positively or negatively to Olmert’s offer. Saeb Erekat, head of the Fatah negotiating team, was present at the meeting in Abbas’s office that night and he was also present at the end of the Jerusalem meeting between Olmert and Abbas. He was joined by Olmert’s diplomatic advisor Shalom Turgeman. Olmert and Abbas asked Erekat and Turgeman to meet the next", "The Jewish Floridian The Jewish Floridian Newspapers -- Miami-Dade County (Fla.) ( lcsh ) Genre: United States -- Florida -- Dade -- Miami Notes -v. 63, no. 20 (May 18, 1990). General Note: Editor: Fred K. Shochet, <1959>. General Note: Description based on: Vol. 5, no. 47 (Nov. 25, 1932). Record Information All applicable rights reserved by the source institution and holding location. Resource Identifier: Jewish Floridian and Shofar of Greater Hollywood Related Items: Jewish Floridian of South Broward Related Items: Jewish Floridian of North Broward Related Items: Jewish Floridian of greater Ft. Lauderdale Related Items: Jewish Floridian of Palm Beach County (Palm Beach County, Fla. : 1975) Related Items: Jewish Floridian (Palm Beach, Fla. : 1982) Related Items: Jewish Floridian of Palm Beach County (Palm Beach, Fla. : 1985) Related Items: Jewish Floridian of Pinellas County Related Items: Jewish Floridian of South County Related Items: Combining THE JEWISH UNITY and THE JEWISH WEEKLY Volume 42 Number 44 Miami, Florida Friday, October 31, 1969 COMMITTED ITSELF TO SUPPORT TERRORISTS Two Sections Price 20c Israeli Experts Skeptical Of IsmeUs KHled' Egypt's Worth As Mediator experts on Arab affairs have de- clared Egypt's effort to mediate the I.ftar.i sc crisis appears to be litt!<- more than an attempt to assert Egyptian primacy in the Arab world. It is of slight importance, they said, because gypt had committed itself in advance to the support of ter- .rist groups operating outside The guerrillas have agreed to mediation because they bow to Egyptian authority, the sources said. But genuine mediation is not likely because the terrorists insist on fir e dom of action along thi Israel-Lebanon herder and sponsible for any measures tak- < n against thi m. If Lebanon w, re to agree to such demands. it could mean the end of the current regime, and President Charles He lou is well await e.f this possibility, Israeli sources the majority of moderate Mos- lems in Lebanon are anxious to avoid a confrontation between ing about half the country's pop- ulation, the Palestinian guerril- las, who are supported by Mos- li m extremists, young militants at the universities and some Druze tribes. It is feared that less extreme Moslems may be pulled into the pro-guerrilla camp against their will if the crisis continues. Beirut Seen As Loser In Any Talks LONDON (JTA) The Leb- a se ciisis appears to be head- big for the conference table, bjt the cards seem to be stacked against the Beirut regime which has tried to suppress Arab guer- rilla warfare against Israel in order to avoid Israeli reprisals. According to Damascus Radio. Egypt, Syria and Lib -a pledged their full support to Palestinian guerrillas and said they would not toleiate attempts to hinder guerrilla activity. cast by the state-controlled Syr- ian radio after a meeting that was supposed to have been the beginning of a mediation effort undertaken by President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt at the urgent request of Lebanon's Dr. Hassan Sabri ai-Kho!i. flew to Damascus and met with Dr. Nurredin al-Atassi. president of Syria. Col. Moussa Ahmed, the Libyan Minister of Intelior. and Yassir Arafat, commander of El Fatah, the largest Palestinian Syria has strongly backed the guerrillas who invaded Lebanon ov. r the weekend and have been tattling Lebanese regulars along The curfew was lifted in Beirut afti r fighting stowed, but Trip- oli. Lebanon's second largest fit ', part of which was report' ,1 JDC Resources Strained exodus of Jews from Poland has strained the financial resources of the Joint Distribution Com- mittee to a point where it will i have to curtail its relief opera- Itions in Israel and other parts ol the world unless adelitional 1 inds are immediately forth- Icoming. Lovis D. Horowitz, di- rector general of the interna- tional relief agency, said an ad- ditional S>1 million is required [for r fug< i nei ds in IS7D. The 1909 JDC budget amounted to IJ- million. Mr. H.rcwitz. who made his assessment at the close of the |23rd annual JDC overseas con- ference here, said, 'The f", "8. Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3:1-21) | Bible.org From the series: That You Might Believe: A Study of the Gospel of John PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE 8. Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3:1-21) 1 Now there came a man of the Pharisees whose name was Nicodemus, a member of the council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could do the miraculous signs that you do unless God were with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?” 5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a person is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus replied, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you don’t understand these things? 11 I tell you the solemn truth, we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. 12 If I have told you people about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” 16 For this is the way God loved the world: he gave his one and only Son that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. 18 The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19 Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. 21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God. 146 Introduction A number of years ago, I read a newspaper account of a speech given by the president of a well-known university to a group of influential businessmen and civic leaders. The president told of a recent experience which he, his audience, and the newspaper reporter found humorous. The president was shopping during the Christmas season and happened to pass by a Salvation Army volunteer, standing by a “donation kettle” and ringing a bell. As he paused to make a donation, the woman volunteer asked this educator: “Sir, are you saved?” When he replied that he supposed he was, she was not satisfied, so she pursued the matter further: “I mean, have you ever given your full life to the Lord?” At this point, the president told his audience, he thought he should enlighten this persistent woman concerning his identity: “I am the president of such and such university, and as such, I am also president of its school of theology.” The lady considered his response for a moment, and then replied, “It doesn’t matter wherever you’ve been, or whatever you are, you can still be saved.” The most tragic part of this incident is that both the seminary president and his audience actually thought his story was amusing. One can imagine that if Nicodemus had been confronted by this Salvation Army volunteer, he would have thought—and said—just about the same thing as the university president. Nicod", "New species of extinct human 'Homo naledi' found in South African cave New species of extinct human 'Homo naledi' found in South African cave Putin doubts Trump met with Moscow prostitutes Play Video New humanoid species found in South Africa New humanoid species found in South Africa Scientists say newly discovered Homo naledi buried their dead, a practice once believed to be exclusive to Homo sapiens. Up Next Putin doubts Trump met with Moscow prostitutes Play Video Putin doubts Trump met with Moscow ... Putin doubts Trump met with Moscow prostitutes At a news conference in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin says he doubts US President-elect Donald Trump met with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room, referring to an unverified dossier published last week. Up Next Avalanche hits hotel in central Italy Play Video Avalanche hits hotel in central Italy Avalanche hits hotel in central Italy Rescue workers struggle to find survivors in an Italian mountain hotel, after tremors triggered an avalanche on the building. Up Next Iranian building collapses after catching fire Play Video Iranian building collapses after catching fire It's unknown how many people have been killed after Tehran's iconic Plasco building caught fire and collapsed. Up Next Elizabeth Warren slams Betsy DeVos Play Video Elizabeth Warren slams Betsy DeVos Democrats pick apart President-elect's education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos over her lack of experience with financial aid. Up Next Obama 'worried about the Israel-Palestine issue' Play Video Obama 'worried about the Israel-Palestine ... Obama 'worried about the Israel-Palestine issue' President Barack Obama says he remains worried the prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are waning due to growing Israeli settlement of the West Bank, saying the \"status quo is unsustainable\". Up Next Obama wishes Bushes well, defends free press Play Video Obama wishes Bushes well, defends free ... Obama wishes Bushes well, defends free press In his final news conference, President Barack Obama wishes former President George Bush Snr and Barbara Bush well after news that both were hospitalized before emphasising the need for a free press. Up Next Obama defends commuting Chelsea Manning's sentence Play Video Obama defends commuting Chelsea Manning's ... Obama defends commuting Chelsea Manning's sentence President Barack Obama defends his decision to commute the sentence of convicted intelligence leaker Chelsea Manning, telling reporters at his final press conference that \"justice has been served.\" More videos New humanoid species found in South Africa Scientists say newly discovered Homo naledi buried their dead, a practice once believed to be exclusive to Homo sapiens. On Thursday an international research team announced they had recovered more than 1500 bones, belonging to at least 15 skeletons. The expedition leader, Lee Berger, from the University of the Witwatersrand, said the bones are from a previously unknown early species of the human genus, Homo. SHARE Remarkable find: fossil fragments of a relative of the human species found in Africa. Photo: National Geographic These long-lost cousins have been named Homo naledi. As yet there is no age for the fossils. \"We don't know how old these fossils are,\" Dr Berger said. Advertisement \"But based on its anatomy, H. naledi clearly sits near or at the root of the Homo genus,\" he said. The fossil treasure trove was uncovered in the belly of a cave system known as Rising Star, part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa. SHARE Bones from the newly discovered species of ancient human. Photo: eLife To recover the haul about 60 cavers, including six specialist \"underground astronauts\", descended into the 30-metre-deep cave. The fossils were recovered in a narrow passage which may suggest the skeletons were deliberately placed there by members of their clan. SHARE Research suggests individuals were, on average, 1.5 metres tall. Photo: AP \"Nothing is certain at this early stage, but a lot of the evidence points to the", "God's Book, Old Testament The Bible is written by men. God instructed the men what to write. That means that the whole Bible is God's book. Because it is God's Book we know it is true. Below are some of the books of the Old Testament: GENESIS The name Genesis means \"in the beginning.\" It tells of the creation of the earth and the sun and the moon, and all the other things that God made. EXODUS This is the second book of the Bible. The name Exodus means \"going out.\" . It's about how God used Moses to lead Hebrews out of Egypt. LEVITICUS The third book of the Bible tells about the family of Levi. It's called Leviticus because it tells about the way the family of Levi and the priests were to serve God. It also tells all the other Israelites how to serve God. NUMBERS The fourth book of the Bible is called Numbers because it tells of the numbering, or counting, of the people of Israel. DEUTERONOMY This is the fifth book of the Bible. Its name means \"giving the Law the second time.\" Moses reminds the children of Israel about the Law which God had given to them, and how important it was for them to obey that Law. JOSHUA This tells what Joshua did when he was the leader of the Israelites. JUDGES Before the Israelites had kings, God gave them judges. This book tells of that period of time, 450 years, when the Israelites were ruled by judges RUTH A wonderful story of Ruth and how she trusted the Lord SAMUEL 1 and 2 There are two books in the Bible named after Samuel the prophet. These books tell about the birth and life of Samuel. Samuel was the prophet of God who chose Saul to be Israel's first king. He later appointed David king to take the place of Saul. These two books also tell the story of both Saul and David up to the time Saul died and David became the king in Israel. KINGS 1and 2 These two books give the history of Israel during the time that kings reigned over them, beginning with King David, and ending with Zedekiah, their last king. CHRONICLES 1 and 2 These two books contain stories of the Israelites that were not written in the first and second Books of Kings. EZRA This book is named after the priest who served the Israelites during the time they were captives in Babylon. NEHEMIAH Nehemiah wrote nearly all of this book. It is about Israel during and after the time they returned to Palestine following their captivity in Babylon. ESTHER This book records the experiences of Esther, a Jew, who became the wife of Ahasuerus, the king of Persia. JOB This book is the life's story of a very faithful servant of God. PSALMS The Book of Psalms contains the beautiful writings of King David and other servants of God. Psalms mean \"hymns.\" David was a musician who played the harp, and he was also a poet. In the poetic Psalms which David wrote, he expresses his love for God, and thanks God for all the wonderful things He had done for him. PROVERBS This is a book of wise sayings nearly all of which were written by King Solomon. ECCLESIASTES The name of this book means \"the preacher.\" It contains many things which are good for all of us to follow. THE SONG OF SOLOMON This is another book of the Bible written by King Solomon. It is also called \"The Song of Songs,\" or \"Canticles\" by some people. It is a story of love. ISAIAH Written by the Prophet Isaiah. JEREMIAH Written by the prophet Jeremiah. God asked Jeremiah to write a great deal about the sins of the people of Israel, and also to warn them that they would be punished for their sins. LAMENTATIONS The word \"Lamentations\" means feeling very sad. This book was also written by the Prophet Jeremiah, and he tells of all the trouble the people of Israel had because they had not done what God wanted them to do. EZEKIEL Written by another of God's prophets, Ezekiel. DANIEL This book was written by the Prophet Daniel. This book of the Bible is named after the Prophet Hosea. JOEL Joel loved God, and did what God asked him to do. In this book, he tells the people about terrible wars which were coming, and that the nations would fight each other. AMOS Amos was a prophet and God tol", "Yasser Arafat | Jewish Virtual Library Tweet Yasser Arafat was founder and leader of the Fatah political party and later the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and president of the Palestinian National Authority . Arafat spent the majority of his life dedicated to fighting Israel though he was also involved in skirmishes between Palestinians and Jordanian and Lebanese forces at different times. Together with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and President Shimon Peres , Arafat was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in World Peace for his efforts in signing the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords . Arafat's legacy has left him highly scorned and villified for leading the Palestinians into the Al-Aqsa Intifada , a war with Israel that lasted nearly five years from 2000 to 2005 and claimed thousands of lives on both sides of the conflict. Early Life Arafat, circa 1940 Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa Al-Husseini, more commonly known as Yasser Arafat was the fifth of seven children born to a Palestinian textile merchant on August 24, 1929. According to Arafat and other sources, he was born in Jerusalem ; however, French biographers, Christophe Boltanski and Jihan El-Tahri revealed in their 1997 book, Les sept vies de Yasser Arafat, that he was actually born in Cairo, Egypt , and that is where his birth certificate was registered. The Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs also lists Arafat’s birthplace as Cairo. Ian Pacepa, a former Romanian intelligence official, disclosed that the KGB had invented a background for Arafat with a birthplace in Jerusalem . Claims that Arafat was related to the Jerusalem Husseini clan through his mother have been disputed by the Palestinian historian Said Aburish. In an unauthorized biography, Aburish claims that “The young Arafat sought to establish his Palestinian credentials and promote his eventual claim to leadership... [and] could not afford to admit any facts which might reduce his Palestinian identity. ...Arafat insistently perpetuated the legend that he had been born in Jerusalem and was related to the important Husseini clan of that city.” Arafat’s childhood was divided between Cairo and Jerusalem , where he lived for four years with an uncle following the death of his mother when he was five. Arafat entered the University of King Faud I (later renamed Cairo University) in 1947 and studied engineering. It was during his college years that Arafat adopted the name Yasser, which means “easygoing” in Arabic. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war , Arafat left the university and, along with other Palestinians, sought to enter Palestine to fight for Palestinian independence. He was disarmed and turned back by Egyptian military forces that refused to allow the poorly trained partisans to enter the war zone. After returning to the university, Arafat joined the Muslim Brotherhood and served as president of the Union of Palestinian Students from 1952 to 1956. By 1956, Arafat graduated with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineerin", "Member of Parliament M Member of Parliament A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament . In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate , and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of parliament tend to form parliamentary parties with members of the same political party . The term Member of Parliament is often shortened in the media and in every day use to the initialism \"MP\". Austria In Austria , the term Member of Parliament refers to the members of the two chambers of the Parliament of Austria (Österreichisches Parlament). The members of the Nationalrat are called Abgeordnete zum Nationalrat. The members of the Bundesrat, elected by the provincial diets (Landtage) of the nine federal States of Austria, are known as Mitglieder des Bundesrats. Bangladesh In Bangladesh 90% of a Prime Minister's cabinet must be MPs. The other 10% may be non-MP experts or \"technocrats\" who are not otherwise disqualified from being elected MPs. Bulgaria In Bulgaria they are 240 MP 's in regular parliament and 400 in the \"Great Parliament\". The \"Great Parliament is elected when a new constitution is in order. In the modern Bulgarian history there have been seven \"Great Parliaments,\" in 1879, 1881, 1886, 1893, 1911, 1946, and 1990. Canada In Canada , the Parliament of Canada consists of the upper house, the Senate of Canada and the lower house, the Canadian House of Commons, but only members of the lower house are referred to as Members of Parliament ( French : député) in common usage. There are 105 seats in the Senate and 308 in the House of Commons. Germany In Germany , Member of Parliament refers to the elected members of the federal Bundestag Parliament at the Reichstag building in Berlin . In German a member is called Mitglied des deutschen Bundestages (MdB). The 16 federal States of Germany (Länder) are represented by the Bundesrat at the former Prussian House of Lords, whose members are representatives of the respective Länder's governments and not directly elected by the people. In accordance with article 38 of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, which is the German constitution, \"[m]embers of the German Bundestag shall be elected in general, direct, free, equal, and secret elections. They shall be representatives of the whole people, not bound by orders or instructions, and responsible only to their conscience.\" India In India , the term Member of Parliament refers to the Sansad or the Indian Parliament chambers of the Lok Sabha , the Rajya Sabha and The President of India. MPs to the Lok Sabha are elected popularly by constituencies in the Indian states and union territories, while MPs to the Rajya Sabha are elected by State legislatures. Central government is formed by the party having the most number of MPs in the Lok Sabha. Each state is allocated a fixed number of elected MPs. The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh , represents the maximum number of MPs in the Lok Sabha. Israel In Israel , the term Member of the Knesset refers to one of the 120 Members of the Knesset . Ireland In Ireland , the term Member of Parliament can refer to the members of the pre-1801 Irish House of Commons of the Parliament of Ireland. It can also refer to Irish members elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1801 to 1922. Northern Ireland continues to elect MPs to the modern Parliament of the United Kingdom. Members of the modern Irish lower house of parliament, Dáil Éireann (or \"the Dáil\") are termed Teachtaí Dála (Teachta Dála singular) or TDs. The upper house is called Seanad Éireann. Its members are called Seanadóirí or Senators. Italy In the Republican Italian Parliament the current term is [http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deputato Deputato] (that is deputy as appointed to act on people's behalf) and so the Lower House takes the name of [http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_dei_Deputati Camera dei Deputati]. Similarly to other countries, the", "Knesset gears up for presidential vote | The Times of Israel Knesset gears up for presidential vote Election of country’s 10th president takes place Tuesday as difficult, scandal-riddled race comes to a close View of an empty meetings room at the President's residence in Jerusalem on June 02, 2014. (Photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90) Newsroom Israel’s presidential frontrunner doesn’t back Palestinian state, but says it’s not his call The Israeli Knesset is set to elect Israel’s 10th president on Tuesday from a field of five candidates, as a difficult and scandal-laden presidential race to succeed Shimon Peres comes to a close. The election is conducted by a secret ballot of the 120 Knesset members and the president serves a single, seven-year term. Peres’s tenure ends July 27. Officially, the presidency is a largely ceremonial office. But Peres, a former prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has risen above the post and turned it into a position with international gravitas. The presidential campaign to succeed him will be remembered for its ugly mudslinging. Candidates have complained about private investigators digging into their personal histories, and two campaigns were derailed by scandals. “Shimon Peres was an important president due to his special status in capitals around the world and because of the dignity that he restored at home in the aftermath of the Katsav affair,” columnist Nahum Barnea wrote Sunday. “Peres’s gravitas added an artificial importance and drama to the question of his successor…we need to realize that the next president isn’t going to be Peres.” Presidential candidate and ex-Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin MK (Likud). (Photo credit: Flash 90) The remaining candidates for the post — after Labor’s Binyamin Ben-Eliezer dropped his bid for the position Saturday following allegations of financial impropriety — are former Supreme Court judge Dalia Dorner, MK Meir Sheetrit of the Hatnua party, MK Reuven Rivlin of Likud, Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dan Shechtman and former Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik. Last month, Energy Minister Silvan Shalom chose not to run for the presidency in the wake of allegations of sexual impropriety; the allegations were not substantiated. Dan Shechtman (Photo: Flash 90) None of the candidates was expected to win an outright majority in the first round of voting, forcing a second round between the two top vote getters. On Sunday, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein called an emergency meeting to discuss whether to postpone the elections in light of the recent developments, and ultimately announced that the vote will proceed as planned. Edelstein faced some pressure to delay the vote from, among others, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The harsh atmosphere that continues to surround the presidential race stirs up dissatisfaction with the process and casts a heavy shadow on the candidates and on the Knesset,” Edelstein said after announcing his decision. Former Supreme Court Justice Dalia Dorner (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90) Ben-Eliezer, a former IDF general and defense minister, announced he was withdrawing from the presidential race Saturday afternoon, just three days before the elections and less than 24 hours after police questioned him for nearly five hours, under caution, on suspicion that he illegally received millions of shekels from various sources, using some of the money to purchase his luxury apartment home in Jaffa. Police were also investigating a separate $350,000 payment from a relative, and alleged improprieties relating to other large sums of money. Ben-Eliezer wrote on his Facebook page Saturday that he was quitting the race with a “very heavy heart,” criticizing the “slanderous smear campaign” he says was waged against him from the moment he announced his candidacy for the post. He continued to maintain his innocence. MK Meir Sheetrit (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90) Netanyahu was reported on Saturday to be looking into the possibility of postponing the elections in light of the latest developments. He started putting out feelers to mem", "The Nobel Peace Prize 1978 - Presentation Speech Presentation Speech The Nobel Peace Prize 1978 Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin Share this: Award Ceremony Speech Presentation Speech delivered by Aase Lionaes, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, on the occasion of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1978, Oslo, December 10, 1978. Translation Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen: The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the Peace Prize for 1978 to Anwar al-Sadat, President of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, for their contribution to the two frame agreements on peace in the Middle East, and on peace between Egypt and Israel, which were signed at Camp David on September 17, 1978. Never previously in the history of the Peace Prize, stretching back over a period of almost eighty years, have we witnessed an award ceremony such as this in King Haukon V's medieval castle of Akershus, with its memories of far-off times of war and unrest in the chronicles of our land. Never has the Nobel Committee considered it apposite to award the Peace Prize to statesmen from the troubled and sadly devastated Middle East. Never has the Prize been closely associated with agreements such as the two Camp David agreements, which provide the basis for the award to the two statesmen on whose shoulders such grave responsibilities have fallen. Never has the Peace Prize expressed a greater or more audacious hope - a hope of peace for the people of Egypt, for the people of Israel, and for all the peoples of the strife-torn and war-ravaged Middle East. The award of the Prize to the President of Egypt, Anwar al-Sadat, and the Prime Minister of Israel, Menachem Begin, is moreover historical in the wider sense, in that we only know of one previous peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. This, as Israeli scholars have revealed, took place some 3,000 years ago; it was the peace concluded between King David's son, wise King Solomon, and the Egyptian Pharaoh. It was in this part of the world that the cradle of our civilisation was to be found, more than 6,000 years ago. Here, communities with a high standard of culture, which were to exercise a profound influence on the development of human society in other parts of the world, grew up and flourished. Today, every single schoolchild knows from his or her history books that it was here that our written history first began; and adherents of three historically related religions - Islam, Judaism and Christianity have turned their gaze with unflagging devotion to that part of the world from which their religion sprang. The Middle East, situated as it is at the junction of Asia, Europe, and Africa, has been not only a meeting-place for cultures, but also a battleground for economic interests and foreign conquerors. Again and again cultural splendour and material prosperity have been rudely interrupted by wars, foreign domination, and internal schism. In our own time the struggle of the Arabs to free themselves from alien domination was crowned with success when Egypt shook off the British yoke. In this struggle for national liberation Anwar al-Sadat played a leading part. At the same time the national movement sprang up in the little Jewish communities that for two thousand years had been scattered around in various countries all over the world but holding fast at all times to memories and hopes of their historical homeland. The anti-Semitism which culminated with Hitler's mass slaughter of Europe's Jews drove them to seek security and rebirth in their own country of Israel. With the active participation of the United Nations, the state of Israel was established in 1948. The state and nation of Israel had now become a political and human fact. The establishment of an Israeli state ushered in a new conflict throughout the Middle East. In the course of the last thirty years this dispute between the Jews and Arabs has unleashed four war", "Cold War Museum Back to the 1960s Six Day War In 1967, tensions between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria escalated to a war in the Middle East. Ever since it had become a country in 1948, Israel’s Palestinian neighbors were hostile because Israel was located in the area that they had previously established as their homeland. Palestinian troops were seen attacking Israeli civilians as well as their farmland and then escaping back to their borders. Israel responded with counter-attacks such as the Syrian fighter planes shot down in April 1967 in retaliation to them shelling Israeli villages. Supplying these Middle Eastern countries with weapons, the United States allied with Israel while the Soviet Union sided with the Arab Nations. This long term rival over land control would soon turn revenge into war. Egyptian President, Gamel Abdel Nassar, was still angry about Egyptian defeat in the Suez-Sinai War in 1956. His feelings caused him to gather his allies and plan an invasion on Israel. He ordered the removal of all United Nations troops from areas surrounding Israel, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and West Bank, and replaced them with Palestinian troops. On June 5, 1967, before Nassar had a chance to command his troops to attack, Israel attacked Egypt. Israel had foreseen an attack and wanted the war on Arab soil, instead of their own. On the first day of war, over 90% of Egyptian aircraft were destroyed and Egyptian units in the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula were defeated. After Israel warned King Hussein of Jordan not to get involved, he was convinced by Nassar that they would be successful together. He sent in troops to attack Israeli forces in Jerusalem, but was defeated by the next morning. By the same morning, Israel had also taken control of the “wailing wall”, which is the holiest Jewish landmark, for the first time in 2000 years. Within just three days, Israel had complete control of the skies and was easily able to support their troops fighting on land. It was clear that Israel was a dominating force, and it was able to defeat all of its rivals by the sixth day when it signed cease-fire agreements with Syria and Jordan. The outcome of the Six-Day war was an unexpected one. The Arab nations, who had planned an attack with full confidence that they would win the war, were surprised by Israel’s quick, successful tactics. Leaders went back to their counties embarrassed that they were defeated by a country before viewed as inferior. It was also a war lost by the Soviet Union to the United States. It made it apparent to the Soviets that U.S. weapons could defeat them. Egypt and Israel continued their fighting for over a decade in events such as the War of Attrition and the Arab-Israeli War in 1973. They did not make any formal end to their feuding until they signed the Camp David Accords in 1979. Researched by: Becca Baassiri Volunteer for the Cold War Museum Sources: 1. Mitchell G. Bard, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Middle East Conflict. 3rd Edition. NY: Alpha Books, 2005. 2. “Six Day War.” Zionism & Israel Encyclopedic Dictionary. 4 Jun 2008 .", "Book of Judges Bible Study Chapter 6 Gideon and the power of weakness The Book of Judges Bible Study Outline Judges Chapter 6: Gideon and the Power of Weakness (Part 1) By I Gordon 1 Cor 1:27-29 God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things�and the things that are not�to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. Introduction God loves to do the Gideon. Sounds like a dance I know but in actual fact, it�s not. It is something that He has done throughout human history and will continue to do until the very day that He returns to sort this whole mess out! �The Gideon� is where God takes weak, humble, sometimes fearful people and uses them to do wonderful things. He loves doing it! And the story of Gideon has been repeated (in each persons own way) through the lives of millions throughout history. This Bible study is from the book of Judges chapter 6, where we are introduced to our hero Gideon, and learn a little about this man that God chose to deliver Israel . The second Bible study concerning Gideon will be on Judges chapter 7, the defeat of Midian, and its strikingly accurate portrayal of New Testament truth. Enter the Midianites! Judges 6:1-5 Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel , neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. How low can you go! The NASB says �so Israel was brought very low because of Midian.� The lowest they had ever been I would say. Instead of the �land flowing with milk and honey� they lived in the caves and clefts in the rocks, too scared to face their enemy. What they did get to plant was destroyed by the enemy [1] . And I don�t want to even mention what happened to their livestock. This is as bad as it ever gets! Now the name Midian [2] means �Strife� and they were certainly being true to their name in their actions with God�s people Israel ! Midian speaks to us of the strife and trouble that comes to Christians while living in this world. Sometimes the strife is caused by the desires of our sinful nature; sometimes it is the strife and troubles that occur from simply living in a fallen world. Whatever the source of our strife, God uses all circumstances to teach us truth, and, as we shall soon see, the best victories often come when we are weakest.� � Let�s get to the source of the problem! Judges 6:6-10 When the Israelites cried to the LORD because of Midian, he sent them a prophet, who said, �This is what the LORD, the God of Israel , says: I brought you up out of Egypt , out of the land of slavery. I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land. �I said to you, �I am the LORD your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.� But you have not listened to me.� So Israel comes to the point of crying out to the Lord. About time too - only took seven years! Now In the past when Israel has cried out to the Lord, God has raised up a judge to deliver them� but not this time! This time He sends them a prophet to do two things � Firstly to convict them some more of their sins and their need of Him; and secondly, to show them where they have gone wrong. God knows that He can and will deliver them, but He is firstly interested that they see what the root cause of their bon", "From the archive, 7 October 1981: President Sadat assassinated at army parade | From the Guardian | The Guardian From the archive, 7 October 1981: President Sadat assassinated at army parade Originally published in the Guardian on 7 October 1981 James MacManus Close CAIRO Egyptian leaders last night declared a state of emergency after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat at a military parade. As the news of Sadat's death reached an apprehensive world Vice-President Hosni Mubarak, the man most likely to follow Mr Sadat in power, announced on television that the Speaker of the Egyptian Parliament would take over formally as President until a successor is chosen. Last night Mr Mubarak pledged a continuity of the peace policies of his predecessor and said that he had assumed the position of commander in chief of the armed forces. The Vice-President announced a 40-day period of mourning and said that the state funeral would take place on Saturday. In Algeria, exiled Lt-Gen Saadeddin Shazli, once Sadat's chief of staff, called on the Egyptian armed forces to follow up the assassination by wresting power from leaders committed to \"Zionism and imperialism\". General Shazli's opposition movement, the National Front, appears to have been behind the murder of Sadat. But in Cairo, troops loyal to the Government and to Mubarak took over key buildings, and there were no signs that any serious effort at a coup was under way. Sadat's Arab enemies last night celebrated his death. In Beirut motorists sounded their horns in jubilation. In Damascus there was dancing in the streets. President Sadat was shot down at a parade marking the anniversary of Egyptian successes in the 1973 Yom Kippur war — the closest any Arab state has come to victory over Israel and the essential foundation for his later policy of peace with Israel. Dressed in one of the elaborate uniforms, Sadat and other ministers were watching a fly-past when dissident soldiers – or men dressed as soldiers – opened fire from a truck passing the reviewing stand. Grenades and Kalashnikov fire raked the benches, killing two of Sadat's aides, mortally wounding Sadat and injuring many others. The 63-year-old president was rushed by helicopter to hospital but died on the operating table. The Egyptian leadership closed ranks yesterday after the death of the man who had dominated their country after his takeover from President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970, and whose skill in alternating repression with reconciliation had kept it relatively stable. It was unclear whether his assassination was a direct result of the measures he recently took against opposition groups, including the fundamentalist Muslim movement. But there were few signs that the assassination was part of an organised coup attempt. James MacManus", "1 Samuel 17 NIRV - David and Goliath - The Philistines - Bible Gateway 1 Samuel 17New International Reader's Version (NIRV) David and Goliath 17 The Philistines gathered their army together for war. They came to Sokoh in Judah. They set up camp at Ephes Dammim. It was between Sokoh and Azekah. 2 Saul and the army of Israel gathered together. They camped in the Valley of Elah. They lined up their men to fight against the Philistines. 3 The Philistine army was camped on one hill. Israel’s army was on another. The valley was between them. 4 A mighty hero named Goliath came out of the Philistine camp. He was from Gath. He was more than nine feet tall. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head. He wore bronze armor that weighed 125 pounds. 6 On his legs he wore bronze guards. He carried a bronze javelin on his back. 7 His spear was as big as a weaver’s rod. Its iron point weighed 15 pounds. The man who carried his shield walked along in front of him. 8 Goliath stood there and shouted to the soldiers of Israel. He said, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? I’m a Philistine. You are servants of Saul. Choose one of your men. Have him come down and face me. 9 If he’s able to fight and kill me, we’ll become your slaves. But if I win and kill him, you will become our slaves and serve us.” 10 Goliath continued, “This day I dare the soldiers of Israel to send a man down to fight against me.” 11 Saul and the whole army of Israel heard what the Philistine said. They were terrified. 12 David was the son of Jesse, who belonged to the tribe of Ephraim. Jesse was from Bethlehem in Judah. He had eight sons. When Saul was king, Jesse was already very old. 13 Jesse’s three oldest sons had followed Saul into battle. The oldest son was Eliab. The second was Abinadab. The third was Shammah. 14 David was the youngest. The three oldest sons followed Saul. 15 But David went back and forth from Saul’s camp to Bethlehem. He went to Bethlehem to take care of his father’s sheep. 16 Every morning and evening Goliath came forward and stood there. He did it for 40 days. 17 Jesse said to his son David, “Get at least half a bushel of grain that has been cooked. Also get ten loaves of bread. Take all of it to your brothers. Hurry to their camp. 18 Take along these ten chunks of cheese to the commander of their military group. Find out how your brothers are doing. Bring me back some word about them. 19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel. They are in the Valley of Elah. They are fighting against the Philistines.” 20 Early in the morning David left his father’s flock in the care of a shepherd. David loaded up the food and started out, just as Jesse had directed. David reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions. The soldiers were shouting the war cry. 21 The Israelites and the Philistines were lining up their armies for battle. The armies were facing each other. 22 David left what he had brought with the man who took care of the supplies. He ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were. 23 As David was talking with them, Goliath stepped forward from his line. Goliath was a mighty Philistine hero from Gath. He again dared someone to fight him, and David heard it. 24 Whenever Israel’s army saw Goliath, all of them ran away from him. That’s because they were so afraid. 25 The Israelites had been saying, “Just look at how this man keeps daring Israel to fight him! The king will make the man who kills Goliath very wealthy. The king will also give his own daughter to be that man’s wife. The king won’t require anyone in the man’s family to pay any taxes in Israel.” 26 David spoke to the men standing near him. He asked them, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine? Goliath is bringing shame on Israel. What will be done for the one who removes it? This Philistine isn’t even circumcised. He dares the armies of the living God to fight him. Who does he think he is?” 27 The men told David what Israel’s soldiers had been saying. The men told him what would be done for the man who killed Goliath. 28 David’s", "American Foreign Policy | SAIS American Foreign Policy MICHAEL MANDELBAUM APR. 14, 2016 KT MacFarland Interviews Michael Mandelbaum Reviews New York Times Foreign Affairs Columnist New York Times Foreign Affairs Columnist Johns Hopkins SAIS scholar of Cuban FP Piero Gleijeses winner of Friedrich Katz Prize APSA Congressional Fellowship Program │Capitol Hill Trek 2016 │ Rayburn HOB B369 HSBC: The World's Local Bank Wells Fargo Says It Will Grow ‘Quickly’ in China Greenpeace Beijing Wu Qing, Civil Rights Activist Case Studies in American Foreign Policy Concentration Profile: American Foreign Policy The American Interest Aug. 1, 2015 Michael Mandelbaum on Iran and the Euromess Lecture: Sailors', Soldiers', Marines', Coast Guard and Airmen's Club - Professor Emeritus, Michael Mandelbaum - \"American Foreign Policy After the Cold War\" American Foreign Policy After the Cold War Acting Associate Director, American Foreign Policy The Peace Process Is an Obstacle to Peace And it always has been, because its premises are false Conversation with Thomas L. Friedman (10/15/2015) Conversation with Thomas L. Friedman (10/15/2015) Offers perspective on historic shift in U.S.-Cuba relations T he American presidency has accumulated a number of traditions that anyone holding the office is expected to perpetuate. Examples include delivering the State of the Union address to Congress, lighting the national Christmas tree, and presiding over the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. The next president will no doubt continue all three. If he or she follows the pattern established by the most recent incumbents, however, the result of the peace process will be failure. Indeed, the continuation of the peace process as it has been practiced will not simply be futile: It will be positively harmful. The conduct of the peace process has made peace less likely. If it is to continue at all, a fundamental change in the American approach is needed Successive administrations have failed at the peace process because they have not understood—or not admitted to themselves—the nature of the conflict they have been trying to resolve. In the eyes of the American officials engaged in this long-running endeavor, making peace has been akin to a labor negotiation. Each side, they have believed, has desired a resolution, and the task of the United States has been to find a happy medium, a set of arrangements that both sides could accept. In fact, each side has wanted the conflict to end, but in radically different and indeed incompatible ways that have made a settlement impossible: The Israelis have wanted peace; the Palestinians have wanted the destruction of Israel. At the core of the conflict, standing out like a skyscraper in a desert to anyone who cared to notice, is the Palestinian refusal to accept Jewish sovereignty in the Middle East. This attitude has existed for at least a century, since the Arab rejection of the Balfour Declaration in 1917. While much has changed in the region over those 10 decades, the conflict’s fundamental cause has not. The Palestinians’ position is expressed in their devotion to what has come to be called incitement: incessant derogatory propaganda about Jews and Israel, the denial of any historical Jewish connection to Jerusalem and its environs, and the insistence that all the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea belongs to the Arabs, making the Jews living there, in the Palestinian view, contemptible interlopers to be killed or evicted. The Palestinians’ attitude has expressed itself, as well, in their negotiators’ refusal either to accept any proposal for terminating the conflict or to offer any counterproposals of their own. The goal of eliminating Israel also lies behind Palestinian officials’ glorification as “martyrs” of those who murder Israeli civilians, giving their families financial rewards to encourage such killings. American officials have either ignored or downplayed all of this. They have never emphasized its centrality to the conflict, instead focusing on Israeli control of the West Bank of", "General Knowledge #5 - StudyBlue Good to have you back! If you've signed in to StudyBlue with Facebook in the past, please do that again. General Knowledge #5 What does the legal term �caveat emptor� mean? Let the buyer beware Which Russian author wrote the novel A Month in the Country? Ivan Turgenev What do the initials UNICEF stand for? United Nations International Children�s Emergency Fund. Who was the last king of Rome? Tarquin the Proud. Which opera was composed by Verdi for the opening of the Suez Canal? Aida Which important religious building contains the Kaaba? Great Mosque at Mecca Which French dramatist wrote Tartuffe and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme? Moli�re By what name was William Joyce known in World War II? Lord Haw-Haw A covey is the group name for what type of bird? Partridge Which English poet lived with his sister at Dove Cottage, Grasmere in the English Lake District? Wordsworth What is the medical name for short-sightedness? Myopia What name is given to the magical beliefs and practices associated particularly with Haiti? Voodoo Which fortified palace on a rocky hill in Granada is an outstanding example of Moorish architecture? Alhambra Which female aviator established records with solo flights to Australia, Tokyo and the Cape of Good Hope in the 1930s? Amy Johnson, In which year did Hillary and Tenzing become the first mountaineers to reach the summit of Mount Everest? 1953 What is the English name for the movement in French cinema called �nouvelle vague�? New Wave Who was the first president of the French Fifth Republic? Charles De Gaulle From which country did Iceland win total independence in June 1944? Denmark Which North American aquatic rodent is also known as a musquash? Muskrat What was the name of the raft used by Thor Heyerdahl on his 1947 expedition? Kon-tiki, Who sailed around the world in the yacht Gipsy Moth IV? Sir Francis Chichester In which Middle Eastern country is the Roman city of Jerash? Jordan On which mountain in Ireland (also known as The Reek) did St Patrick fast for 40 days and nights in 441AD? Croagh Patrick On which island is the poet Rupert Brooke buried? Skyros In which US state is the Spurr Volcano? Alaska Who was the first British-born astronaut to walk in space? Dr Michael Foale Which is the world�s second largest desert? Australian Desert, Which flower has the Latin name Bellis perennis? Common daisy, The Ligurian Sea is an arm of which body of water? Mediterranean Sea Mossad is the secret service of which country? Israel In Greek mythology, who was the giant watchman with one hundred eyes? Argos Orly airport serves which city? Paris What �R� is the active form of vitamin A found in margarines, oily fish and dairy fats? Retinol Which South African surgeon performed the world�s first successful heart transplant? Dr Christiaan Barnard. In which 1981 film do Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep say farewell? The French Lieutenant�s Woman, Named after a town in north-east India, which high quality tea with a delicate taste is known as the �Champagne of teas�? Squid What is the name of the dish, originating from North Africa, that consists of steamed semolina? Couscous Which great circle may be terrestrial or celestial? The Equator, What meat-derived foodstuff did Kenneth Daigneau famously give a name to in 1937 Spam What name is given to members of the United Society of Believers in Christ�s Second Appearing? The Shakers Which Roman historian wrote a history of Rome in 142 volumes? Livy, Lake Taupo is the largest lake in which country? New Zealand Of which republic in the Caribbean is Port au Prince the capital? Haiti, Who succeeded James A Garfield as US president in 1881? Chester A Arthur, In which year was Pompeii destroyed by Vesuvius? 79AD Which studio album by Queen first featured the song We Will Rock You? News of the World, Which is the second largest mountain system in North America? Appalachians, Which is the only seal that feeds on penguins? Leopard seal Which creature of Australia and New Guinea is also called a spiny anteater? Echidna Guernsey, Jersey and Sark are pa", "The Jewish Week - Current April 28, 2000 / 23 Nisan 5760 The Unknown Rescue By: Steve Lipman, Staff Writer Before the war, 48,000 Jews lived in Bulgaria. After the Nazi defeat, there were 49,000. Here�s the seldom-told story Plovdiv, Bulgaria -- Albert Alkalai put on his raincoat, the one with the small yellow Jewish star on the lapel, left his family�s house and walked to work a quarter-mile away in the central square at 8 a.m. on March 10, 1943. The morning was sunny. �A little bit chilly, as in March,� Alkalai remembers. He was 19, an out-of-work accountant, a Jew working with �special permission� that morning. The store where he was employed by a sympathetic Bulgarian was shuttered, closed like the other businesses on the street. �It gave a hint something unusual was going on,� he says. Then Alkalai saw some young Jews, friends, rushing around with bags of clothing. They told him why - police had rounded up hundreds of Jewish families in the early hours, bringing them to the courtyard of the Jewish school. At the railroad station, empty cars were waiting to take the Jews to Poland, to their death in concentration camps. March 10 was the beginning of what the Nazis, Bulgaria�s ally during World War II, hoped would be the end of Bulgarian Jewry. But it didn�t happen. Little known in the West, certainly less then the Danish rescue of its 8,000 Jews, the story of Bulgaria and its Jewish population is among the most dramatic tales of the Holocaust. Historians still disagree over the relative roles played by King Boris III, members of the country�s fascist government, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Bulgarian people. But one fact is beyond dispute -- before the war, 48,000 Jews lived in Bulgaria; after the war, the figure was 49,000. Though some Jews died as member of partisan units in Bulgaria, not one Jew in �Old Bulgaria� -- the part that did not include the territories annexed after Bulgaria joined the Axis alliance -- was killed because he or she was Jewish. �The Bulgarian Jews became the only Jewish community in the Nazi sphere of influence whose numbers increased during World War II,� Michael Bar-Zohar writes in �Beyond Hitler�s Grasp: The Heroic Rescue of Bulgaria�s Jews� (Adams Media Corp., 1998). �I was an eyewitness,� says Alkalai, 76, a pensioneer still living here in his hometown in west-central Bulgaria. For the 6,000 Jews in the Balkan land today, the rescue by their countrymen is a defining moment in their 2,000-year history. March 10 is celebrated as a minor Purim, with annual commemorations. Since the fall of communism in late 1989, Plovdiv�s Jews have erected a menorah-shaped monument in the center of the country�s second-largest city, and the Jews of Sofia, the capital, dedicated a smaller plaque near the parliament building. A larger sculpture, a pair of obelisks sponsored by the government, are to go up next year outside the Jewish community center in Sofia. Bulgarian Jews in Israel and at a Sephardic synagogue in Los Angeles mark the rescue each year, and several major Jewish organizations -- including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Congress � have recognized Bulgaria�s wartime effort in recent years. There is a Bulgarian forest planted by the Jewish National Fund in Israel, a Bulgarian square in a Jerusalem neighborhood and a garden named for King Boris at the Migdal Ohr campus in northern Israel. But the story of Bulgaria in World War II has received little recognition in the wider Jewish community. One example, Mordecai Paldiel�s classic book, �The Path of the Righetous: Gentile Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust,� devoted only one paragraph to the subject. �People know Denmark, says the Sofia-born Bar-Zohar. �Bulgaria nobody knows about.� Bar-Zohar, who lives in Tel Aviv and ser", "How to Address the Pope, Roman Catholic FYI, here is what's come in to the Blog that relates to this office/rank. For recent questions sent in, check out Robert Hickey's Blog . For specific offices/ranks, check out Robert Hickey's On-Line Guide . How to Introduce the Pope? Dear Mr. Hickey. I will be meeting the Pope. If I introduce him, would you say, \"May I introduce the Holy Father, Pope Francis\" or would you say, \"May I present His Holiness\" and not use Francis in the introduction? ~ Meeting the Pope Dear Meeting the Pope: (All this is covered on page 282 in my book.) The Holy Father is so high he is never introduced to anyone: individuals are presented to The Holy Father. He requires no introduction: anyone about to meet the Pope already knows who he is. When he enters a room he is announced .... an aide says so all can hear \"His Holiness\" ... and that's it. You will be introduced to the Pope. In that case the introducer would say \"Your Holiness may I present (name of the other person).\" When acknowledging the introduction, his name is ever used: He is addressed in conversation as \"Your Holiness.\" This not using the name is the rule for most all the very high officials. For example, the Queen of the United Kingdom is never addressed as Queen Elizabeth ... she is always addressed as \"Your Majesty\" The President of the United States is addressed as Mr. President in direct conversation: not President (Name). -- Robert Hickey FYI: To see an interesting news story about a mistake by the President of the United States in addressing the Pope, cardinals, and bishops, click here. How to Address a Retired Pope? How do you address a former pope of the Roman Catholic Church? I bet you never considered that! -- B. E. in Georgia Dear B.E., It’s less that I have not considered it, than the Roman Catholic Church didn't list how to address a retired pope in it's modern literature. I don’t define how anyone is addressed … I just keep track of how current organizations address their current and former officials – so those of us outside their domain can address them correctly. Now they’ve established there can be a former office holder. Some would have guessed that Pope Benedict would return to the form of address to which he was entitled before assuming office -- cardinal. There are already retired former office holders at that level. Having a retired cardinal addressed in the same way as current cardinals presents no confusion, since being a cardinal is not a singular (only-one-office-holder-at-a-time) position. * For example, when Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands abdicated the throne to her son Willem-Alexander in 2013, she returned to the form of address to which she was entitled prior to taking office: Princess. * However, in the UK, \"Queen Elizabeth\" – the Queen Mother (Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was the mother of Queen Elizabeth II, the present British sovereign (chief of state), and the widow of King George VI) continued to be addressed as Your Majesty when her daughter assumed the throne without much mishap. In Belgium where for a period before the death of Fabiola in 2014, there were three queens: Queen Fabiola (1960-1993), her successor Queen Paola (1993-2013), and the current Queen Mathilde (2013- ), all addressed as Your Majesty. These situations are a bit different, but they show how other hierarchies have dealt with titles when there is more than one office holder in a typically one-office-holder-at-a-time office. -- Robert Hickey How to Address a Pope If Your Are Non-Christian? What is the appropriate form of address to the Pope in a letter from a non-Christian? -- DM in Norwood, MA Dear DM, Use the forms of address noted for the Roman Catholic Pope or Coptic Pope (whichever one you are referring to). To address a pope as Your Holiness is standard and is simply honoring another culture's", "Q&A: Egyptian protests against Hosni Mubarak - BBC News BBC News Q&A: Egyptian protests against Hosni Mubarak By Martin Asser BBC News 11 February 2011 Read more about sharing. Close share panel President Hosni Mubarak has resigned after nearly 30 years in power and 18 days of relentless pressure from street demonstrations demanding an end to his rule. Here is a guide to what is happening and why it matters for the rest of the world. What prompted Mr Mubarak to step down? Friday's announcement that Hosni Mubarak had handed control to the Supreme Military Council came as a surprise in one way, but in another way it was remarkable how long he had lasted. \"Game over\" was the message from the streets, and protesters were adamant that they would not go home until he left office. But the government hung on, offering various concessions and deploying various tactics to intimidate the pro-democracy crowds, but they only became more numerous and more passionate. It seemed as though the game was up on Thursday, when the army council met without a senior government figure in the chair. But the president came back with one last throw of the dice - in a state address on TV reiterating his position. This enraged the expectant multitude in Cairo's Tahrir Square and around the country, and their zeal perhaps was the final message that the game was finally over. How did it all start? Egypt has long been known as a centre of stability in a volatile region, but that masked malignant problems which erupted in popular demonstrations against the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak on 25 and 28 January. His National Democratic Party (NDP) monopolised political power through a mixture of constitutional manipulation, repression and rigged elections, cronyism, and the backing of powerful foreign allies. The main drivers of the unrest have been poverty, rising prices, social exclusion, anger over corruption and personal enrichment among the political elite, and a demographic bulge of young people unable to find work. The catalyst was fellow Arabs in Tunisia successfully overthrowing their autocratic ruler, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali , with a popular uprising on 14 January. Popular anger was fuelled by dozens of deaths at the hands of the security forces, while protesters' voices have been heard thanks to social media and the presence of independent news broadcasters at the scene. Their rallying cries were \"The people want the fall of the regime\", \"Mubarak, go\", and \"Illegitimate, illegitimate\". Why does it matter? Egypt is by far the most populous Arab country and what happens there carries great political weight around the world, especially the Middle East. Cairo's relationship with Washington is underpinned by a peace treaty with Israel, agreed in the late-1970s after four Arab-Israeli wars in which Egypt was standard-bearer of the Arab cause. Hosni Mubarak's autocracy, and billions of dollars of US military aid, permitted him a free hand to engage with Israeli governments, unhindered by deep public concern about Israel's military and political handling of the Palestinians and Lebanon. The realities of democratic politics could bring about a recasting of those relationships; hence the apprehensiveness of Israelis and Americans as they follow events. There are also major economic implications, as Egyptian industry and the valuable tourism sector have been paralysed by the political unrest. Oil prices have risen amid fears of unrest affecting traffic through the Suez Canal and, in the long term, of a wider regional crisis. Who are the anti-government protesters? The protests have included people from all sectors of society, but at the forefront have been young, tech-savvy Egyptians who have never known another ruler of their country. There is no single figurehead or unified leadership, although a number of opposition political figures and groupings are taking part. They include the UN former nuclear agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei and Ayman Nour, a lawyer and leader of the Ghad party, who was jailed after contesting the 2005 presidential election. The Musli", "Biography – Yitzhak Rabin » The Prime Ministers Biography – Yitzhak Rabin Following Golda Meir’s resignation in April 1974, Yitzhak Rabin was elected party leader, after he defeated Shimon Peres. The rivalry between these two labour leaders remained fierce and they competed several times in the next two decades for the leadership role. Rabin succeeded Golda Meir as Prime Minister of Israel on 3 June 1974. This was a coalition government, including Ratz, the Independent Liberals, Progress and Development and the Arab List for Bedouins and Villagers. This arrangement, with a bare parliamentary majority, held for a few months and was one of the few periods in Israel’s history where the religious parties were not part of the coalition. The National Religious Party joined the coalition on 30 October 1974 and Ratz left on 6 November. In foreign policy, the major development at the beginning of Rabin’s term was the Sinai Interim Agreement between Israel and Egypt, signed on 1 September 1975. Both countries declared that the conflict between them and in the Middle East shall not be resolved by military force but by peaceful means. This agreement followed Henry Kissinger’s shuttle diplomacy and a threatened ‘reassessment’ of the United States’ regional policy and its relations with Israel. Rabin notes it was, “an innocent-sounding term that heralded one of the worst periods in American-Israeli relations”. The agreement was an important step towards the Camp David Accords of 1978 and the peace treaty with Egypt signed in 1979. Operation Entebbe was perhaps the most dramatic event during Rabin’s first term of office. On his orders, the IDF performed a long-range undercover raid to rescue passengers of an airliner hijacked by militants belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s Wadie Haddad faction and the German Revolutionary Cells (RZ), and had been brought to Idi Amin’s Uganda. The operation was generally considered a tremendous success, and its spectacular character has made it the subject of much continued comment and study. Towards the end of 1976 his coalition government with the religious parties suffered a crisis: A motion of no confidence had been brought by Agudat Yisrael over a breach of the Sabbath on an Israeli Air Force base when four F-15 jets were delivered from the US and the National Religious Party had abstained. Rabin dissolved his government and decided on new elections, which were to be held in May 1977. Following the March 1977 meeting between Rabin and U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Rabin publicly announced that the U.S. supported the Israeli idea of defensible borders; Carter then issued a clarification. A “fallout” in U.S./Israeli relations ensued. It is thought that the fallout contributed to the Israeli Labour Party’s defeat in the May 1977 elections. On March 15, 1977, Haaretz journalist Dan Margalit revealed that a joint dollar account in the names of Yitzhak and Leah Rabin, opened in a Washington, D.C., bank during Rabin’s term of office as Israel ambassador (1968-73), was still open, in breach of Israeli law. According to Israeli currency regulations at the time, it was illegal for citizens to maintain foreign bank accounts without prior authorisation. Rabin resigned on April 8, 1977, following the revelation by Maariv journalist Shraga Mekel that the Rabins held two accounts in Washington, not one, containing $10,000, and that a Finance Ministry administrative penalty committee fined them IL150,000. Rabin withdrew from the party leadership and candidacy for prime minister, an act that earned him praise as a man of integrity. On the evening of 4 November 1995 (12th of Heshvan on the Hebrew Calendar), Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a radical right-wing Orthodox Jew who opposed the signing of the Oslo Accords. Rabin had been attending a mass rally at the Kings of Israel Square (now Rabin Square) in Tel Aviv, held in support of the Oslo Accords. When the rally ended, Rabin walked down the city hall steps towards the open door of his car, at which point Amir fired three sho", "Mubarak of Egypt: the U.S. Meets the Surprising Man Who Succeeded Sadat Mubarak of Egypt: the U.S. Meets the Surprising Man Who Succeeded Sadat Email He was Anwar Sadat’s handpicked successor, but when Hosni Mubarak travels to Washington this week for scheduled talks with President Reagan, Americans will find that the new President of Egypt is a strikingly different figure from his mystical mentor. Rising to power in the military, Mubarak commanded the Egyptian Air Force in its dramatic opening attack on Israel in the 1973 war. Yet he has shown no reticence, and indeed considerable skill, in putting his mark swiftly on his nation’s domestic policy. He has freed political dissidents imprisoned by Sadat and purged his Cabinet of members close to a government official arrested for corruption. His stewardship of foreign policy has been equally surefooted, if not always to American taste. Though Mubarak remains committed to the Camp David Accords, he informed Secretary of State Alexander Haig last month that he would not meet the April deadline for signing an agreement on the Palestinian issue without further Israeli concessions. Just last week he invited the Soviet Union to send back to Cairo the 66 technical advisers whom Sadat expelled along with the Soviet Ambassador last September. Mubarak thrived under the presidencies of Gamal Nasser and Anwar Sadat, but he kowtowed to neither man. He once refused Nasser’s brother admittance to the Air Force Academy for failing to pay the registration fee, and when Sadat’s brother—a pilot who was killed in the 1973 war—first came under his command, Mubarak was notably hard on him. “I didn’t want anybody to think that he had privileges,” Mubarak says. “I hate people who exploit the fact that anybody in their family is important.” In that and other ways, Mubarak is far less the autocrat than Sadat was. After Sadat’s funeral, newspaper editor Hassanein Heikal, who had been imprisoned by Sadat, asked what the new President had worn to the rites. “A plain dark suit,” he was told. “That makes me feel better,” said Heikal, who has since been released by Mubarak. “It means that he will not put emphasis on uniforms and decorations, like his predecessor.” Mubarak differs in other ways. He avoids both the rhetoric that Nasser used to whip crowds into hysterics and the political manipulation practiced by Sadat. Though Sadat openly attacked Arab leaders for their intransigence on the peace process, Mubarak has ordered conciliation—even to the point of forbidding the Egyptian press to criticize his country’s archenemy, Libya’s Col. Muammar Qadaffi. He has made it clear that peace with the rest of the Arab world is as important to him as peace with Israel. Most remarkably, Mubarak has shunned the cult of personality that Egyptian Presidents in the past have encouraged. A no-nonsense man who grew up as the son of a court employee in a small village near Sadat’s birthplace, Mubarak still answers his own phone and spends almost all his time within one square mile, shuttling between his office, his modest two-story home and the Air Force Officers’ Club. He is not given to the cumbersome motorcades in which Sadat traveled daily. “Suddenly there are no more traffic jams in the center of Cairo,” says one prominent industrialist. “Sadat used to cause them by driving through the city to his offices, houses and palaces.” Mubarak also keeps his family life intensely private. When a Cairo newspaper reported that his half-Egyptian, half-Welsh wife of 23 years, Susanna, was studying for a master’s degree at nearby American University, the President personally excoriated the editor-in-chief. “I don’t want to see anything personal about my family—not my wife, not my children, and not me,” barked the father of two college-age sons. “I don’t want you to call me an Air Force hero or my wife the First Lady. There is no First Lady—there is Mrs. Mubarak, and my children are not the President’s children. They are two boys—themselves.” It is not surprising, then, that the new President of Egypt has shunned the press—especia", "Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Jerusalem - TripAdvisor Want the lowest hotel prices? You're in the right place. We check 200+ sites for you. Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center, Jerusalem Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center Write a Review Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center Would this be a good sunny day activity? Yes Is this attraction suitable for all ages? Yes Is this attraction a \"must-see\" location? Yes Does this attraction provide visitors with a taste of the local culture? Yes Is this attraction popular with tourists? Yes No Unsure Does this attraction require above average amounts of physical activity (long walks, climbs, stairs or hikes)? Yes Is this attraction good for couples? Yes Is this location a solemn or serious place like a memorial, cemetary, etc.? Yes Is this an outdoor attraction or activity? Yes Would this be a good hot day activity? Yes Map updates are paused. Zoom in to see updated info. Reset zoom Address: Mount of Remembrance | Mount Herzl, Jerusalem 91034, Israel Name/address in local language Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center Mount of Remembrance | Mount Herzl, Jerusalem 91034, Israel 5,605 Reviews | Ranked #2 of 298 To help you get around Jerusalem, here's the name and address of this business in the local language Local name יד ושם - המוסד להנצחת השואה Local address הר הזיכרון, הר הרצל, 91034 Directions Sun - Wed 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Thu 9:00 am - 8:00 pm Fri 9:00 am - 2:00 pm Description: The world’s leading national Holocaust memorial and museum is a 45-acre... The world’s leading national Holocaust memorial and museum is a 45-acre campus comprising indoor museums, outdoor monuments, memorials, gardens, sculptures and world-class research and educational centres. read more Behind-the-Scenes Guided Tour of Yad Vashem Holocaust History Museum More Info Jewish Heritage Private Tour to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv More Info Jerusalem Full Day Tour from Tel Aviv See More Tours & Experiences Terrible “Study group visit” Study group visit of educators from nz. Incredible speakers and well organised program. The grounds are extensive and there are so many things to see. The museum has a great... read more Reviewed yesterday 5,605 Reviews from our TripAdvisor Community Which Jerusalem hotels are on sale? mm/dd/yyyy mm/dd/yyyy See all travel guides Read reviews that mention: All reviews children's memorial heart wrenching million jews million children main museum moving experience personal stories audio guide emotional experience human being light rail their lives take your time two hours visiting israel victims memorials horror evil auschwitz Review tags are currently only available for English language reviews. Start your review of Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center Click to rate Reviewed yesterday NEW via mobile Study group visit of educators from nz. Incredible speakers and well organised program. The grounds are extensive and there are so many things to see. The museum has a great philosophy, amazing architecture and is very engaging in its presentation and information. Helpful? “An Important Place to Visit” Reviewed yesterday NEW Yad Vashem is not a fun visit but it's an important one. The main part of the museum is set up in chronological sequence so that you follow history from the time shortly before Hitler came to power until the end of World War 2. Many of the exhibits are extremely graphic and can be overwhelming. Be sure to go... More Helpful? “Amazing” Reviewed yesterday NEW We unfortunately only had an hour to view (closed at 5pm the day we went and they are strict on that time), but I could have stayed there for hours as there are so many personal testimonials, stories, and much information. It is easy to get to as it is the last stop on the tram (Mount Herzl). Helpful? Reviewed yesterday NEW via mobile The Israeli's have done a great job with this museum! The exhibition is very well detailed on what happened to the Jews during Hit", "Part Five: My Sea Adventure, Chapter 26: Israel Hands | Treasure Island | Robert Louis Stevenson | Lit2Go ETC Part Five: My Sea Adventure, Chapter 26: Israel Hands Additional Information Source: Stevenson, R. L. (1883). Treasure Island. London, England: Cassell and Co. Readability: Chicago Stevenson, R. (1883). Part Five: My Sea Adventure, Chapter 26: Israel Hands. Treasure Island (Lit2Go Edition). Retrieved January 10, 2017, from http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/81/treasure-island/5514/part-five-my-sea-adventure-chapter-26-israel-hands/ Stevenson, Robert Louis. \"Part Five: My Sea Adventure, Chapter 26: Israel Hands.\" Treasure Island. Lit2Go Edition. 1883. Web. <http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/81/treasure-island/5514/part-five-my-sea-adventure-chapter-26-israel-hands/>. January 10, 2017. Robert Louis Stevenson, \"Part Five: My Sea Adventure, Chapter 26: Israel Hands,\" Treasure Island, Lit2Go Edition, (1883), accessed January 10, 2017, http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/81/treasure-island/5514/part-five-my-sea-adventure-chapter-26-israel-hands/. Next The embedded audio player requires a modern internet browser. You should visit Browse Happy and update your internet browser today! The wind, serving us to a desire, now hauled into the west. We could run so much the easier from the north-east corner of the island to the mouth of the North Inlet. Only, as we had no power to anchor and dared not beach her till the tide had flowed a good deal farther, time hung on our hands. The coxswain told me how to lay the ship to; after a good many trials I succeeded, and we both sat in silence over another meal. “Cap’n,” said he at length with that same uncomfortable smile, “here’s my old shipmate, O’Brien; s’pose you was to heave him overboard. I ain’t partic’lar as a rule, and I don’t take no blame for settling his hash, but I don’t reckon him ornamental now, do you?” “I’m not strong enough, and I don’t like the job; and there he lies, for me,” said I. “This here’s an unlucky ship, this Hispaniola, Jim,” he went on, blinking. “There’s a power of men been killed in this Hispaniola—a sight o’ poor seamen dead and gone since you and me took ship to Bristol. I never seen sich dirty luck, not I. There was this here O’Brien now—he’s dead, ain’t he? Well now, I’m no scholar, and you’re a lad as can read and figure, and to put it straight, do you take it as a dead man is dead for good, or do he come alive again?” “You can kill the body, Mr. Hands, but not the spirit; you must know that already,” I replied. “O’Brien there is in another world, and may be watching us.” “Ah!” says he. “Well, that’s unfort’nate—appears as if killing parties was a waste of time. Howsomever, sperrits don’t reckon for much, by what I’ve seen. I’ll chance it with the sperrits, Jim. And now, you’ve spoke up free, and I’ll take it kind if you’d step down into that there cabin and get me a—well, a—shiver my timbers! I can’t hit the name on ‘t; well, you get me a bottle of wine, Jim—this here brandy’s too strong for my head.” Now, the coxswain’s hesitation seemed to be unnatural, and as for the notion of his preferring wine to brandy, I entirely disbelieved it. The whole story was a pretext. He wanted me to leave the deck—so much was plain; but with what purpose I could in no way imagine. His eyes never met mine; they kept wandering to and fro, up and down, now with a look to the sky, now with a flitting glance upon the dead O’Brien. All the time he kept smiling and putting his tongue out in the most guilty, embarrassed manner, so that a child could have told that he was bent on some deception. I was prompt with my answer, however, for I saw where my advantage lay and that with a fellow so densely stupid I could easily conceal my suspicions to the end. “Some wine?” I said. “Far better. Will you have white or red?” “Well, I reckon it’s about the blessed same to me, shipmate,” he replied; “so it’s strong, and plenty of it, what’s the odds?” “All right,” I answered. “I’ll bring you port, Mr. Hands. But I’ll have to dig for it.” With that I scuttled down the companion with all the noise I could, slip", "VC-25 - Air Force One > U.S. Air Force > Fact Sheet Display PRINT | E-MAIL Mission The mission of the VC-25 aircraft -- Air Force One -- is to provide air transport for the president of the United States. Features The presidential air transport fleet consists of two specially configured Boeing 747-200B's -- tail numbers 28000 and 29000 -- with the Air Force designation VC-25. When the president is aboard either aircraft, or any Air Force aircraft, the radio call sign is \"Air Force One.\" Principal differences between the VC-25 and the standard Boeing 747, other than the number of passengers carried, are the electronic and communications equipment, self-contained baggage loader, front and aft air-stairs, and the capability for in-flight refueling. Accommodations for the president include an executive suite consisting of a stateroom (with dressing room, lavatory and shower) and the president's office. A conference/dining room is also available for the president, his family and staff. Other separate accommodations are provided for guests, senior staff, Secret Service and security personnel and the news media. Two galleys provide up to 100 meals at one sitting. Six passenger lavatories, including disabled access facilities, are provided as well as a rest area and mini-galley for the aircrew. The VC-25 also has a compartment outfitted with medical equipment and supplies for minor medical emergencies. Background Presidential air transport began in 1944 when a VC-54, nicknamed the \"Sacred Cow,\" was put into service for Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt. President Roosevelt’s successor, President Harry S. Truman, used the aircraft extensively during the first 27 months of his administration. On July 26, 1947, President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 on board the Sacred Cow. This act established the US Air Force as an independent service, making the Sacred Cow the “birthplace” of the US Air Force. Then came a VC-118, nicknamed the \"Independence,” which transported President Harry S. Truman during the period 1947 to 1953. It was nicknamed “Independence” after President Truman’s hometown, Independence, Missouri. President Dwight D. Eisenhower traveled aboard a VC-121A and VC-121E, both nicknamed \"Columbine II\" and \"Columbine III\", from 1953 to 1961. These two aircraft were named after the official state flower of Colorado in honor of Mrs. Eisenhower’s home state. While the call sign \"Air Force One\" was first used in the 50s, President Kennedy's VC-137 was the first aircraft to be popularly known as \"Air Force One.\" In 1962, a VC-137C specifically purchased for use as Air Force One, entered into service with the tail number 26000. It is perhaps the most widely known and most historically significant presidential aircraft. Tail number 26000 is the aircraft that carried President Kennedy to Dallas, Nov. 22, 1963, and returned the body to Washington, D.C., following his assassination. Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into office as the 36th president on board the aircraft at Love Field in Dallas. In 1972 President Richard M. Nixon made historic visits aboard 26000 to the People's Republic of China and to the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Tail number 27000 replaced 26000 and carved its own history when it was used to fly Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter to Cairo, Egypt, Oct. 19, 1981, to represent the United States at the funeral of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The first VC-25A -- tail number 28000 -- flew as \"Air Force One\" on Sept. 6, 1990, when it transported President George Bush to Kansas, Florida and back to Washington, D.C. A second VC-25A, tail number 29000 transported Presidents Clinton, Carter and Bush to Israel for the funeral of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Tail number 29000 also carved its name in history on September 11, 2001, when President George W. Bush was interrupted as he attended an event at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, after the attack on the World Trade Center South Tower in New York City. The aircrew safely returned the President and staff members back", "Yitzhak Rabin | prime minister of Israel | Britannica.com prime minister of Israel Chaim Herzog Yitzhak Rabin, (born March 1, 1922, Jerusalem —died Nov. 4, 1995, Tel Aviv–Yafo , Israel), Israeli statesman and soldier who, as prime minister of Israel (1974–77, 1992–95), led his country toward peace with its Palestinian and Arab neighbours. He was chief of staff of Israel’s armed forces during the Six-Day War (June 1967). Along with Shimon Peres , his foreign minister, and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman Yāsir ʿArafāt , Rabin received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1994. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin speaking at the White House following the signing of an accord … J. David Ake—AFP/Getty Images After the signing of the Declaration of Principles on Palestinian self-government (1993), U.S. … CNN ImageSource Yāsir ʿArafāt, left, Shimon Peres, centre, and Yitzhak Rabin with their Nobel … Copyright T. Bergsaker/Sygma Rabin graduated from Kadourie Agricultural School in Kfar Tabor and in 1941 joined the Palmach, the Jewish Defense Forces’ commando unit. He participated in actions against the Vichy French in Syria and Lebanon. During the first of the Arab-Israeli wars (1948–49), he directed the defense of Jerusalem and also fought the Egyptians in the Negev . He graduated (1953) from the British staff college, became chief of staff in January 1964, and conceived the strategies of swift mobilization of reserves and destruction of enemy aircraft on the ground that proved decisive in Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War . In 1968, on retirement from the army, Rabin became his country’s ambassador to the United States , where he forged a close relationship with U.S. leaders and procured advanced American weapons systems for Israel. He drew fire from Israeli hard-liners because he advocated withdrawal from Arab territories occupied in the 1967 war as part of a general Middle East peace settlement. Returning to Israel in March 1973, Rabin became active in Israeli politics. He was elected to the Knesset (parliament) as a member of the Labour Party in December and joined Prime Minister Golda Meir ’s cabinet as minister of labour in March 1974. After Meir resigned in April 1974, Rabin assumed leadership of the party and became Israel’s fifth (and first native-born) prime minister in June. As Israel’s leader he indicated his willingness to negotiate with adversaries as well as to take firm action when deemed necessary—securing a cease-fire with Syria in the Golan Heights but also ordering a bold raid at Entebbe , Uganda , in July 1976, in which Israeli and other hostages were rescued after their plane was hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Red Army Faction (a West German radical leftist group). Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent Rabin was forced to call a general election for May 1977, but in April, during the electoral campaign, he relinquished the prime ministership and stepped down as leader of the Labour Party after it was revealed that he and his wife had maintained bank accounts in the United States, in violation of Israeli law. He was replaced as party leader by Shimon Peres . Rabin served as defense minister in the Labour- Likud coalition governments from 1984 to 1990, responding forcefully to an uprising by Palestinians in the occupied territories. In February 1992, in a nationwide vote by Labour Party members, he regained leadership of the party from Peres. After the victory of his party in the general elections of June 1992, he again became prime minister. As prime minister, Rabin put a freeze on new Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. His government undertook secret negotiations with the PLO that culminated in the Israel-PLO accords (September 1993), in which Israel recognized the PLO and agreed to gradually implement limited self-rule for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip . In October 1994 Rabin and King Ḥussein of Jordan , after a series of secret meetings, signed a full peace treaty between their two countries. U.S. Presid", "Suez Canal opens - Nov 17, 1869 - HISTORY.com Suez Canal opens Publisher A+E Networks The Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red seas, is inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony attended by French Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III. In 1854, Ferdinand de Lesseps, the former French consul to Cairo, secured an agreement with the Ottoman governor of Egypt to build a canal 100 miles across the Isthmus of Suez. An international team of engineers drew up a construction plan, and in 1856 the Suez Canal Company was formed and granted the right to operate the canal for 99 years after completion of the work. Construction began in April 1859, and at first digging was done by hand with picks and shovels wielded by forced laborers. Later, European workers with dredgers and steam shovels arrived. Labor disputes and a cholera epidemic slowed construction, and the Suez Canal was not completed until 1869–four years behind schedule. On November 17, 1869, the Suez Canal was opened to navigation. Ferdinand de Lesseps would later attempt, unsuccessfully, to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. When it opened, the Suez Canal was only 25 feet deep, 72 feet wide at the bottom, and 200 to 300 feet wide at the surface. Consequently, fewer than 500 ships navigated it in its first full year of operation. Major improvements began in 1876, however, and the canal soon grew into the one of the world’s most heavily traveled shipping lanes. In 1875, Great Britain became the largest shareholder in the Suez Canal Company when it bought up the stock of the new Ottoman governor of Egypt. Seven years later, in 1882, Britain invaded Egypt, beginning a long occupation of the country. The Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936 made Egypt virtually independent, but Britain reserved rights for the protection of the canal. After World War II, Egypt pressed for evacuation of British troops from the Suez Canal Zone, and in July 1956 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the canal, hoping to charge tolls that would pay for construction of a massive dam on the Nile River. In response, Israel invaded in late October, and British and French troops landed in early November, occupying the canal zone. Under pressure from the United Nations, Britain and France withdrew in December, and Israeli forces departed in March 1957. That month, Egypt took control of the canal and reopened it to commercial shipping. Ten years later, Egypt shut down the canal again following the Six Day War and Israel’s occupation of the Sinai Peninsula. For the next eight years, the Suez Canal, which separates the Sinai from the rest of Egypt, existed as the front line between the Egyptian and Israeli armies. In 1975, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat reopened the Suez Canal as a gesture of peace after talks with Israel. Today, an average of 50 ships navigate the canal daily, carrying more than 300 million tons of goods a year. Related Videos" ]

[ "Acy Wartsbaugh, an organizer from the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150, and a couple of construction workers are protesting on a sidewalk in Chicago in late July. They're flanked by a 12-foot-tall inflatable rat named \"Scabby.\" It has pointy teeth, red eyes and depictions of oozing, pus-filled scabs on its belly. According to a recent decision from the National Labor Relations Board, this giant rat — and its brethren across the country — now have free speech rights, too. Giant inflatable rats have been used for decades as a widely recognized symbol of a labor dispute, but last year, the board signaled it could be persuaded to outlaw their use in certain situations. Wartsbaugh's union, the Local 150, claims it invented Scabby to protest labor issues almost three decades ago. The term \"scab\" is slang used by unions to describe strikebreakers. It started with a simple rat drawing on a protest sign. It elicited so many questions from passersby that the union started making rat costumes for members to scamper around in. The costumes were hot and impractical. So they commissioned giant inflatables, inspired by ones on used car lots surrounding the union hall. These days, Wartsbaugh says, most people love Scabby. Despite its appearance, union members frequently take Christmas card photos with it, and countless more take selfies when they spot it in the wild. But the people who hate the rat tend to really, really hate it. Wartsbaugh says this one has been run over, graffitied with blue paint — Wartsbaugh jokes it was \"Smurfed\" — and even stabbed. \"One location we were at, an irate lady came out and started stabbing it with a butcher knife,\" he says. \"There's scars right here on the rat where it's been stitched back up to make it work again, but she was going to town, trying to kill Scabby.\" Inflatable rat as \"the iconic symbol of a labor dispute\" Wartsbaugh says his union members are proud of those scars. It's why they request this particular inflatable animal, even though the union also deploys inflatable cats and pigs. No matter the character, they have the same goal: to draw attention to a company with which the union has a dispute. \"It's the iconic symbol of a labor dispute,\" Wartsbaugh says. \"When they see the rat, without even knowing what's going on, most people understand that it's a labor dispute.\" But in this case, Scabby the Rat had been positioned in front of a business, LG Construction, that has little to do with the union's main dispute. A banner in front of the rat shows the union's real issue is with an entirely different business called Brophy Excavation. The Local 150 wants to shame LG Construction for doing business with Brophy Excavation. For years, firms have been crying foul about using giant inflatable animals in that way. They say it's unfair and puts them in the crossfire between the union and a totally different company. \"Scabby the Rat has free speech rights\" Philip Miscimarra is a former chair of the National Labor Relations Board. He calls it a \"miniature Supreme Court\" for labor law. He says the board had always ruled that it's fair to use Scabby just about anywhere. But that changed a bit in late 2020. \"The board, a couple of months ago, solicited briefs and telegraphed the possibility that the board might revisit this area, and view these issues differently,\" he says. So Miscimarra wrote a brief on behalf of retail businesses. In it, he argued that installing a giant inflatable rat outside any shop only serves to scare off customers. \"Whether or not you like large inflatable rats, the underlying message is, there's a dispute that these people are having with the party that is directly behind the rat,\" he says. Ed Maher with the Local 150 argued that these inflatables should be allowed to roam free under the First Amendment. \"Scabby the Rat has free speech rights,\" he says. \"This is a protected symbol of free speech, pure as that.\" After months of deliberation, the NLRB sided with the union on the issue in a 3-1 ruling. In the majority decision issued last month, it says that because the Supreme Court upheld \"far more offensive\" actions like cross burning and anti-homosexual signs at military funerals as free speech, a giant rat should be protected, too. That means, for now, Scabby and his inflatable friends can be used as part of a protest wherever unions want. Coupled with a more union-friendly presidential administration, it could be the first in a series of wins for labor. Even so, Miscimarra says, the inflatable rat's fate could be appealed. If that happens, Maher says his union will be ready for the fight. \"We'll always fight for Scabby,\" Maher says. \"We're fighting for any worker's just most basic right to go out and say, 'I've got something to say, come listen to me.' If this big inflatable rat will encourage people to come listen to him, good.\" Maher says they'll continue to deploy Scabby and other huge inflatables because they work. They help draw a" ]

[ "This week President Trump said of China's president Xi Jinping, \"Well, he's a friend of mine. I have great respect for him. We've gotten to know each other very well. A great leader ... I like being with him a lot. And he's a very special person.\" The president spoke at a press conference with President Macron of France, just hours after Liu Xiaobo had died. Liu, who won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, was suffering from late stage liver cancer in a hospital in northeast China, after the government refused to let him leave the country for treatment. Liu Xiaobo was 61 and had been imprisoned since 2008 for \"inciting subversion of state power.\" He was one of the authors of the Charter 08 declaration that called for democracy and free speech in China, and was sent to prison even before that statement could be published. Liu Xiaobo led a hunger strike during the Tiananmen Square protests in which hundreds or perhaps even thousands of people died when Chinese troops beat, shot and crushed demonstrators during protests in the early morning hours of June 4, 1989. He was jailed for almost two years thereafter, and three times after that. Liu was in prison when he received the Nobel in 2010, for what the committee called his \"long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.\" After being informed, he reportedly said: \"I dedicate this prize to the lost souls of 4 June.\" All presidents have compelling reasons to keep a cordial relationship with China. It is rich, powerful and essential to the world's economy. But in the hours after Liu Xiaobo died, the two leaders who met to celebrate their nations' shared principles of liberty did not mark the loss of a man who gave his life to the struggle for liberty in his country. In fact, President Trump paused to salute the man who heads the regime that imprisoned Liu Xiaobo. We might ask ourselves a few questions, too. Will Americans who go to China on cultural exchanges speak up against a government that suppresses artists, writers and thinkers, like Liu Xiaobo, who create culture? Will any of the American universities that have opened profitable outposts in China speak up against censorship, and in defense of those, including students, who are imprisoned for free speech? As Liu Xiaobo said in the Nobel speech he was not permitted to deliver in person, \"Freedom of expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity, and the mother of truth.\" SCOTT SIMON, HOST: This week, President Trump said of China's President Xi Jinping - well, he's a friend of mine. I have great respect for him. We've gotten to know each other very well, a great leader. I like being with him a lot, and he's a very special person. The president spoke at a press conference with President Macron of France just hours after Liu Xiaobo had died. Liu, who won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, was suffering from late-stage liver cancer in a hospital in Northeast China after the government refused to let him leave the country for treatment. Liu Xiaobo was 61 and had been imprisoned since 2008 for inciting subversion of state power. He was one of the authors of the Charter 08 declaration that called for democracy and free speech in China and was sent to prison even before that statement could be published. Liu Xiaobo led a hunger strike during the Tiananmen Square protests in which hundreds or perhaps even thousands of people died when Chinese troops beat, shot and crushed demonstrators during protests in the early morning hours of June 4, 1989. He was jailed for two years thereafter and three times after that. Liu was in prison when he received the Nobel in 2010 for what the committee called his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China. When he was informed, he reportedly said, I dedicate this prize to the lost souls of 4 June. All presidents have compelling reasons to keep a cordial relationship with China. It is rich, powerful and essential to the world's economy. But in the hours after Liu Xiaobo died, the two leaders who met to celebrate their nation's shared principles of liberty did not mark the loss of a man who gave his life to the struggle for liberty in his country. In fact, President Trump paused to salute the man who heads the regime that imprisoned Liu Xiaobo. We might ask ourselves a few questions too. Will Americans who go to China on cultural exchanges speak up against a government that suppresses artists, writers and thinkers like Liu Xiaobo, who create culture? Will any of the American universities that have opened profitable outposts in China speak up against censorship and in defense of those, including students, who are imprisoned for free speech? As Liu Xiaobo said in the Nobel speech he was not permitted to deliver in person - free expression is the foundation of human rights, the source of humanity and the mother of truth.", "Free speech advocates see President-elect Trumps's testy relationship with the media and his middle-of-the-night tweets reacting to critics as evidence that he is — at best — insensitive to the First Amendment. And they say one recent controversy, the decision by Simon & Schuster to publish a book by social media provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, has grown out of an atmosphere that encourages hate speech. Now, PEN America — an organization dedicated to defending the right to free speech all over the world — is starting to pay more attention to what's happening on the home front. PEN is co-sponsoring a protest which will bring a host of well-known writers to the steps of the New York Public Library to protest threats to free expression. \"We need to be, as citizens, ready to come out,\" says PEN America executive director Suzanne Nossel, \"stand together for basic rights that six months ago we might have been able to take for granted, but that we no longer can.\" Nossel sees these threats coming from several directions: The President-elect's attacks on the press and his critics, the proliferation of fake news and the pattern of trolling on social media. \"People feel more free to speak their mind,\" she says, \"even if it crosses what would have been considered boundaries of hatred or racism or misogyny, and so I think it then becomes incumbent on others to speak more loudly.\" But the job of advocating for free speech has become ever more complicated in the age of social media — which Nossel says can be both an incredible tool for free expression and a threat to it. \"It has a dampening effect on the depth of discourse, it can lead to this online mobbing and trolling where someone who says something controversial is then targeted, ridiculed. So this is not about the government silencing speech, but it's about speech silencing other speech.\" Perhaps no one has crossed the line on social media more boldly than Milo Yiannopoulos, who was kicked off of Twitter after he spearheaded a nasty campaign against black actress Leslie Jones. Yiannopoulos likes to describe himself as a free speech fundamentalist: \"What the left wants to do is it wants to enable its extremists on its own side, the sexists and misandrists of feminism, the black supremacists of Black Lives Matter, they want to enable extremists on their own side, and silence the extremists on the other. Well, I don't like the extremists on either side.\" Yiannopoulos, an editor at the ultra-conservative Breitbart News, seems to take delight in infuriating people with remarks that are viewed as racist, misogynistic and anti-immigrant. So it's not surprising that Simon & Schuster's decision to publish his book drew strong criticism and calls for a boycott of the company. Dennis Johnson is the head of Melville House, a small independent publisher \"Nobody in the protest is saying 'you have no right to be published,'\" he says. \"'You have no right, Simon & Schuster, to publish this guy, and this guy, you have no right to be published' — nobody's saying that. What they're saying is, 'we're shocked and we're outraged that you would stoop so low to make a buck as to publish this purveyor of vile hate speech.'\" Johnson is highly critical of a statement issued by the National Coalition Against Censorship on behalf of a number of industry groups representing publishers, authors and booksellers. The NCAC says anyone has a right to call for a boycott of Simon & Schuster — but that such a protest will have a \"chilling effect\" on publishing. Joan Bertin, executive director of the NCAC, says similar protests have already led to censorship: \"We know of instances in which books that contain certain kinds of content have been shelved, deferred, redacted, edited deeply to remove content that people might object to.\" Both the NCAC and PEN America say the best response to hate speech is not more censorship. \"Trying to suppress hateful speech doesn't make it go away,\" says Bertin. \"I mean, I think the whole idea of free speech requires us to be active participants, and when we hear ideas that we think are bad and harmful, it requires us to say 'why,' not just say 'shut up.'\" But publisher Dennis Johnson says another equally important right is at stake here: The right to protest. \"This is not about censoring right wing voices,\" he says. \"This is about combating hate speech and its entry into the mainstream.\"", "The Morgan State University Choir is it. If you don't know about them already, prepare to be amazed. Their accomplishments are too numerous to count, but they've performed all over the world; sung at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center; and won Emmy's for Maryland Public Television... and that's just the tip of the iceberg. What's more, our very own beloved director Gwen Outen sang there as a college student, under Dr. Nathan Carter, one of the most prestigious conductors, composers, and arrangers in choral music. Pretty great. Feel free to sing their praises in the comments section!", "Hall of Fame first baseman and one of the most beloved former members of the San Francisco Giants, Willie McCovey died Wednesday. His death at age 80 was announced by the Giants. The team didn't specify an exact cause of death, citing instead \"on-going health issues.\" McCovey was nicknamed \"Stretch\" because his height at 6-foot-4. Left-handed throwing made him a natural at first base. He was best known for his 521 career home runs, 18 of which were grand slams — the most by any player who spent his career exclusively in the National League. McCovey was the National League's home run leader three times and RBI king twice in his 22-season career. He played 13 of those years on the Giants with teammate Willie Mays and together they formed one of the most powerful hitting duos in baseball history. A native of Mobile, Ala., McCovey announced his arrival in baseball's major leagues in July 1959 when he debuted batting 4-for-4, hitting two triples and two singles, scoring three runs and batting in two other runs. He batted .354 overall and won the National League's Rookie of the Year award despite playing only 59 games that season. Ten years later in 1969, McCovey was the NL's Most Valuable Player, after leading the league with 45 home runs, 126 RBIs and an on-base percentage of .453. McCovey spent 19 of his 22 major league years with the Giants. He was traded to the San Diego Padres in 1973 and then played briefly with the Oakland A's in 1976. He returned to the Giants in 1977 hitting 28 home runs and winning the Sporting News NL Comeback Player of the Year award. As ESPN reports, \"One honor that eluded McCovey was a World Series ring. He came close in 1962, coming up short in a nail-biting seven-game series against the Yankees. McCovey went to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, his team down 1-0, with runners on second and third base. McCovey sliced a hit toward right field that looked like it could drive in the winning run but instead was caught by Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson to end the game and the series. The moment was so iconic that it was featured in a Peanuts comic strip.\" That comic strip is shown here. McCovey retired in 1980 and voted into the Hall of Fame in 1986, and stands tied for 20th on the league's all-time home run list. He remained a fan favorite over the years, making frequent appearances at AT&T Park and always projecting an easy-going, dignified demeanor. In 1980, the Giants established the \"Willie Mac\" Award, an honor bestowed on the player who \"best exemplifies the spirit and leadership\" shown by McCovey. The San Francisco Bay water just beyond the right field wall at the park is known as \"McCovey's Cove\" even though he never played in that stadium. A statue of McCovey stands at the mouth of the Cove.", "The Obama administration is in a difficult situation with its Egypt policy. President Obama, who often talks about free speech and human rights, has cancelled joint military exercises with Egypt but has stopped short of cutting off aid to the Egyptian military. As the violence continues in the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities, all sides seem unhappy with the U.S. approach. In 2009, on his first trip to the Middle East as president, in the same year he won the Nobel Peace Prize, Obama spoke of a new approach to relations with the Islamic world. \"I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect,\" he said in a speech at Cairo University. The speech was hailed as a turning point in U.S. foreign policy. This past week, though, he was trying to explain to Egyptians why he's not cutting off aid to a military that was violently cracking down on Islamist protesters. \"Given the depths of our partnership with Egypt, our national security interests in this pivotal part of the world and our belief that engagement can support a transition back to a democratically elected civilian government, we've sustained our commitment to Egypt and its people,\" he said, making a statement from his vacation at Martha's Vineyard on Thursday. To demonstrate his concern over the action of security forces, he cancelled plans for joint military exercises next month. Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies says there is not much else the United States can do instantly, but he does see changes in this relationship. \"We have been working for 30 years to broaden, deepen and strengthen our cooperation with Egypt,\" Alterman says. \"Now we are moving to make that narrower, but it takes time.\" Time to decide what is essential, he says, adding that counterterrorism cooperation, regional security and Israel are all key factors. \"The United States has played a vital role lubricating the Egyptian-Israeli relationship, which has led up to being a huge boon to Israeli security,\" Alterman says. \"If you don't have as close a U.S.-Egyptian relationship, that is going to have definite visible effects on the Egyptian-Israeli border.\" Other analysts say it's time to completely rethink U.S. policy on Egypt. Michele Dunne, who runs the Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council, says Obama's failure to suspend aid undercuts U.S. credibility, and could come back to haunt it. \"What's happening now in Egypt — the crackdown on Islamists, the widespread bloodshed — and what's happened in Syria is going to build the new jihadist narrative of betrayal by the West,\" Dunne says: \"That the United States failed to come to the assistance of the Syrian people in a timely and effective fashion, and that it failed to not only act effectively but even to withdraw assistance from the Egyptian military when it cracked down on Islamists inside of Egypt.\" Against this backdrop, Dunne says, the president's speeches about democracy and human rights ring hollow. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki spent much of the last week trying to fend off criticism of the administration's approach. AP diplomatic correspondent Matt Lee pressed her on how effective she thinks U.S. policy has been. \"Is the administration confident that the steps, that the policy that you have pursued thus far in Egypt and also in Syria are worthy of a president who not so long ago won the Nobel Peace Prize?\" Lee asked. \"Yes, Matt,\" Psaki answered, but she also acknowledged that no one thinks that simply cancelling military exercises with Egypt will change the situation on the ground. RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: The Obama administration has been put in a difficult situation by the recent events in Egypt. President Obama often talks about free speech and human rights around the world but as the violence continues, Egyptians and many in the U.S. say the Obama administration isn't doing enough to bring an end to the conflict. Mr. Obama has canceled joint military exercises with Egypt, which was a largely symbolic move. He did not cut off the more than a billion dollars in aid the U.S. gives to the Egyptian military every year. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports on why U.S. policy toward Egypt seems so difficult to change. MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: On his first trip to the Middle East as president in the same year he won the Nobel Peace Prize, Barack Obama spoke of a new approach. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect. KELEMEN: This past week though, he was trying to explain to Egyptians why he's not cutting off aid to a military that was violently cracking down on Islamist protesters. OBAMA: Given the depths of our partnership with Egypt, our national security interests in this pivotal part of the world and our believe that engagement can su", "The latest in the Summer Of '80s Movies series is 1987's Wall Street*, which won Michael Douglas an Oscar and guaranteed that \"greed is good\" would live on in our grab-bag of overused cultural cliches forevermore. It was also a major step in the rise of Oliver Stone, who had won an Oscar for Best Director the year before (for Platoon) and would, in the next few years, make films including Born On The Fourth Of July, The Doors, Nixon, and -- of course -- JFK. And what's shocking, seeing Wall Street 22 years after its release, is how aggressively bad it is. Huge cell phones, Spader problems, unlikely speeches, and lots more, after the jump... Read More >> Yes, there is a kind of overclocked power in Douglas' performance as Gordon Gekko, and Stone's heavy-handed vision of Gekko as half-man, half-reptile is fully realized, to the point where seeing his tongue flick out and catch an insect would not be a surprise. In fact, \"heavy-handed\" seems inadequate, to the point where one wishes there were such a word as \"lunk-handed.\" But the rest of the cast is utterly lost. Charlie Sheen plays young Bud Fox as, depending on the moment, either a babe in the woods entranced by Gekko's power and fundamentally good or a thoroughly corrupted man who has fallen victim to his own lust for money. Obviously, characters can contain multitudes, but Sheen careens wildly between the two extremes, as if he's driving a car that has only first gear and, let's say, fifteenth. It gets worse from there. It's not clear why anyone felt that the character played by Daryl Hannah, a decorator who is so sophisticated and upscale that she covers Bud's walls in what appears to be rubberized brick facade (!), even needed to be in the movie. Perhaps the need for a sex scene performed in silhouette as gauzy blue curtains billow in the background was deemed particularly acute. Hannah does nothing, seems totally confused, and doesn't seem to know whether her character actually cares about Bud or not. And poor James Spader! Granted, he had been in Mannequin and Less Than Zero right before this, but that's no excuse for putting him in Old Navy Lady glasses and giving him this preppy hair. In the role of Bud's pal, he is actually forced to recite the line, \"And what's in it for moi?\" Yes, he says \"moi.\" (He also calls Molly Ringwald \"nada\" in Pretty In Pink, so perhaps he was simply in the multilingual cheesewad portion of his career.) More than anything, though, the movie is sunk by the script, which -- I swear this is true -- features Charlie Sheen wandering out onto a balcony during a moment of moral crisis, looking out over the city of New York, and saying, \"Who am I?\" Now, I understand that not all writers cleave faithfully to the \"show, don't tell\" approach, but if you do not have faith that your script and your actor can convey the idea of an identity crisis without actually showing the guy saying to no one, \"Who am I?\", then you need to reconsider how your story is structured. Similarly, people speak in ways that make utterly no sense. Hal Holbrook shows up as the old-school ethical man at Bud's Wall Street firm, who strolls into the movie and makes a speech right off in which he discusses Roosevelt, the gold standard, and \"sticking to the fundamentals.\" I'm confident that the words \"Why, in my day\" were cut for time. He spends the entire movie spouting these little fortune-cookie nuggets of quasi-wisdom to Bud, about how he should enjoy his success while it lasts (dramatic pause) because it never does. Or how a man looks into the abyss and blah blah blah NO ONE TALKS THIS WAY, OLIVER STONE. There are more nuanced portrayals of well-intentioned but ineffectual managers in Airplane!. Or consider Gekko's big speech, in which he explains to Bud how evil he is, how little he contributes to society, and how all the little guys are too dumb to realize how he's robbing them blind, ha ha ha! Certainly, there are guys who have the self-awareness to tell you right out that they don't have a lot of ethical qualms about anything. But nobody gazes out his giant windows onto the city below and delivers a lecture in which he describes himself exactly as he would be described by the writer of a screenplay in which he is the villain: I produce nothing! I am worthless to the economy! I am just moving wealth around! I have no purpose and make no contribution, and yet I have all the good people's money, mwah-hah-hah! Of course, this movie was made during Our National Moment Of Reflection On The Morality Of Wall Street Part One, and we are now in the middle of ONMOROTMOWS Part Two. Has anything changed? The cell phones sure have. Both Gekko and Bud are seen on the giant, dictionary-sized cell phones that used to be symbols of being incredibly rich. At one particularly eye-popping moment, Gekko stands on the beach with his Webster's Third Edition Phone and starts telling Bud how beautiful the sunrise is, and he gets very intense and whispery, and he starts in with the", "(This post was updated at 10:30 a.m.) James McBride won the prestigious National Book Award for fiction on Wednesday for his novel The Good Lord Bird about a young slave who joins the abolitionist John Brown in his anti-slavery mission. Also honored were George Packer, who won in the nonfiction category, Mary Szybist, for poetry, and Cynthia Kadohata, for young people's literature. \"Nerd prom\" is the nickname affectionately given to the White House Correspondents' Dinner, but it might be an even more apt title for the National Book Awards. On Wednesday evening, book writers and readers gathered at New York City's Cipriani Wall Street in tuxedos and gowns (along with fisherman sweaters, thick glasses and at least one pair of clogs) to celebrate the best books of 2013. An annual black tie ceremony with prizes in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people's literature, it is a party that (as the evening's host Mika Brzezinski noted) Fran Lebowitz once called \"the Oscars without money.\" A visibly shocked McBride accepted the fiction prize. Considered the clear underdog, he said he wouldn't have minded if any of the other finalists won because they \"are all fine writers.\" \"But,\" he added with a grin, \"it sure is nice to get it.\" McBride noted in his speech that his book's young slave narrator, Little Onion, was the friend he leaned on during the death of his mother and the dissolution of his marriage. In a recent interview with NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, McBride talked about finding Little Onion's narrative voice: \"I love the language of, you know, the old, black, country man with a blues guitar and ... boots and the quick banter. ... I just love that voice and I wanted this character to be an old man looking back on his life and then telling a, just a grand whopper.\" Asked after his speech what he planned to do next, McBride told NPR that he would go home, \"thank God\" and feed his cat. The award for nonfiction went to George Packer for The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America. Through a series of profiles, he paints a portrait of an America where the \"structures that had been in place before your birth collapse like pillars of salt across the vast visible landscape — the farms of the Carolina Piedmont, the factories of the Mahoning Valley, Florida subdivisions, California schools.\" Packer thanked the subjects of his profiles for the \"great gift of trusting me with their stories and allowing me into their lives so I could try to illuminate some of what's gone wrong with America in the last generation and in their own lives, some of what's gone right.\" Mary Szybist won the poetry award for her relentlessly inventive collection of poems Incarnadine. Fighting tears, she said, \"Sometimes when I find myself in a dark place, I lose all taste for poetry.\" But the \"miracle,\" she said, is rediscovering \"how much it can do ... how much it does do.\" For NPR, the critic Craig Morgan Teicher wrote earlier this year that \"Szybist is a humble and compassionate observer of the complicated glory of the world and humanity's ambivalent role in it, as inheritors and interlopers.\" Cynthia Kadohata, who won the award in young people's literature for her book The Thing About Luck, said she didn't prepare an acceptance speech because it was \"bad luck.\" In her novel, a young girl and her brother see their kouun (good luck in Japanese) run out when their parents are called back to Japan and they must stay with their grandparents and help harvest wheat. The judges wrote that Kadohata has \"created a compassionate, gentle, and humorous book, exploring generational and cultural differences, the fragility of life, and the weighty yet cherished ties of family.\" Also honored Wednesday night were Maya Angelou and E.L. Doctorow, who were both given lifetime achievement awards. Toni Morrison introduced Angelou, saying that her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings \"opened the door to our inside, our interior, minus the white gaze or sanction.\" Morrison added, \"Dr. Maya Angelou, you improve our world by drawing from us — forcing from us — our better selves.\" Angelou, who rolled on stage in a wheelchair to accept the award, responded that \"the old folks say it takes one to know one.\" Once, during her speech, she began to sing, \"When it looks like the sun ain't gonna shine no more, God put a rainbow.\" Smiling at the crowd, she said, \"You are rainbows in my cloud.\" Doctorow, who was introduced by editor and publisher Victor Navasky, gave a somber speech about the Internet, \"something that has swept through our lives.\" He said it will produce \"infinite manifestations of human genius and human inadequacy,\" warning against corporate and government surveillance. Doctorow also cited a recent PEN study concluding that a significant number of writers avoid controversial topics in their work for fear of government surveillance. He called it a battle, saying, \"I don't have to remind us that everyone in this room is in the free-speech b", "Updated at 4:53 p.m. ET A small number of right-wing \"Free Speech Rally\" demonstrators disbanded early from Boston Common after they were confronted by thousands of counterprotesters shouting anti-Nazi and anti-KKK slogans. Deborah Becker, a reporter with member station WBUR in Boston, said that \"a few dozen\" rally attendees were escorted from Parkman Bandstand by police and placed into police vehicles \"for their own safety.\" \"The counterdemonstrators cheered as the group was escorted out of the area in police wagons,\" reports WGBH's Phillip Martin. \"I didn't realize how unplanned of an event it was going to be,\" Samson Racioppi, a Libertarian candidate for Congress who was expected to speak at the rally, was quoted by WCVB-TV as saying. \"I really think it was supposed to be a good event by the organizers, but it kinda fell apart.\" The conservative activists had insisted they have no connection to last week's violent protests in Charlottesville, Va., which drew white nationalists and sparked violent clashes and a deadly vehicle attack. But that did not satisfy those who opposed their message. Many of them handed out stickers showing the face of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who was killed in Charlottesville when a man who attended the white nationalist rally allegedly rammed his car into a crowd of counterdemonstrators. Earlier, a speaker who addressed the crowd condemned what many see as President Trump's tepid response to events last week in Charlottesville. \"If you don't condemn it, you condone it,\" the speaker said. Demonstrators also chanted \"black lives matter\" and \"our streets.\" On Saturday afternoon, Trump tweeted his response to the rally, commending law enforcement officers on a job well done and protesters on speaking out against bigotry. Some at the rally carried signs — among them: \"Alt-Right Delete\" and \"The only thing we hate in Boston is the Yankees.\" Martin says: \"Boston police waded into the crowd at times before the march began to confiscate sticks and poles that were used to hold placards, one which read: 'death to Nazis, impeach Trump, this land is our land too.' \" Chris Hood, an 18-year-old Boston resident who planned to join the Free Speech rally, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying: \"The point of this is to have political speech from across the spectrum, conservative, libertarian, centrist.\" \"This is not about Nazis. If there were Nazis here, I'd be protesting against them,\" Hood said. Some 500 officers, both uniformed and undercover, were to be deployed to maintain order, according to Boston Police Commissioner William Evans. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, a Democrat, both had warned that extremist unrest in the city would not be tolerated. Speaking with member station WBUR in Boston, an organizer of the self-described free speech rally insisted that the message from the demonstrators \"is one that [is] anti-hate and pro-peace.\" \"I think we've taken pretty much every precaution, not only with [Boston police], but with the other organizers, to make sure our message is clear,\" John Medler, of the Boston Free Speech Coalition, said ahead of Saturday's rally. WBUR reported Friday that a \"free speech\" rally in Boston in May drew not only more mainstream conservative activists, but also some of the same groups that caused violence in Charlottesville: \"On May 13, a group of veterans, ex-police, Tea Party Republicans and young people affiliated with the self-described 'alt-right' — a conservative faction that mixes racism, white nationalism, anti-Semitism and populism — gathered around the Common's historic Parkman Bandstand. \"Organizers claimed that they were honoring their First Amendment right to assemble and express radical viewpoints. But the event felt more like a small, right-wing rally than a celebration of the Constitution.\" For Saturday's rally, police banned signs on sticks and backpacks, although many were seen among the counterprotesters. The Boston Globe writes: \"Boston officials said Friday that they will shut down the Saturday event if there are signs of violence. \" 'The courts have made it abundantly clear that they have the right to gather, no matter how repugnant their views are,' said Mayor Martin J. Walsh. 'They don't have the right to create unsafe conditions. ... They must respect our city.' \" \"He urged the public not to confront members of hate groups who show up Saturday and advised residents and tourists to avoid the Common during the rally.\"", "In a move that appeared aimed at what some view as a growing trend of political correctness on college campuses, President Trump signed an executive order Thursday to bar federal research grants to institutions that don't \"avoid creating environments that stifle competing perspectives.\" The president promised earlier this month at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that he would do something about what he called a political climate on liberal college campuses that chills discourse. His executive order conditions research funding on \"compliance with the First Amendment\" and directs federal agencies to ensure that institutions receiving federal research or education grants \"promote free inquiry.\" During the signing ceremony at the White House, Trump specifically called out \"professors and power structures\" that keep young Americans from \"challenging rigid far-left ideology,\" and lamented that many universities have become \"increasingly hostile\" to free speech. \"We will not stand idly by and allow public institutions to violate their students' constitutional rights,\" Trump said. \"If a college or university doesn't allow you to speak, we will not give them money. It's very simple.\" Reaction to the order was mixed. Some said it's unclear how that directive will play out at colleges, which say they already promote free inquiry. Others noted the executive order was basically just a restatement of existing law and lacked the tough tone heard at the White House ceremony. \"The executive order essentially directs federal agencies to ensure colleges are following requirements already in place,\" reported the education publication Inside Higher Ed. \"And it doesn't spell out how enforcement of the order would work.\" Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, called the executive order a \"solution in search of a problem\" and cautioned that it provides no clear steps on implementation. \"It is neither needed nor desirable, and could lead to unwanted federal micromanagement of the cutting-edge research that is critical to our nation's continued vitality and global leadership,\" Mitchell said. But the College Republican National Committee applauded the order. \"College campuses are ground zero in the campaign by the liberal left to shut down conservative dissent,\" chairman Chandler Thornton told Politico. \"President Trump's executive order is critically needed because college and university bureaucrats have absolutely failed to protect free speech on campus.\" The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education — a group that supports free speech on campus — was circumspect. \"It really is reinforcing existing principles and law,\" legislative and policy director Joe Cohn told the Chronicle of Higher Education. \"Of course, the devil is going to be in details.\" Cohn said a new federal bureaucracy devoted to policing campus speech \"could be unhelpful.\" Speaking on NPR's Morning Edition, incoming University of Southern California President Carol Folt said that she's always been concerned about chilling effects on free speech on campus. \"And you do hear students say that they feel sometimes that they can't say things,\" she said. \"But it comes from all sides. So the point is, we have to work on that, to keep it open, and make it possible for students to talk in a way that allows disagreement and pretty divergent opinions [to] still be respected and welcome.\"", "You're reading NPR's weekly roundup of education news. President Trump pivots to higher education this week On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order that could affect a few areas of higher education: from data collection to free speech. The order called for, among other things, an expansion to the federal College Scorecard, which reports average earnings and debt for graduates at institutions around the country. But the part that received the most attention was a directive to colleges and universities on free speech. The order gives the federal government the right to withhold federal research grants from schools that block free speech. \"If a college or university doesn't allow you to speak, we will not give them money. It's very simple,\" President Trump said on Thursday before signing the order. Public universities already have to comply with the First Amendment, which guarantees free speech. Private universities, particularly religious institutions, are allowed some restrictions on speech allowed on campus. On how the bill was received, NPR's Matthew Schwartz reported: Reaction to the order was mixed. Some said it's unclear how that directive will play out at colleges, which say they already promote free inquiry. Others noted the executive order was basically just a restatement of existing law and lacked the tough tone heard at the White House ceremony. In recent years, campus free speech has become a political flash point. There have been riots and states of emergency after right-wing provocateurs and self-declared white nationalists have come to colleges to make speeches. Hundreds of liberal professors have also been harassed and targeted by groups like Turning Point USA. On signing the statement, President Trump assailed that \"professors and power structures\" keep students from \"challenging rigid far-left ideology.\" In response, organizations specifically dedicated to campus free speech cautioned the importance of preserving the issue as nonpartisan. \"For continued progress to be possible, we must have a vanguard to defend speech that's above partisanship,\" Sarah Ruger, a director at the Charles Koch Institute, said in a statement. \"We are concerned that wrongly framing censorship as an ideological issue works against efforts to foster open intellectual environments on campus.\" FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said it \"will watch closely to see if today's action furthers the meaningful, lasting policy changes that FIRE has secured over two decades — or results in unintended consequences that threaten free expression and academic freedom.\" White House outlines proposals on the Higher Education Act On Monday, the White House released its priorities in reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, which lawmakers want to update later this year. The recommendations include, among other things, that lawmakers expand federal aid to cover apprenticeships and certification programs, apply lending caps for some borrowers, and require institutions to provide financial aid counseling. The recommendations were outlined in a five-page memo by the White House. College admissions scandal inspires legislation Two House lawmakers introduced a bill Monday that would let students pay or repay college tuition using a portion of their future earnings. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., said in a statement that in the wake of the recent college admissions scandal, \"now more than ever we need policy solutions that would open up the college admissions process to deserving children from struggling families.\" On accountability, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Tx., who co-sponsored the bill, said: \"The bill would ensure colleges and universities are doing their part to put graduating students on the pathway to a good paying job.\" One of New York City's most selective high school accepts only seven black students for its next freshman class On Monday, Stuyvesant High School offered admission to 895 freshmen — and only 7 of them were black. Stuyvesant is one of the city's eight specialized high schools that require an entrance exam. Some students spend months or even years preparing for it, reports Eliza Shapiro of The New York Times. Last June, Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed phasing out the admissions exam, calling it \"a roadblock to justice, progress, and academic excellence\" in a Chalkbeat op-ed. He introduced a plan that would guarantee spots in the schools to the top 7 percent of middle schoolers, based on a combination of course grades and standardized test scores. The proposal, as Chalkbeat reported, was met with backlash from parents, some of whom argued that not all accepted students would be prepared for the schools' rigorous curricula. This week, de Blasio said that the recent admissions stats \"are even more proof that dramatic reform is necessary to open the doors of opportunity at specialized high schools.\"", "Wondering if your pet rat is feeling happy? You should check its ears, researchers say. A team of scientists in Switzerland found that a rat's ears are more pinkish and are positioned at a more relaxed angle when it is experiencing positive emotions. The researchers recently published their findings in the journal Plos One. Previous studies have focused on negative emotions — for example, identifying how rats indicate that they are feeling pain, with the aim of learning how to avoid those situations. Now, the research team led by Kathryn Finlayson is focused on promoting positive emotions in rats — rather than simply aiming for the absence of a negative state. As animal behavior researcher Luca Melotti tells The Two-Way, this is centered on the question of \"what does it mean to have a life worth living?\" The researchers induced positive emotions in rats to observe how their facial expression changes — by tickling them. Previous research had established that rats enjoy being tickled — which Melotti describes as \"play\" between rats and humans. But there is some variety in how much individual rats enjoy being tickled. Some like it less than others, and some enjoy playing with other rats more than playing with humans. They indicate how happy they are through ultrasonic vocalizations that Melotti says are very strongly linked to positive feelings, and by returning to the experimenter's hands for more tickling. \"As we used tickling as a treatment, we had to focus on selecting those animals that were really ticklish and that really liked it,\" Melotti explains. The researchers selected the 15 male Lister Hooded rats that responded most positively to tickling from a larger pool of 75 rats. They then recorded their facial expressions by tickling each rat, setting it down and immediately photographing it. As a control, they brought the animals to an unfamiliar room and projected bursts of mildly off-putting white noise, then likewise taking photos of the animals. \"In a positive situation the ears were more relaxed, because the ear angle was wider so they were more loose on the sides,\" Melotti says. \"And also they were pinker, so the color was scored as a more vivid pink.\" Scientists have not yet pinpointed what a rat is feeling when it is experiencing a \"positive\" emotion. As Melotti explains, they are currently at the point where they can distinguish \"positive\" emotions from \"negative\" — but not finer emotional graduations between happiness, joy and optimism, for example. It's interesting that rats show emotions on their faces, because they are not particularly visual creatures, Melotti says. They're nocturnal and rely primarily on their sense of smell and touch. The team says their findings could indicate that rats \"may at least partly sense ... the facial expressions of their partner, along with other body postures, to gather information on the likelihood the partner will initiate play, and how intense that play is likely to be.\" And knowing when a rat is feeling positive emotions also has numerous potential applications for human researchers, especially because rats are used in many different kinds of studies. Melotti says one possibility is developing an automated system that determines whether a rat is in pain or feeling positive, which could be measured over time and used to improve the quality of life for the animals. Their findings could also have implications for legislation, he says. \"Not all regulations in every country are considering animals, especially lab animals, as sentient beings,\" he says. \"So showing that ... a wide range of emotions are measurable in those animals is very important.\"", "The question of how far the government can go in forcing a business — in this case cigarette makers — to warn consumers about its product is before a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. The Food and Drug Administration wants large, graphic warning labels to scare smokers, but tobacco companies say that violates their right to free speech. Diseased lungs, gnarly rotting teeth, even what appears to be the corpse of a smoker are some of the images that accompany the bold new cigarette labels the FDA requires to cover half a pack of cigarettes, front and back. The written warnings include: \"Smoking Can Kill You\" and \"Cigarettes Cause Cancer.\" \"It's going beyond I think what is necessary,\" says David Hudson, a scholar at the First Amendment Center in Nashville, Tenn. \"It's just so in your face, so graphic, these images — it's just simply too much.\" That's what Congress intended when it mandated the labels in a 2009 law that gave the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco. Susan Liss, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, says the idea is to counteract the tobacco industry's track record of misleading smokers. \"We are dealing with an industry with a decades-long history of deceiving the public about the health risks of smoking, and the enhanced warning labels are a direct response to the deception of the industry,\" Liss says. Washington, D.C., federal Judge Richard Leon blocked the FDA from implementing the labels, siding with cigarette makers who sued over their right to free speech. The judge questioned whether the government had crossed the line into advocacy by using such graphic images. The fact that an image is evocative shouldn't matter, says Matt Myers, the president of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. \"The picture of somebody that is dying from tobacco can be an accurate representation of the health effects of smoking, even if it evokes an emotional reaction,\" Myers says. Tobacco Free Kids and other anti-smoking groups have filed a friend of the court brief with the D.C. appeals court, arguing that the new labels are in line with the FDA's power to warn consumers about dangerous products. FDA officials and the tobacco companies declined to discuss the case, but it is one being watched by constitutional scholars because of the nation's mixed case law when it comes to protections for commercial speech. Another federal appeals court has already upheld the cigarette warning labels as constitutional. George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley says the threshold question is how far the government can go to compel commercial speech. \"These graphic images are really the government getting into marketing and trying to force companies that have lawful products to use repellant packaging,\" Turley says. He says other businesses should be paying attention. \"Cigarettes are not the only harmful product,\" he says. \"Can they, for example, require a picture of a cirrhotic liver on a wine bottle or any type of alcoholic beverage?\" The ultimate decision will likely be determined by the U.S. Supreme Court. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Today, a federal appeals court considers the question of how far the government can go in forcing a business to warn consumers about its product. This case is not just about any product; it's one that can kill you - cigarettes. The Food and Drug Administration wants large, graphic warning labels to scare smokers. Tobacco companies says that violates their right to free speech. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports. DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: Diseased lungs; gnarly, rotting teeth; even what appears to be the corpse of a smoker are some of the images that accompany the bold, new cigarette labels FDA requires to cover half a pack of cigarettes, front and back. The written warnings include Smoking Can Kill You, and Cigarettes Cause Cancer. DAVID HUDSON: It's going beyond, I think, what is necessary. ELLIOTT: David Hudson is a scholar at the First Amendment Center in Nashville. HUDSON: It's just so in your face, so graphic - these pictures. I think it's just simply - it's just simply too much. ELLIOTT: But that's what Congress intended when it mandated the labels in a 2009 law that gave the FDA authority to regulate tobacco. Susan Liss, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, says the idea is to counteract the tobacco industry's track record of misleading smokers. SUSAN LISS: We are dealing with an industry with a decades-long history of deceiving the public about the health risks of smoking, and the enhanced warning labels are a direct response to the deception of the industry. ELLIOTT: Washington, D.C., federal judge Richard Leon blocked FDA from implementing the labels, siding with cigarette makers who sued over their right to free speech. The judge questioned whether the government had crossed the line into advocacy by using such graphic images. The fact that an image is evocative shouldn't matter, says Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for", "A hundred million years from now, when we're all dead and gone, a team of geologists will be digging in a field somewhere ... ... and they will discover, buried in the rocks below, a thin layer of sediment — very thin, about the width of a cigarette paper, says British stratigrapher Jan Zalasiewicz. That skinny strip, when they look close, will send what's called a \"biostratigraphic signal\" that something enormous happened back in our era, something life-changing, planet-reorganizing, even Earth-shaping. The evidence, when they look closely, will be visible in that same skinny layer all over the world. In her new book, The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert describes what they'll find. For starters, Kolbert says, below this layer, geologists will see fossil remnants of all kinds of large animals: elephants, buffalo, rhinos, lions, tigers, whales, giant turtles (and deeper down, even earlier — saber-toothed tigers, mammoths and giant sloths). Their big bones will litter those older rocks. But above this layer — after our era — they disappear. Something killed off Earth's megafauna. During this same time, they will discover that animals and plants that used to be in one place — gingko trees in China, tulips in Asia, starlings in Europe — suddenly moved all over the world. Grasses found on one continent now strangely appear on four continents. Flowering plants, rats, goats, pigeons, kudzu, ants, inexplicably spread their territories across enormous oceans, climates, time zones. Specific life forms — chickens, cattle, roses, wheat, rice — turn up everywhere. Something moved them, though they may not know who or how. ... Also at this time, bits of air trapped in the rock will show that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere jumped sharply — to about 500 parts per million, higher than at any other point in the previous 800,000 years. So in this era, the chemical composition of the atmosphere changed, and changed very suddenly. ... And down in the soil where supplies of nitrogen had been relatively rare, coming from existing populations of plants and animals — something changed, too. Out of nowhere, tons and tons of extra nitrogen appear. The supply jumps feverishly — feeding plants as never before. What happened? Digging on six continents, geologists will discover that almost all of the Earth's major rivers, instead of winding and meandering across the planet's surface, were altered — blocked, re-routed or straightened. In some cases those rivers were dammed and pointed to new destinations. Enormous lakes were starved of water, and disappeared. And surveying the continents, they will discover that roughly half the land on Earth that's free of ice had been significantly altered (yes, half) to provide space for crops, reservoirs, mining, logging, quarrying, housing, commerce or transportation. Wild spaces continued to exist, of course, mostly as rain forests, deserts, tundra and the higher mountain ranges, but they were a smaller and smaller proportion of the planet, sometimes crisscrossed by pipelines and affected by climate change. The densely built spaces, meanwhile ... ... got much bigger, affecting the air, the climate, biodiversity, nutrient recycling and soil structure. Millions and millions of years from now, all these changes will still be visible — to a geologist's practiced eye — right there in the rock, in that sliver. And the scale of the change and its subsequent effects will be so pronounced that geologists will want to give it a name, to mark the shift. Geologists do that when the change is big enough; we call the era of great dinosaurs the Jurassic; after that, the Cretaceous. What about this period? Right now, geologists call our time the Holocene, from the Greek for \"entirely recent.\" Fair enough. When Future Geologists Wonder ... But looking backward, future geologists will want to know what caused all this change. Volcanoes don't explain it. Incoming asteroids don't explain it. Climate cycles don't explain all of it — not the rivers, not the nitrogen, not all those structures and byways. It will gradually become clear that some animal on the planet, proliferating, spreading, carrying, moving, building, designing, inventing, was largely responsible. Which is why the chemist Paul Crutzen, sitting at a science meeting a few years ago, interrupted a talk where the speaker kept saying \"Holocene\" and blurted out, \"Let's stop it!\" The room got quiet. Crutzen had won a Nobel Prize for his work on the ozone layer, and laureates, I suppose, are allowed to have hissy fits — at least in science meetings. Earth, Crutzen argued, is being dramatically changed, and the changer, this time, is us: humankind (\"anthro\" in the Greek). \"We are no longer in the Holocene,\" he told the group. \"We are in the Anthropocene.\" It's a coinage he may have borrowed from biologist Eugene Stoermer, but here's the logic: The Earth is no longer being shaped mainly by natural forces, forces that operate on their own", "John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants is a Grammy Award-winning musician. He's also had his share of unusual jobs, including removing staples from medical documents and counting people on trains. Find out which jobs he left and which he got fired from in a game all about our Puzzle Giant. Interview Highlights On the TV theme song that almost was [They Might Be Giants was] hired to write a theme song for America's Most Wanted, and they fired us! We had won a Grammy for the theme for the FOX show Malcolm In The Middle. The people at FOX, evidently the speed dial on their phone only holds one number. We're versatile, but not versatile enough. On former odd jobs he has held I worked for [the New York commuter rail] Metro North, counting people. I worked up and down the Metro North lines, and in Grand Central Station before it got nice. I removed staples from medical documents for a month. It was exactly as good as that sounds. And I worked for Random House for a while, and one of the jobs I was told I could never talk about in a public forum was touching up artwork on Dr. Seuss drawings. (Is that the first time he's saying this out loud?!) Nah. OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST: Our next contestant is on the line. Hi, you're on ASK ME ANOTHER. LIZ BERNSTEIN: Hi. I'm Liz Bernstein, from St. Augustine, Florida. EISENBERG: Hello, Liz. JOHN FLANSBURGH: Hey, Liz. EISENBERG: Welcome to ASK ME ANOTHER. BERNSTEIN: Hi (laughter). EISENBERG: Liz, this is John Flansburgh. BERNSTEIN: I know (laughter). EISENBERG: Liz is a big fan of yours. FLANSBURGH: Excellent. EISENBERG: This game is called Random Questions With John Flansburgh. We've asked John some random questions and you're going to figure out how he answered. Are you ready? BERNSTEIN: I am ready, yes. EISENBERG: All right, John loves all sorts of food, but he hates the taste of what, Liz? What herb? Is it anise, cilantro or dill? BERNSTEIN: I know you love coffee and you're left-handed, John. FLANSBURGH: Yes, that's... EISENBERG: Wow. BERNSTEIN: Anise, cilantro - I know that a lot of people don't like cilantro. So I'm going to go with cilantro. FLANSBURGH: It's anise. BERNSTEIN: That was my first guess, John. FLANSBURGH: And it's just for the pronunciation. (LAUGHTER) FLANSBURGH: But I'm going to put that down as a correct answer anyway, Liz. BERNSTEIN: Yes, thanks. Thank you. You're on my side. EISENBERG: If John could be any member of the original rat pack - that's Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford or Joey Bishop, which one would he be? BERNSTEIN: They've all got a lot of suave, a lot of swagger. EISENBERG: Sure. BERNSTEIN: True. But I'm going to go with Sammy Davis Jr. FLANSBURGH: That is correct. (APPLAUSE) EISENBERG: All right. BERNSTEIN: Yes, I got it. FLANSBURGH: At first I was misreading this and I thought it said which one could he be? (LAUGHTER) FLANSBURGH: And I was thinking, like... EISENBERG: Which one is he secretly? FLANSBURGH: Joey Bishop. EISENBERG: And why did you pick Sammy Davis Jr.? FLANSBURGH: I love Sammy Davis Jr. I actually collect Sammy Davis Jr. records. And I find him - he's been liberated from good taste a little bit, you know? Like he - it's... EISENBERG: That's such a nice way of putting that. FLANSBURGH: But he's, you know, he's so profoundly talented. I just find him fantastic. EISENBERG: What TV show would John most like to rewrite the theme song for? And your choices are whatever you can think of. BERNSTEIN: Oh, my gosh. But that means it's whatever he could think of too. Let me go with \"Gilligan's Island.\" FLANSBURGH: That is incorrect. BERNSTEIN: Well, you know. EISENBERG: What is the correct answer? FLANSBURGH: I don't know. EISENBERG: Yeah, I know. I know what you said. FLANSBURGH: What did I say? EISENBERG: You said \"America's Most Wanted.\" FLANSBURGH: Oh, that's right. We were hired to write a theme for \"America's Most Wanted\" and they fired us. (LAUGHTER) EISENBERG: How were you hired to write that theme? FLANSBURGH: Well, we had won a Grammy for a theme for the Fox network \"Malcolm In The Middle\" show. And so the people at Fox, they - evidently they - their speed-dial on their phone only holds one number. (LAUGHTER) EISENBERG: But I like that. They're like, they're good at \"Malcolm In The Middle.\" You know what else they would be good at? \"America's Most Wanted.\" FLANSBURGH: Right, crooks. Well, you know. EISENBERG: Yeah? FLANSBURGH: We're versatile. EISENBERG: I like it. FLANSBURGH: But evidently not versatile enough. EISENBERG: You could've just repurposed the same song - \"You're Not The Boss Of Me\" sounds like a good \"America's Most Wanted.\" FLANSBURGH: Or perhaps a television commercial. EISENBERG: Yes. Finally, which of these jobs did John have in his early 20s? Did he remove staples from medical documents? Did he count people on trains, or did he touch up artwork on Dr. Seuss drawings? BERNSTEIN: You - I actually do know this for certain - you counted people on trains. FLANSBURGH: That is correct. BE", "Rarely has the opening of an awards show felt as inauspicious as the first 10 minutes or so of Monday night's Emmy Awards. An opening number called \"We Solved It,\" making light of the idea that Hollywood's meager progress toward greater diversity constitutes a meaningful resolution to the issue, featured a number of appealing TV personalities: Saturday Night Live's Kenan Thompson and Kate McKinnon, Tituss Burgess of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Kristen Bell of The Good Place, RuPaul, Sterling K. Brown of This Is Us, and Ricky Martin. It even included what they called the One Of Each Dancers, a group that, taken together, supposedly checked every demographic box. It worked better in theory than in execution: the song wasn't great, and the number seemed a little sloppy, like they'd all just learned it. Regrettably, it got worse before it got better. Because what came after that was the introduction of the hosts, Colin Jost and Michael Che, both of SNL's Weekend Update segment. They seemed awkward, miserable, unfunny, and cursed with mostly weak jokes. Devoid of charisma and struggling to get the audience on their side, they plodded on, looking like two dads forced to emcee a school assembly where they didn't particularly want to be there, but someone had prevailed upon them to help out. Equally grim were Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph, not helping their new Amazon series Forever by appearing together in a series of resolutely dull and (here's that word again) awkward scenes in which the joke seemed to be that there was no joke. Especially in the first half of the show, a pall hung over the ceremony as if much of the crowd had been heavily sedated. Jeff Daniels rambled about his horse and people chuckled politely. Aidy Bryant and Bob Odenkirk — both known to be funny people! — haltingly executed a bit of scripted patter about doing scripted patter, a gambit that's been taking down presenters for ages. (This never works. Stop doing this.) Speech after speech seemed dragged down by the energy around it. It's not that there were no successes at all among the presenters; Michael Douglas was very funny talking about the deep resentment he believes in carrying around about the awards you've lost. But it didn't help that the first two award-winners of the night were probably the most energetic ones to hit the stage for quite a while. Henry Winkler, honored for his supporting work in Barry and receiving the first Primetime Emmy Award of his long career, was just as charming as you'd hope, and just as excited, saying he only had 37 seconds for a speech he'd been holding for 43 years. And Alex Borstein, who won in the supporting category for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, started by announcing she wasn't wearing a bra and asking other women not to pee on the seats of public toilets. It might not have been a traditional awards speech, but it had a certain verve. Others were just fine: Rachel Brosnahan won for her leading performance in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and encouraged everyone to vote in the midterms, and Bill Hader won for his leading performance in Barry and seemed genuinely shocked. Actor Darren Criss and director Ryan Murphy both won for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, part of the ACS anthology series that picked up a bunch of awards for its previous season about the O.J. Simpson trial. Peter Dinklage won in the supporting category for Game of Thrones, as he has twice before. Things rolled along. But on an awards ceremony that started off trying to do edgy humor about the limits of progress toward diversity, it was hard not to notice that it took quite a while to get to the first nonwhite winner in an acting category: Regina King for the Netflix limited series Seven Seconds, which will not return for a second season (as many \"limited\" series, in fact, do). Thandie Newton also won in the supporting actress in a drama series category for Westworld, but some of the actors of color for whom hopes were highest — Sandra Oh in Killing Eve, for instance — they didn't come to pass. One of the hosts' few successful bits was Che's \"Reparations Emmys,\" where he handed out Emmy statuettes he said he'd stolen from Bill Cosby to beloved black actors who hadn't won in the past: Marla Gibbs from The Jeffersons and 227, Jimmie Walker from Good Times, Kadeem Hardison from A Different World, Tichina Arnold from Martin, comedy journeyman John Witherspoon, and even Jaleel White — that's right, Che gave an honorary award to Urkel. One reason why the awards looked as white as they did was that the shows that really cleaned up were ... really white shows. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Barry cornered all of the comedy awards, and it was a decent showing for the last season of The Americans on FX, which won in the writing category for drama and was recognized for Matthew Rhys' lead performance. Keri Russell, on the other hand, lost out to The Crown's Claire Foy — as did Sandra Oh. Atlanta, which has an emba", "Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito says the COVID-19 pandemic has brought \"previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty,\" warning of an important shift in the views of essential rights on several fronts, from religious freedom to free speech. Alito's remarks came Thursday in a keynote speech at the Federalist Society's annual National Lawyers Convention, which is being held virtually this week. The event's theme is to examine how the coronavirus is affecting the rule of law. The COVID-19 crisis has \"highlighted constitutional fault lines,\" Alito said. He cautioned that his statements shouldn't be taken as a judgment on whether numerous coronavirus restrictions reflect good public policy. \"All that I'm saying is this, and I think it is an indisputable statement of fact,\" the justice said. \"We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020.\" \"Think of all the live events that would otherwise be protected by the right to freedom of speech,\" from lectures and meetings to religious services, Alito said. He also noted that the pandemic has affected access to the courts and the constitutional right to a speedy trial. \"The COVID crisis has served as a sort of constitutional stress test,\" Alito said. \"And in doing so, it has highlighted disturbing trends that were already present before the virus struck.\" Shifting attitudes The Supreme Court justice then ran down a list of examples that, in his view, reflect shifting attitudes toward long-held rights in the United States. First on the list was what Alito called \"the dominance of lawmaking by executive fiat rather than legislation\" – actions that he said range from agencies' broad use of regulatory power to the use of executive discretion to impose sweeping restrictions in the name of fighting a pandemic. Alito later cited a legal case in Nevada, saying the governor's emergency orders in that state have given leeway and support to casinos hosting gamblers at up to 50% capacity while forcing houses of worship to cap their attendance at 50 people. \"Take a quick look at the Constitution,\" Alito said. \"You will see the free exercise clause of the First Amendment, which protects religious liberty. You will not find a craps clause or a blackjack clause or a slot machine clause.\" \"It pains me to say this, but in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right,\" Alito said. He ran through several religion-related Supreme Court rulings, including the Little Sisters of the Poor (over providing birth control to employees) to Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado (over the refusal to make a wedding cake for a gay couple). Alito made a direct connection between America's ongoing \"culture wars\" and the pandemic crisis, citing a 2016 blog entry by Harvard Law School professor Mark Tushnet. \"He candidly wrote, quote, The culture wars are over; they lost, we won,\" Alito said. He went on to quote from Tushnet's much-discussed stance that \"[m]y own judgment is that taking a hard line ('You lost, live with it') is better than trying to accommodate the losers. ... And taking a hard line seemed to work reasonably well in Germany and Japan after 1945.\" Alito went on to quote Bob Dylan: \"Is our country going to follow that course? To quote a popular Nobel laureate, 'It's not dark yet, but it's getting there.' \" 'Hostility to ... unfashionable views' The justice described what he called a \"growing hostility to the expression of unfashionable views.\" As an example, he cited the Supreme Court's landmark shift on same-sex marriage. \"You can't say that marriage is a union between one man and one woman,\" Alito said. \"Until very recently, that's what the vast majority of Americans thought. Now it's considered bigotry.\" Protecting freedom of speech will be one of the Supreme Court's greatest challenges, Alito said. \"Although that freedom is falling out of favor in some circles, we need to do whatever we can to prevent it from becoming a second-tier constitutional right.\" Alito also called out a group of Democratic senators who weighed in on a gun-rights case in New York, saying they had attempted to bully the Supreme Court. The group filed an amicus brief calling the court \"a sick institution\" that might need to be restructured. Alito said he viewed it as \"an affront to the Constitution and the rule of law.\"", "How do you count all the rats in New York City? If one urban legend is to be believed, you don't have to: There are as many rats as people — 8 million. Statistician Jonathan Auerbach decided to test that idea. We'll get to how many rats he found in a bit. First, consider some of the daunting challenges he faced in trying to get a head count. \"Getting an accurate count of any animal population is difficult,\" he wrote in Significance, the journal of the Royal Statistical Society. \"Animals are terrible survey respondents.\" So Auerbach used a method called capture-recapture estimation, developed by ecologists. The simplest version of this technique, called the two-sample version, would have required the large-scale release of rats into the population. This obviously posed another problem. \"Unfortunately, NYC's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is unlikely to approve a large-scale rat-releasing experiment (I know, because I asked),\" he wrote. \"So, instead, we have to rely on an alternative.\" He turned to data maintained by the city's Department of Health — particularly a data set on rat sightings, by location, reported by dialing 311. While this method doesn't allow the marking of individual rats, Auerbach wrote, it does allow the locations in which they were reported to be classified and marked by city lot — of which there are 842,000 in New York. \"If we adapt two-sample capture–recapture estimation to approximate the number of city lots harbouring rats, we can then multiply the total number of inhabited lots by the average number of rats per inhabited lot to recover the population of rats,\" he wrote. Here's more about how he did it, in Auerbach's own words: \"Pest management professionals who set traps on rat-inhabited lots can estimate the average number of rats per inhabited lot, and in order to estimate the number of rat-inhabited lots in NYC, we will follow steps similar to capture-recapture. For reference purposes, let us call this adapted procedure 'lot comparison.' \"We first observe the number of lots that reported a rat sighting during the first half of 2010. These lots constitute our first sample and are our \"marked\" lots. Then we observe the number of lots that reported a rat sighting during the first half of 2011. These lots constitute our second sample. Some of them are \"marked\" in that they were also identified within our first sample. A \"marked\" lot that appears in the second sample period has been 'recaptured'. If we assume that a recaptured lot is as likely to be reported as any other rat-inhabited lot, the proportion of \"recaptured\" lots in the second sample period will then provide an estimate of the total number of rat-inhabited lots.\" The numbers, when Auerbach ran them, were far lower than 8 million, the stuff of urban legend. His number: a paltry 2 million. That, he told NPR's Audie Cornish, is far fewer than one estimate he received from an exterminator who believed there were \"trillions\" of rats in the city. \"The lesson here is that when nobody knows ... everyone has their own personal assessment based on their own anecdotal evidence,\" he told Cornish. And, he wrote in his paper, his method still \"likely overestimates the population of rats in NYC.\" And if you're wondering whether his count includes those large colonies of rats that live in the city's sewers and subway system, apparently that's a myth, too.", "Lawyer Abid Qureshi could become the first Muslim federal judge. President Obama nominated Qureshi for an open seat on the federal court in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Over the past seven years, Obama has appointed 138 women and 120 minorities to federal judgeships. He has made this judicial diversity a \"major priority\" throughout his time in office, says former White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, who now works with Qureshi at the D.C. law firm Latham & Watkins. \"Having judges who are reflective of the nation as a whole just brings public confidence into our court system,\" Ruemmler says, explaining the president's thinking about these selections, which require Senate confirmation and are held for life. American Muslims have served as judges at the state level, but never as a federal judge, says Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, a national legal advocacy group. \"This is a very, very exciting time, and we are just so thrilled that the president took this step,\" Khera says of Qureshi's nomination. Qureshi, born in Pakistan and now a U.S. citizen, graduated from Cornell University and Harvard Law. He has spent his entire career at Latham & Watkins. \"He's a brilliant lawyer,\" says fellow partner Ruemmler, \"but his temperament and his demeanor and his collegiality and just general kindness toward colleagues is legendary.\" The National Law Journal says Qureshi's clients include a student loan servicing company, a pharmacy giant and the Hospital Corporation of America. He also represented a private school with ties to the Saudi Arabian government in a case before the National Labor Relations Board. The dispute centered on whether the board had jurisdiction over the school's decision to fire a teacher. Qureshi cast the case as a matter of religious freedom — and he won. Friends say he is passionate about donating his time to good causes. Some of those pro bono projects have been colorful. Khera of Muslim Advocates points to a case her group handled with Qureshi as co-counsel last year. They represented two American Muslim comedians who had been told they could not run ads for their movie in the New York subway system. The comic documentary, The Muslims Are Coming, was designed to counter negative stereotypes. Qureshi once again prevailed in the case. As CBS New York reported at the time, a federal judge sided with comedians Dean Obeidallah and Negin Farsad about their free speech rights, and the ads ran in the subway. The question now is whether the Senate has enough time and interest to hold a hearing and confirm Qureshi in this presidential election year.", "The concept of free speech is frequently heard in courtrooms across the country. Advocates on all kinds of issues try to tie their legal and policy arguments to a constitutional right most Americans hold as fundamental. Consider recent debates over net neutrality, for example, or abortion rights. The impetus for the First Amendment — granting Americans the freedom of speech, religion and the press and the right to petition and peacefully protest — stemmed from the view that the Constitution granted a lot of power to the federal government without much protection for citizens' rights, historians say. But many of the modern cases have less to do with citizens speaking to federal power than with the boundaries of businesses and organizations reaching into Americans' lives. Below are a few of the cases from the 21st century that highlight both the versatility and the limitations of what the right to free speech has come to embody, at least in the U.S. justice system. Abortion protest buffer zones McCullen v. Coakley, 2014 In 2007, the Massachusetts state legislature created a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics that could be crossed only by people entering the facilities. Protesters and \"pro-life counselors\" who try to dissuade women from receiving abortions were barred from being inside the buffer zone. Anti-abortion-rights activist Eleanor McCullen, who stood outside the same Planned Parenthood in Boston every Tuesday and Wednesday for over a decade, argued that the buffer zones were an unconstitutional infringement on free speech. \"It's America,\" she said. \"I should be able to walk and talk gently, lovingly, anywhere with anybody.\" The U.S. Supreme Court justices unanimously ruled in her favor, finding that the buffer zones infringed on protesters' First Amendment rights. Massachusetts took \"the extreme step of closing a substantial portion of a traditional public forum to all speakers,\" Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his opinion. To curb harassment, he noted, the state could follow the lead of New York City, which made it \"a crime 'to follow and harass another person within 15 feet of the premises of a reproductive health care facility.' \" Censoring skim milk Ocheesee Creamery LLC v. Putnam, 2017 Most of the vitamin A that is found naturally in milk is contained in its cream — which is removed when milk is skimmed. Under Florida law, milk can only be labeled \"skim milk\" if it has the same amount of vitamin A as whole milk. That was a problem for Ocheesee Creamery owner Mary Lou Wesselhoeft, who wanted to sell pure skim milk. If the creamery artificially added enough vitamin A, the product would meet Florida's skim milk label requirement, but Wesselhoeft didn't want additives of any kind in her product. Wesselhoeft, represented by the Institute For Justice, filed a free speech lawsuit on the basis that the First Amendment \"protects the right of businesses to tell the truth.\" The case made it to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, where a three-judge panel ruled in her favor, saying: \"The Creamery's use of the words 'skim milk' to describe its skim milk is not inherently misleading.\" Condoms as art California Proposition 60, 2016 Proposition 60 would have allowed the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration to prosecute producers anytime a condom is not visible in a pornographic film. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation and its president sponsored the proposition amid a 20-year high of sexually transmitted infections in the state. Pornographic producers and performers cited artistic freedom of speech and noted that performers were subject to mandatory testing. Member station KALW reported that \"performers also worry that if Prop 60 passes, the industry would go underground — something they argue would ultimately make them less safe.\" California voters rejected the proposition by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent. Corporations are people, too Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 2010 In a landmark case that restructured American campaign finance, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that political donations amount to a form of speech protected under the First Amendment, even when the spending is done by corporations and unions instead of individual people. Though companies can't directly donate to campaigns, the ruling gave them power to freely spend money in support or opposition of political candidates on the federal, state or local level. This led to the creation of a new type of political fundraising vehicle called superPACs, which contributed to the explosive growth of campaign spending. They now outspend the national political parties. As NPR's Nina Totenberg put it, Citizens United represented one of the key cases showing how the Supreme Court has over time \"extended some — but not all — of the rights guaranteed to individuals in the Bill of Rights\" to corporations. Words that \"inflict great pain\" Snyder v. Phelps, 2011 The Supreme Court took on a case brought b", "Americans have cause to rejoice in the Supreme Court's landmark decision reaffirming our freedom of association and our freedom of speech. In Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, the majority of the Court, led by Justice Kennedy, reaffirmed \"ancient First Amendment principles.\" It specifically overruled a prior decision in which the Court had upheld a state restriction in Michigan that banned corporations — including nonprofits — from engaging in independent political expenditures. The Court overturned a similar provision in federal law, striking a decisive blow against the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance restrictions, one of the worst abridgments of the First Amendment since the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. The Founders wrote the First Amendment specifically to protect free speech for the purposes of political advocacy and criticism. The Constitution provides that \"Congress shall make no law\" abridging that right. But that is precisely what Congress did by restricting the right of Citizens United, a nonprofit corporation, to release a documentary film critical of Hillary Clinton while she was a candidate for president. Fortunately, the Court held that the government does not have the right to distinguish between different classes of speakers and to disfavor some of them, such as corporations. The provisions of the law acted as an outright ban on some kinds of speech, and they set up a complex regulatory framework for others, limiting them in a way the Supreme Court found equivalent to a prior restraint on communication. The law also gave the FEC the power to decide what political speech was allowed and to punish those who violated the law with severe civil and criminal penalties. The idea that the government ought to be empowered to punish any party for engaging in political speech is not only a violation of the First Amendment, it is a fundamental affront to the founding principles of our republic. As Justice Kennedy wrote, speech is an essential mechanism in a democracy, helping to hold public officials accountable to the people. For that reason, the right of free political speech must prevail against laws that suppress it or impose such a burden on it that criticism, advocacy, and debate are stifled. It speaks volumes about the so-called campaign-finance reformers, and their attitudes toward our constitutional rights, that they are positively apoplectic over this decision. Rep. Alan Grayson (D., Fla.), the Left's epitome of decorum and nuanced thinking, calls Citizens United v. FEC \"the worst Supreme Court decision since the Dred Scott case.\" Senator Feingold is demanding new campaign-finance legislation, while Senator Schumer wants congressional hearings on the possibility of limiting the decision's application. Representative Grayson's comment, and the fevered reaction among his fellow Democrats, suggests a thin commitment to the Bill of Rights and our most basic freedoms. It is worth noting that the four liberal members of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Stevens, were so willing to give a free hand to government censors that they wrote a 90-page dissent in which they attempt to justify allowing the government to decide who has the right to engage in political speech and on what terms. A 5-4 decision: Bear that in mind when the next vacancy on the Court comes up." ]

[ "A man is ironing." ]

[ "The man is wearing a suit.", "A shirtless man is working on the roof of a house", "A shirtless man works on a lobster boat.", "A male is working with a soldering iron.", "The man at the table was shirtless.", "Iron smiths are working outside.", "A shirtless man is skateboarding.", "Man is shirtless for the concert", "A shirtless man is shaving.", "The young man is shirtless", "A shirtless man walking.", "A man is shirtless at the beach", "The man is surfing shirtless.", "An old man is shirtless.", "A shirtless man painting.", "A man is ironing a woman panties.", "A young shirtless boy is working on the farm.", "The man puts on an iron mask.", "A man is running shirtless", "Shirtless youngster working out in the gym", "A shirtless man is swimming.", "A shirtless man is playing golf.", "The man is singing in an Iron Man costume.", "a shirtless man is followed by swimmers", "A man is rock climbing shirtless.", "A shirtless man is laying down.", "A shirtless man is dancing.", "A shirtless man sleeps on the beach.", "A shirtless man with a guitar.", "A shirtless man holds a box.", "A man is carrying iron rods.", "The shirtless man is sitting outside." ]

[ "Rational choice theory (criminology) In criminology, rational choice theory adopts a utilitarian belief that man is a reasoning actor who weighs means and ends, costs and benefits, and makes a rational choice. This method was designed by Cornish and Clarke to assist in thinking about situational crime prevention.[1] It is assumed that crime is purposive behavior designed to meet the offender’s commonplace needs for such things as money, status, sex and excitement, and that meeting these needs involves the making of (sometimes quite rudimentary) decisions and choices, constrained as these are by limits, ability, and the availability of relevant information...[2]" ]

[ "Cesare Lombroso Cesare Lombroso (/lɒmˈbroʊsoʊ/;[2] Italian: [ˈtʃeːzare lomˈbroːzo, -so]; born Ezechia Marco Lombroso; 6 November 1835 – 19 October 1909), was an Italian criminologist and physician, founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology. Lombroso rejected the established classical school, which held that crime was a characteristic trait of human nature. Instead, using concepts drawn from physiognomy, degeneration theory, psychiatry and Social Darwinism, Lombroso's theory of anthropological criminology essentially stated that criminality was inherited, and that someone \"born criminal\" could be identified by physical (congenital) defects, which confirmed a criminal as savage or atavistic. These theories do not have widespread support by scientists in Western countries.", "Criminology Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909), an Italian sociologist working in the late 19th century, is often called \"the father of criminology.\"[4] He was one of the key contributors to biological positivism and founded the Italian school of criminology.[5] Lombroso took a scientific approach, insisting on empirical evidence for studying crime.[6] He suggested physiological traits such as the measurements of cheek bones or hairline, or a cleft palate (the belief was this was a throwbacks to Neanderthals) could indicate \"atavistic\" criminal tendencies. This approach, whose influence came via the theory of phrenology and by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, has been superseded. Enrico Ferri, a student of Lombroso, believed social as well as biological factors played a role, and believed criminals should not be held responsible when factors causing their criminality were beyond their control. Criminologists have since rejected Lombroso's biological theories, with control groups not used in his studies.[7][8]", "Social control theory In criminology, social control theory proposes that exploiting the process of socialization and social learning builds self-control and reduces the inclination to indulge in behavior recognized as antisocial. It derives from functionalist theories of crime and was developed by Ivan Nye (1958), who proposed that there were four types of control:", "Strain theory (sociology) Strain theory is a sociology and criminology theory developed in 1938 by Robert K. Merton.[1] The theory states that society puts pressure on individuals to achieve socially accepted goals (such as the American dream) though they lack the means, this leads to strain which may lead the individuals to commit crimes. Examples being selling drugs or becoming involved in prostitution to gain financial security.[1]", "Strain theory (sociology) In sociology and criminology, strain theory states that social structures within society may pressure citizens to commit crime. Following on the work of Émile Durkheim, strain theories have been advanced by Robert King Merton (1938), Albert K. Cohen (1955), Richard Cloward, Lloyd Ohlin (1960), Neil Smelser (1963), Robert Agnew (1992), Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld (1994).", "Social control theory Travis Hirschi adopted Toby's concept of an investment in conventionality or \"stake in conformity\". He stressed the rationality in the decision whether to engage in crime and argued that a person was less likely to choose crime if they had strong social bonds.", "Prisoner's dilemma The prisoner's dilemma is a standard example of a game analyzed in game theory that shows why two completely rational individuals might not cooperate, even if it appears that it is in their best interests to do so. It was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher while working at RAND in 1950. Albert W. Tucker formalized the game with prison sentence rewards and named it \"prisoner's dilemma\" (Poundstone, 1992), presenting it as follows:", "Broken windows theory The broken windows theory is a criminological theory of the norm-setting and signaling effect of urban disorder and vandalism on additional crime and anti-social behavior. The theory states that maintaining and monitoring urban environments to prevent small crimes such as vandalism, public drinking, and turnstile-jumping helps to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more serious crimes from happening.", "Natural law Historically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature to deduce binding rules of moral behavior from nature's or God's creation of reality and mankind. The concept of natural law was first documented in ancient Greek philosophy, including Aristotle,[2] and was referred to in Roman philosophy by Cicero. It was then alluded to in the Bible, from which it was subsequently developed in the Middle Ages by Catholic philosophers such as Albert the Great, and Thomas Aquinas. In the Renaissance, notably the School of Salamanca further contributed. During the Age of Enlightenment, modern era natural law theories were further developed, combining inspiration from Roman law, and alongside philosophies like social contract theory. It featured greatly in the works of Alberico Gentili, Francisco Suárez, Richard Hooker, Thomas Hobbes, Hugo Grotius, Samuel von Pufendorf, Matthew Hale, John Locke, Francis Hutcheson, Jean Jacques Burlamaqui, Emmerich de Vattel, Cesare Beccaria and Francesco Mario Pagano. It was used to challenge the divine right of kings, and became an alternative justification for the establishment of a social contract, positive law, and government—and thus legal rights—in the form of classical republicanism. Conversely, the concept of natural rights is used by others to challenge the legitimacy of all such establishments.", "Gestalt psychology The concept of gestalt was first introduced in philosophy and psychology in 1890 by Christian von Ehrenfels (a member of the School of Brentano). The idea of gestalt has its roots in theories by David Hume, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Immanuel Kant, David Hartley, and Ernst Mach. Max Wertheimer's unique contribution was to insist that the \"gestalt\" is perceptually primary, defining the parts it was composed from, rather than being a secondary quality that emerges from those parts, as von Ehrenfels's earlier Gestalt-Qualität had been.[citation needed]", "Marginal utility Carl Menger presented the theory in Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre (translated as Principles of Economics) in 1871. Menger's presentation is peculiarly notable on two points. First, he took special pains to explain why individuals should be expected to rank possible uses and then to use marginal utility to decide amongst trade-offs. (For this reason, Menger and his followers are sometimes called “the Psychological School”, though they are more frequently known as “the Austrian School” or as “the Vienna School”.) Second, while his illustrative examples present utility as quantified, his essential assumptions do not.[11] (Menger in fact crossed-out the numerical tables in his own copy of the published Grundsätze.[39]) Menger also developed the law of diminishing marginal utility.[14] Menger's work found a significant and appreciative audience.", "Theory X and Theory Y Theory X and Theory Y are theories of human work motivation and management. They were created by Douglas McGregor while he was working at the MIT Sloan School of Management in the 1950s, and developed further in the 1960s.[1] McGregor's work was rooted in motivation theory alongside the works of Abraham Maslow, who created the hierarchy of needs. The two theories proposed by McGregor describe contrasting models of workforce motivation applied by managers in human resource management, organizational behavior, organizational communication and organizational development. Theory X explains the importance of heightened supervision, external rewards, and penalties, while Theory Y highlights the motivating role of job satisfaction and encourages workers to approach tasks without direct supervision. Management use of Theory X and Theory Y can affect employee motivation and productivity in different ways, and managers may choose to implement strategies from both theories into their practices.[2]", "Merit pay Merit pay's roots lie in behavioral psychology and incentive theory. These theories are based in the belief that people are rational and react to incentives and that you can increase performance with the correct catalyst.", "Set theory The modern study of set theory was initiated by Georg Cantor and Richard Dedekind in the 1870s. After the discovery of paradoxes in naive set theory, such as the Russell's paradox, numerous axiom systems were proposed in the early twentieth century, of which the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms, with or without the axiom of choice, are the best-known.", "Theory of forms The theory of Forms or theory of Ideas[1][2][3] is a viewpoint attributed to Plato, which holds that non-physical (but substantial) forms (or ideas) represent the most accurate reality.[4] When used in this sense, the word form or idea is often capitalized.[5] Plato speaks of these entities only through the characters (primarily Socrates) of his dialogues who sometimes suggest that these Forms are the only objects of study that can provide knowledge. The theory itself is contested from within Plato's dialogues, and it is a general point of controversy in philosophy. Even whether the theory represents Plato's own views is held in doubt by modern scholarship.[6] However, the theory is considered a classical solution to the problem of universals.", "Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development There have been critiques of the theory from several perspectives. Arguments include that it emphasizes justice to the exclusion of other moral values, such as caring;[10] that there is such an overlap between stages that they should more properly be regarded as separate domains; or that evaluations of the reasons for moral choices are mostly post hoc rationalizations (by both decision makers and psychologists) of essentially intuitive decisions.[11]", "Socratic method The Socratic method, also can be known as maieutics, method of elenchus, elenctic method, or Socratic debate, is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presumptions. It is a dialectical method, involving a discussion in which the defense of one point of view is questioned; one participant may lead another to contradict themselves in some way, thus weakening the defender's point. This method is named after the Classical Greek philosopher Socrates and is introduced by him in Plato's Theaetetus as midwifery (maieutics) because it is employed to bring out definitions implicit in the interlocutors' beliefs, or to help them further their understanding.", "Cyclical theory The cyclical theory refers to a model used by historian Arthur Schlesinger to attempt to explicate the fluctuations in politics throughout American history. Liberalism and conservatism are rooted in the \"national mood\" that shows a continuing shift in national involvement between public purpose and private interest. Each of these cycles includes a phase of dominant public interest, a transition phase, and a phase of prevalent private interest.", "Macroeconomics Macroeconomics, at least in its modern form,[26] began with the publication of John Maynard Keynes's General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.[25][27] When the Great Depression struck, classical economists had difficulty explaining how goods could go unsold and workers could be left unemployed. In classical theory, prices and wages would drop until the market cleared, and all goods and labor were sold. Keynes offered a new theory of economics that explained why markets might not clear, which would evolve (later in the 20th century) into a group of macroeconomic schools of thought known as Keynesian economics – also called Keynesianism or Keynesian theory.", "Humanistic psychology Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that rose to prominence in the mid-20th century in answer to the limitations of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B. F. Skinner's behaviorism.[1] With its roots running from Socrates through the Renaissance, this approach emphasizes individuals' inherent drive towards self-actualization, the process of realizing and expressing one's own capabilities and creativity.", "Reciprocity (social psychology) Reciprocity dates as far back as the time of Hammurabi (c. 1792–1750 BC). Hammurabi's code, a collection of 282 laws and standards, lists crimes and their various punishments as well as guidelines for citizens' conduct.[citation needed] The code was formalized example that demanded the individual act in terms of the public interest. The \"eye for an eye\" principles in which the laws were written mirror the idea of direct reciprocity. For example, if a person caused the death of another person, the killer would be put to death:", "Gray's biopsychological theory of personality The biopsychological theory of personality is similar to another one of Gray's theories, reinforcement sensitivity theory. The Biopsychological Theory of Personality was created after Gray disagreed with Hans Eysenck's arousal theory that dealt with biological personality traits.[5] Eysenck looked at the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) for answering questions about personality. The ARAS is part of the brain structure and has been proposed to deal with cortical arousal, hence the term arousal theory. Eysenck compared levels of arousal to a scale of introversion versus extraversion. The comparison of these two scales was then used to describe individual personalities and their corresponding behavioral patterns.[6] Gray disagreed with Eysenck's theory because Gray believed that things such as personality traits could not be explained by just classical conditioning.[7] Instead, Gray developed his theory which is based more heavily on physiological responses than Eysenck's theory.", "Theory of planned behavior The theory of planned behavior was proposed by Icek Ajzen in 1985 through his article \"From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior.\"[2] The theory was developed from the theory of reasoned action, which was proposed by Martin Fishbein together with Icek Ajzen in 1980. The theory of reasoned action was in turn grounded in various theories of attitude such as learning theories, expectancy-value theories, consistency theories (such as Heider's balance theory, Osgood and Tannenbaum's congruity theory, and Festinger's dissonance theory) and attribution theory.[3] According to the theory of reasoned action, if people evaluate the suggested behavior as positive (attitude), and if they think their significant others want them to perform the behavior (subjective norm), this results in a higher intention (motivations) and they are more likely to do so. A high correlation of attitudes and subjective norms to behavioral intention, and subsequently to behavior, has been confirmed in many studies.[4]", "Utilitarianism Utilitarianism is an ethical theory which states that the best action is the one that maximizes utility. \"Utility\" is defined in various ways, usually in terms of the well-being of sentient entities. Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism, described utility as the sum of all pleasure that results from an action, minus the suffering of anyone involved in the action. Utilitarianism is a version of consequentialism, which states that the consequences of any action are the only standard of right and wrong. Unlike other forms of consequentialism, such as egoism, utilitarianism considers the interests of all beings equally.", "New Keynesian economics Two main assumptions define the New Keynesian approach to macroeconomics. Like the New Classical approach, New Keynesian macroeconomic analysis usually assumes that households and firms have rational expectations. But the two schools differ in that New Keynesian analysis usually assumes a variety of market failures. In particular, New Keynesians assume that there is imperfect competition[1] in price and wage setting to help explain why prices and wages can become \"sticky\", which means they do not adjust instantaneously to changes in economic conditions.", "Radical behaviorism Radical behaviorism, or the conceptual analysis of behavior, was pioneered by B. F. Skinner and is his \"philosophy of the science of behavior.\"[1] It refers to the philosophy behind behavior analysis, and is to be distinguished from methodological behaviorism—which has an intense emphasis on observable behaviors—by its inclusion of thinking, feeling, and other private events in the analysis of human and animal psychology.[2] The research in behavior analysis is called the experimental analysis of behavior and the application of this field is called applied behavior analysis (ABA).", "Moral development Notions of morality development have been developed over centuries, the earliest came from philosopher like Confucius, Aristotle, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who all took a more humanist perspective and focused on the development of the conscience and sense of virtue. In the modern day, empirical research has explored morality through a moral psychology lens by theorists like Sigmund Freud and its relation to cognitive development by theorists like Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, B. F. Skinner, Carol Gilligan and Judith Smetana.", "Hick's law Hick's law, or the Hick–Hyman law, named after British and American psychologists William Edmund Hick and Ray Hyman, describes the time it takes for a person to make a decision as a result of the possible choices he or she has: increasing the number of choices will increase the decision time logarithmically. The Hick–Hyman law assesses cognitive information capacity in choice reaction experiments. The amount of time taken to process a certain amount of bits in the Hick–Hyman law is known as the rate of gain of information.", "Structuralism (psychology) Structuralism in psychology (also structural psychology)[1] is a theory of consciousness developed by Wilhelm Wundt and his protégé Edward Bradford Titchener. This theory was challenged in the 20th century. It is debated who deserves the credit for finding this field of psychology, but it is widely accepted that Wundt created the foundation on which Titchener expanded. Structuralism as a school of psychology seeks to analyze the adult mind (the total sum of experience from birth to the present) in terms of the simplest definable components and then to find how these components fit together to form more complex experiences as well as how they correlated to physical events. To do this, psychologists employ introspection, self-reports of sensations, views, feelings, emotions, etc.[2][3]", "Rational Team Concert Rational Team Concert is a software development team collaboration tool developed by the Rational Software brand of IBM, who first released it in 2008. The software is available in both client versions, a web version, and on Cloud. It provides a collaborative environment that software development teams use to manage all aspects of their work—such as plans, tasks, revision control, build management, and reports.", "Principle of double effect The principle of double effect—also known as the rule of double effect; the doctrine of double effect, often abbreviated as DDE or PDE, double-effect reasoning; or simply double effect—is a set of ethical criteria which Christian philosophers, and some others, have advocated for evaluating the permissibility of acting when one's otherwise legitimate act (for example, relieving a terminally ill patient's pain) may also cause an effect one would otherwise be obliged to avoid (sedation and a slightly shortened life). The first known example of double-effect reasoning is Thomas Aquinas' treatment of homicidal self-defense, in his work Summa Theologica.[1]", "Pi Being an irrational number, π cannot be expressed exactly as a fraction (equivalently, its decimal representation never ends and never settles into a permanent repeating pattern). Still, fractions such as 22/7 and other rational numbers are commonly used to approximate π. The digits appear to be randomly distributed. In particular, the digit sequence of π is conjectured to satisfy a specific kind of statistical randomness, but to date no proof of this has been discovered. Also, π is a transcendental number; that is, a number that is not the root of any non-zero polynomial having rational coefficients. This transcendence of π implies that it is impossible to solve the ancient challenge of squaring the circle with a compass and straightedge." ]

[ "Stephen R. Covey (Author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) edit data Stephen Richards Covey was the author of the best-selling book, \"The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People\". Other books he wrote include \"First Things First\", \"Principle-Centered Leadership\", and \"The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families\". In 2004, Covey released \"The 8th Habit\". In 2008, Covey released \"The Leader In Me—How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time\". He was also a professor at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. You can purchase Stephen R. Covey's books and audios at http://www.7habitsstore.com Covey died at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho, on July 16, 2012, due to complications from a bicycle accident he suffered th Stephen Richards Covey was the author of the best-selling book, \"The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People\". Other books he wrote include \"First Things First\", \"Principle-Centered Leadership\", and \"The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families\". In 2004, Covey released \"The 8th Habit\". In 2008, Covey released \"The Leader In Me—How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time\". He was also a professor at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. You can purchase Stephen R. Covey's books and audios at http://www.7habitsstore.com Covey died at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho, on July 16, 2012, due to complications from a bicycle accident he suffered the previous April. ...more" ]

[ "Beatrix Potter (Author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit) edit data Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, mycologist, and conservationist who was best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters such as Peter Rabbit. Born into a privileged household, Potter was educated by governesses, and grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets and through holidays in Scotland and the Lake District developed a love of landscape, flora and fauna, all of which she closely observed and painted. As a young woman her parents discouraged intellectual development, but her study and paintings of fungi led her to be widely respected in the field of mycology. In her thirties Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and became secretly Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, mycologist, and conservationist who was best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters such as Peter Rabbit. Born into a privileged household, Potter was educated by governesses, and grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets and through holidays in Scotland and the Lake District developed a love of landscape, flora and fauna, all of which she closely observed and painted. As a young woman her parents discouraged intellectual development, but her study and paintings of fungi led her to be widely respected in the field of mycology. In her thirties Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and became secretly engaged to her publisher, Norman Warne, causing a breach with her parents, who disapproved of his social status. Warne died before the wedding could take place. Potter eventually published 23 children's books, and having become financially independent of her parents, was able to buy a farm in the Lake District, which she extended with other purchases over time. In her forties she married a local solicitor, William Heelis. She became a sheep breeder and farmer while continuing to write and illustrate children's books. Potter died in 1943, and left almost all of her property to The National Trust in order to preserve the beauty of the Lake District as she had known it, protecting it from developers. Potter's books continue to sell well throughout the world, in multiple languages. Her stories have been retold in various formats, including a ballet, films and in animation. ...more", "EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS Edgar Rice Burrough's photo portrait Edgar Rice Burroughs (ERB) was born on September the 1st 1875. He died on March the 19th 1950. Edgar was an American writer, best known for his creations of the jungle hero Tarzan (our favourite) and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres. Burroughs, the son of a wealthy businessman, was educated at private schools in Chicago, at the prestigious Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts (from which he was expelled), and at Michigan Military Academy, where he subsequently taught briefly. He spent the years 1897 to 1911 in numerous unsuccessful jobs and business ventures in Chicago and Idaho. Eventually he settled in Chicago with a wife and three children when he began writing advertising copy and then turned to fiction. The story �\"Under the Moons of Mars\"� appeared in serial form in the adventure magazine The All-Story in 1912 and was so successful that Burroughs turned to writing full-time. MINI BIO Burroughs was born on September 1, 1875, in Chicago, Illinois (he later lived for many years in the suburb of Oak Park), the fourth son of businessman and Civil War veteran Major George Tyler Burroughs (1833�1913) and his wife Mary Evaline (Zieger) Burroughs (1840�1920). His middle name is from his paternal grandmother, Mary Rice Burroughs (1802�ca. 70). Burroughs was educated at a number of local schools, and during the Chicago influenza epidemic in 1891, he spent a half year at his brother's ranch on the Raft River in Idaho. He then attended the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and then the Michigan Military Academy. Graduating in 1895, and failing the entrance exam for the United States Military Academy (West Point), he ended up as an enlisted soldier with the 7th U.S. Cavalry in Fort Grant, Arizona Territory. He was discharged in 1897 after he was diagnosed with a heart problem that made him ineligible to serve. POST MILITARY DISCHARGE After his discharge, Burroughs worked a number of different jobs. He drifted and worked on a ranch in Idaho. Then, Burroughs found work at his father's firm in 1899. He married his childhood sweetheart Emma Hulbert (1876-1944) in January 1900. In 1904, he left his job and worked less regularly, first in Idaho, then in Chicago. By 1911, after seven years of low wages, he was working as a pencil sharpener wholesaler and began to write fiction. By this time, Burroughs and Emma had two children, Joan (1908�72), who would later marry Tarzan film actor James Pierce, and Hulbert (1909�91). During this period, he had copious spare time and he began reading many pulp fiction magazines. In 1929 he recalled thinking that: \"...if people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines, that I could write stories just as rotten. As a matter of fact, although I had never written a story, I knew absolutely that I could write stories just as entertaining and probably a whole lot more so than any I chanced to read in those magazines.\" Burroughs divorced Emma in 1934, and in 1935 he married former actress Florence Gilbert Dearholt, the former wife of his friend, Ashton Dearholt. Burroughs adopting the Dearholts' two children. He and Florence divorced in 1942. Burroughs was in his late 60s and a resident of Hawaii at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . Despite his age, he applied for and received permission to become a war correspondent, becoming one of the oldest U.S. war correspondents during World War II . This period of his life is mentioned in William Brinkley's bestselling novel Don't Go Near the Water. After the war ended, Burroughs moved back to Encino, California , where, after many health problems, he died of a heart attack on March 19, 1950, having written almost 80 novels. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted Burroughs in 2003. American film director Wes Anderson is Burroughs' great-grandson. LITERARY CAREER Aiming his work at the pulps,", "Stephen Covey, '7 Habits' author, dies at 79 Stephen Covey, '7 Habits' author, dies at 79 BRIAN SKOLOFF and MICHELLE RINDELS Pin it Share FILE - This Feb. 25, 2003 file photo shows Dr. Stephen R. Covey at a training session at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Covey, the motivational speaker best known for the book \"The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,\" died Monday, July 16, 2012, in Idaho three months after a serious bicycle accident in Utah. He was 79. (AP Photo/Ric Feld, File) More SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Considered a pioneer in the self-help genre aimed at helping readers become more productive in their lives, author Stephen R. Covey had an enormous impact on both the corporate world and the personal lives of millions. The well-known motivational speaker and author of the best-selling \"The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,\" which sold more than 20 million copies in 38 languages, died Monday at a hospital in Idaho Falls, Idaho, due to complications from a bicycle accident in April, according to his family. \"In his final hours, he was surrounded by his loving wife and each one of his children and their spouses, just as he always wanted,\" the family said in a statement. He was 79. Covey was hospitalized in April after being knocked unconscious in the bike crash on a steep road in the foothills of Provo, Utah, about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City. \"This was one of the first books in recent times that was really directed at prioritizing the way you worked, so you could be more effective as an individual\" said Adrian Zackheim, president and publisher of Portfolio, a business imprint at Penguin Group (USA). \"It wasn't about how to be a manager or how or to run a company. It was about how to conduct yourself. \"Covey's influence was very pervasive,\" added Zackheim, a rival publisher. \"It was a book that applied to everybody. You would hear about whole organizations where everybody in the company was expected to read the book.\" Bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. called Covey \"an influence in both the business and self-help genres as he imparted a system and approach to life that worked in business and personal situations.\" In \"The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,\" Covey writes about the need to be proactive, to \"begin with the end in mind,\" habit No. 2, and \"to seek first to understand, then be understood,\" habit No. 5. \"Remember, to learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know,\" Covey wrote in the foreword. \"We are deeply saddened by the passing of Stephen R. Covey. His seminal work, \"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,\" will forever be one of the most influential books in the field of self-improvement,\" Carolyn K. Reidy, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, Inc., which published his book, said in a statement. Covey also was the author of several other best sellers, including \"First Things First,\" ''Principle-Centered Leadership,\" ''The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families,\" and \"The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness.\" Covey was the co-founder of Utah-based professional services company FranklinCovey. He lived with his wife in Provo, and has nine children and 52 grandchildren. At the time of his bicycle accident, his publicist, Debra Lund, said doctors had not found any signs of long-term damage to his head. \"He just lost control on his bike and crashed,\" Lund said. \"He was wearing a helmet, which is good news.\" Catherine Sagers, Covey's daughter, told The Salt Lake Tribune in April that her father had suffered some bleeding on his brain after the accident. A telephone message left for Sagers on Monday wasn't returned. Sean Covey said his father was at a family gathering in Montana when his health began to deteriorate and he was rushed to the closest hospital. \"Our family, all nine kids and our spouses and my mom, were able to gather together again to be with him for the last few hours of his life, which is what he always wanted,\" Sean Covey said in an email to The Tribune. ___ Rindels reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press writer Hillel Ital", "Bob Smith (doctor) | Psychology Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Professional Psychology: Debating Chamber · Psychology Journals · Psychologists Bob Smith (Robert Holbrook Smith, b. 8 August 1879 ; d. 16 November 1950 ) was a medical doctor and surgeon from Akron, Ohio , also known as Dr Bob. He was born and raised in St. Johnsbury, Vermont . After graduation from Dartmouth College in 1902, he completed medical school at the University of Michigan . He co-founded the self-help movement Alcoholics Anonymous with Bill Wilson , in 1935 . Smith was called the \"Prince of Twelfth Steppers\" by Bill Wilson because he personally helped more than 5000 alcoholics without charge. Also, it was in his home that the basic ideas of A.A. were developed. Many A.A. ideas developed initially in an offshoot of the then-popular Oxford Group , which was then a Christian movement. Dr. Bob said that A.A.'s basic ideas came from their study of the Bible, that he personally did not write or have anything to do with the later writing of the 12 Steps, but that the Steps, simmered down to their essence, simply meant \"love and service.\" See also", "stephen covey's seven habits of highly effective people review the seven habits of highly effective people® Dr Stephen Covey's inspirational book - 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People® Dr Stephen Covey (1932-2012) was and remains a hugely influential management guru. Covey's most famous book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, became a blueprint for personal development when it was published in 1990. The principles may be used for life in general - they are not limited to workplaces, management, leadership, etc. Covey's concepts actually can help people to grow, change, and become more effective in really any other aspect of human responsibility that you might imagine. Covey's Seven Habits are easy to understand, but like all the best and simplest models, can be a little more difficult to apply in practice. The 'Habits' seem very simple, and in many ways they are, yet to varying degrees they may entail quite serious changes to thinking and acting. Be inspired by Covey's ideas nevertheless. They are wonderful. The 'Seven Habits' are a remarkable set of inspirational and aspirational standards for anyone who seeks to live a full, purposeful and good life, and are applicable today more than ever, as the business world - and life beyond business and work - become more attuned to humanist concepts. Covey's values are full of integrity and humanity, and contrast strongly with the authority-driven process-based ideologies that characterize management and leadership thinking in earlier times. Indeed Covey's methods extend and adapt with increasing relevance to many more areas in the modern world, for example parenting, relationships, mediation, counselling, etc. Stephen Covey, as well as being a renowned writer, speaker, academic and humanist, also built a huge training and consultancy products and services business - Franklin Covey which has a global reach. Stephen Covey at one time or other also consulted with and provided training services to most of the world's leading corporations. Covey produced a substantial body of educational and teaching work. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People was his first significantly popular creation, and probably remains his greatest. Here is a quick summary. I encourage you to explore and use his ideas. Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People® habit 1 - be proactive® This is the ability to control one's environment, rather than have it control you, as is so often the case. Self determination, choice, and the power to decide response to stimulus, conditions and circumstances habit 2 - begin with the end in mind® Covey calls this the habit of personal leadership - leading oneself that is, towards what you consider your aims. By developing the habit of concentrating on relevant activities you will build a platform to avoid distractions and become more productive and successful. habit 3 - put first things first® Covey calls this the habit of personal management. This is about organising and implementing activities in line with the aims established in habit 2. Covey says that habit 2 is the first, or mental creation; habit 3 is", "School for Scoundrels or How to Win Without Actually Cheating! School for Scoundrels or How to Win Without Actually Cheating! (11-Jul-1960) Writers: Hal E. Chester; Patricia Moyes From novel: School for Scoundrels or How to Win Without Actually Cheating by Stephen Potter Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript. Bibliographies NNDB has added thousands of bibliographies for people, organizations, schools, and general topics, listing more than 50,000 books and 120,000 other kinds of references. They may be accessed by the \"Bibliography\" tab at the top of most pages, or via the \"Related Topics\" box in the sidebar. Please feel free to suggest books that might be critical omissions.", "Writing Copy Before Bestsellers - Six Famous Authors And The Advertising Campaigns They Created - The Booktopian Click here for titles from Fay Weldon Salman Rushdie The Man Booker Prize winner was responsible for coining the phrase Naughty But Nice for real-cream TV adverts, and came up with Irresistibubble as the catch phrase for Aero chocolate bars. Click here for titles from Salman Rushdie Ernest Hemingway The Nobel Prize-winning author appeared and wrote the copy for several ads for both Parker Pens and Ballantine Ale, for which he unsurprisingly received payment in both products. Click here for titles from Ernest Hemingway Dorothy L. Sayers The brilliant English crime writer and essayist coined the classic Guinness Is Good For You slogan, during her stint in advertising Click here for titles from Dorothy L. Sayers Brendan Behan Was also asked to think of a slogan for Guinness and took a crate of the famous dark ale as payment. The next morning he turned up with an empty crate and a small piece of paper that said, “Guinness: It Makes You Drunk”. Click here for titles from Brendan Behan Bryce Courtenay Courtenay entered the advertising industry and, over a career spanning 34 years, was the Creative Director behind campaigns that included Louie the Fly, the original Milkybar Kid commercial and the Australian Labor Party’s 1972 election campaign, ‘It’s Time’.", "Key lessons from The Tipping Point Who should read these blinks? Anyone who is interested in the way ideas spread Anyone who wants to learn how social epidemics break out Anyone who works in marketing, advertising or a related field Who wrote the book? Malcolm Gladwell is a journalist and the author of five best-selling books, including Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking and Outliers: The Story of Success. Big ideas in small packages", "About: Barbara Woodhouse About: Barbara Woodhouse An Entity of Type : Trainer110722575 , from Named Graph : http://dbpedia.org , within Data Space : dbpedia.org Barbara Kathleen Vera Woodhouse (née Blackburn, 9 May 1910 Rathfarnham, Ireland – 9 July 1988, Buckinghamshire, England), was a British dog trainer, author, horse trainer and television personality. Her 1980 television series Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way made her into a household name in the UK. Among her catch-phrases were \"walkies\" and \"sit!\", the latter parodied in the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy. She was also known for her \"no bad dogs\" philosophy. Property", "Slumdog Millionaire Information Slumdog Millionaire Information Slumdog Millionaire News Slumdog Millionaire Information Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film directed by Danny Boyle , written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup. Set and filmed in India, the film tells the story of Jamal Malik, a young man from the Juhu slums of Mumbai who appears on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Kaun Banega Crorepati in the Hindi version) and exceeds people's expectations, thereby arousing the suspicions of cheating; Jamal recounts in flashback how he knows the answer to each question, each one linked to a key event in his life. After its world premiere at Telluride Film Festival and later screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival, Slumdog Millionaire had a nationwide grand release in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009 and in the United States on 23 January 2009. It premiered in Mumbai on 22 January 2009. A sleeper hit, Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2009 and won eight, the most for any film of 2008, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It also won seven BAFTA Awards (including Best Film), five Critics' Choice Awards, and four Golden Globes. Plot In Mumbai in 2006, eighteen-year-old Jamal Malik ( Dev Patel ), a former street child (child Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, adolescent Tanay Chheda) from the Juhu slum, is a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and is one question away from the grand prize. However, before the Rs. 20 million question, he is detained and interrogated by the police, who suspect him of cheating because of the impossibility of a simple \"slumdog\" with very little education knowing all the answers. Jamal recounts, through flashbacks, the incidents in his life which provided him with each answer. These flashbacks tell the story of Jamal, his brother Salim (adult Madhur Mittal, adolescent Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, child Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail), and Latika (adult Freida Pinto, adolescent Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar, child Rubina Ali). In each flashback Jamal has a point to remember one person, or song, or different things that lead to the right answer of one of the questions. The row of questions does not correspond chronologically to Jamal�s life, so the story switches between different periods (childhood, adolescence) of Jamal. Some questions do not refer to points of his life (cricket champion), but by witness he comes to the right answer. Jamal's flashbacks begin with his managing, at age five, to obtain the autograph of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, which his brother then sells, followed immediately by the death of his mother during the Bombay Riots. As they flee the riot, Salim and Jamal meet Latika, another child from their slum. Salim is reluctant to take her in, but Jamal suggests that she could be the third musketeer, a character from the Alexandre Dumas novel (which they had been studying\"?albeit not very diligently\"?in school), whose name they do not know. The three are found by Maman (Ankur Vikal), a gangster who tricks and then trains street children into becoming beggars. When Jamal, Salim, and Latika learn Maman is blinding children in order to make them more effective as singing beggars, they flee by jumping onto a departing train. Latika catches up and takes Salim's hand, but Salim purposely lets go, and she is recaptured by the gangsters. Over the next few years, Salim and Jamal make a living travelling on top of trains, selling goods, picking pockets, working as dish washers, and pretending to be tour guides at the Taj Mahal, where they steal people's shoes. At Jamal's insistence, they return to Mumbai to find Latika, discovering from one of the singing beggars that she has been raised by Maman to become a prostitute and that her virginity is expected to fetch a high price. The brothers rescue her, and Salim draws a gun and kills", "Grit to Great: How Perseverance, Passion, and Pluck Take You from Ordinary to Extraordinary eBook: Linda Kaplan Thaler, Robin Koval: Amazon.ca: Kindle Store By Robert Morris HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWER on Sept. 9 2015 Format: Hardcover Angela Lee Duckworth is among the sources that Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval cite in their latest book, Grit to Great. Briefly, in her late 20s, Duckworth left a demanding job as a management consultant at McKinsey to teach math in public schools in San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York. After five years of teaching seventh graders, she went back to graduate school to complete her Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is now an assistant professor in the psychology department. Her research subjects include students, West Point cadets, and corporate salespeople, all of whom she studies to determine how \"grit\" is a better indicator of success than factors such as IQ or family income. I agree with Kaplan Thaler and Koval that \"the science of success is only beginning to be explored. And there is much to learn But the great thing about grit is that working harder, smarter, more passionately, and longer is something we control, unlike the community we grew up in, the high school we attended, the money and resources our parents have, company politics, or the current state of the economy. It is [begin italics] attainable [end italics] by each and every one of us. Even if you're not the smartest or most talented person in the room.\" Decades of research by K. Anders Ericsson and his associates at Florida State University clearly indicate that, on average, achieving peak performance in almost any human endeavor (e.g. playing chess or the cello) requires 10,000 hours of \"deep\" (i.e. highly disciplined) practice under strict, expert supervision...and some luck. Even then, success is not guaranteed. Read more › One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again.", "Author Ruth Rendell dies aged 85 - BBC News BBC News Author Ruth Rendell dies aged 85 2 May 2015 Media captionDavid Sillito looks back at the life of Ruth Rendell Crime writer Ruth Rendell has died aged 85, her publisher says. She wrote more than 60 novels in a career spanning 50 years, her best-known creation being Inspector Wexford, which was turned into a highly successful TV series. Rendell, one of Britain's best-selling contemporary authors, also wrote under the pen-name Barbara Vine. Born in Essex, she is credited with bringing a social and psychological dimension to crime fiction. Publisher Penguin Random House said Rendell, who suffered a stroke in January, died in London on Saturday morning. \"We are devastated by the loss of one of our best-loved authors,\" the publisher said in a statement. Penguin Random House chair, Baroness Gail Rebuck, said Rendell was admired throughout publishing for her \"brilliant body of work\". \"An insightful and elegant observer of society, many of her award-winning thrillers and psychological murder mysteries highlighted the causes she cared so deeply about.\" Rendell's first Wexford book, From Doon with Death, was published in 1964, beginning a series of more than 20 starring Inspector Reginald Wexford, played in the TV series by George Baker. Many of her works were translated into more than 20 languages and adapted for cinema and TV, attracting worldwide sales of 60 million. Image copyright ITV Archive Image caption Many enjoyed her Inspector Wexford through the TV adaptation She was the author of more than 20 standalone novels, whose protagonists were often on the margins of society, and was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for excellence in crime writing. Her final novel, Dark Corners, is due to be published in October. Rendell began her writing career as a reporter on an Essex newspaper. However, she was forced to resign after filing a story about a local sports club dinner that she hadn't attended. Her report failed to mention that the after-dinner speaker had died half-way through the speech. Rendell, whose writing brought her considerable wealth, was made a Labour life peer in 1997 and is reputed to have given generously to charity. She was a vocal campaigner against female genital mutilation. Labour leader Ed Miliband tweeted she would be missed greatly by the party. Image copyright Twitter She was born Ruth Barbara Grasemann in 1930 in South Woodford to a Swedish mother and British father. Rendell married Don Rendell, a journalist, in 1953. They divorced 22 years later but remarried each other within two years. She is survived by their son.", "The Son by Jo Nesbo | PenguinRandomHouse.com Add to Cart About The Son The author of the best-selling Harry Hole series now gives us an electrifying tale of vengeance set amid Oslo’s brutal hierarchy of corruption. Sonny Lofthus has been in prison for almost half his life: serving time for crimes he didn’t commit. In exchange, he gets an uninterrupted supply of heroin—and a stream of fellow prisoners seeking out his Buddha-like absolution. Years earlier Sonny’s father, a corrupt cop, took his own life rather than face exposure. Now Sonny is the center of a vortex of corruption: prison staff, police, lawyers, a desperate priest—all of them focused on keeping him stoned and jailed. When Sonny discovers a shocking truth about his father’s suicide, he makes a brilliant escape and begins hunting down the people responsible for his and his father’s demise. But he’s also being hunted, and by enemies too many to count. Two questions remain: who will get to him first, and what will he do when he’s cornered? About The Son The author of the best-selling Harry Hole series now gives us an electrifying stand-alone novel set inside Oslo’s maze of especially venal, high-level corruption. Sonny Lofthus is a strangely charismatic and complacent young man. Sonny’s been in prison for a dozen years, nearly half his life. The inmates who seek out his uncanny abilities to soothe leave his cell feeling absolved. They don’t know or care that Sonny has a serious heroin habit—or where or how he gets his uninterrupted supply of the drug. Or that he’s serving time for other peoples’ crimes. Sonny took the first steps toward addiction when his father took his own life rather than face exposure as a corrupt cop. Now Sonny is the seemingly malleable center of a whole infrastructure of corruption: prison staff, police, lawyers, a desperate priest—all of them focused on keeping him high and in jail. And all of them under the thumb of the Twin, Oslo’s crime overlord. As long as Sonny gets his dope, he’s happy to play the criminal and the prison’s in-house savior. But when he learns a stunning, long-hidden secret concerning his father, he makes a brilliantly executed escape from prison—and from the person he’d let himself become—and begins hunting down those responsible for the crimes against him . . . The darkly looming question is: Who will get to him first—the criminals or the cops? From the Hardcover edition. About The Son The author of the best-selling Harry Hole series now gives us an electrifying stand-alone novel set inside Oslo’s maze of especially venal, high-level corruption. Sonny Lofthus is a strangely charismatic and complacent young man. Sonny’s been in prison for a dozen years, nearly half his life. The inmates who seek out his uncanny abilities to soothe leave his cell feeling absolved. They don’t know or care that Sonny has a serious heroin habit—or where or how he gets his uninterrupted supply of the drug. Or that he’s serving time for other peoples’ crimes. Sonny took the first steps toward addiction when his father took his own life rather than face exposure as a corrupt cop. Now Sonny is the seemingly malleable center of a whole infrastructure of corruption: prison staff, police, lawyers, a desperate priest—all of them focused on keeping him high and in jail. And all of them under the thumb of the Twin, Oslo’s crime overlord. As long as Sonny gets his dope, he’s happy to play the criminal and the prison’s in-house savior. But when he learns a stunning, long-hidden secret concerning his father, he makes a brilliantly executed escape from prison—and from the person he’d let himself become—and begins hunting down those responsible for the crimes against him . . . The darkly looming question is: Who will get to him first—the criminals or the cops? From the Hardcover edition. About The Son The author of the best-selling Harry Hole series now gives us an electrifying stand-alone novel set inside Oslo’s maze of especially venal, high-level corruption. Sonny Lofthus is a strangely charismatic and complacent you", "Buy Quiver Full of Arrows Book Online at Low Prices in India | Quiver Full of Arrows Reviews & Ratings - Amazon.in 'Stylish, witty and constantly entertaining . . . Jeffrey Archer has a natural aptitude for short stories' The Times About the Author Jeffrey Archer has topped the bestseller lists around the world, with sales of over 250 million copies in 97 countries and more than 37 languages, of his sixteen novels (including Kane and Abel now on its 93rd reprint, A Prisoner of Birth and Paths of Glory), six collections of short stories, three plays, three volumes of his prison diaries and a Gospel. He is the only author ever to have been a number one bestseller in fiction (fifteen times), short stories (four times) and non-fiction (The Prison Diaries). His latest project is a five-book series called The Clifton Chronicles books one, Only Time Will Tell and two, The Sins of the Father, have both been international bestsellers and book three, Best Kept Secret, will be available in March 2013. Archer is married to Dame Mary Archer DBE, they have two sons and divide their time between London and Cambridge. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Apple", "“Workaholism” is real - Salon.com Tuesday, Oct 2, 2012 10:38 PM UTC “Workaholism” is real Many view it as a virtue, or even a joke, but a spate of recent studies suggest it should be taken seriously Topics: addiction , Alcoholics Anonymous , Alcoholism , France , Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development , The Fix , Work , Workaholism , Life News This article originally appeared on The Fix . You’re sitting at your desk, scrolling through the Alcoholics Anonymous website, when your boss walks up behind you. Not the best career move you’ll ever make, perhaps. But let’s say you’re looking at the Workaholics Anonymous site instead, the section about how even when you’re not in the office you’re still toiling away. What then? Does your boss give you a talking to, or does he give you a raise? This rather glib question captures something important about how society views work addiction. Recently, a business strategy website published an article with the headline “Four Famous Workaholics (And The Secrets of Their Success).” It’s hard to imagine any other addiction eliciting this kind of approach: “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Junkies,” say, or “The Sipping Point.” The fact is, people see workaholism in a different light from other dependencies. It’s known as the “respectable addiction,” but this doesn’t quite capture the prevailing attitude toward the condition. Indeed, many balk at the idea that it is a condition. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—which lists caffeine as a dependency—doesn’t even recognize work addiction. Workaholism is something Bill Gates has, and surely no one’s going to suggest that this guy needs to go to a support group. Support groups, nonetheless, exist. Founded in 1983, Workaholics Anonymous (or WA) currently has a little over a thousand members, and holds meetings around the world—Paris, Sydney, London, Reykjavík, Bangkok. Testimonials in its newsletter contain lines like “I was addicted to activity. How to grapple with this baffling malady?” Well, there’s the requisite 12-step program, for one, and the equally familiar appeal to a higher power. But, again, WA must contend with the fact that many people don’t view the malady as baffling so much as they do either virtuous or slightly comical. “People don’t take this seriously—they either laugh at workaholics or dismiss them,” says psychotherapist and “Chained to the Desk” author Bryan Robinson, who is widely recognized as being one of the world’s leading experts on workaholism. “The work ethic is an ingrained idea in our society. What’s wrong with working hard? Hard work got us to the Moon!” He goes on to call this attitude “the glorification of an illness.” Things, however, may be about to change. This year, research institutes from around the world have released a slew of studies clarifying what work addiction is and how it affects the people who have it. In April, Norwegian and British researchers developed what they call “The Bergen Work Addiction Scale,” a standardized list of criteria (“You spend much more time working than originally intended”) aimed at helping people identify if they have an actual addiction rather than a tendency to work too much. In March, meanwhile, Psychology Today cited recent research that outlines four basic types of work addict, namely (to paraphrase): The manic perfectionist, the stress junkie, the muddled multi-tasker, and the guy who never seems able to let a project go. An article in the same publication last year explored the narcissism and sundry neuroses that underlie the disease. Such categorizations may, on the surface, seem largely academic, but there is real-world aim here: namely to make people aware that they have an identifiable condition, and therefore make it more likely that they will seek help. And it is becoming increasingly clear that workaholics do indeed need help. Researchers in New Zealand have found that people who work at least 50 hours a week are up to three times more likely to face alcohol problems. Earlier this month, the American Journal of Epid", "SparkNotes: Wuthering Heights: Context Wuthering Heights Table of Contents Plot Overview Wuthering Heights, which has long been one of the most popular and highly regarded novels in English literature, seemed to hold little promise when it was published in 1847, selling very poorly and receiving only a few mixed reviews. Victorian readers found the book shocking and inappropriate in its depiction of passionate, ungoverned love and cruelty (despite the fact that the novel portrays no sex or bloodshed), and the work was virtually ignored. Even Emily Brontë’s sister Charlotte—an author whose works contained similar motifs of Gothic love and desolate landscapes—remained ambivalent toward the unapologetic intensity of her sister’s novel. In a preface to the book, which she wrote shortly after Emily Brontë’s death, Charlotte Brontë stated, “Whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff, I do not know. I scarcely think it is.” Emily Brontë lived an eccentric, closely guarded life. She was born in 1818, two years after Charlotte and a year and a half before her sister Anne, who also became an author. Her father worked as a church rector, and her aunt, who raised the Brontë children after their mother died, was deeply religious. Emily Brontë did not take to her aunt’s Christian fervor; the character of Joseph, a caricature of an evangelical, may have been inspired by her aunt’s religiosity. The Brontës lived in Haworth, a Yorkshire village in the midst of the moors. These wild, desolate expanses—later the setting of Wuthering Heights—made up the Brontës’ daily environment, and Emily lived among them her entire life. She died in 1848, at the age of thirty. As witnessed by their extraordinary literary accomplishments, the Brontë children were a highly creative group, writing stories, plays, and poems for their own amusement. Largely left to their own devices, the children created imaginary worlds in which to play. Yet the sisters knew that the outside world would not respond favorably to their creative expression; female authors were often treated less seriously than their male counterparts in the nineteenth century. Thus the Brontë sisters thought it best to publish their adult works under assumed names. Charlotte wrote as Currer Bell, Emily as Ellis Bell, and Anne as Acton Bell. Their real identities remained secret until after Emily and Anne had died, when Charlotte at last revealed the truth of their novels’ authorship. Today, Wuthering Heights has a secure position in the canon of world literature, and Emily Brontë is revered as one of the finest writers—male or female—of the nineteenth century. Like Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights is based partly on the Gothic tradition of the late eighteenth century, a style of literature that featured supernatural encounters, crumbling ruins, moonless nights, and grotesque imagery, seeking to create effects of mystery and fear. But Wuthering Heights transcends its genre in its sophisticated observation and artistic subtlety. The novel has been studied, analyzed, dissected, and discussed from every imaginable critical perspective, yet it remains unexhausted. And while the novel’s symbolism, themes, structure, and language may all spark fertile exploration, the bulk of its popularity may rest on its unforgettable characters. As a shattering presentation of the doomed love affair between the fiercely passionate Catherine and Heathcliff, it remains one of the most haunting love stories in all of literature.", "People | University of Moratuwa Faculty of Information Technology Featured Pearsonalities Related to UoM \"Arthur C. Clarke, CBE, FRAS, Sri Lankabhimanya, was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist. He was devoted to making sure the next generation would receive the best education possible not only by influencing young minds through his writing but also working in formal education. He served as the Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka in 1979-2002\" \"Philip Revatha (Ray) Wijewardene (1924 – 2010) was an extraordinary Sri Lankan who was called a Renaissance Man who excelled in many different areas of human endeavour: agriculture, aviation, engineering design, inventions, renewable energy technologies and water sports. He served as the Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa from 2002 to 2007\" Staff at UoM \" University of Moratuwa is a top class technological university in the region whose name is strengthened by its highly qualified academic staff members. Academic Staff members of the University of Moratuwa are world renown for their contribution to the world of science through their knowledge and expertise in various fields such as Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology. \" TOP LINKS", "'He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches' - the meaning and origin of this phrase Famous Last Words Browse phrases beginning with: He who can, does; he who cannot, teaches Meaning A criticism of the teaching profession, portraying it as second best. Origin Many expressions are attributed to GBS - this one correctly so. George Bernard Shaw wrote this in his play Man and Superman, 1903. It is included as Maxim 36 in the Maxims for Revolutionists that is included in the work. It's not clear if Shaw was expressing his own opinion of those who Bob Dylan, in his song My Back Pages, called 'the mongrel dogs who teach', or whether it was merely the opinion of one of the play's characters. Another Shaw quotation about teaching gives us a clue: \"A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.\"", "Mitt Romney Mitt Romney Countries United States of America Mitt Romney is the former governor of Massachusetts (2003-2007) and the 2012 Republican candidate for president. He is the author of No Apology: The Case for American Greatness (2010). Romney's failed 2008 campaign emphasized his success as a businessman and chief executive at Bain & Company and spin-off Bain Capital. His membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints played an important role in that campaign, as some leaders of the Religious Right hesitated in supporting his candidacy because of ongoing skepticism about Romney's Mormon faith. In 2008 Romney frequently spoke of his faith in general terms accessible to evangelical voters, and in 2012 he continued to resist more detailed discussion of Mormonism. The anti-Mormon sentiment in 2008 was frequently compared to the anti-Catholicism that faced both Al Smith in his failed 1928 presidential bid and John F. Kennedy in his 1960 victory. In early 2015 Romney announced he would not run in the 2016 presidential election.", "Masterpiece Theatre | Love in a Cold Climate | Essays + Interviews | The Mitford Sisters The Mitford Sisters Raised in isolation on several Cotswold estates, the seven children of Lord and Lady Redesdale -- six daughters and a son -- were forced to depend on each other for ideas, companionship, and fun. They invented elaborate family jokes and games that included an elaborate network of nicknames and private languages. By the time Tom was at Eton and the girls ready for their London debuts, they had each developed their own highly individual, eccentric personalities. Coming of age in the era of Evelyn Waugh's fabled \"Bright Young Things,\" the Mitford children burned bright only to flame out in a series of unwise alliances, outspoken books, and poorly chosen political bedfellows. Nancy, The Author The eldest of the seven children of David Mitford and Sydney Bowles, Nancy was born in London in 1904. Because her father did not believe in formal education for girls, Nancy and her sisters were instructed at home by governesses. (One reason he gave was that by playing field hockey, a common school sport, they would develop thick calves.) Both Nancy and Jessica longed to go to school, and at age 16 Nancy got her wish, spending less than a year at nearby Hatherop Castle. By and large, school did not play a large part in her childhood. Books, however, did. By age six, Nancy was already reading Ivanhoe, and she went on to read voraciously throughout her teenage years. The strict house rules about books -- children were not allowed to read in bed or to read novels in the morning, and library books had to stay in the library -- made reading, especially the reading of novels, all the more attractive. Nancy's own first novel, Highland Fling, was published in 1931, followed by Christmas Pudding the next year. But critics and the public took little notice of these frothy romps. She found success with her fifth novel, The Pursuit of Love (1945), and its sequel, Love in a Cold Climate (1949). Based like much of her fiction on her own experiences, their sentimental but satiric tone was irresistible to a nation fatigued by years of war, and the books became best-sellers. Known for her style and elegance, Nancy was a great social success, as were her sisters in their turn. As a young woman in London, she worked away at her fiction and penned articles for Vogue, The Lady, and Harper's. Released at last from the family fold, she took up residence with the author Evelyn Waugh and his wife and enjoyed a lively social life. Her first love was Hamish St. Clair Erskine, an aesthete who had been friends with her brother at Eton. When he threw her over, she quickly married Peter Rodd, son of an eminent diplomat, chiefly because he happened to be available. Undone by his philandering and profligate spending habits, the match was never happy; they would divorce in 1958. With her husband posted overseas during the war, Nancy found work as an assistant at Heywood Hill bookshop in the Mayfair district of London, where she soon became a partner in the firm. Drawing on her work with Rodd in refugee camps during the Spanish Civil War, Nancy did her part in the war effort as an Air Raid Precautions (ARP) driver in London. By this time, Nancy had fallen in love with Gaston Palewski, a follower of General de Gaulle, who she included as Fabrice in The Pursuit of Love. Settling in Paris after the war, she moved from fiction to history, writing highly acclaimed biographies: Madame de Pompadour (1953), Voltaire in Love (1957), The Sun King (1966), and Frederick the Great (1970). She is remembered, however, as Britain's most piercing observer of social manners. While her sheltered upbringing was the object of her scalding satire, she nonetheless continued to defend it until her death in Paris, of cancer, at the age of 69. Pamela, The \"Woman\" Sister number two, Pamela (1907-1994), was the least rebellious of the older girls. Of all the sisters, Pamela developed a particular love of the country and went on to become a poultry expert. According to Mitford biographer Ma", "Tylenol - Brand-o-pedia (English 1101 J1) 5 Where to? History Tylenol is a brand name of medication used to relieve pain, allergies and reduce fever . The Tylenol line is a brand name under McNeil Consumer Healthcare , which is a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson . [1] . The original company started in 1879 when Robert McNeil bought a drug store in Philadelphia, PA. McNeil had just graduated from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. As McNeil's business grew, it became widely known and served many consumers and physicians. He quickly became a superior pharmacist and used his signature on the sides of his bottles in order to ensure the McNeil standard [2] . Tylenol Elixir for Children was introduced in 1955 by McNeil Laboratories which was the, \"first in a line of products that was to become the nation's best selling analgesic.\" [3] In 1959, the privately owned family business was sold to Johnson and Johnson. [4] . Building the Tylenol Brand McNeil Laboratories which was founded by Robert Lincoln McNeil and his father launched Tylenol Elixir for children at 1955. Major Milestones 1955 Initial TYLENOL launch TYLENOL children Elixir (the first aspirin-free pain reliever) which is designed for children.(The birth of TYLENOL) 1959 Johnson & Johnson acquire McNeil Laboratories. (TYLENOL become a brand of Johnson & Johnson) 1975 TYLENOL products become the 5th best selling brand of analgesic in the U.S. (Meanwhile, TYLENOL face many competition from a similar product called Datril which is cheaper than TYLENOL.) 1976 TYLENOL products become the No.1 brand of OTC analgesic in the U.S. 1978 McNeil Laboratories divides into two separate organizations, McNeil Pharmaceutical and McNeil Consumer Products Company. 1979 TYLENOL becomes the best selling product in the health and beauty field in U.S. 2001 McNeil Consumer Healthcare changes its name to McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals. Tylenol Crisis of 1982 & 1986 Tylenol and some of its competitors [5] Several people died because of swallowing the poisoned TYLENOL capsules. 1982(seven deaths) Seven people died after taking the Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule, and as the so-called Tylenol murders spread fear across America. Soon Investigators indicated that someone had taken the bottles from store, poisoned the capsules and then returned them to stores. Finally, the victims bought the capsules from this store. 1986 Criminal tampering of poisoned TYLENOL Capsules happen again. Several people died from swallowing poisoned TYLENOL capsules, and Johnson & Johnson withdraws all OTC capsule products from the market. The chairman of Johnson & Johnson says this is an act of terrorism. Products Johnson and Johnson owns McNeil Consumer & Specialty Pharmaceuticals, under the McNeil name is the Tylenol line of products. Products within this line include: Tylenol (All varieties: Tylenol, Tylenol PM, Childrens Tylenol, etc.) Motrin St. Joseph Aspirin Zyrtec Street Advertisement for Tylenol. This advertisement is using pathos in order to appeal to consumers because of the ice cream picture. (People like ice cream and they like Tylenol association) [6] This advertisement of Tylenol PM refers to the logos arguement. It is possibly inferring that many consumers need caffeine to keep them going during the day and might need help falling asleep at night. By using Tylenol PM, they can still have their afternoon coffee that might have been keeping them up at night [7] Major Competitors Advil is a brand of pain reliever, and Advil is manufactured by Madison, New Jersey based Wyeth and has been on the market since 1984. The products are effective for headaches, muscle aches, and cramps. Aleve is the trademark of Bayer HealthCare LLC. It also products pain reliever. The products of Aleve are effective for aboutminor pain of arthritis, headache, muscular aches, toothache, backache, common cold, menstrual cramps, temporarily reduces fever, etc. Claritin is a brand of allergy reliever. Benadryl is a brand name allergy medicine. Advertising Campaigns Tylenol P.M. A major arguement in the advertisment", "Blessings in Disguise by Alec Guiness, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® Related Subjects Overview The cast list of distinguished actors who have become distinguished authors is short, and indeed as far as my own reading goes, I can�t think of anyone who rivals Sir Alec Guinness as both an actor of the utmost distinction and a writer of uncommon literary achievement. Blessings in Disguise, which was originally published in 1986, is Sir Alec�s autobiography. It is a profoundly rich, subtly delineated series of sketches of self and others (among the latter, internationally famous British actors such as Gielgud and Richardson). With an Introduction by Piers Paul Read. Advertising Editorial Reviews Library Journal Already a bestseller in England, Guinness's memoir is less autobiography than fond recollections of the many friends (``blessings'') he has accumulated in his long theatrical career. In loosely organized chapters, most centered around one of the major influences in his life (e.g., Sybil Thorndike, John Gielgud), Guinness wanders back and forth through time. The threads of Guinness's own career, marriage, and religious searching wind through these chapters in an amusingly self-deprecatory way. He describes his career as a naval officer during World War II as ``the best performance I have given,'' in a chapter full of hilarious and hair-raising episodes. Sharp imagery and marvelous word portraits make this a charming book of English theatrical lore. Marcia L. Perry, Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield, Mass. Product Details", "The Necessary Aptitude by Pam Ayres A non fiction book by Pam Ayres Pam Ayres is one of Britain's bestloved personalities. She appears regularly on TV and radio, and has her own Radio 4 programme Ayres on the Air. She performs her solo stage show annually to sellout audiences throughout Britain and around the world and her poetry collections are bestsellers. A key part of Pam's shows and collections are her wonderfully wry and evocative anecdotes about her own life. Her autobiography will satisfy fans eager to hear more of these stories, and will follow her early life up to winning Opportunity Knocks in 1975. Writing with her usual mix of good humour and poignancy, Pam's autobiography is a classic memoir of a postwar country childhood in the vein of Cider with Rosie. Used availability for Pam Ayres's The Necessary Aptitude See all available used copies of this book at Abebooks UK or Abebooks US", "Sue Townsend | British author | Britannica.com British author Originally published in the Britannica Book of the Year. Presented as archival content. Alternative Title: Susan Elaine Townsend Sue Townsend Leicester , England Sue Townsend (Susan Elaine Townsend), (born April 2, 1946, Leicester, Eng.—died April 10, 2014, Leicester), British author who created one of Britain’s most popular and enduring comic characters, Adrian Albert Mole, whose wry thoughts and self-described misadventures she wrote about in eight fictional diaries, beginning with the best-selling The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 133/4 (1982). The novel was first devised as a radio play (1982; with the main character initially named Nigel) and was later adapted for the stage (1984) and as a TV miniseries (1985). In her lovingly satiric sequels—The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (1984; filmed for TV 1987), The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole (1989), Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years (1993), Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (1999; filmed for TV 2001), Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004), The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole (2008), and Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years (2009)—Townsend followed her hapless protagonist from naive, acne-ridden adolescence through his fruitless love for his childhood friend Pandora Braithwaite, parental divorce, personal relationships, single fatherhood, bankruptcy, and, finally, a bout with prostate cancer in his 30s. After Townsend left school at age 15, she was largely self-educated. An unsuccessful first marriage left her a struggling single mother working at a series of jobs, but in 1975 her second husband encouraged her to join a writing group. Her first one-act play, Womberang (1979; set in a gynecology clinic’s waiting room), received the Thames Television Playwright award. Townsend wrote several more plays and sundry novels, most notably The Queen and I (1992; adapted for the stage 1994), which follows Britain’s royal family as it adapts to life in public housing after having been deposed, and its even more farcical sequel, Queen Camilla (2006). Throughout most of her life, Townsend was beset by serious health problems, including TB peritonitis in her 20s, a heart attack and diabetes in her 30s, diabetic retinopathy that led to blindness (2001), renal failure that culminated in a kidney transplant (2009) from her elder son, and a debilitating stroke (2013). Townsend’s final published work was The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year (2012).", "Anne Sullivan - Bio, Facts, Family | Famous Birthdays Famous Birthdays Teacher who famously broke through to Helen Keller and taught her how to read and write. BEFORE FAME She studied at the Perkins School for the Blind. TRIVIA She lost most of her eyesight at age twenty, which made it easy for her to relate to her famous pupil, Helen Keller . FAMILY LIFE She married Harvard instructor John Albert Macy in May of 1905; the couple separated in 1914. ASSOCIATED WITH", "Any Morning by William Stafford | The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor Just lying on the couch and being happy. Only humming a little, the quiet sound in the head. Trouble is busy elsewhere at the moment, it has so much to do in the world. People who might judge are mostly asleep; they can't monitor you all the time, and sometimes they forget. When dawn flows over the hedge you can get up and act busy. Little corners like this, pieces of Heaven left lying around, can be picked up and saved. People won't even see that you have them, they are so light and easy to hide. Later in the day you can act like the others. You can shake your head. You can frown. \"Any Morning\" by William Stafford from Ohio Review Volume 50 (1993). © 1993 by William Stafford. Used by permission of the Permissions Company, Inc. on behalf of the Estate of William Stafford. ( buy now ) It's the birthday of novelist Marilynne Robinson ( books by this author ), born in Sandpoint, Idaho (1943). Her first novel, Housekeeping (1980), is the story of two sisters in a town called Fingerbone, Idaho; their mother commits suicide and their aunt, an eccentric drifter, moves back to town to take care of them. Housekeeping got good reviews but didn't sell very well. Robinson got a teaching fellowship at the University of Kent in England. She was alarmed to learn about a nuclear facility that was dumping toxic waste into the Irish Sea, while local children suffered from unusually high rates of cancer. She wrote Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State, and Nuclear Pollution (1989), criticizing Britain for not caring enough. She said: \"I began what amounted to an effort to reeducate myself. After all those years of school, I felt there was little I knew that I could trust, and I did not want my books to be one more tributary to the sea of nonsense that really is what most conventional wisdom amounts to.\" She went back to teaching at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, and she immersed herself in reading. For years, she read journals and books about the early days of Iowa. She published a book of essays about theology. Then, almost 25 years after Housekeeping, Robinson published a second novel, called Gilead (2004). Set in 1956, the novel is a series of letters from a dying 76-year-old Congregationalist pastor in the town of Gilead, Iowa; the letters are all written to his seven-year-old son. A few years later, she published a third novel, Home (2008), a companion book to Gilead. In Gilead, she wrote: \"Sometimes I have loved the peacefulness of an ordinary Sunday. It is like standing in a newly planted garden after a warm rain. You can feel the silent and invisible life. All it needs from you is that you take care not to trample on it.\" It's the birthday of science writer Jonathan Weiner ( books by this author ), born in New York City (1953). His mother was a librarian and his father a physicist, and he was equally enchanted by literature and science; he couldn't decide which one to make the basis of his career. A few years out of Harvard, he was hired to write a companion book to the PBS series Planet Earth (1986), and he has been a science writer ever since. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his book The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time (1986), about the rapid evolution of Darwin's finches in the Galapagos in reaction to changes in their food. His most recent book, Long for This World (2010), is about the attempts to find scientific ways to achieve immortality. It's the birthday of cartoonist Charles Schulz ( books by this author ), born in Minneapolis, Minnesota (1922). His parents left school after third grade, and his father was a barber who supported the family on 35 cent haircuts. Every Sunday, Schulz and his father read the \"funny pages\" together, and the boy hoped to become a cartoonist someday. But he had a tough time in school — he felt picked on by teachers and other students. He was smart enough to skip ahead a couple of grades, but that only made it worse. He wished someone wo", "Something Beautiful for God Study Guide - 7sistershomeschool.com 7sistershomeschool.com Homeschool Help and Curriculum When you sign up for our email list, remember to then add \"sabrina@7sistershomeschool.com\" to your email Contact List or Address Book so you don't miss any of our real-value-no-spam messages! 7sistershomeschool.com » Literature Guides » High School Great Christian Writers Literature Study Guides » Something Beautiful for God Study Guide Something Beautiful for God Study Guide Written to accompany British author Malcolm Muggeridge’s 1971 account of Mother Teresa’s contagious compassion, this 9-page literature study guide by Sabrina Justison helps you get the most out of Something Beautiful for God. Literature study guides from 7SistersHomeschool.com inspire students rather than tire them with busywork that kills the story. Instead of attempting to examine every element of a book on the first reading, our study guides choose two or three respected literary devices and use them as a focal point. Our guides are easy to adapt for use at an Average High School, Honors level by choosing to include or omit the enrichment activities and suggested writing assignments. What better time than high school to study the lives of Christian role models? Mother Teresa, whose life exemplified service and sacrifice as she ministered to the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India, is a remarkable example of a fully dedicated follower of Christ. In Something Beautiful for God, Malcolm Muggeridge captures the story of Mother Teresa’s life and driving passions. It is truly a book to shape your teen's heart and mind! The 7 Sisters study guide, written by Sabrina Justison, helps your student understand the work of Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity and think about ways God may lead him/her, also. Something Beautiful for God Study Guide focuses on the following literary devices: interpretational reading The suggested writing assignments encourage a personal response to the text This NO-busywork study guide enriches the reading of the book for your homeschooled high school student. Something Beautiful for God Study Guide is EBook curriculum complete with background information,", "Darby O'Gill and the Little People - On the Go in MCO Search Darby O’Gill and the Little People Walt Disney and Sean Connery on the set of Darby O’Gill and the Little People – image copyright Disney How many of you have seen the 1959 Walt Disney Productions film Darby O’Gill and the Little People ? This gem features a young Sean Connery as Michael McBride along with Janet Munro as Katie O’Gill and Albert Sharpe as the title character. If you haven’t seen this classic yet, let me tell you a bit about it. For those who aren’t aware, I have a slight affinity (read: obsession) with Sean Connery. He is my favorite actor hands down, the celebrity I’d most like to meet, and the lock screen on my phone. He is James Bond to me, and many others. I will revisit that character in a bit. I discovered this film existed, thanks to a Disney cd box set I bought in the mid 1990s. I made it my mission to track it down and eventually got it on dvd when it was re-released a few years back. The cd had Sean Connery singing a lovely ditty from the film called Pretty Irish Girl. Darby O’Gill is the caretaker in Ireland for Lord Fitzpatrick at the beginning of the film, but is shortly thereafter replaced by Michael McBride. Darby has a habit of spinning tall tales at the pub over several pints of whiskey, so it isn’t surprising when nobody believes him that he is friends with little people and their King Brian. Quite a bit of hilarity ensues throughout the film while O’Gill tries to convince others that he now has three wishes since he’s captured the leprechaun. There are definitely some darker elements to the story as well that younger children under 6 or 7 might find frightening. Without spoiling too much, it is safe to say this is a family friendly film that is filled with comedy, a bit of drama, action, and even romance. Peter Ellenshaw and his crew did an amazing job with the special effects of this film. While Darby O’Gill and the Little People may not be the best known live action Disney film, it is definitely entertaining. It also helped launch Sean Connery into superstardom. It is because producer Cubby Broccoli’s wife Dana saw Sean Connery in this film that he was even considered for the role of James Bond a few years later. The dvd even includes an extra called Mr. Connery Goes to Hollywood. There are also two other fun bonus features called Little People, Big Effects showing how trick shots were used to imply the size difference, and I Captured The King of the Leprechauns, which was a segment on Walt Disney Presents the Disneyland TV show. If you are looking for a fun way to spend a couple of hours with the family, I highly recommend checking out this underrated classic. Darby O’Gill and the Little People is available through iTunes, Netflix and to rent through Amazon Instant Video. Author: Betsy Scorpio. Passionate about movies, music, sports, Disney and my friends who are more like my family. Fiercely loyal and competitive. My thoughts are my own. View all posts by Betsy Author Betsy Posted on", "Robert Drewe's reading life - The Book Show - ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Robert Drewe's reading life Thursday 22 January 2009 10:31AM (view full episode) At the 2008 Melbourne Writers' Festival Robert Drewe talked about his reading life and the books that have inspired him. Robert Drewe's books have earned numerous awards - The Drowner was the first novel to win a Premier's literary award in every state, his novel Fortune won a National Book Council award and he received a Commonwealth Writers Prize for the short story collection The Bay of Contented Men. His books have also been adapted for the screen. Our Sunshine was made into the film Ned Kelly and both The Bodysurfers and The Shark Net, his memoir of growing up in Western Australia in the 1950s and 60s, became TV mini-series. Robert Drewe begins his address at the festival with Tarzan of the Apes, which, as a boy growing up in Western Australia, he found much more interesting than the children's books then on offer. First broadcast 9 October 2008", "Order of Jason Bourne Books - OrderOfBooks.com Home | Characters | Authors Order of Jason Bourne Books Jason Bourne is a fictional character created by prolific American novelist Robert Ludlum . After Robert Ludlum passed away in 2001, the reins were taken over by Eric Van Lustbader , another very prolific American novelist. Jason Bourne suffers from retrograde amnesia, therefore it is unknown to him why the CIA and others are trying to kill him. The Bourne Trilogy was adapted into a trilogy of films starring actor Matt Damon. The three films were both critically and commercially successful. Robert Ludlum wrote the original Bourne Trilogy of The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. Subsequent ongoing novels are still being written by Van Lustbader. Below is a list of all of the Jason Bourne books in order of publication – regardless of author: Publication Order of Jason Bourne Books The Bourne Identity", "227's™ YouTube Chili' NBA Fit Groceries Idaho Potatoes (Part 3) Spicy' NBA Mix! - YouTube 227's™ YouTube Chili' NBA Fit Groceries Idaho Potatoes (Part 3) Spicy' NBA Mix! Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jan 26, 2015 Jamaal Al-Din's Hoops 227 (227's™ YouTube Chili' NBA Fit Groceries Idaho Potatoes (Part 3) Spicy' Movie Animation NBA Mix) https://www.facebook.com/pages/227sYo... * http://pressroom.prlog.org/Hoops227 * http://nba.hoops227.co * https://www.linkedin.com/pub/jamaal-a... ***Chilliciously', delicious, Idaho Potatoes! Chili' YUMMY!!! A baked Idaho Potato smothered with Chili' and delicious cheese and sour cream!!! \"I eat those tasty Idaho potatoes,\" said Al-Din. \"They're Chili' DELISH!!!\" NBA Chili' Fit!!!*** ***Jamaal Al-Din, \"The Chili' Movie Teaser Producer Mix!!!\"*** Idaho Potato Commission From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The certification mark of Idaho Potato Commission The Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) is a self-governing agency of the state of Idaho that was established in 1937 as the Idaho Fruit and Vegetable Advertising Commission. Its primary responsibility is to promote the Idaho potato and protect the \"Grown in Idaho\" seal through advertising, public relations, promotions and other marketing initiatives. It also supports various research projects that benefit all Idaho potato industry members.[citation needed] The commission introduced the “Grown in Idaho” seal in 1959 to help elevate the visibility of Idaho potatoes and has become a symbol consumers actively look for when purchasing potato products. Idaho potatoes are the best selling potato[1] and are one of the most recognized and respected brand names in the United States. References USDA Potatoes 2008 Summary External links Official website Categories: State agencies of Idaho Food industry trade groups Agriculture in Idaho Potato organizations Potato From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Etymology \"Spud\" redirects here. For other uses, see Spud (disambiguation). The English word potato comes from Spanish patata (the name used in Spain). The Spanish Royal Academy says the Spanish word is a compound of the Taino batata (sweet potato) and the Quechua papa (potato).[11] The name potato originally referred to a type of sweet potato rather than the other way around, although the two plants are not closely related; in many of the chronicles detailing agriculture and plants, no distinction is made between the two.[12] The 16th-century English herbalist John Gerard used the terms \"bastard potatoes\" and \"Virginia potatoes\" for this species, and referred to sweet potatoes as \"common potatoes\".[13] Potatoes are occasionally referred to as \"Irish potatoes\" or \"white potatoes\" in the United States, to distinguish them from sweet potatoes.[13] The name spud for a small potato comes from the digging of soil (or a hole) prior to the planting of potatoes. The word has an unknown origin and was originally (c. 1440) used as a term for a short knife or dagger, probably related to Dutch spyd or the Latin \"spad-\" root meaning \"sword\"; cf. Spanish \"espada\", English \"spade\" and \"spadroon\". The word spud traces back to the 16th century. It subsequently transferred over to a variety of digging tools. Around 1845, the name transferred to the tuber itself.[14] The origin of the word \"spud\" has erroneously been attributed to a 19th-century activist group dedicated to keeping the potato out of Britain, calling itself The Society for the Prevention of an Unwholesome Diet.[14] It was Mario Pei's 1949 The Story of Language that can be blamed for the word's false origin. Pei writes, \"the potato, for its part, was in disrepute some centuries ago. Some Englishmen who did not fancy potatoes formed a Society for the Prevention of Unwholesome Diet. The initials of the main words in this title gave rise to spud.\" Like most other", "1000+ images about Heidi on Pinterest | Heidi heidi, Shirley temples and Swiss alps Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas Heidi Heidi is a work of children's fiction published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, originally published in two parts as Heidi's years of learning and travel) and Heidi makes use of what she has learned. It is a novel about the events in the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care, in the Swiss Alps.Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature. 113 Pins119 Followers" ]

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[ "Fahrenheit 9/11 it´s because everything on it was so real!", "2^(x-12) = 2048\\nFirst rewrite 2048 as an exponent with a base of 2.\\n2^(x-12) = 2^11\\nNow set the powers equal to each other and ignore the 2's.\\nx-12 = 11\\nNow solve for x by adding 12 to both sides.\\nx = 23", "Add like terms\\n\\ns+s+1+s+2 = 9\\n3 s + 3 = 9\\n\\nSubtract 3 from both sides.\\n\\n3s + 3 - 3 = 9 - 3\\n3 s = 6\\n\\nDivide both sides by 3\\n\\n3s/3 = 6/3\\ns = 2,\\n\\nInterpreting our answer, the first name has s = 2 syllables, the middle name has s+ 1 = 3 syllables, and the last name has s + 2 = 4 syllables.", "I prefer 3 12`s because it gives me a lot more days off in between.", "There are two ways to do it...\\n\\n1.> If you know the base and the height of the triangle:\\n\\n(Base*Height)/2\\n\\nso if one of the side was 12 cm., and the perpendicular on it from the point where the other two sides meet is 6 cm., the area is = (12*6)/2 = 36 sq.cm.\\n\\n2.> If you know all the sides:\\n\\nHero's formula:\\n\\nFirst find s (semi-perimeter) as:\\n\\ns=0.5*(side1+side2+side3)\\n\\nnow the area= root (s * (s-side1) * (s-side2) * (s-side3))\\n\\nso if a triangle's sides are 3,4 and 5 cm.:\\n\\nsemi-perimeter = (3+4+5)/2 = 6\\n\\narea= root (6(6-3)*(6-4)*(6-5)) = root (6*3*2*1) = root (36) = 6 sq. cm.", "The orchestral arrangements have different numbering. The original set of Rhapsodies is S.244. 19 of them. The 6 orch arr are S.359. The numbers in S.244 and S.359 are not the same. S.359/1 = S.244/14 ...2=12, 3=6, 4=2. 5=5 and 6=9. Confusing? You bet!\\n\\nSo... you're Kissin's no. 12 SHOULD be the same as the NAXOS orch no. 2. I'm not sure what's going on there. You'd have to get a score and see what one is being played. There may be a typo in the track listing.\\n\\nI believe S.359/2 is in dm, while the original piano S.244/12 is in c#m. That could explain the c#m/dm issue. GbM? Not sure. \\n\\nThe best thing to do is get a score of the complete Hungarian Rhapsodies and see what the heck is going on.", "I had to get the site from my 9 year old. It's www.cosmeo.com, no s.", "Country - Gold - Silver - Broze = Total\\n\\nGermany - 11(G) - 12(S) - 6(B) = 29\\n\\nU.S.A - Nine(G) - Nine(S) - 7(B) = 25\\n\\nCanada - 7(G) - 10(S) - 7(B) = 24", "The area of the regular hexagon is given by:\\n\\nA = 2.598 s^2\\n\\nSo if the sides are 12 inches each;\\n\\nA = 2.598 (12 in)^2\\n\\nA = 374 in^2", "if you assume Italian alphabeth, which has no x in it, the full answer is...\\n\\nx^21 - S(1)x^20 + S(2)x^19 - S(3)x^18 + S(4)x^17 - S(5)x^16 + S(6)x^15 - S(7)x^14 + S(8)x^13 - S(9)x^12 + S(10)x^11 - S(11)x^10 + S(12)x^9 - S(13)x^8 + S(14)x^7 - S(15)x^6 + S(16)x^5 - S(17)x^4 + S(18)x^3 - S(19)x^2 + S(20)x - S(21)\\n\\nwhere\\n\\nS(1) = a + b + c + d + e + f + g + h + i + l + m + n + o + p + q + r + s + t + u + v + z\\nS(2) = sum of all different products of two letters choosen in the set [ a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, z]\\nS(3) = sum of all different products of 3 letters chosen in the set [ a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, z]\\n\\n... and for each n\\n\\nS(n) = sum of all different products of n letters chosen in the set [ a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, z]\\n\\nso that \\n\\nS(21) = abcdefghilmnopqrstuvz\\n\\n-------\\n\\nif you assume the anglo-saxon alphabeth, AND YOU ASSUME THAT YOUR VARIABLE x IS THE SAME THAN THE PARAMETER x IN THE SECOND TERM OF EACH PARENTHESYS, then the answer is 0.\\n\\nOtherwise, you get a polynomial of the 26th order similar to the one described above, and an error in assigning the name to the variables", "look in perform better(s) web site.\\nThey have them.\\nand also a catalog called sprinter", "Range is the difference between the smallest and the largest nubers.\\n\\nMode is the most occuring number(s).\\n\\nConsider the following numbers:\\n\\n4, 6, 7, 7, 8, 9, 9, 9, 10, 12\\n\\nRange = 12-4 = 8\\nMode = 9", "GO TO \"STATE\" DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS/ LOCAL D.A.'S OFFICE WEB SITE. FIND OUT WHERE HE WAS CONVICTED. AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WEB SITE IT WILL TELL YOU HIS DISPOSITION, OR....YOU CAN GO TO TEXAS VINE - WEB SITE...AND FIND THE OFFENDER THERE. THIS IS A WEB SITE FOR VICTIMS TO LET THEM KNOW WHERE THEIR ABUSERS ARE AND WHEN THEY WILL BE RELEASED. ONCE ON THE TEXAS SITE, YOU CAN SEARCH OTHER STATES.", "There are so many way to find the area of the triangle, depends on what you know about that triangle.\\n1, If you know the height and the base: the area is\\nA=base*height*(1/2)\\n\\n2, If you know 2 sides of the triangle, and the angle in between that 2 sides.\\nLet the 2 sides be (a) and (b), the angle be C.\\nArea would be equal to\\nA= a*b*sinC/2\\n\\n3, If you dont know any angle, but you know all 3 sides.\\nLet 3 sides be equal to a, b, and c. Let s= (a+b+c)/2\\nThe area can be calculated using:\\nA= square root of [s*(s-a)*(s-b)*(s-c)]\\n\\n4, If you know all 3 angles, and 1 side of the triangle.\\nLet the 3 angles be A, B and C, and the side be a which is opposite of angle A.\\n\\nA= (a^2*sinB*sinC) / (2*sinA)", "You have to go to google s web site for removing this information.\\n\\nhttp://www.google.com/webmasters/remove.html", "Ok step by step...\\n\\n1) You start with 8x - 9 < 3x - 11.\\nYou need to get the x's on one side... and the other numbers onto the other.\\n\\n2) So you'll take the 9 over to the other side... you'll add 9 to both sides (it's the opposite of -9... in essence 8x - 9 = 8x + -9).\\n\\n8x - 9 + 9 < 3x - 11 + 9\\n8x < 3x - 2\\n\\n3) Now you'll need to get the x's onto the same side. So subtract 3x from both sides). Make sure that whatever you do to one side you do to the other - this will keep it balanced and in check!\\n\\n8x < 3x - 2\\n8x - 3x < 3x - 3x - 2\\n5x < -2\\n\\n4) Now take it a step further and you'll need to get x by itself. To do this, you'll need to divide by 5 (again, remembering to divide both sides by 5).\\n\\n5x < -2\\n5x/5 < -2/5\\nx < -2/5\\n\\n5) You can simplify the fraction further since it will be an even decimal point.\\nx < -2/5\\n-2/5 = -.4\\nx < -.4\\n\\nIf your teacher wants you to keep it in fractions, then don't fret about dividing. However, if s/he does, then divide and round to the respective amount of digits they would like (generally to the hundredths).\\n\\nThat's how you would solve this equation. I hope this helps!", "Firewire ~ 400 Mb/s \\nUSB 1.1 ~ 12 Mb/s\\nUSB 2.0 ~ 480 Mb/s\\n\\n400 > 12\\n480 > 400", "by laplace\\n s^2f(s)-sf(0)+4f(s)-4f(0)+9f(s)=9", "All the boxers from Galena Park Boxing Academy & Youth Center, Inc. (in the Houston area) are good. They are taught by World Class trainer, Kenny Weldon. Watch the L. Brewster/S. Lyakhovich fight on April 11. Kenny is Sergei's trainer. It's a heavyweight title fight.", "I'd say the firing order is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 starting on the drivers side bank in the front and going from one side to the other.... \\n\\nFRONT OF CAR \\n1 2\\n3 4\\n5 6\\n7 8\\n9 10\\n11 12\\n13 14\\n15 16", "I don´t thinks this is a good place to ask those question, there it´s a lot of porn web sites where u can read sex historys and things if you wanna know, but remember some kids read this, if your gay it´s ok, i´m bi, but u don´t see me asking this kind of things, rigth??", "size does`t matter it`s important that you know the right way to use it ! it`s not the size it`s how do you use it !", "According to the Bodog Football futures market, these sides are the most likely to win the Superbowl.\\n\\nIndianapolis Colts 11/2\\nNew England Patriots 15/2\\nDallas Cowboys 9/1\\nPittsburgh Steelers 10/1\\n\\nThe least favoured side is the San Francisco 49ers at 120 to 1.", "THE THING`S MY SON DOE`S NOT KNOW ABOUT HIS MOTHER BY MY DAD", "Soccer, or football as it`s also known(not to be confused with American football)is the most popular sport in the world.You don`t need a written record to realize this.", "You can ask your employer(s) for another copy of your W-2. Download tax forms from the IRS' web site:\\nhttp://www.irs.gov", "u are right.it s time he leaves.he should leave the place for the youths like rooney", "11 - undeca\\n\\n12 - dodeca\\n\\nEX:\\n\\nundecagon - polygon with 11 sides.\\n\\ndodecagon - polygon with 12 sides.", "Yes, follow the suggestion of x60157. In addition, if you can determine the:\\n\\n1. height ,h, of each triangle you can use the formula for area: A = 0.5bh where b = side prependicular to the height\\n\\n2. sides of the triangle, then this formula can be used:\\nA = Sq. root of (s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)) where a,b,c are the sides of each triangle; s = semi-perimeter = 0.5(a+b+c)", "If its a circle inscribed within a triangle then the largest will be the incircle of that triangle... the radius of which is given by: (area of triangle)/semi-perimeter...\\nsemi-perimeter(s) = (a+b+c)/2\\narea of triangle = square root of[s(s-a)(s-b)(s-c)]\\na, b, c -> are the sides of the triangle...\\n\\nonce u know the radius u can calc the area of the circle...", "There's a couple of them. \\nhttp://www.top500.org/lists/2005/11/\\nThe new and previous No. 1 is DOE's IBM BlueGene/L system, installed at DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). It has doubled in size (again) and has now achieved a record Linpack performance of 280.6 TFlop/s. It is still the only system ever to exceed the 100 TFlop/s mark.", "About two weeks after the 911 attack, I was watching on the news that most people that even LOOKED like muslims were being arrested for practically no reason at all. That´s on the police´s side, but on the civilians side of the story, New Yorkers, for example, went out to the streets and beated down anyone that resembled muslim walking on the street, and in their houses, they broke their windows, and smashed the windshields on their cars. and things of that sort." ]

[ "Knowing you want to focus on the theory, I think that a good choice is Deep Learning Book from Ian Goodfellow et al., which is publicly available. It has three main parts. On the first one the author presents the math/ statistic tools that will be needed to understand the following parts. On the second part, the author explains the current state of the art in Deep Learning and on the last part more advanced topics are introduced. The author also uses references so as to facilitate extra resources to dive more into the theory.\nOn the other hand I strongly recommend you Google Scholar, there you have plenty of information given by articles/ papers of the current state of the art techniques in the field. There you can also find papers related on what that you mentioned about the Hahn-Banach Theorem." ]

[ "Neural Network equivalents that is not (vanilla) feed forward Neural Nets:\n\nNeural net structures such as Recurrent Neural Nets (RNNs) and Convolutional Neural Nets (CNNs), and different architectures within those are good examples.\n\nExamples of different architectures within RNNs would would be: Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) or Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU). Both of these are well described in Colah's blog post on Understanding LSTMs\n\nWhat are some alternative information processing system beside neural network\n\nThere are sooo many structures. From the top of my head: (Restricted) Boltzmann machine, auto encoders, monte carlo method and radial basis networks to name a few.\n\nYou can check out Goodfellow's Deep learning-book that is free online and get the gist of all the structures I mentioned here (most parts requires a bit of math knowledge, but he also writes about them quite intuitively).\n\nFor Recurrent Neural Nets I recommend Colah's blog post on Understanding LSTMs\n\nIs there any system in which the topology of a neural network is variable?\n\nDepends on what you mean with the topology of a neural network:\n\nI think in the common meaning of topology when talking about Neural Networks is the way in which neurons are connected to form a network, varying in structure as it runs and learns. If this is what you men then the answer, in short, is yes. In multiple ways actually. On the other hand, if you mean in the mathematical sense, this answer would become a book that I wouldn't feel confortable writing. So I'll assume you mean the first.\n\nWe often do \"regularization\", both on vanilla NN and other structures. One of these regularization techniques are called dropout, which would randomly remove connections from the network as it is training (to prevent something called overfitting, which I'm not gonna go into in this post).\n\nAnother example for another way would be on the Recurrent Neural Network. They deal with time series, and are equipped for dealing with timeseries of different lengths (thus, \"varying structure\").\n\nDoes it exist neural net systems where complex numbers are used?\n\nYes, there are many papers on complex number machine learning structures. A quick google should give you loads of results. For example: DeepMind has a paper on \nAssociative Long Short-Term Memory which explores the use of complex values for an \"associative memory\".\n\nLinks:\n\nGoodfellow's Deep Learning-book: deeplearningbook.org\n\nColah's blogpost on RNN's: colah.github.io\n\nPaper on DeepMinds Associative LSTM: arxiv:1602.03032", "In the early days of neural networks the theorists and practitioners were educated in mathematics, psychology, neurophysiology, electrical engineering, and neurobiology. Computer science was still in its infancy. The first neural networks were modeled as electrical circuits.\nThere is evidence of this in the 1943 paper by Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts [1], and a 1956 paper by Rochester et al. [2].\nThe latter paper uses terms such as 'circuits' and 'switching'. One idea in the paper is explained in terms of a &quot;Eccles-Jordan Flip Flop circuit&quot; although there are no drawings. Nathanial Rochester had designed the IBM 701k [3] and &quot;led the first effort to simulate a neural network&quot; [4]\nBrain structure was discussed in terms of 'neural circuits' as early as 1937 [5].\nI am not sure when the first electrical circuit diagram appeared in publication, but it makes sense that early neural network designers, would have thought of their implementation as such.\nReferences:\n\n[1] McCulloch, W. S., and Walter Pitts, W. (1943) A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity. https://jontalle.web.engr.illinois.edu/uploads/498-NS.21/McCulloch-Pitts-1943-neural-networks-ocr.pdf\n[2] Rochester, N., Holland, J., Haibt, L., &amp; Duda, W. (1956). Tests on a cell assembly theory of the action of the brain, using a large digital computer. IRE Transactions on Information Theory, Information Theory, IRE Transactions on, IRE Trans. Inf. Theory, 2(3), 80–93. https://doi-org/10.1109/TIT.1956.1056810\n[3] Brief History of Neural Networks\nhttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/data-science-term-neural-networks-70-year-old-anchit-sharma/?trk=public_profile_article_view\n[4] This Data Science term - Neural Networks is 70-Year-Old Technology!\nhttps://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/brief-history-of-neural-networks-44c2bf72eec:\n[5] Papez circuit, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papez_circuit", "I think the answer depends very much on why you are reading the paper, what are you trying to get out of it? There are plenty of papers that I &quot;read&quot; (or often really just quickly skim through) where I'll definitely not understand all the math. More often than not, this will be because I don't actually care to deeply understand it.\nThere is plenty of more &quot;practical&quot; research to be done in AI, which definitely doesn't always require a deep understanding of all the math. Intuition can often be enough, at least to get started, for meaningful practical contributions. If this is the sort of research that you're interested in doing, you probably don't need to understand as many of the mathematical parts of AI papers as you do if you're really trying to do research directly in that theoretical area.\nPersonally, when I write &quot;math-heavy&quot; parts in my own papers (and that will often already be restricted to a rather simple level of math in comparison to the &quot;real theory&quot; ML papers), I always try to make sure to include intuitive, English descriptions of what we're doing around it. Even if you don't immediately understand a full equation, just having the intuitive explanation around it to tell you what it means can be enough for a broad understanding of the paper. Then you only have to dive deep into the details of the equations if -- based on the English text -- you decide that you're actually really interested. So, if there are sufficient, intuitive explanations surrounding the equations, I'd recommend to focus heavily on that first. Not every paper does this though, sometimes there's very little text and very much math, and then this can be difficult.\nEven if it turns out that you do have to understand math, you may not have to understand ALL of it right away though. The important parts that I would try to focus on understanding first are:\n\nA mathematical description of the &quot;problem&quot;. This could be an objective function, a metric to be optimised/minimised/maximised, or an existing equation from previous literature that the authors take as a starting point and inspect some detail of in greater detail.\nMathematical descriptions of the outcomes/results. These could be equations that they actually use in concrete algorithms (see if you can relate them to any pseudocode that may be present), or the final equations stated in theorems / at the end of proofs.\n\nAll the complex parts in between are probably less important. Just a vague idea of what the starting point is, and a vague understanding of the final outcome, can be enough to at least know what the paper is about. Then you can decide for yourself whether you really need to know more about the details in between, or if they're maybe not relevant to you / your work / your research.", "Basically some experience with Discrete Mathematics and Probability , elementary Calculus is also recommend. And students are expected to be familiar with mathematical proofs, proofs by induction and good knowledge of a programming language.\nAn Excerpt From CLRS\n\nWhat are the prerequisites for reading this book?\n\nYou should have some programming experience. In particular, you should understand recursive procedures and simple data structures such as arrays and linked lists.\n\n\n\nYou should have some facility with mathematical proofs, and especially proofs by mathematical induction. A few portions of the book rely on some knowledge of elementary calculus.\n\nFrom a OpenCourseWare course thought by Prof. Charles Leiserson (The L in CLRS) based on CLRS in Fall of 2008\n\nThis course teaches techniques for the design and analysis of efficient algorithms, emphasizing methods useful in practice. Topics covered include: sorting; search trees, heaps, and hashing; divide-and-conquer; dynamic programming; amortized analysis; graph algorithms; shortest paths; network flow; computational geometry; number-theoretic algorithms; polynomial and matrix calculations; caching; and parallel computing.\n\n\nPrerequisites: A strong understanding of programming and a solid background in discrete mathematics, including probability, are necessary prerequisites to this course.\n\nThese are the prerequisite courses recommended for Introduction to Algorithms\n\n6.001 Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs\n\nThis course introduces students to the principles of computation. Upon completion of 6.001, students should be able to explain and apply the basic methods from programming languages to analyze computational systems, and to generate computational solutions to abstract problems.\n\n\n\n6.042J / 18.062J Mathematics for Computer Science\n\nThis course covers elementary discrete mathematics for computer science and engineering. It emphasizes mathematical definitions and proofs as well as applicable methods. Topics include formal logic notation, proof methods; induction, well-ordering; sets, relations; elementary graph theory; integer congruences; asymptotic notation and growth of functions; permutations and combinations, counting principles; discrete probability. Further selected topics may also be covered, such as recursive definition and structural induction; state machines and invariants; recurrences; generating functions.\n\n\nProfessor Cormen's answer on this subject\n\nWe assume that the reader has some programming experience, including recursion, and knows how to read and write rigorous mathematical proofs. The discrete mathematics facts needed to analyze the algorithms in the book appear in the appendices.\n\nMore of Professor Cormen's answers\n\nFirst, it’s possible that you do not have the mathematical sophistication to follow all the mathematics in the book. You should have had a discrete mathematics course or, at the very least, know how to read and write proofs. The mathematical foundations appear in the four appendix chapters.", "To complete the first answer that is rather graph oriented, I will write a little about deep learning on manifolds, which is quite general in terms of GDL thanks to the nature of manifolds. \n\nNote that the description of GDL through the explanation of what are DL on graphs and manifolds, in opposition to DL on euclidean domains, comes from the 2017 paper Geometric deep learning: going beyond Euclidean data (this paper is excellent at clarifying both the intuition and the mathematics of what I'm writing).\n\n1. In case you don't know what a manifold is\n\nAs the previously cited paper puts it:\n\n\n Roughly, a manifold is a space that is locally Euclidean. One of the\n simplest examples is a spherical surface modeling our planet: around a\n point, it seems to be planar, which has led generations of people to\n believe in the flatness of the Earth. Formally speaking, a\n (differentiable) d-dimensional manifold X is a topological space where\n each point x has a neighborhood that is topologically equivalent\n (homeomorphic) to a d-dimensional Euclidean space, called the tangent\n space.\n\n\nGood other not-so-technical explanation on stats.stackexchange\n\nOther Wikipedia examples to develop not too abstract understanding\n\nVery shortly put, it's an interesting mathematical set on which to work (different kinds exist, see papers at the end of this answer for DL related manifolds uses). By work, you can typically understand that you constrain the neural net parameters to the manifold you chose (e.g. training with parameters constrained on a hypersphere, among the geomstats paper examples).\n\nYour data can also be represented thanks to a practical manifold. For example, you can choose to work on images and videos by representing the samples using Symmetric Positive Definite (SPD) matrices (see this paper), the space of SPD matrices being a manifold itself.\n\n2. Why bother learning on manifolds ?\n\nDefining a clearer/better adapted set (understand that it's a sort of constraint!) on which to learn parameters and features can make it simpler to formally understand what your model is doing, and can lead to better results. I see it as a part of the effort of deep learning formalization. One could say you're looking for the best information geometry for your task, the one that best captures the desirable data distribution properties.To develop this intuition consider the solar system analogy for manifold learning of this Kaggle kernel:\n\n\n Perhaps a good analogy here is that of a solar system: the surface of our planets are the manifolds we're interested in, one for each digit. Now say you're on the surface of the earth which is a 2-manifold and you start moving in a random direction (let's assume gravity doesn't exist and you can go through solid objects). If you don't understand the structure of earth you'll quickly find yourself in space or inside the earth. But if you instead move within the local earth (say spherical) coordinates you will stay on the surface and get to see all the cool stuff.\n\n\nThis analogy reminds us of the spherical surface planet model from Bronstein's paper already quoted above. This paper also describes a typical case for which manifolds are interesting: where graphs (the other example of GDL/DL on non euclidean data) are better at handling data from social or sensor networks, manifolds are good at modeling 3D objects endowed with properties like color texture in computer vision.\n\n3. Regarding deep neural networks on manifolds\n\nI would advise reading the geomstats associated paper, which does a great job at showing what it is and how it can be used, along with example codes (e.g. MNIST on hyperspheres manifold example code here). This library implements manifolds and associated metrics on Keras. The choice of metrics is essential to understand the point of working on manifolds: it's because you need to work on an adapted mathematical set (ie with the right properties) with an adapted distance definition (so that the measure actually means something when considering the problem you're trying to solve) that you switch to working on manifolds.\n\nIf you want to dive in the details and examples of deep learning on manifolds here are some papers:\n\n\nA Riemannian Network for SPD Matrix Learning: new backpropagation to learn SPD matrices on Riemannian manifolds\nLearning a Robust Representation via a Deep Network on Symmetric Positive Definite Manifolds: using SPD matrices to aggregate convolutional features\n\n\n4. Why Riemannian manifolds ?\n\nTL;DR: you need a metric to do machine learning (otherwise, how could you evaluate how much you actually learned !)\n\nStill based on Bronstein's paper:\n\n\n On each tangent space, we define an inner product [...]. This inner\n product is called a Riemannian metric in differential geometry and\n allows performing local measurements of angles, distances, and\n volumes. A manifold equipped with a metric is called a Riemannian\n manifold.\n\n\n5. What's the relation between a Riemannian manifold and a Euclidean space ?\n\nStill based on Bronstein's paper:\n\n\n a Riemannian manifold can be realized as a subset of a Euclidean space\n (in which case it is said to be embedded in that space) by using the\n structure of the Euclidean space to induce a Riemannian metric.\n\n\nI leave the details to the paper, otherwise this answer will never end.\n\n6. Answers to questions in comments\n\nWill only answer once I think I've found a relatively well-argued answer, so won't answer everything at once.\n\n\nIsn't manifold learning just a way of dimensionality reduction? \n\n\nI don't think so, it isn't just that. I haven't seen any dimensional reduction constraint (yet ?) in the papers I've read (cf. geomstats again). \n\nIn the hypersphere/MNIST geomstats code example, you can see the chosen manifold dimension hypersphere_dimension = 17. Since we're working with MNIST data I guess this would mean a dimension reduction in this particular case. I admit I would need to check exactly what that dimension implies on the neural net architecture, I haven't discussed my understanding of this yet.\n\nDisclaimer\n\nI'm still developing a more rigorous mathematical understanding of manifolds, and shall update this post to make additional necessary clarifications: exactly what can be considered as a manifold in a traditional deep learning context, why do we use the word manifold when speaking about the hidden state of auto-encoders (see the previously cited Kaggle kernel that quotes Goodfellow's book on this). All of this if the perfectly clear answer doesn't show up here before !", "You are probably looking for incremental learning (sometimes known as lifelong learning) techniques, i.e. machine learning techniques that attempt to address the catastrophic forgetting effect of neural networks when trained incrementally, i.e. as new classes or data are added to the original training data.\nThere are different techniques and some of them store (or compress) the old data in order to fully or partially re-train the neural network with the new classes or data. However, note that this is a relatively new area of research and significant progress still needs to be made to produce serious tools. If you are specifically interested in incremental class learning, maybe have a look at this paper Class-incremental Learning via Deep Model Consolidation (2020).", "You can indeed fit a polynomial to your labelled data, which is known as polynomial regression (which can e.g. be done with the function numpy.polyfit). One apparent limitation of polynomial regression is that, in practice, you need to assume that your data follows some specific polynomial of some degree $n$, i.e. you assume that your data has the form of the polynomial that you choose, which may not be true.\nWhen you use a neural network to solve a classification or regression problem, you also need to choose the activation functions, the number of neurons, how they are connected, etc., so you also need to limit the number and type of functions that you can learn with neural networks, i.e. the hypothesis space.\nNow, it is not necessarily a bad thing to limit the hypothesis space. In fact, learning is generally an ill-posed problem, i.e. in simple terms, there could be multiple solutions or no solutions at all (and other problems), so, actually, you often need to limit the hypothesis space to find some useful solutions (e.g. solutions that generalise better to unseen data). Regularisations techniques are ways of constraining the learning problem, and the hypothesis space (i.e. the set of functions that your learning algorithm can choose from), and thus making the learning problem well-posed.\nNeural networks are not preferred over polynomial regression because they are theoretically more powerful. In fact, both can approximate any continuous function [1], but these are just theoretical results, i.e. these results do not give you the magical formula to choose the most appropriate neural network or polynomial that best approximates the desired unknown function.\nIn practice, neural networks have been proven to effectively solve many tasks (e.g. translation of natural language, playing go or atari games, image classification, etc.), so I would say that this is the main reason they are widely studied and there is a lot of interest in them. However, neural networks typically require large datasets to approximate well the desired but unknown function, it can be computationally expensive to train or perform inference with them, and there are other limitations (see this), so neural networks are definitely not perfect tools, and there is the need to improve them to make them more efficient and useful in certain scenarios (e.g. scenarios where uncertainty estimation is required).\nI am not really familiar with research on polynomial regression, but it is possible that this and other tools have been overlooked by the ML community. You may want to have a look at this paper, which states that NNs are essentially doing polynomial regression, though I have not read it, so I don't know the details about the main ideas and results in this paper.", "Very interesting question. Although I have not a single little bit of expertise in this area, I do have some references you may want to read. First is a paper by Merz and Fromherz (2005) where they grew snail neurons on a silicon chip. Pfister et al (2007) also tried to grow neurons to allow interfacing between neurons and machine (for neural prosthesis e.g.). There is thus definitely a field of research that believe neural interfacing may be better than mechanical and algorithmic networks. \n\nThere has been 10 years worth of research since these papers so I bet there are some advancements that may give you a more definitive answer than mine.", "As a data scientist with an interest in space stuff, I am well positioned to give an answer this question. I must confess I don't understand fully what is going on in this system from just the lecture slides, so my answer will be more of an educated guess.\n\nAt first glance it doesn't really make sense to use a neural network here. The sort of problems that neural networks are amenable to solve tend to be rather soft and fuzzy (both in the mathematical sense and the is-this-picture-a-cat? sense). Physics simulation problems have well-defined rules, and the best way of solving them is usually through good old fashioned brute-force simulation. \n\nWhat I think is happening here is that the neural net training is being used to create a statistical object, a sort of probability distribution. One way of thinking about neural networks, is that they're acting as a form of data compression. By training a neural net on something, you are essentially fitting a complicated multidimensional curve made of hundreds of parameters onto data that could contain millions of points. (In a way, humans do this too. We take a kaleidoscopic variety of individual experiences and make sense of them through a relatively small number of rules of thumb, which we then use to guide decisions in future events that are unlikely to be exactly the same as a previous event). \n\nAs mentioned in LeWavite's answer to one of your previous questions, for n objects you have 1/2 n(n-1) possible collisions to worry about. There's about ~17000 bits of space debris that are currently tracked, meaning there's ~ 144,500,000 possible collisions to sort through, a rather unwieldy number.\n\nThe key slide from her presentation is this one:\n\n(You'll probably need to enlarge it to see better, the original wasn't that good)\n\nFrom what I can gather from this diagram, there are two neural networks with two different functions. The diagram on the left looks to be some kind of control systems state diagram of the type roboticists use.\nThe red neural net takes in 5 orbital parameters (the ones needed to define the orbit, but not where the object is in the orbit). It's not clear to me what the three output parameters (Y(1),Y(2),Y(3)) are, they don't seem to appear anywhere else. \n\nThe blue neural network appears to act in a similar fashion to an extended Kalman filter, in the sense that the predictions of the red neural network are being continually updated by new data of the tracked objects as their orbits naturally shift from their keplerian ideals. By training the neural network on these updates, it sort of learns a 'sense' of how the object's orbits tend to change over time.\n\nThat's about all I can extract from the diagram. Considering this is a proprietary system, I doubt there'll be much more than that.\n\nI do question the usefulness of using convolutional neural nets. They are used for situations where the individual columns of data are related spatially - like points on a grid. You mainly see them with image-processing neural nets, but they can do other stuff, like generating terrain from drawn lines. There are only 5 input parameters in both of the neural networks shown in the talk, and they represent different concepts, so I fail to see how CNNs can help here.", "That is incorrect.\nIt might be true that Microsoft pioneered commercial applications of Deep Learning though,\nwhich is what I suspect Bill was getting at.\nLi Deng, who works for Microsoft Research,\ntook the Deep Belief Nets (DBNs), devised by Hinton and his team at the University of Toronto,\nand applied them (successfully) to the TIMIST dataset for speech recognition.\nThis got Deep Learning a lot of interest, in the commercial sector.\nDBNs were the start of a resurgence of interest in deep learning.\nOriginally when neural nets were created in 1986, they were often deep,\nin the 90's something called the Universal Approximation theorem was proven, which roughly says &quot;A neural net with one hidden layer (that is sufficiently large) can approximate (given sufficient training data) any continuous function.&quot; This, combined with the difficulty in training deeper nets, basically ended Deep Learning.\nHinton's paper in 2006, and Bengio's monograph in 2007, sparked a resurgence of interest, because Hinton showed a novel new technique that made training deep nets feasible (this technique being Deep Belief Networks), and Bengio argued that deep nets were important, and that we could get many advantages over shallow nets.\nLi Deng at Microsoft research took this onboard, and with his work on TIMIST,\nshowed the world that Deep Learning was feasible and great.\n--\nDBN's in academia\n\nHinton et al's First DBN Paper: A Fast Learning Algorithm for Deep Belief Nets 2006\nBengio et al's Deep Learning Monograph: Greedy layer-wise training of deep networks 2007.\n\n(Still trying to date Li Deng's work. citations needed.)", "I think it is the wrong way to frame sudoku as a regression problem in neural networks. \nFirstly, you have to understand what regression is. \"Regression\" is when you predict a value given certain parameters, where the parameters are related to the value you have to predict. This happens because at the core neural networks are \"function approximators\", they model the function by adjusting their weights using lots of data. They tend to form a highly non-linear boundary to separate classes internally in a high dimensional data-space. \n\nThe sudoku doesn't fit in this scenario, the combinatorial complexity of sudoku is way too high for a neural network even if you add many layers to it, it is a totally different problem in its own right. You simple can't \"regress\" the right values of a perfect sudoku here, they are not numbers like \"pixel \" intensities in images.\n\nHowever, you could apply reinforcement learning techniques to learn an optimal policy to solve sudoku.\n\nAnd you have mentioned an \"approximate\" solution for the sudoku, what do you mean by \"approximate\"? If you mean by this that only a few squares are out of place, then it is a wrong assumption, because neural networks are proven to be good image classifiers, as they are robust to translational invariance in this case, that is not what you need. \n\nYou could, however, do a small experiment to see what the neural network actually learns, replace the numbers by pixel value intensities and train a generative adversarial network on the sudoku images and see the images of sudokus produced by it, to see what actually the network can't learn.", "There are multiple levels to operations research. (Before continuing, I want to apologize to anyone about to be scandalized by my omission of their favorite journals.)\n\n\nFor some (many?) people working in industry or government, it may be sufficient to be able to \"think in systems terms\", identify and classify problems (\"this is a queuing problem, this other thing is more of an optimization problem\"), formulate models and use appropriate tools (open-source or commercial software) to handle the computational aspects. I would say that the math background for that is algebra, some linear algebra, maybe a bit of calculus, some probability theory and enough general understanding to know which models and algorithms work in a given context and which don't (e.g., don't try to use the simplex method on a problem with quadratic equality constraints). In journal terms, think INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics (formerly known as Interfaces).\nMoving up in sophistication (and roping in some academics), there is a niche where you not only need to be able to formulate models, but you need to be able to design or customize algorithms for solving them. (I'll include heuristics here.) The math (and, where applicable, probability theory) requirements are a bit more rigorous at this level. I think you need a decent appreciation of convexity (what it means, what things depend on it), for example. Measure / Banach / Hilbert spaces and other weirdness are not yet on the horizon. Journals that come to mind include Operations Research, the European Journal of Operational Research, the INFORMS Journal on Optimization, Decision Sciences etc.\nFinally, there are the folks who study problems and associated models with the intent of understanding the underlying mathematics. These are the folks (mainly but not exclusively academics) who work to show that certain cuts are facet-defining for the integer polytope of some discrete optimization model, or that solutions to some stochastic process model converge in probability to a well-known (to them, not to me) distribution as the problem size grows infinitely large. (Along with computer scientists, they may also obsess about questions relating to whether a particular problem is NP-obnoxious.) You may encounter the occasional Hilbert space (or worse) here. For this level, you need quite a bit of mathematical background. In journal terms, I would put Mathematics of Operations Research into this category.\n\n\nIn summary, and without having said anything too specific about mathematical prerequisites, how much math you will need will depend on where you want to fit into the OR world. FWIW, I studied Hilbert spaces in both undergrad and graduate programs, taught some form of management science for about 30 years, and probably never once mentioned them. I definitely never mentioned them in any journal articles.", "You can describe a recurrent neural network (RNN) or a long short-term memory (LSTM), depending on the context, at different levels of abstraction. For example, you could say that an RNN is any neural network that contains one or more recurrent (or cyclic) connections. Or you could say that layer $l$ of neural network $N$ is a recurrent layer, given that it contains units (or neurons) with recurrent connections, but $N$ may not contain only recurrent layers (for example, it may also be composed of feedforward layers, i.e. layers with units that contain only feedforward connections).\nIn any case, a recurrent neural network is almost always described as a neural network (NN) and not as a layer (this should also be obvious from the name). On the other hand, an LSTM can refer to an LSTM unit (or neuron), an LSTM layer (many LSTM units), or an LSTM neural network (an NN with LSTM units or layers), depending on the context.\nAn LSTM unit is a recurrent unit, that is, a unit (or neuron) that contains cyclic connections, so an LSTM network is a recurrent network. The main difference between an LSTM unit and a standard RNN unit is that the LSTM unit is more sophisticated. More precisely, it is composed of the so-called gates that supposedly regulate better the flow of information through the unit.\nHere's a typical representation (or diagram) of an LSTM (more precisely, an LSTM with a so-called peephole connection).\n\nThis can actually represent both an LSTM unit (and, in that case, the variables are scalars) or an LSTM layer (and, in that case, the variables are vectors or matrices). You can easily see from this diagram that an LSTM unit (or layer) is composed of gates and recurrent connections. It's also composed of a cell. To understand the details (i.e. the purpose of all these components, such as the gates), you should e.g. read the paper that originally proposed the LSTM by S. Hochreiter and J. Schmidhuber. However, there may be other more accessible and understandable papers.\nGiven the presence of cyclic connections, any recurrent neural network (either an LSTM or not) may be represented as a graph that contains one or more cyclic connections. For example, the following diagram may represent both a standard RNN or an LSTM network (or maybe a variant of it, e.g. the GRU).\n\nRNNs are particularly suited for tasks that involve sequences (because of the recurrent connections). For example, they are often used for machine translation, where the sequences are sentences or words. In practice, an LSTM is often used, as opposed to a vanilla (or standard) RNN, because it is more computationally effective. In fact, the LSTM was introduced to solve a problem that standard RNNs suffer from, i.e. the vanishing gradient problem.", "If the application is granted, then it may be enforced against any software developed since the priority date (December 24, 2012). If the methods you are implementing were publicly disclosed by anyone not listed as an inventor on the application before that priority date, then you have freedom to operate.\n\nIf the method you are implementing is more recent than that, then you will need to do a claim analysis against the patent. Note that if the patent is granted, the claim language may differ from that in the application. The independent claims are the most important, so here is the language that you would need to work around (as it currently stands):\n\n\n 2. A system comprising:\n \n a plurality of parallel neural networks, wherein the plurality of\n parallel neural network each receive a same input and collectively\n generate a predicted output based on the input, wherein each of the\n neural networks comprises a respective plurality of layers, wherein\n each plurality of layers comprises an interconnected layer and a non\n interconnected layer, and wherein processing data through the layers\n of each of the plurality of parallel neural networks comprises:\n \n providing output from the interconnected layer to at least one layer\n of at least one different parallel neural network of the plurality of\n parallel neural networks; and\n \n providing output from the non-interconnected layer only to a layer of\n the same parallel neural network.\n \n 12. A method comprising:\n \n processing data using each of a plurality of parallel neural networks,\n wherein the plurality of parallel neural network each receive a same\n input and collectively generate a predicted output based on the input,\n wherein each of the neural networks comprises a respective plurality\n of layers, wherein each plurality of layers comprises an\n interconnected layer and a non-interconnected layer, wherein\n processing data using each of the plurality of parallel neural\n networks comprises processing the data through the layers of each of\n the plurality of parallel neural networks comprises, and wherein\n processing the data through the layers of each of the plurality of\n parallel neural networks comprises:\n \n providing output from the interconnected layer to at least one layer\n of at least one different parallel neural network of the plurality of\n parallel neural networks; and\n \n providing output from the non-interconnected layer only to a layer of\n the same parallel neural network.\n \n 22. A computer storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to\n perform operations comprising:\n \n processing data using each of a plurality of parallel neural networks,\n wherein the plurality of parallel neural network each receive a same\n input and collectively generate a predicted output based on the input,\n wherein each of the neural networks comprises a respective plurality\n of layers, wherein each plurality of layers comprises an\n interconnected layer and a non-interconnected layer, wherein\n processing data using each of the plurality of parallel neural\n networks comprises processing the data through the layers of each of\n the plurality of parallel neural networks comprises, and wherein\n processing the data through the layers of each of the plurality of\n parallel neural networks comprises:\n \n providing output from the interconnected layer to at least one layer\n of at least one different parallel neural network of the plurality of\n parallel neural networks; and\n \n providing output from the non-interconnected layer only to a layer of\n the same parallel neural network.\n\n\nThe above language \"a plurality of\" does mean that 2 or more parallel neural networks must be used.\n\nThe key phrase I noticed in each of the three independent claims is \n\n\n the plurality of parallel neural network each receive a same input\n\n\nWith a convolutional neural network, the inputs are only partially overlapping. Also examine the following language:\n\n\n each plurality of layers comprises an interconnected layer and a non-interconnected layer\n\n\nI believe the above phrase is the \"inventive step\" in this application, and (correct me if I'm wrong) a conventional multilayer perceptron only comprises interconnected layers.\n\nIf you are concerned about the scope of this application and how it might affect your research, I highly recommend notifying your research institution to see if they can provide some legal support.", "There are many approaches that aim to make a trained neural network more interpretable and less like a \"black box\", specifically convolutional neural networks that you've mentioned.\n\nVisualizing the activations and layer weights\n\nActivations visualization is the first obvious and straight-forward one. For ReLU networks, the activations usually start out looking relatively blobby and dense, but as the training progresses the activations usually become more sparse (most values are zero) and localized. This sometimes shows what exactly a particular layer is focused on when it sees an image.\n\nAnother great work on activations that I'd like to mention is deepvis that shows reaction of every neuron at each layer, including pooling and normalization layers. Here's how they describe it:\n\n\n In short, we’ve gathered a few different methods that allow you to\n “triangulate” what feature a neuron has learned, which can help you\n better understand how DNNs work.\n\n\nThe second common strategy is to visualize the weights (filters). These are usually most interpretable on the first CONV layer which is looking directly at the raw pixel data, but it is possible to also show the filter weights deeper in the network. For example, the first layer usually learns gabor-like filters that basically detect edges and blobs.\n\n\n\nOcclusion experiments\n\nHere's the idea. Suppose that a ConvNet classifies an image as a dog. How can we be certain that it’s actually picking up on the dog in the image as opposed to some contextual cues from the background or some other miscellaneous object? \n\nOne way of investigating which part of the image some classification prediction is coming from is by plotting the probability of the class of interest (e.g. dog class) as a function of the position of an occluder object. \nIf we iterate over regions of the image, replace it with all zeros and check the classification result, we can build a 2-dimensional heat map of what's most important for the network on a particular image. This approach has been used in Matthew Zeiler’s Visualizing and Understanding Convolutional Networks (that you refer to in your question):\n\n\n\nDeconvolution\n\nAnother approach is to synthesize an image that causes a particular neuron to fire, basically what the neuron is looking for. The idea is to compute the gradient with respect to the image, instead of the usual gradient with respect to the weights. So you pick a layer, set the gradient there to be all zero except for one for one neuron and backprop to the image. \n\nDeconv actually does something called guided backpropagation to make a nicer looking image, but it's just a detail.\n\nSimilar approaches to other neural networks\n\nHighly recommend this post by Andrej Karpathy, in which he plays a lot with Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN). In the end, he applies a similar technique to see what the neurons actually learn:\n\n\n The neuron highlighted in this image seems to get very excited about\n URLs and turns off outside of the URLs. The LSTM is likely using this\n neuron to remember if it is inside a URL or not.\n\n\nConclusion\n\nI've mentioned only a small fraction of results in this area of research. It's pretty active and new methods that shed light to the neural network inner workings appear each year.\n\nTo answer your question, there's always something that scientists don't know yet, but in many cases they have a good picture (literary) of what's going on inside and can answer many particular questions. \n\nTo me the quote from your question simply highlights the importance of research of not only accuracy improvement, but the inner structure of the network as well. As Matt Zieler tells in this talk, sometimes a good visualization can lead, in turn, to better accuracy.", "If you use fully connected neural network, it will be hard to do what you want. There's no inductive bias to easily generalize from different positions of the strings which you need to extract. \n\nI suggest you use Seq2Seq models here: http://cs224d.stanford.edu/papers/seq2seq.pdf", "Of course, you can, and yes this has been researched and done before. By using supervised learning, you give the machine some data, and it will try to figure the best way to analyze and predict the next movement in case of an inverted pendulum problem.\nI found a complete paper for this problem: Neural network control of an inverted pendulum on a cart by Valeri Mladenov et al.", "Contrary to one of the other answers, I will have to respectfully disagree. Neural circuity is both the pinnacle and future of cognitive neuroscience. We already know the large areas of the brain are associated with specific cognitive processes, for example the NAc shell is associated with desire to seek out motivational objects such as food, but this could just as easily facilitate gaming, dancing or sex. The problem comes with investigating these behaviours in humans. We can easily test circuits on animals, but humans are far more difficult as we can only use scanning equipment like EEG and fMRI. While scanning equipment has improved the spatial or temporal resolution makes studying these circuits in humans difficult. However animal research supplements this and can show us circuits that are involved in particular cognitions, while the patterns of neural firing tell indicate particular activity. For instance we know the visual pathways in great detail how light engages neural activity in the retina, and how this information is transmitted to the occipital cortex to create a representation spread across the neural activity of the occipital cortex. In fact we understand this so well now that cognitive neuroscientists can take an EEG recording of activity while you sleep and interpret the neural activity into an image under specific circumstances. This fascinating method is called neural decoding, and it was developed out from our understanding of neural patterns of activity and mapping of neural networks developed over decades. Of course the same neural activity can be used to map networks and model neural activity in computational models which mimic cognitive processes.\n\nOf course this is easier for vision, hearing and somatic perception as these are straightforward cognitive processes which are generating virtual representations of the world we experience. What is far more difficult to assess are the memories and experiences that are recalled and how these influence decision making relative to the environment you find yourself in. However this is all being investigated, research starts with large neural structures like the NAc shell and then moves down to more specific areas followed by the circuits connecting it to other parts of the brain relative to particular cognitions. An example may help, motivation like hunger drives you to eat this is used by both information coming from your environment and internal changes. For instance once food has been consumed our brains assess the value of the food, did we like it? was the food more or less pleasurable than last time? did it make us happy? This activates the pACC, PAG, OCC, lOFC, rACC. The areas mentioned largely deal with attention, affective assessment (feelings), and pleasure. The activation of these areas helps an individual to make future decisions about consuming food. In rats the order of area activation is well understood, in humans there is still work to be done. But overall the fundamental mechanisms are the same, and can be modelled computationally. Understanding how the fundamental structures and there activity in context for both people and animals is essential in understanding disorders ranging from schizophrenia to obesity, and helps other researchers to develop assessments and interventions, such as drugs or government legislation. Or for companies to taylor their products to their consumers needs. Crucially, to the question at least, this information can be used to predict behaviour, in fact that basically the role of any computational model. \n\nFundamentally our hard wiring is relatively similar, it is this that we investigate, and it is these hard wired mechanisms that have the greatest impact on our behaviour and cognition. Cognitive scientists use the activation patterns of neutrons as a means of mapping these cognitive processes in neural circuitry. Finally I will say that overall the brain isn't really so complicated, its quiet simple really if you consider it from an evolutionary perspective. We and all other animals have developed by means of natural selection to survive long enough to pass on our genes, both our behaviour and neural development demonstrate this. The extra complications in behaviour are merely complexities that enhance gene survival, until they are lost or supersede within the same selection process.", "If you are familiar with the Behler-Parrinello symmetry functions implemented in AMP, you may be interested in seeing how they compare to other atom-centered representations in terms of speed and accuracy. Marcel F. Langer, Alex Goeßmann, and Matthias Rupp have recently released their benchmarking efforts including the symmetry functions, the Many-body Tensor Representation, and the Smooth Overlap of Atomic Positions representation. Their work also includes concise summaries of other representations to get you up to speed as well as what exactly makes a good representation:\n\n\nInvariance to rotations, translations, and permutations\nUniqueness: \"Systems with identical representations that differ in property\nintroduce errors\"\nContinuity/Differentiability \nComputational efficiency\nStructure (e.g constant size)\nGenerality, \" in the sense of being able to encode any\natomistic system\"\n\n\nWhat distinguishes many representations is the choice of their basis set when encoding physical distances and angles into machine-learning inputs. Where the Behler-Parrinello symmetry functions use Gaussian functions, the Artrith-Urban-Ceder descriptor uses Chebyshev polynomials. The Many-Body Tensor Representation uses a real-space basis, while the Smooth Overlap of Atomic Positions uses spherical harmonics. Michele Ceriotti's group has released an excellent paper connecting these atom-centered representations with a general mathematical formulism.\n\nDr. Ceriotti is also on a paper with Gabor Csanyi where they have extensively investigated the topic of uniqueness. The paper highlights the limitations of using representations that stop at 3-body terms (i.e distances and angles).\n\nWhile invariance and equivariance might be handled by the representation, there are several groups working on finding ways to handle equivariance directly with the model architecture. As far as I understand, this is especially necessary when learning tensorial properties rather than scalar properties like energy.\n\nAs Greg alluded to, there have also been efforts to create machine learning frameworks where atomic representations can be learned and tuned automatically. Schnet (or Schnetpack) is a framework that uses continuous-filter convolutional neural networks to do so.\n\nI recommend watching these lectures from the recent Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics program on \"Machine Learning for Physics and the Physics of Learning\":\n\nRichard G. Hennig: Machine-learning for materials and physics discovery through symbolic regression and kernel methods\n\nTess Smidt: Euclidean Neural Networks* for Emulating Ab Initio Calculations and Generating Atomic Geometries *also called Tensor Field Networks and 3D Steerable CNNs\n\nAnatole von Lilienfeld: Quantum Machine Learning\n\nMichele Ceriotti: Machine learning for atomic and molecular simulations\n\nMatthias Rupp: How to assess scientific machine learning models? Prediction errors and predictive uncertainty quantification\n\nGabor Csanyi: Representation and regression problems for molecular structure and dynamics", "The state of the art in such problems is done these days via deep neural networks. Among others, two popular and recent approaches for solving the problem of detection and localization of objects are the YOLO paper, and the faster-RCNN, which run a classifier over many variously sized regions in an image. \n\nAs humans, boats and cars are popular object classes, I'd first attempt to see what existing pre-trained networks can do for your problem, and then, if needed, try and re-train them using your data.", "I am curious about what would happen to hyperparameters when they would be set by a neural network itself\n\n\nIn general this is not possible as many hyper-parameters are discrete, so they are not differentiable with respect to any objective. For example, this applies to layer sizes, number of layers, choices of transfer functions. This prevents using any form of gradient descent to tune them directly as learnable parameters.\n\nIn fact the separation between parameters and hyperparameters is exactly that hyperparameters are not learnable by the model type. This applies to other ML models, not just neural networks.\n\n\n or by creating a neural network that encapsulates and influences the hyperparameters of the network it encapsulates.\n\n\nThis is more feasible. You could use one neural network to try and predict the results from another. Then prefer to run tests on target networks that look like they will do well. However, using a \"meta\" neural network like this has some major drawbacks:\n\n\nNeural networks require a lot of training data. Getting enough samples to make good predictions would require that you train your primary neural network (a time-consuming process) many times\nNeural networks are bad at extrapolating to data outside of areas already experienced, so not so great at making creative predictions of new parameters to try\nNeural networks have a lot of hyper-parameters to tune. Would you need a \"meta meta\" neural network to predict the performance of your \"meta\" network?\n\n\n\n either it has never been done before or the idea is just really dumb\n\n\nThis is a real issue that comes up repeatedly. In general the search for best hyper-parameters is a chore. It is an active area of research and experimentation to find efficient ways of automating it, or avoiding it by making some hyperparameters less important or not necessary.\n\nThe reason you are not finding neural networks that tune neural networks is due to the issues listed above. So the main areas of research focus on different approaches, that can work with limited data and don't have so many hyperparameters themselves. Or models that are robust to large ranges of hyperparameters, so precise tuning is not a big deal.\n\nHere are a few pointers to help with automated searches:\n\n\nYou could use a variety of hyperparameter optimisation schemes, including random search, grid search, genetic algorithms, simple gradient methods etc.\nRandom searches, perhaps constrained by previous experience or second-hand knowledge from similar problems, can be reasonably effective.\nThe quality of any search is limited by the quality and amount of cross-validation data. There is not much point tuning the cv loss value to the point that you care about changes that are much less than the standard error in its estimate.\nResponse to hyperparameters is typically non-linear over the search space, which makes things harder.\n\n\nOutside of automation, expert analysis is often a good starting point, especially if you want to assess success of regularisation. Typically you can look at learning curves for training and cross-validation data, and based on that you can make a reasonable guess as to whether to increase or reduce regularisation hyperparameters and/or learning rate, even from observing results from a single training run. \n\nThere have likely been attempts to automate some parts of reading learning curves, since sometimes it is relatively easy to detect over-fitting and under-fitting scenarios. However, I could not find any examples when searching just now.", "What you are trying to achieve, is a game that learns to play flappy bird. For doing this you need a neural network AND a genetic algorithm, those two things work together.\nAbout your concerns on the output, you don't have to know if the action will benefit or not, i will soon explain why.\n\nThe neural network part\n\nSo, what you need is to know how to build a neural network, i don't know your knowledge about it, but i suggest starting from the basics. In this scenario, you need a feed forward neural network, because you just take the inputs from the current flappy bird scene/frame (such as the y position of the bird, the distance from the closes pipe ecc..) and feed it through a network that outputs either 1 or 0 (jump or don't jump) in the only output neuron we just decided it has.\n\nIn python you can implement a neural network from scratch, or using a neural network framework that does al the dirty work for you.\n\n\nFrom scratch you would need to use numpy for matrix calculations, and you would need to learn matrix multiplication, dot products and all that fancy stuff (You can just let numpy taking care of the matrix calculations, but understanding how it works behind the scenes always helps understand new problems that you might come across when doing more advanced stuff)\nUsing a framework like Tensorflow for python, the only thing you need to do is find the right structure for the network you want to use. You will not have to worry about how activations work, or how the feed forward is performed (But again, it's a good thing to know when working with neural nets)\n\n\nThe genetic algorithm part or \"\"learning\"\"\n\nI say \"\"learning\"\" because at first sight it might look like learning, but really it is not.\nThe genetic algorithm works like \"the survival of the fittest\", where the \"smarter\" birds, which are the ones that reached the higher score on the current generation, will have a chance to have their child little birds, that have the same brain as their parent, with either some minimal modifications, or a mix of their parent brains.\nThe process of this \"\"learning\"\", so the genetic algorithm, works like so:\n\n\nCreate a generation of let's say 200 birds, every bird has a brain with random weights, so at the first run, they are all very...not smart\nThe game starts, and every frame of the game, the brain of the bird recieves as input some data that is taken from the current frame ( y pos of the bird, distance from pipe...)\nThe brain ( neural network ) of each bird, performs a feed forward with that data, and outputs what at the beginning is a very random result, let's say 0.75 for one bird\nAt this point you decided that 0.75 is greater than 0.5, so you take that as a 1, which stands for \"jump\", while if it was 0.3, so 0, the bird does nothing and keeps falling\nShortly the bird will die cause he has no idea of what he is doing, so he most likely collides with a pipe or the ground.\nAfter all birds met their fate, you see that some birds reached further than others, so you choose, for example, 5 of the best performing ones.\nNow you try to create a new generation of 200 birds using only the brains of those 5 that were choosen, by mixing and modifying theyr brains\nNow the new birds have a brand new brain, that in some cases might be better than the previous one, so chances are that some of those birds will reach a higher score, therefore flap further into the level.\nRepeat from point 6\n\n\nIn practice your \"perform_genetic_algorithm\" function in python, will have to choose the birds with the highest score, and as wild as it sounds, mix their brains and modify them, hoping that some modifications will improve the performance of the bird.\n\n\n I can't think of output since you don't really know if the action of flapping will benefit you or not\n\n\nThe mechanism above explains why you basically do not care at all about the output, except saying to the game engine: \"hey the bird decided to flap, do it\". Whether it's the right action or not, doesn't matter, as the smarter birds are naturally gonna get further and so be more likely to be choosen for next generation.\n\nHopefully now it's all more clear.\n\nHere is some useful links for building a neural network and for understanding the genetic algorithm:\n\n\nHow to build a neural network: I am linking this because it contains all useful information about how to build a very basic neural network in python. In your case, you would have to ignore all the part about backpropagation, loss &amp; error calculation and SGD, and just look at the feed forward part.\nHow to build a neural network - 2: This is another example of building a neural network that i found really useful, probably it's simpler and more straight forward than the previous link, but again, the backpropagation part is not needed for this genetic based learning.\nVideo tutorials on genetic algorithm: This is a very long but very explanatory playlist of videos that dives into the nature of genetic algorithms and how to implement one\nGenetic algorithm optimization: Other source about genetic algorithms", "There are no clearly defined mathematical prerequisites that are needed in order to learn quantum mechanics. QM can be taught at a variety of levels. Here are some examples of levels at which it can be taught:\n\n\nThere is a very nice book by Hewitt, Conceptual Physics, that\npresents a complete survey of physics for a gen ed course with no\nmore mathematics than very basic algebra. Hewitt does a presentation\nof quantum mechanics that works nicely at that level.\nIn a typical freshman college calculus-based course, students learn quantum mechanics at a level that is slightly higher than what's in Hewitt, but that still omits a lot of mathematical detail. Students at this level do not know differential equations or linear algebra, so they aren't ready to deal with either the complete Schrodingger picture or the Heisenberg picture.\nIn an upper-division course for physics majors, one would expect differential equations and linear algebra as prerequisites.\n\n\nAt the lower mathematical levels, the approach I take is that we have two basic quantum mechanical relationships, $E=h\\nu$ and $p=h/\\lambda$, and everything follows from that. At the lower levels, one has to work around certain difficulties. For example, at the gen ed level, it's not realistic to discuss things in terms of complex wavefunctions. Real wavefunctions work fine for standing waves, but you can't develop a completely accurate description of traveling waves without complex wavefunctions. This means that topics like the WKB approximation have to be omitted, or treated less rigorously.\n\nAs happens with many topics in modern physics, the big issue is not mathematical background but physics background. Many mathematicians do not seem to appreciate this, and imagine that they can follow a royal road to understanding advanced topics in physics, simply because they know a lot of math.\n\nA difficulty even at the upper-division undergrad level is that photons are inherently relativistic, and therefore there are foundational issues in trying to present the photon within the same framework as material particles. For example, there is no wavefunction for a photon, if you insist on all the usual axioms of QM. The only really rigorous and detailed way to deal with this is by teaching quantum field theory, but that's unrealistic for undergrads, not because they don't know enough math but because they haven't been exposed to enough physics. As a workaround, one approach is to use the heuristic of treating the electromagnetic wave as the wavefunction of the photon, but this is not rigorously correct.\n\n\n I'd prefer an answer that contains a more comprehensive list - where first lessons in QM (not just \"descriptive\"/\"popular science\" but with actual mathematics behind the phenomena) could start, and what other problems would be solvable with extra additions. Nevertheless, the (stretch) goal is to reach quantum computing and ability to understand some easiest quantum algorithms.\n\n\nI don't think there's any clear distinction of the type you're imagining between a \"descriptive\" treatment and one with \"actual mathematics.\" But for the topics you have in mind, you probably don't need any QFT at all, just nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. The mathematical prerequisites are linear algebra and differential equations, and you need the ability to handle those topics over the complex numbers, not just the reals.", "As so often, and especially in young research areas, the answer depends quite a lot on how you break down the question. Let me try a few examples:\nDoes quantum mechanics change what is theoretically learnable?\nA beautiful paper is this reference which states a few complex results in rather clear words. Again, it depends very much on what you define as &quot;learning&quot;. Overall, exponential speedups in the number of data samples seem to not be possible in many settings, but exponential time complexity speedups very well possible.\nWhat asymptotic computational speedups can quantum computing provide for machine learning?\nProbably the most studied approach here is to outsource linear algebra subroutines such as matrix inversion or singular value decomposition to quantum computers. These subroutines appear for example in convex optimisation used in linear regression or kernel methods.\nQuantum computing research is traditionally very focused on exponential speedups, which have been claimed in many quantum machine learning papers. But they rely on lots of assumptions about how you load your data into a quantum computer, and how to process the results. The assumptions require deep technical knowledge to grasp, and it is not always clear how good classical methods are in this case. For example, the quantum algorithm may require a sparse data matrix for an exponential speedup over the vanilla classical method, but under this assumption there is another classical method that is much faster too. Some quantum algorithms have since been &quot;de-quantised&quot;, which is a euphemism for &quot;found to not really provide an exponential speedup if the same assumptions are imposed on classical algorithms&quot;.\nStandard quantum algorithms can often give you a quadratic speedup for sampling and unstructured search problems. But classical methods are quite fast at heuristic sampling in the first place (think of contrastive divergence), and search problems so vast that a quadratic speedup does not make them tractable either.\nCan quantum computations give rise to machine learning models that generalise well?\nMost of the work in near-term quantum machine learning, that is QML using small and noisy devices that are the current &quot;prototypes&quot; of quantum computers, are interested in what models quantum computers very naturally give rise to. Do they look like neural networks? Or like anything else? Are they good generalisers? Can they be trained efficiently?\nOf course, speedups are important here to - if we find a quantum model that is powerful, but easy to classically simulate, one does not need the quantum computer in the first place (still, a quantum computer may just be the fastest hardware in absolute terms to process those models, and therefore still advantageous). But much more important is to show that the quantum model generalises well.\nThis type of research, much driven by &quot;variational&quot; or &quot;trainable&quot; or &quot;parametrised&quot; quantum circuits which are optimised with the usual classical techniques of deep learning, has only few answers yet to the question of quantum advantages. There are interesting clues though - quantum models of this type are mathematically speaking linear algebra computations applied to data mapped into the very large Hilbert spaces of quantum systems. They are also modular and trainable like neural networks.\nIf one accepts that quantum computers are strictly speaking more powerful than classical computers, the quantum model could in principle express a larger class of functions. But how to utilise this potential advantage in a concrete quantum algorithm design is very hard to point out and not &quot;automatically given&quot;. For example, one can show that certain ways to encode data into a quantum computer gives quantum models only access to very trivial function classes, and they are unlikely to learn anything interesting.\nOne reason why this is an extremely challenging (but very interesting) research area is this: if the goal is to build powerful generalisers, but the theoretical foundations of generalisation are poorly understood even in classical machine learning, and our current devices are too small and noisy to run meaningful empirical benchmarks, how can one actually show that the quantum model has an advantage? In other words, a lot of work is needed to even find a satisfying investigation framework for the question &quot;are quantum models better machine learning models?&quot;.\nSo, overall I'd say like every decent research field, the art is to reformulate the question until we can answer it - at which stage the answer is usually hard to understand for non-experts.", "Yes it is possible. \nRecurrent neural networks address this issue. They are networks with loops in them, allowing information to persist.These loops make recurrent neural networks seem kind of mysterious. However, if you think a bit more, it turns out that they aren’t all that different than a normal neural network. A recurrent neural network can be thought of as multiple copies of the same network, each passing a message to a successor. \n\n\n\nVisit\nhttp://colah.github.io/posts/2015-08-Understanding-LSTMs/ \n: This blog explains Recurrent Neural Network(RNN) and LSTM from scratch and also discuss few examples where LSTM is preferred over RNN.", "This is a partial answer because while I'm quite sure that \n\n\nFang Lizhi is the astronomer I'm thinking of\nThe paper Periodicity of Redshift Distribution in a T-3 Universe (FERMILAB-Pub-90/26-A\nJanuary 1990) is a description of the research I'm remembering\n\n\nI can not understand the paper well enough to connect it to how I remember the author describing his computational experience working on the small Apple computer while trapped in an embassy, and what this paper has (if anything) to do with comparing antipodal points.\n\nHopefully this is enough information for someone to go further and post a proper answer.\n\nThere is also the book The Most Wanted Man in China: My Journey from Scientist to Enemy of the State by the same person. On Page 294:\n\n\n What I needed was a computer. Again I was fortunate, because one of the diplomats, who originally had been a student of mathematics, was being transferred back home and was ready to part with his first generation Apple computer.", "Nothing you've described sounds like a serious academic problem. Taking weeks to understand a paper, and working on a problem for weeks without results, are entirely normal in research mathematics. And there is always a large gap between what you learn in coursework and what you need for research. \n\nTrying to get better by just working harder or longer can be counterproductive. It is important to spend time on other things, even when you feel like you're way behind.\n\nClearly you have some problems with mental health right now. I'm not qualified to advise you on that, but it's good that you're getting professional help, and it's only been 1.5 months - such issues don't usually get \"cured\" as quickly as that. Even if it takes time to get better and delays your academic progress, that's not a major problem. Academia works on very long timescales and several months of low productivity is nothing in the big picture.\n\nAt the end of the day, maybe you'll decide you just don't like doing mathematics research. That's okay too, there are lots of other things you can do with your life. Math is particularly difficult in this regard, in that math coursework has a very different flavor from doing research (exercises with short elegant solutions, versus long messy problems with awkward solutions that only accomplish half of what you really want). Liking coursework is not necessarily a good indication of the same for research, so a lot of people do leave the field at this stage. Again, there is nothing wrong with that.\n\nProfessional mathematicians tend to be people who really do enjoy doing mathematics research, and they tend to describe the work in terms that make it sound like it is inherently enjoyable and anyone that doesn't like it must be broken somehow. But that's not true. If you get better and discover that you enjoy it, great. If not, that's great too.", "The approach you describe is called neuromorphic computing and it's quite a busy field. \n\nIBM's TrueNorth even has spiking neurons. \n\nThe main problem with these projects is that nobody quite knows what to do with them yet. \n\nThese projects don't try to create chips that are optimised to run a neural network. That would certainly be possible, but the expensive part is the training not the running of neural networks. And for the training you need huge matrix multiplications, something GPUs are very good at already. (Google's TPU would be a chip optimised to run NNs.)\n\nTo do research on algorithms that might be implemented in the brain (we hardly know anything about that) you need flexibility, something these chips don't have. Also, the engineering challenge likely lies in providing a lot of synapses, just compare the average number of synapses per neuron of TrueNorth, 256, and the brain, 10,000.\n\nSo, you could create a chip designed after some neural architecture and it would be faster, more efficient, etc …, but to do that you'll need to know which architecture works first. We know that deep learning works, so google uses custom made hardware to run their applications and I could certainly imagine custom made deep learning hardware coming to a smartphone near you in the future. To create a neuromorphic chip for strong AI you'd need to develop strong AI first.", "This answer will point the reader to potentially useful resources, but I can't ensure that the courses are good (because I have never followed them).\nFree\n\nReinforcement Learning in the Open AI Gym (a small course that you can find in the YouTube channel suggested in the other answer) by Phil Tabor\n\nThe free course Advanced Deep Learning &amp; Reinforcement Learning by DeepMind can be useful. See video 14, which discusses deep RL topics (e.q. DQN).\n\nThe free course CS234: Reinforcement Learning Winter 2020 can also be useful. In particular, lesson 6 is about deep reinforcement learning. Here's the course schedule.\n\n\nPaid\n\nAdvanced AI: Deep Reinforcement Learning in Python (at Udemy) seems to be completely dedicated to DRL.\n\nMachine Learning: Beginner Reinforcement Learning in Python (at Udemy)\n\nDeep Reinforcement Learning 2.0 (at Udemy)\n\nModern Reinforcement Learning: Deep Q Learning in PyTorch by Phil Tabor\n\nModern Reinforcement Learning: Actor-Critic Methods by Phil Tabor\n\n\nIn any case, if you are familiar with RL and deep learning topics, I encourage you to directly read the DQN papers (both by DeepMind folks)\n\nPlaying Atari with Deep Reinforcement Learning (2013)\nHuman-level control through deep reinforcement learning (2015)\n\nOf course, deep RL isn't just DQN, but these are two very important papers that you should read.\nYou should also note that deep RL isn't anything special. It's just RL concepts combined with function approximators and deep learning tricks or deep neural networks. So, if you are really familiar with deep learning and RL (including the usage of neural networks to approximate policies and value functions), you don't need any course to understand deep RL concepts. You can just pick any deep RL paper and you can potentially understand it, although you may require more than 1-2 iterations (but that depends on the person).", "The better question might be - Why you do want to mix deep neural networks (DNN) and a finite state machine (FSM)? \n\nThere is research showing that a DNN can simulate any FSM. Since there are more frameworks for DNN and DNN can perform more tasks than FSM, it appears to be more useful just to forgo FSM altogether. \n\nMore specifically, \"Neural network for synthesizing deterministic finite automata\" shows how a relatively simple neural network (NN) can quickly and automatically learn the correct deterministic finite automaton (DFA).\n\nThere is a strong trend towards end-to-end DNN.", "Here is my attempt to answer your question, if not directly, then at least in spirit! I am specifically responding to the following:\n\n\n Many students see no beauty in this subject, only fear and a need to be right and get \"the answer\".\n \n Question: Has an approach to mathematics education been tried that explicitly deemphasizes correctness ... ?\n \n What research supports or critiques this idea?\n\n\nSomething that I have done to move away from this need to get the right answer is, rather than directly \"deemphasizing correctness,\" trying instead to emphasize the importance of mistake-making in learning (mathematics). For example, I introduce the following norm/expectation on Day 1 of my classes (and have it written out on the corresponding class sites):\n\n\n Mistake-Making\n \n I expect that we will all make mistakes as we wrestle with new (and sometimes old) ideas, and will use these mistakes as opportunities for learning. There is a large body of research on mathematics, and other subjects, that says we learn through mistakes — after all, when your work is mistake-free it only demonstrates what you already know! \n \n I expect we will take intellectual risks and make mistakes in the process, and that we will do our best to embrace the ability to honor, even celebrate, being wrong.\n\n\nFor research to support this idea, I would point you to Jo Boaler (for mathematics and mathematical mindset, in particular) or Carol Dweck (for mindset research, more generally). Boaler has, for example, a mention on this Mistakes Grow Your Brain page of the following paper:\n\n\n Moser, J. S., Schroder, H. S., Heeter, C., Moran, T. P., &amp; Lee, Y. H. (2011). Mind Your Errors Evidence for a Neural Mechanism Linking Growth Mind-Set to Adaptive Posterror Adjustments. Psychological Science. Link.\n\n\nand a mathematics-specific reference to:\n\n\n Steuer, G., Rosentritt-Brunn, G., &amp; Dresel, M. (2013). Dealing with errors in mathematics classrooms: Structure and relevance of perceived error climate. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 38(3), 196-210.\n\n\nThe latter is summarized by Boaler as:\n\n\n \"Gabriele Steuer and her colleagues looked at the climate of math classrooms to consider the impact of “mistakes friendly” or “mistakes unfriendly” environments on students’ reactions to errors and the amount of effort they would put into classes (Steur et al., 2013). They found that when students perceived their classroom as mistakes friendly – above and beyond other aspects of their classrooms environment – they increased their effort in their work.\"\n\n\nAnecdotally, I certainly observe an increased willingness by students to share their work and not obsess over the right answer. When I ask for volunteers to discuss some idea they have just had, or problem they have just attempted, I often hear a comment to the effect of, \"I'll come up to the board! I think a made mistake, though,\" to which I reply, \"Great!\" Indeed, sometimes there is a mistake - but then others can chime in. In fact, sometimes a student realizes the way she began the problem was erroneous, and - rather than saying \"whoops, never mind!\" - will end up solving it out on the board for the first time (or, at least, re-attempting it).\n\nI should also note that, personally, I find the philosophy of mistake-making as a plus to be anxiety reducing. Neither students nor teachers need to obsess over correctness; the notion that getting something wrong can be helpful reduces the burden of initial precision. Still, I caveat that, one, instructors should perhaps be careful about taking this to an extreme (e.g., being unprepared as a teacher and having one's work constantly full of careless errors), and, two, this is not a way to \"deemphasize correctness\" permanently - rather, it is the notion that errors play a natural, and helpful, role in facilitating students' convergence to correctness (to pilfer wording from the OP) as they wrestle with new mathematics and mathematical ideas.", "First let me rephrase the problem to make sure I understand it: you have 5 points, but you don't want to classify the points, you want classification probabilities.\n\nIf that's the case, that's what multinomial regression (Wikipedia) is designed to do. It's covered in several textbooks; I learned out of Categorical Data Analysis (Amazon link to 3e) by Agresti but it might not be the best book for self-study.\n\nYou can also use a neural network (blog post by Brian Dolhansky) that outputs class membership probabilities. Interesting coverage of the subject here (Ou and Murphey, 2007, Multi-class pattern classification using neural networks. Pattern Recognition 40, 4-18)." ]

[ "My son was so happy! It was delivered earlier than expected and he us very pleased. Thank you." ]

[ "It was awesome ! My husband was so happy to get it and it arrived earlier than expected.\nI'm very satisfied. Thank you!", "I bought this item for my son, and I came far earlier than even Amazon expected! The item contained no damage and it functions perfectly.", "Happy with delivery arrived earlier than expected, as coming to Coffs NSW Australia Also item as expected, yes very happy", "It was for my son and he absolutely loves it and hardly takes it off .delivery was quicker than I expected thank you can wait to get another soon", "Fast delivery, it's a gift to my son, he's very happy with it.", "I was floored to find the package at my door sooner than expected. My son loves this series. He is looking forward to read other series of Beast Quest.", "This is a gift for my son, exactly what he requested. He is very happy.", "My son LOVES this robe! The orange color is bright and the material is warm and snuggly. He loves having this robe to put on each morning before he heads downstairs for breakfast. It arrived earlier than expected, so I'd say this purchase exceeded my expectations!", "My son was very happy with it, it arrived perfectly and in a timely way.\n\nVery satisfied!\n\nHope to buy other products in the future.", "Shorter than expected.... But fits nicely. Delivered earlier than expected.", "Beautiful piece, it reminds me of when my son was a young boy. The vendor was great the delivery was one day earlier than proposed.", "Product arrived on time. My grandson is delighted with the", "Excellent product. ..powerful and easy to use. Delivery was even earlier than projected. .delivered on a Sunday no Less! !! We're so happy with it, I'm ordering a second one for my wife.", "I bought this trombone for my son. He's had it for a few weeks and it has met our expectations. We did order the purple because it was cheaper than the white. My son initially wanted the white and that's what was delivered. No complaints there!", "This item came quicker than expected. Thank you - my son loved it! Exactly as described and what i expected.", "I'm a Wizard of Oz fan. This pendant is a great item to showoff my love and appreciaction for the movie. Thanks Amazon for delivering my Wizard of Oz pendant earlier than I expected.", "my son is very happy with his Santa suit. fits great for him. Hes a size 2xl. Had some room to boot. Better quality than expected. came very quick. very happy.", "My son just got into Ninjago and these are no longer sold in stores. My son was very happy with this. Delivered on time", "I ordered this for my son and we loved it! It surpassed our expectations and they were already high based on the description! And it came timely! We will order again from this seller!", "My son is thrilled with this, his controller broke a while back, so he saved up enough money to buy this one and he couldn't be more happy", "I will likely get a better gift for Mother's Day now from my son. He is a big kid, so I worried it would be too small, but it fit well and he LOVES IT. The quality was very good, better than expected for the reasonable price.\nWe are very happy.", "It was perfect! Made my son very happy! Arrived well packaged too.", "I am so excited to present this to my son! It arrived fast and I assembled it myself with no problem. I just know he is going to be loving it for years to come. P.S. He loves it!", "The bag looks just like the picture and feels great! The material feels really good too, especially for the price.\nPlus, it got delivered several days earlier than expected so I was able to take it to my new years party and show it off!", "INCREDIBLY FAST DELIVERY, and my son will love it!", "Delivered before expected, I'm a happy customer.", "The candies arrived when expected. Packaged nicely. My son was so happy to have all his favorite flavors. Thanks!", "It arrived in a timely manner & was just as it was described in the listing. It's for my 14 yr old son & its perfect!", "I purchased this as a Christmas gift for my son who loves the Golden State Warriors. I purchased this on \"cyber\" Monday for half the price, it was listed at $79.99 but I purchased it for $39.99 which was Awesome!! It arrived earlier than expected & the quality was great & the most important thing is my son loved it!!!", "Great lens, great vendor, delivered way earlier than expected. I cannot say enough good things about this lens. I is either on my 5D mark ll or in my bag. Love everything about this lens.....", "I got this as a secret Santa Gift. It was delivered early and the recipient is very happy.", "This was a birthday gift for my dad. He loved it so great item but I think the price is a little high. I did get it earlier than expected though so it balances back out lol" ]

[ "Two men cook." ]

[ "Two cooks smoke on their break.", "The people are cooking in the restaurant's kitchen.", "A cook is working in a restaurant kitchen.", "Three men are cooking in the kitchen.", "A man is cooking different food in a restaurant kitchen.", "The man is cooking dinner in the restaurant kitchen.", "the men are cooking in the large kitchen", "The two women are cooking in the kitchen.", "Two people cooking in the kitchen.", "The cook is in the kitchen", "Two females in the kitchen cooking.", "The cook is in the restaurant.", "Three cooks in the kitchen cooking.", "the man is cooking in the kitchen", "Two guys are in the kitchen cooking breakfast.", "A girl cooking in the kitchen", "A lady is cooking in the kitchen.", "a man in the kitchen is cooking", "Someone is cooking in the kitchen.", "Men cooking a meal inside of a large kitchen.", "The women was cooking in the kitchen.", "the man was cooking in the kitchen", "A woman cooking in the kitchen.", "A woman is cooking in kitchen", "The women are cooking in the kitchen", "A chef is cooking in the kitchen.", "Two guys in tank tops are cooking in the kitchen.", "A man is in a restaurant kitchen.", "A couple is cooking in a kitchen.", "A chef cooking at a restaurant.", "the people in the kitchen are cooking", "A waiter and cooks at a restaurant." ]

[ "Scientists are using old spy satellite images to measure the effects of climate change. They're finding that glaciers in the Himalayas are melting twice as fast as they were a few decades earlier." ]

[ "Almost 2 billion people depend on water from the Himalayan mountains. By 2100, though, at least one-third of the region&#8217;s glaciers — which supply freshwater to China, India and Pakistan — will be gone, according to a new report. \"Between a quarter and a third of the human population on this planet depend on the water resources from the mountains in this region,\" says Laurie Vasily, head of knowledge management and communications at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development. &#8220;So it&#8217;s a critically important resource of course for the region, but a global resource also.\" Vasily tells Here & Now&#8216;s Jeremy Hobson glacial melting will have a massive impact on the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, which spans from Afghanistan to Myanmar, wreaking havoc on agriculture, food and water security and individuals' livelihoods. Glacial melting can be attributed to a combination of factors, Vasily explains, including climate change and land-use changes. What's happening, she says, is elevation-dependent warming: As the elevation increases, warming does too. \"You&#8217;ve got the glaciers, you&#8217;ve got the ice, you&#8217;ve got the snowpack, and if the warming is greater in those areas, then the ice and snow — which actually act as water storage — diminish,\" she says. \"Predicted after 2050, the meltwater will be less, and that meltwater feeds into the river supply across the 10 major Asian rivers.\" Even though the report predicts disastrous effects more than 75 years in the future, Vasily says significant glacial change is already happening. Therefore, to avoid environmental disaster, like outburst flooding at glacial lakes, investments need to be made in monitoring glaciers. \"Unless we do that, we won&#8217;t be able to take the preventive actions that help communities to move out of areas in case they&#8217;re at risk,\" she says. Chris Bentley produced this interview and edited it for broadcast with Kathleen McKenna. Jackson Cote adapted it for the web.", "Liane Hansen calms listeners' fears about a spy satellite that is expected to re-enter the earth's atmosphere as early as next month. Officials are hoping for a water landing.", "The U.S. government shot down a defunct spy satellite that was plummeting towards earth. The BPP takes a look at a bunch of hit movies that have used this same exact plot.", "With the successful shootdown Wednesday night of a failing spy satellite that was headed for landfall, Pentagon officials say they believe they destroyed the potentially hazardous fuel tank. China is protesting the move, fearing a space-based arms race and debris.", "To call James Balog a photographer would be an understatement. He has been a nature photographer for 25 years, published 7 books and won numerous awards, and was the first photographer ever commissioned to create a full plate of stamps for the U.S. Postal Service. More than a photographer, Balog is an explorer and a conservationist; his most recent undertaking is called the Extreme Ice Survey. Founded by Balog in 1996, the project documents extreme glacial melt, using time-lapse cameras planted across the Northern Hemisphere. Last year he was on NPR's Fresh Air to discuss a PBS documentary. This month, his photos of Greenland's changing colors can be found in National Geographic magazine. If you're anything like me, you have a pretty rudimentary understanding of glacial melting. But one interesting thing I learned from this article is that the melt isn't just a result of \"global warming.\" There's also this stuff called cryocronite — a fancy term for airborne dirt and sediment that finds its way to glaciers. It's black, so it absorbs sunlight (i.e., heat), which accelerates melting. \"It's like pulling a black curtain over the ice,\" a researcher is quoted as saying in the article. Cryocronite itself is nothing new. It's the result of volcanic eruptions and distant deserts and has been trapped in the ice for ages. But it's also a byproduct of fires, diesel engines and coal-burning plants that we have yet to really harness. And the faster the ice melts, and the more we pollute, the more cryocronite eclipses what's left of the white, reflective surface of glaciers — and, in turn, hastens the melt. That's news to me. But then again, what do I know? I just look at pictures all day.", "Planet in San Francisco has agreed to send up a satellite with our logo on it and take some pictures for us. In a way, we're in the spying game now. Back in the 60s, satellites would take photographs from space and then send the film canisters back to earth--literally drop them into the atmosphere, where they were caught in a net attached to an airplane. There was only a limited number of pictures you could get that way. And they still took a ton of time to analyze. Now, digital images are beamed back to earth in such high quantity and with such high speed that the government has no choice but to teach computers to analyze them. Even tiny Planet announced on November 9th that they'd reached their goal of photographing the world's landmass every single day. A company called Genscape uses satellites to take photos that contain \"market intelligence:\" information that their clients can use in business. Genscape's images monitor the progress of oil wells being drilled in South Sudan, or a pipeline being built across Ohio. On today's show, what can Planet Money's satellite show to give us an edge in business? Robert hits upon an idea that could provide important intelligence to the American public. Music: \"Blue Eyes\" and \"Through the Looking Glass.\" Find us: Twitter/ Facebook. Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, PocketCasts and NPR One.", "North Korea's recent nuclear moves add emphasis to Japan's launch of two spy satellites. North Korea calls the move a \"hostile act.\" The satellites will enable Japan to monitor North Korea's nuclear weapons program. NPR's Eric Weiner reports.", "By Richard Harris One of the most shocking revelations from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in 2007 was that the glaciers in the Himalayas could melt away entirely by 2035. That would mean, in a mere 25 years, large parts of Asia would lose the rivers that sustain the farms and lives of half a billion people. The factoid was buried in one of the voluminous reports from the IPCC, which won a Nobel Peace Prize for its work. The statistic never made it to the all-important summary for policymakers. But even so, it has been creeping out into polite society. In fact, NPR has repeated it on several occasions. For example, a year ago we covered a congressional hearing at which Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass) discussed it with former Vice President Al Gore. The two talked about the shocking implications of losing the headwaters of the Irrawaddy, the Ganges, the Yangtze, the Mekong and the Yellow rivers. OK. Deep breath. After a government minister in India expressed his skepticism about the assertion recently, the head of the IPCC went and looked it up. Oops. It's wrong. The IPCC has issued a statement saying that the organization's fact-checking system broke down in this instance. How did this happen? A letter being published online later today in Science Magazine says the IPCC picked up the date from a report by the World Wildlife Fund, which has since corrected its error. WWF picked up the date from a quote in the popular science magazine, New Scientist. But the final clue to the mystery may lie in an obscure study that discussed the global fate of glaciers in the year 2350. Flip around a few of those digits and... That's not quite the end of the story, though. The IPCC stands by its overarching message, which is that the world's glaciers are rapidly melting and bad things will happen to people if that continues unabated. But the demise of the Himalayan glaciers is, thankfully, not just a few decades away.", "Warming temperatures mean that many glaciers are shrinking. A ski company using the Gemstock glacier above Andermatt, Switzerland, has answered this trend by wrapping a critical ski ramp near the top of the glacier in synthetic material. The company hopes that the blanket will slow the glacier's melting over the summer in an area around the cable car station. If the blanket is successful, skiers will be able to ski right out of the station and down the mountain. If the blanket doesn't slow the melting, then a new ramp will have to be built out of snow and ice when the winter arrives.", "John Pike, director and founder of GlobalSecurity.org, talks with Robert Siegel about the capability of satellites that will be used by Homeland Security to spy within the United States.", "some scientists are using to track migratory birds. An NPR/National Geographic Radio Expeditions feature.", "Guests: Mark Meier Fellow, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research Professor Emeritus, Department of Geological Sciences University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado Vivien Gornitz Research Scientist NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies Associate Research Scientist, Center for Climate Systems Research Columbia University New York, New York Len Bahr Coastal Advisor to Governor Mike Foster Baton Rouge, Louisiana Recent satellite data shows that a glacier in the heart of Antarctica is shrinking rapidly. Other glaciers around the world, from Alaska to Africa, are also melting. How will this affect sea level? In this hour of Science Friday, we'll take a look at melting glaciers, and at what low-lying areas are doing to prepare for sea level rise.", "The forecast is dire for the glaciers of the Himalayas. According to a report released Monday, a third or more of them could be gone by 2100 — melted because of earth's warming climate. And that could have disastrous effects on the water resources of some 240 million people. Representing five years of work by more than 350 researchers and policy makers from 22 different countries, the Hindu Kush Himalayan Assessment analyzes studies from across the region. The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a Nepal-based intergovernmental organization, pulled together the 210 scientists who authored the report in the hopes that better coordination between scientists and national governments can make the evidence more clear and lead to solutions. The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region spans eight countries from Afghanistan to Myanmar and includes some of the world's tallest mountains, including Everest and K2. The glaciers sit atop these mountains, and the water that runs down from them feeds the agriculture that nearly two billion people depend upon. Called the \"third pole,\" the HKH, together with China's Tien Shan mountains, holds the most ice outside the North and South Pole. But so far, the report claims, less attention has been devoted to the region than to other areas vulnerable to global warming. The toll on the glaciers depends on the degree of global warming. Even if the atmosphere heats up only 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (a scenario that scientists say is ambitious and unlikely), the report predicts that a third of the region's glaciers are likely to disappear by the end of the century. But the damage could be much worse. If the current rate of emissions continues, warn the authors, temperatures could rise enough to wipe out two-thirds or more of the HKH glaciers. And that's likely in the HKH. Temperatures are rising faster in the mountains than at lower elevations, a phenomenon called \"elevation-dependent warming.\" Researchers are still trying to figure out exactly why this happens, says Arun Shrestha, a lead author of the report's climate section and a senior climate change specialist at ICIMOD. One theory: When snow and ice melt, the heat- reflecting properties of the white cover disappear. The black rock below absorbs more heat and increases the melt. This means that even if global warming is limited to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, the HKH region will see a greater increase. The melting of glaciers would bring a series of significant changes to the region, says Philippus Wester, one of the editors of the report. Rivers would have more flow initially, creating the potential for flooding. But eventually the flows from the melting glaciers would decrease. The overall impact of climate change is also causing sources of water for agriculture in Nepal, like springs, to dry up. Glacial melting will also likely cause global sea levels to rise, threaten already endangered species like the snow leopard and tiger and dramatically change the roof of the world. \"We'll no longer have these snow-capped mountains,\" says Wester of the iconic Himalayan range topped off by glacial snow and ice. The people living in the high mountains are already seeing the changes. Sherab Lama is a Buddhist monk who grew up in a village that juts up around 16,000 feet in Nepal's Dolpa region. From Lama's village, a triplet of mountains are visible. Lama says the mountains are called Ghangri Poosum in Tibetan, which translates loosely to \"three ice-covered brothers.\" During his father's childhood, the three brothers lived up to their name, but when Lama was a boy, only two were ice-covered. Now, the 40-year-old says, just one has ice left. Lama says the villagers are working on environmental initiatives, like limiting plastic waste. But they know what's happening to the mountains is beyond their control: \"[Those] who know about climate change, they are scared. They say, 'I don't know what will happen after two to three generations.' They are very worried. I am very worried,\" he says. The report notes that climate change is adding to the burdens many women in the region already face. According to Chanda Gurung Goodrich, a lead author on the gender section of the report, men in mountain regions are increasingly migrating for work as climate change makes it harder to make a living in agriculture. The report says that the women left behind are the ones who will have to cushion their families from the results of climate change even as they lack the authority and access to resources given to men in this culture. The best case forecast isn't reassuring. \"Even if we are now able to level the CO2 emissions and the temperature increase, the glaciers will continue to lose mass during the next decades,\" says Tobias Bolch, a lead author of the report's cryosphere section. But Bolch isn't holding his breath that global warming will get under control. \"There will always be deniers and science will not be able to provide the absolute tru", "The world's glaciers are melting faster than before, but it still takes decades to see changes that are happening at a glacial pace. To look back in time, researchers are turning to a once-secret source: spy satellite imagery from the 1970s and 1980s, now declassified. \"The actual imagery is freely available for download on the USGS website, and people can use it,\" says Josh Maurer, a doctoral student at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Maurer is the lead author of a study using satellite imagery to show that in the past 20 years, Himalayan glaciers melted twice as fast as they did in the 1980s and '90s. The work was published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. The spy satellite images come from KH-9 Hexagon military satellites, launched during the Cold War to help the U.S. peer over the Iron Curtain, says Summer Rupper, a co-author of the study. Each satellite was about the size of a school bus and carried miles of film. Packaged in buckets equipped with parachutes, the film was later ejected into the upper atmosphere and plucked out of the air over the Pacific Ocean by Air Force pilots. Most Hexagon images were declassified in 2011 as a continuation of a 1995 executive order by President Bill Clinton to release spy satellite footage that was \"scientifically or environmentally useful.\" Maurer's study compares the spy satellite images, mostly from the mid-1970s, with more recent images taken by ASTER, an instrument attached to a NASA satellite that was developed jointly by the U.S. and Japan and launched in 1999. There's a history of researchers using declassified surveillance images. Some scientists have used spy satellite data to study Arctic ice cover, Antarctic streams, meteor trajectories and smaller-scale glacier studies. Maurer says his team figured out an efficient way to turn satellite images into 3D elevation models over a large region. \"What we're able to do using spy satellites is to cross the entire Himalayan range, [and measure] hundreds of glaciers of all different types and sizes, over a much longer period of time,\" says Rupper, an associate professor of geography at the University of Utah. The Himalayan mountain range, home to Mount Everest, holds tens of thousands of glaciers. The study authors looked at 650 of them, across a 1,240-mile swath. They found that, on average, the Himalayan glaciers lost 10 inches of ice per year from 1975 to 2000. As average global temperatures increased, the average loss rate doubled to a loss of 20 inches of ice per year from 2000 to 2016. Glaciologist Etienne Berthier of the French national research agency CNRS, who was not affiliated with the research, said via email that the fact that the study used the same method of analysis across the Himalayas, \"[made] their conclusion of doubling of mass loss rate very convincing.\" The Himalayas contain many different types of glaciers — such as those covered in debris or located near bodies of water — in many different environments. The researchers were surprised to find that the rate of melt was consistent across all the glaciers they studied. \"In the east, the precipitation in the Himalayas occurs in the middle of the summertime [driven by monsoon winds], whereas in the west, most of the snow comes [in the winter] along a westerly storm track,\" Rupper says. \"So you actually have two very different settings for these glaciers. Yet, from east to west, we're seeing a relatively uniform change in mass.\" That the Himalayan glaciers are melting faster signals unpredictability in coming years. Those glaciers supply fresh water to mountain communities and feed rivers that billions of people in South Asia rely on. Sonam Futi Sherpa, a doctoral student at Arizona State University, co-authored a paper on how glaciers in the Everest region change with precipitation and storms. She says: \"It's important to have long-term monitoring, not just in Nepal,\" where she's from, \"but in Bhutan, Tibet, other places\" for two main reasons: figuring out future water availability and anticipating possibly catastrophic events such as floods and landslides. Deborah Balk of the City University of New York, who formerly served on a National Research Council panel on Himalayan glaciers and climate change, said via email that \"understanding glacial ice loss is very important, particularly in South Asia where the consequences of climate change are already unfolding\" — consequences such as extreme heat in India, sea-level rise and salinization in Bangladesh, and regional flooding. Over the next 80 years, according to a 2019 study of the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, up to two-thirds of the Himalayan glaciers are projected to melt because of climate change. Pien Huang is NPR's Reflect America Fellow, helping to bring more diverse voices to air and online.", "The United States announced plans to use a missile to shoot down a malfunctioning spy satellite before it crash lands on earth. The U.S. says the falling satellite could pose risks to humans, while others claim the U.S. is exaggerating.", "A U.S. spy satellite has lost power and is now on its way back to Earth. It's expected to land in the next few weeks. On our blog, astrophysicist Summer Ash gives the latest on a very special hunk of space junk. Get the latest news, talk and blog posts with our automated Twitter feed, or duck behind the curtain and talk with us — and each other — through Twitter.com/BPP and Twitter.com/BPPdiner.", "Cameras orbiting the earth are becoming less expensive and therefore more widespread. And as Bloomberg News reports, the images collected are providing a lot of economic information, to everyone from investors to aid organizations. Jeff Kearns writes in Bloomberg: In Myanmar, night lights indicate slower growth than World Bank estimates. In Kenya, photos of homes with metal roofs can show transition from poverty. In China, trucks in factory parking lots can indicate industrial output. Images from these and other satellites, combined with big-data software, are helping to create what former NASA scientist James Crawford calls a \"macroscope\" to \"see things that are too large to be taken in by the human eye.\" Aid organizations can use the results to distribute donations. Investors can mine them to pick stocks. Here & Now&#8216;s Robin Young speaks with Bloomberg&#8217;s Michael Reagan about the story. Guest Michael Regan, editor at Bloomberg News. He tweets @Reganonymous.", "Last week there were the pictures of an iceberg twice the size of Manhattan breaking off Greenland's Petermann Glacier. Now there are NASA images showing that in four days earlier this month, \"Greenland's surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations.\" The space agency adds that \"nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its two-mile-thick center, experienced some degree of melting at its surface, according to measurements from three independent satellites analyzed by NASA and university scientists.\" The changes happened from July 8 to July 12. NASA says \"this extreme melt event coincided with an unusually strong ridge of warm air, or a heat dome, over Greenland. The ridge was one of a series that has dominated Greenland's weather since the end of May.\" Wired writes that \"while no one event can be blamed on climate change, the melt is consistent with rising global temperatures.\" The Guardian says \"the rapid melting over just four days was captured by three satellites. It has stunned and alarmed scientists, and deepened fears about the pace and future consequences of climate change.\" According to NASA, \"researchers have not yet determined whether this extensive melt event will affect the overall volume of ice loss this summer and contribute to sea level rise.\" In most years, much of the water from a summer ice melt \"quickly refreezes in place ... [or] is retained by the ice sheet.\" Some though, NASA says, \"is lost to the ocean.\"", "The GeoEye-1 satellite will be capable of making out details on Earth just 16 inches across. It will be the highest resolution satellite run by a private company; it's images will be marketed to a range of governments and private customers. Mark Brender, vice president of marketing and communications for GeoEye, talks about the upcoming launch. IRA FLATOW, host: For the rest of the hour, a new eye in the sky. That's what we used to call spy satellites in the old days. But you know, we don't call them spying much because we know they're up there, and they're looking at us. It's going to be launched next week. It's called the GeoEye-1, and it carries the highest resolution civilian - it's a civilian camera that has ever been launched, and it can make out objects on the ground just 16 inches across as it zips by a 400 miles overhead. Now, how - what's that 16 inches? Well, that's enough resolution to make out home plate on a baseball field from space. And if you use Google maps to see satellite pictures of your neighborhood or your destination, there's a good chance, you'll be seeing the images from this new satellite because Google has signed the deal to use the pictures. Joining me now to talk about the launch and why it's important is Mark Brender. He is vice president of marketing and communication for GeoEye that's based in Dulles, Virginia. Welcome to the program. Mr. MARK BRENDER (Vice President, Marketing and Communication for GeoEye-1): Good day. FLATOW: So, how soon can we see these photos on Google? Mr. BRENDER: Well, we'll be launching our GeoEye-1 satellite, September fourth at 2:50pm Eastern Daylight Time and when everything is successful after the satellites does its check out and calibration, we expect to have imagery available for sale from GeoEye-1 in the late October time frame. FLATOW: So, let's talk about the process. You mean, I can go to a website or order a picture from you that I'd like to see? Mr. BRENDER: It's very simple. All you got to do is go to our website, geoeye.com or call customer service, and we can take your order for satellite imagery over any location on the surface of the planet. FLATOW: Now, can I - say hey, you know I'm going to be out in my backyard on Christmas, can you fly the satellite over it then and take a picture of my Christmas tree? Mr. BRENDER: Well, you know, we hate physics, but we're dictate it in orbit by what physics requires. So, we're in a polar orbit. So, we go over the North Pole, under the South Pole and the Earth rotates underneath us. So, we are only overhead once any given location, about once every three days. FLATOW: Mm hmm. Mr. BRENDER: And certainly, we can't see at night and we're overhead around 10:30 or 11 in the morning. So, it's not a look down, stare down, see all, all the time satellite. It's a low-Earth orbit satellite that zips around the Earth very fast. We go from the North Pole, under the South Pole, back to the North Pole in 98 minutes. FLATOW: Wow. Mr. BRENDER: And as we're moving that fast, we could look down and with its powerful camera, be able to see objects from the ground as small as 16 inches in size. However, due to U.S. government licensing restrictions, we will make imagery available for sale at half meter ground resolution. FLATOW: So, half meter is - that's like once inch difference, isn't it? Mr. BRENDER: It's not very much difference at all as your listeners will probably know. But we are required by the federal government to re-sample our imagery to half meter ground resolution. Even though we can collect it at the higher resolution... FLATOW: So, you see, you have to blur it a little bit. Mr. BRENDER: Well, we don't blur it because it's still top quality imagery, but it is re-sampled. FLATOW: Can you get some good pictures of the polar ice melting in the North Pole there? Mr. BRENDER: Well, on our website, we've got some terrific pictures of Bear Glacier in Alaska. FLATOW: Wow. Mr. BRENDER: And that glacier, we can manage and map over time and we should be able to see changes in the glacier and changes anywhere on the Earth due to climate change and global warming. FLATOW: So, if you're doing like a science fair project, do a school project and you want to follow a glacier melting, we can ask you to keep taking pictures of that? Mr. BRENDER: Well, keep in mind, we are traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange. We are a public company, and we are in business. So, we'll be happy to take orders. But we're not giving away our imagery for free. However, let me qualify this, we do have a GeoEye Foundation and we can provide a limited amount of imagery from our archive. FLATOW: Mm hmm. Mr. BRENDER: For students who need imagery for specific research purposes. FLATOW: Well, let's talk dollars and cents now. What would you - what do you charge normally for - in your business to take these pictures? Mr. BRENDER: Well, we have so far, from our Iconos s", "For this post-Thanksgiving week, I'd like to suggest a remarkable video produced over two decades by NASA scientists. Satellites monitored populations of plant life on land and oceans, mapping variations of green regions of vegetation and snow cover on the North and South Poles. As seasons pass, we witness a rhythmic dance between white and green, as if the planet itself were breathing. Vegetation on land is represented on a scale from brown (low vegetation) to dark green (lots of vegetation). In the ocean, populations of microscopic phytoplankton — a type of algae that uses sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar — are indicated on a scale from purple (low) to yellow (high). We see the Earth changing daily and with the seasons as a living planet — its plants, surface winds and sea currents responding to the energy coming from the sun. The visualization collated data from Earth-observing satellites like the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), which started collecting data in 1997, and the Terra, Aqua, and Suomi NPP weather satellites. The changes over the past two decades help scientists understand how the planet is responding both locally and globally to warming trends. Warming ocean temperatures, for example, slow the growth of phytoplankton and, thus, its ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Also visible is the shrinking of the polar caps as the years go by. Going out into space is not only for the purpose of looking outward. It allows us to look back at our planet as a whole, follow its changes and rhythms, so that we can better learn how to coexist with it and protect its resources for generations to come. Marcelo Gleiser is a theoretical physicist and writer — and a professor of natural philosophy, physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College. He is the director of the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement at Dartmouth, co-founder of 13.7 and an active promoter of science to the general public. His latest book is The Simple Beauty of the Unexpected: A Natural Philosopher's Quest for Trout and the Meaning of Everything. You can keep up with Marcelo on Facebook and Twitter: @mgleiser", "Satellites watch our planet all the time, sometimes for top-secret military reasons, sometimes for reasons as quotidian as making a cellphone call possible. Satellite watchers like Kevin Fetter and Ted Molczan watch back. Molczan told us about his extreme hobby today on the show. Now Fetter shares the video above. The first images are of a satellite crossing the moon. The second image captures the incredibly bright reflection, or flare, from a particular type of satellite turned at an exact angle. The third set shows trios of Naval Ocean Surveillance System satellites moving across the night sky. If you like these, check out the rest on Fetter's personal site.", "Got this from our own astrophysicist to the (radio) stars, Summer Ash. She blogs regularly at Newtonianism for the Ladies. Special to the BPP from Summer Ash: Heads Up, Earth!The Return of Chicken LittleThe Sky Is Falling, the Sky Is Falling -- U.S. Spy Sat to Splat That last one is my favorite, and it's the only real headline -- used by Satnews Daily. But it's all real news, of a sort. A large U.S. spy satellite really has lost power and is now falling back to Earth. Read More >> Government officials aren't saying much, just that the satellite can be expected to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere by late February or early March and that the appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation. My guess is that would include the DoD, NSC, NSA, and NASA -- all of which would want to keep its intelligence hardware under wraps. This particular satellite was launched by the Department of Defense, not NASA, but that doesn't preclude the space agency's involvement now. Both the Air Force and NASA maintain tracking stations across the globe to identify, track and monitor all Earth-orbiting objects down to sizes in tens of centimeters. They're even tracking handtools accidentally let go by astronauts. Of course, any object in orbit without its own propulsion system will eventually lose altitude, encounter the upper atmosphere and begin to break up. The vast majority of space debris is doomed to disintegrate. However, as witnesses to Skylab, Mir, and Columbia will attest, when the object re-entering the atmosphere is above a certain size, many pieces can survive the intense heat and come out the other side more or less intact. When Skylab fell back to Earth, an oxygen tank the size of a large desk landed on the coast of Australia -- the U.S. was charged for littering. Mir's de-orbiting was controlled by onboard rockets, so that any pieces surviving the re-entry process fell harmlessly in the Pacific Ocean. And most recently, the Columbia accident left sizeable debris across the southwestern United States. According to the Associated Press, defense and intelligence expert John Pike estimates this spy satellite to weigh around 10 tons (20,000 pounds) and approach the size of a small bus. That's a lot smaller than any of the three spacecraft above, but still large enough to do some damage were it to come down in a populated place. You may remember from Geography 101 that 70 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water. The odds favor a harmless splashdown. But secrecry, understandably, surrounds government satellites, so it's impossible to know where the folks in charge expect the particular bit of space junk to land. A quick scan of the Web brought up some international coverage of the situation. It's interesting to note the different perspectives: CTV in Canada mention the possible fuel on board as hydrazine and raise the concern of toxic exposure to the chemical should it re-enter in a populous area. They don't allude to it, but Canada was the victim of nuclear space debris once before at the hand of a Russian satellite that crashed in the skies over the Northern Territories in 1978. Moscow released a tersely worded statement via Interfax-AVN, declining any alarm over the situation. And India Daily hypes the idea that China and Russia would jump at the chance to hijack the satellite to steal our spy technology, if it were possible. For the rest of us, at this point, there's not much to do but wait and keep one eye on the sky.", "A massive search-and-rescue operation was underway Sunday in northern India for at least 140 people missing after part of a Himalayan glacier broke off, triggering an avalanche of rock, mud, water and debris that swept away a hydroelectric dam. Video recorded by witnesses from across a valley showed a torrent of water and debris breaking through a dam that's part of the Rishiganga Hydroelectric Project, more than 300 miles north of New Delhi. \"It came very fast. There was no time to alert anyone,\" local resident Sanjay Singh Rana told Reuters. \"I felt that even we would be swept away.\" Many of those missing are believed to be workers at the dam. Police say that nine bodies have been recovered so far and that at least 140 people are missing. The chief minister of India's Uttarakhand state, Trivendra Singh Rawat, told reporters that the figure could rise. The disaster began around 10:45 a.m. local time when part of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off in an ecologically fragile area of Uttarakhand, an Indian state bordering Nepal and China, high in the Himalayas. Environmentalists have long cautioned against building dams and power plants there, because it's so prone to landslides and flooding. In 2013, record monsoon rainfall triggered floods that killed about 6,000 people in what was dubbed the \"Himalayan tsunami\" because it swept away homes, roads and bridges in Uttarakhand. It wasn't immediately clear what caused the glacier to break away early Sunday. While climate change has contributed to the shrinkage of Himalayan glaciers, February is still winter in Uttarakhand and not typically the time of year when its glaciers melt. There was at least one joyful rescue Sunday: Indian journalists shared footage on social media of disaster relief workers pulling a man out from a tunnel where he'd been buried alive. The victim throws his arms up in the air in celebration and then falls forward into the mud, as people clap and cheer around him. By nightfall, villages had been evacuated downstream from the broken Rishiganga dam, along tributaries of the mighty Ganges River. The neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous, also put riverside areas on high alert. \"India stands with Uttarakhand and the nation prays for everyone's safety there,\" Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted. The Nanda Devi glacier lies near a peak of the same name, which at 25,643 feet is India's second-highest mountain. Its name means \"blessed goddess,\" and the mountain itself is worshipped in local Hindu and Buddhist traditions. The surrounding Nanda Devi National Park is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.", "Scientists watching Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier from space have noticed with some alarm that it has been surging toward the sea. If it were to melt entirely, global sea levels would rise by several feet. The glacier is really, really remote. It's 1,800 miles from McMurdo, the U.S. base station in Antarctica, so just getting there is a challenge. Scientists have rarely been able to get out to the glacier to make direct measurements. \"This was a granddaddy of a problem,\" says Tim Stanton, oceanography research professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. Stanton not only wanted to get to it, he wanted to get to it with 20,000 pounds of gear, so they could drill into it. Stanton and about a dozen colleagues spent several years planning this mission, which involved multiple aircraft and remote support camps. In fact, they took four trips to Antarctica before they finally succeeded. It wasn't just getting there that was hard. Bill Shaw, a colleague of Stanton's, says Antarctica has its own way of serving up trouble. \"You're in your tent sleeping, and you start to hear things flapping and then you wake up to find that all your neatly piled batches of gear are now covered in several feet of snow,\" Shaw says. \"You're going to spend the next several days digging it out and getting going again.\" That happened more than once during their seven weeks out on this remote piece of ice. They chose this spot because the glacier here is actually being undercut by ocean water, which flows below it. The team's challenge was to drill down through the ice sheet, which is twice as thick as the Golden Gate Bridge is tall. Melting those holes involved heating up a metal rod and circulating hot fluid through hoses to the rod, as it gradually ate its way down through the ice. \"Everybody was shlepping hose,\" Stanton says. \"They needed lots of support, so that's what we did during the drilling phase. As soon as the hole was through, we immediately started deploying instruments.\" In particular, Stanton wanted to measure the currents flowing right under the ice sheet. He wanted to test how salty the water was, and to find out how quickly the ice was being eaten away by the comparatively warm seawater. They also grabbed a sample of the mud from the seafloor below. \"To see what's down there is quite remarkable, because I can assure you, nobody else on this planet's ever touched the mud before us, underneath an ice shelf like that,\" he says. Their instruments showed that meltwater from the glacier was flowing rapidly toward the open ocean, and cutting into the ice above as it went. \"I was surprised by how much like a river this was. It's a river, but instead of eroding a channel, it's melting a channel,\" Shaw says. And it turns out that channel is melting very fast. As they report in Science magazine, the ice in that channel was disappearing at the rate of 2 inches a day. Stanton said their measurement is consistent with what scientists had inferred from satellite measurements. \"Don't forget, this happens day in and day out,\" he says. \"We saw no changes over the 35 days that we were reporting on in this paper. It's a phenomenally high melt rate compared to what we observe in the Arctic, for example.\" At the moment, it's contributing a tiny amount to rising sea levels. But the melting has been accelerating in recent years, and if it keeps accelerating, in the very long run, the Pine Island Glacier could add several feet to global sea levels. The results are sobering, but Stanton says when the drilling system finally punched through the ice and he was able to position his instruments, he felt he'd conquered this grandaddy of a problem. \"That was remarkably satisfying,\" he says. \"It really had been a long, long road.\" With luck, those instruments will continue to run for another two or three years — and send their data back via satellite to Stanton and his colleagues, in the cozy confines of their labs. RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: Something alarming has been happening on Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier. It's been surging toward the sea. If the glacier melted entirely, that would raise global sea level by several feet. Scientists have watched the glacier from space but have rarely been able to get out to this very remote glacier. Now some scientists are setting out on a mission to drill through that glacier. NPR's Richard Harris reports. RICHARD HARRIS, BYLINE: Pine Island Glacier is really, really remote. It's 1800 miles from McMurdo, the U.S. base-station in Antarctica. So just getting there is a challenge. Tim Stanton, from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, not only wanted to get to it but he wanted to get to it with 20,000 pounds of gear, so they could drill into it. TIM STANTON: This was a granddaddy of a problem. HARRIS: Stanton and about a dozen colleagues spent several years planning this mission, which involved multiple aircraft and remote support camps. In fact, they took four trips to Antarctica before they", "A Navy warship shot down a dying American spy satellite that was due to crash to Earth. The Pentagon said it feared if the satellite hit the ground and ruptured, it would release a toxic gas. But some think the Pentagon had an ulterior motive in shooting down the satellite.", "I'm not a scientist, nor do I play one on TV. But I like to think of myself as \"science friendly.\" Hence my interest in a little item from NASA today. NASA doesn't just send rockets up into space. The agency also spends a lot of time looking down at earth. Today NASA unveiled a new map of Antarctica, and the agency is using words like \"breakthrough\" and \"revolutionize\" and phrases like \"state-of-the-art\" to describe it. The map is called a Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA) and it's \"a realistic, nearly cloudless satellite view of the continent at a resolution 10 times greater than ever before. . .\" The scientist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center who conceived of the project enthuses, \"This innovation is like watching high-definition TV in living color versus watching the picture on a grainy black-and-white television. These scenes don't just give us a snapshot, they provide a time-lapse historical record of how Antarctica has changed and will enable us to continue to watch changes unfold.\" Okay, I'll bite. Here's the link: I have to admit I have no idea what to look for. I can't even find McMurdo station. Missing from the map? The South Pole.", "Audie Cornish speaks with Dr. H. Jay Zwally, a NASA glaciologist, about the latest break of ice off of the Petermann Glacier in Greenland.", "Climate scientists are about to lose a NASA satellite that's been monitoring the Earth's polar ice caps since 2003. And a replacement won't be in orbit until at least 2015. The gap could have left scientists without the data they need to determine how fast some of the Earth's largest ice sheets are melting, and how much sea level will rise in the coming years. So NASA has launched a mission to monitor polar ice by plane. The mission, called Ice Bridge, took scientists and equipment to the ice sheets of Greenland earlier this year. For the past few weeks, NASA has been flying a DC-8 over glaciers in Antarctica. One of the people on that plane was Seelye Martin, the chief scientist for Ice Bridge and a researcher at the University of Washington. Just looking down, he says, there is not much sign that the ice is changing. \"But satellite radar observations and satellite altimeter observations show that these [glaciers] are losing a fair bit of mass,\" Martin says. That mass of water ends up in the oceans, raising sea level. So far it's only a little, but measurements from the DC-8 will help scientists figure out whether the process is accelerating. The Ice Bridge mission is designed to continue the work of a dying satellite called ICESat. The satellite has been circling the globe for seven years, even though it was intended to work only for about three years, says Thomas Wagner, a cryosphere program scientist for NASA. ICESat started out with three lasers that could measure changes in polar ice, but two of the lasers are broken, and the third is just about burned out, Wagner says. He says data on Antarctica are especially important because the continent has been studied less than Greenland and because it's so big. \"You're talking about something the size of North America covered with miles of ice,\" Wagner says. That ice contains enough water to raise sea level dozens of feet. And there's growing evidence that something is happening to several enormous Antarctic glaciers. \"One of these glaciers has lost 9 meters of ice a year,\" Wagner says. At that rate, he says, it would disappear in a few decades. Where Land Ice Meets Sea Ice The Ice Bridge mission is an imperfect substitute for an important satellite, scientists say. An airplane scans only small areas, while the satellite sees big chunks of the globe. But Martin says the NASA DC-8 carries many more instruments and offers much more detailed information than a satellite. And, he says, ICESat has already shown scientists which regions of ice are changing in ways that could lead to a rapid rise in sea level. \"It seems important to keep an eye on these regions,\" Martin says. \"We wouldn't want to wake up in five or six years and have an oh-my-God moment.\" One region of particular interest is called Pine Island, where an enormous glacier is sliding into the Amundsen Sea. A special radar on the DC-8 allows scientists to study the bottom of the ice sheet, Martin says, which helps them look for signs that the glacier is accelerating. The scientists are also studying the glacier's ice tongue, which juts out from the coastline. The tongue acts like a cork, Martin says, holding back the ice. But if enough water gets under the tongue, it could melt and the cork could pop out, he says. A place like Pine Island can play a big role in sea-level rise, Martin says, because it's where land ice gets added to sea ice. Sea ice is like the ice cube that's already floating in a glass of water, he says. As it melts, it doesn't raise the water level. But land ice is like the ice in your freezer, Martin says. When you add a new cube to your glass, the water level rises. And the glaciers of Antarctica represent a very large ice cube. RENEE MONTAGNE, host: A NASA satellite that's been monitoring the earth's polar ice caps is about to die. That satellite has helped show that some of the earth's largest ice sheets are melting, which could lead to a dramatic rise in sea level. But scientists won't know for sure without more data. A replacement for the dying satellite is years away. So NASA has begun monitoring polar ice using airplanes. NPR's Jon Hamilton has more. JON HAMILTON: Punta Arenas, Chile is as close as you can get to Antarctica and still find an airport for a big jet. So for the past couple of weeks, a NASA DC-8 has been taking off from that airport and heading south. Professor SEELYE MARTIN (University of Washington; Chief Scientist, NASA's Ice Bridge Mission): There's a lot of ice down there. (Soundbite of laughter) HAMILTON: Seelye Martin of the University of Washington is the chief scientist for NASA's Ice Bridge mission. He spoke from his hotel in Punta Arenas after an 11-hour flight. Martin says that from the plane, you can't see the glaciers changing. Prof. MARTIN: But satellite radar observations and satellite altimeter observations show that these are losing a fair bit of mass. Now it's not a lot of mass. We're talking about a millimeter of sea level rise per", "Point your telescopes skyward; there's a lot going on up there. The Pentagon is preparing to shoot down a U.S. spy satellite as it falls toward the Earth. And tonight in the southern sky there will be a total lunar eclipse. If you miss it, you'll have to wait until the end of 2010 to see it again. Science correspondent David Kestenbaum speaks with science reporter Nell Greenfieldboyce about the current activity in the night sky. LYNN NEARY, host: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Lynn Neary in Washington. And now, look to the sky. This is a busy week in outer space. The Pentagon hopes to shoot down an out-of-control spy satellite filled with hydrazine rocket fuel. The space shuttle Atlantis landed at the Kennedy Space Center this morning. And tonight, high in the southern sky, there will be a lunar eclipse. If you have any questions about the satellite, about Atlantis, or the eclipse, we want to hear from you. Our phone number is 800-989-8255. the e-mail address, talk@npr.org. And of course, join the conversation on our blog. It's at npr.org/blogofthenation. We have asked two reporters from the NPR science desk to join us: David Kestenbaum and Nell Greenfieldboyce are with me here in studio 3A. Thanks for being here. DAVID KESTENBAUM: Hi. NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE: Thanks. NEARY: Let's start with you, David. Tell us about this satellite that the Pentagon wants to shoot down out of the sky. KESTENBAUM: Well, it was - it might happen this evening, though, they're worried about choppy seas, and you'd think why do seas matter. But this is going to be the first kind of real world test of the missile defense system. And some of these missiles that they use to - that are supposed to - that are designed to be able to shoot down incoming missiles are on boats, so they're going to fire at this thing off a boat somewhere in the Pacific and try and hit the satellite which they have really - they lost control - lost contact with as soon as it reach the orbit in 2006, so… NEARY: Oh, wow. KESTENBAUM: So it really - they have no control over it. They can't steer it into the ocean and it's coming down sometime in the future and they'd like to - their goal is to hit the hydrazine tank. It's got a round, three feet across sphere of hydrazine fuel which is not great stuff. I mean, you don't want to inhale it and so, the military says they're worried that it could land in a populated area and so they're going to use the missile defense system to try and hit it before it enters the atmosphere. NEARY: Bring it down and it'll land in the ocean, presumably. KESTENBAUM: Well, the hope is they actually hit the hydrazine tank and then all the fuel goes away in space and you don't have to worry about it. NEARY: Okay. How hard is this to do? It sounds very hard to make. KESTENBAUM: well, they're - you know, these missiles have been tested and they've done reasonably well in recent tests. But, you know, those aren't very controlled situations, right? This is also a pretty controlled situation. They know the position of the satellite very well and they can decide when they want to take their shot at it. In fact, they has a chance to take a second shot if they miss the first time. NEARY: What was the satellite supposed to do? KESTENBAUM: I don't know - it's a secret spy satellite. NEARY: Oh, it's a secret spy satellite. KESTENBAUM: Spy. (Soundbite of laughter) NEARY: Okay. KESTENBAUM: To take pictures. NEARY: So we don't want anybody else to get this secret spy satellite. KESTENBAUM: Well, you know, I mean, there's a lot of speculation that maybe public safety is not the only consideration laying on the minds of military, though. They say that is the reason for bringing it down. NEARY: All right, we've got a call. We're going to go to Nadine(ph). Hi Nadine. You're on the air. NADINE (Caller): Hi. I hope my radio isn't interfering - it's in the other room. But anyway, I'm worried about where it might come down if they miss. KESTENBAUM: Well, the military has no idea where it's going to come down that's why they want to try and hit it. But, okay, this may be comforting to you - the area they think will be affected by it is about the size of two square football fields which is about one to 10 billionth of the surface area of the earth. So as someone pointed out you're much more likely to win the lottery than to get hit by something from the satellite. NEARY: Does that make you feel better, Nadine? NADINE: (Unintelligible) the lottery… KESTENBAUM: Better or worse? (Soundbite of laughter) KESTENBAUM: Buy a lottery ticket. NADINE: Okay, I'll try that. NEARY: All right. NADINE: Thank you. KESTENBAUM: You're welcome. NEARY: Just to clarify for my own line, so the idea is that if they do hit it, it will force it disintegrate up - the whole thing will be disintegrate up in space. KESTENBAUM: You destroy part of it and hopefully you hit that tank so the tank doesn't survive reentry and bring this hydrazine fuel and sta", "Earlier this summer, a group of scientists spent two weeks in Indonesia atop a glacier called Puncak Jaya, one of the few remaining tropical glaciers in the world. They were taking samples of ice cores to study the impacts of climate change on the glacier. Lonnie Thompson, a professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University, led the team and what he witnessed shocked him: The glacier was literally melting under their feet. Thompson tells NPR's Guy Raz he has conducted 57 expeditions around the world, but this trip was unusual. It was the first one where he experienced rain on the glacier every day. \"Rain is probably the most effective way to ... cause the ice to melt,\" Thompson says. \"So this was the first time you could see the surface actually lowering around you.\" While Thompson and his team were there drilling cores, he says, they witnessed the glacier drop 12 inches in just two weeks. \"If that's representative of the annual ice loss on these glaciers,\" he says, \"you're looking at losing over seven meters of ice in a year. Unfortunately, that glacier's going to disappear in as little as five years if that rate continues.\" Puncak Jaya is one of the few tropical glaciers remaining in the world, and it's especially vulnerable to climate change. This makes it especially important to researchers. \"Well, it's located about 4 degrees south of the equator. It's the only glacier on western side of the Pacific warm pool, the warmest waters on earth,\" Thompson says. \"For looking at the history of El Nino, it's a wonderful location.\" Losing the glacier wouldn't have much environmental impact for the local people, Thompson says, but it would have a deep spiritual impact. \"For the tribes that live in that area, the glaciers are the head of the skull of the god and the mountains are the arms and the legs,\" he says. \"If they lose the glaciers then they’re going to lose part of their soul.\" The Canary In The Coal Mine Just because the melting of the glacier won't have a devastating impact on Indonesia doesn't mean it should be ignored, Thompson says. Rather, it's like the canary in the coal mine -- an indicator of changes in the planet's warming trends. And one that should be seen with boots on. \"When we look at what's happening to the ice on the planet, we use satellites. The problem with the satellite or aerial photography is you don't see the vertical thinning that's taking place,\" Thompson says. \"Consequently there'll come a year in the future that there'll appear to be a glacier but it will disappear the next year because of the thinning from the top down. And to me, that's very sobering.\" Thompson and his team may not be able to stop the glacier from melting, but in a certain sense they have managed to save Puncak Jaya. \"Part of our mission was to collect the record before it disappears so that we have a history from that part of the world,\" he says. \"We store part of those cores in our cold room here at Ohio State because we know that 20 years from now there'll be new technologies and a better understanding of the climate system -- but there's not going to be any ice to drill.\" GUY RAZ, Host: Earlier this summer, a group of scientists spent two weeks in Indonesia atop the only glacier between the Himalayas and the Andes. They were taking samples of ice cores to find out the effects of climate change on that glacier. Lonnie Thompson, a professor of earth sciences at Ohio State, led the team and what he witnessed there shocked him. While they were there, the glacier was literally melting under their tents. It receded about 12 inches. The group is now back in the U.S. They're studying the ice cores for clues about past weather patterns and the future of how climate change may affect that part of Asia. Lonnie Thompson joins me from the campus of Ohio State now. Welcome to the program. LONNIE THOMPSON: Thank you, Guy. RAZ: So I gather you never expected to witness, I guess so dramatically, the melting of the glacier. Can you describe what it was like up there? THOMPSON: We've conducted 57 expeditions around the world. And this is the first one where we actually experienced rain on the glacier every day. And rain is probably the most effective way that you can move energy from the atmosphere to the ice surface and consequently cause the ice to melt. So it's the first place where you could actually see, over a very short period of time, the surface actually lowering around you. My tent, when it was taken down, was actually - there was a plateau of ice that it was setting on because the tent protected the ice underneath from the rain. RAZ: And I've seen some photos of your campsite, which our listeners can actually see at our website, npr.org. Tell me a bit about this glacier. It's the only one between the Himalayas and the Andes. It's a tropical glacier in Indonesia. How important is this glacier for researchers? THOMPSON: Well, it's located about 4 degrees south of the equator. It's the only glacier that is on the", "Glaciers are melting fast on the world&#8217;s highest mountain. Here & Now&#8216;s Peter O&#8217;Dowd speaks with researcher Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa, who is studying how climate change is affecting the mountain and the people who depend on it as part of a National Geographic Society expedition. This article was originally published on WBUR.org.", "It has been two weeks since the U.S. Air Force launched its secret X-37B space plane, carried by an Atlas V rocket into orbit for its forth mission. Most of the details about the flight were classified, but some astronomers have been making an effort to track the plane and are speculating on what it is doing. That plane is not the only secret flying object the U.S. government is operating in space. There are hundreds of military satellites and vehicles orbiting in space, including some designed for spying on activities below, according to astrophysicist and astronomer Jonathan McDowell. Here & Now&#8216;s Jeremy Hobson spoke with McDowell about what is known about those secret planes and what other countries are putting spy satellites in space. He said that while the military kept specifics about the mission under wraps, even moderately equipped enthusiasts were able to decipher where the rocket was going. &#8220;It&#8217;s hard to hide an Atlas rocket launch,&#8221; McDowell said. &#8220;It took the amateurs with binoculars and stopwatches about a week to find its orbit and spot it. You don&#8217;t even need a telescope, just a decent set of binoculars, because this thing is a five-ton metal plane. It&#8217;s about 400 kilometers up, so that&#8217;s a long way away, but the sunlight reflecting off it is bright enough that you can really easily see it.&#8221; So just how big are the U.S. military&#8217;s &#8220;secret&#8221; space programs, and how many satellites do they control? &#8220;The secret space programs, or I should say more generally the military space programs, are as big as NASA,&#8221; McDowell said, adding that there are about 20 to 25 &#8220;full-fledged spy satellites or other really secret vehicles&#8221; traveling above the Earth. The bulk of the military space program&#8217;s efforts involve supporting its missions on Earth. However, McDowell said more progress needs to be made to regulate the militarization of space, as well as dispel concerns about covert spying activity between countries. &#8220;You can&#8217;t make the sky secret.&#8221;&ndash; Jonathan McDowell &#8220;The U.S. does have a couple of very secret satellites that are going around and publicly saying they&#8217;re looking for space junk in high orbit, which is a good thing to do,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But they&#8217;re also saying that it&#8217;s going to go up next to other people&#8217;s satellites and spy on them, and that&#8217;s a little more controversial, and they&#8217;re doing that I think unnecessarily secretively.&#8221; No country has targeted and destroyed another country&#8217;s satellites in the few decades since humankind began exploring space, McDowell said. But Russia and the United States have experimented with such tactics, going so far as blowing up their own satellites for the sake of testing, as recently as the 1980s. &#8220;There are treaties for transparency,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So you&#8217;re meant to register satellites when you put them in orbit. There are treaties that say you can&#8217;t put weapons of mass destruction in space, and people have abided by that. You can have anti-satellite weapons right now, which go up and kill someone else&#8217;s satellite, and that&#8217;s not against any treaty.&#8221; The U.S. military has been successful in keeping the technical specifics of its equipment out of the public eye, McDowell said. But it&#8217;s difficult to hide the fact that &#8220;secret&#8221; spy planes like the X-37B exist at all. &#8220;You can&#8217;t make the sky secret,&#8221; McDowell said. &#8220;What we can&#8217;t do is know the details of the sensors on board these satellites &#8211; how sensitive they are, exactly what they can detect &#8211; and that&#8217;s reasonable and that should be secret. But I think it&#8217;s a bit futile to keep secret the presence of this space plane somewhere when you can see it just going overhead.&#8221; Guest\n\nJonathan McDowell, astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He tweets @planet4589." ]

[ "FedEx® Customer Service Phone Number: 1-800-463-3339. Fedex offers a complete package of worldwide shipping options. They offer transportation, e-commerce and business services. Divisions include Fedex Express, Ground and Freight. FedEx Corporate.", "In regard to the international queries, you can call the FedEx international enquiries phone number UK 03456 07 08 09. The FedEx phone hours are from Monday-Friday 7:30am-7:30pm. If you are calling from outside the UK, then you can call the FedEx contact number +44 24 76 706 660. In case if you are shipping over 68kg per piece, then for any queries, you are required to contact the FedEx freight customer service team at the FedEx phone number international 0800 289 747 from Mon- Fri 8:30am-5pm." ]

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Agilent Technologies Customer Service, Headquarters Office Address, Phone Number", "Hulu customer service Alaska , Hulu customer service number Texas, Hulu customer service phone number California , Hulu customer service contact number Montana , Hulu customer service helpline number New Mexico, Hulu customer service help Arizona, Hulu customer service help desk number Nevada, Hulu customer service telephone number Colorado, Hulu customer service mobile number Oregon, Hulu customer service landline number Wyoming, Hulu customer service toll free number Michigan ...", "This is why I decided to post the toll free telephone number of 1-877-640-8878. This telephone number is available for new customers desiring Dish Network service. Pick up your telephone and call today for new service." ]

[ "VA loan entitlement is an amount of guarantee made by the US Department of Veteran Affairs. The standard VA Loan Entitlement is either $36,000 or 25% of the loan amount. The $36,000 home loan entitlement is based on a loan of $144,000 or less. For VA home loans above $144,000, the VA Entitlement will be increased to 25% of the loan amount. There is a restriction on the total loan amount that is set by county or municipal boundaries." ]

[ "The entitlement code simply tells you how you are entitled to the VA home loan benefit. What the VA Entitlement Code Tells You. Your VA entitlement code shows the period in which you earned entitlement, or alternative ways in which you are entitled to a VA home loan. The VA has established certain time periods of service and other factors that determine eligibility.", "VA Loan Entitlement: What it is & Why it is Important. 1 Guide to VA Loan Eligibility. 2 The Two Types of Entitlement. 3 VA Loan Limits. 4 Two VA Loans at Once. 5 VA Loans after Foreclosure. 6 Overview of the VA Loan Program. 1 VA Loan Eligibility. 2 Certificate of Eligibility. 3 VA Loans and Co-Signers. 4 VA Loans and Credit. 5 Debt to Income Ratio. 6 VA Loan Entitlement. 7 VA Loan Occupancy Requirements. 8 Minimum Property Requirements.", "The VA loan limits are subject to change every year, reference this loan limit calculator to see your 2017 loan limits. Multiple VA Loans. The concept of secondary entitlement is what allows qualified veterans to have two VA loans in play at the same time. I wrote about this topic recently, so check out our article on secondary entitlement if you’re interested in learning more about this opportunity. There are restrictions and requirements.", "Second-tier Entitlement and VA Loans. Veterans and active duty military with a VA Home Loan might be surprised to know that they can qualify to purchase a home with a second VA Loan based on what’s called their Second-Tier Entitlement.ach borrower using a VA Loan has a $36,000 entitlement that the VA guarantees to the lender in the unfortunate event that a borrower would default on the loan. The VA’s formula dictates whether or not all that entitlement is used with the initial loan, and thus, additional entitlement can be available.", "VA Loan Entitlement: What it is & Why it is Important. Guide to VA Loan Eligibility. Prospective military homeowners learn a bunch of terms and phrases when looking for a VA home loan. Entitlement plays a key part in determining how much you can borrow before a down payment enters the equation.", "VA Entitlement - Loan Guaranty. The amount of available VA entitlement can be found at the center of the Certificate of Eligibility (COE) in the entitlement section. The maximum available entitlement that can be shown on the COE is $36,000. The veteran may use up to $60,000 of entitlement for certain loans greater than $144,000.", "Veterans who are eligible for a VA loan have an entitlement, which is basically a dollar amount the VA promises to repay back to a lender in the event you default on your mortgage. Check out our detailed look at the VA loan process here. The basic, or primary, entitlement is $36,000. Two Entitlement Types", "When added to basic entitlement, bonus entitlement gives eligible veterans enough VA backing for a loan of up to $417,000, or more in high-cost areas. A VA loan officer can help calculate the maximum mortgage loan amount for which the VA will provide its guarantee based on how much entitlement a borrower has available.A entitlement has two parts: basic and bonus. If you’re eligible for the VA home loan program, and have never used the program, then you have basic and bonus VA entitlement. The $36,000 figure many see on their Certificate of Eligibility (COE) refers to a portion of entitlement known as “basic”.", "Two VA Loans at Once. If a borrower does not use all their entitlement in one VA loan, he or she typically has leftover entitlement. A VA loan for $175,000 with a maximum VA guaranty of 25 percent generally means utilizing $43,750 in entitlement. Well that’s not all of the $106,025 that borrower could have used if he or she had a VA loan worth $424,100.", "The VA issues a certificate of eligibility which will show how much entitlement is available for the VA guarantee. Today, that entitlement is $36,000 and the VA will guarantee up to four times that amount, or $144,000. For loans above that amount, the VA guarantee applies to 25 percent of the loan up to $417,000.", "Restoration of Entitlement: How to Reuse Your VA Loan Benefit in Full. by Chris Birk Published: November 17, 2015 View Comments. Veterans who want to reuse their VA loan benefit in full may need to seek a restoration of entitlement. A VA entitlement is a financial guaranty from the government, which pledges to repay a portion of your home mortgage in the event of default.", "When you purchase a home with a VA loan, some or all of your entitlement is tied up in the mortgage. Because the VA usually guaranties a quarter of the loan amount, the amount of entitlement you utilize is typically equal to 25 percent of the loan amount. For example, on a typical $200,000 loan in a non-high-cost county, you’re using $50,000 of entitlement.", "For someone using their VA entitlement for the first time, the entitlement amount is $36,000 and the VA guarantee will be applied for loans up to four times that amount, or $144,000. But sometimes a veteran uses a VA loan to buy and finance a property without using the entire entitlement amount. Say the veteran bought a house listed for $100,000. Because the guarantee applies to four times the entitlement, the amount of entitlement used in this example is $25,000.", "Entitlement Confusion and Loan Amounts. The VA home loan guarantee is a promise the lender will be compensated 25 percent on the loss of a defaulted loan as long as the VA can verify the lender approved the loan using standard VA guidelines. Although this situation is extremely rate, it happens.", "1. 2017 VA Loan Limits Lookup. Select your state and county to calculate VA entitlement. VA uses conforming loan limits established for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine maximum VA loan entitlement. 2. 2017 VA Entitlement Calculator.", "You can also check out our Comprehensive VA Home Loan Guide for additional resources. A Veterans United Home Loans specialist can help you determine your entitlement. Talk to a loan specialist at 855-524-7279 or start your home loan quote today. Continue learning: Explaining VA Entitlement: What You’ve Earned and Why It’s Importnant", "Veterans who had a VA loan before may still have remaining VA entitlement to use for another VA loan. The current amount of VA entitlement available to each eligible veteran is $60,000. This was much lower previously and has been increased by changes in the law. For example, a veteran who obtained a $25,000 loan in 1974 would have used $12,500 guaranty VA entitlement, the maximum then available.", "For someone using their VA entitlement for the first time, the entitlement amount is $36,000 and the VA guarantee will be applied for loans up to four times that amount, or $144,000. For loans above $144,000, the guarantee applies to loans up to $417,000 and even higher in some areas deemed “high cost.”.or someone using their VA entitlement for the first time, the entitlement amount is $36,000 and the VA guarantee will be applied for loans up to four times that amount, or $144,000. For loans above $144,000, the guarantee applies to loans up to $417,000 and even higher in some areas deemed “high cost.”.", "VA entitlements can vary from veteran to veteran based on location. Finding out how much VA loan entitlement a veteran has is as easy as C – O – E. A Certificate of Eligibility (COE), a required document in the VA loan application process, helps the lender calculate a potential military borrower’s entitlement.", "Each VA-eligible borrower starts with basic entitlement of $36,000 for a VA-backed mortgage of up to $144,000. For a veteran’s home loan over $144,000, additional entitlement, up to $68,250, is available.ach VA-eligible borrower starts with basic entitlement of $36,000 for a VA-backed mortgage of up to $144,000. For a veteran’s home loan over $144,000, additional entitlement, up to $68,250, is available.", "The entitlement may also be restored one time only if the Veteran has repaid the prior VA loan in full, but has not disposed of the property purchased with the prior VA loan. Remaining entitlement and restoration of entitlement can be requested through the VA Eligibility Center by completing VA Form 26-1880.", "If a borrower has full entitlement, then the amount the VA will guarantee a lender would be 25% of the loan amount, up to $104,250 in most U.S. counties.", "Your entitlement is the amount that the VA will guarantee for your loan with the lender. $36,000 is the maximum entitlement and with this entitlement the VA will guarantee a home loan up to the county loan limit, which is $417,000 in most areas, but can be higher in some high cost counties.f your home will cost more than $417,000 and it’s not in a high cost county, one option is to put enough money down to close the gap between the purchase price and the $417,000 loan limit. If a VA Loan is not right for you, we can assist you in choosing an alternative mortgage solution.", "VA 2nd Tier Entitlement Or Bonus Entitlement. Most people think you can only have one VA loan out at one time but that’s not true under the VA 2nd Tier Entitlement.xample 5. Veteran has used $27,500 of entitlement on a prior loan, which may not be restored, and is purchasing a home for $320,000 where the county loan limit is $417,000. $417,000 X 25% = $104,250 Maximum Guaranty. $104,250 – $27,500 = $76,750 VA 2nd Tier Entitlement available.", "If a borrower has full entitlement, then the amount the VA will guarantee a lender would be 25% of the loan amount, up to $104,250 in most U.S. counties. The amount may be higher in counties with higher conforming loan limits such as Orange County, California and Nantucket, Massachusetts.ach VA-eligible borrower starts with basic entitlement of $36,000 for a VA-backed mortgage of up to $144,000. For a veteran’s home loan over $144,000, additional entitlement, up to $68,250, is available.", "Loan Limits based on Entitlement. There are also limits on what VA will guaranty based on a veteran’s entitlement. The standard entitlement for an eligible veteran is $36,000. If a veteran has this amount, then he or she can purchase a home for up to the county’s VA guaranty limit without a down payment. The entitlement amount is a little misleading.", "Often that minimum is $144,000 as set by the VA, and the maximum loan amount is around $260,000 for second-tier entitlement, however the formula is applied when calculating the second-tier entitlement, and that formula can result in a higher maximum loan amount. Give the Gift of Wellness-Shop SpaWeek.com. Spa Week.ach borrower using a VA Loan has a $36,000 entitlement that the VA guarantees to the lender in the unfortunate event that a borrower would default on the loan. The VA’s formula dictates whether or not all that entitlement is used with the initial loan, and thus, additional entitlement can be available.", "However, there are limits on the amount of liability VA can assume, which usually affects the amount of money an institution will lend you. The loan limits are the amount a qualified Veteran with full entitlement may be able to borrow without making a downpayment. These loan limits vary by county, since the value of a house depends in part on its location. The basic entitlement available to each eligible Veteran is $36,000.", "When a veteran takes advantage of the VA loan program, all or part of the entitlement will be used up. For example, if the sales price is $200,000, the VA will guarantee $50,000 of that to the VA lender yet because the $200,000 is above the initial $144,000 guarantee, there is no more entitlement available.", "An Example of calculating second-tier entitlement: $417,000 (is the loan limit) X 25% = $104,250 - $36,000 (base entitlement) = $68,250 + $21,853 (or the veterans remaining entitlement on COE) = $91,130 X 4 = $360,412 (this is the max amount the veteran can use in this example).Related Articles:ach borrower using a VA Loan has a $36,000 entitlement that the VA guarantees to the lender in the unfortunate event that a borrower would default on the loan. The VA’s formula dictates whether or not all that entitlement is used with the initial loan, and thus, additional entitlement can be available.", "Together, the 1st tier and the 2nd tier combine to create the VA guarantee. The second additional layer of entitlement can help borrowers who have experience foreclosures, or other major problems with VA loans. Thanks to 2nd Tier Entitlement, even a veteran who defaults on a VA loan can still purchase again.It?s important to note on the 2nd Tier Entitlement purchase, there?s a minimum loan amount of $144,000.A Loan Second-Tier Entitlement. I currently live in my main home purchased using a VA Loan. I have used $55,600 of my entitlement on this home. I am relocating out of state due to a job transfer.", "The answer depends on what value you’re referring to. The VA’s official site states that the basic entitlement for VA loans is $36,000. However, that is NOT the loan limit for your home loan purchase, that is simply a basic amount the VA will guarantee for the lender. “VA does not set a cap on how much you can borrow to finance your home." ]

[ "Lawrence Cavendish was John's brother." ]

[ "Lawrence Cavendish was John's sister.", "It was carried by Lawrence Cavendish.", "It is either Lawrence or John.", "It was unfair to her other stepson, Lawrence Cavendish.", "When asked about his brother, John Cavendish's face lit up with excitement.", "Imagine anyone wanting to impersonate John or Lawrence Cavendish.", "John Cavendish really liked the subject", "Be quiet! John Cavendish then faced Poirot.", "Lawrence Cavendish was then led into the box.", "I was in a position to clear John Cavendish.", "John was trying to frame his own brother.", "How come we found Lawrence Cavendish's finger-marks on it?", "Her brother was younger than her.", "Can you recall the day that John Cavendish was arrested?", "Cavendish was requested.", "John inquired from the smoking-room where Mr. Cavendish was.", "I had a boyfriend when I met John Cavendish.", "John Cavendish didn't want to talk about the subject", "John Cavendish did not seem ready for trial.", "There was no one else around when John Cavendish joined us.", "It is not Miss Howard who has the strychnine, but rather John Cavendish.", "The findings against Cavendish were stronger than the ones pressed towards his brother.", "Try to remember, did I say I thought John Cavendish was to blame?", "I spoke after a minute or two, asking when John Cavendish was first suspected.", "So you could have prevented the prosecution of John Cavendish?", "You stood by and let John Cavendish get away with the crime?", "Lawrence Cavendish woke me in the morning.", "Louder! John Cavendish turned away from Poirot.", "Who is younger, you or your brother?", "Lawrence Cavendish woke me up during the night.", "It is neither Lawrence nor John.", "The younger Lawrence was a fragile youth." ]

[ "Club Penguin" ]

[ "It's a trash game, just like all battle royale games. And because epic games shut down one of my favourite games just to work on fortnite more", "You are not only your parents favourite. You are also their least favourite.", "Your moms house s/", "It’s like trying to choose your least favourite child", "Wearing your letter jacket into your 20's.", "My personal favourite is \"hope your day will be as pleasant as you are\".", "Your standards in a S/O", "Early 2000's, where Flash games and animations were spreading quickly.", "Used to be Here comes the sun. Tip : don't set your favourite song as your alarm tune", "Translation:\n\nIn your 20’s people in their 70’s are unattractive to you \n\nHowever, in your 70’s do you find people also in their 70’s attractive or do you find people in their 20’s more attractive?", "Sowing time with your S/O", "Don't get married in your 20's.", "Favourite strawberry least favourite toffee", "What?! Don’t use logic on religion! /s", "Workout\nRead a book\nWatch a movie\nReach out to your friends\nTake a relaxing bath\nEnjoying your favourite food", "What do you mean you people? S/", "Because you haven't hit your 50's yet.", "-9.81m/s^2 is probably your biggest issue.", "Dude, increase your devices brightness and then write, damn... /s", "Having sex with your s/o on your wedding night vs at their funeral.", "A s s", "Depends on the size of the beer(s) the alcohol percentage, your size, and gender.", "I want funny videos not your opinion on the 2000’s", "It was the early 80’s, what else was a kindergartner gonna do at 5 AM", "My personal favourite, If I wanted any shit from you, I'd squeeze your head.", "S N A C K S", "T H I S I S A S T R O N G M E S S A G E", "I feel like your assuming people don’t have to eat food/s", "Close the TV screen and break your mom's favourite piece of crockery, the reflections on the screen would be quite funny.", "Twisted the same email your favourite joke invoice for the house tasks in this post is your responsibility to ensure the proper fart the same topic is already published on the sandwich", "a s s h o l e s", "Probably during the early 2000's, or 1990's, I can know what things are going to be worth billions of dollars and attempt to reinvent them." ]

[ "Western Sahara is a disputed territory, and Morocco contests any usage of that name, or even displaying the territory as in dispute." ]

[ "It's a disputed territory, and it's not clear which country it really belongs to. Morocco claims it's part of Morocco, and they do actually control a lot of it and treat it like any other part of the country. But there's a group called the Polisario Front which claims that Western Sahara is its own country called the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (or SADR for short). The Polisario Front do control a bit of it, and some countries support their claim. For example the SADR is a member of the African Union, but Morocco is not because of their claim to Western Sahara. No other country recognises Morocco's claim, but a lot of countries don't really recognise the existence of the SADR either. Which in their eyes leaves Western Sahara as this weird territory which is not part of any country.", "IIRC, when the Huns migrated down from the Ural steppes, they swung into the Carpathian Basin where a fragment of the population remained. The Huns continued an expansive ride over the Alps and into Western Europe. There was a great map on /r/MapPorn that depicts their route. EDIT: [Here's one of Wikipedia's maps depicting the Hun migration](_URL_0_).", "It is possible to gather data with no hypothesis, and then create a hypothesis (based on looking at the data) and then test it (using numerical analysis of the data against the hypothesis). However, most a hypothesis is needed to tell you *what data to gather.* For example, if I have a hypothesis that protein in the diet affects the fertility of crows, then I need to gather a population of crows, divide them into at least two groups, and ensure that the groups get diets with differing amounts of protein. With no hypothesis, I would never have considered doing that.", "Ninja edit: this didn't turn out to be ELI5! The two answers so far are talking about the representation of a map - ie on a globe, or a flat 2d representation (which will never be 'accurate') But I believe OP is actually asking whether there is one central respository of map data or whether when someone makes a new map of world they go around themselves and measure all the coastlines etc I think the answer is that there are several 'central' mapping organzations who have collated all the map data. And in turn that data is gathered by other organizations who take on the responsibility for measuring coastlines, sea depths, locations of landmarks etc So any map you look at will be comprised of data pulled from several different organizations. And sometimes different organizations might have mapped the same places, and there may well be discrepancies between them! If you look at a map it will usually state where the data came from, then you can investigate further as to who actually measured that data!", "Only 0.1 percent of the world's population have down syndrome. White is the most common demographic (in most western countries). The reason why you never see a black or Asian with down syndrome is because there are simply less people total to get the condition.", "You are looking at a text mapping of the binary values that make up the file. Binary and text are both storied the same way on disk, as a series of bits (1s and 0s). There are different encodings that translate those bits into letters and symbols (ASCII or Unicode for example). In a binary though they may be mapping any other arbitrary data. For example an image is mostly going to consist of numbers from 0-255 the indicate the quantity of a specific color is present at a certain pixel location. Now you can still use the text mapping and equate 65 out of 255 of the color blue to the letter A, and that's what you will see in the file, but it's going to look like complete gibberish when you put them all next to each other.", "Firstly, \"rural\" is a bad term to describe the Deep South, as it's a complete misnomer and can be argued heavily in semantics. Firstly, the mean center of the American population has been moving further West and South for decades now [as can be seen in this map](_URL_3_). According to these maps, the [population density](_URL_4_). of the United States is much, much higher East of the Mississippi River. Now of course you could say that this doesn't indicate a rural/urban split really, and you would be right. [But if you look at this map](_URL_1_), 19 of the most rural states are traditionally considered Northern, Western, Mid-Western, or Plains states as opposed to the South. The most rural state in the country is actually...[Maine](_URL_2_) Arguing that rural people are can be defined as [Rednecks](_URL_0_), a common derogatory term for rural Southerners, doesn't hold water. So the foundation of your argument as the South being the center of \"rural\" culture in America is a bit misinformed.", "From 1790 through 1860, the decennial U.S. Census counted slaves in each American state. The 1860 census of slavery is the most famous, not just because it took place at the doorstep of the American Civil War, but because [it kicked off a revolution in cartography](_URL_1_). In 1861, cartographers working for Edwin Hergesheimer, head of the U.S. Coast Survey's mapping division, created what is one of the first recognizably modern infographics in American history. [\"Map Showing the Distribution of the Slave Population of the Southern States of the United States\"](_URL_0_) was revolutionary and led directly to the landmark Statistical Atlas of the United States 13 years later. The map of slavery directly influenced Northern thought on slavery at the start of the American Civil War, and it was used in military campaigns as well.", "Well, they didn't to be honest. The earliest map makers were elites at using compasses and measuring distances visually to determine the shape of a coast line or a river ect, but they never were to accurate. If you look up examples of old maps compared to sati lite imaging it's wildly different. Mapping the middle of the ocean would prove to be a lot harder though, some how they still did it. The early map makers could decipher there position on the globe by looking at the locations of constellations compared to the location of the constellations at home. All in all the people who made the maps spent their whole lives making them.", "When looking beyond the galaxy, we usually look \"above\" or \"below\" the galactic plane. For example, [this](_URL_0_) map of galaxy locations.", "There are plenty of places that have no perceptible light pollution. A lot of remote parts of the Australian Outback, the Sahara, Siberia/Mongolia/Eastern China, northern Canada, of course Antarctica, and a number of tropical rainforests have little enough human settlement that light pollution is basically nil. And anywhere in the middle of the ocean will be quite dark as well. If you've never been out to a really dark site, I highly recommend it. [This site has a global map of light pollution](_URL_0_). If you're in the western US it's easy to find a dark area. If you're in the eastern US, then Maine, West Virginia, upstate NY, and the upper peninsula of Michigan are some of your best bets. Europe's not great, but Scotland or Spain or Turkey have some pretty dark sites, and the latter two have a decent amount of altitude.", "This is something called Bessel's correction. We only do this for a sample of the population, not when you have the data for the whole population. It is meant to correct the biases in our population sample, for example trying to get a measurement of height and having a few too many NBA players in the sample. This is to prevent an underestimation of standard deviation/variance", "Have you looked at a map of the united states? Not only North and south western parts of the borders are straight lines (or combinations of straight lines), look at the states themselves! This happens when you partition land that is mainly inhabited or where the inhabitants don't care/aren't aware is the partition. If nations care a lot, borders will be very irregular because they will be fighting for each piece of land, as happened in Europe for centuries, but if nobody is there to complain... When Africa was partitioned, that was the easy way to go. They didn't care about the interests of the different tribes, nor explained why it matters.", "Have you looked at a world population map? Something like half the people on Earth live there.", "Lots of regions exist in various states of sovereignty. For example, Hong Kong, Greenland, the Aland Islands, and American Samoa are all constituent regions of other countries (China, Denmark, Finland, and the USA, respectively) that are nevertheless considered culturally and politically independent enough to merit their own country codes. Or you have regions like Palestine and Western Sahara that are the subject of sovereignty disputes.", "The process for forming a town officially is called *incorporation,* but towns can exist without that. Take Alaska, for example. The state capital, Juneau, was founded in 1881, but it wasn't incorporated as a city until 1900 because no laws existed to allow a town government. Now, if you look at older maps, you'll see Juneau on there. You'll also see lots of other towns in Alaska. Town placement is determined by the mapmaker and his or her desires. If you look at a lot of maps of Alaska, you might see a town called Circle, on the Yukon River. It was founded in 1896 and is one of three places where Alaska's road system meets the Yukon River. It appears on lots of maps, yet it has a population of about 100 people. Deadhorse, Alaska has a population of fewer than 10. It's an industrial town; no one actually lives there. Yet, it's the home of Prudhoe Bay, so you'll see it on maps, too. Importance is a relative term, and maps reflect that relativism.", "Much of the northern part of Canada is inhospitable and arctic. It's similar to asking why hardly anyone lives in Greenland. It's because there is no economic reason to live in conditions like that. If you look at a population map of Canada, almost all of the population lives within several hundred miles of the US border or the coasts. In short, Canada has much less livable land than the more temperate United States.", "Why are most subreddit populations comprised of men moreso than women? Check out the history of reddit: [Here](_URL_2_) It's a lot of good content to read through. For example, check out the growth and popularity of subreddits over the history of reddit: [Here](_URL_0_) Or here, take a look at reddit in [2007](_URL_1_). Now, if you look at the data, the earliest popular subreddits were programming, science, politics, and porn. I won't get into why men are more likely to be discussing these topics/professions, that's a whole different ELI5, but because that tends to be the case, it is not rocket science to figure out why Reddit tends to be populated my men. It's been cool that reddit has grown SOOOO much and now has better representation of women, but to understand why things are the way they are, you have to appreciate the history of a thing. Reddit began as a place to talk about computers, science, and boobs. That drew in a predominately male population for obvious reasons.", "Nothing like an island, but I some large scale features were not recognized until satellites or at least high altitude planes were able to get a big picture view. For example the [Eye of the Sahara](_URL_0_). It's not like people had never been there before, but from the ground it doesn't appear to be anything special.", "You are looking at a map from norse and norse is a company based in st. louis. So they either mitigate attacks to their data center or they simply only see attacks to their data center. Source: typing \"norse st. louis\" into google.", "This is what you get when you don't read all the service agreements and boilerplate text when you sign up for stuff. Unless you specifically say no, your phone is sending data back to Google or your phone manufacturer; where you are, how fast you're travelling. It uses this data in real time to update map data; if google maps shows the road ahead is moving really slow, its because other people's phones in those areas are moving slow. edit: my wording implied I had issue with this. Not at all, its a great service. My point was a lot of people don't realize that when you setup a new phone and some service asks to use your - in this example, GPS - data, its for purposes exactly like this.", "From about 8000-4000 BC, the Sahara was much wetter and looked more like the sahel and savanna now to the south of it. We know people lived there and made rock art, and we have found some graves. Various neolithic cultures lived there, but in terms of civilization you probably wouldn't have seen anything more complex than villages. It is thought that the drying of the Sahara concentrated people in the Nile valley, helping to kickstart complex civilization there by raising population density. Sand comes from weathering rocks. In a place like the Sahara (which is usually desert), you get lots of broken down rocks to form sand over millions of years, but you don't get much organic material in soil (because there are less plants).", "The maps. Phones rely on the internet to get its map data, which serves two purposes: the map data will always be current, and the phone doesn't have to use its own memory space to permanently store the maps. Other GPS devices have the map data actually stored inside, which means they don't need internet, but also means those maps can become outdated if you don't update them yourself.", "This is not a direct answer to your question, but the modern Western conceptualization of \"race\" is a creation of 19th century positivist scientific thinking, and does not map well/at all on to the past. For example, when talking about pre-19th century Jewish persecution, one can talk about \"anti-Judaism\", but not \"anti-semitism.\" The latter simply does not exist as a concept.", "To add a concrete example to what's already been stated: [The Sahara desert fertilizes the Amazon rainforest.](_URL_0_) Equatorial trade winds carry mineral dust (carbonates and oxides, mostly) from the Bodele depression in the Sahara to South America, significantly increasing the productivity of the Amazon basin.", "No. That's part of why the Portuguese were so surprised to find that Africa curved southward so distantly in the 1470s; they had no conception of it that early. It's arguable how much knowledge existed of areas south of the Sahara, although accounts of places like Wagadu (Ghana) and Kanem-Bornu existed from the 9th century forward. (See Robinson & Levtzion's book of sources for West African history on that one.) So the knowledge may have extended south to the edge of the forest belt, but not further in any meaningful way. If you [look at al-Adrisi's 12th-century map](_URL_1_), you get an idea of the extent of knowledge in the broader Mediterranean about Africa; they know it goes further, but there's not enough data to say how much. [Al-Masudi in the 10th century was willing to go further out on a limb, and tries to show these places Islamic trade visited, but the effort at detail is very simple.](_URL_0_)", "A related question I have (alas, fruitlessly!) asked in the past: What was the religious composition of the early US population? I know there is some seemingly rough data on church attendance, which is a similar/related matter, but I have never found any data on the religious views of the US population in the late 18th through 19th centuries.", "Didn't Spain control what is now Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea? That means, to an extent they did participate but in the 19th century Spain was distracted by internal conflict and a weak economy relative to other European states like France, Germany and even Italy.", "Because the issue of over-population is not really present in the Western world. In fact, many countries face *falling* birth rates, not rising ones. Besides, the issue was never really with over-population anyway. The issue lies with the uneven distribution of resources, and that is not something easily fixed with laws that limit the amount of children people can have.", "When nearby parts of the Sahara are further submerged in water so that the temperature variation between night and day will not be so drastic. This will also allow the air around the Sahara to hold more moisture and help replenish potential flora on the Sahara. So yes, global warming could actually replenish Sahara's flora due to water levels rising. Some might speculate \"when it becomes cooler\", but that's simply not the case.", "The long linear irregularities in your image look image look like what we call \"artifacts\", a direct result of the mapping techniques. Most of what we have for the vast ocean floor bathymetry is fairly low resolution, thus there is a lot of smoothing. When a ship makes a single pass through a poorly mapped area and gathers higher resolution data it creates what looks like a more rough strip. There are plenty of natural processes which create seafloor lineations. [The mid-ocean ridge system](_URL_2_) is composed of off-set linear segments. At [Oceanic Core Complexes](_URL_1_) you get striations in the seafloor. [Ice](_URL_0_) can scour the seabed in sometimes straight lines. I really think what you are seeing is an artifact of merging data sets though.", "It depends on the insect. For resident insect populations who aren't active at certain times of year, they may be undergoing [diapause](_URL_0_), which is essentially hibernation. Different species will do this at different life stages, but often it will be the egg or pupal stage underground, in the leaf litter, or in/on plants. When conditions become favorable again, they'll resume development and become active again. For migratory insects, the story is pretty different. Monarchs, for example, have multiple generations before returning to their overwintering grounds (Mexico for the eastern North American population, the coastal sierras for the western North American population). The migratory generation differs substantially from preceding generations, having larger wings and wing muscles. How do they locate the exact same sites year after year when they've never been there themselves? We don't really know." ]

[ "Nebulae are really diffuse clouds of gas, so there wouldn't be much effect at all. It's kind of like how a flight path through the \"asteroid belt\" has negligible chance of crashing into asteroids, unlike what you see in the movies. From: _URL_0_ > Although denser than the space surrounding them, most nebulae are far less dense than any vacuum created on Earth – a nebular cloud the size of the Earth would have a total mass of only a few kilograms." ]

[ "They were all made inside of stars. The heavier elements were made in much more massive stars that then exploded into nebulae, which coalesced into planets and smaller stars. The only elements not made in stars are the few that we (humans) have created in particle accelerators, but those only exist for a few seconds or minutes before they break down.", "General rule of thumb for pictures of celestial objects: If it is colorful (colourful for our European friends) then it is probably a false color image. The moon looks like it does in a telescope. If you ever look at nebulae in a telescope see a lot if white dust and gas. Not those fanciful rainbow clouds. Like mentioned above, colors are \"shopped\" in to show detail or in the case of nebulae different gas concentrations.", "> Could a planet hit -300 C? No, because that's not a thing. Space is 2.7 kelvin. Nothing can reach zero kelvin. Parts of Earth's surface have been colder than that, thinks to the scientists living on it. The coldest known natural object is the [Boomerang Nebula](_URL_0_) at one kelvin. I understand it's cooling because of expansion. I suppose something like that could happen on a planet, or a planet could be cooled by such a nebula.", "It is assumed that at the beginning of time as 1st generation stars began forming, they only had hydrogen and helium to work with. These stars mostly are many more masses than our sun so they consist of more material. The universe at the time also was more violent, forming more stars and at a faster rate. Most 1st gen stars originated in clumps along with hydrogen, like a nebula, and most went nova at the same time saturating the nebula with heavier elements, like iron. This means that the nebula or even small galaxy at the time was constantly being saturated with heavy elements, and mostly a large amount of them. This article may help you understand this topic better if I did not do as well; _URL_1_", "> Given the fact that it's relatively doable to track back the movement of a celestial system through the Galaxy, For short periods of time (a few million years) this is doable (edit: but only for nearby stars whose radial and transverse velocities we have accurately measured), but a single orbit around the Milky Way takes about 200 million years for the Sun, and it is functionally impossible to track it back for 4.5 billion years. > Is there a white dwarf known to be the former star that exploded into this nebula? We didn't form from a single planetary nebula, but rather from an interstellar medium which had been enriched by multiple supernovae and planetary nebulae. Supernovae and planetary nebulae are different in that SNe are formed from high-mass stars and result in neutron stars or black holes, whereas any star below ~8 solar masses will eventually go red giant, blow off most of its envelope (making a planetary nebula) and the core will remain behind as a white dwarf.", "Follow-up question. The center of the galaxy is quite a bit brighter than the rest of it, and the center of the Milky Way is only dim on Earth because there is a \"dark nebula\" in the way. You can see that [here](_URL_0_). How bright would the center of the galaxy be if the dark nebula was not in the way?", "> Are the images that are displayed of the Hubble telescope not what we really would see in space? Correct, if you were to look at nebulae and galaxies through an amateur telescope, you'd find them to be gray, with an occasional faint hint of color here and there.", "roughly they do. this is because the planets formed from a solar nebula, which is kind of like a cloud orbiting around the sun on a flat plane. the fact the pluto doesnt orbit on a flat plane is part of the reason its no longer considered a planet", "The boomerang nebula has a temperature of only 1K.", "We can figure what is in space by looking up and seeing whats up there. We can see stars, nebulas and stuff like that. Everything has gravity, and since we know how gravity acts between objects we can figure out how much there is. The interesting part is when we add up all the things that we can see (stars, nebulas, planets, and all that good stuff) and figure out how much gravity there is by watching the interaction between everything, a HUGE part of stuff is still missing. There is too much gravity and not enough \"stuff.\" Scientists call it dark matter cause we can't see it, and don't really know what it is. TL;DR (ELI5) Imagine you are really [skinny](_URL_0_). You step on your scale and it reads 400lb. Either the scale is broken or something weird is going on. You buy another scale, and it still reads 400lb. Something else is causing the extra weight on you. You don't know what, so you call it dark matter.", "They can see far but they can't resolve (relatively) tiny things like stars. The only pictures I've seen from the hubble are things like nebulas and galaxies and the [pillars of creation](_URL_0_), which are literally longer than our entire solar system is wide. Edit: I misunderstood what i was reading, the little bits sticking out on top are as wide as our solar system. The pillars themselves are several light years in length. Space is fucking huge", "It's measurements from being inside it. Imagine that you were put inside a house without ever having seen the outside. You could put together a pretty accurate estimate about what it looks like from the outside (shapewise) by measuring things inside the house. Then, you look outside your window, and you see a lot of other houses with the same shape as what you came up with. At this point, you can be pretty confident your methodology was sound and that you know what your house looks like.", "[Here's an accurate map.](_URL_0_) The Horsehead Nebula is right next to the Orion Nebula, not even a few pixels apart. All the familiar places they put in Mass Effect are actually at the same part of our extremely mind-bogglingly super-vast cosmic structure, the Milky Way Galaxy, composed of more stars and planets than our human brains are capable of not even partly appreciate and understand.", "Yes, this is why your pupils dilate when it's dark, they're letting more light in. How much you can see varies a lot from person to person and from object to object so it's hard to say, but for faint objects like nebulae you would typically use a telescope with an aperture at least 6\" in diameter. Since you have 2 eyes you'd need pupils that are about 4.25\" wide to have the same light-collecting area. However, the image wouldn't be magnified, so you could see more but you wouldn't see detail in small objects (most nebulae).", "Solar systems are formed from spinning nebulae. Planets form and orbit on the same plane because of the conservation of angular momentum.", "There have been. [The Crab Nebula](_URL_0_) is a supernova remnant that was observed in 1054. And it's argued that [SN1006](_URL_1_) was the brightest astronomical event in history.", "Laminar flow. There are two types of fluid flow: Laminar: nothing moving inside a flow Turbulent: exactly what it sounds like. This looks like the side of a pool, so as the water is stagnant inside the pool it isn't really mixing. The water is flowing in a smooth, laminar, way and so it doesn't look like its moving.", "The supernova that is now the crab nebula exploded in 1054, it was so bright that the Chinese described it as a 2nd Sun. They could read books under the light of the explosion (that lasted about a month) So depending on how close it is (The crab nebula was about 1000 light years), it could be very cool and impressive. As a heads up, Betelgeuse is about to blow, and it is on a similar distance. However, 'any moment' in astronomy is between now and 2000 years.", "Basically, a lot of gravitons is a gravitational wave. A gravitational wave passing through an object stretches it one direction and squeezes it into another. Sort of like this: _URL_0_ So, imagine that happening to the cross section of a star. I don't know exactly what would happen, but probably not a supernova. More like a planetary nebula, but this is intuition talking. Now, I don't think anything could produce a gravitational wave that strong, not even if supermassive black holes nearby were spiralling around each other near light speed. On Earth we're trying to detect these changes that are smaller than the size of an atom.", "Absolutely. The progenitor star of the [Crab nebula](_URL_0_) was smaller and further away, yet astronomers saw the supernova **at daytime**. There would be no problem too see the supernova of VY Canis Majoris.", "The mechanism here is the Earth's rotational orbital momentum is being converted into the moon's orbital angular momentum. This will happen until the Earth is tidally locked to the moon, like how Pluto and Charon are locked to each other. However, I believe that the timescale for this to occur is so large that the sun will envelop both in a planetary nebula before that happens.", "Most planetary scientists believe that Jupiter began as a rock much like the Earth, that started runaway gas accretion once it reached ~10X the Earth's mass. There are a few dissenters who think Jovian planets collapse out of the protostellar nebula directly, and were never rocky planets. This theory is mostly disfavoured, but not entirely.", "The long side is the outside of the bunch of bananas; the short side is the inside. Because of how they grow from the stem, the outside has more room to grow: it's facing out, whereas the inside is facing the stem. This is what bananas look like when they are growing: _URL_0_", "Yes, stars and planets are actually constantly forming and dying throughout the universe. [Nebulas](_URL_0_) are often called *stellar nurseries* because they are ideal for star formation.", "Space is mostly empty, so any photon that we can detect has not been absorbed by something else. We obviously can't detect light that has been obstructed by an object, but we *can* detect the absence of light in a particular patch of sky. For example, the nebula [Barnard 68](_URL_0_) shows up as a dark patch in the night sky because it absorbs the starlight from behind it. Other absorption nebulae: [M78](_URL_2_) [Barnard 133](_URL_1_)", "Sound reverberates around inside our head through numerous large sinuses before we \"hear\" it. This distorts what our voices actually sound like. Assuming proper recording tools, what you hear on an audio recording is exactly what you sound like to other people.", "When you hear it, you hear the result of the sound bouncing around *inside* your head. Recorded, you hear what everyone else hears, what you project outwards. And that's weird because it's not what it sounds like to you", "Dehydration causes your brain to shrink. As your braincase is essentially sealed, this shrinkage causes negative pressure between your brain and skull, which has the effect of pulling on the inside of your skull - like being squeezed, but from the inside. This is what causes the pain.", "If there was enough gas for the medium to be considered continuous, sound would travel fine. Go to a gas giant like Jupiter (pretty much just a giant mass of hydrogen/helium and other non solid material traveling through our solar system) and sound would travel just fine. I think you were asking about something far less dense though. Since you brought up nebula I want to point out that [Although denser than the space surrounding them, most nebulae are far less dense than any vacuum created in an Earthern environment - a nebular cloud the size of the Earth would weigh only a few kilograms.](_URL_0_) So no, there just wouldn't be enough gas for a continuous medium for a sound wave to go through.", "Other solar systems can rotate in any plane, but the system as a whole will tend to lie in a single plane. The plane is determined by the overall angular momentum of the condensing nebula which formed the star system.", "Galaxies, nebulas, and star clusters all produce their own light (a huge amount of it). The only significant light that illuminates Pluto is the tiny amount it receives from the Sun, so it's very difficult to see.", "It's what's called \"building brand awareness\". The idea is to make consumers value something, even if they aren't going to buy that \"thing\" directly. A classic example is the \"Intel Inside\" campaign. Most computer consumers don't buy Intel products directly, they buy computers. By making the end consumers conscious of what brand of processor was inside a computer (and paying PC makers to put labels on them), they hoped to fend off competitors like AMD. They wanted to make consumers think, either consciously or unconsciously that a PC with their processors inside was better. It is believed to have worked well." ]

[ "<em>Weekend Edition Saturday</em> host Scott Simon talks to Middle East analyst Marc Lynch about the continuing crisis in Syria, and whether the international community could have done anything to reduce the bloodshed." ]

[ "U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry \"made a real breakthrough\" last week in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they agreed there will be an American-Russian peace conference on Syria, British Prime Minister David Cameron told NPR on Monday. Russia has continued to support Syrian President Bashar Assad through the past two years of fighting in Syria, which has left an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 people dead. Britain, the U.S. and other nations have been calling for Assad to step aside and trying to bring economic and other pressure to bear on his regime. But while differences remain between Russia and the West, Cameron told Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep, the plan for a peace conference underscores that all sides \"have an interest in a peaceful, stable Syria.\" And Cameron believes that Putin \"is keen now to move from the generalities of having a peace conference to talking through the specifics of how we make this [a transition of power in Syria] work.\" Cameron is in Washington, D.C, where he'll meet with President Obama on Monday. Will Putin be able to help push Assad into peace talks? \"That is the $60 million question,\" Cameron conceded. \"The sense I have is that ... we still have an open and public difference about Assad. I think he is completely illegitimate because of what he has done to his people. He has to go. President Putin takes a different view. While there is that difference, there is still this recognition that we need to have a talks process that could bring about a transitional government in Syria.\" Cameron met with Putin last week. Update at 12:15 p.m. ET. Obama Has Hopes For Talks: During a joint news conference with Cameron at the White House, the president just said that if talks can lead to Assad's departure and an \"intact\" Syrian state that respects the rights of minorities, that's \"not just good for us, but good for everybody.\"", "When Robert Ford — the U.S. ambassador to Syria — resigned in February, he said he no longer felt he could defend American policy in that country. Ford faults the U.S. for having been unable to address the root causes of the conflict and for being consistently behind the curve as the Syrian civil war intensified. The diplomat had to leave Damascus in early 2012 and had been working on Syria from Washington until his resignation. \"The situation in Syria has gone from bad to very bad to still worse, and the measures we have taken have been, in most cases, too little and too late,\" he tells NPR's Robert Siegel. Ford criticizes the failure by the U.S. to back opposition forces with arms and military training early on. \"From the beginning of the armed opposition, they sought help from outside countries and they were very quickly competing for recruits, competing with al-Qaida groups who had better funding and they could get ammunition in,\" he says. \"So now we have a pretty serious al-Qaida problem in Syria and we were very slow to react to that.\" You can read highlights from the conversation below. Interview Highlights On what the U.S. could have provided to opposition forces It doesn't even always have to be arms ... just providing cash, just providing ammunition would allow and would have allowed groups that are not ideologically close to al-Qaida ... to compete for recruits. And most Syrians are not Islamic fanatics, but there are a lot of young men who really do want to fight the regime, and so they'll join whatever group offers them material resources to do that. On when he decided to resign I thought that if you work inside the system you can bring change to the policies; you can move them in the directions that you want to through reasoned argument. And at a certain point, after the Geneva talks failed, by then there was just nothing left that we could do. So I think that was an appropriate time for me to leave and I think it is time, really, for the administration to reconsider where it is going in Syria. Events on the ground are dynamic; we're not going in a good direction. On Russia's role in mediating the Syrian conflict I think many of us felt disappointment that the Russians in Geneva did not weigh in more strongly with the Syrian government delegation in Geneva and so we're very disappointed about that. I also think ... it's fair to say that the Russians have a very different view of what's happening in the Middle East. They are alarmed by the growth of al-Qaida; I think that it is a genuine interest that we and the Russians share. However, whereas we see Assad as the root cause of the al-Qaida problem in Syria, that is to say, we see he is a magnet pulling in jihadis to fight against him, the Russians seem to view Assad as a bulwark against al-Qaida and they ignore the cooperation between the regime and al-Qaida that dates back to the time of the American troop presence in Iraq. On how long he thinks the conflict will continue First of all, it pains me to even have to say it because it means that a lot of people are going to die. Syria was a beautiful country. People who have visited know how wonderful its cities were and the fabulous historic monuments there, many of them dating back to stories about St. Paul, for example. So it pains me to say that the fighting will have to go on, but it's going to. I mean, even today, the day after the elections, there was fighting up around Aleppo and Damascus. So I think it's going to take at least a year to two years before the regime itself understands that this is a war from which they cannot impose terms but they will have to negotiate terms. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: And I'm Robert Siegel. The U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, who resigned in late February, says he no longer felt he could defend American policy with regard to that country. Ambassador Ford faults the U.S. for having been unable to address the root causes of the conflict and for being consistently behind the curve as the Syrian civil war intensified. Ambassador Ford had to leave Damascus in early 2012, and he had been working on Syria from Washington until his resignation. And he joins us today, welcome... ROBERT FORD: Thank you. SIEGEL: ...To the program. The common shorthand for what you've done is resigned in protest. Is that fair? FORD: As you were saying yourself, Robert, it just became impossible for me to defend the policy. The situation in Syria has gone from bad, to very bad, to still worse. And the measures we have taken have been, in most cases, too little and too late. SIEGEL: Is your main criticism that the U.S. failed to back the opposition to the Syrian regime with arms and with military training? FORD: Absolutely. That's one of my big criticisms. From the beginning of the armed opposition, they sought help from outside countries. And they were very quickly competing for recruits, competi", "Syrian officials claim a raid into Syria by U.S. forces has claimed eight lives. Borzou Daragahi, Middle East correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, talks with Madeleine Brand about who conducted the attack and how that affects U.S. relations with the country. ALEX CHADWICK, host: This Day to Day from NPR News. I'm Alex Chadwick. MADELEINE BRAND, host: And I'm Madeleine Brand. Let's look now at what appears to be a new U.S. military tactic in the Iraq war, and that is launching secret commando-style attacks in Syria, which borders Iraq. Over the weekend, American Special Forces allegedly attacked a building thought to house al-Qaeda operatives planning attacks in Iraq. Eight people were killed, including four children. Borzou Daragahi of the Los Angeles Times is following this story. He joins us now. And Borzou, the U.S. is not confirming it actually carried out this attack. Who says it did? Mr. BORZOU DARAGAHI (Reporter, Los Angeles Times): The U.S. is not publicly confirming that is has carried out this attack. However, U.S. military officials speaking privately have confirmed to us that there has been a U.S. operation in Syria. And they've also used language that is generally used when the U.S. is describing operations carried out by Special Forces - clandestine operations. BRAND: And what has Syria's reaction been to this? Mr. DARAGAHI: Syria has been very angry by this move. They've put it all over on the television - on their television stations. And in their media, Syrian officials have said that Syria will respond at a time and place of its choosing for what they call a, quote, \"criminal,\" unquote attack. BRAND: And what could that mean? What kind of response could they have? Mr. DARAGAHI: You have to be careful about speculating. I think, to some extent, they want to protect themselves from the accusation that they're weak, and they're not able to respond. So, it could be just bluster. There are possible ways that Syria could respond. Syria is a backer and a strategic partner of both the Shiite militia Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, both known for carrying out guerilla or terrorist-style attacks on western and pro-western targets. However, I think that the Syrian government at this point is probably looking forward to a new American president - different foreign policy, and they may hold back on doing anything. BRAND: Tell us where in Syria did this attack occur, and was it in an area where the U.S. thinks a lot of militants stage attacks into Iraq? Mr. DARAGAHI: It took place in a very rural area, in far a northeastern area very close to the Iraqi border, and it's been a place that has been a kind of trouble spot in the whole Iraq conflict, a place where much of the Sunni Arab militants from across the Arab world have transited en route to Iraq to conduct insurgent attacks. And it's been a point of contention, this particular area, between the U.S., Syria, and Iraq for some years now. BRAND: Now, this commando-style attack sounds like what has been done - going on in Pakistan with U.S. forces raiding suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda strongholds, where they sent fighters into Afghanistan. Is it a similar tactic that the U.S. is now carrying out in Syria? And do we expect more of these kinds of attacks? Mr. DARAGAHI: Well, some analysts have noted a certain similarity on the part of the U.S. in terms of this operation and similar recent operations into the Pakistani areas - into Pakistan from Afghanistan. As to whether they're going to continue doing operations like this, it remains to be seen. BRAND: Borzou Daragahi of the Los Angeles Times. Thank you, Borzou. Mr. DARAGAHI: It's been a pleasure, thank you.", "The uprisings in Syria, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen all started last spring. They've all resulted in regime change — except for the uprising in Syria. Why is Syria locked in a brutal and seemingly endless conflict? The answer has to do with history, politics, and a growing class of entrepreneurs who are struggling to pick a side. Their decision could turn the tide of the conflict. It could also cost them their lives. For More, see Adam Davidson's New York Times column, The Syria Paradox. Music: Beirut's \"Nantes.\" Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Spotify/ Tumblr. ALEX BLUMBERG, HOST: Imagine you're the CEO of an international company, and you want to expand into a new country - a country with a thriving middle class. You study the market. You find a domestic partner - a local who understands how business is done there. You find your location. You open your first store almost exactly at the wrong moment. ROBERT SMITH, HOST: That's what happened to Mike Shattuck, president of Focus Brands International, the company that owns Cinnabon, when they opened their first Cinnabon store in Syria. MIKE SHATTUCK: We've been open in Damascus now for about 15 months. Our opening was actually right before the beginning of the Arab Spring, which resulted in the current violence. SMITH: Shattuck says that, before the violence, Syria seemed like a great place for Cinnabon to expand. You know Cinnabon. They make those huge, sticky cinnamon rolls - a sweet, fluffy, high-calorie symbol of First World conspicuous consumption. BLUMBERG: And Syria seemed perfect. The country was opening up, becoming more global. Sushi restaurants and Benetton stores were sprouting up in the cities, and there was this expanding group of affluent businessmen looking for new opportunities - opportunities which included running the city's first Cinnabon franchise. SHATTUCK: We had a tremendous level of interest from, principally, young entrepreneurs in Syria. So we had quite a few that we were evaluating before we selected, you know, our current franchise partner to go in with. SMITH: According to classical political theory, a country like Syria with a growing and somewhat thriving entrepreneurial middle class should be more likely to shift to democratic rule than, say, a country like Libya with a dictator who controls one source of wealth - oil. But that's not happening in Syria. BLUMBERG: Uprisings started in Syria, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen all within a month or so of each other in late 2010, early 2011. And they've all resulted in regime change, except in Syria. Syria, as we know, is still locked in a vicious, brutal conflict. Syria today looks very different than the Syria of a year ago, when Mike Shattuck first opened his Cinnabon store. SHATTUCK: I don't think anyone out there could have ever imagined, at a single flash point, it would roll through the whole region like it did. We thought, in the case of Syria, that we were going at a time where we would have a - you know, a extended and long-lasting opportunity. You know, that hasn't quite worked out that way. (SOUNDBITE OF BEIRUT'S \"NANTES\") BLUMBERG: Hello, and welcome to PLANET MONEY. I'm Alex Blumberg. SMITH: And I'm Robert Smith. Today is Friday, May 25. Today on the program, why are things are unfolding so differently in Syria than they did in Egypt or Tunisia or even Libya? Why is this country that many observers would have said was better off than those other countries - why is Syria now seemingly in a worse position? BLUMBERG: And as you'll see on today's program, the answer has a lot to do with that professional middle class of businessmen and entrepreneurs that Mike Shattuck tapped to run his Cinnabon franchise in Damascus. It also, of course, has to do with history and politics. SMITH: The theory goes if there's a large and relatively independent business class, they're not interested in civil conflicts. They don't want to go to war. It's bad for business. So the business class will use its power and influence to basically try to stop dictators from being so brutal. BLUMBERG: That's the theory. And that is essentially what happened in Egypt. We did a show about this a while ago. The business class there is thoroughly intertwined with the military. And basically, business interests tempered the military there. There were still crackdowns but not the same type of brutal extended crackdown that you're seeing with the Assad regime in Syria. So we wanted to find out, what's the difference? Why is this not happening in Syria when it happened in Egypt? And we talked to a couple of Syria experts. First, Josh Landis. He is the director of Middle East Studies at University of Oklahoma and author of the blog \"Syria Comment.\" And he says that the reason Syria's Assad Regime is so much more powerful and has so much more staying power than regimes in Egypt or Libya is that, in a way, the Assads have been cannily preparing for this moment for 40 years. You can see the earliest preparation back ", "In an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talks about ISIS in Syria, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and a newly announced plan for dealing with migrants crossing the U.S. southern border. Steve Inskeep: Is ISIS defeated? Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: We've made the caliphate in Syria go away. We remember, you remember this, Steve, you remember cells with people in them being burned. The president made an enormous commitment to take down the caliphate. And that has been achieved. We now have the battle that is a longtime battle which is a counterterrorism battle not only against ISIS but against Al-Qaida and others — HTS, all the terrorist groups. President Trump remains just as committed today as he was yesterday and the day before and the progress that the Trump administration has made in defeating ISIS in Syria is extraordinary, and we're very proud of that accomplishment. When U.S. troops leave eastern Syria, of course U.S. allies, Kurdish groups, will remain in eastern Syria. What obligations does the United States have to its Kurdish allies? Here at the State Department we've been working diligently for a long time, including the entirety of my time in service here, to achieve the U.N. process led by Staffan de Mistura and now by his successor to get a political outcome in Syria that takes down the threat, the threat of violence, that attempts to create the conditions for what is now over 6 million displaced persons, some of them internal to Syria, some of them in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. We are committed to that. Ambassador Jeffrey is hard at work trying to implement... Jim Jeffrey is the envoy for Syria. ... the special envoy for Syria, is today hard at work trying to deliver against the U.N. commitments. We're counting on the Russians. We're counting on the Turks. We're counting on each of those parties to honor their commitments to this U.N. Security Council resolution. And the United States will continue to those diplomatic efforts. Well let's talk about the Russians and the Turks. The Turks, who of course have been hostile to the Kurds, have already said they're preparing to move into eastern Syria. The Russians have said... A lot of history Steve. You shouldn't enter. You shouldn't enter that debate today. Would you warn the Turks against attacking the United States? The history between the Turks, the history between the Turks and the... just, we have to, there's a lot of history, Steve, some folks want to just talk about what happened this morning. The history between the Turks and the Kurdish is a long one. It is a complicated one and the United States is deeply aware of the set of relationships there. And we have a very clear mission set. Our mission set in Syria was the defeat of the ISIS caliphate. We continue to push back against ISIS in West Africa, in Afghanistan, all across the world. That threat certainly is out there, the president has acknowledged that. He has also acknowledged the administration's continued commitment to that defeat, something that the previous administration could not accomplish. But I'm asking about something a little different here. The Russian Foreign Ministry has said in the last day that the withdrawal of U.S. troops creates good prospects for a peaceful solution and they gave the example of Aleppo, where the Syrian government backed by Russia went and destroyed U.S. allies and took over. Would you warn the Syrian government against moving against the Kurdish allies that you're leaving behind? I don't give much credit to the Russian statements on much of anything to be honest with you, Steve. Here, here's, here's what I know. The United States made a commitment. We led a global defeat ISIS campaign to take down the caliphate in Syria. We hae achieved that. The effort that, I've spoken to European counterparts, Middle Eastern counterparts over the last week to 10 days, this effort, this defeat ISIS coalition remains. And we are clear-eyed about the risks to the United States from terrorism. And we will yield to no one in our efforts to defeat it. On terrorism. No commitment to U.S. allies left behind in Syria. We always have commitments to our allies. We've done this relentlessly. You all report it differently, Steve. I get it. I get, I get the game. But you all report this differently. The, the, the American commitment to our allies — not just in this situation, but all across the world — you report that America is withdrawing from the world, when in fact just the opposite has taken place. President Trump and our State Department has led a global American leadership campaign that is unrivaled. We're incredibly proud of it. Our allies see that. We stare at things that don't work anymore and we demand that they begin to work. This is not only in the best interest of America but our allies as well, Steve. I'll just mention I know time is short, but we can set aside, if there's a specific NPR story you ever think is wrong. Let", "President Trump&#8217;s recent military strike against Syria after the Assad regime&#8217;s alleged use of chemical weapons was necessary, but not sufficient, says retired four-star general Jack Keane. Here & Now&#8216;s Jeremy Hobson talks with Keane (@gen_jackkeane), former vice chief of staff of the U.S. Army and chairman of the Institute for the Study of War, about what else in his view the U.S. should be doing in Syria, and Iran&#8217;s role in the conflict there. Interview Highlights On supporting President Trump&#8217;s decision to strike Syria this month, but arguing the strikes weren&#8217;t sufficient &#8220;I mean, just dealing with chemical weapons, I thought the first strike was insufficient. In other words, when [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons last April, we had a very proportioned, measured response. I think we should have taken down his air-delivery means, which was resident at six airfields, and we could have done that all in one night &#8212; take down his air-power infrastructure. &#8230; And that was a deterrence strike. In other words, we were using that strike, measured and proportionate, so that he would not use chemical weapons again. &#8220;A year later, because they had military value to Assad &#8212; and that&#8217;s his pattern of behavior &#8212; he did it again. So obviously the first strike didn&#8217;t work, and the [strike this month] was another measured, proportionate strike. I felt we absolutely should have done what we could to cripple his war machine, particularly all of his air-power infrastructure, on the second strike. So yeah, I think it&#8217;s insufficient.&#8221; On U.S. strategy in Syria &#8220;The larger issue with Syria, the United States really doesn&#8217;t have a strategy dealing with Syria beyond ISIS. &#8230; Syria&#8217;s about as complicated a foreign policy issue the United States has dealt with in decades, and you can be on any side of this argument, and be somewhat reasonable. But when I look at the problem, I think we have to know where we are right now. We squandered many opportunities to be in a much better position than we are now. Russia and the Iranians have successfully propped up the Assad regime. That&#8217;s just a fact. And we have to recognize that.&#8221; On his view that Assad must go &#8220;Oh yeah, absolutely. But we have to put a strategy in place, and it&#8217;s a long-term strategy to achieve that end. What we could do is, we&#8217;ve driven ISIS out of eastern Syria. We still have some more work to do there, because there&#8217;s 2,003 ISIS fighters still left there. And when I say eastern Syria, I mean east of the Euphrates River Valley, and what we should do is use that as a base of control, a control zone, clear ISIS out of there and tell the Russians and Iranians and the pro-Assad regime, &#8216;Stay west of the Euphrates River Valley, don&#8217;t come east of that, or you&#8217;re gonna be subject to be interdicted.&#8217; &#8221; On Trump signaling he may draw down the U.S. presence in Syria &#8220;Yeah I know, and I&#8217;m disappointed by that, because I think if you just walk away from Syria, what you&#8217;ve done is you&#8217;ve just turned this over to the Iranians and to the Russians who are in a political and military alliance. Syria will become the anchor point for the Iranians&#8217; domination of the Middle East, and it&#8217;s a major, major victory for them if we do that. &#8220;We&#8217;ve got to recognize that since 1980, Iran has been unequivocally clear about what their strategic objectives are, is to spread the Islamic revolution throughout the region that is the Middle East, drive the United States out of the Middle East as an intermediate objective to accomplish that and ultimately destroy the state of Israel as they dominate the Middle East, and they are quite about that business: They dominate and control Lebanon. They are dominating most of the control in Syria. They have huge political influence inside of Iraq. They began the civil war in Yemen. They toppled the government there &#8212; which was friendly to the United States &#8212; with a single purpose in mind: to dominate and control Yemen. &#8220;So they are about their task of domination of the Middle East, and I think the United States has gotta recognize that, we&#8217;ve got to form an alliance with our allies to counter that aggression. It doesn&#8217;t mean that the United States has to provide the dominant amount of military force or the dominant amount of money. I don&#8217;t think we should. I really think this is more up to the Arabs themselves. But I do think we have to provide some leadership to them. It&#8217;s sort of like an Arab NATO, that has been so successful in dealing with the Soviet Union&#8217;s aggression post-Cold War, World War II, and I think it&#8217;s as much political and as much economic as it is military.&#8221;", "Success on the battlefield against the Islamic State won't translate into an immediate reduction in the threat from attacks in the West, the top U.S. counterterrorism leader told NPR. Nicholas Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said the tactical gains the U.S. military and its partners are making in Iraq and Syria are a \"necessary\" part of quashing the danger it poses — but not \"sufficient.\" \"We do need that success — but there'll be a lag in the benefits we accrue,\" he said. Battles won in Iraq and Syria, fighters killed and territory recaptured don't amount to a \"1 for 1\" connection in eliminating the threats posed by ISIS-directed or inspired attacks in Europe or the U.S., he acknowledged. Rasmussen, who spoke to NPR inside the counterterrorism center operations room outside Washington, is the latest top administration official to try managing expectations about how quickly the military defeat of ISIS would lead to the defeat of the ISIS terror threat. President Obama offered a similar caution last week after a meeting with his top national security team at the Pentagon, telling reporters that even recapturing two key cities in Iraq and Syria from ISIS wouldn't diminish the immediate terror danger. But there is some good news, officials say: Leaders of the U.S. counterterrorism apparatus are confident they can detect, disrupt or stop big, complicated attacks of the scale of Sept. 11, 2001. And they say the government's internal process for working together — in which agencies from the Department of Agriculture to the CIA to local police and fire departments use NCTC to share information — is working as well as it ever has. \"I think we've got the mix about right. ... What we've done is create for ourselves an apparatus and an architecture that can respond to terrorism for decades, if not hundreds of years to come,\" Rasmussen said. The danger from smaller-scale attacks directed or inspired by ISIS, however, may linger for a long time. The Islamic State can be defeated both as a self-styled \"caliphate\" and as a terror network, Rasmussen said — but he stressed that the West can't declare victory whenever allied forces recapture Mosul, in northern Iraq, and the ISIS \"capital\" of Raqqa, in Syria. Even the death or capture of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, while it would be \"significant,\" might not create a dramatic difference, Rasmussen said. \"The payoff from that ... does not come quickly.\" One reason is that ISIS' ability to plan and make decisions is diffuse, and doesn't necessarily depend on any one key leader. Another reason, Rasmussen said, is that the dangers of ISIS-era terrorism are different from the threats posed after 2001 by al-Qaida. Where al-Qaida tended to be closed, insular and cagey with outsiders, ISIS is much more willing to \"reach out and grab\" any fellow traveler, he said — including \"lost souls\" who may have no connection other than those made on social networks. That was the case in San Bernardino, Calif., Orlando, Fla., and Nice, France. In the past, would-be terrorists might travel to Afghanistan or Syria for training and indoctrination. Their goals might include hijacking or destroying several airliners at a time. Today, potential attackers need only watch videos online or read extremist material to form a connection with ISIS — even if it has no connection with them. That can happen very quickly, Rasmussen said — the time from \"flash\" to \"bang\" is now \"compressed\" — and it requires no special equipment. Anyone with a rifle or a truck or a machete has access to a potential terror weapon, and there may be no wiretaps, surveillance or other intelligence to help warn that an attack is coming. Even when there are, as in the case of Orlando shooter Omar Mateen — who came to the attention of FBI investigators well before he attacked the Pulse nightclub in June — Rasmussen said he didn't believe anything could have been done differently. There's only so much counterterrorism officials can do, he acknowledged. \"What you can't account for is what's taking place inside an individual's head,\" Rasmussen said. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Morning after morning this summer, it's felt like we all woke up, rolled out of bed and learned of some new atrocity. (SOUNDBITE OF NEWS MONTAGE) UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: A grim national record has been set in Orlando, Fla., the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: There may have been as many as three explosions in the attack on Istanbul's main airport today. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: More than 70 people are reported to have been killed - many more were hurt - in an attack in the southern French city of Nice. INSKEEP: It was a string of harrowing days for the victims of terror attacks and a string of long days for the man who is leading U.S. counterterrorism efforts. His name is Nick Rasmussen. And this summer's events have compelled him to draw on his years of experience at the National Counterterrorism Cente", "In September 2007, the Israeli military secretly attacked a site in Syria. What was surprising about the attack, explains nuclear weapons expert David Albright, is what happened next: No one said a word. \"Israel denied that they had done anything,\" Albright tells Fresh Air host Terry Gross. \"Syria tried to trivialize it. The United States wouldn't say anything. So it was a big mystery.\" Albright is the president and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit organization that monitors and investigates nuclear proliferation. Shortly after the mysterious Israeli attack, ISIS decided to figure out what the Syrian target might be. \"We were hearing stories that it was biological weapons, [a] chemical weapons site, a missile site, a nuclear site,\" says Albright. \"We decided to try to find out using commercial satellite imagery.\" The images that ISIS found made it clear that Syria had built a nuclear reactor — and that it had received help building it from North Korea. \"When we looked at the imagery overhead [taken before the Israeli attacks,] the building looked fairly nondescript, and we learned later that Syria had taken tremendous steps to disguise the facility so it wouldn't look like a North Korean reactor,\" says Albright. \"But when you ... measure the dimensions from overhead, you end up with dimensions that are very close to a nuclear reactor that's at the Yongbyon site\" in North Korea. Albright's book Pedding Peril: How the Secret Nuclear Trade Arms America's Enemies, details how countries like Syria and Libya have developed their nuclear programs with the help of vast smuggling networks located in North Korea and Pakistan. The networks provide key parts, facilities and engineering help — for a steep price. Albright also describes how Libya developed its own nuclear program with the help of a Pakistani nuclear scientist named A.Q. Khan. Albright spent four years researching how Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, smuggled nuclear-related parts to Iran and Libya. \"Libya was the pinnacle of the A.Q. Khan networks,\" Albright says. \"It was a country willing to buy whole facilities; it was open to making the nuclear weapon itself. It was tolerating pretty slow deliveries of the key items, and [Libya] had very deep pockets.\" After Khan's network was discovered by the CIA and MI6 in 2004, Albright says, Libya admitted to having a secret nuclear weapons program. \"It was one of these cases where the CIA and MI6 launched a very successful operation,\" Albright explains. \"It took many years, but the operation was so successful that it helped convince Libya to completely give up nuclear weapons.\" Though Khan is not actively supplying countries with nuclear parts at present, Albright says, he remains a threat to global security. \"What you have to worry about is [Khan] helping [countries] intellectually,\" Albright says. \"[He could be] passing information. ... The restrictions on him have gone down. He is active and engaging people internationally. So you have to worry that he could be thinking about helping some others.\" And other countries — like Syria — have not completely given up their nuclear ambitions. \"There are a lot of questions that remain [about Syria's nuclear facilities],\" Albright says. \"One of them is what Syria paid. Another is exactly what Syria got. Evidence seems to suggest that Syria got reactor technology, they got some engineering support and they got some reactor components. ... And one of the biggest mysteries that remains now is, did North Korea provide uranium?\" Interview Highlights On how the profit motive drives nuclear proliferation \"Most people are horrified of nuclear weapons. They understand the danger of them. But if they're being asked to buy or sell some vital piece of equipment that costs millions of dollars, then some of the concern is diminished, and they're kind of willing to turn a blind eye. Sometimes they're willing to have the money persuade them that maybe it's not so bad to have nuclear weapons. So the money is vital, and if there wasn't a profit motive, countries like Pakistan would have run into real trouble acquiring nuclear weapons.\" On how nuclear trade is different now than in the Cold War era \"What's different is the U.S. and Soviet Union were more independent. They had their own industries. The Soviet Union conducted espionage against the United States to get the secrets of the atomic bomb. But then it more or less used its own industries to put together the capability to put together the bomb. China essentially had tremendous help from the Soviet Union to get it up over the hurdle for having that technology and being able to put together the facilities. What you see now is that the countries that want nuclear weapons mostly look outward to acquire the assistance, both in terms of know-how but also in terms of the vital equipment and materials to put together a program back home that allows them to make nuclear explosive mate", "For months, Russia has been playing a defensive game on Syria, blocking U.N. resolutions that could have led to the ouster of its ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad. But Russia is now on the offense, running with a plan that could avert U.S.-led strikes against Syria by having Syria place its chemical weapons under international control. So why the change in tactics? There are several different strands in Russian thinking on the issue. A little more than a week ago — when it seemed most likely that the United States would lead a military strike against Syria — Russian history professor and analyst Georgiy Mirsky was asked what Russia should do. \"Bloody nothing,\" he responded. \"Russia doesn't have to do anything at all. Just sit tight and watch America starting a new war it can't win.\" Russia moved some warships from its Black Sea fleet into the Mediterranean, but officials from Moscow made it clear that they would not be there to take military action on Assad's behalf. In fact, Mirsky acknowledged, there wasn't much that Russia could do, if the United States and its allies decided to attack. James Goldgeier, the dean of the School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C., says President Vladimir Putin has tried to bring Russia back, but \"it's not the power that it once was.\" \"[Russia's] geostrategic position has changed drastically,\" he says. \"It doesn't have as much reach as it used to have. It doesn't have as much influence.\" Goldgeier and Mirsky agree that a strong element of Russia's foreign policy has been that Putin should be seen as standing up to the United States — not just on Syria, but on other issues, such as asylum for Edward Snowden, the fugitive NSA contractor. But the prospect of U.S.-led strikes against Syria meant that Russia could also be seen as militarily impotent, moving warships around while the West did whatever it pleased. Analyst Alexander Konovalov says Russia has real concerns, too, that strikes on Syria could morph into a wider regional war on Russia's borders, pitting Turkey against Iran. He quotes a bitter saying that Turkey and Iran would be willing to fight to the last drop of Syrian blood. Konovalov, who is president of a think tank called the Institute of Strategic Assessments, says the plan to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control seemed like a win-win situation \"because it allows practically every engaged party to get out of this trap and to save face politically.\" Russians are well aware of U.S. polls that show strong public opposition to the idea of a strike against Syria, as well as President Obama's uphill struggle to get congressional approval for the effort. Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs, says Russia saw an opportunity for a diplomatic triumph because the chemical weapons plan offered something for everyone. \"Americans can say that our pressure on Assad, and our threats, produced a result,\" he says. \"Russia can say that it prevented a war. Assad can say — or can feel — that he avoided the worst-case scenario. And in general, it looks like a very successful cooperation on the international level.\" Lukyanov says the next challenge will be whether Russia can get a U.N. Security Council resolution that authorizes the plan without allowing for military action if Syria fails to comply. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: And I'm Audie Cornish. For months, Russia has been playing a defensive game over Syria, blocking U.N. resolutions that could have led to the ouster of its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But Russia is now on offense. It's running with a plan that could avert U.S.-led strikes against Syria by having Syria place its chemical weapons under international control. Why the change in tactics? From Moscow, NPR's Corey Flintoff has been looking for answers. COREY FLINTOFF, BYLINE: When it seemed most likely that the United States would lead a military strike against Syria, Russian history professor and analyst Georgiy Mirsky was asked what Russia should do. GEORGIY MIRSKY: Bloody nothing. Russia doesn't have to do anything at all. Just sit tight and watch America starting a new war it can't win. FLINTOFF: Russia had moved some more ships from its Black Sea fleet into the Mediterranean. But officials made it clear that they would not be there to take military action on Assad's behalf. In fact, Mirsky acknowledges, there wasn't much that Russia could do if the U.S. and its allies decided to attach. James Goldgeier, the dean of the School of International Service at American University in Washington, explains why. JAMES GOLDGEIER: Putin has tried to bring Russia back, but it's not the power that it once was, and its geostrategic position in the world has changed drastically. It doesn't have as much reach as it used to have. It doesn't have as much influence. FLINTOFF: Goldgeier and Mirsky agree that a s", "Iran's foreign minister says the U.S. has been hesitant and contradictory in its approach to combating extremist groups in Iraq and Syria and that President Obama needs a reality check on the subject of defeating the Islamic State insurgency. Mohammad Javad Zarif, speaking with Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep in an interview to air on NPR, said the United States is \"not serious\" about defeating the Sunni extremists. U.S. interests are \"not served by a double-edged policy\" in which militants with the so-called Islamic State are dealt with differently whether they are inside Syria or in neighboring Iraq, he said. \"You cannot deal with a terrorist group whose bases are in Syria based on this illusion ... that you can [also] have this pressure on the Syrian government,\" Zarif told NPR. Asked if he thinks Obama ought to reach an accommodation with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Zarif replied: \"President Obama needs to reach an accommodation with reality.\" 'We Are Ready' For A Nuclear Deal On the subject of negotiations over Iran's nuclear weapons program, Zarif said all the \"wrong options\" have already been tried and that \"we are ready\" for an agreement. \"The only problem is how this could be presented to some domestic constituencies, primarily in the United States but also in places in Europe,\" because \"some are not interested in any deal,\" he said. \"If they think any deal with Iran is a bad idea, there is no amount of — I don't want to call it concession — no amount of assurance that is inherent in any deal because they are not interested in a deal, period,\" Zarif said. In sharp contrast with what U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other political leaders have said about no deal being better than a bad one, Zarif said: \"I think if you compare any deal with no deal, it's clear that a deal is much preferable.\" He noted that Western sanctions against Iran's \"peaceful\" nuclear program have, in any case, been ineffective. \"Iran did not abandon it,\" Zarif said. \"At the time of the imposition of sanctions, we had less than a couple of hundred centrifuges. Now, we have 20,000. So that's the net outcome.\" Detained Journalist The foreign minister also spoke about Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who has been held by Iranian authorities since July. Zarif said Rezaian has been \"interrogated\" but declined to say for what crime. \"Jason Rezaian is a dual citizen,\" Zarif said. \"Whatever he has done ... he has done as an Iranian citizen, not as an American citizen.\" Pressed about the charge against the journalist, Zarif insisted that Iran's judiciary \"has no obligation to explain to the United States why it is detaining one of [Iran's own] citizens.\" \"His lawyers know, he knows his charge,\" Zarif said. Update at 2:45 p.m. ET: Washington Post Response The Washington Post emailed this statement from foreign editor Douglas Jehl regarding the detention of Jason Rezaian: \"It is long past time for the Iranian authorities to release Jason Rezaian of The Washington Post and his wife Yeganeh Salehi. The two have been held for more than eight weeks without explanation or charges. They have not been permitted to meet with their lawyer. The two are fully accredited journalists, and we remain mystified by their detention and deeply concerned about their welfare.\"", "Veteran war correspondent Anthony Shadid spent much of the past decade in Baghdad covering the Iraq war, first for The Washington Post and then for The New York Times. Last December, Shadid left Baghdad for his home in Beirut, Lebanon, where he's been based for more than a decade. \"It was amazing to me how many conversations I was having with people about how dejected they were, how disappointed, how pessimistic they were about where the Arab world was,\" he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. \"... And so remarkably, just a week or two later, the uprising began in Tunisia.\" Shadid reported from Tunisia and then from the uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Bahrain. He says 2011 has been one of the most unbelievable years he ever could have imagined experiencing in the Middle East region. \"I think back to this idea that a generation ago, the Iranian revolution was this event that changed the Middle East,\" he says. \"And we're [talking about] six revolts or revolutions or uprisings all happening, in a lot of respects, at the very same time.\" Shadid says the euphoria felt in places like Tunisia and Egypt throughout the spring has now passed. \"I think there's a lot of anxiety and uncertainty of where we're headed,\" he says. \"I guess after being a pessimist in Baghdad for so long, I remain an optimist. I think that optimism comes from this idea that these societies — that have been moribund for so long — have been revived or rejuvenated. ... And that very dynamism of those societies leaves hope for the future.\" On Wednesday's Fresh Air, Shadid talks extensively about his reporting in the region, including Syria, where many journalists have been denied entry visas. Shadid and photographer Moises Saman crossed the border on motorcycles along what he calls \"a lawless strip of terrain\" in order to get into the country. \"I've done things that maybe I wouldn't have done in hindsight, and this maybe would have been one of them,\" he says. \"It was scarier than I thought it would be. I had had a bad experience in Libya earlier in the year, [but] I did feel that Syria was so important, and that story wouldn't be told otherwise, that it was worth taking risks for. But the repercussions of getting caught were pretty dire.\" Shadid and Saman made their way from safe house to safe house in Homs, before arriving by car in Hama, the fourth-largest city in Syria and the site of a deadly government crackdown against Islamic activists in the early 1980s. Now, says Shadid, the streets were filled with anti-government demonstrators, after security forces withdrew from the city. \"The thing that struck both of us so quickly is that people were protesting just because they could protest,\" he says. \"Every 30 minutes, hour, you'd have another protest gather in the streets. And it was just the fact that no one was going to stop them from doing it.\" Shadid and Saman stayed in Hama for several days, before crossing back across the border. \"I don't think I'd ever seen something like what I saw in Syria,\" he says. \"You're dealing with a government that's shown very little restraint in killing its own people to put down an uprising. ... And I got to spend a lot of time with [the activists] because I spent a lot of time in safe houses. And it reminded me of an old story in Islamic history, when the Muslim armies are crossing to Gibraltar. And the general who was leading them burned the ships after they crossed into Spain. And the idea was there was no turning back. And that story, I felt, resonated [with] almost every conversation I had.\" Anthony Shadid is based in Beirut for The New York Times. He has also worked for The Washington Post and The Associated Press. Shadid has won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting twice, first in 2004 and again in 2010 for his coverage of the Iraq war. Interview Highlights On Iraq's influence on the Arab Spring \"My own sense on that is that the Iraq War — the invasion of 2003 and the aftermath — delayed the Arab Spring. I think you can make the argument that these revolts and uprisings that have swept the region may have even happened earlier had not this scar of that occupation not been left on the region. That said, I think Iraq is going to be incredibly relevant to what comes up in the future in the region. Because I think there is a very deep and protracted struggle about identity at some level. Are these new systems of politics that emerged in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Bahrain — any of those countries — are they going to revolve around this access of citizenship, or are these societies going to divide along more basic notions of sect or ethnicity?\" On reporting from Syria \"I think Syria is often covered by phone. You have to talk to activists. You have to try to read the tea leaves. You have to talk to government officials. It's remote-control reporting in a way. And I think that's deeply frustrating, after coming out of experiences in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere, where it was on-the-ground reporting.\" ", "The U.S. has now formally recognized a new Syrian opposition group as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people. But the U.S. has repeatedly declined to provide weapons for rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's army. However, NPR has learned that there are movements behind the scenes. In Jordan, several Syrian sources said that Jordanian authorities, along with their U.S. and British counterparts, have organized training for Syrian rebels on sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons. The Syrian sources would not identify the weapons or where they came from, but they indicated they were the kind of arms that could have a dramatic impact in the fight against Assad's military. Since the summer, the Syrian air force has been pounding rebel strongholds with helicopter gunships and fighter jets. Those bombings have killed hundreds, if not thousands, and many of the casualties have been civilians. In recent weeks, the rebels have acquired anti-aircraft weapons from Syrian military arsenals, after capturing key air-defense bases in northern and central Syria. The rebels successfully downed a Russian-made MiG fighter jet late last month. It was the first time the rebels succeeded in assembling and firing an SA-16 shoulder-to-air missile. Training For The Rebels One Syrian rebel fighter, who did not want to be named, said he attended a training course in Jordan and that the training was not led by uniformed Western soldiers, but rather by men in plainclothes who spoke several different dialects of Arabic. This suggests the trainers may have been private contractors, who are sometimes used by the U.S. for training and assembly of sophisticated weaponry. The rebel fighter also said members of the Jordanian military attended the training sessions. The source said he and about 25 others took part in the course. He said a handful of rebel groups fighting inside Syria each sent a few men to the training. Another source said hundreds of men have done the training in the past two to three months. These two sources — along with two other sources (none of whom wanted to be named) — said it was their impression that the sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons are present in Jordan and could be transferred into Syria at any time. \"You have to unite first,\" a source quoted one American as saying during a training session. The reference is to disparate rebel groups fighting in Syria who don't follow a clear chain of command. \"They want us to have structures. It's all about structures,\" said a second source, a Syrian army officer who defected and comes from a prominent family. This same source said uniformed U.S. military officials regularly meet with Syrian defectors to discuss military planning. He said the current debate centers around whether rebel fighters should first seize the southern Syrian region of Dera'a, just across the border from Jordan, before making a march to the Syrian capital, Damascus, just an hour's drive away. Another option would be for the rebels to focus all their attention and resources on Damascus, where some rebel groups have already launched an offensive east of the city and on the civilian airport. Several sources said the focus of this military training and advising has been on professional soldiers who defected from the army, rather than civilian fighters who might have a more religious bent. The officer who defected said the U.S. and Jordan hope to avoid what they call the \"mess\" in northern and eastern Syria, where Islamist fighters like Jabhat al-Nusra have dominated the fight. That group has been designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. The U.S. Embassy in Jordan referred questions about this story to the State Department in Washington. Neither the State Department nor the Pentagon responded to requests for comment.", "Jordanians have been coping with refugees from the Syrian crisis for months. This week&#8217;s escalated threats of military intervention in Syria have many Jordanians bracing for an even greater influx of those fleeing the conflict. Here & Now speaks with the BBC&#8217;s Carine Torbey, who is reporting from Jordan, about the latest impressions from people there. Guest\n\nCarine Torbey, correspondent for the BBC. She tweets @carinetorbey.\n ROBIN YOUNG, HOST: From NPR and WBUR Boston, I'm Robin Young. JEREMY HOBSON, HOST: I'm Jeremy Hobson. It's HERE AND NOW. Coming up, New Orleans eight years after Katrina. Is it becoming the Silicon Valley of the South? YOUNG: But first, U.S. lawmakers are being briefed on the Obama administration's case for a military strike against Syria. Britain's parliament is also debating reaction to last week's chemical attacks. But people living along Jordan's border with Syria have been coping with what it all means for them. Two million refugees have already fled Syria. The U.N. estimates 500,000 have crossed into Jordan. The northern Jordanian refugee camp, Zaatari, already holds 130,000 Syrian refugees. The BBC's Carine Torbey has been reporting from the Jordanian border, just across from the Syrian province of Daraa. Carine, what are you hearing from Jordanians? CARINE TORBEY: Well, the tension in border areas is very much tangible. It's very much visible from Jordan villages. Where we stayed today, we could easily see the province of Daraa. Sometimes if you zoom in, the zoom of the camera, you can see things with details, most of the very big buildings in Syria are very visible. It is within reach. People across this area usually visited Syria very often. It's less than 13 minutes away from the closest village inside Jordan. And you can hear, and people say that they even see and hear every day there is the sound of the battles still raging in this province, and it seems that this province (unintelligible) and it's a majority - under the control of the Syrian opposition is still witnessing daily battles. Every single person we spoke to told us about his or her fears of any kind of response that the Syrian regime might have in response to any Western strike against targets inside Syria. People are afraid of the repercussions of such a strike. Although some of them might be supportive of a military intervention, they all kind of fear the repercussions of it. YOUNG: Sure, you're saying that they fear that Assad's regime might respond to a response to the chemical attacks in Syria. Do we know if Assad's missiles can reach into Jordan? TORBEY: We don't really have any military information about how the Syrian regime - about the Syrian regime's capacities. But we do know that Jordan authorities have ramped up their security, and they've been preparing for fallout for what they call (unintelligible) military threat to their borders and to their villagers and areas. And they have F-16 jets. They have also missiles that are ready, and any - they say that they have prepared themselves up to the highest level in case they confront any kind of security threat. YOUNG: That's the fear of a response from the Assad regime. What about more refugees pouring in because of this ratcheting up of the conflict there? TORBEY: At the moment we haven't seen any unusual spike in the number of refugees coming to Jordan related to what is seen to be an imminent attack on Syria. But I think that in your introduction there is a growing number of refugees. The constant flow means that more than 600,000 Syrian refugees are inside. And I spoke to many humanitarian organizations and international organizations, and they told me that they are preparing for any kind of scenario and any surprise surge in the number of people who might cross the border if the strike gets (unintelligible). YOUNG: Well, so Carine Torbey, again of the BBC, who has just returned from the border between Jordan and Syria, you say Jordanians are very worried about President Assad responding to any response to chemical attacks in his country, but also that they want some sort of intervention. What do they want? TORBEY: It is a very difficult mood to gauge. People are most of all upset. And it is very difficult to understand what they really want. They say they want peace in Syria. They don't know how this peace can be achieved. There is - most of them are kind of reluctant, and they don't think that any strike might bring any solution to this conflict, anywhere closer to what it is now. They see - some of them see the strike completely irrelevant, despite the fact that they would want the West to intervene; to make any difference on the ground, they doubt this kind of punitive and short intervention will make any difference, any real difference. Others are completely against this strike. They consider - one of them just told me I cannot trust that the people who invaded Iraq would bring peace to Syria. YOUNG: Carine Torbey of the BBC, tha", "For voters dissatisfied with both major party candidates, there are a few other options. There's Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, and a lesser known late arrival to the scene — Evan McMullin. McMullin is running as an independent with support from the #NeverTrump movement. He has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump — and he's seen as a conservative alternative to the candidate. He has blasted Trump as personally unstable on his website and \"a real threat to our Republic.\" McMullin has worked for the CIA, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Goldman Sachs, and as chief policy director of the House Republican Conference. The 40-year-old Utah Mormon has qualified for the ballot in his state and his candidacy there could potentially split the state's conservative vote, giving Hillary Clinton an avenue to win what has traditionally been a red state. In an interview with NPR's Scott Simon, McMullin argued he is the best candidate on national security. He also spoke about his stance on the Affordable Care Act, trade and Syrian refugees. Interview Highlights On why he's the most qualified on national security I believe that one of the largest challenges this country faces is that of national security right now. It comes from terrorism threats as well as others. And I am prepared on day one to handle those unlike any of the other candidates. I also understand in a way that I think the other candidates do not what kind of reforms this government needs to put in place and to advance in order for the American people to feel once again like they're being heard by their government and like their government is accountable to them. On his plan for Syria Syria's an issue I've worked quite a long time on. ... I believe that we've made some mistakes as a country in the way we've responded to that and not just as a country but as an international community. The longer we've waited to engage, the worse it's gotten and now it's affecting whole world. We have a refugee crisis that's the largest humanitarian disaster since World War II. These refugee flows into Europe are destabilizing Europe. They're also creating political strife here in the United States, our civil liberties and our ideals as a country are now being threatened by some of the rhetoric coming from Donald Trump. ... We need to get serious about defeating ISIS, we just aren't serious about it yet, I would be very serious about getting it done, I know how to do it. We need to take the fight to them on the battlefield in a more serious way. We also need to be more seriously committed to fighting the ideological battle, this is a battle of ideas just as much as it is a traditional battle on the field. On whether he'd overturn the Affordable Care Act What I would do is look for a better option. We see it not delivering what, I think, even its proponents hoped it would. Premiums are going up for many middle class Americans who are already suffering. Insurance companies, as we saw just this last week, are pulling out of the exchanges. There are good things about it — for example, people with pre-existing conditions ... but we can do better. We need to do better so that everybody has better access to care and better care and it's done more affordably. The ACA didn't do anything about the underlying costs of health care, which is part of its problem. So I'm for delivering the most convenient, highest quality health care to all Americans. ... We're a wealthy, capable country that can get this done. It's less than an entitlement, but just something that we can do. On his vision for the country We're a country of 330 million people. It is absolutely natural that we're going to have different ideas and different background and different preferences on a whole range of things. But in this country, we are all empowered to pursue happiness. That was the \"why\" of our country — that's what our founders envisioned for this country. And it wasn't perfect but over time we've done better and better and better. We need to get to a place where we understand that we're not always going to agree with each other on everything but we're in a place in which we still respect each other's decisions. ... I'm advocating for a new era in American politics and society where we understand that we're all different, we're all different people and we embrace those differences, and we respect those differences and we allow people to pursue happiness in the way they'd wish. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: We have a presidential candidate in our studios. Evan McMullin is 40 years old. He's from Provo, Utah. He's worked for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the CIA, Goldman Sachs and as chief policy director of the House Republican Conference. He's an independent candidate for president, considered by many to be an alternative to Donald Trump for conservative voters. Evan McMullin, thanks so much for being with us. EVAN MCMULLIN: Great to be here, Scott. Thanks for havi", "Two years ago, Dutch college student Wijbe Abma decided to help Syrian refugees by bringing them 100 blankets he&#8217;d purchased while backpacking in Turkey. He eventually collected more than $100,000 in donations and spent a year coordinating food boxes for refugees until the risk of being kidnapped increased. Abma spoke with Here & Now&#8217;s Robin Young about the dangers of being an aid worker in the Middle East at this point in the Syrian conflict. \nRelated: American Woman Held By ISIS Confirmed Dead\nRead more about Abma&#8217;s project\n\nInterview Highlights On entering Syria and providing aid &#8220;At the time, I think the situation was different. Now I wouldn&#8217;t advise anyone to cross into Syria, particularly not after the immediate border area because after that it’s very murky and very many groups occupy different checkpoints and everything. It’s dangerous. &#8220;Strange thing about Syria is that, apart from me, many freelance journalist and even tourists, especially at the time, could just walk into Syria. It was as easy as showing your passport at the right border gate and you could just walk into Syria. And for me, there was plenty of reason to distribute aid because right after the border there was this refugee camp and the people were living in desperate situations in the refugee camp. The international community wasn&#8217;t reaching this place very much because it wasn&#8217;t Syrian territory, so they had these legal obstructions, but for me and some other small NGOs and individuals, we could easily get into these places and distribute aid.&#8221; On how he started his project &#8220;Many people will think twice or thrice before going into Syria to either report from there or to deliver aid. You can imagine what kind of consequences that will have.&#8221; &#8220;I just couldn&#8217;t make sense of these two findings. On the one hand, the need was very high, and then on the other hand it was so easy to go in, and if it was so easy to go in then why wasn&#8217;t the help there?&#8221; &#8220;Me and a friend of mine, Hassan, we just walked into a blanket shop basically. And we chose some blankets that seemed warm and that were not too pricey and I actually tested some of them in my hotel room with the window open and the door open at night and I decided that it was a fine blanket. And I bought 100 of them off my savings and with some friends I met we just went into Aleppo eventually to distribute these blankets, and that was the start of something more.&#8221; On why he decided to leave &#8220;First of all, when I came to Syria, even tourists were going there. It seemed such a good mood and people could just walk into Aleppo and you would make photos and you would come back safely and have a nice story to share with your friends on Facebook. But as time passed, things started to change. And the war has always been there, there’s always been bullets flying, but this more invisible danger of kidnapping started popping up during the months I was there, even before, but it just got more intense and more extreme.&#8221; &#8220;On the route I took to Aleppo often, at least two people were kidnapped. From what I assume, Kayla was also kidnapped on at least partly the same way.&#8221; Reflecting on Kayla&#8217;s death &#8220;It’s a very tragic event, and the entire ISIS rise, of course, is a very tragic event and especially the past killings of humanitarian workers, of journalists. It’s a tragic development, of course for these people, and family, and relatives, also I think, in general, for journalism and aid in Syria. Many people will think twice or thrice before going into Syria to either report from there or to deliver aid. You can imagine what kind of consequences that will have. That’s not to say that journalism or aid will save Syria. But at least it might alleviate some suffering, which is now made very hard.&#8221; Guest\n\nWijbe Abma, former freelance aid worker in Syria.", "A defiant Syrian President Bashar Assad said Monday that the international community has not produced evidence to substantiate claims that his regime used chemical weapons in a deadly attack last month. \"Those who make accusations must show evidence. We have challenged the United States and France to come up with a single piece of proof. [Presidents] Obama and Hollande have been incapable of doing so,\" Assad told the French newspaper Le Figaro in an interview in Damascus. Assad has made few public appearances and given few interviews since an uprising began more than two years ago. But with the U.S. and France favoring military action, the Syrian leader said such strikes could unleash much greater violence across the region. \"The Middle East is barrel of powder and today the flames are creeping closer. It is not just a question of the Syrian response but what else might happen after the first [Western] air strike,\" Assad said. \"Everyone will lose control of the situation when the powder barrel explodes.\" United Nations inspectors left Syria on Saturday after collecting evidence on the Aug. 21 attack that left more than 1,400 people dead in the eastern suburbs of Damascus. The U.N. findings have not yet been made public. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that tests showed sarin gas was used, though he did not say who conducted the tests. Obama, meanwhile, hosted two key Republican senators who have been pressing for a much tougher approach toward Assad. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina emerged from the White House meeting and said it was critical that the president make a strong case to Congress if he hopes to win congressional backing for military action against Syria. The senators support striking against Syria but said they want to see sustained U.S. efforts to degrade Assad's forces and upgrade the rebels. Asked whether he supports U.S. efforts to arm the rebels, McCain said, \"We should have done it two years ago.\" The senator said the U.S. should specifically target the Syrian air force, which has been used to pound rebels throughout the country. However, like Obama, the senators stressed that they opposed sending any U.S. troops into Syria. While McCain and Graham have been leading voices on Syria, they are considered to be among a small number in Congress who favor a relatively large-scale operation. Obama is expected to face opposition from a larger number of Republicans and Democrats who are either against military action or are skeptical about what it might achieve.", "It's no surprise that the revolutionary march across the Arab world would find its way to Syria. For the past few weeks, pockets of protest have sprung up in several areas of the country. Scores of Syrians have been killed or arrested recently in the greatest challenge to President Bashar Assad's 11-year rule. The government there has been able to keep a lid on the situation so far, but it is starting to set off alarm bells in Washington. Syria may have a dismal economy and few natural resources, but it is right in the center of the Middle East and is critical to U.S. interests. Ted Kattouf, a former American ambassador to the country, says for that reason, Syria has always been able to punch above its weight. \"The way they've done that is by ensuring that they have their hands on the levers of issues with which the United States is involved and about which it cares a great deal,\" he says. Kattouf says that includes supporting Islamist groups Hezbollah and Hamas. He says Syria has also been able to \"successfully to manipulate events in Lebanon for decades.\" \"And then, of course, there's the whole issue of Israel,\" he adds. The Obama administration had been trying to bring Syria into the fold of the Arab-Israeli peace process, with little success. And, at the same time, it has been trying to peel Syria away from one of its main allies, Iran. A Spillover Effect If Assad is seriously weakened or overthrown because of the current uprising, it will not only affect U.S. foreign policy. It is likely to have a spillover effect and upset the dynamic of the region, says Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian human-rights activist exiled in the U.S. and the founder of the Tharwa Foundation, an organization that promotes democracy in Syria. \"If the situation deteriorated in Syria as Assad himself is threatening ... then frankly, Syria's role in the future will become more and more of a destabilizing factor,\" Abdulhamid says. Ambassador Kattouf says if the Assad regime topples, it could unravel the intricate network of Syrian relations with its allies and foes. Kattouf says this could represent both an opportunity and danger for the United States and others. \"Iran and Hezbollah would both be tremendously dismayed if they thought that the leadership of Bashar al-Assad was about to be toppled in Syria,\" he says. \"It would be a strategic setback for both of them.\" U.S. In A Bind Kattouf says at the same time, if the Syrian government fell, it would usher in the unknown. There is a genuine concern instability in Syria could lead to civil war and inflame sectarian tensions there and elsewhere in the region. Syria has a majority Sunni population, while members of Assad's government come primarily from the much smaller community of Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Analysts say the Obama administration is in a bind about whom to back — protesters demanding freedom and reform, or the Assad regime to help keep a lid on a potentially explosive situation. There are some, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who saw Assad as a reformer. Joshua Landis, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, says the United States has to approach the situation in Syria with kid gloves. \"It's going to be very important to see which way [Assad] wants to move forward. He's laid down the gauntlet on revolution but he's said we want to reform,\" Landis says. \"America has to sit down with its allies, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Europeans, and figure out a way forward. And talk to Bashar al-Assad.\" 'He's Ruled By Indecision' But Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East policy, says the United States doesn't have a lot of leverage with Syria. Tabler, who spent a decade in Syria, says Assad is now cornered. And while the Syrian president needs to make some hard decisions about what he wants to do, that's just not in his nature. \"It's particularly hard for him because until now he's ruled by indecision, by not making clear decisions, by not clearly reforming,\" Tabler says. \"And very much he is being pressed to do so at the moment — to declare himself — and this is not the way he rules.\" Still, Tabler doesn't believe Assad's overthrow is imminent, primarily because Syria's military is still on his side.", "Syrian peace talks are taking place amid a new urgency. The four-year-old civil war could be on the verge of yet another humanitarian disaster. Late Thursday night Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart said they had agreed to work toward a \"cessation of hostilities\" among the warring factions in Syria to begin in one week. The agreement, which was backed by other major powers, also aims to accelerate humanitarian aid to besieged cities in Syria and bring the Syrian regime and the opposition back to the negotiation table, NPR's Michele Kelemen reports. The Syrian regime – with Russian military backing – has been advancing toward rebel-held areas in the large city of Aleppo. Tens of thousands of civilians have already fled for their lives but hundreds of thousands more remain in the city. Here's a breakdown on the talks, which are in Germany and could last through Saturday. Who is there and what are they discussing? This meeting by the so-called International Syria Support Group in Munich is an effort to get the broad U.N. talks going again. The ISSG is a group of about 20 countries, including the U.S., Russia, Iran, and European and Middle Eastern nations, who have an interest in the Syrian conflict. And as the Associated Press reports, \"A truce is seen as critical to resuscitating peace talks between Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and the opposition. They stalled last month before really starting.\" The full U.N. peace talks, which would include the Syrian government and opposition, are scheduled to resume Feb. 25. NPR's Alison Meuse has reported that the fighting in Aleppo contributed to the suspension of a previous round of talks earlier this month. The talks would not include ISIS or an al-Qaida-affiliated group operating in Syria, but aim to get the government communicating with rebel groups. The focus today was on Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. Their two countries have exchanged blame for the increased violence in Syria. When the talks stalled last month, the U.N. envoy running them said that getting the U.S. and Russia to work together is key before progress can be made. Why do the U.S. and Russia differ so starkly? The U.S. and Russia see fundamentally different endgames for the Syrian conflict. \"From the start, I'd say the Russians have been pretty clear that they don't see anyone who could replace (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad, while the U.S. doesn't see the war ending as long as Assad's in power,\" reports NPR's Michele Kelemen who is traveling with Kerry in Munich. Both the U.S. and Russia have taken significant roles in negotiations until now, she says: \"When the Syrian government crossed the U.S. red line and used chemical weapons in 2013, the U.S. worked with Russia to rid Syria of its declared stockpiles. The West saw that as a sign that Russia would use its leverage when necessary, and the Russians saw that as a sign that the only way you resolve things in Syria is to work with the Assad regime.\" And when Russia entered the conflict with airstrikes, it gave them \"the kind of leverage that the U.S. doesn't have here, and a clear sense of what they want to make sure Assad's regime survives,\" Michele says. What do the U.S. and Russia want now? \"What [Kerry] has been trying to do is get all the countries that have a stake in Syria to push their proxies toward a political settlement so that everyone can focus on ISIS,\" reports Michele Kelemen. She says the Russians \"brush off\" accusations that their offensive near Aleppo has stalled talks: \"They say they're there fighting terrorists.\" And Michele reports that \"officials keep reminding the Russians that they signed on to a U.N. Security resolution that calls for peace talks and that calls for humanitarian access.\" But Michele noted that while the U.S. was focused on getting aid to civilians in cities under siege the the Syrian government, Russia talked about the people in cities held by rebel groups, a far smaller number. Syrian opposition negotiator Salem al-Muslet tells NPR, \"Syrians can't wait another week, as Russia's warplanes pound Aleppo, displacing more people and cutting off aid supply routes.\" What happens if this \"cessation of hostilities\" fails? The war in Syria has already killed a quarter of a million people, and that stands to rise if this falls through. Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation grows steadily worse. The United Nations said today that some 300,000 people are at risk of being placed under siege in Aleppo, which was Syria's largest city before the war began. A failure to get the Syrian regime in the same room as the opposition would mean more death and misery for thousands of people in Syria – and drive more to seek safety in neighboring countries and Europe.", "In an interview with NPR, President Obama's national security adviser Susan Rice says the United States will not be drawn into a ground war in Iraq and Syria, even if local forces are ineffective at holding gains made against the group calling itself the Islamic State. Rice spoke to Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep the day after President Obama outlined the U.S. strategy against the Sunni militants. In a prime-time speech, Obama said the U.S would \"degrade and ultimately destroy\" the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS and ISIL. With that, here are four excerpts from the interview with Rice that expand on what Obama said Wednesday: -- On the possibility that the U.S. could be dragged into a ground war in Iraq and Syria, Rice said: \"The U.S. is not going to put American forces back on the ground in a combat role. The president has been absolutely clear about that: This is not going to be Afghanistan or the Iraq war redux, with tens of thousands of Americans in Iraq.\" -- On what happens if the U.S. partners on the ground — the Iraqi army and the moderate rebels in Syria — are ineffective at fighting the Islamic State: \"We are prepared to do what it takes to degrade and defeat ISIL. But that can only be accomplished if and in fact we have effective partners on the ground. There are limits, Steve, to what we and others can do from the air.\" -- On whether the map of the Middle East could change because of the advances made by the Islamic State: \"There will be no caliphate. There will be no ISIL that holds and sustains a huge safe haven in Syria and Iraq. That poses a threat to the Untied States, to the countries in the region and, above all, to the Iraqi and Syrian people. And that's indeed what we said we can't allow to be preserved.\" -- In his speech, Obama said this mission against the Islamic State is like the U.S. offensives in Yemen and Somalia. Steve told Rice that neither of those places is exactly paradise. He asked her if that's what Iraqis and Syrians have to look forward to. Rice said the analogy was about the use of air power: \"We have done so with sustained effect. But on the ground we have had partners that have done the fighting. In Yemen — the Yemeni security forces, with whom we've trained and have also provided equipment and assistance, have done that. In Somalia it has been the Somali national army and the African Union security forces, and we have supported them in the same way. That is the model that we are envisioning and seeking to replicate in Iraq. \"The frequency of our military strikes will undoubtedly be more intense in Iraq because the threat is more intense and more sustained. But the model worked, and to say that it's a success — we're not saying Somalia is a success as a state, but it is fair to say that we haven't been attacked directly out of Somalia or Yemen in several years. I will knock on wood as I say that. But it is a fact that cooperating with Yemenis, cooperating with Somalis and the African Union, we have been able to contain and roll back the terrorist threat in both those countries and to do so with partners on the ground and U.S. air power.\" Here is a full transcript of the interview that aired on Morning Edition today: Steve Inskeep: Let me begin with a kind of bottom-line question here. I heard the president's speech — everyone did, of course — last night. I want to make sure I understand what the president's bottom line is. Is the United States in it to defeat this group, ISIS or ISIL, no matter what happens? Susan Rice: As the president said very clearly last night, Steve, we are committed to degrading ISIL and ultimately destroying it. So that's a very clear-cut statement. But what the president also said is that this is not something that's going to happen overnight. This is going to require a comprehensive strategy, building of a broad-based coalition, including our traditional partners in places like NATO but also regional partners and particularly the Sunni countries in the region. This will only be able to succeed over a period of time. And it's going to require not just a military component — the president said we'd be engaged in sustained and relentless airstrikes to the extent necessary to roll back ISIL — but it's also going to require creating partners on the ground with which we can cooperate. So in Iraq, with the Iraqi security forces, the Kurds; and in Syria, with the Syrian moderate opposition, which obviously have a requirement for additional training and equipping. Steve Inskeep: You used a quite meaningful word there. You said \"creating partners on the ground.\" You're talking about building up Iraqi security forces that have collapsed, you're talking about supporting Syrian moderate rebels that the president himself has raised doubts about in the past. Doesn't that raise the question, which Sen. Marco Rubio put on our program yesterday: What if it fails? Is the United States prepared to engage in a deeper commitment? Isn't the Uni", "President Obama has been hosting a series of visitors from the Middle East, and all of them have been urging the U.S. to get more involved in Syria. They have included the emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, whose country has been arming rebel forces in Syria. Obama wants to see such aid go to moderates — but that requires more cooperation with partners like Qatar. Problem is, they don't always see eye to eye. Qatar was already an important U.S. partner in the region when the Arab uprisings began, and the small, wealthy Gulf nation saw a new opportunity to gain influence when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was toppled, says Tamara Wittes, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. \"One of the consequences of the fall of Mubarak is that the U.S. lost in a way its central diplomatic partner in the Arab world,\" Wittes says. \"In many ways, the Qataris stepped up to play that role, in the Arab League, for example, on Libya and then on Syria.\" Impression Of Qatar 'Taking Sides' This was a time when the U.S. wanted others to take the lead. But there were risks in that approach, says Simon Henderson, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and director of the center's Gulf and Energy Policy Program. \"We stood to one side and let things happen in Libya, and the result was that most of the fighting was done by jihadis, who are very much in influence now,\" he says. \"In Syria we are standing further to one side, and the problem with jihadis persists.\" Henderson believes that's because Gulf states like Qatar are taking the lead in arming Syrian rebels. He says Qatar is competing with Saudi Arabia for influence in Syria's future, and they are backing different extremist groups. \"Qatar is punching above its weight at the moment and is prepared to have a pretty open competition in Syria,\" Henderson says. \"This is a battle, a contest, in which they are using both diplomatic influence and ... military support, for the opposition.\" Qatar has also been pouring money into Egypt, to help the Muslim Brotherhood government avoid a financial collapse. At a dinner hosted by the Brookings Institution, Martin Indyk, the group's vice president and a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, asked Qatar's prime minister why his government seems to be supporting Islamists throughout the region. \"Whether it's your bailing out the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt or your support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria or Hamas in Gaza, there's the impression that you're taking sides,\" Indyk said. Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani called it a rumor spread by his rivals in the region. He said Qatar has been on the side of the people in the Arab uprisings. And on Syria, the prime minister said Qatar didn't seek the limelight. \"We did not want to take the lead. We begged a lot of countries to start to take the lead and we will be in the back seat,\" he said. \"But we find ourselves in the front seat.\" U.S. Urged To Do More The Qatari prime minister also said Syrian President Bashar Assad is testing the international community and crossing red lines, starting with Scud missile attacks on his people. \"You know we put a lot of red lines. Scud, he used Scud. Chemicals, he used chemicals. And there is evidence,\" Thani said. \"But he used it in pockets, small pockets. He wants to try your reaction. No reaction? He will escalate.\" And the longer the conflict in Syria drags on, the Qatari prime minister warned, the more the extremists will gain ground. \"The United States has to do more,\" he said. \"I believe that if we stopped this one year ago, we will not see the bad people you are talking about.\" But while Qatar is asking the Obama administration to do more, Wittes of the Brookings Institution says the White House had its own concerns to raise about various funding streams for the Syrian opposition. \"There seems to be a tendency by different actors to back different factions on the ground in a way that exacerbates conflict between the elements of the Syrian opposition, when what the United States is very focused on right now is trying to bring that opposition together,\" she says. That's the only way, Wittes says, opponents of the Syrian government can show there is a real alternative to Assad.", "The U.S. needs to \"do a better job\" in the face of evolving threats in Libya and beyond, outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with NPR. But she also noted that the last four years have been important for the country \"to demonstrate that we were going to once again assume a leadership position that was in concert with our values.\" In a wide-ranging interview with NPR's Michele Kelemen, Clinton spoke about the lessons learned from the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya; the rise of extremist Islamist groups in North Africa; Russia's role in blocking international action in Syria; as well as her many diplomatic successes and a possible run for the White House in 2016. What follows is the full transcript of the interview. (If you would like to listen to the piece that aired Wednesday on Morning Edition, click here.) Michele Kelemen: Well, I do want to talk. We have so much to talk about and not much time, I know. But I want to begin with Benghazi. You've talked about Benghazi as one of your lasting regrets. Your review board outlined systemic failures of the State Department, but I wonder whether you also see it as an intelligence failure. I mean, the U.S. was really taken by surprise by this attack, even though, as we now know, there was a large CIA presence in Benghazi at this annex that was — that took mortar fire. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: Well, I think the Accountability Review Board addressed that. Certainly, there was no specific intelligence-based threat that was conveyed to us, but there was an evaluation of the threat environment that we were trying to deal with by helping the Libyans build up their own security. But ultimately, I think we all have to do a better job. The threats have evolved. We've seen different kinds of threats affect our military, affect our intelligence community and affect our diplomats. So I think we'll do our part here in the State Department to try to implement all of the recommendations, and we'll work with our partners in the government to just make sure that we're not missing anything going forward. Kelemen: And in addition to Benghazi, we've seen this extremist takeover in northern Mali, this deadly hostage raid in Algeria. There seem to be connections among all of these groups that were involved. So what more does the U.S. have to do to get a handle on this really regional threat? Clinton: Right. Well, Michele, I think that it's going to take some time to sort out what these governments are able to do to secure their own borders and protect their own people. The Arab revolutions and the new efforts to build democracies are not well established yet. So we have a multitude of challenges that we're meeting simultaneously. We're trying to work with the governments, and some are willing but not capable; some are capable but sometimes less than willing. We have extremist groups that have been driven out of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan and in the safe havens in Pakistan in large measure because of our relentless efforts against them. They have taken up arms again in North Africa and they pose a new threat. And the takeover of the gas facility in Algeria is an example of that. We have faced all kinds of threats over many years, obviously. It takes a while to calibrate exactly how we're going to put together the package that we need to respond, but we're in the midst of doing that with likeminded nations in the region and beyond. Kelemen: I'd like to turn to Syria because your critics describe Syria as this administration's Rwanda. And I wonder how it weighs on you and what more the U.S. could have done to prevent the deaths of now 60,000 people. Clinton: Well, it's not a historically accurate analogy. Rwanda was particularly dreadful because it was largely unarmed people being slaughtered in huge numbers in a very short period of time, despite the presence of a U.N. mission in Rwanda. Syria is much more complex, much more riven by geographic and other differences among the population. You have a well-equipped military going after what started out to be largely unarmed, peaceful protestors, now pockets of armed resistance all over the country. I think the United States has done a great deal. We are responsible for driving through sanctions against [Syrian President Bashar] Assad that have really limited his capacity to replenish his coffers and to provide funding needed to keep his military machine going. We have helped to stand up an opposition that was notably absent in the beginning of this conflict. It wasn't like other places where there were pre-existing, well-organized entities that stepped into the breach. We've had to work on that. We've become the biggest provider of humanitarian assistance. And I think there is a lot of concern, not just by the United States but by other countries as well. I mean, we are certainly not alone in being cautious about what more we can do without causing more deat", "President Obama said Wednesday that the Islamic State is a cancer that threatens all governments in the Middle East. But that raises the question of what the U.S. could or should do. Two former U.S. ambassadors to Syria, Robert Ford and Ryan Crocker, have advocated different approaches to a conflict where there are many different options. But none is appealing and there's no guarantee, or even a likelihood that U.S. action would ultimately determine the outcome. Ford, who stepped down from the post in February, has wanted the U.S. to do more to arm moderate rebels, who are battling both President Bashar Assad's regime and Islamic State militants. Crocker, on the other hand, has long argued that the Assad regime may be bad, but it doesn't pose nearly the same threat compared with the Islamic State, which previously called itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. \"I am no apologist for the Assad regime. I was there under father [Hafez Assad] and son [Bashar Assad],\" says Crocker, who served as ambassador to Syria from 1998-2001. \"They are a brutal bunch of bastards, without question. But in terms of our security, ISIS is by far the largest threat. A Call To Strike In Syria And Iraq Crocker also thinks the U.S. needs to launch airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria as well as Iraq — even if that means some coordination with Assad. The Islamic State controls large swaths of territory in eastern Syria and western Iraq, and has declared a caliphate, or a single Muslim empire that does not recognize existing borders. \"Since they erased the Iraq-Syria border, we should take them up on it,\" says Crocker, \"and go after them both in Iraq and in Syria. They don't respect the border, but neither should we.\" Crocker, now the dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M, says there is no need to form an open alliance with Assad, who the U.S. accuses of carrying out mass atrocities. Meanwhile, Joshua Landis, a Syria analyst, notes that any action the U.S. might take could play into Assad's hands. \"It means helping his government, because any attempt to destroy ISIS, which owns a third of the country, is going to rebound to his benefit unless the other militias take that territory,\" says Landis, who teaches at the University of Oklahoma and runs the blog Syria Comment. There are other analysts and former State Department officials who argue that the U.S. should be doing much more to help moderate militias that are battling both the Islamic State and the Assad regime. But Landis is skeptical. \"We don't have allies that are strong enough to replace the Syrian state and stabilize the country,\" he says. So that poses a big dilemma for the U.S. \"If you work with Assad, you damage your reputation, but you might be able to help the Syrian people not die as much,\" Landis says. \"If you destroy the Syrian state, what's left of it, you are going to get more chaos, and more ISIS.\" Andrew Tabler, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, believes this debate and the Syrian conflict will play out for some time to come. He argues there are moral and practical reasons to avoid dealing with Assad. \"The biggest issue standing in the way of working with the Assad regime, even tacitly, is the real operational limitations of the Assad regime's forces,\" he says. \"They are not heavily present in the eastern part of the country where ISIS is dominant. And when they fight ISIS directly, and they do sometimes, they are not very good at retaking and holding territory.\" The U.S. is also concerned that the Syrian government has allowed the Islamic State to flourish, perhaps to show the world that those opposing the regime are terrorists. Tabler says Obama has no good choices, but should at least be asking: \"What can dislodge ISIS forces from that area? And the answer is, I think, working with moderates, including tribes in that area, very much like we are doing in Iraq.\" But Obama has been far more cautious about getting involved in Syria since the war erupted there three years ago. And so far, he's given no indication that he's considering a major move in Syria. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: When President Obama spoke about the Foley killing, he described the self-proclaimed Islamic State as a cancer that all governments in the Middle East must help to extract, which raises this question - what about Syria, whose government the U.S. wants gone? These days the U.S. and Syria have a common enemy in the Sunni extremists. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports that poses difficult policy choices for Washington. MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: Two former U.S. ambassadors to Syria, Robert Ford and Ryan Crocker, have advocated different approaches to the conflict there. Ford wanted the U.S. to do more to arm moderate rebels who are battling both the Assad regime and Islamic State militants. Crocker, on the other hand, has long argued that the Assad regime may be bad, but it's nothing compared to the Sunni extremist group oft", "An international team of weapons experts is at work in Syria on the job of finding and destroying the nation's chemical stockpile. Inspectors crossed in Syria from Lebanon on Tuesday. But the job will be difficult and possibly dangerous, says Amy Smithson, a senior fellow at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Smithson, an expert in chemical and biological weapons, tells Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon that Syrian President Bashar Assad has proven untrustworthy in the past and is unlikely to be completely upfront with inspectors about the location and extent of his chemical munitions. He may also allow the joint team of experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations to come in harm's way, Smithson says. \"The U.N. Security Council put the onus for providing security for these inspections on the Assad government, and when the investigators were there previously, it's very likely that the Assad government turned snipers loose,\" she says. \"This is a dicey proposition, not in the least part because in the midst of Syria we also have Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaida.\" Assad could also be scrambling to make his chemical weapons hard to find. \"If Assad is true to form — and previously he has stalled and delayed and done everything he could to hide evidence of his nuclear weapons program — now's the time for him to be moving things about and perhaps hiding what he wants to try keep away from the inspectors,\" Smithson says. Making a challenging circumstance even more precarious, the team is operating under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which the Assad regime agreed to in September. The convention is designed for disarmament by cooperating partners, not states whose acquiescence has been coerced. While the treaty allows access to Assad's weapons, it also give his government rights, Smithson says. Assad could potentially keep inspectors from certain areas, she says, declaring them irrelevant because they house conventional weapons or \"unrelated\" records. \"He can fence with inspectors a great deal. I do expect, given his past behavior, to try to hide evidence and maybe get away with what he can,\" Smithson says. Intelligence experts may see through such smokescreens, she adds. However, she says, \"previously there have been times when intelligence about chemical and biological weapons programs have been grossly off the mark.\" Smithson expects the team will make significant progress in destroying Syria's chemical stockpile. The U.S. and Russia have powerful resources at hand to neutralize the weapons. \"There are a number of assets that the United States and also Russia can bring to bear to destroy bulk chemical warfare agents and even chemcial weapons munitions,\" she says. \"These assets involved cargo-container-sized equipment that will put water in the agent and put other chemicals to degrade it with great effectiveness.\" But Smithson is cautious. \"I'm just not sure that Assad, Hezbollah, Hamas and al-Qaida are going to cooperate with this,\" she says. \"So it's just difficult every which way you look, but there are definitely practical things that can be brought to bear.\" SCOTT SIMON, HOST: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Chemical weapons have been used in Syria. That much we know. The United Nations reports seem to point to the regime of Bashar al-Assad as being responsible, and after much debate around the world, the Assad regime agreed to hand over their chemical stockpile. This week, the process of finding and destroying the weapons began in Syria. Amy Smithson joins us now. She's a senior fellow with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterrey Institute of International Studies. She joins us in our studios. Thanks so much for being with us. AMY SMITHSON: It's a pleasure to be with you. SIMON: International inspectors arrived in Damascus this week. How do they begin? SMITHSON: Well, first of all they're going to have some pretty long and perhaps even difficult discussions with the Syrians. The U.N. Security Council put the onus for providing security for these inspections on the Assad government and when the investigators were there previously, it's very likely that the Assad government turned snipers loose, so this is a dicey proposition not in the least part because in the midst of Syria we also have Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaida. SIMON: You know the concern of a lot of people in the international community is that the Assad regime is talking in one setting and hiding and concealing weapons in the other. SMITHSON: If Assad is true to form, and previously he has stalled and delayed and done everything he could to hide evidence of his nuclear weapons program. Now is the time for him to be moving things about and perhaps hiding what he wants to try to keep away from the inspectors. This is something certainly that Saddam Hussein did a great deal of when the Un", "In its standoff with Iran, the Bush administration has been raising the temperature to a point where one begins to wonder what it has in mind. At a news conference on Tuesday, President Bush was asked why the administration, after eight months, had suddenly released photos of a nuclear reactor under construction in Syria, bombed by the Israelis. He spoke of sending a message to Iran to stop their nuclear programs. Was he suggesting the possibility that an Iranian nuclear installation might go the way of the reactor that was being built in Syria, reportedly with North Korean help? That is the closest the administration has yet come to suggesting the possible use of force against Iran. Around the same time, the Pentagon announced that a second aircraft carrier, the USS Lincoln, has been sent into the Persian Gulf. It adds, as though an afterthought, that the carrier is only to relieve one that has been on station. And Defense Secretary Robert Gates explains, \"I don't see it as an escalation. I think it could be seen, though, as a reminder.\" Say what? Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the Pentagon has military options it could consider against Iran, although the present intention is to rely on diplomatic and economic methods. The trouble is that diplomatic pressure and sanctions have not accomplished very much. Not only is the administration worried about Iran's nuclear program, but the latest State Department report on terrorist threats brands Iran as, \"the most active state sponsor of terrorism.\" The report says that Iran has armed militants in Iraq with weapons, training and money, and these are being used to target coalition and Iraqi forces and civilians. Nothing the Bush administration has yet said or done seems to have had any effect on Iran. Indeed, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Thursday that Iran is no longer denoting its petroleum transactions in dollars, which the Iranian president called \"worthless pieces of paper\" at a summit meeting of oil-producing countries in Saudi Arabia last year. The ultimate insult, you might say. But Iran and the U.S. seem to be on a collision course. And one wonders what will happen in the remaining months of the Bush presidency. DANIEL SCHORR: In his standoff with Iran, the Bush's administration has been raising the temperature to a point where one begins to wonder what it has in mind. ROBERT SIEGEL, host: NPR's senior news analyst, Daniel Schorr. SCHORR: At his news conference on Tuesday, President Bush was asked why the administration, after eight months, has suddenly released photos of a nuclear reactor under construction in Syria and bombed by the Israelis. The president spoke of sending a message to Iran to stop its nuclear program. Why is Mr. Bush suggesting the possibility that an Iranian nuclear installation might go to way of the reactor that was being build in Syria, reportedly with North Korean help? This is the closest the administration has yet come to suggesting the possible use of force against Iran. Around the same time the Pentagon announces that a second aircraft carrier, the USS Lincoln, has been sent into the Persian Gulf, then adds as though by afterthought that it was only to relieve one that's been on-station. And Defense Secretary Robert Gates explains: I don't see it as an escalation; I think it could be seen though as a reminder. Say what? Then Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says that the Pentagon has military options it could consider against Iran, although the present intention is to rely a diplomatic and economic methods. The trouble is the diplomatic pressure and sanctions have not accomplished very much. Not only is the administration worried about Iran's nuclear program, but they latest State Department report on terrorist threats brand Iran as the most active state sponsor of terrorism. Nothing the Bush administration has yet said or done seems to have had much effect on Iran. Indeed, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced yesterday that Iran is no longer denoting its petroleum transactions in dollars, which the Iranian president called worthless pieces of paper at a summit meeting of oil producing countries in Saudi Arabia last year - the ultimate insult, you might say. But Iran and United States seemed to be on a collision course. And one wonders what will happen in the remaining months of the Bush presidency. This is Daniel Schorr.", "Syrian state TV is reporting that a bomb blast in Damascus has killed at least 13 people, a day after the country's prime minister narrowly escaped a car bomb. The Associated Press reports: \"The bombings appear to be part of an accelerated campaign by opposition forces seeking to topple President Bashar Assad to strike at his heavily protected seat of power. ... \"Syrian TV said Tuesday's explosion was caused by a 'terrorist bombing' in the district of Marjeh, a commercial area in central Damascus. Assad's regime refers to opposition fighters as 'terrorists.' \" The latest attack in the Syrian capital comes a day after Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi's convoy was targeted by a remotely triggered bomb and amid increasing international concern that Syria may have used chemical weapons against the opposition. A new CBS News/New York Times poll shows 62 percent of Americans oppose U.S. intervention in Syria, while 24 percent think the United States has an obligation to act. In an interview on NPR's Morning Edition, Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group says that while the White House has claimed it has some evidence for Syria's use of the deadly chemical agent sarin, \"we're still not quite at the point where they could make a conclusive case.\" \"I think it's understandable certainly in the case of the United States to have a pretty high threshold,\" Malley says. \"First, it's always hard to establish such claims, particularly when you're at a distance.\" He says the question is not necessarily how Washington might intervene in Syria to stop the fighting that has killed an estimated 70,000 people, but whether such an intervention would help the Syrian opposition and serve U.S. interests. Arming the opposition, a no-fly zone or airstrikes against airfields and delivery systems all can be done, Malley notes. \"The U.S. certainly has the means to do them,\" he says. \"That's not the question — the question is whether they would have a positive impact in Syria and whether they would serve U.S. national interests.\" He says France, Turkey and Saudi Arabia all have a slightly different point of view on Syria. \"A number of them are saying, 'We will do what you want' — you, the United States — 'if you take the lead,' which ends up being a game where each side says, 'You go first,' \" Malley adds. \" Some countries are more eager to see some action; others are more worried.\"", "The Arab spring has brought large-scale protests and violence to at least half a dozen countries in the past three years. Until now, the U.S. has only intervened militarily in one of them — Libya. Now, as President Obama considers a strike on Syria, here's a look at some of the differences between the two scenarios: 1. Syria's Not Standing Alone When Obama first announced U.S. military action in Libya, he highlighted a few facts he felt sure of at the time: \"In this effort, the United States is acting with a broad coalition that is committed to enforcing United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which calls for the protection of the Libyan people,\" the president said on March 19, 2011. Russia and China did not block U.N. action on Libya. But that was then. Today, Russia is loudly defending Syria. Two years ago, the Arab League supported the mission to take out Moammar Gadhafi. Today, the league does not support an attack on Bashar Assad. \"Nobody regionally and nobody internationally stood by Gadhafi and his regime,\" says Paul Salem, who directs the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. \"Obviously, Syria's very different. Syria has Iran, the Maliki government in Iraq, Russia, China and Hezbollah in support of it.\" A chart showing who supports which side in Syria's civil war looks like a bowl of spaghetti. Add to that the fears that any conflict with Syria will look like a proxy war — say, between Iran and the United States. \"Syria is very important from a perspective of geopolitics,\" says Amos Guiora at the University of Utah law school. \"Syria presents for the Iranian navy the ability to dock in Syrian ports and to sail in the Mediterranean.\" And don't forget that Israel — America's No. 1 Mideast ally — is in Syria's backyard. So from a global perspective, the situation in Syria is far more complicated than it was in Libya. 2. Things Are Also More Complicated Inside Syria The people in Libya are almost all Sunni Arabs. But in Syria, many different religious groups live in an often uneasy mix. To start with, says Mark Katz of George Mason University, the Syrian government is run by minority Alawites — adherents of an offshoot of Shiite Islam. \"But there are so many other communities. The country consists of a majority of Sunni Arabs, there are Kurds, there are Arab Christians, there are Druze,\" Katz says, \"and these other minorities are also fearful that a change to Sunni majority rule will have a negative impact on them.\" And the rebels themselves are far less cohesive in Syria than they were in Libya. Remember, the U.S. recognized one rebel government in Libya. In Syria, it's not even clear how many groups there are. Some experts say dozens; others say almost a thousand. One thing most experts do agree on: \"The most powerful ones are Salafist and jihadist. Some are linked to al-Qaida,\" says Joshua Landis, who directs the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. 3. Syria's Economy Is Crumbling \"Libya's a country of 6 million people, and it can already pay its own bills,\" explains Landis. \"Syria's a country of 24 million. Almost a third of them, 7 million, have been displaced — 2 million outside of the country; 5 million internally. And the economy is in shambles.\" Libya can pay its own bills because it's the largest oil producer in Africa. Syria doesn't have nearly as much oil as its neighbors. That means reconstruction would be much more expensive. Landis says Syria is \"a destroyed country without any means of income today.\" \"The economy has collapsed by more than half and is in the process of collapsing even further,\" he says. \"This winter is going to be a terrible winter in Syria. ... Only about half as many crops as were planted last year have been planted this summer due to insecurity, lack of fuel, lack of fertilizer and many other reasons.\" 4. U.S. Goals Are Different Now In Libya, Obama and his allies sought to take out Gadhafi. In Syria, the president has described the U.S. goal as preventing the use of chemical weapons. He spoke Wednesday night on PBS: \"If we are saying in a clear and decisive but very limited way — we send a shot across the bow saying, 'Stop doing this,' that can have a positive impact on our national security over the long term.\" In Libya, the U.S. ended its military involvement after seven months, when Gadhafi was killed. In Syria, it's still not clear what sort of military action the U.S. might take, or how long it could last.", "Defense Secretary Ash Carter is hosting a meeting this week with his counterparts from other nations in the coalition against the Islamic State. The gathering comes at a particularly turbulent time. Turkey, a key member in that coalition, is still reeling from an unexpected coup attempt. Meanwhile, ISIS appears to be on the defensive, having steadily lost territory over the past year or so. NPR's Renee Montagne spoke with Carter on Tuesday at the Pentagon. Here are the highlights: Renee Montagne: I'd like to start with Turkey. It has just put down a coup led by a sizable number of its military leaders, allegedly. A sizable number have been rounded up. At this time Turkey has just recently seriously committed to the coalition fighting ISIS. How much of a problem for the fight against ISIS is this situation with the coup in Turkey? Ash Carter: Well, we didn't know this was coming and so it did come as a surprise to us, but I don't think it's going to affect our campaign against ISIL. And, in fact, I spoke to my Turkish counterpart earlier today [Tuesday] and he told me as much. As far as we know, the entire military wasn't involved. This was a faction or a group within the military. And the Turkish military is a very large, very professional organization. They are a NATO ally, we've worked with them for decades and I expect our relationship there to continue. And your counterpart. Is there anything you can tell us about what he said specifically? Yes. No, he simply said that they had gained control of events there. He was very pleased to hear from me. He and I have a good relationship. And I told him I was very glad to hear of his safety. Well, talk about attacks in other parts of the world. Obviously, Western Europe. We've seen some terrible attacks in France, in Brussels. How much of this is being directed out of Raqqa? You talk about defeating ISIS. You've got to talk about some, a real place. It's Raqqa, Syria. And also the city of Mosul. Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq are our two primary objectives because they are large cities, and in the case of Raqqa, this is the self-proclaimed capital of the self-proclaimed caliphate, and... So what's the plan? Well, the plan will be to take Raqqa away from them and make sure that there isn't any ISIL planning done there. It's important to show that there cannot be and will not be an Islamic State based upon this ideology. In answer to your question about inspiration or direction, you see both. Sometimes you see direction of attacks in other countries coming out of Raqqa or Mosul. Sometimes it's just the inspiration. It's just the idea that there's this thing called this Islamic State. But either way, it's important that we destroy the fact of and the idea of an Islamic State. Secretary of State John Kerry is working with the Russians to help coordinate air strikes in Syria against ISIS and a Syrian al-Qaida affiliate as well, the Nusra Front. Russia came into the conflict on the side of the Assad regime. If the Pentagon coordinates air strikes with the Russians, would this not help Bashar al-Assad stay in power? Well, that's not in the cards at the moment. What we're discussing with the Russians is the possibility, which still only remains a possibility, that they will begin to do, in fact, what they said they were going to do when they first intervened in Syria. What they said they were going to do was promote a transition away from Assad, and therefore toward the end of the civil war which started this whole thing. Then they said they were going to fight the terrorists, but that's not what they've done. They've instead propped up Assad in fighting the moderate opposition. Pulling Russia away from attacking western-backed rebels when it chooses to do that and getting it focused on ISIL, will there potentially be a partnership? At that very moment in time there's the same... Well we'd always, we have our differences with Russia, and obviously Syria is one, Ukraine is another. At the same time, we stand ready to work with Russia as with others around the world where our interests coincide and overlap. So, for example, the Russians worked with us on the Iranian nuclear deal. They've worked [with] us in some aspects of non-proliferation affecting North Korea. So there are areas where we've found it's possible. But up to now, in Syria – and we'll see about the future — they have been more intent on operating in ways that are not consistent with our interests than in ways consistent with our interests. So, we'll see what the future holds. President Obama aimed from day one to leave office with no American troops in Afghanistan. He thought it was the good war, he said we could do good things there, but we're going to be out. Several dates came and went and now he has agreed to leave 8,500 troops through 2017. For most people, most Americans haven't thought of the war that much. What can that mean, how valuable can that be? Well, it is a much smaller number than used ", "Updated 9:20 p.m. ET A senior Obama administration official described Monday's 90-minute meeting between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin as \"productive,\" though it left several key issues unresolved. The official said it was a \"business-like back and forth. I think they worked through a lot of different issues. This was focused.\" The first half of the meeting focused on Ukraine, while the second centered on Syria. \"With respect to Ukraine, the president reiterated our support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ukraine government,\" the official said. \"Mr. Obama also noted positive opportunity to implement the Minks accord in the next few months.\" In the second half of the meeting, the leaders confirmed their shared goal to defeat ISIS, but as expected, disagreed on how to handle the Syrian government led by Bashar Assad. \"We have clarity on their objectives,\" the official said, referring to the Russians \"Their objectives are to go after ISIL and to support the government.\" While Putin has advocated supporting Assad's government, which he views as a stabilizing force in Syria, the Obama administration sees the regime as fueling sectarian conflict and violence. However, Obama and Putin did agree to have their militaries maintain communication in order to \"deconflict,\" or not interfere with the other's operations in the region. As NPR's Scott Horsley told Morning Edition, the meeting marked a turnaround for the two countries. Here's how Scott explained it: \"The administration has been trying to isolate Russia since early last year, to protest what Washington views as the illegal annexation of Crimea as well as Russia's continued meddling in eastern Ukraine. What's changed now is Russia is sending tanks and airplanes into Syria, propping up Moscow's long-time ally Assad, whom the US insists has lost his authority to lead that country.\" \"In an interview with 60 Minutes that aired last night, Putin says he's just trying to keep a lid on the large number of Russians who've traveled to Syria to join the fight against Assad.\" Before the meeting, both Obama and Putin delivered speeches to the United Nations General Assembly. Obama gave an impassioned defense of democracy, diplomacy and the fight toward the common good. In front of the assembled leaders, Obama was blunt at times, saying that strongmen of today will be the \"spark of revolution tomorrow.\" And speaking directly to Russia's annexation of Crimea, he said: \"We cannot stand by when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a nation is flagrantly violated.\" On Syria, Obama again took on Russia saying that the situation in Syria \"demands a managed transition.\" In recent weeks, Russia, who has been a long time backer of the Bashar Assad regime, has been building up its military presence in Syria and it has been collaborating more closely with Iraq in its fight against the Islamic State. Obama ended his speech on a hopeful note: Governments, he said, are made stronger by reflecting the goodness of their people, instead of fearing and repressing them. Democracy, he said, is a \"practical necessity in this interconnected world.\" A country that gives its people Democracy and free speech and freedom of assembly and dignity, he said, is strong not weak. And the same is true of a world that chooses diplomacy over armed conflict. \"We can bridge our differences and choose cooperation over conflict — that is not weakness, it is strength,\" Obama said. The president admitted that the U.S. \"cannot solve the world's problems alone.\" It learned that lesson in Iraq, he said. \"Even hundreds of thousands of brave troops, trillions of dollars...by itself cannot impose stability on a foreign land,\" Obama said about Iraq. In his speech, Putin struck back at President Obama without mentioning his name or the United States. Essentially, Putin argued that a pursuit of democracy by foreign powers has led to a destabilization of the region. \"Foreign interference has resulted in the destruction of institutions,\" Putin said. He said after the revolution in Libya and the civil war in Syria he wanted to ask those responsible, \"Do you realize now what you have done?\" Putin said that the toppling of states in those countries has left a power vacuum that was filled by \"extremists and terrorists.\" What's left to do now is to try to restore the central government in Libya and those in Iraq and Syria. Putin said that in Syria, Russia is just looking to stabilize a country so terrorists won't then come back to Russia and cause damage.", "While eyes have been focused on Sunni extremists and their lightning campaign across Iraq, there is a much more fundamental war raging behind the scenes. It is a clash between two arch-terrorists: the head of al-Qaida's central operation, Ayman al-Zawahri, and the man leading the Sunni extremist charge in Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The outcome of the battle between the two men could fundamentally change the face of terrorism. The dust-up between Zawahri and Baghdadi broke out in the open earlier this year, and it centered on territory. Zawahri wanted Baghdadi to limit his ISIS operations to Iraq and to leave Syria to other al-Qaida-affiliated groups. The dispute was a quiet one to start, and then it became public — very public — as the men argued about tactics in dueling letters that were published on the Web. The long and short of it was that Baghdadi refused to limit his ambitions. He told his followers that he took his orders from God, not the leader of al-Qaida. Zawahri responded by publicly drumming the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria out of al-Qaida's fold. \"The competition between ISIS and al-Zawahri has been brewing for years,\" says Nelly Lahoud, a professor at West Point and a member of its Combating Terrorism Center. She says the world's focus on the battle for land raging between ISIS and forces loyal to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki misses the point. \"If you want to look at what is happening in Iraq at the moment, I think this is much more a battle between al-Baghdadi and al-Zawahri than it is between al-Baghdadi and Nouri al-Maliki,\" Lahoud says. \"Al-Baghdadi wants to prove that his group lives up to its name and that it is not simply a name of a state without territory, but a real state with territory.\" The next few weeks are critical for Baghdadi and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Baghdadi has vowed to connect the territory ISIS holds in Iraq with areas under the group's control in Syria. If he manages to do that, it will be hard for other jihadi groups to ignore what he's accomplished and not to take sides in the dispute. If they come out supporting him — and there have already been some words of encouragement from al-Qaida's arm in Yemen — that would be an indication that ISIS has won the battle, or at least this round, against the al-Qaida leader. And there are already signs that is happening, according to Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations. \"In many ways, Ayman al-Zawahri had already been eclipsed by ISIS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,\" he says. \"They certainly have achieved things that al-Qaida has never been able to achieve, whether under Zawahri or Osama bin Laden.\" Things like capturing territory in which to re-establish an Islamic caliphate and train fighters for battle. \"Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is demonstrating significant both military skill as well as political skill in out-maneuvering Zawahri,\" Cook says. So there has been a public split between Baghdadi and Zawahri, and the momentum is clearly with ISIS. Former White House national security official Juan Zarate, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says it is too early to write off al-Qaida and Zawahri. \"I think there is a very real chance that you have a Balkanization of the environment,\" he says. \"And you could have two global movements that seem to subscribe to the same agenda with different tactics, perhaps different leadership, but at the end of the day the same kind of threat to the United States, regardless of the banner under which they fly.\" In other words, what might come out of this conflict is not one supreme movement or leader of a world terrorist organization, but rather two of them. ISIS could become its own platform for a new, more brutal, global terrorist movement. But what would make it different from al-Qaida — and more dangerous — is that it would be established in the heart of the Middle East, and it would have its own territory, resources and personnel.", "On the heels of another deadly day in Syria — where about 100,000 people have died in the past two years and several million more have been displaced by battles between government forces and those trying to topple President Bashar Assad's regime — we're getting a look at what the USA's top general thinks about the options available to the U.S. for intervening militarily. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says in a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) that: -- Establishing a no-fly zone over Syria to \"prevent the regime from using its military aircraft to bomb and resupply\" would cost \"$500 million initially ... [and] as much as a billion dollars per month over the course of a year.\" Dempsey says a no-fly zone could eliminate the Assad regime's \"ability to bomb opposition strongholds and sustain its forces by air.\" But the risks, he writes, \"include the loss of U.S. aircraft, which would require us to insert personnel recovery forces. It may also fail to reduce the violence or shift the momentum because the regime relies overwhelmingly on surface fires — mortars, artillery, and missiles.\" -- \"Limited stand-off strikes\" from aircraft, ships and submarines could also cost billions of dollars and likely would result in the \"significant degradation of regime capabilities and an increase in regime desertions.\" But, he says, \"retaliatory attacks are also possible, and there is a probability for collateral damage impacting civilians and foreigners inside the country.\" The general also addresses the option of training the opposition, which he says would need to be done in \"safe areas outside Syria\" and runs the risk of \"extremists gaining access to additional capabilities, retaliatory crossborder attacks, and insider attacks or inadvertent association with war crimes due to vetting difficulties.\" Establishing \"buffer zones\" within which civilians could be safe, Dempsey advises, would \"necessitate the establishment of a limited no-fly zone, with its associated resource requirements. Thousands of U.S. ground forces would be needed, even if positioned outside Syria, to support those physically defending the zones. A limited no-fly zone coupled with U.S. ground forces would push the costs over one billion dollars per month.\" In what looks to be an indirect reference to how the Iraq War was conducted, Dempsey also writes that: \"We have learned from the past 10 years; however, that it is not enough to simply alter the balance of military power without careful consideration of what is necessary in order to preserve a functioning state. We must anticipate and be prepared for the unintended consequences of our action. Should the regime's institutions collapse in the absence of a viable opposition, we could inadvertently empower extremists or unleash the very chemical weapons we seek to control.\"", "If you think you've heard this story before – you have. Friday's announcement that the U.S. and Russia reached an agreement to halt the fighting in Syria isn't exactly new. If you've been paying attention, you've heard it all before – in fact four times before. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking to reporters in Hamburg, Germany, tacitly acknowledged that it was difficult to put a fresh spin on the latest cease-fire deal. \"I would say that what may be different this time is the level of commitment on the part of the Russian government,\" Tillerson said. The Russians, he said, \"see the situation in Syria transitioning from the defeat of ISIS ... to this discussion with them as to what do we do to stabilize Syria once the war against ISIS is won.\" And this meshing of interests (if that really is the case) is key to making a cease-fire stick, not just in Syria, but anywhere, says Paul Floyd, a senior military analyst Stratfor, which consults on global intelligence matters. Cease-fires, it turns out, are fragile affairs and almost by definition they're only expected to have a limited shelf life. But even if the big players can agree on a set of goals, \"cease-fires are really made or broken by the guy with his finger on the trigger,\" Floyd tells NPR. \"Oftentimes, the interests of the players on the ground and the players at the top don't align, and that doesn't bode well for the survival of a cease-fire agreement.\" The more actors there are at the negotiating table and on the ground, the harder it is to forge a workable agreement, he says. \"Syria is a perfect example — you don't have two parties, you have three, four, five. All they all have different interests in play.\" Floyd says that mutual trust is the mortar that hold a cease-fire together. In Syria, that's a commodity in very short supply. He says it gets worse with each failed attempt, as has happened repeatedly there. Since early 2016, there have been four attempts to broker cease-fire deals involving various groups and state actors. All but one collapsed outright and the last is only working by degrees: — A cease-fire that went into effect in February 2016 involved the United States and Russia. A month later, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would pull out of the pact as Moscow backed a push by Syrian-government forces to retake territory captured by the Islamic State. At the time, NPR's Alice Fordham put the difficulty of a lasting truce this way: The parties, she said, \"have ... raised concerns that there's no consequences for violations. And they've shown a reluctance to really look beyond the first few steps of this sequential plan because they say ... we have to understand that there really will be a cease-fire.\" — Another deal was done in September between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. It didn't last long. It was difficult even for Kerry to be optimistic about the outcome. NPR wrote when the announcement was made that the U.S. secretary of state noted \"the history of [failure] ... and warned that the implementation of this new [cease-fire] is far from guaranteed.\" — In December of last year, Turkey and Russia agreed to a truce. It unraveled quickly. When the cease-fire was announced, analyst Aron Lund told NPR, \"If there's good faith on both sides here, then maybe. But good faith - Russia, Iran, Turkey - I don't know.\" — And barely two months ago, Russia, Iran and Turkey signed an agreement in Astana, Kazakhstan, to create \"de-escalation\" zones. Although these zones have enjoyed some success, there's much confusion about their boundaries and not infrequently, violations that result in more bloodshed. As we reported at the time, the watchdog group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that airstrikes had dropped off in the protected zones but that government forces continued to consolidate gains near the capital.", "For the first time, the number of children paralyzed by mutant strains of the polio vaccine are greater than the number of children paralyzed by polio itself. So far in 2017, there have been only six cases of \"wild\" polio reported anywhere in the world. By \"wild,\" public health officials mean the disease caused by polio virus found naturally in the environment. By contrast, there have been 21 cases of vaccine-derived polio this year. These cases look remarkably similar to regular polio. But laboratory tests show they're caused by remnants of the oral polio vaccine that have gotten loose in the environment, mutated and regained their ability to paralyze unvaccinated children \"It's actually an interesting conundrum. The very tool you are using for [polio] eradication is causing the problem,\" says Raul Andino, a professor of microbiology at the University of California at San Francisco. The oral polio vaccine used throughout most of the developing world contains a form of the virus that has been weakened in the laboratory. But it's still a live virus. (This is a different vaccine than the injectable one used in the U.S. and most developed countries. The injectable vaccine is far more expensive and does not contain live forms of the virus.) Andino studies how viruses mutate. In a study published in March, he and his colleagues found that the laboratory-weakened virus used in the oral polio vaccine can very rapidly regain its strength if it starts spreading on its own. After a child is vaccinated with live polio virus, the virus replicates inside the child's intestine and eventually is excreted. In places with poor sanitation, fecal matter can enter the drinking water supply and the virus is able to start spreading from person to person. \"We discovered there's only a few [mutations] that have to happen and they happen rather quickly in the first month or two post-vaccination,\" Andino says. \"As the virus starts circulating in the community, it acquires further mutations that make it basically indistinguishable from the wild-type virus. It's polio in terms of virulence and in terms of how the virus spreads.\" In June, the World Health Organization reported 15 cases of children paralyzed in Syria by vaccine-derived forms of polio. These cases come on top of two other vaccine-derived polio cases earlier this year in Syria and four in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. \"In Syria, there may be more cases coming up,\" says Michel Zaffran, the director of polio eradication at the World Health Organization. He says lab work is still being done on about a dozen more cases of paralysis to confirm whether they're polio or something else. The cases in Syria are all in the east of the country near the border with Iraq. It has become fairly common each year for there to be one or two small outbreaks of vaccine-derived polio. These outbreaks tend to happen in conflict zones where health care systems have collapsed. \"These outbreaks are occurring only in very rare cases and only in places where children are not immunized,\" says Zaffran. The regular polio vaccine protects children from vaccine-derived strains of the virus just as it protects them from regular polio. Vaccine-derived outbreaks, he says, \"occur where there are large pockets of unimmunized children, pockets sufficiently large to allow for the circulation of the virus.\" WHO is staging a massive response to the Syrian outbreak. WHO plans to work with local health officials and aid groups to vaccinate a quarter of a million children in early July. The goal is to reach every child younger than 5 in the area with two doses of two different types of polio vaccine, spaced one to two weeks apart. This would be a logistical challenge in most parts of the world, never mind in war-torn Syria. \"The access in these areas is a bit limited because of the presence of ISIS,\" Zaffran says in what seems like an understatement. Eastern Syria is home right now to Syrians who've fled from Raqqa (the ISIS capital in Syria), other parts of the country and even Iraq. \"Also there's a risk that the fighting might actually move to this area.\" Zaffran is confident that the rogue vaccine-derived virus circulating in eastern Syria right now can be wiped out with a massive blast of more vaccine. \"We knew that we were going to have such outbreaks. We've had them in the past. We continue to have them now. We know how to find them, and we know how to interrupt them. We have the tools to do that,\" Zaffran says. \"So it's hiccup ... a very regrettable hiccup for the poor children that have been paralyzed, of course. But with regards to the whole initiative, you know it's not something that is unexpected.\" WHO is attempting to phase out the use of live oral polio vaccine to eliminate the risk that the active virus in the vaccine could mutate into a form that can harm unvaccinated children. But for now, the live vaccine continues to be the workhorse of the global polio eradication campaign for a couple of" ]

[ "An ice house..., covered in saw dust lasts all summer..., same with snow..., tree planters cover their trees in winter with snow then saw dust..., snow will last right til August / September...., so just put your cube in there...\\n\\nthere are many poor conductors for heat..., what I would do is wrap the cube in tin foil..., then wrap in white plastic (some people refer this as a cooler) or white foam..., etc...." ]

[ "There are such values, called R-values. They define the resistance to heat loss per unit time, temperature difference and area (i.e., higher is better). These are English units, hour-degreeF-ft^2/BTU. An R-value of 20 means that 100 sq. ft. of wall separating a 20 deg F temperature difference for 8 hours passes 800 BTU of heat. Typical recommended R-values (ref. 1) for use in residences are 4 to 60, depending on climate and location in the house. For walls the range is 11 to 28. In the ref. 2 web site you can find R ratings for various insulation materials, in R-value per inch of insulation thickness, and thicknesses required for various recommended R-values.", "Use an ice cube. It will make the gum hard, it should come off with a little work. Kinda like with wax. I hope it does.", "You could always use it as a swimming pool if it turns out the ice isn't so sturdy...\\n\\nThat shouldn't cost much, just dig a hole, put water in it, and some ice cubes. Wait for the winter.", "Perhaps you can picture it this way. Take your 2,000 ton ship and melt it down and use it to make a very large solid steel cube. Mearsure the cube and obtain an equal cube of water (say frozen into ice?). Place the two cubes on opposite ends of a giant seasaw. The steel cube weighs more than an equal volume of water and goes down (sinks!).\\n\\nTake a second identical steel cube and build a typical ship. While still in drydock, fill the inside of the ship with water up to the intended water line (based on an identical ship?). Drain the water out and use it to make another really giant ice cube. This ice cube will now be much larger than the cube of steel. Now place the steel cube and the ice cube on the seasaw. The weight of the water goes down and the steel cube goes up (floats). The weight (volume) of the water inside the drydocked ship is equal to the weight of water displaced by the ship (shoved aside by the floating ship) and acts upwards on the bottom of the ship with the same force it had on the seasaw. It is more than enough to make the ship float unless the ship is loaded up until water flows over the side of the ship and floods it. Hope that helps a little.", "Well, gypsum is a good insulator. Its resistance would depend on what impurities (such as moisture) were present in it. \\n\\nIf you are planning on using this with high voltage, you should be more concerned with the dielectric breakdown voltage than the resistance. This is the voltage at which a material that is normally an insulator will begin to permit electricity to arc through it. Check the link below for more information.", "Solid (frozen) water is lighter than liquid water. Since low density materials float on higher density materials, ice floats on water. \\n\\nSolids are typically poor condutors of heat, so ice forms an insulating barrier between the cold air and the warmer water below. This insulating effect is what keeps lakes from freezing solid.\\n\\nIf ice was denser than water, ice would sink and liquid water would rise up to contact the freezing air above. Even the deepest of lakes and rivers would freeze solid. Life as we know it could not exist over most parts of the earth.\\n\\nIt is important to remember that most solids are denser than their melted (liquid) forms. Water is very unique. Since we cannot imagine life without floating ice, scientists are looking for water in the cosmos as signs of places that we, or other beings might be able to inhabit.", "actually none of those make good insulators, they are all a type of metal or combination there of. if anything they are all conductors, not insulators. if you need a good insulator glass, or porcelain, for PVC and i guess it also depends on what you are trying to insulate but those choices are not good for insulating anything.", "What's \"natural\"? If you can find enough raw materials (and have the time and knowledge) to make a vacuum pump, you could make ice anyplace. Or if you knew enough chemistry to make ammonia, you might be able to build a simnple refigerator. But there's nothing as simple for making ice as the Boy Scouts' rubbing-two-sticks-together method of making fire.", "Depends on what grade you'd like to make, how well you know the material going in, whether you are allowed a cheat sheet, etc...\\n\\nReally, only you and your teacher can know the answer to this question as far as it relates to you.\\n\\nThey say, however, for every hour you spend in class you should devote two additional hours studying.\\n\\nI used to spend around 8-10 hours studying for my finals.", "Wrong--if you count the 16 cubes on all four sides, you forget that you are counting edge pieces twice and corner pieces four times that way. Look at it as two opposite faces, each with 16 cubes (although I though Rubik's cubes always were 3X3, but I guess there are 4X4s too). Then you have 32 plus 8 on each of two other pieces that aren't counted yet. The last two sides only have 4 cubes that aren't counted yet. That gives 16*2 plus 8*2 plus 4*2 or 32+16+8=56 visible cubes. If you want to count all cubes internal and otherwise and assumed it was a block of cubes 4X4X4 (Rubik's cubes obviously don't have cubes on the inside), then you would just have 64. Basically there would theoretically be a block (2X2X2) in the inside that you can't see (8 cubes is 64-56). I hope this is the answer you're looking for and didn't simply confuse you further.", "Brick is NOT a good insulator. Typically the insulator for a house built with brick is the air or other material trapped in the walls between the studs.", "I've read that you can hold an ice cube on a pimple in order to make it shrink considerably. I haven't tried it, though. And, of course, this wouldn't prevent them from occurring.", "An \"Insulator\" is something made out of a material which has insulating properties. One may have a need to insulate against the cold, heat, or electrical current.\\n\\nAn insulating blanket wrapped around the water heater will increase the energy efficiency of the unit and use less fuel to keep the water hot.\\n\\nThe high voltage wires hang from an ceramic insulator on the telephone pole keeping the current isolated until it reaches the outlets in our home.\\n\\nA pot holder insulates your hands from the heat of the pot handles.\\n\\nStyrofoam cups insulate hot or cold by blocking the passage of heat.\\n\\nMaterials which have insulating properties will not conduct heat, or electricity. The heat will not travel through the material. \\n\\nThe opposite of an insulator is a conductor. Metal is a good conductor of both heat and electricity.\\n\\nInsulate is also a verb. I try to insulate myself from the critics by using the spell checker. :>)", "Take a glass full of water. Put an ice cube on the surface. It will float on it. Wipe out the spilled water. \\n\\nAfter certain time when the ice cube is completely melted, you can observe that not even a single drop of water spilled out and the water surface is still up to the brim.\\n\\nThis shows that the volume water displaced by the ice cube when it floated is equal to the volume water when it is completely melted.\\n\\nSince it was floating, the weight of ice cube is also equal to the weight of the diplaced volume of liquid.\\n\\nThis again shows that the density of ice is lesser than water.", "Not a substance, but a very effective device. Yaktrax attached to the bottom of your shoe/boot etc. will work very well on any snowy, icy slick surface. The basic model is $19.95 and the extreme (if you jog or run on snow/ice) is $29.95. Check them out at www.HerringtonCatalog.com", "Because that is what man has determined an ice cube feels like.", "Because the stuff they use to coat the wire is (A) an insulator (B) flexible enough to bend where the wire does (C) durable to last at least 30 or 40 years (D) impervious to water (E)able to withstand the highest voltage the insulator is designed and UL listed for (F) able to withstand the temperature that the insulator is designed and UL listed to still be operable for.", "Wow, thats a tuff one. Have you considered cardboard or wire and fabric? How much time do you have because this seems like a time consuming task. You could look on the internet fo ideas that might help you out. It depends on what you want it to look like.", "Place it in an asbestos sleeve...that should cool it off for a while so it doesn't burn a hole in your pocket. :)", "Freeze dry it. Start by flashfreezing in your favorite cryogen (such as liquid nitrogen) then put it in a vacuum chambger and wait a couple of days.\\n\\nFreeze drying does a nice job of preserving the structure of the material while getting rid of essentially all the water.", "Yes and having them blindfolded adds to the fun.....\\nAnd try using some Ice cubes too", "Many people think that London, New York, Amsterdam will perish if the sea level rises due the melting of the poles. But a Norwegian scientist confound this theory by carrying out a simple experiment with a glass of water and ice cubes. I might be wrong, but if I remember rightly, the melted ice cubes did not raise the level of water in the glass. If somebody can, please correct me!", "WOW!! What a question! This is some form of raw material but not understanding what your question is. Email me so I have a better idea on what your asking,,,", "Charcoal (activated charcoal) is a good bet. It satisfies your requirements. If you heat it up, it will bake out some of the chemicals and moisture it absorbed. It won't be as efficient in repeated uses, but this procedure can allow it to be reused. Just bake it out under a fume hood, or -- even better -- in an evacuated oven.", "there is a couple ways to do it. the first one is to insert the ice in a ice-chest and add salt around the ice the other option is to buy dry ice try to cover the regular ice with a plastic or with something to keep the regular ice separate from the dry ice and the dry ice around the plastic this would help to keep the ice cube frozen", "In either case they work by being resistant to the transfer of energy.\\n\\nDifferent kinds of energy are resisted in different ways.\\n\\nElectrical insulators are made of materials that have their electrons bound more tightly.\\n\\nHeat insulators are made of materials that don't conduct heat very well. Often, they contain lots of air-pockets which is itself a good insulator of conductive heat.", "STEEL WOOL. BUT IT WILL LEAVE A DULL FINISH ON THE SPOT THAT WAS DISCOLORED .YOU CAN'T HELP THAT.", "Maybe you could use its electrical resistance. But it wouldn't be easy as I suspect the temp coeff of the resitance is small.", "1. Paint your nails with a clear coat, dry, then 2 coats of the color paint, dry, and then 1 coat of the clear coat again, dry. Make sure in between each painting make sure your nails are TOTALLY dry.\\n\\n2. After your last coat is pretty much dry, dip your hands in a cup of ICE waTER with ICE CUBES. Must be extremely cold water.\\n\\n3. Don't do dishes.", "this sounds like a form of papier mache. I don't think it would hold up on a wall. You should get some putty from Lowes hardware.", "there are plenty of things to use that are safe for face packs .dry skin ,honey. oatmeal+honey beatenegg yolk,greasy skin,mashed advokada pear beaten egg white leave on face till goes hard.If its good enough to eat you can put it on your face.another good one is mashed strawberries leaves face glowing.salt makes a good skin scrub and ice cubes on the face really closes open pores.", "if we apply voltage across an insulator, charges pass through it.\\nif we apply voltage(there is limit in the value of voltage) across an dielectric it will keep the positive and negative charges separate on the opposite surfaces of the dielectric material. those materials are used in making capacitor." ]

[ "A woman is staring at a mirror" ]

[ "A woman is staring at a hamburger", "A woman is looking away from the camera.", "A woman turned away from the camera.", "A man turns away from the camera.", "A woman is staring at a camera", "A woman facing away from the camera scratches her head.", "A woman is walking away from a camera", "Woman talking and staring at the camera.", "A woman is away from her computer.", "A woman sits next to her son.", "The girl and the woman are running away from the camera.", "One girl stares up, away from the camera", "A woman sits and waits for her turn to sing.", "A woman stares into her drink.", "A woman is sitting downtown with her possesions next to her.", "A man and a woman run away from the camera.", "A woman sitting next to her piano.", "A woman sits on the ground with her purse next to her.", "A woman sits next to her car.", "The woman turned and looked in another direction.", "A woman and young boy sit next to one another", "An older woman is sitting next to her cane.", "A lady and a toddler sit next to a mirror.", "A woman is fixing her hair in front of a mirror", "A woman tanning at a salon.", "A woman sits on the ground next to her bike.", "The woman is having her nails done at the salon.", "A woman with another woman walking besides her.", "A woman is staring.", "A woman stands next to a wall while another won't look at the camera.", "A woman gets her hair done in a salon.", "The man walking underneath the bridge turns away from the camera." ]

[ "Please Don't Talk to the Lifeguard \"Please Don't Talk to the Lifeguard\" is a song by American pop singer Diane Ray.[1] It was featured on her 1964 album The Exciting Years,[2] and reached number 31 on the Billboard Hot 100.[3]" ]

[ "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone \"Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone\" was written by Sam H. Stept with lyrics by Sidney Clare. The original publication also credited singer Bee Palmer as co-composer. The song was published in 1930. The lyrics are an admonishment between parting lovers, where the singer asks the other to either speak nicely of her, or not at all.", "Don't Speak \"Don't Speak\" is a song by the American rock band No Doubt. It was released in 1996 as the third single from the band's third studio album, Tragic Kingdom (1995). Vocalist Gwen Stefani and her brother Eric Stefani wrote the song, originally as a love song. The song went through several rewrites and new versions. Gwen Stefani modified it into a breakup song about her bandmate and ex-boyfriend Tony Kanal shortly after he ended their seven-year relationship.[1][2]", "I Don't Want to Talk About It \"I Don't Want to Talk About It\" is a song written by Danny Whitten. It was first recorded by Crazy Horse and issued as the final track on side one of their 1971 eponymous album. It was Whitten's signature tune, but gained more fame via its numerous cover versions, especially that by Rod Stewart.", "Twist and Shout (album) Twist and Shout was the Beatles' second album released in Canada, in mono by Capitol Records (catalogue number T 6054) in February 1964. It consists of songs mostly drawn from Please Please Me, their first LP released in the United Kingdom.", "Memory (song) The lyric, written by Cats director Trevor Nunn, was loosely based on[citation needed] T. S. Eliot's poems \"Preludes\"[3] and \"Rhapsody on a Windy Night\".[4]\" Andrew Lloyd Webber's former writing partner Tim Rice and contemporary collaborator Don Black submitted a lyric to the show's producers for consideration, although Nunn's version was favoured. Elaine Paige has said that she sang a different lyric to the tune of \"Memory\" for the first ten previews of Cats.", "TracFone Wireless Straight Talk offers a variety of prepaid, no contract, phones on their website for use with their plans. Straight Talk also allows customers to bring AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, or unlocked GSM phones to Straight Talk by buying a SIM card or activation kit and air time from the company. This program does not work with branded Straight Talk, SafeLink, TracFone, Total Wireless, and NET10 phones.[5]", "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You \"Don't Call Us, We'll Call You\" is a hit song by the psychedelic rock band Sugarloaf. Co-written by lead vocalist Jerry Corbetta, the song was featured as the title track of the band's fourth and final album. It was the band's fourth single. The song was recorded at Applewood Studios in Golden, Colorado. Performing on the song, along with Jerry Corbetta, were session players Paul Humphries (drums), Max Bennett (bass), Ray Payne (guitar), and a group called the \"Flying Saucers\" (Jason Hickman, Mikkel Saks, and David Queen) on harmony vocals.", "Don't Tell Me You Love Me \"Don't Tell Me You Love Me\" is a hard rock song by Night Ranger written by Jack Blades from their 1982 album, Dawn Patrol. It was released as a single in December 1982.[1]", "Can We Talk \"Can We Talk\" is a song recorded by American R&B singer Tevin Campbell and composed and produced by Babyface. It was the first single to be released from his double platinum second release I'm Ready. The song hit top ten on the pop charts peaking at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100[1] and spent a total of three weeks at number one on the US R&B chart.[2] It sold 500,000 copies and earned a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America.[3][4] The song was also Nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance - Male. It was also nominated and later won the Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul Single - Male (\"Can We Talk\"). Cover versions of the hit song have been done by The Whispers, Sanchez, and Kirk Whalum[5] (on his 2005 album Kirk Whalum Performs the Babyface Songbook). The song was later covered by British boyband Code Red in 1996,[6] for their debut album Scarlet and was released as the album's lead single becoming a modest hit and reaching #1 in Asia. The song has also been covered by a Japanese/Korean singer during June 2008.[7] The song became the opening theme to the 2012 sitcom 1600 Penn. The song was sampled in hip hop duo Luniz's song \"Playa Hata\" from their debut album Operation Stackola. The song was sung by 19-year-old Victor Sulfa during the semi-finals on season 3 of New Zealand Idol as well as Nikko Smith during the Top 10 round on season 4 of American Idol. The song has been featured on at least two different compilation albums including Disc 14 of Classic Soul Ballads entitled \"Tender Love\" and Volume 6 of MTV's Party to Go compilation albums series entitled MTV Party to Go 6.", "How Do You Talk to an Angel \"How Do You Talk to an Angel\" is a song written by Steve Tyrell, Barry Coffing, and Stephanie Tyrell. It was the theme for the TV series The Heights. The single was released with Jamie Walters as lead singer, and it hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 14, 1992, but the series was canceled exactly one week after the song fell from its number one position.[1] Vocalists on the single included Cheryl Pollak, Charlotte Ross, as well as Zachary Throne from the Las Vegas rock band Sin City Sinners.", "Don't Worry, Be Happy \"Don't Worry, Be Happy\" is a popular worldwide hit song by musician Bobby McFerrin. Released in September 1988, it became the first a cappella song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a position it held for two weeks. The song's title is taken from a famous quotation by Meher Baba. The \"instruments\" in the a cappella song are entirely overdubbed voice parts and other sounds made by McFerrin, using no instruments at all; McFerrin also sings with an affected accent.[3] The comedic original music video for the song stars McFerrin, Robin Williams, and Bill Irwin,[4] and is somewhat shorter than the album version.", "Please Help Me, I'm Falling \"Please Help Me, I'm Falling\" is a 1960 song written by Don Robertson and Hal Blair and first recorded by Hank Locklin.[1] The single was Locklin's most successful recording and was his second number one on the country charts.[2] \"Please Help Me, I'm Falling\" spent fourteen weeks at the top spot and spent nine months on the country chart and crossed over to the Hot 100 peaking at number eight.[3]", "Girl Don't Tell Me The Beach Boys recorded \"Girl Don't Tell Me\" on April 30, 1965 at United Western Recorders. Chuck Britz was the engineer.[2] It was one of the first songs to feature Carl Wilson as lead vocalist[3] (his first unshared lead was on \"Pom Pom Play Girl\"),[citation needed], and is one of the few Beach Boys tracks from the era to feature no backing vocals. It was also the first recording session that Bruce Johnston participated in as a member of The Beach Boys.[citation needed]", "Romeo Void Romeo Void's best known song is \"Never Say Never\", which contains the famous line \"I might like you better if we slept together.\"[6] Allmusic writer Heather Phares has argued that Iyall's \"teasing, existential musings [...] predated and predicted the aloof yet frank sexuality of early- and mid-'90s artists such as Elastica and Liz Phair\". Phares concluded that the song was \"a subversive, influential classic\" and \"one of new wave's most distinctive and innovative moments. \"[17] The song has been covered by many artists,[12] among them are Queens of the Stone Age and Amanda Blank.[27][28] The song \"A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)\", their highest-charting single,[9] was reportedly written as a response to Michael Jackson's hit song \"Billie Jean\", but can also be seen as a tribute to women who have experienced traumatizing events.[18] Iyall also wrote songs that touched on themes like social alienation (\"Undercover Kept\") and generation gaps (\"Chinatown\").[25]", "Too Many Fish in the Sea \"Too Many Fish in the Sea\" is a 1964 hit song recorded by Motown singing group The Marvelettes. It was the group's first top 40 pop hit in almost a year reaching number 25 on the Billboard Hot 100.[1] The song was one of the first hit singles written by Norman Whitfield and was also written by Eddie Holland. \"Too Many Fish...\" was also Whitfield's first produced single.", "Where Have You Been \"Where Have You Been\" is a song by Barbadian singer Rihanna, from her sixth studio album, Talk That Talk (2011) serving as the fifth single. The song was written by Ester Dean, Geoff Mack, Lukasz \"Dr. Luke\" Gottwald, Henry \"Cirkut\" Walter, and Calvin Harris, with production handled by the latter three. \"Where Have You Been\" was released as the third international single from the album on May 8, 2012. The track is a dance-pop and techno house song that draws influence from trance, R&B and hip hop. It is backed by \"hard, chilly synths\" and contains an electro-inspired breakdown sequence. The song's lyrics interpolate Geoff Mack's 1959 song \"I've Been Everywhere\" and speak of a woman who is searching for a partner who will sexually please her.", "Take It to the Limit (Eagles song) The song was written by Eagles' members Randy Meisner, Don Henley and Glenn Frey. Meisner, who sang lead on it, says the song began as his solo composition. As it remained unfinished when time came for the One of These Nights album to be recorded, Henley and Frey assisted Meisner in completing it. Meisner's performance of the song was popular with the audience in Eagles' concerts, but disputes over his reluctance to perform it would also directly lead to Meisner's departure from the band.", "Symphony No. 9 (Dvořák) Dvořák was interested in Native American music and the African-American spirituals he heard in North America. As director of the National Conservatory he encountered an African-American student, Harry T. Burleigh, later a composer himself, who sang traditional spirituals to him and said that Dvořák had absorbed their 'spirit' before writing his own melodies.[5] Dvořák stated:", "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again \"Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again\" is an Australian rock song written by Doc Neeson, John Brewster and Rick Brewster[3], and performed by their group, the Angels.[4][5] The song was initially recorded as a ballad in March 1976 but subsequently re-released as a rock song. The song is best known for the expletive-laden audience response, \"No Way, Get Fucked, Fuck Off\", to the live version, which was issued in March 1988.[6] This chant has been described by The Guardian's Darryl Mason as \"one of the most famous in Australian rock history\".[7] The song reached at number 58 on the ARIA Charts and it stayed in the charts for 19 weeks.[8]", "Don't Do Me Like That \"Don't Do Me Like That\" is a song written by Tom Petty and recorded by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It was released in November 1979 as the first single from the album Damn the Torpedoes (1979). It reached number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's first Top 10 hit.[1] The single also peaked at number 3 in Canada.", "Don Rickles He received widespread exposure as a popular guest on numerous talk and variety shows, including The Dean Martin Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Show with David Letterman, and later voiced Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story franchise. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for the 2007 documentary Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project.", "Talk:Quadruple-double \"The NBA officially recognizes four quadruple-doubles\"; \"The NBA does not recognize this as a quadruple-double in his biography\". Please clarify this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.207.219.120 (talk) 07:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC)", "Don't Come Around Here No More The original inspiration was a romantic encounter that producer David A. Stewart of Eurythmics had with Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac.[2] On The Howard Stern Show, Stewart explained that the title's phrase was actually uttered by Nicks. She had broken up with Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh the night before,[3] and invited Stewart to her place for a party after an early Eurythmics show in Los Angeles. Stewart did not know who she was at the time, but went anyway. When the partygoers all disappeared to a bathroom for a couple of hours to snort cocaine, he decided to go upstairs to bed. He woke up at 5am to find Nicks in his room trying on Victorian clothing and described the entire scenario as very much reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland. Later that morning, she told Walsh, \"Don't come around here no more.\"", "Talk:Sly Cooper (character) I just saw these two interesting over on the Sly Cooper (Series) Talk Page. 1) What kind of hat does Sly wear? It looks like a type of beret to me. And 2) Is Sly left-handed (See the reasons here). If can answer any of these questions please do. Is not, meh; it's just trivia. --86.160.177.126 (talk) 02:00, 25 June 2011 (UTC)", "That's Why God Made the Radio Many of the songs were written in collaboration with Thomas, whose input sometimes included entire chord progressions.[4] Classified as baroque pop,[11] many of the songs have a considerable history: \"That's Why God Made the Radio\" was written by Brian Wilson, Jim Peterik, Joe Thomas and Larry Millas back in the late 1990s,[10] and that \"about 80 hours worth\" of demo tapes were sourced from that period.[12] \"Spring Vacation\" originated during Your Imagination and contained new lyrics by Love written reportedly in five minutes.[4] The track \"Summer's Gone\" was originally meant to be the final song on the final Beach Boys album, and according to Thomas, the album's original title was Summer's Gone with the intention that it would be the final Beach Boys album. It was changed when Wilson decided he would like to record a follow-up.[4] The song was written in reflection of his mother's death and the end of Carl's life, who died two months after their mother.[10] Whereas songs like \"From There to Back Again\", \"Isn't It Time\", \"Beaches in Mind\", \"Shelter\" and \"The Private Life of Bill and Sue\" were written for the new album.[4] During the band's June 15, 2012 show they decided to change some of the lyrics to \"Isn't It Time\" for unknown reasons. The changes would continue to appear each time they performed the song following that show.[12] The song \"Daybreak Over the Ocean\" was originally recorded in 1978 by Mike Love for his first, as yet unreleased solo album, First Love (and also re-recorded for his equally unreleased solo album of a few years ago, Mike Love Not War a.k.a. Unleash The Love: this is the version - with additional Beach Boys vocals - that appears on the album).[citation needed]", "Mad Men (season 5) Don Draper has married his secretary Megan Calvet, who throws a surprise birthday party for Don and their co-workers. Don is embarrassed by the party and Megan serenading him in front of his co-workers. Megan (who has been promoted to copywriter) meanwhile struggles with Don's growing detachment with work, as he is constantly having Megan come in late and leave early to the agency, and her own unfulfilled dream of being an actress. Don's detachment alienates Peggy, who is being made to train Megan, and Bert, who feels that Don has gone \"on love leave\", not caring about his job or turning in quality work.", "Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo (Urdu: آج جانے کی ضد نہ کرو‬‎; please don't insist on leaving today) is a Nazm written by Pakistani poet Fayyaz Hashmi.[1] The tune was composed by Sohail Rana, an eminent composer from Pakistan.[2] It was popularized by noted classical vocalists, Habib Wali Mohammad who also sang this song as a film playback singer in a Pakistani film Badal Aur Bijli (1973). Then the famous ghazal singer Farida Khanum also used to sing it in her television performances and in her live public concerts.[3] It is sung in Raag Yaman Kalyan.[4]", "The Dan Patrick Show The Dan Patrick Show is a syndicated radio and television sports talk show hosted by former ESPN personality Dan Patrick. It is currently produced by AT&T Sports Networks and is syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks.", "The Rose (song) \"The Rose\" was first recorded by Bette Midler for the soundtrack of the 1979 film The Rose in which it plays under the closing credits. However the song was not written for the movie: Amanda McBroom recalls, \"I wrote it in 1977 [or] 1978, and I sang it occasionally in clubs. ... Jim Nabors had a local talk show, and I sang [\"The Rose\"] on his show once.\"[1] According to McBroom she wrote \"The Rose\" in response to her manager's suggestion that she write \"some Bob Seger-type tunes\" to expedite a record deal: McBroom obliged by writing \"The Rose\" in forty-five minutes. Said McBroom: \"'The Rose' is ... just one verse [musically] repeated three times. When I finished it, I realized it doesn't have a bridge or a hook, but I couldn't think of anything to [add].\"", "Splodgenessabounds The band were originally fronted by Max Splodge and his girlfriend of the time, who was known as Baby Greensleeves. The band won a recording contract with Deram Records after finishing runner-up in the 1979 Battle Of The Bands contest, even though Deram was planning to cease all activities in the music markets outside of classical music. The band's first release for Deram in 1980 was \"Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps Please\". The song was released as a triple A side vinyl single, along with \"Simon Templer\" (a pastiche of the theme tune of the TV series, Return of the Saint featuring the character Simon Templar) and \"Michael Booth's Talking Bum\".", "Don't Stand So Close to Me \"Don't Stand So Close to Me\" is a hit song by the British rock band the Police, released in September 1980 as the lead single from their third album Zenyatta Mondatta. It concerns a schoolgirl's crush on her teacher which leads to an affair, which in turn is discovered.", "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party \"I Don't Want to Spoil the Party\" is a song by the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney.[3] It was released on the album Beatles for Sale in the United Kingdom in 1964. \"I Don't Want to Spoil the Party\" was also released on the Beatles for Sale (No. 2) EP.[4] In the United States, Capitol released the song as the B-side of the single \"Eight Days a Week\", and later on the Beatles VI album, both in 1965. The single peaked at number 1 in the US[5] (it was not released in the UK);[6] \"I Don't Want to Spoil the Party\" charted as a B-side, reaching number 39 on the Billboard Hot 100.[5]" ]

[ "Every day between now and March 16, Song of the Day will showcase a track by an artist playing the South by Southwest music festival. For NPR Music's full coverage of SXSW — complete with full-length concerts, studio sessions, blogs, Twitter feeds, video and more — visit npr.org/sxsw. And don't miss our continuous 100-song playlist, The Austin 100, which features much more of the best music the festival has to offer. Language Advisory: This song contains lyrics that some listeners may find offensive. Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar sounds decades older than he is, and it's not necessarily the wear and tear that comes from a rough life; instead, his world-weariness seems to result from years of soul-searching. He treats his self-analysis like a lonesome journey, and along the way asks why others his age haven't taken the same trip. Section.80 explores issues of substance abuse, vanity, racism, gender relations, adultery and more with an unflinching ear for realism. \"Ab-Souls Outro\" serves as a jazzy, spoken summation of Section.80's themes. Guest cohort Ab-Soul opens the song with one urgent verse after another: Flowing freely like the saxophone behind him, his words advocate veering outside life's most predictable pathways. Then, Lamar rushes onto the mic and openly rejects the ideas of pop stardom — or even status as a socially aware rapper. For all his confidence, Lamar still understands that the journey he took was a personal one: His answers to life's questions apply to him and him only, and they can't just be handed out like candy." ]

[ "Stephen Bruner is a bass player, singer and songwriter who's as well known for his own music as for his collaborations. But when he released his latest solo single as Thundercat few weeks ago, those who know his work with Kendrick Lamar were scratching their heads. Here was a fiery visionary collaborating with two icons of easygoing '70s pop: Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald. Thundercat names those two artists among his musical heroes. And though he has a reputation for overturning established ideas about jazz and hip-hop, his new album, Drunk, shows he's got quite the ear for old school pop hooks as well. Most of the 23 tracks on Drunk are brief, freeform vignettes. Several feature elaborate falsetto vocal chorales styled after The Beach Boys. Another song, \"Walk On By,\" features dizzying polyrhythmic lyricism from Lamar: \"From my eyewitness binoculars to Argentina and Africa, we mastered the pressure hazardous, harassing us. You laugh at us,\" he raps. Thundercat says working with Lamar changed his approach to songwriting. He realized that not every track has to be a master's thesis — small is OK. With this simultaneously bold and playful new album, he explores little slices of his story (like his obsession with anime). There's heavy musicianship going on — that's his signature, after all — but it's in the service of bright, hooky melodies. With this kind of ecstasy-seeking pop, everything else can ride shotgun. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"TOKYO\") THUNDERCAT: (Singing) Restless nights in Tokyo... AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Stephen Bruner is a bass player, singer and songwriter better known as Thundercat. The Los Angeles native won a Grammy for his work on Kendrick Lamar's \"To Pimp A Butterfly.\" He now has a third solo album. It's called \"Drunk,\" and reviewer Tom Moon says it packs a lot of surprises into 51 minutes. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"SHOW YOU THE WAY\") THUNDERCAT: (Vocalizing). TOM MOON, BYLINE: When Thundercat released this single a few weeks back, those who know his work with rapper Kendrick Lamar were scratching their heads. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"SHOW YOU THE WAY\") THUNDERCAT: (Singing) Let me show you the way. On the edge of dark, there's the brightest light, a burning one... MOON: Here was a fiery visionary collaborating with two icons of easygoing '70s pop, singers Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"SHOW YOU THE WAY\") THUNDERCAT: Ladies and gentlemen, Michael McDonald. MICHAEL MCDONALD: (Singing) Wake up, and dream. Tell the wall before you believe there might not be a truth. MOON: Thundercat names McDonald and Loggins among his musical heroes. And though he is known for overturning established ideas about jazz and hip hop, Thundercat's new album shows he's got quite the ear for old-school pop hooks as well. There are several tracks with elaborate falsetto vocal chorales styled after The Beach Boys. This one slips in sly commentary on digital culture. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"BUS IN THESE STREETS\") THUNDERCAT: (Singing) Thank God for technology 'cause where would we be if we couldn't tweet our thoughts? MOON: Most of the 23 tracks on \"Drunk\" are brief, freeform vignettes. This one features dizzying polyrhythmic rap from Kendrick Lamar. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"WALK ON BY\") KENDRICK LAMAR: (Rapping) From my eyewitness binoculars to Argentina and Africa, we mastered the pressure hazardous, harassing us. You laugh at us. MOON: Thundercat says working with Kendrick Lamar changed his approach to songwriting. He realized that not every track has to be a master's thesis. Small is OK. With this simultaneously bold and playful new album, he explores little slices of his story, like his obsession with anime. There's heavy musicianship going on. That's his signature after all. But it's in the service of bright, hooky melodies. With this kind of ecstasy-seeking pop, everything else can ride shotgun. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"THEM CHANGES\") THUNDERCAT: (Singing) Nobody move. There's blood on the floor, and I can't find my heart. CORNISH: The latest from Thundercat is titled \"Drunk.\" Our reviewer is Tom Moon. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"THEM CHANGES\") THUNDERCAT: (Singing) So please give it back 'cause it's not yours to take.", "\"Do you pray at all?\" It may as well have come in all caps, the way it landed like an accusation instead of a question. It wasn't the first time I'd received a text from my mother dripping with good ole Christian guilt. The only sin greater than letting God down is allowing your parents to find out your faith walk is no longer patterned after their footsteps. Her text wasn't about Kendrick Lamar's album, DAMN., per se, but without knowing it she'd just triggered an existential debate I'd been having with myself since its April release. I was in the middle of laying down some definitive thoughts about the LP when the realization hit me. Just like her nagging text, the Compton MC had spent the better half of a year forcing me to reckon with my doubts about the wrath of God. I've developed a love-hate relationship with DAMN. In some ways I suspect this is the response Lamar set out to provoke. I imagine I'm not alone. In order to have your LP debut at the top of the Billboard 200 chart — then remain in the top 10 for more than 25 consecutive weeks, while racking up double-platinum sales and seven Grammy nominations to boot — all of God's children, or a close approximation, must be listening hard. Between its chart-topping success and cultural dominance, DAMN. is easily the most celebrated album of the year. It snatched the top spot on NPR Music's list of the best albums of the year by a long shot. It's clearly made for such a time as this — one in which politics and personal accountability are colliding with unprecedented force. The question is whether or not we're grappling with DAMN. -- and being convicted by it — like Lamar no doubt intended. This is an album that requires much of faithful listeners. It suggests even more about his relationship with his audience, and the ways in which he envisions himself as a prophet more than a pop star. Like a lot of fans, I've found myself meditating over DAMN.'s verses like scripture, dissecting the text forward and backward in search of holy discernment. Lord knows I'm no biblical scholar. Hell, I can't remember the last time I set foot inside a church. (Trust, my mother reminds me of this often.) But Lamar's magnanimous LP has me wrestling with the nature of my supposed cursed existence as a black man in the bowels of Babylon — and the ways in which I may be complicit in it. Like Ta-Nehisi Coates laying out America's legacy of racial plunder with an atheist's realism, Lamar's faith walk is no cake walk. It often borders on the fatalistic. His futility is echoed across a present-day hip-hop landscape awash in suicide ballads, drug abuse and mental health issues. Steeped in the black prophetic tradition, Lamar is less interested in the glory to come in the sweet by and by. He's also no prosperity pimp, pushing a gospel of good-and-plenty in the here and now. Rather, it's God's judgement, and our collective failings, with which he's most concerned. Yet, for all the religious overtones in which the Compton native shrouds his fourth studio album, the real revelation of DAMN. is that faith no longer feels adequate enough to sustain America's masquerade. And when a country tosses its moral compass aside, all hell tends to break loose. What good is a prophet, anyway, unless he's come to level total condemnation? \"As I lead this army, make room for mistakes and depression.\" — Kendrick Lamar, \"Mortal Man\" The Old Testament is full of prophets trying their damnedest to save the world. More often than not, the first obstacle they must overcome is self: self-doubt, self-loathing, even their personal aversion to self-sacrifice. Moses the deliverer was a murderer with a speech impediment. Noah the ark-builder was a documented drunk. Elijah the resurrector was straight-up suicidal. All were broken vessels, but vessels for their God, nonetheless. Then there was Jeremiah. He suffered depression so badly — likely from carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders — that students of the Bible refer to him as the weeping prophet. I've recently taken to calling him something else: the patron saint of Kendrick Lamar Duckworth. Like Kendrick, Jeremiah was pretty prolific in his time. He penned the longest book in the Old Testament, Jeremiah, as well as Kings and Lamentations. Think of them as his three major-label studio LPs, the same number contained in Lamar's TDE/Aftermath/Interscope discography. His most personal LP, Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City most easily aligns with Jeremiah's self-titled accounting, while his follow-up and most political album, To Pimp A Butterfly, might be seen as his Book of Kings — Jeremiah's 400-year history of the upheaval of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. But DAMN. is Lamar's Lamentations, bleak in tone and temperament, long on suffering and short on hope. To get a sense of where Lamar is coming from on DAMN., it helps to rewind his previous studio masterpiece, 2015's To Pimp A Butterfly. Juxtapose the cover art of TPAB and DAMN. and the contrast is stark", "Late Thursday evening, Kendrick Lamar crept back into our lives like a thief in the night. With his new album untitled unmastered., Lamar and his label Top Dawg Entertainment offer us a look at the steps it took to get to his fully formed magnum opus — 2015's To Pimp A Butterfly — and show us that they can stop the world when they feel like it. Officially deemed a collection of \"demos,\" the raw tracks are nameless and featureless, identified only by the date they were presumably recorded. Up until now, Lamar had only given a few hints that this music existed. He performed one song on The Tonight Show just this January, part of another on the Grammys even more recently, and another on the Colbert Report in 2014. \"Untitled 03,\" the song from his Colbert appearance, was recorded more than a year and a half before he performed it. We're listening to Lamar's past in the present here. It feels like we're playing catch-up. The project shows us demos within demos, with parts of one song appearing on another song — sometimes recorded years apart. One of the more forward-thinking tracks is called \"Untitled 07\": It feels and sounds like Lamar is shaking off flakes of the old him and growing a new skin by the minute. In that song and others, we get a direct line into Kendrick Lamar's experimentation with using his voice as an instrument. We hear him strain and yell and whisper his way through his own evolution. untitled. unmastered. is both the fire and ashes from which To Pimp A Butterfly rose. As I listen, the only thought running through my mind is: What does the material Kendrick Lamar recorded yesterday sound like? And when will we be ready for it? MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Can we spend just a few more minutes on Kendrick Lamar, who is after all the reigning king of hip-hop? We just mentioned that he dropped a new album on his eager subjects late Thursday night. The album is called \"Untitled Unmastered.\" True to that title, it features previously-unreleased raw material taken mostly from the sessions for his Grammy-winning opus \"To Pimp A Butterfly.\" We thought you'd like to hear more about it, so Kiana Fitzgerald has this review. (SOUNDBITE OF KENDRICK LAMAR SONG, \"UNTITLED 03 - 05.28.2013.\") KIANA FITZGERALD, BYLINE: Officially deemed an album of demos, the raw tracks are nameless and featureless, identified only by the date they were presumably recorded. Up until now, Kendrick Lamar had only given a few hints that this music existed. He performed one song on \"The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon\" just this January, another on the Grammys even more recently and another on \"The Colbert Report\" in 2014. \"Untitled 03,\" the song from his \"Colbert\" appearance, was recorded more than a year and half before he performed it. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"UNTITLED 03 - 05.28.2013.\") ANNA WISE: (Singing) What did the Asian say? KENDRICK LAMAR: (Singing) A peace of mind, that's what the Asian said. I needed divine intervention was his religion. And I was surprised, him believing in Buddha, me believing in God. Asked him what are you doing? He said taking my time. Meditation is a must. It don't hurt if you try. FITZGERALD: We're listening to Lamar's past in the present here. It feels like we're playing catch up. The project shows us demos within demos, with parts of one song appearing on another song sometimes recorded years apart. One of the more forward-thinking tracks is called \"07.\" It feels and sounds like Lamar is shaking off flakes of the old him and growing a new skin by the minute. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"UNTITLED 07 - 2014-2016\") LAMAR: (Singing) You sound frantic. I hear panic in your voice. Just know the mechanics of making your choice and writing your bars. Before you poke out your chest, loosen your bra before you step out of line and dance with the star. I could never end a career if it never start. FITZGERALD: \"Untitled Unmastered\" is a direct line into Kendrick Lamar's experimentation with using his voice as an instrument. Over the course of the album, we hear him strain and yell and whisper his way through his own evolution. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"UNTITLED 04 - 08.14.2014.\") SZA: (Singing) Don't second-guess yourself. LAMAR: (Whispering) Don't tell them when you second guess yourself. I need you in the kitchen now, I forgot... SZA: (Singing) Come on, give me some help. Hey... FITZGERALD: \"Untitled Unmastered\" is both the fire and ashes from which \"To Pimp A Butterfly rose. As I listen, the only thought running through my mind is what does the material Kendrick Lamar recorded yesterday sound like, and when will we be ready for it? (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"UNTITLED 04 - 08.14.2014.\") LANCE SKIIIWALKER: (Singing) And I just want to... MARTIN: Kiana Fitzgerald writes for NPR Music. She's based in New York City. Kendrick Lamar's \"Untitled Unmastered\" was just released on Thursday on all streaming platforms. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"UNTITLED 04 - 08.14.2014.\") LANCE SKIIIWALKER: (Singing) Straight up - eyes with my head...", "The soundtrack to the year's most anticipated Marvel movie is packed with hip-hop star power. Kendrick Lamar, who is co-producing the soundtrack to Black Panther in collaboration with Top Dawg Entertainment president Anthony \"Top Dawg\" Tiffith and director Ryan Coogler, has unveiled the official tracklist for the film on Twitter. Fans already knew that the TDE camp would be involved in the soundtrack — the first two tracks of the album, \"All The Stars\" and \"King's Dead,\" showcase the talents of label mates SZA and Jay Rock respectively. But now it's clear Top Dawg is pulling from all sides of the hip-hop world, as well as outside of it, to provide the sounds of Wakanda. Along with big rap names like 2 Chainz, Future, Vince Staples and Anderson .Paak, Sacramento spitter Mozzy and Vallejo, Calif. crew SOB x RBE are in the mix, no doubt to provide a dose of West Side authenticity for the Compton rapper's peace of mind. K. Dot himself appears on five of the 14 tracks. Outside of the rap space, TDE has recruited a few wild cards from other genres: rising R&B star Jorja Smith and teenage pop sensation Khalid all appear on the 14-track album. Notice that the song titled \"Redemption Interlude\" does not have artist credits next to it, implying that there is one more surprise to come. With both the film and the soundtrack being hailed as the \"blackest\" production ever conceived by Marvel, the last punch pulled has got to be a member of music royalty. Black Panther: The Album drops Feb. 9 via Interscope Records. Marvel's Black Panther hits theaters nationwide Feb. 16. Black Panther The Album 1. \"Black Panther,\" Kendrick Lamar 2. \"All The Stars,\" Kendrick Lamar and SZA 3. \"X,\" ScHoolBoy Q, 2 Chainz and Saudi 4. \"The Ways,\" Khalid and Swae Lee 5. \"Opps\" Vince Staples and Yugen Blakrok 6. \"I Am\" Jorja Smith 7. \"Paramedic!\" SOB x RBE 8. \"Bloody Waters\" Ab-Soul, Anderson .Paak and James Blake 9. \"Kings Dead\" Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, Future and James Blake 10. \"Redemption Interlude\" 11. \"Redemption\" Zicari and Babes Wodumo 12. \"Seasons\" Mozzy, Sjava and Reason 13. \"Big Shot\" Kendrick Lamar and Travis Scott 14. \"Pray For Me\" The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar", "The period of anticipation preceding the release of Kendrick Lamar's fourth album, DAMN., was intense, brief but methodically built. Three weeks ago, Lamar gave us the non-album track \"The Heart Part 4,\" a warning shot to the rest of the game and an announcement of ambition; the following Friday saw the release of its single \"HUMBLE.\" One week ago he announced the album's title and its release date. When DAMN. arrived last night, we were ready to dive in. This is an album that will take time to digest, but it's also one that offers pleasures and themes without delay. Here are our first thoughts. (And if you haven't listened to the album yet, it's available for streaming here.) \"Ain't nobody prayin' for me,\" muses Kendrick Lamar on \"FEEL.,\" the track that jumped out during my first pass through DAMN. He fashions the line into a refrain — a cry of isolation that anchors an unfurling scroll of insecurities. This is King Kendrick in Book of Lamentations mode, exhausted and exasperated, stacking intricate rhymes in a way that conveys both lyrical mastery and mounting anxiety. Sounwave is the producer of the track, which features Thundercat on electric bass, extending a sonic tether to Lamar's masterpiece, To Pimp a Butterfly. There's also a lyrical tether: \"I feel like this gotta be the feelin' what 'Pac was / The feelin' of an apocalypse happenin.'\" Lamar seems to be recalling his beyond-the-grave conversation with Tupac on \"Mortal Man,\" the closing track of Butterfly — specifically a chilling section that augurs \"bloodshed, for real.\" Or maybe that's not precisely what he's saying here. A quick pass can only get you so far with a new album by Kendrick Lamar, and DAMN. is especially dense with signs and symbols, as if made for our annotative age. What to make of the fact that \"HUMBLE.,\" the album's first single, comes juxtaposed here with \"PRIDE.\"? What's the implication of the cover illustration, which frames the word \"DAMN.\" like the logo for TIME magazine? (How about the fact that the points of the \"M\" form devil's horns over Lamar's head, just as they did for a certain president-elect named Person of the Year?) Then there's the recursive elegance of the album's two bookends, and the way that the closing track (\"DUCKWORTH.\") loops back to the prelude (\"BLOOD.\"). As always, Lamar is obsessed with human consequences — systemic and individual, global and hyperlocal. When he puts a name to that new president in \"XXX.,\" and also names his predecessor, Lamar doesn't let anyone off the hook: \"But is America honest or do we bask in sin?\" he asks, setting up one of the crucial dualities on this album. Even when he's exulting in his own prowess, crowing \"This is what God feel like,\" Lamar seems painfully aware that there's no position more isolating than deity, and that the higher you fly, the harder you fall. Ain't nobody prayin' for that. --Nate Chinen, WBGO \"This what God feel like.\" Kendrick Lamar may be the greatest rapper alive and the most celebrated male musician on the planet, but K-Dot's not confusing praise with worship. He's imagining omnipotence, not claiming it. After three masterpieces (plus a damn fine debut), that humility inside his DNA hasn't gone anywhere. I may have to eat these words if he rises from his Good Samaritan death in \"BLOOD.\" and releases a second album on Easter Sunday, but those internet rumors say more about us than they do about Kendrick. Humans have a checkered history of finding salvation in God complexes. But if DAMN.'s atavistic tracklist and impeccably crafted wordplay is any sort of indicator, Kendrick will be reflecting on his mortality on Sunday morning, not courting genuflection like another certain rapper we live to analyze. Frankly, it's hard to listen to Kendrick's heartfelt hand-wringing and not think about Kanye West on \"I Am A God\" or even \"Ultralight Beam,\" where he donned the garbs of gospel with all the subtlety of his friend in the White House. The dilemmas on DAMN. seem less concerned with channeling the Holy Spirit and more with the reasons we invented it in the first place. --Otis Hart, NPR Music It's certainly no coincidence that Kendrick Lamar dropped DAMN. at 12:00 midnight to kick off Good Friday. (I refuse to entertain the rumors — conspiracy theories, really — of a potential second LP to be released by K.Dot on Easter Sunday. As if we don't have enough red-lettered scripture from this man to decipher already.) It's almost what you don't hear that tells the story here. No desperate attempts at radio hits. Not even Rihanna or U2 sound like themselves. He uses other artists like instruments — of his peace? his pain? his purpose? Whatever it is, we can relate. And that's what matters. When he bares his soul, it's an invitation to join him on the journey. Somewhere between his exploration of sin and virtue, he's hitting on something. It's not as simple or dismissible as a morality tale, thank God. I haven't been to church in years and I hate gospel music. ", "The voice of a generation won't be relegated to one medium. Hip-hop superstar Kendrick Lamar added another notch to his belt last night, as Pulitzer Kenny transformed into Crackhead Kenny for his television series debut: Lamar played a fast-talking, philosophical addict named Laces in the 50 Cent-produced Starz series Power. News of the episode and Lamar's performance began trending on social media even before it aired. In scenes opposite 50 Cent's character Kanan, Lamar looked committed to the role; his hair wild, clothes unkempt and full of visual tics. And his character, Laces, was as endearing and emotionally unstable as Lamar's most soul-probing work. Billed by Starz as Lamar's scripted TV acting debut, it's wasn't a far departure for an artist whose musical vision has always been cinematic in scope. Lamar's role on Power resulted from a conversation between he and 50 Cent. \"He and Kendrick ... were hanging out and Kendrick said, 'I'd really like to be on the show,'\" series producer Courtney Kemp told the Associated Press. Lamar's level of preparation for the role also impressed Kemp. \"He's very kind of quiet and thorough and methodical. He had prepared so much. He was ready,\" she said. \"He's really gifted, tremendously gifted. I mean it's a total transformation. It is not a version of Kendrick Lamar that you've ever seen before.\" For fans of Lamar, his acting chops should come as no surprise. He's arguably the best storyteller active in rap today, with a discography that hinges on the epic narrative arc. His flair for the dramatic, both in front of and behind the camera, has been a staple of his music videos for years. Together with Top Dawg Entertainment president Dave Free, Lamar has crafted a compelling visual language within the medium — the videos they've conceptualized and co-directed (as The Lil Homies) alongside auteurs like Dave Meyers are some of the most provocative in contemporary pop. In these music videos, Lamar is doing much more than portraying outsize versions of himself. He's a character actor, embodying competing aspects of his own persona, or stepping into various roles outside of himself as the music requires. He's a pimp to the absurdist extreme, complete with Uncle Sam get-up, in \"For Free? (Interlude)\"; a tortured soul haunted by suicidal ideations and a predilection for self-medication in \"God Is Gangsta\"; an egomaniac of seismic proportions in \"HUMBLE.\" In \"D.N.A.,\" he stars opposite Don Cheadle, and holds his own as Rihanna's savage love interest in \"LOYALTY.\" Several years ago, in a small music venue in Atlanta, I witnessed Lamar perform live for the first time. It was some time after the release of his studio debut Section .80 — a thematic LP dedicated to children of the crack era. About midway through his performance, he stopped the music and proceeded to reenact an extended scene from his living room of his childhood home in Compton, Calif. Lamar portrayed both of his parents, arguing back in forth in colorful fashion. It ended up being a preview of the skits that would tie together his major-label debut good kid, m.A.A.d. city. His performance that night also foreshadowed an emerging artist whose sizable talent would not be contained by music alone.", "At around midday Monday at High Tech High School in North Bergen, N.J., about 40 students are crammed into a small classroom, anxiously waiting for Kendrick Lamar to walk into the room. He glides in with crisp white kicks, a grey long-sleeve shirt, and hair twisting every which way. The 27-year-old rapper has a broad smile on his face. He seems almost as excited as the students, who just might be having their best day of school ... ever. Lamar is on top of the rap game at the moment. His latest album, To Pimp a Butterfly, came out earlier this year and debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's albums chart. It's a complex, multilayered piece of work that wrestles with themes around blackness and beauty. That's why Brian Mooney decided to use To Pimp a Butterfly with his freshman English students as they studied Toni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye. The book is about a young black girl who yearns to have blue eyes. \"I was listening and I was like, wow, there are just so many themes that are the same,\" Mooney says. He's also a graduate student at Teachers College, Columbia University, working with a program exploring the use of hip-hop in education. \"The main character that my students spoke about, Pecola Breedlove, she's experiencing internalized oppression,\" Mooney explains. \"And so Kendrick is speaking to that same concept with the song 'Complexion.' He's speaking to that same idea of pushing back against the dominant narrative that there's this mythological norm that is considered good and beautiful and valuable.\" The lesson caught on with his students. They wrote essays, poetry and rap lyrics inspired by the book and album. Around Mooney's classroom, posters of Morrison quotes and Lamar's lyrics are paired with images of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. Mooney was encouraged, so he wrote a blog post about the lesson. \"It just took off, and it went across the Internet, and Kendrick Lamar got it and read it,\" Mooney says. \"His manager reached out to me and said, 'I want to come visit your school.' So we made it happen.\" Lamar, in a brief interview in the school's theater, says Mooney's blog post was fascinating. \"I was intrigued how somebody can — other than myself — can articulate and break down the concepts of To Pimp A Butterfly, almost better than I can,\" he said. The artist says he didn't just come here to perform, or just to mentor the students. \"Something even — for me — even bigger than mentoring is really listening,\" he says. \"And when I do that, we have a little bit bigger connection than me being Kendrick Lamar and you being a student. It's almost like we're friends, you know? Because a friend listens and we learn off each others' experiences.\" Throughout the day, Lamar listens. At a school-wide assembly students present the work they've done with Mooney. Ben Vock, Joan Tubungbanua and Sade Ford read their poetry and essays. Vock reads a poem about his own prejudices. Lamar says he likes it. \"You know, the hardest thing for not only an artist but for anybody to do is look themselves in the mirror and acknowledge their own flaws and fears and imperfections. And put them out for people to relate to it,\" he tells the senior. \"I can relate to you as well, you dig what I'm sayin'?\" After the readings, a group of students perform a dance number to a mashup of Lamar's songs. Then it's his turn. Lamar grabs the mic and dives into \"Alright,\" one of the tracks on To Pimp a Butterfly. \"It was very exciting\" Sade Ford, a senior, says after the show. \"And this is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.\" SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Kendrick Lamar's on top of the rap game at the moment. His latest album, \"To Pimp A Butterfly,\" came out earlier this year to critical acclaim and success on the charts. The album deals with the themes of blackness and beauty, which is why one teacher in New Jersey decided to use it in a course on Toni Morrison's novel \"The Bluest Eye\" about a young black girl who yearns to have blue eyes. Kendrick Lamar caught wind of the lesson and this week, he paid the school a visit. NPR's Sami Yenigun was there. SAMI YENIGUN, BYLINE: It's around midday at High Tech High School, just outside of Jersey City, and the 40-some-odd kids crammed into this classroom are psyched. UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Cheering). YENIGUN: Gliding into the room in crisp white kicks, a gray long-sleeve and hair twisting every which way, the 27-year-old rapper has a broad smile on his face. He seems almost as excited as the students, who might be having the best day of school ever. KENDRICK LAMAR: So what's up? UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Cheering). YENIGUN: Lamar's here because of English teacher Brian Mooney. Mooney says the album came out right in the middle of his course on Toni Morrison's novel. He asked his students to link the themes in each. BRIAN MOONEY: The main character that my students spoke about, Pecola Breedlove, she's experiencing internalized oppression. YENIGUN: In the audiobook, Morrison reads the part where Pecola fan", "Kendrick Lamar put out his most recent album (and major label debut), good kid, m.A.A.d. city, in 2012. That album was acclaimed by both hip-hop critics and fans, and their mainstream equivalents, and Lamar's fame has only grown since then. In the past two years, he has opened for Kanye West on the Yeezus tour, worked with SNL-affiliated comedy music group The Lonely Island on the song \"YOLO,\" contributed a verse to the Imagine Dragons radio hit \"Radioactive\" and performed with the rock group on the Grammy telecast. Macklemore even made a show of texting \"You got robbed\" after he beat Lamar for the Grammy for Best Rap Album. Lamar declared his ambition with a pair of aggressive performances (in a guest verse on Big Sean's leaked non-album track \"Control\" and in the 2013 BET Awards cypher) that made waves even though they were never officially released. Just last month, Lamar released the \"That Lady\"-sampling single \"i.\" The single is in advance of an album that doesn't yet have a release date or even a title. Still, the release was a major event in both the hip-hop and mainstream music worlds, and the buzz around the album is mounting. Lamar's debut album was a singular artistic statement, a rare mix of sensitive lyrics and literary storytelling that still managed to go platinum. How did he do it? \"It's partly the vulnerability,\" Microphone Check's Frannie Kelley tells NPR's Steve Inskeep. \"It's partly his ability. It's partly a years-long strategy, laid out by his management team in partnership with, now, a major label. But I think maybe, also, it's the time. I think that there are moments in hip-hop culture and pop culture when we become ready for somebody to complicate our lives.\" This new single is another left turn, a self-esteem-boosting rap over a recognizable sample that feels miles away from the gritty good kid. \"He says to the fashion police, 'I'm wearing my heart.' If that doesn't tell you ... 'I'm really comfortable [with] who I am,' \" says Microphone Check co-host and A Tribe Called Quest member Ali Shaheed Muhammad. Hear the rest of the conversation between Inskeep, Kelley and Muhammad at the audio link. RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: Let's focus now on an artist who's taking the hip-hop and some could argue, the sports world, by storm. Let our colleague Steve Inskeep take it from here. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Here's a song with a title one letter long. (SOUNDBITE OF KENDRICK LAMAR SONG, \"I\") INSKEEP: It's the letter I. The artist is Kendrick Lamar. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"I\") KENDRICK LAMAR: (Singing) I done been through a whole lot. Trial, tribulations, but I know God. INSKEEP: I done been through a whole lot, he raps. Like many rappers, he sings of himself. But there's something different about Kendrick Lamar. When you see that one letter song title, the letter I, the first person pronoun is lowercase. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"I\") LAMAR: (Singing) The world is a ghetto with big guns and picket signs. I love myself. But it can do what it want whenever it wants, and I don't mind. I love myself. INSKEEP: This song is catchy enough the NBA adopted it in an ad for the upcoming season. Pro-basketball is just catching up to an artist who's been building a devoted fan base for years. What draws people in is his storytelling, arguably. Think again about that lowercase I. We're going to talk about his music with the hosts of \"Microphone Check,\" NPR's hip-hop podcast. Journalist Frannie Kelley and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, famous from, A Tribe Called Quest, welcome to you both. ALI SHAHEED MUHAMMAD, BYLINE: Hey, hey. FRANNIE KELLEY, BYLINE: Thanks, sir. INSKEEP: So what is it about Kendrick Lamar as you see it? MUHAMMAD: I think the reason why Kendrick resonates with so many people is that unlike many other rappers that brag and boast, he paints pictures that you really - you can smell the environment. You can clearly see in depth what the environment is. He doesn't just kind of like go on the surface. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"I\") LAMAR: (Singing) They wanna say there's a war outside and a bomb in the street and a gun in the hood and a mob of police and rock on the corner and a line full of fiends and a bottle full of lean and a model on the scene. Yup. These days of frustration keep y'all on ducking... KELLEY: Yeah, sometimes the praise for a literary rapper can be a little bit overblown and even have intonations of like, you know, rap is good if it's less like rap. However the ways that Kendrick really succeeds is as a performer both on record and on the stage. MUHAMMAD: And even though some of the content is street oriented - about being the baddest rapper, about being in a position where you can't afford gas for your car, but you still want to go see a girl that has your interest - he just describes those things in a way that has more realistic feeling to it. INSKEEP: You know, when you say, can't afford gas for the car, what you're saying is he's not just proclaiming how bad he is, he's actually being vulnerable. He's ad", "NPR's Audie Cornish spoke with Frannie Kelley of NPR Music's podcast Microphone Check about Kendrick Lamar's untitled unmastered. You can hear their conversation at the audio link. Hip-hop fans received a surprise Thursday night: an unexpectedly released project from Kendrick Lamar called untitled unmastered. Each of untitled unmastered.'s eight tracks is — as the album's name headlines — untitled, followed by a date. If those dates (most of which fall between 2013 and 2014) are correct, it means they were recorded during the same period as Lamar's masterful To Pimp A Butterfly. As of Friday morning, untitled unmastered. was available across many music platforms, including Spotify, iTunes and Tidal. When this music made its way online last night, some news outlets breathlessly hailed it as the leak of a \"surprise new album\" featuring \"eight new songs.\" That's not quite right, though. The project's title suggests a certain fluidity and work-in-progress liminality, and its cover is an unadorned, almost industrial green field. It's a strategy that nods to the lifting-the-veil feel behind Kanye West's The Life of Pablo. A lot of this material will be familiar to attentive listeners; as NME points out, Lamar has already performed certain passages from this project quite publicly already, including on TV performances on shows like The Colbert Report and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. And the sprawling, eight-minute \"untitled 07\" is partly a reworking — or rough, improvised version — of material that appears earlier on untitled unmastered. There were hints that something was in the works earlier this week already, starting with a not-so-mysterious Instagram post on Wednesday from Anthony Tiffith — the CEO of Lamar's label, Top Dawg Entertainment — which Lamar promptly retweeted. All of the signs in untitled unmastered. point to this release as a snapshot of Lamar's creative process, but given the intensity with which his work is received, and that surprise full-album drops have become almost expected in the marketplace, many fans may interpret this project as a full artistic statement. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Last night hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar dropped an unexpected project. It's called \"Untitled Unmastered,\" and right now you're listening to track number five. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"UNTITLED 05\") KENDRICK LAMAR: (Rapping) I got 100 on my dash, got 200 in my trunk. Name in the grab bags, put my Bible in the trunk. Taaka vodka on the top of my binocular, I'm drunk. CORNISH: Fans of Kendrick might recognize some of the songs on here. They've been performed in public before. And for the most part, it's seems like the so-called surprise album is a work in progress. Joining us now to talk about this is Frannie Kelley of the NPR podcast Microphone Check. Welcome back, Frannie. FRANNIE KELLEY, BYLINE: Thank you very much. CORNISH: Now, it seems like surprise albums are pretty commonplace (laughter) these days. Was this one actually a surprise, and can we really call it an album? KELLEY: I think that the word unexpected you used is right. We didn't have a date for this. I personally anticipated doing other work today, but... CORNISH: (Laughter). KELLEY: ...Yeah, it had been teased in a lot of different ways, in a lot of different platforms. There were rumors. There was stuff happening on Twitter, most prominently by LeBron James. So we did feel that this was imminent but we didn't know exactly what it was going to contain and we didn't know, you know, what else was going to be going on the world when we received it. CORNISH: And we should mention - full disclosure - your co-host on the podcast, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, actually worked on one of the tracks on this new project. Tell us a little bit about these songs. I don't know if they're - how different they are from the music that was on \"To Pimp A Butterfly,\" that, you know, really big album. KELLEY: Yeah. So with the caveat that I've barely been able to listen to this album yet - we're all in that position, and in some ways it makes it critic-proof. But what I noticed right away was that in the way that \"To Pimp A Butterfly\" felt very funk heavy, this is, like, the rap growth from funk. It felt much more like, hip-hop, drums. The groove was a little bit slower and deeper, which I think I really - you know, it's just so hard to say, to pick apart his message and to get into what he's, like, trying communicate lyrically, but it feels a little bit more in the moment - not that he didn't write it, but it does feel less written. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"UNTITLED 07\") LAMAR: (Rapping) Love won't get you high as this. Drugs won't get you high as this. Fame won't get you high as this. Chains won't get you high as this. Juice won't get you high as this. Crew won't get you high as this. Hate won't get you high as this. Levitate, levitate, levitate, levitate. CORNISH: You know, Frannie, it's interesting because he really brings a lot of theater and drama to the music, and this ", "After firing a few warning shots over the past year and change, Baby Keem has dropped a missile by the name of \"family ties\" — with some help from his big cousin, Kendrick Lamar. The first part of the song is dominated by a horn loop that's sure to be played on HBCU football fields this season. Before Keem gets to rhyming, he peppers the track with catchy one-liners, then proceeds to go off until the song's first beat switch. He stays in pocket, but ethereal flutes shift the song into cruise control for a few bars. Then, it's Kendrick's show. Oklama, fresh off of his big announcement, spits a verse with enough flows and quotables to make your head spin: \"Smoking on top fives\"; \"I'm not a trending topic / I'm a prophet\"; \"Burn that hard drive.\" Then there's the Megan line. Keem hops back in and the duo goes line for line to close it out. No hook. \"family ties\" is delivered in three different zones, establishing two different notions: Baby Keem is the future and Kendrick Lamar is the best rapper rapping today.", "Nominees for the 58th Grammy Awards were announced Monday morning. Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, and The Weeknd got the most nominations, while some new artists were in the mix.", "With the year rapidly winding down, the NPR Music team has been haggling over which albums and songs to include on our various best-of lists. It turns out there was a lot of music released in 2012, and while we do our best to feature much of it on All Songs Considered, we're really able to share only the tiniest fraction of what's out there. So before it's too late, we thought we'd take a moment to pause and check out some of the albums we missed. To help us out, we've got Sami Yenigun, Otis Hart, Lars Gotrich, Frannie Kelley and Anastasia Tsioulcas of the NPR Music team on hand to share their own favorites that never made it on the show. It's a pretty broad mix, from classical composer John Adams and Ethiopian jazz pianist Samuel Yirga, to electronic artist Acid Pauli, the doom metal group Pallbearer, rapper Kendrick Lamar and more. Songs Featured On The Show Matthew Dear • Artist: Matthew Dear • Album: Beams • Song: Ahead Of Myself Acid Pauli • Artist: Acid Pauli • Album: Mst • Song: La Voz Tan Tierna Kelan Philip Cohran/The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble • Artist: Kelan Philip Cohran/The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble • Album: Kelan Philip Cohran & the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble • Song: Spin Samuel Yirga • Artist: Samuel Yirga • Album: Guzo • Song: Abet Abet [Punt Mix] John Adams • Artist: John Adams • Album: Harmonielehre; Short Ride in a Fast Machine • Song: Short Ride in a Fast machine, fanfare for orchestra Kendrick Lamar • Artist: Kendrick Lamar • Album: Good Kid M.A.A.D. City • Song: Swimming Pools (Drank) [Extended Version] [Version] Advisory: This song contains profanity. Waxahatchee • Artist: Waxahatchee • Album: American Weekend • Song: Be Good Pallbearer • Artist: Pallbearer • Album: Sorrow and Extinction • Song: The Legend", "The 2018 Pulitzer Prizes were announced Monday. Kendrick Lamar joined the staffs of <em>The New York Times </em>and <em>The Washington Post </em>along with the rest of this year's winners.", "Don't see this video? Click here. In our new series on the art of sampling, hip-hop producers demonstrate how they find inspiration in classics, hidden gems, found sounds and other raw musical materials to create new hits. For each of the five videos in the series, NPR Music has asked a writer we love to do something similar. Their only instruction was to watch one of the videos, pick an element that inspired them, and spin it off in a new direction — to sample it. Today, writer Marcus J. Moore, the author of the forthcoming book The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America, looks at Lamar's relationship with contemporary and historical jazz musicians. Lamar's song \"DUCKWORTH.\" is made up of three beats by producer 9th Wonder (the subject of today's video) that are each built around a different sample from a different genre and different generation. For certain older jazz heads thinking of their beloved genre, the image that comes to mind is of custom Italian suits and smoke billowing through cramped clubs. There's likely a guy with an instrument in the foreground, behind him is another guy keeping pace on a drum kit. For some jazz listeners, the music should've stayed here — stuck somewhere between the 1940s and '50s, before Miles Davis plugged in his trumpet, and before John Coltrane blew his sax to summon God. To them, pianist Herbie Hancock should've left funk to hippies like Sly Stone, and saxophonist Pharoah Sanders needed to cool it with the \"elephant shrieks.\" It's not just jazz purists who resist change; across all genres, the struggle between tradition and the future has been unfolding in regular, repeating cycles. '90s hip-hop is considered the \"golden era,\" when lyricists like Nas, Snoop Doggy Dogg and Jay-Z came of age, and rap after that isn't seen as comparable. There's this notion that \"the music died after us,\" and those flare-ups arise when some younger rapper doesn't know Biggie lyrics, or he thinks rap began with the Lil's and Yung's. At every turn in music, there are people who resist change, but you can't bend culture by playing it safe. So it's not that jazz purists didn't want the music to evolve, it's that the new thing was quite different from the old — less reverent, less familiar, beholden to a new set of rules or priorities. Albums like Davis' Bitches Brew and Hancock's Head Hunters blended jazz with rock and funk, paving the way for future anarchists like trumpeter Roy Hargrove and pianist Robert Glasper to work at the points where jazz met conscious hip-hop, neo-soul, and alt-rock. They ascended at a time when jazz wasn't so popular in mainstream music: Traces of it could be heard in the early work of The Roots, and in sampled form on records by A Tribe Called Quest and Digable Planets. But as pop and hip-hop grew in demand, jazz faded from mainstream public view. That was until 2015, when rap superstar Kendrick Lamar brought new light to a hybrid of jazz and rap that had been happening underground. His second major-label album, To Pimp a Butterfly, was an expansive collage of hip-hop, funk and soul, with jazz firmly affixed to the center. That was due to Kendrick and Terrace Martin, a producer and multi-instrumentalist who studied under jazz great Reggie Andrews at Locke High School in South Los Angeles. Martin had been a go-to guy for Kendrick and his label, Top Dawg Entertainment, since the mid-2000s, and for To Pimp a Butterfly, he tapped into his network of jazz musicians in L.A. and beyond to add brass, live bass and keys to a wide-ranging palette of beats from the likes of Pharrell, Sounwave and Flying Lotus. The goal, trombonist Ryan Porter once told me, was to dilute the 808 drums for a lush soundscape. With musicians like Porter, Glasper, saxophonist Kamasi Washington, trumpeter Josef Leimberg and bassist Stephen \"Thundercat\" Bruner in the mix, Butterfly is easily Kendrick's most sonically ambitious album, and the one fans have the toughest time digesting, especially when compared with good kid, m.A.A.d. city's cinematic sheen and DAMN.'s club-ready bravado. I've spoken with many of Kendrick's collaborators, and they all say the same thing: He's a jazz musician in rapper's clothing, whether or not the music is shaped by musicians who are classically trained in that genre. Just ask Martin. \"He was like, 'Man, a lot of the chords that you pick are jazz-influenced. You don't understand: You a jazz musician by default,'\" Kendrick once told producer Rick Rubin for GQ. \"And that just opened me up. And he just started breaking down everything, the science, going back to Miles, Herbie Hancock.\" Glasper, in an interview for my book about Kendrick, doubled down. \"Kendrick had so much respect from everybody,\" he told me. \"He spoke to the jazz cats, to the music nerds, to the backpack rappers, the gangsters. That's the real 'hip-hop meets jazz' right there. That was something I was already doing in my world, but for Kendrick to do it, it change", "North Korea marks its founder's birthday. Turkish voters go to the polls for a draft constitution. Ishaan Tharoor of <em>The Washington Post</em> joins the conversation. Kendrick Lamar releases a new album.", "Kendrick Lamar made a big impact for his storytelling skills on his 2012 major-label debut Good Kid, M.a.a.d City, and won two Grammys in February for the song \"i.\" That song appears in Lamar's latest album, To Pimp A Butterfly, which Fresh Air music critic Ken Tucker says has an excitingly adventurous sound. TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. Kendrick Lamar made a big impact with his story-telling skills on his 2012 major label debut, \"Good Kid, M.A.A.D City,\" and he won two Grammys recently for the single \"i.\" Lamar's new album, \"To Pimp A Butterfly,\" is eclectic, influenced by jazz as much as funk or pop. His subjects touch on current events, such as the deaths of young black men, but he's also one of the few young rappers who is honest about personal struggles with depression and doubt. Rock critic Ken Tucker has a review. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"ALRIGHT\") KENDRICK LAMAR: (Singing) Alls my life, I has to fight. Alls my life, I - hard times, like, God, bad trips, like, God. Nazareth - alls God got us then we're going to be all right. KEN TUCKER, BYLINE: Still in his 20s, Kendrick Lamar has attracted a large audience for his intricate wordplay and the diverse styles he strives for in a variety of songs. At this early point in his career, Lamar is intriguingly impossible to identify with a signature sound. The song that began this review, \"Alright,\" has a stark, airless production style. Contrast this with the dense, funky style of this song, something. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"KING KUNTA\") LAMAR: (Singing) I can dig rapping, but a rapper with a ghost writer - what the [expletive] happened? I swore I wouldn't tell, but most of y'all share bars like you got the bottom bunk in a two-man cell. Something's in the water. And if I got to brown nose for some gold, then I'd rather be a bum than a [expletive] baller. (Singing) Where you when I was walking? Now I run the game, got the whole world talking - King Kunta. Everybody want to cut the legs off him - King Kunta - black man taking no losses. Where you when I was when I was walking? Now I run the game, got the whole world talking - King Kunta. Everybody want to cut the legs off him. When you got the yams... TUCKER: Lamar raps and sings most frequently in a pleasantly hoarse voice that works as the sound of earnest urgency. \"King Kunta\" takes its organizing image from one of the central figures of Alex Haley's book and TV movie \"Roots,\" the 18th century slave, Kunta Kinte. The music surrounding that story draws equally from 1970s and '80s funk as perfected by James Brown, George Clinton and Michael Jackson. For a different distinctive example of Lamar's sonic range, listen to a bit of \"i,\" his Grammy-winning single. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"i\") LAMAR: (Singing) One, two, one, two - what's happening? I done been through a whole lot trials and tribulations, but I know God. The devil want to put me in a bow tie - pray that the holy water don't go dry, yeah. As I look around me, they want to down me. But no, you could never drown me. In front of a dirty double mirror they found me. (Singing) And I love myself. And when you're looking at me, tell me, what do you see? I put a bullet in the back of the head of the police. Illuminated by the hand of God, boy don't seem shy. One day at a time. (Singing) They want to say it's a war outside, bomb in the street, gun in the hood, mob of police, rock on the corner with a line full of fiend and bottle full of lean and a model on a scheme. These days of frustration keep - come to the front, yeah. I duck these cold faces, post up fi-fie-fo-fum basis. Dreams are reality's peace, blow steam in the face of the beast. Sky could fall down, wind could cry now. Look at me, [expletive], I smile, and I love myself. TUCKER: Using a sample from The Isley Brothers to propel the rhythm, Kendrick Lamar offers a mostly upbeat vision of life that nevertheless makes room to acknowledge that he's suffered from depression and doubt. Those more bleak subjects come to the fore in what might be considered the answer song to \"i,\" a harrowing, contrasting composition called \"u.\" (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"u\") LAMAR: (Singing) I place blame on you, still, place shame on you, still, feel like you ain't [expletive], feel like you don't feel, confidence in yourself breaking on marble floors, watching anonymous strangers telling me that I'm yours. But you ain't [expletive]. I'm convinced your tolerance nothing special. What can I blame you for, [expletive]? I can name several. Situation had stopped with your little sister baking a baby inside - just a teenager. Where your patience? What was your intentions, what was the influence you speak of? You preached in front of 100,000 but never reached her. I [expletive] tell you, you [expletive] failure, you ain't no leader. I never liked you, forever despised you. I don't need you. The world don't need you. Don't let them deceive you. Numbers lie, too. [Expletive] your pride, too. That's for dedication. Thought money would ch", "Just days after Kendrick Lamar shared the official tracklist to Marvel's Black Panther soundtrack, the rapper and Toronto R&B star The Weeknd unleash their collaboration from the album, \"Pray For Me.\" \"Tell me who's goin' save me from myself / When this life is all I know? / Tell me / Who's goin' save me from this hell? / Without you, I'm all alone,\" croons Weeknd over the analog, quasi-dance beat. \"Pray For Me,\" produced by Sounwave, CuBeatz, Cardo and Matt Schaeffer, sounds like a bonus track off Weeknd's 2016 album Starboy: futuristic and fast-paced. Though Kendrick lends his talents by adding in a rap verse, this song was clearly made for The Weeknd to run with. The Weeknd and K. Dot have been mutual fans of one another for years and \"Pray For Me\" marks the second time the two chart-toppers have collaborated, following their 2016 track \"Sidewalks\" off Starboy. Other famous features on the Kendrick Lamar and TDE-curated soundtrack range from Travis Scott and 2 Chainz to James Blake and Jorja Smith. \"Pray For Me\" is the third official preview off the album following \"All The Stars\" and \"King's Dead.\" Fans now know that this cut appears as the last song on Black Panther: The Album and it closes out the project on a menacing note. Black Panther: The Album drops Feb. 9 via Interscope Records.", "MTV is the TV network most widely associated with short attention spans. So it makes sense that its Video Music Awards would function as a jarring and disjointed jumble of moments — a howl of protest followed immediately by a singer's tears of joy, or a heartfelt speech by a grieving mother giving way to a performance of \"Da Ya Think I'm Sexy\" by Rod Stewart and DNCE. In such a barrage, it's unfair to expect any one performance, speech or spectacle to rise above the others, especially as the telecast stretched past three hours. But rise they did: Kendrick Lamar's riveting opening medley, with its copious flames, unfolded like a fire emoji come to life. Always a highlight of performance-driven awards shows, Pink followed a career-spanning greatest-hits set with a gorgeous speech. Lorde danced to her own song without bothering to lip-sync the words — an act that felt bold, even subversive, in the moment. Aaaaaaaand then there was the other stuff, from Taylor Swift's hotly anticipated video for \"Look What You Made Me Do\" — which devolved quickly into a mismatched mishmash of dull and recycled provocation — to Katy Perry's game but thudding hosting job. Ed Sheeran winning Artist of the Year over Kendrick Lamar seemed almost perverse, if altogether predictable, after their respective performances, though Lamar thankfully took the biggest prize at the end of the night. In the world of the VMAs, awards themselves are almost incidental, but here we go. Lamar led the field with six wins, though four of his prizes were of the technical variety, for the visually dazzling, Dave Meyers-directed video that accompanies \"HUMBLE.\" (Lamar and Meyers also took Video of the Year and Best Hip Hop Video.) Elsewhere, Khalid won the Artist to Watch Award, while other prizes went to Fifth Harmony and Gucci Mane (Best Pop Video), Zedd and Alessia Cara (Best Electronic Dance Video), Taylor Swift and Zayn (Best Collaboration), and Best Rock Video (Twenty One Pilots).", "Kendrick Lamar, deservedly hailed as the god MC of his generation, made a peculiar pronouncement from on high (i.e., high-speed Internet) today that has fans genuflecting in collective anticipation. The rapper's Instagram account was wiped clean Thursday morning, replaced with one cryptic post added around sunrise. The simple white-on-black image of the Roman numeral \"IV,\" with no caption provided, has led to a near-universal interpretation: Prepare ye the way for the impending release of Lamar's fourth studio album. Of course, it's a move meant to provoke wild conjecture. It is standard practice now for artists — or even presidents — to use social media to make major announcements. But nothing has been confirmed. DJBooth's editorial site The Plug speculates Lamar's post could be an allusion to a forthcoming single, potentially produced by The Alchemist, who tweeted the same image hours later. Either way, the timing is telling, as it comes not even a full week after Drake, streaming king, released his More Life playlist. Yet, the bigger question is not when, or if, but how Lamar's next LP will make a connection between God and gangsta rap. In a New York Times' T Magazine interview published earlier this month, Lamar hinted that his next album would explore themes around God even more explicitly than he has in past projects. \"I think now, how wayward things have gone within the past few months, my focus is ultimately going back to my community and the other communities around the world where they're doing the groundwork,\" he told Times contributor Wyatt Mason. \"To Pimp a Butterfly was addressing the problem. I'm in a space now where I'm not addressing the problem anymore. We're in a time where we exclude one major component out of this whole thing called life: God. Nobody speaks on it because it's almost in conflict with what's going on in the world when you talk about politics and government and the system.\" But the gospel according to Kendrick Lamar — and the suggestion that his next album would focus on that theme — spawned widespread disapproval online after the Times piece went viral. \"If I wanted to hear about God I'd listen to gospel,\" read one choice tweet. \"Pls just go back to rapping about Compton bruh,\" another response read. Others implied Lamar was attempting to ride a wave, following the tremendous success of Chance the Rapper's Grammy-winning mixtape Coloring Book. While Chance's release was perhaps the strongest example yet of gospel rap gone mainstream, Lamar has flirted with overt themes of Christianity in past works. The climax to Lamar's 2012 major-label debut Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City features a skit with Lamar and his friends accepting Christ in a neighborhood parking lot following a gang tragedy. Both Lamar and Chance have emerged as spiritually-attuned artists in an increasingly unchurched generation. Both hail from cities with notorious gang problems and gun violence. And both are using mainstream rap to promote a relationship with God as part of the solution to these problems. Yet it's Lamar's sober approach that's considered the more radical of the two. Unlike Chance, whose Coloring Book is just that — a bright sonic display of his faith in the face of reality — Lamar tends toward much darker, near-cataclysmic territory in his masterful works. Even his personal displays of faith have drawn raised eyebrows. A 2015 BuzzFeed story, \"The Radical Christianity of Kendrick Lamar,\" recounts his unusual Halloween costume in 2014, the year he dressed as Jesus Christ. \"If I want to idolize somebody, I'm not going to do a scary monster, I'm not gonna do another artist or a human being — I'm gonna idolize the Master, who I feel is the Master, and try to walk in His light,\" he told The FADER the same year. \"It's hard, it's something I probably could never do, but I'm gonna try. Not just with the outfit but with everyday life. The outfit is just the imagery, but what's inside me will display longer.\" Prepare yourselves for the fourth coming, in whatever form it may assume.", "Bruce Weber and Margalit Fox have written obituaries for thousands of people, ranging from heads of state to the inventor of the Etch-a-Sketch. They are featured in the new documentary 'Obit.' Also, Ken Tucker reviews Kendrick Lamar's album 'Damn.'", "When Kendrick Lamar released his major label debut in 2012, he vaulted onto pop's leaderboard as one of the best rappers of his generation. He wasn't just a skilled lyricist, but a vivid storyteller able to create scenes with vivid detail and intrigue. Lamar took nearly two and half years to make his new record, an eternity in pop time. But once To Pimp a Butterfly arrived on Sunday night — nine days ahead of the announced release date — it's easy to see where he put all that time. He doesn't just live up to outsized expectations, he upends them with an ambitious effort to craft the musical equivalent to the Great American Novel. Like Lamar's native Los Angeles, To Pimp a Butterfly feels both dense and sprawling with its panoply of ideas, styles and sounds. Backing the rapper is a young cohort of L.A.'s best beat makers and musicians, including Digi+Phonics, Terrace Martin and Thundercat. Their collaboration creates songs-within-songs that hold multitudes, from updated P-Funk romps (\"King Kunta\") to coffee-shop poetry slams (\"For Free?\") to tete-a-tetes with ghosts (\"Mortal Man\"). To Pimp a Butterfly doesn't remind me of other contemporary hip-hop albums so much as the musicals of Melvin Van Peebles. Both that playwright and this rapper invite us into noisy conversations between eclectic characters debating personal triumphs and social failures, black love and white hate, all under the looming shadow of America. It's telling that two of the album's songs are simply titled \"u\" and \"i,\" but don't confuse that for a universal \"we.\" Lamar wades into our moment of peril around race, inequality and brutality, but he's not speaking to the rest of the nation as much as penning both an admonishment of, and love letter to, Black America. That's the \"we\" he sets himself both above and below, and yet always within. MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: Los Angeles rapper Kendrick Lamar surprised fans this past Sunday night by releasing his new album, \"To Pimp A Butterfly,\" nine days ahead of schedule. Reviewer Oliver Wang says that early drop will give listeners extra time to unpack Lamar's latest masterpiece. OLIVER WANG, BYLINE: When a 25-year-old Kendrick Lamar released his major-label debut in 2012, he vaulted onto pop's leader boards as one of the best rappers of his generation. He wasn't just a skilled lyricist, but also a gifted storyteller able to create scenes with vivid detail and intrigue. ( SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"SWIMMING POOLS\") KENDRICK LAMAR: (Rapping) Now I done grew up 'round some people living their life in bottles. Granddaddy had the golden flask. Back stroke every day in Chicago. Some people like the way it feels. Some people want to kill their sorrows. Some people want to fit in with the popular. That was my problem. I was in the dark room, loud tunes, looking to make a vow soon... WANG: Lamar took nearly two and a half years to make this new record - an eternity in pop years. But once \"To Pimp A Butterfly\" arrived, it's easy to see where he put all that time. He doesn't just live up to outsized expectations. He upends them with an ambitious effort to craft the musical equivalent to the great American novel. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"ALRIGHT\") LAMAR: (Rapping) What you want, a house or a car 40 acres and a mule, a piano a guitar? Anything, see my name is Lucy, I'm your dog. [Bleep] you can live at the mall. I can see the evil. I can tell it. I know when it's illegal. I don't think about it. I deposit every other zero thinking of my partner put the candy, paint it on the regal digging in my pocket ain't a profit, big enough to feed you. Everyday my logic, get another dollar just to keep you in the presence of your chico - ah. WANG: Like Lamar's hometown, Los Angeles, \"To Pimp A Butterfly\" feels both dense and sprawling with its cacophony of sounds, styles and ideas. Backing the rapper is a young cohort of LA's best beat-makers and musicians, and their collaboration creates songs within songs that hold multitudes, including updated P. Funk romps... (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"KING KUNTA\") LAMAR: (Rapping) The year must have powered that beat. WANG: ...Coffeeshop poetry slams... (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"FOR FREE?\") LAMAR: (Rapping) I mean baby, you really think we can make a baby named Mercedes without a Mercedes-Benz and 24-inch rims, five percent tints and air conditioning vents? WANG: ...And tete-a-tetes with ghosts. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, \"MORTAL MAN\") LAMAR: (Rapping) I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence. Sometimes I did the same, abusing my power, full of resentment - resentment that turned into a deep depression. Found myself screaming in the hotel room. I didn’t want to self destruct. The evils of Lucy was all around me, so I went running for answers until I came home. WANG: \"To Pimp A Butterfly\" doesn't remind me of other contemporary hip-hop albums so much of the musicals of Melvin Van Peebles. Both that playwright and this MC invite us into noisy conversations between eccentric characters debating personal tri", "The All Songs Considered crew looks back at the highlights in 2015 with a focus on the music we loved most including Courtney Barnett, Kendrick Lamar, Girlpool, Jason Isbell, Sleater-Kinney, Missy Elliott, Bjork, Joanna Newsom, Joan Shelley and Adele.", "The Kendrick Lamar and Top Dawg-curated soundtrack to Marvel's Black Panther has produced its second single, and it's a dark, foreboding mood-setter. The song from the anticipated Black Panther: The Album features falsetto from Future, a snippet from James Blake, and Jay Rock sandwiched between Lamar decimating the track. But the premiere of \"King's Dead\" stars another hero of sorts in Jay Rock, Lamar's big homie and the bedrock emcee of Top Dawg Entertainment. The song — which also features trap star Future — doubles as the first single to the forthcoming album from Jay Rock, who led the charge for TDE before Lamar broke through. Produced by Mike WiLL Made-It, \"King's Dead\" bears the same sonic blueprint of some of Lamar's most urgent music on DAMN. It's no coincidence; Mike WiLL also produced \"Humble.,\" \"DNA.\" and \"XXX.\" Together, Jay Rock, Future and Lamar make for an interesting trio, and one that's not as odd as it might sound on paper. It's also not the first time former tourmates Future and Lamar have appeared together on a track. On this round, Future contributes a trippy delivery near the end of his verse and Jay Rock offers up a super nimble flow, while Lamar bookends the track with a torrential verse at the end, over a beat change reminiscent of \"DNA.\" The real surprise here is James Blake, who sets the stage for Lamar's closing verse with a quick vocal transition around the two-and-a-half minute mark. (If you blink, you'll miss it.) Between \"King's Dead\" and \"All The Stars,\" the first premiere from the soundtrack, Black Panther: The Album may be Lamar's show to steal.", "When you think of music in 2015, you have to think of Kendrick Lamar. To Pimp a Butterfly recently scored 11 Grammy nominations, more than any other artist, and \"Alright\" became an anthem for the Black Lives Matter movement against police abuse. Lamar grew up in Compton, Calif., in the '80s and '90s, surrounded by poverty and gang wars. He says he witnessed his first murder at age 5. \"It was outside my apartment unit,\" Lamar tells NPR's David Greene. \"A guy was out there serving his narcotics and somebody rolled up with a shotgun and blew his chest out. Admittedly, it done something to me right then and there. It let me know that this is not only something that I'm looking at, but it's something that maybe I have to get used to — you dig what I'm saying? \"You grow up inside these neighborhoods and these communities, and you have friends, friends that you love, friends that you grew up with since elementary. And you have their trust, and you have their loyalty. So it brings influence. So no matter how much of a leader I thought I was, I was always under the influence, period. Most of the times, when they were involved in these acts of destruction, I was right there.\" Kendrick Lamar doesn't have a rap sheet himself, but he says he's hurt people. Music saved him: He spent long nights in the studio instead of on the streets, and two years ago, his album good kid, m.A.A.d city went platinum. But for a young man who grew up in Compton, sudden success was overwhelming. \"You can have the platinum album, but when you still feel like you haven't quite found your place in the world — it kind of gives a crazy offset,\" Lamar says. \"When you go inside these places, no matter how much money you have, no matter how much success, when you still feel like you're not comfortable, where's the feeling in that?\" On To Pimp a Butterfly, Lamar confronts these emotions. There's a refrain that he keeps coming back to, a spoken-word piece of sorts: \"I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence. Sometimes I did the same, abusing my power, full of resentment, resentment that turned into a deep depression.\" Then there's a night in a hotel room, where he describes himself literally screaming out in agony. \"What was the feeling? The feeling was missing home,\" Lamar says. \"The feeling was, I should be with my family right now when they're going through hardships, with the loss of my dear friends that's constantly passing while I'm out on this road. The feeling was, 'How am I influencing so many people on this stage rather than influencing the ones that I have back home?' That's the feeling: being inside the hotel room, and these thoughts I'm just pondering back and forth while I look at the ceiling all night.\" Back home, Lamar says, he \"probably lost more friends in this past summer than any other summer.\" One sticks out. \"Chad Keaton. He was like my little brother; we grew up in the same community,\" Lamar says. \"I was actually best friends with his older brother, which is incarcerated right now. And him just always telling me to make sure that Chad is on the right path. And, you know, he was on the right path. But, you know, things happen where sometimes the good are in the wrong places, and that's exactly what happened. He got shot.\" As much as Lamar makes the songs on To Pimp a Butterfly personal, people have taken the music to mean much more. In \"The Blacker the Berry,\" there's one line that created a lot of controversy — \"So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street, when gang-banging make me kill a n**** blacker than me? Hypocrite!\" — especially because he'd become such a hero in the Black Lives Matter movement. Lamar insists he was singing about himself, but some think he's calling on people to look at their own behavior before they take out anger on the police. \"It's not me pointing at my community; it's me pointing at myself,\" Lamar says. \"I don't talk about these things if I haven't lived them, and I've hurt people in my life. It's something I still have to think about when I sleep at night. \"The message I'm sending to myself — I can't change the world until I change myself first,\" he adds. \"For instance, when Chad was killed, I can't disregard the emotion of me relapsing and feeling the same anger that I felt when I was 16, 17 — when I wanted the next family to hurt, because you made my family hurt. Them emotions were still running in me, thinking about him being slain like that. Whether I'm a rap star or not, if I still feel like that, then I'm part of the problem rather than the solution.\" For Kendrick Lamar right now, this somber mode is crucial, even as he realizes that the party is important, too. \"I think that the depth is needed,\" he says. \"And there's a lot of other artists doing things outside of that depth that I enjoy — that music that I can actually have fun to, and not be in depth and think about, then I appreciate that. But as long as I'm doing it right now, I'ma continue to say just a little b", "Whatever you think of the Grammy Awards, they do provide an intriguing snapshot of how the music industry wishes to see itself — particularly in terms of its chosen standard-bearers. In one three-and-a-half-hour flurry of awards and performances, you'll get a cross-genre infomercial and, if you curate your Twitter feed right, an evening-long feast of social-media jokes and commentary. By the end of the night, you may well find yourself shouting your own strongly worded opinions from the virtual mountaintop. But for now, we can only take a few educated stabs at the joys and outrages that await. Here are five storylines to watch as Music's Biggest Night™ approaches. 1) So many nominees. The Grammys' four biggest categories — album of the year, song of the year, record of the year and best new artist — have traditionally been a hash of oddly matched genres, with pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B, country and jazz artists vying for only five nomination slots. This year, the hash naturally remains, but the number of slots has increased from five to eight to accommodate more diversity among the nominees. This year's nominations bear that out; in album of the year, for example, Cardi B, Brandi Carlile, Drake, H.E.R., Post Malone, Janelle Monáe, Kacey Musgraves and the Black Panther soundtrack are all in contention. Record of the year will go to a song by either Cardi B; Carlile; Childish Gambino; Drake; Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper; Kendrick Lamar and SZA; or Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey. (Here's a fuller rundown of this year's nominees.) The clutter of names makes gaming out winners trickier than ever. Vote-splitting among similar artists and genres could be a major factor. For example, rootsy singers Brandi Carlile and Kacey Musgraves might siphon off each other's album of the year votes, leaving an open lane for... it's hard to tell, really. Monáe's Dirty Computer was adored by critics, Black Panther was a commercial juggernaut spearheaded by Kendrick Lamar (who's due after a few high-profile snubs in the category), Cardi B dominated both the 2018 pop charts and the cultural conversation. And so on. Traditionally, the Grammys have skewed toward safe and/or legacy artists in the major categories, as evidenced by a quarter-century's worth of album of the year wins for the likes of Tony Bennett, Celine Dion, Steely Dan, U2, Herbie Hancock, Mumford & Sons, Adele (over Beyoncé's Lemonade!), Beck (over Beyoncé's Beyoncé!), Taylor Swift (over Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly!), Bruno Mars (over Kendrick Lamar's DAMN.!) and so on. Before this year, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West have been nominated in the album of the year category three times apiece, and each has come up empty. Generally speaking, hip-hop has fared poorly in the category over the years — Eminem is also 0-for-3 — so a win for Cardi B, Drake or Black Panther would represent a notable shift. (A win for Monáe would qualify, as well.) 2) \"Women need to step up.\" A year ago, Grammys president Neil Portnow spoke those five profoundly stupid words, shoving both loafers straight into his gullet as he opined on what turned out to be a heavily male-dominated slate of Grammy winners. (To refresh your memory on that controversy, here's some of Anastasia Tsioulcas' indispensable reporting, from last February and November.) The Recording Academy — the voting body that chooses each year's Grammy winners — has attempted to broaden and diversify its membership since last year's debacle, when best new artist winner Alessia Cara was the only woman to pick up her own Grammy during the night's Bruno Mars-intensive telecast. Portnow announced last year that he will step down this summer, and the Grammys have a history of pivoting immediately after public-relations fiascoes. (See: Kendrick Lamar winning heavily in the hip-hop categories after getting swept by Macklemore in 2014, or Metallica dominating the heavy-metal category after losing to Jethro Tull in 1989.) How and whether those correctives translate to the actual awards this year is and will remain a major Grammy storyline this year. 3) Whither on-stage activism? In 2018, against a backdrop of sexual-misconduct allegations in the entertainment industry (and more wide-ranging objections to Donald Trump and his administration), the Grammys mostly stayed muted, politically speaking. With Alicia Keys replacing genial James Corden, the host's commentary could certainly get bolder and more cutting this time around. (The name of former Keys collaborator R. Kelly might pop up, for example.) And several of the scheduled A-list performers — the increasingly outspoken Cardi B, for one, as well as Monáe, among others — are unlikely to keep their musical contributions entirely commentary-free. 4) Which moments will resonate? Last year's Grammys were pretty limp overall, but they still served up a few tableaux that dominated \"The Conversation\" for a handful of minutes. Kesha's powerful, choir-backed \"Praying\" stood out, as did Ke", "Fred The Godson, the Bronx-based rapper and fixture of hip-hop radio, died Thursday in New York City. Fred revealed earlier this month on April 6 that he had been hospitalized after he contracted COVID-19. His death was confirmed by his publicist, David Evans, and the cause of death was due to complications of the coronavirus. He was 35. Fred the Godson was born Frederick Thomas on February 22, 1985 in the South Bronx, N.Y. Fred first broke out in 2010 with Armageddon, a mixtape that heavily echoed earlier eras of New York rap with samples of the Notorious B.I.G. remix of Craig Mack's \"Flava In Ya Ear\" and boasted features from Busta Rhymes, Waka Flocka Flame and Cam'ron. The buzz from that tape earned Fred a spot on the 2011 XXL Freshman Class, alongside Kendrick Lamar, Meek Mill, Mac Miller and YG. He was never able to convert that early career momentum into a major label deal, but Fred the Godson was a fixture of New York rap radio and a frequent guest on Sway in the Morning and Funkmaster Flex's Hot 97 show. Although Fred's output had declined through the middle of the decade, it picked back up in the year before his death. His final mixtape, Payback, was released March 20, and was his fourth project since the beginning of 2019.", "This week three of the best pieces of music writing spoke to the conversations happening between musicians and the people heavily engaged with their work — Bowie reaching out to Scott Walker, Kendrick Lamar anticipating listeners' reactions to his songs and the cementing of hip-hop as the \"lingua franca\" of men's wear. Kendrick Lamar And The Post-Hip-Hop Generation Kendrick Lamar's long awaited album good kid, m.A.A.d. city is just under a month old and has already been deemed a classic by many of the Compton rapper's fans. For Jeff Chang writing at BuzzFeed, the album represents a potential sonic shift in hip-hop. Lamar has not invented anything, and his production, flow and content, though executed well, are not cutting edge. Instead, the innovation lies in the way Lamar approaches his subject matter. Analyzing the tracks on the highly praised album, Chang paints a portrait of, not only Lamar's coming of age, but of a cultural journey from emotional despair to reconciliation. Chang writes that \"if the hip-hop generation emerged largely out of a traumatic break in cultural and political leadership, the post-hip-hop generation rises from a sometimes nearly disabling self-awareness.\" --Briana Younger Nite Flights Pushing Ahead of the Dame has a rather impressive writing goal: \"David Bowie, song by song.\" That's not just songs from albums, but b-sides, singles, live performances not tied to previously recorded songs and even rumored Bowie tracks. The writer is now up to Black Tie White Noise, Bowie's first solo release after some time with Tin Machine. But the Thin White Duke was at a musical crossroads in 1993, and can be heard digging into his past with a cover of the title track from The Walker Brothers' 1978 reunion album, Nite Flights. It was the first hint that Scott Walker was thinking deeper and danker, but as writer Chris O'Leary dissects in his epic-length essay, there is oh-so much more subtext happening between these two visionaries: subtle lyrical references to each others' works, competitive production techniques, but mostly, Bowie's undying fandom for Walker, and Walker, in his own way, repaying it. --Lars Gotrich Hip-Hop Comes To Men's Wear Hip-hop as a culture (not just the music) has often found ways of inserting itself into the lives of those who may not even listen to the genre. One can see inklings of hip-hop in the most obvious and the least expected industries; the world of fashion is both. As Jon Caramanica points out in a New York Times article in the internet generation, people are no longer discovering fashion in the latest issue of Vogue or or in the streets of Paris, but instead from street-style blogs and music videos. Caramanica says for this group, \"hip-hop is the filter, not the text, providing a worldview that preaches the values of opulence and peacocking.\" Tumblr especially has been the place where a devouring of men's fashion, collected under #menswear, has taken root. The result is a fusion of hip-hop rebellion and traditional style that makes blazers and bowties a little less Urkel and a lot more Kanye. --Briana Younger", "Kendrick Lamar did not come to play. That's the purest way to characterize the hilarious video meme that hit the web the same day hip-hop's self-anointed \"rhyme savior\" released his warning shot, \"The Heart Part 4,\" alerting the industry to what we've all come to expect is his impending April 14 release, DAMN. (which he announced on Twitter Tuesday morning). The 22-second clip features a cutout of the Compton rapper's frozen face attached to the shotgun-toting body of fictional stick-up man Omar from The Wire. As he stalks down the street in a bulletproof vest, his 12-gauge poking out from under his black trench coat, he can be heard whistling Omar's signature tune, \"The Farmer in the Dell.\" The first lookout man to spot him is a bug-eyed Big Sean. The Detroit MC, whose relationship with Lamar has been on tenuous terms since Lamar used his guest verse on Sean's \"Control\" to spazz out on the entire industry, looks totally shook as he yells to forewarn his homies, digital stream king Drake and rumored Kendrick collaborator J. Cole, of the impending doom. \"Something ain't right, yo,\" bobble-head Cole says, heeding the warning as Lamar, aka Cornrow Kenny, approaches the stash house they're supposed to be guarding. \"Oh my God, it's Kendrick!\" he yells. Predictably, Cole and Drake take off running in the opposite direction, with the crown left for the snatching. \"The cheese stands alone,\" Omar says in the most quotable line of the actual scene from the HBO cult hit. The parody draws a similar conclusion: When it comes to the return of King Kendrick, nobody's safe. Like the storm before the calm, his mere arrival on the scene can spark the kind of existential crisis that causes contemporaries, critics and consumers alike to lose their ever-loving minds: Is he the reaper back to send all competition to an early grave? Is he the benevolent conscience of the culture, returned to right the ship from conspicuous greed and glitz? Is he a conduit for the ancestral spirits whose voices were voided before their prime? Or is he God's son and Son of man, a prophetic soul whose divine flows know no bounds, other than his own masculine shortcomings? Whenever Lamar signals a new project, things tend to get biblical. Since the March 30 release of \"HUMBLE.,\" the most talked-about video of the year and presumed first single from a suspected new album, the Internet has been poring over his verses like holy scripture, debating visual interpretations and issuing digital decrees with more urgency than the Vatican. When it comes to driving the cultural discourse, Lamar has proven himself to be rap's main course. But on the eve of what will be his first proper album-length statement since his masterful 2015 LP To Pimp a Butterfly, it stands to reason that the hip-hop landscape has changed — even if Lamar's effect remains the same. Big Sean may be coming off his best album yet with I Decided., but he still has yet to take control of the conversation like Lamar. Future just made history by debuting two No. 1 albums on Billboard in back-to-back weeks, but even at his most introspective (HNDRXX) he remains an astronaut in solo flight, leaving the rest of us to ogle from below. Drake's More Life playlist is likely destined to be the most-streamed project of the year, but it's powered by a man who's clearly more infatuated with protecting his aura than baring his soul. And J. Cole, the only other black hippie doing certifiable numbers, finds more comfort in withdrawing from his peers than confronting them. Unlike the other artists at the forefront, Lamar's never been a huge radio star. Rarely, if ever, will you hear his voice vibrating from box Chevys or soundtracking table dances in Houstatlantavegas strip clubs. His ethnopolitical diatribes are probably more likely to bring the average party to a temporary halt. Prior to \"HUMBLE.,\" his highest-charting single, \"Swimming Pools (Drank),\" is about the dangers of abusing alcohol in the age of the double Styrofoam cup. Meanwhile, his most culturally pervasive song to date, \"Alright,\" became the unofficial anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement. The truth is dude has no business being here: In a singles market driven by short attention spans and streaming platforms, he's an artist obsessed with conceptualizing sprawling album-length narratives rich with the kind of symbolism that rewards repeated listens. Yet his LPs still succeed commercially and critically, despite the regular declaration that his format of choice is on its deathbed. Lamar's that rare breed of artist whose qualities seem contradictory on paper: He's at once the philosopher-king and plunderer of the royal court, a mad rapper with lyrical-miracle whip whose gangland stories of survivor's guilt have rightfully earned universal acclaim. While Drake — whose hunger for fame presents the antithesis to Lamar's eternal vision quest — dodges accusations of culture-jacking, borrowing newcomers' flows and riding other rappers' waves to ", "The Grammy Awards have many roles to play in the cultural conversation. Above all, they're a music-industry showcase and infomercial, stuffed with three and a half hours of live performances meant to spark social-media conversation — and, by extension, sales, streams and TV ratings. But they also function as a way to crown what you might call ambassadors: marketable standard-bearers the industry sees as its faces and future. Each year, the Grammys provide a window into how the music business wishes to see itself, which in turn makes each telecast a surprisingly useful snapshot. By Monday morning, this year's snapshot will have come fully into focus. Here are five looks at how it might play out — and the story it might tell. 1) The dominance of hip-hop and R&B — and the question of Kendrick. Generally speaking, Grammy history is pockmarked with embarrassment, from wins for a lip-syncing Milli Vanilli to Macklemore's notorious sweep of the hip-hop categories (over, among others, Kendrick Lamar) in 2014. In recent years, subtler controversies have prevailed: Beyoncé's Album Of The Year losses — to Beck in 2015 and Adele in 2017 — have pointed to a Grammy glass ceiling for groundbreaking works in R&B and hip-hop. In 2016, Kendrick Lamar's massively acclaimed hip-hop epic To Pimp A Butterfly lost to Taylor Swift's 1989. The nominees in the Album Of The Year category are usually spread out among many genres, with an edge given to rock and pop. But in 2018, the five nominees include Kendrick Lamar's dominant DAMN., Jay-Z's gripping 4:44, Childish Gambino's psychedelic soul opus Awaken, My Love! and Bruno Mars' smash-laden retro-R&B set 24K Magic. Though it keeps its edges intact, Lorde's Melodrama is the closest thing to a pure pop record on the list — which could help it benefit from vote-splitting — though Mars' album comes close enough to count. Bottom line: Kendrick Lamar has been nominated for Album Of The Year three times in five years, and DAMN. was by most accounts 2017's most beloved record. If he doesn't take the trophy in 2018, conversations will revolve around the snub come Monday — and for years to come. 2) The prevalence of protest. Given the size of the Grammys' platform — and the degree to which recent awards shows like the Golden Globes have addressed issues of sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry — it's hard to imagine a purely apolitical night. Politics will surely seep into the performances and speeches; the only questions are when, how and with what level of advance planning. Attendees have been widely urged to wear white roses at the ceremony in a gesture of \"hope, peace, sympathy and resistance,\" but few other measures have been announced. If the volume of protests barely rises above a whisper — if people wear roses, but no one explicitly acknowledges the massive gender gap among Grammy nominees or recently publicized instances of sexual assault and abuse in the music industry — it's going to stand out, especially when contrasted against the coordinated efforts of other awards shows. In the age of #MeToo, white roses alone aren't likely to suffice. This year, in this environment, silence could well become a story unto itself. 3) Where are the guitars? If we're measuring industry dominance by Grammy nominations — and, you know, maybe we shouldn't — then guitar-driven pop, rock and country have suffered precipitous declines in recent months. Ed Sheeran has been a Grammy favorite in the past, but his smash album Divide (and its inescapable hits \"Shape Of You\" and \"Castle On The Hill\") got shut out of all but the pop categories. For many months, it seemed like Sam Hunt's \"Body Like A Back Road\" might be the world's only country song, but it missed out on nominations for Song Of The Year or Record Of The Year. The Best New Artist category, another one usually spread out among as many genres as possible, stuck entirely to pop, R&B and hip-hop, with nominations for Alessia Cara, Khalid, Lil Uzi Vert, Julia Michaels and SZA. Massive, rock-leaning 2017 hits by Portugal. The Man and Imagine Dragons were relegated to the margins — or, more specifically, the category of Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. 4) Possible milestones. Though she faces steep odds against Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z (as well as Migos and Tyler, The Creator), Rapsody could become the first solo woman ever to win Best Rap Album. Lauryn Hill won the award as a member of The Fugees back in 1997, and a handful of women — including Nicki Minaj, Missy Elliott, Eve and Iggy Azalea — have been nominated. But the category has tilted almost entirely toward men since its inaugural winner, Naughty By Nature, in 1996. This year's most likely boundary-buster? Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's unstoppable \"Despacito\" broke records for streaming and is now nominated for Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year — and, should it prevail, would be the first Spanish-language winner in either category in generations. For Record Of The Year, it's up a", "A battle between upbeat, finely crafted pop and politically minded hip-hop seems to be what's shaping up for the biggest prizes at this year's Grammy Awards. The nominees were announced this morning, in advance of the awards ceremony on Feb. 15. Leading the way with 11 total nominations is Kendrick Lamar and his album To Pimp A Butterfly. But Taylor Swift racked up seven nominations, including three out of the four biggest categories — Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. But R&B singer, songwriter and producer The Weeknd matched Swift's total tally. For those looking for a \"Swift vs. Lamar\" narrative, however, things aren't so simple: the Best Pop Group/Duo Performance and Best Music Video nominees include their collaboration \"Bad Blood.\" (Lamar also has another nominated video in the latter category, for his anthemic \"Alright.\") Especially among the four major categories — Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist — many of the nominees were nearly a forgone conclusion, considering the rapturous response they've already received from critics and fans alike. Nominees for Album of the Year are Alabama Shakes' Sound & Color; Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly; Traveller, by Chris Stapleton; Taylor Swift's 1989; and The Weeknd's Beauty Behind the Madness. The Song of the Year prize is a songwriting award. This year's nominated songs are Kendrick Lamar's \"Alright,\" Taylor Swift's \"Blank Space,\" Little Big Town's \"Girl Crush,\" Wiz Khalifa's \"See You Again\" and Ed Sheeran's \"Thinking Out Loud.\" The Record of the Year award is what fans are likely to think of as the vote for the year's best single. This year's nominees: D'Angelo and the Vanguard's \"Really Love\"; \"Uptown Funk\" by Mark Ronson, featuring Bruno Mars; Ed Sheeran's \"Thinking Out Loud\"; Taylor Swift's \"Blank Space\"; and The Weeknd's \"Can't Feel My Face.\" The Best New Artist category was a little more of a stylistic grab bag, with the nominees including Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett, English singer-songwriter James Bay, country artist Sam Hunt, former American Idol contestant Tori Kelly and pop star Meghan Trainor. Even so, certain artists may be surprised by their omission from this year's roster altogether. For example, Rihanna's single \"FourFiveSeconds,\" featuring Paul McCartney and Kanye West, would have seemed tailor-made for Grammy judges who generally love cross-genre — and perhaps even more importantly, trans-generational — collaborations. In fact, the trio even performed the song at last year's televised Grammy ceremony. However, Rihanna failed to receive any nominations at all this year. The odd timing of the Grammy schedule also means that this year's monster-hit album — Adele's freshly issued 25 — won't be eligible for nomination until the awards' 2017 edition. In order to qualify for the 58th annual awards, recordings must have been released between Oct. 1, 2014 and Sept. 30, 2015. The Grammy Awards are voted on by members of NARAS, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. The full list of nominees, across all 83 categories, is available on NARAS' website.", "After years in proverbial hip-hop purgatory, Lil Wayne has finally released his long-awaited album Tha Carter V, just after his 36th birthday. CV, the fifth installment of Wayne's chart-topping, Grammy-winning series that started in 2004, nearly became a pop culture fable about the perils of music industry politics, following years of legal battles with his Cash Money Records boss and musical father figure, Birdman. Few aspects of the album sound like hip-hop-circa-2012, when the project was first teased. It's clear from the beat production, the subject matter in Wayne's verses and the array of rappers listed as featured artists that this isn't a body of music that's been collecting dust on a self somewhere in the Cash Money offices all these years; as trap and rap-rock beats have become the dominating sound of hip-hop in the last four years, Wayne kept his ears open. Features on the 23-track album range from long-established names Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Wayne's Young Money signee Nicki Minaj to culture-leading hypebeasts like Travis Scott and the late XXXTentacion. Weezy raps double time about blowing rappers out of the water on \"Let It Fly,\" boasts about staying resilient on \"Can't Be Broken,\" but takes a backseat to let Kendrick shine on \"Mona Lisa.\" Wayne's own daughter, Reginae Carter, sings the haunting chorus on \"Famous,\" while Weezy rhymes about becoming a stranger to himself through the years. As described in a recent Billboard profile, Wayne addresses his childhood suicide attempt on the record \"Let It All Work Out\" over a Sampha sample which serves not only the album's close, but as the most heartfelt revelation of the project. \"I woke up, blood was all around me / Its' mine, I didn't die but as I was dying / God came to my side and we talked about it / He sold me another life and he made a prophet,\" raps Wayne.", "The 2018 Grammy Awards may prove to be a good year for hip-hop. After years of pop music leading the nominations, rap artists like Jay Z, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino got the most attention, with 20 nods between them. Here & Now&#8216;s Jeremy Hobson speaks with Roger Krastz (@WaLLDoE), editor at XXL magazine, about this year&#8217;s hip-hop nominees." ]