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Tweet Tutors at a no-excuses charter school learn some hard lessons Editor’s Note: The Boston Globe’s James Vaznis has a terrific investigatory piece into the working conditions of the city’s growing tutor corps. Stay tuned for more on this story as it’s far from over. By Barrett Smith Last December, I drove down to Boston from Middlebury College in Vermont where I was finishing my senior year. On a crisp Monday morning, I parallel parked, straightened my tie and walked into an interview to become a tutor at a “no excuses” charter school. A week later I had an offer sitting in my inbox, inviting me to become a member of the “Corps,” so called because the program used to be part of AmeriCorps. I was the first of my roommates to receive a job offer and joining the Corps sounded pretty damn good. In fact it seemed too good to be true: living with a community of other Corps members, tutoring middle school students in mathematics and English, serving as a teaching assistant, and leading clubs, sports and elective classes. While I’d heard sharp criticisms of charter schools, I was looking forward to seeing what one was really like. Best of all, whatever skills I learned would only help me realize my goal of becoming a teacher. So I signed the brief one-page contract and officially became a “volunteer member” of the Corps, entitling me to a stipend totaling $7500 a year and housing. I wouldn’t be making much but this was a year of service and I couldn’t wait to get started. Reality check Signs of trouble emerged before the school year even began. The stipend we’d been promised had been changed and now included an additional $5000 for housing, which was then deducted from our pay. It may sound trivial but it meant that on paper at least some Corps members were now making too much money to have their student loans deferred. And we no longer qualified for food stamps, something school officials had assured us would be available to supplement our small stipends. Add in the deductions that none of us was expecting—8% of our earnings was going to the Massachusetts public retirement system, while Corps members who needed health insurance were paying a full 8% of their earnings without the reimbursement that our contract promised—and our situation began to look desperate. Some of our Corps were unable to buy food. Others were spending everything they had in savings and were still unable to make car, loan or other payments. Action plan When we spoke to our immediate supervisor, the Corps Director, we were told “tough luck”—although she did offer to help us with budgeting. But then some of us mentioned that we were talking to lawyers about a breach of contract. Within a week we had a memo from the Chief Operating Officer. No doubt he knew that one breached contract is a lawsuit; 150 simultaneously can sink the whole ship. The higher-ups had an offer for us: $1000 for each Corps member for what they called “relief for lost public benefits.” But there was a catch: we had to sign on within four days. Thirty of 50 middle school Corps members refused to sign within this short timeframe, asking to consult legal counsel. That really did it. The next week the CEO called the middle school Corps together for two separate group meetings. In that first meeting, we were told by a man with an MBA and a JD from Harvard that he “wasn’t interested” in the legality of our contracts. After all, we’re a family, as he put it. Let’s solve these matters internally, like a family. He balked several times when asked if we could have a new contract to reflect the changes that had been made. We weren’t satisfied. A bill of goods As for the rationale for those changes, the COO explained that they’d been made for philosophical reasons: “to professionalize the Corps.” So what did “professionalizing the Corps” look like? It looked like unilaterally breaching our original contracts without even seeking our consent or approval. It looked like classifying us as employees instead of the volunteers we’d signed on as. It looked like instructing us to come to our paternalistic employer with our personal finances to ask for more money if the contract changes negatively affected us. It looked like paying us less than minimum salary and less than minimum wage ($8 per hour in the state of Massachusetts). It looked like trying to take advantage of recent college grads who couldn’t possibly know better or put up a fight. The CEO’s ultimate resolution was to make us minimum-wage employees and limit Corps members to forty hours per week. Previously we had all been working between fifty and sixty hours per week or more. But because administrators claimed they couldn’t afford to pay us even minimum wage for the work we were expected to do, our workloads were reduced—at least on paper. Currently every one of the Corps members is still working more than forty hours and under-reporting their hours. Cool Story, Bro So why does any of this matter? If you’re reading EduShyster, chances are you probably have an idea of why charter schools are criticized, especially in terms of the teacher turnover and the relentless focus on test preparation. But I want to focus on the labor and community perspective. This is what corporate-run education looks like. From the labor perspective, we as a tutor Corps are flooding the local market with cheap labor. In our paraprofessional role alone, we make a fraction of what we would as public school employees. In our case, most of us were too young, too inexperienced, too complacent, and too happy just to be employed to even think about demanding a minimum wage. Ironically, in such tight living quarters—I shared a house with close to 30 other tutors—we were able to share information and organize fairly easily. The lesson learned: work collectively. The CEO urged us several times to come to him individually. He knows that individually we can be isolated, redirected and limited. Collectively we have immense power. From a community perspective, this charter school is well known for bringing in a flood of outsiders, mostly white and privileged, and from “elite” colleges, to tutor their students. We come into a community that we know nothing about, learn nothing about, and “live in” to “serve” our students. But as Corps members, we filled the roles of lunch workers, janitorial staff, aides, and other jobs that could be just as easily be filled by members of the community — many of whom are more experienced and more qualified for these roles. And we do it with 100% yearly turnover. Which means we have no prospect of longevity in our positions. We have very little incentive to stand up for our rights let alone to demand better conditions for ourselves, even when the pressure to underreport our hours meant that we were working illegally. We were told to think of our students: to serve, to trust, to grin and bear it. But what’s the take away for the broader education landscape? Yes—as educators, serving our students is our primary focus, but we cannot let that make us passive. As educators, our labor rights are still important. Labor rights and requirements are built on the blood, sweat, tears and bones of American workers. As educators, we don’t ask for the eight-hour day or the forty-hour week. Just a contract and a living wage. Just dignity and respect. Barrett Smith is a former tutor at a no-excuses charter school in Boston. Send tips and comments to tips@haveyouheardblog.com.

The slumping Vancouver Canucks are currently in the midst of a rebuild and with the pool of young talent at their disposal, the Canucks’ future looks bright. It’s evident that the Canucks have a hole on offensive production but in an attempt to turn that around, the organization has used nine out of their last 10 first-round picks on forwards. The Canucks have a healthy amount of offensive talent climbing the ranks and it has Canucks management and fans very excited for the near future. I have narrowed down the Canucks’ prospects pool down to four entries that I believe will prove to be the most valuable to the hockey club as it strives towards becoming a Cup contender again. With all of that, let’s start from least valuable to most valuable. 4. Defending the Twine First up is the 36th-overall pick from the 2014 NHL entry draft, Thatcher Demko – a goaltender out of San Diego, California. At just 21 years of age, Demko has plenty of growth to undergo before he will be a starter in the NHL but he’s now known as the future of Canucks’ netminders. A product of Boston College, Demko put himself on the map during the 2015-16 with the Eagles, winning 27 of his 39 games, posting 10 shutouts and recording a GAA of 1.88. He signed an entry-level contract with the Canucks in April. With his 6’4″ frame and good lateral movement, Demko is a naturally talented goalie. What makes him special is his calmness and maturity between the pipes, rarity at his age. Primarily, Demko relies on his sound positional play and doesn’t expel any unnecessary energy, making desperation saves an easier task late in a hockey game. 3. Calling in Backup Up next is the Canucks’ highest drafted defenceman (fifth overall) since Bryan Allen in 1998 who went fourth overall, Olli Juolevi – a Finnish blueliner from Helsinki. Juolevi was the highest drafted defenceman in the 2016 Draft and for good reason. He is projected to be the Canucks’ future number one d-man. During the 2015-16 season with the London Knights, Juolevi contributed an impressive nine goals and 42 points in 57 games on his way to hoisting the Memorial Cup. Much like the previous entry, Juolevi is praised for his poise and maturity despite his young age and has even had qualities compared to that of Nicklas Lidstrom. With his smooth-skating and great hockey IQ, Juolevi will be a future quarterback on the Canucks’ struggling power play and hopefully be a contributor in revamping their brutal offence. 2. Dynamic Duo Holding down the number two spot is both Elias Pettersson and Jonathan Dahlen, a Swedish dynamic duo praised for their chemistry and offensive prowess. Alone, both these players make a top-five list of Canucks prospects but as a pair, they easily land the number two spot. Dahlen was drafted by the Ottawa Senators in 2016 and at the 2017 trade deadline Canucks GM, Jim Benning made a very slick move in trading for him. This trade played a big role come draft day as the Canucks elected to select Dahlen’s roommate, Pettersson fifth overall. Last season, thedu played for Timra IK of the Allsvenskan in Sweden, playing on a line and absolutely dominating the League, finishing first (Dahlen) and second (Pettersson) in team scoring. #Canucks prospect Dahlen and Pettersson were absolutely dominant this year in Allsvenskan together pic.twitter.com/gEfa8ghDuX — Ryan Biech (@ryanbiech) June 23, 2017 Dahlen notched 25 goals and added 19 helpers in 45 games while Pettersson found twine 19 times and assisted on an additional 22 in 43 games. They’re both offensively gifted and would make good additions to the Canucks’ roster. Their chemistry and friendship makes them a dangerous duo and they’ve been compared to, you guessed it, Daniel and Henrik Sedin. However, in an interview with TSN-1040, Dahlen acknowledged the chemistry but asked not to be compared to the great Sedin twins. 1. First and Foremost Last, but certainly not least, is the Canucks’ 23rd overall selection in the 2015 draft, Brock Boeser – a Burnsville, Minnesota native. Boeser is an offensive weapon that plays very well-rounded hockey and has a pure goal-scoring ability that you just can’t teach: he always seems to be in the right place at the right time. While playing for the University of North Dakota for the 2015-16 season, Boeser found the net 27 times and helped out on 33 more in just 42 games while carrying a pretty +45 rating. That offensive skill earned him nine games with the Canucks during the 2016-17 season that saw to him notching four goals and one assist. That production alone will earn him a larger role in the coming season. In the next few seasons, Boeser will undoubtedly emerge as one of, if not the best offensive weapon in the Canucks’ arsenal and will likely become a first-line fixture for years to come. Runners-Up Runners-up include Nikolay Goldobin, Adam Gaudette, Jordan Subban and Jake Virtanen. My selection of the top-four was based on overall talent, proven production and the current needs of the Canucks.

In mathematics, the "Strong Law of Small Numbers" is the humorous title of a popular paper by mathematician Richard K. Guy and also the so-called law that proclaims:[1] There aren't enough small numbers to meet the many demands made of them. In other words, any given small number appears in far more contexts than may seem reasonable, leading to many apparently surprising coincidences in mathematics, simply because small numbers appear so often and yet are so few. Guy's paper gives 35 examples in support of this thesis. This can lead inexperienced mathematicians to conclude that these concepts are related, when in fact they are not. Guy's observation has since become part of mathematical folklore, and is commonly referenced by other authors.[2][3] Second Strong Law of Small Numbers [ edit ] The original strong law of small numbers was quickly followed by the second strong law of small numbers: "When two numbers look equal, it ain't necessarily so!"[4] The second strong law of small numbers emphasizes the fact that two arithmetic functions taking equal values at small arguments do not necessarily coincide.[citation needed] See also [ edit ] Notes [ edit ]

This morning as I was lazily browsing through the Twitter #deepdream stream, I ran across a tweet that made me pause: I hadn’t even realized that this was happening, but a quick snapshot of 1092 #deepdream posts from keyhole.co yielded the following: So what’s causing this? My initial hypothesis is that deepdreaming isn’t very accessible by non-techy users yet; most of the sites that automate the process have been “hugged to death,” and running the script yourself requires a *nix operating system or the ability to run a virtual machine on your PC/Mac. Once you’ve got that figured out, you have to either learn how to run an iPython notebook or adapt the python script to your tastes. A few tutorials have been written, but the comments sections are inundated by users trying to learn how to cd and ls. Full disclosure: if you haven’t figured it out, I’m female. But I’m also painfully aware that we’re underrepresented in the STEM fields, including those related to computer science. I’m guessing that once deepdreaming becomes easy (someone writes an app that sends your photo to a server farm and auto-dreams it for you), we’ll see a dramatic uptick in posts from women. After all, we’ve got a higher share in the selfie market. I’m not trying to make any argument that “girls can’t understand deepdreaming because it’s not makeup or shoes,” as my husband (who doesn’t know python) jokingly suggested. I just think that this is yet another symptom my gender’s lack of representation/interest in programming, whatever the cause may be. Unfortunately, this means that a new form of technology-dependent art is currently suffering from a lack of diversity of thought, which is also a constant struggle in the art world. There is a different kind of “greatness” for women’s art than for men’s, thereby postulating the existence of a distinctive and recognizable feminine style, different both in its formal and its expressive qualities and based on the special character of women’s situation and experience. -Linda Nochlin But these thoughts are getting too big for me. Time to go back to playing with my Barbies.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS in Spain is deepening. On Wednesday, Spanish police detained 13 Catalan government officials in an effort to prevent a referendum on Catalan independence from taking place on October 1. At the heart of the issue is Spain’s inability to balance nationalist sentiments with democratic demands. A lot of people misunderstand the relationship between democracy and nationalism. They think of nationalism as an authoritarian ideology that holds no place in a representative democracy. But in reality, the two are inextricably linked. Notions of democracy and nationalism For much of European history, legitimate political authority derived from one source: God. Kings claimed the right to rule because their position was the will of the divine. The French Revolution dramatically changed the political landscape, in that it simultaneously gave birth to our modern conceptions of democracy and nationalism. The source of authority became the will of the people. This “will of the people” was to be demonstrated by democratic elections. And the people whose will was to be obeyed were the people of the “nation”. The scale of the change brought about by this can be shown with a few anecdotes. Louis XIV, king of France for much of the seventeenth century, famously said “I am the State”. Meanwhile, Louis XVI, when told in 1788 that a proposed action of his was illegal, responded “it is legal because I will it so”. In other words, kings answered to no-one, and certainly not to “the people”. But when Napoleon decided to make himself emperor in 1804, or when Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, they used plebiscites to give legitimacy to their actions. Even though both dictators wielded far more power than any monarch ever did, they still felt compelled to pretend they were doing the people’s will. That is the legacy of the French Revolution. The dilemma facing Spain Spain’s Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis has said that Catalan nationalists are behaving like “Nazis”, declaring “referendums are a weapon of choice of dictators”. He is right, of course, but referendums are also a common feature of democratic government. That is the dilemma facing Spain at the moment. The Spanish constitution says that the Spanish State is inviolable, and that no region of the country has the right to secede. Catalan nationalists, on the other hand, argue that a democratic mandate from the Catalonian people trumps any legal mechanism Spain might use to prevent their independence. What is interesting to note in media coverage on the topic is that, as with the Scottish independence referendum, the nationalists are all assumed to be on one side of the debate. There are lots of political and economic reasons for why Spain would want to hold on to Catalonia, but the overriding one is the belief that Spain must be preserved as it is because that is Spain’s “natural” territory. In brief, the desire of Spain to keep Catalonia is no less nationalistic than the longing of Catalonian nationalists to separate from it. Are some nations more “authentic”? But many of us are blind to the nationalism of established nation-states. We consider these to be normal, rational entities, but view anything that challenges them as a form of irrational madness. This thinking leads people to believe that some nations are more “authentic” than others. For example, journalist Melanie Phillips claimed earlier this year that Scotland and Ireland did not have a “real” claim to nationhood, in the way that Britain did. Along similar lines, the claim that Catalonian nationalists are wrong to hold a referendum because such a move is illegal misses the point entirely. The Spanish government has explicitly said there can never be a referendum. If you believe that Catalonia should be independent, but Madrid will never create a legal pathway to facilitate this, what option is there? In this context, the notion of “illegality” is a semantic trap to maintain the status quo. It should be remembered that our own independent government came into being as a result of a similar “illegal” action. In the 1918 general election, Sinn Féin campaigned on a promise to keep elected MPs in Dublin to form an Irish parliament, rather than sending them to Westminster. Arthur Griffith’s belief was that if the Irish people accepted this Irish parliament as their government, Britain would have grant Ireland independence. This theory was never fully tested, because events were overtaken by the War of Independence. But most of us today accept that first Dáil as the original, legitimate Irish government, and we are untroubled if Britain or anyone else saw its existence as illegal at the time. Madrid can’t ignore what happens It is precisely for this reason that the Spanish government has not only declared the Catalan referendum to be illegal, but has actively tried to ensure that no vote actually takes place. Any kind of a victory for the pro-independence side will give the Catalan cause greater legitimacy, regardless of how legal the vote is. This is why Madrid can’t simply say the referendum has no standing and then ignore what happens in Catalonia on October 1. The Spanish government is an extraordinarily difficult position over this matter. On the one hand, denying a democratic vote on a question of considerable importance goes against the very values that are supposed to be at the heart of democratic states. Yet holding the vote threatens the very existence of the Spanish State as we know it. Polls indicate that if the referendum were to go ahead, the majority of voters would opt to keep Catalonia in Spain. But the Spanish government understands that this will not solve the problem, because once the question is asked, it can be asked again in the future. It might prompt other parts of Spain to request a similar referendum as well. Preventing a vote is also dangerous, however. Over 70% of Catalan voters believe Catalonia has the right to vote on the question of independence. To deny them the right to a referendum will likely only win converts to the cause of independence. Trapped between democracy and nationalism, Madrid is in a no-win situation. Caoimhín De Barra is Assistant Professor for Irish History and Culture at Drew University, New Jersey.

Someone will have to regulate bitcoin: Pro 3:55 AM ET Fri, 8 Dec 2017 | 01:23 A world without paper payments is rapidly approaching, the co-founder of the Sohn Conference Foundation said Thursday. Evan Sohn, who works in the payments industry, told CNBC that paying for things with traditional bank notes is increasingly dwindling as the appetite for contactless payments and digital currencies grows. "How far are we from a restaurant that says we only take online payment? If you eat here, you have to download this application and we only take electronic payment, no cash here, no check," Sohn said on the sidelines of the Sohn Conference Foundation, which raises money to fight pediatric cancer. "I don't think we are that far away from it," he added. Though most payments are still made with cash, Sohn said a demonetarization is taking place.

The Westboro Baptist Church’s leader has announced plans to picket a memorial and funerals for victims of Friday’s mass shooting in Aurora, Colo. Taking to his twitter account, “church” leader Fred Phelps Jr. made a series of announcements that the caustic church is geared up to go to Colorado. Phelps Jr. is the son of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps. The shooting in Aurora, Colo., at the midnight premier of “The Dark Knight Rises” left 12 people dead and close to 70 injured. The church has made a habit of protesting high-profile funerals and memorial events, using times of grief to get across its twisted anti-gay message. Mass killings and large-scale tragedies have been a particular hot point for them, though some inventive counter-protesters have found ways to neutralize the Westboro Baptist Church. The Patriot Guard Riders, a group of dozens of motorcyclists, are dispatched to military members’ funerals to block mourners from seeing the protesters, and radio talk show hosts have talked the church out of protesting in exchange for free air time. The event was not yet listed on Westboro Baptist Church’s “picket schedule,” which shows church members at First Baptist Church in Columbia, MO, on Saturday and at a trio of churches in Shawnee, KS, on Sunday. Phelps Jr.’s posts, which were re-tweeted by other church members, made it seem as this might actually happen, though. He noted that members were already gassing up the cars for the 500 mile trip to the protest. If the picket goes on–and there are doubts it will, as the Westboro Baptist Church has been known to announce visits that never materialize–the picket could conflict with another planned by the church. The church announced just days ago that it plans to picket the funeral of Sage Stallone, Sylvester’s son.

There are few cases where it seems appropriate that a man of 84 should be sent to prison, but the five years and nine months to which Rolf Harris has been sentenced seem, if anything, lenient. He may well serve the rest of his life in jail, but in terms of mental illness and vulnerability, the damage he did to some of his victims has for them amounted to a life sentence. The judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, was clear that he believed Harris's abuse of his daughter's friend that began when she was only 13 had undoubtedly caused her to become an alcoholic. What Harris did – and kept on doing for decades – was traumatic for all his victims. If any good can come of this, it is that their courage in coming forward and giving evidence should give others the confidence too. But Harris is a particularly repugnant case and it has understandably provoked a particularly high level of revulsion. There has been something uniquely offensive about the hypocrisy of his avuncular public persona, which suggested to children that there were friendly adults out there, who were on their side, and who could be trusted. He even made a song to teach them that they controlled their own bodies. This false and deceitful intimacy, which has so shocked his millions of fans, was even worse for his victims, some of whom were close to his family in real life. Their horror and the depths of his betrayal of their trust are difficult to imagine. Part of the widespread revulsion and condemnation of Harris may be a delayed reaction to the enormity of Jimmy Savile's crimes that went unpunished despite the cries for help from some of his victims. Perhaps Harris and other Yewtree figures are being cast out of society with such vehemence because that could not be done to Savile while he was alive. The complexity of the sentencing of the 12 separate offences of which Harris was convicted is a reminder of how the climate has changed. When he began his long career of abuse, the maximum sentence for indecent assault was just two years. Under today's rules, he could get a life sentence for some of his crimes. For too long women were expected to put up with sexual abuse as the price of their gender. But if his crimes might have looked less extraordinary when judged against the exploitative and abusive celebrity conduct of that period, the damage they did was as profoundly harmful then as it would be now. Still, the Harris trial was not only about the righting of personal wrongs. It was at the same time part of a great shift in public morality. Like the other trials arising from Operation Yewtree, and in the aftermath of the Savile scandal, the Harris trial was at the same time a real and a dramatic performance. These trials are significant not only for the justice they do, but also for the justice they show, and for the better justice that they point towards in the future. Big trials on morally significant issues are effective public rituals – real actions that also carry a clear symbolic meaning that changes and purges society. Times change and morals with them. There has been a great revolution over the past 50 years that has improved society immeasurably. It is not yet complete. Too many victims of abuse are reluctant to come forward for fear of being disbelieved. Stereotypical ideas of victimhood sometimes diminish the seriousness with which complaints are treated and make convictions harder to obtain. Some of the condemnation is sometimes theatrical. Some of it comes from people not normally given to moral reflection. And some of it comes from people who may have done some of the same things themselves if they had had Harris's opportunities at the time he had them. All these things are changing. They need to change more. The revolution has been slow and messy and sometimes very painful. The Harris trial will not be the end of it. But it is a significant and worthwhile milestone all the same.

If you look in your C:\Windows\ Media folder, you'll find a MIDI file called onestop . What's the story behind this odd little MIDI file? Aaron Margosis considers this file a security risk because "if an attacker can cause that file to be played, it will cause lasting mental pain and anguish to everybody within earshot." Despite Wikipedia's claims[citation needed], the file is not an Easter Egg. The file was added in in Windows XP with the comment "Add cool MIDI files to replace bad old ones." So as bad as onestop is, the old ones must have been even worse! Okay, but why were they added? For product support. The product support team wants at least one MIDI file present on the system by default for troubleshooting purposes. That way, problems with MIDI playback can be diagnosed without making the customer go to a Web page and download a MIDI file. When asked why the song is so awful, the developer who added the file explained, "Believe it or not, OneStop is 'less bad' than the ones that it replaced. (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, etc.)" Another reason for replacing the old MIDI file is that the new one exercises more instruments. The song was composed by David Yackley.

Thrissur: Himanshu, a North Indian boy who was affected by the flood in Uttarakhand last year, gratefully remembers the Malayali travelers who extended a helping hand to him. The pilgrim group also felt contented as they could help a little boy who lost everything in the flood. Now Himanshu has his own house and studies in Navodaya. His life has totally changed after meeting the pilgrims group from Kerala. The group came to Triyuginarayan village for visiting the temple on their way to Kedarnath. The team consisting of former Educational Deputy Director Chithran Namboodirippad visited a government primary school nearby during the trip. 8-year-old Himanshu was the pet of the school. His father Prasad was working in a tea shop. He used to help his father by bringing firewood from the forest. He would get Rs 10 for a bundle of firewood, which he would give to his mother. He was struck by the flood while he was inside the forest. After 3 days of struggle and starvation, Himanshu reached back to see his father missing and the shop destroyed. He came to his school with his mother Rakshmi. Because they had no other place to go. When they heard his story, the pilgrim group helped him by sponsoring the expense for his education. After reaching Thrissur, Chithran Namboodirippad wrote a letter to the then defence minister A. K. Antony requesting him to intervene. Thus Himanshu got Rs 6 lakhs from the government, which he used to build a house. An Ernakulam native, among the pilgrim group, sent an amount of money to Himanshu regularly. The pilgrims visit Himanshu and his mother at Triyuginarayan village every year. They inform him the date and time of their arrival through letter. This time when they met Himanshu, he seemed smarter than before. Now he is in class 6 in Navodaya school. His eyes turn teary when he meets the Malayali travelers group who helped to regain his life. The travelers also consider his happiness as the biggest virtue of their pilgrimage.

Hot on the heels of Sony's announcement of the price and release month of PlayStation VR, Oculus has confirmed the 30 games that will be available to buy for the Rift headset when it launches on 28th March. The list, below, includes a couple of surprises: there are Oculus Rift versions of The Astronauts' thriller The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and Slightly Mad Studios' racing game Project Cars. Also of note: Oculus includes a "comfort" level for each game, which should act as a useful guide for those concerned about motion sickness. There are three levels of comfort: "intense", "moderate" and "comfortable". Eurogamer editor Oli Welsh, who tried out the Oculus Rift launch games at the Game Developers Conference this week, said intense games are mostly first-person, or third-person with a fast-moving camera such as racing games, moderate games are third-person with a slow-moving camera, and comfortable games have fixed camera that may switch view, but don't move. Space game Elite Dangerous, for example, is considered intense, probably because of all the spaceship dogfighting involved. Eve Gunjack is labelled moderate. And Pinball FX V2 is considered comfortable. It's worth pointing out Oculus includes a dollar price for the games, which range from $4.99 right up to $59.99. At the upper end of the scale are space games Elite Dangerous and Eve Valkyrie. The Adventure Time game is $4.99. Lucky's Tale is bundled with the headset. Now, onto the list. At GDC Oculus showed 41 games, 30 of them launch titles. Games in the works but without a date include Harmonix's Rock Band VR and Insomniac's Edge of Nowhere.

The Alberta government has announced more funding for flood and drought protection. The province is to invest an additional $31 million over four years in flood resiliency projects through the Alberta Community Resilience Program. The 10-year, $500-million program has so far helped to build flood barriers, as well as other safeguards. Another $14 million is to go to the Watershed Resilience and Restoration Program. READ MORE: Final round of Alberta flood, drought funding announced That program had been set to wrap up in 2017. Environment Minister Shannon Phillips says the money will help communities adapt to changing climate and more common severe weather. “Flood and drought events can be devastating to Alberta families and our economy,” she said in a statement Friday. “Our additional investment in flood and drought resiliency will help our communities adapt to a changing climate where severe weather will be more common.” According to the province, the Watershed Resiliency and Restoration Program grants will pay for the “restoration, enhancement and creation of more than 600 hectares of wetlands and 40 kilometres of riparian areas, the lush strips of land adjacent to lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands.” “We commend the Government of Alberta for its leadership, foresight and continued commitment to green infrastructure supporting watershed resilience,” Ducks Unlimited Canada’s Barry Bishop said in a statement. “In relation to restored wetlands, the Watershed Resiliency and Restoration Program will provide sustained benefits from Alberta’s natural environment.” -With files from Phil Heidenreich.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s biggest companies are beset by doubts about the future after last month’s vote to leave the European Union and have slashed their investment plans, according to a survey on Monday that bodes poorly for the economy. Some 82 percent of chief financial officers from FTSE 350 and large private companies expect to cut capital spending in the next year, the biggest proportion on record and up from 34 percent in the first quarter, accountancy firm Deloitte said. Its survey is one of the first clear signs the vote to leave the EU has battered business confidence, and corroborates the Bank of England’s view that the economy is set to weaken soon. While the British central bank unexpectedly left interest rates on hold last week, its chief economist Andy Haldane said a “material easing” of policy would be needed next month to help cushion the expected slowdown. The Deloitte survey was conducted between June 28 and July 11, after the referendum and just before Theresa May emerged as Britain’s new prime minister. Almost all the CFOs surveyed said the level of uncertainty facing their businesses is above normal. “Perceptions of uncertainty have soared to levels last associated with the euro crisis five years ago,” said Ian Stewart, Deloitte’s chief economist. “The spike in uncertainty has had a toxic effect on business sentiment, with optimism dropping to the lowest level since our survey started in 2007 — lower, even, than in the wake of the failure of Lehman in late 2008.” More than two-thirds of CFOs in the Deloitte survey said they believed leaving the EU will hurt the British business environment in the long-term. The BoE’s Haldane said last week he detected no sense of “slash and burn” around company boardrooms, but a strong sense of “trim and singe”. In the next three years, 58 percent of CFOs surveyed said they expected capital spending to be “somewhat” or “significantly” lower. Seventy-three percent of respondents said they were less optimistic about their company’s financial prospects, a record high, and 83 percent expected to slow the pace of hiring. “CFOs do not seem to be waiting for growth to slow before adjusting direction. There has been a marked shift to more defensive balance sheet strategies in the wake of the referendum,” said Stewart. Storm clouds are seen above the Canary Wharf financial district in London, Britain, August 3, 2010. REUTERS/Greg Bos/File Photo The Deloitte survey adds to signs of a tumble in business and consumer confidence since the EU vote, after warnings that Brexit-induced uncertainty and a sharp fall in sterling would leave many firms struggling to meet full-year profit targets. A first concrete gauge of business activity will be published on Friday, when Markit publishes a one-off preview version of its monthly purchasing managers’ index (PMI). A separate survey from the British Retail Consortium showed the number of shoppers heading to high streets and retail centers fell at the fastest pace in more than two years in June, with the weeks around the referendum particularly hard hit.

Rick Scuteri/Associated Press He's 43 and has been retired from the NBA for two years, yet Steve Nash looks like he could still play. These days, though, Nash is worried about other things. For one, there's his annual soccer game that will take place a few weeks after this conversation. He also has his production company and a consulting gig with the Golden State Warriors. So what's life like for a two-time MVP once he steps away from center stage? For starters, he realizes he hasn't truly escaped the spotlight. "I do know him," he says after a man taps him on the shoulder while sitting down with Bleacher Report at The Gem Saloon, his New York City bar. "But that happens every day with people I don't know or remember." For Nash, a full escape may not be possible, but his focus nowadays is less on basketball than ever before. He's still able to reflect on his days in the league—and how he wishes he had one last shot at a title—but he's done what every athlete before him has done and what everyone after will do: He's moved on and has shifted his focus elsewhere to kick the "obsession" that is the sport that made him a star. Bleacher Report: Do you play ball anymore? Steve Nash: No. B/R: When was the last time you played? SN: I was with the Warriors one day this week, I took a few shots, but it's not like I go to the park and play. I mean, if the ball's there, I may take a couple of shots—it's not like I haven't picked up a ball from time to time—but I never go with the purpose to play. B/R: That seems like a hard thing to do, to kick that addiction. SN: It's an obsession, but I think I put myself in other things. I love to play soccer, I'm learning tennis and I'm learning beach volleyball where I live in California. It's cool to challenge myself to learn new things as opposed to going to play basketball in the park for millionth time. B/R: You've been quoted before as saying that professional athletes die twice. SN: It's an adage that's been said for generations, and for the most part, it's true. But athletes, for the most part, retire young. If you're a successful athlete and you build your life around your career, which you have to do do be that successful, you still have balance. But the majority of that is built around that pursuit, and that can be very dangerous. If you don't shed that and stop carrying it with you, you'll never become whole again because you're always in two worlds. So I think it rings true that an athlete dies twice, and I'm definitely comfortable with where I am, but it took me two years to kind of shed the majority of that and move on. B/R: So, was there a low point for you? SN: There wasn't really a lowest point, but there were definitely low moments, where you're like, "Wow." So, for example, a quiet moment in the day and you feel something missing and you realize, "I'm never going to drive downtown and play in front of 19,000 people again." I've been doing that every night for about 20 years—that's a lot to say goodbye to. All those other things, the teammates, the road and most importantly the pursuit of being the best you can be. If you commit to that, that's a passion that is really hard to manufacture or recreate. B/R: How long did it take you to get to that point? SN: I feel like it was two years, which I think was kind of training camp this season, wasn't it? Like six-to-eight months ago, I started feeling better about this. B/R: What was the difference? SN: Time. Time and listening to yourself. You have to be aware. I think a lot of athletes—and I'm not saying I'm smarter than other athletes—I just think a lot of athletes, and a lot of men, will deny it. They'll be like, "I'm done, I'm retired." For me, I was lucky to have great people around. B/R: Like who? SN: Just people you come across. Friends, family, coaches, other players, mentors. B/R: The last competitive game of basketball you played was…? SN: Lakers training camp, in 2014. Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images B/R: Fine, when's the last time you went to shoot? SN: It's tough. I mean, like I said, if I happen to be somewhere where a ball rolls out to me, I'll shoot, but I never go anywhere with the purpose of doing it. I'm not really interested in that anymore. I still love the game, love to be a part of it; I just follow it in my own way. B/R: Why? SN: That's a good question. I guess after I put so much into it for so long—since I was 13 years old, I shot obsessively and worked on my game, all for the reason of reaching my best and playing against the best. Now that that's gone, it doesn't excite me anymore. What really excited me at the end was the challenge of being the best I can be and prolonging my best level and playing against the best players in the world. But now that I don't have the opportunity to play against the best players in the world when it counts, in front of fans, it doesn't excite me as much. B/R: Are you watching the playoffs? Nathaniel S. Butler/Getty Images SN: I like watching; my stamina's not great with it, though. I watch the Warriors because I'm involved with them and I love their team. But the reality is I don't really watch full games, I just kind of follow and watch bits and pieces. So it's probably bad for me to admit this, but I don't watch a ton other than the Warriors. And even with them, I don't watch all their games, though I do as much as I can. I think I have a pretty good feel for them, though. I also think it's important for me in my role to be the person who has an outside view of the Warriors and not be in the forest with the same unlimited amount of data and intimacy that they all have. I can come in from 30,000 feet, provide that view—like, "Don't forget a fundamental thing here that you created, Steve Kerr." B/R: Do you have an example? SN: Not really. It's just that you're in the eye of the storm when you're a head coach. You have the management team, coaching staff, film staff, analytics team, training staff and playing team, and you're trying to manage all that and it's overwhelming. And then you have the media responsibilities. I don't know that I help at all, but I would think my value would be to help provide more of a clear-headed view from the outside. It's not like I have huge opinions, but I do have my point of view and perspective, and it's different because I'm not there. B/R: So what's a typical day for you now? SN: I definitely work out or at least am active in some capacity every day. I wake the kids up, make them breakfast. I'm the take-them-to-school-pick-them-up dad, and when I'm not dealing with the kids or working out, I'll work on my production company. Among a lot of other things, that's my main focus at this point of time. B/R: Your go-to breakfast dish is…? SN: I'm very limited. Scrambled eggs, avocado toast. If we're in a real rush, it gets even more simple. B/R: You were always one of the most outspoken athletes from a political standpoint. So today, where there's sort of this political charge going through the country, do you kind of regret that you're no longer in the NBA with this platform? SN: I have no problem standing up—the only reason I don't do more is because, like all of us, we have busy lives. But I think I'm pretty honest and open, and I guess I could sit there all day and tweet about denying climate change—and I probably should, that probably should be the No. 1 priority of all of us—but the reality is you also have to have enough energy to make your kids breakfast and get through the day. I really respect those people who are very vocal. I'm happy to share my opinion and stand up for things—I think I do—but that being said, a lot of people are pissed at me that they don't have enough of my time, including my mom. B/R: As you watch the NBA now, and the way basketball is played, do you sit back and feel proud that you sort of helped usher in this change of style? SN: That's really cool, and I'm proud of it, but I don't really approach it that way. I'm never saying, "Wow, look, they're doing what I did back in my day." I think these guys are amazing; I don't take any credit for anything. I don't really sit and bask at all. That's not fun for me and not interesting. I'm more interested in seeing what these guys are doing. I think it's amazing. B/R: What was cool about watching you play was how that style also seemed to be an extension of your personality. SN: It fit, it was the way I wanted to play. I think part of that was Mike [D'Antoni]'s plan, and part of it was Mike letting me be me. I think that was a major part of Mike's genius, knowing when to step out of the way. That's hard for coaches because you have a lot of pressure on you and you have to justify your position and salary. And Mike was brilliant, and he helped me and our team a lot, but at times he was also like, "I don't need to do s--t right now." And sometimes that's more brilliant than constantly stepping in, you know. So I have a lot of respect for Mike in a lot of ways, and that's one of them. The waiter brings Nash a third beer. B/R: The beers don't exactly gel with your super-fit lifestyle. SN: They've always had a little place in my life. That's part of my motivation for being so strict with my diet—I say no to ice cream and cookies, but I can have a glass of wine or beer every once in awhile. B/R: Ever take a wine bath with Amar'e [Stoudemire]? SN: [Laughs] I think that started after our time together. Christian Petersen/Getty Images B/R: Does not winning a title eat at you? SN: I mean, it's not fun. I wish we did win one, but at the same time, you get one life. My life is amazing. In the grand scheme of things, I moved on. I hold my hand up and say, "I didn't do it, I needed to be a little better to do it." Other than that, I realize how lucky I was to get where I got, and I enjoyed being a part of those teams. Yeah, I wish I could have one more chance, but I can't, so I enjoy watching the guys go through it now. B/R Do players actually care about that stuff as much as fans and media do? SN: I mean, it sucks not doing it. As for fans, they're paramount to the business and have their perspective, but you still have to live your life and be a person. I think that's hard sometimes for a fan to realize. Yeah, you didn't win a championship, but that's in the context of one part of your life—and it's a team sport. Chris Paul is an amazing, amazing player, one of the greatest players to ever play the game. And, I mean, is him not making the conference finals ever all on Chris Paul? And other guys: [Charles] Barkley, John Stockton, not everyone can win. There's one winner every year, and it comes down to organizations and teams. And honestly, I think everyone would admit this: It comes down to luck, who gets the bounces. Yes, you make your own luck in life, so I'm not criticizing anyone—and I'm not even talking about myself for that—but I mean, every year, look at the team that wins. You can't control everything in a team sport. So I'm not going to cry about it, but yeah, there are moments where I'm like, "F--k." But I say it almost in an appreciative way, in a way where I realize it's great not everyone can do it. I wasn't fortunate enough to do it, but that's what makes winning a title so special. Yaron Weitzman covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @YaronWeitzman, and listen to his Knicks-themed podcast here.

Postcoloniality from the Edges: Black Culture at the Philippine Military Academy Somewhere deep inside every historian resides a frightened, under-trained anthropologist. Like many historians, I often praise my students when they write with that ever-elusive “anthropological sensibility.” But anthropologists we are not. This fact became painfully obvious to me during my time in the Philippines. In a particularly acute moment I found myself in the middle of a world that my historical training left me almost entirely unprepared to analyze—the hallowed grounds of the Philippine Military Academy. If U.S. readers can imagine West Point, Harvard Business School, an APEC Conference, a NAM Summit, a high school reunion, and a college frat house all rolled into one, you might begin to grasp a small slice of what I experienced at the PMA’s annual homecoming celebration from February 19th to 21st. Like everywhere else I visited in the Philippines, the campus’s remote location in the colonial summer capital of Baugio was teeming with black culture. My crew for the weekend was the PMA Class of 1966 who were being honored as Golden Jubilarians. Many of them were born as colonial subjects in an American occupied Philippines. As military generals, business moguls, and high ranking politicians who came into their own under a marginally postcolonial Philippine state, many were on opposite sides of one another during the EDSA Revolution of 1986 that toppled the Marcos regime. As we rolled in our tricked out charter buses (complete with plastic seat covers reminiscent of so many Compton living rooms that I knew growing up) the six hour playlist going up the mountain included hours of America military marching anthems interspersed with the greatest hits of Brian McKnight. Hopping from one glamorous banquet spread to another and from a luxury hotel to an elite private country club, I got a glimpse at what life is like for the ruling Philippines political class. And it was filled with black culture. As the only non-Filipino on the bus, (and perhaps among the 9,140 invited guests in attendance as well) it took some time for everyone to warm up to me. But once the alumni association president felt compelled to pull me aside to tell me a bestiality joke involving a fellatio giving camel and his masturbating jockey, I knew I was part of the family. Soon the stories began flowing like the gumbo served at the Gateway shopping mall back in Manila. At first, all anyone wanted to talk about was Donald Trump. This put the 70 to 80 year old PMA graduates in league with nearly every professor, college student, and gym rat that I met during my time in the Philippines. “What’s wrong with America?” they asked. “The same thing that is always wrong with America,” I replied. Once I told them I was in the country to chronicle the lives of African Americans in the Philippines, the floodgates opened further. It seems that everyone knew someone who was black in the Philippines. Among other tales, I was told about a black four star general in the Philippine Army who was the descendant of a black private in the American Army who came during the Philippine American War. He and his brothers were all PMA graduates, indicating few barriers and little overt racism to black military officers at the PMA. At the same time, however, the apparent muscularity, athletic prowess, and sexual endowment of the brothers were offered up as bodily proof of their collective blackness. “Filipinos have little penises,” I was assured. Apparently American colonialism left behind more than winding roads and jeepneys. The prevalence of skin whitening ads on television and the sight of sun shielding umbrellas in the 90 degree heat only further confirmed this persistent cloud of coloniality that hung over the Philippines. Yet, just as one could find a collection of black mammies hung on the wall at a local eatery, one could also see at that very same restaurant a touching tribute to Jimi Hendrix and a sympathetic rendering by a local Filipino artist of an African tribesman. Few aspects of black culture were as obvious, however, as those transmitted to the Philippines through the corporate sports entertainment industry. A Catholic bishop on our charter bus told me of his undying love for Steph Curry along with his hatred of Marxist inspired liberation theology. I couldn’t help but think of him cheering loudly in his bath robe for the Splash Brothers on a Saturday afternoon as I heard him in his priestly robes give his guest sermon to PMA cadets during their mandatory mass for the 2nd Sunday of Lent. The military/religious discipline and the almost complete collapse between church and state made the phrase “For God and Country” seem real in a way that we can only imagine in the U.S. The bishop was not alone in his love for the NBA and all things basketball. Golden State Warriors jerseys are everywhere on the streets of Manila. Black players are equally celebrated in the Philippines Basketball Association, where each team is allowed one invariably black “import” player whose bodies are measured to insure that they are not over 6’5” or 6’9” tall, depending on the season. In every barrio town and rural village I saw, flip-flop and barefoot clad hoop dreams were everywhere in the making. Add sneakers and a few inches and you might as well have been on the South Side of Chicago. You wouldn’t even have to change the soundtrack, assuming that the PMA cadets that I spoke with over breakfast properly represented Filipino youth culture to me. The graffiti on the walls of a working class neighborhood I visited in metro Manila further confirmed that at least one hip-hop group from Cleveland had crossed the Pacific. I was told by local residents that the line from “Crossroads” which said “and I’m gonna miss everybody” sounds very much like the Tagalog “kinagat ng seven lions” (or “bitten by seven lions”). Much like the late Jacques Derrida held that the misreadings of his work in English were often more interesting than what he originally intended, something tells me that Bizzy Bone should be thinking right now about a feline chomping remix. This honorific adoption of black culture, with limited regard for the historical realities and ongoing structural racism facing black people in America, is unfortunately a common theme in Asia and the Pacific (much as it is in the U.S. for that matter). From K-Pop, to Tongan gang culture, to certain Japanese Harajuku fashion trends, black culture in general and African American culture in specific has circulated transnationally to nearly every location on earth—but often in increasingly strange ways. Ateneo de Manila Professor Oscar Campomanes has written about how postcolonial ideologies and Filipino nationalism have conspired to produce something of a historical purging of all things American from Filipino history. Local histories, pre-colonial indigenous societies, and other internally focused topics have taken center-stage for Filipino intellectuals post-independence. In my talks with him and his students I was convinced that the simultaneous omnipotence and erasure of black culture in the Philippines is related to this imagined postcolonial moment where all things in the Philippines must be made thoroughly Filipino. While it should come as no surprise, transnationalism and nationalism don’t often play well together. This prideful sense of nation building and a conscious de-emphasis of American power was on full display at the PMA ceremonies and among its graduates. Alumni bragged all the way up the mountain that the US had no more military bases in the Philippines. Yet in the month or so between my trip to the PMA campus and the writing of this piece, the Philippine government announced a new agreement to allow five of its military bases to be reoccupied by the country’s former colonial overlord. Still, anti-colonial discourse was peppered throughout the various marching exercises and ceremonies I witnessed. The military seems to function as a largely symbolic site of national honor, masculine strength, and collective independence. Indeed the PMA was founded during the revolutionary government of Emilio Aguinaldo before American rule fully took hold. Death, ethnic pride, and the multi-generational struggle for freedom are consequently encoded in the official PMA Song: “When bells for us are rung and our last taps are sung Let generations see our country free” While I am completely against militarism, state violence, and aggression in all its forms, the PMA felt like something else. In a country completely dependent upon America’s mutual defense agreement in the case of any real external threat, the Philippine military functions more of a source of national aspiration and self-affirmation than an actual offensive military in the traditional sense. At the moment, it does not even present itself as a typical neocolonial army either (policing the local population for the benefit of external corporate or sovereign powers). It certainly was a neocolonial army during the Cold War anti-communist days of Marcos and may very well become so once again as part of the so-called ‘Global War on Terror,” but at the moment it seems to be trying to find its own identity in a bold new world. Yet the old hang-ups persist. Fighting continues against the Muslim independence movement in Mindanao. In the past four decades over 120,000 people have lost their lives in what most people openly acknowledge to be a struggle over land and resources rather than a dispute over religion per se. As we celebrated in lavish banquet halls, ten thousand people fled their homes in Mindanao that weekend to escape the fighting between the Philippine military and the Muslim independence fighters that left at least six people dead. The solution according to one former military strategist from the Class of 1966 should send chills down the spine of every African American aware of the slow motion genocide taking place in disadvantaged black communities throughout America. With complete seriousness, the plan he proposed would have the state foment internal conditions of instability and encourage factions to develop among the Muslims in the south before encouraging them to kill one another until there was no ‘problem population’ left to fight. I was assured by several people that the military run police force in the Philippines (which is nationalized and under the military chain of command rather than local government control) has an excellent relationship with ‘the people.’ Yet the segregated Muslim communities of Mindanao have experienced not just a militarized police force but an actual military that is policing their communities.Black folk from Los Angeles to Baltimore may find this condition chillingly familiar. I would be remiss, however, if I did not also stress the brotherhood, fraternity, and sense of family that the Class of 1966 displayed for one another. There was a devout sense of purpose among them and a genuine belief that despite the openly acknowledged corruption in their ranks they were collectively working for the benefit of the Filipino nation and its people. While one vice-presidential candidate and one senate candidate were given special consideration, active political candidates in general (almost all of whom are PMA graduates or honorary graduates) were recently barred from attending the festivities during national elections so that the annual homecoming would no longer be the campaign platform that it has been in the past. The love that the men felt for their departed classmates and the support they offered to the widowed wives and children of those classmates were hard to deny, even if these guestures did rest upon a patriarchal hetronormative family structure. “The wives” were constantly remembered, honored, and referred to, even if only to affirm the masculine chivalry of their espouser. Since 1993 women have been allowed to attend the PMA and can now comprise up to a paltry 5% of each year’s graduating class. It will be interesting to see how far the ‘boys club’ culture of the Class of 1966 will hold up in generations going forward as women take a more prominent role in Philippine military life. Before heading back down the mountain to Manila, I saw one final display of black culture. While the cadets’ technical and precise military marching formations were meant to convey a sense of order, control, and competence black culture in the form of dance and music were deployed as a comedic break in the middle of the normal military routine. The primitive modernist was let loose and a deep folk realism was brought to the fore. And the crowd went wild. On our last stop—as I ate Chinese food with a spoon in W. Cameron Forbes Hall while listening to instrumental versions of 2Pac’s “Changes” and Cee-Lo Green’s “Fuck You”—it occurred to me that the PMA and the Philippines in general do not fall into any neat conceptual category. Militaries are not militaries here. Neocolonialism exists alongside anti-colonialism. Racism comes out through anti-racism. Sexism and patriarchy contain feminist possibilities. Capitalism can at times be anti-capitalist. And black culture was there for it all—muddying the waters and showing the way. Copyright © AAIHS. 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Canada's Christine Sinclair pulled even with Mia Hamm for second place on women's soccer's all-time international goals list when she scored in the 85th minute of Sunday's match against Trinidad and Tobago at the International Tournament of Natal in Brazil. Canada rolled to a 4-0 victory in its second of three matches in Brazil. Diana Matheson scored in the first half and Rebecca Quinn and Nichelle Prince tallied in the second half before Sinclair potted her 158th international goal. Trinidad and Tobago is one of the three opponents Canada's women's national team will play in the group stage of the Olympic qualification tournament in February. "[Sinclair] led by example, as always," said Canadian coach John Herdman. "It wasn't easy for her today, the Trinidad team packed the defence and made it tough to get behind them, but we had it clear in our mind that we would get goals today and I knew that [Sinclair] would be on the score sheet. She found the room she needed." It was the 230th cap for Sinclair, who made her debut for Canada in 2000. "She's very clear in what she wants — to get results for this team and to keep pushing whatever threshold she can as a striker," said Herdman. "It's great that she achieved something today, but to be honest I don't think she looks at things like that, she just wants to do well for our team and for our country." The Canadian captain found the back of the net twice in her team's opening 3-0 victory over Mexico on Wednesday, raising her goals total to 157 and bringing her within one of Hamm. Another American, Abby Wambach, tops the list with 184 goals. Canada rounds out the group stage against Brazil on Wednesday. The third-place and final matches go on Dec 20.

MISSION VIEJO, Calf. -- If LaDainian Tomlinson never plays another down of football, he will go down as one of the greatest running backs in history. His legacy is secure, but there he was Tuesday, working up a sweat with several veteran teammates and a few neophytes that can only dream of being in the same huddle as him one day. It was something to see, a future Hall of Famer -- first ballot, no doubt -- participating in Mark Sanchez's "Jets West" camp at Mission Viejo High School. "Powerful," second-year running back Joe McKnight said of Tomlinson's presence. You want really powerful? Heading into what could be his final season, Tomlinson said he will gladly accept a smaller role because he believes Shonn Greene is ready to be the Jets' feature back. Tomlinson said his new goal is to become the best third-down back in the business. "I don't want to carry the ball as much as I did last year," he said after a one-hour workout on Day 2 of Sanchez's weeklong camp. "Hopefully, that role goes to Shonn Greene and some of the younger guys, so I can really create matchup problems out of the backfield [as a receiver]. "I would love to be the best third-down back in the league. I'd love to be that. I've been the best running back in the league before. Now, at the end of my career, I'd like to be the best third-down back." Tomlinson's presence at "Jets West" sent a message to his teammates. Scott Clark/ESPN That probably is the Jets' plan. They have a crowded backfield, with Greene, Tomlinson, McKnight and the newest addition, fourth-round pick Bilal Powell. Coach Rex Ryan said at the conclusion of the draft that he'd like Greene to be the "bell cow," with an increased role for McKnight. You don't have to be a math major to figure out that it's going to take a bunch of carries away from Tomlinson, who rushed a team-high 219 times last season. Worn down by the end of the regular season, after a fantastic first half, his role started to shrink. Some of his carries went to Greene, although he maintained his role as the primary third-down back -- perhaps his only role in 2011. And he's OK with that. "I always said that when I get to the end of my career, I don't need many carries," said Tomlinson, who turns 32 next month. "I don't want that. I don't want to beat myself up when I don't have to. Shonn Green is ready to take on that role." Tomlinson will be remembered for his legs, but he actually has terrific hands -- 52 receptions last season. He's a crafty route runner and knows how to pick up a blitzing linebacker -- all traits of a third-down back. At "Jets West," Tomlinson's mere presence sent a strong message. Sanchez, who organized the camp for the second straight year, said it was easier to recruit teammates once they heard Tomlinson was coming. "He was one of the first guys on board," Sanchez said. "He's a true leader. This is the kind of stuff people don't see. They see him scoring touchdowns and being the rushing champ in San Diego, playing when everybody told him he was too old last year on Sundays. This is the other stuff. This is the other 320 days a year he's working." Tomlinson is surrounded by a couple of young bucks at this camp, McKnight and fullback John Conner. Greene didn't make the trip to Southern California. Tomlinson also gave some pointers to the three rookies in attendances, along with a couple of players from the Mission Viejo High School team. "It sends a message to all the guys," tight end Dustin Keller said. "It's like, 'Wow, if LT is here, I'd better get my butt there, too.'" Tomlinson isn't a great player anymore, but he's a player that still wants to be great. And that can be contagious on a team. Rich Cimini covers the Jets for ESPNNewYork.com.

How Much Water Should You Drink? With all of the tools out there to track and improve performance, why aren’t we paying closer attention to measuring hydration - one of the most important driving factors of health and athletic performance? Water is the most abundant element in our body – it makes up 70% of our muscles, lubricates our joints, and delivers nutrients to our body. However, most of us don’t know how much water we drink every day and, more importantly, how much we should drink. Trago is a patent-pending water bottle that accurately measures how much you drink. It connects to your smart phone, and other wearable devices, and allows you to set, and measure, intelligent hydration goals. Optimal hydration is both art and science, and it’s different for everyone. Trago helps you pinpoint the perfect amount for you. Trago's vision is to change the way people think about hydration. #hydratesmarter How much should you drink? Hydration directly effects athletic performance. Research shows that everyone’s optimal level of hydration is different depending on physical, environmental, and activity level factors. Until now, only professional athletes had access to this type of information. With Trago, and a few initial inputs – like you gender, age, and activity level – The mobile app builds a personal hydration profile specific to you, and then helps you stay on track to hit your goals! Trago comes with a great bottle of it's own, but is designed to fit on any standard wide-mouth water bottle including Nalgene’s, Camelbak’s, and Hydro Flasks. So feel free to take the cap off our bottle, and put it on yours! We designed Trago to work out of the box. A few simple inputs to our app, and you are on your way to hydrating smarter. Just sync Trago to our free app and drink up – That’s it! Trago uses patent-pending ultrasonic technology to measure precise water consumption data. You can think of it as similar to “sonar,” or “echo-location”. Trago knows when you’re drinking, when you refill, and even when the bottle is in a backpack/gym-bag (understanding when not to measure). As a result, Trago can take accurate measurements and conserve battery power accordingly. Trago automatically syncs with your smart phone, mobile health applications, and other wearable devices adjusting your optimal hydration level along the way. If your activity level increases, or the weather that day is particularly hot and humid, Trago will adjust your water consumption recommendations accordingly. Not only that, Trago will also automatically update your water consumption data on platforms like Myfitnesspal, Apple Health, and Under Armour Record. Who wants to charge their water bottle? No One! We designed Trago to run for approximately 6 months on a common replaceable battery that can be found at your local drug/grocery store. The Trago mobile app easily allows you to create teams and private groups – giving coaches, trainers and parents the ability to monitor their athlete’s hydration. Why? Because proper hydration begins long before game-time. Over 27 billion plastic water bottles are trashed each year; and only ~17% recycled. The Trago App counts how many disposable plastic water bottles you save, and rewards you for your positive impact on the environment. Through our partnership with 1% for the Planet, we will give 1% of our revenues to fund clean water projects and organizations that are dedicated to ending plastic water bottle pollution. Start measuring your impact today! Manufacturing a hardware product is incredibly challenging and it makes having the right team even more paramount to the process. Our lead mechanical engineer, Tom Johannsen, has over 40 years worth of experience in getting over 200 products through manufacturing. Andre’ LaMothe, our embedded systems engineer, has over 30 years of experience and his varied career has allowed him to master all aspects of electronics development from the research, design, firmware, sourcing and design for manufacture. We’ve been working on Trago for over a year. During that time, we’ve gone through many iterations, evaluated many ways to measure water consumption, religiously studied hydration, assembled a market leading team, and created a strong network of manufacturers to form a solid supply chain. With your help, we can initiate the timeline below to bring Trago to you. Jac Saltzgiver – CEO: Jac played lacrosse for Wake Forest University, and understands the importance of hydration. Prior to starting Trago, Jac worked in business development and sales where he was an early employee at Bazaarvoice (NASDAQ: BV), High Brew Coffee, and Square Root. Jac understand what it takes to grow a business and believes in forming long lasting partnerships. With his vision, and leadership, Trago will change the way people across the globe stay healthy and hydrated. Davis Saltzgiver – Head of Product: Davis is a mechanical engineer by trade, inventor at heart, and the mastermind of Trago. He is a mechanical genius, and never settles for anything less than perfection. His passion for data, the scientific method, and continuous improvement will key in realizing Trago’s vision. Tom Johannsen – Mechanical Engineer: Tom has over 40 years of experience, working on over 200 products, for a wide and varied list of customers ranging from wearable devices to the medical field. He is an expert at getting products through the many trials of manufacturing and into customers hands. He is passionate about quality design and will be a key force in navigating Trago through the manufacturing process. Chase White – Design: Chase is an experienced designer with a background in product design and brand development. Chase has experience working with companies like AT&T, Shiner, South by Southwest, and The Wall Street Journal. In his spare time, Chase can be found climbing, swimming, biking, running, lifting and training as an adventure athlete. Andre LaMothe – Electrical/Embedded Engineer: André is a Computer Scientist and Embedded Engineer with over 30 years experience in product design, development and manufacturing. His current research areas include Wearable Devices, Evolutionary Computing, and Machine Learning. Since day one, we’ve been talking to potential customers, athletes, coaches, hydration specialists, and industry experts to understand how to make Trago the best it could be. This product is only the beginning in our mission to revolutionize hydration, and we’ve spent the last 10 months designing and engineering Trago to get the important parts right. Industrial Design drawings by waltercastrodesign@gmail.com Why ultrasonic sensors are the best way to measure water consumption: We tested every option imaginable for tracking how much fluid one could drink out of a bottle. We tried using weight, accelerometers, pressure strips, capacitance level transmitters, infrared, lasers, magnets and even flow meters, but found that all of these methods were either extremely inaccurate, or left you with a laundry list of things you couldn’t do. We hated these limits, so we invented a completely new way to measure your water intake using ultrasonic sensors. The benefits of ultrasonic sensors: Very accurate (within .5 oz). Measures any liquid type. All tech is in cap, so it works with multiple bottles. Easy to clean. Allows for future designs with or without straws Durable/shock resistant. The sensors work by using sound waves above human hearing to measure the distance from the cap to the fluid – In effect, recording the change in the water level. You can think of it as echo-location. Using proprietary algorithms, data from the ultrasonic sensors combine with data from the accelerometer and gyroscope allowing us to calculate exact water consumption data. Motion-Sensing: In order to increase accuracy and battery life we’ve added motion-sensing technology to Trago’s electronics. Knowing how the bottle moves allows Trago to understand important events. For example, when someone is taking a drink, unscrewing the cap to re-fill, stowing the bottle in a gym bag, or simply sitting idle by your bed. Replaceable battery: When deciding how to power Trago, we knew one thing for sure - we didn’t want one more device to charge, especially our water bottle! That’s why we designed Trago with a common replaceable battery that you can pick up at your local grocery/drug store. A big part of our vision is to help coaches and trainers monitor the hydration of their groups to get a leg up on the competition. With a replaceable battery that can last all season, these leaders can make sure every athlete’s hydration data is tracked effortlessly, rather than nagging them to recharge their cap. Flexibility: We read hundreds of reviews, and asked everyone we know to answer the simple question: “what makes your water bottle awesome?” The responses we got were as wide and varied as the people we asked. Some people prefer to drink from a straw with a large bottle, others prefer a wide-mouth spout with a bottle that fits in a cup holder. Rather than putting our product in a box where only a few people were as excited as we are, we have designed Trago to fit any wide-mouth bottle. Simply use Trago's Cap on your favorite “sticker magnet” and select the model of your bottle in the app. Trago is versatile, and the technology in the cap allows us to utilize almost any cap design, including those with OR without straws. So while we need to focus on nailing this first design at the moment, you can bet that we will come out with other great designs in the future. At Trago, we are looking forward to changing the way people think about hydration. We are excited to develop additional models, bottles and cap styles along the way. However, we can’t do it without your help! Only YOU have the power to make this vision a reality, and we appreciate your consideration in joining the mission to #hydratesmarter - Not to mention ending disposable plastic water bottle consumption along the way! Stretch Goals: 1.) $100,000 - BPA-Free Plastic Bottle 2.) $500,000 - Trago Cap with Straw Spout Contact us & share Trago with your friends, family and co-workers:

The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered a depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 until 1879, and even longer in some countries (France and Britain). In Britain, for example, it started two decades of stagnation known as the "Long Depression" that weakened the country's economic leadership.[1] In the United States the Panic was known as the "Great Depression" until the events of the early 1930s set a new standard.[2] The Panic of 1873 and the subsequent depression had several underlying causes, of which economic historians debate the relative importance. American post-Civil War inflation, rampant speculative investments (overwhelmingly in railroads), the demonetization of silver in Germany and the United States, ripples from economic dislocation in Europe resulting from the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), property losses in the Chicago (1871) and Boston (1872) fires, and other factors put a massive strain on bank reserves, which plummeted in New York City in September and October 1873 from $50 million to $17 million. The first symptoms of the crisis were financial failures in the Austro-Hungarian capital, Vienna, which spread to most of Europe and North America by 1873. United States [ edit ] Factors [ edit ] The American Civil War was followed by a boom in railroad construction. 33,000 miles (53,000 km) of new track were laid across the country between 1868 and 1873.[3] Much of the craze in railroad investment was driven by government land grants and subsidies to the railroads.[4] At that time, the railroad industry was the nation's largest employer outside of agriculture, and it involved large amounts of money and risk. A large infusion of cash from speculators caused abnormal growth in the industry as well as overbuilding of docks, factories and ancillary facilities. At the same time, too much capital was involved in projects offering no immediate or early returns.[5] Coinage Act of 1873 [ edit ] The decision of the German Empire to cease minting silver thaler coins in 1871 caused a drop in demand and downward pressure on the value of silver; this, in turn, affected the United States, where much of the supply of silver was mined. As a result, the United States Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1873, which changed the country's silver policy. Before the Act, the United States had backed its currency with both gold and silver, and it minted both types of coins. The Act moved the United States to a 'de facto' gold standard, which meant it would no longer buy silver at a statutory price or convert silver from the public into silver coins (though it would still mint silver dollars for export in the form of trade dollars).[6] The Act had the immediate effect of depressing silver prices. This hurt Western mining interests, who labeled the Act "The Crime of '73". Its effect was offset somewhat by the introduction of a silver trade dollar for use in Asia, and by the discovery of new silver deposits at Virginia City, Nevada, resulting in new investment in mining activity.[7] But the coinage law also reduced the domestic money supply, thereby raising interest rates and hurting farmers and anyone else who normally carried heavy debt loads. The resulting outcry raised serious questions about how long the new policy would last.[8] This perception of instability in United States monetary policy caused investors to shy away from long-term obligations, particularly long-term bonds. The problem was compounded by the railroad boom, which was in its later stages at the time. In September 1873, the U.S. economy entered a crisis. This followed a period of post-Civil War economic over-expansion that arose from the Northern railroad boom. It came at the end of a series of economic setbacks: the Black Friday panic of 1869, the Chicago fire of 1871, the outbreak of equine influenza in 1872, and demonetization of silver in 1873. Jay Cooke & Company fails [ edit ] In September 1873, Jay Cooke & Company, a major component of the United States banking establishment, found itself unable to market several million dollars in Northern Pacific Railway bonds. Cooke's firm, like many others, had invested heavily in the railroads. At a time when investment banks were anxious for more capital for their enterprises, President Ulysses S. Grant's monetary policy of contracting the money supply (again, also thereby raising interest rates) made matters worse for those in debt. While businesses were expanding, the money they needed to finance that growth was becoming scarcer. Cooke and other entrepreneurs had planned to build the second transcontinental railroad, called the Northern Pacific Railway. Cooke's firm provided the financing, and ground for the line was broken near Duluth, Minnesota, on 15 February 1870. But just as Cooke was about to swing a US$300 million government loan in September 1873, reports circulated that his firm's credit had become nearly worthless. On 18 September, the firm declared bankruptcy.[9] Effects [ edit ] The failure of the Jay Cooke bank, followed quickly by that of Henry Clews, set off a chain reaction of bank failures and temporarily closed the New York stock market. Factories began to lay off workers as the United States slipped into depression. The effects of the panic were quickly felt in New York, and more slowly in Chicago, Virginia City, Nevada (where silver mining was active), and San Francisco.[10][11] The New York Stock Exchange closed for ten days starting 20 September.[12] By November 1873 some 55 of the nation's railroads had failed, and another 60 went bankrupt by the first anniversary of the crisis.[13] Construction of new rail lines, formerly one of the backbones of the economy, plummeted from 7,500 miles (12,070 km) of track in 1872 to just 1,600 miles (2,575 km) in 1875.[13] 18,000 businesses failed between 1873 and 1875. Unemployment peaked in 1878 at 8.25%.[14] Building construction was halted, wages were cut, real estate values fell and corporate profits vanished.[15] Railroad strike [ edit ] In 1877, steep wage cuts led American railroad workers to launch the Great Railroad Strike. This stopped trains all across the country. President Rutherford B. Hayes sent in federal troops to try to stop this. In July 1877, the market for lumber crashed, leading to several Michigan lumber companies going bankrupt.[16] Within a year, the effects of this second business slump reached all the way to California.[17] The depression lifted in the spring of 1879, but tension between workers and the leaders of banking and manufacturing interests lingered on. Poor economic conditions caused voters to turn against the Republican Party. In the 1874 congressional elections, the Democrats assumed control of the House. Public opinion made it difficult for the Grant administration to develop a coherent policy regarding the Southern states. The North began to steer away from Reconstruction. With the depression, ambitious railroad building programs crashed across the South, leaving most states deep in debt and burdened with heavy taxes. Retrenchment was a common response of southern states to state debts during the depression. One by one, each Southern state fell to the Democrats, and the Republicans lost power. The end of the crisis coincided with the beginning of the great wave of immigration into the United States, which lasted until the early 1920s. Europe [ edit ] The panic and depression hit all industrial nations. Germany and Austria-Hungary [ edit ] A similar process of over-expansion took place in Germany and Austria, where the period from German unification in 1870–71 to the crash in 1873 came to be called the Gründerjahre ("founders' years"). A liberalized incorporation law in Germany gave impetus to the foundation of new enterprises, such as the Deutsche Bank, and the incorporation of already established ones. Euphoria over the military victory against France in 1871 and the influx of capital from the payment by France of war reparations fueled stock market speculation in railways, factories, docks, steamships – the same industrial branches that expanded unsustainably in the United States.[18] It was in the immediate aftermath of Otto von Bismarck's victory against France that he began the process of silver demonetization. The process began on 23 November 1871 and culminated in the introduction of the gold mark on 9 July 1873 as the currency for the new united Reich, replacing the silver coins of all constituent lands. Germany was now on the gold standard.[19] Demonetization of silver was thus a common element in the crises on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. On 9 May 1873, the Vienna Stock Exchange crashed, unable to sustain the bubble of false expansion, insolvencies, and dishonest manipulations. A series of Viennese bank failures ensued, causing a contraction of the money available for business lending. One of the more famous private individuals who went bankrupt in 1873 was Stephan Keglevich of Vienna. He was a relative of Gábor Keglevich, who had been the master of the royal treasury (1842–1848), and who in 1845 had founded, with some others, a financing association to fund the expansion of Hungarian industry and to protect the loan repayments, similar to the Kreditschutzverband of 1870 (Austria's association for the protection of creditors and for the protection of the interests of its members in cases of bankruptcy). That made it possible for a number of new Austrian banks to be established in 1873 after the Vienna Stock Exchange crash.[20] In Berlin, the railway empire of Bethel Henry Strousberg crashed after a ruinous settlement with the Romanian government, bursting the speculation bubble in Germany. The contraction of the German economy was exacerbated by the conclusion of war reparations payments to Germany by France in September 1873. Coming two years after the foundation of the German Empire, the panic became known as the Gründerkrach or "founders' crash".[21][22][23] Keglevich and Strousberg had come in the year 1865 in direct competition in a project in today's Slovakia, whereupon, in 1870, the Government of Hungary and finally in 1872 the Emperor-King Franz Joseph I of Austria resolved the question of these competing projects.[24][25] Although the collapse of the foreign loan financing had been foreshadowed, the anticipatory events of that year were in themselves comparatively unimportant. Buda, the old capital of Hungary, and Óbuda were officially united with Pest,[26] thus creating the new metropolis of Budapest in 1873. The difference in stability between Vienna and Berlin had the effect that the French indemnity to Germany overflowed thence to Austria and Russia, but these indemnity payments aggravated the crisis in Austria, which had been benefited by the accumulation of capital not only in Germany, but also in England, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Russia.[27] Recovery from the crash occurred much more quickly in Europe than in the United States.[28][29] Moreover, German businesses managed to avoid the sort of deep wage cuts that embittered American labor relations at the time.[29] There was an anti-Semitic component to the economic recovery in Germany and Austria as small investors blamed the Jews for their losses in the crash.[30][31] Soon more luxury hotels and villas were built in Opatija and a new railway line was extended in 1873 from the Vienna–Trieste line to Rijeka, from where it was possible to go by tram to Opatija. The strong increase of port traffic generated a permanent request for expansion.[32] The Suez Canal was opened in 1869.[33] 1875–90 became "the golden years" of Giovanni de Ciotta in Fiume (Rijeka). Britain [ edit ] The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 was one of the causes of the Panic of 1873, because goods from the Far East had been carried in sailing vessels around the Cape of Good Hope and were stored in British warehouses. As sailing vessels were not adaptable for use through the Suez Canal because the prevailing winds of the Mediterranean Sea blow from west to east, British entrepôt trade suffered.[34] In Britain the Long Depression resulted in bankruptcies, escalating unemployment, a halt in public works, and a major trade slump that lasted until 1897.[35] Comparison with Germany [ edit ] During the years from 1873 to 1896, a period sometimes referred to as "Long Depression", most European countries experienced a drastic fall in prices. Still, many corporations were able to reduce production costs and achieve better productivity rates, and, as a result, industrial production increased by 40% in Britain and by over 100% in Germany.[citation needed] A comparison of capital formation rates in the two countries helps to account for the different industrial growth rates. During the depression the British ratio of net national capital formation to net national product fell from 11.5% to 6.0% while Germany's rose from 10.6% to 15.9%.[citation needed] In essence, during the course of the depression, Britain took the course of static supply adjustment while Germany stimulated effective demand and expanded industrial supply capacity by increasing and adjusting capital formation. For example, Germany dramatically increased investment with regard to social overhead capital, such as in the management of electric power transmission lines, roads, and railroads, while this input stagnated or decreased in Britain and the investment helped to stimulate industrial demand in Germany. The resulting difference in capital formation accounts for the divergent levels of industrial production in the two countries and the different growth rates during and after the depression.[36] Ottoman Empire [ edit ] In the periphery, the Ottoman Empire's economy also suffered. Rates of growth of foreign trade dropped, external terms of trade deteriorated, declining wheat prices affected peasant producers, and the establishment of European control over Ottoman finances led to large debt payments abroad. The growth rates of agricultural and aggregate production were also lower during the Long Depression as compared to the later period.[37] Latin Monetary Union [ edit ] The general demonetisation and cheapening of silver caused the Latin Monetary Union in 1873 to suspend the conversion of silver to coins. Global protectionism [ edit ] After the 1873 depression, agricultural and industrial groups lobbied for protective tariffs. The 1879 tariffs protected these interests, stimulated economic revival through state intervention and refurbished political support for the conservative politicians Bismarck and John A. Macdonald (the Canadian prime minister). Chancellor Bismarck gradually veered away from classical liberal economic policies in the 1870s, embracing many economic interventionist policies, including high tariffs, nationalization of railroads, and compulsory social insurance.[38][39][40] This political and economic nationalism also reduced the fortunes of the German and Canadian classical liberal parties. France, like Britain, also entered into a prolonged stagnation that extended to 1897. The French also attempted to deal with their economic problems through the implementation of tariffs. New French laws in 1880 and in 1892 imposed stiff tariffs on many agricultural and industrial imports, an attempt at protectionism.[41] The U.S., still in the period after the Civil War, continued to be very protectionist.[42][43] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Sources [ edit ] Wicker, Elmus. Banking panics of the gilded age (Cambridge University Press, 2006) contents

Meet The Bloodwood Tree I’ve seen some pretty wild stuff out in nature and this Bloodwood tree is right up on the list of some of that craziness. This is a video showing you what it looks like when cut into a Bloodwood tree with a chainsaw . The sap from the Bloodwood tree is the same color and consistency as blood. After this post check out how to make a pretty sweet wooden speed loader. Pterocarpus angolensis is a kind of teak native to southern Africa, known by various names such as Kiaat, Mukwa, and Muninga. It is also called the Bloodwood tree, so named for the tree’s remarkable dark red colored sap. A chopped trunk or or a damaged branch of the tree starts dripping deep red fluid, almost like a severed limb of an animal. The sticky, reddish-brown sap seals the wound to promote healing. Via – AmusingPlanet Follow Me On Google+

Palestinian boys wave national flags near the Erez border crossing between Gaza and Israel on Friday. (Photo: Hatem Moussa, AP) Story Highlights Palestinians say final borders between Israel and a future Palestine must be based on the 1967 lines Israeli hardliners oppose a broad withdrawal from the West Bank on security and religious grounds Netanyahu's office quickly distanced itself from the comments by deputy defense minister JERUSALEM (AP) — A senior member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party said in an interview broadcast Sunday that the Israeli government will not accept a Palestinian state with the borders favored by the Palestinians and the international community, a new hurdle to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's effort to restart peace talks in his latest visit to the region. Netanyahu's office rushed to distance itself from the comments by Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon, a rising star in the Likud. Danon said in comments broadcast on Israel Radio that the government would not agree to a Palestinian state based on Israel's borders before the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, areas captured by Israel from Jordan in 1967. The Palestinians say final borders between Israel and a future Palestine must be based on the 1967 lines. Israeli hardliners oppose a broad withdrawal from the West Bank on both security and religious grounds. "We are a nationalist government and not a government that will establish a Palestinian government in 1967 lines," Danon said. Danon went even further in comments to the Times of Israel news site last week, saying that hawks inside the governing coalition will never allow a Palestinian state to be formed. The international community, including the U.S., has endorsed the 1967 lines as the basis for border talks. While Netanyahu says he supports Palestinian independence, he has refused to commit to any borders, saying only that all issues of disagreement should be resolved in negotiations. Officials in Netanyahu's office said that Danon had stated a personal opinion, and his comments did not reflect government opinion. Speaking to his Cabinet Sunday, Netanyahu said the government must speak in unison if he is to achieve his goal of restarting peace negotiations. Kerry has been shuttling between the sides in recent months in hopes of finding a formula to restart negotiations. He is expected in the region this week on what would be his fifth visit since becoming Secretary of State early this year. Netanyahu told the Cabinet that he will discuss the impasse with Kerry. "Together we will try and advance a way to find an opening for negotiations with the Palestinians in order to reach an agreement," he said. "That agreement will be based on a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state and solid security arrangements." Talks have been stalled since late 2008. The Palestinians have refused to return to the negotiations until Israel ends construction in territory it wants for a future state. Israel says that settlements along with other core issues like security should be resolved through talks and have frequently called for negotiations to resume immediately without preconditions. Kerry has been searching for a formula that would curtail most settlement construction, provide security guarantees to Israel and economic incentives to the Palestinians. But so far, there have been no signs of progress. Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, Tzipi Livni, said Sunday that she is working hard together with the U.S to restart talks, despite those within the government that oppose it. "It is true that within the Likud there are radical elements and within the government there are those that oppose an agreement," Livni told Israel Radio. "The prime minister is the one who will have to decide whether he surrenders to radical elements or will promote his policy that he declared," she said. Livni said Danon's comments "look bad." But the top Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said Danon's remarks outline Israel's policy. "I believe that a government who continues to tender settlements and refuses the two state solution will not go for peace," he said. Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/11shRhh

The ambassador of Azerbaijan in a message on the occasion of Republic Day of his country and 25th anniversay of diplomatic relations with Pakistan has said, this year we celebrate the 99th anniversary of foundation of The Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan. On May 28, 1918, Azerbaijan declared its independence establishing the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, which became the first secular parliamentary democracy in the entire East and was recognized by other democratic nations. During the short period of independence, Azerbaijan granted all its citizens the right of vote regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, and religion, becoming the first Muslim nation to give women equal political rights with men. Though as a result of the military intervention of the Soviet Union that violated international norms, Azerbaijan was annexed to the Union in 1920, but the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan entered forever into the history of our nation. Existing for only 23 months, the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan proved that neither bloody tyranny nor the regime of suppression could terminate the independent state system establishment and concepts of freedom of Azerbaijani people. And Azerbaijani people continued to struggle for their state independence during 70 years. 26 years ago, in 1991, the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan adopted the Constitutional Act on State Independence. Thus, Azerbaijan gained independence for the second time in the 20th century and established the state system, the political and economic structure of the independent Republic of Azerbaijan. The early years of our independence were not so successful. There was political and economic crisis. The industry was practically paralyzed. It was a period of lost opportunities. Armenia unleashed aggression against our country and as a result of Armenia’s military aggression 20 per cent of our lands was occupied. But after coming to power of the national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev in 1993, Azerbaijan began to develop as a modern and secular state. Azerbaijan made great strides in all areas. Azerbaijan embarked on economic reforms and established the principles of market economy. The political reforms carried out in Azerbaijan under his leadership were designed for the development of democracy and protection of human rights and these same reforms are being continued by the present leader of Azerbaijan too. Alizada said, that difficult time of early years of our independence Pakistan was one of the first countries which recognized independence of Azerbaijan in 1991 and in 1992 we established our diplomatic relations. And since then we enjoy cordial and warm relations. We always support each other on all issues, as well as on Nagorno-Karabakh and Kashmir issues based on UN Security Council resolutions. And because of the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani lands Pakistan has not recognized Armenia as an independent state and have not established diplomatic relations with agressor country. The Government and people of Azerbaijan highly value this brotherly and fair approach. Thanks to the efforts and positive views of the leaders of both countries, our relations are at the strategic partnership level. Last year we had a fruitful visit of H. E. Prime Minister of Pakistan to Azerbaijan, and this year after 12 years break H.E. President of Azerbaijan visited Pakistan. Moreover in 2016-17,we have had mutual visits of more than 10 ministers and other officials. In the upcoming months Chief of Air Staff, Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee of Pakistan armed forces will visit Azerbaijan. Last year our trade turnover was increased more than 2 times, but we are not satisfied and very keen to boost our economic ties. The successful session of intergovernmental commission was also held last year. We have very good cooperation in the military area, in defence industry. We have discussions to cooperate in establishing joint ventures, to realise joint defence industry production, to purchase most modern defence products from Pakistan. During the visit of H.E. President of Azerbaijan to Pakistan this year, we signed Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Energy and started our energy cooperation. We also have good relations in humanitarian-social field. A number ofdifferent humanitarian-social projects were implemented by Heydar Aliyev Foundation of Azerbaijan in Pakistan. We are very interested to further strenghten people to people contacts, as well as to enhance our cultural and tourism relations. This year we have siplified visa procedures for our Pakistani brothers and sisters and now every Pakistani citizen can get Azerbaijani visa online, through electronic visa system. The ambassador said, this year is significant for our countries because we are also commemorating 25th year of our diplomatic relations. Taking this opportunity, I would like to congratulate the governments and peoples of both countries and to thank the government of Pakistan for cooperation and brotherly approach which they showed during these years. 25 anniversary are only the beginning of our modern relations. Throughout the history our nations have communicated, worked together. We can see many signs of Pakistani culture in Azerbaijan and vice versa. Azerbaijan-Pakistan relations are based on confidence, strong, sincere mutual trust and respect between the two countries and nations, and our relations do not depend on material interests. We share our grief together and rejoice in our success together. These priceless relations we have to value forever. Share on: WhatsApp

EFF: Large ISPs Lying to Californians to Kill New Privacy Law California is considering new broadband privacy protections after the GOP and President Trump voted to dismantle the FCC's consumer broadband privacy protections earlier this year at the behest of giant broadband providers. On June 19, California Assemblymember Ed Chau introduced AB 375 (pdf), which, like the FCC rules it's intended to replace, requires that large ISPs are very clear about what consumer data is being collected and sold to third parties. It also requires that consumersif ISPs want to share more personal data (like web browsing histories or financial information). And it goes a little further than the FCC rules would have, in that it prohibits ISPs from punishing customers who chose to opt out -- or charging them more money if they want to protect their own privacy. Not too surprisingly, the EFF says that large ISPs are throwing millions of dollars -- and plenty of misleading arguments -- at the California legislature ahead of a vote on the proposal this week. The group obtained letters being sent by large ISPs to legislatures insisting these companies have done nothing wrong, and that the legislation is unnecessary. "EFF obtained copies of their letters and feel it is vitally important California’s elected officials know that the industry is unloading a plethora of misleading arguments, some of which they themselves are actively contradicting in other forums," states the group. While large ISPs have tried to argue that such rules aren't necessary, those same ISPs have repeatedly proven they have little credibility on the subject, and no ability to self-regulate within the parameters of good taste. Both AT&T and Comcast have tinkered with charging consumers more money to protect their data, effectively making privacy a luxury option. Verizon, meanwhile, was caught covertly modifying user packets without telling anybody or providing working opt out tools. Cable operator Cable One was caught bragging about plans to offer worse customer service to consumers with lower credit ratings. None of these actions are theoretical; they've already happened. And without an additional layer of meaningful privacy protections, consumer advocates argue they will happen again. While ISPs and the current FCC have tried to argue that the FTC's limited authority over broadband will be enough of a "cop on the beat" to make up for the absence of FCC oversight, we've explained repeatedly how this simply isn't the case. Large ISPs like Comcast want the FTC as the only privacy watchdog -- because they know the agency's authority, funding and resources are too limited to effectively police their behavior. The EFF has created this form letter creating website for broadband consumers eager in throwing their support behind these new privacy protections, which the EFF says can be used as a template across numerous states in the wake of federal apathy toward truly protecting consumer interests.

When President Obama ventured to Capitol Hill to meet with House Republicans shortly after Inauguration, he was met by a barrage of questions about the deficit and out of control spending. Obama's response reached back to the Great Depression. According to several Republicans in the room, Obama raised the specter of 1937, the year President Franklin Roosevelt succumbed to conservative pressure and cut spending, leading, economists insist, to a renewal of the economic collapse that has been dubbed the "recession within the Depression." Democratic leaders in both chambers of Congress also take the long view, sharing Obama's concern that pressure from the GOP to cut spending could reverse any economic gains made. "We have to understand what took place during the Great Depression. There was deficit spending throughout the Great Depression and they stopped it a little too soon," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) the day after Obama addressed a joint session of Congress. "President Obama has said he's going to look every place he can to save money, but we also recognize that we're going to have to spend some money to get out of this hole. Government is the only party that has any money," Reid said. The Huffington Post asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) about FDR's decision to cut spending. "We're not going to let it happen again. In the middle '30s -- '36, etc. -- they were concerned about what was happening so they tightened their belts in terms of spending," she said, "and that caused a recession within the Depression, instead of keeping the momentum going." Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said that Democrats will be vigilant about cutting spending too soon. "The Keynesian view of the Depression and the way to deal with it is to make up for the lack of private spending by bringing in public spending. And whenever you try to balance the budget, you withdraw public spending. So there are people that speculated the downturn in 1937" was a result of cutbacks, said Waxman. FDR was inaugurated in March 1933. Following a banking sector rescue, a devaluation of the dollar and massive government spending, the economy grew briskly in 1934, '35 and '36. He was reelected in a landslide of historic proportions. In 1937, under intense pressure to shave the deficit, he sought to balance the budget by cutting spending and raising taxes. The economy turned back around. "That's a lesson learned," said Pelosi. "Not that we would do that, but for those who might think that [cutting spending is] a good idea. When you have to stimulate, you have to stimulate. And that's what we have to do." Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, have called for a "spending freeze." "The President's budget is an anti-stimulus," said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio.) "By taxing too much, spending too much, and borrowing too much, it will kill jobs, slow the economy even further, and hurt middle-class families and small businesses." Christina Romer, the head of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, warned in a speech this week at the Brookings Institution of a "lesson from the Great Depression: beware of cutting back on stimulus too soon." "Growth was very rapid in the mid-1930s," said Romer. "Real GDP increased 11 percent in 1934, nine percent in 1935 and 13 percent in 1936...Industrial production finally surpassed its July 1929 peak in December 1936." Roosevelt succeeded in reducing the deficit by roughly 2.5 percent of GDP. But at a steep price: In 1937, GDP still grew, but only by five percent. It turned south in 1938, falling by three percent. "[T]aking the wrong turn in 1937 effectively added two years to the Depression. The 1937 episode is an important cautionary tale for modern policymakers," said Romer, who extensively studied the period during her academic career. The private sector will recover eventually, she said, but "we will need to monitor the economy closely to be sure that the private sector is back in the saddle before government takes away its crucial lifeline." Republicans don't join in the praise of deficit spending. In analyzing the Great Depression, the GOP blames protectionist trade policies for the reversal in economic growth. "No, it's what he did all along," said Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) of Roosevelt, rejecting the notion that the '37 cutback hurt the recovery effort. "The Smoot-Hawley Tarriff, raising taxes--that's what kept us in the Depression so long." Economists agree that tax hikes - done for the purpose of cutting the deficit -- were a big part of the '37 downturn. The federal government began collecting Social Security taxes that year, taking a big bite out of consumers' ability to spend. Smoot-Hawley was passed in 1930 and is derided by free traders as the epitome of counter-productive protectionism. (Many Democrats also agree that the provision had negative implications for economic growth, but reject the idea that it played a major roll in the '37 reversal.) "I think one of the major factors was protectionism and raising tariffs," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "I think Smoot-Hawley, in the view of most historians...contributed to the worldwide Depression and basically caused a reduction in world trade that was dramatic." McCain said that by 1937, wasteful spending caught up with the economy. "I also think that some of the quote stimulus that was used at that time was ineffective. They were basically make-work jobs that didn't have a permanent effect," he said. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the Financial Services Committee, said that there are key differences between today and the 1930s. "You should not forget history, but you shouldn't slavishly follow it," he said. "We are not worried that Obama is going to do that" - cut spending prematurely - "at this point." Frank said that once the spending kicks in, the pressure to cut it will diminish. "The anti-spending argument is at its strongest right now, because we've got the criticism without the benefits," he said. "At some point we've got to reduce the deficit, but I don't think some version of right-wingism is coming back in fashion. If we're right, that spending is going to be more popular three and four and five months from now, because the economy starts to turn around, maybe at the end of the year, and there are police working and there are schools built. I expect to be taking credit for that all year." Learning from past errors is one thing, said Waxman, but his parents wouldn't countenance referring to FDR's decision as a mistake. "My parents would never tolerate anyone criticizing Franklin Roosevelt. They probably would be angry at Obama," said Waxman, had they heard his remarks to House Republicans. "No one had a road map at that time. When I feel discouraged about where we are right now, the thing that gives me hope is that we've had people who've thought through depressions."

Getty Images NFL coaches often say that college football offenses don’t really get quarterbacks ready to play at the next level. But Texans coach Bill O’Brien says that’s not the case with his rookie quarterback, Deshaun Watson. O’Brien says Watson ran an offense at Clemson that forced him to develop a mind for football at the highest level. “He had to learn a pretty sophisticated offense at Clemson,” O’Brien said, via the Houston Chronicle. “He had to do a lot of things at the line of scrimmage. I think he was trained really well. That’s a credit to the Clemson staff. He’d already been in some big games when he got here. When he came here, he put his head down and came to work every day.” O’Brien has already been impressed with Watson’s football intellect, based only on spring practices. “For being a rookie, he’s wise beyond his years. He asks great questions in the morning meeting, and you can tell he’s studied the night before. Every practice isn’t perfect. He knows he needs to get a lot better. And he did get better every day during the spring. It’s no pads, of course. It’s not real football, but he did improve in his knowledge of the offense,” O’Brien said. If Watson keeps that up, he should be ready to start in Week One.

It’s been a bad year to be Ben May. The second-year MLB umpire has the worst record of getting his calls overturned when subject to in-game replay review. 92% of May’s calls, 12 out of 13, were overturned in the 2015 MLB regular season. The Denver Post looked at the percentage of calls overturned of the MLB’s 99 umpires in 2015. Of the more than 1,300 plays reviewed this year, 643 (49.2%) were overturned. Of the 75 umpires who had ten or more calls reviewed, 43 umpires (57.3%) had worse-than-average overturn rates. Of the 43 umpires with worse-than-average overturn rates, ten are umpiring on the field so far in the 2015 MLB playoffs – that’s ten out of a total of 36 umpires assigned post-season duty for the wild card and the division series rounds. The post-season umpires with worse-than-average records are highlighted in red. Raw data provided by Major League Baseball. On mobile? View the interactive chart here. Click a table column to sort by that column. https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery.tablesorter/2.23.5/js/jquery.tablesorter.js $(document).ready(function() { $(“.tablesorter”).tablesorter(); } ); table.data { font-family: Georgia, sans-serif!important; } table.data tbody tr:first-child td:nth-child(n+2):after { content: ”; } table.data tr.postseason { background-color: rgb(255,200,200)!important; } footer div { max-width: 95%; } Umpire Overturned Plays Reviewed % Overturned Ben May 12 13 92.31 Phil Cuzzi 13 17 76.47 D.J. Reyburn 13 19 68.42 Jeff Kellogg 11 17 64.71 Bill Miller 9 14 64.29 Paul Nauert 7 11 63.64 Tim Welke 12 19 63.16 Lance Barrett 10 16 62.5 Scott Barry 8 13 61.54 Dan Iassogna 8 13 61.54 Tony Randazzo 8 13 61.54 Ed Hickox 9 15 60 Gabe Morales 9 15 60 Joe West 10 17 58.82 Ted Barrett 7 12 58.33 Jordan Baker 11 19 57.89 Andy Fletcher 12 21 57.14 Bill Welke 9 16 56.25 Bob Davidson 9 16 56.25 John Hirschbeck 11 20 55 Dale Scott 6 11 54.55 Quinn Wolcott 6 11 54.55 Jim Wolf 6 11 54.55 Chad Fairchild 7 13 53.85 Mike Muchlinski 7 13 53.85 Dan Bellino 8 15 53.33 Eric Cooper 8 15 53.33 Doug Eddings 8 15 53.33 Adrian Johnson 9 17 52.94 Cory Blaser 9 17 52.94 Gerry Davis 9 17 52.94 Tripp Gibson 9 17 52.94 Mike Winters 9 17 52.94 Jerry Meals 10 19 52.63 Jim Reynolds 10 19 52.63 Toby Basner 11 21 52.38 Larry Vanover 11 21 52.38 Mike Estabrook 6 12 50 Tom Hallion 7 14 50 Paul Schrieber 8 16 50 Greg Gibson 9 18 50 CB Bucknor 11 22 50 Ron Kulpa 10 21 47.62 Bruce Dreckman 7 15 46.67 James Hoye 7 15 46.67 Mike Everitt 5 11 45.45 Mark Ripperger 5 11 45.45 Hunter Wendelstedt 5 11 45.45 Chris Segal 9 20 45 Chris Conroy 8 18 44.44 Mark Wegner 7 16 43.75 Brian O’Nora 10 23 43.48 Laz Diaz 6 14 42.86 Todd Tichenor 6 14 42.86 Jeff Nelson 7 17 41.18 Clint Fagan 9 22 40.91 Marvin Hudson 4 10 40 Jim Joyce 4 10 40 Brian Knight 4 10 40 Dana DeMuth 6 15 40 Sam Holbrook 6 15 40 John Tumpane 9 23 39.13 Angel Hernandez 7 18 38.89 Tim Timmons 7 18 38.89 Fieldin Culbreth 5 13 38.46 Kerwin Danley 7 19 36.84 Marty Foster 7 19 36.84 Chris Guccione 7 20 35 Paul Emmel 4 12 33.33 Vic Carapazza 5 15 33.33 Lance Barksdale 4 13 30.77 Gary Cederstrom 4 13 30.77 Manny Gonzalez 7 23 30.43 Mark Carlson 6 21 28.57 Adam Hamari 4 17 23.53 On mobile? View the interactive chart here.

Is this all just the typical government program, bloated, inefficient, and financially unsound? Or is it by design, doomed to fail, paving the way for a replacement such as single-payer? Regardless of motives, the "Affordable" Care Act is anything but. Obamacare is dying, afflicted with a terminal illness not curable by current medical technology. The system is plagued with ever rising premiums and deductibles, reduced choice of physicians and hospitals, and fewer options for insurance. Adverse selection is chasing healthy individuals away, who choose to have no insurance rather than paying for coverage they don't want or need – and can't afford. Now in the intensive care unit, doctors from Congress are deciding what to do with their moribund patient. In this case, I favor the approach of Charlie Gard's doctors: letting Obamacare "die with dignity." How ironic that bureaucrats and judges are happy to let a little boy "die with dignity" without the opportunity for a last-ditch effort at life-saving therapy but are hell-bent on continuing CPR on the pulseless corpse of Obamacare. The House passed a lousy replacement bill. It was like moving an ICU patient to another room with a better window view, thinking that will cure the patient. The Senate couldn't even do that, instead fretting over how much dextrose to add to the IV, believing that will change the disease course of a patient suffering from multiple organ system failure. Next week is the Charlie Gard decision for the Senate. Let Obamacare "die with dignity" via repeal, or continue the tube feedings via insurance company subsidies and bailouts, prolonging the inevitable? It's not looking promising in the Senate. The "we know better than you" men and women of the "world's greatest deliberative body" will likely choose life, unlike the E.U. judges choosing death for Charlie. Maybe we could swap a few U.S. senators for E.U. judges as a solution. Charlie would get a chance at life, and Obamacare could sail off to the afterlife. Next week, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is throwing down the gauntlet: a simple up-or-down vote on repealing Obamacare. About time. Remember the endless campaign promises from Congress to repeal Obamacare? They told us they needed the House. Delivered. But we need the Senate, too. Also delivered. But President Obama will just veto what we send him, including the 50-plus attempts by Congress to repeal or defund Obamacare in some manner. We need the White House, too. Guess what: you have it. Now there's Republican control of Washington, D.C. not seen in generations. The stars aligned, the weather perfect, no more excuses. Time to perform. And the Senate choked – big league, as the president might describe it. Next week, Senators demonstrate whether or not their talk of the past eight years was cheap and empty. As it stands now, Senators Murkowski, Collins, and Capito will not vote for repeal. What a difference a couple of years and now a real vote make. In 2015, Senators Murkowski and Capito were among 48 GOP senators who voted "yes" to repeal Obamacare – a much easier vote then, since it faced a veto. Not so much now. When the vote matters, integrity and honesty are thrown out the window. It's much like standing in front of the bathroom mirror, telling off your boss or asking someone out on a date. It sounds so clever when the recipient is just a reflection in the mirror. But then when facing a real person, nothing of substance comes out – just some tongue-tied jibber-jabber. Other senators may vote no, too. My local senator, Cory Gardner, voted for repeal in 2015, but now he is spinning like a weathervane in a tornado, deciding which way to vote. Focus groups, polls, the Denver Post opinion page...all far more influential than what he promised Colorado voters. No more hiding behind the skirts of Senate rules and procedures. Time to take a position. Draw that line in the sand. They wanted to be senators. So now they can do their jobs. Take a stand, and be prepared to defend it. Is it their voters they are afraid of? Or their campaign donors? It seems more like the latter, else Obamacare would have been repealed last January, consistent with their endless campaign promises. Republican senators can enrage their voters, assured that most would never vote for a Democrat. But don't forget primaries, and don't rule out voters staying home in 2018 under the assumption that their votes don't matter. All votes are for the uni-party, beholden to the establishment and donors, not the voters. Repeal won't pass the Senate. Those senators up for re-election who were "for repeal before they were against it" can seek guidance from former senators John Kerry and Hillary Clinton on how to tap-dance around their shifting votes, as those two did for their Iraq War votes. The media will blame Trump for the failed vote, as will NeverTrumps. Voters will not. They will rightly blame Congress for their ineptitude and dishonesty. Don't be surprised if Trump calls Schumer and tries to work with Democrats, since Republicans can only chase their tails. Congress abdicated taking tough votes when Obama was in the White House. No oversight. No checks and balances. No power of the purse. Instead, they sat in the bleachers, occasionally clapping or booing but doing little else. Now they are on the field. It's their turn to play. Talking out of both sides of your mouth is fine for Sunday talk shows and speeches to campaign donors. But let's see how it plays out on a national stage. Everyone is watching, just as they are with the Charlie Gard case. Death with dignity or continued life support? What will senators choose for Obamacare? Brian C Joondeph, M.D., MPS is a Denver-based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Jacqui Smith has admitted she was not up to being Home Secretary - and should have been given some proper training before she was handed the job. Ms Smith, who is likely to be remembered for claiming expenses for a porn film watched by her husband, said any success she had was down to luck rather than skill. She added: "When I became Home Secretary I'd never run a major organisation. I hope I did a good job but if I did it was more by luck than by any kind of development of skills. "I think we should have been better trained. "I think there should have been more induction." When asked by Total Politics magazine if she had worried she was not up to the job, she replied: "Every single time I was appointed to a ministerial job I thought that. I didn't sleep for a week in 1999 when I got my ministerial job." Ms Smith, who was initially a schools minister, suffered a series of scandals and crises when she became Home Secretary. She was widely regarded as being very nervous when she had to deal with a terror attack on her first day in the job in 2007. Ms Smith admitted during the interview: "I'm not sure I understood, I'm ashamed to say, when I first heard it, quite how serious it was." She was also blamed for the Damian Green affair, when police raided the Tory MP's Commons office while hunting the source of leaks from the Home Office. The ex-teacher was one of the first MPs embarrassed by her expenses after she listed a room in her sister's house as her main home when her family lived in a detached house. It was then revealed husband Richard Timney watched a porn film and she put it on expenses. She resigned last month.

Two to 7 feet: That's how much scientists expect the sea level to rise by 2100 if humanity doesn't curb its greenhouse-gas emissions. Seem like there's a rather large amount of wiggle room in that estimate? Well, even the best-case scenario is awful, as you can see in the maps below. These aquatic models, based on U.S. government data, arrive courtesy of Climate Central, a group of journalists and researchers in New Jersey. On Thursday, the organization released a report of doom showing what could happen when storm surges strike in this higher-seas environment. To boil it down: Many coastal cities are facing massive, devastating flooding. Says Climate Central: Global warming has raised global sea level about 8 inches since 1880, and the rate of rise is accelerating. Rising seas dramatically increase the odds of damaging floods from storm surges. A Climate Central analysis finds the odds of “century” or worse floods occurring by 2030 are on track to double or more, over widespread areas of the U.S. These increases threaten an enormous amount of damage. Across the country, nearly 5 million people live in 2.6 million homes at less than 4 feet above high tide — a level lower than the century flood line for most locations analyzed. Today, we can scratch our heads over the news that the island nation of Kiribati is making plans to relocate to someplace higher. But in mere decades from now, thousands of residents of New York City, New Orleans, Boston, Washington, D.C., and southeast Florida could be making similar grim preparations. These are some of the places most at risk from grand-scale floods exacerbated by climate change, according to the study. In human terms, that's 284,000 people in New Orleans whose homes could be underwater by 2100, 141,000 in NYC and 312,000 in the Florida counties of Miami-Dade and Broward.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed on Monday that the Trump administration would vigorously prosecute white-collar crime amid concerns that such cases would fall by the wayside in favor of higher-profile priorities like violent crime and illegal immigration. Mr. Sessions affirmed the department’s commitment to prosecutions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars corporations from bribing foreign officials to gain a business advantage. President Trump once called it a “horrible law.” “We will continue to enforce the F.C.P.A. and other anti-corruption laws,” Mr. Sessions said. “Companies should succeed because they provide superior products and services, not because they pay off the right people.” Mr. Sessions made his remarks at the annual conference of the Ethics and Compliance Initiative, a gathering of lawyers who internally police corporate misconduct. He acknowledged that it was unusual for an attorney general to appear before such a group, but said he wanted to send a message because “I understand there can be some uncertainty when a new administration or new leadership occurs at the Justice Department.”

USS Gabrielle Giffords commissioned in Galveston during the commissioning ceremony for the U.S.S. Gabrielle Giffords LCS-10 on Saturday, June 10, 2017, in Galveston. during the commissioning ceremony for the U.S.S. Gabrielle Giffords LCS-10 on Saturday, June 10, 2017, in Galveston. Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle Photo: Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 58 Caption Close USS Gabrielle Giffords commissioned in Galveston 1 / 58 Back to Gallery GALVESTON – A proud Gabrielle Giffords stood in front of the hulking warship, inviting thousands of onlookers to consider what it takes to survive a staredown with death. The former Arizona congresswoman beamed from a podium at Galveston's Pier 21 Saturday during the commissioning of a state-of-the-art naval vessel named to commemorate her resilience in surviving a 2011 assassination attempt. She called the namesake an "incredible honor" and thanked the U.S. armed forces for their continued sacrifices. "I thought of you in my darkest days," she said. The commissioning ceremony drew an estimated 2,200 spectators and a long roster of high-profile politicians and military leaders. Hillary Clinton, Jill Biden and Nancy Pelosi shared remarks alongside many others, each drawing parallels between Giffords' determination and the power of the ship and its crew. "Standing here, six years later, nothing gives me greater joy and honor than seeing this great ship named for someone whose strength and resilience is a great lesson to us all," Clinton said. At the start of her third congressional term, Giffords survived a deliberate, near-point-blank shot to the head in Tucson during a rampage that killed six people and wounded 12 others. When she resigned from Congress in 2012, former Navy Secretary Ray Mabus decided to name a warship for her. It's somewhat uncommon for naval vessels to be named for living people: Only 13 such ships have been commissioned since 1850, according to the Navy. This one, sponsored by Jill Biden, was the 16th to be named after a woman. The 422-foot littoral combat ship, flanked with guns and missiles, is part of a new class of high-speed vessels designed to target mines, submarines and other warships in coastal areas. It's the fifth of its kind to enter the country's naval fleet and one of 11 planned for delivery by shipbuilder Austal USA as part of a $3.5 billion contract. Craig Perciavalle, the company's U.S. president, said the vessels can travel into shallower water than other combat ships, allowing the Navy access more ports around the world. Their sleeker bodies allow them to travel faster than 45 miles per hour. "You don't see too many of these types of ships being built anywhere in the world," Perciavalle said. The ship arrived in Galveston earlier this month after launching from Mobile, Ala., where it was built. It will depart in the coming days to San Diego for regular duty. Adm. William Moran, vice chief of naval operations, said the new ship and others like it will bolster the country's ability to deter war. "If we have to go to war, we're going to kick somebody's you-know-what and win," he said. A core crew of 50 officers and enlisted men and women will serve aboard the vessel. Patty Kelso, a Navy mom, traveled from Michigan to watch her son, a lieutenant commander, report for duty. It was her first commissioning, a ceremony made more special by the high-profile attendees, she said. "We're very proud," she said. Giffords and her husband, astronaut and retired U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, have ties to the Houston area. She spent several months at TIRR Memorial Hermann recovering from the shooting, and Kelly was stationed near Galveston for 15 years during his time with NASA. Kelly accompanied Giffords on the stage and took the podium to applaud her "courage and grit." Those characteristics, he said, are the same ones sought in a warship. "Like Gabby, this ship will face down some lethal threats," he said. "But it will persevere through that adversity, and it will leave our lesser adversaries in her great wake."

Category: Cussin' In Tongues Created on Friday, 15 January 2016 Written by Steve For those of you who follow my non-gaming stuff, I just added a store section to the Brainfart Press website. I've only got the print version of Obscure Early Bluesmen (Who Never Existed) in stock right now, so you can mostly just get PDFs, but I'll be getting print books in sooner or later (and you can always order them from Amazon). Also, I figured out how to make the fixed-format books work in Kindle format, so all the Brainfart books are now available through the Kindle store. Last week, I talked about some more design goals for QAGS 3E (and later Cinemechanix). When I started, I had several ideas for how to fix the problems and make things better, which eventually led to this version of the Q3E rules. There are a lot of changes here from Second Edition, but the big changes are to how the different Words work. The target number for every roll is now either Body, Brain, or Nerve and the target numbers are never modified. Some of the other Words give you extra dice, others modify the result if the roll succeeds, and some do both, but you never roll against Job or Gimmick or anything but Body, Brain, or Nerve. When we playtested this version of the rules, it kind of worked and the new rules made more sense in terms of how the different stats worked together. Unfortunately, the game wasn't much better in terms of playability. Most of the things that confused people about earlier editions of QAGS were still there, and a few of theme were more confusing because of the different ways the stats worked. I decided to look at each remaining problem individually. Since they were first on the character sheet, I started with Body, Brain, and Nerve. The biggest problem with the Words themselves is that they cover a lot of different aspects of the character that gamers are generally used to having finer control over (especially in terms of Body). Most gamers don't want, for instance, agility and physical strength tied to the same number. In QAGS, the only way to get around the connection is by using your Gimmick or Weakness (or maybe Skills and Flaws) to define the discrepancy. Since one of the things I wanted to do with the new rules was get rid of things that were only there because they're things that games have, I started thinking about whether Body, Brain, and Nerve were even necessary. The more I considered it, the more I decided they weren't. In fiction, all characters are slightly above average in all the characteristics measured by Body, Brain, and Nerve (except for physical attractiveness; most TV and movie characters are far better-looking than real people). If a character is notably stronger, more agile, clumsier, smarter, or whatever, that's usually part of the character' shtick. The idea of getting rid of Body, Brain, and Nerve and just assuming that all characters are slightly above average (and really pretty) unless the character has some specific trait to indicate otherwise was starting to grow on me. The main problem with getting rid of Body, Brain, and Nerve was that now I didn't have a number for players to roll against. at first I thought of just setting a default target number for all rolls, but then it occurred to me that the best bet might be to get rid of the idea of a target number entirely. Instead of rolling against something, you just roll a d20. For most QAGS rolls, you've already got a Difficulty Number (either one set by the GM or an opponent's roll) that you've got to beat to succeed anyway, so you've still got a way of determining success or failure. The rolls that don't work are ones with no DN and nobody opposing the action, but if it's not difficult and nobody's trying to stop the character, why are you even rolling? Since a lot of misunderstandings about the QAGS system are rooted in the roll-under mechanic, getting rid of it entirely seemed like a good idea. The big question about getting rid of Body, Brain, and Nerve and the roll-under mechanic was "is this still QAGS?" During an earlier discussion of the integral things that made QAGS QAGS, both the specific Words and the roll-under mechanic came up. I might be able to cut one and still call it QAGS, but cutting both probably made it a different game. Still, the idea seemed to work much better than the QAGS fixes I'd come up with, so I decided to abandon the idea of a QAGS 3rd Edition in favor of creating a whole new system. Want to give me more time to work on games and dumb books about fictional blues musicians? Support me on Patreon!

In an alarming scenario, a whopping 2.8 crore cases are pending in district courts across the country which are short of nearly 5,000 judicial officers. The situation has led to suggestions in two Supreme Court reports to increase the judicial manpower “manifold” — at least seven times — to overcome the crisis by appointing about 15,000 more judges in the coming few years. The suggestions and some sharp remarks came out in two reports issued by the Supreme Court — ‘Indian Judiciary Annual Report 2015-2016’ and ‘Subordinate Courts of India: A Report on Access to Justice 2016’– which also highlighted that nearly 15,000 more judges would be required in next three year to overcome this critical situation. Watch What Else Is Making News: Advertising Data showed that district courts across the country are grappling with a backlog of 2,81,25,066 civil and criminal cases in the period between July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. But a large number of matters, 1,89,04,222, were also disposed off during the period. One of the key reasons for the huge figure of pending litigation is the shortage of judges in subordinate courts which is “a cause of concern”, as there are 4,954 judges’ posts vacant when the sanctioned strength of judicial officers was 21,324, the report on subordinate courts said. “Based on the study and keeping in mind the future growth in institution of cases, it is found that the present judge strength is insufficient to deal with a huge figure of pendency of cases, which is a cause of concern. Advertising “Additional judicial manpower and support staff, as well as infrastructure is required immediately to handle the situation,” the report said. In the backdrop of the tussle between the judiciary and the executive over appointments of judges and infrastructure, the report came out with sharp remarks over the failure of the government in dealing with these issues. “The immediate requirement itself shows that enough has not been done to increase the judges strength of the subordinate judiciary. The State is obliged to carry out the decisions of the Apex Court and increase the Judge-Population Ratio to 50 per million as held in the All India Judges Association case. “The present judge strength is sufficient just to handle the fresh cases filed each year which ensures constancy of pendency figures. It is necessary to understand and predict that case filing patterns would change in future and device methods to keep pendency in manageable limits,” it said. The report on the subordinate judiciary also referred to the recent data of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) which showed that with the present strength of judicial officers in district courts, trial in only approximately 13 per cent cases was completed under the IPC during a year. “This clearly shows that the existing strength of judicial officers needs to be enhanced at least seven times so that trial is completed within a period of one year,” the report said, adding that the “judicial manpower needs to be augmented manifold to cater to the situation”. The figures complied in the annual report till June 30 last year show that the district courts in Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were the worst affected as they were short of 794, 792 and 624 judges respectively. While the sanctioned strength of judges in lower courts in Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is 1953, 1825 and 2394 respectively, the number of working judicial officers are only 1159, 1033 and 1770 respectively. The difference is also huge in Delhi where the total sanctioned strength is 793 while there were only 486 working judges, with 307 positions being vacant. The data on vacancy of judges shows that trial courts in Northeastern states of Sikkim, Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya, were the only ones where the vacant positions were the least, with 4, 11, 29 and 16 vacancies respectively. Expressing concern over the figures of pending cases, the report compiled on subordinate judiciary said that in the next three years, an additional 14,597 judicial officers and sanctioned judge strength of 35,155 are required in the trial courts to cater to the problem. According to the annual report, district courts in Uttar Pradesh peaked in the pendency of cases at 58.8 lakh, including 43.73 lakh criminal cases. However, these courts also disposed of the maximum number of cases at 34.83 lakh. Maharashtra had the second highest tally of pending cases across states with a backlog of 31.8 lakh matters, which include 20.39 lakh criminal and 11.4 lakh civil, followed by West Bengal at 26.95 lakh, Bihar at 20.88 lakh and Gujarat at 20.56 lakh undecided ones. The pendency in Delhi stood at 5.98 lakh, comprising 4.32 lakh criminal and 1.65 lakh civil matters. The courts in the capital, however, disposed of 6.45 lakh cases by June 2016. Besides Delhi, seven states were found with higher disposal rate, with Tripura and Himachal Pradesh deciding over 58 per cent of the cases. Other five states which disposed of over 51 per cent cases are Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Assam. Highlighting the importance of judiciary and timely delivery of justice, the report said “justice is one critical component of citizenship which cannot be neglected. “Overworked judges, overburdened court staff, chronic shortage of court-space and unending wait to justice does not complement the policies of the State.” Advertising “The role of a robust judiciary in a nation’s development is pivotal. With development and a corresponding growth in litigation, more judges will certainly be required to handle the same so that justice is done in its truest possible sense,” it said.

Rosetta spacecraft's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera obtained this close-up detail of a smooth region on the "base" of the "body" section of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on August 6, 2014. It's only been a few hours since Europe's Rosetta spacecraft arrived at a comet in deep space, but the robotic probe is already beaming incredible close-up photos of its target. The latest images from the Rosetta probe reveal details on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko like never before. House-size boulders can be seen on the surface of the comet, and the "neck," "body" and "head of the dirty snowball are all on stark display. The photos were taken when Rosetta was about 81 miles (130 kilometers) away from the comet. "We've arrived. Ten years we've been in the car waiting to get to scientific Disneyland, and we haven't even gotten out of the car yet and look at what's outside the window," Mark McCaughrean, senior scientific adviser with the ESA's Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration, said during a webcast of the Rosetta's comet arrival today (Aug. 6). "It's just astonishing." [Europe's Rosetta Probe's Historic Comet Arrival (Video)] Rosetta spacecraft's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera obtained this close-up detail of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on August 6, 2014. The comet’s "head" lies at the left, casting shadows onto the "neck" and "body" to the right. (Image: © ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA) And McCaughrean wasn't alone in his enthusiasm at Rosetta's mission operations center in Darmstadt, Germany. "This is a very, very emotional moment," Holger Sierks, the principal investigator for Rosetta's OSIRIS instrument, said during the webcast. "You see a lot of detail coming out here. We see the bright areas. We see the head. We see the depression and a lot of stuff laid out there. We see the sides, the body, the lower body of the nucleus and a lot of detail." Both Rosetta and Comet 67P/C-G are flying in tandem at about 251 million miles (405 million km) from Earth. Rosetta set off on its quest to link up with the comet in 2004, traveling about 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km) before making its historic rendezvous with the comet this morning.While today does mark an event 10 years in the making, it is just the beginning of the mission for many ESA scientists. ESA officials still need to find a suitable landing spot for the Philae lander, a robotic craft that hitched a ride with Rosetta to the comet. Philae (named for an obelisk found on an island in the Nile River) is designed to touch down on the surface of Comet 67P/G-C to learn more about the composition and properties of the 2.5-mile-wide (4 km) comet. Rosetta spacecraft obtained this 330 second exposure of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. from a distance of 342 miles (550 km). The comet nucleus was saturated to bring out detail. Note a ghost image floats at the right. (Image: © ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA) Mission controllers will now put Rosetta into a triangular orbit around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G) before moving the probe closer to the comet. Eventually, Rosetta will move into an even tighter circular orbit to release its lander down to the comet's surface in November. The $1.7 billion (1.3 billion euros) Rosetta mission is expected to end in December 2015 when the spacecraft moves away from Comet 67P/C-G. Before the end of the mission, however, Rosetta will accompany the comet as it makes its closest pass of the sun in its 6.5-year orbit. During that close pass, the probe should be able to observe the comet in a very active state. "After landing, Rosetta will continue to accompany the comet until its closest approach to the sun in August 2015 and beyond, watching its behavior from close quarters to give us a unique insight and real-time experience of how a comet works as it hurtles around the sun," Matt Taylor, Rosetta project scientist, said in a statement. Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

News from gaming insider Pete Doss is that Microsoft is mulling significant changes to the restrictions it places on developers regarding the Xbox One's GPU. Reportedly, some 10% of total GPU horsepower is reserved for the Kinect -- 8% for video and 2% for voice processing. Microsoft is apparently planning changes that would free up that 8% video entirely, leaving just 2% of the system's GPU dedicated to voice input.If Microsoft makes this change, it could have a significant uplift on system frame rates -- and it's not clear that developers would necessarily need to patch the architecture to take advantage of the difference. Generally speaking, in the PC realm, swapping between two GPUs within the same architectural family doesn't require a driver update provided both cards were covered in the previous driver.It's not clear how flexible the Xbox One is in this regard, but early adopters might see benefits from this change without even needing to update their software (past the patch that releases the additional resources). The reason for the shift is almost certainly the fact that the Xbox One has gotten chewed on by the PS4 over variance in frame rate. The details vary from game to game, but in the recently-released Tomb Raider (for both PS4 and Xbox One), multiple independent reports indicate that the Xbox One is running closer to 30 FPS, while the PS4 is pushing 60 FPS.Generally speaking, yes. 10% is considered the rough marker for noticeable improvements, though this can vary depending on what form the speed improvement takes. The eye is very sensitive to changes in rate-of-movement, which is why latency hitches and jerks are far more annoying than a steady slow frame rate. Most people will take a constant 30 FPS over a 40 FPS average frame rate that bounces between 20 and 60 FPS, and this sensitivity is why -- our brains evolved to notice sudden changes in motion because it's one of the best ways to avoid being something else's lunch.But what Microsoft is also tacitly admitting with this move is that the Kinect just isn't important to people the way it wanted it to be. Giving developers the freedom to use the extra horsepower sucked down by the Kinect is a good thing for developers and gamers, but it also means that at least these first games aren't using the Xbox hardware to create the kind of alternative gaming environments Microsoft wanted.It also may be a sign that coders are having trouble ringing full power out of the Xbox One in general. Digital Foundry recently did a test of the 13GB Dead Rising 3 patch, with extensive performance comparisons before and after the patch was applied. Despite the developer's promises, they found no significant differences between the two in gameplay or in cut-scenes.The gap between the GPU performance of the Xbox One and PS4 isn't sufficient, on its own, to explain why the PS4 is pushing 60 FPS while the Xbox One can't manage much above 30 FPS. We suspect that these issues are tied to the difficulty of leveraging the Xbox One's SRAM as compared to the PS4's unified approach. Future titles should exhibit less of a gap as developers get their legs underneath them and learn the system architectures.

Microsoft, Apple, and every maker of mobile and desktop apps on the planet all have a problem: The moment they issue a security “patch,” or an update to their software designed to plug a hole that could be exploited by hackers, those same hackers work feverishly to reverse-engineer that patch in order to figure out what vulnerability it’s designed to stop. Armed with that knowledge, malicious hackers can then attack whatever PCs, servers or mobile phones have yet to update their software with the new patch. “It can take days or months for a patch to reach most of the vulnerable machines,” says Amit Sahai, a professor of computer science at UCLA. And while this wasn’t specifically the problem Sahai set out to solve when he embarked on his latest research in cryptography, it’s one of the many potential implications of the ground-breaking work he and his team have just unveiled. What Sahai and a team of researchers at UCLA, IBM Research, and UT-Austin have created is a method for encrypting software and running it in that encrypted state. In the past, researchers have known that it’s possible to encrypt messages (this is how all secure communication on the web, bank transactions, etc. work) but it was not known whether or not it was possible to encrypt software in a way that it could still run even without being decrypted. Sahai’s “mathematical jigsaw puzzle” approach accomplishes this and, he says, adds a whole new class of protectable secret to the world of cryptography. “The basic scientific question here is, what type of things can have secrets?” says Sahai. “People can have secrets—if you don’t tell me something, that’s a secret. And if you encrypt a message, that’s a secret. But can a piece of software have a secret? Can you have a computer agent that goes from one computer to another computer, that is just code, that moves around with its own secrets? Is that even possible?” Sahai’s software creates what he describes as a “multilinear jigsaw puzzle” that makes any attempts to reverse engineer the software return nothing but nonsense. Regular software can be fed into the system, and the resulting jumbled code can be run on any computer. Sahai and colleagues’ peer-reviewed paper on their research will be presented at a meeting of computer scientists in October. Collaborators included Sanjam Garg, Craig Gentry, Shai Halevi, Mariana Raykova, Amit Sahai and Brent Waters. Previous research has attempted to obfuscate the code of software to make it more difficult to reverse-engineer, but these efforts could only slow down, not stop, an attacker. Sahai’s method results in software that would take “hundreds of years” to decrypt so that it could be reverse-engineered. Sahai notes that encrypting software patches is just one of many potential applications for his work, which he describes as very basic science. “This is not something we thought of as being possible before, and we’re only starting to understand some of the implications it might have.”

Don Norman's seminal book on design, The Design of Everyday Things, was motivated by the same issue. Published 25 years ago, it remains just as relevant today. Doors shouldn't need instructions like this: The shape of them, if made well, could guide you through just fine. When most people complain about something, nothing happens. But Norman is not most people — he's a psychologist and cognitive scientist. So his writing about his complaints is so incredibly thorough that he changed the way design works. And the "human-centered design" revolution he sparked changed not only how designers work, but also how people in fields like public health work to make the world a better place. This is why Melinda Gates believes human-centered design is one change that could save the world. To find out what all this has to do with crappy doors, watch the video above.

Singapore Launching Autonomous Bus Pilot Program In Jurong West October 21st, 2016 by James Ayre A new autonomous bus pilot project has been launched in Singapore. The new driverless bus trial is to be based around routes between Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and CleanTech Park, and also possibly the Pioneer MRT station. The Land Transport Authority and NTU’s Energy Research Institute will be conducting the pilot in accordance with an agreement signed on October 19th. This agreement follows a “Request for Information” exercise on autonomous mobility concepts called for a while back by the Land Transport Authority. The move also follows the recent start of a driverless taxi pilot in Singapore. Here’s more from some regional coverage on the subject: “NTU is one of the first research institutions to have trialled a self-driving electric shuttle within the campus and CleanTech Park since 2013. It will now translate that know-how to develop two electric hybrid buses, equipping the vehicles with sensors and other capabilities to allow them to operate without a driver. The 12m-long buses could potentially ferry people between NTU and CleanTech Park in the Jurong Innovation District, to even Pioneer MRT station in the future. The single-deck buses can accommodate about 80 passengers. The vehicles will also be equipped to charge at a bus stop or depot.” “Current efforts worldwide have been focused on cars,” stated Professor Lam Khin Yong, NTU Chief of Staff and Vice-President of Research. “So, this autonomous bus trial is the first of its kind in Singapore that will aim to improve road safety, reduce vehicle congestion, alleviate pollution and address manpower challenges.”

UPDATE (9/24/14):Alright I finished it. It's not quite perfect. The hands are still just a little off. It's hard to animate hands who would have thunk? I also got photoshop to cooperate so now it loops! I hope you like this .gif. It's the first one I've made and I think that it turned out nicely! This is the first animation I've done with Equestria Girls. It's based off of a sequence from one of the Rainbow Rocks trailers. I recreated the little dance she does. It wasn't a perfect loop in the trailer, so I had to add some frames to make it loop. Sunset's hair is a nightmare to animate. It's also the first time I've made a .gif in photoshop. I can't quite figure it out. It keeps dropping the 24th frame for some reason. I'm tired though, so I'll figure it out later. I also need to change the hands to make them flow better. Anyways 3 days until Rainbow Rocks!

A would-be contestant on America's Next Top Model has admitted to authorities in Alabama that she faked her own abduction in a poorly conceived effort to win back the affection of her estranged boyfriend. Kayla B. Earl of Hueytown was found by a Jefferson County sheriff's deputy lying in the dirt by the side of the road near a Pleasant Grove cemetery this past Tuesday. Earl, who had a Walmart bag over her head and appeared unconscious, was taken by emergency workers to be examined at a nearby hospital. After being released she told detectives that a man had approached her from behind while she was visiting the gravesite of a friend, and placed a bag over her head. He then grabbed her and a struggle ensued. Earl was able to break loose, and fled to the roadway where she was discovered, ostensibly passed out. After several hours of investigation that included a review of surveillance footage and the alleged victim's cellphone records, detectives confronted Earl and she confessed to making the whole thing up. Earl reportedly admitted she was "trying to lure back her estranged boyfriend with sympathy." "She even said she put the bag on her head to make it look like someone tried to suffocate her," Pleasant Grove Detective Jason Davis told AL.com. "She is going through some personal problems. Between that and wanting attention, it turns out none of this happened." Earl turned herself in yesterday afternoon and was charged with misdemeanor False Reporting to Law Enforcement. Earlier this year, a man in Arkansas tried to impress a love interest by staging a fake rape attempt. Jeffery Tyler Siegel's hoax ended in similar disgrace, but, unlike Earl, he was not charged with a crime. [H/T: Guyism, photos via Model Mayhem, mug shot via AL.com]

Right after their "orgy of mutual loathing," also known as the final presidential debate, Clinton and Trump attended the annual Al Smith Dinner in New York. Unfortunately, neither was pleasant for the presidential nominees. "The event forced them almost as close together as Maria Bartiromo's show stealing ta-tas," joked "Full Frontal" host Samantha Bee. "Was it awkward, no, not at all," the host added before playing a clip of Trump accusing Hillary of pretending to hate Catholics and getting kicked off the Watergate Commission, for which he was booed by the Al Smith audience. "Trump shocked a Catholic cardinal, and cardinals have seen some sick sh*t," Bee pointed out. But while the Catholic church may be a powerful peacemaker, "their big growth lately is in hospital mergers," she revealed. Catholic hospitals have become the largest non-profit healthcare provider in the US, with 1 out of every 6 patients in the US being cared for by a Catholic hospital. SPONSORED Make no mistake, "Catholic hospitals provide excellent care until your medical needs conflict with their dogma," Bee continued. Unfortunately, this also means that these hospitals can no longer provide abortions even if the mother's life is in danger, perform sterilization or provide contraception. "Decisions affecting millions of vaginas are being determined by people who have never owned one or touched one," blasted Bee. The host then revealed a horrifying tale that sounds right out of the Middle ages, in which a nun was excommunicated for saving a life… in modern day Arizona. Watch:

U.S. equities traded sharply higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average climbing above 21,000 for the first time, on the back of President Donald Trump's speech to Congress. The Dow advanced more than 200 points with Goldman Sachs contributing the most gains. The 30-stock index first closed above 20,000 on Jan. 25. The S&P 500 climbed 1 percent, with financials rising 2.58 percent to lead advancers. The Nasdaq jumped 0.97 percent. Trump's speech, which was delivered Tuesday night, was widely praised for its positive tone but lacked specifics about tax reform and deregulation, two key components of the market's postelection rally. Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial, said the speech's tone "has gone a long way for the market" as it "assuaged fears that his agenda was not going to be able to be passed." Dow futures soared more than 150 points ahead of the open, while S&P and Nasdaq futures advanced 18 and 34 points, respectively. "While it's understandable that these things take time to plan and implement properly, markets have been way ahead of the game since Trump's victory and there comes a time when we need to know exactly what they're rallying on," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, in a note. Equities had closed lower on Tuesday, with the Dow snapping a 12-day winning streak.

And the unrelenting march of Doom continues. Not content with running the classic 1993 shooter on a platter of banal machines such as toasters, Kodak digital cameras, and even billboard trucks, one enthusiast has now forged one… hot…new device to play Doom on: a thermostat. In a YouTube video spotted by Hackaday, user cz7 asm unveils their Doomostat—a Honeywell Prestige thermostat hooked up to a SNES controller that appears to run Doom quite nicely. "An outcome of my recent project—porting Doom on a thermostat," explains cz7 asm. "A really nice piece of hardware on a well engineered board using ARM9 processor. The Doom engine is based on Chocolate Doom and also its STM32F429 port." Read more: A Catalogue of All the Devices That Can Somehow Run Doom Chocolate Doom is an open source port of the Doom game, and as Motherboard explained last year, numerous other modified versions of the game's source code have been created and released. There's even a Tumblr blog dedicated to all of the devices that can run Doom. I guess we can now finally add 'thermostat' to that growing list. Why does it run Doom? We do not know. But can it run Doom? Yes it can. Subscribe to Science Solved It, Motherboard's new show about the greatest mysteries that were solved by science.

Share 0 SHARES The Chelsea legend will play against his former club tonight in the Champions League last-16 tie. Didier Drogba is set to make his return to Stamford Bridge tonight, lining out for Galatasaray in what is expected to be a highly charged and emotional occasion. The Turkish club come to London with a 1-1 result from the first leg of the tie, but Drogba has been at the centre of the media’s focus. In an interview with the media yesterday he professed his love once more for his ex-club and answered some tough questions. “Of course I won’t celebrate if I score, but the fans have given so much in the past, so I dedicate my first dive to them,” said an emotional Drogba. The forward would not confirm what minute the dive would happen in but refused to deny he would use his trademark pivot, twist and throw technique which has won him fans all over the world. “Chelsea are in my heart, so it is the least I can do on my return,” concluded Drogba before throwing himself to the ground in the middle of the press conference after a particularly strong draft entered the room through an open door, grazing the Ivorian’s chin. Meanwhile, Chelsea boss Jose Mourinhno continued to refuse to discuss the weekend’s loss at Aston Villa. He did, however, speculate that were his players to go out and violently murder THE VATICAN responded to a scientific find yesterday- proving the existence of the big bang – by claiming the theory is probably explained in those ‘dead sea scrolls they found last week’. A statement from the Catholic church read that enigmatic ripples, found in deep space by researchers in the South Pole, were probably already documented somewhere by the Almighty, and stated that God should not be ruled out as the creator of the Universe just yet. “We’re always finding out new pieces of the bible,” explained Cardinal Giovanni Corsica. “It’s no coincident that nine new dead sea scrolls were found in Israel last Wednesday, just one week before this so-called scientific breakthrough. “We expect the bit about the big bang will be in the documents.” The penny-sized pieces of parchment, believed to be part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, will be sent to a Vatican sponsored research facility in Italy, where they will be translated by a specially trained team of linguists, capable of deciphering ancient hebrew text. “I’m sure the whole thing will be easily explained in the new scrolls.” added the Vatican spokesperson. “People are so quick to debunk God these days. Even that dark-matter thing in 2012, and now this; there’s always someone picking holes in our religion.” In May 2012, then pope Benedict slammed the dark matter theory, claiming it was an absolute fairy tale to think the Universe could be made, and then held together by an invisible force.someone or die of cancer in 40 years time the blame would lie directly with referee Chris Foy. More to follow as we get it…

456.000000000000 Eye concerns in newborn babies Eye concerns in newborn babies E English Neonatology Newborn (0-28 days) Eyes NA Conditions and diseases Adult (19+) Eye discomfort and redness;Itchy eyes;Vision problems 2009-10-18T04:00:00Z Hazel Pleasants, RN, MNAndrew James, MBChB, FRACP, FRCPC 8.00000000000000 67.8000000000000 475.000000000000 Flat Content Health A-Z <p>Learn about a number of eye concerns that can arise in newborn babies. Uncoordinated eyes, crossed eyes and teary eyes are discussed.</p> <p>Newborn babies are able to follow a light with their eyes and turn toward lights. They are very near-sighted at first, and they can focus best on things that are within 25 cm (10 inches) of their faces. Their vision improves over the first three months. Don’t worry if your newborn baby can’t see the mobile hanging in their crib right away. In time, their ability to focus will improve and they will be able to see clearly.</p> <h2>Key points</h2> <ul><li>Newborn babies are very near-sighted at first and have trouble focusing on objects further away.</li> <li>Eye conditions that affect newborns include uncoordinated eyes, crossed eyes and teary eyes.</li></ul> <p>There are a few things that you might be concerned about, with regard to your newborn baby’s eyes: uncoordinated eyes, crossed eyes, and teary eyes. </p><h2>Uncoordinated eyes</h2><p>Your newborn baby’s eye movements may not be well coordinated at first. Their eyes may move independently of each other, and this is perfectly normal. It takes time for your newborn baby to learn to use their eyes and strengthen their eye muscles. The problem should resolve itself by the time your baby is three months old. If by this time your baby still has problems with their eye coordination, make sure to bring this to your doctor’s attention. </p><h2>Crossed eyes</h2><p>Sometimes the extra folds of skin in the inner corner of the eyes can make the eyes look crossed. As the baby grows, the folds will retract and the eyes will look more even. Some babies do have truly crossed eyes, which needs to be treated early. Ignoring crossed eyes can lead to a condition called lazy eye, where the child depends on one eye and the unused eye becomes weaker. </p><h2>Teary eyes</h2><p>At first, newborn babies do not have the capability to produce tears when they cry. This ability develops toward the end of the first month. Around this time, some newborn babies develop a blocked tear duct, which is a blockage of the pathway that carries tears from the eye to the nose. The eye may seem constantly teary, with tears spilling over at times, even when the newborn baby is not crying. Usually the eye is not red and the eyelid is not swollen. Blocked tear ducts usually clear up by the end of the first year, but your doctor may recommend helping it along by massaging the inner corner of the eye. However, if the eye becomes red or swollen, it could be a sign of infection, and you should have your baby seen by a doctor. If the blockage lasts past the first year, an ophthalmologist may need to be seen to help open up the blockage. </p> https://assets.aboutkidshealth.ca/AKHAssets/eye_concerns_newborn_babies.jpg Eye concerns in newborn babies False

Dev Blog: Grotesque Guardians The Slayer Tower is the quintessential killing grounds for PvM, but after 15 years it still has not been fully explored. What resides atop the tower? Changelog (24/07/2017) Granite dust & balls are now being offered as untradeable items. 'Black tourmaline shards' renamed to 'black tourmaline core'. 'Grotesque boots' renamed to 'guardian boots' and stats tweaked. Added granite gloves drop. Added granite ring drop. Added granite hammer drop. Revised the stats offered by the Granite Ring. The Ranged Defence of the ring has been significantly improved. Slayer bosses have always proved popular with our PvM community, but because of their high Slayer level requirements many of our mid-levels PVM’ers have been left wanting. Gargoyles are one of the most popular Slayer assignments to receive. They're a true milestone in the skill, and are a lucrative task to complete. By introducing a new slayer boss available at level 75, not only do we bring a bit more excitement to a Gargoyle task, but we can provide our community with the sustainable, mid-level Slayer boss that you have requested in the past. The Grotesque Guardians Sculpted from Granite and mobilized with inscribed, black tourmaline hearts, the Guardians atop Vigorra’s Fortress were a testament to the talents of humankind. An effigy of grace and rebirth, the Guardian of Dawn kept watch to the east. A monument to service and fortitude, the Guardian of Dusk defended the west. As the tower fell to ruin, rising decay engulfed the fortress’s foundations, eating its way up, through stone and timber until finally, it enveloped and embittered the Guardians’ black hearts. Legends say these Grotesque Guardians sit lifelessly, crumbling; disfigured by this corrosion. Conversely, chronicles dating back to the Zamorakian occupation of the tower describe thunderous footsteps trembling the roof on stormy nights. For hundreds of years, the truth has remained elusive until recently, when speculation begun to arise about a lost entrance to the Slayer Tower’s roof. Reaching the Roof Unique Drops Granite Dust Black Tourmaline Core & Guardian Boots Granite Ring Granite Gloves Granite Hammer Please note: An attack rate of 4 is the same attack rate as a scimitar. Poll Questions Thank you all for your feedback on the content of this blog. We've sat down and discussed what has come through, and have updated the developer blog with the following changes:You can see the details of each change in the updated blog below. We will continue to follow your feedback, and plan to open the Grotesque Guardian poll laterWhen a player has been assigned a gargoyle slayer task, a rare, brittle key will drop from gargoyles on death. Brittle keys cannot be traded.A Brittle Key willthe Slayer Tower roof when it is used on the roof's door, located on the tower’s 2nd floor.Once unlocked, and only when on a Gargoyle assignment, you will be able to face the Grotesque Guardians in place of regular gargoyles.Granite dust can be applied to cannonballs in order tofrom. Granite dust is stackable, and so are granite-coated cannonballs. However,Creating granite-coated cannonballs is done by using granite dust on cannonballs. Combining the two has no requirements, and can be done with any quantity. It is not possible to reverse this.against the Grotesque Guardians will result in a granite dust drop. The quantity dropped may vary, but each kill will provide a base amount.Black tourmaline cores are rare drops from the Grotesque Guardians. They can be attached to Bandos boots to createRequiring 75 Defence to equip, guardian boots provide a strong defensive boost in combat, and offer a noteworthy counterpart to the offensive stats of primordial boots.If you're looking for a defensive ring to wear in Old School, you've not got too many options at lower levels. We'd like to offer the granite ring as a drop from Grotesque Guardians.The granite ring offers low defensive bonuses across the board, with the exception of a modest ranged defence which comes at the expense of magic defense. It requires level 50 Defence to equip. The ring can be imbued in the Nightmare Zone and as a result will see its stats doubled.If you're struggling to find a ring, this one might fit the bill until you are able to get your hands on a ring of suffering.Granite gloves offer appealing stats for a mid-level,pair of gloves.These stats place them quite close to adamant gloves, but unlike adamant gloves they requireto equip and have a bit more focus on crush and defence.Requiringto equip, the granite hammer is an excellent primary weapon for low level players.It also comes with an offensive special attack, allowing you to increase the damage of your next hit by 5, and increase its accuracy by 50%. When equipped it will auto-smash Gargoyles (akin to the Gargoyle Smasher perk), though it will act as an ordinary rock hammer when in the inventory, unless of course you do have the Gargoyle Smasher perk unlocked.We'll be polling the Gargoyle boss onnext week. The following questions will be included in the poll:: Should the Grotesque Guardians, as described in the Grotesque Guardians developer blog, be added to Old School RuneScape?: If the Grotesque Guardians are added, should granite dust be offered as a drop? Granite dust is useable on cannonballs to increase their max hit from 30 to 35. Granite dust and cannonballs would be untradeable. [Image] : If the Grotesque Guardians are added, should Black Tourmaline Cores be offered as a drop? This core could be attached to bandos boots to create a new best-in-slot pair of defensive boots, requiring level 75 Defence to equip. [Image] : If the Grotesque Guardians are added, should the granite ring be offered as a drop? This ring requires level 50 Defence to equip and offers small defensive melee bonuses, with a larger ranged defence bonus. The ring can be imbued in the Nightmare Zone and as a result will see its stats doubled. [Image] : If the Grotesque Guardians are added, should the granite hammer be offered as a drop? This weapon requires level 50 Attack and Strength to equip and acts as a primary crush weapon. It can also be used in place of a rock hammer and when equipped will auto-smash Gargoyles. [Image] : If the Grotesque Guardians are added, should the granite gloves be offered as a drop? These gloves require level 50 Defence to equip. [Image] : Should marble gargoyles have their models updated as part of this update?If the Grotesque Guardians were to pass, we would be aiming for releaseAs always, we are keen to hear your thoughts on the content of this post and are happy to make changes based on your feedback!On Thursday, Mods Ghost, Kieren, Roq and Wolf did a Let's Design stream featuring the Grotesque Guardians. Over the course of the day Mod Ghost worked on a model for a guardian, as well as answering many questions about the content.: This stream was recorded prior to today's changes being made. Some of the details mentioned in this stream may not be fully up-to-date, and the content of this blog should be used as the most up-to-date source of information.You can see the full recording of this stream below:Discuss this update on our forums

From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia. Excadrill (Japanese: ドリュウズ Doryuzu) is a dual-type Ground/Steel Pokémon introduced in Generation V. It evolves from Drilbur starting at level 31. Biology Excadrill has a dark brown body with diagonal, red splotches. Three markings are on its front, with two under each arm, and two on its back. It has short legs with small, narrow feet, each containing three toes. Its small white face is long and thin, tipped by its pink nose. Its eyes are set back, on either side of the bridge of the nose. Under them, on each side, are two thin, red stripes. A large blade roughly twice as large as its face extends from its forehead. The top of the blade contains two smaller blades, resembling fins. Its arms are thick and have three large blades instead of fingers, with two smaller blades on top of the middle ones. On its knees, halfway down its arm, and just behind where its forehead meets its face, are small red spots. Excadrill can straighten its entire body, allowing it to spin like a drill. It has the ability to cut through iron and steel plating. It uses its excellent digging abilities to build complex tunnels for its nest at more than 300 feet (100 meters) below the surface. Its tunneling can be both beneficial and harmful to humans, as it can help workers with its swift digging prowess, but it can be detrimental to underground structures, such as Subway tunnels. In the anime In the main series Major appearances Excadrill debuted in The Bloom Is on Axew!, under the ownership of Iris. It is a powerful Pokémon, but when it first appeared, Excadrill was disobedient. However, in Iris and Excadrill Against the Dragon Buster!, the cause of the disobedience was discovered: when Iris battled Drayden with Excadrill, it was defeated by his Haxorus, which left him disillusioned and changed his obedient and happy personality. After some training with Iris, Excadrill became obedient once again. An Excadrill appeared in Battling the King of the Mines!, under the ownership of Clay. It was used to battle Ash in a Gym battle, and it was able to defeat Snivy. It then battled Roggenrola, but it was defeated when Roggenrola evolved into Boldore. Minor appearances An Excadrill appeared in Kyurem VS. The Sword of Justice, during the Swords of Justice legend. Pokédex entries Episode Pokémon Source Entry BW009 Excadrill Ash's Pokédex Excadrill, the Subterrene Pokémon, and the evolved form of Drilbur. Excadrill can dig maze-like underground tunnels for over 100 meters and is powerful enough to cut through thick iron plates using its steel claws. This concludes the entries from the Best Wishes series. In Pokémon Generations Clay's Excadrill appeared in The Uprising. In the manga In the Be the Best! Pokémon B+W manga In The Battle for More Friends!, Monta captured one using his Snivy. In the Pokémon RéBURST manga Hilgreitz has an Excadrill which he can use as a Burst form. In the Pokémon Adventures manga A Trainer's Excadrill appeared in a fantasy in Black's First Trainer Battle. Clay has an Excadrill which was first seen in Lights, Camera...Action! digging up a mysterious stone at the Desert Resort. An Excadrill appeared in a fantasy Hallway Hijinks. In the Pokémon Pocket Monsters manga Clay owns an Excadrill in Pocket Monsters BW. In the TCG Game data NPC appearances Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity: Four Excadrill serve as several of the main antagonists under the guidance of Munna who actively try to prevent the player from saving the world alongside Toxicroak, two Gigalith, and a Purugly. Pokédex entries This Pokémon was unavailable prior to Generation V. Generation V Black It can help in tunnel construction. Its drill has evolved into steel strong enough to bore through iron plates. White More than 300 feet below the surface, they build mazelike nests. Their activity can be destructive to subway tunnels. Black 2 Forming a drill with its steel claws and head, it can bore through a steel plate, no matter how thick it is. White 2 Generation VI X It can help in tunnel construction. Its drill has evolved into steel strong enough to bore through iron plates. Y More than 300 feet below the surface, they build mazelike nests. Their activity can be destructive to subway tunnels. Omega Ruby It can help in tunnel construction. Its drill has evolved into steel strong enough to bore through iron plates. Alpha Sapphire More than 300 feet below the surface, they build mazelike nests. Their activity can be destructive to subway tunnels. Game locations In side games Held items Stats Base stats Stat Range At Lv. 50 At Lv. 100 HP : 110 170 - 217 330 - 424 Attack : 135 126 - 205 247 - 405 Defense : 60 58 - 123 112 - 240 Sp.Atk : 50 49 - 112 94 - 218 Sp.Def : 65 63 - 128 121 - 251 Speed : 88 83 - 154 162 - 302 Total: 508 Other Pokémon with this total Minimum stats are calculated with 0 EVs , IVs of 0, and a hindering nature , if applicable. Maximum stats are calculated with 252 EVs, IVs of 31, and a helpful nature, if applicable. Type effectiveness Learnset By a prior evolution Generation VII Other generations: V - VI Stage Move Type Cat. Pwr. Acc. PP This Pokémon has no moves exclusive to prior evolutions. Bold indicates a move that gets STAB when used by Excadrill indicates a move that gets when used by Excadrill Italic indicates a move that gets STAB only when used by an evolution of Excadrill indicates a move that gets STAB only when used by an evolution of Excadrill Click on the generation numbers at the top to see moves from other generations Side game data Evolution Sprites Trivia A screenshot depicting Excadrill's earlier design Origin Excadrill is based on a mole with characteristics of digging tools such as shovels and drills. Name origin Excadrill might be a combination of excavate and drill. Doryuzu may be a combination of ドリル drill, meaning "drill", 竜 ryū as in on'yomi reading of 土竜 doryū, meaning "mole", and 渦 uzu, meaning "spiral" or "swirl". In other languages Language Title Meaning Japanese ドリュウズ Doryuzu From ドリル drill, 竜 ryu , and 渦 uzu French Minotaupe From mine, taupe , and minotaure Spanish Excadrill Same as English name German Stalobor From Stahl and Bohrer Italian Excadrill Same as English name Korean 몰드류 Moldryu From mole, drill, and screw Cantonese Chinese Mandarin Chinese 龍頭地鼠 / 龙头地鼠 Lóngtóudìshǔ From the Japanese 竜頭 ryūzu , 地 dì , 鼠 shǔ , and 地鼠 dìshǔ . More languages Russian Экскадрилл Ekskadrill Transcription of English name Related articles

H.R. 3922 extends funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) through FY2019, and revises CHIP and Medicaid. Specifically the bill: Extends funding through FY2022 for CHIP allotments, as well as the Child Enrollment Contingency Fund, the Childhood Obesity Demonstration Project, and Pediatric Quality Measures Program, and specified outreach and enrollment grants; Reauthorizes through FY2022 the qualifying-states option and the express-land eligibility option; Extends funding through FY2019 for FQHCs through the Community Health Center Fund; Extends funding through FY2019 for the National Health Service Corps, Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education, Family-to-Family Health Information Centers, the Youth Empowerment Program, and the Personal Responsibility Education Program; Allows state CHIP programs to adopt more restrictive eligibility standards with respect to children in families whose income exceeds 300% of the poverty line who have an offer of employer-sponsored insurance; Ensures the unwinding of the enhanced Federal Matching Assistance Percentage (E-FMAP) for child-health assistance by not extending the E-FMAP beyond FY2019, providing a 11.5 percent E-FMAP in FY2020, and returning to the traditional pre-ACA CHIP matching rate in FY2021 and FY2022; Eliminates Medicaid payment reductions for disproportionate-share hospitals (DSH allotments) in FY2018 and FY2019, and offsets the cost of this policy with new additional reductions in FY2021 through FY2023; Increases Medicaid funding for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands through FY2019 and allows funding be further increased through 2019 if the oversight board certifies Puerto Rico takes specific actions to improve its Medicaid program’s quality, integrity, and accountability; Allows states to define their grace period requirements for patients receiving advance premium tax credits (APTCs) and cost sharing reductions (CSRs) or move to a default of one month; Redirects Prevention and Public Health Fund dollars to support critical prevention and public health programs in this bill; Improves current law related to third-party liability under Medicaid and CHIP to save Medicaid and CHIP programs by ensuring other liable third parties pay to the extent of their liability; Specifies how a state must treat qualified lottery winnings and lump-sum income for purposes of determining Medicaid eligibility. Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) – CHIP is a means-tested program that provides health coverage to targeted low-income children and some pregnant women in families that have annual income above Medicaid eligibility levels but have no health insurance[1]. CHIP is financed by the federal government and the states. The states are responsible for administering CHIP. Federal CHIP funding expired on September 30, 2017. After the expiration of FY2017 funds, and until the provision of FY2018 funds, states may use redistributed funds and unspent allotments to continue to provide healthcare coverage, however at least one state is projected to exhaust all federal CHIP funding as early as November[2], and all states are expected to exhaust federal funding unless FY2018h funding is provided. **Federal Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) **– FQHCs, specifically, community health centers, are community-based, patient-centered organizations that provide comprehensive health services to medically-underserved populations, regardless of ability to pay. Funding for community health centers expired at the end of FY2017. This bill would extend funding for an additional two years. **APTCs and CSRs Grace Period **– Under current law, subsidized patients with exchange plans have a three-month grace period if they do not pay their insurance premiums, meaning their plan cannot discontinue coverage for nonpayment of premiums[3]. H.R. 3922 allows states to define their own grace periods, or move to a default of one month. **Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF) **– PPHF was created under the Affordable Care Act to fund “programs authorized for prevention, wellness, and public health activities”. H.R. 3922 allocates more than $6 billion from this fund to support public health programs under the bill[4]. Federal Matching Assistance Percentage – CHIP spending is by the federal government at a matching rate higher than that of the Medicaid program. This is known as the enhanced federal medical assistance percentage (E-FMAP). Under current law, a 23 percentage point increase in the CHIP federal matching rate that went into effect in FY2016 will expire at the end of FY2019. H.R. 3922 sets this E-FMAP at 11.5 in FY2020 and returns to CHIP’s historic matching rates beginning in FY2021.[5] **DSH Allotments **– Under current law, allotments are made to states for payments to hospitals that treat a disproportionate share of uninsured and Medicaid patients. DSH allotments are increased each year by the percent change in the consumer price index and then will be adjusted by scheduled cuts between 2018 and 2025. H.R. 3921 eliminates the scheduled cuts for in FY2018 and FY2019, and offsets the cost of this policy with new additional reductions in FY2021 through FY2023. Source: Republican Policy Committee

Hugh O'Neill (Irish: Aodh Mór Ó Néill; literally Hugh The Great O'Neill; c. 1550 – 20 July 1616), was an Irish Gaelic lord, Earl of Tyrone[a] (known as the Great Earl ) and was later created The Ó Néill. O'Neill's career was played out against the background of the Tudor conquest of Ireland, and he is best known for leading the resistance during the Nine Years' War, the strongest threat to English authority in Ireland since the revolt of Silken Thomas. Early life [ edit ] O'Neill came from a line of the O'Neill dynasty - derbfine - that the English authorities recognized as the legitimate successors to the chieftainship of the O'Neills and to the title of Earl of Tyrone. He was the second son of Matthew O'Neill (Feardorcha Ó Néill), reputed illegitimate son of Conn, 1st Earl of Tyrone. Shane O'Neill (Seán an Díomais), a legitimate son of Conn, employed the ambivalent status of Matthew's paternity to affirm his own claim to the title The O'Neill, although illegitimacy in itself made little or no difference in terms of the Irish legal system of derbfine, where five degrees of consanguinity through the male line with a blood ancestor who had held the O'Neill title were required of any claimant. Once Matthew was accepted by Conn as his son, he was as entitled to the O'Neill lordship as Shane, although, if proven, Shane's constant assertion that Matthew was actually an adoptee,[4] affiliated to the O'Neills,[b] rather than the illegitimate issue of Conn would have rendered his claim to the earldom void and would have entirely disqualified him from succession also under derbfine. In the ensuing conflict for the succession Matthew was killed by the Ó Donnaile followers of Shane and Conn, placing his sons Brian and Hugh in a precarious situation. The continuing support for their claims came from the English administration in Dublin Castle, which was anxious to use the reliance of the sons of Matthew on their support to break the independent power of the O'Neill lords of Ulster. This was part of a general English policy to transform Irish Gaelic titles into feudal titles granted under the Crown that would bring them entirely within the English legal system through a policy known as surrender and regrant, in which the Irish forcibly surrendered their lands to the Crown and had them granted back into their keeping as property of the Crown, rather than the property of the sept, or Gaelic extended family.[citation needed] Hugh succeeded his brother, Brian, as baron of Dungannon, when the latter was assassinated by Shane's Tánaiste, or deputy, Turlough Luineach O'Neill, in 1562. He was proclaimed Earl of Tyrone in 1585 but when he went through the ancient ritual of becoming 'The O'Neill', the chief of Tír Eoghain, in 1595, he had thrown down the gauntlet to Tudor power.[7] O'Neill became a ward of the state and was brought up in the Hovenden household at Balgriffin, outside Dublin,[8] but after the death of Shane he returned to Ulster in 1567 under the protection of Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy of Ireland. In Tyrone, Hugh's cousin, Turlough Luineach O'Neill, had succeeded Shane O'Neill as The O'Neill, or chieftain, but was not recognized by the English as the legitimate Earl of Tyrone. The Crown therefore supported Hugh O'Neill as the rightful claimant and as an ally in Gaelic controlled Ulster.[citation needed] During the Second Desmond Rebellion in Munster, he fought in 1580 with the English forces against Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, and assisted Sir John Perrot against the Scots of Ulster in 1584. In the following year he was summonsed to attend the Irish House of Lords in Dublin as Earl of Tyrone and, in 1587 after a visit to the Court in England, he was awarded a patent to the lands of his grandfather, the first earl, Conn O'Neill.[citation needed] His constant disputes with Turlough were fomented by the English with a view to weakening the power of the O'Neills, but with the growing power of Hugh, the two came to some agreement and Turlough abdicated in 1593. Hugh was subsequently inaugurated as The O'Neill at Tullyhogue in the style of the former Gaelic kings, and became the most powerful lord in Ulster. Turlough died in 1595. Career [ edit ] O'Neill's career was marked by unceasing power politics: at one time he appeared to submit to English authority, and at another intrigued against the Dublin government in conjunction with lesser Irish chieftains. In keeping with the practice common at the time, he bribed officials both in Ireland and at Elizabeth's court in London.[citation needed] Though entirely supported by the Dublin administration in his early years, he seems to have been unsure whether his position as head of the O'Neills was best secured by alliance with the English or by rebellion against the advance of their government into Ulster from 1585.[citation needed] In the early 1590s, English government in Ulster took the form of a Provincial Presidency, to be headed by the colonist, Henry Bagenal who lived at Newry.[citation needed] In 1591, O'Neill roused the ire of Bagenal by eloping with his sister, Mabel, but showed his loyalty to the crown with his military support for his brother-in-law in the defeat of Hugh Maguire at Belleek in 1593. After Mabel's death,[citation needed] O'Neill gradually fell into a barely concealed opposition to the crown and sought aid from Spain and Scotland. In 1595, Sir John Norris was ordered to Ireland at the head of a considerable force for the purpose of subduing him, but O'Neill succeeded in taking the Blackwater Fort before Norris could prepare his forces. O'Neill was instantly proclaimed a traitor at Dundalk. The war that followed is known as the Nine Years' War. Nine Years' War [ edit ] O'Neill followed Shane's policy of arming the people, rather than relying as Turlough had done upon Scots mercenary soldiers, such as redshanks or Irish professionals employed under buannacht. This policy allowed him to field an impressive force, with cavaliers and gunpowder supplied from Spain and Scotland, and in 1595 he gave the crown authorities a shock by ambushing and routing a small English army at the Battle of Clontibret. He and other clan chiefs then offered the crown of Ireland to Philip II of Spain who refused it.[citation needed] In spite of the traditional enmity between his people and the O'Donnells, O'Neill allied himself with Hugh Roe O'Donnell, son of Shane's former ally and enemy Hugh O'Donnell, and the two chieftains opened communications with King Philip II of Spain. In some of their letters to the king - intercepted by the lord deputy, Sir William Russell - they were shown to have promoted themselves as champions of the Roman Catholic Church, claiming liberty of conscience as well as political liberty for the native inhabitants of Ireland. In April 1596, O'Neill received promises of help from Spain, and thereafter chose to temporize with the authorities, professing his loyalty to the crown as circumstances required. This policy was a success and, even though Sir John Norris sought to bring him to heel, O'Neill managed to defer English attempts on his territory for more than two years.[citation needed] In 1598, a cessation of hostilities was arranged and a formal pardon granted to O'Neill by Elizabeth. Within two months he was again in the field, and on 14 August he destroyed an English army at the battle of the Yellow Ford on the Blackwater river, in which engagement the English Commander, Henry Bagenal, was killed.[11] It was the greatest of all setbacks to English arms in Ireland.[citation needed] If the Earl had been capable of driving home his advantage, he might have successfully upset English power in country, as discontent had broken out in every part — and especially in the south, where James Fitzthomas Fitzgerald with O'Neill's support was asserting his claim to the earldom of Desmond at the head of a formidable army of Geraldine clansmen — discontent broke into open rebellion. But Tyrone, who possessed but little generalship, procrastinated until the golden opportunity was lost. Eight months after the battle of the Yellow Ford, a new Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Essex, landed in Ireland with an expeditionary force sent there from England of 16,000 troops and 1500 horse.[12] After months of ill-managed operations in the south of the country, and loss of three-quarters of his forces to disease, desertion, and execution of hundreds of troops for cowardice [13] he had a parley with Tyrone at a ford on the Lagan on 7 September 1599, when a truce was arranged. Elizabeth was displeased by the favourable conditions allowed to O'Neill, as she pointed out, if she had intended to simply abandon Ireland she would not have needed to send Essex there,[citation needed] and by Essex's treatment of him as an equal. The Lord Lieutenant then traveled back to the Queen's court near London without permission - a desperate move, which culminated, more than a year later, in a failed attempt at an uprising in London, and weeks after, his execution for treason on February 25, 1601.[14] The queen was in a tricky situation, because political discourse was dominated by the issue of the succession to the throne, just as her most illustrious military commanders were being frustrated by O'Neill in the middle of the Anglo-Spanish War.[citation needed] Tyrone continued to concert measures with the Irish leaders in Munster, and issued a manifesto to the Catholics of Ireland, summoning them to join his standard as he protested that the interests of religion were his first care. After a campaign in Munster in January 1600, during which the English Plantation of Munster was destroyed, he hastened north to Donegal, where he received supplies from Spain and a token of encouragement from Pope Clement VIII. At this point the controversial Jesuit, James Archer, was effectively operating as his representative at the Spanish court.[citation needed] In May 1600 the English achieved a strategic breakthrough, when Sir Henry Docwra, at the head of a considerable army, took up a position in O'Neill's rear at Derry; meanwhile, the new lord deputy, Sir Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy (a protégé of Essex[15]), marched in support from Westmeath to Newry, compelling O'Neill to retire to Armagh. A large reward was offered for the rebel's capture, dead or alive. In October 1601, the long-awaited aid from Spain appeared in the form of an army under Don Juan de Aguila, which occupied the town of Kinsale in the extreme south of the country. Mountjoy rushed to contain the Spanish, while O'Neill and O'Donnell were compelled to hazard their armies in separate marches from the north, through territories defended by Sir George Carew, in the depths of a severe winter. They gained little support en route.[citation needed] At Bandon they joined together, and then blockaded the English army that was laying siege to the Spanish. The English were in a poor state, with many of their troops disabled with dysentery, and the extreme winter weather made life in camp very difficult. But owing to poor communications with the besieged Spanish and a crucial failure to withstand the shock of a daring English cavalry charge, O'Neill's army was quickly dispersed. The Irish army retreated, and the Spanish commander surrendered. The defeat at the battle of Kinsale was a disaster for O'Neill and ended his chances of winning the war.[citation needed] O'Donnell went to Spain to seek further assistance, where he died soon afterwards (poisoning was suspected[citation needed]). With a shattered force, O'Neill made his way once more to the north, where he renewed his policy of ostensibly seeking pardon while warily defending his territory. English forces managed to destroy crops and livestock in Ulster in 1601-1602, especially in the lands of O'Neill's principal vassal, Donal O'Cahan. This led to O'Cahan's withdrawal from O'Neill, and fatally weakening his power. In June 1602 O'Neill destroyed his capital at Dungannon and retreated into the woods of Glenconkeyne.[16] Early in 1603, Elizabeth instructed Mountjoy to open negotiations with the rebellious chieftains, and O'Neill made his submission in the following April to Mountjoy, who skilfully concealed news of the death of the Queen until the negotiations had concluded. Peace settlement [ edit ] O'Neill went with Mountjoy to Dublin, where he heard of the accession of King James. He presented himself at the court of the king in June, accompanied by Rory O'Donnell, who had become chief of the O'Donnells after the departure of his brother Hugh Roe. The English courtiers were greatly incensed at the gracious reception accorded by James to these notable rebels. Although O'Neill was confirmed in his title and core estates, upon his return to Ireland he immediately fell into dispute with Chichester's Dublin administration. Under the 1603 peace agreement most of his land had been given to his former Brehon law tenants. in the case of the Bann Fishery, the government eventually established that his entitlement to the benefit of that property was nullified on account of the original Anglo-Norman conquest in 1172, a precedent of significant implications for the former Gaelic polity.[17] In the meantime, it was the dispute over O'Neill's rights concerning certain of his former feudatories - Donal O'Cahan being the most important - that led to his flight from Ireland. They were now freeholders of the Kingdom of Ireland, with new legal rights, but O'Neill expected them to support him as in the past, which they declined to do. In O'Cahan's case the Ó Catháin clan had traditionally inaugurated the O'Neill kings in the past. Chichester consider O'Cahan's case to be pivotal, as if he caved in to O'Neill then other Ulster chiefs might also be persuaded to give up their freehold rights, and another war might follow.[citation needed] This dispute dragged on until 1607, when O'Neill was invited by King James to go to London to argue his case. Warned, however, that his arrest was imminent[citation needed] (and possibly persuaded by Rudhraighe Ó Domhnail, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell - whose relations with Spain had endangered his own safety) the decision was made to flee to Spain. Flight [ edit ] "The Flight of the Earls" occurred on 14 September 1607, when O'Neill and O'Donnell embarked at midnight at Rathmullan on Lough Swilly on a voyage bound for Spain. Accompanying them were their wives, families and retainers, numbering ninety-nine persons. Driven by contrary winds to the east, they took shelter in the Seine estuary and were told by the Spanish to pass the winter in the Spanish Netherlands and not to proceed to Spain itself. In April 1608, they proceeded to Rome, where they were welcomed and hospitably entertained by Pope Paul V. The journey to Rome was recorded in great detail by Tadhg Ó Cianáin.[18] In November 1607 the flight was proclaimed as treasonous by James I.[19] A bill of attainder was passed against O'Neill by the Parliament of Ireland in 1613. The hopes of the earls for military support foundered as Philip III of Spain wanted to maintain the recent 1604 peace treaty with James I of England, the Spanish economy had gone bankrupt in 1596 and its European fleet had been destroyed some months earlier by the Dutch Republic at the Battle of Gibraltar. This suggests that the Flight was impulsive and unplanned.[citation needed] O'Neill died in Rome on 20 July 1616. Throughout his nine-year exile he was active in plotting a return to Ireland, toying variously both with schemes to oust English authority outright and with proposed offers of pardon from London. When the former Crown loyalist Sir Cahir O'Doherty launched O'Doherty's Rebellion by the Burning of Derry in 1608 it raised hopes of a return, but the rebellion was quickly defeated. Oghy O'Hanlon was Hugh's nephew and played a leading role in O'Doherty's Rebellion. As a principal rebel leader, Oghy O'Hanlon had been stripped of his inheritance by Sir Arthur Chichester, and he may have been taken into protective custody before his exile to Sweden. O'Hanlon was presented into Swedish military service and threatened with execution if he resisted.[20][21] Upon news of his death, the court poets of Ireland engaged in the Contention of the bards.[citation needed] Status in Ireland [ edit ] In 1598 O'Neill appointed James FitzThomas FitzGerald, the so-called Sugán Earl, as Earl of Desmond. Two years later in his camp at Inniscarra near Cork city he then recognized the celebrated Florence MacCarthy as the MacCarthy Mor or Prince of Desmond.[22] The fiasco of the 1599 campaign by Essex in Ireland added to the power vacuum in most parts of Ireland.[citation needed] O'Neill had little influence on the Lords of the Pale in Leinster, and his army had to feed itself by plunder, making him unpopular. He made enemies of some lords by interfering in their traditional autonomy if they did not give him their entire support. These included Lord Inchiquin, Ulick Burke, 3rd Earl of Clanricarde, The Magennis of west County Down and Tiobóid na Long Bourke.[citation needed] O'Neill issued a proclamation to the Pale Lords on 15 November 1599, many of whom were Roman Catholic, protesting that his campaign was not for personal power but only for the freedom of the Catholic religion. This was unconvincing to them, as before 1593 he had practised as an Anglican, and was not known for having any great interest in religion.[citation needed] At the international level, O'Neill and O'Donnell had offered themselves as vassals of King Philip II of Spain in late 1595, and suggested that Archduke Albert might be crowned Prince of Ireland, which was declined. In late 1599, in a strong position after Essex's failed campaign, O'Neill sent a list of 22 proposed terms for a peace agreement to Queen Elizabeth, including a request on the status of future English viceroys. This amounted to accepting English sovereignty over Ireland as a reality, while hoping for tolerance and a strong Irish-led administration. The proposal was ignored.[24] Family [ edit ] O'Neill was married four times: It is probable O'Neill married a fifth time, for mention is made of a young countess of Tyrone during his residence in Rome. He had, in addition, numerous illegitimate children, of whom one, Con, who was left behind at the time of the flight, was educated at Eton College as a Protestant, and died apparently about 1622 in the Tower of London. Dramatic portrayals [ edit ] Hugh O'Neill was played by Alan Hale Sr. in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). Hugh O'Neill was portrayed by Tom Adams in the Disney film: The Fighting Prince of Donegal (1966) with a character name change to Henry O'Neill. O'Neill is the central character in Brian Friel's play Making History (1989), which is concerned largely with his third marriage to Mabel Bagenal: Friel describes the marriage as a genuine if ill-fated love affair. In the 1971 BBC drama Elizabeth R he was played by Patrick O'Connell. Running Beast (2007), a musical theatre piece by playwright Donal O'Kelly with music by the composer Michael Holohan, commemorating The Flight of the Earls 1607-2007 Notes [ edit ] ^ [ citation needed ] By the patent of the earldom, Brien was de jure earl between their grandfather's death in 1559 and his own assassination in 1562. He never claimed the earldom, and did not call himself earl. He may not have been of age to take his seat in the Irish House of Lords, and he certainly did not control Tyrone.[ citation needed ] Hugh is usually referred to as the 2nd Earl of Tyrone ( Canny 2008 ). But if his elder brother Brian is counted, Hugh is 3rd.By the patent of the earldom, Brien wasearl between their grandfather's death in 1559 and his own assassination in 1562. He never claimed the earldom, and did not call himself earl. He may not have been of age to take his seat in the Irish House of Lords, and he certainly did not control Tyrone. ^ The genealogy Hiram Morgan has prepared notes on Matthew as "affiliated".( Morgan 1993 , pp. 86–87). References [ edit ] Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: McNeill, Ronald John (1911). "O'Neill" Encyclopædia Britannica. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 107–111.

The ultimate in debauchery and adult entertainment: A completely immersive experience of living in the past and experiencing a world without consequences for actions. Dive into the Old West wearing a six-gun on your hip, and if you don’t like the look of the guy in the corner of the saloon, shoot him dead. He’s only a robot, after all. This is the ultimate playground and theme park for the supremely wealthy: Westworld. Based on the 1973 film written and directed by Michael Crichton, HBO’s new series delves deeper into this Disneyland-with-blood-and-sex world where the very rich can come to play. Among the creative team bringing this series to HBO was executive producer and writer Jonathan Nolan, who also directed the pilot. Riding shotgun, behind the camera, was veteran cinematographer Paul Cameron, ASC, who brought to life the iconic imagery of Man on Fire, Collateral (AC, Aug. 2004), Deja Vu and the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. “Basically the structure of the series is very similar to the film,” Cameron asserts. “It’s a Western theme park and the robots, which are now called ‘hosts,’ populate the town and interact with the guests as they desire. We also get a lot more of the behind-the-scenes of the park in the diagnostic and manufacturing areas, and we get to see the inner workings, run by Anthony Hopkins’ and Jeffrey Wright’s characters.” Although the Westworld series follows the same basic structure of the original film, it places the hosts and the people controlling them — the park administrators and programmers — in the starring roles instead of the guests, who constantly change. “One of the big things that we get a feel for is the cyclical nature of the park,” Cameron notes. “We see this in the pilot: The starting of the park every morning with the hosts in the same places going through the same paces — a repetitive Groundhog Day-like scenario with the same central characters. The same train pulls through every morning, the same Sheriff, the same saloon bartender and so forth — but we also get a feel for the slight changes, the darker side. We see Evan Rachael Wood’s character, who is a host, and she greets her father every morning. It’s repetitive, robotic. But one day she wakes up and the host who was the bartender is now her father. These are just robots, but we get to see that they’re more than that and not quite as expendable as they’re made out to be.” Westworld is set in a remote portion of Utah, where the park encompasses many square miles with the town at the center. The town set is housed in Santa Clarita, California, at Melody Ranch, an Old West town with a rich Hollywood history that includes HBO’s Deadwood, among other projects. The set was completely redesigned and rebuilt for the Westworld production, including a practical train station with a full-size practical locomotive that pulls into town with three carriages. With the support of HBO and director Nolan, the decision was made to shoot Westworld on 35mm film. “Fortunately, in my very first conversation with Jonathan, I asked him if he had any interest in shooting film and he said they had already decided to do that,” Cameron recalls. “For me, it was fabulous to shoot film again; it was just a dream. “I used [Kodak Vision3 500T] 5219 for night exteriors and interiors, a little [Vision3 250D] 5207 for some dusk work.” Lab service was provided by Fotokem in Burbank, Calif. For dailies, Cameron found an old film trailer that he outfitted with a 65-inch plasma display. Then, he, director Nolan and key crew would spend lunch every day watching dailies on location. “I still feel viewing dailies together is really the way to go,” he opines. “You take half your lunchtime, pop in there for half an hour and get instant feedback — it’s a very collaborative experience, just like the old days!” A key location in any Western is the town’s saloon and Westworld is no exception. “Melody Ranch, where we shot the main street set, has been there since 1920 and it’s pretty obvious that the town was laid out by a cinematographer,” Cameron offers. “The sun comes up on one end of the street and sets on the other.” The interior of the saloon was shot inside the actual facade on the Western street so that transitions could be made moving through the saloon doors and then looking out onto the street. This meant that the outside world was natural, direct sunlight and the cinematographer had to balance interior exposure with the hot, natural sun. “The saloon is a beautiful design and was a pleasure to shoot in, but we shot most of the day interiors when the sun was straight overhead — the California summer sun pounding down on the light-colored dirt outside, which created a very heavy exposure,” Cameron notes. “Even with 50 ISO film and an ND 0.9, the exterior was still at a 5.6/8. That meant I had to balance the interior for that intensity. We couldn’t do a 5-stop iris pull every time a character went through the saloon doors so it required a radical amount of light in the set, but I did some tests to see what it would take to get the volume of light into the set and still maintain a quality and direction to the light, and it worked out quite well.” Cameron lined the ceiling of the saloon with a grid of Arri M40 4K HMIs with large bank Daylight Chimera softboxes. “I initially tested out just a big diffusion overhead, but it spread the light too much and it had no shape to it. We ended up putting four M40s on four sides of the truss boxing the set. Each was rigged to a bar that was on chain motors so that I could use them high or low. When high, I had the Chimeras on them and put each set of four through a bed sheet. When low, we would skin a 20x20 frame of muslin and drop that in just above the top frame line. It was soft, but still directional and it gave me the stop I needed. Then I could add a sider or a touch of fill from the floor to shape our close-ups.” The cinematographer turned to Arriflex 435 and Arri Lite cameras along with a complement of lenses that included Cooke S4s, Canon K35s and Fujinon Premiere zooms — all provided by Keslow Camera. “I used the Canon K35s for a number of flashbacks in the episode,” Cameron submits. “They’re actually a hybrid between dreams and flashbacks, and I really loved the K35s for those scenes because of the flare and halation. Most of the show was shot with the Cooke S4 primes and, occasionally, with some Fujinon Premiere zooms, which we used mostly on location in Moab, Utah, shooting exteriors. Cooke S4s are the most elegant lenses to photograph faces with. They render the subtleties of shape and color, in particular, really wonderfully. There is a slight softness and beauty to Cooke lenses that is unsurpassed. The Fujinon Premier zooms are a good fit with the Cookes.” For other locations around town, the production shot on sets in Santa Clarita, but where exteriors were seen through windows or doors, the sets were moved and rebuilt in Moab, Utah, to get real vistas in the background. “We did a lot of interiors that way,” Cameron recalls. “We’d plan on shooting the reverse angles of interiors out in Moab, where the massive Red Rock sculptures were our backdrop, and they gave a kind of cinematic sensibility and feel.

With little control over the levers of power in Congress, Democrats have attempted to draw attention to what they say will be the harmful impacts of the Senate GOP health care legislation. Senate Democrats convened a flurry of press conferences this week to denounce the bill, while Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who is technically not a Democrat, but is nevertheless part of Senate Democratic leadership, held rallies in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania to rally opposition against the bill. Now the message from Democrats is that the fight isn’t over. “They weren’t able to pass their cruelest, and most hurtful version of the bill, but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to come back with a bill that is still cruel, and hurtful,” Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts said. “I do not believe that we are going to be able to preserve Obamacare unless we work every day, 24-hours a day, until the Republicans finally give up,” he added. “We have to keep our energy level high … That’s the only way we are going to win.” Senate Democrats may be particularly wary of declaring victory too early after watching House GOP legislation to dismantle the Affordable Care Act stall out, only to be revived weeks later and passed. The challenge now for opponents of the healthcare bill will be to keep the pressure on Republican senators during the July 4th recess, where they will return to their districts. “If we survive this week with the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid intact, the lesson anyone who cares about health care has to learn is that it’s dangerous to take your eye of the ball even for a day,” Ben Wikler of the progressive advocacy group MoveOn.org said in an interview before McConnell’s Tuesday announcement. “If Trumpcare isn’t passed, isn’t defeated, but is merely delayed this week, it is absolutely vital for anyone who cares about the healthcare system to dial up their pressure over the fourth of July recess.” Of course, Republicans will be making their case for the bill’s passage too. “The schedule may have changed a little but, but one thing hasn’t changed and that is that Obamacare is collapsing,” Republican Senator John Thune said on Tuesday during a press conference. “It is a failed system that needs to be replaced, and we believe the legislation that we’re trying to get up on the Senate floor and consider there will take America in a better direction.” But even for their apparent reluctance to declare victory, some Senate Democrats evidently believe the road to passage for Republicans will be more difficult now that McConnell has delayed its vote. “This bill is like a stinking fish, it’s just going to get worse,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut said in an interview. “We’re going to bring this to every state across the country. This is what we wanted. We wanted to be able to bring this debate out of Washington and back to our states. I think that’s going to be the death knell for this bill.” Democrats also hope the delay will create an opportunity for constituents opposed to the bill to convey their objections directly to Republican senators. “I think it’s going to be a very tough two weeks for the Republicans to be hearing from their constituents at home who have now been educated as to what the impact of these cuts will be on the services their families receive,” Markey said. “I think it’s only going to complicate dramatically the complexity of their political dilemma.”

On the Same Day Bannon Removed From NSC, Trump Sabre Rattles War with Syria This isn’t what I signed up for. If it’s Trump’s intention to continue the neocon policies that have left this country indebted to its eyeballs fighting meaningless wars, costing the lives of America’s bravest, count me out. Bannon’s removal at the NSC on the same day that Trump upped his rhetoric for war with Assad isn’t a coincidence. Bannon has been an anti war advocate and wanted America out of the Middle East. Now here we are, being led down a ruinous road by 35 year old Jared Kushner and Trump’s generals, positioning for conflict in Syria over a chemical weapons attack. In regard to the chemical attack that has left dozens dead, many of whom were children, no one knows with certainty who was responsible. There is so much fuckery going on there, you’ll drive yourself mad trying to figure it out. Then there’s this. Disgraced Dr. @DrShajulIslam received gas masks two days before "chemical attack" in Al Qaeda held #Idlib The propaganda continues. #Syria pic.twitter.com/jPncQgtuXo — H e b a (@HKX07) April 5, 2017 Wow. This anti-Assad "reporter" tweeted about the sarin attack in #Syria 24 hours before it happened. Still think nothing fishy is going on? pic.twitter.com/xrGWemylFW — Sarah Abdallah (@sahouraxo) April 5, 2017 Here is President Trump’s response. President Trump calls the Syria chemical attack "so horrific" https://t.co/01vVkC2lHN pic.twitter.com/QGrG5utki1 — Bloomberg (@business) April 5, 2017 Trump: #Syria chemical attack "crossed many, many lines, beyond a red line." pic.twitter.com/sJa14Hfhaw — Omar Ghabra (@omarghabra) April 5, 2017 Asked his message to Iranian militias in Syria, Trump says "You'll see. They will have a message, you will see what the message will be." pic.twitter.com/zrDqwllTtK — Tommy Christopher (@tommyxtopher) April 5, 2017 Trump told @GlennThrush and me that Syria was an "affront to humanity," as he just did at presser. Also of Russia's role: "disappointing" — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 5, 2017 Thus far, we have a President pursuing conflict escalations in both N. Korea and Syria. Everyone wants to be Churchill. We get to feel the brunt, however. If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on Twitter

Wests Tigers have today been informed that player Matthew Lodge was arrested while holidaying in the United States. Lodge has been charged with a number of offences following an incident while in New York. The Club has made the decision to terminate Lodge’s playing contract, effective immediately. Wests Tigers CEO Justin Pascoe said that the Club would not tolerate this type of behaviour. “The Club is incredibly disappointed to learn that Matthew Lodge has been charged by police while overseas on holiday,” said Pascoe. “We have since made the decision to terminate Lodge’s playing contract with Wests Tigers, effective immediately. “This type of behaviour does not fit with the culture we are building at the Club, nor is it to the behavioural standards that we accept,” he said. “Whilst our playing contract obligation to Matthew will be terminated, the Club will continue to offer welfare and counselling options to Matthew to ensure he has the support he needs.” Lodge has not played for Wests Tigers since being stood down on August 21 this year following an incident that resulted in charges being laid against him. Wests Tigers will be making no further comment on the situation at this stage.

Farmers and farmers groups, researchers and scientists, and government leaders and policy-makers from across the continent are gathered to better understand family farming in North America and to agree upon common recommendations for the development and support of family farmers in the United States and Mexico. The Dialogue also hopes to identify the key challenges family farmers face as well as the solutions they’re developing in their communities. This week, Food Tank is also excited to announce our collaboration with the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR). GFAR brings together all those working to strengthen and transform agricultural research for development around the world. During 2014 and the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF), GFAR is working with Food Tank to showcase and raise awareness and understanding of the challenges faced by smallholders and help identify efficient ways to support family farmers, especially women farmers. GFAR’s Gender in Agriculture Partnership (GAP) is “transforming agriculture to empower women and deliver food, nutrition and income security.” GAP is a “vibrant, collective movement for change,” bringing together more than 150 institutions comprised of equally committed actors who work to break down gender barriers and achieve gender equality in agriculture. GAP member projects highlight the role of men and women as producers, develop participatory processes, address social norms and power relations in creating disparities, and put a spotlight on women farmers as the backbone of the land. The timing of this initiative is more important than ever. Although women make up at least 43 percent of the agricultural labor force worldwide, they typically lack access to education, extension services, land, and credit. And this gender inequality comes at a huge cost, not just for women, but society as a whole. Discrimination against women can undermine economic development by limiting food security for families and preventing women and girls from achieving greater opportunities in education. In addition, many agricultural research and development programs ignore the needs and hopes of women farmers. But research from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization shows that if women had the same access to resources as male farmers, they could lift 100-150 million people out of hunger. According to Landesa, for example, when women farmers have secure land rights family nutrition improves, women become less vulnerable to contracting HIV/AIDS; they may be less likely to be victims of domestic violence; children, especially girls, are more likely to receive an education and stay in school longer; and women’s participation in household decision-making increases. GFAR, among its many roles, works to highlight the important work of women farmers—as food producers, nutrition providers and care-takers, and as scientists, practitioners, and innovators and teachers in villages and cities, in governments and leadership at NGOs, and at research institutions all over the world. In 2012, GFAR helped bring together women farmers and leaders from more than 50 countries at the First Global Conference of Women in Agriculture to highlight the importance of reducing the gender gap in agriculture and identifying ways forward to ensure that men and women are equal partners in food and nutrition security. The conference gave rise to GAP—eliminating the gender gap in agriculture, GFAR knows, requires cooperation and collaboration from a variety of food system stakeholders. To celebrate this important work and the crucial role of women farmers, female agricultural scientists and researchers, and women-led food NGOs and businesses, GFAR and Food Tank are highlighting six innovative projects and initiatives that are working to strengthen women’s empowerment in agriculture: African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD)—AWARD is a career-development program for prominent women agricultural scientists in sub-Saharan Africa. AWARD provides fellowships aimed at teaching research and leadership and is focused on the success and security of African smallholder farmers—most of these farmers are women. AWARD fellows are selected through a highly competitive process. Jamaican Pig Farmer Association (JPFA) & The Jamaica Network of Rural Women Producers (JNRWP)—Mildred Crawford, a pig farmer and pig artificial inseminator, helped create JPFA and JNRWP. JPFA works with pig farmers and other industry players to provide leadership, advocacy in representing the industry at a national level, and resources for the development of pig farmers in Jamaica. The Most Honorable Lady Cooke, former First Lady of Jamaica, launched JNRWP in 1999—it works alongside various stakeholders to foster economic and social development of rural women in Jamaica. This organization works to empower and motivate rural women so they can improve the quality of their lives and the welfare of their communities. Maruzi Beekeeping Association—Rose Akaki, a beef farmer from Uganda, diversified her family beef farm and encouraged neighbors to become beekeepers, eventually forming the Maruzi Beekeeping Association. This association has grown beyond their village to regional membership, now involved in processing, packaging, and marketing a product called “Go Honey”. National Agricultural Innovation System Support Project (Peru)—The objective of this project is to create acceptable conditions in the National Agricultural Innovation System (SNIA) in order to support the effectiveness of its member organizations in providing improved agricultural technologies. Women-based organizations are a main beneficiary of this project, as the role of rural women tends to be marginalized outside of the household, even though women participate in all agriculture tasks. World Farmers Organization (WFO)—WFO partners with GAP to empower women farmers and find ways to lift up all farmers from inequities that exist today. Susan Carlson, the WFO Women’s Committee Chair, explains that, “women farmer’s innovation and entrepreneurship are evidence of their commitment and dedication to their family farm—their way of life and their livelihood.” Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD)—YPARD is a network of young farmers, researchers, scientists, and other food system stakeholders. YPARD helps to give a voice to these young women and men, amplifying their voices and giving them a seat at the table in decisions around agricultural development. Through national meetings, conferences, and other initiatives, women are using the YPARD platform to highlight the issues most important to them at the national, regional, and international level.

The Potomac has very good rockfish activity from Point Lookout all the way to the 301 Bridge and beyond. The rockfish here are varied in size with undersized most plentiful, but enough over the 20-inch minimum to keep everybody happy. Trollers find good sized fish off St. George Island in 30 feet of water. The stripers are in shallower water around Ragged Point. The St. Mary's River has more rockfish than seen by natives in decades. The Patuxent has stripers, but keeper-sized fish are hard to come by. The Rocks at the old lighthouse site has fish for lure casters, but the first ones there at first light get strikes - latecomers find slim pickings. Jiggers on structure have found good numbers. Trollers in the Bay are getting rockfish and blues in good numbers on the Middle Ground and near Point No Point and the Targets. Cobia should arrive soon. Spot and croaker are still not in full summertime mode. July is coming with better bottom fishing. White perch are here now in the rivers and creeks. A smattering of puppy drum have been reported including some keeper size in excess of 18 inches and many about 16 inches. Catfishing is great in the Potomac and upper Patuxent. Snakeheads are available for hook and liners and bow fishermen.

Hey, Men’s Health Awareness campaigns, it’s high time we all get on the same page. No Shave November or Movember? Moustaches or full beards? Prostate cancer or all Men’s Health issues? How are people supposed to become aware if they can't even figure out which campaign they should follow? It’s November, and depending on who you ask, it's either No Shave November or Movember. For 30 days, men, other than hipsters, are encouraged to grow out their beards (or mustache... See? This is already getting confusing) to help raise awareness for prostate cancer (or a number of health issues impacting men, including depression, physical inactivity, etc.) But let’s face it, men are stubborn and the best way to get your point across is by really driving it home. Not by confusing us. No Shave November Or Movember According to the No Shave November website, the goal of the campaign is to grow awareness by embracing our hair — something that many cancer patients lose — and letting it grow wild and free. The tradition had been there for years, but the children of Matthew Hill, who passed away from colon cancer back in November 2007, took it a step further by using the cause to raise money for charity. The Movember Foundation was started in Australia back in 2003 by Travis Garone and Luke Slattery, who were having a beer and couldn’t understand why the mustache ever went out of style. Unlike No Shave November, Movember is a global initiative that has spread to 21 countries. Mustache or Beard While the Movember Foundation is all about the mustache, No Shave November asks men to participate by “growing a beard, cultivating a mustache, letting those legs go natural, and skipping that waxing appointment.” For the most part, No Shave November is more laissez-faire when it comes to participation rules. “Grooming and trimming are perfectly acceptable” for people with a strict dress code at work, and participants coming into November with a few whiskers are more than welcome. Movember, on the other hand, is a little stricter with its no shave rules. Men are asked to come into November clean shaven and focus their growing and grooming on their mustache for the next 30 days. Movember enthusiasts call mustaches “nature’s billboard.” When Garone and Slattery started the movement it was simply to bring back the stache as a look. However, when the men realized how much of a conversation starter their soup strainer was, they decided to use it to start meaningful conversations. Prostate Cancer Or All Men’s Health Issues Movember focuses its charitable contributions on four particular Men’s Health issues: prostate cancer, testicular cancer, poor mental health, and physical inactivity. Prostate and testicular cancer are considered the two most common cancers among men, while around one in four adults suffers from a mental health issue and over half of men do not meet federal guidelines for physical activity. Since its inception in 2003, the Movember Foundation has raised around $650 million that has helped fund more than 1,000 programs focusing on these four issues that affect men everywhere. No Shave November also focuses its efforts on benefiting cancer research, but they open it up to all cancers as opposed to just prostate and testicular. This web-based, non-profit organization, which has partnered with the American Cancer Society, Prevent Cancer Foundation, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, donates no less than 80 percent of the donations it receives to participating charities. Participants are asked to donate the money they would otherwise spend on grooming, like razors and trips to the barber shop. No matter what the cause and no matter what grows on your face, though, everyone should do their part in standing up for Men’s Health Awareness this November. Men around the world die, on average, six years earlier than women. The World Health Organization reports that an estimated 510,000 men die each year due to suicide and the number of prostate cancer diagnoses worldwide is expected to double to 1.7 million by 2030. If you can wear pink in October, then you should be able to handle a conversation about Men’s Health.

TRENTON – State Sen. Raymond Lesniak has asked Acting Attorney General John Hoffman to re-evaluate New Jersey’s civil union law and acknowledge that it violates the state constitution, according to a PolitickerNJ.com report. Lesniak (D-Union), a proponent of marriage equality and sponsor of legislation vetoed by Republican Gov. Chris Christie that would recognize same-sex marriage, called upon Hoffman to concur with the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in Garden State Equality v. Dow. “As a matter of law, civil unions do not qualify for federal benefits as same sex married couples do,” Lesniak wrote in a letter to Hoffman. Following last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a key component of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, Lesniak predicted that New Jersey courts would soon allow gay marriage within the state. “Federal benefits will now be available to same-sex marriages but not to domestic partnerships in New Jersey. This unequal treatment violates the state constitution,” Lesniak said. In 2007, the Legislature enacted a law allowing same-sex couples to be legally joined through civil unions, which extend some but not all of the legal benefits enjoyed by married couples. In 2011, Garden State Equality sued former state Attorney General Paula Dow, alleging that the civil union law violates the state and federal constitutions. New Jersey lawmakers are also considering a measure to put the question on the election ballot, even though Democratic leaders believe that is inappropriate for a civil rights issue. State Senate President Stephen Sweeney also plans to schedule a vote to override Christie’s veto of the gay marriage bill, but will need support from at least some Republican senators for it to succeed. Connect with NJTODAY.NET Join NJTODAY.NET's free Email List to receive occasional updates delivered right to your email address!

Kelli O’Hara Discusses 'Crossing Over' from Musical Theatre to Opera “I got my degree in opera almost 20 years ago and left the dream to go to acting school. But people still dream.” With a Tony Award for The King and I and five additional nominations, Kelli O’Hara has become a mainstay on the Broadway marquee. The soprano made her Broadway debut in 2000 as a replacement in Jekyll and Hyde, and has gone on to headline musicals including The Light in the Piazza, South Pacific, The Bridges of Madison County, and Nice Work If You Can Get It. But in spring 2018, she’s trading Jason Robert Brown, Adam Guettel and the Gershwins for Mozart. As previously reported, O’Hara is set to sing the role of Despina—the spunky, mischievous maid—in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Così fan tutte. She made her Met debut in Susan Stroman’s 2014–2015 production of The Merry Widow, but this will mark her first time singing a non-English (here, Italian) at the house. Performances begin March 15, 2018. On Sunday, April 9—with just under a year to go until her bow at the Met—O’Hara entertained audiences at the 12th annual Opera News Awards, a ceremony presented through the publication run by the Metropolitan Opera Guild that honors artists who have made significant contributions to the art form. In a room that sat several members of opera royalty, including this year’s honorees Robert Carsen, Christine Goerke, Matthew Polenzani, and Fredrica von Stade (the fifth—the Met’s music director designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin—was unable to attend), the Broadway star sang a trio of showtunes from her theatre career, and shared how she felt about returning to the opera world. “I got my degree in opera almost 20 years ago and left the dream to go to acting school," she said after performing South Pacific's “I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy.” “But people still dream. And I appreciate you letting me back into the group. I’m going to work very hard.” While discussing the balance between her classic musical theatre roles and her blossoming opera repertoire, O’Hara tells Playbill, “Anytime I can diversify the types of work I do, I feel like I am growing and learning—and hopefully becoming a better artist overall. Singing Despina next season is a dream opportunity and one I will never take for granted.” Speaking further to the idea of being let back into the group, O’Hara added, “It scares me in such a positive way because I am driven to work hard and earn my spot. I hope more crossover work can happen because artists never have just one dream. We dream endlessly.” She used the term “crossover” again when introducing “To Build a Home” from Bridges of Madison County, explaining that it fit her voice—possibly because she told Brown, “Either write me something I can sing, or I don’t want to do your show.” Carsen, who was honored for his work as a director, could also be considered a “crossover” artist. His production of Der Rosenkavalier—a staging that stars Renée Fleming and highlights the acting chops of its singers—opened at the Met April 13, while his Chicago production of My Fair Lady, starring Richard E. Grant and Lisa O’Hare, begins April 28. “The people on the stage are involved in the same degree of emotional commitment and desire to communicate with the audience, so it’s just another form of the same thing,” Carsen explains. “I direct musical theatre, play, and opera. I don’t see them as separate. Art is all that’s left when politics are gone and other people who are supposed to be looking after us have gone. Art is what we have—it’s the heritage from one generation to another.” As Carsen prepares to premiere his My Fair Lady, its signature anthem could be heard in the Plaza Grand Ballroom during the Awards from O’Hara—perhaps to give a taste of what will be heard next door at Lincoln Center as she sings on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House. Take a look at her performance below:

Ordering Numbers Least to Greatest Activity 1: Arrange the given numbers in ascending order or from the smallest to the largest. Click to Read More Do you know what ‘Ascending Order’ means? We say the numbers are in ascending order, when the numbers are arranged from the smallest to the largest. In this way we place the numbers in an increasing order. For example, look at these numbers; 49, 23, 107, 95 and 77. How to arrange these numbers in ascending order? First pick up the smallest out of all the given numbers. Then the second smallest, and so on until the largest. Likewise, in the given series of numbers 23, 49, 77, 95 and 107 are arranged in ascending order. With these online worksheets you can improve your ability in ordering numbers in ascending order by arranging numbers from the smallest to the largest. Learn ascending order by arranging numbers from least to greatest. Enjoy ordering numbers in ascending order!

Florida coach Mike White said earlier this week that his team’s defense was catching up to its offense. The Gators showed more defensive intensity in their second scrimmage on Friday while still putting together some productive offensive stretches. Offensively, junior forward Devin Robinson was the standout, finishing with 23 points on 8 of 9 shooting from the floor and 4 of 4 shooting from 3-point range. After knocking down back-to-back 3-point attempts to start the scrimmage, the 6-foot-8 Robinson used shot fakes nicely to attack the rim, draw fouls and finish closer to the basket. “A couple of those plays he even finished off one foot in the paint, we are challenging him more to play off of two feet,” White said. “I just think it translates a little bit better for game success, but he’s shooting the ball well and he had a very good day.” Both of UF’s point guards also provided sparks on both ends of the floor. Junior point guard Chris Chiozza had 17 points, 3 assists and 4 steals, while senior point guard Kasey Hill had 13 points, 8 assists and 4 steals. Hill used his speed down the floor to create offense, while Chiozza was hot from the perimeter, going 4 of 6 from 3-point range. Hill and Chiozza’s combined assist-to-turnover ratio was 10 to 2. “I was pleased to see both point guards play well,” White said. “We had a segment where we played them together and we’ll try it. Both if they are both playing really well we’re gonna try to put the best five on the floor in certain situations at least.” After making 20 3-pointers in its opening scrimmage against what White termed as “token” defense, Florida still made 14 3-pointers and shot 56 percent (14-25) from beyond the arc in its second scrimmage. But White felt there was better attention to detail defensively and was pleased with how well both intra-squad teams played in the press, which was installed less than two days ago. Combined, Florida finished with 13 steals and 5 blocked shots. “Our help side defense was better, just positionally overall, it’s been a big point of emphasis throughout the past week because we were a little bit too good offensively in our first scrimmage for where we are,” White said. “So I thought there was more attention to detail in transition defense.” Forward Canyon Barry, forward Keith Stone and center Kevarrius Hayes each added 11 points in the scrimmage. KeVaughn Allen (1-8, 2 points) and John Egbunu (2-5, 4 points) both struggled to get going offensively. Florida also had a drop off in free-throw shooting in the second scrimmage, going 15 of 24 from the line (.625). With three officials from the SEC calling the scrimmage, the Gators had 33 fouls in four eight-minute segments (Justin Leon fouled out with 7 points). White did a six-minute halfcourt segment at the end of the scrimmage in which both teams struggled to score. “We were playing two stops in the row to get the ball,” White said. “I thought we executed better there than in the scrimmage, we just didn’t finish very well. Sometimes when you end a fullcourt scrimmage and you finish it in the halfcourt, there’s a big letdown, we definitely lost focus. I don’t know how productive that was.”

Counseling important as divorce rates increase in the South Asian community. By Eva Mendes In the last several years, marriage has become an increasingly challenging endeavor evidenced by the sharp rise in divorce rates in the Indian or South Asian community (Ravindra, 2013). If more couples received marriage counseling at the right time, it’s possible that many of these divorces could be averted. Indian couples often hesitate to seek counseling due to the stigma associated with seeking professional help. Or they seek counseling only when they are on the verge of a divorce. By then, it’s often too late to fix things; therefore, working with a couples counselor before things escalate is key. In an attempt to guide desi couples through the journey of counseling, outlined below are common issues that couples face, and how they can be successfully dealt with: 1.) Getting Married for the Wrong Reasons: Many people get married out of a sense of obligation or desperation. Fear drives a lot of people to ignore red flags or warning signs about their selected mate. In time, these red flags create conflicts in the marriage. Counseling Advice: Avoid getting married due to family pressure or the fear of remaining single. Take time to get to know the person you’ve selected to marry, including their family. Have a frank discussion about key issues: where you will live, sharing of domestic tasks, finances, common interests, raising children, and how you plan on resolving differences. 2.) Differences in Family Backgrounds and Upbringing: Having different family backgrounds can sometimes cause friction for the couple because their upbringing influences their expectations of their partner. Leena was raised in a family where her parents shared in the household tasks. Her husband, Thomas on the other hand, grew up in a home where his mother fulfilled all the domestic duties, and expected the same of Leena. Counseling Advice: Initially, everyone can be on their best behavior; therefore, it’s important to closely observe relationships between the family members of your future mate. This might tell you a lot about your future partner’s mindset. If you observe that family members are disrespectful to each other, you might be forewarned. 3.) Poor Boundaries with In-Laws: The over-involvement of in-laws, from either the husband’s or wife’s family, can drive a wedge between a couple and create a sense of conflicting loyalties for them. Intrusions from a mother-in-law or sister-in-law is damaging and leaves little space for the couple to develop their own bond. Counseling Advice: In counseling, couples can learn to work as a team to address issues with the in-laws. The stronger the unity of a husband and wife, the happier everyone will be: children and even the in-laws! It is in the best interest of the entire family to respect the couple’s boundaries. 4.) Lack of Coping Strategies: Many people lack coping strategies for their problems. Pratik was deeply unhappy at his job. In order to cope, Pratik began to go online under a false identity and engage in what he thought was some “harmless fun” on adult websites. Pratik continued his habit even though he loved his wife, Mishti. Eventually, she stumbled upon his computer history and his secret was out. Counseling Advice: In counseling, after her considerable anger subsided, Mishti began to understand how the websites gave Pratik a sense of validation that was lacking in his job, and Pratik was able to brainstorm better coping strategies. 5.) Undiagnosed Mental Health Issues: In many marriages, undiagnosed mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Personality Disorders can cause significant problems. Mental health issues are stigmatized, but it’s important to realize that many of these so-called conditions also have a positive side to them. Zoya, a successful computer engineer, struggled with anxiety. Her brain was gifted at writing innovative software. However, her perfectionistic mind made her highly anxious and caused friction in her marriage. Diagnosing the anxiety helped improve her relationship at once. Counseling Advice: Don’t be afraid to seek counseling for mental health issues. Numerous gifted people— artists, engineers, scientists, and even world leaders—have struggled with mental health issues. Neuroscience has helped us understand the causes of mental issues. Speak to a psychologist, just like you would to a kidney specialist if you had trouble with your kidneys. 6.) Neurological Differences: Some people have highly logical brains, which can make them unemotional, and unexpressive. They can come across as insensitive, negative, obsessive, and they may have sensory sensitivities. If your partner has these traits, he/she might have Asperger’s Syndrome or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In a marriage, ASD can cause severe misunderstandings, but with awareness, partners can find solutions that work. Counseling Advice: Online articles and books on the subject of marriage with ASD, including my book, Marriage and Lasting Relationships with Asperger Syndrome: Successful Strategies for Couples and Counselors (2015) explains the dynamics of an ASD marriage. 7.) Power Struggles: Power struggles can ensue when partners don’t see themselves as a team. They devalue and put each other down. Sundar had become more and more controlling of his wife, Payal. Her career success had made him insecure. In order to feel better about himself, he found ways to belittle and control her. He would openly tell her, “You’re so stupid!” Constantly being put down began to make Payal feel unsafe, and traumatized. Counseling Advice: Sitting down in the safety of a counselor’s office, the husband can realize that such feelings of insecurity are normal. Rather than tormenting his wife by having a power trip, he can acknowledge these feelings, and learn to cope with them in a healthy way. 8.) Infidelity: Often the cheating partner is suffering and doesn’t know how to address these problems. They try to feel better by engaging in a physical or emotional connection outside the marriage. In doing so, they cause more harm to everyone involved. Counseling Advice: Realize that adultery is rooted in deeper problems. Work with a counselor to address these issues. Escaping into an affair might seem like a relief at first, but long-term, the price to pay is very high. Many couples divorce over infidelity, and those who don’t, spend years rebuilding the lost trust. 9.) Addictions: Alcohol, drug, and illicit Internet addictions are rather common these days. Due to the shame and stigma, couples go to great lengths to conceal these issues, even from loved ones. These addictions aren’t identified as problems, resulting in both partners suffering in secret. Counseling Advice: Addictions carry a very high cost to the well-being not only of the couple, but also their children. It’s crucial to get treatment from a counselor and an addictions specialist, rather than living a compromised quality of life. 10.) Verbal/Emotional Abuse: Some people constantly put-down or mock their partner. Often they might not mean to be abusive, but if they grew up in a difficult family, it’s possible that they never learnt a gentler way to communicate. Verbal abuse is just as harmful as physical abuse, and can even make the receiver physically ill. Counseling Advice: A counselor can help come up with alternate ways of saying the same thing, minus the cutting tone or snickering voice. Meditation can also help the partner to become more aware of how he/she speaks. 11.) Domestic Violence: Not hitting your partner should be a given! If couples cannot abide each other without violence, they should consider a separation as neither the spouse nor the children would be safe in such an environment. Ajay and Neha struggled with domestic violence. Ajay was an alcoholic, had a poor attitude towards women, and anger-management problems. Neha for her part, also retaliated towards him with violence. Finally, family members intervened and got them to divorce. Counseling Advice: Seek immediate help when faced with domestic violence. If the violence is chronic, decide if it’s even worth saving the marriage. Such situations take years to improve and it is not only the health of the abused partner that is at stake, but his/her very life. 12.) Waiting Too Long to Seek Counseling: The longer the couple waits to get help, the more entrenched their marital problems become. Amidst the intense anger, and blame, it is hard to get the couple to communicate and try new solutions. Counseling Advice: Seek out counseling once the communication between your partner and you breaks down. If you can’t discuss issues without getting into an argument or fight, and this has been going on for six months or longer, it maybe time to seek counseling. If you’re struggling with any of the above issues, please seek counseling immediately. A good couples counselor can help you better understand your partner. Your spouse and you can help you openly communicate. The counselor can remind you of your shared life goals, and give you the tools to evolve to be stronger together. Cases mentioned in this article are inspired by real cases, but not based on anyone in real life. Any resemble is incidental. References: Mendes, E. A., 2015. Marriage and Lasting Relationships with Asperger’s Syndrome. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers; Ravindra, G. 2013. Shaadi Remix. Tuscon, AZ: Wheatmark. (Eva Mendes, LMHC is an Asperger/Autism specialist, couples counselor, author, and speaker originally from Mumbai, India. She is the author of the book, Marriage and Lasting Relationships with Asperger’s Syndrome now available on Amazon. She is a couple’s counselor and psychotherapist working with couples where one or both partners have Asperger Syndrome, Autism Spectrum, depression, anxiety and ADHD. She has a private practice in Boston, MA. Eva is available to work remotely via Skype and sees clients based all over the U.S. and the world. Her website is www.evmendes.com Connect with Eva at: contact@evmendes.com)

The Schemaverse Championships - DEF CON 21 in Las Vegas <ExecutiveSummary> Holy crap, that went well. Thnx! </ExecutiveSummary> Did I mention how well this contest went this year? I’m still kind of in awe to be honest. I don’t even know where to start. To truly describe how well this year went, I need to admit that last year was pretty much an absolute failure. My write-up last year may have slightly glazed over this fact but I think now is a good time to go into it. Anybody who runs a contest at DEF CON knows just how much work goes into it; months of planning, stupid amounts of money, pride-crushing emails to potential sponsors, and all-nighters of caffeine fuelled preparation for nights leading up to the conference - all while doing your best not to get fired from other grown-up responsibilities. We do it because we love DEF CON and we believe in our event, we know people will have an awesome time competing if they just give it a try. Last year nobody tried. The only player was the same winner as the year before. I had to illicit friends remotely so it would at least look some some sort of competition was happening. It was painful to be involved in and, as confirmed by friends, painful to watch. But the response by people at the booth was completely positive! People absolutely loved the idea, they just didn’t have time to play. There was too much to do at DEF CON. I can’t blame them really, DEF CON has so much to offer, not everybody wants to get down and dirty in a SQL/AI competition. So what the #$%@ was I to do? Honestly, the option of folding the contest and just going back to a happy drunk stumbling around for DEF CON 21 never even came to mind. I HAD to fix it. This contest is just as weird as the folks in attendance and I was determined to find that niche of players. If time was the main complaint, I hoped to remove that hurdle. And so, The Schemaverse Tournament became The Schemaverse Championships and the Qualifying Rounds were added leading up to DC21. My hope is that this would force a few people to learn to play and prepare their AI scripts and infrastructure, long before their first drink in Las Vegas. I even bought Human badges for the winners to help get them there if they won the qualifier. We ended up running three qualifiers leading up to the conference and another on the first day of DC21: The First Qualifier - PGCon in Ottawa, ON The Second Qualifier - Open, Internet Land The Third Qualifier - Open, Internet Land The Fourth Qualifier - DEF CON 21 The qualifiers ended up being fairly dominated by people I had met at the previous year who didn’t have time to play there but had since really gotten into the game. Running qualifiers also had another benefit of getting our name out there a lot more. With retweets from @TCMBC, @_DEFCON_ and @thedarktangent helping announce our results, it certainly helped legitimize the entire endeavour. In the true sprit of DEF CON, we even had somebody find an absolutely disastrous vulnerability at our PGCon qualifier, allowing them to DROP DATABASE Schemaverse if they had wanted to. This made them the second person in our four year history to award themselves the SQL Injection Trophy. Alright, enough blabbering about how we got here, on to the Championships! The championship round started with 69 registered users and about 20 who were actively ready to participate. This even included players who had never touched Schemaverse before who spent all night Friday getting ready until 4am, followed by large chunks of time at our booth stealing Internet and knowledge to assure they had a chance. AND….The round started with Shepherd taking over the entire map within three minutes, pretty much putting an end to the game. Rule Change! I absolutely love a good hack but I wasn’t having a repeat of last year where nobody could play, so a change was made to allow ships to spawn anywhere, rather than only on top of planets they own. Once the new rule was put into place, we had ourselves a battle. Cisphyx was quick to add a little happiness and joy to the battle, making friends - not war. He decided to only conquer planets within this happy face shape: Impressively enough, he even managed to hold the happy face throughout the entire battle. The Results Another success! I was able to give out every single prize :D First Place: Shepherd Shepherds early hack no doubt gave him a huge advantage but the rule change still made it a close battle. Shepherd won with a final score of 300 points, and next to players had 100 (Yen) and 0 (Cisphyx). Negative points are extremely common in the Schemaverse. Prizes: The Schemaverse Championship Mug Keyport Slide 2.0 Human Badge for DEF CON 22 (Thanks DT for this donation!) Holding Bitcoinopolis: RoboG This outcome was actually pretty funny, Yen almost took it home but due to a flaw in a hack he was performing, the Schemaverse player (user 0) was actually the real last player holding this planet. We decided to look at the player who was holding it before Schemaverse took it over and that player was RoboG. Prize: 0.5 Bitcoin Casascius coin (A physical bitcoin :D ) Most Money: Yen Yen had a LOT of money at the end of the game was definitely deserving of the award… How he acquired his wealth was a tad suspicious though ;) [See Best Hack #2] Prize: 1 Bitcoin Casascius coin (A physical bitcoin :D ) Best Hack #1: Shepherd Shepherd has been playing the game a couples months now but I have no idea how long he has been holding onto this hack. We knew something was up when he took over the entire map in three minutes, but we were left guessing about the hack until the end. Once the game was over, he was nice enough to let us in on the method. I check for everything else during ship creation but apparently I forgot to make sure Range wasn’t being overridden. Whoops. This allowed him to build ships that could perform actions on any ships and planets he wished, regardless of where they were. It was as simple as: INSERT INTO my_ships(name,range) VALUES(‘Omnipotent’,2147483648); Prize: $160 - Half the $300 jackpot Best Hack #2: Yen Given Yen’s impressive ability to acquire wealth, it was clear something was up here too. Luckily, for a chance at the best hack pot, he was happy to describe his methods. Yen, who had never even played The Schemaverse before coming to DC21, ended up spending a huge amount of time reading through the source and came across a real nice little vulnerability. He figured out how to confirm both sides of a trade. This let him add other player’s money to a trade and then confirm it over to his own player. He could also trade fuel and even ships to himself. Prize: $140 - Half the $300 jackpot Other Stats I always like to give some other random stats about what took place in the game. It certainly shows how much the game as grown over the years. Total active players: 20 (!) - Out of 69 who signed up Total actions that took place: 3,600,000+ Total Tuples Returned (for you database nerds): 160,000,000,000+ Time it took for the SQL scrolling across the screen to finish after the database was shut down: 25 Minutes Sponsors As always, I must offer a huge thanks to all of our sponsors: Keyport ( www.mykeyport.com ) - Prize Donation. Screw keychains, these things are great Navicat ( www.navicat.com ) - Prize Donations for our Qualifiers. Awesome database administration software PGExperts - Prize Donations for our Qualifiers - These folks Eat, Sleep and Drink PostgreSQL PGCon Committee - Totally made the first (and only) on-location qualifier happen DEF CON - Entry for the contest staff, the booth, the Internet and the spotlight Final Thanks The fine folks at SauceTel including: appl, rick, Candy, Cloin & tigereye. They help me run the contest, man the booth to the point of losing their voices and made sure there is a constant supply of booze. DEF CON is what it is to me because of these jerks\b\b\b\b friends. PostgreSQL - Another year and no direct attacks on PostgreSQL itself! Thanks to all the core devs who somehow manage to keep making a stable product that happens to also be constantly rocking new features. Pyr0 and his lovely band of misfits. You guys gave me an incredible piece of real estate on the con floor and have done so for three years now. You put blind faith into something (and somebody) you know nothing about and hope that it fills a niche people are looking for. I hope we do not disappoint. Finally, thank you to absolutely everyone that walked by the booth and said Hi. I will not lie, having a booth where people come to YOU is a definite perk of running a contest. Thank you for the wonderful conversation and constant laughs. See you at DEF CON 22. I promise you The Schemaverse will return bigger and better than before. Don’t forget to go to our home page and play on the public server throughout the year to get ready! -Abstrct www.schemaverse.com josh [ at ] schemaverse [ dot ] com @Abstr_ct

Who needs a Space Shuttle? Amazing pictures of Earth captured by one man, a balloon and his compact camera Advertisement The unearthly beauty of this image taken high above the planet would make Nasa proud. But it didn't need millions of pounds of technology to capture. Just a little British ingenuity that saw a standard digital camera taped to a helium balloon and floated into the sky. Stratospheric: Robert Harrison captured images of the Earth like this one using a Canon Sure Shot camera fixed in a polystyrene box and attached to a helium balloon Achievement: Mr Harrison guided the balloon to a height of 22 miles above the Earth's surface and was able to recover the camera as it parachuted back down to earth using a sat-nav device Ingenious: Robert Harrison with his creation, a camera enclosed in a polystyrene box. He then used GPS tracking technology similar to an in-car sat-nav to follow its progress Space enthusiast Robert Harrison managed to send his home-made contraption 22 miles - or 116,160 feet - above the earth's surface from his back garden. He used GPS tracking technology similar to an in-car sat-nav to follow its progress - and an attached radio transmitter to find it when it parachutes back to earth. The photos taken by his device were so spectacular that Nasa has been in touch to see how he achieved it. Mr Harrison's budget of £500 might also offer inspiration to the new UK Space Agency, which launches on April 1. Based in Swindon, with only one astronaut and a budget one 50th the size of Nasa's, it will be looking for cut-price ways to reach for the sky. Mr Harrison first got the idea to explore space after a failed attempt to take aerial pictures of his house using a remote control helicopter. After investigating high-altitude weather balloons on the internet, he launched his first mini spacecraft, named Icarus I, in October 2008. It took dramatic shots that spanned 1,000 miles of the Earth's surface, showing the curvature-of the earth. He has since sent a dozen capsules into space. 'My family and friends thought I was a bit mad at first but they were suitably impressed with the results,' said the married father of three from Highburton, West Yorkshire. 'The pictures speak for themselves. People think this is something that costs millions but it doesn't.' Before launch, the camera is attached to a tiny computer programmed to trigger a photo every five minutes. It is wrapped in loft insulation bought from a DIY store then placed in a polystyrene box. When the balloon reaches the 22-mile-high mark it pops because the air pressure is too weak to keep the helium inside. As the box falls a mini-parachute automatically opens. Mr Harrison has recovered it from up to 50 miles away.

Arby's Sells 50 Venison Sandwiches Per Hour in Nashville, Until They're All Gone The new Arby's venison sandwich is incredibly popular in Nashville, with stores quickly selling out of the limited-edition meals. Apparently, the market for the new Arby's venison sandwich was much bigger than the company anticipated. The restaurant rolled out the new venison sandwiches at select locations in Nashville, Tennessee, on November 1st. The first store promptly sold out of the new sandwiches on the first day of the new promotion, selling over 250 of them in just five hours. This was despite limiting sales to two venison sandwiches per customer. A second store offering the new Arby's venison sandwich sold over 100 in just over an hour. According to Arby's representative Luke DeRouen: We stuck a nerve, in a good way, with hunters. Some people drove from an hour away to try it. Due to USDA regulations, restaurants cannot sell wild game. For this reason, the new Arby's venison sandwich is made from free-range, farm-raised red deer from New Zealand. The 5.5-ounce cuts of top and bottom round steak are slow cooked in hot water for 3.5 hours and served with a Cabernet sauce seasoned with crushed juniper berries and crispy fried onions on top. I don't know about you, but my mouth is watering just reading that. The sandwich is part of a marketing campaign to promote Arby's "It's meats season" campaign (check out the video above to see what I mean) and is a natural extension of their "We have the meats" slogan. Clearly, they are trying to attract hunters as a demographic group. Though it's still early, it looks like that approach is working well for them. Arby's venison sandwiches will soon be available in Atlanta, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Like what you see here? You can read more great hunting articles by John McAdams on his hunting blog. Follow him on Facebook ennhe Big Game Hunting Blog, Twitter @TheBigGameHunt and on Instagram The_Big_Game_Hunter. oembed rumble video here NEXT: IS THIS THE BEST BEAR HUNTING VIDEO YOU'VE EVER SEEN?

An executive editor at the Huffington Post attacked singer and actress Demi Lovato last week for refusing to talk about her sexuality in public. In an article, Noah Michelson attacked Lovato, claiming it was “total bullshit” that the singer wouldn’t discuss her sexuality. I love Demi Lovato, but her reason for refusing to talk about her sexuality is total bullshit. Here's why: https://t.co/yhnGznv7jt — noah michelson (@noahmichelson) September 20, 2017 “As someone who’s never had to endure the kind of scrutiny or judgment celebrities do, I can only begin to imagine how daunting it must be to have strangers constantly scrounging for whatever juicy personal tidbits they can dig up or coerce you to cough up. But, still, I am respectfully going to call bullshit on Lovato’s answer,” wrote Michelson. “The only way that I can make sense of any of this is that Lovato only wants to keep her sexuality private ― not her love life, not who she’s dating, not her relationships. And that’s a problem.” “I don’t even have to look at the comments section of this piece to know that there are probably already angry folks telling me that I’m ‘bullying’ Lovato and that someone’s sexuality is ‘no one else’s business’ or asking ‘who cares?’ or ‘why does it matter?’ But it does matter,” he continued. “The longer she refuses to talk about this one specific aspect of who she is ― while continually telling the queer community that we should be proud of who we are and simultaneously courting us to buy her albums and concert tickets ― the less I’m inclined to want her support… or to support her.” In response to Michelson’s article, Lovato called the Huffington Post Queer Executive Editor “expectant and rude,” before telling him to “watch my documentary and chill out.” Expectant and rude. Watch my documentary and chill out. — Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) September 20, 2017 “Just because [I] refuse to label myself for the sake of a headline doesn’t mean I’m not going to stand up for what I believe in,” Lovato continued in a series of tweets. “If you’re that curious about my sexuality, watch my documentary. But I don’t owe anybody anything.” Just because I'm refuse to label myself for the sake of a headline doesn't mean I'm not going to stand up for what I believe in. — Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) September 20, 2017 If you're that curious about my sexuality, watch my documentary. But I don't owe anybody anything. — Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) September 20, 2017 Lovato has previously told critics to “chill the fuck out,” and declared, “I think we live in a world today where no matter what you do, you’re doing something wrong, whether it’s cultural appropriation or it’s being insensitive to certain groups of people.” “We just live in that age where everything we do is wrong and, unfortunately, everyone’s looking for a reason to have their voices heard, and sometimes it’s not always in the most positive way,” she continued. Charlie Nash covers technology and LGBT news for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington and Gab @Nash, or like his page at Facebook.

The video will start in 8 Cancel Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email A masked raider left empty handed after trying to rob a Chinese take away, when the chef ran after him with a soup ladle. The suspect, who police say is wanted for three other knife-point robberies in the area, started to jump over the counter in the Chen's Garden restaurant. The robber had a large knife in his hand, but seconds later he was confronted by the store's owner who came charging out armed with a kitchen knife. He was then followed by the shop's chef who was screaming and swearing at the suspect, while waving his soup ladle in the air. (Image: NYPD) Business owner Yan Lin told the Daily News in New York: "I wasn’t scared. "Maybe because I own the restaurant and I didn’t want him to take the money." The 40-year-old said as soon as he saw the guy she grabbed a knife as he didn't want the guy to come over the counter. She was joined by cook Liu Chun who also grabbed a stool and chased the man back on to the street in the Brooklyn area of New York, on Wednesday, January 4. (Image: NYPD) Ms Lin had been frying chicken wings and Mr Chun was preparing Mein Fun noodles when the attacker entered the business. He left the area before police were called, but Ms Lin had a message for him. She added: "We don’t only have knives, but we have hot oil. "If I had thought about it, I would have poured the oil on him. (Image: NYPD) "I don’t want to hurt anybody. But don’t come back." Police say just 20 minutes before arriving at Chen’s Garden, the same masked man entered a nearby Baskin-Robbins and robbed a 24-year-old worker of $533 (about £434). Cops also believe he brandished a knife at a 26-year-old cashier at a KFC/Taco Bell a block away and demanded the night’s proceeds back on December 29. (Image: NYPD) She gave him about $900 (£733) from the till shortly before midnight. And on December 19, he held up a Dunkin’ Donuts on Flatlands Avenue, near the scenes of the other robberies. Police say he passed a note to the employee and escaped with $320 in cash (about £260). The suspect is still at large.

Editor’s note: Tadhg Kelly is a veteran game designer, creator of leading game design blog What Games Are and creative director of Jawfish Games. You can follow him on Twitter here. Here are some numbers to chew on: 2012 also marked the Xbox’s biggest year for entertainment and games usage. Users enjoyed more than 18 billion hours of entertainment in 2012, with entertainment app usage growing 57 percent year over year globally. Last year in the United States, Xbox LIVE Gold members averaged 87 hours per month on Xbox, an increase of 10 percent year over year. That entertainment number sounds very impressive, and, yet, only Microsoft seems to think so. That’s because it’s not. There are 76 million Xboxes out there, 24 million Kinects and 46 million Xbox Live users. 18 billion hours of “entertainment” (which I’m going to assume is mostly video services like Netflix and ESPN) breaks down to 236 hours per machine per year. Put another way, that means about two movies per week per machine. Or, if you want to just think in terms of the Xbox LIVE crowd, three movies per week. Moreover, I think the 18 billion number is soft, much as the idea that the PS2 would own DVD proved soft. All it will really take for Microsoft to lose that ground is for cable providers to make better boxes, or Apple to actually advertise the Apple TV (5.3 million sold with no push whatsoever). This despite having hundreds of partnerships, simulcast content, HD output, Sky TV in the UK et-cet-era. Those 76 million Xboxes took an awfully long time to put together (the Xbox 360 is more than seven years old). To put that in context, Sony’s PlayStation 2 sold 130 million machines. In a smaller time period, Apple has sold more than half a billion iOS devices, including more than 100 million iPads. And, not to be unfair to Microsoft, the picture is very similar for Sony’s PlayStation 3. Remember when it was the machine that was supposed to drive Blu-ray adoption? I bring all of this up to talk about a particular delusion that both companies (and to a lesser extent, Nintendo with the Wii U) have fallen into. In the MicroSony paradigm, the world is filled to bursting with feature-loving media customers. These “medians” want nothing more than to own a single device that serves you games, movies, music, social networking, status updating, showing off, books, podcasts, avatars, phone calls, video calls, holographic calls, interwebs, emails and so on. They’re out there, just waiting to be tantalised with exactly the right suite of features, and they will come in their droves. And yet, while both can talk as long and as loudly about living-room strategies, wedge strategies, battles for the living room and moving beyond just games, customers continue to buy Xboxes and PlayStations to play games. While both can get very excitable about video cameras, connectivity, streamed media and so on, nobody gives a good goddamn about the vast majority of those features. If anything, they are voicing their displeasure through supporting leaner microconsoles like OUYA. Yet the powers that be in Redmond and Japan are simply not listening. It’s worse than just a lack of focus. The issue for both is that they have largely run out of compelling platform stories. They either don’t believe that there is anything more to the gamer market than they have already captured, or that they have no meaningful way to attract them any more. So, like the Tom Waits song “Step Right Up,” wherein he recites a laundry list of features for a product (“it fillets, it chops, it dices, slices, never stops, lasts a lifetime, mows your lawn…”), for both big-M and big-S, life is about seeing just how many boondoggles and doohickeys they can staple to their platforms. Those days of courting the lifestyle gamer, the passionate gamer and the indie gamer? Long gone. All in the hope of attracting a median dollar that is more mirage than reality. Perhaps the most poignant article on this subject is Nat Brown’s “Stupid, Stupid xBox!!“. Brown – one of the original engineers behind the console, who even dreamed up its name – lambasts Microsoft thoroughly for making deep dives on features that nobody cares about (and, in my opinion, are mostly poorly executed) and navigation systems that are unusable (again, agree – the Xbox dashboard gets worse with every major iteration) while failing to solve the obvious problems in front of them. The main problem, as Brown sees it, is the ham-fisted way in which Microsoft handles independent development and relies on big partnerships. While you can easily build an app for mobile, tablet or PC these days, building for Xbox is impossible unless you have a lot of money and partner-level relationships with the platform. Your game will, at best, end up in a graveyard hidden under 100 tonnes of nonsense. Even the portrayal of the Xbox 360 as seen in Indie Game: The Movie (which is not kind) is like some shining reverie of the past compared to the modern version. Of course we do tend to sometimes converge on devices, such as the PC, the tablet and the smartphone. This is largely to do with either necessity (we need a family computer) or convenience (why carry a walkman and phone when my smartphone can save pocket space) or both (tablets). Manufacturers mistake this for a desire for features, inferring that there must be other markets out there that want all of their stuff under one lid. But they don’t really. Regular users dislike cruft, and they actively hate the sensation of being jerked around. The PC has always lived with this tension, and smartphones are showing signs of it, too. These devices attract several groups of people whose use cases are very different, and so each has gripes. For some, one interface goes too far, while for others not far enough. The word-processor-and-email user just wants a simple computer to do that and finds the techie side frustrating. The gamer wants power, and for the operating system and other software to get out of the way. The programmer wants something different again. So too the graphics artist. Arguably the big reason why iPads are so popular is that they are much simpler than PCs, drawing the word/mail crowd away. Meanwhile the gamers are still sticking with their power PCs but couldn’t care less about Windows 8. While game consoles certainly seem as though they could be the ur-box that sits under your TV and converges everything, that vision is one which has been in front of users for a long time, yet they just don’t care. When Sony lifts the lid on the PS4 next week, and Microsoft presumably does something similar at GDC for Xbox, we will know more about their concrete plans for the future. We expect that both will be long on waffle about entertainment applications, especially Microsoft, and the awesome power of using Internet Explorer on your telly. My prediction has long been that the console that convinces gamers that it’s really just about games and focuses on executing for that is the one that will win. We already know that Nintendo has laid a big egg with Wii U (sadly), and that means the market is wide open. So the question is whether the other two will fail to capitalise or not. Thus far neither of the other two major platform holders is doing that, which is why smart eyes are starting to look to microconsoles instead.

Ohioans performed a record amount of elbow-bends last year as they downed enough liquor to fill more than 18 Olympic-size swimming pools. Sales increased by $49 million, or 5.8 percent, in 2013, while consumption increased by 3 percent to more than 12 million gallons, the Ohio Division of Liquor Control announced yesterday. Ohioans performed a record amount of elbow-bends last year as they downed enough liquor to fill more than 18 Olympic-size swimming pools. Sales increased by $49 million, or 5.8 percent, in 2013, while consumption increased by 3 percent to more than 12 million gallons, the Ohio Division of Liquor Control announced yesterday. Jack Daniel�s Tennessee Whiskey (351,125 gallons) topped Kamchatka Vodka (294,168 gallons) as the best-selling hard stuff by volume. Total sales of spirituous liquors, those containing more than 21 percent alcohol, reached a record $898 million, continuing a trend in which liquor sales have increased each year since 1994. �Ohioans continue to trade up, buying more of the premium products as consumer tastes become more sophisticated,� Bruce Stevens, liquor-control superintendent, said. Direct retail sales to imbibers totaled $635 million (an increase of 7 percent) through state-authorized sellers, while wholesale purchases by restaurants and bars increased 2.5 percent to $264 million. Under a 25-year lease in which it paid $1.4 billion to the state, liquor income flows to JobsOhio Beverage System, the wholly owned subsidiary of Gov. John Kasich�s privatized economic-development agency, to fund its operations. A Department of Commerce news release did not disclose profit figures for liquor sales in 2013. State officials said they did not have those numbers and that they would have to be provided by JobsOhio. A JobsOhio spokeswoman said yesterday that the organization�s total liquor profit for the calendar year will be reported when its annual report is released Feb. 28. It reported $37.5 million in profit for the third quarter of last year. rludlow@dispatch.com @RandyLudlow

Lovable Beatrix Hart is a huge Seattle Mariners fan, and is winning over hearts after the 3-year old's wild reactions were featured on the big screen at Safeco Field. (Sept. 8, 2016/ KOMO Photo) SEATTLE (KOMO) -- Around the internet, Beatrix Hart has earned the nickname “Cotton Candy Girl,” after a viral video from Wednesday’s Seattle Mariners game showing Beatrix covered in blue sugar, making faces was featured on the jumbotron. “I was acting crazy,” the three-year-old said about the short clip that shows her making funny faces at a Mariners camera. Beatrix ended up on the big screen several times during the game. The Mariners posted a short clip to Twitter after it ended, and it blew up across the internet overnight. By Thursday it was posted to several national media websites and trended on Reddit. Many assume a sugar rush is what caused the wild look, but Beatrix and her dad insist she just loves making funny faces. “You just think you’re having fun,” Jake Hart said. “Then you wake up the next morning and the whole world is talking about it.” Jake says his daughter can’t grasp the fame she’s found overnight. Nor does she need to. He’s just glad she’s a “happy baby girl.” Now Beatrix is begging her dad for another shot at the messy treat. “I didn’t have enough,” she insists. “I didn’t have enough cotton candy.” In fairness, it was her first time trying it.

no one else: When researchers looked at search and view data for Porn Hub, they found something that surprised head-up-your-ass left-wing media dogmaticians, but women like super violent porn that features multiple attackers, abject terror and lots of force ! Women don’t just want to see sex. They want to see sex that includes ‘painful anal crying’, ‘public disgrace’ and ‘extreme brutal gangbang’. Well, hello there, Mohammed. Did you bring your friend Akbar, too? It amuses me, truly, to see writers like Sophia Rahman (that’s an Arabic name that means ‘servant of the most merciful’, by the way) try to stagger and blubber their way through women’s perplexing and difficult to dislodge tendency to adore domination, power, control, mastery and men, all at the same time! It only takes Sophia three paragraphs to try to absolve women of even the slightest hint of accountability for their own illicit desires: “ Researchers found that 52 percent of the women had fantasies about forced sex with a man, 32 percent about being raped and 28 percent about forced oral sex with a man. Overall, 62 percent of the women reported having had at least one fantasy around a forced sex act. The researchers then investigated if the women’s fantasies were indicative of “sexual blame avoidance”, a hypothesis that women socialised by our slut-shaming culture chose forced sex themes to negate feelings of shame and guilt. Kudos to Sophia for having the capacity to at least write the truth, even as she struggles to understand it: “ The opposite was found to be true. Women who reported being less repressed about sex were more likely to have rape fantasies, more open to fantasy in general, more likely to have consensual fantasies and finally, they were found more likely to have high self-esteem. Hmmmm. Women who think very highly of themselves enjoy fantasizing about men finding them, literally, irresistible? It’s so confusing. If you had to pick the best-selling book in Britain of all time – since record-keeping began – what would you choose? The Bible? The Book of Common Prayer? Pride and Prejudice? Vera Britten’s Testament of Youth (fabulous book)? Harry Potter? The Wealth of Nations? Try 50 Shades Of Grey. “ Next time you’ll be in the cargo hold, bound and gagged in a crate. An actual quote from the book . No, I haven’t read it, nor do I have any real desire to read it. Not my thing, quite frankly, although I begrudge no one their fantasy. What I do begrudge everyone is reality. Is it really any wonder that British women, who have worked so hard to utterly emasculate and castrate British men , are now voting to import Islamic savages who will quite happily bind them, gag them, gang-rape them and then kill them ? These stupid women do not realize their titillating fantasies translate into real life in an entirely different way with Muslim men. British men would like you to make tea and keep the house reasonably tidy while they work longer hours and earn most of the money. Muslim men would like to stone you for talking out of turn. Or talking at all. Choose wisely, you stupid cows. British women are not alone, by any means. Women all across the West have taken the men of the West, excoriated them, blamed them, screeched at them like rabid harpies , stripped them of every bit of cultural force and power they could manage, and then the women collapsed crying because they only have pussified man-boys to choose from for sexual and marriage partners. Enter savage Mohammed and his gang of ‘refugee’ friends who are all, curiously, military aged men. Plethysmography is a technical word for measuring bodily reactions in response to various stimuli. Daniel Bergner wrote a book called What Do Women Want: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire , and I am quite certain he would not be the slightest bit surprised that women love violent porn, love watching women sexually dominated and love the fantasy of being desired, no matter what the physical reality of that desire might entail. This is because Bergner looks at what happens to women’s vaginal responses (blood flow indicates arousal) when they are exposed to porn and other stimuli. The plethysmograph doesn’t lie. When Western women neuter Western men, and refuse to even attempt to understand their own innate desire for domination, to whatever degree any individual woman prefers (and almost all women prefer domination), we are left with immense, enormous unsated desires that are going to be expressed, one way or another, whether we like it or not. Repression has never been a particularly effective social strategy. What we get to choose is how women’s desire will be expressed. I don’t want any shades of allahu akbar, thanks. Lots of love, JB

It has been routine from a sub-group who regard non-Muslim women in skimpy clothing as provocateurs and fair game. I have page after page of testimony from witnesses - mothers, teachers and girls - about this phenomenon in Cronulla. The same teacher is also certain that the spark that lit the Cronulla riot on December 11 was not the one broadcast around the world the next day. "People just didn't decide to bash someone who looked Lebanese. It all started when this guy outside Northies shouted, 'I'm going to blow youse all up.' That's what started the pack attacking him. It wasn't racial hatred. After September 11, people are much more sensitive about that kind of threat." I've heard similar versions from three people who know many who attended the demonstration on December 11. It will be interesting to see what emerges in court. "It's so disturbing," the teacher said, "the images distributed around Australia and the world, that none of the beatings, the provocations, the filth, were even discussed. The straw that broke the camel's back was not the assault on the two life-savers the previous Sunday [December 4]. The text messages really started to fly after the assault the following Wednesday. "I saw the whole thing. At 4.15pm a group of Lebanese were hanging around the showers at the car park. There were about 25 to 30 of them. A local guy, about 40, was walking by and said something. One of them punched him in the head from behind. When the Anglo guy turned around and started to defend himself, they swarmed on him. He went into a foetal position and they were all kicking him. Another guy went to assist him and he was attacked … "Then they all jumped into their cars and left. There was one number plate that stuck in my memory because it was so ridiculous - HTN WET - hot and wet. I ran into the police station and said I could identify them. I could pick one of them out by his tattoos down his arm. They were very distinctive … "The police told everyone to just go home, even though there were bystanders who were saying they could identify the attackers, and people were saying this was the same group which attacked the lifesavers the previous Sunday. It was almost as if they didn't care what we had to say. I was not contacted by one person and I went into the police station twice … Maybe nothing is ever done here because this is a Liberal area." Another witness to the assault, Warwick Kent, told me: "I saw them kick the crap out of this bloke on the ground. One big guy was waving around a numchucker, and they were screaming 'We own this country'. "The police arrived 15 minutes later and said it was a small event and there was no evidence. It was not a small event. It was very violent and there were more than 20 men involved." It would become a very large event four days later. The young teacher's adventures were not over. On the night of December 12, she was with a group of teachers from Cronulla High having their staff Christmas party at a pizza parlour in Sylvania when, across the road, a group of Lebanese-Australian men began assembling outside Paul's Hamburgers. It was shortly after nine o'clock on the night after the anti-Lebanese demonstration at Cronulla. It was the night of revenge convoys. "We rang the police to tell them they were congregating, screaming, armed with bats and bars … Some of them were part of the same group outside the beach club on Wednesday," she says. A second teacher who was at the pizzeria that night, who asked not to be named, told me she called 000 to warn police that about 20 to 25 carloads of fired-up young Lebanese were armed and were gathering at the Sylvania shops. About 15 minutes later the convoy headed off in the direction of Cronulla. Much later, after Superintendent Ken Mackay was put in charge of the investigation into the revenge attacks, the young Cronulla teacher did receive a call from police. It turned out to be Mackay himself on the line. The positive news that may come out of all this is that the core of the trouble at Cronulla may be a group of about 30 men. Two men have been charged over the assault of the lifesavers on December 4. Other members of the same group may have been involved in the attacks outside the surf club on December 7, and the bash-and-smash raids on December 12, and general intimidation for many months. Finally, after two months, the full story on Cronulla is emerging. That's why the owner of HTN WET must surely be a person the police will want to have a friendly chat with. He clearly wants attention.

China declares aircraft carrier Liaoning ‘combat ready’ The Chinese news publication Global Times reported that the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has declared that the Liaoning, its first and only aircraft carrier, is now ‘combat ready.’ The announcement was reportedly made by Senior Captain Li Dongyou, the political commissar of the Liaoning, who affirmed Beijing’s intention to “promote [China’s] strength and use it to prevent war” as well as be prepared for “actual combat at any time.” As per Li, the Liaoning has “more than 1,000 non-commissioned officers” comprising of many experienced PLAN personnel, some with more than 20 years of experience in the service. The Liaoning is the Admiral Kuznetsov-class Varyag, which China bought from Ukraine in the late 1990s through a private Hong Kong-based business (which reportedly bought the incomplete carrier on the claim of turning it into a floating casino). The Varyag reached China in 2002. Through the mid-to-late 2000s, the Varyag was completed into the Liaoning. The PLAN loaded the Liaoning with Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) J-15, which analysts believe to a local replication of the Sukhoi Su-33. IHS Jane’s believes that the Z-18J airborne early warning helicopter and Z-18F anti-submarine warfare helicopters could also join the J-15 onboard the Liaoning. Notes & Comments: China’s regional interests are expansive. Strategic issues, such as Taiwan and water disputes with neighbouring states along the South China sea, the East China Sea, and the Yellow Sea, have made nearby maritime issues a matter of central concern to Beijing. Safeguarding trade, securing resources (e.g. fish, oil and gas deposits, minerals, etc), and building a buffer against Washington (which also maintains long-term security and economic interests in the Asia Pacific), are at least some of the specific issues driving Beijing’s pursuit of a fully capable Blue Water Navy. The Liaoning – as well as reportedly two additional carriers – are arriving in tandem with the PLAN’s wider fleet development goals, which have included the construction of anti-air warfare capable destroyers, many multi-mission frigates, and submarines (conventional and nuclear-powered). Although declared ‘combat ready’, analysts believe the Liaoning’s objective – or at this stage, achievement – would rest in enabling the PLAN to acclimate itself to carrier operations, which will support its long-term objective to fielding multiple aircraft carriers (which could potentially include landing helicopter docks).

Hearts of Iron IV Review American general William Tecumseh Sherman once said that “war is hell” and that its glory “is all moonshine”. Sherman, however, never single-handedly turned France into a communist paradise and then won the Second World War by 1941. Well I did in Hearts of Iron IV and I can tell you that it’s pretty bloody glorious. A sequel to the hard-as-nails Hearts of Iron III, this new instalment has seen developers Paradox Interactive go all-out to try and make an accessible successor that still retains the series’ lauded depth and detail. The masters of grand strategy have certainly made large strides towards that goal, but does it pass muster? Hearts of Iron IV places you in control of a nation during the build-up to the greatest conflict mankind has ever seen. At release there are two scenarios available - 1936 and 1939. The latter drops you right into the thick of it at the outbreak of war while the former allows you to prepare your chosen nation for a number of years in advance. There are seven major factions: America, Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy, Russia and Germany, each with their own special traits, bonuses and penalties. Players who like to root for the underdog will be pleased to know that Paradox have lifted the restriction on what minor nation you can play as. From Liberia and Albania to Brazil and Portugal - every nation on Earth is playable (though whether they’ll survive long is another matter altogether). The running of your nation is done by your representative political party, which can be moderated by governmental decrees. Your choice of political representative is by no means static - put the right policies into place and you can overthrow it with a stance of your choice. I’ve played as a communist France and a fascist Great Britain and even almost managed to create a democratic Germany (thus negating the entire war). What surprised me is that each of these eventualities has its own tailor-made notifications, events and consequences. I’ve gone through multiple campaigns turning countries into communist or fascist states just to see their flags change (pro tip: check out the badass communist America flag when you can). To further these crazy ambitions, Paradox allows the player to uncheck a ‘historical reality’ box on start-up that lifts the restrictions on the AI as to what decisions it makes, giving it free reign to create a true sandbox of ‘what if?’ questions. To further your nation’s goals a number of initiatives can be undertaken through research and development, as well as a new feature named ‘National Focus’. Similar to a skill tree, National Focus lines are a way to quickly develop your nation and take on policies. You can’t choose them all, though, and some parts of the tree are mutually exclusive. All the major factions have a bespoke tree and some minor ones have unique options too, such as Poland, Finland, China and Spain. There is no real currency in play in Hearts of Iron IV. Instead there are a number of resources that are needed to produce units, supply your forces and ensure that trade is maintained. These come in the shape of civilian factories, military factories, naval dockyards and manpower. The first three can be built upon as you go, the latter is affected by population figures, national unity and your type of government. Without manpower your front-line units will dwindle and be poorly reinforced, too, so it’s a figure that always needs watching. Your industry and production can all be bumped up by research and government policy, meaning that a careful balance can even redress some factions deficiencies at the start of play. The campaign map is split into three main views, each assigned to one of the three wings of your armed forces: army, navy and air force. While the army view splits the map into real-life provinces, regions and countries, the latter two create sweeping zones of coverage to better manage wide-scale operations. It’s a welcome change, as co-ordinating your three forces was a challenging task in the game’s predecessor. Navies and air wings can be moved between air bases and docks and then assigned to zones in turn. Once they’re assigned you can then give them a type of mission to undertake, like interception or convoy raiding. A small marker will indicate how successful these missions are via a percentage readout. Veterans of Hearts of Iron III will know that a poor start in 1936 in that game would lose you the entire campaign - you just wouldn’t know it until war started in 1939. It took me a good hour or so of Wikipedia-reading to fully understand how armies, industry and infrastructure worked, as well as how to properly set up my supply lines. A lot of this has been trimmed down by Paradox for the sequel and while some stalwarts of the series might prefer the hierarchical army system from the third installment, it’s now FAR easier to organise armies and get them moving to where you need them to act. The game really breaks down into two main stages: the build up from 1936 to 1939 and the crescendo when war is finally declared on (or by) your nation. The former is fast-paced and lively as you go through organising and renaming fleets and armies, building infrastructure and waiting for research and National Focus timers to drop. It’s a flurry of activity that is blistering compared to when you’re deep into the war. Once it’s in full swing it becomes a matter of days, not years. Tactics are tweaked, units maneuvered and enemy movement watched with a hawkish eye. I finished my France campaign by 1941 yet felt mentally exhausted at having to control three separate fronts at once (in Italy, Germany and Spain). That exhaustion was by no means unwelcome, it was accompanied by an exhilaration that I had come out on top against a cunning AI that had tried to exploit my every weakness. At each war’s conclusion (for there can be many, not just one global conflict), your nation is invited to a peace conference where it can make demands based on its contribution. It’s a great touch to proceedings and is a fantastic way to bookend a successful campaign. There were some cases in which this didn’t trigger, leaving me to spend years waiting for pockets of resistance to be mopped up and wonder “what now”?. Hopefully that particular bug will be sorted by release. Trade and diplomacy has also been given the slimming treatment. In older iterations in the series the multitude of screens could become confusing and a little overwhelming to the newcomer, now the process has been simplified to exchanging your civilian factories’ capacity for resources. It makes gathering resources when you’re time-short a lot easier. Diplomacy, however, still feels slightly tacked-on and light on features. Gone are the spies and espionage of Hearts of Iron III, replaced by a list of options that are ruled by their opinion of you and your political power (another resource, accumulated by your government). For much of the game it was I who reached out to other factions for trade and negotiations, I barely received any notices from the AI until war broke out. In some ways this may be a blessing in disguise, as being bombarded by trade messages in Hearts of Iron III was something I personally found highly frustrating. Army management has become a far more streamlined process. Groups of units can be selected and then assigned a commander - either a general who can control 24 divisions or a field marshall who can control 72 or more. Once assigned, orders can be made to the commander who will carry them out to the best of his ability. Players no longer have to issue unit-by-unit commands, though the option is still available if needed. Orders to your commander take the shape of visualised front-lines on the world map, with attractively-drawn advance and fallback indicators and helpful highlights of just where your troops will attack. Grand strategy is now something far more doable in Hearts of Iron, and drawing countless arrows for flanking maneuvers and lightening strikes makes you feel far more connected to what your troops are doing. When battle is joined on land, a small indicator will appear between two forces, a ticking number in the centre showing how close the clash is to its finish. If it’s green you're winning and if it's red you're losing. Clicking on the indicator brings up a more detailed panel showing you the tactics your generals are employing, what units are involved and what factors and terrain features are dictating their combat effectiveness. Combat in the air is measured in percentages too, but on the existing ‘mission efficiency’ icons. Naval battle occurs in a similar way, though their engagements are often short and sharp, and can sometimes come and go before you notice. Visually, Hearts of Iron IV comes with the quintessential Paradox grand strategy feel - one of a living Risk board at your fingertips. The world in which you play is lit up in appealing colours and hues which switch pleasingly when filters are changed. The names of countries above their landmass hover like titanic credits scrolling across the globe, while rain, blizzards and storms flash and burst out in myriad provinces and ocean zones. Divisions (when zoomed in) are represented by soldiers standing at attention, tanks with engines humming along or cavalrymen sat restlessly atop their mounts. These 3D models can be switched off so that the units are simply reflected by their markers, but unlike Hearts of Iron III these can be hard to spot properly on the map. The game’s musical scores wouldn’t be out of place on some HBO epic about the Second World War - it’s all rising string crescendos and sweeping orchestral movements designed to swell the heart. They certainly go some way to preparing the player for the upcoming conflict. The game is equipped with an effective, if not outstanding, array of sounds for each of the units, as well as era-specific touches on events like telegrams and communiques. Hearts of Iron IV is furnished with a feature-rich multiplayer experience that doesn’t remove any of the main game’s mechanics to simplify things. Despite this, when a number of players are involved it could become a slightly confusing playthrough - Hearts of Iron usually has a larger number of moving parts than Paradox’s other series like Crusader Kings. I tested the multiplayer out against my (admittedly reluctant) flatmate, and can confirm it feels just as good to completely obliterate your friends as it does the AI. Hearts of Iron IV is a fantastic entry into what is already acknowledged as one of the best Second World War strategy series in gaming. Mixing just the right amount of detail, depth and accessibility, the developers have crafted a formula that will please returning veterans and allow new players to enter the series without having to read an encyclopaedia of rules and stratagems first. Sandbox possibilities and endless ‘what-if’ questions only bump up what is already an impressive level of replayability. Paradox Interactive have created a game that strategy gamers and history buffs should get on their shelves as soon as possible.

In a recent post, I tackled guns- so I thought heck, why not talk religion?! Though, it’s really not religion I want to talk about- as someone who doesn’t believe in a “god”, I may not have much to say. What I’d really like to talk about is church and its role in a community. A few weeks back, I attended a friend’s choral concert- it was held on a Sunday evening in a pretty little church a few miles away. As you can imagine, being a “humanist”, (I don’t like the word atheist- it sounds too aggressive with a lot of negative associations), I don’t have a lot of opportunities to be in churches anymore. As I child I went regularly for a time, and in my travels, I have had the privilege of visiting some of the most magnificent in Europe and some of the most humble in rural Africa. I have enjoyed them all. Beyond that, it’s just weddings and funerals that bring me to these sacred spaces. Frankly, I miss church. Now, returning to my friend’s choral performance- as I entered the white clapboard church, with its open, light-filled nave made of varnished wood planks, I felt a sense of peace and reverence well up in me. Now, make no mistake- it was not God, but the physical space I was responding to. I feel that same sense of peace when coming upon a vista in the mountains or staring out across the ocean. Further, as I slipped into a pew and greeted people joining me in the row and settling in around me, I felt a wonderful sense of community- that again, was not God, but the anticipation of a shared experience and purpose- we were there to hear friends or family sing beautiful music together. The concert was lovely, lasting about 45 minutes, and afterward I felt refreshed and happy to have spent my time just sitting, not checking my phone, or thinking about running to a meeting, or what I was going to do for dinner. Instead, I was still– present in the moment, together with my fellow audience members, in this beautiful place that opened us to reflection, and the sights and music surrounding us. I have often felt like there is a void in the secular world, that we humanists, have foolishly ceded to the religious community. Greeks and Romans had forums and basilicas for just this type of gathering- in fact, the term basilica evolved over time to mean an important church, but its origin was far more humble. As religions developed, their leadership recognized and adopted the intrinsic power that shared experiences, the sense of belonging, and even specific architecture, have to inspire and strengthen their message. Over time, there has become a sense that the message itself is the progenitor of these feelings and the value that they generate. Similar to how the Christmas tree was adopted from an older cultural tradition, until it overshadowed and subsumed the long history of the symbol. I don’t begrudge religion for doing this. Rather, I think humanists need to get back into the game. Now, the closest modern manifestation that I can find- is TED talks, a sort of gathering for people of any affiliation to listen, talk, share, and be inspired. But these events are exclusive and limited- despite being available online for anyone to watch- the act of watching them alone, on a monitor or a phone, denies the viewer the transformative power of experiencing them as part of group. Church provides a tremendous value and service to a community. Beyond providing a regular opportunity for reflecting, listening, and learning about the existential issues that we human beings grapple with, they provide innumerable benefits to the community: food banks, meeting space, care for people through grief, crisis, or transition; just to name a few. As part of a church, a person is encouraged and inspired to think about their place within their community- what we can do for our fellow humans, our neighbors, and those less fortunate than we are. The message is often, “How do we lift each other up?”, “How do we behave better as parents, friends, colleagues, partners?”, “How do we listen to our hearts?” These noble messages deserve to be heard and spread amongst everyone- they are an integral part of a strong community and connect us. It’s my belief, and I feel confident that science and history back me up here- that these impulses are part of who we are as humans, not who we are as worshippers of a specific god. I want to reclaim my access to these shared experiences and a shared community, without needing to subjugate myself to a dogma that I don’t believe in. I want a secular humanist church for my community. I want to maintain the concept of church, but peel away the veneer of religion- I refuse to believe that I have accept that as part of participating in a community that wants to congregate, learn, help each other, and grow. This Humanist congregation should be a patchwork of people from the community that are interested in exploring questions of philosophy, science, morality, service, charity, and growth- both spiritual and emotional. I want a place to bring my family on Sundays, a place where we can listen to lectures on philosophy, the nature of good and evil, compassion, kindness, perseverance, the mysteries of our universe and human nature; and then afterwards, gather to eat slightly stale cookies, drink coffee and lemonade, discuss the lecture of the day, and enjoy the fellowship of people interested in the same things. I want a place where my children can learn these lessons amongst their peers, in their own Sunday School, where they are encouraged to think about these questions in a supportive, fun environment. I don’t want to continue to do this as a one or two person show. It’s been my experience that Atheists often sound as ugly and obnoxious as any proselytizing bible-thumper that they are so derisive of. I have many, many friends- whether Christian, Muslim, or any other religious group- that have been subject to hateful or condescending comments from “enlightened” nonbelievers. That is not a community that I want to be part of either. That kind of intolerance is just as unacceptable to me as someone telling my children that they are headed for Hell. It’s true, I’m not losing any sleep over that threat, but I am committed to acting with the grace and courtesy that I expect of others. There is nothing as universally well regarded as the golden rule- “Do unto others as you would have done unto you.” Amen! Rejecting god does not mean rejecting the beauty of the universe, or marginalizing the awe we feel for our incredible good fortune to be residents of this amazing planet and community called humanity. It is a great disservice to those of us who don’t believe in a god or gods, to allow ourselves to be marginalized by accepting the status quo of “no god, no church”. I am saying, “Enough!” I do not accept the status quo! It’s time to join together as humans, as humanists, as humble seekers of truth, as lovers of peace, harmony, nature, and beauty. It’s time to redefine ourselves and claim our due as people who want to be better in our daily lives, who want to leave a better world for our children, who believe in compassion, acceptance, service, charity- these values are not the property of religion, they are\the tenets of humanity that have a duty to live by, pass on to our children, and hold others accountable to. I want to embrace our church going neighbors and say, “thank you” for evolving and keeping this tradition alive! We may not attend the same church, but we can embrace many of the same values- and in the process learn that we are more similar than we are different. What a wonderful contribution to this planet it would be for each of us to see ourselves reflected in the eyes of people we think of as so different. As Shakespeare wrote, “If you prick us, do we not bleed?” There is more that connects us than separates us. Let’s go! Who will join me? Who wants to come watch a TED talk next Sunday? I’ll bring the cookies.

An undercover Panorama investigation has found some paid expert witnesses prepared to provide helpful court reports despite a client's confession. Only one of nine expert witnesses approached did not want to get involved after the reporters admitted "guilt". They included animal expert Prof Barry Peachey who suggested a false defence for a reporter who "confessed" to interfering with a badger sett. He later insisted his report was truthful and accurate. Expert witnesses produce reports for use in court whenever specialist knowledge is required. They are bound by ethical duties and legal rules, which state their reports should be independent and impartial, even though they are often paid for by only one side or the other. Their reports should include all relevant information provided by the client. Secret filming Four of the expert witnesses Panorama approached provided court-ready reports. All were caught on camera flouting the rules. One was animal scientist Prof Barry Peachey, who specialises in the law protecting badgers. Panorama: Find out more Image copyright bbc Daniel Foggo presents Undercover: Justice for Sale? BBC One, Monday 9 June at 19.30 BST Then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer The reporter told him he had deliberately put a dog in a sett in pursuit of a badger, an offence that can carry a six-month jail sentence. He said he feared he had been filmed by a passer-by and could face prosecution. During the secret filming, Prof Peachey acknowledged the reporter had broken the law. "What you've done and what they can prove are two entirely different things," he told him. He continued: "Your defence is that this was a pure accident… You were walking your dog along and the dog suddenly saw a badger and dived down a hole and all you were trying to do is get it back." He then produced a report for use in court, which correctly described the badger sett as active, but which also set up the false defence by saying the sett was not visible to the casual passer-by. Prof Peachey also said he would be willing to give evidence in court saying that it was "highly likely" the dog entered the sett by accident. In total he charged £2,223 for his report. He said his report was truthful and accurate and he had no financial incentive not to tell the truth. He said the facts of the incident had not been made clear and he would never lie in court. 'Surprising' Undercover reporters also approached two handwriting experts, confessing that they had written an anonymous, threatening note but wanted reports to cast doubt on their guilt. The breaches of duty are, had they been carried through into the court process, very serious Timothy Dutton QC, Former chairman of the Bar Council Simone Tennant, a graphologist, ignored some evidence that would have been unhelpful to the reporter and concluded that the authorship of the note was "inconclusive". She did not respond to Panorama's findings. The other expert, Michael Ansell, a former deputy head of the Metropolitan Police's document section, said that there was "strong evidence" the reporter had not written the note. He later said although he heard the reporter say he had written the note, he did not think he meant it. Neither expert mentioned the reporters' confessions in their reports. Timothy Dutton QC, former chair of the Bar Council and an expert in legal ethics said it was comparatively rare to encounter experts who sought to subvert the rules. He added: "Nevertheless, seeing these examples is surprising and in each of these instances it seems to me that the breaches of duty are, had they been carried through into the court process, very serious." As an industry, expert witnesses are subject to very limited regulation and there are calls for greater powers to police them. Last year, the Ministry of Justice rejected a proposal from the Law Commission to bring in a new law giving courts greater powers of scrutiny of expert testimony. However, Justice Minister Damian Green said: "Rules for criminal courts are being tightened and changed so judges are provided with more information at an early stage about any expert evidence being used, giving them the opportunity to challenge anything inappropriate." Watch Panorama, Undercover: Justice for Sale? on BBC One on 9 June at 19:30 BST.

Get the biggest politics stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Damian Green was tonight under huge pressure to resign after a Cabinet minister said watching porn at work was “not acceptable”. The First Secretary of State - Theresa May’s deputy and closest political ally - has repeatedly insisted he never downloaded or viewed porn. But two retired cops have claimed they found thousands of sex pics on his Commons computer while investigating Home Office leaks in 2008. And today Education Secretary Justine Greening took a swipe at him by saying it was important to have “high standards” in public life. Meanwhile, as a row deepened between police and MPs over the revealing of details of the porn on the Mr Green’s computer, it emerged that Mrs May’s senior aides now want him to quit rather than forcing her to decide whether to sack him or save him. (Image: Daily Mirror) Gavin Barwell, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, is among a host of top No 10 aides who reportedly want the embattled First Secretary of State to do the “decent thing” and “fall on his sword”. The calls for him to go grew as it also emerged a secret file containing details of the porn on Mr Green’s computer was preserved by cops despite a command from senior officers that the data should be deleted. Ms Greening piled pressure on beleaguered Mr Green saying it was “not acceptable” if he used a workplace computer to watch pornography. Her stance was in contrast to some Tory MPs who have been rallying round the First Secretary of State. Mr Green - who is also under investigation over claims of inappropriate behaviour towards a female Tory activist - has strongly denied downloading or viewing the material on the computer. But asked on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show whether it was acceptable to view pornography on a workplace computer, Ms Greening said: “There are clear laws. I think most employers would say it wasn’t acceptable.” Ms Greening declined to comment directly on the investigation into Mr Green, but added: “I think it is important that we have high standards in public life.” Separately, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he has “confidence” in and “absolutely” trusts Mr Green. (Image: PA) Speaking on ITV’s Peston On Sunday, he said: “I do have confidence in Damian Green and I have actually been in a situation Damian Green was in, where you are in the eye of a storm and everyone thinks you’ve done an absolutely terrible thing and what I learnt from that is that you have to wait until an investigation is completed. “And I was vindicated at the end of that process in my own case but I think we have to allow the Cabinet Office to complete their investigation. “I know Damian Green as a colleague and I trust him absolutely and that’s why I believe what he says, but there is an investigation... and I think... we should wait.” poll loading Should Green resign? 0+ VOTES SO FAR Yes No Mr Hunt described Sue Gray, who is leading the Cabinet Office inquiry, as a “very, very capable lady” who has to make a judgment on whether a minister has adhered to the ministerial code. He added: “I think we have to allow her to make that judgment, but what we can’t do is have trial by media and everyone jumping to conclusions when we don’t know the outcome of that investigation.”

With Something Wonderful taking place in just a few weeks, we\’re hoping that this Texas-based Disco Donnie fest doesn\’t get rained out again (like last year, and the same with Something Wicked). The reason being is that this line-up is chalked full of great house music, with little sprinkles of trap/dubstep to appeal to the very few bass heads in the city of Dallas. Disco Donnie always puts on a stellar production, but weather has not been a friend of the company. You\’ll want to be sure to buy your tickets before this Friday, April 1st at midnight to get the lowest price! Featuring over 20 artists from around the world, headlining performances from Tiësto and Dada Life will awaken the senses. Plus, we’ve got Borgore, Markus Schulz, Tritonal brought to life by a million watts of lighting, video, and lasers. Share the majestic experience of Something Wonderful among 20,000 fellow fans spanning more than 18 countries and 41 states! Check out the line-up below and don\’t sleep! Buy festival passes to Something Wonderful before prices increase at midnight (11:59 PM CT) on Friday, April 1st!

Under the Radar Blog Archives Select Date… January, 2019 December, 2018 November, 2018 October, 2018 September, 2018 August, 2018 July, 2018 June, 2018 May, 2018 April, 2018 March, 2018 February, 2018 "This is a good opportunity for them to move on. Whether they do that or not is a different question," Leonard Leo said. | AP Photo Trump adviser: Democrats should 'move on' from Garland SCOTUS snub The White House has a message for Democrats still harboring bitterness about the treatment of President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland: get over it. "If I was a Democratic senator who was angry about the way Judge Garland was treated, I would move on," an adviser to President Donald Trump, Leonard Leo, said in an interview set for broadcast on C-SPAN Sunday. Leo, who played a key role in the process that led to Trump's selection of Neil Gorsuch for the same Supreme Court vacancy, insisted it's time for both sides in the judicial confirmation wars to lay down their arms. "I think what we have seen over the course of the past 10 or 15 or even 20 years is that things have just continued to escalate. And part of the reason why they’ve escalated is that no one has been prepared to just say, 'Look, we’re spiraling downward here with this process. Somebody has to make the first move. Somebody has to extend the olive branch. Somebody has to finally bring some sanity into this process.' And if I were a Democrat, I would try to do that in this instance," Leo said on C-SPAN's "Newsmakers." "This is a good opportunity for them to move on. Whether they do that or not is a different question." Democrats will surely look skeptically on Leo's suggestion that a truce be called at a moment when Republicans control both the White House and the Senate, but Democrats ultimately have little power to control the outcome: if they try to obstruct Gorsuch's confirmation, Republican leaders in the Senate will likely kill off the filibuster altogether and approve Gorsuch's nomination along party lines. Leo, on leave from his post at the conservative Federalist Society in order to work with the White House on Gorsuch's confirmation, said he considers a filibuster a possibility in part due to Democratic voters' anger over the outcome of last November's presidential election. During the interview, conducted by the author of this blog and by Wall Street Journal Supreme Court reporter Jess Bravin, Leo said he expects the Justice Department will release some records about Gorsuch's work as the principal deputy associate attorney general for two years under President George W. Bush. "I would expect that those will be requested by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee—memos or email," Leo said. "Of course, there will have to be some level of negotiation regarding what aspect of those can be disclosed if there are national security issues, but, yes, I think those requests will be made and I won't be surprised if some of that material becomes part of the record ... There's a long tradition of culling through that kind of material and trying to provide whatever would be most illuminating for the Senate." A Justice Department spokesman had no comment on whether such a process was underway, but the agency was hit with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Friday seeking much of that information. A group advocating for greater transparency and term limits for justices, Fix The Court, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Washington to press for disclosure of records of Gorsuch's work from 2005 to 2006, before he joined the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeal. “Little is known about Judge Gorsuch’s tenure at the Justice Department,” Fix The Court's Gabe Roth said, adding that "he served during a tumultuous stretch, at a time when agency attorneys were believed to be giving legal advice in support of warrantless wiretapping on American citizens and in the run-up to the infamous dismissal of U.S. attorneys for partisan reasons.” Leo also said he agrees with Sen. Ted Cruz's statement last week that the high court could face another vacancy by summer. "I think that's quite possible. You know, the court is quite old," Leo said. Much of the speculation surrounds Republican-appointed Justice Anthony Kennedy and whether he might step down in order to allow a Republican president to replace him. However, another school of thought suggests that Kennedy will be unlikely to make way for a nominee who is likely to put at risk some major but narrowly-decided precedents Kennedy has provided a swing vote for on issues like abortion, gay marriage and affirmative action. Leo said he thinks Kennedy's assessment of whether the still-shorthanded court is back in a more normal state will play more of a role in his decision than how a new nominee might tip the balance on issues close to Kennedy's heart. "Knowing what I know about him and his dedication to the effectiveness and independence of the judiciary and the importance he places on smoothly and effectively running courts, I think he's going to be thinking a lot about the court and its institutional integrity integrity, more than anything else," Leo said, before adding: "That’s not to say he wouldn’t be thinking about those other things. I don't know."

If you found this article useful please share: http://goo.gl/8BL2O0 Elon Musk is one of the most important entrepreneurs of our generation, and is the brainchild of impressive companies like Tesla and Space X! It also turns out that he's a pretty quotable guy, with a lot of insight and wisdom. Feel free to take in a little of his genius with our Top 5 Elon Musk Quotes! Disclosure: We are a professional review site that receives compensation from the companies whose products we review "We test each product thoroughly and give high marks to only the very best. Boldlist is owned by Placement Labs & the opinions expressed here are our own." "Placement Labs is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com"

Can a prime minister or ruling party be faulted for stuffing a ‘caged bird’ with men they trust, notwithstanding their public pronouncements to the contrary? The answer lies in the shrugs and knowing smiles CBI insiders give you in response to the appointment of Y.C. Modi as additional director and Arun Kumar Sharma as joint director at India’s “premier investigation agency” in the last two months. Belonging to the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, Y.C. Modi was part of the CBI team which investigated the Haren Pandya murder case. Pandya, a former home minister of Gujarat and a political rival of Narendra Modi, was gunned down in a park in Gandhinagar by alleged extremists in 2003. Pandya’s family, however, pointed fingers elsewhere and accused the CBI of derailing the investigation. The Gujarat High Court in 2011 acquitted 12 persons in the Pandya murder case and criticised the CBI for a “botched-up and blinkered investigation”. The judgement went on to these scathing words: “The investigating officers concerned ought to be held accountable for their ineptitude resulting in injustice, huge harassment of many persons concerned and enormous waste of public resources and time of the courts”. The officer’s Gujarat connection was renewed in 2010 when he was inducted into the Special Investigation Team headed by former CBI director R.K. Raghavan to investigate the Gujarat riots. Giving a clean chit to the then Gujarat CM, the SIT felt there was not enough evidence to prove that Narendra Modi had either not done enough to stop the post-Godhra riots or had given oral instructions to officers to do nothing to stop the rampaging mobs. In a curious coincidence, Y.C. Modi investigated the three most important cases involving the post-Godhra riots, namely Gulberg Society, Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam. Sharma, IG (intelligence) when Snoopgate broke, is serving his first stint at CBI and tipped to be JD (policy). The amicus curiae appointed by the Supreme Court, senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, was not convinced. After meeting members of the SIT, including Y.C. Modi, Ramachandran asked whether the SIT could ignore the fact that two cabinet ministers were positioned in the control room but claim to have given no instructions during the rioting. Ramachandran also asked whether the SIT was entirely right in dismissing the deposition of Sanjeev Bhatt, ips, who claimed to have been present at a meeting when the chief minister was said to have given the oral instructions. Gujarat cast a shadow on yet another appointment made in April 2015 when Arun Kumar Sharma was posted to the CBI as joint director. Sharma, an ips officer, was IG (Intelligence) in the state in 2013 when Cobrapost and Gulail.com reported on what came to be known as ‘Snoopgate’. Audio tapes released in the public domain claimed that the Gujarat Police conducting illegal surveillance on the movement of a young woman, a Bangalore-based architect of Gujarati origin, on orders. Over 239 conversations between the then home minister Amit Shah and Gujarat police officers were released to show Shah was not only monitoring the surveillance but was also perturbed that ‘Saheb’ seemed to be receiving more information than the sleuths brought to Shah and ahead of him too. In 39 more audio tapes released later, it was claimed that the IG (Intelligence) Sharma could be heard telling his own people to conduct a parallel surveillance of the woman not just in Gujarat but also in Karnataka. The appointment of Sharma as a CBI joint director, therefore, was greeted with knowing smiles. But the drama was far from over. While the ips officer joined the CBI headquarters in April, he was not allocated any work till the middle of July. The buzz that the director, CBI, was under pressure to make Sharma JD (policy) became stronger as weeks passed. JD (policy) is a crucial posting at the CBI headquarters, because that officer is the agency’s interface with the Central Vigilance Commission, different ministries and other agencies, besides overseeing coordination and correspondence. The argument that such a sensitive post required an officer who had served the CBI earlier and knew the functioning appears to have prevailed eventually. Sharma, for whom this is his first stint with the CBI, was finally asked to look after a different division. But bets are on that it’s a matter of time before he takes over as JD (policy). After the NDA swept to power last year, the CBI, in a matter of weeks, repatriated the then JD (policy), Javeed Ahmed, back to Uttar Pradesh. Ahmed was widely tipped inside the agency for a promotion as additional director and was credited with the arrest of the nephew of the railway minister of the UPA days, Pawan Kumar Bansal, in an appointment racket concerning the railway board. Agency insiders, therefore, were taken by surprise when he was asked to pack up. The corridors were soon abuzz with whispers that the officer had paid the price for being a distant relative of retired Supreme Court judge Aftab Alam. The retired judge had presided over a hearing in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case and had ordered the trial to be held outside Gujarat. While a crestfallen Ahmed, recall friends, had pleaded in vain for any posting in New Delhi, he was apparently told by the home secretary that BJP president Shah wanted him out. As Y.C. Modi and Arun Kumar Sharma take charge, with the former already being tipped as the next director, things will remain much the same.

The Bridge by Leroy camera{location look_at }plane{y,-1 pigment{rgb z}normal{granite translate clock}finish{reflection{0,1}}}box{<99,-1,8>pigment{leopard color_map{[.2 rgb 0][.2 rgbt 1]}translate-y*2.6}}sphere{0,30 pigment{radial rotate-y*95}finish{ambient }} Still Images About This video was produced by rendering the following 330 bytes of code with POV-Ray: This Video is part of the POV-Ray Short Code Contest #5 which was originally published by Paul Bourke in 2008. This page shows a new re-rendering of the original POV-Ray source code at a higher resolution, although here and there some miniscule syntactic changes had to be made to the code in order to get POV-Ray 3.7 to parse it. Author's Comment The author did not supply a comment. Metadata SCC Award honourable mention Author: Leroy Author's Website: unknown Submission ID: ombpes Source Filesize: 330 Bytes Source Page: SCC5 Source Code: long | short Render Process Frames: 120 Pixels: 230 400 000 Rays: 1 581 091 440 CPU-Seconds: 3 200 Links

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The magic carpet is one manifestation of man's fascination with flight. What does our desire to defy gravity tell us about ourselves? Writer Cathy FitzGerald explores its appeal on the imagination. Web-dreaming one day, writer Cathy FitzGerald stumbled on a site belonging to a museum in Iran. It purported to tell the 'true history' of the flying carpet – how it was invented around the time of King Solomon and flourished with the rise of artisan makers in 11th century Baghdad. The article detailed the many uses of the carpet – military, as a means of aerial attack; commercial, as a vehicle for the transport of goods; and cultural, as a device to help readers in the library at Alexandria reach the high books – and explained how they were finally wiped out during the Mongol invasion of Central Asia. The article appears across the web, rarely with any caveat or credit. Cathy tracks down its author, the writer Azhar Abidi, and together they separate carpet fiction from carpet fact. She goes on to meet a Japanese astronaut who took a real carpet into space - and flew it, a Muslim whose prayer mat rises above the mundane and a physicist working on levitation in the quantum world. Along the way, cultural historian Marina Warner explains the origins of the symbol in the Arabian Nights, and wonders whether we had to invent flying carpets in order to learn how to fly. We dream of flying and often long to fly unaided - is that part of it? Cathy FitzGerald explores the past, present, and very real future of the magic carpet and wonders what our desire to defy gravity tells us about ourselves.

Arsene Wenger has revealed how much he admires India’s “special culture” ahead of this year’s Diwali celebrations. The five-day Hindu and Sikh festival to honour light, knowledge and good nature is underway, and the Arsenal manager has always had a “big respect” for India's values. “I am an admirer of Indian culture because, historically, through [Mahatma] Gandhi, when you are a young boy you learn about [his non-violence principles] and it has a special meaning to you,” Wenger told Arsenal Player. "Hard work is an essential quality in every society. That provokes a big respect." Arsene Wenger “When you are a very young boy you think you have to fight violence with violence and you never forget about a guy who gives you that [peaceful] example. "It makes you curious about Indian culture as well because they have their special culture with the different strands in society. It's a very interesting one. “On the other hand, when you look here, there is a very big Indian community in England and they are all hard-working people. All of them are doing very well in society, so you always respect that when you know that. Hard work is an essential quality in every society. That provokes a big respect.”

Sega has acquired bankrupted publisher Index Corporation, the owner of Persona and Shin Megami Tensei developer Atlus. Announcing the deal, Sega said it will "gain access to prominent IPs" and "can expect to achieve steady flows of revenue." Alongside developing games, Sega added that it would be able to maximise the value of its acquisition by "effectively deploying" its new IPs across its Pachislot and Pachinko Machines, Amusement Machine Sales, and Amusement Center Operations divisions. Atlus was purchased by the Sega Dream Corporation, which the publisher established on September 5. Bloomberg reported that the deal could be valued at ¥14 billion (approximately £88 million/$141 million) Index declared bankruptcy at the end of June, with ¥24.5 billion yen of debt. Sega's buyout of Index is expected to be concluded by November 1.

Beginning of the End of the Beginning. [Sep. 5th, 2003|04:11 pm] Amir Lets get a couple administrative things out of the way early today. It took me 14 minutes, I believe the closest guess was in fact 8 hours? Though my math may be off. This will probably be the second, third, or fourth to last livejournal i'll write because I am going to start writing stuff for my real website, and there is no need to repeat what i say in two locations *as i pack you guys up and move you to beingfamous.com* . More info on that as it develops. I saw a guy today with a giant eye, i didnt know what to say and i didnt know what to do and i didnt know what sort of "queer eye for the straight guy" joke to make. So i just said "Talk about, Giant Eye for the ... normal... guy.... Hey is that a carrot!?" But carrot top was walking right next to me and he just shrugged and was like "Whaaat! cant i make a fucking commercial about saving with one eight hundred see aye el el ay cee tee without being hounded like a fucking VEGETABLE!!" But muhammad Ali was right there and he murmured something to the effect of "Whaaaat! cant i receive 20 years of punishable brain damage without being refferred to as Dave Coulier?" And uncle joey was walking by and hes like "Who the fuck is dave coulier... fucking faggot." And im like WOO!!!! UNCLE JOEY IS A HOMOPHOBE! DOES ANYBODY REMEMBER THAT SONG: Tap the bottle AND twist the cap. One time my friend judy *aaasiiiaaannnn* said that they wanted her to work january 2nd and she was pissed and i said WHY and she said ITS LIKE 2 DAYS AFTER DECEMBER 25th. So what i want you to do is instant message "ThursdayPhu" and tell her that january 2nd is nt two days after december 25th and that Amir says your asian. Then again she might be reading this now because she tends to do that sorta thing and PREEMPTIVELY get mad at me, but do it anyways. copy and paste the convo into a comment. make a game of it. i dunno okay im just a jew. I bought a 2000 piece puzzle today, which is a lot. But i looked for the craziest puzzle this place had and it was 18,000 pieces, weighed 9 pounds, cost $199.99* i had seasoned fries today. i wouldnt say theyre better then regular fries, just different, and better. Kay schools done for the week and i feel like running a naked MOCK! or is it just amock is one word, or is it a muck. either way, a muck will be mucked and i will be naked for it. GOOD DAY SIRS. -amir b. *price subject to change, check specific store for local details, void where prohibited, if it doesnt say micromachines its not the real thing.

The Government is to continue to set aside hundreds of millions of euro in a “rainy-day” fund even as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar diverts greater resources towards spending on infrastructural projects. Mr Varadkar and Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe will this week announce they will accelerate capital spending by using much of a €3 billion pot that former minister for finance Michael Noonan previously intended would be set aside. They will not, however, entirely abandon Mr Noonan’s plan to build up a fund to guard against future economic shocks, such as Brexit. This week’s summer economic statement will mark Mr Varadkar’s first big policy move away from his predecessor’s position as he seeks to increase infrastructural spending. The statement is set to be brought to the Cabinet’s next meeting and then be announced by Mr Donohoe in the Dáil on Thursday. It will be the first of a number of policy measures this year that will culminate in a 10-year capital-investment programme to be announced in November. Allocated Mr Noonan said in last year’s budget that up to €3 billion would be set aside in a rainy-day fund, with €1 billion a year allocated from 2019 onwards. One senior Government figure has said that some but not all of the €3 billion will now be used for infrastructural spending, “so there will still be a rainy-day fund”. The exact figures have yet to be decided by the Cabinet, which will sign off on Mr Donohoe’s plan this week. Fianna Fáil had warned that the establishment of a rainy-day fund is part of the confidence-and-supply deal it has with Fine Gael to underpin the minority-government arrangement. Alternative plans The Government examined alternative plans recently, such as redefining funds held by the National Treasury Management Agency and its Ireland Strategic Investment Fund for “rainy day” purposes. Michael McGrath, the Fianna Fáil finance spokesman, is understood to have written to Mr Donohoe objecting to this approach. “From a Fianna Fáil point of view, we remain committed to the rainy-day fund once we have achieved a balanced budget” in 2018, Mr McGrath said. “It is possible to combine a rainy-day fund [with increased] on- and off-balance-sheet capital investment.” Government sources maintain the confidence-and-supply deal commits only to the establishment of a fund and does not spell out the amount of money that must be put into it. One well-placed figure pointed out that any money diverted from Mr Noonan’s original plans will go entirely towards infrastructure and not be used for day-to-day spending. Mr Varadkar signalled during the Fine Gael leadership campaign that he would use this money to accelerate infrastructural projects such as motorways and Metro North, a move that Mr Noonan criticised. The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, the International Monetary Fund and the Economic and Social Research Institute have all cautioned against scrapping the rainy-day fund.

ADVERTISEMENT We all know that snakes, insects, and wasps can be venomous but what about a poisonous bird or turtle? The stigma we have for creatures who pack a poisonous punch is reserved mostly for slithering reptiles or ominous spiders. However, venomous creatures run the gamete from insect to mammal. Duck-billed Platypus For instance the adorably goofy duck-billed platypus looks less threatening then a pet cat but believe it or not the male platypus has a spur on its hind foot that is more than capable of delivering severe pain to humans. This venom is extremely lethal to smaller creatures including dogs while afflicting enough pain to seriously incapacitate any human affected. Oedema, or fluid filled swelling, develops around the wound and then spreads throughout the limb as the pain develops into a long-lasting heightened sensitivity. Unlike its venomous insect or reptile counterparts, this toxin is actually utilized for asserting dominance during mating season rather than to kill or immobilize prey. I’m sure humans wouldn’t mind the perk of being able to stop a competitor right in their tracks while trying to get a date, but imagine trying to explain to your buddies that a Platypus won a fight against you… ADVERTISEMENT Pitohui The hooded Pitohui is the first documented venomous bird. Found in New Guinea, it acquires its poison from eating the same delicious treat responsible for the poisonous dart frog’s venom, the Choresine beetle. A neurotoxin called homobatrachotoxin found in the bird’s skin and feathers causes an intense sensation of numbness or tingling in whoever touches it. While it is thought to feature such brilliant coloring as a warning of its venom, one can’t help but wonder just how good of a warning that is when the Toucan’s even brighter colors threaten at most that it might try to sell you some fruit loops… ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the miscellaneous page below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the page's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page. The result of the discussion was page kept. Harej (talk) 01:25, 7 February 2015 (UTC) Against the spirit of wikipedia, A place that excludes editors based on anything violates the idea of an encyclopedia that anyone can edit. By all means create a place for woman but it is against the spirit to say "only this type of editor can join" RetΔrtist ( разговор ) 00:58, 1 February 2015 (UTC) I hope it's okay to insert this here. Since the subject of the WMF non discrimination policy keeps coming up, I have asked for some advice from WMF re this. I hope we will here soon from Siko (WMF). Lightbreather (talk) 23:32, 6 February 2015 (UTC) I've asked someone from WMF legal to clarify how the non-discrimination policy would apply in such cases, for reference. Cheers, Siko (WMF) (talk) 00:53, 7 February 2015 (UTC) See Wikipedia talk:Miscellany for deletion/User:Lightbreather/Kaffeeklatsch Keep. For the time being, it serves as an experiment based on a discussion at the Wikimedia IdeaLab re a space for women, similar to spaces used on other projects (other languages). This subspace in my user space does not prevent any editor from editing in any space beside this subspace. I am replying from my phone and will return when I am next at my desk. Lightbreather (talk) 01:11, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Lightbreather: Chess (talk) Ping when replying 03:46, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Keep An analogy suggested at the idealab, which may be flawed in general but valid in userspace, was that a women-only discussion forum would be like a table at a cafe, where a group of women are seated, talking. The claim was that a man shouldn't necessarily expect to be free to draw up a chair and join the group, as the group has a reasonable expectation of privacy unless they invite someone to join. In the context of the idealab discussion I had doubts about this reasoning because it seemed to me a discussion forum on an open wiki has no such expectation of privacy, however a page in a user's userspace does seem to have the right, at owner's option, to an expectation of privacy similar to that of a table at a cafe: those talking at the table should expect to be overheard, but might limit who is allowed to join the discussion. For those who prefer citation of policy, here's a relevant passage from WP:User pages#Ownership and editing of user pages: "Policy does not prohibit users, whether registered or unregistered users, from removing comments from their own talk pages, although archiving is preferred." Lightbreather has been polite about the experiment (not even, I believe, even removing comments considered out-of-place but merely moving them to a different page), so imho civility and AGF are satisfied as well, and I don't think the wider Wikipedian community should object. --Pi zero (talk) 03:17, 1 February 2015 (UTC) To counter on the terms of your analogy, I'd like to say that you have no right to force the cafe to provide you with a table. And also, a cafe is for the consumption of food and beverages, as well as discussion. An appropriate analogy, would be a chess cafe, a place where people come to play chess amongst each other at the tables. If people at the table are discussing backgammon, while not actually playing chess, the owner might ask them to leave, and ask them to go to a backgammon cafe, a place more appropriate for discussion of backgammon. Grognard Chess (talk) Ping when replying 03:32, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Pi zero: WP:User pages, it says that "if the community lets you know that they would rather you delete some content from your user space, you should consider doing so - such content is only permitted with the consent of the community." Policy does not specifically prevent removal of user talk page comments, but community consensus holds ultimate judgement over userspace. The community can come to a consensus for whatever reason it wants to on whether to delete this user page, as long as the consensus doesn't violate any other policies. Grognard Chess (talk) Ping when replying 03:42, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Sure the wider community could, but seems to me it's being done civilly, appears it's being done in good faith (I don't think this appearance even requires assuming good faith), and since it's in userspace, I'd think private conversations would be more usual to allow than to disallow, so that it's not against the spirit of Wikipedia to allow it. Hence, as I said, I don't think the wider community should object. (It's not even the content being objected to, but rather the conversants.) ---Pi zero (talk) 03:59, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Oh, and to reiterate another point, afaik the material wasn't even removed as such, just moved to a different page. --Pi zero (talk) 04:04, 1 February 2015 (UTC) The analogy is probably overtaxed by now anyway, but I might note that the analogy doens't extend very gracefully to likening Wikipedia to a chess cafe because, following the analogy, it's not a cafe at all; only certain side areas of Wikipedia are used for semi-private tables at all (userspace), and those areas also tend to have relatively greater flexibility of topic (not unlimited, of course, but in this case the intent seems to be that the discussion be about Wikipedia, so that calling it off-topic would be a bit of a stretch). Oh, and since you ask it, ping:Chess. --Pi zero (talk) 04:28, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Keep . I don't see any harm in this, nor any actual pointer to what policy it violates. The fact that people think the problem of "but it's exclusionary " is a bigger deal than the problem of Wikipedia's discussion venues being, at the very very most good-faith, implicitly biased towards a discussion style men are sociologically conditioned for, is a really good argument for its existence. Ironholds (talk) 04:47, 1 February 2015 (UTC) . I don't see any harm in this, nor any actual pointer to what policy it violates. The fact that people think the problem of "but it's " is a bigger deal than the problem of Wikipedia's discussion venues being, at the very most good-faith, implicitly biased towards a discussion style men are sociologically conditioned for, is a really good argument for its existence. Ironholds (talk) 04:47, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Delete . Strong neutral without prejudice. I really can't see any reason why this should exist, and there are other places that can handle any discussion that could take place in the kaffeeklatsch better than in the kaffeeklatsch. Content dispute? Talk page of the articles. Behavior dispute? ANI, AN, civility noticeboard, user talk of the offending editor. Advice? Help desk, teahouse, #wikipedia-en-help, the {{help me}} template, even! Off topic discussion? Take it to an off topic forum. Discussion about Wikipedia? Village pump. There is literally nothing in the kaffeeklatsch that could not be better handled by another place already in existence on Wikipedia. It's like buying a swiss army knife when you already have a kit of full sized tools that you use often. The swiss army knife has a bunch of worse versions of the tools you already have, so there's no practical reason to use it, unless you don't use the full sized tools enough to justify maintaining them. And also, the hypothetical swiss army knife only works on around 10% of objects. Grognard Chess (talk) Ping when replying 05:13, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Show me that this page can do something that isn't redundant. I believe it can't do anything that isn't already covered by something else, but show me how this can do something other than something falling under WP:NOTSOCIALNETWORK that isn't redundant. Grognard Chess (talk) Ping when replying 23:16, 3 February 2015 (UTC) 10% that aren't covered by the toolkit. You may need a less-terrible analogy, here. Ironholds (talk) 18:25, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Ironholds: WP:NOTSOCIALNETWORK that this project page can cover that can't be covered elsewhere. Grognard Chess (talk) Ping when replying 23:13, 3 February 2015 (UTC) Just off the top of my head? everything. The places you've brought up are all places that are perfectly good places to go if we assume for a second that they are consistently accepting places that aren't drastically biased towards a form of interaction which is anathema to people who aren't from a demography sociologically conditioned to believe that might makes right. Unfortunately they are places run by, using processes written by, and populated by, people from that background, me included - and if you're reading this and about to come back with "but they're perfectly pleasant, non-intimidatory and non-adversarial places", please keep context in mind and realise that we're on a page consisting of 40kb of plaintext, all dedicated to an adversarial discussion of whether a user gets to run an experiment on improving how we interact on-wiki and how systemically biased our content and contributors are, in their userspace. A discussion that has so far featured off-wiki canvassing and harassment from the sort of people who populate KotakuInAction, and evaluations from users in good standing that any such experiment is "blatantly discriminative drivel", equivalent to tolerating racist bigotry, and "serves no purpose except to cause more division and disruption". This MfD, if nothing else (and there is a lot else) is a good argument for such a space being a good thing. You can debate whether it's a good idea, sure - but this is a userspace experiment. If this MfD closes as keep, nothing is going to blow up. The wiki will not shut down. Indeed, I hope that it marks the start of a transition to an environment in which we actually recognise the biases that we have as individuals and a community, and work first to educate ourselves about the arguments in this space and then to, if not overcome those biases, at least stay quiet in situations where we know they come into play. I personally don't know how I feel about this as a safe-space (it's public, and could act as a single target for misogynists), and I've debated how I feel about the concept of gender-specific arenas in the past. But I stopped having those debates with myself when I realised that I was precisely the wrong demographic to be making any calls about whether such a space was necessary: I'm a middle-class white dude. I played life on easy mode. TL;DR: you're asking the wrong person the wrong question. Let's start deferring to the people in the arena for expertise on what is necessary, not shouting from the peanut gallery. And on that note, I'm going to disengage from this MfD so I don't drown out precisely those people with my walls-of-text. Ironholds (talk) 23:29, 3 February 2015 (UTC) Keep, for now. I wouldn't object to a deletion request if the page were dormant or clearly being used for non-encyclopedic purposes, but it seems a little hasty considering that it's just getting off the ground. Let's come back to this in 6 months or so and see if the discussion has proven meaningful for supporting and retaining editors. Shii (tock) 06:31, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Right here. I predict it'll either be inactive, or a hub of unencyclopedic content. But who knows? It's had meta-discussions so far, and nothing else except for a discussion on cis and trans, which before now I thought was about fats. Grognard Chess (talk) Ping when replying 23:26, 3 February 2015 (UTC) Keep - it's not actively harming the encyclopedia anyway. So you say it is exclusionary, huh? The entire environment of Wikipedia has been proven time and time again to be a hostile environment for women, what's the problem with a women-centered discussion? Many other areas on Wikipedia have criteron for membership; AfC requires a certain number of registration days and AWB requires 500 edits. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that anyone can edit but this user subpage is not preventing anyone from editing articles (or even the subpage itself). In fact it is an alpha-test-phase version of a space that may very well in the future encourage women to edit more on Wikipedia, just like women's colleges in the real world. There exists a reason why there are women's colleges in the world, but very few women's colleges: Because women need it. This page is not even hidden to the public. Any and all people can open up the page, read what's going on, and not even have to have an account or join. There is no closed door here, no only-women-can-read. In fact, men can choose to edit this page; there is no technical restriction from doing so - evident by the nominator's ability to send this to MfD. The only reason a man would chose not to edit the page would be out of respect for Lightbreather, because it is in her userspace, and we respect people's userspaces like that. The nominator states that he is willing to allow for a space for women to exist, but how can a women's space be created if men are allowed to be present? How can there be a true women's space when men are present - wouldn't that just become a place for humans instead of women? I find this proposition confusing and illogical. How can us women editors have a supportive women's environment if men are allowed to butt in (and we are not allowed to keep them out or even respectfully ask them to avoid commenting?) It is impossible for it to become a true "women's space" when men are there. Finally, one may argue that it adds no benefit to the project, but what's wrong with it neutrally just sitting there in a userspace subpage, then? There are no policies linked in the nomination to advocate for deletion. We do have things like the Gender Gap Task Force for these kinds of related things, but it is hardly a women's only space and it has been touched by Arb so it is obviously a contentious place. It is definitely not similar to a Teahouse-way of interacting with women editors. The Teahouse is for interacting with newbies, the Kaffeklatsch can be for interacting with the very small percentage of women editors that are on the project. Those who want to discuss the uselessness of things can first investigate the numerous WikiProjects that are either defunct or inactive, and then ask themselves why those have not been subject to MfD. It is ironic that Chess above mentions the Swiss Army knife working around 10% of objects, because... well... Wikipedia only has about... 10% of women, so of course it would only benefit them! Now, the real question is: What percentage of women would this benefit? kikichugirl speak up! Keep I'm flatly unconvinced that the space presents any real disruption or harm to building an encyclopedia. Not convinced the space is a slippery slope of any kind. This seems like a good time to remind folks that Wikimania 2014 (and probably previous years) had a meeting slot intended for editors who identified as women. Was it disruptive or did it present harm to the conference participants to learn about and help improve Wikimedia and other open-source projects? Nope. I suspect that the people like me who could not go to it thought, "Oh hey, I'm really glad they have that because they're bringing perspectives to the table that I probably don't have, and I appreciate more diversity in perspectives rather than fewer." I also suspect the event allowed a lot of women to meet and start sharing, building, and implementing ideas over the past six months. What is the benefit of prematurely shooting down a space that has the potential to do exactly the same thing? With that said, I agree with Shii, if the space does not facilitate constructive discussions over the next several months, we could consider marking the space as historical (I don't think it's necessary to delete the space). I, JethroBT drop me a line 07:53, 1 February 2015 (UTC) I'm flatly unconvinced that the space presents any real disruption or harm to building an encyclopedia. Not convinced the space is a slippery slope of any kind. This seems like a good time to remind folks that Wikimania 2014 (and probably previous years) had a meeting slot intended for editors who identified as women. Was it disruptive or did it present harm to the conference participants to learn about and help improve Wikimedia and other open-source projects? Nope. I suspect that the people like me who could not go to it thought, "Oh hey, I'm really glad they have that because they're bringing perspectives to the table that I probably don't have, and I appreciate more diversity in perspectives rather than fewer." I also suspect the event allowed a lot of women to meet and start sharing, building, and implementing ideas over the past six months. What is the benefit of prematurely shooting down a space that has the potential to do exactly the same thing? With that said, I agree with Shii, if the space does not facilitate constructive discussions over the next several months, we could consider marking the space as historical (I don't think it's necessary to delete the space). 07:53, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Keep for now. While there exists the potential for this page to become disruptive by holding content discussions there, for example, this is currently not happening and no harm is being done. As long as the page is well-managed I don't foresee any immediate problems. I would oppose moving to Wikipedia: space but where it is now is fine. BethNaught (talk) 08:38, 1 February 2015 (UTC) for now. While there exists the potential for this page to become disruptive by holding content discussions there, for example, this is currently not happening and no harm is being done. As long as the page is well-managed I don't foresee any immediate problems. I would oppose moving to Wikipedia: space but where it is now is fine. BethNaught (talk) 08:38, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Delete blatantly discriminative drivel. Hell in a Bucket (talk) 09:02, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Adding to rationale that WP:NOTSOCIALNETWORK such as [[1]] Hell in a Bucket (talk) 21:38, 1 February 2015 (UTC) OH NOES, THE WIMMINZ IS OPPRESSING US DISCRIMINATORILY! Whatever will we do? I guess we could take having 90% of the population in a consensus- and voting-driven environment as a consolation prize, but the fight isn't over. Never Forget. Ironholds (talk) 18:26, 1 February 2015 (UTC) And this is precisely why I don't take shit like this serious. I think that the more they wail about an unequal footing and then do things to actually enhance that unequal footing is a whole circus that is fun to watch but short on common sense or anything coming close to improving the issues. Hypocritical is what I like to call it, women are equal if they choose to be, no man can take that away from them. Hell in a Bucket (talk) 18:30, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Really? Because they certainly seem to be trying to. What use is this theoretical equality of yours when there's no practical equality? When we have (pardon the language) shitshows like the GGTF or Gamergate cases, in which it's made abundantly clear that a vast amount of off-wiki coordination, harassment and canvassing occurs in any situation where someone has the temerity to suggest there might be a problem? There's an entire subreddit dedicated to this stuff, including a thread aimed at this precise proposal. Does that sound like something that can be overcome by just trying harder? And does it seem at all cognitively dissonant to you that you're saying that men and women are fundamentally equal on the projects, but you only expect one of those groups to have to actively throw effort into maintaining their equal footing? Theoretical equality looks like nothing explicitly saying "no [people in subgroup] allowed". Practical equality means people in that subgroup not having to put disproportionate effort - or indeed, any effort - in. Ironholds (talk) 18:42, 1 February 2015 (UTC) I think that part of this scenario is the originator is part of the problem, get caught in lies, manipulation and various other activites and yes you are likely to garner a following. Let me understand, women only groups are ok, what about men only groups? Those must by extension be ok too....see the problem? It enhances the issue and does nothing to ameloriate it, it actually widens that divide. Hell in a Bucket (talk) 19:04, 1 February 2015 (UTC) And what about White History Month?! You're acting like the only thing here is a "divide"; as if, if people simply engage hard enough, all the problems will magically melt away. Ironholds (talk) 19:24, 1 February 2015 (UTC) I think that it's ridiculous to have any history month, history is history, it's not white, black, purple yellow or whatever, it's history. In regards to off wiki harrassment let's not delude ourselves that women don't do the same things, [[2]] I wonder if the originator of this pledge is on there? Hell in a Bucket (talk) 20:02, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Could I suggest, as a male, that the tone of Hell in a Bucket's posts above is precisely what leads us to have such a small proportion of female editors. So keep this at least while discussions are continuing. -- Bduke (Discussion) 01:49, 6 February 2015 (UTC) Weak keep Delete It may or not be against the "spirit" of Wikipedia but I don't see it currently contravening any policy (and I don't see any cited here). Of course, it has the potential to become disruptive and issues such as WP:CANVASS need to be kept an eye on so a "keep" is without prejudice to a possible later switch to "delete" On a personal note, I very much hope it stays because what's appeared on it so far has been the most fantastically hilarious entertainment. The level of unconscious self-parody is priceless. DeCausa (talk) 09:11, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Switched to delete. NE Ent (below) has pointed out a spdcific policy (albeit WMF rather than community) that this contravenes. As a result I don't see that this is tenable. DeCausa (talk) 20:48, 4 February 2015 (UTC) There are other responses to NE Ent's assertion, but my view is that it's nonsense to assert that this "is clearly against WMF's nondiscrimation policy", because all sorts of minority interest groups operate within schools and corporations that are obviously themselves committed to nondiscrimination. -- do ncr am So what? It's woolly thinking to believe that is of relevance to the particulnarities here. DeCausa (talk) 07:51, 5 February 2015 (UTC) But anyhow, let WMF legal consider the issue, and in 2 seconds say there is no problemo (I anticipate), rather than try to decide the legality by mob decision-making here. -- do ncr am 16:28, 5 February 2015 (UTC) Keep why should a user not be free to say who's welcome in a certain user space. --C.Koltzenburg (talk) 10:41, 1 February 2015 (UTC) There's no absolute rights for the user. WP:UP#OWN: "Traditionally Wikipedia offers wide latitude to users to manage their user space as they see fit. However, pages in user space belong to the wider community. They are not a personal homepage, and do not belong to the user. They are part of Wikipedia, and exist to make collaboration among editors easier." DeCausa (talk) 10:56, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Keep It's unclear why this is being nominated. (Just kidding. It's all too clear.) I think it's silly to nominate it for deletion as it's a fairly inactive and new page, and is not posing any problems I can see. Despite what combative hand-wringers may claim, there's nothing to justify its deletion yet. It's also being targeted by off-site campaigning via Reddit (yawn). Ongepotchket (talk) 12:29, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Comment While I can't support this by adding a "keep" vote, WP:IDLI isn't a reason to delete. the Wikipedia:User pages guideline says that users may remove content from their user pages except for a few specific items (this would be clearer if it were a talk page, where the guideline specifically mentions that a user can remove unwelcome posts, and can ask certain users not to post, and Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines says "User talk pages are almost never deleted"). The wording of the guideline is unclear (in my opinion) about whether this includes user subpages , or only a user's main page and talk page, and so it seems that at this time the page isn't contravening the guideline.—Anne Delong (talk) 14:55, 1 February 2015 (UTC) While I can't support this by adding a "keep" vote, WP:IDLI isn't a reason to delete. the Wikipedia:User pages guideline says that users may remove content from their user pages except for a few specific items (this would be clearer if it were a page, where the guideline specifically mentions that a user can remove unwelcome posts, and can ask certain users not to post, and Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines says "User talk pages are almost never deleted"). The wording of the guideline is unclear (in my opinion) about whether this includes user , or only a user's main page and talk page, and so it seems that at this time the page isn't contravening the guideline.—Anne Delong (talk) 14:55, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Keep. As I understand it, the page was set up as an experiment related to the larger IdeaLab proposal for a women's space. It's doing no harm and I can't see any good reason to delete it. Sarah (SV) (talk) 18:48, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Delete This is a blatantly sexist page, If this were a page where only men were allowed to edit it would have been deleted without question. Pepsiwithcoke (talk) 19:53, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Note; this user has made few or no contributions outside of this area. Ironholds (talk) 20:05, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Seems to have been blocked for harassment quite recently as well. Why am I not surprised. Ongepotchket (talk) 21:15, 1 February 2015 (UTC) So that means my opinion is invalid? Pepsiwithcoke (talk) 20:35, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Any reason why we ought to take the opinion of someone who relished the idea of killing a female by stabbing her in the throat with a pen seriously? Eric Corbett 20:10, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Who are you talking about? Pepsiwithcoke (talk) 20:36, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Well, you essentially have two options there. One, you can assume that I am not, in fact, the same eejit that I was...cripes, must be around four years ago now - in which case, your rhetorical question is moot. Or two, you can persist in believing that I am, in fact, the same eejit that I was around four years ago, in which case, here's a rhetorical question right back at you: how does it feel to be more socially conservative than that sort of person? Ironholds (talk) 21:05, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Men are not technically or even physically restricted from editing this page. Anyone can literally click edit because it's not sysop-protected. The truth is men and women are still not equal. It is not sexist, it is actively fighting sexism - and in order to do that, sexism must go away. Men can still read. Men can even click "edit" (but since it's Lightbreather's userspace, the men will probably be reverted). Please point to some indicator that there is sexism on this page that is actively harming the project, because I am not seeing it. kikichugirl speak up! This may be about a userpage but if it is allowed to stay it sets a precedent for the aforementioned and blatantly sexist "WikiProject Women" and should therefor be deleted, Unless a "WikiProject Men", That only allows Men to join is allowed this is completely unfair. Pepsiwithcoke (talk) 22:29, 1 February 2015 (UTC) This is a blatantly sexist page, If this were a page where only men were allowed to edit it would have been deleted without question. Pepsiwithcoke (talk) 19:53, 1 February 2015 (UTC) Delete. I recall that in the not too distant past a project that selected membership on the basis of editors having written a GA/FA was deleted. The argument was that every page should be open to everyone to contribute to. What's the difference here? Eric Corbett 20:00, 1 February 2015 (UTC) The user spaces are all part of the Wikipedia project, and don't "belong" to the individual users. (WP:UP#OWN) By logical deduction, discrimination on any page in the project is discrimination in the project.—Anne Delong (talk) 20:13, 2 February 2015 (UTC) I don't think that deduction is correct, per my analogy of minority student groups being encouraged on university campuses (expressed elsewhere on this page), and per discussion at wikimedia(?) idea-labs proposal for the WikiProject Women, where WMF sees no concern. This is a side question that is better answered by WMF legal (e.g. they can simply say they see no problem whatsoever), rather than by crowd consensus of non-lawyers. -- do ncr am 16:19, 5 February 2015 (UTC) meta: in-principle debates usually show how rules are made to work (and kept up) that have been defined by a majority of people. Now let's do a small thought experiment: Imagine that the Kaffeeklatsch page is a lovely place to contribute to. Then imagine that any other page you in principle wish to contribute to is actually a place you do not wish to be on because the climate among users is unbearable to you. Next step: Please phrase the implicit rules that keep me off that page and make them explicit here. Let's see what everyone might come up with. --C.Koltzenburg (talk) 17:35, 2 February 2015 (UTC) Keep - WP:POINT at its finest. Non-disruptive user-space project attempting to assist an incredibly small part of the community. In no way falls afoul of policy. Panyd The muffin is not subtle 18:24, 2 February 2015 (UTC) - WP:POINT at its finest. Non-disruptive user-space project attempting to assist an incredibly small part of the community. In no way falls afoul of policy. Panyd 18:24, 2 February 2015 (UTC) Keep. And I write this as someone bitterly opposed to Lightbreather's https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/WikiProject_Women, for all the reasons everyone above has stated; it's a horrible, discriminatory idea, that sets a terrible precedent. The difference here is that this is unofficial, unenforced, and user space. We have traditionally allowed people wider latitude with their own user page, including asking people not to post on their user talk page, etc. Here, Lightbreather has asked 90% of all editors not to post on this page in her user space. Not friendly, but should be allowed. --GRuban (talk) 19:08, 2 February 2015 (UTC) I'm sure you know this, but for clarity, men are only kept away from the Kaffeeklatsch page and haven't been banned from her whole space. BethNaught (talk) 19:25, 2 February 2015 (UTC) That's clear. Since I wrote as much ("this page in her user space"), I do, in fact know this. Since you wrote as much, it's also clear that I'm sure you know that I know this. Therefore, for clarity, I'm sure that you're sure that I'm sure. Clear? Surely clear? Clearly sure? Sure. --GRuban (talk) 21:35, 2 February 2015 (UTC) Weak Keep . I originally considered nominating this for MFD myself and then thought better of it. Like GRuban, I am adamantly opposed to WikiProject Women, but I'm willing to see how this goes in userspace, since there is precedent for editors requesting that others not post on their talk pages. As a subpage in userspace, this should get more latitude. If time shows that this page is used for a) social media, b) editor-bashing or male-bashing, c) content discussions (beyond discussions of lists of articles that need to be created) or d) coordinated efforts to push a POV, then I will lead the way in bringing it back up for deletion. I have my doubts that this will be useful at all (the people most advocating for it aren't using it), and perhaps the creator will realize that after some time passes. Karanacs (talk) 19:30, 2 February 2015 (UTC) + 1 Shii (tock) 21:21, 2 February 2015 (UTC) . I originally considered nominating this for MFD myself and then thought better of it. Like GRuban, I am adamantly opposed to WikiProject Women, but I'm willing to see how this goes in userspace, since there is precedent for editors requesting that others not post on their talk pages. As a subpage in userspace, this should get more latitude. If time shows that this page is used for a) social media, b) editor-bashing or male-bashing, c) content discussions (beyond discussions of lists of articles that need to be created) or d) coordinated efforts to push a POV, then I will lead the way in bringing it back up for deletion. I have my doubts that this will be useful at all (the people most advocating for it aren't using it), and perhaps the creator will realize that after some time passes. Karanacs (talk) 19:30, 2 February 2015 (UTC) keep Initially I was leaning to 'del' as divisive, but reading some male arguments in this page, I understand why women would want to insulate themselves a bit. While Wikipedia is definitely way more civilized than most open forums ("open" I mean without dictatorial moderation), still women do have more sensitivity to the tone of the message. Unfortunately careless male parlance seems to be ingrained in culture. Once I watched a youtube of a TV discussion between a Muslim Islamic scholar and an atheist scholar, and I was appalled at how the latter, a leading and respected scholar allowed himself a dismissive, nonchalant tone, bordering with rudeness. Staszek Lem (talk) 23:42, 2 February 2015 (UTC) I highly encourage you to amend to read that some women have more sensitivity to the tone of the message - just as some men do. This is not a characteristic of all women. Karanacs (talk) 15:05, 3 February 2015 (UTC) I did not write "all women". I wrote "women". Like in: "women have higher life expectancy than men". And if you sincerely think the word "some" would be a life saver, I highly encourage you to review some Wikipedia advice, starting with WP:WEASEL (unless you were simply ironic). Staszek Lem (talk) 03:39, 4 February 2015 (UTC) Initially I was leaning to 'del' as divisive, but reading some male arguments in this page, I understand why women would want to insulate themselves a bit. While Wikipedia is definitely way more civilized than most open forums ("open" I mean without dictatorial moderation), still women do have more sensitivity to the tone of the message. Unfortunately careless male parlance seems to be ingrained in culture. Once I watched a youtube of a TV discussion between a Muslim Islamic scholar and an atheist scholar, and I was appalled at how the latter, a leading and respected scholar allowed himself a dismissive, nonchalant tone, bordering with rudeness. Staszek Lem (talk) 23:42, 2 February 2015 (UTC) Comment I think there is a profound disconnect between the stated purpose of the Kaffeeklatsch and its implementation. The apparent purpose is to have a page where female editors are not exposed to incivility. If you want to exclude incivility, just explicitly exclude incivility. After all, women are perfectly capable of being uncivil. Specifically prohibit questioning the veracity of anyone's claim of having experienced sexual harassment, as that seems to be the majority of what you want to avoid. (To prevent abuse of this protection, naming a perpetrator would need to also be forbidden.) Excluding a gender creates a combative atmosphere from the start, but simply being a page of nice people makes a very unappealing target for trolls. Rhoark (talk) 00:23, 3 February 2015 (UTC) The community as a whole excludes incivility. The problem is that what is uncivil is fuzzy; there is no boolean "civil/uncivil" test, and it is perfectly possible to be simultaneously polite and highly disruptive. If the test was based on something as subjective as civility, the result wouldn't be a well-functioning system, it would be a system immediately gamed by the people pointed at this MfD off-wiki, and those people on-wiki who both oppose it and haven't yet reached emotional maturity, to create drama and then, on any backlash, immediately accelerate it to AN/I and suchlike in an effort to cast a fog. Call me cynical, but if the community could be trusted to appropriately deal with civility, and civility was the only concern here, the proposal would never have been made. Given that it has, at least 50% of your premise is moot. Ironholds (talk) 02:45, 3 February 2015 (UTC) A user can moderate their own user space to a different standard of civility than the project as a whole, which is the point of doing anything at all. I'm not so naive as to propose wiki admin processes as a tool to maintain civility. If the purpose of the space is not just enhanced civility, it becomes much more difficult to assume good faith. Rhoark (talk) 15:18, 3 February 2015 (UTC) This is but an experiment. I am pretty sure that if everything goes well, the "girls-only" club may be expanded; eg., to "invitation-only", and so on. On the other hand, if it will be swarmed by women "perfectly capable of being uncivil", it just as well may self-disband or shut down, as it happened with a number of well-meaning wikiclubs. Wikipedia:Esperanza comes to my mind. By the way, I would like to notice that "it is my user page" is a weak argument. User pages have been deleted all the time, if their content decided to be detrimental. A possible scenario: Happily married couples would start wanting to talk together in this page. Hardcore "single ladies" would strongly oppose: "Go create your own 'Club Happy Ever After'; obviously our problems are no longer yours". Heats up, blows off. One may think of dozens of scenarios. But at the moment let's think AGF. Staszek Lem (talk) 03:26, 3 February 2015 (UTC) "let's think AGF" +1 --C.Koltzenburg (talk) 15:58, 3 February 2015 (UTC) I think there is a profound disconnect between the stated purpose of the Kaffeeklatsch and its implementation. The apparent purpose is to have a page where female editors are not exposed to incivility. If you want to exclude incivility, just explicitly exclude incivility. After all, women are perfectly capable of being uncivil. Specifically prohibit questioning the veracity of anyone's claim of having experienced sexual harassment, as that seems to be the majority of what you want to avoid. (To prevent abuse of this protection, naming a perpetrator would need to also be forbidden.) Excluding a gender creates a combative atmosphere from the start, but simply being a page of nice people makes a very unappealing target for trolls. Rhoark (talk) 00:23, 3 February 2015 (UTC) Comment - I'll not argue for or against deletion. I think there could be utility for a women's only space on the one hand, but on the other, I'm not entirely sure whether it fits within policy as enforceable to being only women. That being said, I have concerns with the pledge requirements. Since Lightbreather really wanted those, and it is in her userspace, I just removed myself once it became clear the pledge would not change. Lady of Shalott - I'll not argue for or against deletion. I think there could be utility for a women's only space on the one hand, but on the other, I'm not entirely sure whether it fits within policy as enforceable to being only women. That being said, I have concerns with the pledge requirements. Since Lightbreather really wanted those, and it in her userspace, I just removed myself once it became clear the pledge would not change. Strong keep This is exclusive but not discriminatory in an unfair way. I support any safe spaces where non-male editors can meet and talk without being the odd one out in a room full of guys shouting at each other.--Battleofalma (talk) 21:49, 3 February 2015 (UTC) This is exclusive but not discriminatory in an unfair way. I support any safe spaces where non-male editors can meet and talk without being the odd one out in a room full of guys shouting at each other.--Battleofalma (talk) 21:49, 3 February 2015 (UTC) Comment I do not support the IdeaLab proposal as written and I do not support the membership requirements for this page and so won't !vote to keep the page. However, this page is in user space and doesn't seem to be violating user space or other guidelines. I think it would be best to revisit this page in six months or so and to delete it if any of the following apply: a) the IdeaLab proposal is approved and set up or running; b) this page receives little or no traffic; or c) this page receives traffic and the content clearly violates guidelines. Ca2james (talk) 19:36, 4 February 2015 (UTC) I do not support the IdeaLab proposal as written and I do not support the membership requirements for this page and so won't !vote to keep the page. However, this page is in user space and doesn't seem to be violating user space or other guidelines. I think it would be best to revisit this page in six months or so and to delete it if any of the following apply: a) the IdeaLab proposal is approved and set up or running; b) this page receives little or no traffic; or c) this page receives traffic and the content clearly violates guidelines. Ca2james (talk) 19:36, 4 February 2015 (UTC) Keep What harm exactly is this posing being in user-space? The proposed idea is active on Wikimedia so it should be kept until a decision is made regarding that. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 19:37, 4 February 2015 (UTC) What harm exactly is this posing being in user-space? The proposed idea is active on Wikimedia so it should be kept until a decision is made regarding that. - Knowledgekid87 (talk) 19:37, 4 February 2015 (UTC) What are the issues here? WP:OWN seems to be the biggest one. The existence of the page is not a problem, the belief that one has the power to exclude others from it is. We had a similar issue where it was believed that one of the political WikiProjects was to be composed solely of advocates of that position, rather than those interested in writing about it. What would happen, I wonder, if a person of male or indeterminate gender were to make some apposite and telling point? Would they be reverted and reported, perhaps to AN/I? Thus this idea would seem to trample WP:AGF with a vengeance. Thirdly any significant conversation (if it were to move beyond the naval gazing required to define its constituency) would need to be replicated elsewhere so that the entire community could enter the discussion. This would appear to be provoking breaches of WP:FORK. And finally to restrict the editing of a page to a specific demographic group is another nail in the coffin of "the encyclopaedia anyone can edit" and another case of WP:INSTRUCTION CREEP. So despite some sympathy for the idea behind it, my !vote will be: Delete : All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 19:49, 4 February 2015 (UTC). Mark as historical I have changed my vote, I think there is significant material on this page which should be preserved. All the best: Rich Farmbrough , 01:16, 6 February 2015 (UTC). I have changed my vote, I think there is significant material on this page which should be preserved. All the best: , Weak Keep I don't feel that strongly about it, but I see this as an extension of user talk space, but with a limited number of contributors. Now it's generally accepted that in user talk (and user) pages that you can ban users, and remove edits, and generally keep it as you wish, obviously within the limits. Now I don't really see how this contradicts this. Yes it could be seen as sexist, but at least it is a single user's views, not expressed outside of her userspace. And it's a lot better in my opinion than having a WMF mandated area, which in my view would come over a lot worse. -- Mrjulesd (talk) 20:32, 4 February 2015 (UTC) I've just switched from weak keep to delete as a rssult of NE Ent highlighting WMF's anti-discriminatory position above. There is a difference between banning a particular user from a user's space and banning a class of users based in this case on gender, but the same goes for race, religion, nationality etc etc DeCausa (talk) 20:48, 4 February 2015 (UTC) If the decision is "keep" what I would hope: that if a man decided to make a male only area in his userspace, that it would also be accepted. If not it would smack of double standards. -- Mrjulesd (talk) 21:18, 4 February 2015 (UTC) Keep : This whole frickin wikipedia is a sausage factory, what harm is caused by one public place that requests female-only participation? We can re-visit in the future if things somehow go awry, but wikipedia's lack of diversity is a much huger problem. Let this user page extension continue and nobody needs to run off creating "butthurt males" pages, please.-- Milowent • has spoken 00:10, 5 February 2015 (UTC) : This whole frickin wikipedia is a sausage factory, what harm is caused by one public place that requests female-only participation? We can re-visit in the future if things somehow go awry, but wikipedia's lack of diversity is a much huger problem. Let this user page extension continue and nobody needs to run off creating "butthurt males" pages, please.-- • 00:10, 5 February 2015 (UTC) Very strong delete as opposed to the fundamental principles of WP: both, "where everyone may edit..." and anonymity (requiring specification of gender). There is much great tolerance for individuality in WP space, and of course any WPedian can ask specific people not to post on their user talk. But to ask all those not in a specific class to post, especially when the class is something which should be irrelevant to WP editing, is using WP for social purposes. Discrimination against women is a problem here sometimes. There are better ways of addressing it (e.g. the WM-NYC chapter has run and continues to run a number of women-led projects with 50% or more women participants, including a national convention. This is done by positive outreach, not exclusion.) DGG ( talk ) 03:29, 5 February 2015 (UTC) Interesting you should mention WM-NYC as a positive example here, DGG. I stopped coming to WM-NYC meetups a few years ago largely because the chapter was unable or unwilling to offer me any help when a male member of the group repeatedly made me extremely uncomfortable with staring at my body and generally inserting himself where I was in a way that made me feel hunted. I also know I wasn't the only woman to complain about this person's behavior. Nevertheless, I recall there being comments about how the chapter couldn't be exclusionary just because someone was making the women uncomfortable, and why didn't we just avoid him. So I did. I stopped coming to meetups. If WM-NYC serves as an example of anything related to the gendergap topic, it is that when a group cannot offer women a safe and friendly space, it should not be surprising when the women choose to either create their own, or just stop coming around. A fluffernutter is a sandwich! (talk) 13:29, 5 February 2015 (UTC) Fluffernutter It is possible to improve. Yes, we had a problem from some people and dealt with it, and continue to discuss ways of dealing with it. If we haven't been OK this past year, please let me or Pharos know; we would not respond the same way now as you mention. We are now prepared to exclude individuals if necessary; not groups. I think we're gradually getting better at open & equitable discussion. We had problems with multicultural outreach also, and have succeeding in dealing with this also. As part of that, our projects now deal with other language WPs than English. DGG ( talk ) 16:43, 5 February 2015 (UTC) Fluffernutter and DGG, I was so disappointed to see DGG follow my keep with a "strong delete", but your follow-on discussion is incredibly creepy. Not dealing with pervs who deserve a beat down is just one of the thousand reasons why this little page shouldn't be snuffed out.--Milowent • has spoken 04:46, 6 February 2015 (UTC) Comment. It seems to me like this sort of thing will inevitably get organized whether editors like it or not - off-wiki, if necessary. If you're concerned about the effect this will have on future edits to Wikipedia, wouldn't you rather have the discussion in a place where you can at least see it? 70.24.6.142 (talk) 04:31, 5 February 2015 (UTC) I'm sure that in between the 33 pages canvassed for off wiki and now on wiki it won't be a silent affair Hell in a Bucket (talk) 05:00, 5 February 2015 (UTC) Keep . An interesting social experiment in user space. Leave it for a while and find out if it does solve or cause any of the problems in reality, which are proposed in hypothesis above. • • • Peter (Southwood) (talk) : 07:00, 5 February 2015 (UTC) . An interesting social experiment in user space. Leave it for a while and find out if it does solve or cause any of the problems in reality, which are proposed in hypothesis above. • • • Peter (Southwood) : 07:00, 5 February 2015 (UTC) Keep. I wasn't aware of the User:Lightbreather/Kaffeeklatsch until I commented at ongoing Arbitratration Enforcement proceeding and then saw NE Ent mention this there. I commented up to this point, with bigger argument that we need to explicitly allow Wikiprojects to set membership policies and be exclusionary, in part to get ARBCOM out from trying to regulate interactions in club spaces where the clubs can jolly well do it better, if allowed. I also think it is nonsense to assert that this "is clearly against WMF's nondiscrimation policy", as NE Ent asserted. All sorts of minority interest groups operate within schools and corporations that are obviously themselves committed to nondiscrimination. Thanks, Lightbreather, for taking this forward. -- do ncr am Interesting question. I lean towards keep. Obviously we'd reject a "whites only" space or a "men only" space on Wikipedia. But an absolute principle of non-discrimination also needs to balanced by the fact that "treating everyone the same" tends to favour certain groups over others. So I think the idea that this clashes with Wikipedia's non-discrimination policy is weak (but not non-existent); I would feel differently if this was in project space, or if it was providing some benefit that was not available to the excluded class of editors. That said, I also don't think this is a good idea. Sure, I support the underlying idea of providing a safe space where female voices are privileged. But it's a public Wikipedia page. Basing it on a willingness to accept behavioural and social norms may be a more workable solution. Say no to mansplaining (like I am, ironically, doing now!) Guettarda (talk) 13:27, 5 February 2015 (UTC) Comment I'm not entirely certain what the purpose of the page even is. Is it meant to discuss specific articles related to women and how to improve them? If so, it sounds like it would work better as a wikiproject, and I'd be surprised if a wikiproject didn't already exist for the subject. The only discussions that have taken place on the page so far are about the rules of the page, which brings me to another question. If the page is meant to be only for women, what would happen if an anonymous user were to comment, without having already identified themselves as women, or if a man were to comment on the page? Would their comment be removed? Pishcal — ♣ 20:47, 5 February 2015 (UTC) This is a small test so far. The bigger purpose, per proposal at IdeaLab on meta, which must be linked somewhere above, is to address the fact that "There is currently no space on Wikipedia where a woman can go and be sure that she'll be able to participate in discussions without being dominated by men's voices. Wikipedia needs a place where women can feel safer and not always overwhelmed by male advice, criticism, and explanations." Goals include creating such a space, with a civility policy and with no trashing allowed, having discussions there, and increasing the number of women editors on Wikipedia. I expect there's intention to discuss Wikipedia article development, like any of us could do at a Wikiproject, but it is well understood that this area, being restricted, would not have the ability to make Wikipedia-community-consensus type decisions. There has been wp:GGTF, a task force like a Wikiproject, but it hasn't worked; it's been overwhelmed by men. This page is, in my view, a WikiProject set up in User space, where it is more clearly established that restricting participation is acceptable. I think it should be allowed to be an explicit WikiProject in Wikipedia space, but that's not what this MFD is about. About non-member comments, at least during this test for now, I think Lightbreather would apply her intention stated at meta, that "Any civil comments by anyone who is not a member of the group, I move to my user talk page. Any uncivil comments, I will delete," which is highly reasonable IMO. I think there might be technical options (filters) that could prevent editing by non-members, in a future version, not in this test. For now, I think the MFD subject page should be, and is expected to be, treated like any regular user talk page (where current practice is that anyone repeatedly violating a request not to post, is addressed by wp:ANI for their disruptions). Hope this helps. -- do ncr am 22:12, 5 February 2015 (UTC) I'm not entirely certain what the purpose of the page even is. Is it meant to discuss specific articles related to women and how to improve them? If so, it sounds like it would work better as a wikiproject, and I'd be surprised if a wikiproject didn't already exist for the subject. The only discussions that have taken place on the page so far are about the rules of the page, which brings me to another question. If the page is meant to be only for women, what would happen if an anonymous user were to comment, without having already identified themselves as women, or if a man were to comment on the page? Would their comment be removed? — ♣ 20:47, 5 February 2015 (UTC) Keep. It's a user-space discussion page where women can post and men are asked not to. That's it. There are 4.7 million articles on Wikipedia, all with a talk page (or at least a redlinked talk page). There are tens of thousands of users, each with talk pages. There are countless noticeboards. You are welcome to post on all of them. But on one page, operated by one user (who you have no duty or requirement to interact with), you are asked not to post on a user talk subpage if you aren't female. That's it. That's not a big ask, and it's frankly not a big deal. Here in London, there are not only bars and clubs that men can't go into, there are bars and clubs that only men can go into (some gay clubs, for instance). There are places you can only go into if you are wearing a suit and tie, and there are places that will turn you away if you are overdressed. If you aren't a Catholic, you aren't allowed to take Communion; some mosques are not going to let non-Muslims in during prayer times. Somehow despite these fairly obvious and minimal exceptions, my dear city has not turned into a divided or separatist society, become overrun with malevolently-intended social justice warriors or any of the other supposed ills that will befall the place if women have one teeny userspace-based side alley where they can have a conversation without men butting in (but which is open for all to read). This is hardly some great historical wrong: you aren't being asked to move to the back of the bus. We should be experimental rather than dogmatic on how to cultivate an inclusive community (and how to remedy Wikipedia's gender gap). The best thing to do is to let this continue as an experiment: if in a year or two's time, it has turned into some kind of toxic horror show, nominate it for deletion then on the grounds of actual harm that it is doing. Until then, if you are a dude and are getting into a strop about this, calm down and find one of the millions of other talk pages to post on. This really is not a big deal. —Tom Morris (talk) 21:42, 5 February 2015 (UTC) It's a user-space discussion page where women can post and men are asked not to. That's it. There are 4.7 million articles on Wikipedia, all with a talk page (or at least a redlinked talk page). There are tens of thousands of users, each with talk pages. There are countless noticeboards. You are welcome to post on all of them. But on one page, operated by one user (who you have no duty or requirement to interact with), you are asked not to post on a user talk subpage if you aren't female. That's it. That's not a big ask, and it's frankly not a big deal. Here in London, there are not only bars and clubs that men can't go into, there are bars and clubs that men can go into (some gay clubs, for instance). There are places you can only go into if you are wearing a suit and tie, and there are places that will turn you away if you are overdressed. If you aren't a Catholic, you aren't allowed to take Communion; some mosques are not going to let non-Muslims in during prayer times. Somehow despite these fairly obvious and minimal exceptions, my dear city has not turned into a divided or separatist society, become overrun with malevolently-intended social justice warriors or any of the other supposed ills that will befall the place if women have one teeny userspace-based side alley where they can have a conversation without men butting in (but which is open for all to read). This is hardly some great historical wrong: you aren't being asked to move to the back of the bus. We should be experimental rather than dogmatic on how to cultivate an inclusive community (and how to remedy Wikipedia's gender gap). The best thing to do is to let this continue as an experiment: if in a year or two's time, it has turned into some kind of toxic horror show, nominate it for deletion then on the grounds of that it is doing. Until then, if you are a dude and are getting into a strop about this, calm down and find one of the millions of other talk pages to post on. This really is not a big deal. —Tom Morris (talk) 21:42, 5 February 2015 (UTC) Keep . Having first heard about this page at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-02-04/News and notes, and then reading the analysis above, I must say I agree with Tom Morris, above. Cheers, — Cirt (talk) 02:56, 6 February 2015 (UTC) . Having first heard about this page at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-02-04/News and notes, and then reading the analysis above, I must say I agree with Tom Morris, above. Cheers, — (talk) 02:56, 6 February 2015 (UTC) Keep - Three things: [ First ], All houses matter. houses matter. [ Second ], I don't agree that policy support and/or mandates deletion here. It's not a "personal home page" such that it runs afoul of WP:UP#OWN; it's a user page that many people will use. It's not owned; it's by definition shared. Most importantly, nothing actually prevents you from editing it aside from your own respect for another person's wishes (and, at a point, remedies in place to protect people's wishes in their userspace). In other words, it's the same thing that stops you from editing anybody else's talk page that you've been asked not to. And she didn't even ask not to edit her usertalk page -- just not that one. I don't feel any more excluded by this userpage than I do by WikiProject Dogs. I was working on this ocelot-related article and wanted to see what they thought about it but they told me that forum was just for people who like to improve dog-related articles. I didn't want to harass them so I left. (...Yeah it's a flawed analogy, I know, but it lynx to my point). (and, at a point, remedies in place to protect people's wishes in their userspace). In other words, it's the same thing that stops you from editing anybody else's talk page that you've been asked not to. And she didn't even ask not to edit her usertalk page -- just not one. I don't feel any more excluded by this userpage than I do by WikiProject Dogs. I was working on this ocelot-related article and wanted to see what they thought about it but they told me that forum was just for people who like to improve dog-related articles. I didn't want to harass them so I left. [ Third ], It's interesting that I looked through this whole thread and didn't see anyone bring up any negative practical consequences this page has on the encyclopedia. Sure, the "spirit of Wikipedia" is important and violations thereof have practical implications down the road, but it's interesting that the arguments all seem to stop there because exclusion. To me the spirit of Wikipedia is one that places value first and foremost on fostering the creation of the best possible encyclopedia that draws from the work of crazy numbers of people in order to best reflect the world's knowledge and is available to everyone for free. That's the spirit of Wikipedia. That's why Wikipedia is amazing. The reason IAR exists (and still exists despite being abused so much) is that the spirit of Wikipedia is more than what the letter of a policy says -- it's about the project as a whole. The spirit of Wikipedia is an important thing, and I know I'm pontificating and talking in Walesian utopitudes, but it does say something that while those supporting delete (most anyway) appear to stop at policy arguments because exclusion, those arguing to keep are, in addition to responding to policy, also pointing to concrete consequences for the encyclopedia, real data about participation, and the what it means for Wikipedia's ability to be a reflect the world's knowledge. To be clear, though, I'm not making an IAR argument here. I'm just saying that not only does policy not support or mandate deletion here, but the policy-based arguments in favor of deletion which claim "spirit of Wikipedia" are also weaker in this case than the "spirit of Wikipedia" arguments on the keep side. --— Rhododendrites talk \\ 03:12, 6 February 2015 (UTC) Keep. I support this as a mild and likely harmless experiment addressing a clearly identified problem with a worthy aim proposed by the very people it intends to serve located in a namespace where we typically permit a range of gatherings and expressions to occur. While an 'exclusive' space might strike some as philosophically uneasy, if it works to attract more positive contributions from women, great--that ultimately serves the inclusive purpose of bringing more female editors into our project and keeping them here. We're desperately missing those voices. I acknowledge that my personal preference would be a space with an explicit purpose (engage and support female editors) and a clear code of conduct (no harassment, belittling, monopolizing arguments, etc.) rather than a gender-identity pledge. That's partly because I think the means would be more directly targeted at the goal, partly because I prefer humanism to other sub-isms, partly because it would include myself and other male allies, and also partly because a women-only space will also invite women who may combative, men faking a gender in order to participate, or outright trolls. Still, if I take the time to listen to the women who have expressed a need for this, I pause to reconsider why a space--where a group of people say they would feel relief that they could finally hear and speak themselves without constant intrusion and conflict--would be anything but a blessing to those involved. Lastly, other folks like me who were blissfully attracted to Wikipedia precisely because it was faceless and 'argumentatively meritocratic', individualistic, and classically liberal have to grapple with the tradeoff between--as User:Sumanah so eloquently put it--hospitality and liberty. Wikipedia is a free place, and while that is chiseled into its identity, freedom is not always without cost and not always equal. I'd implore anyone seriously objecting on discrimination grounds to read this powerful and incisive essay by Joseph Reagle to its end: http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4291/3381. In short, problem seeks solution, solution proposed, let's try it. Ocaasi t | c 10:39, 6 February 2015 (UTC) Comment: I am in a quandry. Frauebewegungen in Germany are particularly militant as were some of my girlfriends during my near 20-year stay there through the 70s and 80s. The French don't give a hoot what with many of the traditional gender roles reversed in France anyway, and we Brits are pretty so so about it. From what I've seen, in the US all genders seem to co exist and even cohabit quite normally. Wikipedia isn't really a male fiefdom any more than anything else in life. Admittedly we don't see many women working in coal mines or on oil rigs but we see them on space stations, driving artic rigs, flying jets fighters, and here in Asia mixing concrete on building sites. Around the developed world men are probably outnumbered in nursing, cabin crew, floristry, pastry cooking, pornography and prostution. There is nothing physical or intellectual that dictates Wikipedia as a workplace best suited to either men, women, LGBT, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, or monkeys, but if men are in the majority, then it's not their fault. Tens of thousands of donors' dollars have been squandered by the Foundation in trying to reverse a situation that has been around since men went hunting and women kept the cave clean. If women won't work on Wikipedia it's because women won't work on Wikipedia - the stats are the same on all Wikipedias and worlwide there is roughly the same number of boys as girls. On pure vote count this is likely to be a very close run debate; on the weight of the arguments however, there may be a clear consensus, but the question is: who will the most unbiased closer be - a man or a woman? Perhaps we should choose a monkey. --Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 11:51, 6 February 2015 (UTC) Kudpung: I don't think I'm going out on a limb to suggest that there may be an explanation for the gendered differences in participation on Wikipedia that doesn't require recourse to the sociobiology of cavemen and cavewomen. Maybe if women had some kind of place on-wiki where they could discuss these matters without fear of overly defensive dudes dropping by, they might be able to express the ways they can feel excluded by our community's practices and processes... —Tom Morris (talk) 16:00, 6 February 2015 (UTC) Question : Can someone hail the First Tiger? There look to be many people here interested in joining the Wikipedia chapter of G.R.O.S.S.. But in all seriousness, keep . This page is no Esperanza; it isn't causing any harm. Hi DrNick ! 14:48, 6 February 2015 (UTC) : Can someone hail the First Tiger? There look to be many people here interested in joining the Wikipedia chapter of G.R.O.S.S.. But in all seriousness, . This page is no Esperanza; it isn't causing any harm. ! 14:48, 6 February 2015 (UTC) Keep.: Discussion within userspace. What policy is behind this deletion proposal? Hmlarson (talk) 17:48, 6 February 2015 (UTC) wmf:Resolution:Nondiscrimination NE Ent 22:11, 6 February 2015 (UTC) Comment - very closely related to, but not named in, this MfD is User:Lightbreather/Kaffeeklatsch/Pledge, which one must sign in order to participate in the Kaffefklatch page. Note that simply being a female is not sufficient. Lady of Shalott - very closely related to, but not named in, this MfD is User:Lightbreather/Kaffeeklatsch/Pledge, which one must sign in order to participate in the Kaffefklatch page. Note that simply being a female is not sufficient. Comment - Considering less than 10% of Wikipedia editors are women, I think that is perfectly fine, especially in a public forum like WP, to have a talk page. My hesitation to say Keep is because of two factors: 1) Don't the WikiProjects focusing on women and gender already serve this purpose? and 2) I think the use of a "pledge" to adhere to LB's requirements to participate are rather random. It is one thing to create a "safe space" but quite another to say anyone participating has to add themselves to certain categories or do other superficial acts. L iz Read! Talk! 19:29, 6 February 2015 (UTC) - Considering less than 10% of Wikipedia editors are women, I think that is perfectly fine, especially in a public forum like WP, to have a talk page. My hesitation to say is because of two factors: 1) Don't the WikiProjects focusing on women and gender already serve this purpose? and 2) I think the use of a "pledge" to adhere to LB's requirements to participate are rather random. It is one thing to create a "safe space" but quite another to say anyone participating has to add themselves to certain categories or do other superficial acts. 19:29, 6 February 2015 (UTC) Delete WP:UP: "Wikipedia is not a blog, webspace provider, or social networking site". User pages are not for creating private forums; Wikipedia users are also anonymous so gender-based identification and possible exclusion is pointless. It can be defended mostly with radical feminist arguments, whereas a transfeminist would be against such a page. Personally, I don't think it makes a difference what is removed from personal user space or not, but politicies certainly are against it. --Pudeo' 20:23, 6 February 2015 (UTC) WP:UP: "Wikipedia is not a blog, webspace provider, or social networking site". User pages are not for creating private forums; Wikipedia users are also anonymous so gender-based identification and possible exclusion is pointless. It can be defended mostly with radical feminist arguments, whereas a transfeminist would be against such a page. Personally, I don't think it makes a difference what is removed from personal user space or not, but politicies certainly are against it. --Pudeo' 20:23, 6 February 2015 (UTC) Keep per WP:NOBAN, which says that it is usual to "avoid substantially editing another's user and user talk pages other than where it is likely edits are expected and/or will be helpful." Lightbreather should be allowed to experiment with creating a safe space for women editors in her user space. No valid policy-based reasons for deletion have been raised. WP:NOTSOCIALNETWORK doesn't apply here as the purpose of the page is to provide a foundation for effective collaboration. On a side note, it is disappointing to see the same patterns of behavior that gave us GGTF and Gamergate repeated here.[3] gobonobo + c 20:37, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

The Navajo Nation introduced legislation late Wednesday to extend the lease on the coal-fired power plant near Page so that it can operate through 2019. (Photo: Mark Henle/The Republic) The Navajo Nation introduced legislation late Wednesday to extend the lease on the coal-fired power plant near Page so that it can operate through 2019. Salt River Project and the other power plant owners have agreed to a deal allowing the tribe access to the water pumps that suck water from Lake Powell to cool the Navajo Generating Station and to portions of the power grid, once the plant eventually closes. SRP and the other utilities that own NGS have said they want to close by 2020 because the plant is no longer cost-effective compared with other power resources, primarily natural gas. The current lease ends in December 2019, and the utilities want to run it to that point and then begin tearing it down, which will take more than a year. The lease extension spelled out in the legislation would allow for the post-2019 teardown. If the tribe doesn't approve a lease extension by July 1, the plant will have to close this year to be torn down by 2020. MORE: NGS' power lines could benefit solar, wind development, energy experts say Financial benefits for tribe The Navajo Nation will earn $110 million in lease payments over 35 years if the deal is approved, as the owners will be required to monitor the land after the facilities are removed. But the deal includes other financial benefits for the tribe. The Navajo Nation has identified several pieces of the operation it wants to keep when the plant closes, according to the legislation. They include the railroad between the plant and coal mine, valued at $120 million; the lake pump facility and electrical switch yard, valued at $41 million; and access to major transmission lines leading from the plant, which SRP values at about $80 million. The access to the power lines would allow for solar or wind projects on the reservation to get their power to market. The tribe hopes to negotiate with the state to acquire 50,000 acre-feet of water from the lake annually once the power plant no longer uses that allotment. If the Navajo Nation Council approves the deal by July 1, any amendments the tribe makes will have to be considered and approved by the plant owners. RELATED: When coal-fired power plant closes, this mine will die. So will a lifeline for one Native American tribe Future of Kayenta Mine Meanwhile, Peabody Energy, which runs the Kayenta Mine that supplies the plant with coal, is hoping to find new buyers to step in and keep the plant running so it doesn't need to be torn down after 2019. The power plant and mine combined employ about 750 people, almost all Native Americans from the Navajo and Hopi tribes. In order to transfer the plant to new owners, should any be found, SRP has set a deadline of Oct. 1 for such a deal to be approved. SRP and the plant owners also have agreed to buy enough coal from the mine in 2018 and 2019 that the tribe will earn $39 million in royalties. READ MORE: Tribe wants Trump to subsidize mine, power plant Feds seek ideas to keep Arizona coal plant open Arizona coal mine, power plant lifeline for Hopi Officials: Water users better off without Navajo plant Utilities vote to close Navajo coal plant in 2019 Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/2rm9MT5

Ironically, Uzi fans are waiting on new music because they're listening to his old music so much. Before people started talking about Lil Uzi Vert jumping 20 feet off a sound tent into the crowd at last weekend's Rolling Loud festival in Miami, the conversation surrounding the 22-year-old Philly native mostly centered around the delayed release of his much-anticipated upcoming project, Luv is Rage 2. After releasing two well-received mixtapes—Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World and The Perfect LUV Tape—and earning his first No. 1 record (he was a guest on Migos' "Bad and Boujee") in 2016, Uzi jumpstarted his 2017 campaign with the release of "XO TOUR Llif3," a TM88-produced single that, in its sixth week on the chart, is sitting at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website Given the incredible success of "XO TOUR Llif3," which has racked up over 88M streams on Spotify alone, it would make sense for Uzi's label, Atlantic Records, to capitalize on the song's momentum and finally release Luv is Rage 2, right? Well, not exactly. During Episode 111 of The Joe Budden Podcast, Joe revealed that he recently had a conversation with Michael Kyser, a veteran executive at Atlantic whom he's known since his first record deal at Def Jam. According to Kyser, the reason why Uzi fans are still patiently waiting for an album is, ironically, because of their incredible, unwavering and massive support of his material on streaming services. ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website "He's doing 50 million streams a week. Why do I need to put an album out?" Kyser told Budden. It should be noted that during a Q&A in April, Uzi's producer and label manager Don Cannon revealed the album was not finished. While artists like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Logic have all put up incredible numbers over the past six months by releasing full-length albums, the idea that artists no longer need to release an album (or, for that matter, a full body of work) has been brewing for quite some time. Last September, in a piece entitled "Albums Are Dying a Slow Death at the Hands of Prospering Playlists," Yoh wrote, "Young Thug could sell only 15K units in his first week, but if he has songs that appear on multiple popular playlists, he could very well still tour and have a fan-favorite setlist." Eight months later, Lil Uzi Vert is in the same boat. Should Atlantic Records risk the potential embarrassment of low first week sales when a string of hit singles will keep Uzi's name on the charts and his songs on all the popular streaming service playlists, allowing for a plethora of show and touring opportunities? The answer, we now know, is no.

You'll never "drive" a "flying car." The phrase "flying car" is code for a futuristic vision of transportation. The dream is that, instead of traveling in earth-bound vehicles, everyday people will be able to avoid gridlock by taking off and soaring above traffic. We got this idea from mid-20th century futurists who imagined a world where technology would advance to the point where cars would fly. Flying cars were popularized in science fiction, TV and movies and entered into the public imagination as an expectation for the future, along with jet packs and quasi-futuristic silver uniforms. The flying Delorean in Back to the Future represents the quintessential flying car idea. "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads!" says the inimitable Dr. Brown. The flying car vision isn't about a type of vehicle, but a kind of lifestyle. That lifestyle looks like this: In the future, ordinary people in middle-class neighborhoods will get into their flying cars, take off from their driveways and zip over to the supermarket. The press keeps asking: "Where's my flying car?" But actual flying cars are a banality. They've been designed since the 1920s, prototyped since the 1930s and built for many decades. For example, in 1934, an inventor named Waldo Waterman built what was considered the world's first flying car. In 1949, a company built a series of working prototypes called the Taylor Aerocar. In fact, it built six models, but never sold them to the public. The aviation industry doesn't like the term "flying car" and instead uses the more accurate designation "roadable aircraft." The vehicles that some people would call flying cars are really airplanes that can be driven on roads. Some roadable aircraft have wings that fold out of the way so they can be driven down a road without slicing SUVs in half. With most roadable aircraft, the idea is that you can land at the local airport and then drive home and park in your garage. Or you can fly to a remote airport and drive to a nearby diner to grab what private pilots call a "$100 hamburger" (the meal you eat when you pretend to fly to dinner but your real purpose is just to fly somewhere). In either case, the driving on roads part is minimal and exceptional. Today's flying cars are just airplanes that can leave the airport on public roads. They're not family cars that can fly. The imagined flying car lifestyle will never exist because it should never exist. Airplanes are designed to fly, and cars are designed for roads. So when you combine the two, you get a horrible airplane and a lousy car. As airplanes, roadable aircraft tend to be heavy, bulky and slow. As cars, they're unsafe, handle poorly and, again, are slow. And you pay a premium for the engineering. For the same money, you can buy a great airplane and a great car. So that's what pilots tend to do. Still, the press never tires of misinforming the public that the era of the flying car is just around the corner (it always seems to be two years away, according to the media). Truly innovative ideas for so-called flying cars these days, some of which are already available for purchase, involve aircraft like, in no particular order, the PAL-V, Skycar, AeroMobil 3.0, Maverick LSA, Icon A5, Switchblade, Lilium Jet, Volocopter, Pegase Mk2, Skyrunner, Volante Joby S2 and the Terrafugia TF-X. Some of these are extremely advanced, technologically. But you'll note that none of these projects ushers in anything like the flying car lifestyle envisioned by futurists. They don't represent the future of the family car. They're either impractical dune buggies suspended by kites or high-tech roadable aircraft toys for billionaires who want to spend thousands of hours earning the certification necessary to fly such complex aircraft. The market for these aircraft is tiny. Ultimately, they're all just airplanes that will involve licensing, airports, weight-and-balance calculations, flight plans, air traffic control and all the rest. Nobody's landing in the driveway unless they have a mansion in the countryside or a private heliport. Not one of these so-called flying car projects will result in a vehicle that will be used as a family car. Another problem with the flying car vision isn't about the vehicle. It's about you and me. The public won't ever be skillful enough to be trusted by society to navigate complex aircraft in unpredictable weather into populated neighborhoods without hitting telephone poles and crashing into apartment buildings. That's why consumer airplanes are coming, but they'll be self-driving. As Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told Neil deGrasse Tyson in an interview last year, if a flying car is to become popular, "it's got to be autopilot." Larry Page's airplane company Zee.Aero, which is headquartered next door to the Googleplex in Silicon Valley, is a secretive, six-year-old aviation company reportedly working on an electric airplane that can take off and land vertically. Company representatives had previously told the press that Zee.Aero is not affiliated with Google. But Bloomberg reported last week that Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page is actually the owner of Zee.Aero. As part of the secrecy protocol, according to the report, employees were supposed to refer to Page as "GUS," which stands for the "Guy Upstairs." Page initially used the second floor of the Zee.Aero building as an office and playground. Zee.Aero's first aircraft is a strange creature. It has wings at the very back of the fuselage that curve way down at the edges, as well as two rear propellers that provide forward thrust. Two additional wings grace the very front of the plane. Here's the strange part: Between the front and back and on either side of the fuselage are four small propellers on each side. Combined with the two at the back, the Zee.Aero plane has 10 propellers. These propellers aren't powered from a central engine. Each propeller has its own independent electric motor and controller system. Page reportedly wants the Zee.Aero's plane to be "downmarket" -- an affordable aircraft for ordinary people. Astonishingly, everything we know about Zee.Aero suggests that it's making all the right decisions. The design is brilliant. A consumer airplane for the masses absolutely requires electric power, and for two reasons. The first is safety: If one or two of the propellers fails, for whatever reason, the rest can safely continue to operate. The second reason is that if consumer airplanes are to be flying around in large quantities near or over residential areas, they have to be relatively quiet. Zee.Aero has a handful of patents for the innovative multiple propeller system, battery technology and for the airplane itself. One patent says that in "an alternative embodiment, aircraft 100 is an unmanned vehicle that is capable of flight without a pilot or passengers" and that "embodiments without passengers have additional control systems that provide directional control inputs in place of a pilot, either through a ground link or through a predetermined flight path trajectory. Zee.Aero's prototypes are already flying at a nearby airport. Yes, they're flying, but they're not flying cars. Zee.Aero is working on an airplane, and not even a roadable one. Page has also invested in another Silicon Valley-based aviation startup called Kitty Hawk, which is reportedly working on an enormous quadcopter drone that's capable of carrying passengers, according to Bloomberg. The company's board president is former Google researcher Sebastian Thrun, who spearheaded Google's self-driving car initiative. The passenger drone concept was also trotted out at the CES trade show in the form of the Ehang 184, a one-person conveyance controlled with a tablet or by computers -- a self-driving passenger "drone." The Ehang 184 is called a flying car by some, though it doesn't have wheels. There's no such thing as a flying car, and there never will be. It's simply a bad idea. The great news, though, is that safe, quiet, affordable and eco-friendly self-flying aircraft are landing, and soon.

With the World IPv6 Launch coming up on June 6th, 2012, we’ve been working hard to make IPv6 available to all Linode customers so they can participate. We’re happy to announce that IPv6 is now available in all six of our locations across the world! If you’d like to enable IPv6 for your existing Linode, just navigate to the Remote Access tab of the Linode Manager and click the “Enable IPv6” link. Once you reboot, your Linode will have a native IPv6 address ready to use. New Linodes and Linodes migrating between locations will automatically be IPv6-enabled. Alternatively, NodeBalancers can be used as an IPv6 endpoint without you needing to actually enable IPv6 on your backend Linodes. More information can be found on our IPv6 FAQ page. Filed under: announcements, features, linode by Linode Security Team

When you throw something away, said Annie Leonard, a ‘critic of consumerism’, it must go somewhere. That somewhere — overburdened dumpsites stinking and fuming on the outskirts of our cities — cannot hold anymore. India’s urban population is growing at 3-3.5% annually. At this rate, the waste generated by Indian cities is expected to increase by 5% every year, estimates the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). By the government’s own calculation, by 2047, the country will have to find land the size of Delhi every year to dump garbage. That is an impossibility in an increasingly urbanised and crowded India, which is fast running out of space. Landfills, or even incinerators, are anyway a civic, environmental, public health hazard nobody wants in their backyard. The only solution is to reduce the load of garbage that requires dumping. That requires minimising waste generation and recycling or processing every possible bit of it. NO MORE LANDFILLS We don’t need to look far for inspiration. Alappuzha (Kerala) and Panaji (Goa) have no landfills or waste-to-energy plants because they do not need them. Both convert their trash into compost or biogas and recycle plastic, glass, metals and papers, states the CSE, which ranked these two cities at the top in its national survey in 2016. But in most other cities, garbage processing remains a challenge. “The corporations still think that waste management is all about finding a plot of land where they can dump the garbage,” says Swati Singh Sambyal, programme manager at the CSE. Cities need to break the vicious cycle of “collect, dump and incinerate,” says Ravi Aggarwal, director, Toxic Links. Instead, they should be segregate, recycle, compost, process, and dump only what cannot go anywhere else. “If cities are serious about collecting only unmixed waste and transporting it to separate destinations for processing separately, hardly 10-15% of waste will need to go to landfills,” says Almitra Patel, member of the Supreme Court-appointed committee on solid waste management. Wet waste can be stabilised and given away to farmers, or converted to biogas. Dry waste can be recycled. Non-recyclable plastics can be shredded for hot-mix plants to make tar roads. Combustibles can be turned into Refuse Derived Fuel used for making electricity, she adds. MINIMISING WASTE The best way to manage waste is to cut its volume. Kerala is trying this under its Green Protocol, which is a set of measures aimed at reducing garbage generation by discouraging disposables and using reusable alternatives. Citizens are being told to use steel and porcelain plates, tumblers and non-plastic tableware at weddings and social functions instead of those made out of plastic and Styrofoam. Followed for the first time at National Games 2015, now all public events have to mandatorily follow the protocol. Segregation at source, the next step in garbage management, has failed to take off in India. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had set a 2015 deadline for achieving 100% segregation by March 2015. Recently, 23,000 housing societies were sent notices for non-compliance but there were no penalties. The deadline has been pushed back to October 2017. In Delhi, a pilot project launched by two municipal corporations this June has already lost steam. “What’s the point in asking people to segregate recyclables from non-biodegradable if you know it will all land together in the same landfill?” asks Aggarwal. While the back-end needs to be fixed, there is also a need to incentivise segregation. “Recognise cleaner households by giving certificates, publishing their names on respective websites or reduce property tax,” says Sambyal. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has made a beginning by announcing plans to give exemptions on property tax to gated communities if they set up miniplants for segregation and recycling. In the absence of compulsory segregation at households, it is the rag-pickers who segregate and sell recyclables from community bins and garbage dumps, reducing the pressure on landfills and cutting down on transportation costs. How to reduce the garbage load TYPES OF TRASH Organic: Food scraps, grass, wood, leaves Paper: Cardboard, newspapers, bags, boxes, cups Plastic: Bottles, packaging, containers, bags Glass: Bottles, broken glassware, light bulbs Metal: Cans, foil, tins, non-hazardous aerosol cans Other: Textiles, leather, rubber, multi-laminates, e-waste, appliances, ash, cement, soil, ash, debris WASTE MANAGEMENT HIERARCHY Food scraps, grass, wood, leavesCardboard, newspapers, bags, boxes, cupsBottles, packaging, containers, bagsBottles, broken glassware, light bulbsCans, foil, tins, non-hazardous aerosol cansTextiles, leather, rubber, multi-laminates, e-waste, appliances, ash, cement, soil, ash, debris But only a handful of cities have integrated this silent workforce into a formal set up. In 2005, the Pune Municipal Corporation launched a successful pilot project, engaging waste-pickers in door-to door waste collection of trash. Today, out of the 1,700 metric tonnes of waste generated, 122 tonnes of dry waste is collected daily by ragpickers under SWACH (Solid Waste Collection and Handling Pune Seva Cooperative Limited). Delhi, which has 40,000-50,000 wastepickers working across the city, can completely overhaul its garbage management if the municipalities include them in a safe institutional framework, says Chitra Mukherjee, head of programmes at Chintan. “The collapse of Ghazipur landfill has shown that the centralised model of dumping has failed and must now be replaced with a system that promotes recycling and composting. The wastepickers should be employed in composting units that must be set up at dumpsites as well as in neighbourhoods. It is the best way to rehabilitate this large workforce and also decentralise waste management,” she says. The good news is that 40–60% of India’s municipal solid waste consists of compostable matter.But to generate quality compost, municipalities have to ensure that wet waste is segregated properly. Mixed waste can add toxicity to the produce, making it harmful for agriculture or gardening. Cities such as Bobbili in Andhra Pradesh and Alappuzha and Alleppey in Kerala are using decentralised waste management techniques such as pipe composting, bio-gas units and aerobic bins. One biogas unit can provide fuel for cooking one meal a day, says a CSE report. THE SYSTEM AND US All these reforms can be fast-tracked if the state governments implement the National Solid and Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016, which makes it mandatory to segregate garbage at source. The rules propose that people pay municipal authorities for garbage management, and calls for fines and penalties for littering. But to enforce it, municipalities have to revise their existing by-laws. And that is where they drag their feet. Delhi, for instance, had framed sanitation by-laws in 2009 but never notified those. Even now, in the midst of the worst garbage crisis it ever faced, the new rules are yet to be finalised. But laws mean little if the citizenry is not on board. “People need to be aware that they are the generators and the generator is as much responsible for segregation, management of garbage as the authorities,” says Sambyal. Cities which initiated reforms and found success could not have done so without the help of willing citizens. At a more fundamental level though, our lifestyles demand a rethink. We need to consume less and discard judiciously. Unless we are happy trashing the future. (with inputs from Prachi Bari in Pune, Ramesh Babu in Thiruvananthapuram, Tanushree Venkatraman in Mumbai and Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri in Kolkata) First Published: Sep 13, 2017 07:12 IST

BARACK Obama has sensationally admitted Donald Trump “could win” and advised Hillary Clinton to “run scared”. Just hours before hailing the Democrat as the best qualified candidate ever to become president, President Obama conceded it was “possible” that Republican Trump could win the race. Getty Images 6 Barack Obama warned that in this unpredictable political climate, Trump could win Mr Obama's warning comes as Mrs Clinton was due to make history at the Democratic Party convention in Philadelphia tonight as she prepares to become the party’s first-ever female candidate. Mr Obama said: "It is the nature of democracy that until the votes are cast, and the American people have their say, we don't know [who will win]. “I have seen all kinds of crazy stuff happen and I think everybody that goes into campaigns not running scared can end up losing." EPA 6 Obama endorsed Clinton in a a barnstorming speech last night at the Democratic Convention Getty Images 6 Obama's speech went down a storm with the party faithful as he called Hillary the most qualified person for the job It came as a poll revealed the billionaire businessman had opened up the biggest lead yet on his Democrat rival by 47 per cent to 40.04 per cent - his largest margin yet in the presidential race. It is believed Mr Trump is benefiting from the post party convention bounce while his rival is still suffering from the "extremely reckless" use of private email to conduct government business. President Obama had been speaking ahead of his address to delegates last night in which he tore into the real estate tycoon. And he told the cheering crowd in Philadelphia: “The Donald is not really a plans guy, he is not really a facts guy either.” Reuters 6 The pair struck an upbeat tone at the party convention in Philadelphia Reuters 6 Obama hugged Clinton before holding her hand aloft Reuters 6 Clinton served under President Obama as US Secretary of State Obama was given a standing ovation when he took to the stage and said of Trump: “He calls himself a business guy which is true, But I have to say I know plenty of business men and women, who achieve success without leaving a trail of lawsuits and unpaid workers and people feeling that they have been cheated. “Does anyone really believe a guy who has spent his years on this earth showing no regard working people is suddenly going to be your champion?” RELATED STORIES DON'T BOO VOTE Barack Obama lays into Donald Trump accusing him of praising Saddam Hussein and Putin O brother where art thou? Trump-backing Malik Obama claims brother has attitude problem and has fobbed him off IT'S NO JOKE, MR PRESIDENT Barack Obama jokes about his daughter during statement on Munich causing outrage 'Guts and grace' Michelle Obama says Hillary Clinton has her daughters to believe 'that a woman can be president of the US' I'LL TRUMP IT After Melania Trump is accused of 'stealing' speech it seems she may be borrowing Kim K's style And he accused Trump of selling the American people short with his policies and negative views of the US. Speaking warmly of Clinton, who became the first woman to represent a major party in the race for the White House on Tuesday after her nomination he backed her saying: “There has never been a man or women , not me not Bill (her husband) , not nobody, more qualified to served as president of the United States of America.”

AMD Fury X 3DMARK Performance Leak New PageAMD Fury X 3DMARK Performance Leak | Source: Videocardz Author: Mark Campbell AMD Fury X 3DMARK Performance Leak Performance figures for AMD's Upcoming Fury X GPU has just been leaked, showing it beat Nvidia's GTX Titan X and GT 980Ti in 3DMARK, let's hope this kind of performance can be found in other benchmarks and in games. As we can see in the graph below, AMD's Fury X GPU will beat Nvidia's GTX 980Ti by around 100 points in both Firestrike Ultra and Extreme, trading blows with the GTX Titan X too. We can also see some impressive Crossfire scaling, producing scores which are 76% better than just a single GPU. Earlier today we have been able to show you AMD's Fury lineup's full specifications and now we even have some performance results. We at OC3D cannot wait to place this GPU on one of our own test benches and test it in a variety of games and benchmarks, only then can we say whether AMD or Nvidia come out n top this generation. Right now I have a feeling that it is going to be close. You can join the discussion on AMD's Radeon Fury X n the OC3D Forums. AMD's Fury X has just had it's 3DMARK performance Leaked, showing it beat the GTX 980Ti and the Titan X.http://www.overclock3d.net/articles/gpu_displays/amd_fury_x_3dmark_performance_leak/1 Posted by OC3D on Wednesday, 10 June 2015 AMD's Fury X has just had it's 3DMARK performance Leaked, showing it beat the GTX 980Ti. http://t.co/M4ckngR3yT pic.twitter.com/npNwLuQM5q — OC3D (@OC3D) June 10, 2015 1 - New PageAMD Fury X 3DMARK Performance Leak «Prev 1 Next» Most Recent Comments

Olivia Chow announced this morning she will run for the NDP in the upcoming federal election in the same general downtown Toronto area she represented for years, although her former riding now has a new name and different boundaries. Chow, the widow of former NDP leader Jack Layton, resigned her seat in Parliament in 2014 to run in Toronto's mayoral election, which she lost to John Tory. Now, she'll face off with former city councillor Adam Vaughan, who captured the Trinity–Spadina riding for the Liberal party last summer. That riding, which Chow represented for eight years, was redistributed and renamed Spadina—Fort York in the redrawing of Canada's electoral boundaries last year that will see the addition of 30 ridings in this election. Spadina—Fort York encompasses much of the downtown core as well as the city's waterfront, a space that's seen a tremendous condo boom. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair spoke first at Chow's announcement Tuesday. Layton's children, Sarah and Mike Layton, were also present. Mike Layton is a Toronto city councillor. Chow, who is also a former Toronto councillor and school trustee, is currently serving as a distinguished visiting professor with Ryerson University's Faculty of Arts, where her work focuses on community engagement and democratic participation. In the 2014 mayoral election, Chow won 226,879 votes — or 23 per cent of the overall vote — to finish third behind Tory and Doug Ford, the brother of former mayor Rob Ford.

After turning cautious on bitcoin earlier this month, Fundstrat's Tom Lee told clients Wednesday to jump back into the digital currency. "A few weeks ago, we turned short-term neutral on bitcoin as the price level then (~$7400) exceeded our estimate of fair value," Lee wrote in the report. "Last week, Bitcoin fell to $5,600 and since then rebounded. In our view, this move to $5,600 cleaned up weak hands and we no longer feel caution is warranted. … We recommend steady buying of Bitcoin at these levels." As a result, the strategist raised his mid-2018 price target for bitcoin to $11,500 from $6,000, representing nearly 40 percent upside to its current level. Lee is bullish on the crypotcurrency because of his forecasts for strong growth in the number of bitcoin accounts and transaction dollar volume per account. He noted how Coinbase has more than 14 million accounts. The price of bitcoin rose 1.3 percent to $8,200 Wednesday. It surpassed the $8,000 level for the first time Sunday, according to data from industry website CoinDesk. The digital currency is up more than 700 percent so far this year. Big Wall Street banks are not ignoring the digital currency's rise. Despite JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon's outspoken criticism on the viability of bitcoin as an investment, the bank is looking at allowing its clients to trade bitcoin futures, according to a Wall Street Journal report Tuesday.

Ten long years after the series’ third installment titled Deadly Shadows, the fourth and latest episode in the Thief franchise is now released – not as a sequel, as many have initially speculated, but as a full-fledged reboot. But will this new addition to the series capture the hearts of gamers today the same way its predecessors did? Sort of, yes. But not nearly with as much success as I would have liked. But more will be said on that topic below. First of all, it is important to know that Thief was not handled by the same team that gave us the originals – instead, it is brought to us all the way from the offices of Eidos Montreal, the same team that created 2011’s hit stealth/action-RPG Deus Ex: Human Revolution. A year later, Arkane produced Dishonored, a game that very much drew inspiration from the classic Thief games that came before it – as such, it would be fair to say that the parallels between it and the new Thief, now in 2014, are ironic, to say the least.Nonetheless, I would not wish to simply cast Thief into Dishonored’s shadow. What does need to be mentioned, however, is the following:those expecting the resurrection of the first two episodes, that is, The Dark Project and its follow-up, The Metal Age, will be disappointed to find little of that in Eidos Montreal’s vision of Thief. A city reborn... but still the same. Thankfully, this fact does not make Thief a bad game. The atmosphere is still more or less what we would expect from the series, and both the graphics themselves, as well as the fundamental art direction give back the general feel of a Thief title, along with a couple of references and easter eggs for long-time fans. Slightly muddy textures aside, Thief presents a beautifully grim world that is an absolute joy to explore and sneak around in. Furthermore, there still exists an uncanny balance between steampunk technology and the darker, sinister forces of the supernatural present in the City. The highly atmospheric, ambient hums that dominated the soundtrack of previous installments make a return as well, accompanied by a few new-ish tracks that, in all honesty, belong more in The Dark Knight than a Thief title but nonetheless do not feel too out of place, either. The bottom line is this: despite all its changes, the game still feels and plays like a Thief title – for the most part. What comes as more of a disappointment is the variety of audio bugs that plague the game: at times, I could hear a person’s voice as if he was standing next to me, even though we were relatively far apart; on other occasions, guards and civilians roaming the streets would endlessly repeat the same dialogue over and over again for minutes straight, which, quite honestly, becomes somewhat jarring to someone who wishes to enjoy the game’s otherwise brilliantly dark and gloomy atmosphere. Assassin's Creed? Not quite. Unfortunately, the game occasionally makes use of the somewhat out-of-character chase sequences seen in the trailers, with explosions and shouting, forming a very stark contrast between the slow and methodical stealth mechanics found in other parts of the game. Thankfully – as if to balance out all this –, Thief also has its fair share of memorable moments, be it the Moira Asylum – Eidos Montreal’s love letter to the Shalebridge Cradle – or its follow-up chapter that sees Garrett break into a surprisingly large mansion of multiple floors and rooms. It is a game ripe with genuinely enjoyable bits and missions that, for many players, will most definitely ease the pain caused by its less than stellar aspects. And yet the actual story of the game… well, the less spoken about it, the better. What starts out with moderate promise soon turns into an arrangement of clichés and ends in one of the most unsatisfying endings in recent history. Those expecting the quality of previous installments, or something resembling the dark, genuinely terrifying tale of Deadly Shadows and its Hag will come away disappointed. The relative linearity of certain levels is also a trend that I most definitely noticed in the new installment – there are, of course, exceptions, and yet some missions of the game do give the impression that the player can only really walk the straight path that the developers want him to walk. What can potentially simplify the semi-linear levels even further is Garrett’s so-called Focus ability, a skill that highlights points of interest in blue or red colors (climbable walls, traps, switches), thus robbing the game of the joy of exploration and discovery. Luckily, this and all other hand-holding mechanics can easily be disabled from the in-game menu, which is definitely a commendable design choice. 10 years of absence and not a smile? While the size and linearity of certain missions could most definitely be improved upon, the freely explorable hub areas of the City – accessible between each chapter – are a definite step in the right direction after the painfully small and cramped streets of Deadly Shadows. Each district of the city offers a maze-like network of streets, rooftops and homes that can be entered, making the slow exploration of all the nooks and crannies all the more enjoyable: it’s the kind of hub area that’s easy to get lost in, but that in itself comes off as a positive thing. However, problems do arise in this department as well. The most notable one would probably have to be the fact that despite the sheer enjoyment that comes from leaping from rooftop to rooftop and breaking into homes, almost every single residence (with 2-3 exceptions – I counted) within the City is empty. And all of this happens during a curfew, in the dead of night, when you would normally expect townsfolk to be at home sleeping. Thief takes a step in the right direction with its complex hub areas, but falls short simply because it forgets a very important detail: that a good chunk of the enjoyment comes not merely from breaking into a home and stealing all its shinies, but rather from the sheer risk involved in the act. Failure should always be an option, whether it’s making sure not to wake the sleeping residents as we break into their rooms, or the adrenaline-filled tension that happens when a man catches Garrett red-handed as he’s still busy emptying a cupboard of all its valuables. The fact that most of the homes in the city are devoid of human life thus shows that the game did not take advantage of a potentially very exciting aspect of its gameplay. A less gentlemanly approach. Context-dependent climbing and jumping may also dishearten older veterans, but at the end of the day, it is not as much of a shackle as one might expect. Where one can reasonably expect Garrett to be able to climb and jump, he usually can. Usually. I say this because in one of the more disappointing exceptions to that rule, Garrett will find himself unable to bypass pressure plates that any thief – or person – could easily jump over… if said person had a proper jump button. But he doesn’t. A similarly questionable design choice is the inclusion of Rope Arrows in a way that they can only be shot at specific locations determined by the developers – which, needless to say, is a definite step back compared to the game’s predecessors, where the same arrows could be shot into any wooden surface of the player’s choice. My overall experience with the artificial intelligence is somewhat of a mixed bag. The good news is that I didn’t find it mind-numbingly bad. In fact, it’s quite decent. Guards will spot you even from a longer distance should you step into the light, and will similarly notice Garrett even in pitch black darkness if they come close enough. Their hearing is, for the most part, quite functional as well: a carelessly toppled vase may instantly alert them to our presence, and they will indeed come – sword in hand – to investigate the source of the noise. They will similarly not ignore overly risky behavior, such as trying to steal a piece of loot from right under their noses; they will also react to changes in the environment, be it the opening of doors or turning off the lights in an area. Civilians in a given area that are alerted by our behavior will call for guards, while guards themselves may summon backup during a fight. It can all work quite nicely and trying to avoid guards is quite fun in itself. The problems start when all of the above simply fails to happen. I had the misfortune to experience several instances of a guard completely ignoring the fact that I had just extinguished a torch near him, and proceeded to stare blankly into the now dark room as if nothing had happened. At other times, certain guards may fail to react to a small bottle thrown as a distraction, and even if they do come to investigate, they may give up their search far too easily and return to their posts. As such, I would very much recommend playing the game on Master difficulty for the most optimal experience. From shadow to shadow. Additionally, Garrett’s new-found ability to swiftly dodge attacks with the press of a button feels a bit too effective at times. The problem with this is that a well-timed dodge – which isn’t particularly difficult – makes Garrett *completely* evade the incoming attack without taking any damage. As such, a series of well-timed dodges in a 1 on 1 encounter with a guard will always result in our hero coming out victorious with even a single wound to his name. Naturally, things change when two, three or more guards storm at us (dodging becomes a more difficult task when four people want to decapitate you at the same time), and guards do patrol in pairs quite often, but the fact remains that this ability more or less eliminates the threat posed by lone enemies in a very drastic way. In summary, Thief is a mixture of positives and negatives: in one moment it impresses, then becomes a chore an hour later, only to find its brilliance once again by the end. It is nowhere near that trainwreck of a game many fans feared it would become: less critical gamers will find a game that’s genuinely fun for the majority of its campaign, but is nonetheless held back by shortcomings that prevent it from being a true classic. It’s like hopping on a rollercoaster, really: the ride has its ups and downs, but after it’s all finished, you can’t really say that you didn’t enjoy at least parts of it.

How to make a DIY camping wood gas stove: MYOG A great project for hikers, campers, survivalist, outdoorsmen, scouts, etc. Illustration and the following commentary by Derek Hanson at http://dejoha.com *I’ll note that there is reference to using galvanized metal for the screen in the stove. I’ve read elsewhere that you should avoid galvanized metal in stoves, as burning in galvanized stoves releases some sort of toxins. You’ve been warned. Use your own judgement. “There are a few ways to build a wood-gas stove, but this is how I did it. When I looked at other designs, the tool list included some peculiar tools that I would never really use much like large hole punches and strange lid removers. I decided that if this were to be a true DIY project, I would have to use what I had on hand. Here’s how I built it: SUPPLIES 1 – 13 oz can (“Member’s Mark” Chicken Chunks from Sam’s Club”) 1 – 1 qt empty paint can (from Home Depot, lid not required) 1 – 19 oz can (Progresso Soup, or a 20 oz Pineapple Chunks can) 1 – wire mesh (some suggest 3×3 wire mesh, but Home Depot only sold big rolls, which was too much and more money than I wanted to spend. The best alternative I found was a 2 ft long piece of gutter screen for $2 — plenty of wire screen for my project and not expensive) TOOLS * Kitchen can opener * Drill with big drill bit * Dremel with circular metal cutting bit * Large metal shears (for cutting the wire mesh) One fun part was eating the food A lot easier than disposing of the cat food when building my cat can alcohol stove. The Progresso Soup can had an easy-open-top, so the only can I needed a can opener was for the chicken chunks. A regular can opener can’t open the bottom’s of cans, so that’s where the Dremel first saw service. It turns out that the Dremel was very useful and quick in its duty. Not only did I make quick work of the cans, but I also used the Dremel to cut open the “feed hole” in the chicken chunk can. The largest drill bit I had on hand was 3/8, so I just drilled a lot of holes. It turns out that the quantity of holes worked great, so I don’t recommend buying a big drill bit or single-purpose hole punch unless you really, really want to. I was happily surprised to find that the 19 oz Progresso can fit snugly inside the paint can. I had some JB Weld, but to date I haven’t glued anything together since it fits so well already (in fact, I had to lightly tap the smaller can into the paint can, which really makes a tight fit). After a few fittings, I decided to cut about 1.5 inches off the bottom of the 19 oz Progresso can for a little more air clearance off the ground. I also used the Dremel to make 4 slices near the bottom of the 19 oz Progresso can for the wire mesh. The gutter mesh is galvanized and I flexible enough that I think it is almost perfect for this type of project. I was able to bend and fit the mesh and inserted the corners into the slices and then bent up the corners up. I took the stove on a trip to see family and I am happy to say it works great. Most of the wood around my house is snow-soaked and I can attest that wet wood is hard to burn. It was actually really easy to make this stove. I hope my illustration helps inspire anyone who is looking to make something like this. NOTES * Some people make the pot stand out of mesh. * You can use JB Weld to glue the inner chamber to the 1 qt pot * You can paint the whole stove with fire-resistant paint for additional durability and a fancy look * You can buy extra-fancy tools to make this if you want; I won’t hold it against you.”