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Houston singer Bryan Scott joins rock band Sick Puppies Houston singer Bryan Scott has a sweet new gig. He's now the lead singer for Australian rock band Sick Puppies. The band and Scott announced it Monday with the hashtag #SickPuppiesNewEra. "I can't begin to describe how ecstatic I am for this incredible opportunity! Everything in my life has led me up to this point and I am so beyond ready for it," he wrote on Facebook. "We have been writing a new album over the past year and poured everything we are into it, and we are so incredibly proud of the music we have made." RELATED: From 2007, Glass Intrepid profile Scott previously performed with Houston bands Glass Intrepid and Dev Electric. He now joins Sick Puppies members Emma Anzai and Mark Goodwin. (Singer Shimon Moore left in 2014.) Sick Puppies formed in 1997 and has released four albums, including 2013's "Connect," which cracked Billboard's top 20. The band scored rock radio hits with "All The Same," "You're Going Down," "Maybe" and "There's No Going Back." The band has posted a few new tour dates but nothing in Texas yet. A new single "Stick to Your Guns," has already been teased and will be available in March.

In Russia, American diplomats expect their phone calls to be monitored by government intelligence. Leaks out of the White House, too, are fairly common. But sharing specifics about the president's exchange with foreign leaders? That's something of an anomaly. And yet, just weeks into Donald Trump’s presidency, it's happening. Repeatedly. On Thursday, details of Trump’s Jan. 28 phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin were brought to light in a Reuters report from investigative journalists David Rohde and Jonathan Landay. Anecdotes from Trump's talks with the leaders of Australia, Mexico and France have come out in a similar fashion. It could mean that Trump's own team is concerned about his moves, the Huffington Post theorizes. Related: Flynn discussed sanctions with Russians before Trump took office, contrary to assertions: reports In the case of the Reuters report, two top White House officials and a former official, none of whom are named, are cited as sources. They asked to remain anonymous. “We made a pledge to stand by them, we find them highly credible,” Rohde said. Related: Russian journalists' advice to US reporters: 'Don't be nervous' and 'keep working' The piece suggests that Trump may not have been adequately briefed ahead of his conversation with Putin. Additionally, Rohde said his sources told him that during the phone call with Putin, Trump denounced a key nuclear weapons treaty — the New START accord. The agreement, signed in 2010, imposes limits on the two countries' nuclear arsenals. Trump’s stance on the treaty was nothing short of news: “Putin asked Trump about extending the treaty. Trump paused, according to our sources, and sort of asked one of his aides to clarify the name of the treaty or what the treaty was. And then he denounced it,” Rohde said. “He said it was a terrible deal made by President Obama and it was unfair to the American people.” The Reuters story states that Trump said that "New START favored Russia. Trump also talked about his own popularity, the sources said." During a briefing on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer first characterized the conversation between Trump and Putin as a “personal call” — and left it at that. Later in the day, however, Spicer made a stronger statement on it: He maintained that the president did, in fact, know the treaty’s name. He said Trump had simply turned to an aide for some advice. Since there’s no recording or read-out of the men’s dialogue, there’s no telling what specifically was said. So, here is the White House “flatly denying that the president didn’t know the name of the treaty.” That in and of itself raises the question of “how well is President Trump briefed before his calls. Is his staff really preparing him as past presidents have been prepared for these calls with foreign leaders.” "Even before we had the story, we heard from US officials that there was this concern about the briefings he was getting," Rohde said. It’s worth noting that during the presidential debates last year, Trump bungled some of the treaty’s basic facts, according to Rohde. For starters, Trump referred to it as the "Startup." The 10-year treaty expires in 2020 — and some of its terms are supposed to be met by next year. “But could a Trump administration decide they're not going to implement the limits that are agreed to in this treaty, the ones that should be carried out by February 2018?” This scenario stokes concerns about a new nuclear arms race. “The Russians are preparing these smaller warheads that could be used maybe in a battlefield setting.” Those would be used to “take out a certain amount of tanks and troops. And President Obama himself proposed a $1 trillion overhaul of the US nuclear arsenal in his 2016 budget.” At this point, neither Trump nor Putin seems too eager to extend the treaty. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has called these leaks “very concerning,” saying that it will get to the bottom of it. But Rohde said the repercussions of that don't worry him. Rather, he's focused on the larger issues at hand: “I think this was an important story for the American public to know about. Arguably, there's no more important issue than nuclear weapons." That's why he and Landay took their time pulling together their report. “We were very careful; we said what we knew and what we didn't know in the story. I know the president has said negative things about journalists. You know that's his right. He can say that. It's our job to sort of stay calm and do our jobs and report facts, facts, facts and inform the public.”

A month or so ago, Modi government decided to impose a one day blackout on NDTV India for airing content regarding Pathankot strike that could have aided the terrorists and imperiled the lives of our security men and their families. The decision was recommended by an inter-ministerial committee after carefully analyzing the content aired by NDTV India. This was not the first time that a channel was taken off air as a penalty for airing content which broadly speaking was ‘objectionable’. However, no sooner was this decision announced that the opposition, media persons, liberals of all shades and colours etc. loudly castigated the government for its decision. The decision was painted as an attack on Media’s freedom. The errant TV channel filed a case before Supreme Court. Amidst all the hullabaloo, the government backtracked and the ban was withdrawn. Critics wasted no point in reminding the public that here was a despotic government, hell bent on imposing dictatorship. One particularly loud mouthed and obnoxious political opponent wasted no time describing the government’s decision as ‘Emergency-like attitude’. The same loud mouthed, obnoxious opponent has now filed a non-bailable FIR against Zee News and its reporter Sudhir Chaudhary for daring to openly air the communal rampage which took place in her backyard. .@MamataOfficial Govt files FIR against me& @ZeeNews reporter for covering #DhulagarhRiots with Non Bailable sections.FIR for showing truth? — Sudhir Chaudhary (@sudhirchaudhary) December 27, 2016 A few days ago, Dhulagarh, in Howrah district of West Bengal, located some 30 odd Kilometres from the state’s capital was rocked by communal violence. While Hindus of the town were busy with Margashirsha Poornima festivities on 13th December, the Muslims formed a procession, blaring loud music, ostensibly claiming to celebrate Milad-un-Nabi, which actually fell the day before and was a public holiday. A simple request by Hindus to lower the volume of loudspeakers, provoked the Muslims into a frenzy of riot and arson. Hindu homes and shops were set ablaze and scores of Hindus were forced to flee. Locals reported that the Muslims who rioted at Dhulagarh were not locals but had come from outside specifically with the purpose of ousting Hindus. As per news reports, the police party sent to put an end to the riot was stopped by the rioters and bombs were hurled at it. As was expected, not a single major news channel reported the riots at Dhulagarh, with the exception of Zee News. In fact, Senior Journalists such as Rajdeep Sardesai, actually claimed that the riots were rumours. Mamata Banerjee and her government maintained studied silence on this issue. Those closely observing West Bengal point out the regularity with which riots have been taking place in the state, with the government turning a blind eye is reminiscent of the riots that preceded the partition of Bengal. One would have hoped that Mamata Banerjee would show the same alacrity in coming to the aid of besieged Hindus of her state as she did in cursing Modi on the demonetization issue, but alas, Didi has no time to help the Hindus. It is the Muslim votebank in West Bengal that must be protected and nurtured. Be that as it may, it now emerges that an FIR has been filed against Zee News and its reporter, Sudhir Choudhary for airing content on Dhulagarh riots. This is deeply disturbing. The act is in complete contravention of the principle of Media freedom. If FIRs can be filed against journalists for airing content, which some secular parties may deem objectionable, it will be the end of democracy as we know it. Mamata Banerjee is effectively silencing the voice of Media, which so far has been free to air stories lauding her or criticizing her. The message is clear. Criticize Mamata Banerjee and she will ensure that wrath of the government will fall upon you. It is one thing to demand that Media should be regulated, either self-regulation or by agreed guidelines, but it is completely different for elected governments to threaten Media persons from airing content at the risk of prosecution. Mamata Banerjee, who has so often claimed to be the guardian of democracy in India, should know this better. Instead of harassing media channels for highlighting the inadequacy of her administration, she should try and improve law and order situation in her state. Also, while it is pointless to expect this, one would hope that our liberals, democrats, intellectuals etc. would fill the streets to challenge Mamata Banerjee’s draconian decision. Unfortunately, too many of them would have been eating out of Mamata Banerjee’s hands for their conscience to be stirred on this occasion.

The next 10 weeks are a make-or-break period for President Obama’s second-term agenda. He needs quick victories in the Senate on gun control and immigration if he is to build momentum for a fight in the Republican-controlled House — the chief obstacle to his agenda. ADVERTISEMENT Obama and his allies are counting on the Senate to deliver strong bipartisan votes for gun violence and immigration bills to build pressure on Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerEx-GOP lawmaker joins marijuana trade group Crowley, Shuster moving to K Street On unilateral executive action, Mitch McConnell was right — in 2014 MORE (R-Ohio) to bring the legislation to the House floor for votes. The House is waiting for the Senate to act first before deciding its course of action. The stakes are high for Obama; David Axelrod, his former chief political adviser, last week called immigration reform a “legacy item” for the president. As the gun-control fight has gone on and Obama’s initial talk of wide-ranging reform has been trimmed and trimmed again, the president has faced renewed criticism over his ability — or inability — to shepherd meaningful legislation through Congress. On immigration, there are doubts as to whether he seriously wants a deal. Many Republicans fear he would prefer to point a finger of blame at GOP lawmakers during the 2014 elections — and thus perhaps win the House back for Democrats — than actually achieve real progress with their help. They note that Obama last week was fundraising on the West Coast, speaking of the importance of returning California Democrat Nancy Pelosi to the Speakership. More from The Hill: • House Intel moves to avoid cybersecurity fight with Obama • McCain doesn't 'understand' gun bill filibuster threat • Graham: Rubio a 'game changer' in immigration debate • Hagel faces uphill fight to trim Pentagon budget • Hill Poll: Voters: Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE will run, win 2016 nomination • Arianna Huffington: Hillary Clinton 'obviously running' “If, in fact, nothing happens on immigration and guns, that presents Democrats with some issues to take into the 2014 election,” said Ross K. Baker, a professor of political science at Rutgers University who recently served as a fellow in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidBottom Line Brennan fires back at 'selfish' Trump over Harry Reid criticism Trump rips Harry Reid for 'failed career' after ex-Dem leader slams him in interview MORE’s (D-Nev.) office. Young and minority voters, two traditional pillars of the Democratic base, are notoriously difficult to mobilize in off-year elections, but could be motivated on the two issues, Baker noted — particularly on immigration. Obama has thrown the weight of his office behind a push for stricter gun-control measures, squaring off against the National Rifle Association (NRA), one of the most powerful lobby groups in Washington. Losing such a high-profile battle when polls show voters support an assault-weapons ban and expanded background checks would rank as one of Obama’s biggest policy failures. Proponents of immigration reform say it must pass before the end of June to avoid becoming entangled in the fight over the federal debt limit, expected in July. Angela Kelley, vice president for immigration policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, said, “That timing is realistic and gives enough room for the House to act. A big vote coming out of the Senate will be hard for the House to ignore, no matter what.” That means it is important that the gun-violence package, which is scheduled first, does not become bogged down in negotiations or a protracted floor fight. Obama’s immediate problem on guns is weak support from Democrats, especially centrists running for reelection next year in conservative or swing states. Defections by Sens. Mark Begich Mark Peter BegichFormer GOP chairman Royce joins lobbying shop Lobbying world Dem governors on 2020: Opposing Trump not enough MORE (D-Alaska), Max Baucus Max Sieben BaucusOvernight Defense: McCain honored in Capitol ceremony | Mattis extends border deployment | Trump to embark on four-country trip after midterms Congress gives McCain the highest honor Judge boots Green Party from Montana ballot in boost to Tester MORE (D-Mont.), Kay Hagan Kay Ruthven HaganNC state senator meets with DSCC as Dems eye challenge to Tillis GOP, Dems locked in fight over North Carolina fraud probe 2020 Dems compete for top campaign operatives MORE (D-N.C.) and Mark Pryor Mark Lunsford PryorMedicaid rollback looms for GOP senators in 2020 Cotton pitches anti-Democrat message to SC delegation Ex-Sen. Kay Hagan joins lobby firm MORE (D-Ark.) during last month’s budget vote shows they will be hard to corral. The White House and gun-control advocates are emphasizing widened background checks as the key reform necessary, but that will be a tough sell. When asked about legislation to expand background checks to cover sales between private individuals, Begich said he wanted to see a Republican with an “A” rating from the NRA endorse it. Democrats have courted Sen. Tom Coburn Thomas (Tom) Allen CoburnThe Hill's Morning Report — Presented by PhRMA — Worries grow about political violence as midterms approach President Trump’s war on federal waste American patients face too many hurdles in regard to health-care access MORE (R-Okla.) to no avail. Sen. Charles Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerBrennan fires back at 'selfish' Trump over Harry Reid criticism Trump rips Harry Reid for 'failed career' after ex-Dem leader slams him in interview Harry Reid: 'I don't see anything' Trump is doing right MORE (D-N.Y.) hasn’t given up, but Democrats’ time is already being squeezed up against the debt-ceiling showdown, which cannot be put off. Gun violence legislation was expected to hit the Senate floor this week, but now that could be pushed to the week of April 15 to accommodate a possible bipartisan deal on background checks. Gun control groups expect the floor debate to last two weeks, and plan to air ads and hold campaign events in the states of swing senators. Mayors Against Illegal Guns spent $12 million during the two-week Easter recess and plans another barrage later this month. Dan Pfeiffer, a senior adviser to the president, appeared to lower expectations last week, saying that Obama would not hold out for a perfect bill. “What the president wants to sign is the strongest gun bill he can sign,” Pfeiffer said. “What we have to make sure is that whatever we do is better than current law.” Schumer, who is also spearheading the push for comprehensive immigration reform, initially predicted a bipartisan group of senators would have legislation by the end of March. Immigration reform advocates now say a bill might not be unveiled until mid-April, which would push the Judiciary Committee markup into May. That gives Senate Democratic leaders little time to move immigration reform, an issue that sat on the floor for weeks when the upper chamber last debated it in 2007. Opponents of comprehensive immigration reform will do everything they can to slow down the legislation in committee and on the Senate floor to give their arguments more time to resonate with the public. “There should be careful consideration of any bill that is going to affect the future of this country,” said Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations at NumbersUSA, a group that wants to curb immigration flows. Six Republicans on the Judiciary panel wrote a letter on March 20 to Chairman Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph LeahySenate plots to avoid fall shutdown brawl Booker wins 2020 endorsement of every New Jersey Democrat in Congress The Hill's Morning Report - Can Bernie recapture 2016 magic? MORE (D-Vt.) and the Senate leadership to warn against rushing the legislation. “We must provide all members of the Senate, and, most importantly, the public, a full and fair opportunity to become adequately informed,” they wrote. Democratic strategists fear if the measure strays into July, it will become embroiled in the fight over the debt limit, which Republican leaders say they will use as leverage to extract concessions from Obama on entitlement programs. “They hope to get something through the Senate by June and then go to the House, certainly by the end of June if not earlier than that,” said Mike Lux, a Democratic strategist. He said a July debate on immigration reform “would bump into the debt-limit fight and it would be a problem.”

Today is Unity Day in the Ukraine. This irony has now been basted in violence. The long running rift has erupted in running battles between the protesters and the riot police. Pre News refresh player – this is the default player for the C4 news site – please do not delete. Ziad Neither side is giving up. Both sides have mobilised reinforcements and both are spoiling for a fight. In classic Roman formation the police took back the avenue in front of parliament. I saw at least three officers use pump action rubber bullet guns. This is apparently how the three protesters died. Independence Square now resembles a fortress or medieval castle. The barricades have been reinforced with snow bags, barbed wire and discarded Christmas trees. Tyres have been set on fire and black smokes fills the bright white sky. here and there blood stains fresh snow. Thousands of men and some women have appeared armed with clubs and even pitchforks. The fur clad babushki stand their ground. The air is filled with the cacophony of revolution. Stun grenades, the ping of rubber bullets and the relentless drumming of any piece of metal that makes a noise. It is Kiev at the beginning of 2014. It feels more like the Game of Thrones. Follow @MattFrei on Twitter

If you thought modern games hardware had the monopoly on inventions such as motion controllers and 3D effects, think again. Davey Winder has dug out his vintage gaming collection to reveal the surprising secrets of yesteryear's consoles. 1. The Wii didn't invent motion controls The Nintendo Wii might have revolutionised and revitalised the video gaming industry when it was released in 2006, but it certainly didn't invent the 'swing it to win it' style of gaming for which it has become so famous. The Wii Remote wireless controller which detects movement in three dimensions is brilliant, especially when playing Wii Sports. But Nintendo was beaten to the punch, or should I say the swing, by some 20 years (the exact date is lost in time, unless you know better) by the Smartland SL6401. This electronic golf game has a screen in the head of a miniature golf club, and is played by swinging the club itself. It has a very basic accelerometer (you can feel and hear a weight moving inside the club as you swing it) and the game uses the movement of the club to plot the course and distance of your ball as you play. 2. 3D gaming isn't new 3D may well be the new black, what with 3D movies at the cinema and the Nintendo 3DS handheld on the horizon, but 3D gaming is old news. The first game to simulate 3D was 3D Monster Maze for the Sinclair ZX81, a first-person perspective, maze-exploring title. However, skip forward to 1983 and the first dedicated home video 3D hardware appeared. The Tomytronic Thundering Turbo 3D handheld was a binocular-style device providing realistic 3D effects courtesy of the two LED panels lit by external light - as your car sped along you had to avoid the LED-generated obstacles coming at you. 3. Gamers had guns 38 years ago The gun as a game controller didn't start with the Wii Remote/Nunchuk wrapped in a Wii Zapper in 2007, or even the infamous NES Zapper light gun that Nintendo introduced with huge success in 1984. Nope, you need to reach right back to the very first home video games console for the first gun accessory and shooting game you didn't need to visit an arcade to play with: the Magnavox Odyssey. Developed by video game hero and pioneer Ralph Baer, the Odyssey was launched in 1972 and sold more than 300,000 units (almost entirely in the USA) before it was discontinued in 1975. Slightly less successful, but nonetheless just as important in historical terms, was the 'Shooting Gallery' pack for the Odyssey which sold no more than 20,000 in total. Along with a bunch of simple shooting games including a dinosaur safari and haunted house, the accessory pack came complete with what remains the most realistic 'gun' game controller ever produced. This full size, and weighty, pump action shotgun simply detected light - so a 'target' would light up on-screen and you would have to shoot it to score. Or you could shoot a light bulb instead for the same effect.

Eating Your Way To A Healthy Heart (If You're A Python) Enlarge this image toggle caption Gabriel Bouys/Getty Images/AFP Pythons' huge meals strengthen their hearts, and scientists hope it will help them learn how to treat human heart diseases. Gabriel Bouys/Getty Images/AFP It's a huckster's dream: "Try the new Burmese Python Diet. No calorie counting or special foods. Eat whatever comes along, up to a quarter of your body weight. Not only is it good for your waistline; it's good for your heart." Trouble is, what works in pythons probably won't work for humans. Pythons employ what scientists call a "sit and wait foraging tactic." In other words, they lie around in a jungle and wait for the food to come to them. And of course, this can mean months between meals. Still, these infrequent but humongous meals are actually normal for the python. A python's heart gets far larger and stronger after it gorges, and scientists are trying to understand how that happens, and whether it can help humans with heart diseases. Heart growth isn't always a healthy thing. A diseased heart can get larger as well. But like any other muscle, the heart will grow larger and stronger after it gets a prolonged workout. "Lance Armstrong and Michael Phelps undoubtedly have huge hearts," says University of Colorado biologist Leslie Leinwand. But the growth a human heart is capable of is nothing compared with what a Burmese python can do after it eats a big meal. "Within two to three days [the snake] can get anywhere between a 30 and 40 percent increase in the mass of the heart," says University of Alabama snake expert Stephen Secor. The growth comes following a meal, because the large meals pythons infrequently eat send their metabolism through the roof and put huge demands on their hearts. Secor and Leinwand have a paper out in Science Saturday in which they show that it is the ratio of three fatty acids in the blood that prompts the heart growth in snakes. They found that the same ratio of fatty acids injected into a mouse will cause its heart to grow as well. So why won't eating a large meal cause a human's heart to grow? Part of the answer is the scale of our meals relative to our size. "Could you swallow a totally intact meal that weighs a quarter of your body mass?" asks Secor. In other words, could you eat a 30- or 40-pound pig in a single sitting? "If you could, I guarantee you your metabolic rate would go through the roof," says Secor. Of course we're not designed for such meals. But even if we could consume a whole pig we'd have to digest bones, hair and all. And that could cause some major problems — most food we do eat undergoes some amount of processing that makes it possible to eat. So even though we're all keen on stronger hearts, we'll probably have to leave the Burmese Python Diet to the Burmese python.

Ceci n'est pas un service Minecraft officiel, ni un service approuvé par ou affilié à Mojang. Mojang © 2009-2018. "Minecraft" is a trademark of Mojang Synergies AB • À propos • Comment ça marche ? Un toponyme situé en France. Une fois le lieu sélectionné, la zone correspondant à la superficie de l'éventuelle carte Minecraft (d'une taille de 5Km x 5Km) s'affiche. Il est aussi possible de vous positionner tout simplement avec votre souris sur l'endroit voulu (et dans ce cas, la superficie sera calculée à partir du centre de la carte). Une adresse e-mail valide, qui sera utilisée pour vous envoyer une notification, une fois votre carte prête à être téléchargée. Un lien vous sera ainsi fourni pour récupérer un fichier (au format ZIP) contenant les données de votre carte. • Installation Votre appareil n'est pas supporté par notre service. Votre appareil n'est pas supporté par notre service. Votre appareil n'est pas supporté par notre service. Votre appareil n'est pas supporté par notre service. Format Minecraft Java Edition %appdata%\.minecraft\saves sous Windows. Format Minecraft Bedrock %appdata%\..\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftUWP_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\games\com.mojang\minecraftWorlds sous Windows 10. Format Minecraft Education Edition %appdata%\..\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftEducationEdition_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\games\com.mojang\minecraftWorlds sous Windows 10. Format Minetest Remplacez {racine_de_votre_jeu} par le chemin correspondant. {racine_de_votre_jeu}\worlds sous Windows. Format Minecraft Java Edition %appdata%\.minecraft\saves sous Windows. Format Minetest Remplacez {racine_de_votre_jeu} par le chemin correspondant. {racine_de_votre_jeu}\worlds sous Windows. Format Minecraft Java Edition ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft/saves sous macOS. Format Minecraft Java Edition ~/.minecraft/saves sous GNU/Linux. Format Minetest Remplacez {racine_de_votre_jeu} par le chemin correspondant. {racine_de_votre_jeu}/worlds sous GNU/Linux. Format Minecraft Bedrock Remplacez {racine_de_votre_appareil} par le chemin correspondant. /{racine_de_votre_appareil}/Apps/com.mojang.minecraftpe/Documents/games/com.mojang/minecraftWorlds sous iOS. Format Minecraft Bedrock Remplacez {racine_de_votre_appareil} par le chemin correspondant. /{racine_de_votre_appareil}/games/com.mojang/minecraftWorlds sous Android. Format Minecraft Bedrock Pour le moment, le seul moyen de jouer sur des cartes personalisées sur Xbox One est de louer un serveur Realms et d'y installer la carte en question depuis un appareil disposant du jeu sur Windows 10 ou mobile. Format Minecraft Bedrock Pour le moment, le seul moyen de jouer sur des cartes personalisées sur Nintendo Switch est de louer un serveur Realms et d'y installer la carte en question depuis un appareil disposant du jeu sur Windows 10 ou mobile. Il est également nécessaire de disposer d'un abonnement à Nintendo Switch Online afin de pouvoir jouer en ligne. • Règles Une seule génération par utilisateur et par jour est possible. et est possible. générations par jour au total. Le compteur est réinitialisé à minuit (heure française — UTC/GMT+1). au total. Le compteur est (heure française — UTC/GMT+1). Une fois votre carte générée, elle restera à votre disposition pendant 72 heures. Passé ce délai, elle sera supprimée. • Aperçu • Comment les cartes sont-elles réalisées ? Chargement d'un modèle de terrain issu du RGE ALTI®. Chargement des données issues de la BD CARTO® (occupation du sol). Chargement des données issues de la BD TOPO® (bâtiments, routes, hydrographie, cimetières, végétation). Chargement des données issues de la BD ORTHO® (couleur du sol, couleur des toits). Chargement des données issues du Registre Parcellaire Graphique 2016 (RPG) (cultures, vignes et vergers). Génération d'une zone tampon de 250 mètres autour de la carte pour faire la transition avec le monde Minecraft classique. Génération de plusieurs objets cartes au lieu du "spawn" pour pouvoir se repérer. • FAQ Q. J'ai commandé ma carte, mais je n'ai toujours rien reçu. Est-ce normal ? R. Vu le temps de calcul nécéssaire pour générer une carte, comptez environ 12 heures en moyenne pour recevoir votre lien de téléchargement. Nous faisons néanmoins tout notre possible pour réduire ce temps d'attente. À noter que la génération des cartes se fait selon l'ordre de réception des demandes ( FCFS ). J'ai commandé ma carte, mais je n'ai toujours rien reçu. Est-ce normal ? Vu le temps de calcul nécéssaire pour générer une carte, comptez en moyenne pour recevoir votre lien de téléchargement. Nous faisons néanmoins tout notre possible pour réduire ce temps d'attente. À noter que la génération des cartes se fait selon l'ordre de réception des demandes ( ). Q. générations par jour, c'est très peu. Le compteur est souvent/toujours à zéro. R. Oui, nous en sommes conscients, et travaillons activement pour augmenter notre capacité de calcul. générations par jour, c'est très peu. Le compteur est souvent/toujours à zéro. Oui, nous en sommes conscients, et travaillons activement pour augmenter notre capacité de calcul. Q. Les cartes générées sont-elle compatibles avec Minecraft Pocket Edition ? R. Oui. La Minecraft Pocket Edition ainsi que la Windows 10 Edition sont maintenant supportées. Il vous suffit de sélectionner le format Minecraft Bedrock lors de votre demande de génération de carte. Les cartes générées sont-elle compatibles avec Minecraft Pocket Edition ? Oui. La Minecraft Pocket Edition ainsi que la Windows 10 Edition sont maintenant supportées. Il vous suffit de sélectionner le format Minecraft Bedrock lors de votre demande de génération de carte. Q. Je veux jouer sur console. Est-ce possible ? R. Cela dépend du type de console. Actuellement, nous supportons uniquement la Xbox One et la Nintendo Switch. Nous travaillons sur l'intégration du format propre à la Playstation 4. Les Playstation 3 et Xbox 360 ne seront pas supportés dues à des contraintes techniques (superficie limitée sur ces consoles). Je veux jouer sur console. Est-ce possible ? Cela dépend du type de console. Actuellement, nous supportons uniquement la Xbox One et la Nintendo Switch. Nous travaillons sur l'intégration du format propre à la Playstation 4. Les Playstation 3 et Xbox 360 ne seront pas supportés dues à des contraintes techniques (superficie limitée sur ces consoles). Q. Quelles sont les zones actuellement supportées ? R. Le service couvre la France métropolitaine, et les territoires d'outre-mer suivants : Martinique, Guadeloupe, La Réunion, Mayotte, Guyane française ainsi que Saint-Pierre et Miquelon. • Contact • Cookies et statistiques est un service en ligne proposé par IGNfab , permettant de générer des cartes Minecraft à partir des données géographiques de l'Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière ( IGN ) : BD TOPO® RGE ALTI® et BD ORTHO® . Ce projet utilise également les données du Registre Parcellaire Graphique 2016 ( RPG ).Pour générer une carte, il suffit de renseigner :Votre carte est stockée sous forme de plusieurs fichiers binaires qui constituent une sauvegarde du jeu. Pour l'installer, décompressez l'archive que vous aurez récupéré, et copiez son contenu dans :Votre carte est ensuite chargeable depuis l'écran des sauvegardes dans le jeu (en mode).Nous avons développé notre propre moteur de génération de cartes pour créer des cartes Minecraft au format Java Edition et Bedrock Edition , ainsi que des cartes au format Minetest. Les cartes sont générées de la manière suivante pour chaque zone de 5Km x 5Km demandée :Chaque bloc représente une surface au sol de 1 mètre carré (ou moins), et l'échelle planimétrique n'est pas déformée (1 mètre au sol dans la réalité = 1 bloc au sol ou plus dans la carte). L'échelle altimétrique est par contre "écrasée" sur les cartes au format Minecraft dès que le relief de la zone est trop important (Alpes, Pyrénées, Massif Central, etc.), pour pouvoir représenter toute la zone entre les niveaux 40 et 210 d'une carte Minecraft classique. Vous pouvez régler l'échelle lors de votre demande de génération de carte.Pour tout renseignement, veuillez nous écrire à l'adresse suivante :En vue d'adapter le siteaux demandes de ses visiteurs, l'IGN mesure le nombre de visites, le nombre de pages vues ainsi que l'activité des visiteurs sur le site et leur fréquence de retour., l'outil de statistiques utilisé par l'IGN, génère un cookie avec un identifiant unique, dont la durée de conservation est limité à 13 mois. L'outil utilisé collecte également votre adresse IP, afin de déterminer la ville depuis laquelle vous vous connectez. Celle-ci est immédiatement anonymisée après utilisation. L'IGN ne peut donc en aucun cas remonter par ce biais à une personne physique. Les données recueillies ne sont pas cédées à des tiers ni utilisées à d'autres fins.

The last known survivor of the devastating San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 died Monday. Jean Elle reports. (Published Monday, Jan. 11, 2016) The last known survivor of the devastating San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 died Monday. Bill Del Monte, who was 109 years old, passed away just after midnight at the San Rafael senior care facility where he lived, according to his family. He was 11 days shy of his 110th birthday. His niece, Janette Barroca of San Francisco, said he'd been doing "great for 109 years old." At his 108th birthday party, Del Monte recalled his mother’s memory of the moments after the 1906 quake, when he was just a three-month-old baby. "My mother in the kitchen, she put the table cloth around me, wrapped it around me as a bundle, and put me on a cart and went we down Broadway Street to the ferry," he said. "There was fire on both sides of the street." Del Monte also expressed amazement at the length of his life. "It’s something I just can’t believe," he told NBC Bay Area in 2014. Del Monte said he was able to watch San Francisco rebuild and reform after it burned in the earthquake more than a century ago. "It wasn’t too much of a city then, but it sure is now," said Del Monte who never had children and lost his wife over 20 years ago. A memorial has been tentatively scheduled for Jan. 22, which would have been Del Monte's 110th birthday. 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Survivor Celebrates 108th Birthday San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White met 108-year-old 1906 earthquake survivor Bill Del Monte for lunch in Greenbrae, Calif. Monte Francis reports. (Published Friday, Jan. 24, 2014) In a statement, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said Monday Del Monte represented "the resilience of the people of San Francisco." "His legacy is a true reminder of how resilient our City is," Lee said. Ruth Newman was the oldest remaining survivor of the earthquake before her death last summer. She was 113. Newman was 4 years old when the quake struck in the early morning of April 18, 1906. NBC Bay Area's Joe Rosato Jr. and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

What the developers have to say: Why Early Access? Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access? How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version? Three more chapters to support the story line. More enemies. More henchmen. More ability types. More midimension types. More flaw strategies. More fortresses. More dimensional influences - fragments of other times and places. More weapons and abilities. What is the current state of the Early Access version? Endless (generated) midimensions that scale in challenge with player advancement. No two midimensions are the same. Players can continue to play against increasing challenge. However, as of now, the uniqueness of those dynamic challenges begins to top off around level 50. 4 chapters with "end" fortresses. Over 30 artifacts. Over 80 different abilities to acquire and customize weapons with. Four midimension types and three midimension strategies. Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access? How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process? “Warpin: Creation (VR) was play tested in private groups familiar with the landscape of VR games and received strongly positive responses in comparison to other early VR games on Steam.Early Access is being provided as a means to get the game into the hands of the community while I finish implementing the story line. Warpin has been built with the ability to add additional strategies and mechanics. So, I'll be listening closely for community ideas and incorporating those while finishing up the story details.Please remember that occasional bugs are to be expected, but so are new features and content additions. Stay tuned...”“The game is planned to be complete in the next 3 months based on feedback, ideas, and requests from the community. I'm also very open to adding additional more features after that release as DLC.”“The full version will contain more depth and implementation of the story line. Warpin: Creation (VR) is based on the first chapter "Creation" of my unpublished novel "Warpin" and I'll be making sure the game conveys that story line and lore as much as possible.In addition, these features are already planned to enhance the existing experience.And other unplanned features, depending on user feedback.”“Warpin: Creation (VR) is playable and currently features:“The price is not expected to change when Warpin: Creation (VR) leaves early access.”“Player feedback is important to me and the best way to get in touch is to post right here on the Steam Discussions page. I'll be reading every post, fixing reported bugs, and taking everyone's suggestions into consideration. Bugs will be tackled first, ideas second. I'll be on the look out for player ideas related to midimension types and strategies, as they have a dramatic impact on the long-term playability. The story and lore of the game are locked down, but the game play strategies are wide open to be expanded with the best community ideas between now and RC.”

As well as development updates, I’ve decided I want to start writing more pieces about interesting mechanics or things I admire in other games outside roguelikes. This is a long and detailed blog entry about level design in a genre nobody really talks about level design in – real-time strategy games. When conversations like this happen it’s generally about multiplayer balance, typically for Starcraft multiplayer maps that come with their own strategies for each of the three sides. However, here I want to talk about level design for singleplayer missions in RTS games, specifically the original Command & Conquer, one of the most well-balanced and well-designed games I’ve ever played. There are three missions in particular which really show off the thought and effort put into making these missions not just “maps”, but actual levels that demand more thought from the player than build tanks -> move tanks -> win. If people are interested in more entries like these as well as game development ones, let me know. So, this is our first example. At the start of the mission your forces need to reach the green cross, but they are blocked by a pair of enemy vehicles on the bridge. These are Mammoth Tanks, the strongest units in the game – a single one of them would destroy your entire force by itself, let alone two. You begin with six units. The largest is an MCV (“Mobile Construction Vehicle”), a unit required to construct a base, and therefore vital. You also possess a single light tank with an anti-armour cannon, two “attack bikes” (at the front of your force) with anti-armour rockets, whilst the two “buggies” either side of your tank can only damage troops. Your tank and two attack bikes, whilst both strong against armoured units, would be pulverized in direct combat with the Mammoth Tanks. In this case, the game requires you to utilize the design of the level to survive, and if you wish to play optimally, to take advantage of – and, perhaps, even exploit – the game’s AI. As above, you have been given two buggies to start the game with. These are flimsy and can deal no real damage to armoured units, but you have been given them for a reason. Your attack bikes are effectively minor glass cannons – a Mammoth Tank would destroy them in one or two salvos, but their rockets deal significant damage. Thus, your first step is to send a buggy down the white line, get the attention of one Mammoth, then have it lead it away. At this point the player has two options – one is arguably the optimal play, whilst another is simpler to carry out and requires less simultaneous movement of units, but leaves the player more exposed after it. This less-optimal play would involve you having a second unit go in, distract the second Mammoth, and have them go around in that loop whilst your other units get across the bridge and set up a base. Your tank and attack bikes will then be able to protect your fledgling base, though you will need to keep your buggies moving. However, unless you are willing to keep commanding your buggies in an endless circle which will distract you from the rest of the mission, you need to find a permanent solution to the Mammoth Tanks. Instead, the optimal play is to have your tank & bikes move up behind one of the Mammoths chasing a buggy, and attack it from behind. Sometimes the AI will turn its attention to the new attacker, but sometimes it won’t. I’ve never worked out what the exact trigger is for this – maybe it’s random, but I doubt it, as C&C is a very deterministic RTS with few RNG factors. I think it has something to do with proximity – if the Mammoth Tank feels it is sufficiently close to its target (the endlessly-fleeing buggy) it will ignore those shooting at its rear armour. Thus, you need to keep your buggies moving in circles. This must be done slowly, so they don’t advance too far on the slow Mammoths and get the Mammoths to turn around and destroy your useful units, but still stay out of range of the Mammoths’ weapons. This must be done whilst having your armoured vehicles attack the Mammoths, but not getting too close, and also moving your MCV (that large vehicle, one that lets you construct bases) across the bridge to build a base. This is a demanding task with several parts, and the map is specifically built so that you have to use the units you’ve been given very carefully, but at a cost of leaving your base undefended whilst you deal with the initial Mammoths. This could not be done without a map design of this sort; it looks impossible at first if you attempt open combat, but ensures the player can find a single very specific solution to master the situation. You are also under a constant time pressure in all late-game missions in the game because you know the map’s very finite resources are being mined by your foes every second that passes; you could wait until you’ve killed the Mammoth Tanks before building a base with your surviving units, but you are instead encouraged by this additional pressure to send your MCV on unguarded whilst your units stay back to handle the tanks. Although your base will be initially undefended, against the tank and the two attack bikes the non-retaliating Mammoths will fall reasonably quickly, and certainly before the first waves of enemies – primarily troops, against which the tanks wouldn’t be that much use anyway – come at you from the enemy base. In this second example, you start the level with a single unit, a “Stealth Tank” – it is invisible to all units unless it strays within a tile of an enemy unit. They are flimsy, and would die in open combat to any of the units or defensive buildings visible here. They are also revealed if they stray within a single tile of an enemy unit. You are tasked with retrieving the red unit – an MCV, and the only one you get in the level to build your base with. To do this you must find a way into the base and then find a way to construct your own base after that, without having the ability to extract your MCV and build safely outside the walls of your foe. Here, the player is unable to use traditional RTS strategies to retrieve the MCV. You obviously cannot build up a force to enter the base (because you have no production buildings), and nor do you start with a force sufficient to break through even the weakest of the three gates surrounding this base. The first part of this mission is more like a puzzle game where you must find a particular route through the level whilst avoiding enemies that behave in specific ways. There is a single path to enter the base and retrieve your mission-essential unit: Having done this, your secondary objective is to destroy all the enemy units and buildings on the map. You cannot get your MCV safely out of the enemy base, and thus the player must build their base within the enemy’s. The tall yellow buildings with blue/white tops are “Advanced Guard Towers” (AGTs) – these are powerful defenses with a significant range, as (approximately) shown by the red circles below. You cannot build within those circles, nor safely move your units within them, as they will come under fire you cannot resist at this point in the mission. However, AGTs require power, and there are three power stations your Stealth Tank can safely aim at by uncloaking (they must de-cloak to fire) just north of your MCV. Killing two of these power plants is not sufficient, but all three is. Once your stealth tank is positioned safely, they can destroy those power plants, disable many of the base defenses (though not the smaller yellow towers, nor the tanks) and thus start to build a base. Subsequently, the optimal strategy is arguably to build walls outwards to block enemy vehicles, and although this is too complex to show in a diagram, many of the enemy buildings and enemies are positioned in such a way as to encourage the player to slowly advance across the base and taking it over in a very specific order. So, on this map the player is tasked with finding a route through obstacles – a very un-RTS principle – before thinking outside the box and finding a way to take out a base from the inside whilst not triggering its external defenders, rather than attacking from the outside. Were any of the buildings placed differently – for example, a second AGT on the left side of the top gate – this map would become impossible. As it is, there are just enough power plants within safe firing range for your fragile Stealth Tank, and just the right locations for defenses, to enable a very specific and unique strategy and get the player thinking carefully about the power/defense/enemy layouts the mission has put in front of you. In this third example, you start with two groups of units split off from one another. The units at the bottom need to navigate the lower half of the map to retrieve a non-essential cache of money in the village at the end of the green arrow; the units at the north of the map need to enter the base in the centre-left, capture its buildings, and start building a base from there. In this case, you have a lot of units and the base is only guarded by a pair of standard “Guard Towers” (blue circles) – these are weak against tanks, but tear through soldiers. You are only given soldiers, but the makeup of your soldiers, and using both your forces effectively, are the keys to making the opening stages of this map far from trivial. Your unit composition on the top is very cleverly thought through. You have a dozen normal soldiers (blue); one commando (the light green), who can one-shot any troop at range, and instantly kill any building if in an adjacent tile; and three engineers (dark green), who can capture buildings (note the three yellow buildings within the western base – these are what you are expected to seize). Your troops are not sufficient to overcome the two anti-troop guard towers; your commando, being infantry, cannot possibly get close enough to destroy them (using C4 in close proximity). The engineers are essential. The only solution is to use the standard troops as fodder; they must run ahead of the commando into the guard towers to allow him to C4 them both. Guard towers target enemies closest to them, so the player needs to also ensure the commando hits the guard tower in the one-second window between its bullets without giving it time to ID the commando as the “closest enemy” and open fire. Commandos briefly overlap with the a tile a building is built upon during the placing of the C4 – ensuring they will be considered the closest enemy – so meeting this timing window is essential. Additionally, there is a “Gunboat” patrolling (the white circle) left-to-right-to-left on the river. This gunboat will destroy your troops if it comes into range; a second use of your lower units is to keep an eye on the gunboat, and ensure that your northern units only attack the guard towers within the safe window whilst the gunboat is on the other side of the map. Much like the first level discussed in this post, this adds a secondary time pressure – the player’s sacrifice-then-C4 attack on the western base must be carried out before the gunboat concludes a single loop, and you should ideally command the southern force of soldiers to keep an eye on the gunboat and avoiding sacrificing your key northern troops before you get the chance to then sacrifice them to the guard towers. On this level, then, the defenses of the base, much like the above second example, are specifically designed and placed so that your unit composition must be used in a particular way to overcome them. This sacrificial solution is also particularly fitting because the army you are playing as for this mission, a strange kind of terrorist-militia-irregular-army-paramilitary-cult-populist organization, are willing to sacrifice unimportant soldiers (within the plot), and this mission nicely reinforces that from a thematic standpoint. Ultimately, all three of these missions ask far more of the player than to merely build a base, build up an army, and conquer the enemy. In all three cases this is certainly a later objective, but rather than simply starting the player off with an MCV, some resources and some escort units, they each ask the player to think about the tactical situation in more interesting ways. In the first the player has to utilize the map to their advantage to overcome an apparently impossible battle, and take advantage of, or even exploit, the AI. In the second the player has to navigate through a “puzzle” base before cautiously developing their own base within the limits imposed by the enemy’s fortifications. In the third, possibly the most interesting, the player needs to control two different groups of units; use the southern unit group to assist the northern unit group in timing their attacks to avoid the gunboat; and then to launch an attack in a narrow time window where you need to manage both your meat-shield units and your crucial unit very carefully with one-second time windows for destroying the buildings in question. Rather than multiplayer maps that demand perfect balance (or at least strive towards it), or maps like those offered by most RTS games which are merely “somewhere to fight” (looking at you, Supreme Commander), the layouts of these maps and the specific and few units given to the player provide unique and interesting challenges, and also show the player particular tactics or strategies that could potentially be deployed in later missions even without the restrictions these missions have. Whilst other C&C games certainly have some interesting levels, the original still stands out to me as a cut above the rest.

Several tiny, doll-like bodies – with no visible injuries - washed ashore in Libya this week. At least one little girl wore a blue and white polka dot dress and at least a couple other young children still had shoes or socks on their lifeless feet. One small boy was still wearing his diaper. The exact death toll resulting from several families’ attempts to flee Syria and several other countries for Europe, on two boats, remains unknown. The latest reports indicate this one catastrophe has left approximately 150 people dead while at least another 40 remain unaccounted for. At the same time that search and rescue efforts continued on the Mediterranean, authorities discovered an abandoned truck filled with 71 refugees, including at least four children, on an Austrian highway. The majority were likely Syrian refugees and every single person inside was dead. Photos from the macabre scene show body fluids seeping out of the truck’s back doors, spilling onto the ground. They died under conditions so grim it likely compared to the horror the refugees managed to escape in Syria. Only two days later, Austrian security forces once again intercepted yet another truck packed full with refugees; at least three severely dehydrated children were among the 23 other people. The number of dead refugees – suffocated in a truck while temperatures climb to nearly 90 degrees or drowned in unforgiving seas - are stacking up so quickly in Europe, it is difficult to keep track of the reports. The failure to prevent thousands of Syrians, who miraculously escaped the murderous Assad regime, from drowning or suffocating to death, is a moral failure of the greatest proportions Brooklyn Middleton In late June 2014, the United Nations reported that the world was facing the worst refugee crisis since World War II. A calamity, the U.N. noted, caused mostly by the bloody conflict in Syria. According to U.N. figures, in 2014, at least 219,000 refugees and migrants attempted to reach Europe; approximately 3,500 of those people died or vanished. Directly aiding Syrian civilians This year the number of people attempting to do the same swelled to at least 300,000. Already in 2015, 2,500 people have died or remain unaccounted for. Boarding a boat with your children by your side - in full awareness the likeliness of death is extremely high - is tantamount to jumping out of a building engulfed in flames to avoid being burned alive. Without attempting to provide any sustainable solutions, the West and the Arab world are, unconscionably, telling thousands they should not attempt to flee and should instead burn to death. For the international community, especially the United States, to ignore the plight of asylum seekers as they’ve ignored the plight of trapped civilians in Syria would be yet another stunning failure. At what point does the West attempt to directly aid Syrian civilins? If not when the death toll skyrockets to 320,000 nor when chlorine attacks continue unabated, then perhaps when those who have remarkably survived such barbarity attempt to flee to safety. Last month, Al Monitor reported that by September the United States, “will have accepted 2,000 Syrian refugees for permanent resettlement.” Meanwhile, according to UNHCR reports, 1,938,999 registered Syrian refugees remain in Turkey, another 1,113,941 in Lebanon (though official registrations were halted in May) - and over half a million refugees have fled to Jordan. The fact that the U.S. has failed to find a more efficient and timely approach to resettling Syrian families underscores DC’s failure to confront the humanitarian toll of the conflict. At the same time, some Arab states have also failed to shoulder the responsibility; in December 2014 an Amnesty International Report revealed that Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates had collectively resettled 0 Syrian families. In what is an initiative to be emulated, Germany has announced it will allow Syrian refugees to stay in the country and apply for asylum without risk of deportation. Most importantly, Berlin will no longer comply with the Dublin procedure, which dictates refugees must apply for asylum in whatever European country they first enter. The decision is hopeful but other European nations must show equally as proactive measures. The failure to prevent thousands of Syrians, who miraculously escaped the murderous Assad regime, from drowning or suffocating to death, is a moral failure of the greatest proportions. Every effort must be made to dismantle human trafficking networks whose leaders prey and profit on the utterly vulnerable. At the same time, refugees must not be forced to resort to such horrendously dangerous measures nor be told to stay in their violence-wrecked country and burn to death. ___________ Brooklyn Middleton is an American Political and Security Risk Analyst reporting from Israel. Her work has appeared in Turkish and Israeli publications including The Times of Israel and Hürriyet Daily News. She has previously written about U.S. President Obama's policy in Syria as well as the emerging geopolitical threats Israel faces as it pursues its energy interests in the Eastern Mediterranean. She is currently researching Ayatollah Khomeini’s influence on Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant groups to complete her MA in Middle Eastern Studies. You can follow her on Twitter here: @BklynMiddleton. Last Update: Sunday, 30 August 2015 KSA 14:48 - GMT 11:48

Body dysmorphic disorder Synonyms Body dysmorphia, dysmorphic syndrome, dysmorphophobia A patient looking into the mirror, seeing body dysmorphia Specialty Psychiatry Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), occasionally still called dysmorphophobia, is a mental disorder characterized by the obsessive idea that some aspect of one's own body part or appearance is severely flawed and warrant exceptional measures to hide or fix their dysmorphic part on their figure.[1] In BDD's delusional variant, the flaw is imagined.[2] If the flaw is actual, its importance is severely exaggerated.[2] Either way, thoughts about the dysmorphia are pervasive and intrusive, and may occupy several hours a day. The DSM-5 categorizes BDD in the obsessive–compulsive spectrum, and distinguishes it from anorexia nervosa. BDD is estimated to affect up to 2.4% of the population.[2] It usually starts during adolescence and affects both men and women.[2][3] The BDD subtype muscle dysmorphia, perceiving the body as too small, affects mostly males.[4] Besides thinking about it, one repetitively checks and compares the perceived flaw, and can adopt unusual routines to avoid social contact that exposes it.[2] Fearing the stigma of vanity, one usually hides the preoccupation.[2] Commonly unsuspected even by psychiatrists, BDD has been underdiagnosed.[2] Severely impairing quality of life via educational and occupational dysfunction and social isolation, BDD has high rates of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.[2] Signs and symptoms [ edit ] Whereas vanity involves a quest to aggrandize the appearance, BDD is experienced as a quest to merely normalize the appearance.[2] Although delusional in about one of three cases, the appearance concern is usually nondelusional, an overvalued idea.[3] The bodily area of focus can be nearly any, yet is commonly face, hair, stomach, thighs, or hips.[5] Some half dozen areas can be a roughly simultaneous focus.[2] Many seek dermatological treatment or cosmetic surgery, which typically do not resolve the distress.[2] On the other hand, attempts at self-treatment, as by skin picking, can create lesions where none previously existed.[2] BDD shares features with obsessive-compulsive disorder,[6] but involves more depression and social avoidance.[1] BDD often associates with social anxiety disorder.[7] Some experience delusions that others are covertly pointing out their flaws.[2] Cognitive testing and neuroimaging suggest both a bias toward detailed visual analysis and a tendency toward emotional hyper-arousal.[8] Most generally, one experiencing BDD ruminates over the perceived bodily defect several hours daily or longer, uses either social avoidance or camouflaging with cosmetics or apparel, repetitively checks the appearance, compares it to that of other persons, and might often seek verbal reassurances.[1][2] One might sometimes avoid mirrors, repetitively change outfits, groom excessively, or restrict eating.[5] BDD's severity can wax and wane, and flareups tend to yield absences from school, work, or socializing, sometimes leading to protracted social isolation, with some becoming housebound for extended periods.[2] Social impairment is usually greatest, sometimes approaching avoidance of all social activities.[5] Poor concentration and motivation impair academic and occupational performance.[5] The distress of BDD tends to exceed that of either major depressive disorder or type-2 diabetes, and rates of suicidal ideation and attempts are especially high.[2] Cause [ edit ] As with most mental disorders, BDD's cause is likely intricate, altogether biopsychosocial, through an interaction of multiple factors, including genetic, developmental, psychological, social, and cultural.[9][10] BDD usually develops during early adolescence,[5] although many patients note earlier trauma, abuse, neglect, teasing, or bullying.[11] In many cases, social anxiety earlier in life precedes the development of BDD. Though twin studies on BDD are few, one estimated its heritability at 43%.[12] Yet BDD's cause may also involve introversion,[13] negative body image, perfectionism,[9][14] heightened aesthetic sensitivity,[10] and childhood abuse and neglect.[10][15] Media influence has also been identified as a factor causing poor body image.[16] The increased use of body and facial reshaping applications such as Snapchat and Facetune have been identified as a potential triggers of BDD. Recently, a phenomenon referred to as 'Snapchat dysmorphia' has appeared to describe people who request surgery to look like the edited version of themselves as they appear through Snapchat Filters.[17] Diagnosis [ edit ] Estimates of prevalence and gender distribution have varied widely via discrepancies in diagnosis and reporting.[1] In American psychiatry, BDD gained diagnostic criteria in the DSM-IV, but clinicians' knowledge of it, especially among general practitioners, is constricted.[18] Meanwhile, shame about having the bodily concern, and fear of the stigma of vanity, makes many hide even having the concern.[2][19] Via shared symptoms, BDD is commonly misdiagnosed as social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, major depressive disorder, or social phobia.[20][21] Correct diagnosis can depend on specialized questioning and correlation with emotional distress or social dysfunction.[22] Estimates place the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Questionnaire's sensitivity at 100% (0% false negatives) and specificity at 92.5% (7.5% false positives).[23] Treatment [ edit ] Anti-depressant medication, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) are considered effective.[5][24] SSRIs can help relieve obsessive-compulsive and delusional traits, while cognitive-behavioral therapy can help patients recognize faulty thought patterns.[5] Before treatment, it can help to provide psychoeducation, as with self-help books and support websites.[5] History [ edit ] In 1886, Enrico Morselli reported a disorder that he termed dysmorphophobia.[25] In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association recognized the disorder, while categorizing it as an atypical somatoform disorder, in the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).[3] Classifying it as a distinct somatoform disorder, the DSM-III's 1987 revision switched the term to body dysmorphic disorder.[3] Published in 1994, DSM-IV defines BDD as a preoccupation with an imagined or trivial defect in appearance, a preoccupation causing social or occupational dysfunction, and not better explained as another disorder, such as anorexia nervosa.[3][26] Published in 2013, the DSM-5 shifts BDD to a new category (obsessive–compulsive spectrum), adds operational criteria (such as repetitive behaviors or intrusive thoughts), and notes the subtype muscle dysmorphia (preoccupation that one's body is too small or insufficiently muscular or lean). References [ edit ]

Chief ABC Political Analyst Matthew Dowd: Persecution of Muslims in US Worse than Christian Persecution in Middle East And this kook is the CHIEF ABC POLITICAL ANALYST! Is is too much to ask liberal, anti-Christian, anti-American reporters to have just a little bit of knowledge of the world? ABC Chief Political Analyst Matthew Dowd claims Muslims in America a “bigger problem” than the persecution of Christians in the Middle East. Dowd was responding to a tweet by Shannon Bream at FOX News who was excited to announce her interview with Franklin Graham on Friday. Dowd’s tweet is still up. Last month ISIS murdered 37 Coptic Christians at church in Egypt on Palm Sunday. The first explosion took place inside a Coptic church in Egypt’s Tanta, north of Cairo. BREAKING: ISIS claims responsibility for attacks on churches in Egypt on Palm Sunday that killed dozens https://t.co/Am6xB2CO9V pic.twitter.com/oyRfAkCOWK — Fox News (@FoxNews) April 9, 2017 A second explosion took place at St. Mark’s Church in Alexandria, Egypt. In April alone Islamists murdered 1,336 people in 165 violent attacks. When was the last time a Muslim was slaughtered in similar fashion in the US? Answer: Never

A power generation company announced Friday it will shut down a Bastrop County coal mine, the power plant in Milam County it supplies coal to, and another power plant in Freestone County. A Norfolk Southern freight train hauling coal makes its way through downtown Pittsburgh in January. (AP file photo/Gene J. Puskar) Three Oaks Mine near Elgin, the Sandow Power Plant in Milam County and the Big Brown Power Plant in Freestone County are run by energy company Luminant. “Sustained low wholesale power prices, an oversupplied renewable generation market, and low natural gas prices, along with other factors, have contributed to this decision,” Luminant said in a statement Friday. Some Central Texans opposed the mine coming to Bastrop County when it obtained permits and arrived more than 10 years ago. The project was bitterly contested through four years of hearings and public forums. Luminant estimates that approximately 450 employees will be impacted by the Sandow plant and Three Oaks mine closure. Affected employees will be offered severance benefits, the company said. Earlier this week, White House officials announced they would be moving to kill an Obama-era effort to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. Speaking Monday in the coal-mining state of Kentucky, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said he would be issuing a new set of rules overriding the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's drive to curb global climate change. With information from the Associated Press. ]]

As fewer and fewer newspapers commit enough resources, time and manpower to produce in-depth investigative reports, many citizen media enthusiasts seem to suggest that citizen journalists can step in to fill the gap. Do citizen journalists hold the key to the future of in-depth investigative journalism? Perhaps. From time to time we will be highlighting blogs from the Sub-Saharan Africa that are focused on investigative reports. We are starting with Kumekucha, which is arguably one of the most controversial blogs in East Africa. It is known for publishing controversial investigative reports and biting political commentary on Kenya. Kumekucha is a very popular blog judging by the number of comments left on its posts . It is difficult to verify the truth of information published on the blog. Recently, another Kenyan blog, KenMedia Watch, pointed out that the minister named by Kumekucha as the one who receveid a visa ban from the United States was not correct. Kumekucha reported that it was the Agriculture Minister, William Ruto. The US ambassador to Kenya revealed that it was Joshua Kulei (ex-Moi aide). This is what Kumekucha revealed before the identity of visa ban minister was made public: Kumekucha can confirm today that the cabinet minister who received a visa ban from the Americans earlier this week is agriculture minister, William Ruto. For Kenyans still thinking in terms of ODM and PNU, this clearly underlines the fact that corruption has no party or tribal boundaries, the cancer eats into our society right across the board. My information tells me that the minister is “very upset” over the news more so because there are indications that his family members and business associates will also be affected. After the US ambassador to Kenya revealed that it was Joshua Kulei, KenMedia Watch had this to say: Now that US Ambassador Michael Ranneberger—in an anti-climactic moment, and violating the usual protocol—has revealed the identity of the man the US recently banned from entering its shores (ex-Moi aide Joshua Kulei), should we now expect a series of apologies from those rumourmongers who maliciously fingered Ruto as the banned official? That would be naive. I’m no fan of Ruto, but wouldn't you Kumekucha explains the error in their reporting: It’s Ruto… No It’s Kulei. Oops Or Is It Ruto? It has never happened before and I was totally shocked. Usually this informant gives me A1 information in terms of reliability. In fact the problem with most of the info they give me is that it is too hot to use (sometimes even in my raw notes). But this time round they came back a few days after telling me Ruto was the Visa ban minister to tell me that it was NOT Ruto after all. The name they gave me confused me. The US envoy had said that the banned person was a senior member of government. The last time I checked Joshua Kulei was NOT a member of the Kibaki administration. My source however assured me that Ruto was next on the dreaded list and as a matter of fact it is highly unlikely that he could ever be granted a visa incase he wants to travel to the United States. So I made a decision to keep quiet until something happens. Well it happened last night when the Americans told us that the banned person they were referring to was in fact Kulei. Now this is really fascinating stuff because Mr Kulei is a very major investor in the American economy. In fact his entire family is currently based in the United States and his main business operations are in New York ( a place where many wealthy Americans cannot afford to operate from). Kumekucha has a newsletter, which carries stories that are too sensitive to publish on the blog and also has a twitter account: Now You can Monitor Kumekucha's Every Move: You can now follow Chris Kumekucha as he receives highly sensitive info throughout the day and even get to know posts he is working on well in advance. You can even have a private chat with him. Follow him at Twitter. Find him in Twitter @KumekuchaChris. You will even get to see a photo of him (never before published on the web but will now be visible ONLY to his followers on Twitter). Remember that a lot of the stuff you will read on Twitter will NEVER be published because, as has been said here before, most of the information Kumekucha receives is too hot to publish or takes too long to verify (or is impossible to verify) and can therefore NOT be published. But you will be able to read it all on Twitter. Get to Twitter pronto, get there now and find Kenya's most popular and influential political blogger @KumekuchaChris Let's look at some investigative reports that have appeared on the blog: Moi family problems in securing wealth: The family lawyer advised the Moi's to keep as much of their wealth and assets as they possibly could overseas. The lawyer pointed out that legally no court order or ruling had been issued declaring the Moi wealth as having been acquired through corrupt or illegal means, which would be required by the government to freeze those assets and bank accounts abroad. They were also advised to use trusts that were experienced in hiding controversial assets on behalf of high profile clients. However the meeting did not end well. It emerged that Joshua Kulei's own estimates of the amount he held in trust for the Moi family and which he was now required to surrender and estimates of the same by Moi's sons did not tally. The tension got so high that death threats are believed to have been issued against Kulei. Matters got worse at a meeting later held at Philip's house to try and resolve the misunderstanding over the issue and Kulei made the unfortunate decision to go outside the Moi family to seek for help. It is highly likely that this is the move that caused details of the meeting to leak to those who were not involved. Kulei consulted Mr Tum of the Kenya Seed Company to talk to the former president on his behalf. He told Tum that the crux of the problem was that the president's sons had failed to make any distinction between his (Kulei's) private wealth and that held by the president in trust. A significant chunk of the Moi assets and fortune in general is now in Namibia where it is under the protection of the former president's good friend and president of that country Sam Nujoma. It is believed that Gideon Moi may transfer (if he has not dome so already) a lot of the family wealth from South Africa to Namibia where the family feel more comfortable and secure to keep their treasure chest. Gideons trip with his father to banks [Gideons is the son of Kenya's former President, Daniel Arap Moi]: A fight that took place at a popular entertainment spot in Nairobi between Gideon Moi and the family lawyer Dr Kiplagat, emphasizes this. Evidence seems to suggest that the fight was instigated by the sale of US$ 650,000 property in South Africa which Dr Kiplagat facilitated in behalf of the younger Moi. After the sale was complete the lawyer did not hand over the proceeds from the sale but instead prepared an invoice for $US 1.5 million for various legal services rendered to Gideon over a lengthy period of time that was still outstanding. He then issued a credit note for US$650,000 and demanded that the balance owed to him be paid. Gideon was furious. Interestingly this appears to be a contradiction of his own well-voiced principals. The same Kroll report talks about a frequent boast Gideon makes to the effect that any deals worth less than US$ 1 million is not worth his while. Since December 2003, Gideon has been trying to get the money from the sale of the South African property from Kiplagat, but with no success. On several occasions he sent Chepkonga to demand the cash on his behalf from the lawyer. So when Chepkonga saw the lawyers car parked outside Fairview Hotel, he immeditaley called Gideon who quickly arrived and headed straight to the table where Dr Kiplagat was seated. A fierce argument ensued with Gideon making his usual threats. Eyewitnesses said that what triggered the fight was the point where Kiplagat told Gideon; “…your father is no longer the president of this country and the days you used to order people around are long gone.” To add insult to injury he then ordered Gideon to move to another table. That is when fists and kicks started flying as baffled onlookers watched and other hurried to separate the two men. Assassinations seasons now here with us: For months now controversial Kumekucha blogger Phil has been warning of coming assassinations in Kenya’s political landscape. I too have warned in several posts that we are entering an extremely dangerous phase of our politics where we should expect politically motivated assassinations on an unprecedented scale. I called them some of the painful birth pangs for the new Kenya that is coming. The kind of Kenya we all dream of. I have some information that is so sensitive that it cannot be shared here which makes it clear that there is nothing but plenty of trouble ahead. I really wish there was a way to stop these crazy guys. But let me back up a little here and discuss the special circumstances in our politics that has brought us to where we are now. How Kibaki and Michuki plotted the raid at the Standard Group: The motive behind the March 2, 2006, police raid at the Standard Group offices has remained top secret to date. However Kumekucha today unveils the secrets behind the raid based on interviews from two of President Kibaki’s aides privy to the “Government operation.” In February 2006, President Kibaki chaired a meeting at State House, Nairobi, which was attended by the then Minister for Internal Security, Mr John Michuki, Mr Stanley Murage, Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, NSIS Director General Michael Gichangi, the then CID Director Joseph Kamau, among other State House operatives. Despite the gravity of the matter under discussion, the Commissioner of police, Maj Gen Mohamed Ali, was not invited. This was purely a Nyumba ya Mumbi affair. The House of Mumbi had been rattled. There was tension and anger in the room. The NSIS chief tabled two pieces of paper which he told the meeting had two explosive stories the Standard Group was planning to publish. This blogger has seen and read the two “articles” the Standard was alleged to be planning to publish. The first “article” was about how Kibaki, when he was the DP chairman and was vying for presidency in 1997, allegedly travelled to Southern Sudan to meet with Al Qaeda founder and world’s Number One terrorist Osama bin Laden to solicit funds for his presidential campaign. In the second “article”, the author was discussing Kibaki’s failing health in January and February 2003, shortly after he was sworn in as president. The “article” even quoted Raila Odinga saying there was going to be a snap election within the year (implying Kibaki was dying/would be dead to warrant a snap election). Inside story behind strange killing at Sarit Centre: A couple of weeks ago a man walked up to an ATM machine at Sarit Centre did his business and emerged. Seconds later another man stepped forward and shot him at point blank range. It was clear from the way he was shot that the idea was to make sure he died. What followed was puzzling. A section of the media reported the incident and even added the critical bit of information that the man had some information on police extra-judicial killings. Then suddenly the story vanished and nobody seemed to follow up what would appear to be a very big story. Today I reveal the inside details behind the killing and exactly what happened. The name of the deceased was Constable Kirinya and he was a driver at the Eagle Squad – a sister squad of Kwekwe which it has been whispered have been given express orders “from above” to execute anyone they IMAGINE is linked or sympathetic to Mungiki. Constable Kirinya and his team arrested a notorious drug baron from Mombasa, who had Sh4m in cash and drugs of an unknown value. It happened that the drug baron was known to some senior cops – two of them being Nairobi Provincial Police Officer, Njue Njagi, and his deputy, Julius Ndegwa. Insiders say Njue and Ndegwa called for the suspect and shared the loot. Eagle Squad officers who had arrested the drug baron were given Sh200,000 each. The cops who were tracking him down got wind he was in Nairobi and they trailed him to Sarit Centre where they shot him dead and made the scene of crime to look like he was killed by thugs. The house in Nairobi that would make the Nyayo House torture chamber look like a kindergarten: Recently a company by the name of Kingsway Tyres has burst into the limelight. This firm has been mentioned adversely in the ongoing Charterhouse Bank controversy. Actually the company is situated in a building that occupies a large chunk of both University Way and Muindi Mbingu street in Nairobi, with one side of the building facing the University of Nairobi. If buildings could speak, then this particular building would have plenty to say from its’ rather notorious history. Especially the side that houses offices which are accessed through a small door that is easy to miss along Muindi Mbingu street. This building once housed the notorious dreaded Special Branch and what has happened here in the past would make the Nyayo House torture chamber look like a kindergarten. It is said that this is the building where the late JM Kariuki was tortured and interrogated, even shot, before being killed and dumped at Ngong Forest. That was sometime in early March 1975. It is also believed to be the building where the assassination plot that took the life of one of Kenya's most illustrious politicians, Tom Mboya was planned. A prominent reader of this blog recently passed on this information to this blogger and brief initial inquires and research seem to support this amazing allegation. In later years this building came to house Kenya Times, the Kanu daily paper and I personally visited this building many times over the years. Samples of political analyses that have appeared on Kumekucha: Smiling Wako (Amos Wako is Kenya's Attorney General): He is the wearer of that poisonous smile. Wait a minute, his must be a case of mistaking short lips and long teeth for a permanent grin. Amos Wako is one lawyer who epitomizes everything rotten about Kenya. Wako is the singular face that captures everything wrong with Kenya. He waxes lyrical and legalistic all loaded with no sensitivity nor relevance to the Kenyan people. And the gatekeepers know him better in partnering with him to defraud us more drawing from his vast expertise in LEGAL FLEECING. On Obama: Then there is Obama. The man is not coming to Kenya. I've heard many people castigate Kibaki and Odinga, folks saying that our nation is in turmoil so Obama couldn't visit. Crap. Here is what I say…if he is the kind of a guy who would only visit us because everything was okay, let him stay the hell away. Like his nation that is grappling with racism, classism and periodically the madness of the Bush type, our nation will have issues it grapples with from time to time. Does it mean when we face those issues we should be shunned? I feel that Barack Obama, by shunning Kenya, has missed a golden opportunity to stand in the middle of Nairobi and proclaim his wishes for Kenya right in the face of Kibaki and Odinga. It would have been a powerful symbol that this son of Kogelo would come here and make it known that he is solidly for reforms. To send some dude called Johnny Carson…and an ambassador who is partly responsoble for the mess we are in makes me sick to my stomach. And may Obama be told that we will have no use for him should he come here after his presidency is over. *Global Voices Online has not verified the information on Kumekucha blog.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden is surprised at the leniency shown to CIA Director General David Petraeus, who is in the running for Secretary of State. He “shared information that was far more highly classified than I ever did,” he told Yahoo Global News. By Snowden’s account, Petraeus – who shared top secret military information with his lover and biographer – should have gotten far less leniency, especially given that he was doing it for personal benefit. Nonetheless, it is Snowden who is being pursued under the Espionage Act on multiple felonies, including violations of the Act and theft of government property – and forced to live out his life in exile in Moscow. Petraeus, by contrast, never “spent a single day in jail,” Snowden told Katie Couric in an exclusive interview. Read more “We have a two-tiered system of justice in the United States, where people who are either well-connected to government, or they have access to an incredible amount of resources, get very light punishments, whereas people who’re from more vulnerable populations, they live in more precarious situations, they’re an inner-city youth, will be very much tread upon by our justice system.” The interview in Moscow comes as the disgraced former CIA Director finds himself in the running for US President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet as Secretary of State – making him the latest in a series of what many Americans consider to be disappointing cabinet picks. Petraeus only got two years’ probation and a $100,000 fine, after pleading guilty to sharing the contents of a certain black book with his biographer and lover, Paula Bradwell. The book contained so-called “code words” documents, including vital information like the identities of CIA cover operatives and notes from National Security Council briefings. Petraeus’ plea alleges that he retrieved the information from Bradwell three days after giving her the black book. Court documents indicate that Bradwell – who was never charged – did not use any information contained in it. Petraeus got away with a slap on the wrist, as he admitted to making “a false statement” to the FBI regarding the disclosure of the book to Bradwell. Read more Snowden pointed to how Petraeus did not even fit the bill when it came to exceptions made to the Espionage Act, which afford a certain degree of leniency. In rare cases, he said, “the government goes, ‘This person was acting in good faith. They were trying to do right by the American people. But they did break the law.’ No charges are ever brought, or they’re brought very minimally.” According to Snowden, Petraeus “shared information that was far more highly classified than I ever did with journalists. And he shared this information not with the public for their benefit, but with his biographer and lover for personal benefit — conversations that had information, detailed information, about military special-access programs, that’s classified above top secret, conversations with the president and so on.” But the case resulted in misdemeanor charges. “He never spent a single day in jail, despite the type of classified information he exposed.” The whistleblower did not stop at Petraeus when discussing the failings of the US justice system. Another name that came up was Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who in March 2013 appeared before Congress and gave false testimony regarding the NSA’s surveillance activities. “When we had the most senior intelligence official in the United States, Gen. James Clapper, who lied to the American people and all of Congress on camera, under oath, in the Senate, in a famous exchange with Ron Wyden, he wasn’t even charged,” Snowden went on. “But giving false testimony to Congress under oath, as he did, is a felony. It’s typically punished by three to five years in prison.” Clapper told lawmakers that the NSA does not “wittingly” collect and store data pertaining to US citizens, when asked by Senator Wyden of Oregon. He later claimed the testimony was a mistake, and even complained 18 months later: “It has been very disappointing to have my integrity questioned because of a mistake.” Read more He was later quoted by The Intercept’s Dan Froomkin: “While we’ve made mistakes, to be clear, the [intelligence community] never willfully violated the law.” Clapper was never indicted for what was very clearly perjury. Snowden has all the while maintained that he would be willing to face a just and open trial if given the opportunity – but no such provision exists under the Espionage Act. US President Barack Obama was recently sent a letter by former members of the Church Committee, which carried out a congressional inquiry into the CIA’s illegal activities during the 1960s and 70s. In it, they strongly argue for a pardon for Snowden. “It was Snowden who supplied journalists with evidence that our government had, for many years, been collecting information about the domestic phone calls of millions of Americans,” and in so doing inspired a much-needed national debate. It urges Obama and Lynch to negotiate “a fair and just settlement of the criminal charges against him, based on the public benefits that resulted from his disclosures.”

It sometimes seems as if AA batteries breed when left alone in dark drawers around the house. As children rip them out of toys as they run out of juice the dead ones without charge get mixed up with the new ones. And somehow a working battery tester or multi-meter is never to hand to test them (and may even have had its batteries purloined for use in something else). One rumoured and simple test to determine a flat battery from a good one is the dead battery bounce – drop them on the floor, and the flat ones bounce. This has been met with a certain degree of scepticism, with many claiming the technique has no scientific basis at all. However, the matter has now been settled with the results of a peer-reviewed study from researchers at Princeton University published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry. The dead battery bounce What the study shows is that the more the battery discharges, the greater its bounce – as measured by dropping batteries down plexiglass tubes and recording the height of the bounce. This correlation levels off when half the power has been used. As well as putting doubts over the usefulness of the technique to rest, the authors have also figured out just why the batteries’ properties and tendency to bounce changes as its power is depleted. Dissecting Batteries Most disposable batteries consist of two chambers. One is the positively charged cathode, which contains manganese dioxide. The other is the negatively charged anode, which contains zinc in the form of a gel, and some potassium hydroxide – the alkali that gives standard, non-rechargeable alkaline batteries their name. Inside an alkaline battery. Tympanus When the two ends of a battery are connected, the zinc reacts with the hydroxide in the anode which frees electrons to flow to the manganese dioxide at the cathode, generating electricity. During this process the various chemicals react to form zinc oxide and another form of manganese oxide. When all the zinc has reacted, there is no more to create a flow of electrons, and so the battery goes flat. The Princeton University team then dissected batteries with various degrees of discharge and examined their contents under a scanning electron microscope. They discovered that in the process of discharging, there also a physical as well as chemical change in the nature of the battery. The zinc oxide forms around the zinc particles embedded in the gel, slowly turning the gel to a ceramic. While the material starts as tightly packed particles, the oxidisation process forms tiny bridges between them, producing a material a bit like a network of linked springs, which gives it bounce. Anyone who has ever dropped a jelly on the floor will know that gels don’t bounce – but the ceramic mold it’s formed in might. However, “maximum bounce” is reached when the battery is down to about half its charge, at which point the amount of bounce levels off despite the fact that more zinc oxide is still forming. So the bounce technique can reveal that a battery is not fresh, but it is not an indicator that it’s entirely flat. Still, it’s an easy and instant way of checking the profusion of batteries filling our drawers – no multimeter required. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

While thousands of Guests continue to visit Central Florida's theme park during Spring Break, construction work proceeds inside Disney's Hollywood Studios as the park gets ready to welcome two new themed lands. As you will notice in this update, not much can be seen in the future site of Toy Story Land (even though plenty of work is taking place behind the buildings located along Pixar Place and Mickey Avenue), while more earth continues to be moved around Star Wars Land. Let's take a look. Hollywood Boulevard look absolutely gorgeous:Sunset Boulevard is just as great (we'll be back later):Captain Phasma was walking down Hollywood Boulevard:We are glad thatis still open. We wish it would never close:Animation Courtyard:The Beauty and the Beast preview is still playing atMoana also continues to meet Guests inside the building:Pixar Studios:had a 70-minute wait:A large barrier is being built between this area of the park and the future Star Wars Land:You can see part of this new barrier peeking above the walls:Heading toward the back of the park:Work continues to take place around the former Streets of America:As you can see, Star Wars Land has officially gone vertical:We apologize about the blurriness of some of these photos, but we are testing a new mobile phone:

$1.35 Billion In Losses Reported By Nevada's Major Casinos Enlarge this image toggle caption John Gurzinski/AFP/Getty Images John Gurzinski/AFP/Getty Images Nevada's big casinos are on a losing streak. For the fifth straight year, the state's largest casinos are reporting net losses – in this case, a total of $1.35 billion in the most recent fiscal year. That's the news from a report released by the Nevada Gaming Control Board Friday, which focuses on casinos that gross at least $1 million in gaming revenue. The most recent data showed 263 such casinos in the state, generating gaming revenue of $10.4 billion (up 1.1 percent) and total revenue of $23 billion. As a group, the large casinos have not reported a profit since 2008, The Las Vegas Sun reports, citing a state official. We'll note that according to the Gaming Board, the casinos' fiscal year ends on June 30. So, the newly released numbers reflect data up to last summer. "Statewide, slot machines accounted for 64.9 percent of the gaming win of $10.3 billion. Table games produced 31.7 percent of gaming revenues," The Sun reports. "Casinos on the Las Vegas Strip produced $15.5 billion in total revenues, with 37 percent coming from gaming. The net loss on the Strip was $1.4 billion, or 13 percent less than 2012." Gambling accounted for 45.1 percent of total revenues, with the remainder coming from hotel rooms (20.8 percent), food (15 percent), drinks (7.2 percent), and other attractions. The major casinos paid $804 million in state taxes and fees, equal to 7.7 percent of their gaming revenues, the board says.

Tableau Software is expanding. The Seattle-based maker of data visualization software has inked a lease in the 24,000 square-foot Kirkland building that currently houses 343 Industries, the Microsoft-owned game studio responsible for the Halo franchise. Robert Hendrick, director of global real estate and workplace at Tableau, confirmed that the company’s lease at the building starts in April. “This is to accommodate the continued headcount growth of the company,” Hendrick said. The Puget Sound Business Journal first reported about Tableau’s expansion. Tableau already has an Eastside office at the Central Way Plaza in Kirkland — a 10-minute walk from the new building — and renewed its lease for that location earlier this year. The company, which has seen its stock increase 15 percent in the last year, is rapidly expanding its footprint in Seattle, announcing a huge lease this past July for a new building in the Fremont neighborhood. Tableau, which also has offices in Silicon Valley, Austin, Washington D.C., and eight cities abroad — most recently setting up shop in Shanghai — now employs about 1,200 people in the Seattle region. Microsoft, meanwhile, will move its 343 Industries team to its headquarters in Redmond, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported. Bungie, the game company responsible for Halo 1, Halo 2, and Halo 3 that Microsoft acquired in 2000, housed its operations in the 343 building until 2010. Bungie spun off from Microsoft in 2007. Microsoft created 343 Industries in 2009 to oversee the Halo franchise and moved its subsidiary into the old Bungie space. 343 has since released three Halo games, with Halo 5: Guardians set for debut on Oct. 27.

As the coaching carousel goes into overdrive this week, a handful of school’s made news with coaching hires. We take a look at each hire and rank them from best to worst. 1. MARK RICHT, MIAMI Pros: An offensive-minded coach who’s spent the past 15 seasons at Georgia, Richt brings a wealth of coaching knowledge and a big name to a program desperate to return to relevance on the national landscape. He knows the passion and tradition associated with Miami and should ease the minds of former ‘Canes players who grew weary of the struggles of the program under Al Golden. Cons: One of the reason’s Richt isn’t still at Georgia is because of a fickle fan base that was unsatisfied the Bulldogs weren’t winning the big games. This year’s team was 0-2 versus teams ranked in the top 25 and 5-7 over the past three seasons. The Buzz: Anytime you land someone who’s won close to 74 percent of their games including two conference championships and six division titles, that’s a pretty good hire. You somehow knew Richt wasn’t going to be out of work very long and he wasn’t. In the ACC, Richt will have plenty of opportunities to win the Coastal Division and compete for titles. 2. JUSTIN FUENTE, VIRGINIA TECH Pros: There was no hotter coaching candidate this season than Fuente, who in a short amount of time turned around a Memphis program from a conference bottom-feeder to a ranked power. In four seasons, the Tigers have gone 26-23 under Fuente including 10-wins in 2014 and a top 15 ranking in 2015. Cons: It’s not going to be easy to take over for a legendary coach like Frank Beamer. For 29 seasons, Beamer has been a fixture with the Hokies, transforming the program into a national power. Now, it’s Fuente’s turn. His biggest challenge will be recruiting a state and a conference where he has no familiarity. The Buzz: Fuente’s expertise is developing quarterbacks. Something he did well at TCU with Andy Dalton and with Paxton Lynch at Memphis. He’ll need to do the same sort of thing in Blacksburg next season. Virginia Tech finished ranked ninth in the ACC in passing offense and could use a boost offensively. 3. KIRBY SMART, GEORGIA Pros: Smart is one of the best assistant coaches in the country, having won the Broyles Award for top assistant in 2009. His defenses at Alabama have been some of the best in nation and he’s sent a bevy of talent to the NFL over the years. He’s also an incredible recruiter, bringing in players like Reuben Foster, Dee Milliner and Marlon Humphrey. Cons: Smart has never been a head coach and now takes over an SEC program that just fired a head coach that won 74 percent of his games. How patient will the fan base be with him? The Buzz: Smart’s been one of the most sought-after coaches over the past five seasons with his name atop many athletics directors wish lists. But someone he’s never found the right fit – until now. It’s a no-brainer to bring him back to Georgia, where he played and coached during his career. He takes over a program that is just three years removed from winning its last divisional title. 4. SCOTT FROST, UCF Pros: Frost spent time playing under some pretty big name coaches in Bill Walsh, Tom Osborne, Bill Parcells and Chip Kelly so he understands what winning entails. He was on two Nebraska teams that won national championships in 1995 and 1997. As offensive coordinator at Oregon, he helped guide the Ducks to a school-record in total offense in 2013. As quarterbacks coach, he helped work with Marcus Mariota during his Heisman-winning season in 2014. He’s a good recruiter, having brought Royce Freeman to Oregon. Cons: He’s been a coordinator for less than a decade and has no head coaching experience. His only ties to the state of Florida came when he played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003. The Buzz: New UCF athletics director Danny White has made it known that he’s not afraid to think outside the box when it comes to coaching hires and he did just that with this one. Frost wasn’t on anyone’s radar for this job except for White’s apparently. But that’s not to say he wasn’t a sought after commodity. His name’s come up several times for jobs over the past few years. The challenge for Frost will be to rebuild the confidence of a UCF fan base that went through a 0-12 season. 5. D.J. DURKIN, MARYLAND Pros: Durkin worked under Urban Meyer at both Bowling Green and Florida; and spent time under Jim Harbaugh at both Stanford and Michigan. His defenses have been some of the best in the country including this season where the Wolverines are ranked fourth in the country in total defense. He’s also an incredible recruiter, securing players like D.J. Humphries and Jonathan Bullard while with the Gators. Cons: Like many on this list, this will be his first head coaching job. The Buzz: Durkin, 37, has been a hot commodity throughout most of his coaching career thanks to his fiery personality and pedigree under Meyer and Harbaugh. At Maryland, he’ll be taking over a program just two years into its move from the ACC to the Big Ten. There is plenty of talent aboard with at least 14 returning starters and a talent-rich area surrounding the school from which to recruit. 6. MIKE NORVELL, MEMPHIS Pros: Norvell is one of the hottest, young assistant coaches in college football. As offensive coordinator at Arizona State, the Sun Devils never finished ranked lower than No. 38 in the country in total offense. Quarterback Mike Bercovici was third in the Pac-12 in passing yards (3,436) and fourth in passing touchdowns (26). Cons: At 34, Norvell will be one of the youngest coaches hired this offseason. That lack of experience – he’s never been a head coach – would be the biggest detractor on the list. Memphis ranks eighth in the American Athletic Conference in 2016 recruiting class and Norvell needs to quickly secure players.

Save this picture! The construction site for a house (designed by the author), located on one of the Thimble Islands, off the coast of Connecticut, circa 1990. Image © Duo Dickinson This article was originally published by Common Edge as "Separating Architecture From the Building Arts Produces Soulless Structures." Truth be told, many architects I know are a little uneasy about their lack of building knowledge. Since architecture without construction is largely a graphic arts exercise, this is either deeply ironic or grimly paradoxical. To bridge this yawning gap, architects today typically hire a slew of consultants—roof, skin, curtain wall, interior, sustainability, preservation—who join the growing influence of software-driven structural and mechanical engineers to absorb much of what architects once assumed they could handle. Back in the day, architects knew just enough about construction to be a little dangerous. The balconies at Fallingwater are still in a slow sag. It took two renovations to fix the leaky glazed roof in Kahn’s Yale Center for British Art. It’s pretty easy to look back at a masterwork and presume the architect was in full control of how the project was built—a dangerous assumption. In the early 1960s Yale Architecture Dean Paul Rudolph was on the construction site of his Temple Street Parking Garage in New Haven. In his entourage was Dave Sellers, a young Yale grad student. Sellers remembers Rudolph gesticulating a sweeping instruction to the assembled crew, while behind his back, a construction worker openly mocked the Great Architect’s errant, uninformed “corrections.” The resulting building was a reinforced concrete masterpiece. But Sellers vowed to never let that happen to him: he devoted himself to understanding construction by participating in the realization of his designs. He went on to design/build scores of structures, starting with a gaggle of crazy spaceship homes on Prickly Mountain near Warren, Vermont. Among those helping him build the houses was another Yale grad student, Louis Mackall. In July 1978 I took the bus from Philadelphia to New Haven, to visit the man who would become my mentor. Mackall was one of four architects I wrote to, offering myself as their slave. (The others were Antoine Predock, Barton Myers and Turner Brooks.) Nice notes of “sorry” were returned from all but Mackall. He had just published an exquisite house in Record Houses. It was sweet in its soft shape, edgy in its cut voids into that shape, but what got to me, deeply, was that Mackall had made every door, window, railing, cabinet, and piece of hardware for that tiny beach house. Louis was the classic hybrid: an authentic craftsman-architect. Every detail in the home was exquisitely thought out; each piece of assembly had presence; each connection was expressed; and the materials mattered: teak, brass, ash, steel. The other architects I wrote to also cared passionately about how their work was built. Like any good architect they knew that a building’s shape mattered in relationship to its site. However, unlike so many of their peers, then and now, these architects also expressed each design’s functions and structure through the nature of the materials and the connections they employed: their joinery and the surfaces and shapes they created were rich tapestries woven together by the art of building. After my schooling—five years at Cornell, in the belly of MidCentury White Architecture’s beast—something in me knew that I could only learn from those who had a deeper knowledge. And precious few of my teachers, up to that point, had more than a passing acquaintance with one crucial aspect of architecture: construction. (Building, in other words, as a verb.) Yes, we had built fabric stress-skin structures and polyhedron 3D trusses of electric conduit. But it was clear that this was simply checking off a box, like acoustics and materials, garnishes to a 5-year academic feast of design-uber-alles. So I traveled to Connecticut to audition for an internship with the architect-craftsman. Upon entering I was completely blown away by his house, which he wrought as a three-story wall between rocks, completely clad in concrete bits and pieces. Each piece had a wooden “boss” made by Louis, which allowed a fiberglass mold to be made from it, where Louis, inspired by Bernard Maybeck’s “Bubble Crete,” poured fiber-reinforced concrete into them to make shingles, windows, trim and stairs. Inside those cast openings were wood and plexiglass doors and windows. All, of course, fabricated by the architect. My drafting board was set next to a giant bandsaw and, as Louis and two woodworkers ground away, I drew, getting sunburned in the Plexiglas window that my drawing board faced. After toiling for a week amid the screech of power tools and the stench of Muscovy Duck poop in the walk-out basement, I passed the audition. Save this picture! The home of architect and craftsman Louis Mackall, 1974, Guilford, Connecticut. Image © Duo Dickinson Six months later, I joined Louis at a new shop location with a drafting spot away from power tools, but I was never away from building. In my nine years working with Louis, ultimately as his junior partner, I was the “shop drawing guy” for his shop, Breakfast Woodworks. In that role I redrew drawings from some of the highest profile architecture offices in the northeast. I was initially shocked, then amused, at the lack of understanding of how basic material properties, connection technologies, and simple dimensioning, compromised so many clever, even inspiring, designs. Eventually I realized that was the ethic. How a building was assembled, its build-ability, was seldom at the top of most architects’ agendas. I was effectively a 1980s version of Millwork Revit. I answered the questions that the design architects did not know were there to be asked. It was just easier that way: out of sight, out of mind. Today that wave of white shape that floods our screens is blissfully mute when it comes to conveying how these shapes get built, seldom expressing what materials other than “white” and “void” are at the heart of their forms. Metal, stone and wood are astringently applied spices in a decidedly non-crafty cuisine. Aesthetics are subjective. The human factors of bias and belief are neither “right” nor “wrong,” but our choices do have consequences. For example, I don’t like seafood. I don’t have a food allergy, and I’m not taking an ethical position, it just tastes bad to me. So I miss out on cracking open a lobster tail, extracting the contents, dipping it in butter, and devouring the meat. The architects who cannot taste the beauty in the act of building, the joy in each joint, the thrill of openly expressing a set of materials, are just not hungry for them. I am not a bad person because I get queasy over shrimp, and the new flood of software technologies are a terrific appetite suppressant for those who might hunger for a richer cuisine. There are very few role models of the architect-craftsmen celebrated in awards and publication. This lack of exposure distances young architects from the joy of knowing how things are made. Distance can make the heart go wander. Once lost, the taste for diving into the beauty of detail expression can leave an architect uneasy about asserting its value. Many architects are fine with giving up control of how their designs are built, just hitting “send,” and whisking their drawings off to the software jockeys. But something is lost when the design/build process is based more on hands-off two-dimensional design than three-dimensional building. Buildings are increasingly losing their humanity as software answers questions that used to give architects new avenues for creativity. Once lost, the artisanal aspects of any creative act are gone forever. Like architecture, technology is processing music into a place where there is less evidence of the human hand in the final product, as more of it is Autotuned and “digitally enhanced” to become predictably “perfect.” If architecture is, as Goethe noted, frozen music, then Autotuned Architecture loses the potential for spontaneity and idiosyncrasy. When architects lose contact with the building arts, the human touch is lost. Duo Dickinson has been an architect for more than 30 years. His eighth book, A Home Called New England, will be released later this year. He is the architecture critic for the New Haven Register and writes on design and culture for the Hartford Courant, and is on the Faculty at The Building Beauty Program at UniSOB University in Naples, Italy.

Billy Sharp scored 30 goals for Sheffield United as they won the League One title last season Striker Billy Sharp scored the only goal to ensure Sheffield United made a winning start to life back in the Championship against Brentford. The Blades, back in the second tier after six seasons away, went in front just before half-time when skipper Sharp headed in Leon Clarke's cross. Sharp might have had another after the break when he tapped in a rebounded free-kick but was ruled offside. Brentford rallied and had chances but were unable to find an equaliser. There will have been extra satisfaction at this result for manager Chris Wilder, not only as a boyhood Blades fan but also as it was his first experience of the Championship as a manager. Bramall Lane was suitably buzzing with 26,746 fans and it was a happy coincidence for the home support that another fan in Sharp netted the key goal. Brentford, who had not won on the opening day in five attempts, saw that run extended despite a much improved second-half which saw Nico Yennaris, Lasse Vibe and Neal Maupay all denied. Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder: "We've had it tough in this city, a football city as it is. That is a reward for the outstanding support, loyalty and love of their football club that they've shown through thick and thin. "The atmosphere was right up there today. Outstanding effort against a brilliant Brentford side. The roar that greeted us, the positivity allowed the players to lift their game at times when they were very, very tired. "Billy's goalscoring record speaks for itself and I think we've created chances today. We didn't play particularly well with the ball - we can play a lot better." Brentford boss Dean Smith: "A disappointing result, probably not what our performance deserved. I thought first half was a bit of a nothing game, it looked a little bit slow and the pitch slowed up. "We didn't move the ball as quick as we normally do and I don't think they did either. "There wasn't a lot of goalmouth action in the first half. I thought we had a couple of good chances. Billy Sharp's had one chance and scored but that's what he does."

“THEY are getting away with murder,” says Khalid Masud, director of the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, the largest in a province long racked by insurgency. Dr Khalid was not talking of the Pakistani Taliban or other extremist groups, but of his own doctors. Of the 45 senior consultants at the hospital, many pop in for no more than an hour a day if at all. Then they leave for their private clinics, taking with them those patients who can afford to pay. Patients without money can die before they see a specialist at the 1,750-bed facility. Such is the state of public health care for the 27m residents of Pakistan’s mountainous, troubled border region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Things may be changing, though. A recent law seeks to pin wayward doctors to their official place of work. Only a handful have reappeared at the notorious Lady Reading. But about 60 are back at work at another Peshawar hospital nearby. Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. That reform is possible in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is down to improved security following the army’s anti-Taliban campaign in 2014. Better government has helped too. In elections in 2013 the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of Imran Khan gained control of the province after breaking the national stranglehold of the two traditional rivals, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)—which is in power nationally under the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif—and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), currently the opposition in Islamabad, the capital. Ahead of an election due to be held in 2018, Pakistanis wonder how far the PTI has fulfilled its promise to do two unusual things: run a clean government, and transform hospitals and schools. The evidence is clear on corruption. Ministers no longer drive about arrogantly in motorcades a dozen vehicles long. The PTI’s term has seen little scandal. And the party has ended a free-for-all in which provincial assembly members could appoint friends and family to public-sector jobs (many of the 119,000 teachers could hardly read or write). Federal handouts to the provinces have increased, and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa money is at last ending up where it is meant to. The PTI now wants to see locals flocking to use public services. It has certainly made schools more appealing: the party has appointed 40,000 more teachers, rebuilt institutions blown up by the Taliban and furnished others with toilets and electricity. Teacher absenteeism has fallen. But the PTI’s claim that about 100,000 students have chosen to switch from private to public schools is based on dodgy data. There are other bones to pick. In 2013 the PTI allowed its coalition partner, the Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist group, to remove pictures in textbooks of women without a veil, among other measures. The diagnosis is less mixed when it comes to health care. The PTI has employed many more medical staff, raising the ratio of doctors per 1,000 people from 0.16 to 0.24. It has also begun, albeit far from smoothly, to roll out a comprehensive health-insurance card for poor families. All this has had an effect. The number of operations in public hospitals has doubled since 2013; inpatient cases have risen by half as much again. Such change comes despite objections from special interests that lose out from reforms. Pharmacists broke the shelves of a new drug dispensary at one Peshawar hospital, so incensed were they by its offering medicine at the wholesale price. Yet the PTI may struggle to win a second term in 2018. One problem is excessive promises. Mr Khan, who broke into politics after a stellar career as a cricketer, pledged a “tsunami” of change. But it took his inexperienced party two years to get a handle on government, and many of its reforms so far, according to Faisal Bari of LUMS university, need much longer to get entrenched. Some of its more notable improvements are hardly photogenic. It is one thing for people gleefully to take selfies in front of a new flyover in Peshawar, another to do the same in front of new toilets in a rural girls’ school. That Mr Khan himself appears to have lost interest in the province does not help. He aspires to national office and spends much of his time heckling the prime minister, who is under investigation for corruption. The PTI is starting to look more like the established parties. Having long mocked rapid-transit bus lanes, a favourite pork-barrel project of such parties, as a costly distraction from public-sector reform, the PTI is now building one of its own in Peshawar. It is said to be the country’s most expensive, per kilometre, yet.

ANN ARBOR—In the weeks after the Connecticut school shooting, as the nation puzzled over how it happened and what might prevent it from happening again, Kamal Sarabandi was listening to the news. Talk turned to giving teachers guns, and he paused. “I said, there must be a better way,” Sarabandi recalled. Then he had an epiphany. Sarabandi is an electrical engineering professor at the University of Michigan. His specialty is remote sensing—detecting objects and gathering information from a distance. And for several years ending in mid-2012, he was funded by the Department of Defense to tweak a type of radar not too different from the kind police use to nab speeders and use it to find weapons and bombs concealed on a person’s body. The funders envisioned it for military uses. But after Newtown, Sarabandi wondered if his research had homefront applications. Maybe his millimeter-wave radar system could flag weapons on their way in to busy places where they’re not allowed. “Schools, airports, stadiums or shopping malls—wherever there is a large number of people that you want to protect,” Sarabandi said. Professor Kamal Sarabandi approaches a mannequin he uses to test his weapons-detecting radar system in an anechoic chamber. His technology could potentially identify a hidden gun or bomb on an approaching person from the distance of a football field away in less than a second. The red dot on the mannequin shows the center of the radar beam, but it can gather information about objects hidden on the subject’s torso. Photo by Marcin Szczepanski/Multimedia Producer, University of Michigan, College of EngineeringIt could work from a football field away, Sarabandi says, and take less than one second per person. That’s a lot quicker and more convenient than a metal detector, he adds. The new technology isn’t in the radar system itself, which, like all radar, senses objects by sending out radio waves and listening for the signals that bounce back. Sarabandi’s particular millimeter wavelength is used today in collision avoidance systems in cars, in satellite communications and in military targeting and tracking, for example. Sarabandi paired it with Doppler radar signal processing to pick out the signature of a person walking in the noisy radar scene. Then he uses a technique called radar polarimetry to essentially squint at the signal coming from the pedestrian’s torso and identify the telltale glare that a metal object hidden there would cause. He hasn’t tested the technology on people, or people with real guns. But he has done computer simulations. He has also conducted experiments in an echo-reducing chamber with a mannequin hiding a nail-studded block of wax under a leather jacket. The nail block stands in for a makeshift explosive. Here’s how the concept works: Doppler radar, famous for its weather and speed trap applications, uses the Doppler effect to measure an object’s speed. It can tell a meteorologist how fast a storm is approaching, for example. Sarabandi used it to identify what parts of the reflected signal were coming from, say, the limbs and what part was coming from the torso of a human walking. To do this, he first attached motion-capture electrodes on the limbs and torsos of several human subjects and had them walk around in the U-M 3-D lab. He used the recordings of their motions to make true-to-life animations. Then by simulating their Doppler radar reflection over time, he identified a general pattern that he could program a computer to recognize. It’s a spiky graph to the untrained eye, but to Sarabandi, it represents “the DNA of walking.” To confirm that it was specific to humans, he compared it with the signal from a walking dog—a short-haired Labrador. O Professor Kamal Sarabandi shows to the difference in the visual response from the radar of a subject with a gun and without a gun. Photo by Marcin Szczepanski/Multimedia Producer, University of Michigan, College of Engineeringnce he knew he could pick out the people, he zoomed in on their torsos—fortuitously a sweet spot for two reasons: People often hide weapons there, and it’s a relatively smooth backdrop against which to see something out of the ordinary. When it came time to push the technology to identify a hidden weapon, Sarabandi and his research colleagues went shopping for a mannequin. They found one in a store that was going out of business in downtown Ann Arbor. They painted it with a coat that reflects radar-like human skin. And they set it up on a turntable in their anechoic chamber, an eerie, dim room with foam spikes jutting from its walls, floor and ceiling. The spikes catch the echoes and the chamber gives the researchers a controlled place to test. Polarimetric radar is what the researchers used to look for the weapons. This technique sends a signal at a certain polarization and analyzes the polarization of the signal that bounces back. Polarization refers to the orientation of the electric field of a beam of light or any electromagnetic radiation. Sunlight isn’t polarized, but it can get that way when it reflects off smooth surfaces that don’t conduct electricity. In a similar vein, an irregular metal object can change the polarization of one of Sarabandi’s radar beams, and his system can observe that change. “So if we see enough signal with a polarization different from what was sent, we know that person is carrying something,” Sarabandi said. Sarabandi’s idea would be to scan a large group of people from a distance. Then security guards could watch flagged individuals more closely or pull them aside for scans with more sensitive devices. Today Sarabandi and colleagues are working on a smaller system for a robot, and they’re funded by the Army. Developing and deploying a system for the homefront would take a lot more research, and, likely, public discussion. But it’s one idea as the nation searches for solutions. Sarabandi is the Rufus S. Teesdale Professor of Engineering.

The numbers tell the story. After their 5-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday, the Phillies have lost six in a row and 10 out of their last 11. Since moving to within a game of first place in the NL East, with a 24-17 record on May 19, they’ve 6-23 since, falling to 13 1/2 games out of first. And even though there are still five teams with a worse record than the Phils’ 30-40, that 6-23 record since May 19 is the worst in baseball. And as a team, they are hitting a collective .225/.279/.320 with an OPS of .579. Just for comparison, Steve Jeltz’ career slash line was .210/.308/.268. His career OPS was .576. In other words, the Phillies, as a team, are one great big Jeltzie, without the Jehri Curl. But the Phils’ record this year was never important. The 2016 season was all about finding out about players. Who will be a part of the future and who has no future with the ballclub. And even though we’re only 70 games into the season, now’s not a bad time to take stock in what we’ve seen so far this year. The No Doubt Future Core Based on their play here in 2016, there are only three members of the big league roster that are sure-fire locks to be part of the Phils’ core moving forward, and they may not be the three you would assume. Aaron Nola Despite struggling his last two times out, Nola has looked at times like a true ace this season, and at worst, a No. 2 starter. His 3.51 ERA and 3.06 FIP are both solid, and he is striking out more batters than his career norm, 9.89 K/9 so far this season. He’s a future All Star and certain building block. Jerad Eickhoff No one was really sure if Eickhoff was going to be able to pick up where he left off last season, but it certainly appears as if he has the stuff to stick in the middle of a competitive big league rotation. He currently sports the best ERA on the team, 3.49, and has two swing-and-miss pitches in his slider and curveball. The throw-in in the Cole Hamels trade has been the team’s second-best starting pitcher this year. Odubel Herrera Herrera is clearly the team’s best player, leading Phils’ position players in fWAR at 2.0. (Cameron Rupp is second, by the way, at 0.6, which says a lot about how the Phils have performed offensively this season.) He has become one of the league’s best at getting on base (.400 OBP), and is one of only two players with a wRC+ over 100 (Herrera’s is 127, Andres Blanco is at 102). Future Still In Doubt These players have shown flashes of being a part of the next great Phillies team, but inconsistency or lack of track record would make their inclusion as part of the sure-fire core premature. Maikel Franco Is this is a "hot take?" Perhaps, and I believe Franco has the talent to be a part of the team’s long-term future. But can you honestly say for certain that Franco is going to develop into the player we think he can? After a hot start, Franco has regressed. His fWAR of -0.2 is tied for 18th on the Phillies and is 25th out of 25 qualified MLB third basemen. He’s hitting .236/.281/.409 this season, and has been getting worse with each passing day. His inability to establish any plate discipline and his below average defense has forced Pete Mackanin to knock him down in the order. After his red-hot start in the spring and first few weeks in the season, it seemed like a sure bet that Franco would hit 30 homers this year and take the next step forward. But right now, he’s simply not a good baseball player. Vincent Velasquez After his complete game, 16-strikeout shutout of San Diego earlier this year, everyone got really excited about Vinny from Philly. And for good reason. The young right-hander has flashed ace-level stuff. But Velasquez has come back to earth after that performance and has had trouble with pitch economy and lasting deep into games. He’s also had trouble staying healthy, currently on the DL with a biceps strain. His 3.65 ERA is certainly good for a guy in his first full Major League season as a starter, and his 10.65 K/9 rate is worth getting excited about. He has the talent to be considered a part of the core moving forward, but needs to be more consistent and stay healthy before saying that for sure. Hector Neris Like everyone else on the roster, Neris has struggled in June, as I wrote about last week. His split finger pitch, one of the most unhittable pitches in baseball in April and May, is no longer that. But a 3.06 ERA and a strikeout rate of 10.95 is very good, and it’s not unusual for a young relief pitcher to go through ups and downs during a long season. If he reverts back to the reliever we saw in the season’s first two months, Neris could either be the team’s future closer or set-up man, or he could turn into a Ken Giles-light trade chip this July. Way Too Soon To Tell First baseman Tommy Joseph got off to a red-hot start after taking the first base job away from Ryan Howard, hitting seven homers in his first 21 games, something no other Phillie had ever done. But since that 21st game, Joseph is batting .065/.094/.097 in his last eight. It’s simply too soon to know anything about Joseph for certain. Zach Eflin looked good in his second start against the Diamondbacks on Sunday, but had a disastrous debut against Toronto. Again, we just haven’t seen enough from him to know what the Phillies have in him. We might have had a better idea about Tyler Goeddel if he got more playing time, but the Phillies, who are desperate for offense, are playing Cody Asche and Jimmy Paredes quite a bit, even though they don’t offer much offensive upside over what Goeddel gave them. It’s too soon to know anything for certain about the Phils’ Rule 5 pick, and it would be nice to have a little more information about him at this point in the season. The Trade Chips There are a few players who really should only be considered trade assets when baseball’s grand bazaar begins next month. Jeanmar Gomez has been terrific as the Phils’ closer this season. Even though he doesn’t have strikeout stuff, it’s likely the team will field some offers for him. Jeremy Hellickson has had a rough month of June, but given the weak state of the starting pitching market this summer, it’s likely teams will call about Hellickson for a spot in the back of their rotation, provided he does better than post an ERA around 7. Andres Blanco is a terrific bench player, able to fill in at spots all around the infield. In fact, Blanco is a better player than the Phils’ starters at shortstop and second base, and the Phillies could move him at the deadline as well. Freddy Galvis could be the team’s second baseman once J.P. Crawford joins the team, but if a club offers anything of value for the man hitting .213/.247/.344 this year (albeit with excellent defense), the Phils should jump at the opportunity. No Future Whatsoever It seems clear that the following players have no real future with the club. Ryan Howard will be gone after this season, as will Carlos Ruiz. Cesar Hernandez has proven he is not an everyday second baseman, and he doesn’t play any other positions well enough to be a utility player. Cameron Rupp may be a decent back-up catcher, although you’d like better defense from your secondary backstop. And Cody Asche may be able to stick as a left-handed bench bat, like Greg Dobbs, but is no building block. Paredes, Peter Bourjos, David Hernandez and the rest of the roster can also be lumped into this group. Conclusions As of right now, there are three players I feel comfortable labeling as locks to be members of the next good Phillies team - Herrera, Nola and Eickhoff. Franco is just on the outside of that group, given his struggles this season, as are Neris and Velasquez. Joseph, Eflin and Goeddel all bear watching as well. So when you watch the Phils flail and struggle to score runs, and when you watch the pitchers struggle to keep the ball in the yard, remember that there are only a handful of players who are really worth caring about. Focus on the core three, the three on the outside, and the three young players for whom we still need more information. Everyone else is just holding a place until the minor league reinforcements arrive. Subscribe to The Felske Files!!! 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Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The women and men were reported to be condemned when video footage showed them singing and dancing at a wedding, as Orla Guerin reports. Officials in Pakistan are travelling to a remote north-western region to find out if four women, who apparently sang and watched as two men danced, have been murdered in an honour killing. Video footage of the men and women, who gathered as part of a wedding celebration, has been widely seen. Villagers say the women were later killed. Local officials deny this. The men in the video appeared in court on Wednesday charged with creating conditions for tribal violence. Local officials not only failed to produce the women in the court on Wednesday but were also unable to produce any proof they were still alive, as directed by the court earlier. Tribal elders' decree? The video, first circulated about two months ago, shows four women sitting on the floor of a room, chatting and singing wedding songs while clapping their hands. A fifth woman is said have been an accomplice. A decree was allegedly issued by tribal elders for them to be killed because it was thought their actions brought dishonour to their community which frowns on men and women fraternising or dancing together. Also seen in the video are two young brothers, one of whom dances to the sound of the women's song. The other films the video, at one point turning the camera to himself. The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that there is no shot of the men and women together, and it is unclear if they were in the same place at the same time. On Wednesday, the Chief Secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province - where the incident in Kohistan district is alleged to have happened - argued that local custom did not allow women to travel in male company or face questions from male members of a judicial bench. He said this could lead to local legal complications. He suggested that a commission be constituted, including officials and human rights activists, to conduct an inquiry in Kohistan and submit its report to the court. But the court ordered that the women, if they were alive, should be brought to Islamabad. It suggested that the authorities should take some women activists with them who could provide the Kohistani women with female company during their journey. The village is at least two days' journey on foot from the nearest highway, and only helicopters can reach the area quickly.

Story highlights Myanmar democracy activist says country has made some progress Aung San Suu Kyi says her party will meet in a few days to decide about elections The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner was held in house arrest for 15 of past 21 years She was released one year ago Myanmar has made some progress toward political reforms, democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi said Monday on the one-year anniversary of her release from years of house arrest. Speaking in Yangon on Monday, she told journalists and diplomats that in addition to her yearnings for political freedom for the country, she "deeply believed that the president also wants a change." Suu Kyi has met repeatedly with President Thein Sein and the country's minister for labor and for social welfare, relief and resettlement, Aung Kyi, since her release from house arrest a year ago. Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, plans to meet Friday, she said, to discuss the possibility of registering the party with election officials and standing candidates for election. Since the release of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, the country's military-controlled government has won limited praise from international human rights groups for making some progress toward political freedoms. Human Rights Watch reported this month that Sein's administration has loosened restrictions on the media and passed laws protecting basic human rights. Suu Kyi has also been given freedom to travel and access to the international media, the group reported. But the government's tight grip on the country -- particularly at the local level -- has not relaxed, Human Rights Watch reported. The country continues to hold hundreds of political prisoners and has not moved to repeal repressive laws that limit free speech and assembly, the group said. "With this backdrop, it is too early to know whether the government's change of tone and talk of reform is cynical window-dressing or evidence that significant change will come to the country," the group wrote in a briefing paper.

Jesus said that “wisdom is proved righteous by its results.” (Matthew 11:19, footnote) Let us consider three reasons why it is a wise decision to disfellowship a person if he does not repent. Disfellowshipping protects Jehovah’s name from dishonor. What we do will bring either honor or dishonor to Jehovah because, as his Witnesses, we bear his name. (Isaiah 43:10) Just as a son’s conduct can honor or dishonor his parents, the conduct of Jehovah’s servants can honor or dishonor Jehovah. In Ezekiel’s time, people of the nations linked the Jews with Jehovah’s name. (Ezekiel 36:19-23) Similarly today, people link Jehovah’s Witnesses with Jehovah’s name. So if we obey Jehovah’s laws, we will bring honor to him. The apostle Peter counseled Christians: “As obedient children, stop being molded by the desires you formerly had in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in all your conduct, for it is written: ‘You must be holy, because I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:14-16) For example, if we practiced sexual immorality, we would dishonor God’s name. But when we keep our conduct clean, we honor Jehovah. If one of Jehovah’s Witnesses practices what is bad, people who know him will probably become aware of what he is doing. So when they learn that he is no longer one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, they will realize that Jehovah’s people obey what the Bible says and keep the congregation clean. For example, a man came to a meeting in Switzerland and said that he wanted to become a member of the congregation. His sister had been disfellowshipped for immorality and now he wanted to join an organization that “does not tolerate bad conduct.” Disfellowshipping keeps the Christian congregation clean. The apostle Paul warned the Corinthians of the danger of letting an unrepentant sinner stay in the congregation. He compared the bad influence of these sinners to that of leaven that causes a batch of dough to rise. Paul said: “A little leaven ferments the whole batch of dough.” Then he counseled them: “Remove the wicked person from among yourselves.”​—1 Corinthians 5:6, 11-13. That “wicked person” practiced sexual immorality without any shame. Some in his congregation had even begun to excuse his bad conduct. (1 Corinthians 5:1, 2) This was dangerous because other Christians could have been affected by the immoral lifestyle that was common in Corinth. Similarly today, if the congregation ignores serious sin, some could begin to view Jehovah’s standards as unimportant. (Ecclesiastes 8:11) Just as “rocks hidden below water” can cause shipwreck, unrepentant sinners can destroy the faith of others in the congregation.​—Jude 4, 12. Disfellowshipping may help the sinner realize he is wrong. Jesus used an illustration of a young man who left his father’s home and spent all his inheritance living an immoral life. The young man eventually realized that life away from his father’s home had no meaning. So he repented and decided to go back to his family. The father was very happy when he saw that his son had changed his attitude, and he welcomed him home. (Luke 15:11-24) This illustration helps us understand how Jehovah feels when someone repents. He says: “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that someone wicked changes his way and keeps living.”​—Ezekiel 33:11. The Christian congregation is our spiritual family. When someone is disfellowshipped, he is no longer a part of that family. After experiencing the results of his bad conduct, he may realize his mistake and remember how much happier he was when he had a good relationship with Jehovah and the congregation. This may encourage him to come back to his spiritual family. To help a disfellowshipped person come back to the congregation, we need to show him love by being firm. For example, imagine two hikers waiting to be rescued on a cold winter day. Because it is so cold, one hiker gets very tired and wants to sleep. But if he falls asleep in the snow, he will die. To help him stay awake, his friend slaps him in the face. Even though this hurts, it could save his life. David expressed a similar idea when he said: “Should the righteous one strike me, it would be an act of loyal love.” (Psalm 141:5) David recognized that even though discipline was painful, it would help him. Just like that slap, disfellowshipping is often what a person needs to come back to Jehovah. Julian’s son, mentioned at the beginning of this article, changed his life and returned to the congregation ten years after he was disfellowshipped. Now he is an elder. He admits: “Being disfellowshipped brought me face-to-face with the consequences of my lifestyle. I needed that sort of discipline.”​—Hebrews 12:7-11.

Hellboy's been in a rough patch lately. It was only in last year's miniseries The Fury that one of Big Red's supernatural nemeses tore out his heart and killed him. Now that Hellboy's dead, his final destination should be pretty obvious. Indeed, courtesy of Mike Mignola and Dark Horse Comics, here's an exclusive first look at Hellboy in Hell. And you thought your family reunions were screwed up. Advertisement Here's a sneak peek at a double-sided giveaway poster Dark Horse will be handing out at Seattle's Emerald City Comic Con and Salt Lake City's World Horror Con this weekend. One side of this poster features the first image from Hellboy in Hell, an upcoming miniseries both written and illustrated by Mike Mignola. This comic's slated to come out later in 2012. We don't have an issue synopsis yet, but here's how Mike described the title to io9 in December, and here's his giant-insect-filled vision of Hell he gave to L.A. Weekly last year: Advertisement I love drawing old architecture with lots of shadows and walls and lots of creaky angles. It's not going to be big pots of fire because that's pretty boring [...] There's a lot of stuff that's halfway between an ant and a praying mantis and there are a lot of these little sea creatures that look kind of like, my daughter said they were krill, like little tiny shrimp or something [...] Hellboy is in Hell. He goes home, he finds out if he has brothers and sisters, he goes to the house where he was born, all that kind of stuff [...] Then it just meanders wherever I want it to go. Advertisement And here's the other side of the poster, which features Duncan Fegredo's cover art for B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Devil's Engine #1, which comes out May 16. Here's the rundown on that. B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: The Devil's Engine #1 Writer: Mike Mignola, John Arcudi Artist: Tyler Crook Colorist: Dave Stewart Cover Artist: Duncan Fegredo Caught between bat-faced monsters, a devastating earthquake, and the mad science experiments of Zinco, Devon and Fenix form an uneasy alliance in order to get to safety! Advertisement You can find this poster, along with Dark Horse's creative teams, at the World Horror Con and Emerald City Comic Con this weekend. Dark Horse editor Scott Allie and Mike Mignola will be at the former, and Brian Wood, Ethan Nicolle, Paul Tobin, Mike Oeming, and other creators will be attending the latter.

Former Alabama support staff member Joe Pannunzio has interviewed for the job of tight ends coach and special teams coordinator at UA, a source close to the situation told BamaOnLine.com on Thursday evening. Pannunzio currently serves as Director of Personnel Operations for the Philadelphia Eagles. He worked at Alabama from 2011-2014 as Director of Football Operations. As a college assistant, Pannunzio has coached tight ends and special teams at several stops, including Miami, Auburn and Ole Miss. Pannunzio worked with UA associate athletics director for football Ed Marynowitz both at Alabama and in Philadelphia. BOL reported on Wednesday that former college and NFL assistant coach George Godsey interviewed for the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach vacancy at Alabama. Godsey spent the last six seasons in the NFL with the Houston Texans (2014-16) and New England Patriots (2011-13). Prior to that, he spent the beginning of his coaching career at Central Florida, where he earned his start as a graduate assistant. Godsey was elevated to quarterbacks coach at UCF in 2005 and moved over to coach the Golden Knights’ running backs coach in 2009-10. He previously worked with Marynowitz and Alabama offensive line coach Brent Key at Central Florida. In addition to working together at UCF, Godsey and Key were teammates at Georgia Tech.

A top European Union lawyer says Hamas should be dropped from the bloc’s blacklist, citing lack of concrete evidence showing the involvement of the Palestinian resistance movement in alleged terrorist activities. Eleanor Sharpston, an advocate general at the European Court of Justice (ECJ), urged on Thursday the removal of both Hamas and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a Sri Lankan rebel group, from the EU terror list. The EU "cannot rely on facts and evidence found in press articles and information from the internet, rather than in decisions of competent authorities, to support a decision to maintain a listing,” Sharpston said. In 2001, the EU adopted regulations to combat terrorism. Under the rules, the bloc imposed travel bans and asset freezes against Hamas and the LTTE. In 2014, however, the General Court of the European Union, the second-highest court in the bloc, ordered both Hamas and the LTTE to be struck off the bloc’s terror list in two separate decisions. The court said the EU had based its decision, regarding the blacklist of the groups, on publicly available information rather than on any finding by a competent authority. The Council of the EU, representing the governments of member states, in turn appealed the court ruling. Eleanor Sharpston, an advocate general at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) Elsewhere in her remarks, the top EU lawyer called on the ECJ to reject the appeal. Given that "some of the reasons advanced could not justify the decision to maintain the listing of LTTE and Hamas," the General Court was correct to dismiss the EU appeal when it could find no other sufficient reasons for their listing, Sharpston said. Accordingly, the ECJ "should annul the measures maintaining Hamas and LTTE on the EU list of terrorist organizations on procedural grounds,” she added. Hamas has ruled the impoverished and the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip since 2006, when it scored a landslide victory in legislative polls.

“I have spent most of my twenties single, sometimes by choice, and sometimes because I was dating men and unable to locate one of those who didn’t try to hold me back or squash me down.” — Laurie Penny, Feb. 14, 2016 Last time we checked in with British “genderqueer” feminist Laurie Penny, the mentally ill Marxist was insisting we must “recognize that ‘manhood’ and ‘womanhood’ are made-up categories, invented to control human beings and violently imposed.” In other words, because maladjusted weirdos like her are unhappy, the rest of us must be made to feel ashamed of ourselves for being normal, sane, happy people. In the aftermath of last year’s Paris terrorist attacks, Laurie Penny quite predictably made a fool of herself by proclaiming: “I am infuriated by white men stirring up anti-Muslim prejudice to derail debate on western sexism.” And after Muslim men went on a rampage of sexual assaults against women in Germany on New Year’s Eve, she returned to the same theme in a column with the headline, “After Cologne, we can’t let the bigots steal feminism.” Laurie Penny is clearly a monomaniacal fanatic, who reacts to every atrocity perpetrated by Muslims as if it were a Rorschach test. To her, the inkblot is always Islamophobia, an excuse to heap more hatred on the heads of white men, those bigots whose “anti-Muslim prejudice” makes them the real villains of the story. No matter how many girls are raped by ISIS or enslaved by Boko Haram, ideologues like Laurie Penny can never relent from blaming every problem in the world on white men whose “privilege” makes them designated villains in the feminist narrative of patriarchal oppression. Laurie Penny is a hatemonger. Let us cease mincing words about the kind of “feminism” that such monstrous creatures have popularized in the name of social justice. Laurie Penny is to women’s equality what Richard III was to the British monarchy, a vile and loathsome stain. Her relentless vituperation of white males, like her celebration of “genderqueer” lunacy, expresses the infantile rage of a spoiled brat. Her antisocial personality traits are conveniently rationalized by a soi-disant “progressive” ideology that provides her warped mind with demonized scapegoats (white people, males, capitalists) whose alleged evils (racism, sexism, greed) she can congratulate herself for denouncing. And if anyone objects to her insulting and irresponsible rhetoric, the feminist hatemonger engages in the “Kafkatrapping” tactic of citing the objections of her targeted scapegoats as proof that they are guilty as charged. Laurie Penny is tediously predictable, and after she tweeted about Tuesday’s terrorist attack in Brussels, someone sarcastically responded that he was “looking forward to her explaining how this is all the fault of the western patriarchy and white men.” Considering her recent history of twisting Islamic atrocities into an excuse for denouncing white men as “bigots,” this was a jab she had invited on herself. However, Laurie Penny cannot accept responsibility for her own bad reputation. To a feminist, patriarchy is an all-purpose excuse, which means that Laurie Penny never considers herself responsible for any of her problems. If her bad judgment and shameless immorality turn her love life into a pathetic catastrophe of loneliness and misery? Not her fault! Laurie Penny writes a Valentine’s Day column blaming her romantic woes on men who “try to hold me back or squash me down.” (More sensibly, she could blame the men who were wise enough to avoid her altogether.) So when she got jabbed Tuesday morning, how do you suppose she responded? Would you guess (a) complaining she’s a victim of “misogynist abuse,” or (b) claiming that “misogynists and racists” were engaging in an “attack” on her? Congratulations, both (a) and (b) are correct! And so is (c) boo-hooing that critics were “deliberately misinterpreting a tweet” to suggest she supports terrorism, as well as (d) whining about “hatespeech” directed at her, and (e) lamenting “these personal attacks” as “appalling and tasteless.” So utterly predictable. #Brussels proves everybody is racist and misogynist, according to @PennyRed, because patriarchy or something. pic.twitter.com/XmYg5aqHw6 — FreeStacy (@Not_RSMcCain) March 22, 2016 For some people, #Brussels attack is an occasion to remind us that criticizing feminists is "hatespeech." cc @nero pic.twitter.com/gzee9we6lF — FreeStacy (@Not_RSMcCain) March 22, 2016 Laurie Penny is not merely wrong about everything, but she is also obnoxiously self-important, imagining herself endowed with precocious wisdom that entitles her to lecture everyone about her favor subject, i.e., how much smarter she is than any other person on the planet. Laurie Penny is an unusually bad person — selfish, dishonest and cruel — and it is no surprise that most people don’t like her. She is the sort of clever fool who is admired only by dimwitted fools. She only associates with fools for the same reason all her ex-boyfriends were jerks, namely that no wise person would ever associate with a fool like Laurie Penny. Did I mention she’s a feminist? Yeah, pretty sure I did. In case you haven't noticed lately, FEMINISM IS A CULT! https://t.co/SEOlX0sKGo — FreeStacy (@Not_RSMcCain) March 22, 2016 Amazon.com Widgets Share this: Share Twitter Facebook Reddit Comments

Credit by STAR_ Credit Date submitted: 7 Jan 2017 YouTube date: 18 Mar 2015 Nice by STAR_ Nice Date submitted: 7 Jan 2017 YouTube date: 17 Mar 2015 Place your bets! by STAR_ Place your bets! Date submitted: 7 Jan 2017 YouTube date: 26 Nov 2014 TF2 [04] Badriver and Waterside by STAR_ Offense on Badriver and the start of a bunch of Waterside gameplay. Date submitted: 22 Jun 2016 YouTube date: 31 May 2011 Answer Time: TF2 [Commentary] Inspiration by STAR_ Obviously I'm inspired by oysters with a pearl inside and Duckness, so I talk about some of the OTHER things. Date submitted: 22 Jun 2016 YouTube date: 28 Sep 2011 Answer Time: TF2 [Commentary] Demoknight charges Barnblitz by STAR_ Several questions asked by you guys - answered here. Drop some more for next time! Date submitted: 22 Jun 2016 YouTube date: 11 Oct 2011 TF2 Worst Loadout Challenge: Soldier by STAR_ This video is old. And I cannot rocket jump. I want to delete this. Look how sad this is. Date submitted: 22 Jun 2016 YouTube date: 12 May 2011

Landmark civil ruling finds in favour of six trafficked Lithuanian men who were exploited by Kent chicken-catching firm A British company has been found liable for the first time for victims of modern slavery in a landmark high court judgment. The judge, Justice Supperstone, found in favour of six Lithuanian men who were trafficked to the UK and brought a civil case claiming compensation for being severely exploited by the Kent-based gangmaster firm that employed them, DJ Houghton Chicken Catching Services. The men were sent by the company, run by the British couple Darrell Houghton and Jacqueline Judge, to catch chickens on farms around the country. They worked frequently on farms producing eggs for the leading supplier to major supermarkets. The judge ruled that the men were owed compensation for the firm’s failure to pay the agricultural minimum wage, for the charging of prohibited work-finding fees, for unlawfully withholding wages, and for depriving the workers of facilities to wash, rest, eat and drink. The workers have described living and working in inhuman and degrading conditions. They say they were forced to work back-to-back eight-hour shifts for days at a time, and were denied sleep and toilet breaks, forcing them to urinate in bottles and defecate in carrier bags in their minibuses as they travelled between jobs. They also alleged that their pay was repeatedly withheld, while Lithuanian supervisors working with the couple abused and assaulted them, intimidated them with fighting dogs and threatened them with instant eviction if they complained. The accommodation provided was dirty, overcrowded and unsafe and infested with bed bugs and fleas, they claimed. Laurynas Kelpsa, one of the victims, said he was pleased with the judgment but still shocked by what had happened to him. “It means at last that some justice has happened. We’ve waited four years and it’s been really hard being forced to remember [the experience] all the time to prove they did wrong.” The amount of compensation will be assessed at a future date but is expected to run to hundreds of thousands of pounds for unpaid wages alone. A claim for personal injury is still to be heard. Ten other Lithuanian men who were employed by the couple over the same period in similar conditions have now also brought a claim. A Guardian investigation in 2012 revealed that the trafficked Lithuanians were working in supply chains producing premium free range eggs for McDonald’s, Tesco, Asda, M&S and the Sainsbury’s Woodland brand. The farm sheds they cleared of chickens also produced eggs under the Freedom Food brand, and included some sites producing for Noble Foods, the company that owns the Happy Egg brand. Noble Foods is the UK’s largest egg company and both the firm and its chairman, Peter Dean, have been major donors to the Conservative party. The company helicopter has occasionally been loaned to David Cameron for election campaigning. Police raided houses controlled by Houghton and Judge in 2012 and freed several suspected victims of human trafficking. The Gangmaster Licensing Authority described the company at the time as “the worst gangmaster ever” and revoked its licence. The Lithuanian men were taken into the care of the national referral mechanism for victims of human trafficking, but no criminal charges have been brought. The couple blamed a Lithuanian supervisor, Edikas Mankevicius, who has since returned to Lithuania, for the situation, but in the high court on Friday, Supperstone ruled that he was integral to the business’s operation and the company could not therefore simply escape its responsibilities in this way. The Lithuanians’ claims were brought in a civil case by the law firm Leigh Day and mark a significant breakthrough in attempts for victims of modern slavery to get justice. Their lawyer at the firm, Shanta Martin, said: “This is the first time a British company has been found liable for victims of trafficking and it is going to make a world of difference to our clients. It should be seen as a warning shot to businesses that they need to make sure modern slavery is eradicated from their supply chains.” The anti-slavery commissioner, Kevin Hyland, said: “It is a disgrace that any British employer in the 21st century would exploit their workers in such conditions. There is a dark irony that a business producing free range eggs did so using slave labour. “This case shows that employers who exploit their workers can and should be pursued through the courts for lost earnings. And while it will not make up for the suffering, the decision of the court to award compensation will act as some form of justice.”

Christian Fuchs hopes to be celebrating again with Leicester on Sunday Leicester City full-back Christian Fuchs insists the Foxes are not worried by the challenge of Tottenham as the Premier League title race enters its closing weeks. Claudio Ranieri's men saw their seven-point lead at the top of the table cut to five points on Monday when Spurs won 4-0 at Stoke City after Leicester had been held to a 2-2 draw at home by West Ham on Sunday. Leading goalscorer Jamie Vardy is suspended for Sunday's clash with Swansea City after being sent off against the Hammers, but Fuchs has shrugged off suggestions Leicester are feeling the pressure. The 30-year-old Austrian told The Sun: "The fact that Tottenham have cut our lead to five points does not make us nervous at all. "We are in a position no one had expected. If someone had promised us a five-point lead over Spurs with four games left before the season begun, we'd have signed for it straight away. "OK, we have dropped two points but we have never claimed that we were going to win the title. "But, of course, we will now look to win as many of our final four matches as possible so we can get the best possible outcome for Leicester. "If Jamie Vardy is out, Leonardo Ulloa will be a good replacement. His size alone gives him a certain presence in attack. "It's now a chance for whoever comes in to start games and show what they can do. They can say, 'Hey, I'm here too and you can count on me'. Fuchs (right) believes Leicester will cope without Jamie Vardy (left) "Everyone in our squad supports everyone else. We all know that we will get our chances to play and that we are important. "A hallmark of Leicester this season is that we take things as they come and we make the best of the cards we have been dealt."

Washington (CNN) New White House chief of staff John Kelly was so upset with how President Donald Trump handled the firing of FBI Director James Comey that Kelly called Comey afterward and said he was considering resigning, according to two sources familiar with a conversation between Kelly and Comey. Both sources cautioned that it was unclear how serious Kelly, then the secretary of homeland security, was about resigning himself. "John was angry and hurt by what he saw and the way (Comey) was treated," one of the sources said. Comey learned of his dismissal on May 9 from televisions tuned to the news as he was addressing the workforce at the FBI office in Los Angeles, law enforcement sources said at the time. Comey made a joke about it to lighten the mood and called his office to get confirmation. Comey, who took Kelly's call while traveling back from Los Angeles to Washington, responded to Kelly by telling him not to resign, one of the sources said. Read More

“In theory, this should be a great place to write, but some places are too pretty,” he said during an interview in the snug living room of his centuries-old cottage, which is generously proportioned for a hobbit, with a ceiling that barely exceeds six feet. “In practice, it may be a great place to have tea and cake.” Before Mr. Ishiguro got around to talking about the inspiration for “The Buried Giant,” he digressed for nearly an hour about France after the Nazi occupation, modern-day Bosnia and Japan, and other places that seemed like possible settings for the novel at one point. “Now you see my problem,” he said, explaining why it took him so long to write the novel and why, even now, he finds it hard to describe the story’s origins. “For a long time, I couldn’t get going on this book.” In a way, the fact that “The Buried Giant” is such a surprising departure shouldn’t be surprising at all. Over the past three decades, Mr. Ishiguro, who was born in Nagasaki and grew up in England, has consistently bucked expectations, reinventing himself with each book. After exploring post-World War II Japan in his first two books, he wrote his Booker Prize-winning novel, “The Remains of the Day,” which was narrated by an English butler. At the time, he worried that he was treading on familiar ground, but reviewers took the opposite view. “I was afraid that people would say, ‘Oh, it’s the same book again, about an old guy looking back over his life with regret when it’s too late to change things,’ ” he recalled. “Instead, they were saying, ‘Your books are always set in Japan; this is a giant leap for you.’ I get this with almost every book.” That pattern has repeated itself with each of his subsequent novels. “The Unconsoled,” a surreal, dreamlike novel about a pianist in an unnamed European city, was treated as magical realism when it came out in 1995. Critics and scholars classified “When We Were Orphans” as a detective novel. His 2005 novel, “Never Let Me Go,” was canonized as futuristic science fiction, although it was set at an English boarding school in the 1990s.

Charlie Adam and late, clumsy, and just generally embarrassingly terrible tackle attempts go together like hard liquor and a hangover, and on Saturday in Baltimore he added to his long list of late, clumsy, and embarrassingly terrible tackle attempts when he stamped down on Gareth Bale's ankle from behind without even coming close to the ball. Seeing as he came up through Ranges' youth system and Bale recently claimed injury to avoid playing at the Olympics, there's always a chance Adam was out to protect the honour of the Queen and Team GB. More likely though it was just another late, clumsy, and embarrassingly terrible tackle attempt by a player who does that sort of thing at least three or four times a match. Either way, professional hand model and part-time manager Andre Villas-Boas wasn't happy: "I think it is a very nasty challenge from Charlie. The player is gone and he comes in from behind on Gareth's ankle. Charlie came to me and said something about the challenge. I can accept but I think he should go to the player to say sorry, because if the player escapes hospital it is because he is very lucky." Seeing as Adam has a bit of a history with Spurs in general and Bale in particular—he was sent off at White Hart Lane last season for a second yellow following a late mauling of Scott Parker's knee and as a Blackpool player the previous year he ruptured Gareth Bale's ankle with a similarly late and poorly coordinated effort—the answer seems straightforward. In the simplest terms possible, Tottenham need to offer Liverpool between £5-7M. And they need to do it before the transfer window closes otherwise Charlie Adam might just find himself lining up against them again on November 28th. We aren't saying Charlie Adam definitely would do something terrible to Bale or Parker or whoever Spurs bring in when Modric toddles off to Chelsea or Madrid. We're just saying he's Charlie Adam. And if there's one thing you can count on when it comes to Charlie Adam it's that he's as likely to injure an opponent as to cleanly take the ball. So call it a transfer fee; call it protection money; call it whatever lets the accountants in Monaco sleep at night. Just pay up, Tottenham, and the problem goes away. For all of us. Just maybe don't let Adam on the training pitch at the same time as Bale if you do.

Google France could be ordered to pay $1.3 billion to France’s equivalent of the IRS (Direction générale des finances) due to tax noncompliance in 2011. The agency has been investigating Google’s revenue in France for months. With only 138 million euros of revenue in France in 2011, the company has used tax-optimization strategies, but has always stated that they comply with the law. It denies the accusation. The French weekly Le Canard enchaîné (which has an excellent track record for investigations) first obtained a letter that the Direction générale des finances sent to Google France asking it to pay $1.3 billion (€1 billion) in tax penalties. Most of Google France’s revenue could go directly to Google’s European headquarters in Ireland where the corporate tax is only 12.5 percent. French news website Owni obtained Google Ireland’s 125-page financial statements for 2011, certified by Ernst & Young, in order to corroborate Le Canard enchaîné’s investigation. Here are the important numbers: Revenue in France in 2011: €138 million Revenue in Ireland in 2011: €12.4 billion Profit in Ireland in 2011: €9 billion Tax in France in 2011: €5.5 million Estimated tax in France for 2011 according to the DGF: €150 million Right now, Google France has a few hundred employees. According to Google, they only handle support and don’t sign contracts. Yet, salespeople are based in France. The company doesn’t report that activity, which is why the DGF is asking for the gigantic fine. According to a document from the investigation obtained by BFM TV, Google has posted job openings for salespeople in France. According to the document: “Google France doesn’t seem to only provide support, but seems to handle all the sales and client relationships of Google Ireland, including the closing of advertising contracts, and without declaring that revenue in France.”* Later in the document, they say that “the receipts and contracts of Google Ireland are written in French, and have a clause conferring jurisdiction to the French courts.”* It is therefore considered a French contract by French laws. French authorities asked advertisers about those contracts. They found out that “advertising contracts with French advertisers are written by Google Ireland, but handled by employees of Google France.”* Google Ireland Limited didn’t follow France’s taxation rules. After that accusation, a Google France spokesperson told the French news agency AFP the following statement: Google didn’t receive a notification of tax adjustment from the French taxation agency. We will continue to cooperate with French authorities, as we’ve done until now. Google complies with all the laws of the country in which the company operates, and with the European legislation.* On October 29, Google Executive Chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt met French President François Hollande to talk about the disagreement with French news websites on Google News. According to Le Canard enchaîné, Hollande mentioned the tax issue, as well. Once again, the problem isn’t that most of the revenue is going to Ireland. It is that French contracts are recorded and taxed by Irish authorities. Google’s European Tax Scheme But France isn’t the only European country in which Google only reports a fraction of their revenue. Supposedly, Google operates in many European countries and proceeds exactly the same way. It’s the only way to justify the incredible revenue in Ireland. And Google isn’t the only company. Apple, Amazon, Facebook and others have all been accused of tax noncompliance in France. As Google is the current target of French authorities, it offers a glimpse into the tax scheme those companies have to follow in order to lower their tax rates. Google’s European HQ is called Google Ireland Holdings. It is the owner of Google Ireland Limited. Google Ireland Limited receives the revenue from European subsidaries. But, in order to lower the tax rate, Google Ireland Limited pays billions of royalties to Google Ireland Holdings. In 2011, it was $4.6 billion. It drastically lowers the profit of Google Ireland Limited. Despite the name, Google Ireland Holdings’ cost center is in Bermuda and is called Google Bermuda Unlimited. In Bermuda, corporate tax doesn’t even exist. But there is a tax if you want to transfer big sums from Ireland to Bermuda. That’s where the Netherlands are needed. If you transfer money from Ireland to the Netherlands, then to Bermuda, there is no tax. Google Netherlands Holdings BV, you guessed it, is a subsidiary that has the sole function of transferring money from Ireland to Bermuda. There is another tax to transfer to the U.S. Currently, Google and other big Internet companies keep the money in Bermuda. $1,400 billion are stuck there according to the Win America Campaign, a lobbying action to remove the tax between Bermuda and the U.S. Google France is just an example to illustrate a greater issue involving other countries with a high corporate tax and other companies. Learning about their sophisticated tax noncompliance plans is always mind-boggling. * Translated from French. (Image credit: Flickr/Images_of_Money)

Games: Now Available in Gloss-Web At long last, I can announce the game interface in gloss-web. This is still a good ways off in my class, but those of you who know what you’re doing can play around with it anyway. As always, you can visit http://dac4.designacourse.com:8000 If you’ve used the site before and don’t see a game button, you may need to hit the refresh button. How they work: Games are similar to simulations, except that the time-step function has one fewer parameter, and there’s an additional event handling function. So you’ll need to write the following: initial :: StdGen -> a Just as with simulations, you can pick any data type you like (and probably write your own) to represent the state of the world. You then define initial to be a function that gets a random number generator, and returns the starting state. If you need random numbers, you can store the generator in your state type. The type variable a needs to be the same as a in all the definitions that follow. event :: Event -> a -> a Here’s how you respond to events: write a function with the event and the previous state of the world, that returns a new state of the world as its result. That means anything you want to remember about the events that have happened should be part of your world type. step :: Float -> a -> a Here’s how you respond to the passage of time. Much like the step function of the simulation interface, the time parameter is the amount of time that’s elapsed since the last step. Unlike simulations, there is now ViewPort passed in. That’s because in the OpenGL implementation, simulations automatically provided controls to zoom and such… but games don’t. So you just get the elapsed time. (Of course, gloss-web doesn’t provide those automatic transformations anyway.) draw :: a -> Picture Finally, of course you need to draw the world. This is where you say what it looks like. An Example The default program is a fairly simple one that draws a ball where ever you place the mouse; not much of a game, really! Never fear, here’s something a little more involved… and actually pretty fun! My best score so far is 31. Can you do better? import Graphics.Gloss import Graphics.Gloss.Interface.Game data World = World { player :: Point, target :: Point, goal :: Point, robot :: Point, speed :: Float, score :: Integer } initial _ = World (0,0) (0,0) (200,200) (-200,-200) 40 0 event (EventMotion (x,y)) world = world { target = (x,y) } event _ world = world distance (x0, y0) (x1, y1) = sqrt ((x1 - x0)^2 + (y1 - y0)^2) moveToward (x0,y0) (x1,y1) dist = (x0 + dx, y0 + dy) where totalDist = distance (x0,y0) (x1,y1) dx | dist < totalDist = (x1 - x0) * dist / totalDist | otherwise = (x1 - x0) dy | dist < totalDist = (y1 - y0) * dist / totalDist | otherwise = (y1 - y0) collisions world | distance (player world) (goal world) < 40 = foundGoal | distance (player world) (robot world) < 40 = initial | otherwise = world where foundGoal = let (x,y) = player world in world { goal = (-x, -y), score = score world + 1 } step time world = collisions newWorld where newWorld = world { player = moveToward (player world) (target world) (time * 60), robot = moveToward (robot world) (player world) (time * speed world), speed = speed world + (0.1 * time) } draw world = pictures [ color blue (figure (player world)), color red (figure (robot world)), color green (figure (goal world)), translate (-225) (-225) (scale 0.2 0.2 (text (show (score world)))) ] figure (x,y) = translate x y (circleSolid 20) Have fun! Advertisements

Luli Faver says the Divine Truth has helped her deal with ’emotional stuff’ (Picture: Sky News) A British scientist is one of the growing number of followers of an Australian man who claims to be Jesus Christ. Louise ‘Luli’ Faver, 39, has given up her career to be near to Alan John Miller who runs a religious movement known as the Divine Truth. The former IT specialist, who prefers to be known as AJ, runs what is seen by many as cult from his home near the small town of Kingaroy in the state of Queensland. Not only does he claim to be Jesus but he also maintains his partner, Mary Luck, is Mary Magdalene, who was present at the crucifixion, the Bible says. According to the Divine Truth website Ms Faver, a former neuroscientist, now helps Divine Truth with admin tasks. She told Sky News she believes Mr Miller has helped her become happier and more fulfilled in life. Advertisement Advertisement ‘It’s just nice to instead of being surrounded by people who think you are nuts, to be surrounded by people who understand what you are going through and the difficulties of trying to deal with all the emotional stuff,’ she said. Mr Miller himself said: ‘I have very clear memories of the crucifixion, but it wasn’t as harrowing for me as it was for others like Mary who was present. ‘Clear memories of crucifixion’ – Jesus cult leader AJ Miller (Picture: Sky News) ‘When you are one with God you are not in a state of fear, and you have quite good control over your body’s sensations and the level of pain that you absorb from your body.’ Mr Miller spreads his message through DVDs and the internet and the cult has begun to attract followers from other parts of the world. George Hamel moved from California, leaving behind his wife and businesses so he can be closer to Mr Miller. He is adamant Mr Miller is Jesus Christ and insists there’s nothing sinister about him. ‘It’s natural that people form fears when they don’t know about something,’ he said. Anyone who has a chance to look into it aren’t going to find anything too upsetting.’ But cult expert Rev David Millikan, who has met AJ Miller, has concerns about his movement. He said: ‘The danger is you’ll be drawn closer and closer into his web to a point that you lose access to your social life, you spend all your money, you’ll have the curses of all your family ringing in your ears and you may well lose your relationship.’

In the last few months, some anti-immigrant activists as well as some anti-Muslim bloggers writing about Muslim immigration have ratcheted up their anti-Muslim rhetoric. Even more disturbing, some national and local political figures have joined the ranks of those who proclaim that Muslims are unable to assimilate into American culture. They have declared that Muslims are invading the country with the intent to take it over. This kind of anti-immigrant rhetoric is not new. The same kind of sentiment has also been directed at Latino immigrants, particularly Mexicans. For example, anti-immigrant extremists have long promoted the Atzlan conspiracy theory that claims that Mexican immigrants are planning on taking over the Southwestern part of the United States. Today’s focus is increasingly on Muslim immigration, which is seen as far more insidious. Anti-immigrant activists are using the atrocities committed by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) and Muslim extremists to generate fear about all Muslims, including American citizens. Anti-immigrant bloggers such as Colorado-based Frosty Wooldridge (until recently a board member of the Federation for American Immigration Reform) and California-based Brenda Walker use virulent anti-Muslim rhetoric to demonize Muslims. Anti-Muslim themes Anti-immigrant activists and anti-Muslim bigots writing about Muslim immigration tend to focus on a number of common themes that stress the idea that Muslims are different from other groups, are intent on destroying America in some way and promote violence against all non-Muslims. Many claim that the U.S. State Department is planning on accepting a huge number of refugees from Syria and proclaim that this will lead to disaster. Proclaiming an invasion Anti-immigrant bloggers, as well as anti-Muslim bigots, warn that there is a “Muslim invasion” that will result in Muslims being the dominant religious group in the U.S. Carol Brown, who maintains an anti-Muslim blog and writes for an online publication, American Thinker, wrote an article in the latter titled, “The Muslim population of America is expanding at warp speed.” In the article, she insisted that Muslim immigrants are trying to conquer the U.S. and that “Muslim refugees swarm into the United States as part of this conquest.” She claimed, That Muslim majority countries have not opened their doors to these refugees is, I am confident, quite by design. This is about conquest. Otherwise known as Hijira the Islamic doctrine of immigration. Hijra works in concert with violent jihad to overwhelm a society until Islam becomes the single dominant force. Brown’s piece on the Muslim population in America was circulated on anti-immigrant websites. Even Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, alleged that Muslims want to invade America. In January 2015, Jindal insisted that there were “no-go zones” for non-Muslims in Europe despite European leaders disputing this assertion. He later went on a radio show and reportedly attacked Muslim immigration, saying, “If they want to come here and they want to set up their own culture and values that’s not immigration, that’s really invasion if you’re honest about it.” Equating Islam with violent extremism Perhaps the most common theme is that Islam is an inherently violent religion whose adherents bring violence wherever they go. Brown, writing in American Thinker, declared that “we are importing Islamic terror. Not because every Muslim is a terrorist. But because enough of them are. And plenty more who don’t commit acts of terror support it—quietly at home or loudly in the street.” Frosty Wooldridge shares Brown’s view and goes even further. He has long targeted immigrants in his blogs, painting them as invaders and destroyers of American culture. In the past, he has focused mostly on Latino immigrants but over the last few months has written a multi-part series demonizing Muslims. He continues to add to the series, titled, “Impregnating America with Muslims.” In Part 6, titled “Violent Religion to Conquest,” he claimed, “Today in America, we feature Islamic jihadists terror compounds where Muslim immigrants streaming into this country from all over the Middle East—train to kill us and destroy our country.” In the first article of the series, entitled, “Consequences to Our Society,” Wooldridge asserted that Muslims want to kill all non- Muslims. He argued, “In order to be faithful to the Islamic religion, Muslims ultimately must degrade and kill all other people who follow any other religions.” In an article titled, “Muslim Immigration Poses Serious National Security Threat,” posted in the online publication Investor’s Business Daily, anti-Muslim blogger Paul Sperry added his voice to those who believe an influx of Muslim immigrants would lead to terrorism in the U.S. He wrote, “The main homeland threat from groups like IS [Islamic State] comes through our immigration system. If they also use our loose policies as a vehicle for jihad and Islamization, we will face the same crisis as Eurabia [a derogatory term meant to describe Muslim immigration to Europe.] An anti-immigrant group Citizens Council on Illegal Immigration, based in Utah, citing Sperry’s article about Muslim immigration, argued, “The time to be concerned about lung cancer is before one starts smoking, not after cancer is detected. The time to be concerned about terrorists infiltrating America is before they arrive and attack shopping malls, not after their growing numbers threaten our national security.” After the terrorist attacks in Paris on the Charlie Hebdo office and a kosher market, former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo argued that Islam was responsible for terrorism. In a January 12, 2015 column for the online publication World Net Daily, he wrote, “So, here we are again, being told that we can’t blame Islam for the mur­der­ous acts that have cost thou­sands of lives since 9/11 and mil­lions of lives since the 14th cen­tury! Well, then let me ask a sim­ple ques­tion: If Islam did not exist, how many of these events would have occurred?” Muslims refuse to assimilate Another common theme for anti-immigration activists and bloggers is that Muslims cannot adapt to American life or culture. Along with that claim is that assertion that the Muslim community is “breeding” terrorists. Sperry, writing about Muslim immigration, argued that Muslims in cities like Alexandria, Virginia, Deaborn, Michigan or Minneapolis refuse to assimilate. He writes: They resemble little Cairos, with their Arabic store signage, halal butchers, hookah bars and even blaring calls to prayer from mosque minarets. Such cultural diversity might be quaint if not for the fact these heavily Muslim immigrant enclaves are also breeding grounds for terrorism. Brenda Walker is a long-time anti-immigrant blogger who writes for the racist website VDARE. In a February 18 posting she suggests that Muslim parents are having “the talk” about “Islamophobia” with their children as a way of promoting “Islamic supremacy.” Muslim parents located here are imparting traditional Islamic supremacism to Mohammed Jr. and little Aisha, teaching them to behave differently because Americans are racist and Islamophobic. Better chill that discussion about headchopping being a proper punishment for non-Allahbots, for example. Mainstream officials have also promoted the idea that Muslims cannot accept American culture, customs or laws. In January 2015, Texas representative Molly White posted an offensive Facebook message in response to “Texas Muslim Capitol Day,” when Muslim constituents visit the Capitol in Austin to lobby and meet with lawmakers. White wrote that she instructed her staff “to ask representatives from the Muslim community to renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America and our laws.” When members of the Muslim community attempted to hold a press conference that day, a group of about two dozen protestors disrupted them. One woman grabbed a microphone from one of the organizers and shouted, “Islam will never dominate the United States and by the grace of God, it will never dominate Texas.” As the Muslim group tried to sing the American national anthem, other protestors screamed, “Islam is a lie,” and “No Sharia here!” Sharia refers to the body of Islamic law. As the Muslim community participated in American democracy on Texas Muslim Capitol Day, the protestors, which included some anti-immigrant activists, tried to paint them as outsiders who cannot assimilate into American life.

If you were ever to leap onto a water slide buck ass nekkid only to realize the slide was not only free of water but was also lined with sandpaper, and lead you to a pool full of white-hot coals instead of liquid, I imagine the sensation would be akin to listening to Anaal Nathrakh’s new song, “Hold Your Children Close and Pray for Oblivion.” I’m not even sure it’s right to call it a “song” — it’s barely controlled chaos. Like, I’m not sure you actually have to pray for oblivion while listening to this thing… it IS oblivion. You’re gonna love it. Listen to “Hold Your Children Close and Pray for Oblivion” below, courtesy of Invisible Oranges. The song will appear on Anaal Nathrakh’s new album, The Whole of the Law, which comes out October 28th via Metal Blade. Pre-order it here.

For the concept in psychoanalysis, see Foreclosure (psychoanalysis) Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan.[1] Formally, a mortgage lender (mortgagee), or other lienholder, obtains a termination of a mortgage borrower (mortgagor)'s equitable right of redemption, either by court order or by operation of law (after following a specific statutory procedure).[2] Usually a lender obtains a security interest from a borrower who mortgages or pledges an asset like a house to secure the loan. If the borrower defaults and the lender tries to repossess the property, courts of equity can grant the borrower the equitable right of redemption if the borrower repays the debt. While this equitable right exists, it is a cloud on title and the lender cannot be sure that they can repossess the property.[3] Therefore, through the process of foreclosure, the lender seeks to immediately terminate the equitable right of redemption and take both legal and equitable title to the property in fee simple.[4] Other lien holders can also foreclose the owner's right of redemption for other debts, such as for overdue taxes, unpaid contractors' bills or overdue homeowner association dues or assessments. The foreclosure process as applied to residential mortgage loans is a bank or other secured creditor selling or repossessing a parcel of real property after the owner has failed to comply with an agreement between the lender and borrower called a "mortgage" or "deed of trust". Commonly, the violation of the mortgage is a default in payment of a promissory note, secured by a lien on the property. When the process is complete, the lender can sell the property and keep the proceeds to pay off its mortgage and any legal costs, and it is typically said that "the lender has foreclosed its mortgage or lien". If the promissory note was made with a recourse clause and if the sale does not bring enough to pay the existing balance of principal and fees, then the mortgagee can file a claim for a deficiency judgment. In many states in the United States, items included to calculate the amount of a deficiency judgment include the loan principal, accrued interest and attorney fees less the amount the lender bid at the foreclosure sale.[5] Types [ edit ] The mortgage holder can usually initiate foreclosure at a time specified in the mortgage documents, typically some period of time after a default condition occurs. In the United States, Canada and many other countries, several types of foreclosure exist. In the US for example, two of them – namely, by judicial sale and by power of sale – are widely used, but other modes are possible in a few other U.S. states. Judicial [ edit ] Foreclosure is by judicial sale, commonly called judicial foreclosure, involves the sale of the mortgaged property under the supervision of a court. The proceeds go first to satisfy the mortgage, then other lien holders, and finally the mortgagor/borrower if any proceeds are left. Judicial foreclosure is available in every US state and required in many (Florida requires judicial foreclosure). The lender initiates judicial foreclosure by filing a lawsuit against the borrower. As with all other legal actions, all parties must be notified of the foreclosure, but notification requirements vary significantly from state to state in the US. A judicial decision is announced after the exchange of pleadings at a (usually short) hearing in a state or local court in the US In some rather rare instances, foreclosures are filed in US federal courts. Nonjudicial [ edit ] Foreclosure by power of sale, also called nonjudicial foreclosure, and is authorized by many states if a power of sale clause is included in the mortgage or if a deed of trust with such a clause was used, instead of an actual mortgage. In some US states, like California and Texas, nearly all so-called mortgages are actually deeds of trust. This process involves the sale of the property by the mortgage holder without court supervision (as elaborated upon below). This process is generally much faster and cheaper than foreclosure by judicial sale. As in judicial sale, the mortgage holder and other lien holders are respectively first and second claimants to the proceeds from the sale. Strict [ edit ] Other types of foreclosure are considered minor because of their limited availability. Under strict foreclosure, which is available in a few states including Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont, if the mortgagee wins the court case, the court orders the defaulted mortgagor to pay the mortgage within a specified period of time. Should the mortgagor fail to do so, the mortgage holder gains the title to the property with no obligation to sell it. This type of foreclosure is generally available only when the value of the property is less than the debt ("under water"). Historically, strict foreclosure was the original method of foreclosure. Acceleration [ edit ] Acceleration is a clause that is usually found in Sections 16, 17, or 18 of a typical mortgage in the US. Not all accelerations are the same for each mortgage, as it depends on the terms and conditions between lender and obligated mortgagor(s). When a term in the mortgage has been broken, the acceleration clause goes into effect. It can declare the entire payable debt to the lender if the borrower(s) were to transfer the title at a future date to a purchaser. The clause in the mortgage also instructs that a notice of acceleration must be served to the obligated mortgagor(s) who signed the Note. Each mortgage gives a time period for the debtor(s) to cure their loan. The most common time periods allot to debtor(s) is usually 30 days, but for commercial property it can be 10 days. The notice of acceleration is called a Demand and/or Breach Letter. In the letter it informs the Borrower(s) that they have 10 or 30 days from the date on the letter to reinstate their loan. Demand/Breach letters are sent out by Certified and Regular mail to all notable addresses of the Borrower(s). Also in the acceleration of the mortgage the lender must provide a payoff quote that is estimated 30 days from the date of the letter. This letter is called an FDCPA (Fair Debt Collections Practices Acts) letter and/or Initial Communication Letter. Once the Borrower(s) receives the two letters providing a time period to reinstate or pay off their loan the lender must wait until that time expires in to take further action. When the 10 or 30 days have passed that means that the acceleration has expired and the Lender can move forward with foreclosing on the property. The lender will also include any unpaid property taxes and delinquent payments in this amount, so if the borrower does not have significant equity they will owe more than the original amount of the mortgage. Lenders may also accelerate a loan if there is a transfer clause, obligating the mortgagor to notify the lender of any transfer, whether; a lease-option, lease-hold of 3 years or more, land contracts, agreement for deed, transfer of title or interest in the property. The vast majority (but not all) of mortgages today have acceleration clauses. The holder of a mortgage without this clause has only two options: either to wait until all of the payments come due or convince a court to compel a sale of some parts of the property in lieu of the past due payments. Alternatively, the court may order the property sold subject to the mortgage, with the proceeds from the sale going to the payments owed the mortgage holder. Process [ edit ] The process of foreclosure can be rapid or lengthy and varies from state to state. Other options such as refinancing, a short sale, alternate financing, temporary arrangements with the lender, or even bankruptcy may present homeowners with ways to avoid foreclosure. Websites which can connect individual borrowers and homeowners to lenders are increasingly offered as mechanisms to bypass traditional lenders while meeting payment obligations for mortgage providers. Although there are slight differences between the states, the foreclosure process generally follows a timeline beginning with initial missed payments, moving to a sale being scheduled and finally a redemption period (if available).[citation needed] Strict and judicial [ edit ] In the United States, there are two types of foreclosure in most states described by common law. Using a "deed in lieu of foreclosure," or "strict foreclosure", the noteholder claims the title and possession of the property back in full satisfaction of a debt, usually on contract. In the proceeding simply known as foreclosure (or, perhaps, distinguished as "judicial foreclosure"), the lender must sue the defaulting borrower in state court. Upon final judgment (usually summary judgment) in the lender's favor, the property is subject to auction by the county sheriff or some other officer of the court. Many states require this sort of proceeding in some or all cases of foreclosure to protect any equity the debtor may have in the property, in case the value of the debt being foreclosed on is substantially less than the market value of the real property; this also discourages a strategic foreclosure by a lender who wants to obtain the property. In this foreclosure, the sheriff then issues a deed to the winning bidder at auction. Banks and other institutional lenders may bid in the amount of the owed debt at the sale but there are a number of other factors that may influence the bid, and if no other buyers step forward the lender receives title to the real property in return. Nonjudicial [ edit ] Historically, the vast majority of judicial foreclosures have been unopposed, since most defaulting borrowers have no money to hire counsel. Therefore, the U.S. financial services industry has lobbied since the mid-19th century for faster foreclosure procedures that would not clog up state courts with uncontested cases, and would lower the cost of credit (because it must always have the cost of recovering collateral built-in).[citation needed] Lenders have also argued that taking foreclosures out of the courts is actually kinder and less traumatic to defaulting borrowers, as it avoids the in terrorem effects of being sued.[citation needed] In response, a slight majority of U.S. states have adopted nonjudicial foreclosure procedures in which the mortgagee (or more commonly the mortgagee's servicer's attorney, designated agent, or trustee) gives the debtor a notice of default (NOD) and the mortgagee's intent to sell the real property in a form prescribed by state statute; the NOD in some states must also be recorded against the property. This type of foreclosure is commonly called "statutory" or "nonjudicial" foreclosure, as opposed to "judicial", because the mortgagee does not need to file an actual lawsuit to initiate the foreclosure. A few states impose additional procedural requirements such as having documents stamped by a court clerk; Colorado requires the use of a county "public trustee," a government official, rather than a private trustee specializing in carrying out foreclosures. However, in most states, the only government official involved in a nonjudicial foreclosure is the county recorder, who merely records any pre-sale notices and the trustee's deed upon sale. In this "power-of-sale" type of foreclosure, if the debtor fails to cure the default, or use other lawful means (such as filing for bankruptcy to temporarily stay the foreclosure) to stop the sale, the mortgagee or its representative conduct a public auction in a manner similar to the sheriff's auction. Notably, the lender itself can bid for the property at the auction, and is the only bidder that can make a "credit bid" (a bid based on the outstanding debt itself) while all other bidders must be able to immediately (or within a very short period of time) present the auctioneer with cash or a cash equivalent like a cashier's check. In May 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court, resolved uncertainty surrounding a secured creditor's right to credit bid in a sale under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan.[6] In RadLAX Gateway Hotel, LLC v. Amalgamated Bank, 566 U.S. ______ (2012), the Court found it was obligated to interpret the bankruptcy code “clearly and predictably using well established principles of statutory construction” resolving the lingering uncertainties of credit bidding under a chapter 11 plan and upholding secured creditors’ rights.[7] The highest bidder at the auction becomes the owner of the real property, free and clear of interest of the former owner, but possibly encumbered by liens superior to the foreclosed mortgage (e.g., a senior mortgage, unpaid property taxes, weed/demolition liens). Further legal action, such as an eviction, may be necessary to obtain possession of the premises if the former occupant fails to voluntarily vacate. Defenses [ edit ] In some US states, particularly those where only judicial foreclosure is available, the constitutional issue of due process has affected the ability of some lenders to foreclose. In Ohio, the US federal district court for the Northern District of Ohio has dismissed numerous foreclosure actions by lenders because of the inability of the alleged lender to prove that they are the real party in interest.[8] The same happened in a Colorado district court case in June 2008.[9][10] In contrast, in six federal judicial circuits and the majority of nonjudicial foreclosure states (like California), due process has already been judicially determined to be a frivolous defense.[11] The entire point of nonjudicial foreclosure is that there is no state actor (i.e., a court) involved.[12] The constitutional right of due process protects people only from violations of their civil rights by state actors, not private actors. (The involvement of the county clerk or recorder in recording the necessary documents has been held to be insufficient to invoke due process, since they are required by statute to record all documents presented that meet minimum formatting requirements and are denied the discretion to decide whether a particular foreclosure should proceed.) A further rationale is that under the principle of freedom of contract, if debtors wish to enjoy the additional protection of the formalities of judicial foreclosure, it is their burden to find a lender willing to provide a loan secured by a traditional conventional mortgage instead of a deed of trust with a power of sale. Courts have also rejected as frivolous the argument that the mere legislative act of authorizing or regulating the nonjudicial foreclosure process thereby transforms the process itself into state action.[12] In turn, since there is no right to due process in nonjudicial foreclosure, it has been held that it is irrelevant whether the borrower had actual notice (i.e., subjective awareness) of the foreclosure, as long as the foreclosure trustee performed the tasks prescribed by statute in an attempt to give notice.[13] Equitable foreclosure [ edit ] "Strict foreclosure" available in some states is an equitable right of the foreclosure sale purchaser. The purchaser must petition a court for a decree that cancels any junior lien holder's rights to the senior debt. If the junior lien holder fails to object within the judicially established time frame, his lien is canceled and the purchaser's title is cleared. This effect is the same as the strict foreclosure that occurred in English common law of equity as a response to the development of the equity of redemption. Title search and tax lien issues [ edit ] In most jurisdictions, it is customary for the foreclosing lender to obtain a title search of the real property and to notify all other persons who may have liens on the property, whether by judgment, by contract, or by statute or other law, so that they may appear and assert their interest in the foreclosure litigation. This is accomplished through the filing of a lis pendens as part of the lawsuit and recordation of it in order to provide public notice of the pendency of the foreclosure action. In all U.S. jurisdictions, a lender who conducts a foreclosure sale of real property that has a federal tax lien must give 25 days notice of the sale to the Internal Revenue Service. Failure to give notice results in the lien remaining attached to the real property after the sale. Therefore, it is imperative the lender search local federal tax liens, so that if parties to the foreclosure have a federal tax lien filed against them, the proper notice to the IRS is given. A detailed explanation by the IRS of the federal tax lien process can be found.[14][15] Contesting a foreclosure [ edit ] Because the right of redemption is an equitable right, foreclosure is an action in equity. To keep the right of redemption, the debtor may be able to petition the court for an injunction. If repossession is imminent, the debtor must seek a temporary restraining order. However, the debtor may have to post a bond in the amount of the debt. This protects the creditor if the attempt to stop foreclosure is simply an attempt to escape the debt. A debtor may also challenge the validity of the debt in a claim against the bank to stop the foreclosure and sue for damages. In a foreclosure proceeding, the lender also bears the burden of proving they have standing to foreclose. Several U.S. states, including California,[16] Georgia,[17] and Texas[18] impose a "tender" condition precedent upon borrowers seeking to challenge a wrongful foreclosure, which is rooted in the maxim of equity principle that "he who seeks equity must first do equity", as well as the common law rule that the party seeking rescission of a contract must first return all benefits received under the contract. In other words, to challenge an allegedly wrongful foreclosure, the borrower must make legal tender of the entire remaining balance of the debt prior to the foreclosure sale. California has one of the strictest forms of this rule, in that the funds must be received by the lender before the sale. One tender attempt was held inadequate when the check arrived via FedEx on a Monday, three days after the foreclosure sale had already occurred on Friday.[19] At least one textbook has attacked the paradox inherent in the tender rule—namely, if the borrower actually had enough cash to promptly pay the entire balance, they would have already paid it off and the lender would not be trying to foreclose upon them in the first place[20]—but it continues to be the law in the aforementioned states. Occasionally, borrowers have raised enough cash at the last minute (usually through desperate fire sales of other unencumbered assets) to offer good tender and have thereby preserved their rights to challenge the foreclosure process. Courts have been unsympathetic to attempts by such borrowers to recover fire sale losses from foreclosing lenders.[21] One noteworthy court case questions the legality of the foreclosure practice is sometimes cited as proof of various claims regarding lending. In the case First National Bank of Montgomery v. Jerome Daly, Jerome Daly claimed that the bank did not offered a legal form of consideration because the money loaned to him was created upon signing of the loan contract. The myth reports that Daly won, did not have to repay the loan, and the bank could not repossess his property. In fact, the "ruling" (widely referred to as the "Credit River Decision") was ruled a nullity by the courts.[22] In a recent New York case, the Court rejected a lender's attempt to foreclose on summary judgment because the lender failed to submit proper affidavits and papers in support of its foreclosure action and also, the papers and affidavits that were submitted were not prepared in the ordinary course of business.[23] Foreclosure auction [ edit ] When the entity (in the US, typically a county sheriff or designee) auctions a foreclosed property the noteholder may set the starting price as the remaining balance on the mortgage loan. However, there are a number of issues that affect how pricing for properties is considered, including bankruptcy rulings. In a weak market, the foreclosing party may set the starting price at a lower amount if it believes the real estate securing the loan is worth less than the remaining principal of the loan. Time from notice of foreclosures to actual property sales depends on many factors, such as the method of foreclosure (judicial or non-judicial). When the remaining mortgage balance is higher than the actual home value, the foreclosing party is unlikely to attract auction bids at this price level. A house that has gone through a foreclosure auction and failed to attract any acceptable bids may remain the property of the owner of the mortgage. That inventory is called REO (real estate owned). In these situations, the owner/servicer tries to sell it through standard real estate channels. Further borrower's obligations [ edit ] The mortgagor may be required to pay for Private Mortgage Insurance, or PMI, for as long as the principal of his or her primary mortgage is above 80% of the value of his or her property. In most situations, insurance requirements guarantee that the lender gets back some pre-defined proportion of the loan value, either from foreclosure auction proceeds or from PMI or a combination of those. Nevertheless, in an illiquid real estate market or if real estate prices drop, the property being foreclosed could be sold for less than the remaining balance on the primary mortgage loan, and there may be no insurance to cover the loss. In this case, the court overseeing the foreclosure process may enter a deficiency judgment against the mortgagor. Deficiency judgments can be used to place a lien on the borrower's other property that obligates the mortgagor to repay the difference. It gives lender a legal right to collect the remainder of debt out of mortgagor's other assets (if any). There are exceptions to this rule. If the mortgage is a non-recourse debt (which is often the case with owner-occupied residential mortgages in the U.S.), lender may not go after borrower's assets to recoup his losses. Lender's ability to pursue deficiency judgment may be restricted by state laws. In California and some other US states, original mortgages (the ones taken out at the time of purchase) are typically non-recourse loans; however, refinanced loans and home equity lines of credit are not. If the lender chooses not to pursue deficiency judgment—or cannot because the mortgage is non-recourse—and accepts the loss, the borrower may have to pay income taxes on the unrepaid amount if it can be considered "forgiven debt." However, recent changes in tax laws may change the way these amounts are reported.[citation needed] Any liens resulting from other loans against the property being foreclosed (second mortgages, HELOCs) are "wiped out" by foreclosure, but the borrower is still obligated to pay off those loans if they are not paid out of the foreclosure auction's proceeds. Renegotiation alternative [ edit ] In the wake of the United States housing bubble and the subsequent subprime mortgage crisis there has been increased interest in renegotiation or modification of the mortgage loans rather than foreclosure, and some commentators have speculated that the crisis was exacerbated by the "unwillingness of lenders to renegotiate mortgages".[24] Several policies, including the U.S. Treasury sponsored Hope Now initiative and the 2009 "Making Home Affordable" plan have offered incentives to renegotiate mortgages. Renegotiations can include lowering the principal due or temporarily reducing the interest rate. A 2009 study by Federal Reserve economists found that even using a broad definition of renegotiation, only 3% of "seriously delinquent borrowers" received a modification. The leading theory attributes the lack of renegotiation to securitization and a large number of claimants with security interest in the mortgage. There is some support behind this theory, but an analysis of the data found that renegotiation rates were similar among unsecuritized and securitized mortgages. The authors of the analysis argue that banks don't typically renegotiate because they expect to make more money with a foreclosure, as renegotiation imposes "self-cure" and "redefault" risks.[24] Government supported programs such as Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) may provide homeowners the ability to refinance their mortgages if they are unable to obtain a traditional refinance due to their declined home value.[25] A dual-tracking process appeared to be in use by many lenders, however, where the lender would simultaneously talk to the borrower about a "loan modification", but also move ahead with a foreclosure sale of the borrower's property. Borrowers were heard to complain that they were misled by these practices and would often be "surprised" that their home had been sold at foreclosure auction, as they believed they were in a "loan modification process". California has enacted legislation to eliminate this type of "dual-tracking" - The Homeowner Bill of Rights - AB 278, SB 900, That went into effect on January 1, 2013.[26] Experiences of households post-foreclosure [ edit ] A 2011 research paper by the Federal Reserve Board, “The Post-Foreclosure Experience of U.S. Households,” used credit reports from more than 37 million individuals between 1999 and 2010 to measure post-foreclosure behavior, especially in regard to future borrowing and housing consumption. The study found that: 1) On average 23% of people experiencing foreclosure had moved within a year of the foreclosure process starting. In the same time, a control group (not facing foreclosure) had only a 12% migration rate; 2) Only 30% of post-foreclosure borrowers moved to neighborhoods with median income at least 25% lower than their previous neighborhood; 3) The majority of post-foreclosure migrants do not end up in substantially less-desirable neighborhoods or more crowded living conditions; 4) There was no significant difference in household size between the post-foreclosure and control groups. However, only 17% of the post-foreclosure individuals had the same number and composition of household members after a foreclosure than before. By comparison, the control group maintained the same household companions in 46% of cases; and, 5) Only about 20% of post-foreclosure individuals chose to live in households where one person maintained a mortgage. Overall, the authors conclude that it is “difficult to say whether this small effect is because the shock that leads to foreclosure is not long-lasting, because the credit constraints imposed by having a foreclosure on one’s credit report are not large, or because housing services are more inelastic than other forms of consumption."[27] Affected demographics [ edit ] Recent housing studies indicate that minority households disproportionately experience foreclosures. Other overly represented groups include African Americans, renter households, households with children, and foreign-born homeowners. For example, statistics show that African American buyers are 3.3 times more likely than white buyers to be in foreclosure, while Latino and Asian buyers are 2.5 and 1.6 times more likely, respectively. As another statistical example, over 60 per cent of the foreclosures that occurred in New York City in 2007 involved rental properties. Twenty percent of the foreclosures nationwide were from rental properties. One reason for this is that the majority of these people have borrowed with risky subprime loans. There is a major lack of research done in this area posing problems for three reasons. One, not being able to describe who experiences foreclosure makes it challenging to develop policies and programs that can prevent/reduce this trend for the future. Second, researchers cannot tell the extent to which recent foreclosures have reversed the advances in homeownership that some groups, historically lacking equal access, have made. Third, research is focused too much on community-level effects even though it is the individual households that are most strongly affected.[28] Many people cite their own or their family members medical conditions as the primary reason for undergoing a foreclosure. Many do not have health insurance and are unable to adequately provide for their medical needs. This again points to the fact that foreclosures affects already vulnerable populations.[29] Credit scores are greatly impacted after a foreclosure. The average number of points reduced when you are 30 days late on your mortgage payment is 40 - 110 points, 90 days late is 70 - 135 points, and a finalized foreclosure, short sale or deed-in-lieu is 85 - 160 points.[30] Recent trends [ edit ] In 2009, the United States Congress tried to rescue the economy with a $700 billion bailout for the financial industry; however, there was a growing consensus that the deepening collapse of the housing market was at the heart of the country’s acute economic downturn. After spending billions of dollars rescuing financial institutions only to see the economy spiral even deeper into crisis, both liberal and conservative economists and lawmakers pushed to redirect an economic stimulus bill to what they saw as the core problem: the housing market. But beneath the consensus over helping the housing market, there were huge differences over who should benefit under the competing plans. Democrats wanted to aim money directly at people in the greatest distress; and Republicans wanted to aim money at almost all homebuyers, on the theory that a rising tide would eventually lift all boats.[31] In 2010, there was a 14% increase in the number of homes receiving a default notice between July and September. In that year one in every 45 homes received a foreclosure filing and the problem has become more widespread with the increasing rates of unemployment across the nation. Banks have become extremely aggressive without much patience for those who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments, and there are more families entering the foreclosure process sooner than ever. In 2011, banks were on track to repossess over 800,000 homes.[32] In 2010, the highest rates of foreclosure filings were in Las Vegas, Nevada; Fort Myers, Florida; Modesto, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; Miami, Florida; and Ontario, California. The geographic diversity of these cities is made up for by the fact they these are all relatively metropolitan areas. Big cities like Houston, Texas saw a 26% increase in 2010, 23% in Seattle, Washington and 21% in Atlanta, Georgia. These cities had the lowest rates of unemployment. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the cities with the lowest rates of foreclosure were Rome, NY; South Burlington, VT; Charleston, WV; Bryan, TX; and Tuscaloosa, AL.[33] Not surprisingly, these areas had some of the highest nationwide rates of unemployment, helping to further demonstrate this correlation. A quote from RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio summarizes the recent trends: “Foreclosure floodwaters receded somewhat in 2010 in the nation’s hardest-hit housing markets. Even so, foreclosure levels remained five to 10 times higher than historic norms in most of those hard-hit markets, where deep fault-lines of risk remain and could potentially trigger more waves of foreclosure activity in 2011 and beyond.” [28] As per the foreclosure data report of RealtyTrac for January 2014, 1 in every 1,058 homes in U.S received a foreclosure filing. This figure falls in the higher spectrum of foreclosure frequency. As of August 2014, the foreclosure rate was 33.7%, 1.7% up from the last year. The rise in foreclosure activity has been most significant in New York and New Jersey, the two most densely populated areas in U.S. Closely following them is Florida.[34] Impact of foreclosure [ edit ] Notices accumulate on the door and window of a foreclosed, unoccupied house. The impact of foreclosure goes beyond just homeowners but also expands to towns and neighborhoods as a whole. Cities with high foreclosure rates often experience more crime and thefts with abandoned houses being broken into, garbage collecting on lawns, and an increase in prostitution.[35] Foreclosures also impact neighboring housing sales on two levels—space and time. For any given time frame, foreclosures have a greater negative impact when they are closer to the property attempting to be sold. The conventional view suggested is that the increase in foreclosures will cause declines in the sales value of neighboring properties, which, in turn, will lead to an extension of the housing crisis.[36] Another significant impact from increased foreclosure rates is on school mobility of children. In general, research suggests that switching schools is damaging for children, although this does significantly depend on the quality of the origin and destination schools. A study done in New York City revealed that students who changed schools most often entered a school with lower, on average, test scores and overall school performance. The effect of these moves on academic performance for individual students requires further research.[37] Foreclosures also have an emotional and physical effect on people. In one particular study of 250 recruited participants who had experienced foreclosure, 36.7% met screening criteria for major depression.[29] By country [ edit ] Australia and New Zealand [ edit ] In Australia and New Zealand, foreclosure has been prohibited by law in New Zealand for well over a century. Instead the mortgagee realises the security through sale, the exercise of the power of sale also being regulated by statute. In both of these countries statutory reform has altered the manner in which real property dealings are conducted. What is termed a "mortgage" is a legal interest that is registered against the fee simple title of the property. Since in both countries, the Torrens title system of land registration is used, being registered as proprietor or as a mortgagee creates an indefeasible interest (unless the acquisition of the registration was by land transfer fraud). The mortgagee therefore never holds the fee simple, and there is a statutory process for initiating and conducting a mortgagee sale in the event that the mortgagor defaults. In New Zealand, as in England, say, the land title database is now electronic so there are no paper "title documents". Ireland [ edit ] In Ireland, foreclosure has been abolished by the Land and Conveyancing Reform Act 2009[38] but Chapter 4 of Part 9 of the National Asset Management Agency Act 2009 provides for vesting orders that are equivalent to foreclosure but may only be used by NAMA.[39] People's Republic of China [ edit ] Foreclosure in the People's Republic of China takes place as a form of debt enforcement proceedings under strict judicial foreclosure, which is only allowed by law of guarantee and law of property right. China amended the Constitution of the Peoples's Republic of China (adopted April 12, 1988), to allow transfer of land rights, from "granted land rights" to "allocated land rights" thus paving the way for private land ownership, allowing for the renting, leasing, and mortgage of land. The 1990 Regulations on Granting Land Use Rights dealt further with this followed by the Urban Real Estate Law (adopted July 5, 1994),[40] the "Security Law of the People's Republic of China" (adopted June 30, 1995), and then the "Urban Mortgage Measures" (issued May 9, 1997)[41] resulting in land privatization and mortgage lending practices. Mortgages and foreclosure [ edit ] Chinese law and mortgage practices have progressed with safeguards to prevent foreclosures as much as possible. These include mandatory secondary security, rescission (Chinese Contract Law), and maintaining accounts at the lending bank to cover any defaults without prior notice to the borrower.[42] A mortgagee may sue on a note without foreclosing, obtain a general judgment, and collect that judgment against other property of the mortgagor, without foreclosing. When all other avenues have failed a lender may seek a judgement of foreclosure. Under the "Civil Procedure Law", foreclosures should be finalized in a six-month time frame but this is dependent on several things including if the mortgager applies to the court for execution of the judgment.[43] Mortgages are formally foreclosed at auction by a licensed auction specialist.[44] Philippines [ edit ] There are two modes of foreclosure in the Philippines. A mortgagee may foreclose either judicially or extrajudicially, as governed by Rule 68 of the 1997 Revised Rules of Civil Procedure and Act. No. 3135, respectively. A judicial foreclosure is done by filing a complaint in the Regional Trial Court of the place where the property is located.[45] The judge renders judgment, ordering the mortgagor to pay the debt within a period of 90–120 days. If the debt is not paid within the said period, a foreclosure sale satisfies the judgment.[46] In an extrajudicial foreclosure, the mortgagee need not initiate an action in court but may simply file an application before the Clerk of Court to secure attendance of the Sheriff who conducts the public sale.[47] This is done pursuant to a power of sale. Note that these two modes specifically apply to real estate mortgages. Foreclosure of chattel mortgages (mortgage of movable property) are governed by Sec. 14 of Act No. 1506, which gives the mortgagee the right to sell the chattel at a public sale. It has also been held that as regards chattel mortgages, the law does not prohibit that the foreclosure sale be done privately if it is agreed upon by the parties.[48] Spain [ edit ] Unlike in the United States, where a foreclosure means the end of the line, the foreclosure hearing in Spain is just the beginning of the homeowner’s troubles. They will have to work for the bank for many years and will be unable to ever own anything—even a car. Spanish mortgage holders are responsible for the full amount of the loan to the bank in addition to penalty interest charges, and court fees. Much of this can be attributed to Spain having the highest unemployment rate in the “euro zone.” Unlike in the US, bankruptcy is not an adequate solution since mortgage debt is specifically excluded. Unlike other European countries, you cannot go to the courts for any sort of debt relief. There has been much contention over these policies in the Spanish Parliament but the government is convinced that keeping these policies will prevent Spanish banks from ever experiencing something similar to the US mayhem.[49] With repossessed real estate properties on their books worth about €100 billion the banks in Spain are eager to get rid of foreclosures.[50] South Africa [ edit ] For a developing country, there is a high rate of foreclosures in South Africa[citation needed] because of the privatisation of housing delivery.[neutrality is disputed] One of the biggest opponents of foreclosures is the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign which sees foreclosures as unconstitutional and a particular burden on vulnerable poor populations.[51][52][undue weight? – discuss] Switzerland [ edit ] In Switzerland, foreclosure takes place as a form of debt enforcement which is served by the overlord of debt (currently Lord Overton Sheraton) proceedings under Swiss insolvency law. United Kingdom [ edit ] In United Kingdom, foreclosure is a little-used remedy which vests the property in the mortgagee with the mortgagor having no right to any surplus from the sale. Because this remedy can be harsh, courts almost never allow it. Instead, they usually grant an order for possession and an order for sale, which mitigates some of the harshness of the repossession by allowing the sale. The United Kingdom foreclosure system is unique and true foreclosures are quite uncommon. More commonly, lenders pursue a process called mortgage possession (or alternatively, "repossession" in cases where the bank originally sold the property too). Both mortgage possession/repossession and foreclosure are quite similar, with the main differential being the treatment of any funds that exceed the amount borrowed. In the case of mortgage possession or repossession, if the home is sold or auctioned for a price that exceeds the loan balance, those funds are returned to the consumer. In the case of foreclosure, the mortgage company retains all rights to proceeds from a sale or auction. The UK foreclosure and mortgage possession/repossession system favors consumers over lenders, as the United Kingdom has some pre-action protocols in place. Mortgage companies are required to work with homeowners to arrive at a resolution and it is possible to delay court action (ultimately, enabling many to avoid the loss of their home) in situations where the borrower has enrolled in individual programs or if the borrower's income is about to improve significantly with a new job or other measures that would allow them to pay off the arrears. There is no precise parallel to an American short sale, although the UK does have a process known as Assisted Voluntary Sale. An Assisted Voluntary Sale does have some negative credit impact for the consumer, but the adverse effect is less pronounced than one might suffer if the case were to proceed to the courts. See also [ edit ] References [ edit ]

It seemed like any other job: "Java/J2EE contractors needed for a one-to-three month contract to maintain proprietary supply-chain management software." Sure, James C could have waited around to find something more interesting, but the pay was fantastic and, being such a short term contract, he figured he had little to lose. That is, until he came face to face with Codethulhu. It all started back in 2001, when a fairly-large manufacturing company decided to develop its own supply-chain management system. Being that they had no in-house development expertise, they sought help from the Great Old Consultants to build their software. And build it they did. The Great Old Consultants worked day and night to create the great system that would come to be known as Codethulhu. They used only the most diabolical of materials: a Dell SatanicEdge sever, J2EE (Java 2 Evil Edition, not to be confused with Java 2 Enterprise Edition), and the souls of a thousand orphans. Once their work was complete, the Great Old Consultants vanished, never to be seen again. Tried as they might, the company was unable to summon back the Great Old Consultants. This was particularly problematic because the Great Old Consultants took with them, the source code. With no source code available, there was simply no way to fix bugs and make changes to their custom, multi-million dollar software. That is, until one engineer had an idea: they could decompile the Java bytecode. Decompiled code is not a very pretty thing. Many of the "niceties" of Java code -- comments, variable names, differentiation between FOR and WHILE loops -- are simply non-existent. And when the original code is developed by the Great Old Consultants, it becomes much worse than "not very pretty." It becomes pure evil. The company decided against using source control to store their decompiled code. Instead, modules were decompiled on a "need-to-alter" basis, and then re-compiled and deployed once the code changes had been made. Over the years, the "code base" grew in size, in complexity, and in overall evilness. One contractor, then on the brink of insanity, said that he had decompiled/changed/recompiled the same module seven different times. No one can be certain exactly when it happened, but at some point during this cycle, Codethulhu was awoken. For every moment spent working with -- or even thinking about -- Codethulhu, one offers that much of his sanity to it. Eventually, one's mind will become permanently intertwined with the very code base of Codethulhu, joining countless others, and will be forever tormented by its endless diabolic cycle of decompilation/recompilation. Sadly, James is now one with Codethulhu and Codethulhu is one with James. By the time that James had figured all of this out, it was too late for him. His last act of sanity was to send in a partially coherent submission that warned everyone else of his fate and to be wary of that J2EE contract that looks "just like any other job." And on that note, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year, All! Today's article will be the last new one of 2006; the next week and a half will be "Best of 2006."

In the life of a reader--and by a reader I mean someone who has always read for pleasure--it is doubtful that any books have as much impact, in the end, as the ones we read as children. Though my memories of their plots and characters are foggy, the stunningly illustrated hardcover books by E. Nesbit that graced the shelves in my neighborhood library in Queens--The Enchanted Castle, The Bastables--contributed in some essential way to the person I was to become; and to this day I am heartbroken that soon after my family moved, the library sold these exquisite books for $2 each in their annual booksale in order to make room for more DVDs and books by R.L. Stine. ("No one reads E. Nesbit anymore," a friend said to me in defense of the library, and that is probably true--how can anyone read E. Nesbit if she has vanished from the libraries?) The dreamlike memories I have of those foundational, mythically important books resurfaced when I first began A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book. The first 50 or so pages of the book were almost like therapy, transporting me back to the magic I thought had been irretrievably lost with childhood, and to the feelings associated with it--but this time, from an adult perspective, and with an awareness of the dark currents tugging just beneath the surface. The story opens in a charming setting that evokes E. Nesbit's books, and for a reason: much of the story revolves around the Edwardian children's writer Olive Wellwood, a character very much inspired by E. Nesbit herself. The children, for whom the book is literally and ironically and metaphorically titled (that's A.S. Byatt for you) are running wild in a paradise of a home with generous parents, a forest at their doorstep, and the freedom to imagine and create. We see this bountiful home through the eyes of Phillip, a homeless young pauper that the Wellwoods have taken in, on charitable impulse. The kindness of the adults at the start of the book, in so readily opening their home to young Phillip and becoming concerned for his welfare, is in keeping with the atmosphere of a children's book that pervades this novel's beginning. Here people are kind, the woods are mysterious and inviting, and the end of each day is resolved with a warm bath and dinner with interested, intelligent parents. It seems altogether too innocent and childlike to be a Byatt novel, unless you notice the hints at the beginning that all is not quite as it seems. Even when Phillip is being bathed at the beginning by Olive's capable sister Violet--who seems to embody the sort of selfless, bustling figure that children often find comforting--there is a subtle tremor of something being "off," an undercurrent. A puppet show of Cinderella is dark and violent as Grimm's fairy tale, mutilations and all. Political altercations hint at a threat to the security of Todefright, their fancifully named home, due to the social activism of Humphry Wellwood, Olive's husband. But these are truly only hints, and so while it is not entirely surprising when the book veers away from idyllic innocence and full-on into Byatt's more accustomed territory--erotic secrets, twisted relationships, abuse--it is like a dash of cold water that leaves the reader gasping. There is a real sense of loss, for the reader as well as for the characters who are experiencing it. And there is also a thrill, that perverse thrill of a child listening at the door and hearing too much. We suspected the adults were fallible, that bad things lived in the dark. Now we know it for certain. The Children's Book is much more than the story of one family. Focusing on various, interlinking families, the book is an epic of England at the turn of the twentieth century, depicting the intense struggles of that time regarding economic disparities, international politics, and women's suffrage, and culminating--as of course it must--with the apocalypse of the first World War. One of the most potent themes of this book--which otherwise has many, many themes--is the dark and even destructive heart of creativity. Most of the artists such as Olive, the author Herbert Methley, and the potter Benedict Fludd, make use of other people, even destroy them, for the sake of their art. Of these, Olive is seemingly the most benign, and the most subtle, yet her actions have the most catastrophic consequences. Olive writes a continuous story for each of her children, though it's clear that she does this as much for herself as for them, to feed her addiction to writing stories. In fact, Olive's only real maternal attachment is to her son Tom, and possibly to the youngest, Harry. Her relationship with Tom is all-encompassing for him, and his story, that of the hero "Tom Underground," is the one she writes the most passionately. Tom's first contact with reality outside his home sends him into an emotional tailspin from which he never recovers. As the fictional "Tom Underground" journeys into dark places, makes discoveries, and conquers his fears, the real Tom retreats from reality, and from anything that might disturb his fragile equilibrium. The fictional Tom is on a quest for his shadow, which was stolen; that shadow is the real Tom, who refuses to be found. The book is punctuated with stories written by Olive--bright children's stories which cast dark shadows all along the length of the book, as their import becomes increasingly clear. "Words have their own life," says a character in one of the stories--a quote characteristic of their luminous, mythic language--and for Olive, the boundary between words and life is particularly indistinct. In each of the stories recounted here, her most suppressed feelings and fears reveal themselves--and each prove to be prophetic in the most devastating of ways.

Story highlights The House intelligence committee issued a pair of subpoenas to Michael Flynn last week Flynn has already provided 600 pages of documents to the Senate intelligence committee (CNN) House Russia investigators have received a batch of documents from former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the top Democrat on the committee told CNN on Thursday -- one week after issuing subpoenas to Flynn and his lobbying business. "We're going through the documents we've received from various witnesses, including Gen. Flynn, to determine if they meet the requirements of the documents we've asked for," said Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the House intelligence committee. Asked if that meets the requirements laid out in the House subpoenas sent to Flynn, Schiff said, "I think we're still in the process of review and discussions with Mr. Flynn's counsel." The House intelligence committee issued a pair of subpoenas to Flynn last week, along with subpoenas to President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Flynn, meanwhile, provided 600 pages of documents to the Senate intelligence committee in response to its own subpoenas earlier this week after his lawyers reached a document production agreement with Senate investigators. Read More

Internal emails show that the Clinton campaign knew that the former secretary of state’s change of heart on the Trans-Pacific Partnership was “a huge flip flop.” “She has to be for TPP,” Ron Klain, Clinton’s campaign debate coach, wrote in an Oct. 3, 2015 email to Robby Mook and Jake Sullivan, Clinton’s campaign manager and top policy adviser, respectively. “She called it the ‘gold standard’ of trade agreements. I think opposing that would be a huge flip flop,” added Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden. As secretary of state, Clinton strongly supported the Obama-backed TPP, which is a trade deal involving 12 nations. She also praised TPP during closed-door speeches after leaving the State Department. But Clinton came out against it on Oct. 7 after facing intense pressure from labor unions, grassroots Democratic voters and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to oppose the trade deal. The emails, which were hacked from the Gmail account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and released by Wikileaks, suggest that Clinton’s flip flop was a purely political maneuver rather than an expression of belief in the merits of opposing the trade compact. “TPP would be lethal with labor. We’d loose afscme and likely seiu as well,” Robby Mook wrote to Klain, referring to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and Service Employee International Union. The two major labor unions endorsed Clinton after she came out against TPP. Klain offered suggestions for how Clinton could massage the glaring switcheroo. “She can say that as President she would work to change it. She can say that it can be better. But I think she should support it,” he wrote. “I agree with you on TPP but others (including on this email!) feel strongly to the contrary,” Sullivan wrote to Klain in the email exchange. In July, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton ally, rocked the boat when he said that Clinton would end up supporting TPP if elected president. The campaign scrambled to bat down the claim. “Love Gov. McAuliffe, but he got this one flat wrong. Hillary opposes TPP BEFORE and AFTER the election. Period. Full stop,” Podesta responded in a tweet. Follow Chuck on Twitter

Some of outdoor adventurer Bear Grylls’ biggest fans are kids. Their eyes widen at his derring-do, and boys and girls alike admire his survival skills and savvy. But the survival skills that are more likely to keep our kids safe and sound are actually far more mundane! Here are four survival skills that every kid should know, along with a few tips for parents. What to do if lost A lost child is a scared child, and usually their first instinct is to begin searching for their family. Train your children to stop and sit as soon as they realize they are lost. Assure them that, no matter how scared they might be, you are searching for them at that very moment; but also that, if they keep moving around, it will take longer to find them. Consider equipping your children with an inexpensive cell phone and when venturing outdoors, a few survival items tucked in a backpack or their pockets. Items such as a whistle, a bright bandana and a bottle of water are the makings of a kids’ survival kit that will go a long way to helping them be found more quickly. How to answer the door when home alone Usually the best strategy is to not answer the door! Yes, the person knocking could be a burglar scoping out the neighborhood. But once the door is opened, it’s that much easier for an intruder to enter. And children are easily overpowered. Train your child to enforce home security: Keep doors and windows locked and blinds and curtains closed. Noise from a TV or radio is fine. Someone with questionable motives will think twice about entering a home if they hear noises inside, even if the house is closed up and no one answers the door. What to do in a medical emergency From a young age, kids can learn how to dial 911 and report an emergency, but this takes practice. Spend some time rehearsing phone calls, teaching your children to relay detailed information to an operator, follow his or her instructions, and then stay on the line until help arrives. If possible, children should also get the home ready for the arrival of EMTs by putting pets in closed areas and, if it’s nighttime, turning on both indoor and outdoor lights. Summer is an ideal time for children to take first aid and CPR classes, that are typically suitable for kids age 9 and up. How to maintain situational awareness This one skill can help your child avoid many dangerous situations. The concept is simply for children to be aware of the people and events around them. Parents can help their children become more observant and aware—not by scaring them, but by playing games to teach and practice this skill. When driving in the car, for instance, ask your kids to describe a building or vehicle you just passed. Teach them to pay attention to the route home by asking them to give you driving directions! Tell them to close their eyes and describe what someone in the room is wearing. Encourage them to check out the license plates of passing cars: Which states are they from? What is the sum of the numbers on the license plate? Being aware of their surroundings will help them avoid predatory people and other dangerous scenarios. Simple to teach. Fun to practice. And, quite possibly, a life saver. Lisa Bedford is the author of Survival Mom: How to Prepare Your Family for Everyday Disasters and Worst Case Scenarios and editor of www.thesurvivalmom.com blog.

We are giving away an entire box of the New Studio Tobac Reckoning as a thank you to our readers. We recently reviewed this cigar and gave it a 91 rating (Very Good) and thought we would give you a chance to enjoy it as well. Here is an excerpt from our review: “This cigar started off slow and a little boring for me, but won me over in the end with some great transitions and balance of flavors. The profile was a very good woody and spicy balance. It wasn’t too strong, but not so mild I would call it a morning cigar, right in the middle. I would definitely smoke this again and recommend a fiver to see how it ages.” -Emmett (rhetorik) Be sure to read our whole review of the Studio Tobac Reckoning Toro here: Studio Tobac Reckoning Toro – 91 points The contest runs for 7 days. You can enter a number of ways, by commenting, following us on twitter, liking us on facebook, tweeting about the contest, and signing up for our emails. You can do some or all of these things to get more entries. You can also tweet about the contest 1 time per day for another entry. a Rafflecopter giveaway Contest: Win a Box of Studio Tobac Reckoning Robusto

Headquarters, Washington 202-358-5241 j.d.harrington@nasa.gov Jennifer Morcone Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. 256-544-7199 jennifer.j.morcone@nasa.gov Megan Watzke Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Mass. 617-496-7998 mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu J.D. HarringtonHeadquarters, Washington202-358-5241Jennifer MorconeMarshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.256-544-7199Megan WatzkeChandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Mass.617-496-7998 MEDIA ADVISORY : M08-089 NASA to Announce Success of Long Galactic Hunt WASHINGTON -- NASA has scheduled a media teleconference Wednesday, May 14, at 1 p.m. EDT, to announce the discovery of an object in our Galaxy astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years. This finding was made by combining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory with ground-based observations.To participate in the teleconference, reporters must contact the Chandra Press Office at 617-496-7998 or e-mail mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu . Live audio of the teleconference will be streamed online at:A video file about the discovery will air on NASA Television on May 14. NASA TV is carried on an MPEG-2 digital signal accessed via satellite AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization. NASA TV is available in Alaska and Hawaii on AMC-7 at 137 degrees west longitude, transponder 18C, at 4060 MHz, horizontal polarization.For information about NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory on the Web, visit: - end - text-only version of this release NASA press releases and other information are available automatically by sending a blank e-mail message to hqnews-subscribe@mediaservices.nasa.gov. To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send a blank e-mail message to hqnews-unsubscribe@mediaservices.nasa.gov. Back to NASA Newsroom | Back to NASA Homepage

How to Remove that Thrift Store Smell, and Other Vintage Cleaning Tips Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here. If you're someone who's big into thrift stores or is an avid collector of vintage clothing, you've likely faced one or more of these common problems: mystery stains, fabric that's yellowed from age and exposure, leather goods that are scuffed, nicked, or dried out, and the most ubiquitous of thrifting issues...that horrible musty smell. Well, woes be gone! We've got a whole countdown's worth of ways to tackle all those vexing vintage conundrums. Five Ways to Get Rid of that Vintage Smell Activated Charcoal Activated charcoal, also found under the names activated carbon, active carbon, and active charcoal, can be purchased loose in pet supply stores (look in the fish section!) or in brick form from companies like Innofresh. It's a great odor absorber and neutralizer; to use, seal the offending item in a lidded container or large sealable bag (even a trash bag will do) along with the activated charcoal for 24 hours, or even up to one week. Kitty Litter Record-scratch-whaaat??? Yeah, you read that right: Kitty litter is a super odor eliminator and is particularly great on items that don't play nicely with water, like beaded clutches or silk kimonos. The litter contains activated charcoal, so if you've already got some in the house, you can use it as a substitute in exactly the same way. White Vinegar Dress your vintage gear like a salad by spraying white vinegar on it. It sounds weird, but the acid in the vinegar will counteract any odors—the vinegar smell will dissipate fairly quickly, so you don't need to worry that you'll walk around smelling like a pickle. Vodka Another weird-but-true spritzing agent for odor removal is vodka; use the cheap stuff like Georgi or Popov and save the Chopin for your martinis. Steam Steaming a garment, especially if you use a scent-infused steaming solution, will eliminate smells from vintage goods, and will also help to revive wrinkled or napped fibers. A few passes may be needed to fully eradicate particularly pungent odors. Four Ways to Salvage Leather and Suede Saddle Soap Saddle soap is just what it sounds like: soap that's used to clean leather saddles. It will also clean leather bags, jackets, belts, and shoes that are dingy and worn-looking and is a particularly great choice for cleaning lighter-colored leather. To use it, apply a damp (but only very slightly damp!) cloth to the soap, which comes in a tin, and rub in a circular motion to produce a lather. Then apply it to the leather, wiping clean with a non-sudsy part of your damp cloth. Shoe Polish Most people only think of using shoe polish for shoes—we can't really fault them for that since the word "shoe" is right there in the name. But shoe polish, especially colored shoe polish, is great for reviving leather handbags that have been nicked, scratched, or otherwise banged up by their previous owners. Two brands to look out for that offer a huge variety of colored polishes are Tarrago and Meltonian. Leather Conditioner Leather conditioner is a milder choice than saddle soap for reviving older leather goods that may have become dried out over the years. You can buy a brand-name leather conditioner, such as Leather Honey, or DIY it by mixing two parts white vinegar to three parts olive oil in a spray bottle. Suede Eraser Suede erasers are The Thing for removing scuffs, stains and grime from all manner of suede items. If you can't find a dedicated suede eraser, you can substitute a white art eraser. Three Ways to Remove Yellowing Hmm, well, it's actually more like "one way to remove yellowing from aged items using any one of three products" but that seems a little unwieldy. Most yellowed clothing and linens can be brought back to their original white or light-colored state via a good, long soak in hot or warm water (depending on the fabric type—avoid hot water when working with linen and other easily shrunk textiles) and a generous scoop of either OxiClean or Borax. For particularly delicate or precious items, try using Engleside Restoration. These products will whiten and brighten without bleaching or otherwise causing color loss. Two Ways to Tackle Mystery Stains You can also try the OxiClean or Borax soaking method on items that have mysterious stains, but if those two products prove ineffective, try upping your game with either K2r or dry cleaning solvents. These are the kind of stain removal products that can be found at your local hardware store, so you know they mean business. K2r is a spray product that you'll apply to a stained item, allow to dry, and then brush away; dry cleaning solvents should be applied sparingly by putting a small amount on a light-colored cloth or rag and dabbing at the stain. Once you've gotten the spot out, you'll need to remove the solvents by going over the area with a clean, wet rag or cloth. One Thing to Just Avoid Don't buy used underwear, okay? WATCH: BUYER BEWARE AT OUTLET STORES

Following up on July's MF Bunko Summer School Festival 2014, the cast and staff of 8 Bit (Encouragement of Climb) upcoming TV anime adaptation of Takumi Hiiragiboshi's Abosulte Zero light novel series have been listed. Episode director Atsushi Nakayama steps up to helm the project written by Takamitsu Kouno (We Without Wings). Keiichi Sano (Heaven's Memo Pad) provides the character design and works with Norie Tanaka (M3) as chief animation director. Cast includes Toru Kokonoe: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka Julie Sigtuna: Nozomi Yamamoto TomoeTachibana: Ayaka Suwa Miyabi Hotaka: Ayaka Imamura Lilith Bristol: Haruka Yamazaki The series from the publisher of No Game No Life follows a young man whose quest for revenge takes him to a school that teaches the ability to manifest one's soul as a weapon... except his turns out to be a shield. He's then partnered with a silver-haired girl for school battle action. via otakomu ------ Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

In preparation to a move to Tacoma, Washington, I approached Rain City 3D to scan my new home. We had never set foot in the apartment. Other than a brief tour on a business trip to look at the demo apartment and a few photographs we hadn't set eyes on the unit! Rainy City 3D sent me the files and I was able to recreate the space using JanusVR. What an experience! It was the closest thing to being there! I walked through as if it were "move in" day--inspecting outlets, sizing up spaces, etc. This page will evolve as I add more furniture to the home. Open this page in JanusVR to see that Virtual Reality environment. Click to download JanusVR! A special thanks to the management of Proctor Station Apartments for indulging me in this request while I'm a continent away. Click here for more information about Matterport.

Something unbelievable is happening in San Francisco — or more specifically, in Santa Clara, which is an hour away from San Francisco on a day when there’s no traffic, but there’s always traffic. The 49ers have proved themselves to be completely incompetent; the fans keep showing up. The team is now 1–10 with a 10-game losing streak filled with multi-touchdown embarrassments, and yet the 49ers are averaging 70,178 fans per game, more than the stadium’s official listed capacity. Despite a crap team and buzz that fans would counterprotest Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco is sixth in the league in attendance in relation to stadium size. I say it’s unbelievable because I do not believe it. Pictures have shown the stadium half full. The resale market for personal seat licenses has plummeted, as some fans have been willing to take massive losses on their investment to avoid being forced to purchase an additional batch of season tickets in future years. Even the players have noticed: Two weeks ago after a game against the Patriots, Ahmad Brooks called the outsize number of road New England fans “a little disrespectful.” While the stadium has sold out for every game and the Niners have the receipts to prove it, the attendance is clearly not full. People are happy to not attend Niners games they have already paid for because the team is bad. And the stadium is an hour away from San Francisco, when there’s no traffic, and there is always traffic. On paper, Levi’s Stadium gave the 49ers a gleaming football palace capable of hosting the nation’s biggest sporting events, like last season’s Super Bowl and the 2019 college football national championship. It was supposed to be a place worthy of the many, many dollars the Bay Area and Silicon Valley have to spend. In reality, they spent $1.3 billion to build a stadium that a lot of people don’t like. In an ongoing series of drama, Levi’s latest concerns how the team has interacted with the civic government of Santa Clara. The city has authority over the stadium, and employs the 49ers to maintain it. In turn, the 49ers are supposed to provide documents to the city about how much money is being earned and spent at the stadium. The city says it hasn’t received these documents, and if it doesn’t get them within a month of the city’s November 22 request, it has threatened to seize the stadium from the 49ers. (49ers representatives have maintained that the team is giving the city regular reports that omit only confidential information regarding security plans and financial information related to non-NFL events.) It’s a strange feud. Neil deMause, who covers the relationships between cities and their sports venues, points out that we don’t normally get fights like this over relatively young stadia and relatively small amounts of money. But from the moment Levi’s Stadium opened, people have had valid complaints. • The field is bad. The team had to replace the field before the first game and had to end an open practice early last August. It made Russell Wilson do this, and a sinkhole caused Ravens kicker Justin Tucker to badly shank a field goal during a game last season, when he was completely unable to plant his foot. Even on the day of the Super Bowl, the turf quality was a concern, although ultimately everything was fine. There haven’t been any notable problems with the turf this season, though, so, uh, congrats! • The freakin’ sun is a problem. They didn’t think about the freakin’ sun. The stadium has a north-south alignment so TV cameras can avoid glare, which leaves about half the fans on the east side, where there is no built-in shade. At the very first preseason game, this proved to be a problem, leading to dozens of emergency calls and one death that may have been caused by heat. When Miami announced a canopy for its stadium, Niners fans poured in requests to do something similar at Levi’s. Instead, they got a “cool crew” that hands out sunscreen. Honestly, I’m surprised this isn’t a complaint at more stadiums — I’ve baked in the bleachers at baseball games, and, uh, not in the way A’s fans bake in the bleachers at Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum — but apparently it’s a bigger issue at Levi’s than most places. • Traffic and parking are bad at all stadiums, but the situation at Levi’s is impressively bad. Location is everything, and Levi’s is in a location that’s difficult to access and without ample room for the cars of all the people going to the game. And I know we’ve said it before, but it’s not close to San Francisco, the place the team hypothetically represents. • The stadium is pretty close to the San Jose airport, so it falls under the flight path of many incoming planes. The people who built the stadium didn’t consider this until after construction began. The FAA has to issue temporary flight restrictions during games, and even so, pilots have complained about the “blinding” lights from the stadium causing issues as they bring their planes in. • It’s expensive as hell. I’m not sure anything could’ve been done about this: All stadium food is expensive, and everything is more expensive in the Bay Area and Silicon Valley. But even in comparison to other teams’ ridiculous prices, it’s bad. The 49ers had the highest cost of attendance in 2014, and although they’re now fourth, they still boast the highest beer price in the league ($10 for 16 ounces, making each ounce worth 36 ounces of Busch Light in a $16 30-rack). And that’s not including the price of the personal seat licenses, which fans had to buy in order to then buy season tickets. • There have been two really bad cases of fan violence in the stadium. This is more of an issue with football fans in general, but it doesn’t speak well of stadium security, either. • And of course, the team began struggling as soon as the stadium was built. At the end of the 2012 season, the Niners were a few points away from winning the Super Bowl, and they followed that up with a 12–4 season in their last year at Candlestick. Then they went 8–8, hired a mustachioed handyman who went 5–11, and things have been even worse under Chip Kelly. If the trend continues, they will go negative-2 and 18 next year while coached by a guy who works at a local auto body shop during the week. Does this have anything to do with the stadium? No, but it’s a fun coincidence. Now, most of these issues are not unique to Santa Clara. Many stadiums have bad traffic, many stadiums are expensive, and many teams grapple with how to best ensure fan safety. But few teams consistently disrupt local airport operations or struggle to keep their field safe, and it’s concerning how it took almost no time for all these issues to bubble up. We know how expensive stadiums are and how they typically screw over taxpayers. But Santa Clara got what many thought was a pretty good deal for its taxpayers, and there are still plenty of problems. When you spend a billion dollars on a stadium, and it’s bad, you don’t really have an out. There have been a lot of problems in the stadium’s first three years — and the 49ers’ lease goes for another 37. Perhaps the biggest issue with the stadium, though, is one that can’t be quantified. People just don’t like the damn stadium. It’s corporate, and fandom isn’t. Maybe the team will spend enough money to fix all the stadium’s logistical issues over the next three-plus decades. But it’s harder to fix a feeling, and there’s no telling whether fans will ever feel at home in the billion-dollar blunder.

When we last saw the Kansas City Royals, they were dancing in a happy mob near the mound at Citi Field in New York. It was just after midnight on Nov. 2, and Wade Davis had frozen Wilmer Flores with a 95-mph fastball for the final out of 2015. The Royals won their first World Series in 30 years and tied a major-league record with their eighth come-from-behind victory of the postseason — a fitting tribute to the resiliency of a close-knit team that … Hey. Wait. Article continues below ... What happened to that ball? "I still have it," Drew Butera, the man who squeezed the final strike, told FOX Sports on Wednesday morning. "It’s in a safe in my house. My plan is to donate it to the Royals. They have a Hall of Fame in left-center field (at Kauffman Stadium). "As much as I would like to keep the ball and have the last out of the World Series, it’s so much bigger than me. It wasn’t just me winning the World Series. The ball belongs to the team, and I want to give it to them." When we think of the Royals, we imagine Salvador Perez crouching behind home plate. Minutes after Butera hugged Davis in midair, Perez was named World Series Most Valuable Player. Perez has won three consecutive Gold Gloves. He’s been selected to three straight All-Star teams. In 2014, he set a major-league record for games caught in a single season. In many ways, Perez is the Royals’ heart and soul. Yet, given the Royals’ unified ethos, there was something perfect about Butera capturing the final out. Butera’s career batting average is below .200, but he’s been adored and valued by managers and teammates throughout his career. Dependable behind the plate and gracious around the clubhouse, Butera made the roster for every postseason round because Royals manager Ned Yost trusted him to play superb defense and put forth a professional at-bat under pressure. Butera did both last October, drawing a pivotal walk in the most crucial half-inning of the Royals’ championship journey –€” the five-run rally to avoid elimination in Game 4 of the American League Division Series against Houston. Butera, 32, appeared in one game during the American League Championship Series, as Sal Butera — Drew’s father and a Toronto Blue Jays coach — looked on from the opposing dugout. But in a World Series that would last 53 innings, Butera was an observer for the first 52. That changed after Perez started the 12th inning of Game 5 with a single, and Jarrod Dyson replaced him as a pinch runner. Five runs later, Butera emerged from the Kansas City dugout, not thinking about the prospect that history would come to rest in his glove. "It didn’t even cross my mind," he recalled Wednesday. "When I was going into the game, I was just thinking, ‘Let’s get three outs and win the World Series.’ It didn’t matter if I caught the last out. Whoever got the last out, we were going to be able to call ourselves world champions. I didn’t even realize that I had the ball until somebody from Major League Baseball grabbed me to authenticate it." That conversation — amid the celebratory bedlam — was brief. "As soon as we started jumping around, they came straight to me and said, ‘We need that ball,’" Butera remembered. "I said, ‘I don’t know if I want to give it to you.’ But they said, ‘No, no, we just want to authenticate it.’ So they put the sticker on it, gave it back to me, and I went right back into the pile. "You can see that in a lot of the pictures. I have my hand up, and it’s still in my glove." Once the celebration moved to the clubhouse, Butera tucked the ball in his baseball bag, away from the champagne splashes. When teammates inquired about the ball’s whereabouts on the flight home, Butera pulled it from his bag and passed it around the plane. He stashed it in a secure place within his Kansas City apartment until after the Royals’ championship parade and has stored it in the safe at his Florida home ever since. (He did confirm that, yes, it has made occasional appearances at football-watching parties with family and friends.) One sports memorabilia company contacted Butera and offered $25,000 for the ball. He turned it down. By the time the Royals called a couple weeks after the World Series to discuss his plans for the ball, he had made up his mind. "It took me a little bit of time to decide because it would have been something cool to keep for years down the road," Butera said. "I could’ve shown my grandkids or kids and told them, ‘This is the ball from when grandpa or dad won the World Series.’ But that wouldn’t have been right. "The ball belongs to the group of guys who won it together, so it’s better that the Royals have it. They can display it for the fans. The guys will be able to come back and see it. This is bigger than me. It belongs to Kansas City."

A suggestion that Wilton Manors hang the transgender pride flag has the city aflap in controversy. The gay-friendly city already has the Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender rainbow flag hanging in Jaycee Park in Wilton Manors. But some advocates said transgender people don't necessarily feel they fit under the "rainbow" spectrum. "Many trans people identify as straight and wish not to be included under the Rainbow Flag because of being straight,'' transgender flag creator Monica Helms wrote in a letter to the city earlier this month. She asked them to fly the flag, at least on three upcoming transgender remembrance days. She wrote that flying the transgender flag in Wilton Manors would "show that the city is aware of the large diversity of the Trans Community and supports them.'' But at a recent City Commission meeting, Wilton Manors officials debated the issue and couldn't decide what to do. The debate is back on the agenda Tuesday night. Commissioners also are scheduled to vote on changes to plans for the 179-unit Metropolitan residential development planned for 1224 Northeast 24th Street. It was approved in 2014, with the condition that utility lines on Northeast 24th Street and Northeast 13th Avenue be buried. The developer, Ascend Wilton Twenty Fourth Street LLC, wants permission to leave the power lines above ground. The meeting is held at Wilton Manors City Hall, 2020 Wilton Drive, at 7 p.m. Tuesday. bwallman@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4541. On Twitter @BrittanyWallman

Greg Alexander, front, and Todd Mitchell of Dovetail Solar and Wind installs solar panels Thursday, July 30, 2009 in Westerville, Ohio. Ohio's latest budget seeks to put solar power in the financial reach of Ohio residents by addressing the cost of installation, the biggest barrier to the renewable energy technology's large-scale deployment. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato) The Ohio House of Representatives approved a bill on Wednesday that would roll back the state's renewable energy and energy efficiency law, making Ohio the first state to reverse standards meant to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. The bill passed out of a House committee on Tuesday and went to the floor Wednesday afternoon. The bill had already passed the Senate earlier this month. The Ohio legislature approved the renewable energy and efficiency standards in 2008, when it passed them almost unanimously. But opponents of the measure have been trying to roll them back for several years. Last year, state Sen. Bill Seitz, a Republican from Cincinnati, said the standards are like "Joseph Stalin's five-year plan." (Seitz is a co-sponsor of this year's bill.) The new measure would pause required increases in renewables and efficiency for two years, and would also weaken the standards when they come back into effect in 2017. The original plan called for a 5.5 percent increase in renewables by 2017, while the revised measure lowers that to a 3.5 percent increase. Rep. Robert Hagan, a Democrat from Youngstown who voted against the bill, said in a statement that its supporters are "clinging to outdated modes of energy generation." "As the rest of the country is moving forward on energy efficiency and independence, Ohio is moving backward,” Hagan said. “Reversing our Renewable Portfolio Standards is completely irrational, and unfortunately Ohio consumers and businesses are the victims of the absurdity." The bill has been hotly contested in the state. Environmental and consumer advocates opposed the rollback, but so did some conservative-leaning business groups. An editorial in the Cleveland Plain Dealer quoted the Ohio Manufacturers' Association as saying the measure "will drive up electricity costs for customers and undermine manufacturing competitiveness in Ohio." The automaker Honda, which is one of the largest employers in the state, also opposes the rollback. Environmental and energy efficiency groups oppose the measure, too, and are pushing for Republican Gov. John Kasich to veto it. Even other Republicans in the House committee tried to offer alternative measures that would not go quite as far, but those were blocked. An Ohio poll, which the environmental group League of Conservation Voters commissioned earlier this month, found that 77 percent of respondents wanted the state to increase the amount of energy it draws from renewables. While the poll of registered voters in the state found general support for renewables, only 18 percent of respondents said they had heard "anything at all" about the rollback bill. When given an explanation of the bill, 37 percent said they thought Kasich should oppose it. Only 18 percent said he should support it. (The vast majority -- 45 percent -- said they didn't know enough about the measure to say either way.) Thirty-seven states have some sort of renewable energy standard in place. Conservative and anti-regulatory groups have tried to roll those back in a number of states in recent years, but those efforts have failed. Ohio has been a leader in green jobs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a study in March 2013 that ranked the state fifth in the country in terms of green jobs, with 137,143 positions in manufacturing, construction and other jobs that "produce goods and provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources."

The late, great manager Sparky Anderson once said, “You give us the pitching some of these clubs have and no one could touch us, but God has a way of not arranging that, because it’s not as much fun.” Rockies fans can certainly relate, though they might not be laughing. When they flock to Coors Field and watch a team stocked with talented young position players they can’t help but wonder, “If we only had some pitching … ” Jeff Bridich can relate, too. On Sunday, he’ll arrive at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center outside Washington, D.C., to begin his third winter meetings as Rockies general manager. Acquiring a first basemen will be near the top of his off-season to-do list, but finding more reliable arms will be front and center on his hot stove burner. The major moves Bridich has made — from trading star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki to Toronto for three pitching prospects in 2015, to recently hiring former big-league pitcher Bud Black as Colorado’s new manager, to retaining Steve Foster and Darren Holmes as pitching coaches — illustrates Bridich’s constant quest to improve the Rockies on the mound. That said, some of Bridich’s most high-profile miscues have come trying to fill holes on the pitching staff. In February 2015, he signed veteran right-hander Kyle Kendrick to a one-year, $5.5 million contract. It was a disaster. Kendrick went 7-13 with a 6.32 ERA. Last winter, Bridich signed right-handed relievers Jason Motte (two years, $10 million) and Chad Qualls (two years, $6 million). The duo combined for just 56 innings pitched and a 5.14 ERA. Bridich remains undaunted. “One of the major goals of the last two years is to find ways to, in a multitude of different ways, better ourselves from a pitching depth standpoint,” he said. “The goal is to utilize all our assets looking at pitching and looking at, “Who are the good young pitchers? If we’re going to make trades, who are the types of guys we should go take chances on?'” Translation: Bridich knows more moves are necessary to upgrade a bullpen that posted a 5.13 ERA last season, worst in the majors, and end a cycle where the Rockies have averaged 92 losses over the past six seasons. New pitching philosophy Dig deeper than the won-loss record and it’s clear Bridich is overhauling the franchise’s pitching blueprint. Long gone is the four-man piggyback rotation. The Rockies also have scrapped the idea that only a certain type of pitcher — a sinkerball specialist as a starter, or a flamethrower out of the bullpen, for example — can tame the beast that is Coors Field. “We talked about that in my (job) interview,” Black said. “Is there a certain style that works here? I don’t think so. You know what works here? Good pitching, and making pitches and getting outs.” The four returning stalwarts of the Rockies rotation illustrate Black’s point: Right-hander Jon Gray is a power pitcher who racks up strikeouts; left-hander Tyler Anderson is a control artist with an excellent changeup; right-hander Chad Bettis utilizes four different pitches and right-hander Tyler Chatwood’s sinker induces a lot of groundballs. “I think any style can work at Coors, if the pitcher makes his pitches,” Black said. Mark Wiley concurs. Entering his 48th year in professional baseball, Wiley has been Colorado’s director of pitching operations since 2013. He oversees pitching from the minors to the majors and helped design a top-to-bottom pitching plan for the entire organization. “When I first returned here, there was definitely a focus on guys who could throw sinkers or guys who would throw two-seamers,” said Wiley, who was with the Rockies previously as assistant to player development from 2006-07 and as director of player personnel in 2000. “There was definitely an effort to acquire guy that threw a two-seamer or had a special sinker. “But as time evolved, we realized that there is a value to guys who throw sinkers, but there is also a big value to guys who have power fastballs, who can pitch up in the strike zone. And value to guys who have a real good changeup. It really isn’t that much different than any other place.” Bettis is thrilled with the change in philosophy. “It’s great, especially coming from the guys upstairs, understanding that we aren’t robots and that every guy is different,” he said. “I mean, what I have isn’t what Gray has, and what Gray has isn’t what Anderson has.” Bridich and Wiley, along with Doug Linton and Darryl Scott, the team’s minor-league pitching coordinators, have installed a strict set of criteria that young pitchers must follow in order to move up. The education begins with rookie ball in Grand Junction. Right-hander Jeff Hoffman, the centerpiece of the Tulowitzki trade, is a prime example of how the system works. Fans would see Hoffman’s prowess at Triple-A Albuquerque — a seven-inning, five-hit, 11-strikeout performance vs. Reno last June, for instance — and wonder why he wasn’t in the big-league rotation. But the Rockies wanted Hoffman to improve such things such as his pitch command and controlling the running game. “It’s not only about game awareness at the big-league level, it’s about mastering pitches,” Wiley said. “For example, guys that don’t have what we classify as a quality, big-league changeup yet, they have to work on it. We make them use it and develop it.” Results of the Rockies’ system-wide plan have been decidedly mixed, tainted by the bullpen’s multiple meltdowns last season that resulted in 28 blown saves, third-most in the National League. Yet there is promise, too. Opponents hit just .257 against Rockies last season, the fifth-best mark in franchise history and Rockies pitchers had 1,223 strikeouts, second most in club history. Counting on rotation Gray, Anderson, Chatwood and Bettis, the four starters who will form the core of the 2017 rotation, have a chance to become one of the best rotations in club history. The foursome went a combined 41-33 (.554 winning percentage) with a 4.28 ERA, the best mark since the 2009 rotation that led the Rockies to their last playoff appearance went 67-48 (.582) with a 4.05 ERA. “I think I speak for all four of us, when I say we can be really good,” Bettis said. “It’s a lot of fun, and what’s great is that we are still young and we are pushing each other.” What Wiley likes about the Rockies’ current crop of pitchers is their attitude. “Jon Gray is tough. Tyler Anderson is tough. Chad Bettis is tough. ‘Chatty’ is really tough,” Wiley said. “One of the first things we talked about when I came back here was, ‘If you weren’t tough, you are not going to be around.’ Because there is always going to be adversity (at Coors Field) … “We want guys who can handle it and don’t back away from it. We want guys who can win a game 6-4. We want a guy who can give up four runs in an inning and then battle through to the seventh inning.” Toughness, however, must be paired with talent, and Colorado’s bullpen lacked proven talent last season. While Bridich said he expects rebound seasons from left-hander Jake McGee, as well as Motte and Qualls, the Rockies will likely make moves to prop up the bullpen. Bridich has acknowledged free-agent talks with veteran closer Mark Melancon and left-hander reliever Mike Dunn, but he’s also said there are in-house candidate for late-inning roles. Those include right-hander Adam Ottavino, who took over as closer at the end of last season after recovering from Tommy John surgery; McGee, who’s trying to come back from a knee injury in June and show he can still bring the heat; and rookie right-hander Carlos Estevez, who was prematurely forced into the closer role in midseason because of injuries. “We are getting a lot of young guys through they system who are going to be able to help us in the bullpen,” Wiley said. “We didn’t have a lot of those guys before.” PITCHING PROGNOSIS The Rockies will be looking to improve their pitching this winter, either through free agency or a trade. Their major focus is the bullpen, which posted a major-league worst 5.13 ERA this year. The Denver Post Rockies beat reporter Patrick Saunders offers a snapshot of the team’s current crop of pitchers and top prospects: Established starters: LHP Tyler Anderson: The 2011 first-round pick blossomed in 2016 into a crafty control pitcher with a solid 3.54 ERA. RHP Chad Bettis: Staff workhorse won 14 games and went 7-2 with 3.75 ERA over last 14 starts. RHP Tyler Chatwood: Wonderful on the road (8-1, 1.69 ERA) but erratic at Coors Field (4-8, 6.12 ERA) RHP Jon Gray: Consistency is necessary next step for the Rockies’ strikeout king and most dominant pitcher. Fifth-starter candidates RHP Jeff Hoffman: Product of Troy Tulowitzki trade flashed talent but was uneven in six big league starts. RHP German Marquez: Began his season at Double-A; a September callup who shows promise as a starter or a reliever. Bullpen returners RHP Carlos Estevez: Erratic flamethrower who made 63 appearances but was 11 of 18 in save chances. Rookie was erratic. RHP Jordan Lyles: Appears best suited as a middle reliever after going 3-3 with a 4.42 ERA in 35 appearances. LHP Jake McGee: Huge disappointment with a 4.73 ERA and diminished fastball velocity, due in part to an injured knee. RHP Jason Motte: Shoulder problems limited his workload; 4.94 ERA made his two-year, $10 million, free-agent deal look bad. RHP Adam Ottavino: Returned from Tommy John surgery, but struggled, blowing five saves in 12 chances. RHP Chad Qualls: Injury and illness limited Qualls to an ineffective 44 appearances and an ugly 5.23 ERA. LHP Chris Rusin: Versatile and reliable, he’s become Colorado’s best long reliever. In limbo RHP Eddie Butler: Former first-round pick posted ugly 7.17 ERA this year. RHP Miguel Castro: Showed dynamite stuff early, but shoulder woes limited him to 14 ⅔ big-league innings. RHP Jairo Diaz: A talented, hard thrower missed the 2016 season with Tommy John surgery; figures to be late inning reliever in 2017. RHP Scott Oberg: Sustained blood clots in right arm; Rockies hopeful he can make full recovery. On the horizon RHP Yency Almonte: Has a 95-96 mph fastball, hard slider; projects as No. 4-5 starter or long reliever. RHP Shane Carle: Moved to reliever in AAA and posted 3.60 ERA with 18 strikeouts and four walks in 15 innings. RHP Matt Carasiti: His 9.19 ERA illustrates his rocky two months in the majors, but he didn’t allow a run in final eight outings. LHP Kyle Freeland: Posted a 3.91 ERA in 12 Triple-A starts and likely will make his MLB debut in 2017. LHP Sam Moll — Struggled at AAA, posting a 4.94 ERA. He projects as a possible left-on-left specialist in the majors. RHP Antonio Senzatela: Dynamic fastball/slider combination brought him to Double-A by age 21; lost most of 2016 season due to shoulder inflammation. BRIDICH’S BUSINESS Jeff Bridich, 39, has been the Rockies general manager since Oct. 8, 2014. Following are the major player moves made during his tenure: 2014 Signed RHP Jair Jurrjens as a free agent @ Traded RHP Rob Scahill to Pirates for RHP Shane Carle % Signed LHP John Lannan as a free agent # Signed RHP Jose Ortega as a free agent # Signed OF Jason Pridie as a free agent @ Signed LHP Aaron Laffey as a free agent @ Signed RHP Brett Marshall as a free agent # Signed RHP Justin Miller as a free agent @ Signed C Audry Perez as a free agent # Traded RHP Juan Nicasio to Dodgers for minor-league outfielder Noel Cuevas + Traded infielder Josh Rutledge to Angels for minor-league RHP Jairo Diaz % Signed outfielder Matt McBride as a free agent @ Signed LHP Buddy Boshers as a free agent # Signed infielder Daniel Descalso as a free agent @ Signed RHP Jason Gurka as a free agent @ Signed outfielder Roger Bernadina as a free agent # 2015 January Signed catcher Nick Hundley as a free agent @ Signed RHP Rafael Betancourt as a free agent @ Traded catcher Jose Briceno and catcher/outfielder Chris O’Dowd to Braves for RHP David Hale @ and RHP Gus Schlosser # February Signed third baseman Josh Vitters as a free agent # Signed RHP John Axford as a free agent @ Signed RHP Kyle Kendrick as a free agent @ March Released RHP Jhoulys Chacin @ July Traded RHP LaTroy Hawkins and SS Troy Tulowitzki to Blue Jays for RHP Jesus Tinoco +, RHP Miguel Castro %, RHP Jeff Hoffman $ and SS Jose Reyes @ November Traded RHP Tommy Kahnle to White Sox for RHP Yency Almonte % Traded RHP Rex Brothers to Cubs for LHP Wander Cabrera + December Signed RHP Jason Motte as a free agent $ Signed RHP Chad Qualls as a free agent $ Signed 1B Mark Reynolds as a free agent @ Signed outfielder Alex Castellanos as a free agent # Signed LHP Yohan Flande as a free agent @ 2016 January Signed 1B/OF Stephen Cardullo as a free agent $ Signed OF Gerardo Parra as a free agent $ Traded 3B Kevin Padlo (minors) and OF Corey Dickerson to Rays for RHP German Marquez $ and LHP Jake McGee $ February Acquired catcher Tony Wolters off waivers from Indians $ March Signed utility infielder Ryan Raburn @ June Released SS Jose Reyes @ KEY $ Currently on Rockies’ active roster % Currently on Rockies’ 40-man roster + Currently in Rockies minor-league system @ Played for Rockies, no longer with team # Never played for Rockies

The annual free Buskerfest Miami Street Performance Festival is coming. South Florida bands will perform from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 14, at each of the Inner Loop stops of the Metromover and select satellite locations, including the Olympia Theater, Sparky’s Roadside Barbecue and Miami Center for Architecture & Design. Rush Hour performances 8-9 a.m. will be The Tribe at the Civic Center, Rod & Martini at the Government Center, Liam O’Brien at Brickell, MelloCello at Douglas Road and Ben Bergstrom at Dadeland South. All the performers will join at 7 p.m. in Bayfront Park for a free Buskextravaganza and wrap-up show at the Tina Hills Pavilion. Performers for the wrap-up include Dangerfun Slideshow, Front Yard Theater Collective, UOM – Auditory Art, Salsa Timba 305, Les Ailes Du Desir, Hema Sharma, Fire Circus, Bonefish Johnny and Curt Big Fooley. Collect Passport Stamps at Sparky’s Roadside BBQ where they’ll have $5 Gringo burritos and $4 PBR beers and Mama Tried for $5 or less well drinks, beers and select wines. Click here for all info. Among the performers will be, click here to see full list with links: UOM Auditory Art Acosta 2DWN Ahli Andre Carvajal Baker’s Paradise Ben Bergstrom Bonefish Johnny Brendan Jay Broken Poet Bryant del Toro Cesar Paniagua Crnvl Brkr Curt Big Fooley Cynfully Sweet Dangerfun Sideshow Derelict Daughter Fasil Malik Florida Ukulele Network Freddy Stebbins Fire Circus Hema Sharma Jacob George Band FYTC Leif Erickson Liam O’Brien Juan Camilo Pelaez Lone Wolf (One Man Band) M4CH1N3 LMSOM Mary C. Smith Mellocello Marcus Magellan Mr. E and MLE Psychic Dove Milton Granadillo Rachel Rage and the Magic City Mad Men Rebecca Butterfly Vaughns Purpleberry Jam Ryan Rachal Rod & Martini Rhumba Jazz The Barely Damned Sunghosts Salsa Timba 305 The Tribe The TRAD305 The Canales Brothers Young Musicians Unite

Very interesting: Install AndroVM in VMware Player/Workstation – YouTube. The successor is Genymotion “the faster Android emulator”, and seems to have an easier installation path: Run Android on Your Desktop With Genymotion Android Emulator. One of the drawbacks of going native: the Delphi for Android compiler currently only generates ARM Android code, otherwise this would be a great way to test your apps. But it works fine if you use Java, Oxygene for Java or MonoDroid: much faster than the emulator (which you cannot run in a VM at all). There seems to be a way to install ARM translation, so I need to check that out: android – How to install google play service in the genymotion (ubuntu 13.04) .Currently it doesn’t have drag and drop suport – Stack Overflow. –jeroen via: Koushik Dutta – Google+ – Even if Microsoft is considering supporting Android apps on….

RK Singh who took oath today, joined BJP before 2014 national election and contested and won in Bihar Highlights RK Singh, then an IAS officer, arrested LK Advani in 1990 in Bihar A 1975-batch officer of Bihar cadre, he was Home Secretary under UPA He joined BJP before 2014 polls; contested and won from Arrah in Bihar 26 years ago, when BJP leader LK Advani's rath rolled into Bihar, then Chief Minister Lalu Yadav ordered his arrest. He chose two officers to stop Mr Advani's rath yatra from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh. One of them, Raj Kumar Singh, took oath today to join Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers.In October 1990, RK Singh was an IAS officer serving as a Secretary in the Bihar government. He was flown in a state government chopper early in the morning from capital Patna to Samastipur along with IPS officer Rameshwar Oraon. It Was RK Singh who knocked on the door of the Circuit House where Mr Advani was staying and told the top BJP leader that he had a warrant for his arrest.Mr Singh and Mr Oraon then flew Mr Advani to Patna and from there to the Masanjor guest house in Dumka district of what is now a separate Jharkhand state.Mr Advani's rath yatra to demand a Ram temple in Ayodhya would change the BJP's political trajectory. Within six years of Mr Advani's arrest in Bihar, the BJP first came to power at the Centre and LK Advani served as the country's Home Minister and deputy Prime Minister.Years later Raj Kumar Singh, 64, a 1975-batch officer of the Bihar cadre, would go on to become the union home secretary when the Congress-led UPA was in power at the Centre, cracking down hard on terror and naxalism.He joined the BJP before the 2014 national election and contested and won from Arrah in Bihar. LK Adavni, 89, who led a group within the party that opposed PM Modi's elevation in the BJP, has since been sidelined.

THE HARD SELL Mark Medley goes on the road with Douglas Gardham, the would-be king of CanLit Doug Gardham, a Canadian author with two self-published books, speaks about The Actor at a book signing in Toronto on July 9. (Photos by Jennifer Roberts for The Globe and Mail) On a recent Saturday evening, Douglas Gardham is sitting behind the wheel of his black Acura TL, on a highway west of Toronto, making his way back to Alliston, the small town where he lives. The road is slick from the rainstorm that passed through the area earlier that afternoon, and traffic is relatively light. The radio is off, and the car, for the moment, is quiet. He seems tired. It’s almost 10 p.m., and it has been, for Gardham, a long day; he’d arrived home just after one that morning, having spent the previous week-and-a-half in Mexico with his wife, where they celebrated their 30th anniversary, and left his house at 10 a.m. to drive to a Chapters bookstore in a big-box shopping mall on the border of Oakville and Mississauga. He spent the subsequent nine hours standing behind a small table, near the entrance, hawking his two self-published books to strangers. “It was a better day than I thought it would be,” he says, his eyes darting between the road ahead and the rear-view mirror. “I didn’t think we’d get to that number.” He sold 29 books that day, surpassing the 16 sales he averages at each event. This is Gardham’s career. Every weekend for the past three years, with very few exceptions, Douglas Gardham has travelled to a different bookstore, from British Columbia to New England, to sell his books. Three years ago, just after his first novel, The Actor, was published, he quit his full-time job of 20 years to try and make it as a writer. By his own estimate, he’s driven more than 115,000 kilometres during his travels, which have undoubtedly cost him much more than he’s earned. This weekend, he’ll be in London; next weekend, it’ll be Peterborough; at the end of the month, he’ll visit Toronto. He has events booked through the rest of 2016. When I ask, as we leave Mississauga behind, how long he can keep this schedule up, he doesn’t hesitate at all before answering. “I can’t see myself stopping.” You’ve probably never heard of Douglas Gardham. I’d never heard of him, either, when, a little more than three years ago, he e-mailed me out of the blue. He’d just published The Actor, which he’d been working on since 1998, and was trying to drum up some media attention. As a rule, I rarely write about self-published books – there are too many, they are largely terrible and most of them are not readily available in bookstores. I told him to send me a copy of the book, though I had no intention of writing about it. Over the months – and eventually years – that followed I began to think of Gardham as my benevolent stalker; he sent me regular updates, links to blog posts he’d written, interviews he’d conducted with small-town papers and radio stations and tagged me in tweets, which often included a photograph of Gardham, taken in whichever bookstore he happened to be visiting that weekend, smiling and holding up copies of The Actor and The Drive In, a short-story collection he published in late 2014. Most authors publicizing a new book spend a month or two spreading the word, but Gardham kept going and going. Last year, while visiting in-laws in Ottawa, I spotted him at the Chapters in Kanata; I watched from a distance, pretending to flip through a magazine, as he greeted everyone who walked by, fascinated by this author who was in the midst of a seemingly endless book tour. I felt sorry for him, to be honest, but I also admired his commitment. Finally, a few months ago, after receiving one of his newsletters and realizing it had been three years since he’d first contacted me, I could no longer help myself. Who was Douglas Gardham? The Actor is a thriller about a man who, haunted by the disappearance of his girlfriend years earlier, tries to become a star in Hollywood. We meet at the Indigo at Bay and Bloor in Toronto one Saturday in June. Gardham, who is 54 years old, has been told he looks like a slightly younger Bill Murray, although I’d describe him as John C. Reilly’s older brother. He’s wearing olive slacks and a purple plaid shirt and, when I arrive, is in the midst of preparing for the day. (He goes on to sell 18 books.) He shakes my hand with a child-like giddiness, and we sit and chat in a nearby Starbucks, agreeing how strange it is to be finally meeting after all these years. I apologize for taking so long to interview him, and he laughs. “I didn’t have a clue what I was doing,” he says of his early media outreach. “I had to come to the realization [that] I’d been writing most of my life, but from the world’s perspective, I’d just started.” The Actor, a bizarre, David Lynch-like thriller about obsession, delusion and determination, tells the story of a man named Ethan Jones who, still haunted by the disappearance of his college girlfriend years earlier, moves to Hollywood to try and become a star. It’s a novel about pursuing dreams, about never losing faith – lines include “You just can’t stand there and expect something to happen” and “You only get to go through [life] once, you know. You got to make it count” – and it’s difficult not to draw parallels between Gardham’s life and that of his protagonist. Ethan, even when his career is floundering, is constantly telling people, “You won’t forget me,” and to remember his name because “you’ll hear it again someday.” “I’ve talked to so many people who are not necessarily doing what they want to do,” he says. “They have something inside them that they would like to do but they just can’t. And that’s how The Actor was originally written – the idea of someone getting out from what they were doing and chasing a dream.” Gardham was born in Toronto in 1962. His mother was an elementary school teacher who became a stay-at-home mom after the birth of Gardham and his two younger siblings, while his father worked for Bank of Nova Scotia. The family moved from town to town – Oshawa, Kitchener, Petrolia – before settling in Markham. Gardham was a talented athlete – “If you talk to my father today, he would still say [I] could have played professional hockey” – and an avid musician (his high school band was named Atlantis; they make a cameo in The Actor). After graduating from Carleton with a degree in mechanical engineering, he moved to Toronto, where he worked for the Ministry of Transportation by day and played the occasional open-mic night, although his dreams of becoming a musician ended at the Free Times Cafe on College Street. “I invited a bunch of friends one night and it was just a disaster,” he recalls. “I was so embarrassed. That’s actually when I started to write short stories.” (The Gift, one of the stories collected in The Drive In, dates from this era.) He bounced around, from city to city – Toronto, Cambridge and, finally, Alliston – and job to job – a computer company, a snowplough manufacturer and Husky Injection Molding Systems, where he spent two decades. The entire time he was leading what he calls “a double life.” “Engineering is not particularly creative, and there’s a reason,” he says. “You want the planes to stay in the air, boats to float, wheels to stay on your car. You don’t want to get creative in those areas. So, for me, writing was always that outlet.” His first novel, which he wrote on the bus to and from work, was called H20 and was about an engineer working for a lawnmower company who invents a hydrogen-powered car that threatens the oil industry and leads to the abduction of his wife. A second novel, with the working title Misunderstood, concerned a man who learns of a sexual assault only to realize “he’s closer to it than he thought he was.” His third novel was The Actor. Gardham hopes to land a 'traditional' publisher for his next two novels, The Musician and The Author. After completing a manuscript in 2000, Gardham then tried to find a literary agent or publisher, sending the novel to several of the big American imprints. “I knew nothing,” he admits. “I would get rejection after rejection. I can remember being in Bolton” – where Husky is based – “and literally phoning New York from a pay phone to see whether they’d looked at my submission or not.” He put the novel aside for a while, writing short stories instead, but “it never went away. It would just eat away [at me]. And every two or three years, it would come back and say something like, ‘Is this it?’ ” Finally, after a decade of frustration, he turned to iUniverse, the Indiana-based publishing service that has released some eventual bestsellers, including Lisa Genova’s Still Alice and, here in Canada, The Best Laid Plans, by Terry Fallis. The novel was published in April, 2013; the following month, Gardham was asked to transfer to a new position at Husky, something he had little interest in doing. “I really felt like I had something special and I couldn’t let it go any more,” he says. So, during a meeting with colleagues, he asked them to search for his name and The Actor on the Internet. “ ‘Wow, an author with your name.’ That was the first response. I said, ‘That’s actually me. That’s my book.’ ” His last day of work was May 31, 2013; his friends held a book launch for him the next day. I visit Gardham in Alliston on a Monday afternoon in late June. He lives in a spacious suburban house with his wife, Laura, a personal trainer. (They have a son who lives in Toronto and a daughter who lives in Vancouver.) Upstairs, he shows me his office, the walls hidden by bookshelves showing off his wide-ranging taste in books: Nino Ricci and Alice Munro shelved next to Joe Hill; Jonathan Franzen’s Farther Away next to Neil Pasricha’s The Book of Awesome; two copies of Vincent Lam’s Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures; Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries and Ron MacLean’s Cornered; Claire Tomalin’s biography of Charles Dickens and Walter Isaacson’s biography of Albert Einstein; Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler and Stephen King. “I wouldn’t be here without King or Robertson Davies,” he says as I study the spines. “It was King that inspired me through his ‘Constant Reader’ notes that I could actually write, and Davies always said writing is more about diligence and discipline than anything else.” Gardham is disciplined in his diligence. He held his first signing in the summer of 2013 and has since then done more than 125 events. The weekend before we first met in Toronto, he’d been in Massachusetts and Vermont; the following weekend, he drove up to Sudbury for the day, arriving back home at three in the morning. He sold 27 books that day. “I think Doug probably does more signings at Chapters-Indigo than any other author in Canada,” says Keith Ogorek, the senior vice-president of marketing at Author Solutions, the parent company of iUniverse. “I don’t know what his motivation is. I don’t know how he’s wired – I haven’t seen his Briggs-Myers [personality test] or anything so I don’t know why he does it.” Gardham’s wife, Laura, describes her husband as “an introvert,” and Gardham himself initially dismissed the idea of doing in-store events, saying, “I’m the guy that comes in the store [and] goes to the shelf and looks at books. I’m not the guy that’s coming to the table.” The table is always flanked by a banner, about seven feet tall, which Gardham printed at Home Depot and which features both the covers, and short blurbs about, his two books. He will stand there – and he is adamant about this part, saying “if you’re not famous, and you don’t have a lineup at your book signing, stand up!” – for hours on end, rarely, if ever, taking a break. He brings snacks from home. He greets everyone who walks by with a cheerful hello, and always brings a stack of business cards to hand out to those who listen to his “20-second elevator pitch,” which he has delivered tens of thousands of times. “The Actor is the story of a young man’s journey of self-discovery and overcoming the trauma of a personal tragedy in his life, which he does in a somewhat unique way – by chasing a dream,” he says, delivering it like an infomercial voice-over when I ask him to try it out on me. “Except the dream isn’t quite what it seems. It’s a story of love and hardship, persistence and overwhelming joy. It reads like a thriller but it’s more than that. And the tagline for the book is ‘The Actor can portray anything you can imagine.’ ” Both times I watched him at work, he sold a book within the first five minutes; he happily signed their copies when the customers returned from the cashier. He often asks them to pose for a photo, which he will post on social media. The days can be long, and sometimes boring, but “it’s a privilege and good fortune to actually do something that I just never really thought was going to happen.” Gardham has an admittedly scattershot approach to publicity; the bookstore events are just one part of it. He blogs, updates his Facebook page and sends out an eclectic collection of tweets to his 86,000 followers. “I think you have to be everywhere. You have to consider almost everything. I know some things work and some things don’t.” Numerous times, he tells me how little he knows about the publishing industry, but this ignorance serves him well. “You’re not supposed to call Heather Reisman?” he asks me at one point. “Why not?” Since quitting his job of 20 years, writing is Douglas Gardham's only source of income. His wife, Laura, fears it 'won't be sustainable.' Gardham has already written his next two novels, The Musician, which he hopes to publish next year, and The Author; together, they form a trilogy. Despite his relative success with self-publishing – he’s sold more than 4,000 books in total, a solid number for Canada – he very much hopes to land a “traditional” publisher. He talks of reaching “the next level.” He’s planning more events in the United States, calling it “wide-open territory.” And although he’s visited many bookstores multiple times, he still sees potential growth closer to home. “There’s what, 3.5 million people in the [Greater Toronto Area]? My last number was 4,300 books [sold]. I have a long way to go.” Just how long he’ll be able to go remains uncertain. His life, he admits, “was planned and predictable before. It’s not like that any more.” When I ask him about finances, he says, in the business world, “you’re usually five-plus years before you actually break even.” He’s been at it for more than three. Writing is his only source of income, and currently, “I’m relying on savings that we’ve got. But we’re not far off.” He can’t imagine going back to work. “If you’re not willing to give up everything for it, you don’t want it bad enough.” Laura says that while “I really, really want it to work for him, because it’s something that he cares deeply about, of course I have concerns.” Such as? “That it won’t be sustainable. The books have got to hit a tipping point. One of these books has got to fly. It’s got to go big in order for him to make a living as an author.” But even if he gives up everything, success is not guaranteed. We’re sitting at his kitchen table, having just returned from lunch at his local diner, and I ask him if he ever considers that. “You can strive for something as much as you want but there’s no guarantee it’s going to pay off in the end,” I say. That spending almost every Saturday for three years on the road is not enough. That saying hello to strangers 500 times in one afternoon is not enough. That quitting your job is not enough. That visiting bookstores from Belleville to Brampton to Burlington is not enough. That writing is not enough. That none of it is enough. “You just don’t know what’s going to happen,” he says. “But not to try, and to wish you had, is a whole other category. And I’ve had enough of that to know.”

Touchdown Aviation (TDA), a company that stocks and distributes aircraft parts, just recently got a new arrival in the shop. The Airbus A320—formerly MSN 2137 of Air Asia—was born in October of 2003; the jet has seen some 12 years of active duty but it's still on the young side when it comes to being stripped for parts. But while this A320 may never again ferry passengers, its systematic teardown at the hands of TDA has resulted in some really fantastic imagery that shows the insides of the jet in all its complex glory. Here are a few of our favorites: Touchdown Aviation Touchdown Aviation Touchdown Aviation Touchdown Aviation Touchdown Aviation You can check out all the rest, and see parts of a plane you never even knew existed, on Touchdown Aviation's Facebook page. H/t Aviation Week

Breitbart Editor-at-Large Ben Shapiro and transgender reporter for Inside Edition and helicopter pilot Zoey Tur engaged in a heated debate over Caitlyn Jenner and transgenderism during which Tur threatened to send Shapiro home in an ambulance on Thursday’s “Dr. Drew On Call.” Shapiro was asked by host Dr. Drew Pinsky if Jenner deserved the ESPY’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award, he responded, “For what?” Pinsky then said, “For courageously coming forward, for having been an athlete of great prowess, and now fighting a new battle?” Shapiro asked, “What exactly is the battle? I mean, self-definition what is you do. And my baby’s doing it at 18 months old. I was unaware that you get a medal for it.” Entertainment journalist Segun Oduolowu, said that Jenner is “a fraud,” and “the message and the messenger were wrong.” He continued, “She said it herself in her speech, that she retreated to her mansion in the hill, and was — where was she in the ’70s when gay — when the LGBT community was fighting for acceptance? Where was she in the ’80s when AIDS epidemic was ravaging the –? … Where was she in the ’90s when shows like ‘90210,’ ‘Melrose Place,’ and ‘Will & Grace’ were bringing people — gay people to the forefront?” He added, “she’s a 65-year-old rich white woman that decided to do this. But don’t tell me you’re walking the truth for other transgender kids, kids of color who don’t have the war chest of money to get the surgery, to look like she looks. they’re not going to get the cover of Vanity Fair. But don’t tell me that she is going to stand on the banks waving her hand as the beacon of comfort for transgender [people], when there’s a river of blood of the people that die –.” “Pop Trigger’ host Samantha Schacher objected that regardless of anyone’s personal feelings about Jenner, “her intent, she is bringing a conversation to the forefront that is helping people better understand, not you unfortunately, better understand the transgender community, have more empathy, have more tolerance, and that is saving lives. Because as she stated, there are so many transgender youths and adults that are victims of violence, that are beat up, that are bullied, because of the discrimination. So, thank God that now she is mainstreaming it so people can better understand it and have tolerance.” Oduolowu objected that this is “dead wrong” as Jenner “lives in the most accepting in the state” and should “go do that in Alabama.” wait — Tur argued, “You have to bifurcate it. Did she deserve the honor? Probably not. Is she brave? Of course she’s brave. All those years invested as the sports legend, to come out transgender is horribly difficult. It is the most difficult thing you can do. I’ve been overseas, I’ve flown helicopter missions, surveillance missions, I’ve been shot, stabbed. Being brave is being yourself. And being transgender is about the bravest thing you can do.” After Tur and Oduolowu had a brief exchange, Shapiro wondered, “Why are we mainstreaming delusion?” When asked why he would refer to transgenderism as “delusion.” He responded, “Because, Bruce — Caitlyn Jenner, I’ll call him Caitlyn Jenner –” Schacher then interjected, “No, it’s her, you’re not being polite to the pronouns, it’s disrespectful.” Shapiro responded, “Okay, forget about the disrespect, facts don’t care about your feelings. It, turns out that every chromosome, every cell in Caitlyn Jenner’s body, is male, with the exception of some of his sperm cells. … It turns out that he still has all of his male appendages. How he feels on the inside is irrelevant to the question of his biological self.” Oduolowu clarified his position that, “She wants to be called she, I’m going to call her she. I just have a problem with the message and the messenger.” Pinsky then argued that ABC did a good job getting viewers, which is the point of an awards ceremony. Pinsky continued, “In terms of the science behind gender disphoria, you’re very familiar with that, Zoey. It’s not about the…chromosomes within our nuclei.” Tur responded, “We both know chromosomes don’t necessarily mean you’re male or female.” And “you have a thing like Klinefelter’s syndrome. So, [turning to Shapiro and touching his shoulder] you don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re not educated on genetics –.” Shapiro asked if the discussion was supposed to be on genetics and asked, “What are your genetics, sir?” Pinsky said to Tur, “I’d stay away from the genetics and back to the brain scans.” Tur then said to Shapiro, “You cut that out now, or you’ll go home in an ambulance.” Shapiro responded, “That seems mildly inappropriate for a political discussion.” Oduolowu said that, to be fair, Shapiro was being rude, to which Shapiro answered, “I’m sorry, it’s not rude to say that someone who’s biologically a male is a male.” Tur stated, “You just called me a ‘sir.'” After some of the other panelists, particularly radio and “Chain Reaction” host Mike Catherwood, objected that Shapiro knew that what he said would be “insulting” and “inflammatory.” Shapiro responded, “It’s not a matter of insulting or inflammatory. It’s a fact. You are a male. Dr. Drew is a male.” Catherwood conceded, “Sir, you’re right…on paper, what is a fact is a fact, and I can’t deny that.” He maintained, “But you knew that going in that to say that to Zoey would be aggressively insulting.” Shapiro maintained, “It’s not a matter of aggressively insulting. … The entire discussion is whether we are embracing mental illness and delusion as a society, that’s the entire discussion.” Catherwood maintained, “You knew saying that to Zoey would be incredibly –” “Rolanda on Demand” host Rolanda Watts argued, “There’s some very startling statistics that are out, that say that 80% of us know somebody who’s gay or bisexual or even transvestite or lesbian. But only 1% of us know somebody who is in transition. So, this is a new discussion for us. A lot of it is very scary for a lot of people. But that’s — I think, whether we agree with the whole Caitlyn transition or not, the reality is that we are in a state as humanity right where we need to exercise a little bit more tolerance. We need to understand the things that we don’t understand a bit more, instead of making inflammatory comments, maybe we have a little bit more tolerance. That’s what I think –.” Pinsky went to commercial break urging “no aggression, no violence.” The debate over Jenner continued in the next segment, watch below: Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

Seismic testing is finished for the season in Kent County, but the political debate on shale gas is continuing. Premier David Alward's Tories continue to say development is key to New Brunswick's economic future. But the premier's critics are pointing out that Alward was raising the alarm about the industry less than four years ago. In April 2010, David Alward was questioning the safety of shale gas development in New Brunswick. (CBC) In the legislature last week, Progressive Conservative MLA Glen Savoie was praising the possibility of shale gas development in New Brunswick. "We want to bring thousands of jobs and billions of dollars to New Brunswick," Savoie said. Savoie accused the Liberals of "fear-mongering" for urging caution in developing shale gas in the province. "The do-nothing moratorium party has made their decision," he said. Now the People's Alliance party and environmentalists are highlighting comments by Alward when he was the Opposition leader. In April 2010, in the legislature's question period, it was Alward who was urging caution and raising fears about fracking. "The process has been known to result in dangerous chemicals ending up in the water table," Alward said at the time. "In many cases in the United States fracking poisoned wells," he said. The Progressive Conservative election platform in the fall of 2010 said a PC government would allow "responsible" development of natural gas. The Liberals have also changed their stance on the shale gas file. During that 2010 question period exchange with Alward, Liberal cabinet minister Wally Stiles was defending hydraulic fracturing and the companies that do it. "Southwest Energy has a very good track record, an environmentally friendly company," Stiles said. The Liberals are now calling for a moratorium on shale gas development in New Brunswick while further study is carried out. SWN Resources Canada completed its testing for potential shale gas development in Kent County on Friday.

Here’s forty seconds you’ll never get back… pic.twitter.com/ChLCP0P5um — Harry Shearer (@theharryshearer) September 26, 2017 Not since Leonardo DiCaprio vaped through the SAG Awards has the practice appeared to be so enthralling. In this leaked Fox News footage — which has been wryly tweeted by actor Harry Shearer — people can now catch a glimpse of exactly what host Sean Hannity does during segment breaks. He doesn’t have much time to spare, but the guy can multitask within 42 seconds. Hannity begins with a customary “watch this,” and then all hell breaks loose. If you haven’t watched the clip yet, you must do so. Hannity quickly gets down to business — vaping away, guzzling water, and attending to that random itch on the back of his neck. On one hand, it’s admirable that he can make the most of his sparse on-air downtime, but it’s a little disconcerting to see him choreograph so much action into such a short amount of time. Yet this is honestly the most riveting thing he’s done in months, and it threatens to steal thunder from his brash new sidekick, Tomi Lahren. And maybe that’s exactly what Hannity needs to do because, lately, his antics have been lukewarm. Some bickering and mild feuds keep him in the Internet headlines, but a lobster meltdown doesn’t carry nearly as much viral power as accusing Obama of doing “weed” and “blow” with a federal judge. So, Hannity’s gotta vape it up, and maybe — just maybe — he wants everyone to see this. After all, this leaked footage almost makes him relatable. How’s that for a conspiracy theory? Here’s another one from Twitter…

Just days after shutting down a number of HIV/AIDS clinics accused of promoting homosexuality, officials in Tanzania have announced plans to publish the names of gay people. Deputy Health Minister Hamisi Kigwangalla tweeted on Saturday that his government is investigating “the homosexuality syndicate” and will arrest and prosecute those involved in the gay sex business, reports the BBC. Uliishakutana na mbuzi ama ndege walio homosexual? Homosexuality is not biological, it is unnatural. I wonder even kuna watu wanatetea! 🙌🏿 https://t.co/n7t93Ho7cN — Dr. Kigwangalla, H. (@HKigwangalla) February 19, 2017 In a series of further tweets, Kigwangalla, a medical doctor by profession, argued that homosexuality only happens in urban areas and is unnatural because there are no gay goats or birds. If someone chooses to burn your house, he breaks a law! Will you allow that freedom. Or if someone chooses to sodomise your son… https://t.co/Z2QmwkGhvJ — Dr. Kigwangalla, H. (@HKigwangalla) February 19, 2017 He later added: “I will publish a list of gay people selling their bodies online. Those who think this campaign is a joke, are wrong. The government has long arms and it will quietly arrest all those involved. Once arrested, they will help us find others.” Earlier this month, Kigwangalla ordered three men he accused of being gay to report to the police for “spreading” homosexual activity through social media. Hakuna literature hata moja inayosema hivyo. Homosexuality has no any scientific backing! I am a scientist and I read a lot than you think https://t.co/OvNFpknLus — Dr. Kigwangalla, H. (@HKigwangalla) February 19, 2017 Kigwangalla’s outspoken comments on Twitter follow the health ministry’s move last week to suspend the activities of 40 drop-in HIV/Aids clinics. (Image via Twitter)

More small restaurants may be able to find a home on some of Edmonton's most vibrant streets if council approves a pilot to ease parking requirements for businesses in those areas. Council is considering reducing the number of parking spots restaurants and bars need to open on 124th Street, Whyte Avenue or part of Jasper Avenue. As it stands, a typical-sized restaurant considering setting up shop on Whyte Avenue would need to find 28 parking spots. "There's just physically no way to meet that requirement," said Murray Davison, executive director of the Old Strathcona Business Association. Davison said the requirements are a major obstacle for new businesses looking to move to the area. City data shows that special permission to have fewer parking spots had to be granted in 74 per cent of all food and drink-related development applications on Edmonton's main entertainment strip. Davison said the current bylaw does not account for the fact that many people don`t use vehicles as their main way to get around, particularly when visiting places like Whyte Avenue. The pilot would reduce the number of spots required on its three main streets from: 50 to eight spaces on 124th Street 24 to three spaces on Jasper Avenue near Oliver 28 to three spaces on Whyte Avenue The current parking requirements in Edmonton are much higher than other Canadian cities, according to a city report. Coun. Ben Henderson said there's still plenty of parking in the areas that could be affected by the pilot. But, he said, the city has to look beyond accommodating cars. "The success of a 124th Street or a Whyte Avenue is not about your ability to park," he said. "It's about your ability to walk around, to go from shop to shop." He said the reduction signals that the city is moving away from suburban-style developments, and embracing old-style main streets. "Ultimately we know we can't build the kind of infrastructure where everybody can drive and park wherever they want to go. It's just not possible," he said. If approved, the city will monitor the development permits in the area to make sure pilot is having the desired effect. Council will debate the pilot on Tuesday. Further plans to improve the city's main streets will be discussed in March. Meanwhile, Davison said more work still has to be done before parking issues in Old Strathcona are resolved. He's hopes the city takes steps to improve residential parking and access to public transportation and LRT.

by The government of Iceland has forgiven the mortgage debt for much of its population. This nation chose a very different way of stopping the crisis from the rest of European countries. It decided to hear the requests of the population and to put politicians and bankers on the bench of the accused three years after their financial excesses would sank one of the most prosperous economies in 2008. Iceland Forgives Mortgage Debt for the Population. Putting Bankers and Politicians on “Bench of Accused” This is awesome. It shows when the people DO STAND UP they have more power and win against the corrupt bankers and politicians of a country. Iceland is forgiving and erasing the mortgage debt of the population. They are putting the bankers and politicians on the “Bench of the Accused.” Which means I assume they are putting them on trial for corruption. Now the rest of people of the world need to start doing the same thing. We all need to stand up and against all the corruption and fraud of the banks and politicians that are puppets of the banks and corporations. The beauty of it is that they will have a load of cash to circulate into the economy and into service industries etc…instead of feeding it to the parasite bankers and out of the economy, great idea. If it was warmer I’d move to Iceland. For Whom The Bell Tolls: This could very well be the first chime of many to signal the Death of the World Banking System headed by our ‘good’ friends the Rothschild’s. Iceland Strikes the First Major Blow Against the World Banking (Fraud) Cartel. This is what can immediately put money into the hands of many American’s. The Us Government through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA own 96% of all bad housing loans. Many have stated, that in effect, “The US Government is Foreclosing on itself.” This is the very definition of Insanity. It is a form of Suicide. Major Banks only hold 3% of bad housing loans, 3%! This is not a banking problem, it is a Government problem, they hold the loans! We were just about to do a story on America Foreclosing on itself when this article came across our computer. Times have just gotten brighter. This is Awesome, News! The Title says it all: The True Democracy Party now calls for Nation-Wide Mortgage Debt Forgiveness! “Who is with US ?!”

Electrically stimulating the vagus nerve, which connects the brain and the visceral organs, could help temper the phantom sounds that plague tinnitus sufferers. Researchers from Microtransponder, a Dallas-based startup developing wireless stimulation technology, reported at a neurotechnology conference in Boston this week that the approach works in animals with auditory damage that mimics the disorder. The company is adapting its neurostimulation technology, currently being developed for chronic pain, to target the vagus nerve. Tinnitus, the false perception of ringing or other sounds in the ear, affects millions of people worldwide. Most often associated with hearing loss, it has become an especially common problem in soldiers exposed to loud blasts. The severity of the disorder varies widely, from relatively benign to debilitating, and the few existing treatments tend to mask the intrusive sound rather than eliminate it. While it’s unclear exactly what causes tinnitus, research suggests it arises from the brain’s attempt to compensate for hearing loss. Damage to the inner ear, which translates sound vibrations into neural signals for the brain, results in less input to the brain’s auditory pathways. The brain appears to try to make up for this loss of input by increasing activity, which may in turn result in phantom sounds. Michael Kilgard, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas, aims to reverse this maladaptive reorganization using a combination of electrical stimulation and sound. Kilgard has previously shown that stimulating part of the brain called the nucleus basalis while playing a particular tone triggers the auditory cortex to reorganize to become hyper-responsive to that tone. To treat tinnitus, the idea is to stimulate this area while playing all sound frequencies except the one corresponding to a patient’s phantom sound, thus signaling to the brain to become more responsive to all these other frequencies. If successful, this would rebalance the auditory cortex. Rather than targeting the brain directly in humans, Kilgard turned to the vagus nerve, part of the nervous system that connects the stomach, liver, and other organs to the brain. Implanted devices that stimulate the vagus nerve are currently approved to treat depression and epilepsy and are being tested for other disorders. Researchers plan to test the concept in people with tinnitus in upcoming clinical trials in Belgium. Kilgard says the researchers will use simple electrodes, which are implanted at the neck and stimulated with an external device. While the exact parameters are still to be determined, patients will undergo treatment for half an hour to an hour each day, for days or weeks. Unlike vagus nerve stimulation for epilepsy, which involves chronic stimulation, treatment for tinnitus will likely be for a limited period of time, researchers say. In conjunction with these clinical tests, Microtransponder is modifying its existing technology for tinnitus. Unlike other stimulation devices, Microtransponder’s system is wireless and has no batteries. The implanted portion consists of small electrodes and a small coil. An external battery-powered coil worn like a cuff on the arm or leg powers the device. “The idea would be to inject the wireless device and then put a coil around the neck to activate it [during a treatment session],” says Kilgard. “If the tinnitus comes back five years later, the device is still there and you can do the treatment again. Harvard’s Melcher says the approach is very interesting, though “whether it works is an open question.” She points out that “we are still trying to sort out what aspects of brain plasticity are involved in tinnitus. There may be different kinds of tinnitus, with different types of brain activity giving rise to the perception of sounds that aren’t there.” All of these may require different treatments.

@hiveproject_netOn Sunday evening I caught up with a friend who spends his time immersed in the crypto currency space. I’d bumped into him a few days earlier and said I’d shout him a drink or two if he’d be so kind as to devote an hour or so of his time to helping me get across the latest ICO craze sweeping the startup world. And while I was lucky enough to get a master class in person, if you haven’t yet got your head around tokens and ICO, these articles are worth a read: Bernard also wrote an excellent article on crypto back in May Once you do understand what’s going on, it’s fun to start thinking of two sided network problems you could solve via a token model. My first modest attempt was to use an ICO to build a community of trusted financial advisors, who were remunerated for providing non-conflicted financial advice to consumers on the network who paid a monthly access fee. To seed my community, the idea was to open my ICO to accredited financial planners. Let’s call this token $ADV (for Advice). Financial planners could buy $ADV in my initial ICO, and for every question successfully answered in the network, could generate a return on of 0.0000X% (or something similar) of the network’s monthly access fee, per $ADV held. Questions that were answered well and stood the test of time could receive up votes from the community – another possible way for $ADV holders to generate income. And of course $ADV could be sold to a new financial planner – similar to how financial planners sell their practices and clients today. The value of $ADV would increase as the number of consumers using the network increased. Think Quora mashed up with Augur. If you think about it, a modern day financial planner could build an entire client base and business using this model. In fact, it’s not hard to imagine that consumers in this network could start specifically asking certain planners to answer their questions, rather than throwing it out into the wild. The trick of course would be to make the network’s compensation model attractive enough compared to dealer groups – a source of conflicted advice and frustration for many consumers. And the cost and quality of advice received by consumers, would need to be better than going to a financial planner directly. Small Business Invoice Financing ICO – Hive Ideas aside, in terms of the small business space, I did come across the following ICO, which if you’re hungry for a slice of the ICO action, looks like there’s still time to get in on. Hive claims it will be the first crypto currency invoice financing platform for SMEs, with its ICO opening in 4 days and closing at the end of July. From what I can gather – and I’d say you’re best to verify this yourself – Hive tokens give holders the right to participate in the network and generate a return by funding invoices. The carrot for small business owners is the speed of execution of the financing element. Decentralisation is certainly the flavour of the year, with ICO’s leading the charge. No doubt there will be some disasters, just as there are in the traditional venture capital and investment space. But the principles underpinning the concept certainly seem to have the legs to run the distance. And, I’m sure our new author on Monday’s, Ilias Louis Hatzis, will have plenty more to say about that on a weekly basis! Daily Fintech Advisers provides strategic consulting to organizations with business and investment interests in Fintech. Jessica Ellerm is a thought leader specializing in Small Business.

State of the art Probably you’re a webdeveloper. Probably you’ve got a long journey behind you. Probably you were using php, cgi or even asp (ugh!) in the past to create your websites or apis. Probably you recently stubmled upon nodejs and learned to love the full stack JavaScript approach… and that was when it got nasty. Problems with nodeJS Callbacks. They just suck. The idea is to have asynchronous code which is very fast and you could do multiple things at once. But in the end you wind up waiting for each callback to be called. Koa is a framework which tries to get rid of these problems by using yield in a comfortable way for developers. So you basically have a framework which converts JavaScript from an asynchronous language in a synchronous language – which works surprisingly well. 0.10.x vs 0.11.x When working with current frameworks like koa, you will most certainly run into compatibility problems. Oh – but we do have version managers. Yeah right. I did something like this a lot: n use 0.10.32 npm install n use 0.11.14 npm install Typelessness You cannot be sure what type a variable has at any given point. You can only assume from your code that it should have the right type. While this is a “feature” of JavaScript it can be annoying in big applications. Also it will be a pain in writing tests for your software. Could be worse Let’s not rant too much about nodeJS. NodeJS has a lot of upsides – one of the major ones is that it is written entirely in JavaScript. Node is still a nice tool and if it’s working for you then you have nothing to worry about, but if things are bothering you, don’t forget to step out of your box and see what else is out there — within the first few hours of using Go for production work I was already hooked. TJ Holowaychuk 3 main reasons why you should consider Go (and probably love it) 1. It’s easy to learn There a tons of resources to learn go. Before even installing it on your machine and dealing with configuring the workspace and getting used to the library structure, you can play around with it at the playground. 2. You feel like you are in charge Take bodyparsing for example. In NodeJS applications you throw in some bodyparser library which populates all of a request’s body to req.body and you’re done. Awesome, right? No. You would have to check if your desired values are stored under the given keys. if(typeof req.user != 'undefined' && typeof req.user.age != 'undefined') { /* yay ... i know your age now. But not if it is numeric */ } In Go you would achieve this a little different. First you would define how the request should look like: type UserAgeRequest struct { User struct { Age int `json: "age"` } `json: "user"` } You would then receive the request and parse it. Notice the annotations behind the values `json:"age"` ? This is where you tell the json decoder where to look: var body = UserAgeRequest{} decoder := json.NewDecoder(request) // request is a pointer to an http.request err := decoder.decode(&body) // Decode the request and store the result inside body if err != nil { Log.prinf(err.Error()) // Something went wrong } While this is slighty more code than in NodeJS it has one major benefit: You exactly know whats coming at you. You would only have to check wether some attributes are empty, but there is no way of sneaking some unwanted data into your application. It’s great in terms of sanitizing user input. Also there is no memory wasted since we only store what we want to store. 3. It’s synchronous No callbacks. Will you lose performance? No. You can start parallel threads via goroutines concurrent goroutines – a concept explained here. You can even communicate between two independent threads goroutines via channels. Thanks for pointing that out nillium on reddit – also check out this talk on the topic. More benefits Errorhandling is superior It’s super fast A superb testing framework is included There is this awesome vim plugin Lot’s of free libraries to use: Sophisticated router MongoDB driver Various middlewares Third party code is usually very easy to read and understand Try it out! Hop over to the projects website and get started. You won’t regret it.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City police officers will hit the streets Thursday to warn residents of the dangers of shooting off guns on the Fourth of July, and they’ll have a special guest with them. Five years ago, a stray bullet on the Fourth of July took the life of a young girl. Her parents will be with police as they knock on doors up and down the Troost corridor, encouraging residents to keep their guns locked up this Fourth of July weekend. Blair Shanahan Lane was playing outside with friends and family on July 4, 2011, near 43rd and Pittman when a stray bullet hit and killed her. Aaron Sullivan fired that fatal shot – he had been shooting his gun in the air to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday. Since then, police have installed equipment up and down Troost called ShotSpotter – it’s a system that can identify exactly where and how many shots are fired at any given time. Last year during the Fourth of July weekend, ShotSpotter identified 18 addresses where folks shot off guns into the air several times – the worst offender firing off 21 bullets. Police and Blair’s parents plan to go to these homes and plead with the residents to keep their guns locked up this weekend. The hope is if residents know that police know whenever they fire off their guns, it’ll stop them from shooting into the air in celebration this year. Blair’s parents actually went with police to a few homes Wednesday but will continue to do so Thursday, with the hope that their story will save other kids from becoming the victim of a stray bullet.

Susan Olsen, who played the youngest daughter, Cindy Brady, on The Brady Bunch, was fired from her hosting gig on a Los Angeles–based radio show after she posted a homophobic rant on Facebook. The 55-year-old former child star spoke with openly gay actor Leon Acord-Whiting as she cohosted LA Talk Radio's Two Chicks Talkin' Politics segment on Wednesday, December 7. After the show, Acord-Whiting took to Facebook to accuse Olsen of spreading "outrageous misinformation." "It is wildly irresponsible for LA Talk Radio to allow a Trump fanatic to co-host one of their programs, where she can spew her idiotic lies unchecked. (Being a liberal and a patriot are mutually exclusive? Hillary is causing the protests & hate crimes? The Koran is a political tract?)," he wrote, referencing the numerous topics discussed on Wednesday's episode. "As much as I love [cohost] Sheena Metal, I think LA Talk Radio needs to give 'Cindy Brady' her walking papers. I will not listen to or appear on any shows there from this point forward until she's gone. This isn't just disagreeing on, say, tax plans or foreign policy. Susan Olsen spreads outrageous misinformation & it is dangerous and unprofessional." A day later, Olsen responded on her Facebook page, writing, "This is the little piece of human waste. He blocked himself from me before I could even get one hit in. If you can find him, please send him my love." Acord-Whiting then took the feud a step further and shared a screenshot of an expletive-filled private message that Olsen allegedly sent him on Facebook, which read: "Hey there little p–sy, let me get my big boy pants on and Reallly take you on!!! What a snake in the grass you are you lying piece of s–t too cowardly to confront me in real life so you do it on Facebook. You are the biggest f—-t ass in the world the biggest p–sy! My D–k is bigger than yours Which ain't sayin much! What a true piece of s–t you are! Lying f—-t! I hope you meet your karma SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY." LA Talk Radio announced on Friday, December 9, it had fired the actress in the wake of her homophobic rant. "LA Talk Radio takes pride in its close and collaborative relationship with the LGBT community, and will continue to provide a home for those who have hopeful and positive messages of togetherness and tolerance to share with our listeners," the station wrote in a statement on Facebook. "We will not tolerate hateful speech by anyone associated with our radio station and have severed our ties with a host that veered off the direction in which we are going." Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox! Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now!

The Nova Scotia Green Party holds its annual general meeting at this time every year. Leader Thomas Trappenberg says it's just good luck that this year's AGM may be the same weekend as an election call. Party members met at Dalhousie University in Halifax on Saturday, hearing from P.E.I. Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker and New Brunswick Green Party Leader David Coon, who both have seats in their respective legislatures. Trappenberg hopes some of that success can rub off on Nova Scotia, where the party nearly folded last year due to an inactive membership and the death of the party's official agent, Ian Charles, who had volunteered to help build the party from its founding. On Saturday, the party was in full swing, electing its provincial executive, discussing policy and identifying election candidates. More candidates needed Trappenberg said there is now a good team in place rebuilding the party, though he said he would prefer the election happen after the summer. He said they could use the time to continue rebuilding and they're still on the lookout for more candidates. "However, we are ready whenever," he said. "This is why we are here." Trappenberg said the Green Party has a reputation of being stuck in place because of its environmental focus, but in reality it's just the opposite, he said. "In other countries they have shown that a sustainable, new green economy is doing very well," he said. "[Nova Scotia is] still opening coal mines and keeping the coal where we could have solar energies here which we actually manufacture here." He said there are several candidates in place, but that every Nova Scotian should have a chance to vote for the party. Sheila Richardson plans to be the party's candidate in Kings South. Sheila Richardson, Green Party member who is planning to run in Kings South, is interviewed by <a href="https://twitter.com/CBCNS">@CBCNS</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nspoli?src=hash">#nspoli</a> <a href="https://t.co/7LOsR504Za">pic.twitter.com/7LOsR504Za</a> —@NSGreens She said she believes the party's so-called six pillars — ecological wisdom, social justice, participatory democracy, non-violence, sustainability, respect for diversity — resonate with people. "Hopefully they will come on board and vote for us," she said.

Get the biggest daily 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 MORONIC displays of sectarian hate returned to Scotland with depressing familiarity during Saturday’s Old Firm derby. The first Old Firm league clash in four years brought with it shameful behaviour from a minority of bigots on both sides of Glasgow’s footballing divide. Celtic supporters have been heavily criticised for sick effigies of hanged Rangers fans at Saturday’s match. Pictures of the sex dolls, with their hands bound behind their backs as if they had been executed, appeared on social media following the game won by the Hoops 5-1. Meanwhile Rangers fans caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to Parkhead by trashing toilets. Fixtures and roof panels were ripped out leaving the room looking like it had been hit by a bomb. During the game a huge banner on display in the Celtic end read: “Know your place hun scum”. Meanwhile sources described offensive and sectarian chanting from both sets of fans including IRA songs and the notorious Billy Boys. The pathetic effigies saw blow up dolls - one wearing a Rangers scarf and the other an orange sash - with nooses around their necks dangling from a stand. They had been hung from a banner reading: “This is it bhoys this is war”. The crude jibe at opposition fans came on World Suicide Prevention Day, and just days after former Rangers star Kris Boyd bravely spoke out about his brother Scott taking his own life last week. One furious Rangers fan Allan Kierszten said: “After Kris Boyd losing his brother to suicide I think it is terrible a section of so called Celtic fans did what they did. “I lost my son to suicide, and I think any human being who has come up with a display like this must be sick in the head.” Another supporters said on Twitter: “I hope the person has a long think about their actions.” Elaine Tyrrell said: “Disgusting. Those responsible should be ashamed. Those condoning should be ashamed.” The effigies appear to have been removed quickly by stewards at the game. John McMillan, a Rangers fan group spokesman, said: “These are disgusting images that appeared in full view of the Celtic directors box and both police and stewards. “The effigies have their hands tied behind their backs with black tape and both have ropes round their necks. “There is also a banner including the term ‘Know your place hun scum’. “This is an extreme low, and for many Rangers fans today who have witnessed these both at the game and online they are absolutely shocking and disgusting.” The sickening effigies were also criticised by many Celtic fans who attended the match. One supporter called Emily Tweeted: “Really quite ashamed to be a Celtic fan after seeing this, bloody sickening.” Another fan added: “Effigies like these are not welcome IMO! They don’t represent me as a Celtic fan! Disgusting and vile.” The Celtic Underground Twitter handle said: “I’m sadly never surprised to see that we have scumbags in the Celtic end the same as any other club. The hanging dolls unacceptable. “Regardless of motivation. Whether or not directed at anyone or anything in particular the lack of sensitivity is a disgrace.” A Police Scotland spokesman said: “We haven’t received any complaints about this at this time however we will continue to monitor social media and action may be taken if there is evidence of criminality.” (Image: Daily Record) After the match police appeared to praise both sets of fans despite the ugly scenes. Chief Superintendent Brian McInulty said: “I would like to thank all the supporters who came to enjoy the match today in a safe and responsible manner. “You listened to what we asked and behaved accordingly which has helped our officers ensure the safety of everyone attending the venue. “All fans came out to enjoy the match and soak up the atmosphere and this is what football should be all about. “I sincerely hope that the good spirits of both sets of supporters continues throughout the rest of the day and the rest of the evening.” A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act sends out a clear message that Scotland will not tolerate any form of prejudice, discrimination or hate crime and it gives police and prosecutors an additional tool to tackle this behaviour.” A Rangers spokesman said: “Hopefully attempts will be made by Police Scotland to find those responsible for this disgraceful and sickening display. “It was a vile and insensitive stunt which, understandably, has attracted widespread condemnation. “This was a new low but there were other unacceptable images which were also deeply offensive to Rangers supporters. “They were clear for everyone, including the authorities, to see.” Celtic were contacted for comment by The Record, but haven't responded.

VANCOUVER — A man who has been living in B.C. for the past three years will return to his home country of Ghana to be crowned the king of his tribe and help launch an international charity foundation. Eric Manu, 32, came to the Lower Mainland in 2012 after marrying a Canadian woman he had met in Ghana. He now has a 10-month-old son and works for a landscaping company, alongside owner Susan Watson. “One of my previous employees had met Eric at church,” Watson said. “He was just a really nice guy and it was interesting to talk to him about his homeland. He had told me earlier on that he was going to go home to become chief of his tribe but he thought it was going to be another four or five years away.” Manu’s uncle had been the tribe’s chief but died in 2013, sparking a long discussion as to his replacement. In July, Manu received a phone call telling him he had finally been chosen to lead the 6,000-person Akan tribe, in southern Ghana. “In the tradition of my tribe, we inherit from the mother’s side. It gets to the point that I am the oldest nephew of my uncle,” Manu said. Manu said there was no question as to what had to be done. He readily accepted and began making preparations for his return home. “If you deny that, it means the inheritance has to go to a different tribe or family and we will lose that for the rest of your life,” Manu said. ‘If I deny that, I am denying my ancestors — that’s something you worked for and inherited for years and years’ “If I deny that, I am denying my ancestors — that’s something you worked for and inherited for years and years. “So I said, ‘OK. No problem. I will talk to my boss.’ ” Watson said the timing of the news came as a surprise. “I said, ‘Oh, Eric. That’s lovely. Make sure you videotape (the ceremony) so I can see it,’ ” Watson said. “And he looked crestfallen. He said, ‘But Sue, I wanted to invite you!’ ” Touched by the invitation, Watson began to learn more about Ghanaian culture and planning for a trip to West Africa to attend Manu’s coronation, slated for January 2016. “She said, ‘I feel guilty going into Africa empty-handed,’ ” Manu said. As a gift, Watson said she would collect used books to start a library, but the plan snowballed into a donation drive, collecting anything that might help a tribe in a developing area. Over the past few months, Manu, Watson, her daughter, a few friends and employees collected 40 laptops, eight sewing machines, 14 bicycles, school supplies, used clothing, bolts of fabric, high chairs and seeds. The items were packed in a 20-foot container that shipped from Canada two weeks ago, scheduled to arrive just before Manu’s coronation. Watson and Manu have since launched the To The Moon And Back Foundation, a charity aimed to provide donations and training for people in Ghana, beginning with Manu’s tribe in 2016. Watson will lend her agricultural expertise to teach locals how to grow produce they’ll then be able to sell. “What we want to do in the future with the To The Moon And Back Foundation, is to have people move to Africa for a month or two and take these women through vocational training,” Manu said. Vancouver Province

Tovala is a new startup out of Y Combinator that came up with what they hope to be a less expensive alternative to professional combination ovens. The Tovala is a smart oven that can bake, boil and steam meals at up to 550 degrees Fahrenheit in 10 to 30 minutes. The meals come prepackaged from Tovala or can be made using a crowdsourced recipe platform. Tovala utilizes a combination of dry and wet heat cooking technology instead of microwave technology to quickly cook food and get the right overall temperature for each meal. You can cook several different types of foods such as chicken, rice and asparagus in the same unit at the same time, for example, using Tovala’s technique. The team’s first product is up on Kickstarter, starting today, and has already raised the lion’s share of it’s $100,000 goal from several hundred backers. Tovala will initially sell for $199 for early Kickstarter supporters and eventually cost $349 retail. That might seem like quite a bit to pay for a table top cooking device, but it’s a fraction of what combination ovens used by professional chefs go for. The real money-maker will be in the prepackaged meals provided by Tovala. Each package can feed up to four people, are made from scratch in the Tovala kitchen, and consist of 400 to 800 calories per serving. Tovala is also working on a recipe library that will include meals with special diet restrictions such as paleo, vegan and gluten-free. Tovala’s co-founders David Rabie and Bryan Wilcox tell me the startup’s master chefs will provide up to six different meal options on a weekly basis. And just like all the new-fangled connected kitchenette of things, Tovala hooks into your smartphone using an app to keep track of your cooking time. Just scan the barcode on your prepared meal, open up the oven and pop it in then hit a few buttons as per the instructions to heat it up and keep track of it on your cellphone. I got to try a few bites and test out the Tovala myself with co-founder David Rabie. Check out the video above to see this smart oven in action.

If you’re like most people, the ability to escape from the hectic world into your outdoor home is a pastime that you look forward to daily. Your outdoor home is an opportunity to enjoy nature, get fresh air, and retreat to a sanctuary that is truly yours. From relaxing furniture and ambiance lighting at night, to heavenly outdoor luxuries that can truly make your outdoors feel like you are inside. Here are tips for planning a relaxing outdoor sanctuary at your home. Introduce architectural elements: Depending on how your outdoor home is laid out, introducing architectural elements such as a pergola, arbor, or overhead trellis area can create a visual statement instantly. Consider adding sheer drapery, outdoor fabrics and textiles are perfect for adding privacy, shielding out the harsh sun and for adding an outdoor seclusion that is mimicked from your interiors. For use at night, outfit your structure with lighting to enjoy the space for dining or just taking in the summer sunsets. Let your furniture set the stage: Outdoor patio and garden furniture has come a long way from the aluminum or PVC varieties of years past. Today outdoor furniture can span from simple to extravagant and luxurious. Consider your lifestyle and what you enjoy doing in your outdoor home. Creating a sanctuary is all about comfort, and leisure. Consider lounging chairs, outdoor daybeds, oversized loveseats and plenty of tableside areas for your fruity drinks! Bring on the ambiance: The challenge for some homeowners is how to make the outdoors still have an ambiance that is unique, relaxing, and luxurious without any walls and ceilings. Creative uses of outdoor fire pits, chimineas, lanterns, and even creating stand alone bars to sit and share food and drink are great ways to bring on the ambiance you desire for your guests. First assess your natural surroundings. Your outdoor home may not need as many physical amenities if you have a stunning backdrop like mountains, a pool, or great landscaping. Light the way to relaxation: While your outdoor sanctuary should be enjoyed while lying at the pool, it should also be admired from inside your home. Lighting is essential for creating ambiance, as well as securing safety around your home. Consider hiring a landscape architect or lighting designer to help you create the mood you desire. Lighting for landscaped areas can be different from your leisure and entertaining areas. Ensure that your sanctuary can be enjoyed safely with adequate and complimentary lighting. It’s easy to neglect the outdoors when you don’t spend enough time outside to appreciate them. Change that by turning your outdoor home into a sanctuary with these simple tips. Escape the hustle and bustle of life, and see what has been missing from your home. Whether you plan on entertaining, playing with the kids, or doing absolutely nothing…. your outdoor sanctuary is waiting on you. Create a space that will reflect your personal style, as well as welcome guests with open arms and with relaxing aesthetics.

Tufts University students spew vulgarity and profanity-laced messages at student, tell him to leave campus A Tufts University sophomore who recently proposed a sweeping free speech resolution to the campus community has been viciously attacked and maligned on social media by peers who suggest he’s only lobbying for free speech so he can be free to say racist and oppressive things. Jake Goldberg’s resolution calls for an end to campus anti-free speech rules at Tufts, including vague administrative provisos that crack down on the “use of nicknames,” “hurtful words,” “bias-fueled jokes,” “comments on an individual’s body or appearance,” “innuendos of a sexual nature,” “gender bias,” and dozens more similar examples cited in the measure. Goldberg brought forth the resolution on behalf of a relatively new organization he co-created called Students Advocating for Students. But many students reacted to the resolution — posted Sept. 25 on the Tufts Class of 2019 and Tufts Class of 2020 Facebook page — in apparent fits of online rage. Several publicly called him on social media everything from an “ignorant fuckhead” to “meninist scum” to “a stain on the face of this campus.” Private emails to him included calls of “fuck you,” “fuck off,” and even “eat my ass,” according to screenshots provided to The College Fix. Additional responses included “who knew white cis men were so oppressed” and “I bought you ignorant fuckheads a new domain: ignorantwhitemen.org.” Others accused Goldberg and his group of wanting to “gut Title IX and ensure that racial epitaphs are protected on campus” and “trying to codify harassment on campus.” MORE — TRENDING: Students protest the First Amendment Goldberg was also told by several peers to leave the private, Massachusetts-based research university over his campaign. One student called for the list of those who sign the free speech resolution to be published so signers could be ostracized. “In their quest to try and stop me from altering the school’s policies, they broke almost every single one of them. Students not only abused me online, but also in public, in class, and over email,” Goldberg said in a telephone interview with The College Fix. “What my organization wanted to do was to draw a line clear in the sand to show how crazy and radical people could be,” Goldberg said. “It’s clear that very few people actually understand what the First Amendment means. We’re not advocating for limitless free speech — we’re advocating for constitutionally protected free speech. It’s incredibly ironic to me that they violated almost all of the speech codes in trying to prevent me from eliminating the speech codes.” Goldberg also told The College Fix that many students came to him privately and expressed their support. However, these students were afraid to publicly support the movement because of fear of retaliation from fellow students, he said. “I want to engage in debate, and engage with those who are critical of SAS’s resolution, but the problem is that people were so abusive about it,” Goldberg said. “I assumed that a group of 18 to 24 year olds would understand the First Amendment, but I was wrong.” MORE: Student government VP ‘tired of hearing’ about First Amendment protections Tufts University campus officials have not responded to requests for comment on the situation from The College Fix. Goldberg is founder of “Students Advocating for Students,” which seeks to educate students across the country about the importance of free speech and due process and empower them to advocate for their rights on campuses, according to its website. It was founded in April and the resolution at Tufts is one of its first free speech advancement campaigns, Goldberg said. Goldberg drafted a resolution for the Tufts Community Union Senate, the student body that oversees student issues on campus. Any student can propose a resolution for them to vote on, and getting signatures of support from undergraduates often helps with that process. His resolution cites a 2009 decision by Tufts’ Board of Trustees that “declares that freedom of expression and inquiry are fundamental to Tufts’ academic pursuits.” It also summarizes a statement in which Tufts’ President Monaco expressed the “necessity of having a campus culture that protects the free and unfettered exchange of ideas, a deep concern of calls to silence speech on our university, the need to protect all points of view regardless of their unpopularity, and the need to respond to offensive speech with more speech rather than censorship.” Despite the vulgar responses to his resolution, Goldberg said he plans to push its consideration before the student government. This is not the first time Goldberg has fought for a cause. As a freshman last April, Goldberg led an effort asking the appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Department of Education to zero out funding for its Office for Civil Rights. OCR has “severely threatened students’ rights to free speech and due process” since its 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter, followed by its 2013 “blueprint” agreement that further broadened what counts as harassment – both overturning its longstanding guidance that differentiated “offensive speech from sexually harassing conduct,” he stated in his request. MORE: Students want to prohibit ‘slurs’ but not ‘unpopular’ speech, survey finds Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter Read More Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter

NEW YORK (Reuters) - You wouldn’t know it by his pay stubs, but Jiang Jianqing heads the world’s largest bank. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) Chairman Jiang Jianqing attends a news conference announcing the 2007 annual results in Hong Kong March 25, 2008. REUTERS/Bobby Yip Jiang, chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, made just $234,700 in 2008. That’s less than 2 percent of the $19.6 million awarded to Jamie Dimon, chief executive of the world’s fourth-largest bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co. The contrast illustrates the massive differences in pay among the CEOs of the world’s top banks. The compensation of the CEOs of the largest U.S. banks towers above what’s paid to banking chiefs in other parts of the world, according to a Reuters analysis of pay at the 18 biggest banks by market value. Excessive compensation at banks is expected to be discussed this week when the Group of 20 nations meets in Pittsburgh. But consensus on the issue remains a distant hope as there continue to be vast differences in how bankers are paid, from the CEO on down. The United States is home to four of the nine largest banks in the world — JPMorgan, Bank of America Corp, Wells Fargo & Co and Citigroup Inc. It is also home to four of the six most handsomely rewarded bank CEOs. “The U.S. executive pay levels have always dwarfed pay for companies elsewhere in the world,” said Sarah Anderson, a fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies, which is critical of Wall Street, and co-author of the recent study “America’s Bailout Barons.” “They have claimed it is impossible to recruit people without paying such compensation. Yet, if you look at the pay levels in Europe and in a lot of Asian countries, somehow they manage to find people who can run major global firms while making a fraction of what they make in the U.S.,” she said. For a graphic comparing bank chiefs' pay around the world, click here “BASICALLY NOTHING” China, for example, boasts three of the world’s four biggest banks, yet the leaders of those banks — Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank Corp and Bank of China — are among the lowest paid of those surveyed by Reuters. The chairman and the president of each of the banks are paid roughly $230,000 per year. “That’s basically nothing for the leaders of these huge Chinese financial institutions,” said Laura Thatcher, who leads law firm Alston & Bird’s executive compensation practice in Atlanta. “I can’t imagine why they would work for nothing.” So how, exactly, do the Chinese do it? The Chinese banks, which are state-controlled, are typically led by bureaucrats appointed by the central government, and executive pay is capped. Being the head of a Chinese bank does come with perks, just like running a U.S. bank. The top Chinese bank executive gets such non-cash benefits as a car, driver, medical insurance, food and housing. Experts note that many American and European executives receive similar benefits. Some of the Chinese bank executives may be willing to accept the pay level of a top government official in the hope of moving into a powerful political position in the future. But the executives also feel the consequences of a global downturn, just like some of the U.S. CEOs who were forced to skip bonuses or accept reduced salaries in the past two years. ICBC’s Jiang took a 10 percent pay cut in 2008, even as ICBC’s profit jumped 36 percent to $16.23 billion. LOST IN TRANSLATION? Aside from China, all of the banking CEOs included in the survey made at least $1 million last year. Total compensation included publicly disclosed bonuses, stock awards, options and other perks. HSBC Holdings, the world’s third-largest bank by market capitalization, paid CEO Michael Geoghegan $2.8 million in 2008 — much more than his Chinese counterparts but far less than JPMorgan paid Dimon. Outside the United States, the highest-paid bank CEO works for Banco Santander SA, which has the seventh-largest market cap and paid Alfredo Saenz $13.66 million for 2008. Royal Bank of Canada paid Gordon Nixon $9.5 million, while Australian CEOs Ralph Norris of Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Gail Kelly of Westpac Banking Corp made $8 million and $7.4 million, respectively. Japan’s biggest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ, did not release the pay details of its CEO. Alan Johnson, a Wall Street compensation consultant with Johnson Associates, said much is lost in translation when comparing CEO pay from country to country. And that will make it difficult for world leaders to find consensus at the G20 summit. “Different cultures, different disclosures,” Johnson said. “It just highlights the difficulty across the world in trying to make far-reaching pay decisions.” To Anderson, though, comparing bank CEO pay around the world makes the issue much more clear-cut. “These kinds of figures undercut the main argument by the U.S. financial industry lobby that they will lose top talent to competitors in Europe or Asia,” Anderson said.

While not the best quality, the new Star Wars: Rogue One trailer shown off at Star Wars Celebration has leaked online. The Star Wars: Rogue One trailer may be released officially online later tonight as Disney is airing a Star Wars: The Force Awakens special tonight on ABC, which is said to feature the Rogue One trailer. Update: Disney didn't release the new Star Wars: Rogue trailer during the ABC special. Disney also revealed a new Star Wars: Rogue One poster, concept art, first look at Mads Mikkelsen and a behind-the-scenes celebration reel. "Star Wars: Rogue One" has a December 16, 2016 release directed by Gareth Edwards starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, who plays a performance-capture character in Rogue One, and Riz Ahmed. Synopsis: Rogue One tells the story of resistance fighters who have united to steal plans to the dreaded Death Star. Another version:

About This Game Survive the zombie apocalypse in a fantasy world Experience uniquely created worlds for every game, with different areas, monsters, items, and quests Explore a dynamic, evolving, living world Lead a clan of followers who have their own personalities and skills Navigate relationships with rival clans using diplomacy, trade, war, and raids Adventure with your friends with co-op multiplayer Your choices truly impact the game! Customize your experience with many character and world options including turning off zombies and clans. Zombasite is a zombie apocalypse action RPG set in a dynamic, evolving, fantasy world for Windows, Mac, and Linux.The dark elves have always played god by creating and enhancing underworld slave creatures. As they watched a horde of zombies destroy the huge demon city Kraval, the dark elves were tantalized by the devastating power of uncontrolled zombies, and desired to control and increase it. When they wove their dominating magic into a few captive zombies something went horribly wrong!They hadn't known the powerful necromancer, Ciglio, had created these zombies. To control his huge armies of undead, Ciglio permanently bound his zombies and their infected victims to him. This binding was so powerful, their loyalty surpassed his untimely death. In the dark elves' pride and lust, their magic twisted into Ciglio's binding, fusing into a new, uncontrollable creation, the Zombasite.Zombasite is a nasty, voracious, all-consuming Zombie Parasite. It doesn't just reanimate the dead into mindless zombies. It is intelligent, insatiable, and unstoppable---infecting and killing the living, spreading faster and in more ways, helping the dead utilize many of their original skills, and mutating the dead with new powers. Dark elf zombies are terrifying!So what does this have to do with you? You are the leader of a clan trying to survive the apocalypse. This is easier said than done. When a follower dies, they can't be saved by any means. The Zombasite is highly contagious and zombies are quickly ravaging the world's surface. Food is a critical resource that must be obtained. Vendors are rare and have limited supplies. Some of the stronger monsters have survived and are as dangerous as ever. Clans of humans and monsters are fighting over what few supplies are left. Even within your own clan it isn't safe. Humans living on the edge are even more unstable than usual. So yeah, survival isn't easy.Features:

Picture by Salome. Two women from the Jarawa people. These near pygmy sized ‘Negrito’ people live on the Andaman and Nicobar islands south of Myanmar. there are thought to be less then 300 of them now, and possibly even fewer, as a recent measles epidemic devasted their population. No-one has ever been able to get enough to the Sentinelese for a photo, as they tend to shoot at helicopters and careless fishermen with arrows, which is very sensible of them. This was how the outside world realised the Sentinelese had survived the tsunami, they were still being fired upon. They live in groups of about 40 to 50 people, in a hunter gatherer lifestyle, eating berries, pig, monitor lizard, fish and other wild foods. They look very out of place in the Indian ocean, physically they look a lot like pygmies, with jet black black skin, peppercorn hair and ocassionally steatopygous buttocks on the women. But as far as DNA goes they are definitely Asian. they occasionaly show an epicanthic eye fold. The average height for the men is about 4’10”. They are thought to have been living in more or less isolation from the rest of the world on their islands for about 60,000 years. The Europeans recoreded them as being the only group of people in the world, other than Tasmanian Aborigines, that didn’t know how to create fire, the depended on lightening strikes and preserving the embers from previous fires. They seem to live their lives at a faster pace than the rest of us, the women hiting menopause in their thirties. Currently, they are being wiped out by outside diseases and exploitation. The Indian gov needs to put armed guards around their territory to protect them, or in another fifty years they’ll just be a memory . This site on the Andamanese is well worth a look. It has a lot of very old photos and descriptions of tribal customs, I recommend going there right now. There have been some DNA studies involving the Jarawa and Onge. No-ones been able to get close enough to the Sentinlese to see them, let alone swab them. This wobbly footage is the closest anyone’s ever got to the Sentinelese, they seem to be very fond of coconuts and will tolerate outsiders on boats while collecting them. I’d just like to comment that handholding between the men and women seems very common from this vid. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/7/151 http://www.ajhg.org/AJHG/fulltext/S0002-9297(07)60516-3 http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jan252004/326.pdf http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/originals/kashyap/kashyap.htm http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=378623 Author: NICHOLAS WADE Filed: 12/11/2002, 12:23:50 AM Source: The New York Times Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, a remote archipelago east of India, are direct descendants of the first modern humans to have inhabited Asia, geneticists conclude in a new study. But the islanders lack a distinctive genetic feature found among Australian aborigines, another early group to leave Africa, suggesting they were part of a separate exodus. The Andaman Islanders are “arguably the most enigmatic people on our planet,” a team of geneticists led by Dr. Erika Hagelberg of the University of Oslo write in the journal Current Biology. Their physical features short stature, dark skin, peppercorn hair and large buttocks are characteristic of African Pygmies. “They look like they belong in Africa, but here they are sitting in this island chain in the middle of the Indian Ocean,” said Dr. Peter Underhill of Stanford University, a co-author of the new report. Adding to the puzzle is that their language, according to Joseph Greenberg, who, before his death in 2001, classified the world’s languages, belongs to a family that includes those of Tasmania, Papua New Guinea and Melanesia. Dr. Hagelberg has undertaken the first genetic analysis of the Andamanese with the help of two Indian colleagues who took blood samples and by analyzing hair gathered almost a century ago by a British anthropologist, Alfred Radcliffe-Brown. The islands were isolated from the outside world until the British set up a penal colony there after the Indian mutiny of 1857. Only four of the dozen tribes that once inhabited the island survive, with a total population of about 500 people. These include the Jarawa, who still live in the forest, and the Onge, who have been settled by the Indian government. Genetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA, a genetic element passed down only through women, shows that the Onge and Jarawa people belong to a lineage, known as M, that is common throughout Asia, the geneticists say. This establishes them as Asians, not Africans, among whom a different mitochondrial lineage, called L, is dominant. The geneticists then looked at the Y chromosome, which is passed down only through men and often gives a more detailed picture of genetic history than the mitochondrial DNA. The Onge and Jarawa men turned out to carry a special change or mutation in the DNA of their Y chromosome that is thought to be indicative of the Paleolithic population of Asia, the hunters and gatherers who preceded the first human settlements. The mutation, known as Marker 174, occurs among ethnic groups at the periphery of Asia who avoided being swamped by the populations that spread after the agricultural revolution that occurred about 8,000 years ago. It is found in many Japanese, in the Tibetans of the Himalayas and among isolated people of Southeast Asia, like the Hmong. The discovery of Marker 174 among the Andamanese suggests that they too are part of this relict paleolithic population, descended from the first modern humans to leave Africa. Dr. Underhill, an expert on the genetic history of the Y chromosome, said the Paleolithic population of Asia might well have looked as African as the Onge and Jarawa do now, and that people with the appearance of present-day Asians might have emerged only later. It is also possible, he said, that their resemblance to African Pygmies is a human adaptation to living in forests that the two populations developed independently. A finding of particular interest is that the Andamanese do not carry another Y chromosome signature, known as Marker RPS4Y, that is common among Australian aborigines. This suggests that there were at least two separate emigrations of modern humans from Africa, Dr. Underhill said. Both probably left Northeast Africa by boat 40,000 or 50,000 years ago and pushed slowly along the coastlines of the Arabian Peninsula and India. No archaeological record of these epic journeys has been found, perhaps because the world’s oceans were 120 meters lower during the last ice age and the evidence of early human passage is under water. One group of emigrants that acquired the Marker 174 mutation reached Southeast Asia, including the Andaman islands, and then moved inland and north to Japan, in Dr. Underhill’s reconstruction. A second group, carrying the Marker RPS4Y, took a different fork in Southeast Asia, continuing south toward Australia. I’d just to point out what a steaming heap of crap the 40,000 year date for modern humans is. It’s at least 80, 000, and probably over 100,000. I keep seeing 40,000 years on published news items. Do these journalists not bother to read up on the latest dates? Advertisements

Fox News viewers really do see the world differently. New data shows that Fox loyalists, when compared to the public at large, are far more pessimistic about America's future; are far more critical of President Obama's performance; are far more fearful of Hillary Clinton; and are more forgiving of Donald Trump. The sharp differences in opinion extend to beliefs about political corruption, voter fraud and media coordination with campaigns. Fox fans, when compared to fans of other networks, are far more likely to express concern about November's election results being manipulated. They are also more likely to agree with the sentiment that divisions in the United States are deeper than in the past. The data -- from a new national poll by Suffolk University -- shows deep divisions, indeed. And it demonstrates why 21st Century Fox patriarch Rupert Murdoch recently told the Wall Street Journal that it would be "business suicide" to change Fox's editorial direction. Related: Rupert Murdoch speaks out about contract talks with Megyn Kelly Overall, the poll finds that the country is split about Clinton, with 46% of all respondents having a favorable view of her versus 47% unfavorable. Among people who rate Fox News as their most-trusted source of news, however, sentiments are much more solidly anti-Clinton, with 84% viewing her unfavorably, versus just 13% favorably. Similarly, 54% of all Suffolk respondents approve of President Obama's job performance, versus 41% who disapprove. But among Fox loyalists, the numbers are radically different, with 16% approving of the president's performance and 80% disapproving. During the Obama presidency Fox News positioned itself as a voice of the opposition. Fox's most popular shows, like "The O'Reilly Factor," reinforced these sentiments. If Clinton is elected president, Fox's audience will expect more of the same. Fox News says it reaches many independents and some Democrats. But several surveys, including Suffolk's, shows that Fox's base is passionately pro-Republican, aligning with GOP positions and GOP candidates. Suffolk's polls ask many of the same questions that other pollsters ask during presidential election years -- but add a layer of questions about media consumption on top. The Suffolk pollsters ask: "What TV news or commentary source do you trust the most?" In the most recent poll, 270 of the 1,000 respondents said Fox -- the single highest result of any of the networks named in the poll. This reflects Fox's tight grip on conservatives. More than 70% of the respondents who chose Fox described themselves as "conservative" or "very conservative." 154 respondents said they trusted CNN the most. The rest chose MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, C-SPAN or PBS. A small number chose Comedy Central. The smaller the numbers get, the wider the margin of error, and the less reliable the data becomes. But Suffolk's poll is clear about the divergence between Fox loyalists and others. An example: Only 14% of people who say they trust Fox the most say the country is headed in the right direction. 81% say it's on the wrong track. The divide is not nearly so extreme among other respondents. For example, 55% of people who rate CNN as their most-trusted source say "right direction," and 35% say "wrong track." Suffolk's polling can't answer the obvious chicken-or-egg question. Do people have these views because they watch Fox, or are they drawn to Fox (with its "fair and balanced" slogan) because they already have these views? In many cases, the opinions of self-described "conservative" and "very conservative" people overlap quite closely with Fox loyalists. In Suffolk's most recent poll, 74% of people with conservative views, 73% of people with very conservative views and 84% of people who trust Fox the most say they have an unfavorable opinion of Clinton. Overall, 61% of respondents have an unfavorable view of Trump, while 31% said their view of him is favorable. Among Fox's partisans, the numbers are flipped, with 68% reporting a favorable view of the candidate and 23% reporting an unfavorable view. Keep that number in mind: 23% unfavorable. Among people who say they trust CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, or PBS the most, Trump's unfavorable number ranged between 69% and 88%. (The second-lowest unfavorable rating for Trump, at 65%, came from people who said they trust Comedy Central the most.) When asked "if the general election was held today... for whom will you vote or lean toward," 83% of Fox loyalists said Trump and 11% said Clinton. On the flip side, 77% of CNN loyalists and 94% of MSNBC loyalists said Clinton. People who trusted Fox the most were also far more likely than people who trusted CNN, MSNBC or other channels to say that recent revelations from hacked emails released by Wikileaks raise conflicts of interest for Clinton if she is elected president. 85% of Fox fans said yes, according to the poll, compared with 45% of CNN fans and 15% of MSNBC fans. Some of these findings are just predictable examples of polarization. But the poll also shows that Fox loyalists are more susceptible to claims of election corruption. Suffolk asked, "If the candidate you support loses," will you feel that "the other candidate won fair and square and deserves the support of all Americans," or that "corruption cost your candidate the election, and the new president shouldn't be seen as legitimately elected?" 43% of Fox loyalists cited corruption, versus 28% of overall respondents. 65% of Fox loyalists in the poll said they are worried that election results could be manipulated, far higher than the 38% overall response. Only 12% of MSNBC fans and 19% of CNN fans said they shared the concern. Conversely, only 31% of Fox loyalists agreed with the view that the election results can be trusted to be fair and accurate, compared with 77% of CNN viewers, 85% of MSNBC viewers, and 57% of overall respondents. Among people who are worried about the security of the election, many Fox fans expressed concern about the news media trying to "change the election results" -- possibly a result of Fox's anti-media tone. Fox allies might say the poll findings show that other channels have a liberal bent. Fox critics might say that the results illustrate the echo chamber of conservative media. "The conservative entertainment news complex has constructed an alternative reality so all-encompassing that the chance of conservatives happening on any sort of good news is virtually nil," USA Today contributor and National Memo columnist Jason Sattler wrote on Thursday. "Hosts teach their viewers how to debunk anything Democrats might claim as an accomplishment and make sure they believe six terrible things about Obama before breakfast." Suffolk's pollsters asked, "When it comes to the economy, do you think we are in an economic recovery, stagnation, recession, or depression?" Overall, 38% of respondents said a recovery; 35% said stagnation; 12% said recession; and 8% said depression. CNN and MSNBC regulars were more bullish. But Fox viewers were the opposite. Only 11% of Fox loyalists said America is in an economic recovery; 50% said stagnation; 19% said recession; and 13% said depression. Suffolk conducts the national polls on a regular basis, including questions about media consumption. The Washington Post noted that the data for the past 15 months shows that "people who trust Fox News the most have consistently viewed Trump positively, on net," compared to people who trust other networks the most.

Mark Zuckerberg's remarks were prompted by a tweet this morning in which President Donald Trump described Facebook as "always anti-Trump." | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Zuckerberg: Facebook is not 'anti-Trump' Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the role his social network played in last year's presidential election, saying the communication it facilitated among voters and candidates significantly outweighed the influence of Russian-backed ads. "Campaigns spent hundreds of millions advertising online to get their messages out even further. That's 1000x more than any problematic ads we've found," Zuckerberg wrote. Story Continued Below His remarks were prompted by a tweet this morning in which President Donald Trump described Facebook as "always anti-Trump." "Trump says Facebook is against him. Liberals say we helped Trump," Zuckerberg wrote. "Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don't like. That's what running a platform for all ideas looks like." In the online missive, Zuckerberg also apologized for remarks he made shortly after the election, in which he said it was "crazy" to think that misinformation disseminated on Facebook could influence the outcome of the election. Morning Tech Technology news from Washington and Silicon Valley — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. "This is too important an issue to be dismissive," he wrote. "But the data we have has always shown that our broader impact — from giving people a voice to enabling candidates to communicate directly to helping millions of people vote — played a far bigger role in this election." Facebook has faced sharp criticism since it revealed earlier this summer that a group affiliated with the Russian government purchased 3,000 ads dealing with social and political causes during the election. Facebook, Google and Twitter have been invited to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Nov. 1. A separate hearing with the House Intelligence Committee is expected to take place in October.

Tennis has the replay system by which all other sports are measured. It’s quick, easy and almost entirely non-controversial. Conflicts occur occasionally, mostly about the replaying of points, but it’s generally accepted that the tennis Hawkeye system is the most painless replay method in sports. On Thursday night in Cincinnati, Roger Federer and Gael Monfils exposed its biggest flaw. It happened during their third-round match at the Western & Southern Open. Monfils was down a set, but had a 0-30 lead on Federer’s serve at 3-3 in the second. Federer came to net and Monfils hit a lofted shot that Federer let go, assuming it would land out. The ball seemed to clip the line and Monfils thought he had three break points at 0-40. But as the Frenchman went to the towel, chair umpire Carlos Bernardes announced the score as 15-30. Monfils, seemingly stunned, inquired why. Bernardes said the ball was out. Monfils immediately looked like he wanted to challenge the call, but Bernardes basically talked him out of it, holding up his fingers to demonstrate how far out the ball was. Monfils, still confused, responded with the same finger measurement. Bernades assured him the ball was out by that much and Monfils resumed play at 15-30. A few points later, a Hawkeye replay showed that the ball had, indeed, clipped the line. Bernardes assured Monfils that the ball was a few inches out, when the ball was a few centimeters in. It was a pivotal call in the game, which Federer went on to win. Despite the bad call, Monfils went on to break Federer in the next service game and took the second set. No harm, no foul, right? Not quite. Later in the match, Federer loudly complained to Bernardes about another call, in which Federer’s forehand hit the line, but was called out. Bernardes didn’t immediately offer any advice. This set off Federer, who had as big a tantrum as he’ll ever throw. (Which is pretty mild compared to others.) The minor dust-up didn’t prevent Federer from winning the match in three sets. Later that night, Federer sat with ESPN for an interview. Darren Cahill eventually brought up Monfils’ shot at 0-30 in the second, but before he could finish the question, Federer interrupted. “Yeah, that was in,” he said, matter-of-factly. “I don’t understand why he didn’t challenge.” Federer went on to explain that the Monfils point is what caused him to get so upset with Bernardes later in the match. “The umpire has to be 100% sure to tell you it’s ‘this much out.’ If he’s not sure it’s this much out, you give the ‘you know, it’s close — you should challenge’ [look]. That’s why I was upset. I know he missed Gael’s call. When I hit my forehand on the line, he kept looking [the other direction], because he didn’t want to give me the ‘I’m not sure.'” Federer’s right. Though it’s on Monfils for not challenging the call, he was goaded into the indecision by Bernardes. Advising players would be fine if the chair was always positive before dispensing such wisdom. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case, for good reason. Bernardes clearly thought the ball was out. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have called it that way. He’s not a chair umpire for big ATP matches because he’s indecisive. He, and his colleagues, need to be completely sure about all the calls they make. Being wishy-washy isn’t an option. That’s why giving advice should be discouraged. The chair umpire is inherently biased toward the call he’s made. Though it’s sporting to let a player know how wrong he may be with his potential challenge, let them find out on their own.

Claiming it was a “safety policy,” California elementary public school principal Dana Carter instituted a policy that required his students to “kneel down on one knee and wait for the principal or another administrator to dismiss them.” One parent claimed that her daughter was forced to kneel before the principal “like a king” with her hands at her side until Carter came out, lifted his arms, and told students to go to class. Apparently, this happened at various times throughout the school day. Complaints from parents, including flyers placed on cars, resulted in the revocation of the policy. Calls went out to parents to inform them of the change of policy, and Carter has already scheduled a meeting with parents to discuss “different safety options” with parents. Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC

Vice President-elect Mike Pence tells The Heritage Foundation that “the Obama era of weakening our national defenses is over.” Pence spoke at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. to outline some of President-elect Donald Trump’s priorities in his first 100 days in office. Those include national security, economic prosperity and the Supreme Court; these are also all priorities promoted in the work of the Heritage Foundation, which Pence praised for its “underpinning commitment to free enterprise” and “ensuring the ongoing vitality of the American Dream.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSzXWt5X8Yc “We truly do believe that our President-elect has secured a mandate for leadership,” Pence said, adding his confidence in Trump’s ability to “Make America Great Again.” On the topic of national security, Pence pointed out that “for America to be prosperous and strong, America must be safe. It was Ronald Reagan who taught us that peace comes through strength.” He vowed the incoming administration would rebuild the military and provide its soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and coastguards with “the resources and training they need to protect America.” Specifically, Pence noted that under the Obama administration, and even prior to that, America has “walked away from our commitment to being that arsenal of democracy in the world.” He pointed out that since 1991, America’s active duty armed forces has decreased from 2 million to 1.3 million members, the Navy has shrunk to 272 ships from 500, the Air Force is roughly one-third smaller since that period of time and our standing army is the smallest it has been since World War II. The VP-elect’s son is a pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps. “But the average age of our aircraft in our military today is older than my son. It’s 25-years-old. That’s about to change, everybody.” “I want to assure you that the Obama era of weakening our national defenses is over,” Pence told the crowd, which broke into applause, as they would several more times over the course of his speech. It's time to rebuild our military. pic.twitter.com/lFmLbmQbLw — Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) December 7, 2016 Improving conditions at the nation’s VA clinics was also placed as a top priority. Pence noted that he and Trump will make sure that veterans will receive “world-class healthcare,” because “they’ve earned it.” Four staff members resigned from a southeastern Oklahoma VA facility last week after a veteran was found to have maggots in his wound; a testament to the subpar care U.S. veterans are subjected to. Transitioning over to matters of business and economy, Pence noted Trump’s vows to keep his promises, including “repealing Obamacare lock, stock and barrel.” Following his meeting with President Barack Obama last month, President-elect Trump noted that he would keep two aspects of the Affordable Care Act, namely allowing coverage for individuals with preexisting medical conditions and allowing children to stay under their parents for coverage up to the age of 26. Under the Affordable Care Act, Americans have seen a 25 percent average in premium increases. To this point, Pence elaborated on his and Trump’s aim to set into motion a process to replace Obamacare with “free market reforms that reduce the cost of healthcare without growing the size of government.” He also said that he and Trump will be working to implement regulatory reform and to use the Congressional Review Act to undo the red tape that’s been stifling American jobs and growth and “working with members of Congress on the REINS Act and other reforms that will permanently reform and reset the balance of the regulatory state and lawmakers in Washington, D.C.” Job growth has been a central theme for the incoming administration. Pence said he and Trump would cut taxes across the board for everyone from working families to family farms and lower business taxes from from 35 percent to 15 percent “so companies in America can come and create jobs in this country without seeing them shipped overseas.” Trump was recently able to prevent some 1,000 American jobs from leaving for Mexico, even before taking office. On the topic of the Supreme Court, the VP-elect assured the crowd that as President, Trump “will appoint justices to the Supreme Court of the United States of America in the tradition of the late and great Justice Antonin Scalia.” Pence also gave a special shoutout to Carly Fiorina, who was sitting in the crowd, thanking her for her leadership. “This is a great, great voice for conservatives in America.” He concluded his speech discussing his own family roots and his and the Heritage Foundation’s unwavering belief in the American dream. “America matters far beyond our shores,” Pence said. “We are that last best hope today, every bit as much as the day it was first said.” Pence said America is the “greatest nation on earth” and reminded the crowd of the importance of belief in God and the power of prayer. In these divided times, where we face unknowable challenges abroad and too much division at home, that if His people will call Him by His name, will humble themselves and pray, He’ll do like he’s always done throughout the long and storied history of this nation: He’ll hear from heaven and He’ll heal this land. This one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope @AdelleNaz

Newlywed Robert Herweyer, 23, died in a freak accident involving a large vat of molasses just one week before his wife was due to give birth to the couple’s first child. Herweyer drowned in a large container of molasses after he entered the unit to adjust a faulty valve. However, after fixing the valve, the father-to-be’s coworker says Herweyer became unconscious and drowned before he could be retrieved from the container. The Miami Herald reports that a Michigan father-to-be is dead following a horrifying workplace accident. Robert Herweyer worked for Agri-Technology and was attempting to fix a faulty valve inside of a 12-foot-tall molasses container when he fell unconscious and drowned beneath the syrupy mixture. Herweyer was still a newlywed when the horrific accident took place. He had just married his wife, Joy, last November, and the pair were expecting their first child together next week. Sadly, instead of celebrating the birth of their child together, Joy will be birthing her baby as a widow. Husband, soon-to-be father drowns in molasses tank while working https://t.co/73ZzektKGq — KING 5 News (@KING5Seattle) August 5, 2016 According to his coworkers, Herweyer was working at Agri-Technology when a vat of molasses experienced a technical problem. The molasses in the container got too low, and the valve needed to be adjusted so that the unit could continue to pump out the mixture. Therefore, Herweyer put on a pair of waders and a safety mask to protect himself from the fumes in the molasses. He then used straps attached to a forklift to lower himself into the container. Once inside of the molasses vat, Herweyer adjusted the valve as coworker Kevin Deherrera looked on. However, after adjusting the valve, Deherrera says that Herweyer stopped moving and responding. He says that his friend and coworker wasn’t responding when he asked him what was wrong, so he attempted to remove Herweyer from the vat himself but was unsuccessful. Therefore, Deherrera says he ran for help. Father-to-be drowns in a vat of molasses at work one week before his first child is due https://t.co/JEbc1foNlw — Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) August 4, 2016 The coworker returned with the Agri-Technology owner, David Alexander, who immediately grabbed an electric chainsaw and cut the side of the container open so that they could retrieve Herweyer from the molasses. Once they were able to remove the father-to-be from the vat, Alexander began performing CPR until medical teams could arrive. Once at the hospital, the medical staff was unable to save Herweyer, and he was declared dead. Michigan father-to-be drowns in vat of molasses https://t.co/IaY5S5Hwyc pic.twitter.com/FCPvi7afVI — KXAN News (@KXAN_News) August 4, 2016 Doctors at the Holland Community Hospital where Herweyer was treated say that the newlywed died from drowning and that they found molasses inside of his lungs. The investigation into the workplace death is still ongoing, but authorities believe that Herweyer was either incapacitated by fumes in the tank or had a medical episode that resulted in his drowning. According to KARE 11, Doug DenBleyker, the Graafschap fire chief who received the call about the freak accident, says that they had no idea what to expect when they arrived at the scene. He says the 911 calls indicated that someone had fallen into a molasses tank, but they didn’t really know the extent of what had happened until they arrived. “[I] didn’t know what to expect when we got the call, you’re thinking ‘Molasses,’ what’s going on?” Chief DenBleyker says when they arrived, they found the company owner giving a man CPR on the floor. He says you could see a large chainsaw had been used to extract the man from the tank, and there was molasses all over the ground. “There was the molasses mixture all over the ground, and we had seen that they had taken a saw and cut a hole in the side of the tank to get the individual out. The owner of the business was doing CPR at the time, we took over CPR. It was basically like a drowning, he had drowned in the molasses.” A neighbor nearby says that they could tell the exact moment the molasses container was cut open as the smell of chemicals permeated the area. [Image via Shutterstock]

Gleb "Funn1k" Lipatnikov has left Team Empire to join Team Spirit, the organization announced Tuesday. Funn1k achieved a quite a bit as part of Empire, netting second place at DreamLeague Season 4 and winning Game Show Global eSports Cup Season 1. However the team missed out on a Shanghai Major berth after being swept by Team Spirit in the qualifier’s Loser’s Finals. Funn1k's departure from Team Empire does not come as too big of a surprise, as it was announced that he would not be competing with the team at the upcoming Dota PIt League Season 4 LAN Finals. Funn1k was still part of Empire at the time of the announcement, replaced by Andrey "Ghostik" Kadyk, but it appears that the players has decided to leave and has joined Team Spirit with former teammate Artur "Goblak" Kostenko. Artur "Goblak" Kostenko (right) and Bogdan "Iceberg" Vasilenko during the SL i-League LAN Finals in Minsk, Belarus Funn1k and Goblak have been off-and-on teammates during their times on Empire and Natus Vincere, most notably Empire's late 2012 era when the team was most dominant. In a two-month time-frame, they were grand finalists at five tournaments, winning three. Spirit are still looking for their fifth member, but Ilya "Illidan" Pivcaev will be standing in. Team Spirit will be competing in the European Qualifier for EPICENTER: Moscow, as well as the fifth iteration of DreamLeague. Their first opponent in the EPICENTER qualifier is London Conspiracy, taking place on March 26, while DreamLeague 5 is scheduled to kick off on March 21, but no match details have been released. Team Empire’s roster for the Dota PIt League Season 4 LAN Finals looks as follows: Maxim " yoky- " Kim " Kim Rostislav " fn " Lozovoi " Lozovoi Andrey " Ghostik " Kadyk " Kadyk Ilya " ALOHADANCE " Korobkin " Korobkin Alexander "NoFear" Churochkin And Team Spirit’s roster now looks as follows: Bogdan " Iceberg " Vasilenko " Vasilenko Gleb " Funn1k " Lipatnikov " Lipatnikov Artur " Goblak " Kostenko " Kostenko Andrey "ALWAYSWANNAFLY" Bondarenko

Hobby Lobby says it’s just trying to protect its religious freedom. The family-founded and -run company is closed on Sundays, has an employee manual that includes biblical references, and announces on its website its commitment to “Honoring the Lord in all we do by operating the company in a manner consistent with biblical principles.” The company got in hot water last year when an employee told a blogger that no Hanukkah decorations were stocked “[b]ecause Mr. Green is the owner of the company, he’s a Christian, and those are his values.” Though the company went on to apologize, the battle for its Christian identity was revived this week when lawyers for the company argued before the Supreme Court that the company should not have to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate. The issue, says Hobby Lobby co-founder Barbara Green, isn’t that the company wants to meddle with women’s rights to take contraceptive drugs. “We’re not trying to control that,” she said. “We’re just trying to control our participation in it.” Advertisement: But a document published here for the first time reveals Hobby Lobby appears to be going much further than protecting freedom, providing funding for a group that backs a political network of activist groups deeply engaged in pushing a Christian agenda into American law. The document shows entities related to the company to be two of the largest donors to the organization funding a right-wing Christian agenda, investing tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars into a vast network of organizations working in concert to advance an agenda that would allow businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians and deny their employees contraceptives under a maximalist interpretation of the Free Exercise Clause of the United States Constitution. That network of activist groups has succeeded in passing legislation in Arizona requiring women to undergo an ultrasound before an abortion, banning taxpayer-funded insurance paying for government employees’ abortions, defining marriage as a union between a man and woman, and funding abstinence education. And there’s evidence that its efforts go well beyond the borders of the Copper State. Outside of the Supreme Court case, little has been reported about Hobby Lobby’s political ties. The company is owned privately by the Green family and generates more than $3 billion per year in revenue from its 602 stores. The family proudly promotes its philanthropy to churches, ministries and Christian community centers, dedicating half of the company’s pretax earnings to Christian ministries. In 2007, Hobby Lobby’s founder and CEO, billionaire David Green, pledged $70 million to Oral Roberts University, bailing out the debt-ridden evangelical university. In 2012, Forbes reported, “Hobby Lobby’s cash spigot currently makes [Green] the largest individual donor to evangelical causes in America.” But until now, its political connections have been obscure. Hobby Lobby-related entities are some of the biggest sources of funding to the National Christian Charitable Foundation, which backed groups that collaborated in promoting the anti-gay legislation in Arizona – recently vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer – that critics say would have legalized discrimination against gays and lesbians by businesses. The path of SB 1062 to the Arizona statehouse was built by two groups, the Center for Arizona Policy and the Alliance Defending Freedom. Center for Arizona Policy employees regularly spoke in favor of the legislation, appearing as the grass-roots face of a bill that the center’s president, Cathi Herrod, characterized as “[making] certain that governmental laws cannot force people to violate their faith unless it has a compelling governmental interest–a balancing of interests that has been in federal law since 1993,” according to a statement on the group’s website. (One hundred and twenty-three Center for Arizona Policy-supported measures have been signed into law; its legislative agenda ranges from requiring intrusive ultrasounds for women seeking abortions to HB 2281, a bill that, if passed by the Arizona Senate, would exempt religious institutions from paying property taxes on leased or rented property.) Advertisement: For its part, the Alliance Defending Freedom, a national Christian organization based in Arizona, works toward the “spread of the Gospel by transforming the legal system and advocating for religious liberty, the sanctity of life, and marriage and family,” according to the group’s website. Both groups are heavily funded by the National Christian Charitable Foundation, “the largest Christian grant-making foundation in the world,” as described on the group’s website. And who is the largest funder of National Christian Charitable? That would be a Hobby Lobby executive. Here’s how it works: At the end of the 2012 tax year, the National Christian Charitable Foundation had more than $1.22 billion in assets under management in donor-advised funds that offer “innovative, tax-smart solutions [to] help you simplify your giving, multiply your impact, and glorify God.” Outgoing grants – totaling $4.3 billion since 1982, according to the Foundation -- go to a range of causes including climate science denial, charter schools, free market and pro-life advocacy. But buried in their voluminous tax filings (at times totaling more than 600 pages) are a number of sizable grants to the Center for Arizona Policy and the Alliance Defending Freedom, issued between 2002 and 2011, the last year that complete tax data is available for all three organizations. In 2011, the National Christian Charitable Foundation contributed $9,606,281.88 of the Alliance Defending Freedom’s $36,379,373 grant revenue. That same year, the NCF contributed $236,250 of the Center for Arizona Policy’s $1,662,355 in grant revenue. Overall, from 2002 to 2011 the NCF contributed $1,481,343 to the Center for Arizona Policy and $31,024,584.30 to the Alliance Defending Freedom. Advertisement: Typically the trail would stop there. The National Christian Charitable Foundation appears to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, single contributor to the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Center for Arizona Policy, but because the foundation is a massive-donor advised fund, its donors are shielded from public scrutiny. However, a 2009 NCF tax filing, reported here for the first time, offers insights into the deep pockets backing National Christian Charitable Foundation. The form, viewable here, shows a total of nearly $65 million in contributions coming from a combination of Jon Cargill, who is the CFO of Hobby Lobby, and “Craft Etc.,” an apparent misspelling of Crafts Etc., a Hobby Lobby affiliate company. The document shows that Hobby Lobby‑related contributions were the single largest source of tax-deductible donations to National Christian Charitable’s approximately $383.785 million in 2009 grant revenue. Advertisement: According to addresses on the filing, both the contributions from Crafts Etc. and Jon Cargill came from a massive warehouse and office facility housing Hobby Lobby’s headquarters in Oklahoma City. National Christian Charitable declined to comment on the foundation's relationship with Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby did not respond to multiple requests for comment. While the scope of the Hobby Lobby investment in National Christian Charitable has not been known until now, the Green family has been open about its fondness for the foundation. “National Christian [Charitable] Foundation provides a great solution for our family, as well as our business, to do our giving. We highly recommend them,” says a “review” of the fund by Hobby Lobby founder David Green on the foundation’s website. Advertisement: Mart Green, David Green’s son, delivered a presentation about “Knowing God” at the foundation’s 2012 “Lifework Leadership” seminar, In January 2013, Hobby Lobby issued a press release announcing its gift of a former prep school campus in Northfield, Mass., to the fund. The fund reports it is “giving away” the campus and is accepting applicants. (“Large Christian ministries, schools, seminaries and think tanks will most likely be the best potential recipients,” says an NCF website.) The exact use of Jon Cargill’s and Crafts, Etc.’s contributions to the foundation aren’t clear, but National Christian Charitable’s outgoing grants reveal a series of disbursements to groups that have offered legal services to Hobby Lobby or signed on to amicus briefs supporting the lawsuit. In 2012, the NCF contributed $94,340 to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the D.C.-based legal group representing Hobby Lobby in the upcoming Supreme Court case. Between 2002 and 2012, National Christian Charitable also contributed to at least 40 of the groups that signed on to amicus briefs supporting Hobby Lobby’s case. Seen in this light, the ideological connection between the Hobby Lobby suit and Arizona’s recently vetoed legislation becomes clearer: One seeks to allow companies the right to deny contraceptive coverage while the other would permit businesses to deny services to LGBT people. “There are really close legal connections between [Arizona’s anti-gay SB 1062 bill] and the [Hobby Lobby] Supreme Court case,” Emily Martin, vice president and general counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, told Salon. “Ideologically, the thing that unites the two efforts is an attempt to use religious exercise as a sword to impose religious belief on others, even if it harms others, which would be a radical expansion of free exercise law,” said Martin. Advertisement: And the common thread is the much bigger trend across the country. “Individuals and entities with religious objections to certain laws that protect others are seeking to use their religion to trump others,” Brigitte Amiri, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project, told Salon. (Both the ACLU and the National Women’s Law Center participated in amicus briefs opposing Hobby Lobby.) The centrality of Hobby Lobby in the network advancing this agenda is unmistakable. The crafts store’s name and owners are rallying cries for the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Center for Arizona Policy and the Becket Fund, the key actors in the battle over Arizona’s SB 1062 and the upcoming Supreme Court case. The Center for Arizona Policy held Hobby Lobby up as an example of a company that would benefit from SB 1062 and praised the Green family’s decision to sue the federal government over the contraceptive mandate. Advertisement: Center for Arizona Policy president Cathi Herrod heralded the Hobby Lobby lawsuit as a rare example of a “business willing to step out in faith and literally risk it all to hold fast to their faith” and encouraged people to shop at Hobby Lobby to show their support on “Stand With Hobby Lobby Day,” Jan. 5, 2013. And, in a January 2014, “action alert,” the center urged readers to support SB 1062 because it would “Clarify that people do not surrender their religious freedom rights just because they go to work or run a business. This provision would help protect businesses like Hobby Lobby that wish to operate according to their faith.” The Becket Fund hosts a web page extolling the Green family’s Christian values. “…[T]he Greens strive to apply the Christian teachings on respect and fairness to their employees. […] The Hobby Lobby success story is a true example of the American dream. Now the Greens want to live another American dream: that every American, including business owners like the Greens, should be free to live and do business according to their beliefs,” says the website. The Becket Fund did not respond to requests for comment. Advertisement: The Alliance Defending Freedom has also been outspoken in its support of Hobby Lobby, even staging a “Nine Weeks of Prayer” campaign in the weeks leading up to the Supreme Court hearing arguments in the Hobby Lobby suit. “You, your family, and your church” are urged to “Pray for the Christian family who founded and own Hobby Lobby, Inc.” and “Pray God would bless and protect the Green family as they continue to lead their company with integrity.” Even if Hobby Lobby loses its suit against the U.S. government, groups funded through the National Christian Charitable Foundation will continue to test the limits of the legal system's interpretation of religious freedom. The Alliance Defending Freedom itself is the organization behind McCullen v. Coakley, a case its lawyers argued in front of the Supreme Court in January challenging the constitutionality of a Massachusetts law that creates a buffer zone around abortion clinics; the Alliance Defending Freedom lawyers argue that the law creates a “censorship zone” for antiabortion protesters. The Alliance Defending Freedom, formerly known as the Alliance Defense Fund, is also attempting to take the case of Elane Photography v. Willock to the Supreme Court, making a similar argument about religious freedom. In 2006, New Mexico-based Elane Photography refused to photograph a same-sex ceremony for Vanessa Willock. Willock sued Elane Photography for discriminating against same-sex couples and New Mexico Supreme Court ruled in favor of Willock. The Becket Fund has written an amicus brief supporting Elane Photography. Similar legislation to SB 1062 also appeared in at least 13 other states – South Dakota, Kansas, Idaho, Tennessee, Colorado, Maine, Mississippi, Ohio, Georgia, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Nevada and Utah. Though those efforts have died or appear unlikely to pass following the setback in Arizona, the range of states is a good indication of the national ambitions that the alliance has for its legislation. Advertisement: While the network of organizations funded by a foundation heavily backed by Hobby Lobby’s executive and affiliate company are vocal about their support of the Green family and other companies seeking an expansive interpretation of the free exercise of religion, others are less enamored with the agenda promoted in Arizona and in the upcoming court cases. Amiri told Salon, “These companies are trying to use their religion as a license to discriminate against others.” Neither the Center for Arizona Policy nor the Alliance Defending Freedom responded to requests for comment.

There’s no disputing the fact that good bud can turn a decent movie into an awesome experience. But when it comes to video games… well, it’s sort of like a movie that allows you to get into the action personally. Over the past few decades, certain games have emerged that have truly revolutionized the way stoners the world over entertain themselves. From the all-time classics to some of the more recent titles to hit the scene, arm yourself with the right games and killing a whole night in what feels like seconds is guaranteed. “But which games to choose? And which strains?” Well, there’s some really informative cannabis news on the 420 Blog of SeedSupreme – also the best place to legally buy high grade marijuana seeds. As for the games, it’s a case of trying your hand with a few obvious titles and one or two you probably wouldn’t expect to be as mind-blowing as they are. And if you’re willing to risk scaring yourself senseless, you could be in for one hell of a ride! So after pulling together the thoughts and opinions of the masses, what follows is a brief rundown of quite simply the best stoner video games of all time. And if you’re interested in marijuana lifestyle and legalization issues, check out the mega-popular LIWTS website or on a side note: for growing marijuana with hydroponics checkout Hydrosys as a really good online hydroponics shop. Here is the undisputable list: The Curse of Monkey Island The fact that Monkey Island comes from the same studio that cooked up Star Wars says quite a bit about its pedigree and awesomeness. But it was and always will be the third installation that took things to a whole new level for stoners. Guybrush Threepwood took center stage, presenting players with the seemingly endless challenge of finding hidden stuff right in front of you and doing something productive with it. There’s nothing quite like the frustration of spending hours clicking every pixel on the screen, or the satisfaction of finally finding what you were looking for! Street Fighter II Turbo It’s not as if there haven’t been thousands of fighting games to emerge since the 90s. Nevertheless, there will only ever be one fighting game that pretty much started the whole scene off and defined a genre in one fell swoop. Street Fighter II Turbo isn’t just a well-earned trip down memory lane – it still plays like a dream by 2016 standards. If you’re planning on playing between bong hits, you’ll be right at home with the comparative simplicity of the king of ’90s fighters. Mario Kart The question so many stoners have lost friendships debating – the original Mario Kart, or Mario Kart 64? Truth is however that the answer really doesn’t matter – either will get the job done in a big way. Once again, it’s what’s technically genius simplicity that makes Mario Kart one of the ultimate games for stoners. The single player mode might not win you over, but in terms of multiplayer action…well, red shell induced tantrums and party storm-outs usually come as standard. GoldenEye 007 There’s only one very slight problem with GoldenEye 007 – there’s always one smug sod in the group that’s nailed the trick of picking you off with one shot the second you spawn. If it’s you, great. If it’s not, get set to have your patience tested. Still, the game based on the first Bond movie to start Pierce Brosnan is known far and wide for being one of the best multiplayer games on any platform and in any genre. Master the art of using those Remote Mines precisely and you’re golden…pun intended. Ridiculous Fishing The concept is clearly ridiculous…no surprises there. But what did surprise gamers the world over was just how much substance there was behind the bizarre façade. So much so in fact that Ridiculous Fishing netted a boat-load of awards when it landed. You play as Billy the fisherman, yanking fish out of the water and summarily shooting the living hell out of them for fun. And fun is exactly what it is – especially if you rip a few bong hits in between turns. Super Mario Bros It’s not until you take a step back from Mario that you really get an idea of how surreal it all is. Undisputed prince and hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, he spends his time jumping on local residents, throwing turtles all over the place, eating mushrooms, ridings a dinosaur, throwing fireballs and repeatedly throwing himself to his death. Yep, just a normal day all-round. Exactly which of the Mario titles takes the top prize is a subject of frenzied debate, though you won’t do much better than Super Mario Bros 3 on the NES or Super Mario World on the SNES. GTA IV What’s cool about the GTA franchise in general is how you know Sam and Dan must have been hitting the herb pretty hard when they came up with the concept. Every installment had its own unique charms, but GTA 4 excelled in ways nobody saw coming. Even playing alone, the fact that you can take a midnight stroll through an alternate version of New York City and cause mayhem along the way is epic on a whole new level. Throw in a little multiplayer and well…what more could you want? Fifa Is Fifa a better football sim than Pro-Evo? Perhaps not better as such, but it’s certainly more satisfying and easier to handle stoned. It really doesn’t matter which year you choose as it’s not the graphics you’ll be interested in anyway. It’s of course all about the multiplayer, which can transform the shy and placid members of your gang into fired-up raging beasts when there’s any kind of bet involved. Get yourselves a tournament going and you can kiss goodbye to your weekend! Roller Coaster Tycoon Another wonderful hit of nostalgia combined with a game that’s genuinely addictive, entertaining and hilarious like almost nothing else out there. There are really only two ways of playing the original Roller Coaster Tycoon – one being to succeed as its creators intended, the other being to find the most creative and amusing ways of killing innocent part visitors. Suffice to say, about 99% of the game’s most loyal fan-base opt for the second strategy. If you’ve ever played it yourself, you’ll know why. Wii Sports Even if fresh air and exercise aren’t your kind of thing when you’re high, it’s guaranteed you’ll get a massive kick out of Wii Sports. It was and is the game that makes it worth forking out for a Nintendo Wii in its own right…the first-gen console being practically given away for free these days. It’s always a blast when you’ve got a bunch of games all brought together in one package, but chances are it’ll be the golf, tennis or bowling that has you hooked for the whole night. Red Dead Redemption It might be cliché and some would argue wrong to compare Red Dead Redemption to GTA. But then again, how can the idea of crossing GTA with a fantasy Wild West setting be anything other than ridiculously awesome? Everything about Red Dead Redemption takes immersion and atmosphere to new heights. Stunning graphics, a glorious day-night cycle and so many ways of killing hours and days outside the set missions. This is a franchise that absolutely needs and deserves a brand-new installment. Limbo The words ‘thought-provoking’ are the first that spring to mind when looking to tackle Limbo after a joint or two. The whole game was designed to make you question your beliefs and think a little deeper than you otherwise might. Exploring a world of shadows, encountering characters that are already dead and all while on a mission to track down your little sister. Super Smash Bros Most Nintendo classics are perfect pairings for high-quality bud. Super Smash Bros is an all-time favourite in stoner circles if for no reason other than bringing together every character you knew and loved in your childhood. The result is a whole world of surreal pairings and square-offs the likes of which never get dull. And the fact that it’s brilliantly easy to control makes it ideal even for those barely willing/able to move even a finger. Online Slots Games When you’ve tasted some of the high-grade and you get to playing some slots at online casinos you can really forget about everything and just watch the flashing colors and noises. Some of the slots games available are movie and some are just so colourful and mesmerizing. Resident Evil In a technical sense, Resident Evil just kept on getting better. In a game-play sense, there’s just no beating the first couple of installments. It came from an era where it wasn’t possible to make horror titles with movie-quality graphics, so it was a case of relying on tension, jump scares and solid game-play. Three boxes ticked in spades by the first Resident Evil, which only gets better after a bong hit or two. Silent Hill The very first Silent Hill was less a game and more a raw test of your nerve. They managed to nail the concept of making you practically soil yourself with fear, even in instances when there was nothing happening. Low visibility, eerie calm and the knowledge that at any time, something hideous might be just about to creep out of the fog. Awesome while stoned, just as long as you don’t play it alone. GTA Online While it was GTA 5 that initially took the world by storm, GTA Online has become the definitive installment for stoners. Why? Well, quite simply because you can guarantee that at any time day or night, there are no doubt hundreds of thousands of other stoners just like you ripping bong hits and causing chaos online. A world of maniacs with nothing better to do than wail on each other and live out their semi-twisted competitive fantasies. You’ll get so much time out of GTA Online that it totally justifies the price of the console on its own. Outlast Diving back into the horror genre for a moment, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Outlast would be the opposite of a stoner classic. But it isn’t, in fact it’s loaded with the kind of tension and atmosphere that will always take your buzz to the next level. You’d need some serious balls to play it for more than a few minutes alone, but bring a few friends along for the ride and you’ll never tire of watching your mates silently soil themselves. If you’re looking for the best online head shops to take the fear to the next level, the LIWTS website will tell you exactly where to go! PaRappa the Rapper Right at the other end of the spectrum comes a true classic you totally forgot existed. What makes PaRappa the Rapper an ideal stoner game is the fact that a heavy dose of weed makes it borderline impossible. With your reaction times a little on the slow side, even the easiest levels will present the kinds of challenges you never anticipated. Things get faster, you get slower, the results become more hilarious and you have to stop yourself launching the controller across the room… pure genius! Lego Games Pick up any game at all from the Lego series and you’re golden. Star Wars might be the obvious choice, but there’s much to be said for Batman, Harry Potter and all the more obscure variants you can pick up online. There’s the promise of all the joy of building things, odd worlds to explore, shiny goodies to discover and the kinds of one-line catchphrases you’ll wish you’d have made up yourself. Rock Band Technically speaking, Guitar Hero was nothing more or less than a way of upping the ante with your air guitar. Rock Band on the other hand gave a world of wannabes the opportunity to at least pretend they’ve got the skills and charisma to become real rock stars. The addition of drums and vocals to the mix was nothing short of genius, though it’s still the guitar that gets argued over the most. Awesome tunes, psychedelic visuals and the guarantee of at least one of your group throwing a primadonna strop after screwing things up for the eleventh time in a row. Slender Last but not least, you’ll find more than a few seasoned experts out there consistently rating the game: Slender as the number-one stoner game of all time. First of all, there’s really no game out there that does a better job recreating exactly what you get from an epic Hollywood horror movie. Secondly, there’s the way in which it is uncomplicated and minimal in every way, which makes it a thousand times more terrifying than even the most advanced AAA horror titles. Thirdly, there’s the fact that the Slender Man himself is spectacularly scary – you only have to catch sight of him for your sanity to be quickly drained away. And finally, the fact that it is FREE makes it an absolute no-brainer in every way!

It's been a while since I last posted and for good reason...I've decided I need to attempt to compliment my backend skills with some frontend skills! I've never enjoyed writing javascript. Mostly because I've only ever used jQuery to added a little pizzazz to my sites(ie. toggleClass() and ajax()). I didn't have any javascript code organization. It was all spaghetti. Javascript Revolution Currently javascript is getting an insane amount of attention. New things are popping up all over the place(or maybe I've just been sheltered under my php rock). There are all sorts of frontend javascript frameworks now: Backbone, Angular, Ember, CanJS. Combine one of those with Twitter Boostrap or Zurb's Foundation and you can create some pretty slick frontends without doing much work. Javascript is even becoming popular for the backend with the advent of Node. Node has spurred Express, Meteor, Sails, and more. I've got to say, programming both the backend and frontend with the same language is pretty darn appealing, even if I hate the fact that javascript isn't class based. Where I'll start Considering all that, I figure it would do my career well to really start giving javascript more of my attention. So where in the world do I start? Well, Ember seems to be the new hotness and even though I don't know a lick of ruby or rails, having a contributor to both rails and jQuery on the core team, gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. I'll start with Ember! Ignition After a couple of days of trying to create something I realized one thing: Ember is hard. Ember does a ton of magic for you behind the scenes. As a noob, this was a hindrance to me. I couldn't distinguish what Ember was doing for me and what it expected me to do. It was also extremely difficult to wrap my head around what MV* means in Ember. It doesn't resemble MVC in the backend at all. Once I realized and understood that, it all started to click and I've grown to really enjoy developing the frontend with Ember. Another frustration of learning Ember/Ember-Data was the lack of up-to-date resources. I would constantly find stackoverflow questions that were "answered" and the answer referred to a jsfiddle that referenced "ember-latest.js" and guess what...Ember's api had changed, rendering it useless. So many times I found myself wanting to ditch it and stick to backend dev, but no, I don't want to be the guy unwilling to adapt. I. Must. Persevere. I set out to build a tiny CRM application and implement some features I know I'll run into when developing something for real. Some features like: basic CRUD operations various relationship types, including a polymorphic relationship loading relationships asynchronously modals Select2 integration data normalization, serialization and more After trying to soak up absolutely everything Ember(stackoverflow, blogs, digging through the docs, IRC) for a solid two weeks I finally found some enlightenment. I successfully built out my application and am delighted with the result. I've recorded a 10 part video playlist of myself rebuilding the app so that you all may reap the benefits of my efforts. I know when I first set out to learn ember I got tired of being pointed to paid methods of learning the framework. This is me giving back for all of the help I've received on my quest. Enjoy. Project Overview Before we get started I think it makes the most sense to have a look at what we're going to build. You can find all of the frontend source code in the repo . Each part has its own branch. Part 1 Let's get to it. In this first episode we're going to cover: project structure libraries used model definitions route definitions Part 2 Topics covered: creating Route objects retrieving models from the ember-data store/API expected JSON format displaying a list of models in a template using a few handlebars helpers Part 3 Topics covered: creating a route that uses a dynamic segment using handlebars partials getting and displaying related models sending actions from templates to controllers using ember-data model flags rolling back model changes saving models Part 4 Topics covered: reviewing relationship JSON creating a custom REST serializer Part 5 Topics covered: creating a route for new models rendering a specific template from the route what JSON to return when saving models removing unused models cleaning up unsaved model changes Part 6 Topics covered: hiding models based on properties creating mixins for our controllers handling backend errors using Twitter Bootstrap's alerts Part 7 Topics covered: fixing a mixin bug reviewing my error response JSON Part 8 Topics covered: implementing everything we've done for companies so far for people Part 9 Topics covered: fixing a dynamic model property bug incorporating Select2 using a custom view using meta data in our JSON sending actions from a view Part 10 Topics covered: using a Twitter Bootstrap modal rendering into named outlets using the Ember.Evented mixin sending actions from a view using two controllers in the same route binding attributes < p> Questions, comments? I hope you've found this useful. It was a really fun exercise and it sparked my interest to dive deeper into the javsacript world. I'd love to hear any questions or comments. As I said in the first video, I want to learn from you guys as well. Please tell me if I'm doing something wrong or I could be doing something better! Help! One huge aspect I didn't touch on was pagination. I'm still lurking and trying to figure out the best way to handle it. I'd love to learn more about the preferred method of paginating requested models using the meta object, especially paginating related models. For instance, if I'm on the company route, viewing a company that has 10,000 tasks, how do you paginate through those? If you have some ideas, please let me know! I'll append this post with the information.

The New York Giants placed an astounding five more players on injured reserve Tuesday, including guard Geoff Schwartz and longtime defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka, who's out for the year with a knee injury and could now be finished as a Giant after nine seasons and two Super Bowl titles. Kiwanuka missed Sunday's game with a knee injury that has been bothering him all season. Mathias Kiwanuka will be 32 next year and is scheduled to count $7.45 million against the Giants' salary cap in 2015. Andrew Weber/USA TODAY Sports Kiwanuka has played in 126 games and started 85 (including postseason) for the Giants since they selected him No. 32 overall in the 2006 NFL draft out of Boston College. Even before his season-ending injury, he was a strong candidate to be released this offseason for salary cap reasons. He'll be 32 next year and is scheduled to count $7.45 million against the 2015 salary cap. They can save $4.825 million against next year's cap by cutting him. Schwartz ranks among the biggest disappointments of this disappointing Giants season. Signed in the offseason to a four-year, $16.8 million contract to help fix their offensive line problems, Schwartz missed the first 10 games of the season with a toe injury. He returned and started at right tackle in Week 12 against the Dallas Cowboys and Week 13 in Jacksonville, but he sprained his ankle early in the Jacksonville game and did not return. He likely factors into their plans for next year's offensive line, but only $1 million of his scheduled $3.675 million salary for 2015 is guaranteed. To replace the most recent IR additions, the Giants signed linebacker James Davidson, guard Eric Herman and defensive tackle Dominique Hamilton from their practice squad to their 53-man roster. They also signed former Cleveland Browns and Carolina Panthers running back Chris Ogbonnaya to their 53-man roster. The other three players the Giants put on injured reserve Tuesday were defensive end Robert Ayers (torn pectoral muscle), guard Adam Snyder (knee) and linebacker Terrell Manning (ankle). Ayers started in Kiwanuka's place Sunday in Jacksonville and was tied for the team lead with five sacks so far this season. Snyder started at left guard in the Week 12 loss to Dallas but injured the knee in that game and could not finish it. Because Manning was signed last week from the Cincinnati Bengals' practice squad, the Giants are not allowed to replace him on the roster. NFL rules state that a player cannot be replaced on the 53-man roster for three weeks after signing from a practice squad, even if he goes on injured reserve. So for the next three weeks, the Giants will only be able to have 52 players on their 53-man roster. The Giants have placed a total of 20 players on injured reserve since training camp.

If you’re terrified of the possibility that humanity will be dismembered by an insectoid master race, equipped with robotic exoskeletons (or would that be exo-exoskeletons?), look away now. Researchers at the University of Tokyo have strapped a moth into a robotic exoskeleton, with the moth successfully controlling the robot to reach a specific location inside a wind tunnel. In all, fourteen male silkmoths were tested, and they all showed a scary aptitude for steering a robot. In the tests, the moths had to guide the robot towards a source of female sex pheromone. The researchers even introduced a turning bias — where one of the robot’s motors is stronger than the other, causing it to veer to one side — and yet the moths still reached the target. As you can see in the photo above, the actual moth-robot setup is one of the most disturbing and/or awesome things you’ll ever see. In essence, the polystyrene (styrofoam) ball acts like a trackball mouse. As the silkmoth walks towards the female pheromone, the ball rolls around. Sensors detect these movements and fire off signals to the robot’s drive motors. At this point you should watch the video below — and also not think too much about what happens to the moth when it’s time to remove the glued-on stick from its back. Fortunately, the Japanese researchers aren’t actually trying to construct a moth master race: In reality, it’s all about the moth’s antennae and sensory-motor system. The researchers are trying to improve the performance of autonomous robots that are tasked with tracking the source of chemical leaks and spills. “Most chemical sensors, such as semiconductor sensors, have a slow recovery time and are not able to detect the temporal dynamics of odours as insects do,” says Noriyasu Ando, the lead author of the research. “Our results will be an important indication for the selection of sensors and models when we apply the insect sensory-motor system to artificial systems.” Of course, another possibility is that we simply keep the moths. After all, why should we spend time and money on an artificial system when mother nature, as always, has already done the hard work for us? In much the same way that miners used canaries and border police use sniffer dogs, why shouldn’t robots be controlled by insects? The silkmoth is graced with perhaps the most sensitive olfactory system in the world. For now it might only be sensitive to not-so-useful scents like the female sex pheromone, but who’s to say that genetic engineering won’t allow for silkmoths that can sniff out bombs or drugs or chemical spills? Who nose: Maybe genetically modified insects with robotic exoskeletons are merely an intermediary step towards real nanobots that fly around, fixing, cleaning, and constructing our environment. Now read: Will we ever have Iron Man exoskeletons? Research paper: doi:10.1088/1748-3182/8/1/016008 – “Odour-tracking capability of a silkmoth driving a mobile robot with turning bias and time delay”

Myles Turner does not want this column to be about him. Dan Rohme, the man who handles communications for Turner’s agency group, does not want this column to be about Myles Turner. So, this column will be largely about the scourge of homelessness in Indianapolis and throughout this country, an issue that Turner has made his own through his many good works throughout his young life. So here we were at a south side Kroger last week, and there was Turner, his parents (Mary and David) and several Pacers’ employees, raising funds and consciousness for his WARM (We All Really Matter) initiative. WARM is a simple, beautiful concept, one that began growing organically when Turner was six years old, and his mother, Mary, stopped to provide a homeless man with goods she routinely carried in her car. RELATED: Pacers' Myles Turner warms hearts with WARM program “I can remember, the time that really got to Myles, we were in the car and we saw a young man who was using socks to warm his hands and his feet,’’ Mary Turner said. “He said, `Aw, Mom, that’s so awful.’ So we started looking in the car, we had some jackets that he’d outgrown that we were taking to Goodwill, and we gave it to this person. Then Myles had a backpack with him that had some socks and he gave them to the man. The guy was so appreciative and that really sparked something in Myles.’’ READ MORE ABOUT THE INDIANA PACERS. On this day, the line in Kroger wrapped all the way around the produce section, the 135 “go’’ bags gone well before three-quarters of the people were accommodated. Fans could donate $5 to WARM and receive a bag, which they will give to homeless people they encounter around town, plus a signed picture from Turner and other Pacers-related items. But here was the best part: Right beside Turner, his mother stood and helped in any way she could. His father, David, sat nearby and beamed as he watched his wife and oldest son do their good works. This is a family undertaking – from the heart. “I’ve seen this coming in Myles for a long time,’’ David said with a smile. And why wouldn’t he be wildly proud? We’re talking about a 19-year-old here; at 19, everything is about you, about friends and cars and finding the next good time. But Turner, inspired by his parents, has worked to help the homeless since he was very young, and remains committed to a cause that has grown and grown from a single-family enterprise into one that has become a community-wide effort. “That kid was raised right, I’m telling you,’’ said Pacers teammate and Turner’s best friend on the team, Joe Young. “He’s just so mature. I mean, I went to college for four years and he went for just one, and he knows about things I don’t know anything about. He’s a smart guy.’’ He’s also a giving guy, and I apologize to Turner and Rohme for (sort of) making this column about the Pacers’ breakout rookie. (But hey, how do you avoid it, right?) KRAVITZ: It’s time, even past time, to give Pacers’ Myles Turner more significant minutes As a kid, he would watch as his parents would come upon a homeless person and provide him or her with one of Mary’s “go’’ bags. It might have food. It might have one of the clothing items that Turner outgrew so quickly. It might be a couple of bucks. Anything to help. Then, during his one year at the University of Texas, he couldn’t help but notice the number of homeless people throughout Austin. So, he would stop and approach them. He was still a relatively poor college student – aren’t most college students relatively poor? – but he’d give them a couple of bucks and whatever he might have to offer. Find out how you can help WARM Fast forward to Indianapolis, and now Turner is using his new-found wealth to do what his parents did, and continue to do: He routinely fills up his car with necessities that might help a homeless person and moves around the city, looking for those in need. Many, he said, live under bridges, including the bridge just outside the employees’ entrance on Delaware Street. Or he’d go by Monument Circle, where he would often find those in need. Often, he took a friend with him; it’s not the safest enterprise, rolling around and working with those who may be in the throes of addiction or mental illness. But without telling anybody, without even mentioning it to the Pacers, he would make his rounds when he could find the time. He didn’t want the publicity. He just wanted to do right. READ MORE BY BOB KRAVITZ. In fact, when I asked if I could tag along on a night when he did his good works, he politely declined. Even with the slow, but steady improvement in the U.S. economy, homelessness nationally and locally remains a terrible problem. The federal government has its numbers, but according to Alan Witchey, the executive director of CHIP — the Coalition for Homeless, Intervention and Protection here in Indianapolis — the federal government defines homeless people in such a way that it artificially diminishes the number of the suffering. For example, if a homeless person is in drug or alcohol treatment, or in jail, or temporarily doubled up in a hotel, or in the hospital receiving treatment for an ailment, he or she is not counted by the federal government as homeless. “There’s some kind of desire on the part of the federal government to define our way out of this,’’ Witchey said. “It’s not helpful at all on a local level because if gives the impressions things are going much better than they really are.’’ According to CHIP’s data, there are 8-9,000 homeless in Indianapolis, and that number has remained static since 2012. During last year’s point-in-time data gathering mission – that’s counting the homeless on a single, given night – there were 1,666 homeless people on the streets of Indianapolis. The first week of January, four homeless people died in the cold while living on the streets of Indy. The second week of the month, another homeless person perished. There are any number of compelling reasons why a person might be relegated to homelessness: Many have lost jobs and simply can’t pay the rent or other bills and have been evicted. A frightening percentage are veterans, many of whom suffer from PTSD. There are many who are fleeing a domestic abuse situation. There are many with alcohol and/or drug abuse issues. Mental health, specifically bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or other maladies, have taken people to the streets. And there are so many families, an under-reported number of families, who can’t make ends meet and have ended up in shelters or forced to live and sleep on the streets. “We get federal funding from HUD (Housing and Urban Development), about $5 million, which helps, but the city of Indianapolis really hasn’t been addressing this issue by allocating dollars through the city budget or tax dollars,’’ Witchey said. “The last time we looked, we were outside of the top 15 cities, the only one not contributing budget money to homelessness. Now that’s going to start to change – we’re going to open a new center in collaboration with the city – but it’s not nearly enough. “It’s hard to know why. It has to be a community priority to recognize that ending homelessness is a critical piece and failing to do so only causes other problems. It’s crazy, the money we spend putting the homeless in jail or through the court system or in hospitals is enormous annually and we know if we invest in other programs, like providing permanent housing, it would cost a lot less as a community. Yet we have really struggled in Indianapolis.’’ In Witchey’s view, providing permanent housing is the key. According to his data, 92 percent of homeless people who got permanent housing were still housed a year later. The problem is, there’s not enough permanent housing. Currently, there are 270 people on a list for permanent housing. On average, it takes nine months to get off that list. It is a massive problem, but Turner is trying to make a small dent in it any way he and his family can. This particular event at Kroger? It stemmed from the fact that Turner was becoming frustrated that his heavy travel and basketball schedule was not allowing him to get out with the kind of frequency he wanted. So why not give these “go’’ bags to good-hearted people in the community and turn them into a small army of giving souls who could address the homeless issue in their own way? This is a small enterprise now. It won’t, and shouldn’t, remain that way. “You know who’s idea this (Kroger event) was?’’ Rohme asked, standing nearby as fans took pictures with the smiling rookie. “It was Myles. All Myles.’’ It’s a small and lovely gesture, and it’s one an entire city can get behind. But it’s just a drop in the bucket: The issue of homelessness cannot be fixed by a couple hundred “go’’ bags, and the Turners know that all too well. It’s got to be a civic priority, a governmental priority, or thousands will continue to go hungry, or live on the streets, or suffer with mental illness or addiction, or even die. READ MORE BY BOB KRAVITZ. READ MORE ABOUT THE INDIANA PACERS. Learn more about Turner's program here.