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RICHMOND -- After a barrage of nationwide criticism for excluding slavery from his Confederate History Month proclamation, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) on Wednesday conceded that it was "a major omission" and amended the document to acknowledge the state's complicated past. A day earlier, McDonnell said he left out any reference to slavery in the original seven-paragraph proclamation because he wanted to include issues he thought were most "significant" to Virginia. He also said the document was designed to promote tourism in the state, which next year marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. However, Wednesday afternoon the governor issued a mea culpa for the document's exclusion of slavery. "The proclamation issued by this Office designating April as Confederate History Month contained a major omission," McDonnell said in a statement. "The failure to include any reference to slavery was a mistake, and for that I apologize to any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed." McDonnell also called the nation's first elected black governor, L. Douglas Wilder (D) of Virginia, and the chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, Del. Kenneth Cooper Alexander (D-Norfolk), to apologize after they said they were offended by the document. McDonnell told them that he would alter the proclamation to include slavery and acknowledge that it was the cause of the Civil War. The original declaration called on Virginians to "understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War." McDonnell added language to the document that said slavery "was an evil and inhumane practice that deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights and all Virginians are thankful for its permanent eradication from our borders." But his decision to declare April Confederate History Month continued to cause a firestorm Wednesday, with national media descending on Richmond and Democrats and African Americans accusing the new governor of ignoring the state's role in slavery. Sheila Johnson, one of McDonnell's most prominent black supporters and the wealthy co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, condemned the proclamation, calling it "insensitive" to Virginia's complicated and painful history. "If Virginians are to celebrate their 'shared history,' as this proclamation suggests, then the whole truth of this history must be recognized and not evaded," said Johnson, who participated in a political ad for McDonnell's gubernatorial bid last fall and headlined several fundraisers during his campaign against Democrat R. Creigh Deeds. State Sen. A. Donald McEachin (D-Richmond), a member of the black caucus, accepted the governor's apology Wednesday but said he was disappointed that the state had to undergo the embarrassment and national scrutiny that followed the proclamation. "It's a black eye," he said. McDonnell revived a controversy that had been dormant for years. Confederate History Month was started by Gov. George Allen (R) in 1997. Allen's successor, James S. Gilmore III (R), included anti-slavery language in his proclamation. In 2002, Mark R. Warner, Gilmore's successor, broke with their actions, calling such proclamations a "lightning rod" that did not help bridge divisions between whites and blacks in Virginia. Four years later, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine was asked to issue a proclamation but did not. Kaine, who now serves as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, criticized McDonnell in a statement Wednesday.

Giant skyscrapers tower unfinished and abandoned around a lake that forms the centerpiece of this new town. The wind blows through the empty hulk of what was supposed to be a multistory hotel and restaurant complex. A salesman insists that people have moved into one of the few housing complexes to be completed around the shore, but as dusk falls, only a handful of lights blink on. He offers to throw in a free car with every apartment purchased. This is Shenfu New Town in the northeastern province of Liao­ning, built to handle the overflow from the once-booming industrial cities of Shenyang and Fushun. “Build it and they will come,” the saying goes. But here, in China’s industrial heartland, people are leaving instead of coming. For much of the past decade, this was China’s fastest-growing region, the home of the heavy industry that powered the nation’s rise and rode on the coattails of a construction boom unparalleled in history. Today, China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition that has left heavy industry reeling and set investors’ nerves jangling. The stock market is crashing, and fears of an economic slowdown are spreading. In the real economy, nowhere is the brunt of that slowdown and the pain of that transition being felt as sharply as here in the northeast. After uncertainty surrounding China's economy sparked a global sell-off, U.S. markets had a roller-coaster day before closing down sharply. Here's what you need to know to help your portfolio make it through the ups and downs of the stock market. (Jason Aldag/The Washington Post) [China’s ‘Black Monday’ spreads stock market fears worldwide] “Everyone knows what the problem is. It is structural,” said an official dealing with economic policy in the Liaoning government who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. “Everybody knows what to do. You need to change the economic structure. But what concrete steps to take? Nobody knows,” he said. “What can we do? Financial sector? You can’t compete with cities like Shanghai. High-tech industries? Those won’t flourish overnight.” Nicknamed the Rust Belt, the three provinces of northeastern China have survived tough times before, just as their famously tough inhabitants survive the region’s brutally cold winters. The challenges they face today reflect many of the challenges that China faces as a nation: Curtailing the power of state-owned enterprises and allowing market forces to play a greater role. Finding new drivers of growth now that the export-, infrastructure- and housing-led boom is playing out. And reforming the economy without causing more pain and upheaval. But here the problems seem even more deep-rooted, and attitudes more entrenched. This is a region where factory workers still look back fondly on the good old days of the Soviet-style planned economy and the industrialization drive that Mao Zedong undertook in the 1950s. This is a region, as the government official acknowledged, without the culture of entrepreneurship you find on China’s southern and eastern coasts. “Here it is not encouraged to start up your own business,” he said. “Everyone just wants a stable job with a big state-owned enterprise.” The Shanghai Composite Index ended trading on Monday down 8.49 percent, after all of the yearly gains were wiped out of the market.The fall comes as investors were disappointed that policymakers announced no support for the markets over the weekend. (Reuters) Liaoning’s economy grew by a staggering average of 12.8 percent a year between 2003 and 2012, even faster than the 10.7 percent recorded by the nation as whole. Now, official figures show the national economy growing at 7 percent, but growth in Liaoning tumbled to 2.6 percent in the first half of this year, the lowest of the country’s 31 provinces. Industrial production in the province contracted more than 5 percent in the first seven months of this year after growing more than 8 percent the year before, says Shen Minggao, Citi’s chief economist for Greater China, a deterioration he calls “astonishing.” Factories faltering The Tiexi district of Shenyang is nicknamed the “Ruhr of the East,” after the German district that forms the backbone of that nation’s industrial might. Yet here, the backbone of China’s economy appears to be wilting. At state-owned companies, workers say fewer shifts mean their monthly pay has fallen from up to 5,000 yuan ($780) two years ago to more like 2,000 now. At private factories such as the Shenyang Heavy Machinery Huayang Mechanical Co., the situation is bleaker. Here, just 30 workers man old-fashioned lathes making machinery for the coal industry in a factory that once employed 400. Abandoned parts and tools lie strewn on the factory floor amid cigarette butts and metal shavings, a thick film of oil coats every surface, and the sense of decay is palpable. Yao Guanghe, 22, started working here in May after his previous employer went bankrupt, but he fears for his future. “It’s very difficult to find jobs in this industry,” he said amid the hum of machinery, the sound of hammering and the blue flash of welding. “You consider yourself lucky just to be working at all.” Many people leave the region to look for work elsewhere. That relieves some of the social pressure but is draining some of the best talent from the northeast and leaving behind a rapidly aging population, experts say. Reflecting their concern, President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang both made “inspection tours” of the northeast in the past four months. Both have stressed the need to foster innovation,­encourage small and medium-size businesses, reform state-owned companies and find new engines for growth. But both have also signaled a reluctance to turn their backs on the old ways entirely. In April, Li called for the government to launch major infrastructure projects — even though revenue is down 23 percent in the first half of this year. In July, Xi said state-owned enterprises are the backbone of the economy and warned that the government must avoid “the blindness of the market” even as it pursues reform, state media reported. Those mixed messages may represent an effort to manage the economic transition, but they also may reflect the haphazard nature of changes that have taken place since Xi and Li came to power in 2013. There have been some financial reforms — most notably this month’s decision to make the currency more responsive to market forces — but a reluctance to administer the kind of harsh medicine the domestic economy needs, economists say. [China’s credibility on the line as yuan slides again, global markets slump] “There is a general aspiration to do good things in a very vague sense, but there isn’t a top-down vision — or if there is a vision, there is no plan about how to actually execute it,” said Andrew Batson, director of research at Gavekal Dragonomics. “What actually happens is dependent on domestic politics and maneuvering within the bureaucracy.” Andrew Polk, senior economist at the Conference Board China Center for Economics and Business, said the problems are mounting as the economy slows — efforts to curb state-owned enterprises could result in still slower growth, for example, and it is far from clear that the leadership is ready to take that leap. “I see them as being on a ledge,” Polk said. “They have great intentions, and they keep coming up to the edge. But then they think about it, they don’t jump, and they back off.” Echoes of 2008 Many of China’s problems date to the 2008 global financial crisis, which crushed export growth. A major government stimulus program delayed the day of reckoning but led to a rapid rise in debt that now needs to be contained. But it is the end of the construction boom that may have hit heavy industries such as steel and cement the hardest. “It may take a 10 to 20 percent capacity cut before these sectors become profitable again,” said Citi’s Shen. “If they do cut capacity, the economy will get worse, but if they don’t, the problem will drag on for a few more years.” In Shenyang, the signals remain as mixed as they are nationally. Zhou Dewen, who runs a business association in Wenzhou, scouts out investment possibilities throughout China. He has led 20 small-business delegations to the northeast, but he has not been able to work up much enthusiasm for the region. “The northeast still thinks of itself as the big brother, because they were the first to get rich after the new China was founded,” he said. “They are sitting on their glories and not advancing with time. Their mind-set is still the old planned-economy stuff. They don’t see that small businesses can do big things.” Nevertheless, it would be wrong to write China’s economy off, or to conclude that the northeast has no hope of recovery. At the gleaming new factory complex run by the Shenyang Machine Tool Group (SYMG), fully automated lathes and milling machines work with a precision and speed that was previously unimaginable, and company chairman Xiyou Guan talks enthusiastically about joining the next global revolution in smart machines. SYMG rose from being the 36th-largest machine tool company in the world in 2002 to the largest in 2011. Times are much tougher now — revenue has since dropped sharply, and the company is projecting a net loss in the first half of this year. It has fallen back to third place globally. Nevertheless, Xiyou, who is also a senior Communist Party official, remains upbeat — about his company and for the region as a whole. “In my opinion, the fact that we are in an economic downturn is not a bad thing: When something old dies, something new will be born,” he said, turning to his colleagues to cite a line from Russian writer Maxim Gorky. “ ‘Let the tempest come strike harder!’ — because this will give birth to new things much faster.” Xu Yangjingjing contributed to this report.

Sweet potatoes are pure bliss to me. Straight from the oven - all steamy, sticky and sweet - I'll gladly eat them as simple as can be.However, a plain sweet potato doesn't really count as a "meal" - so it usually gets served alongside other meal-type things like. But what if instead of giving it side dish status, we made the potato the centerpiece of mealtime?..Time to give the luscious baked sweet potato the treatment it deserves..Baked.And over-stuffed.Two recipes for you:Style. AndStyle. So pop a sweet potato in the oven and stuff it in a flash!.. The canvas....and my edible art..Tender kale salad, shiitake mushroom quinoa, spicy vegan refried beans, chipotle sauce and chopped chives - stuff this potato..Any shape will work..Many "stuffed" or "loaded" sweet potato recipes I have seen online call for scooping andthe potato flesh (usually after mashing it with some seasonings and accent ingredients or spices). Yummy, yes, but I prefer a more minimalist route.To me, scooping and re-stuffing them seems unnecessary when that flesh is so darn delish all on its own. So instead, I have chosen to crack those golden babies open and simply load 'em up!Two recipes for you today:Stuffings.. Today I used (among other fillings)..Shiitake Mushroom Quinoa (quinoa + sauteed mushrooms):Kale Salad (recipe below):But really, you canwith a very wide array of toppings..* grains (quinoa, brown rice, barley, couscous..)* beans (hummus, re-fried beans, whole beans..)* chopped veggies* seeds (hemp, sunflower, chia..)* salsa* salads* plain soy yogurt or vegan sour cream* dressings/dips/sauces galore (BBQ, vegan chipotle mayo..)* Slaws, sauerkraut* Tempeh bacon bits1 sweet potato, oven-baked/slit down middle3/4 cup plain soy yogurt1/3 cup tomatoes, dicedsprinkle of chopped cilantrochopped chivesa few dashes of chipotle spicesalt/pepper to tasteThe simple-stuffed result..1 sweet potato, oven-baked/slit down middle1/2 cup vegan refried beans (spicy flavor for me)1/3 cup mushroom quinoa ( basic quinoa tossed with sauteed shiitake mushrooms + optional nutritional yeast)1/4 cup marinated kale salad (recipe below)2 Tbsp vegan chipotle sweet potato sauce (recipe below)chopped chivespepper to tasteSimply pile on the toppings! Sticky or heavy items are best layered first. For the loaded potato I did beans, quinoa, salad, dressing, chives/pepper on top.2 cups kale, chopped1 tomato, diced2 Tbsp sliced almonds2 scallions, choppedtossed in Miso Dressing - recipe in this post 1 Tbsp baked sweet potato (scoop from potato)1 Tbsp vegan mayo (a few dashes chipotle powder1 tsp maple or agave syrup(thin out with a splash of liquid if desired - water, vinegar, oil works)Dive into sweet potato comfort food..

In a 500-kg horse, about 1,000 J of elastic energy are stored in the digital flexor tendons and suspensory ligament (interosseus muscle) of each leg in each stride2,6. This is achieved by gravitational and inertial forces that extend the metacarpophalangeal joint and stretch these collagenous structures (Fig. 1). Animals (including humans) that store elastic energy in their tendons have compliant tendons5 and minimize length change in the associated muscle7,8,9. The muscle instead preloads10,11 and/or powers the system by shortening at low tendon forces7. Further efficiency gains may be achieved by shortening or removing the muscle fibres, because the energetic cost of generating isometric force is a function of muscle fibre length over activated volume3,4,5. The endpoint of this optimization is shown in the completely collagenous interosseus muscle of the adult horse. Figure 1: Equine distal forelimb (medial view) showing segments below the elbow, and the tendons and muscles that resist compression of the limb by the effect of gravitational and inertial forces during the stance phase of locomotion. This part of the limb is about 1 m long in a 450-kg thoroughbred racehorse. AL, accessory ligament; DDF, deep digital flexor; SDF, superficial digital flexor. Full size image However, the equine forelimb superficial and deep digital flexor muscles remain well developed (mass 600–1,000 g), and 98% (see Methods) of the physiological cross-sectional area comprises extremely short (superficial, 2–6 mm; deep, 6–17 mm) muscle fibres1,6,10,11. Similar short-fibred muscles exist in the hindlimb. Each muscle has a maximum isometric force of about 5,000 N (n = 5). The tendons are about 700 mm long and the muscles about 400 mm long. A peak tendon strain of 8–12% during locomotion1,12,13 equates to a tendon elongation of 70 mm and, assuming similar aponeurosis strains, a muscle elongation of 40 mm. Both muscles are protected from overextension by short (50 mm) and hence, when loaded, stiff accessory ligaments that link the tendon distal to the muscle belly to the bone, effectively acting as an additional parallel elastic element. Assuming a change in sarcomere length of 35% and muscle force in excess of the long-fibred head isometric capacity (230 N), then the superficial and deep digital flexor muscle contractile elements should change length by only 1–2 mm and 2–6 mm, respectively. The long-fibred head appears sufficient to flex the digit during limb protraction, but the role of the short-fibred heads remains unclear. With potential contractile element length changes of 2 and 6 mm in a muscle tendon unit elongation of 60–80 mm, the muscles appear inappropriate for tuning the leg spring10 or driving the spring system as in other energy-storing tendons7,8,9. It is possible, however, that the short fibres can, owing to lateral force transmission through the complex three-dimensional (3D) architecture of the muscle, achieve a length change greater than that predicted from fibre-length measurements14. Hoof impact, slide and resonance lasts 20–30 ms. Foot impact excites the equine limb to vibrate in a cranio-caudal direction at a frequency of 30–40 Hz (Fig. 2)15. The vibrations are similar on different surfaces (tarmac 35.9 ± 1.2 Hz; concrete 35.8 ± 2.1 Hz; rubber matting 34.9 ± 1.2 Hz; n = 8), and correspond to a muscle–tendon unit length change of about 2 mm (from joint angle changes) and an energy of 4–8 J. The vibrations are damped within 100 ms on hard surfaces and more quickly on soft surfaces. Similar frequency oscillations occur in the hindlimb and a simulation thereof16, but are damped within a cycle. Notably, 40–50-Hz horizontal vibrations are present for about 100 ms after impact in accelerometer and kinematic data recorded from the human tibia during barefoot running17. Figure 2: Plot of horizontal (in direction of locomotion) and vertical limb ground reaction force (GRF) against time for a 450-kg horse trotting at 3 m s-1 over a 6-mm-thick polyester/rubber-matting-covered conveyor-belt force plate. The inflections in the curves during early stance are due to limb vibration excited by foot impact. Full size image Excessive high-frequency vibration in the limb will cause fatigue damage in both bone18 and tendon19 by increasing the number of loading cycles and the loading rate experienced by the distal limb tissues. Musculoskeletal injuries are extremely common in athletic horses, and most of them occur in this spring system, which has been shown to fail through cyclical fatigue damage in as little as 10,000 strides of gallop20,21. A statistical correlation between high-frequency components in the ground reaction force and the development of tendonitis in racehorses has also been shown22. Control and damping of vibration is an important design feature of manmade mechanical systems. Machines are usually designed to be rigid, but elastic deformation is an essential functional property of the equine limb and some innovative legged robots23. This elasticity and the multi-joint leg spring makes limb vibration inevitable, and it seems essential that this vibration is appropriately damped. The digital flexor muscles have extremely short fibres but a large physiological cross-sectional area. Muscles are good at absorbing energy24, so these short-fibred muscles appear ideally arranged for absorbing energy during high-frequency small displacement vibration. One front leg from each of six horses killed at an abattoir was mounted in a hydraulic press at three different limb orientations representing impact through to mid-stance. The limbs vibrated for 3–5 cycles at 25–45 Hz when an impulse was applied to the carpal joint with a 1-kg hammer. Vibration frequency increased with limb force (28 Hz at 1 kN to 38 Hz at 4 kN) and was 4 Hz higher at impact orientation (26.5° to vertical) than at mid-stance orientation. Another six legs were compressed up to 6 kN (roughly gallop force) at mid-stance orientation over 5 s, twice with and twice without electrical stimulation (50 Hz, 60 V) of the digital flexor muscles. It is unlikely that full muscle activation is achieved in this loading system (or during locomotion), but the length change would still be similar at low limb forces. Experiments were completed within 1 h of death, muscle temperature remained above 37 °C, and repeat plots were similar (Fig. 3). Figure 3: Relationship between limb force and muscle length for an equine superficial digital flexor muscle loaded in situ in the unstimulated state (U), and two sequential cycles with maximal electrical stimulation (S 1 , S 2 ). The difference between plots U and S 1 , S 2 represents the length change in the contracted muscle, and the difference between plots S 1 and S 2 represents the decline in contractile properties with repeated loading. Similar data were obtained for the deep digital flexor muscle. Full size image At low limb forces, both muscles were 2–3 mm shorter when stimulated. The stimulated muscle lengthened more than the unstimulated muscle with increasing limb force (Fig. 3), absorbing energy in the limb force range at which the leg vibrations are damped (Fig. 2). The stimulated muscle lengthened more because the muscle was shorter at the start of loading, and when the isometric capacity of the contractile element was exceeded the muscle lengthened and the load was transferred to the parallel elastic element and the accessory ligament. The accessory ligament is shorter (50 mm compared with 300 mm) and hence stiffer (N mm-1) than the muscle aponeurosis, so at high elongations most of the force will pass through it. This load transfer from the compliant muscle to the stiff accessory ligament accounts for the plateau of both the active and the passive muscle length curves above a limb force of 3 kN. The accessory ligament therefore limits muscle length change, keeping the muscle fibres at an appropriate length for developing active force and hence absorbing energy during oscillation. Muscle stimulation had minimal effect on the relationship between limb force and limb length, showing that there is minimal change in limb stiffness and thus little potential for limb tuning through contraction of the digital flexor muscles. The limb spring may, however, be tuned by the muscles associated with the elbow and shoulder joints or those attaching the scapula to the trunk. We created a numerical model of the system that reproduced published in vivo joint angles and tendon strains (see Methods). The model in the reference state (leg vertical, no muscle activation and tarmac ground surface) also reproduced similar low (2.9 Hz) and high (57.5 Hz) natural frequencies to in vivo and ex vivo data when loaded with a mass of 200 kg, that is, half body mass (Fig. 4). Reducing vertical and horizontal surface stiffness by 500% from that representing tarmac (k = 5 × 105 N m-1) to that representing grass (k = 1 × 105 N m-1) reduced the resonance frequencies by a much smaller amount to 2.7 and 34.1 Hz. This is due to the reduction in stiffness of the overall system. An increase in damping coefficient increased damping of vibration but did not change the frequency. The model was loaded at limb orientations of foot impact (26.5° to vertical) and mid-stance (vertical). At impact orientation, the resonance frequencies dropped from reference to 2.2 and 53.2 Hz because the limb is more compliant at this orientation. Figure 4: Vertical and horizontal ground reaction force (GRF) data produced from the equine limb model described in the text in the reference condition (leg vertical, no muscle activation, loading on tarmac). Top trace, vertical data; bottom trace, horizontal data. The initial oscillations are generated by the energy of the model being loaded by a mass of 200 kg. Two frequencies of oscillation are apparent at 2.9 and 57.5 Hz. There is no muscle stimulation in this case, and hence vibration damping is limited to the properties of the foot surface. Full size image In the model, muscle activation created muscle length changes greater than observed in the limb-loading experiment, had a damping effect on low-frequency oscillation (limb energy storage), but only a 3% tuning effect (2.9 to 3 Hz), which is less than the surface effect. There was, however, no damping or tuning effect on high-frequency limb vibration. This is because Hill muscle models (almost universal in biomechanical modelling) fail to simulate high-frequency energy absorption24, because at high frequencies (and hence velocities) the contractile element remains almost isometric and the series elastic element absorbs most length change. Real muscles from a diverse range of animals (crayfish, frog, rat and rabbit), however, show a plateau or minimum in stiffness around 30–60 Hz (refs 24, 25). This effect is absent from muscle in rigor25. This suggests that the minimum is an inherent property of cross-bridge dynamics25, and we would predict that horse muscle will have similar frequency-dependent properties. The cross-bridge model26,27 gives excellent simulations of the forces generated by live muscle fibres in response to small rapid length changes. We used the model to predict the energy absorbed by a cross-bridge when subjected to sinusoidal length changes of 0.5% at a range of frequencies. The assumption of constant displacement is reasonable because of the stiff accessory ligament in series with the muscle. There was a broad peak energy absorption of 15 × 10-21 J per cross-bridge per cycle centred around 100 Hz (Fig. 5), which is similar to that reported for real muscle24,25. At 40 Hz, a single cross-bridge would absorb 12 × 10-21 J per cycle. Scaling-up for the digital flexor muscles (1 kg of muscle containing 0.3 mM myosin heads) gives a value of 2.5 J per cycle, which is sufficient to provide useful damping of limb vibration (energy 4–8 J), but is tiny compared with the energetic cost of locomotion2. At stride frequency, the energy absorption was only 6 × 10-21 J per cross-bridge. Figure 5: Plot of cycle work done on each cross-bridge in 10-21 J per cycle as a function of frequency (Hz) during a sinusoidal length change of 0.5%. These data were generated using the cross-bridge model of refs 26 and 27. Full size image Muscle fibres will therefore absorb more vibrational energy around 30–100 Hz than predicted by the Hill model, in which stiffness increases monotonically with frequency. Experimentally derived frequency-dependent muscle stiffness and phase data25 were used to predict the impulse response of a muscle–tendon–mass system geared to represent the limb vibration mechanism. We found resonance at 30 Hz and 88% damping in the first 100 ms of the impulse response. This simple model shows a similar response to that predicted from the cross-bridge simulations and supports the hypothesis that the muscles have appropriate architecture and properties to damp vibrations in the frequency range that occur in the equine limb. In summary, the apparently functionless but well-developed digital flexor muscles in the horse appear to act as dampers of high-frequency limb vibration rather than to flex the digit or tune the leg spring. A cross-bridge muscle model can reproduce this muscle energy absorption and should be useful in recreating this high-frequency damping in musculoskeletal models of impact attenuation.

In what seems like no time at all, reality television has gone from being a guilty pleasure to something worth setting a reminder for. Now that there are reality shows entering double-digit seasons and others that have spawned multiple spin-offs, reality TV has more than established itself as a real genre, and fans have pledged their unwavering devotion. To see just where those loyalties lie, CableTV.com analyzed Google Trends data to create a map that details each state's favorite reality show. According to the map, Hoarders leads the pack as the favorite reality series in five states while Shark Tank and America's Next Top Model claim four states apiece. Keeping Up With the Kardashians is the favorite show in its home state of California (Arizona loves it, too), while Pawn Stars owns Nevada, where it is based. But location isn't everything: Long Island Medium is reportedly the most popular reality show in Delaware, but not in New York (the Empire State prefers Ru Paul's Drag Race, though Mob Wives and Long Island Medium round out the top three). "Generally, viewers love to indulge in reality shows that reflect their own regional interests," according to CableTV.com. On its website, the company also listed each state's top three shows and included facts about the states to provide context for the kinds of people who are watching each show. "California is in the top three [states] nationally for income and median house price, so they know a thing or two about how it feels to keep up with the Kardashians," CableTV writes. Map courtesy of CableTV.com

Lead image credit: Her Campus BY KELLY WILZ Fair warning: This blog is not going to be angry. It will not be written in all caps. There will be no vulgarity. And it probably won’t go viral. I don’t care. What I do care about is the fact I’ve read over 70+ articles in the past two weeks alone discussing the 2016 election and what I see is a total lack of nuance and a lot of critiques that overgeneralize or underplay the very real role gender plays when people talk about Clinton and/or any other women who dare to step into positions that for so long have only been held by men. What I do care about is how on my Facebook feed and elsewhere, I see well meaning folks called out as sexist jerks for simply offering legitimate critiques of Clinton and what a Clinton presidency might look like. I like nuance. I like messy. I don’t like soundbites and simplicity. So, let’s play the nuance game. For folks who love Clinton, realize that not every critique poised against her is based in sexism. For those who love Sanders, realize that sexism is very alive in 2016, and that you can love your candidate AND embrace the reality that politicking while female is still an incredibly difficult thing to do. Imagine that. Both/and. For those who haven’t yet made up their minds, or don’t fall into either of these categories, this is for you, too. So, here is my attempt to create a list of productive ways to critique Hillary Clinton without being a sexist jerk. 1). Do not talk about her voice. Really. Just don’t. Earlier this week (and pretty much throughout Clinton’s existence), we’ve seen pundits and others criticize her shrillness, her voice, and her “masculine” speaking style. Soraya Chemaly argues, “Anger in a man doesn’t make the world wonder out loud if his hormones have taken over his brain and rendered him an incoherent idiot who can’t be trusted with Important Things. How many words for ‘angry’ men are there? Ones that have the powerful and controlling cultural resonance of yelling, and shouting, b-tch, nag? Or, yep, shrill.” Karlyn Kohrs Campbell wrote an incredibly thoughtful piece discussing how our culture has negatively responded to Clinton’s inability to fit within the parameters set in terms of how one should act and speak as a woman in the political sphere. She says Clinton “symbolizes the problems of public women writ large, the continuing demand that women who play public roles or function in the public sphere discursively enact their femininity, and that women who do not or who do so to only a limited degree, women whose training and personal history fit them for the roles of rhetor, lawyer, expert, and advocate, roles that are gender coded masculine, will arouse the intensely hostile responses that seem so baffling” (15). Overall, what Campbell is arguing is that women in the political sphere, in order to be taken seriously, must enact just the right amount of femininity and masculinity, and that Clinton’s failure to be “appropriately feminine” has hindered her for decades. She continues to thoughtfully lay out a “masculine” and “feminine” rhetorical style of speaking and discusses what that sounds like.” In rhetorical terms, performing or enacting femininity has meant adopting a personal or self-disclosing tone (signifying nurturance, intimacy, and domesticity) and assuming a feminine persona, e.g., mother, or an ungendered persona, e.g., mediator or prophet, while speaking. It has meant preferring anecdotal evidence (reflecting women’s experiential learning in contrast to men’s expertise), developing ideas inductively (so the audience thinks that it, not this presumptuous woman, drew the conclusions), and appropriating strategies associated with women—such as domestic metaphors, emotional appeals to motherhood, and the like—and avoiding such ‘macho’ strategies as tough language, confrontation or direct refutation, and any appearance of debating one’s opponents. Note, however, that feminine style does not preclude substantive depth and argumentative cogency” (5). Presidents Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton use/used a “feminine” rhetorical style of speaking–something which men can do and not be criticized for. Reagan was the great communicator. Both Clinton and Obama have been called some of the greatest orators in American history. Hillary Clinton cannot “perform” femininity and her inability to play into this script Campbell argues reveals *our deficiencies*–not Clinton’s. Campbell states, “Our failure to appreciate the highly developed argumentative skills of an expert advocate, when the advocate is female, reveals our deficiencies, not hers. Legislation attendant on the second wave of feminism opened doors for able women who seek to exercise their skills in all areas of life, including the formation of public policy. If we reject all of those who lack the feminizing skills of Elizabeth Dole, we shall deprive ourselves of a vast array of talent” (15). 2). Please don’t talk about her “likeability.” As with the sound of her voice and her rhetorical speaking style, her “likeability” should have nothing to do with whether or not she would make a qualified president. Yes, I realize all candidates have to somewhat pass the likeability test, but for Clinton, because of the years long Hillary hating stemming from her time as first lady, this issue is in fact gendered, and to criticize her for not being likeable reeks of sexism. Henry Louis Gates Jr. argues, “Hillary hating has become one of those national past times that unite the elite and the lumpen.” Gary Wills notes, “Hillary Hate is a large-scale psychic phenomenon. At the Republican convention there was a dismemberment doll on sale. For twenty dollars you could buy a rag-doll Hillary with arms and legs made to tear off and throw on the floor. .. . Talk shows are full of speculation about Hillary’s purported lesbianism and drug use. Fine conspiratorial reasoning sifts whether she was Vince Foster’s mistress or murderer or both. The Don Imus show plays a version of the song ‘The Lady is a Tramp’ with new lyrics about the way the lady ‘fornicates’ and ‘menstruates’ and ‘urinates,’ concluding, ‘That’s why the First Lady is a tramp.'” Image As Nico Lang points out, “She was a working woman and full political partner with (gasp) feminist tendencies. Among would-be first ladies in the early 1990s, these were exotic qualities. Clinton has continued to occupy that same space for the better part of three decades now, a one-woman culture war who plays the political game the same way the men around her do. But unlike those men, Clinton is chided for being ‘disingenuous’ and a ‘political insider.’ Everyone else just gets to do their job. There are real reasons to have reservations about a Clinton presidency — including her oft-cited ties to Wall Street and her hawkish foreign policy — but how often are they the central force of the criticism lodged against her campaign? In an August poll, Quinnipac found that while political respondents felt that Hillary Clinton was ‘strong’ and a candidate with ‘experience,’ the words they most associated with her are ‘liar,’ ‘dishonest,’ and ‘untrustworthy.’ These designations appear to be motivated by her Emailgate scandal and the ongoing questions about Benghazi — but none of the myriad investigations into either have turned up anything close to a smoking gun.” Rebecca Traister also notes, “Recall the days following the 2008 Iowa caucus, when the media took advantage of Clinton’s defeat to let loose with their resentment and animosity toward her. That was when conservative Marc Rudov told Fox News that Clinton lost because ‘When Barack Obama speaks, men hear ‘Take off for the future!’ When Hillary Clinton speaks, men hear ‘Take out the garbage!’ It was in the days after Iowa that Clinton infamously got asked about how voters believed her to be ‘the most experienced and the most electable’ candidate but ‘are hesitating on the likability issue.’ In late January, columnist Mike Barnicle told a laughing all-male panel on Morning Joe that Clinton’s challenge was that she looks ‘like everyone’s first wife standing outside of probate court.'” In Diana B. Carlin and Kelly L. Winfrey’s analysis of the various ways Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton were portrayed during the 2008 campaign, they note, “Women who exhibited too many masculine traits are often ridiculed and lose trust because they are going against type or play into male political stereotypes that voters are rejecting” (328). More recently, Sady Doyle argues that, “This plays out on the level of personal expression, too: Women are supposedly over-emotional, whereas men make stern, logical, intelligent judgments. So, if Hillary raises her voice, gets angry, cries, or (apparently) even makes a sarcastic joke at a man’s expense, she will be seen as bitchy, crazy, cruel and dangerous. (Remember the ‘NO WONDER BILL’S AFRAID‘ headlines after she raised her voice at a Benghazi hearing; remember the mass freak-out over her ‘emotional meltdown‘ when someone thought she might be crying during a concession speech.) She absolutely cannot express negative emotion in public. But people have emotions, and women are supposed to have more of them than men, so if Hillary avoids them – if she speaks strictly in calm, logical, detached terms, to avoid being seen as crazy – we find her ‘cold,’ call her ‘robotic’ and ‘calculating,’ and wonder why she doesn’t express her ‘feminine side.’ Again, she’s going to be faulted for feminine weakness or lack of femininity, and both are damaging. Okay, so she can never be sad, angry, or impatient. That’s not a ban on all emotion, right? You’d think the one clear path to avoiding the ‘bitchy’ or ‘cold’ descriptors would be to put on a happy face, and admit to emotions only when they are positive. You’d think that, and you’d be wrong: It turns out, people hate it when Hillary Clinton smiles or laughs in public. Hillary Clinton’s laugh gets played in attack ads; it has routinely been called ‘a cackle‘ (like a witch, right? Because she’s old, and female, like a witch); frozen stills of Hillary laughing are routinely used to make her look ‘crazy‘ in conservative media. She can’t be sad or angry, but she also can’t be happy or amused, and she also can’t refrain from expressing any of those emotions. There is literally no way out of this one. Anything she does is wrong.” Given these constraints, Doyle argues it is impossible for Clinton to be likeable. Look at how she’s tried to address this issue. Dancing like a fool, talking about fashion, laughing more. What has it gotten her? Nothing but backlash. Dave Holmes writes in Esquire, “You’re not fun. Stop trying to pretend you’re fun.” The Onion writes an entire faux op-ed from Clinton entitled “I am Fun” painting her attempt at being “fun” as insincere and manufactured. In the eyes of the American public, Hillary Clinton will never be fun. Or likeable. Or someone you’d want to have a beer with. And it shouldn’t matter. Period. So quit it with the likeability stuff, already. It’s stupid and petty. I don’t care if my president knows how to dance or even knows how to dress well. And you shouldn’t, either. 3). Do criticize her on substantive issues. As Kevin Young & Diana C. Sierra Becerra argue, Clinton is the embodiment of corporate feminism. In their piece, they cite many areas where Clinton could have been and could still be a better advocate for women’s rights. It’s a fair critique but one that falls under the radar when we’re so concerned with her voice, appearance, and dance skills. 4). Know your history, do some research, and when criticizing, be fair. One of the claims I often hear as to why some don’t trust Clinton, or why some feel she’s untrustworthy is because she sat on the board of Walmart. Ok. But let’s dig a little deeper. Ann Klefstad notes, “Not to take anything away from Bernie and Jane, but think what an advantage this is: to build a career in a location of your choosing, with the strong support of a highly qualified and intelligent person who is unconditionally loyal to you. This was also Bill Clinton’s situation — after Yale, finding Hillary, heading home to Arkansas, and building a brilliant career in politics. But hey — what about Hillary? After getting a law degree from Yale (an all-male institution a few years previously) she meets Bill. She dumps her career as a congressional aide to move to Arkansas with Bill. I can imagine her dilemma. This was the 1970s. If she wanted to be with Bill, she would be riding on the ship he was captain of. There were consequences to that. She would be a partner in creating a political career that would accomplish many of the goals she wanted to accomplish. Bill very much admired her superb intellect and political skills as well. So they embarked. They’re in Arkansas. Vermont politics have a pretty clean record. Arkansas? Not so much. You do make your own choices, but the context you’re in, well, it matters. The Arkansas economy was in the toilet. The only bright star was the Walton family and Walmart, which was on track to become the biggest retailer in the world. They provided (in Arkansas) an expanding number of well-paid jobs. Bill was governor. Should Hillary have dumped his political career for a chance to spit in Sam Walton’s eye? Well, that wasn’t going to happen. She sat on the Walmart board and did what she could to both ensure the prosperity of the state of which her husband was governor and to do the right thing. She has almost always chosen the path (sometimes not the one you’d pick — ) that would enable her to accomplish some good actions, rather than the pure path that tends to lead to inaction, or to exile from the power than enables you to make change.” Still don’t like the fact she sat on the board? Fine. Don’t like her stances on foreign policy? Totally ok. But understand the choices Clinton made in the context in which she lived–not in a vacuum. This goes for all of her political choices. Never assume anything about any candidate without doing a little research first. It’s amazing how much you can find out on this magical thing called the interwebs. 5). Don’t assume critiques against Clinton are automatically rooted in sexism, and when calling out someone for critiquing Clinton, don’t assume they, are in fact, sexist either. Take the #BernieBro label, for example. According to Glenn Greenwald, “Have pro-Clinton journalists and pundits been subjected to some vile, abusive, and misogynistic rhetoric from random, anonymous internet supporters of Sanders who are angry over their Clinton support? Of course they have. Does that reflect in any way on the Sanders campaign or which candidate should win the Democratic primary? Of course it does not. The reason pro-Clinton journalists are targeted with vile abuse online has nothing specifically to do with the Sanders campaign or its supporters. It has everything to do with the internet. There are literally no polarizing views one can advocate online — including criticizing Democratic Party leaders such as Clinton or Barack Obama — that will not subject one to a torrent of intense anger and vile abuse. It’s not remotely unique to supporting Hillary Clinton: Ask Megyn Kelly about that, or the Sanders-supporting Susan Sarandon and Cornel West, or anyone with a Twitter account or blog. I’ve seen online TV and film critics get hauled before vicious internet mobs for expressing unpopular views about a TV program or a movie.” Amanda Hess pushes further arguing “as soon as the Bernie Bro materialized, the conversation around it deteriorated. As the meme gained momentum, some popularizers stopped bothering to marshal any kind of evidence that Sanders supporters were sexist . . . . This is a familiar online phenomenon. Just as mansplaining ‘morphed from a useful descriptor of a real problem in contemporary gender dynamics to an increasingly vague catchall expression,’ as Salon’s Benjamin Hart put it in 2014, the Bernie Bro argument has been stretched beyond recognition by both its champions and its critics. What began as a necessary critique of leftist sexism has been replaced by a pair of straw men waving their arms in the wind.” If the label applies, absolutely use it. Call out sexism and misogyny-especially if it’s coming from someone who claims to be progressive. However, I worry the label is being thrown around loosely and being applied to many well meaning, non-sexist male critics of Clinton. And that only silences debate. I don’t want anyone to feel as though they cannot legitimately critique Clinton for fear of being called sexist, a BernieBro, or other names. Overall, as with most of my writing, this piece was for me. Every time I read an article about Clinton or Sanders or sexism or the fight for the soul of the Democratic Party I find myself wishing for more nuance, less click-bait, and sound and civil discourse. I’m tired of seeing the same soundbites repeated on my Facebook wall, seeing good friends of mine unfriend each other or worse because they’re on Team Sanders or Team Clinton and can’t find common ground to have a legitimate debate about what this election is really about. In the words of my good friend Greg Wright, “If you can imagine a better opportunity to demand the world we want, I’d like to hear when you think it will come. When will better circumstances reveal themselves again? What political climate are you relying on to thrust the most unlikely candidate into the realm of possible? You want to know what will make this all the more likely to happen again? Demanding that it happen now.” We are at a historic moment in American history, not unlike the 2nd wave feminist movement. Gloria Steinem once said of Betty Friedan “I believe that she was looking to join society as it existed, and the slightly younger parts of the movement were trying to transform society. And those were kind of two different goals.” Like Friedan, I would argue that Clinton wants to work within the structure we have, while Sanders wants to transform society. He wants a revolution. In the words of Robert Reich, “I’ve known Hillary Clinton since she was 19 years old, and have nothing but respect for her. In my view, she’s the most qualified candidate for president of the political system we now have. But Bernie Sanders is the most qualified candidate to create the political system we should have, because he’s leading a political movement for change.” Sexism is real, and I love the fact that we are even talking about the ugly face of sexism in politics. However, we must be able to criticize a female candidate without resorting to sexist tactics, or be called sexist for critiquing her in the first place. Overall, as many have pointed out, both Sanders and Clinton would be undeniably better as our next commander in chief than anyone currently running in the Republican arena. So I would caution democrats to get too entrenched within their teams that they refuse to see the bigger picture of the need to elect a Democrat in this next election. There are ways to disagree with one another that don’t need to devolve into name calling or soundbite repeating. On Facebook and elsewhere, engage with those on either side in mindful and productive ways. This is an incredibly important election for so many reasons, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have thoughtful debates. So keep reading. Keep posting. Keep fighting for your team. Just don’t embrace the ugly. There’s enough of that out there already.

BERLIN — When North Korea tested a new kind of intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday, Pyongyang boasted that the regime could now strike “anywhere in the mainland United States.” Experts have calculated that the missile could theoretically reach Washington D.C. which is about 6,700 miles away from North Korea. Less noticed, however, is the fact that North Korea’s recent tests have also put a range of European capitals on the map of Pyongyang’s possible targets, according to missile experts. Cities like Paris, London or Berlin are all located much closer to North Korea than Washington D.C., although air distance is not necessarily all equal when it comes to the path of missiles. A previous missile tested by North Korea may already have been able to reach those cities under certain circumstances, but Wednesday’s launch has now almost certainly put all major European targets within Pyongyang's reach. NATO acknowledged earlier this year that European countries may soon become potential targets and France’s Foreign Ministry warned that such a situation would “be explosive.” Yet, Europe still does not appear to view North Korea’s missile program as its own problem, even as the scenario officials once feared appears to have become reality. European leaders may have doubled down on their condemnations after the latest missile test, but these largely echoed previous, more cautious remarks, compared to President Trump vowing, somewhat ominously, to “take care of it.” The comparative calmness with which Europe is responding may of course be due to the lack of direct threats. So far, North Korea has focused on its archenemy, the United States, even though European politicians have acknowledged that an escalation of the conflict could easily draw Europe into the dispute. But their more cautious responses also reflect the role European leaders believe they have in this conflict. Occupied with other foreign policy and security dilemmas, Europe has so far mainly attempted to prevent a further escalation of the tensions between the United States and North Korea. “Nuclear armed North Korea is clearly a potential threat to Europe, but it’s far from a top priority. Europe is dealing with a resurgent Russia, irregular migration and a host of other issues before North Korea comes up,” said Marcel Dirsus, a German military expert and political scientist at the University of Kiel. “Even if Europe wanted to influence events on the ground, it couldn’t. Europe has no real political, economic or military leverage over Pyongyang. The real players are China, Russia and the United States. When it comes to North Korea, Europe has neither the will nor the capability to effect meaningful change. The North Korean crisis illustrates the limits of European power,” Dirsus said. In their responses on Tuesday and Wednesday, leading European politicians showed they saw North Korea as a global, rather than as a European problem. In a tweet, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the test “reinforces our determination to increase pressure on Pyongyang and our solidarity with our partners.” German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel similarly criticized North Korea over its missile program, saying in a statement that it “again breached international law. North Korea’s ruthless behavior poses a huge threat to international security.” “This proves again the seriousness of the threat to world peace posed by North Korea,” he added. Germany also summoned the North Korean ambassador on Wednesday. A man watches a TV showing a local news program reporting Wednesday about North Korea's missile launch, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul. (Lee Jin-man/AP) British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called on the North Korean regime to “change course,” on Wednesday, saying: “This is not the path to security and prosperity for the North Korean people.” Britain has so far offered the strongest acknowledgment that Europe is increasingly under threat of North Korea’s refusal to stop its nuclear and missile tests, as well. In September, then-defense secretary Michael Fallon said: “The U.S. is fully entitled to defend its own territory, to defend its bases and to look after its people, but this involves us, London is closer to North Korea and its missiles than Los Angeles,” he said. “The range is getting longer and longer and we have to get this program halted because the dangers now of miscalculation, of some accident triggering a response are extremely great,” Fallon added at the time. Yet, as North Korea continued to make technological advances this past year, Europe’s role in pressuring it into halting its program remained mostly unchanged — and largely rhetorical. As well as condemning the missile tests, European top officials have also lashed out at Trump for threatening Pyongyang. Gabriel of Germany criticized Trump in September, saying that “martial rhetoric won’t take us one step further,” after Trump threatened North Korea with “total destruction.” Europe's reluctance to fully support the U.S. stance toward handling the North Korea dilemma is likely being welcomed by Russia, which similarly condemned the test on Wednesday and indirectly appeared to warn the United States of overreacting. “Another missile launch is a provocative action that provokes further growth of tension and puts us even further away from the start of settling this crisis situation,” the presidential press secretary, Dmitry Peskov told journalists. “We condemn this launch and hope that all parties concerned will be able to remain calm, which is so essential in order to avoid the worst-case scenario in the situation on the Korean Peninsula,” he said. The measured response by the Kremlin, which is ironically known in Europe for its often aggressive military operations, and its striking similarity to Western Europe’s approach likely has a lot to do with the fact that none of their capitals are currently in the sights of North Korea’s missiles. Yet, at the same time, the diplomatic solution they all favor has made little head way so far. Andrew Roth in Moscow and James McAuley in Paris contributed to this report.

Veteran and UCC student John Parker -- (MSNBC screencapture) A veteran who says he was carrying a concealed weapon on Oregon’s Umpqua Community College campus Thursday when 26-year-old Christopher Harper Mercer went on a murderous rampage, says he didn’t intervene because he knew police SWAT team members wouldn’t know him from the shooter. In an interview with MSNBC, veteran John Parker said he knows lots of students who conceal carry at the school because, despite a school policy that discourages weapons on campus, Oregon state law does allow it. READ MORE: ‘Hate-filled’ Chris Harper Mercer had white supremacy, anti-religion leanings, sources say Saying he does conceal carry in case “I’m in close proximity” to an incident where he might try to save some lives, Parker admitted he’s not the type who believes that “there’s always somebody out there behind your back ready to do something like this.” Conservative commentators — none of whom were caught up in the panic and confusion at the college campus — have complained that the school’s “gun-free” designation drew the shooter there and that a “good guy with a gun” could have stopped him. READ MORE: Details emerge about Oregon killer — a self-described conservative who loved guns and conspiracy theories Parker explained that his military training provided him with the skills to “go into danger,” but said he felt lucky he and others didn’t try to get involved going after Mercer. “Luckily we made the choice not to get involved,” he explained. “We were quite a distance away from the building where this was happening. And we could have opened ourselves up to be potential targets ourselves, and not knowing where SWAT was, their response time, they wouldn’t know who we were. And if we had our guns ready to shoot, they could think that we were bad guys.” Parker noted that he was hustled into a classroom with other students by a professor who asked if anyone was armed. He said he raised his hand and said he would attempt to protect his fellow students if they came under attack. Watch the video below uploaded to YouTube by Think Progress:

Kate Beaton I realized today that the comic I was working on was going to take longer than I thought, so I made these up real quick before I take off for Montreal! You go to one of these things, and it's four days gone like a flash. Not that anyone checks the internet on the weekend, but still. In any case, I like the Kiss elves. Store! Hosting by Remember, Montreal! I'm going to be at Expozine this weekend! You should come.I realized today that the comic I was working on was going to take longer than I thought, so I made these up real quick before I take off for Montreal! You go to one of these things, and it's four days gone like a flash. Not that anyone checks the internet on the weekend, but still. In any case, I like the Kiss elves.Hosting by Voxel Store!

I think we all remember how the theme song to the Pokémon animated series goes: ♫I want to be the very most downloaded app, like no app ever was!♫ Well, Ash Ketchum, your dream has come true. Image Credit: Sensor Tower Pokémon Go is generating more revenue and is getting more downloads than any other iPhone app in the United States, according to data industry-tracking intelligence firm Sensor Tower provided this morning to GamesBeat. The GPS-powered hide-and-seek free-to-play game went live the evening of July 6 in the U.S., and it performed a quick attack to get to No. 1 on the download charts in less than 5 hours. That is one-third of the time it took the megapopular and addictive Clash Royale to reach the top spot when it debuted earlier this year. Obviously, Bulbasaur, Charmander, and the rest of the Poké crew have the appeal to draw in fans in the $36.9 billion mobile gaming market. But people aren’t just downloading the app and forgetting about it — they’re also spending cash. Sensor Tower revealed that Pokémon Go is the top-grossing iPhone app in the U.S. as of 10:30 a.m. Pacific time. It is outgrossing megalucrative apps like Game of War, Clash Royale, and Clash of Clans. Miitomo, Nintendo’s social network and first smartphone app, only ever got as high as No. 73 on iPhone’s top-grossing chart. Go is also available in Australia and New Zealand — popular testing markets — and it is No. 1 for both downloads and revenue in each of those countries as well. Image Credit: Sensor Tower The Pokémon Company, which controls the property, is embracing mobile gaming, and this app is the biggest example of that so far. That company enlisted the help of Ingress developer Niantic. The studio adapted Ingress’s location-based gameplay, which has you walking around the real-world looking for physical locations to complete digital objectives. In Go, the studio added an augmented-reality layer that puts the critters in the real world with you using your smartphone’s camera. This early success gives Niantic every chance to turn Pokémon Go into a long-term money-making powerhouse. If the studio can hook a significant number of players on the idea of actually catching ’em all, then the game could end up make millions of dollars every single day across iOS and Android. To do that, it’ll have to maintain its spot in the top-10 highest-grossing list. Edited at 12:00 a.m. Pacific time: Updated to show it is now No. 1 on the grossing chart once again. Edited at 11:10 a.m. Pacific time: Updated again to show that it is trading places with Mobile Strike. Edited at 10:45 a.m. Pacific time: Updated grossing rank from No. 5 to No. 1.

Ed note: This post originally appeared on Federal Regulations Advisor: Insight & Commentary on U.S. Government Regulatory Affairs. The United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) today ruled in Horne v. Department of Agriculture that the government must give just compensation for personal property actually taken in agency price support programs. Horne clarifies how the United States Constitution’s “Just Compensation” or “Takings” clause limits one regulatory program. Future litigation applying Horne’s teachings to other agency regulations may foist the government on the horns of a regulatory or fiscal dilemma. Background: The Department of Agriculture (DOA) regulates agricultural marketing under 1930s legislation that predates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but operates under regulations promulgated by DOA under the APA. DOA has required, through regulations, that certain raisin producers and handlers divert each year a percentage of their annual crop to a reserve for which DOA might pay them some amount at a future date. The regulatory program seeks agricultural market price stabilization and DOA could (and did) impose penalties for failure to comply with the market diversion program. The long and short of the program is that DOA attempts to keep commodity supply relatively constant from year to year, smoothing the supply curve, and thus leveling commodity prices throughout the supply chain to consumers – i.e. DOA is a mandatory market manager. Horne alleged that DOA deprived him of personal property by barring him from selling raisins other than through DOA’s reserve mechanism at a price DOA may later set. DOA, he alleged, violated the proscription of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution: “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Horne refused to give up his raisins and DOA fined Horne the fair market value of the raisins refused. In an initial round of litigation, SCOTUS decided that the petitioners could raise the takings issue as a defense against the fines and civil penalties imposed by DOA. On remand, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the program did not impose a compensable taking, but was a use regulation. Petitioners sought review again by SCOTUS, leading to today’s decision. Decision: Horne presented SCOTUS with three issues, which eight Justices answered clearly: 1. SCOTUS held that the government’s “categorical duty” under the Fifth Amendment to pay just compensation when it “physically takes possession of an interest in property” applies to both real property and personal property (or chattels). Although past precedent may have caused some to consider the Just Compensation Clause to reach only real property, SCOTUS held that taking anyproperty might require just compensation. 2. SCOTUS held that the government may not avoid its categorical duty to pay just compensation for a physical taking of property by reserving to the property owner a contingent interest in a portion of the value of the property as set at the government’s discretion. Here, the raisin growers retained a contingent interest of indeterminate value, but that does not mean there has been no taking. Here the contingent value of the interest depended on the government’s discretion and in one year was worthless. 3. SCOTUS held that a governmental mandate to relinquish specific, identifiable property as a condition on permission to engage in commerce, at least in this case, effected a per se taking. Unlike other cases, DOA granted no special government benefit to engage in commerce and the toll was more than substantial (in one year 47% of the gross res). SCOTUS found this toll to be not a regulatory condition, but a taking. How to determine “just compensation” in this case was a closer question, with a slim five-Justice majority noted that the penalty assessed against the petitioners included the dollar equivalent of the raisins that Horne refused to set aside. SCOTUS reiterated once again the “clear and administrable rule for just compensation”: “The Court has repeatedly held that just compensation normally is to be measured by ‘the market value of the property at the time of the taking.’” The slimmer majority took the view that the United States already calculated the amount of just compensation in this case when it fined the petitioners the fair market value of the raisins, as the lower court itself had noted. SCOTUS declined to permit the United States to disavow its own valuation. In this instance, however, petitioners refused to relinquish their property and the United States proposed to fine them the equivalent amount – and relief from the fine and civil penalties made them whole. The minority of Justices would have remanded for further proceedings. Impact: Horne might be considered an outlier, limited to its particular facts and the peculiar DOA marketing order structure – particularly, as SCOTUS emphasized, because the regulations provide for a physical appropriation of the commodity. Nonetheless, agencies and private parties need to considerHorne’s implications to other regulatory schemes. Horne represents a breach of a regulatory wall – federal agency regulation of private property mayrequire just compensation. DOA, at least, must now and quickly rethink some of its agricultural marketing price support programs – Horne clearly bars DOA from taking crops without paying for them – effectively re-engineering a marketing system that has managed some food pricing for decades. Hornemay have broader implications to a number of different price support programs now administered by federal agencies and potentially significant near-term burdens on the public fisc for agency predation of private property. All agencies need to take Horne seriously when proposing and promulgating regulations, for example, requiring the obsolescence of a specified type of property already in commerce. Further litigation may illustrate the depth of potential government liability for taking personal property by regulation – but post-regulatory compensation liability for the United States Treasury. In that analysis, just compensation equates to fair market value at the time of the taking, and should not reflect any effect of the taking in reducing the fair market value. Regulatory taking litigation is likely to be very fact-specific, but the fiscal risk is also likely to be high. Finally, a technical word for those who believe Horne will substantially increase agency accountability. Unlike the waiver of fines and penalties imposed in Horne, just compensation for a taking normally derives from a court judgment against the United States. Such a judgment is paid from a permanent indefinite appropriation, the Judgment Fund, not the agency’s appropriation. Agency accountability will come from management, not litigation. “Federal Regulations Advisor” is part of the LexBlog Network (LXBN). LXBN is the world’s largest network of professional blogs. With more than 8,000 authors, LXBN is the only media source featuring the latest lawyer-generated commentary on news and issues from around the globe.”

Since the allegations about Donald Trump's business connections to Russia started to fly last year in the middle of his presidential campaign, the fog of political war has made it difficult to tell the real from the shadow. Except for one very visible landmark: a sprawling, rococo seaside mansion in Palm Beach that Trump himself liked to boast about as an example of his real-estate acumen. "What do I have to do with Russia?" he replied to reporters' questions at a press conference near Miami last summer. "You know the closest I came to Russia, I bought a house a number of years ago in Palm Beach ... for $40 million, and I sold it to a Russian for $100 million." That was a bland, if fairly accurate, summary of a wild and goofy tale of the Palm Beach real estate market involving tax fraud, Russian billionaires, lurid divorce court accusations and — at least in the opinion of some Palm Beach observers — the execrably vulgar taste of the super-rich. It's a tale that's now coming to a sad end: That $100 million mansion, once the most expensive home in America, has become its most expensive teardown. Not a single trace of the compound remains, and soon even its address will disappear: The 6.3-acre estate on which it stood has been broken into three parcels, and one of them has already sold. "It's an odd story, but Palm Beach real estate can be kind of strange," said Gary Pohrer, one of the island's real estate agents. "People decide they want something, and they'll pay a price that doesn't necessarily correspond to reality." The story begins in March 2001, when health care tycoon Abraham Gosman, who had moved from Massachusetts to Palm Beach a few years earlier and reinvented himself as a philanthropist, declared bankruptcy. That financial catastrophe would eventually result in tax fraud convictions for Gosman and his wife. One of the casualties of the bankruptcy was the 62,000-square-foot mansion Gosman had built and dubbed Maison de l'Amitie, the House of Friendship. A showcase for his charity events just a mile north of the vaunted Breakers hotel, it included a ballroom with a capacity of hundreds, an art gallery, underground parking for scores of cars and a 100-foot swimming pool. It was nested among a slew of outbuildings, including a barn, guest houses and a tennis cottage. The Gosmans managed to hold on to it for a couple of years, but by 2004 it had been seized by the bankruptcy court and put on the auction block. There were several bidders, hoping to scoop up a plutocratic property at a dollar-store price, but Trump — a real estate mogul still more than a decade distant from political ambitions — pounced, grabbing the house for $41.35 million. "He bought it strictly as an investment to flip," said Carol Digges, the Palm Beach realestate agent who would eventually resell the house for Trump. "He never intended to live there." And he didn't. After doing some renovation on the house, Trump put it back on the market in 2006 at price that made even jaded Palm Beach eyeballs pop: $125 million. Jose Lambiet, the publisher and columnist of local news source Gossip Extra, was one of a few reporters Trump invited to tour the house in an attempt to drum up buyers. He was even more astonished by the price after he looked around. "I'd been in the house before, at one of Gosman's charity parties, and Trump had hardly changed anything, just put on a couple of coats of paint," Lambiet said. "Even that — well, he told us the fixtures in one of the bathrooms were gold, but as he walked away, I scratched a faucet with my fingernails and it was just gold-covered paint." Lambiet has visited many homes of wealthy owners with more money than taste, but he considered the Maison de l'Amitie in a class by itself. "It was just terrible looking, really gaudy," he said. "Nothing fit together — it was sort of haphazard inside. "There was a room with a floor made of cobblestones, and in the corner was a real wood oven for pizzas. It looked like an old Italian pizza place. Who does that in their house? ... I thought, he's never gonna sell this. And he didn't, the house stayed on the market for a couple of years. "And then the Russian came along." "The Russian" was Dmitry Rybolovlev, a cardiologist-turned-potash-magnate (Russian newspapers called him "the Fertilizer King") whose net worth was estimated in the financial press to be well north of $10 billion. By 2008, when he first inquired about the mansion, Trump had already cut the price to $100 million, and Rybolovlev offered even less, $75 million. But Rybolovlev is well known for buying homes as if he's spending Monopoly money. His 24-year-old daughter Ekaterina bought Skorpios, the 74-acre Greek island where Aristotle Onassis married Jackie Kennedy, for a price estimated at $150 million or more. Then there's the family's $88 million apartment overlooking Central Park West, the $20 million home in Hawaii acquired from actor Will Smith and the $135 million residence in the Swiss resort of Gstaad. (To be perfectly fair, that one consists of two houses.) Trump, sensing his fish had taken the hook, hung tough on his price. On July 15, 2008, Rybolovlev bought the house for $95 million (Trump says credits on the closing costs brought the total package to $100 million), believed to be the biggest home sale in American history. Although some real estate publications made much of the fact that the mansion was on the market for nearly two years before it sold, Digges, the real estate agent who sold it, wasn't surprised. "When you're sitting in that price range, there's not 50 people in line waiting," she said. "People with that kind of money are not readily available." Confidentiality agreements, she said, prevent her from discussing exactly how Rybolovlev came into the picture other than to say that "the client came to me on a referral." Trump himself has said he never met Rybolovlev, who conducted the entire transaction through intermediaries. In the rough-and-tumble Russian financial world, anybody with wealth like Rybolovlev is viewed with a certain degree of suspicion, and his business career — which includes a charge of murder, of which he was acquitted — has certainly had its share of adventures. Much of it is shrouded in mystery; he almost never talks to reporters. But South Florida never got a chance to see him up close. Rybolovlev never lived in his new mansion and is believed to have visited only once. That may have been due in part to a terrible mold problem discovered after he bought it.

AP American Airlines is going to great lengths to help as many people as possible escape Hurricane Irma. The company said Wednesday that it will offer tickets out of Florida for $99 as the hurricane approaches. "While there are limited seats remaining before the storm hits, we will cap our pre-tax fares at $99 for MainCabin seats on direct, single leg flights out of Florida for tickets sold through Sunday Sept. 10 for travel until Sept. 13," a spokesperson for American Airlines said in a statement to Business Insider. The spokesperson said that the airline plans to cancel all flights at its Miami hub, as well as in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Sarasota, and West Palm Beach on Saturday and Sunday. The airline will also cancel scheduled flights arriving in Miami from Europe and South America on Friday. Hurricane Irma is currently a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 185 miles per hour. The hurricane has already touched down in parts of the Caribbean, including Barbuda and St. Martin. The National Hurricane Center described Irma as "potentially catastrophic." American is not the only airline discounting tickets so that people can escape the storm. JetBlue also announced on Wednesday that it is offering non-stop flights out of Florida for $99 including tax. Delta said it would cap its flight out of Florida and affected areas to $399.

CFTNA 0,00% Preventa exclusiva desde 14/05/2018 al 20/05/2018. Sujeto a stock del 25% de la capacidad del predio. Venta general: a partir del 21/05/2018. Cartera de consumo. Promoción válida desde 14/05/2018 al 23/09/2018. Para compras realizadas únicamente con tarjetas de crédito VISA y Mastercard emitidas por BBVA Francés. La presente promoción es válida solo para consumo de tipo familiar, realizados en los comercios detallados para la promoción y no se acumulan a otras promociones. No participan tarjetas Visa purchasing, distribution y corporate. Costo financiero total efectivo anual: 0.00%. Tasa efectiva anual 0,00%. Tasa efectiva anual 0,00%.. CFTEA:0,00% CFTEA (con iva) 0,00% CFTEA (sin iva) 0,00%. Ejemplo: en una compra de $900 realizada con tarjeta de crédito, financiada en tres cuotas, recibirá del primer al tercer resumen cuotas iguales de $300. Los accionistas de BBVA Banco Francés S.A. limitan su responsabilidad a la integración de las acciones suscritas a la ley 19.550 y ley 25.738. CUIT 30-50000319-3. Avenida Córdoba 111 CABA - CP 1054.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly last night that the establishment is scared of Donald Trump because he “didn’t belong to a secret society” and wasn’t involved in any of the rituals associated with such groups. Discussing Mitt Romney’s anti-Trump speech yesterday, Gingrich said it represented “the panic of the establishment wing of the (Republican) Party,” and that the prospect of Trump becoming the nominee “absolutely drives them crazy”. When asked why, Gingrich responded, “Well because he’s an outsider, he’s not them, he’s not part of the club, he’s uncontrollable, he hasn’t been through the initiation rites, he didn’t belong to the secret society.” Gingrich is in a perfect position to know about “secret societies” given his affiliation with Bohemian Grove, an annual encampment that takes place every year in Monte Rio, California and is attended by some of the most powerful people in the world. Gingrich’s photograph is featured in the Annals of the Bohemian Club, Volume 7, 1987-1996 alongside George W. Bush and his father. The former Speaker of the House could also be referring to Skull and Bones, a secret society at Yale which counts amongst its members both George W. and John Kerry, who ran against each other in the 2004 presidential election. Skull and Bones is notorious for its initiation rituals, which according to some include masturbating in a coffin. In 2001, journalist Ron Rosenbaum became the first outsider to witness some of the rituals. Video footage of the ceremony shows ‘Bonesmen’ screaming while they kiss a skull and perform a mock murder. SUBSCRIBE on YouTube: Follow on Twitter: Follow @PrisonPlanet Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paul.j.watson.71 ********************* Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com.

“A lot of people may think that you come into our program and you get a free pass," says Terrell Dorsey, a co-director of the 180 Program. “But you’re getting more than a free pass." Four months before her 18th birthday, Sarah left her parent’s house over a family dispute. She began couch-surfing at friends’ homes, and sometimes sleeping in cars to stay off the streets. It wasn’t long before Sarah was busted for shoplifting, her means to repay friends and buy food and drugs. Three months later, Sarah, now 18, says she’s “changed her views.” She’s employed, back in her parent’s house and enrolled in a job-training program for information technology. She has no criminal record. After her shoplifting arrest, Sarah was given the chance to participate in the 180 Program, a criminal-justice diversion program funded by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. The program gives minors accused of misdemeanor offenses a chance to have charges waived before they’re even filed. The trade-off: Four hours in a weekend workshop, where participants hear from people who have changed their lives after brushes with the law, and brainstorm a new path for themselves. “Our job is to really understand that wall they see in front of them, get them to understand it’s a hurdle and help them find a way to jump above it,” says Terrell Dorsey, one of the co-directors of the 180 Program. “A lot of people may think that you come into our program and you get a free pass. But you’re getting more than a free pass; you’re getting to develop healthier life skills.” The 180 Program stemmed from conversations between King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg and Pastor Doug Wheeler, a leader in the African-American community. The first workshop was hosted in July 2011, and they’ve been held every month since. To date, the program funded by the prosecutor’s office has helped almost 1,500 young people avoid misdemeanor charges. “The community really grabbed a hold of this idea and put together a fantastic curriculum,” Satterberg said. “I’m absolutely confident that this program has a much better outcome than teaching (youth) where the courthouse is.” O’Shae, who was 17 when she participated in the December workshop, says it’s the atmosphere at the workshops that makes a difference. “As soon as I walked in, I could just feel all of the positive vibes,” O’Shae said. “When people tell their stories, I feel like it’s an empowerment for everybody. It brings out a lot of emotion, too. People are tearing up because it’s real life. The stuff that they did doesn’t really determine who they are in their life.” The Seattle Times is not using the last names of the participants because charges against them have been dismissed. Dominique Wheeler-Davis, the program’s other co-director, says the key to encouraging buy-in is allowing young adults to hear from one another, having them brainstorm their own paths to change instead of telling them what to do. But the work that truly makes a difference, he thinks, comes after the program: connecting kids with tutoring, counseling, jobs and rehab, and offering them an adult mentor. Last year, a grant to increase minority-youth participation allowed the 180 Program to build a team of “community ambassadors” who helped facilitate that extra step. Terence Charles was one of those ambassadors. At 41, Charles walks with a cane because of a bullet that damaged his spine at age 15 during a rough time he attributes partly to a lack of positive male influence. He tears up when he talks about helping other youth avoid the same fate. “I did a lot of crazy stuff when I was their age and I paid dearly for the mistakes that I made,” Charles said. “Everybody makes mistakes. It’s good for people to get second chances, you know. That’s what we try to offer these kids.” This year, that grant money has run dry, and Wheeler-Davis does most of the outreach on his own. But he’s hopeful the program will find more money to rebuild the outreach program, and to grow the 180 Program. He sees a future where they can improve their attendance rates and offer two workshops each month. “It’s all about building the relationship with these young people and that’s what makes the change,” Wheeler-Davis said. “We want to walk with a kid all the way through high school, walk with a kid through college and be able to stay connected. We still participate, but it’s hard to do that when the numbers are growing every month and we don’t have the staff.” Currently, evidence for the success of the program is mostly anecdotal. A 2014 evaluation by the King County Office of Performance, Strategy & Budget indicated the program was “promising” in terms of serving minority youth and having a low recidivism rate, but said more time is needed to accurately measure its effectiveness. But facilitators of the 180 Program find success in every young person they turn away from crime — like Sarah, and O’Shae, who have both come back to speak on the youth panel at 180 workshops. The August workshop was Sarah’s first time on the other side of the workshop. “I’m not going to stand up here and tell everyone that I’ve made my 180 and I’m a completely changed person and I’ve accomplished the end result,” Sarah remembers saying when it was her turn to speak. “For me, it’s about taking time … I want to look back and be proud of my progress. “I’m on track to accomplishing my 180.”

From 24/7 Wall St.: The business of war is profitable. In 2011, the 100 largest contractors sold $410 billion in arms and military services. Just 10 of those companies sold over $208 billion. Based on a list of the top 100 arms-producing and military services companies in 2011 compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 companies with the most military sales worldwide in 2011. Click here to see the companies profiting most from war These companies have benefited tremendously from the growth in military spending in the U.S., which by far has the largest military budget in the world. In 2000, the U.S. defense budget was approximately $312 billion. By 2011, that figure had grown to $712 billion. Arm sales grew alongside general defense spending growth. SIPRI noted that between 2002 and 2011, arms sales among the top 100 companies grew by 51%. However, the trend has reversed recently. In 2011, the top 100 arms dealers sold 5% less compared to 2010. Susan Jackson, a defense expert at SIPRI, said in an email to 24/7 Wall St. that austerity measures in Western Europe and the U.S. have delayed or slowed down the procurement of different weapons systems. Austerity concerns have exacerbated matters since 2011. The U.S. federal government budget cuts that took effect beginning this month — commonly known as sequestration — mean that military spending could contract by more than $500 billion over the coming decade unless some of the cuts are reversed. In addition, the U.S.’s involvement in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have wound down significantly. The last American convoy in Iraq left the country in December of 2011. Troop withdrawals from Afghanistan also began in 2011. Finally, SIPRI pointed out that sanctions on arms transfers to Libya also played a role in declining arms sales. Many of these companies are looking overseas to try to make up for slowing sales in the U.S. and Europe. Arms producers are especially keen on areas in Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Asia, Jackson said. For instance, BAE is in the process of securing contracting agreements with Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the chief financial officer of Northrop Grumman has recently indicated his company may sell its Global Hawk airplane to South Korea or Japan. Based on the report, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 companies with the most arms sales in 2011. Arms were defined as sales to military customers, either for procurement or for export, but do not include sales of general purpose items such as oil or computer equipment to military customers. We also looked at arms sales from 2010, as well as the company’s total sales in 2010. Furthermore, we considered the company’s 2011 total sales, profits and the total number of employees at the company, all provided by SIPRI. There are the 10 companies profiting the most from war, according to 24/7 Wall St.

Contreras, the Cubs' No. 2 prospect , hit a pair of home runs, including a grand slam, en route to driving in five runs in his second four-hit game (4-for-5) of the season for the Cubs. He also scored three runs in the contest. Willson Contreras had a Memorial Day to remember as he established new career high marks in home runs and RBIs to pace Triple-A Iowa in an 11-0 win against Albuquerque. Willson Contreras had a Memorial Day to remember as he established new career high marks in home runs and RBIs to pace Triple-A Iowa in an 11-0 win against Albuquerque. Contreras, the Cubs' No. 2 prospect, hit a pair of home runs, including a grand slam, en route to driving in five runs in his second four-hit game (4-for-5) of the season for the Cubs. He also scored three runs in the contest. • Complete Cubs prospects coverage at MLBPipeline.com/Cubs Contreras' first homer of the afternoon didn't come until the bottom of the sixth inning, when he blasted a grand slam to right-center field off Isotopes reliever Ryan Carpenter in his second at-bat of the frame. He singled in his first at-bat and the Cubs ultimately scored 10 runs in the inning. Watch: Contreras crushes grand slam "Especially when you start the inning with a base hit, then you come up again with the bases loaded, I was just trying to put the ball in play," Contreras told MiLB.com. "I wasn't trying to hit a grand slam, but it happens." He went deep to the opposite field once again in the eighth inning, this time tagging Sam Moll for a solo shot. Baseball's No. 45 overall prospect has hit five homers in his last six games for Iowa, and his eight long balls in 44 games this season match his output from his 126-game breakout campaign at Double-A Tennessee in 2015. Watch: Contreras hits second homer Overall, Contreras is hitting .329/.418/.559 with 20 extra-base hits and 30 RBIs this season and has shown that his Southern League batting title (.333) last year was no fluke. "I'm happy with everything. I'm happy with the team, with doing everything we've been doing," he told MiLB.com. "I always wake up in the morning thinking about the game, thinking about winning. I'm a baseball player, and that's all I want to do is win games." • Top 10 Fantasy Prospects for 2016 Cubs No. 5 prospect Albert Almora (No. 80 overall) also collected multiple hits for Iowa in the victory, going 3-for-5 with a double and his sixth stolen base, while Dan Vogelbach (Cubs' No. 20) drove in a pair of runs as part of a 1-for-4 performance.

A man tends a makeshift candlelight vigil for those who died and were injured when a car plowed into a crowd of anti-fascist counter-demonstrators marching near a downtown shopping area August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Photo: Win McNamee / Getty Images) Here is the car, stopped along Monticello Avenue in Charlottesville, Virginia. It has clearly been involved in a high-speed incident. Video shows this same car — allegedly driven by one James Alex Fields Jr. of Ohio — plowing into a crowd of peaceful anti-fascist protesters at high speed. When it reversed to escape, the damaged fender swung wide, and a shoe clearly bounced out of the grille. The roar of the engine fades, leaving in its wake screams and curses. According to everything we have heard from the federal government about vehicles being used as weapons worldwide, everything we have heard from the White House and Homeland Security on the issue, everything we have heard in the news media after London and Paris, this was an ISIS-style terrorist attack deliberately perpetrated against a crowd of innocent people to lethal effect. This was terrorism. By the book. Someone should probably tell the president. He doesn’t seem to get it. The short version: A well-organized pack of white supremacists, Nazis, Klan members and generalized fascists tried to hold a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, ostensibly to protest the removal of a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Large numbers showed up, greeted not only by law enforcement and angry locals, but by a sizeable contingent of anti-fascist activists who came prepared to shout them down. A number of those counter-demonstrators, resisting the fascists in various locations, gathered on a side street to march. They had scarcely begun when a gray Dodge Charger snarled into the crowd at high speed, sending bodies flying and blood spraying. The Charger immediately reversed and fled, flapping its damaged bumper. As of this writing, one person is dead and 35 are injured. Two state police officers were killed in a helicopter accident near the rally. Officials said the helicopter was monitoring the rally. The name of the protester killed in the attack is Heather Heyer. She was 32 years old. The driver of the attacking car is under arrest and faces second-degree murder charges. Fascists have committed terrorism and murder in a Virginia city. In celebration of the event, former KKK leader David Duke proclaimed, This represents a turning point for the people of this country. We are determined to take our country back. We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump. That’s what we believed in. That’s why we voted for Donald Trump, because he said he’s going to take our country back. In response to this paradigm-shifting act of right-wing terrorist violence committed by those among us who think World War II ended the wrong way, the president of the United States had this to say. I transcribed his remarks by hand as he gave them, quite simply because I could not believe what I was hearing: We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides. It’s been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, it’s been going on for a long, long time. “Many sides, many sides,” and thus the coward-in-chief again finds himself unable to denounce right-wing violence in the nation he allegedly leads. With Bannon, Miller and Gorka daily fogging his follicles with their fetid fascist breath, one can imagine how difficult it must be to collect a hate-free thought … and I’m not going to even try and explain the Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama bit. It’s just too weird. No matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are all Americans first. No matter how much blood was lost under the wheels of that attacking automobile in Charlottesville, no matter how many bones were crushed or organs damaged, no matter who died, we must adhere to a slogan beloved by Nazis for three generations running. The president said so, on national television. We love our country, we love our God, we love our flag, we’re proud of our country, we’re proud of who we are. Instead, let’s proclaim: We love each other, we love not being forced to love anyone’s God, we love the fact that we are free to burn our flag in an act of conscientious protest, we are ashamed of what our country has become and labor mightily to rectify its catastrophic course, and we are proud to say that Donald Trump and his curious new friends are not who we are. The fact that Trump doesn’t need a Teleprompter to be an effective neo-Nazi on TV does not make him a leader, and he proved that in the aftermath of Charlottesville with such vim and vigor that you’d think he was trying to win a bet. On the night Donald Trump won the White House, I named him for what he is: A fascist. On Saturday, fascists declared open war against the rest of us, and for all intents and purposes, the president sided with them. Maybe Appomattox was merely a preamble, an overture. These people mean business, and they have friends in the White House. I fear a Rubicon was crossed in Charlottesville, and flat mayhem awaits on the new bank of that old, bloody river.

SEABROOK, NH – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced today that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will conduct a “full-scale” training exercise at the NextEra Energy Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant located in Seabrook on April 8, 2016. The exercise if being organized by FEMA, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and state and local emergency management officials “This exercise allows federal teams to examine the ability of the participating local, state and utility officials to protect the health and safety of the public living near the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in the event of a radiological release,” according to Bruce Brodoff of the FEMA. “FEMA will observe and evaluate governmental responses. The NRC will observe and evaluate the on-site performance of Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant staff.” Officials from communities in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts, within a 10-mile radius of the plant, are being requested to activate their emergency operations centers during the exercise, according to a press statement. The organizations will hold a public briefing at 11 a.m. on April 8, at the end of the exercise, at the Courtyard Marriot’s Seacoast Ballroom in Portsmouth. Written comments and questions can be submitted from the public at that time or after the meeting, according to officials. HaTTiP

Negative Population Growth, Inc., has issued a November report warning that America is no longer making enough babies to keep pace with deaths. The report blames, the ‘baby bust’ phase on the millennial generation (1980-2000), who are having children at record low rates. Their attitudes towards marriage, procreation, and materialism changed dramatically after the Great Recession when the economies of the world came to a screeching halt. After a decade of excessive monetary policy from the Federal Reserve. The millennials have been forced to take out an excessive amount of debt such as auto loans, consumer debt, and student loans in an era of wage stagnation. This has fundamentally changed the game for millennials and perhaps changed the course of the United States. The implications of falling birth rates in a low growth economic environment coupled with massive amounts of debt - is a perfect storm that will lead to the next crisis. Falling birth rates in the United States have been classified of what some call the ‘baby bust’. Like any bubble, there must be a bust cycle and when it comes to births in the United States — that time, is now. According to the report, some demographers are “freaked out by the falling birth rate, an occupational hazard for people who spend their professional lives scrutinizing population statistics”. As the demographic winds shift, the United States is preparing for a ‘Japanification’ period of lower birth rates and a much old generation to strain the economic and healthcare systems. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of babies born declined by 338,000 or 8.7% between 2007 and 2016. Over the period, the national fertility rate declined from 69.3 to a historic low of 62.0 in 2016. For more color, the peak was in 1960 at 118 after World war II, ever since it’s been in decline. As a result, the national fertility rate (all ages) broke a bearish flag (chart below) and fell -11% between 2007 and 2016. To keep pace with deaths, moms need to have 2.1 births, but that is not the case today with 1.8. “The fertility rate decline is driven entirely by millennial mothers in their teens and twenties,” said the report. “Birth rates for all age groups of women under 30 fell to record lows in 2016,” it added. Besides poor economic conditions and a transitioning economy, the report added the increased “availability and effectiveness of sex education and contraceptives for males and females” have played a large role in reducing the birth rate for millennials. Despite demographers freaking about out by the falling birth rates, the report offers an insight into how others are dealing with the negative trend, Economists, however, have made peace with the notion that a shrinking population is not necessarily a bad thing. While GDP may slow, a better measure of the country’s economic health – GDP per capita – can benefit. This is especially relevant in a world where robots, AI, and other technologies threaten the jobs of many Americans The United States is not alone in the demographic shift of less birth rates, as it’s evident below. Major developed economies and emerging growth economies are feeling similar pain. The report says “we have been here before” relating today’s economic-stress to the 1930s and the late 1970s coinciding with ultra low brith rates for the younger generation. Interesting enough, the report asks: Is it different this time? As the paper suggests– it is different and millennials are increasingly delaying kids or just outright abandoning altogether. The report lists four reasons why this time is different: A 2016 study of Census data from Pew Research found nearly one-third of young adults (ages 18-34) live with their parents, slightly more than the proportion that live with a spouse or partner. Not since record keeping began in 1880 has living at home for this age group outpaced living with a spouse. “They’re concentrating more on school, careers and work and less focused on forming new families, spouses or partners and children,” Richard Fry, lead author of the Pew report, said of millennials. Although student debt is often blamed, it may not be the dominant factor: the trend is stronger for those without a college education. slightly more than the proportion that live with a spouse or partner. Not since record keeping began in 1880 has living at home for this age group outpaced living with a spouse. “They’re concentrating more on school, careers and work and less focused on forming new families, spouses or partners and children,” Richard Fry, lead author of the Pew report, said of millennials. Although student debt is often blamed, it may not be the dominant factor: the trend is stronger for those without a college education. When it comes to marriage, millennials say “I don’t” more than any previous generation. Research by the Urban Institute finds that if current trends continue, 30.7% of millennial women will remain single by age 40, approximately twice the share of their Gen-X counterparts. The data show similar trends for males. Marriage rates fell drastically during the Great Recession, but they had been declining for years prior to that event. At this point even a return to pre-recession levels will not prevent marriage rates among millennial women from falling below those of Gen-Xers by age 40.4 Ironically, the aversion of millennial females to marriage may reflect their economic strength vis a vis males: “Sharp declines in the earning power of non-college males combined with the economic self-sufficiency of women — rising educational attainment, falling gender gap and greater female control over fertility choices — have reduced the economic value of marriage for women.” Research by the Urban Institute finds that if current trends continue, 30.7% of millennial women will remain single by age 40, approximately twice the share of their Gen-X counterparts. The data show similar trends for males. Marriage rates fell drastically during the Great Recession, but they had been declining for years prior to that event. At this point even a return to pre-recession levels will not prevent marriage rates among millennial women from falling below those of Gen-Xers by age 40.4 Ironically, the aversion of millennial females to marriage may reflect their economic strength vis a vis males: “Sharp declines in the earning power of non-college males combined with the economic self-sufficiency of women — rising educational attainment, falling gender gap and greater female control over fertility choices — have reduced the economic value of marriage for women.” A cross-generational study conducted at Wharton School of Business found more than half (58%) of millennial female undergraduates do not plan to have children. That is nearly three-times the 22% of Gen-X female undergraduates who did not want children when surveyed in 1992. Results were similar for male students. (The researchers compared surveys of the Wharton graduating class of 1992 and 2012.) While Gen-X women felt “motherhood fulfilled their need to help others” millennial females believe they can serve the greater need by succeeding at work. For millennial men “doing good” is increasingly connected to creating greater balance between work and family. Not surprisingly, they are less likely to think of themselves as the sole breadwinner. Even millennials who do want children say they do not see a clear path toward it. That is nearly three-times the 22% of Gen-X female undergraduates who did not want children when surveyed in 1992. Results were similar for male students. (The researchers compared surveys of the Wharton graduating class of 1992 and 2012.) While Gen-X women felt “motherhood fulfilled their need to help others” millennial females believe they can serve the greater need by succeeding at work. For millennial men “doing good” is increasingly connected to creating greater balance between work and family. Not surprisingly, they are less likely to think of themselves as the sole breadwinner. Even millennials who do want children say they do not see a clear path toward it. Immigrants are the wild card. They account for 15% of U.S. millennials, up from 6% of the prior generation.8 Although birth rates for foreign-born millennials are generally above those of native-born, a recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies finds that the gap is narrowing.9 From 2008 to 2015: birth rates for foreign-born women ages 15 to 19 fell 50.6% versus a 43% drop for native-born in that age cohort; birth rates for immigrant women 20 to 24 fell 40.5% versus a 28.5% decline for native-born. The Total Fertility Rate – a measure of the number of children a woman can be expected to have in her lifetime based on current patterns – fell 21.5% for immigrant women and 15.4% for native-born women over that period. The implication is clear: When it comes to family size, immigrant millennials have embraced the “smaller is better” ethos of the larger, native-born millennial community. That is good news to those of us who believe a smaller population is in the national interest. Welcome to the new normal: Millennials will be the first generation that the American dream will most likely not be attainable, as show on the home ownership rate below. Since the real estate boom of the 2000s, homeownership rate for people under thirty-five has literally fallen off a cliff. The report explores a number of factors of why this trend exists: student debt and the lingering impact of the Great Recession… Another new normal: With the introduction of Uber and Lyft fewer millennials are driving– leading to a shake up in the auto industry. The conventional wisdom among automakers are that millennials will unlock a new tranche of demand, but that narrative is going cold as the sharing economy disrupts. Meanwhile, General Mills in 2016 ran a national advertising campaign targeting the millennial generation titled: ‘make more babies’ … The type of conditioning is self-evident of one large corporation that is clearly aware of the low birth rate trend. The Washington Examiner sums it all up,

Think Democrats Take Labor’s Money and Loyalty for Granted? Here’s Proof. At a time when labor could have chosen the most pro-labor Democratic candidate in decades, Bernie Sanders, all but a handful of leaders rejected his campaign—and some actively worked against it. (Joe Brusky/ Flickr) This article was first posted at Jacobin. After the 2012 presidential election, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka told labor journalist Josh Eidelson that the union federation “won’t be taken for granted” by the White House and the Democratic Party. Fast forward to a recent Wall Street Journal article: union contributions to politicians (almost entirely Democrats) are up 38 percent, with the AFL-CIO chipping in $11 million and SEIU over $30 million. It’s possible, I suppose, that unions have devised a secret method for holding Democrats accountable behind closed doors while shoveling ever-greater mounds of money into their coffers. Labor has long backed a party that is addicted to scorning and betraying them, but maybe this time, with some well-timed whispers in politicians’ ears and a couple extra million in donations thrown in, things will be different. But recent WikiLeaks emails of union leaders’ correspondence with high-ups in Hillary Clinton’s campaign suggest that rather than buying support for a working-class agenda from the candidate through their massive contributions—and through some leaders’ efforts to sink Bernie Sanders’s primary challenge to Clinton—labor will keep getting more of the same. Cora Lewis of BuzzFeed has written a helpful breakdown of some of the most noteworthy messages in the leak. The emails show less outright contempt for the unions footing the bulk of the bill for Clinton’s impending victory than a careful and constant strategic dance. Her campaign wanted to exert as little effort as possible on labor’s behalf and keep unions’ expectations low while staying on their good side. How does the campaign feel about coming out in support of the low-wage Walmart workers who have been organizing for years to escape poverty wages and vicious union-busting? Well, first there are some practical questions. “[W]ill doing this invite a new round of stories about her walmart days?” adviser Maya Harris asks in one email, referring to the six years Clinton sat on the company’s board (during which she voiced nary a word of protest about its abusive labor practices, particularly against women). The obvious answer is yes—and the campaign doesn’t want to draw any more attention to Clinton’s Walmart ties. Okay, so no strong endorsement. Can the Walmart workers at least get a tweet in support, Clinton campaign labor outreach director Nikki Budzinski asks. Just 140 characters? “The tweet never came, and to this day there’s never been a tweet from @HillaryClinton uttering the name of the country’s largest private employer,” Lewis notes. Final assessment of Clinton and Walmart workers: “Heard, considered, ultimately ignored.” Regarding the Fight for 15, staffers wanted to stay in the good graces of both the movement pushing a $15 minimum wage and the large number of voters who support it, but refused to actually come out in favor of $15. “This reads like she’s for a $15 minimum wage and I think we have to choose our language more carefully,” strategist Joel Benenson writes in response to prepared remarks for a union rally. Reacting to an invitation for Clinton to appear at a fast-food worker national conference, Podesta himself writes, “I assume we’ll pass on that.” Of course. Also of interest in the emails is how Bernie Sanders’s campaign was treated. American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten shows up a number of times in the leaks. The AFT was one of the first major unions to endorse Clinton (over many members’ objections) and has given the Clinton Foundation between $1 million and $5 million. Unlike much of the rest of the labor movement, this appears to have bought her some cachet within the Clinton camp. “Randi’s early endorsement deserves a lot of credit,” Budzinksi writes at one point, attributing the endorsement to Weingarten herself rather than to the union’s rank and file. But in response to National Nurses United’s endorsement and prominent role in the Sanders campaign, Weingarten wrote, “We will go after NNU and there [sic] high and mighty sanctimonious conduct.” Weingarten was positioning herself as attack dog for the Clinton campaign against any challenges from the left. More shockingly, as Branko Marcetic has reported, the leaks also reveal that the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ now-retired president Tom Buffenbarger secretly moved up the union’s presidential endorsement far ahead of schedule in order to choose Clinton—an endorsement that angered many rank-and-file machinists. “The IAM endorsement is usually made at their Convention,” Budzinski wrote in one email in 2015. “But their next Convention is not until 2016. Buffenbarger didn’t want to wait.” With machinations like these, you have to wonder if the union’s endorsement, claimed to have been reached by surveying “both the opinion and sentiments of membership at [an endorsement] meeting, as well as the results of the poll that reached out quite scientifically to over 2,000 [sic] members” really were so scientific. The Podesta emails underscore the American labor movement’s perpetual bind. On one hand, when Republicans gain power, the results are devastating for unions. On the other, the Democratic Party’s power brokers clearly have no interest in pursuing even a tepidly pro-labor agenda. They just want the unions’ cash. These revelations should force the labor movement’s rank-and-file to reflect a bit on both American union leaders and the party whose ass they’re constantly kissing and campaigns they’re constantly bankrolling. At a time when labor could have chosen the most pro-labor Democratic candidate in decades, Bernie Sanders, all but a handful of leaders rejected his campaign—and some actively worked against it. They helped secure the nomination for the Republican-lite candidate—hoping, no doubt, for her support from the Oval Office. But the Podesta emails suggest that the party isn’t planning on returning the favor, whether they’re receiving record-breaking campaign contributions or not. However Richard Trumka and other American union leaders have tried to ensure labor won’t “be taken for granted” by the Democrats, it seems it hasn’t worked. In These Times is proud to feature content from Jacobin, a print quarterly that offers socialist perspectives on politics and economics. Support Jacobin and buy a four-issue subscription for just $19.95.

Sen. Rand Paul isn't happy that the Federal Reserve is mobilizing against his legislation that would subject the central bank's monetary policy decisions to an audit. "It is alarming that the Federal Reserve, which was granted Monopoly money-making power, is now specifically trying to stop my legislation," the Kentucky Republican wrote in a column published by the conservative publication Breitbart Tuesday. "The Fed, with unlimited ability to print money, now prints that money to lobby against congressional oversight," Paul added. "It is a disgrace and every citizen in the land should rise up and say: We the people are in charge and we demand an audit!" A number of Federal Reserve officials have cautioned against Congress legislating a new monetary policy audit, as Paul has promoted his legislation. His bill, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2015, has 30 Senate co-sponsors, and Paul has pressed the case for it in Iowa as well as through social media. In an unusually direct response to congressional action for a central bank official, Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell spoke out against Paul's legislation in speech dedicated to the topic Monday. Powell did not mention Paul by name but called the legislation "misguided." Powell and other Fed officials warned that the audit could politicize monetary policy decisions to the detriment of the economy. In his op-ed Tuesday, Paul argued that the Fed's independence was threatened by its collaboration with the executive branch, and that the audit would bring the Fed's regulatory power back under control of Congress.

The trickle of iPad 3 rumors has officially turned into a flood. The latest we're hearing is that Apple will announce the third-generation iPad in the first week of March. This comes from AllThingsD's John Paczkowski, who wrote today that sources were telling him that the announcement was likely to take place in San Francisco. The location will probably be the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, said Paczkowski, and the iPad 3 itself is likely to be on sale around a week later. This goes against an interesting theory put forward by The Verge earlier this week -- that Apple will announce the iPad 3 on Wednesday, February 29 (Apple typically announces new iPads on a Wednesday) and it will go on sale Friday, March 9 (previous iPads have hit the shelves on a Friday). So, perhaps it could be a Wednesday, March 7 announcement instead? Meanwhile, the notoriously unreliable Macotakara blog has published a picture of what it claims is an LCD panel manufactured by Sharp for the iPad 3. Images of the purported back cover for the iPad 3 also emerged this week, while another report casts doubt on theories that the third-gen iPad will have a quad-core processor. However, we think that iOS 5.1 could launch on March 9, possibly alongside the iPad 3. This story, "iPad 3 Expected First Week of March" was originally published by Macworld U.K. .

I was reading today about how Ryse is going to be native 900p, and upconverted to 1080p by Microsoft 's Xbox One, and there was a subsequent predictable train of people decrying the system's power and lamenting that the next generation of games "isn't even 1080p." I think we're going to see a lot of stories like this at the beginning of this new console generation, as not every game will look amazing and it won't seem like we're making that much of a leap forward in terms of graphical fidelity. But everyone needs to keep in mind that this is how this always works. It takes years and years for the true power of a console to be tapped, and there's no better example than the last console generation. Nostalgia tinted glasses will have us forget how launch titles used to look for the 360 or PS3, and over time, the visuals in these games have risen incrementally to become drastically better. You may not notice the subtle shifts over time, but if you compare 2005 titles with those launched recently, it's rather stunning. I pulled a few screenshots I thought demonstrate this well. First, you'll take a look at some 2005 launch titles for the Xbox 360, and then you can compare them with more recent games which looks way better as technology has evolved and developers have been able to draw more power out of the system. The point is, this will happen with the PS4 and One as well, and we shouldn't forget that if every launch title isn't blowing our socks off with its visuals. And if they do? Just imagine how games will look five, six, eight years from now. Here we go. If this is popular, I may do a refresher course for the PS3 as well. Perfect Dark Zero (2005) Project Gotham Racing 3 (2005) Quake 4 (2005) Gun (2005) Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (2005) And now for some newer titles: Battlefield 3 (2011) Far Cry 3 (2012) Red Dead Redemption (2010) Gears of War 3 (2011) BioShock Infinite (2013) So just remember, whatever we see now, give it some time, and the games will be twice as good looking, even running on the exact same system. It's a marathon process, and squabbling about what does or doesn't look "game-changing" right at launch is a bit futile. UPDATE: And now see the PS3 version of this post here. Follow me on Twitter, subscribe to my Forbes blog, and pick up a copy of my sci-fi novel, The Last Exodus, and its sequel. Related on Forbes:

An obscure tax loophole intended for real estate trusts is now being used by private prison companies and other businesses to avoid paying federal taxes. Real estate investment trusts (REIT) were created during the Eisenhower administration to help companies that concentrate their business in real estate holdings by reducing or even eliminating the payment of corporate taxes. Typical REITs are companies that own shopping centers, malls, office buildings, apartments and mortgages. But now Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is using REIT status as a “golden ticket” to reduce its tax bill. CCA, which owns and operates 44 prisons and detention centers, and another private prison operator, the Geo Group, have successfully argued to the Internal Revenue Service that the money they collect from governments for holding prisoners is similar to rent, thus qualifying them as an REIT. CCA expects to save $70 million in tax payments for this year—at a time when federal agencies are cutting billions from their budgets due to Washington’s fiscal problems. The IRS’s loosening of restrictions on REITs has led to other companies claiming they are real estate trusts, including casinos, owners of cell phone towers and data storage companies. -Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky To Learn More: Restyled as Real Estate Trusts, Varied Businesses Avoid Taxes (by Nathaniel Popper, New York Times) Private Prison Company Muscles into Law Enforcement, Creating Occupants for Its Prisons (by Matt Bewig, AllGov) Private Prison Company to Demand 90% Occupancy (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov) Private Prison Industry Helped Create Anti-Immigrant Law in Arizona (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)

Hulu announced this morning the launch of Hulu Documentary Films, a collection of streaming documentaries exclusive to Hulu. Or, at least, it's supposed to grow into that. As of today, Hulu is only announcing its first documentary acquisition: The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, a coming feature-length doc from director Ron Howard focusing on the band's early career. It won't premiere on Hulu Notably, Hulu has only acquired US streaming rights to the documentary. That means the film will still run in theaters, outside of Hulu's control, before it goes online. When Netflix purchases a film, it usually acquires all rights to it, so that it's able to present it before anyone else. It's possible that's outside of Hulu's budget — or it's possible that Hulu is just playing a longer game; years from now, the film will still be on Hulu, and no one's going to care where it ran first. The Beatles: Eight Days a Week will premiere in theaters this fall and head to Hulu shortly thereafter. Hulu hasn't gone into any detail about where Hulu Documentary Films will head next, but if Netflix's own documentary acquisition spree is any guide, it appears that Hulu has the opportunity to grow its catalog quickly.

click to enlarge A still from surveillance video showing an unidentified man burning a tent in West Oakland last week. click to enlarge Brian Krans Soggy, charred remains from the fire at 5th and Brush Streets. Breaking: huge homeless encampment explosion and fire under interstate 880 pic.twitter.com/TrGO9zfPWI — Nick Miller (@NickMiller510) December 5, 2016 On May 15, just after midnight, a man with a bicycle approached a tent pitched on the sidewalk along Union Street in West Oakland. He leaned over for fifteen seconds and lit a corner of the tent on fire. As the flames slowly spread, the assailant fled the area. After three minutes, the blaze quickly engulfed the tent, completely destroying it.No one was in the tent when it was burned, according to surveillance-camera video footage obtained by theBut one of the victims of the fire, who lost nearly all of her belongings, said that she “think[s] there is somebody running around” targeting homeless camps with arson. (She asked not to be identified for fear of her safety.)“It’s not accidental,” the victim said of the fire she experienced, and others that have destroyed tents and property this year. “The fires are really quick. I’m shocked no one has gotten hurt yet.”She said an acquaintance who camps nearby on Peralta Street was also “firebombed” a few weeks ago.The individual who provided the surveillance footage of the West Oakland arson attack to thesaid he called the Oakland Police Department multiple times, offering the video as evidence of a crime, but he hasn’t heard back. (He asked thenot to identify him out of concern for his his company's safety.)The woman who lived in the destroyed tent also said she and the person who stays with her have not been contacted by the police about the arson.OPD's media relations officers didn't return emails today seeking more information about the fires.Other homeless residents, activists, and city officials agree that there’s been a troubling uptick in reports of fire at homeless communities throughout Oakland.“I can say that I am deeply concerned,” said Assistant City Administrator Joe DeVries. “I’ve heard the same rumors that you’ve heard” of an uptick in fires. But he said he was unsure of the causes.Shawn Moses told thethat he’s lived at an encampment on Northgate Avenue in Oakland for three years, and that his tent had been set on fire three times, “two while I was asleep.” The most recent incident was nine or ten months ago.Moses also said there have been several fires at the Northgate encampment, which overtakes an entire block underneath Interstate 980 and is dotted with approximately four dozen tents. The most recent fire was in April, he said, and it destroyed seven or eight tents.“That’s how people solve their problems,” he said of the fires.Recently, there was also a fire at the East 12th Street encampment, which authorities originally suspected was caused by a grill, but there have been conflicting reports. There was also a major fire that destroyed several tents at the city’s pilot “safe ground”-style encampment at 35th Street and Magnolia Avenue.A large fire burned several tents at the large camp located at 5th and Brush streets earlier this week, as well. On Wednesday morning, several hours after the blaze, a resident of the camp, who goes by the name Spaceman, was clearing away piles of charred rubbish with a shovel and collecting scrap metal from the ruins. He said the fire, which sparked at 4:30 a.m., was purposefully started by another homeless resident, who blamed one of the campers for the theft of his cell phone.“He’d been shouting about getting revenge,” said Spaceman. “I heard a man yelling, he’d ‘burn the whole block down.’”Many worry that it’s only a matter of time before the arsons end in death.“It’s becoming a pattern,” said a man who goes by the name Mushroom, and who also lives at the Fifth and Brush streets camp. “This is poor-on-poor crime.”DeVries said there is a working group focusing on encampment-management strategies, and that fire and arson is part of the discussion. He also noted that it is a challenge to obtain accurate information regarding fires. For instance, at the Magnolia encampment, when firefighters arrived, “no one would talk to them,” he explained. He attributed this to people's distrust of law enforcement and city workers.“We’re really concerned about it,” DeVries said.It’s unclear how many homeless residents have been victimized by fire, but these attacks are not a recent phenomenon. Last December, a man allegedly fire-bombed a woman’s tent on Webster Street, under the Interstate 880.The explosion and blaze was just a block away from the’ offices. After the assault, a woman emerged from under the highway overpass, barely escaping the flames and smoke. She said her assailant was a “crazy ex-boyfriend,” who drove up in his car and threw a “Molotov cocktail” into her tent.Oakland police took a statement from the woman, but it’s unclear if the assailant was ever caught.Back on Union Street, the campers who were targeted by last week’s arson attack said they’d like to see the city and police take the situation more seriously.“The assumption is we’re just being careless, that we accidently started these fires,” said the woman, who was able to obtain a new tent, but lost all her belongings in the fire.“It was pretty obvious it was an arson.”

Star Wars logo logo The Star Wars franchise has spawned multiple films and television/streaming series. The franchise originated with a film trilogy, later expanded to a trilogy of trilogies. The original trilogy was released between 1977 and 1983, the prequel trilogy between 1999 and 2005, and a sequel trilogy began in 2015. Theatrical spin-off films, television specials and TV series are set between the main films. There have been several animated Star Wars series, and the first live-action series will be released in 2019. Theatrical films [ edit ] The Star Wars film series centers around a trilogy of trilogies (also referred to as the "Skywalker saga"[1] or the "Star Wars saga"). They were released out of sequence: the original (Episodes IV–VI, 1977–83), prequel (Episodes I–III, 1999–2005), and sequel (Episodes VII–IX, 2015–19) trilogy. The first two trilogies were released on three year intervals, the sequel trilogy films two years apart. Each trilogy centers on a generation of the Force-sensitive Skywalker family. The prequels focus on Anakin Skywalker, the original trilogy on his son Luke, and the sequels on Luke's nephew Kylo Ren. Several spin-off films have been released theatrically. An animated film, The Clone Wars (2008), was released as a pilot to a TV series of the same name. An anthology series set between the main episodes entered development in parallel to the production of the sequel trilogy,[2] described by Disney CFO Jay Rasulo as origin stories.[3] The first entry, Rogue One (2016), tells the story of the rebels who steal the Death Star plans directly before Episode IV.[4][5] Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) focuses on Han's backstory, also featuring Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian. Two spin-off film trilogies are planned: one by Episode VIII's director Rian Johnson and the other by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Skywalker saga [ edit ] Prequel trilogy Original trilogy Sequel trilogy The episodic films begin with an opening crawl, accompanied by the main Star Wars theme by John Williams, who composes the scores for each film. Some of the films have had retroactive changes made after their initial releases, most notably the original trilogy. Original trilogy [ edit ] A fan cosplays as Darth Vader , the villain of the original trilogy. Immediately after directing American Graffiti (1973), Lucas wrote a two-page synopsis for the space opera he had been planning, which 20th Century Fox invested in. Lucas expanded his treatment into an overview called The Star Wars, and by 1974, he had written the screenplay's first draft.[10] Lucas negotiated to retain the sequel rights,[11] and cast American Graffiti actor Harrison Ford as Han Solo.[12] Star Wars was released on May 25, 1977, followed by The Empire Strikes Back on May 21, 1980, and Return of the Jedi on May 25, 1983. The plot of the original trilogy centers on the Galactic Civil War of the Rebel Alliance trying to free the galaxy from the clutches of the Galactic Empire, as well as on Luke Skywalker's quest to become a Jedi. Episode IV: A New Hope [ edit ] The original Star Wars film opens with a Rebel spaceship being intercepted by the Empire above the desert planet of Tatooine. Aboard, the deadliest Imperial agent Darth Vader and his stormtroopers capture Princess Leia Organa, a secret member of the rebellion. Before her capture, Leia makes sure the droid R2-D2 will escape with stolen Imperial blueprints and a holographic message for the Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, who has been living in exile on Tatooine. Along with C-3PO, R2-D2 falls under the ownership of Luke Skywalker, a farmboy who has been raised by his aunt and uncle. Luke helps the droids locate Obi-Wan, now a solitary old hermit known as Ben Kenobi. He reveals himself as a friend of Luke's absent father, Anakin Skywalker, who was Obi-Wan's Jedi apprentice until being murdered by Vader. He tells Luke he must also become a Jedi. After discovering his family's homestead has been destroyed by the Empire, they hire the smuggler Han Solo, his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca and their space freighter, the Millennium Falcon. They discover that Leia's homeworld of Alderaan has been destroyed, and are soon captured by the planet-destroying Death Star. While Obi-Wan disables its tractor beam, Luke and Han rescue the captive Princess Leia. Finally, they deliver the Death Star plans to the Rebel Alliance with the hope of exploiting a weakness.[13] Skywalker Saga episodes, and served as editor on the prequel trilogy. Ben Burtt designed the iconic soundscape of the first sevenepisodes, and served as editor on the prequel trilogy. The first rough draft, titled The Star Wars, introduced "the Force" and the young hero Luke Starkiller. Annikin [sic] appeared as Luke's father, a wise Jedi knight. The third draft replaced (a deceased) Annikin with Ben Kenobi.[10] Some months later, Lucas had negotiated a contract that gave him rights to two sequels. By 1976, a fourth draft had been prepared for principal photography. The film was titled The Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars. During production, Lucas changed Luke's name to Skywalker and shortened the title to The Star Wars, and finally just Star Wars.[10] At that point, Lucas was not expecting the film to warrant full-scale sequels. The fourth draft of the script underwent subtle changes to become a self-contained story ending with the destruction of the Empire in the Death Star. The intention was that if the film was successful, Lucas could adapt Foster's novels into low-budget sequels. By that point, Lucas had developed a tentative backstory to aid in developing the saga. Star Wars exceeded all expectations. The success of the film and its merchandise sales led Lucas to make Star Wars the basis of an elaborate film serial, and use the profits to finance his filmmaking center, Skywalker Ranch.[17] After the release of the first sequel, the original film was subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope for a rerelease in 1981.[18][19][20] Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back [ edit ] The Empire Strikes Back. Leigh Brackett wrote the first draft of Set three years after the destruction of the Death Star, The Empire Strikes Back begins with the Empire forcing the Rebel Alliance to evacuate its secret base on Hoth. Instructed by Obi-Wan's spirit, Luke travels to the swamp world of Dagobah to find the exiled Jedi Master Yoda. Luke's Jedi training is interrupted by Vader, who lures him into a trap by capturing Han and Leia at Cloud City, governed by Han's old friend Lando. During a fierce duel, Vader reveals a shocking truth about Luke's father.[21] Owing to financial concerns, Alan Dean Foster's sequel novel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978), restricted the story to Luke, Leia, and Darth Vader.[22][23] But after the success of the original film, Lucas knew a sequel would be granted a reasonable budget, and hired Leigh Brackett to write it from scratch. She finished a draft by early 1978, but died of cancer before Lucas was able discuss changes he wanted made to it. His disappointment with the first draft may have made him consider new directions. Lucas penned the next draft, the first screenplay to feature episodic numbering for a Star Wars story. Lucas found this draft enjoyable to write, as opposed to the yearlong struggle writing the first film, and quickly wrote two more[27] in April 1978. The plot twist of Vader being Luke's father had drastic effects on the series. After writing these drafts, Lucas fleshed out the backstory between Anakin, Obi-Wan, and the Emperor. With this new backstory in place, Lucas decided that the series would be a trilogy of trilogies,[30] designating the first sequel Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back in the next draft.[27] Lawrence Kasdan, who had just completed writing Raiders of the Lost Ark, was hired to write the next drafts, and given additional input from director Irvin Kershner. Kasdan, Kershner, and producer Gary Kurtz saw the film as a more serious and adult story, and developed the sequel from the light adventure roots of the first film. Episode VI: Return of the Jedi [ edit ] The Empire Strikes Back. Oz, returned in the sequel trilogy. Puppeteer Frank Oz and actor Ian McDiarmid portrayed Yoda and Palpatine, respectively, in the original trilogy and prequel trilogies. McDiarmid was added into the Special Edition of. Oz, returned in the sequel trilogy. Set less than one year after Vader's revelation, Return of the Jedi sees Luke joining Leia and Lando in a rescue attempt to save Han from the gangster Jabba the Hutt. Afterward, Luke returns to Dagobah to complete his Jedi training, only to find Yoda on his deathbed.[32] In his last words, Yoda confirms the truth about Luke's father, and that Luke must confront Vader again in order to complete his training. As the rebels lead an attack on the second Death Star, Luke engages Vader in another lightsaber duel as Emperor Palpatine watches; both Sith Lords intend to turn Luke to the dark side and take him as their apprentice.[33] Kurtz wanted a bittersweet and nuanced ending they had outlined that saw Han dead, the Rebel forces in pieces, Leia struggling as a queen, and Luke walking off alone (like in a Spaghetti Western)—while Lucas wanted a happier ending, partly to encourage toy sales. This led to tension between the two, resulting in Kurtz leaving the production.[34] Prequel trilogy [ edit ] Loose plans for a prequel trilogy were developed during the outlining of the original trilogy.[35] Technical advances in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the ability to create computer-generated imagery, inspired him to consider that it might be possible to revisit his saga. The prequel trilogy consists of Episode I: The Phantom Menace, released on May 19, 1999; Episode II: Attack of the Clones, released on May 16, 2002; and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, released on May 19, 2005. The plot focuses on the fall of the Galactic Republic, as well as the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker's turn to the dark side. Episode I: The Phantom Menace [ edit ] Set 32 years before the original film, The Phantom Menace begins with two Jedi who, acting as negotiators of the Republic, discover that the corrupt Trade Federation has formed a blockade around the planet Naboo. Sith Lord Darth Sidious has secretly caused the blockade to give his alter ego, Senator Palpatine, a pretense to overthrow and replace the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, the young Obi-Wan Kenobi, encounter a native of Naboo who helps them find the Queen of Naboo. With Queen Padmé Amidala, they escape the blockade, but not without their starship being damaged. Landing on Tatooine for repairs, they meet a nine-year-old slave named Anakin Skywalker. Qui-Gon helps liberate the boy by betting with his master in a podrace, believing him to be the "Chosen One" prophesied by the Jedi to bring balance to the Force. Sidious dispatches his Sith apprentice, Darth Maul, to attack the queen's Jedi protectors. Arriving on Coruscant so the queen can plead Naboo's crisis before the Republic Senate, Anakin is brought before the Jedi Council, where Yoda senses that he possesses too much fear to be trained. The Jedi are ordered to accompany the queen back to Naboo, where she pleads to the natives for their help in the battle against the droid army.[38] The prequels were originally planned to fill in history tangential to the original trilogy, but Lucas realized that they could form the first half of one long story focusing on Anakin. This would shape the film series into a self-contained saga. In 1994, Lucas began writing the screenplay for the first prequel, initially titled Episode I: The Beginning. Following the film's release, Lucas announced that he would be directing the next two.[40] Episode II: Attack of the Clones [ edit ] Ten years after the Battle of Naboo, Attack of the Clones opens with an assassination attempt upon former Queen Padmé Amidala, who is serving as the Senator of Naboo. Obi-Wan and his apprentice Anakin are assigned to protect her; Obi-Wan tracks the killer, while Anakin and Padmé retreat to Naboo. They soon fall in love with each other, albeit secretly due to the Jedi Order's rule against attachment. Meanwhile, Chancellor Palpatine schemes to draw the entire galaxy into the "Clone War" between the Republic army led by the Jedi, and the Confederacy of Independent Systems led by Count Dooku (the former master of Obi-Wan's deceased master Qui-Gon, and Palpatine's new Sith apprentice).[41] The first draft of Episode II was completed just weeks before principal photography, and Lucas hired Jonathan Hales, a writer from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, to polish it. Unsure of a title, Lucas had jokingly called the film "Jar Jar's Great Adventure". In writing The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas initially considered that Lando Calrissian was a clone from a planet of clones which caused the Clone Wars mentioned in A New Hope. He later came up with the concept of an army of clone shock troopers from a remote planet which attacked the Republic and were resisted by the Jedi. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith [ edit ] Revenge of the Sith begins three years into the Clone Wars, with Anakin and Obi-Wan leading a rescue mission to save Chancellor Palpatine from Count Dooku and the droid commander General Grievous. Anakin begins to have prophetic visions of his secret wife Padmé dying in childbirth. Palpatine, who had been secretly engineering the Clone Wars to destroy the Jedi Order, convinces Anakin that the dark side of the Force holds the power to save Padmé's life. Desperate, Anakin submits to Palpatine and is renamed Darth Vader. Palpatine orders the clone army to fire on their Jedi generals, and declares the former Republic an Empire. Vader participates in the extermination of the Jedi, culminating in a lightsaber duel with Obi-Wan on the volcanic planet Mustafar.[47] Work on Episode III began before Episode II was released, with one scene shot during the earlier film's production. Lucas originally told concept artists that the film would open with a montage of the Clone Wars, and included a scene of Palpatine revealing to Anakin that he had willed his conception through the Force. Lucas reviewed and radically reorganized the plot, having Anakin execute Dooku in the first act to foreshadow his fall to the dark side. After principal photography was completed in 2003, Lucas made more changes, rewriting Anakin's arc. He would now primarily turn to the dark side in a quest to save Padmé, rather than just believing that the Jedi are plotting to take over the Republic. The rewrite was accomplished both through editing principal footage, and filming new and revised scenes during pick-ups in 2004.[52] Sequel trilogy [ edit ] Prior to releasing the original film, Lucas planned "three trilogies of nine films,"[30][53] but after beginning work on the prequels, insisted that Star Wars was meant to be a six-part series and that there would be no sequel trilogy.[54][55][56] However, in late 2012, Disney agreed to buy Lucasfilm and announced a new trilogy, beginning with Episode VII in 2015.[57] The sequel trilogy focuses on the journey of the orphaned scavenger Rey following in the footsteps of the Jedi with the guidance of Luke Skywalker. Along with ex-stormtrooper Finn, she helps the Resistance led by Leia fight the First Order commanded by Supreme Leader Snoke and his pupil Kylo Ren (Han Solo and Leia's son). Episode VII: The Force Awakens was released on December 18, 2015, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi on December 15, 2017, and Episode IX is due to be released on December 20, 2019. Episode VII: The Force Awakens [ edit ] The Force Awakens is set 30 years after the destruction of the second Death Star, by which time Luke Skywalker has gone missing. The remnants of the Empire have become the First Order, who seek to destroy Luke and the New Republic. They are opposed by the Resistance, led by princess-turned-general Leia Organa. On the planet of Jakku, Resistance pilot Poe Dameron obtains a map to Luke's location, but is captured by stormtroopers under the command of Kylo Ren. Poe's droid BB-8 escapes with the map, and encounters a scavenger girl, Rey. Kylo tortures Poe and learns of BB-8. A defecting stormtrooper, FN-2187, frees Poe, who dubs him "Finn", and both escape in a TIE fighter. Poe is seemingly killed in a crash-landing upon Jakku. Finn finds Rey and BB-8, as the First Order pursues them; they escape together in the impounded Millennium Falcon. The Falcon is recaptured by Han Solo and Chewbacca, working as smugglers again. They agree to help deliver the map inside BB-8 to the Resistance. In early 2013, Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm officially announced J. J. Abrams as Star Wars Episode VII's director and producer, along with Bryan Burk and Bad Robot Productions.[58] The screenplay for Episode VII was originally set to be written by Michael Arndt, but in October 2013 it was announced that writing duties would be taken over by Lawrence Kasdan and J. J. Abrams.[59][60] Episode VIII: The Last Jedi [ edit ] After a battle scene which overlaps with the denouement of the previous film, The Last Jedi follows Rey's attempt to convince Luke Skywalker to teach her the ways of the Force. She also seeks answers about her past and the conflict between Luke and his nephew Kylo Ren. Unbeknownst to Luke, Rey starts using the Force to communicate with Ren. Meanwhile, Leia leads Poe, Finn, Rose Tico, BB-8, and the rest of the Resistance as they are pursued by the First Order, led by Snoke with Kylo as his second in command. After hearing Ren's perspective, Rey disagrees with Luke and leaves him in an attempt to redeem Kylo and achieve peace. In doing this, Rey unwittingly helps Kylo kill Snoke. However, Ren's intentions are to replace Snoke as Supreme Leader, believing that destroying the Jedi and the Resistance is the only way to achieve peace. Rey must choose between Kylo's offer to rule the galaxy with him, or helping the outnumbered Resistance survive on Crait. In late 2012, it was reported that Lawrence Kasdan and Simon Kinberg would write and produce Episodes VIII and IX.[61] Kasdan and Kinberg were later confirmed as consultants on those films. In addition, John Williams, who wrote the music for the previous six episodes, was hired to compose the music for Episodes VII, VIII and IX.[62] On March 12, 2015, Lucasfilm announced that Looper director Rian Johnson would direct Episode VIII with Ram Bergman as producer for Ram Bergman Productions.[63] When asked about Episode VIII in mid-2014, Johnson said "I'm just happy. I don't have the terror I kind of expected I would... I'm sure I will at some point."[64] Principal photography began in February 2016[65] and wrapped in July 2016.[66][67][68] Carrie Fisher had finished filming her scenes, but died on December 27, 2016,[69] approximately a year before the film's release. Episode IX [ edit ] Production on Episode IX was scheduled to begin in 2017.[70] Carrie Fisher was originally slated for a key role in the film, but after her death, her role had to be modified.[71][72][73] In January 2017, Lucasfilm stated they would not digitally generate Fisher's performance for the film.[74] In April 2017, Fisher's brother Todd and daughter Billie Lourd gave Disney permission to use unreleased footage from the first two films of the sequel trilogy.[75] Principal photography of Star Wars: Episode IX began on August 1, 2018.[76] J.J. Abrams returned to direct, and co-wrote the film alongside Chris Terrio. Most of the cast of The Last Jedi is set to return, including Star Wars veterans Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels. They will be joined by Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, on screen for the first time since 1983's Return of the Jedi. Standalone films [ edit ] As Lucas was outlining his trilogy of trilogies, he also imagined making "a couple of odd movies ... [that] don't have anything to do with the Star Wars saga."[77] The first theatrical films set outside the main episodic series were the Ewok spin-off films Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984) and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985), which were screened internationally after being produced for television. Although based on story ideas from Lucas, they do not bear Star Wars in their titles, and were considered to exist in a lower level of canon than the episodic films. After the conclusion of his then six-episode saga in 2005, Lucas returned to spin-offs in the form of television series. The Clone Wars [ edit ] Preceding the airing of the animated TV series in late 2008, the theatrical feature Star Wars: The Clone Wars was compiled from episodes "almost [as] an afterthought."[78][79] It reveals that Anakin trained an apprentice between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith; the series explains Padawan Ahsoka Tano's absence from the latter film. The character was originally criticized by fans, but by the end of the series the character had become a fan favorite.[80][81] The film and series exist in the same level of canon as the episodic and anthology films.[82] Anthology films [ edit ] Before selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, and parallel to his development of a sequel trilogy, George Lucas and original trilogy co-screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan started development on a standalone film about a young Han Solo.[2] In February 2013, Disney CEO Bob Iger made public the development of a Kasdan film[83] and Entertainment Weekly reported that it would focus on Han Solo.[84] Disney CFO Jay Rasulo has described the standalone films as origin stories.[3] Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that there was "no attempt being made to carry characters (from the standalone films) in and out of the saga episodes."[85] The standalone films are subtitled "A Star Wars Story".[4][86] Rogue One: A Star Wars Story [ edit ] Rogue One is set directly before Episode IV: A New Hope and focuses on the eponymous group of rebels who obtain the plans to the Death Star. Its laser was developed by scientist Galen Erso (played by Mads Mikkelsen) after the Empire forcibly abducted him, separating him from his daughter Jyn. Galen secretly sends a defecting Imperial pilot to deliver a message warning of the weapon's existence and revealing its weakness to his rebel friend Saw Gerrera. Under the false promise of her father's liberation, Jyn agrees to use her ties to help the Rebel Alliance retrieve the message from Saw, now the paranoid leader of an extremist cell of rebels. The idea for the movie came from John Knoll, the chief creative officer of Industrial Light & Magic.[87] In May 2014, Lucasfilm announced Gareth Edwards as the director of an anthology film, with Gary Whitta writing the first draft for a release on December 16, 2016.[88] The film's title was revealed to be Rogue One, with Chris Weitz rewriting the script, and Felicity Jones in the starring role.[89] Ben Mendelsohn and Diego Luna also play new characters,[90] with James Earl Jones returning to voice Darth Vader.[91] Edwards stated, "It comes down to a group of individuals who don't have magical powers that have to somehow bring hope to the galaxy."[92] The film was the first to feature characters introduced in animated Star Wars TV series, namely The Clone Wars' Saw Gerrera, portrayed by Forest Whitaker. The movie received generally positive reviews, with its performances, action sequences, soundtrack, visual effects and darker tone being praised. The film grossed over US$500 million worldwide within a week of its release.[93] Solo: A Star Wars Story [ edit ] Solo: A Star Wars Story, the second anthology film, focuses on Han Solo before his appearance in the original trilogy. After an escape attempt from his Imperial-occupied home planet of Corellia goes wrong, a young Han vows to return to rescue his girlfriend Qi'ra. Han "Solo" joins the Imperial Academy; however, he is expelled for his reckless behavior. Han and his newfound Wookiee friend Chewbacca resort to a criminal life, mentored by veteran smuggler Beckett. After angering gangster Dryden Vos, Han and his company's lives depend on pulling a heist for him. Without a ship to travel, they hire Lando Calrissian, the captain and owner of the Millennium Falcon. A twist ending reveals Vos' employer, acknowledging one of the major story arcs of The Clone Wars.[94] Lawrence Kasdan co-wrote Episodes V, VI and VII, and Solo. Episodesand, and Before selling Lucasfilm to Disney, George Lucas had hired Star Wars original trilogy veteran Lawrence Kasdan to write a film about a young Han Solo.[2] The film stars Alden Ehrenreich as a young Han Solo, Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca (after serving as a double for the character in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi), Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, Emilia Clarke as Qi'ra, and Woody Harrelson as Beckett. Lucasfilm originally hired Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to direct, but they were fired during principal photography, and replaced by Ron Howard. Unproduced films [ edit ] In early 2013, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced the development of a spin-off film written by Simon Kinberg,[95] reported by Entertainment Weekly to focus on bounty hunter Boba Fett during the original trilogy.[96] In mid-2014, Josh Trank was officially announced as the director of an undisclosed spin-off film,[97] but had left the project a year later due to creative differences,[98] causing a teaser for the film to be scrapped from Star Wars Celebration.[99] In May 2018, it was reported that James Mangold had signed on to write and direct a Fett film, with Kinberg attached as producer and co-writer.[100][101] However, by October, the Fett film[a] was reportedly no longer in production, with the studio instead focusing on the upcoming The Mandalorian series, which utilizes a similar character design.[103] In August 2017, it was rumored that films focused on Jabba the Hutt, Jedi Masters Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi were being considered or were in development.[104] Stephen Daldry was reportedly in early negotiations to co-write and direct the Obi-Wan movie.[105] Ewan McGregor has expressed interest in reprising the role of Kenobi, but as of mid-2018 stated that he had no knowledge of such a project.[106][107] However, former UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was later quoted as saying the filmmakers of an Obi-Wan spin-off film had proposed shooting it in Northern Ireland.[108] In February 2019, it was rumored that the project may be produced as a streaming series rather than as a standalone film.[109] In 2018, critics noted Solo was intentionally left open for sequels.[110] Alden Ehrenreich and Emilia Clarke confirmed that their contracts to play Han Solo and Q'ira extended for additional films, if required.[111][112] Felicity Jones, who played Jyn Erso in Rogue One, also has the option of another Star Wars film in her contract; notwithstanding her character's fate in Rogue One, it has been speculated that she could return in other anthology films.[113] Kathleen Kennedy expressed being open to making a spin-off about the younger Lando Calrissian as seen in Solo, but confirmed that none was currently in development.[114] An unannounced film centered around the Mos Eisley Spaceport was reportedly put on hold or cancelled in mid-2018,[115][116] leading to rumors of the cancellation or postponement of the anthology series.[116] Lucasfilm swiftly denied the rumors as "inaccurate", confirming that multiple unannounced films were in development.[117] Planned spin-off trilogies [ edit ] In November 2017, Lucasfilm announced that Rian Johnson, the writer/director of The Last Jedi, would be working on a new trilogy. The films will reportedly differ from the Skywalker-focused films in favor of focusing on new characters. Johnson is confirmed to write and direct the first film, and is currently outlining the entire trilogy.[118][119] In February 2018, it was announced that Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss would write and produce a trilogy of Star Wars films[120] that are not Skywalker-focused, similar to (but separate from) Johnson's upcoming trilogy.[121] Technical information [ edit ] All films of the Star Wars series were shot in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1. The original and sequel trilogies were filmed with anamorphic lenses. Episodes IV, V, VII, and VIII were Filmed in Panavision, while Episode VI was shot in Joe Dunton Camera (JDC) scope. Episode I was shot with Hawk anamorphic lenses on Arriflex cameras, and Episodes II and III were shot with Sony's CineAlta high-definition digital cameras.[122] Rogue One and Solo were shot on ARRI Alexa 65 cameras with the former using the Ultra Panavision 70 format. Music and sound effects [ edit ] Lucas hired Ben Burtt to oversee the sound effects on the original 1977 film. Burtt's accomplishment was such that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented him with a Special Achievement Award because it had no award at the time for the work he had done.[123] Lucasfilm developed the THX sound reproduction standard for Return of the Jedi.[124] John Williams composed the scores for all eight films. Lucas's design for Star Wars involved a grand musical sound, with leitmotifs for different characters and important concepts. Williams's Star Wars title theme has become one of the most famous and well-known musical compositions in modern music history.[125] Stunts [ edit ] Lucas hired 'the Dean of Special Effects' John Stears, who created R2-D2, Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder, the Jedi Knights' lightsabers, and the Death Star.[126][127] The technical lightsaber choreography for the original trilogy was developed by leading filmmaking sword-master Bob Anderson. Anderson trained actor Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and performed all the sword stunts as Darth Vader during the lightsaber duels in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, wearing Vader's costume. Anderson's role in the original Star Wars trilogy was highlighted in the film Reclaiming the Blade, where he shares his experiences as the fight choreographer developing the lightsaber techniques for the movies.[128] Box office performance [ edit ] Star Wars is the second highest grossing film series of all time, behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Critical response [ edit ] Academy Awards [ edit ] The ten live-action films together have been nominated for 34 Academy Awards, of which they won seven. The films were also awarded a total of three Special Achievement Awards. Star Wars received seven awards and four nominations,[176] The Empire Strikes Back received one award, one Special Achievement Award and two nominations,[177] Return of the Jedi received one Special Achievement Award and four nominations,[178] The Phantom Menace received three nominations,[179] Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith received one nomination each,[180][181] The Force Awakens received five nominations,[182] Rogue One received two nominations,[183] The Last Jedi received four nominations,[184] and Solo received one nomination. Five films in the franchise (Return of the Jedi,[178] The Phantom Menace,[179] The Force Awakens,[182] Rogue One[183] and The Last Jedi[184]) were nominated for Best Sound Mixing; two films (Star Wars[176] and The Empire Strikes Back[177]) won the award. Six films (The Phantom Menace,[179] Attack of the Clones,[180] The Force Awakens,[182] Rogue One,[183] The Last Jedi,[184] and Solo) were nominated for Best Visual Effects; Star Wars[176] won the award, while The Empire Strikes Back[177] and Return of the Jedi[178] received Special Achievement Awards for their visual effects and Star Wars[176] received a Special Achievement Award for its alien, creature and robot voices. Four films (The Empire Strikes Back,[177] Return of the Jedi,[178] The Force Awakens[182] and The Last Jedi[184]) were nominated for Best Original Score; Star Wars[176] won the award. The Force Awakens[182] was nominated for Best Film Editing and Star Wars[176] won the award. The Empire Strikes Back[177] and Return of the Jedi[178] were nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Star Wars[176] won the award. Four films (Return of the Jedi,[178] The Phantom Menace,[179] The Force Awakens[182] and The Last Jedi[184]) were nominated for Best Sound Editing. Star Wars[176] won Best Costume Design and it also received nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Alec Guinness), Best Director (George Lucas), Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Revenge of the Sith[181] received a nomination for Best Makeup. National Film Registry [ edit ] In 1989, the Library of Congress selected the original Star Wars film for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry, as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[185] The Empire Strikes Back, was selected in 2010.[186][187] 35mm reels of the 1997 Special Editions were the versions initially presented for preservation because of the difficulty of transferring from the original prints,[188][189] but it was later revealed that the Library possessed a copyright deposit print of the original theatrical releases. By 2015, Star Wars had been transferred to a 2K scan which can be viewed by appointment.[190] Television and internet [ edit ] Three live-action Star Wars spin-off films were created for television in the late 1970s and mid-1980s. The later two featured the Ewoks, which were also the focus of one of two animated series released in the mid-1980s. Further animated series began to be released in 2003, the first two of which focused on the Clone Wars. After Disney's acquisition of LucasFilm, only the later The Clone Wars was kept in the canon of continuity of the episodic Star Wars films. Two additional half-hour animated series were ordered, one of which ties into the original trilogy, the other the sequel trilogy. Two live-action Star Wars series are currently in development for Disney+. TV films and specials [ edit ] Star Wars Holiday Special [ edit ] A two-hour Holiday Special focusing on Chewbacca's family was produced for CBS in 1978. Along with the stars of the original film, celebrity guest stars appear in plot-related skits and musical numbers. Lucas loathed the special and forbade it to be reaired or released on home video.[191] An 11-minute animated sequence features the first appearance of bounty hunter Boba Fett, and is considered the highlight of the special. Ewoks films [ edit ] The Ewoks from Return of the Jedi were featured in two spin-off television films, The Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. Both aired on ABC on the Thanksgiving weekends of 1984 and 1985, respectively. Warwick Davis reprised his debut role as the main Ewok, Wicket, in both. Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure [ edit ] In a story by Lucas and a screenplay by Bob Carrau. In the first film, the Towani family spaceship shipwrecks on the forest moon of Endor. While trying to repair their ship, the castaway family is split, when a giant creature known as the Gorax, kidnaps the parents. Taking pity on the kids, a group of native Ewoks led by Wicket decides to help little Cindel Towani and her older brother Mace, rescue their parents.[192][193] Among other stylistic choices making the film unique from the Star Wars episodes is the inclusion of a narrator.[194] Ewoks: The Battle for Endor [ edit ] The sequel focuses on the Ewoks protecting their village from marauders led by the evil witch Tarak, who kills all the members of the Towani family except for Cindel. Both Ewoks films were released on VHS, Laser Disc, and DVD. However, since Disney's acquisition of the franchise, the Ewoks films have been excluded from the new canon.[195][192][196][197] Critical and public response [ edit ] Animated series [ edit ] Animated series [ edit ] The episodes of this series last 22 minutes. The Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour [ edit ] Nelvana, the animation studio that had animated the animated segment of the Holiday Special was hired to create two animated series. Droids (1985–1986), which aired for one season on ABC, follows the adventures of C-3PO and R2-D2 before the events of A New Hope.[200] Its sister series Ewoks (1985–1987)[200] features the Ewoks before Return of the Jedi and the Ewok movies. The Clone Wars [ edit ] Star Wars animated series, was later promoted to oversee the development of all future [201] Dave Filoni , supervising director on twoanimated series, was later promoted to oversee the development of all future Lucasfilm Animation projects. Lucas decided to invest in creating his own animation company, Lucasfilm Animation, and used it to create his first in-house Star Wars CGI-animated series. The Clone Wars (2008–2014) was introduced through a 2008 animated film of the same name.[202] The series is set between Episode II and Episode III of the main film series. It focuses mainly on the Jedi characters of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, as well as Anakin's Padawan apprentice Ahsoka Tano (an original character created by Lucas for the series), with other characters from the prequel trilogy in supporting roles. The series marked the beginning of Dave Filoni's involvement in Star Wars animation projects; he has helped develop every other animated series related to the franchise since. After Disney's acquisition of the Star Wars franchise, The Clone Wars was abruptly cancelled in 2014, before its intended final episodes were completed. A final season was released on Netflix, while and animatics of others were released online. The film and series were included in the new canon established in 2014.[82][203] An additional final season will be released in 2019 on the Disney+ streaming service.[204] Rebels [ edit ] In 2014, Disney XD began airing Star Wars Rebels, the first CGI-animated series produced following the Disney acquisition. Set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, it follows a band of rebels as they fight the Galactic Empire and helped close some of the arcs in The Clone Wars.[205][206][207] Due to the film Rogue One being produced at the same time, the film and the series acknowledged each other.[208][209] The series also included a canonical version of Grand Admiral Thrawn, the character from the Legends Thrawn trilogy.[210] Resistance [ edit ] The animated series Star Wars Resistance debuted in late 2018, is anime-inspired, and focuses on a young Resistance pilot before and during The Force Awakens.[211][212] Detours [ edit ] Star Wars Detours is an unaired animated parody series from the creators of Robot Chicken, which was postponed in 2013 and ultimately unaired.[213] Production began in 2012 prior to the Disney acquisition,[214] with 39 episodes completed and 62 additional scripts finished.[215] Animated micro-series [ edit ] The episodes of this series last from one to three minutes. Clone Wars [ edit ] After the release of Attack of the Clones, Cartoon Network produced and aired the micro-series Clone Wars from 2003 to weeks before the 2005 release of Revenge of the Sith, as the series featured events set between those films.[216][217] It won the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Animated Program in 2004 and 2005.[218][219] Forces of Destiny [ edit ] The animated micro-series Star Wars Forces of Destiny debuted in 2017, focusing on the female characters of the franchise.[220] Galaxy of Adventures [ edit ] Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures debuted on the "Star Wars Kids" YouTube channel and website in late 2018. Using stylized animation, the series of shorts recounts key scenes from the saga and will continue until the release of Episode IX. The shorts feature audio from the original films and are animated by Titmouse, Inc.[221][222] Critical and public response [ edit ] For more details on the reception of each series, see the "Reception" section on each series' article. Series Season Originally aired Critical response First aired Viewers (in millions) Last aired Viewers (in millions) Rotten Tomatoes Metacritic Star Wars: The Clone Wars 1 October 3, 2008 ( ) 3.99[223] March 20, 2009 ( 2009-03-20 ) 3.29[224] 90% (10 reviews)[225] 64 (9 reviews)[226] 2 October 2, 2009 ( ) 2.58[227] April 30, 2010 ( 2010-04-30 ) 2.76[228] N/A N/A 3 September 17, 2010 ( ) 2.42[229] April 1, 2011 ( 2011-04-01 ) 2.31[230] N/A N/A 4 September 16, 2011 ( ) 1.93[231] March 16, 2012 ( 2012-03-16 ) 2.03[232] N/A N/A 5 September 29, 2012 ( ) 1.94[233] March 2, 2013 ( 2013-03-02 ) 2.18[234] N/A N/A 6 February 15, 2014 ( ) N/A March 7, 2014 ( 2014-03-07 ) N/A 100% (6 reviews)[235] N/A Star Wars Rebels 1 October 3, 2014 ( ) 2.74[236] March 2, 2015 ( 2015-03-02 ) 0.72[237] 100% (9 reviews)[238] 78% (4 reviews)[239] 2 June 20, 2015 ( ) 0.59[240] March 30, 2016 ( 2016-03-30 ) 0.69[241] 100% (5 reviews)[242] N/A 3 September 24, 2016 ( ) 0.56[243] March 25, 2017 ( 2017-03-25 ) 0.50[244] N/A N/A 4 October 16, 2017 ( ) TBD TBA TBD N/A N/A Emmy Awards [ edit ] Live-action series [ edit ] In 2005, Lucas announced plans for a television series set between the prequel and original trilogies. In 2007, he described the project as "one show that will split into four shows, focusing on different characters."[251] Producer Rick McCallum revealed the working title, Star Wars: Underworld, in 2012,[252] and that it would focus on criminal and political power struggles in the "period when the Empire is trying to take things over."[253] 50 scripts were written,[254] and the project was still being considered after Lucasfilm was sold to Disney, with stories being reviewed as of December 2015 .[255][256] In November 2017, Bob Iger discussed the development of a Star Wars series for Disney's streaming service Disney+, due to launch in 2019.[257] Multiple live-action TV series are in development.[120] The Mandalorian [ edit ] Jon Favreau, who previously voiced characters in The Clone Wars and Solo, will write and produce a series set three years after Return of the Jedi.[258][259] It will feature motion capture and cost about "$100 million for 10 episodes."[260] It began filming in late 2018, and will focus on "the travails of a lone gunfighter ... far from the authority of the New Republic."[261][262] Dave Filoni will direct the first episode, and other directors include Taika Waititi and Bryce Dallas Howard.[263] Pedro Pascal will play the series' titular character,[264] and co-stars include Gina Carano, Giancarlo Esposito, Carl Weathers, Omid Abtahi, Werner Herzog, and Nick Nolte.[265] Cassian Andor series [ edit ] On November 8, 2018, the official Star Wars website announced that a live-action "spy thriller" series focusing on Cassian Andor from Rogue One would be released on Disney+ with Diego Luna reprising his role.[266] It will begin filming in October 2019.[267] In-universe timeline [ edit ] Parodies [ edit ] Lucasfilm-produced mockumentaries [ edit ] Title Release year Notes Mockumentaries Return of the Ewok 1982 24-minute fictional mockumentary, focusing on the decision of Warwick Davis to become an actor and act as Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi.[268] R2-D2: Beneath the Dome 2002 20-minute mockumentary, focusing on the "true" story of R2-D2's life. It was made as a side-project by some of the crew of Attack of the Clones, released on television in three installments, and later on DVD.[269] Licensed parodies [ edit ] Lego Star Wars [ edit ] To promote its sets, Lego has created multiple short films, television specials, and animated series that parody the Star Wars saga. Lego versions of Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and Lando have a cameo appearance aboard the Millennium Falcon in The Lego Movie,[273] with the latter two voiced by their original actors. Short films Title Release date Notes Revenge of the Brick 2005 Short film based on Revenge of the Sith The Quest for R2-D2 2009 Short film based on The Clone Wars Bombad Bounty 2010 Short film that follows up The Quest for R2-D2 Television specials Title Release year Notes The Padawan Menace 2011 Half hour TV special The Empire Strikes Out 2012 Half hour TV special Animated series Title Release year Episodes Notes The Yoda Chronicles 2013–14 7 Comic television series also known as Lego Star Wars: The New Yoda Chronicles. Droid Tales 2015 5 Comic television series retelling Episodes I-VI and Rebels episode "Droids in Distress". The Resistance Rises 2016 5 A comedic prequel to The Force Awakens The Freemaker Adventures 2016–2017 26 Comic television series set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Lego Star Wars: All-Stars 2018–present 12 Comic television series set across all eras. See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Footnotes Citations Sources [ edit ]

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) CNSNews.com/Penny Starr) Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D- Ore.) has released a plan calling for “more research on the health effects of guns.” (CNSNews.com) - Blumenauer’s “Enough is Enough” plan looks back to how the U.S. government addressed tobacco use and automobile safety in years past and calls for a similar approach to guns. “The Surgeon General's report on tobacco was a major catalyst for the efforts to reduce tobacco use. Ralph Nader’s research captured headlines and focused public attention on automobile safety. Similarly, we need more research on the health effects of guns. We can start by improving the ability of researchers and the federal government to study and share information about guns,” according to the plan. The plan also increases the role of doctors and nurses in the debate on guns. “Our doctors and nurses should be part of the efforts to increase gun safety. Just as your physician would encourage you to stop smoking, or to put your child in a car seat, they should be able to ask questions and give advice about guns. People know and trust their doctors; when doctors encourage safe gun practices, people listen,” the plan says. Some other steps of the plan include “Improving the Mental Health System”, “Increasing Product Safety” and “Controlling Access to the Most Dangerous Products.” “There is tremendous variability in gun designs and features. Some are best used as tools or for sport - specifically designed for hunting or target shooting. Other guns have additional features such as pistol grips, barrel shrouds, and magazines that are detachable or attach outside the pistol grip. These features can allow a shooter to fire a large number of rounds at an extremely rapid pace without reloading. Commonly referred to as assault weapons, they are designed to be highly deadly.” “Restrictions on assault weapon availability and magazine capacity can be a small but important step in addressing the lethality of mass shootings,” Blumenauer’s plan says. ype="node" title="Enough is Enough The " Enough is Enough " plan cites Australia’s laws banning semiautomatic and automatic rifles and shotguns, instituting a 28-day waiting period for every gun purchase and requiring every potential owner to show a genuine reason to own, possess, or use a firearm as an “inspiring” example of incremental steps to reduce gun violence that can be effective. According to the plan, “Solutions in the United States will not look like those in Australia, but the Australian experience shows that it is possible to reduce gun violence significantly while still allowing hobby and sport shooting for responsible owners. We must chart our own path forward, but we cannot be afraid to take the first step.”

Every week, Chris Siggins, 65, climbs into a sauna to relieve her rheumatoid arthritis pain. But it’s not a warm sauna. It’s more than 200 degrees below zero. In addition to regular exercise, an anti-inflammatory diet and other holistic therapies, Siggins has been using whole body cryotherapy at 40drop CryoCenter in Cedar Rapids to reduce pain, increase energy and improve her sleep, she said. “Every morning I have pain in my hands, knees, feet, shoulders, hip ... It travels,” she explained. “I’m trying to manage the pain without drugs and I’m still trying to find the best tools for maximum relief.” Proponents of cryotherapy say exposing the body to subzero temperatures — as low as 260 degrees below — for just a few minutes releases endorphins and nutrient-rich blood throughout the body, which is believed to decrease inflammation, relieve pain, speed up recovery from intense workouts or injury, boost collagen production, improve skin, reduce cellulite, elevate your mood and improve sleep and energy levels. As long as the client’s surface temperature drops 20 degrees or more, they can expect to see results, said Todd Diestler, owner of 40drop. “Your body thinks you’re freezing to death,” Diestler said. “The cold constricts the circulatory system to your extremities to protect your vital organs. Your blood becomes nutrient rich and oxygenated and then when you get out, the dilation (of your circulatory system) increases the flow of nutrient-rich blood from head to toe.” Cryotherapy was invented in Japan in the 1970s and is now sweeping the nation as the coolest new trend in pain relief and athletic performance. Instead of sitting through a torturous ice bath, for example, athletes are turning to whole body cryotherapy. In as few as three minutes, they can achieve the same effect as an ice bath, but “it’s a lot less painful, time consuming and messy,” Diestler said. After opening 40drop to the public just a few weeks ago, Diestler said he’s already seen at least 100 customers. Most say they see benefits immediately, he added. “I’ve been blown away,” Diestler said. “Everybody who uses it, by the time they’re leaving, whatever ache or pain they had, they already notice a difference.” “The first time I got in I was like, oh my gosh, what am I doing,” Siggins said. “When I got out, it was like ... I’m alive.” The results are still only anecdotal, however. There is little research or data to support the benefits of cryotherapy and it is not FDA approved. In fact, the FDA has sent warning letters to some cryotherapy centers advising some of the health claims being made may be considered false and misleading. At 40drop, $30 gets you in the sauna for the first time. After that it’s $60 per session, or clients can purchase packages to make continued treatments more affordable. Packages start at three sessions for $170 and go up from there. An unlimited package can be purchased for $349. 40drop also offers cryo-facials and localized cryotherapy. Before a whole body treatment, clients first fill out a waiver to address any health concerns or conditions. Those with certain conditions — particularly heart or blood pressure conditions — should talk to their doctor before climbing into the sauna. Piercings from the neck down are not allowed, either. After filling out the waiver, clients strip down to their underwear in a dressing room, slip on a robe, a pair of socks, slippers and mittens and then climb into the sauna, which has already been cooled to under 200 degrees below zero. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENT NEWS AND SPORTS The day's top stories right in your inbox. I am above 13 years of age, and agree to sending policies. SIGN ME UP Thank you for signing up for our e-newsletter! You should start receiving the e-newsletters within a couple days. Standing in the chamber, their head remains above a nitrogen cloud — bending down could result in a loss of oxygen and potentially death. But just one death has been reported, Diestler said. It was an employee of a spa in Henderson, Nev., who went into the sauna after hours, when no one else was around. It’s thought that she may have dropped her cellphone and when she bent down to pick it up, her oxygen was cut off and she passed out in the sauna and froze to death, he explained. Since then, safe guards, including doors that never lock and the system shutting off and evacuating all of the nitrogen after three minutes, have been put in place to prevent more accidents. While in the sauna, clients can expect to feel cold, but not unbearably so. “Your skin will tingle and some parts will feel painful,” Diestler said. Treatments generally last just three minutes or less, depending on how long you can stand it. They can be terminated at any time. “This is not a spa,” Diestler said. “If you’re coming here, it’s for a reason.” IF YOU GO What: Whole Body Cryotherapy Where: 40drop CryoCenter, 568 Boyson Rd NE #180, Cedar Rapids, IA When: Monday-Thursday 7:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. and 4-7 p.m., Friday 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Saturday 8-11 am Cost: $30 introductory, then $60 per session or packages starting at $170 Details: Cryotherapy may relieve pain, decrease inflammation, speed up recovery from workouts or injury, boost collagen production, improve skin, reduce cellulite, elevate your mood and improve sleep and energy levels. The therapy is not FDA approved.

By Melissa Dykes Former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, infamous geopolitical “strategist” (read: al-Qaeda architect), and current Barack Obama advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski called it nearly half a century ago. In his book Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era originally published in 1970, he laid out what our future ruled by technocratic elites in a scientific dictatorship would look like. And he was spot on. Another threat, less overt but no less basic, confronts liberal democracy. More directly linked to the impact of technology, it involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled and directed society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite whose claim to political power would rest on allegedly superior scientific know-how. Unhindered by the restraints of traditional liberal values, this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behavior and keeping society under close surveillance and control. Under such circumstances, the scientific and technological momentum of the country would not be reversed but would actually feed on the situation it exploits. Modern techniques for “influencing public behavior”? Keeping society under close surveillance and control? You don’t say… Just think about where we are now. As Truthstream previously reported, former managing director of the board of directors of Wall Street investment firm Dillon, Read & Co, as well as former Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner in the Dept. of H.U.D. during the Bush 41 administration, Catherine Austin Fitts relayed a chilling conversation she overheard circa 1984 while working on Wall Street, where executives discussed how brainwave entrainment technology was about to be deployed through the television waves. Download Your First Issue Free! Do You Want to Learn How to Become Financially Independent, Make a Living Without a Traditional Job & Finally Live Free? Download Your Free Copy of Counter Markets Fitts said she was so frightened by hearing a conversation she was never authorized to hear, that she threw out her TV for good. She further warns that the television is not the only media device that uses these techniques – and by now, surely more advanced techniques – to persuade consumers, quell opposition and encourage the status quo. Other media devices are also “compromised,” Fitts says, so users should be aware of its affects on cell phones, radios, the Internet. What do those advanced techniques look like today? This doesn’t even consider, say, extremely low frequency wave weapons whose study began under the CIA’s project MKUltra and have no doubt transcended into something nightmarish in modern times. This is before we get to issue of targeted individuals or whether or not we are literally living in the movie They Live. On the other hand, the National Security Administration and other government agencies use every form of new technology the public finds out about (fake cell phone towers, stingray devices, etc.) to database and spy on the American people wholesale. And that’s just what we find out about, not including the trillions that have undoubtedly been spent on black budget projects. Our 4th Amendment is nearly non-existent, which is why last year Bilderberg 2014 rhetorically asked “Does privacy exist?” It’s a foregone conclusion. When a new technology does come out that could really benefit mankind and possibly shift the entire structure of society to a freer one, affording more liberty to the people stumbling around in it… The kinds of hypothetical energy ideas Tesla was working towards perhaps or the types of frequency cures Wilhelm Reich was jailed and possibly killed over or Royal Raymond Rife was chased out of the country for… Those technologies are squashed under the smothering safety blanket of “National Security”. Ever heard of the Invention Secrecy Act? Our government has classified thousands of patents this way and threatened the inventors that if they even so much as talk about their inventions, they could be tossed in federal prison for decades. On top of that is the Sensitive Application Warning System (SAWS), which delays a patent’s approval process under the same guise for however long the government feels like it, basically. CE reported, “One great example (out of many) of delayed patent applications comes from Dr. Gerald F. Ross. He filed a patent application for a new invention he had devised to defeat the jamming of electromagnetic transmissions at specified frequencies. It was not until June 17, 2014 (almost 37 years later) that this patent was granted.” While many inventions can relate to military applications, there are a lot of things that could be used for so much more than that. Federation of American Scientists Project Director on Government Secrecy Steven Aftergood notes that a FOIA request to retrieve the list of technology that patents are currently screened and silenced under has been denied. However, “the 1971 list indicates that patents for solar photovoltaic generators were subject to review and possible restriction if the photovoltaics were more than 20% efficient. Energy conversion systems were likewise subject to review and possible restriction if they offered conversion efficiencies ‘in excess of 70-80%’”. So making energy more efficient is classified as “detrimental” to national security, huh? See how that works? Survival Solar Battery Charger - Free Today! Simply put, the system hoards all the “good science” for itself, and then usually silences it to keep things status quo or uses it for military applications. Technology starts out neutral, but whatever they get, rest assured they’ll always apply it to the potential of weapons of war first before even considering the possibility of advancing humanity. It’s the second decade of the 21st century and we’re just now getting to a place where solar panels are a well-known and used technology. Go ahead and consider why that is. Brzezinski continues: Persisting social crisis, the emergence of a charismatic personality, and the exploitation of mass media to obtain public confidence would be the steppingstones in the piecemeal transformation of the United States into a highly controlled society. In different ways, both the doctrinarian and the conservative might find the temptations inherent in the new techniques of social control too difficult to resist. The inclination of the doctrinaire left to legitimize means by ends could lead them to justify more social control on the ground that it serves progress. The conservatives, preoccupied with public order and fascinated by modern gadgetry, would be tempted to use the new techniques as a response to unrest, since they would fail to recognize that social control is not the only way to deal with rapid social change. [emphasis added] Stop me when any of this sounds a little too familiar… (Full text of this book in PDF format can be found for free in the Internet archives here.) The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. President John F. Kennedy Melissa Dykes (formerly Melton) is a co-founder of TruthstreamMedia.com, where this first appeared. She is an experienced researcher, graphic artist and investigative journalist with a passion for liberty and a dedication to truth. Her aim is to expose the New World Order for what it is — a prison for the human soul from which we must break free.

An early exit in the group stages for England gives ammunition to those who make the assumption that all English footballers are inferior. There is a perception among many football people who work outside of England that everything English – the players, the coaching, the managers – is bad. That gets through to the people who make decisions at clubs. I hope the Football Association don’t listen to that rubbish. There is still a lot of talent and potential in our game. Join Independent Minds For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent Without the ads – for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month My concern again is that clubs will not feel they can rely on the young English players who come through their own system. It will send the English game into another period of self-doubt. If we have no confidence in those young players, we will not come out the other side. Watching England in this World Cup finals was the first occasion in a long time I have found myself looking forward to the next tournament two years ahead. I still believe that England have a lot to look forward to in the future. I did not think it was the worst performance. The difference was that in Luis Suarez, Uruguay had a world-class player capable of getting them off the hook with two goals. They would not have won the game without him. He is a freak of nature. How can he be so fit and strong when he has missed so much football? That is the problem in a one-off World Cup finals game. Man-for-man, England matched Uruguay. In many positions England had stronger players. Apart from that period at the start of the second half when Uruguay looked like they might go 2-0 up, I felt that England had the best of the match. They took the game to Uruguay. But England did not take their chances. Shape Created with Sketch. Uruguay 2 England 1 player ratings Show all 22 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Uruguay 2 England 1 player ratings 1/22 Fernando Muslera Saved well from Rooney in the second half, but rarely tested. 6/10 Getty Images 2/22 Martin Caceras Kept Welbeck quiet for long periods and was solid in the tackle. 6 Getty Images 3/22 Jose Gimenez Youngster showed no nerves in his first World Cup start. 7 Getty Images 4/22 Diego Godin Extremely fortunate to stay on the field following a first half foul on Sturridge, having already been booked. 5 Getty Images 5/22 Alvaro Pereira Battled well at left-back and showed great heart to continue having been knocked out by Sterling's knee. 7 Getty Images 6/22 Alvaro Gonzalez Offered plenty of support to his Caceres in keeping Sterling and Welbeck under wraps. 6 Getty Images 7/22 Egidio Rios Veteran showed his experience in battling well in midfield. 6 8/22 Nicolas Lodeiro Fitted in well in midfield, and started the move that brought Uruguay their first goal. 7 Getty Images 9/22 Cristian Rodriguez Went close to scoring a first half screamer, but faded as the game went on. 6 Getty Images 10/22 Edinson Cavani Has been poor in front of goal this World Cup, but set up the opener with a delightful cross for his strike-partner. 7 Getty Images 11/22 Luis Suarez Clearly not fully fit, but that didn't hamper his finishing. The Liverpool striker has two chances in front of goal and buried them both with deadly efficiency. 8 Getty Images 12/22 Joe Hart Blameless for Suarez’s goal and generally impressive against Uruguay’s early pressure. Reacted sharply to two difficult Suarez corners to his near post. 6 Getty Images 13/22 Glen Johnson England needed quality from their experienced right-back and Johnson, who struggled at first, delivered it with the cross for Rooney’s goal. 5 Getty Images 14/22 Gary Cahill Not as responsible as Jagielka for the goal and generally kept his head above water until the second goal, when he was caught off-guard by Suarez. 5 Getty Images 15/22 Phil Jagielka Has struggled to contain Luis Suarez in the past and last night was no different, as he lost the Liverpool striker who peeled away from him to score. 4 Getty Images 16/22 Leighton Baines Worked hard up and down the left-flank but, as in the Italy game, his final-third quality was not quite as good as it needs to be. 5 Getty Images 17/22 Steven Gerrard England needed leadership and control in the middle but Gerrard was poor again, failing to keep the ball and losing the ball for both of Suarez’s goals. 4 Getty Images 18/22 Jordan Henderson Ran hard without the ball but failed to make much of a contribution going forward as England lacked ideas in the middle of the pitch. 5 Getty Images 19/22 Raheem Sterling Not as impressive as he was against Italy, Sterling did try to run at opponents, with not much success. The first to be taken off. 5 Getty Images 20/22 Danny Welbeck Tried to stretch Uruguay, running in behind, but England could not get him the ball quickly enough and he failed to use well it when they did. 5 Getty Images 21/22 Wayne Rooney Restored to his preferred No 10 role, Rooney looked eager and although nothing came off at first, he persevered for the late tap-in. 6 Getty Images 22/22 Daniel Sturridge Far less impressive than against Italy, less incisive with his movement, less responsible with his hold-up play and less dangerous in the penalty area. 4 Getty Images 1/22 Fernando Muslera Saved well from Rooney in the second half, but rarely tested. 6/10 Getty Images 2/22 Martin Caceras Kept Welbeck quiet for long periods and was solid in the tackle. 6 Getty Images 3/22 Jose Gimenez Youngster showed no nerves in his first World Cup start. 7 Getty Images 4/22 Diego Godin Extremely fortunate to stay on the field following a first half foul on Sturridge, having already been booked. 5 Getty Images 5/22 Alvaro Pereira Battled well at left-back and showed great heart to continue having been knocked out by Sterling's knee. 7 Getty Images 6/22 Alvaro Gonzalez Offered plenty of support to his Caceres in keeping Sterling and Welbeck under wraps. 6 Getty Images 7/22 Egidio Rios Veteran showed his experience in battling well in midfield. 6 8/22 Nicolas Lodeiro Fitted in well in midfield, and started the move that brought Uruguay their first goal. 7 Getty Images 9/22 Cristian Rodriguez Went close to scoring a first half screamer, but faded as the game went on. 6 Getty Images 10/22 Edinson Cavani Has been poor in front of goal this World Cup, but set up the opener with a delightful cross for his strike-partner. 7 Getty Images 11/22 Luis Suarez Clearly not fully fit, but that didn't hamper his finishing. The Liverpool striker has two chances in front of goal and buried them both with deadly efficiency. 8 Getty Images 12/22 Joe Hart Blameless for Suarez’s goal and generally impressive against Uruguay’s early pressure. Reacted sharply to two difficult Suarez corners to his near post. 6 Getty Images 13/22 Glen Johnson England needed quality from their experienced right-back and Johnson, who struggled at first, delivered it with the cross for Rooney’s goal. 5 Getty Images 14/22 Gary Cahill Not as responsible as Jagielka for the goal and generally kept his head above water until the second goal, when he was caught off-guard by Suarez. 5 Getty Images 15/22 Phil Jagielka Has struggled to contain Luis Suarez in the past and last night was no different, as he lost the Liverpool striker who peeled away from him to score. 4 Getty Images 16/22 Leighton Baines Worked hard up and down the left-flank but, as in the Italy game, his final-third quality was not quite as good as it needs to be. 5 Getty Images 17/22 Steven Gerrard England needed leadership and control in the middle but Gerrard was poor again, failing to keep the ball and losing the ball for both of Suarez’s goals. 4 Getty Images 18/22 Jordan Henderson Ran hard without the ball but failed to make much of a contribution going forward as England lacked ideas in the middle of the pitch. 5 Getty Images 19/22 Raheem Sterling Not as impressive as he was against Italy, Sterling did try to run at opponents, with not much success. The first to be taken off. 5 Getty Images 20/22 Danny Welbeck Tried to stretch Uruguay, running in behind, but England could not get him the ball quickly enough and he failed to use well it when they did. 5 Getty Images 21/22 Wayne Rooney Restored to his preferred No 10 role, Rooney looked eager and although nothing came off at first, he persevered for the late tap-in. 6 Getty Images 22/22 Daniel Sturridge Far less impressive than against Italy, less incisive with his movement, less responsible with his hold-up play and less dangerous in the penalty area. 4 Getty Images Wayne Rooney did not have a bad game, but he could have scored a hat-trick. He had the free-kick that whistled over. I don’t know how the header during the first half did not go in. Then there was his shot in the second half which he should have scored. Suarez was not always world-class. He was allowed to develop and become that way. It is about confidence in your ability and that only comes with time. But when you have players like that in the side they make all the difference. As long as the other 10 can hang in there and be dogged, the one can win them the game. The schoolboy errors that England made for the second goal reminded me of South Africa four years ago when a long ball opened up the defence against Germany and Miroslav Klose scored. One criticism I have of English players is that they do tend to switch off at moments during the game. Our concentration levels are poor. You can spot it in certain players when they train. They just go through the motions. During passing drills, they look at each other as if they are too good for it. Keeping those simple things about your game sharp eliminates mistakes during matches. Most goals come from individual errors. There is a lot that the younger players can learn, as well as those who will be in the squad that competes to qualify for the next World Cup finals. Daniel Sturridge should have made more of the elbow from Diego Godin in the first half. Godin is Uruguay’s captain, their first-choice centre-back and he was already on a booking. Then he puts an arm into Sturridge’s throat. Sturridge needs to go down and make more of it. People say this is not the English way. They say, “But we are honest”. There would be nothing dishonest about going down after getting one in the throat. Godin made contact and he deserved a second yellow card. In those situations you need your players to put pressure on the referee. It is all very well getting a pat on the back for being sporting. Or getting the fair play award. But what about winning the World Cup? We need to be more street-wise. I am not saying that Roy should coach the players to do it. But it needs to be something they are aware of. They see it every week in the Premier League. You need to know when the opposition’s skipper is on a yellow. If he commits a foul again, you have to make sure that the referee knows about it. When I was growing up as a footballer, if you were fouled the culture was to jump up quickly and pretend it had not hurt you. It is different now. Those moments can change games and change careers. The Football Association need to back Roy, and the supporters do too. If he is going to bring through the young players in this squad like Ross Barkley, Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Raheem Sterling, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jack Wilshere then he is going to need some patience. It might be a slow start, but the time to do it is now. Germany and Spain brought through young teams. I am not saying we have to follow their style. But we need their levels of patience to allow a team to develop. We need a long-term plan and firm foundations. We cannot just pick a manager for one tournament. Giving experience to younger players might mean that they lose a few games. Roy’s win percentage could take a bit of a battering. But the young players need to have the experience, and they will make mistakes along the way. What we really miss is the midfielder who passes the ball. The “pivot” position. We just do not seem to develop enough of those players. It is often a role that only older, more experienced players are trusted with at club level. The only young English player who does it regularly in the Premier League is James Ward-Prowse at Southampton. But would he be allowed to do the same in a top-four side? It is easier to throw young players into more attacking roles where a mistake is likely to be less costly. It is more difficult to give them that responsible role. In the Premier League last season, the best English player for keeping possession and dictating the tempo was Gareth Barry. He was at the centre of everything that Everton did well. He sped up the pace of a game and he knew when to slow it down. The young players I have mentioned before all have bright futures just as long as they are trusted to play. Gary Cahill did well against Uruguay, so too Sturridge. Joe Hart has another tournament under his belt. I don’t think we should be brainwashed by those who say there are no good young English players out there. Why I said no to West Bromwich Albion I went up to speak to them a couple of times and they offered me the job. I accepted provisionally and we began negotiations. The longer it went on, the more I doubted whether it was the right job for me. We could not reach agreement. West Brom are a good club and I wish them every success. It has not changed my outlook. I want to get back into the game. I believe I have a lot to offer. Keep up to date with all the latest news with expert comment and analysis from our award-winning writers

By Cian O'Connell Colm Cooper, one of the greatest Gaelic Footballers of all time, has retired from inter-county action. Cooper, who won a much coveted AIB All Ireland Club title with Dr Crokes last month, announced his decision this morning (Tuesday). In 85 Championship appearances for the Kingdom Cooper scored 23-283. During a glittering career with Kerry Cooper won five All Ireland SFC medals, nine Munster Championships, three Allianz Football Leagues, and eight All Stars. In the underage ranks Cooper earned one Munster minor and one provincial Under 21 crown with Kerry. With Dr Crokes Cooper claimed six Kerry SFC victories, five Munster Championships, and an All Ireland Club on St Patrick's Day. "Today I wish to announce my retirement from the Kerry Senior Football team," Cooper said in a statement. "It has been an amazing journey and one that I never wanted to end, however, I feel that this is the right time for me step away from inter county football. Representing the Kingdom for the past 17 years has given me a tremendous amount of pride and satisfaction. "To my Kerry teammates that I have soldiered with throughout the years, thank you for your guidance, patience and friendship. I feel extremely lucky to have experienced so many wonderful highlights with you all. "To get the opportunity to play with, and against, some of the greatest players in the history of the GAA has given me memories that I will always treasure." Cooper acknowledged those assisted him throughout his time in a Kerry jersey. "During my career I have been very fortunate to work with some outstanding Kerry managers," Cooper stated. "They gave me the confidence to develop my game which allowed me to perform at the highest level. "I would like to thank the Kerry County Board, backroom staff and medical teams for their constant help and support throughout my career." Cooper has signalled his intention to remain involved as a player with Crokes. "I would like to thank my club Dr Crokes for nurturing my talents and giving me the belief that there was no limit to what I could achieve, also to get the opportunity to captain Kerry teams is something I’m extremely privileged to have done. "I’m looking forward to continuing my Dr. Crokes career. "Finally to my family, without you none of my successes would have been possible. Through the ups and downs, you were the people that believed in me and kept me going. For this I am forever grateful. "It is very rare for people to achieve their ultimate dreams in life - I just have."

Quote On Tuesday, December 3rd 2013, the price of Bitcoin was around 1,100 dollars. The price of StableCoin was around 12 - 13 cents. Today, on Saturday, December 7th 2013, the price of Bitcoin, after ENORMOUS fluctuations and instability, has now settled at around 750-775. About a 30% decrease. While almost every other altcoin's value has plummeted, what is StableCoin's value at? About 16 cents. This is at least a 25% increase. If this isn't a sign of StableCoin's future and stability, I don't know what is. I'm voting StableCoin because it actually brings something unique to the table. Quarkcoin pragmatically brings nothing new to the table other than some security features, but cryptocurrencies are already really secure so it's more or less a clone coin. And it being mentioned on a T.V. show does not give it any better fundamentals for it to be a currency.Stablecoin will offer anonymity with mixed transactions, and will have a very steady supply because its difficulty adjusts rapidly, every 90 blocks.Also, in reference to the recent bitcoin crash, StableCoin has performed incredibly well:So my vote's all for StableCoin.

DAY LEWIS, DANIEL: GANGS OF NEW YORK RAGE AT CLOSE RANGE Acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis explored rage at close range for his starring role as Bill the Butcher in Martin Scorsese’s epic drama, Gangs of New York, and found a perverse sort of pleasure in it, he admits to Jenny Cooney Carrillo. Is your character in Gangs of New York based on a real person? Yes, he is based on a very colorful character called Bill Poole who was also known as Bill the Butcher. He was a notorious street fighter, a no-rules street fighter, a mayhem artist, a bigot, a racist, and a patriot in his own eyes, a man who believed it was his God-given duty to repel every single face that got off the boats [arriving in New York]. He was also a man of great good humor, a very generous man, flamboyant man and something of a hero to his own people. It was recorded and remembered for generations afterwards that his dying words were “Thank God I die a true American.” There was something of the essence of that man that undoubtedly fed into my version of him. Your character is an expert knife thrower. How long did you have to train to handle those knives in the film? I began working on that probably about six or eight months before we started shooting. But it was only a small part of what I was doing; I try to work in such a way that rather than dismembering this thing [the character] before it’s even revealed itself for what it is, I try and work on everything at the same time. I mean, I wasn’t a big knife thrower before we started. I’d thrown a few here and there but I had a great teacher. He was an expert knife thrower. I worked with him every day. Can you talk about the physical and emotional toll this role took on you and how you dealt with the rage and anger you portray? That’s a good question, but it’s not one I’m able to answer because part of my job - at quite an early stage, in fact, of the preparation period - is to leave aside the objectivity that would allow me to speak about it and answer that question. Undoubtedly, if part of what you have to do is to locate and then unleash emotions in you such as the one you mentioned, rage for instance, that is an unsettling thing to live with even for a brief period of time. But having said that, this was part of my fascination for this work, to discover for myself something which had hitherto remained mysterious to me. I know this sounds perverse, but it gives me pleasure to explore those things. There’s something strangely liberating about it. What does it do to you to stay in character for the duration of the shoot? I work in the way I work because over the years I’ve found for myself what seemed right for what I wanted to try and do - and it’s a pleasure for me to play the game in that way. It’s a game. I mean, we can talk about it in a way that it sounds incredibly pretentious and lend it an air of mystery - and perhaps there is some mystery to whether it works or whether it doesn’t work - but for me it’s quite simply the playing of a game in the way I enjoy playing it. Is your particular way of working the reason you make so few movies? It may well be. I don’t know. I can choose. I’m fairly certain that I have worked over the years at the pace at which I was able to. And in a way part of the reason why I take these periods of time away from it is so that I’m better able to thoroughly enjoy the experience of working when I am working, because if you’re not enjoying it, it would be easy to think of this whole thing as a torture. You said learning to throw knives was only a small part of your research. What else did you have to do to find this character? The principal work is to try and locate the resources that you feel you need. Only time will tell but to locate and unleash and embrace those parts of yourself that you feel will help to bring life to this other person and I think it’s an imaginative work no matter what source material you begin with. No matter what archival footage is available. Essentially it’s an imaginative work that involves creating for yourself primarily, and then for the audience, the illusion that you are experiencing the world through a different pair of eyes. The rest is details. The central theme of the movie is a power struggle between two groups. What is your own relationship to power? I don’t know so much about power but ambition I’m more familiar with, and certainly as a kid I had the ambition of a young man to make a mark in the world and my ambition is entirely different now. My ambition now is to indulge my curiosity in any way that it seems to lead me. You are an Irish citizen. How strange was it to play a character who wants to get rid of the Irish gangs in America? I’m an Irish citizen. I have a right to be and I’ve adopted that right but I’m an Englishman, I’m a Jew, I’m an Anglo-Irishman, I’m a European. I mean who the hell knows what I am! I suppose by education and culture I’m more English than I’m anything else. I have identified very strongly with the Irish, with the country and the people and the history because of my father and I’m very glad to have been a part of this experience that tells that aspect of the Irish country, the emigration and unthinkably horrible experiences that they had when they first arrived in this country during the famine years. But it was no part of my thinking when I was doing it. As for playing Bill, I’m sure I’ll have a lot of explaining to do when I go back to Ireland! What do you think will resonate most with audiences watching this film? I suppose the most obvious thing to single out in the story is the experience of a stranger in a country that’s alien to him. Is it true you actually became an apprentice cobbler in Italy during your hiatus from movie-making? I’ve never chosen to speak about that. What’s happened is that a number of people spoke about it on my behalf and I’ve never contributed to that because it always seemed to me that it was a period of my life that I had a right to without any intervention of that kind. What was the toughest aspect of making this movie? That I can’t remember. Everybody during the course of that time had days and probably weeks that seemed as if they would never end. Physically it was tough and I suppose it demanded of all of us that we stayed in there for as long as it took. In saying that, it always sounds as if it’s kind of a veiled complaint somehow but almost invariably the problems are part of the pleasure. In other words, you encounter a thousand problems a day in this kind of work and it’s the overcoming of those problems by whatever means that provides the greatest pleasure in the work. Published February 13, 2003

After the TV mystery had been solved, Teddie wanted to get a job. He had heard of a coffee shop opening down the street, the first Japanese location of the chain, which originated from a mysterious icy wasteland known to its secluded inhabitants as "Canada." Teddie applied for an interview. "Dear Mr. Hortons," Teddie spoke aloud as he wrote. "I would like a job. Please give me a job. Thank you for the job. Love, Teddie, XOXOXO" Teddie licked the envelope, which he enjoyed more than he probably should have, and threw it happily in a public mailbox along with some porn magazines, but that was just for shits and giggles. A few days later, Teddie got a letter back from the owner. "Get your smart ass over here," Teddie read. "That's all it says. Cool!" Teddie didn't feel like riding a bike, so he stayed in his bear form and rolled down the street to the Tim Hortons. He caused 3 car accidents. Outside Tim Hortons, Teddie realized that he forgot to dress his human body. Too lazy to go back and fix his mistake, he decided that he would do the interview as his own beary self. He kicked the door in and threw 20 bucks at the cashier for repairs. He waltzed right into the employees-only section of the store, because he knew he'd be an employee on the way back. "I'm here, Mr. Hortons!" Teddie called when he entered the office. "First of all, my name's not Tim Hortons, you little shit," said the boss, his back to the door. "It's Tim Horton, the apostrophe's there for a reason. Learn your fucking languages. Second, that was the worst application I've ever read, and that includes the one I got from the man who held me at knifepoint and demanded all the money on me. That wasn't even an application, that was just me getting mugged, and he still did a better job convincing me than you." Tim turned around. "Alright, now that you-" he started, but stopped when he saw Teddie. "What?" "Aww, you're so adorable, I can't stay mad at you. You're hired!" "Bitchin'!" Teddie celebrated. "Can I do deliveries?" "What? No, we're a cafe, we don't do deliveries." Teddie thought for a moment. "Well, you drink coffee when you're tired, right? What if someone's too tired to drive? What if they're out of coffee? That's where we come in to give it to you! No more false DUI charges!" Tim jumped up. "Teddie, you're a genius! Why, I could just suck your dick right here, right now." "Well, I am naked under this thing," Teddie replied. "Dude I was just joking what are you gay wow man come on." Teddie got his first delivery call that very same day. "Teddie? What are you doing at Tim Hortons?" It was Yosuke. "I got a job! A different one!" "Huh?" "What would you like?" Yosuke paused. "Fuckin whatever, vanilla iced coffee." Teddie got the coffee ready and got in the car. He took off the suit's head so he could grip the steering wheel properly. Not that he knew how to drive anyway. He managed to figure it out easily enough, though. The car had XM radio, so he blasted some crunk beats. This killed his concentration, and he caused yet more car accidents in this manner. When he arrived at Yosuke's pad, Teddie put the head back on. He figured it would be good publicity. He knocked on the door. Yosuke opened the door to find Teddie leaning casually on the doorframe, one eyebrow raised. "Somebody call for a plumber?" he said seductively with an Irish accent. Yosuke tried to be sexy by accepting his coffee with his mouth, but all he did was pull the straw out. "Ehhn." He took it the regular way and chugged it. "I'm all hyper now!" "Get in here, you fruity man," Teddie said, holding open the suit slightly. Stimulating the human body while Teddie's bear body was conscious would give him two simultaneous orgasms, and Yosuke knew this. Yosuke jumped in and they did it in the suit.

Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in La La Land (Lionsgate) But cinematic and political clichés are regurgitated in La La Land and Things to Come. Why is La La Land so charmless yet so wildly overpraised? It is the work of 31-year-old Damien Chazelle, a movie buff turned director who has no knack for the popular culture he imitates and who is temperamentally distanced from the work ethic he takes as his subject. The two lovers in La La Land, Emma Stone as struggling actress Mia and Ryan Gosling as struggling pianist Sebastian, traverse Los Angeles’s showbiz subculture as projections of Chazelle’s own ambition. Their first stumbles, then inevitable success, glorify Chazelle’s own accomplishments and increase his sense of entitlement; it’s the same cliché that Chazelle tried passing off as unstoppable ambition in his previous film, the ridiculous jazz-psychodrama Whiplash. Advertisement Advertisement TV-bred and hype-oriented journalists, who are equally remote from pop culture and working-class life, are applauding the solipsism in La La Land as new and original. But their praise reflects only the cultural illiteracy Chazelle represents, an idiocy that has contributed to the breakdown of film culture this millennium. Sorry to get all esoteric about a movie most people will stare back at in dumbfounded disbelief, but La La Land (like Whiplash) is a departure from the old notion that movies should be edifying (much as we’ve forgotten the idea of public service as a virtue and now see it as a reward of egotism). A certain fundamental spiritual belief is missing from La La Land’s ersatz movie-musical conceit. Chazelle’s depiction of career conflict and erotic attraction in Mia and Sebastian’s romance — the un-lyrical cheeriness and nervously paced fantasy scenes — prevents La La Land from being a satisfying movie musical. He imitates the generic form but never imbues it with feeling. Advertisement The opening musical number (“Another Day of Sun”), in which a traffic jam on the L.A. freeway turns into a dance routine by frustrated drivers who leap out of their cars and prance about dressed in pastel colors, is an embarrassment. Off-key in several ways, the set-up makes no sense, the song’s ironic uplift is cheesy, the choreography is chaotic, and the preening multiculturalism of the dancers (soon forgotten in the whites-only love story) feels forced and insulting. Advertisement Advertisement https://youtube.com/watch?v=gM96ne-XiH0%3Fshowinfo%3D0 In Mia Hansen-Løve’s just-released Things to Come (L’Avenir) Huppert doesn’t strike as deep as she does in Valley of Love, but it is the most politically astute of her 2016 triple crown — before the story sinks into the bourgeois narcissism that plagues all of Hansen-Løve’s films. Huppert portrays Nathalie Chazeaux, a philosophy professor outpaced by the new generation of Millennial student activists. Recalling her own college Communist years, she is bored by the cycle of youthful political passions. “I’m too old for radicality. I’ve been there,” she says, sighing at the regurgitations of anarchy, Communism, Stalinism, Woody Guthrie songs, and Frankfurt School homilies. This repetition is as infuriating as Damien Chazelle’s banal copycatting in La La Land. Huppert hops with the flat-footed clop of a self-made woman and advises her students, “Debate the truth, don’t protest it!” Her reaction to her husband’s confession of infidelity (“Why tell me? Couldn’t keep it secret?”) and her dismissal of a masher when at the movies (it’s Abbas Kiarostami’s Certified Copy) is sharper than anything in Elle. #related#Committed to empiricism and rationalism, she struggles with the political moment, apparently as fractious in Europe as it is here, but Hollywood’s political filmmakers don’t produce movies this thoughtful or timely. Chazeaux’s newest book is titled “The Radical Loser,” and Huppert is wittiest when challenging her pupils. “Rousseau wrote: ‘If there were a nation of Gods, it would govern itself democratically. A government so perfect is not suited to men.’ Don’t misinterpret it.” When Nathalie sees her favorite student, Fabien (Roman Kolinka), turn to pampered anarchy, she objects: “My goal is to help kids think for themselves. We may disagree, but I thought I taught you that.” The actress of the year proclaims the dilemma of the age.

Introduction Discriminatory policies of Myanmar’s government since the late 1970s have compelled hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya to flee their homes in the predominantly Buddhist country. Most have crossed by land into Bangladesh, while others have taken to the sea to reach Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Beginning in 2017, renewed violence, including reported rape, murder, and arson, triggered an exodus of Rohingya amid charges of ethnic cleansing against Myanmar’s security forces. Those forces claim they are carrying out a campaign to reinstate stability in the western region of Myanmar, but international pressure on the country’s elected leaders to rein in violence continues to rise. Who are the Rohingya? The Rohingya are an ethnic Muslim minority who practice a Sufi-inflected variation of Sunni Islam. There are an estimated 3.5 million Rohingya dispersed worldwide. Before August 2017, the majority of the estimated one million Rohingya in Myanmar resided in Rakhine State, where they accounted for nearly a third of the population. They differ from Myanmar’s dominant Buddhist groups ethnically, linguistically, and religiously. The Rohingya trace their origins in the region to the fifteenth century, when thousands of Muslims came to the former Arakan Kingdom. Many others arrived during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Rakhine was governed by colonial rule as part of British India. Since independence in 1948, successive governments in Burma, renamed Myanmar in 1989, have refuted the Rohingya’s historical claims and denied the group recognition as one of the country’s 135 official ethnic groups. The Rohingya are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though many trace their roots in Myanmar back centuries. Neither the central government nor Rakhine’s dominant ethnic Buddhist group, known as the Rakhine, recognize the label “Rohingya,” a self-identifying term that surfaced in the 1950s, which experts say provides the group with a collective political identity. Though the etymological root of the word is disputed, the most widely accepted theory is that Rohang derives from the word “Arakan” in the Rohingya dialect and ga or gya means “from.” By identifying as Rohingya, the ethnic Muslim group asserts its ties to land that was once under the control of the Arakan Kingdom, according to Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, a Thailand-based advocacy group. Expand LinkedIn Email Share Share What is the legal status of the Rohingya? The government refuses to grant the Rohingya citizenship, and as a result most of the group’s members have no legal documentation, effectively making them stateless. Myanmar’s 1948 citizenship law was already exclusionary, and the military junta, which seized power in 1962, introduced another law twenty years later that stripped the Rohingya of access to full citizenship. Until recently, the Rohingya had been able to register as temporary residents with identification cards, known as white cards, which the junta began issuing to many Muslims, both Rohingya and non-Rohingya, in the 1990s. The white cards conferred limited rights but were not recognized as proof of citizenship. Still, Lewa says that they did provide some recognition of temporary stay for the Rohingya in Myanmar. In 2014 the government held a UN-backed national census, its first in thirty years. The Muslim minority group was initially permitted to identify as Rohingya, but after Buddhist nationalists threatened to boycott the census, the government decided Rohingya could only register if they identified as Bengali instead. Similarly, under pressure from Buddhist nationalists protesting the Rohingya’s right to vote in a 2015 constitutional referendum, then President Thein Sein canceled the temporary identity cards in February 2015, effectively revoking their newly gained right to vote. (White card holders were allowed to vote in Myanmar’s 2008 constitutional referendum and 2010 general elections.) In the 2015 elections, which were widely touted by international monitors as free and fair, no parliamentary candidate was of the Muslim faith. “Country-wide anti-Muslim sentiment makes it politically difficult for the government to take steps seen as supportive of Muslim rights,” writes the International Crisis Group. Muslim minorities continue to “consolidate under one Rohingya identity,” says Lewa, despite documentation by rights groups and researchers of systematic disenfranchisement, violence, and instances of anti-Muslim campaigns [PDF]. Why are the Rohingya fleeing Myanmar? Rakhine State is Myanmar’s least developed state, with a poverty rate of 78 percent. The Myanmar government has effectively institutionalized discrimination against the ethnic group through restrictions on marriage, family planning, employment, education, religious choice, and freedom of movement. For example, Rohingya couples in the northern towns of Maungdaw and Buthidaung are only allowed to have two children [PDF]. Rohingya must also seek permission to marry, which may require them to bribe authorities and provide photographs of the bride without a headscarf and the groom with a clean-shaven face, practices that conflict with Muslim customs. To move to a new home or travel outside their townships, Rohingya must gain government approval. Moreover, Rakhine State is Myanmar’s least developed state, with a poverty rate of 78 percent, compared to the 37.5 percent national average, according to World Bank estimates. Widespread poverty, poor infrastructure, and a lack of employment opportunities in Rakhine have exacerbated the cleavage between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya. This tension is deepened by religious differences that have at times erupted into conflict. slideshow The Rohingya Crisis: Expulsion and Exodus View slideshow What’s caused the recent exodus? Clashes in Rakhine broke out in August 2017, after a militant group known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility for attacks on police and army posts. The government declared ARSA a terrorist organization and the military mounted a brutal campaign that destroyed hundreds of Rohingya villages and forced nearly seven hundred thousand Rohingya to leave Myanmar. At least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of attacks, between August 25 and September 24, 2017, according to the international medical charity Doctors Without Borders. Myanmar’s security forces also allegedly opened fire on fleeing civilians and planted land mines near border crossings used by Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. Since the start of 2018, Myanmar authorities have reportedly cleared abandoned Rohingya villages [PDF] and farmlands to build homes, security bases, and infrastructure. The government says this development is in preparation for the repatriation of refugees, but rights activists have expressed concern these moves could be intended to accommodate other populations in Rakhine State. Furthermore, some have raised doubts that the government’s tactics have been in response to ARSA attacks, with reports showing that the military began implementing its policies nearly a year before ARSA struck. Security campaigns in the past five years, notably in 2012 and 2016, also resulted in the flight of tens of thousands of Rohingya from their homes. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described the violence as ethnic cleansing and the humanitarian situation as catastrophic. Rights groups and other UN leaders suspect acts of genocide have taken place. At an emergency UN Security Council meeting, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Myanmar authorities have carried out a “brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority,” and she called on members to suspend weapons provisions to the military. Other Security Council members, including Russia and China, have resisted increasing pressure on Myanmar’s government because they say it is trying to restore stability. Sectarian violence is not new to Rakhine State. Security campaigns in the past five years, notably in 2012 and 2016, also resulted in the flight of tens of thousands of Rohingya from their homes. Where are the Rohingya migrating? Bangladesh: Most Rohingya have sought refuge in nearby Bangladesh, which has limited resources and land to host refugees. More than 1.1 million people are refugees in the country, according to Bangladeshi authorities. The World Health Organization projects the birth of sixty thousand babies in Bangladesh’s crowded camps in 2018. Meanwhile, the risk of disease outbreak in camps is high, with health organizations warning of possible outbreaks of measles, tetanus, diphtheria, and acute jaundice syndrome. Moreover, more than 60 percent of the available water supply in refugee camps is contaminated, increasing the risk of spread of communicable and water-borne diseases. Vulnerable refugees have turned to smugglers, paying for transport out of Bangladesh and Myanmar and risking exploitation, including sexual enslavement. In November 2017, Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a deal for the possible repatriation of hundreds of thousands of refugees, though details remained vague and the plan was postponed. Planned repatriations were delayed repeatedly throughout 2018. Malaysia: As of October 2018, eighty thousand Rohingya were in Malaysia, according to the United Nations, though tens of thousands of others are in the country unregistered. Rohingya who arrive safely in Malaysia have no legal status and are unable to work, leaving their families cut off from access to education and health care. Thailand: Thailand is a hub for regional human smuggling and serves as a common transit point for Rohingya. Migrants often arrive there by boat from Bangladesh or Myanmar before continuing on foot to Malaysia or by boat to Indonesia or Malaysia. The military-led Thai government has cracked down on smuggling rings after the discovery of mass graves in alleged camps where gangs held hostages. But some experts say that while punishing traffickers disrupts the networks, it does not dismantle them. Indonesia: The Rohingya have also sought refuge in Indonesia, although the number of refugees from Myanmar there remains relatively small because they are treated as illegal immigrants. Indonesia has rescued migrant boats off its shores and dispatched humanitarian aid and supplies to Bangladesh’s camps. Indonesian President Joko Widodo pledged more help during a visit to refugee camps in Bangladesh in January 2018. Has civilian leadership changed the Myanmar government’s policies? In 2016, Myanmar’s first democratically elected government in a generation came to power, but critics say it has been reluctant to advocate for Rohingya and other Muslims for fear of alienating Buddhist nationalists and threatening the power-sharing agreement the civilian government maintains with the military. Some observers saw the establishment in August 2016 of an advisory commission on ethnic strife led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as a positive development. However, subsequent outbreaks of violence and several long-simmering conflicts between other ethnically based insurgent groups and the government have curbed this optimism. Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, has denied that ethnic cleansing is taking place and dismissed international criticism of her handling of the crisis, accusing critics of fueling resentment between Buddhists and Muslims in the country. In September 2017, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said her government had “already started defending all the people in Rakhine in the best way possible.” That December, the Myanmar government denied access to the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, and suspended cooperation for the remainder of her term. Nevertheless, in September 2018 the UN’s fact-finding panel released a report recommending Myanmar’s army leaders be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and urging the UN Security Council to impose arms embargoes and sanctions. How is the region responding? Protesters have at times gathered in cities in Pakistan, India, Thailand, Indonesia, and Bangladesh to condemn the killing and persecution of Rohingya. Bangladesh’s foreign minister condemned the violence in Rakhine as “genocide” in September 2017 and Indonesia and Malaysia called on the Myanmar authorities to halt their campaign and bring an end to the violence. Bangladesh and Myanmar have held bilateral discussions aimed at repatriating the Rohingya and guaranteeing their rights in Myanmar, but these have been ad hoc and have yet to produce a breakthrough. In October 2018, authorities in Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed to repatriate several thousand Rohingya but offered few specifics on how those refugees would be selected. Human Rights Watch suggested that those slated for repatriation had not volunteered, but rather were chosen at random by Bangladeshi authorities. Moreover, Myanmar officials did not specify whether returning refugees would be granted full citizenship rights, including freedom of movement. Alongside criticism of the plan from the United States and human rights groups, the United Nations urged a cancelation and warned that conditions in Myanmar were still unsafe for Rohingya. Ultimately, the Rohingya in Bangladesh refused to return until their citizenship rights were guaranteed. Experts say the Bangladeshi government must decide whether to continue to struggle to provide shelter for so many refugees or expel them and draw the ire of Western governments and aid organizations. Other governments in Southeast Asia generally lack established legal frameworks to protect refugees’ rights, and the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have not coordinated a response to the deepening crisis. Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand—all ASEAN members—have yet to ratify the UN refugee convention or its protocol. ASEAN itself has been mostly silent on the plight of the Rohingya and on the growing numbers of asylum seekers in member countries, largely because of its members’ commitment to the principle of noninterference in each other’s internal affairs. “They aren’t going to take collective action on Myanmar, with Myanmar as one of its members,” says CFR’s Joshua Kurlantzick. How has the rest of the world responded? In December 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama lifted sanctions against Myanmar, saying it had made strides in improving human rights. The move came amid a crackdown on Rohingya and was criticized by some as premature. A year later, new U.S. sanctions were imposed against a Myanmar general for his alleged role in the military’s attacks in Rakhine, and the U.S. government has continued to widen its sanctions regime on Myanmar military commanders in 2018, as evidence of the military’s atrocities mounts. Meanwhile, countries including the United States, Canada, Norway, and South Korea, as well as international donors, have upped their humanitarian assistance as the flow of Rohingya to Bangladesh has grown, and in early 2018 a team of UK medics led an emergency response to help stem the spread of disease in camps. The United Nations has requested $951 million in immediate relief funds [PDF] for 2018. At the November 2018 ASEAN summit, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence ramped up pressure on Suu Kyi, saying that Myanmar’s “violence and persecution” toward the Rohingya were inexcusable. Advocacy groups including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Arakan Project, and Fortify Rights continue to appeal for international pressure on Myanmar’s government. In November 2018, Amnesty International stripped Suu Kyi of the Ambassador of Conscience Award it had conferred on her during her fifteen-year house arrest. Earlier in the year, the ICC’s chief prosecutor launched an investigation into alleged war crimes that forced the exodus of Rohingya. Still, resentment of the minority group has run deep for generations. Without overhauling “a culture of pervasive prejudice” and ensuring that Rohingya are treated as human beings, the situation in Rakhine State is unlikely to improve, says journalist and author Francis Wade.

Videos, pictures and FAQ: Spoiler Mine map straight through to boss (no invaders in video) (Level 72 map with more magic monsters and monsters cannot be stunned) http://youtu.be/1nGRB5oFxO0 Offense and Defense stats: I started planning out this build after watching old youtube videos with crazy flicker strike cchaining. It looked so badass and nauseating that I had to try making it work in hardcore/invasion. In my first attempt I got shockstacked and gibbed by an invader, but the second one is still going strong in 72+ maps! How do you level with flicker? - You don't. I levelled both of my shadows using temp life nodes and searing bond / ST. How much currency do I need to make this work? - To get started and clear Docks the ninja-way, you just need some ES gear and a decent dagger with crit. I used a 15c dagger until I could affort Bino's. I could do 70 maps with that setup, but it felt a lot less safe than I do with Bino's. Why Zealot's Oath? - Since most of the good shield nodes is in the Templar area anyways, and we get armor/ES nodes in the Marauder-area, ZO is an awesome way to circumvent the leech nerfs with Bino's OP Life regen ability. How suicidal is this build? - With armor, topaz, ruby and sapphire flasks and 65/50ish block/spellblock paired with 600ish ES regen + around the same from life leech over time you should be fine in most situations. Hesitation is the number one killer - just flicker on and make sure to have enough mana/charges and you should be fine. Which invaders can I kill safely? - I usually kill most invaders, except: • Evocata Apocalyptica • Pewterfang • Ossecati, Boneshaper • Haviri, Vaal Metalsmith Mine map straight through to boss (no invaders in video) (Level 72 map with more magic monsters and monsters cannot be stunned)Offense and Defense stats:I started planning out this build after watching old youtube videos with crazy flicker strike cchaining. It looked so badass and nauseating that I had to try making it work in hardcore/invasion. In my first attempt I got shockstacked and gibbed by an invader, but the second one is still going strong in 72+ maps!How do you level with flicker?- You don't. I levelled both of my shadows using temp life nodes and searing bond / ST.How much currency do I need to make this work?- To get started and clear Docks the ninja-way, you just need some ES gear and a decent dagger with crit. I used a 15c dagger until I could affort Bino's. I could do 70 maps with that setup, but it felt a lot less safe than I do with Bino's.Why Zealot's Oath?- Since most of the good shield nodes is in the Templar area anyways, and we get armor/ES nodes in the Marauder-area, ZO is an awesome way to circumvent the leech nerfs with Bino's OP Life regen ability.How suicidal is this build?- With armor, topaz, ruby and sapphire flasks and 65/50ish block/spellblock paired with 600ish ES regen + around the same from life leech over time you should be fine in most situations. Hesitation is the number one killer - just flicker on and make sure to have enough mana/charges and you should be fine.Which invaders can I kill safely?- I usually kill most invaders, except:• Evocata Apocalyptica• Pewterfang• Ossecati, Boneshaper• Haviri, Vaal Metalsmith Pros and Cons Spoiler PROS: • You get to look like a badass ninja • Fairly good survivability • Impressive solo clear speeds • Instant max ES with every kill • You move quicker than most mobs can aim • You can just hold down a button to clear an entire map • You get to look like a badass ninja CONS: • Some mana problems without 6-link • If you run out of charges in the middle of a scary pack, you're in trouble • Stuns can be a problem when you get hit hard • Bosses can be troublesome if there are no adds • Trying to focus while flickering around can give you a pretty bad headache / make you seasick.. • Party play is not really viable, since you need to lasthit to keep your charges up. Skill gems, auras, links Spoiler 4link is enough to get started, 5l is enough to clear 72+ maps extremely quickly, 6l is optimal, either to increase dps or add quality mana leech. This is my current setup: As you can see, my gear isn't optimal or worth a fortune, but it works. Ideally I would want a higher ES shield and an armor with higher armor/ES. You will want a hybrid armor/ES armor to save on chromatics.. I'm not sure if 3 auras might be viable with a 6l/20q mana leech, but as the third aura I would probably Determination. I use frenzy for getting charges up before flickering or for charging up when I don't get last hits, for example on bosses or in a party. 4link is enough to get started, 5l is enough to clear 72+ maps extremely quickly, 6l is optimal, either to increase dps or add quality mana leech.This is my current setup:As you can see, my gear isn't optimal or worth a fortune, but it works. Ideally I would want a higher ES shield and an armor with higher armor/ES. You will want a hybrid armor/ES armor to save on chromatics..I'm not sure if 3 auras might be viable with a 6l/20q mana leech, but as the third aura I would probably Determination.I use frenzy for getting charges up before flickering or for charging up when I don't get last hits, for example on bosses or in a party. Passive tree Spoiler The tree is fairly flexible. This is approximately how your tree should look at.. 24 (Searing bond): https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYADkgRliQ8JpUnqUlRUEJVS1ptYqxte3C7cNV_xow2nWOdqqIupLGnXLQ4tUjAUdVP1p3ed-OE5Rnljvv1 40 (Still Searing bond): https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYABH4FtQzyDkgRlhXwGtsbrR6BJDwmlSepNj06WD3iPs9I7klRS41QQlFHVUtabWKsbXtw1X_GhxmIa4w2jb-dY52qoi6ksaXLp1y0OLTFt9O95sBRwuzVT9ad18ved-OE5Rnljvlj-_X_HA== 60 (Respeccing into CI, equipping flicker/CI gear): https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYABX0FtQzyDkgRlhXXFr8a2xutHNweGh6BKCoo-iy_MFQ2PTyOPeI-z0cGSO5LjVFHVmNW6lb1V8lfanBScFZwu3DVeK5943_Ghq6H24hCiGuNv5AbkyeX0JlXmhOdo6XLpn-nNLGztAy0xbVIt9O4k7k-uXy95sBRwcXC7MNt037XhtfL227b1OOE6f7quutj6-7sGO1B8-r5Y_yr_xz_kw== 80 (Ready to equip Bino's): https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYABX0FtQzyDkgRlhXXFr8XLxpsGtsbrRzcHRQeGh6BJIsoKij6KU8svzBUNj062DyOPeI-z0cGSO5LjU3YUUdV1lZjVupW9VfJX2pk53BScFZwfXC7cNV4rny7feN_xoBWgKSGrofbiEKIa4x2jb-PRpAbkyeX0JlXmhOdo52upcumf6cIpzSxs7QMtMW1SLfTuJO5Pr3mwFHBxcLsw23TfteG18vbbtvU44TkIuq662Pr7uwY7DjtQfPd8-r3wflj-tL8q_8c_5M= 91 (Build "complete"): https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYABX0FtQx9DPIOSBB_EZYV1xa_Fy8aMhpsGtsbrRzcHRQeGh6BJIsoKijFKPopTyy_MFQ2PTrYPI494j7PRwZI7kuNTDVN2E99UUdRYFXWVmNW6lb1V8lfamTncFJwVnB9cLtw1XiufLt943_GgFaApIauh9uIQohrjHaNv49GkBuTJ5fQmVeaE52jna6ly6Z_pwinNLGztAy0xbVIt9O4k7k-uXy95sBRwcXC7MNtxp7TfteG18vbbtvU44TkIun-6rrrY-vu7BjsOO1B877z3fPq98H5Y_rS_Kv_HP-T Is the Shadow the best/only option? Spoiler Probably. You could do ranger or even scion, but that would require some tweaking, maybe even IR could be worked into the build. As is, the tightest build is with a Shadow start. Bandits: Spoiler Normal - Kill all. Cruel - Kill all. Merc – Help Kraytyn for +1 frenzy charge or kill all First of all, this build is not for the feint of heart. This is an all-in or nothing melee build with block and regen as the main source of tankiness. With that being said: this is by far the most fun I've had with any build in PoE! In fact it is so fun that when I ripped my last shadow before completing the build (around 65), I relevelled the exact same build for a second chance.. Last edited by snofox on Jun 6, 2014, 9:34:34 PM

Because he’s not really returning to it; indeed, as things stand in key respects Trump would benefit from imitating Bush. His tax plan offers much less to working Americans than did the Bush tax cuts. His larger agenda is much less thought-through than what Bush attempted in his first term. And if Trump wants to make his populism something more than just a con, he probably has to start with an issue — the child tax credit — that was part of both the Bush agenda and the Contract With America. Appreciating Bush a little more, in this specific way, could offer some reason for optimism about the right. After all his administration was not that long ago, its record suggests that conservatism doesn’t have to be a mix of Randianism and racial resentment, and there’s no necessary reason that Republicans couldn’t learn important lessons from Bush’s failures (don’t try to build democracies in the Middle East, don’t pass an immigration increase your base doesn’t want, etc.) while also returning to his politically effective focus on the middle class. But if you prefer pessimism, you’ll dwell instead on the second takeaway from Thomas Frank’s Trump-era vindication — namely, that a depressing percentage of American conservatives seem perfectly happy with the bargain that Frank claimed defined their party, with a president who ignores their economic interests and public policy more generally and offers instead the perpetual distraction of Twitter feuds and pseudo-patriotic grandstanding. This dispiriting contentment is the sentiment you see from some of Trump’s blue-collar supporters, who love his uncouth rhetorical war on his fellow coastal elites so much that they’re willing to forgive him his threadbare policy agenda or else trust that gridlock and inertia will protect them from Republican bills whose actual contents they might probably oppose. It’s also what you see from a segment of religious conservatives, like those gathered at last week’s Values Voters Summit, who cheered rapturously for an empty, strutting nationalism and a president who makes a mockery of the remoralized culture that they claim to seek. Note that I don’t mean the religious conservatives who supported Trump reluctantly and in a transactional spirit, and who welcome his conservative judicial nominees. I mean those who plainly prefer his brutish braggart’s style to the sort of public decency that Bush or, in a different way, Mitt Romney offered — and who either spin elaborate fantasies about Trump the Christian or laud him as a Conan-esque warlord they think will drive their enemies before them. For these Trump-besotted believers, you get the sense that the Bush administration’s attempts to devise a substantial socially conservative agenda, from bioethics to marriage promotion to faith-based initiatives and more, are remembered not for being timorous, limited or flawed (all of which they were) but for being simply boring. Far better to have a president who really sticks it to those overpaid babies in the N.F.L. and makes the liberals howl with outrage — that’s what a real and fighting conservatism should be all about!

CLEMSON, S.C. - FEBRUARY 10: A supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recites the Pledge of Allegiance during a rally for him at the T. Ed Garrison Arena on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016. (Photo by Kevin D. Liles/For the Washington Post) A spirited debate has broken out among some conservative writers over Donald Trump, and whether his appeal to disaffected working-class voters holds any lessons for conservatives. The question is not if Trump can or should win the Republican nomination. It's if his success thus far should cause conservatives to rethink any of their policy agenda Some prominent writers argue it does not. In the process, they deride not only Trump, but also his supporters. Trump backers are "economically and socially frustrated white men who wish to be economically supported by the federal government without enduring the stigma of welfare dependency," Kevin D. Williamson wrote last week for National Review. Later, he added: "It is unlikely that such voters can ever be entirely assimilated into the mainstream of American conservatism." Rising to defend Trump voters - and criticize conservatives who dismiss them - was Michael Brendan Dougherty, a conservative columnist for The Week. In a column responding directly to Williamson, he argued the conservative movement was full of ideas for how to help a cocaine-snorting financial professional in Connecticut (mostly by lowering his taxes) but "next to zero ideas for improving the life of the typical opioid dependent who lives in Garbutt, New York, outside of Rochester", whom he dubbed "Mike." That column prompted a prolonged and at times barbed exchange on social media, which grew to include other writers and, eventually, more columns. (Williamson, for example, argued that what conservatives have to offer "Mike" is the same as they always have: stronger economic growth, which will boost his standard of living.) It is an important debate, for conservatives and otherwise, and will only grow more important the longer Trump leads the polls. As Dougherty put it in an email exchange this week, "Even if the Trump phenomenon fades somehow, the underlying political problems his candidacy has highlighted will remain with us." In that exchange, Dougherty made his case for why conservatives in particular should take those political problems very seriously. Tankersley: Is your diagnosis that Republicans (and Democrats, for that matter) should have done something different on a policy level to protect working-class whites from the shocks of the last 15-25 years? What would those be? Tariffs? Retraining? What should conservatives have done to help Mike? Dougherty: I don’t have any obvious policy fixes. The problems are complex. My columns talking about the disconnect between GOP policy and the interests of Trump voters is partly an attempt to convince the smartest policy minds on the right to acknowledge this disconnect and begin thinking about it more seriously. I do believe the rest of the World was going to catch up, I think the digital communications technology, the continued development of trade routes, and the fall of the Iron Curtain were going to bring dramatic disruption to the post- Cold War American economy no mater what. But, I think it’s safe to say that it had more costs than many on the right anticipated, and those cost were more concentrated than we imagined. On immigration, members of both parties could have followed some of the recommendations of the Jordan Commission on Immigration in the 1990s. A limited, controlled, skills-based immigration system makes more sense economically, and socially. Tucker Carlson recently joked that the day Guatemalans become green-energy lobbyists, that’s the day his Washington DC neighbors become nativists. And George Borjas has successfully refuted the idea that mass low-skilled immigration has no effect, or a positive effect on wages. Do you disagree with the idea that faster growth will solve all of these problems? Why? We’ve had periods of great economic growth in the past quarter of a century. But certain groups and regions of the nation experienced a real decline anyway. Much of the growth was captured by the top-earners. There are some new challenges in the system. Some well-paying jobs for people without college educations go unfilled for long stretches. Why? The pace of internal migration for job seekers within the United States has slowed, why? Is it because employers are less loyal to individual workers, and so the value proposition for moving to find a job is lower? Is it family breakdown? It becomes harder to move from the de-industrialized Northeast for a machinist job in South Carolina if it means leaving behind children with an ex-wife or partner. Is it the rise of single men, who don’t feel the need for work as urgently? Is it the decline of other mediating institutions that could paternalistically shepherd job-seekers into employment? And if government cannot change those things, what else can it do? Why are conservative leading having such a tough time finding policy approaches that ring true to working-class voters? Are the Mikes of the world too easily persuaded by what I might call magical thinking solutions – for example, the idea, which you hear fairly often from Trump supporters, that Trump as president would essentially “renegotiate” the terms of trade and business in order to boost the working class? Because the burden of taxation overall falls on the highest-income earners and those in the investor-class, the advocates of a small-government philosophy naturally find themselves allied with those voters when talking about reforming government or removing the economic burdens of government. Libertarian-leaning economists love to advertise that free trade deals mean cheaper everyday consumables that are available to lower income Americans, they don’t talk as often discuss how free trade makes it easier for America’s wealthy to invest their capital in cheaper foreign workforces. I think we all know who got the better overall end of the deal and who paid the cost for it. When conservatives think of American trade negotiators and diplomats working to lower the barriers to American capitalists investing in overseas workforces, they see it as a core function of government, not as a kind of favor to wealthy clients of the American state. But if the same negotiators had in mind the interests of American workers instead, they see it as corrupt protectionism, that coddles the undeserving. There is a huge failure of imagination on the right. And a failure of self-awareness. It may also be that I don’t see conservatism’s primary duty as guarding the purity of certain 19th century liberal principles on economics. I see its task as reconciling and harmonizing the diverse energies and interests of a society for the common good. I agree that Trump offers some magical thinking. But the Mikes of the world have basically an intuition that the normal candidates are offering the same kind of policies that have been in place for the past quarter of a century. Everything about Donald Trump signals a dramatic disruption of business as usual. For many of them Trump is worth a shot. Or, at the very least, he angers the right people. Do conservatives have more than just an obligation to help Mike get ahead again, economically? Should they be looking for policies that also preserve his attachments to family, place and the values he grew up with? If so, what might those be? I just think the Republican party can’t fulfill its role in our society and politics if it tells perhaps 1 in 5, or 1 in 3 of its supporters that their economic interests don’t fit into the party elite's 19th century Manchester liberal philosophy. I believe any good society (and this includes the state) should aid individuals to preserve their attachments. That is a large part of what it means to be a nation. But we can’t go off half-cocked either. I remember feeling some enthusiasm when President George W. Bush promoted his ownership society, as it seemed to touch on exactly these themes. The government was going to encourage people to be more invested in their homes, communities and towns. We would encourage wage-earners toward a more bourgeois existence. But if the reality of the ownership society meant encouraging people to over-invest in an inflated asset, their home, and that means they can’t move to find work when the crash wipes out their livelihood, then we’ve done more harm than good. Even if the Trump phenomenon fades somehow, the underlying political problems his candidacy has highlighted will remain with us. We need to begin thinking again, not just re-iterating the same formulas from the 1980s.

Both initiatives are significant departures for most professional services firms, many of which find it difficult to change workplace environment despite a modernizing workplace culture brought on by shifting demographics and technological advances. Crowe is the first top 10 public accounting, consulting and technology firm to foster casual dress in the workplace with jeans being part of the everyday experience and a flexible work location policy for all employees. Jim Powers, Crowe CEO, said the new permanent policies come down to trust. "I'm a firm believer that people are more motivated and productive when you trust them to do what you've hired them to do, and you let them do it their own way. Rather than focus our energies on an outdated dress code or making people travel to the office, we're going to concentrate on measuring what matters and allowing our professionals to deliver the best possible client experience. If our people are engaged and productive, it's an even bigger win for our clients." This trust extends to managers who, under the new mobility strategy, are encouraged and trained to manage virtual teams through learning courses, webinars and other resources at Crowe Horwath University, the firm's virtual learning community. The firm's technology investments allow professionals to use integrated internet voice, video conferencing and desktop sharing from their laptops wherever they may be while keeping client data secure. Because of these new polices, Crowe personnel won't have to be located near a physical office. In tandem with an increased focus on diversity and inclusion, Crowe aims to be a destination for the next generation of talent. "Younger people have grown up doing homework online, working on tablets, holding meetings in coffee shops and fielding job interviews via Skype, so these moves just make sense," said Julie Wood, Crowe Chief People Officer. "We're relaxed, but that doesn't mean we're not engaged. We expect the best from our people and understand they can deliver quality work no matter the location. Open and continuous communication between team members and managers is key to the success of this strategy." With U.S. offices ranging from New York to Chicago to San Francisco, the firmwide mobility strategy provides personnel with added flexibility for work-related trips and day-to-day operations. Cost-savings are expected for those who choose to eschew the daily commute in favor of something more attuned to their given lifestyle. The firm will measure the success of the new policies in its annual people engagement survey and client engagement surveys. Also, and notably, due to expected purging of individual wardrobes, the firm is holding a clothing drive where professional attire is being donated to Goodwill Industries. For each social media photo of a donation posted with the hashtag, #CroweGivesBack, the firm is donating $5 to the charity, with a maximum firm donation of $5,000. For more information on these policies, please visit Crowe Careers. About Crowe Horwath Crowe Horwath LLP (www.crowehorwath.com) is one of the largest public accounting, consulting and technology firms in the United States. Under its core purpose of "Building Value with Values®," Crowe uses its deep industry expertise to provide audit services to public and private entities while also helping clients reach their goals with tax, advisory, risk and performance services. With offices coast to coast and 3,000 personnel, Crowe is recognized by many organizations as one of the country's best places to work. Crowe serves clients worldwide as an independent member of Crowe Horwath International, one of the largest global accounting networks in the world. The network consists of more than 200 independent accounting and advisory services firms in more than 120 countries around the world. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160125/325480 Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090902/CL69632LOGO SOURCE Crowe Horwath LLP Related Links http://www.crowehorwath.com

South Korea’s most prominent openly gay celebrity says he wants to join active politics in order to promote diversity within Korean society and to help young people struggling to cope with their sexuality with welfare schemes. "I will build a counselling center for young gay people and help parents who have gay children," Hong Seok-cheon told The Korea Times. Hong, 45, wants to become a leader of Yongsan District Office where he thinks he can bring about the most change. "If I am elected, I will be the first gay person to become a government official," he said. "It means the country has accepted my identity as a homosexual," he told the newspaper. Hong who has been living in Yongsan for the past ten years said the district is in great need of an open-minded leader as it is very conservative. "My artistic strength and business mind are my assets to be a successful candidate for Yongsan District chief," he said. “Whether he wants it or not, an all-around entertainer Hong has become a role model of gays. His coming-out in 2000 has given courage to many young people in Korea, a country where homosexuality remains a taboo,” reported The Korea Times. Hong was a male model and actor before causing considerable controversy when he came out as gay. He was fired him from his prime-time TV variety show as soon as he revealed his sexual orientation but later went on to be selected by Time magazine as the 2004 Asian Hero for his appearance in a string of thriller films. In 2008 he hosted his own television talk show "Coming Out" that featured the life of gay people. He even became a restaurateur and member of the Democratic Labor Party. He now owns many restaurants in Itaewon, one of the trendy towns in Seoul. Male and female same-sex relations is legal in South Korea as it is not specifically mentioned in either the country’s Constitution or in the Civil Penal Code. Yet general awareness of the gay community has largely remains low despite recent gay-themed entertainment and recognizable gay celebrities. Korean gays and lesbians still face difficulties, and many prefer not to reveal their gay identity to their family, friends or co-workers. "I think Korean society has changed a little," said Hong. "Before, it was impossible to think about revealing one's sexual identity to others. Now, they won't slap your face for being gay. Friends and families are starting to understand one's hardship of life as a gay,” he told The Korea Times. However, Hong thinks it is still too early for legalization of gay marriage in Korea and believes that this might change in due time just as it took 10 years for society to accept him. South Korea’s most prominent openly gay celebrity says he wants to join active politics in order to promote diversity within Korean society and to help young people struggling to cope with their sexuality with welfare schemes. "I will build a counselling center for young gay people and help parents who have gay children," Hong Seok-cheon told The Korea Times. Hong, 45, wants to become a leader of Yongsan District Office where he thinks he can bring about the most change. "If I am elected, I will be the first gay person to become a government official," he said. It means the country has accepted my identity as a homosexual," he told the newspaper. Hong who has been living in Yongsan for the past ten years said the district is in great need of an open-minded leader as it is very conservative. "My artistic strength and business mind are my assets to be a successful candidate for Yongsan District chief," he said. “Whether he wants it or not, an all-around entertainer Hong has become a role model of gays. His coming-out in 2000 has given courage to many young people in Korea, a country where homosexuality remains a taboo,” reported The Korea Times. Hong was a male model and actor before causing considerable controversy when he came out as gay. He was fired him from his prime-time TV variety show as soon as he revealed his sexual orientation but later went on to be selected by Time magazine as the 2004 Asian Hero for his appearance in a string of thriller films. In 2008 he hosted his own television talk show "Coming Out" that featured the life of gay people. He even became a restaurateur and member of the Democratic Labor Party. He now owns many restaurants in Itaewon, one of the trendy towns in Seoul. Male and female same-sex relations is legal in South Korea as it is not specifically mentioned in either the country’s Constitution or in the Civil Penal Code. Yet general awareness of the gay community has largely remains low despite recent gay-themed entertainment and recognizable gay celebrities. Korean gays and lesbians still face difficulties, and many prefer not to reveal their gay identity to their family, friends or co-workers. "I think Korean society has changed a little," said Hong. "Before, it was impossible to think about revealing one's sexual identity to others. Now, they won't slap your face for being gay. Friends and families are starting to understand one's hardship of life as a gay,” he told The Korea Times. However, Hong thinks it is still too early for legalization of gay marriage in Korea and believes that this might change in due time just as it took 10 years for society to accept him.

by Hey, that’s my name up there. It is hard to imagine that the past six years of fully focused writing has only netted me two published stories, but I am glad to have waited until I had something I’m proud of. Scavenger: Red Sands (Scavenger #1) is my Hugh Howey fanfic set in his Sand universe. You can read my story without have having read Sand, but I recommend you do both. I don’t mind if you read his masterpiece first, it is one of the best books I’ve read this year (Sand review). Hugh has granted full permission for me to write and sell this story. *Editor’s note: the sequel to a five part serial is now out. Scavenger: Blue Sands (Scavenger #2) is now available on Kindle. This novelette is a complete story, but readers have liked it, so I am writing more. I’m inspired by what Hugh did with Wool, and will dream big even though the chances of repeating his success are minimal. I’d even take what some midlisters are doing with their serialized fiction. Michael Bunker recently released his Dunes Over Danvar 3, completing his Sand fanfic story. He has been at this for awhile, building up an audience via his off-the-grid blog, then serialized multiple books, Wick, Pennsylvania, and more. Michael was on the podcast back on Episode 249. I suppose I’m one of many with hopes of publishing something that will help me get to the point of writing full-time, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try, and write as though this can. So, what is Scavenger: Red Sands? It is about a sand diver who is grieving the loss of his son, and is given an opportunity to move on, but possibly in the wrong direction. The job he is offered could harden his heart enough to forget about his son, but it would also mean the final break between him and his estranged wife. For me, this story is personal because I just had my first child. Scavenger: Red Sands gave me an emotional experience in writing that almost documents how I’ve grown as a human being since Kai was born, the new feelings I have as a father and husband. As a husband, I’m seeing how spouses can turn against each other when the baby creates tension. Coming from a broken home, my two biggest goals are being a great husband and father, but I also understand the temptation to push people away. I’m an introvert, and sometimes I form walls that exclude even those I love. Sometimes, I wonder if a worst case scenario is forming walls so thick that they become permanent, and in spite of my desire to have a joyful relationship with wife and child, I fail. Scavenger is the story of someone on the verge of failure in that way. You can purchase it at: Amazon Kindle ————————————————————————————————————————————————— Timothy C. Ward Executive Producer Timothy C. Ward has been podcasting since 2010, first as AudioTim, and now with AISFP. Scavenger: Red Sands , is available on Kindle for $.99. His novel in beta readers’ hands, Order After Dark, is a Post-apocalyptic Fantasy set in the rift between Iowa and the Abyss. Sign up to his author newsletter for updates on new releases. Subscribe to Adventures in SciFi Publishing podcast on: iTunes | Stitcher Radio (Android users) | RSS | Website RSS

The country has been plunged into chaos and turmoil, the pound is plummeting, we’re in a political power vacuum, the people are divided and the Conservatives are in disarray – so what better time to try to tear the Labour party apart too? It’s no great surprise that the Labour MPs who have been sniping and undermining Jeremy Corbyn ever since he became party leader are now trying to oust him. But what is astounding is that they have chosen this moment – a time for unity and clear-headedness – to launch such an attempt. What is it that they think will happen? If they force another leadership contest, he will win again – and they will have wasted months on an irrelevant internal battle at a crucial time. Corbyn delivered the Labour vote for remain – so let’s get behind him | Paul Mason Read more There is no legal mechanism by which Corbyn can be removed – and that’s why the current attempts to destabilise his leadership with a vote of no confidence come over as profoundly undemocratic, essentially a coup. Those party members banging on about needing a more charismatic leader have no alternative candidate, no programme and no significant support among the Labour party membership which elected Corbyn in the first place. In this context, attempts to oust Corbyn right now seem like an epic strop at a time when, bluntly, their constituents and their country desperately need them to think bigger and better. Thinking better would mean engaging with the drastically changed political landscape, in which voters are utterly turned off by style over substance, polish over policy. It would mean understanding that the Brexit vote was driven in no small part by a section of the population feeling locked out and left behind by decades of hardship and economic neglect that started with Thatcherism and continued with New Labour’s Tory-lite policies. It would mean accepting that the support for Corbyn, against all odds, represents a connection with his anti-austerity platform. It would mean recognising the public hunger for policies such as renationalisation of utilities, support for the welfare state, investment in housing and infrastructure and policies designed to tackle devastating wealth inequalities. That, after all, is why Corbyn won a landslide leadership victory. That is why membership of the Labour party is currently at record levels. That is why, when Corbyn tours the country, there are still more people crowding to see him than there is room available. If Labour failed to persuade its traditional heartlands to vote to remain in the EU, it is to no small degree a reflection of the party haemorrhaging working-class votes for some time – and not just in the past few months of the referendum campaign. Progressives feel devastated by the outcome of the EU referendum vote and what’s to follow, which is exactly why it is now necessary to read the signs, formulate policy and find ways to reconnect with the electorate instead of falling for the much easier option of pinning the blame on a scapegoat. Labour members need to do something about Jeremy Corbyn | Tristram Hunt Read more In other words, even if the party succeeded in removing its elected leader, the problems would still remain. Addressing the grievances that people feel, the daily worry over wages, jobs, housing and access to public services, the daily, panic-inducing struggle to survive while being knocked ever-backwards, requires a genuine political alternative – a credible policy alternative and not just a leader in a nice suit. If party members have concerns about Corbyn’s leadership style, his presentation skills – and there is no doubt that some of these concerns are valid – then it is now up to them to help him, amplify the message, unite to strengthen both the leader and the policies he is putting forward and to push the progressive politics that the country so desperately needs at a time when the far right is insurgent. At such a critical, disruptive and divided moment in Britain, the Labour party needs to step up and reach out to its voters, not turn inwards and implode.

The Argentinian prosecutor in charge of investigating the bombing at the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, has accused Iran of infiltrating several South American countries and building intelligence stations from which terrorist attacks could be planned and carried out. Alberto Nisman issued a 502-page indictment on Wednesday placing responsibility for the bombing, which killed 85 people, on the highest authorities in the Islamic Republic. In particular, Nisman named Mohsen Rabbani, a former Iranian cultural attache, as the coordinator of Iranian clandestine activities on the continent. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up Nisman also outlined Iran’s “dual use of diplomatic offices, cultural or charity associations and even mosques, as coverage to hide illegal activities.” The prosecutor said the AMIA bombing did not “constitute an isolated event,” but was “part of a bigger image, dominated by the strong and aggressive Iranian infiltration in the region in which Rabbani did not limit himself to Argentina, but… based on the gathered evidence, extended his activities to Guyana and to several South American countries,” according to a statement sent out by Nisman’s office. “Based on countless reports, evidence, testimonies, court and investigative records related to other countries of the region, North America and Europe – including rulings of foreign courts against the Iranian regime — [Nisman] proved the identical decision-making mechanism, planning and execution of terrorist attacks verified in different countries, which were judicially attributed to Iranian intelligence agents,” according to a summary of the indictment. Countries where Iranian terrorist activity was alleged include “Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname,” according to the statement. The Iranian embassy in Argentina and several Iranian “front companies” were accused of providing means and cover for those involved in the AMIA attack, including Hezbollah man Samuel Salman El Reda, whom Nisman confirmed used a fake Colombian identity to enter Argentina. The report quotes the then-commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, Javad Mansouri, as saying, “Our revolution can only be exported with grenades and explosives.” Mansouri went on to become Iran’s ambassador to China. A 1982 seminar in Iran attended by hundreds of religious men from 70 countries is highlighted in the report as a “turning point for the regime’s method to export the [Islamic] Revolution.” The regime subsequently summoned each Iranian embassy “to turn into an intelligence center.” Nisman requested that Interpol “take further measures in order to detain all the defendants in the AMIA case with international arrest warrant [sic].” In February, the Argentinian Senate approved a controversial agreement with Iran to probe the 1994 bombings. The agreement called for Argentina and Iran to form a joint “truth commission” to investigate the attack. Argentine and Iranian judicial officials were to question five Iranian suspects, including Defense Minister Ahmed Vahidi, in Tehran. Jewish groups pilloried the deal as tantamount to allowing a murderer to investigate his own crime. Last week, Iran’s Guardian Council approved the presidential candidacies of Mohsen Rezai and Ali Akbar Velayati, accused of planning the 1994 attacks. They are among 8 candidates due to run for president on June 14. Rezai is under an international arrest warrant, or red notice, from the Interpol international police agency. JTA contributed to this report.

Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. July 29, 2015, 3:01 PM GMT / Updated July 29, 2015, 3:01 PM GMT / Source: CNBC.com By Arjun Kharpal, CNBC Microsoft's hotly-awaited Windows 10 hit the market on Wednesday, but the technology giant's struggles in the mobile space has put some developers off making apps for the new operating system. A lot is resting on the new OS after its predecessor Windows 8 was heavily criticized. However, mobile app developers are unconvinced that Windows 10 will be worth their time, given Windows' tiny market share in the OS smartphone space. "Nobody is asking for a Windows app and that's due to the market size alone," Andreas Rasmussen, managing partner at mobile development company Nodes, told CNBC by phone. According to market research company IDC, Windows owns 3.2 percent of the OS market share for smartphones, compared to 79.4 percent for Android and 16.4 percent for iOS. As a result developers can find it difficult to monetize their products. "A challenge is that the Windows app ecosystem is less mature than other platforms, so some of the ways that we generate revenue are more difficult," Mike Newman, founder of Big Duck Games, the studio behind the popular FlowFree game, told CNBC by phone. "For example, there are fewer ad networks supporting Windows and also fewer advertisers promoting other apps and games, so our ad space is less valuable." Mobile struggles 'worrisome' Microsoft's problems in the mobile space appear to be worsening. Earlier this month, the U.S. tech giant announced plans to cut up to 7,800 jobs and take a $7.6 billion writedown on the devices business it bought from Nokia for $7.5 billion last year. At the same time, it's over a year since Microsoft released a flagship smartphone. This is causing concern among some developers, even those already developing for Windows. "It is worrisome. If their market isn't growing or isn't there, and if Microsoft won't support it anymore, it's a market to stay away from," said Peter de Jong, co-founder of Codeglue, the company behind popular mobile game Rocket Riot, which is available on Windows 8. Knockout features? Microsoft has recognized its past problems and changed strategy with Windows 10. The Redmond, WA-based company is offering Windows 10 as a free upgrade to Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 customers, to tempt more users onto the platform. In addition, there are two key features of Windows 10 aimed at attracting more developers. The first is called "Universal Apps," which should let developers write one code to work across different types of devices, like mobiles and PCs, with minimal tweaks. De Jong said this feature wasn't as easy to use as Microsoft made out, but the majority of developers CNBC spoke to said it would save time as there was no need to write completely different pieces of code for different devices. "Our latest game, Mars Pop, is our first universal app and, thanks to this feature, we were able to save a lot of time in the development stage since it's available on both Windows and Windows Phone platforms at once," Outfit7, the maker of the "My Talking Tom" app told CNBC in a statement. The second feature unveiled by Microsoft was a tool to make it easier for Google Android and Apple iOS developers to make their apps available for Windows phones as well. Normally, developers would have to write separate codes for rival mobile OS. Like Universal Apps, developers have welcomed this move from Microsoft. "That's really interesting, and may make it much easier for us to bring new apps and app updates to Windows in the future," Big Duck Games' Newman told CNBC.

Top of the morning to ya! Err, sorry about that – it seems the closer we get to St. Patrick’s the day, the more and more I want to crack out an Irish accent. And, if you kindly ask my husband, he will be the first to tell you that I cannot do accents. At all. Period. They all end up sounding the same – no real distinguishable nationality but particularly amusing since they make me sound like a cartoon character. It’s entertaining…for everyone else but me. So, in lieu of punishing everyone with my terrible Irish accent, I thought I would show my love for this holiday in the next best way I know: food! After racking my brain for all of last week trying to come up with something that was simple, delicious and festive, without the need for artificial food dyes, I finally came up with the perfect recipe. And it’s awesome! Like, really super amazing awesome! So, my gift to you this St. Patrick’s Day: Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts! These Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts are out of this world! As with all my recipes, they are gluten free and vegan but they are also the first raw recipe that I have created – yay me!! Plus, you only need 11 simple ingredients to pull these together. I’ve always been a little scared of the whole raw food movement, assuming that the yummy looking recipes that I would see all over Pinterest would be terribly difficult to make but, I can assure you, these amazing little tarts are actually really, really easy! The most time consuming part is just waiting until you can enjoy them. Since they set up in the freezer, it’s really the waiting game that is the worst part of these recipes so I would suggest making them in the morning so that you can enjoy them in time for dinner or even a late afternoon pick me up. Everyone knows that mint and chocolate is the best pairing ever – except my husband…but he doesn’t count in this example. If mint and chocolate got married, these would be their beautiful little babies and all the other kids on the street would be jealous of them and their perfect deliciousness. They would rule the world in chocolate mint harmony. They are pure perfection. The best food to ever have graced this earth and all other foods will bow down to their glory! Muahahahahaha!! Whoa! Grab a hold of yourself, Savanna! Sorry, I got carried away there. Can you tell I really love mint chocolate? Moving on… Let’s just say, these Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts are the perfect dessert for your St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. The recipe for these Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts is really versatile – you could easily change up the flavour of the middle layer to satisfy your latest chocolate pairing craving. Cherry, peanut butter, raspberry, keylime…I have all sorts of great things in store for future versions of these tarts. This first time though, I thought I would embrace the fact that St. Patrick’s day is this Tuesday and opted for a delicious mint flavoured centre. It does not disappoint! Entirely raw, these tarts are made up of three tasty layers. The first layer is made up of a deliciously rich, but mildly sweet, raw brownie base. Then, it get’s topped with a light and creamy avocado mint coconut cream layer. Finally, the whole thing gets topped off with homemade chocolate. See? Pure flavour perfection! Each layer is placed into the freezer while the next one is made, helping the tarts to set up and allowing the flavour to build and reach it’s fullest potential. The tarts that you see in these photos were made in a regular muffin tin, using liners. What you don’t see, is that we also made 12 mini tarts in a silicone tray. So, really, we did make a family of Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts, complete with big guys and lil guys 😉 The mini tarts are the perfect portion controlled snack to keep in the freezer whenever you’re craving something sweet. Once set, you can pop them out of the tray and store them in a freezer safe tupperware container for easy access. It would be best to eat these within a week, to ensure maximum flavour, but something tells me that they probably wouldn’t last that long in most peoples’ homes. What’s your favourite thing to make for St. Patrick’s Day? Do you have any awesome family dishes or traditions that you follow? In our house, I think it’s safe to say that these Raw Chocolate Mint Tarts will be a yearly occurrence from now on. In fact, we’ve enjoyed them so much that I may have to make a second batch in time for Tuesday – whoops! If you make these at home, be sure to share them on Instagram with us. Tag your creations with #glutenfreeveganpantry so that we can check out how you’re enjoying the recipes so far. Lots of love & happy eats, Savanna

Hey guys, about a year ago I was approached by Warbird Games who pitched a game project they wanted to get off the ground.The game itself is inspired by the pulpy sci-fi stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs but with more of a 1930's feel. Ive been a long time fan of DeiselPunk (Similar to Steampunk, except rooted in 1930's/40's style) so I was instantly sold.Above is an illustration concept piece of the main character, Jack Houston.I did some concept art for the game, and just recently a marketing info trailer was released, which includes many concept illustrations (some of which are mine) along with behind the scenes tid-bits and a basic visual idea of the game using rough animatics.Hope you enjoy -[url= [link] Houston and the Necronauts - YouTube[/url]Jack Houston and the Necronauts- property of Warbird Games

( 5 out of 5) Novice thinks its great by Michael from San Antonio, TX on July 26, 2017 Full disclosures, this was my first AR purchase, and I am by no means an expert. I did months of research before buying from store reviews to YouTube reviews, to self proclaimed gun expert reviews. There are not a lot of recent reviews on this rifle. I was worried given the price on Sportsman's Outdoor Superstore compared to everyone around, and the original MSRP, but I am completely happy with my purchase now. $500 for a gun that sells everywhere else for $100-$350 more...yeah, I feel like I got a pretty amazing deal. I could have spent $100 less on another brand that seemed decent, but after researching Windam Weaponry I had to go with them for this price. I've run 120 rounds of brass through it so far and with the exception of one failure to feed, have not had a single issue. The failure to feed was right after I had loaded a single round into the chamber manually to let my son take a shot from an AR for the first time. My thoughts are the mag did not seat completely. After a dry fire and recharging, everything was back to perfect function. I bought 5 different types of brass to see if the SRC preferred any particular caliber or weight. Based on what I experienced, I would say 5.56 62 grain Winchester worked the best. At about 50 yards I was putting 10 shots in a 1 inch group. Not the best, but given the red dot was a 5 MOA I'm pretty satisfied. Some of the 223 was a little all over the place, but as I got more comfortable I know I got more accurate. The 5.56 62 grain was the last box of ammo I fired. The finish seems good, but I have very little reference. I did notice light visible between the upper and lower receiver, but looking at a family member's AR, it's less than his DPMS. There was a lot of oil straight out of the box, and I have a feeling this rifle had been in storage a while. It doesn't bother me given the quality and function so far. The trigger is a bit stiff. I'm not sure if that will loosen up over time, or if some of those cheap spring kits will help, but it's something I will pay attention to and address if needed. I also have an AK, and my personal preference is for the AR. It's lighter, easier to re-acquire targets quickly, more comfortable given the modular design and stock, plus the ammo seems to be more widely available. It also doesn't destroy my shoulder after prolonged use. If you are having any doubts I would put those aside and buy this gun. I keep checking back to see if the price goes up, cause it seems to good of a deal to be true.

Part of being a science communicator is hoping a natural disaster kills as many members of the audience as possible, as soon as possible, with as much media exposure as possible. As a communicator myself, I’d like nothing better than for thousands of middle-class white people to die in an extreme weather event—preferably one with global warming’s fingerprints on it—live on cable news. Tomorrow. The hardest thing about communicating the deadliness of the climate problem is that it isn’t killing anyone. And just between us, let’s be honest: the average member of the public is a bit (how can I put it politely?) of a moron. It’s all well and good for the science to tell us global warming is a bigger threat than Fascism was, but Joe Q. Flyover doesn’t understand science. He wants evidence. So we’ve probably reached the limits of what science communication can achieve. At this point only nature herself can close the consensus gap—or the fear gap. Cognitologist C. R. R. Kampen thinks the annihilation of a city of 150,000 people might just provide the teaching moment we need: You see, consensus is so often only reached after a painful confrontation with evidence. Knowing this, I hope against knowledge of her expected track that Cyclone Ita will wipe Cairns off the map. Because the sooner the lesson is learnt by early confrontation, the better one more population will be suited to anticipate and mitigate the vast weather and climate (+ related) disasters that lie in the immediate future and to lose all distractions on the way. (Let me dispel, right up front, a common and perhaps forgivable misinterpretation of this family of argument: no, Kampen doesn’t mean to suggest the destruction of a single city would be sufficient. That’s just a silly strawman. Like all scientists, Kampen is acutely aware that a single data point, such as the deletion of Cairns, would not even be attributable to man-made global warming with any confidence—let alone would it prove the planet was worse off, taking all metrics into account, under BAU. What we’re talking about here is a possibility which, with luck, would start a conversation on climate action, not end one.) One thing science communicators have learned the hard way is that simply blurting out the truths you know isn’t good enough. Some ideas need to be framed more carefully than others. (Dan Kahan might say “scientifically.”) Unfortunately, Kampen’s writing is almost naïve in its candor. One can only hope the forces of anti-science never hear about it, because it’s veritably ripe for their favorite rhetorical tactic: cherry-picking, or ‘quoting.’ Let’s pretend, solo ad argumentum, that I’m on the Monckton side of the Subterranean War on Science. Now let me inform you that Dr Kampen once wrote: I hope against knowledge of her expected track that Cyclone Ita will wipe Cairns off the map. Wow. Taste the difference? By the simple trick of telling people that Kampen hopes they die without saying what he writes next (wherein he clearly explains that it’s for their own good), a rhetorician with no conscience—like a denier—could simultaneously make Kampen look like a sociopath and pander to the false stereotype of the greenie-as-armchair-genocidaire. That’s what we call, in science communication, an own goal. To sum up, here’s a list of “Do’s” and “Don’t’s” for those times when you just wish the climate would hurry up and vindicate the science by killing people: DON’T: • say so DO: • always return to the real issue: the dangers of the denialist agenda [Edited for fanatical accuracy. —BK]

- HOUSTON - A federal grand jury has returned a five-count indictment against the couple who allegedly enslaved a Nigerian national for more than two years in their Katy home, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. Chudy and Sandra Nsobundu, 56 and 50, respectively, are charged with forced labor, withholding documents, visa fraud, conspiracy to harbor and harboring an illegal alien and. They were originally charged by criminal complaint Feb. 4, 2016, and arrested four days later. The indictment was returned today and they are expected to make their next appearance in federal court in the near future. According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, the 38-year-old victim was subjected to physical and verbal abuse while employed by the Katy couple and regularly referred to as "the idiot." The victim allegedly worked every day from 5:30 a.m. until 1:00 a.m. and was responsible for cleaning the house, making meals and taking care of five children. The criminal complaint alleges she was told she could not watch television or even sit down during her work hours. She was also allegedly told to sleep on the floor and could not use warm water to bathe or wash her hair. The affidavit also claims that she was not allowed to eat fresh food and was only permitted the leftovers from the previous prepared meals. Further, if the victim even wanted some milk for her tea, she would have to actually strain the milk out of the children's cereal bowls, according to the allegations. In one instance of alleged abuse, the criminal complaint charges that Sandra Nsobundu drug the victim by her hair and hit her across her face because she did not like the socks the victim put on one of the children. The victim did not have access to a phone and could not communicate with her family, according the charges. Her movements were mostly limited to the residence and allegedly only allowed out for short walks with the youngest children around her block. The charges outlined in the complaint indicate the victim also did not have access to her passport and other travel documents. The defendants had previously agreed to pay the woman 20,000 Nigerian nairas - $100 U.S. dollars per month, according to the charges. The Nsobundus allegedly never paid the victim for any of her work here in the U.S. The victim was rescued Oct. 10, 2015, after more than two years with the Nsobundus in the U.S., following a tip to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. The indictment also includes a notice of forfeiture of the Katy residence as property used in the facilitation of the alleged crimes. If convicted of the conspiracy or forced labor, the defendants face up to 20 years in federal prison. For withholding documents, they face another five years, while the visa fraud and harboring illegal aliens carries a possible 10-year-sentence. All of the charges could also result in a $250,000 maximum fine. The investigation leading to the filing of criminal charges was the result of an investigation conducted by members of the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance in Houston, which includes Homeland Security Investigations, Fort Bend Sheriff's Office and the Department of State - Diplomatic Security Service. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julie N. Searle and Ruben R. Perez are prosecuting the case. An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.

LESSON 1: A wise man understands that jealousy is more dangerous than anger and dishonesty. A wise man knows that an open rebuke is better than a secret love, that others praising him genuinely is better than him praising himself arrogantly. He acknowledges that the wound from a sincere friend is better than many kisses from an enemy. A wise man is sincere and his heart is open. LESSON 2: A wise man gives his enemy food to eat when he is hungry, and he gives him water to drink when he is thirsty. In doing this he puts coal of shame on his head. A wise man makes his enemy weak and defenseless by helping him when he is in trouble. He does not think of revenge because his thoughts are directed towards greater things. LESSON 3: A wise man does not have confidence in an unreliable person in times of trouble because it is like chewing on a broken tooth or walking on a lame foot. A person that has proven to be unreliable in simple circumstances would never be reliable in turbulent situations. Watch out, and be wise. LESSON 4: A wise man does not visit his neighbor too much or it would wear out a welcome and his visit would not become valuable. Familiarity breeds contempt. Too much familiarity without meaningful purpose makes one unserious and it’s better done once in a while than often to retain respect and honor. LESSON 5: A wise man never betrays another person secret when arguing with his neighbor? A wise man is unlike a fool that spits out all the secrets that his friend told him in confidential as a result of anger. He is calm when angry and he prefers to walk out than to speak out. LESSON 6: A wise man is just like an ant; provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. A wise man plans when he is young and agile so that when he is old and weary he wouldn’t go around begging for what to eat. LESSON 7: A wise man does not withhold good from those who deserve it when he has the power to help them. He would not say come back tomorrow when he has it today. A wise man helps the poor so that he can receive more from his maker (GOD). LESSON 8: A wise man is a righteous man. The way of the righteous man is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of the day, while the way of the fool is like total darkness because they have no idea of where they are going to. Which are you? — Copyright © 2013 Seun Emmanuel Alaofin. Advertisements

The Washington Capitals are near locks to make the playoffs this season. However, who the Washington Capitals will face in the first round is still up in the air. Depending on how they finish the regular season, the Washington Capitals could face any one of five teams in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. They could face the New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning, Pittsburgh Penguins, or New York Islanders. Any one of those five teams could be a tough matchup for the Washington Capitals. They’re all extremely good teams. However, the Caps are also an extremely good hockey team. In the playoffs, you tend to face extremely good hockey teams. Here are the probabilities of the Washington Capitals facing each of those teams in the first round of the playoffs as of April 3rd, 2015. Over the next five days, we’ll take a look at each of the potential first round opponents for the Washington Capitals. Yesterday, we took a look at Tampa Bay. Today, we’ll take a look at the next least possible opponent for the Washington Capitals: the New York Rangers. Washington Capitals Vs. New York Rangers First off, let’s be real with ourselves, the Caps and Rangers are going to square off in the playoffs at some point. They haven’t been able to avoid each other in the postseason lately. It might not be in the first round, but it seems inevitable. The Rangers are an extremely good hockey team with very few holes. Until Sunday’s win over the Rangers, the Capitals had struggled mightily against the Rangers. The Caps have a 1-2-0 record against the Rangers this season. Despite the Rangers record, the Washington Capitals actually have better even strength puck possession numbers than the Rangers. At first, I thought score effects might have something to do with it, so I checked their even strength score adjusted CF%. The Caps have a 52.0% even strength score adjusted CorsiFor% while the Rangers have a 50.7% even strength score adjusted CorsiFor%. The Caps have an even strength score adjusted FenwickFor% of 51.9%, while the Rangers have an even strength score adjusted FenwickFor% of 50.4%. During close situations, the Washington Capitals have a 51.8% FenClose% while the Rangers have a 50% FenClose%. So despite the Rangers record, the Caps are actually the better puck possession team. Probably the only glaring weakness of the Rangers right now is their power play. The Rangers have the 21st ranked power play (17.2%) in the NHL. It isn’t due to a lack of shot attempts, as the Rangers have the 12th highest CorsiFor60 during power plays (100.9) and they have the eighth highest ShotsFor60 during power plays (56.2). The reason that their power play is bad despite those numbers? Their shooting percentage. Their 10.4% shooting percentage during power plays is the third lowest in the NHL. The Rangers struggle to get bodies around the crease during power plays and Rick Nash doesn’t shoot it as often as he probably should on power plays. However, the Blackhawks have shown that you don’t need a great (or even good) power play in order to win in the playoffs. Still, when you get power play opportunities in the playoffs, it’s nice to convert. Washington Capitals Vs. New York Rangers: Forwards War On Ice is down, so no charts today. The New York Rangers’ forwards are led by veterans Nash, Derick Brassard, Martin St. Louis, and Mats Zuccarello. They also have a number of great younger forwards in Derek Stepan, Chris Kreider, and Kevin Hayes. Carl Hagelin is one of the fastest forwards in the league and is especially dangerous when the Rangers are shorthanded. Hayes has killed the Washington Capitals this year. The Rangers forwards rely on their speed to tire out the opposing team. They’re very dangerous and always a threat to go on breakaways. They have an excellent forecheck that the Caps have struggled against this season. The Caps will have to counter that forecheck. The Washington Capitals forwards are obviously led by Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, two of the best forwards in the NHL. Lately, they’ve been getting production from Evgeny Kuznetsov, Joel Ward, and the third line consisting of Eric Fehr, Jason Chimera, and Brooks Laich. While the Rangers rely heavily on speed, the Caps forwards rely on physicality and wearing down their opponents. That might help the Caps as the series prolongs. ADVANTAGE: I’ll give the advantage to the Rangers. Their forwards are more explosive and they tend to make teams pay when they make mistakes. That said, the longer the series goes on, the more of an advantage the Caps forwards might have. Washington Capitals Vs. New York Rangers: Defensemen This is a really intriguing matchup. Both the Washington Capitals and the Rangers have great depth on their respective blue lines. The Rangers blue liners are led by their captain Ryan McDonagh. McDonagh and Dan Girardi usually match up against Ovechkin whenever he’s on the ice. They do about as good of a job as possible when defending the most dangerous shooter in the world. Marc Staal is a very good shutdown defenseman and has 18 points this season. Dan Boyle was supposed to be really good for the Rangers, but that hasn’t been the case. Kevin Klein has been a pleasant surprise for the Rangers this season. Keith Yandle has not saved the Rangers power play like he was supposed to, but he’s still one of the best offensive defensemen in the NHL. The Washington Capitals have gotten a ton of production from their blue line. John Carlson is the best Norris Trophy candidate that nobody’s talking about. Brooks Orpik has set the tone for the Caps blue line with his durability and physicality. His hits have led to countless scoring opportunities. Matt Niskanen and Karl Alzner have been very steady as the second pairing. Niskanen is finally starting to get on the scoresheet, which is a very good thing for the Washington Capitals. The Caps have the best third pairing defenseman in the league in Mike Green. Green is flanked by Tim Gleason, who like Orpik, helps set the tone of the game with his crushing hits. ADVANTAGE: I tried to justify giving one of the teams an advantage, and I couldn’t. They’re roughly even. The Caps blue liners have been playing better than the Rangers as of late, so if I had to give the advantage to someone, it would be the Caps. Washington Capitals Vs. New York Rangers: Goaltenders This is a matchup between two extremely handsome talented goaltenders. Braden Holtby and Henrik Lundqvist are two of the most gorgeous best goaltenders in the NHL. Holtby has the slight advantage in unadjusted save percentage and adjusted save percentage during all situations, while Lundqvist has the higher unadjusted save percentage at even strength. ADVANTAGE: I give the slight advantage to Holtby because Lundqvist is still a bit rusty from his neck injury. As a whole, I give the advantage to the Rangers because Talbot is a much better goalie than Justin Peters. Prediction I’m fairly certain it’s a rule that any Washington Capitals versus New York Rangers playoff series must go to seven games. I think the Rangers have the better chance of winning assuming that they’re healthy. However, don’t count out the Washington Capitals. The best case scenario for the Caps would be if the Rangers play Boston in the first round and the Caps play the Rangers in the second round. Facing two extremely physical teams in consecutive series might be too much for the Rangers.

Updated August 21, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us Revcom.us received the following Call from the Revolution Club We demand: Drop the charges on Gregory "Joey" Johnson and the RNC16 now! On July 20 outside the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Gregory "Joey" Johnson was surrounded by a circle of members of the Revolution Club who created a safe space for him to burn the American flag. The area was crowded with many police and pro-Trump people. Police assaulted the protective circle, arresting Joey and 16 others as the flag started to burn. They face serious charges. As the fact sheet circulated by Joey Johnson's supporters convincingly shows, the arrests of him and 16 others were totally unjustified and illegitimate attempts to suppress legally protected political speech, as were the 24-hour-plus illegal detentions that followed. Joey Johnson at the RNC: "We're standing here with the people of the world." Before setting the flag on fire, Joey led chants, "1, 2, 3, 4—Slavery, Genocide, and War! 5, 6, 7, 8—America Was NEVER Great!" Johnson said he decided to burn the flag to make a statement about what was unfolding inside the RNC where the theme that day was "make America #1 again." Joey said, "America number 1? America first? It's always been first: at genocide, at slavery, at exploitation, of destruction of the environment, of torture, of coup d'etats, of invasions. We're standing here with the people of the world today." In addition, Johnson stated that a real revolution is what is needed, nothing less. Then he lit the flag on fire. As Johnson explained his and the Revolution Club's protest that day, "There are moments in history when someone has to put it on the line to sound the alarm." Johnson won the right to burn the flag against enforced patriotism in the U.S. Supreme Court's 1989 landmark decision, Texas v. Johnson. For the police to effectively nullify this right in actual practice undermines this decision at a time when it is more imperative than ever to protect the right to dissent. The charges against Johnson and the RNC16 have to be decisively defeated. The authorities must not be allowed to get away with circumventing, distorting, punishing, and criminalizing this defining act of protest. We the undersigned call for the charges against Gregory "Joey" Johnson and all those arrested with him at the RNC to be dropped immediately. Initial Signers: Fr. Luis Barrios, John Jay College of Criminal Justice* Medea Benjamin, Code Pink Robert Bloom, attorney, 1971 case of Panther 21 Richard Brown, Black Panther Party, San Francisco 8 Noam Chomsky Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, EPA whistleblower Paul J. Cristallo, attorney, Cleveland Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party Jeffrey L. Edison, attorney, Detroit Anneliese Failla, National Lawyers Guild* Detroit Clinton Fein, artist/activist Robert Justin Goldstein, Author, Flag Burning & Free Speech: Texas v. Johnson (Univ. Press of KS, 2000) William Goodman, attorney, National Lawyers Guild* Mickey Huff, Project Censored/Media Freedom Foundation Daniel Hurwitz-Goodman, Guatemala Solidarity Project* Alicia Kirkman, Mother of Angelo Miller killed by Cleveland police, 2007 Nicholas Klaus, National Lawyers Guild* Michael Kogan, attorney, Los Angeles Emily Kunstler, filmmaker, "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe" Sarah Kunstler, attorney, New York City, filmmaker, "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe" Jim Lafferty, Executive Director Emeritus, National Lawyers Guild*, Los Angeles Betty Mahone, owner, African American Cultural Center, East Cleveland, OH William Clarence Marshall, opera singer, Cleveland Art McCoy, Founder of Black on Black Crime, Inc., Cleveland Genevieve Mitchell, Director, The Black Women's Center, Cleveland Peter Phillips, Phd. Al Porter, Jr. President of Black on Black Crime Inc., Cleveland Margaret Ratner Kunstler, attorney, New York City David Rovics, singer/songwriter Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Five - all exonerated Eric A. Seitz, attorney, Honolulu J. Tony Serra, attorney, San Francisco Cindy Sheehan, peace activist, Vacaville CA Rev. Frank Smith, Senior Pastor of Manna Church, Cleveland Dr. Akinyele Umoja, Author, We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement Cornel West, author *Organization for identification only Sign the call for the charges against Gregory "Joey" Johnson and all those arrested with him at the RNC to be dropped immediately here Or: Download the form as a PDF, circulate and donate: To email your signed form: carlmdix@gmail.com Or postal mail this signed form to: RNC16 c/o Cleveland Revolution Books 2804 Mayfield Road Cleveland, OH 44118-1603 DONATION/PLEDGE: https://www.crowdrise.com/revolution-club-at-the-conventions Video: @Lukewearechange For full coverage and the current issue of REVOLUTION click here

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to turn now to look more at the anti-abortion movement. We’re going to Chicopee, Massachusetts, joined by the researcher Frederick Clarkson, who’s written extensively on anti-abortion violence since the ’90s, the author of many books, the latest called Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America. His latest article on the Tiller murder was published on Women’s eNews and is called "Beware ‘Lone Nut’ Theory in Tiller’s Murder." Welcome to Democracy Now!, Fred Clarkson. You’ve been listening to this broadcast, watching the broadcast. Does any of this surprise you? And what do you mean by the "beware" of "the ‘lone nut’ theory"? FREDERICK CLARKSON: Well, no, it doesn’t surprise me at all. It’s typical in the major crimes that I’ve looked into around anti-abortion violence over the years, where people case out locations. And they also increase their level of activism, including the degrees of their crimes. So, gluing a lock and doing things repeatedly over a period of time is not only a violation of the FACE law, it’s an indication of an escalation of activity around violent anti—and potentially violent anti-abortion activists. But the other part of it is that we have a tendency in society, where heinous crimes are committed, to think of somebody as crazy and acting alone. With the history of anti-abortion violence and major crimes is that typically people are neither nuts or alone. They’re actually pretty well-planned crimes. You have to do a great deal of intelligence gathering, casing out a place, knowing locations. In the case of Dr. Tiller, he was known for wearing a bulletproof vest, for example, as most abortion providers do because of the constant threat and danger to their lives. So a headshot would be key to doing a death blow to any abortion provider, if you were serious about trying to get him. AMY GOODMAN: But this issue of the "lone nut" theory that you’re saying beware of, talk more about this. FREDERICK CLARKSON: Well, it’s easy to look at people as isolated individuals, when they’re usually operating in a context. It’s easy for people, for example, to have lots of degrees of assistance. For example, Shelly Shannon, who did the attempted assassination of Dr. Tiller in 1993, one of the precipitary factors to the FACE law, was on a crime spree all over the West for months and years doing arsons and butyric acid attacks. That’s the chemical attack that creates a powerful, unbelievable stench that just clears out buildings. And she would have—she had a network of safe houses, including one where a couple provided gas cans. And it was kind of a "don’t ask, don’t tell" situation, where the less people know about what you’re doing, the better it is for everyone. And there’s an extensive network of support for itinerant clinic protesters, some of whom turn out to be violent criminals in this way. So, history has shown that there are always these concentric circles of support, some witting and some unwitting, of people who participate in these kinds of crimes. AMY GOODMAN: We’re also joined by Democracy Now! video stream by the senior analyst at Political Research Associates, Chip Berlet, joining us from Boston, co-author of Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort and editor of Eyes Right!: Challenging the Right Wing Backlash. You begin your piece, Chip, with "The anti-abortion movement harbors within it a subculture of militant activists who believe the slogan, ‘If abortion is murder, then act like it.’" Explain how this fits into this picture. CHIP BERLET: Well, it’s essentially the same thing that Fred’s been saying. It has to do with the fact that there is this social movement, this overlapping network of social movements, that the anti-abortion activists in the 1990s began to merge into—and in both directions, merge into—the patriot and armed militia movement, move into the tax protest movement, and move into the white supremacist movement. And it became a very broad network of people with a wide range of ideas. But a social movement provides for institutional support, in a sense. So, as Fred says, there are safe houses. We know that Roeder was involved in the sovereign citizen movement, like the Freemen. It’s not clear at all that he was a Freeman. But the term here is being used to talk about this package of views. They’re not really anti-government; they’re anti-equality, they’re anti-civil rights. It’s a movement that has a white supremacist understanding of the Constitution as amended. And this network, which is—the umbrella term would be the patriot movement, has all of this set of support. They have radio programs that talk about their line. You know, there’s members of Congress that parrot this line. And it’s sometimes secular; it’s often religious. It’s totally awash with conspiracy theories about a new world order or a North American union or Obama is selling us out to UN tyranny. And the religious side is this apocalyptic understanding that argues that the Second Coming of Christ is being held up by sin in America, and the two major sins are the provision of abortion to women and gay rights. AMY GOODMAN: You talk about the sovereign movement, the Freeman movement. I don’t know that people understand what these groups are. CHIP BERLET: It’s tough. It’s—basically it’s an idea that came out of the Posse Comitatus, which was a racist movement that challenged the authority of the federal government as constituted. And basically, it argued that the federal courts and the state courts were misinterpreting constitutional law, and they rejected the participation in the federal government. And that’s why people like Roeder would put a license plate that was hand-drawn on their car, because they rejected the authority of both the federal and state government. So, these are people who really have decided that they’re rebelling against the laws of the United States and of the state they’re in. And part of—this is part of a broader package, that the government is run by secret elites who are, you know, about to turn us over to jackbooted UN troops coming in black helicopters. So, you know, you have a range of beliefs here. They’re sometimes called constitutionalists. They’re—some of them are tax protesters. Some of them are survivalists. So there’s no real central organization. It’s a constellation of beliefs that are kind of a right-wing anarchism and right-wing populism. AMY GOODMAN: Chip Berlet, this issue of—or let me put this question to Fred Clarkson. This issue of how different domestic groups are treated and the issue of domestic terrorism, whether we’re talking about animal rights groups, environmental groups, which the FBI, I think, puts at the top of their domestic terror list. FREDERICK CLARKSON: Well, yeah. There’s been a big controversy about whether any of the anti-abortion groups should be called domestic terror organizations. There is one called the Army of God that’s an above-ground organization of largely veterans of anti-abortion violence or proponents of anti-abortion violence. And the Justice Department has decided that it’s not a terrorist organization, even though it publicly espouses crimes that could be called terrorism by any reasonable definition and has many convicted felons. It’s—I think for many of the same reasons that Susan was talking about earlier, law enforcement keeps an arm’s length on these kinds of things. In fairness, the Justice Department, under both Presidents Clinton and Bush, vigorously went after issues of violence using the counterterrorism task force and prevented some major crimes. But that said, area district attorneys, federal prosecutors have considerable prosecutorial discretion. So, if these groups are not defined as domestic terrorism organizations or that crimes against doctors are not viewed as terrorism, FACE is all we’ve got. And as we’ve seen, the enforcement of FACE is highly selective, to be generous. AMY GOODMAN: Chip Berlet, what would you like to add to this? CHIP BERLET: Well, I think in the current context of the PATRIOT Act and other repressive legislation, we have to be very careful about the use of the term "terrorism." Arguably, if you look at the Federal Criminal Code, many active anti-abortion violence would not be classified as terrorism in some interpretations. I don’t think the issue here is urging the government to expand its repressive powers. I think that’s a mistake. I think what we have here are groups of criminals and criminal individuals who need to be pursued and prosecuted, as appropriate. And I think it’s important to understand that, for many years, clinic violence was not treated with the same aggressive attention by the federal government and state governments as other forms of vandalism and violence. And I think that that’s because the anti-abortion movement has a very large political and religious constituency that makes it very difficult for state and federal officials to try and actually enforce the existing laws that they should be doing. You know, under the Clinton administration, we had a hotline into the Justice Department that you could call for acts of violence or potential acts of violence, so that it wasn’t some clinic worker from Wichita or Kansas City calling a local FBI agent. It was the federal government’s Justice Department calling the local FBI agent and saying, "Get on this." And I think that needs to be reinstituted, because, of course, it was canceled, you know, after the Democrats lost out to the Republicans. So, we know that there’s an anti-abortion constituency for many elected officials, primarily in the Republican Party, and we know that these political pressures have an effect on how aggressively criminal laws are enforced.

It was a truly historic night for Labour, where black was white, defeats were victories and right was wrong. Even in these remarkable times, the night when, according to Jeremy Corbyn, the people voted to reject the 'political establishment' by voting for the Tories in a never-before-unsafe Labour seat, deserves to be remembered. Here we round up the very best of Labour reaction to their first defeat in Copeland, or its predecessor Whitehaven, since 1931. John McDonnell (blame: Blair and Blairites) We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. “We can’t have a situation like we did last week where Tony Blair comes out and attacks his own party, Peter Mandelson as well. "The situation is this: you learn lessons from these things and one of the lessons you learn is people will not vote for a divided party. "The last 18 months, 20 months, we’ve been involved in two leadership elections so understandably in a leadership election those divisions will come out," (he told ITV). Later, Mr McDonnell told Sky News: "We’ve lost one by-election in very unique circumstances. The Prime Minister is still in her honeymoon period. And Labour has been divided. "Now, you’ll see the Labour Party united and the Conservative Party ripping themselves apart over the Brexit negotiations." Momentum (blame: no one. This was in fact a victory) "The sceptics wrote us off in Stoke but we proved them wrong. We beat them with our energy, passion and determination. "The Tories may have taken Copeland, but I’ve seen everything we need to win across the country right here in Stoke these last few weeks. "If we build on the momemtum from this win, we can beat UKIP and the Tories across the country." (Damian Bailey, Momentum activist, in official statement) Emily Thornberry MP (blame: the media / 'fake news') The Shadow Foreign Secretary told Sky News: “Word had got out that Jeremy wasn’t in favour of nuclear power. That isn’t true. That’s what you call fake news." Jeremy Corbyn has campaigned against nuclear weapons and nuclear power for thirty years, but eventually came out in support of 'new nuclear' three weeks before the referendum. Ian Lavery MP, and new Corbyn campaign chief (blame: unspecified, but not Corbyn) "Jeremy Corbyn is one of the most popular politicians in the country. This wasn't in any way, shape of form an election on the leadership of the Labour Party." Film director Ken Loach (blame: Blair and Brown) The loss of Copeland was the fault of the years of Blair, Brown and their apologists in the PLP. The politics of exploiting the working class has led, surprise surprise, to an alienated working class. Those who should represent them but chose not to are the most excoriated and despised of all. Paul Mason (blame: Outgoing Labour MP Jamie Reed) The Marxist journalist and Corbyn backer wrote on his blog: "For socialists in the Labour Party it will be a relief that the Blairite plan to stage two electoral disasters on one night failed. Nobody can claim losing Copeland was Jeremy Corbyn’s “fault”: the fault lies with the careerist right-winger who abandoned the seat in mid-session to take a better job." Ken Livingstone (blame: Blair and Brown) "This isn’t a decline that happened under Jeremy. It’s been happening for twenty years. You hear it from ordinary people on the street asking, ‘What did the last Labour government do for me?'" (he told Sky News) Jeremy Corbyn (blame: the political establishment) "The political establishment has let down Copeland and Stoke, who have seen their industries gutted, living standards stagnate and hope of a better future for their children and grandchildren decline. "Whatever the results, the Labour Party - and our mass membership - must go further to break the failed political consensus, and win power to rebuild and transform Britain," on Facebook as the polls closed. Labour MP Cat Smith: (blame: no one. Defeat was an 'incredible achievement.') "To be 15 to 18 points behind in the polls and to push the Tories to within 2,000 votes is an incredible achievement," to ITV News. We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads. Subscribe now.

The Ebola epidemic could claim hundreds of thousands of lives and infect more than 1.4 million people by the end of January, according to a statistical forecast released this week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC forecast supports the drastically higher projections released earlier by a group of scientists, including epidemiologists with the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, who modeled the Ebola spread as part of a National Institutes of Health-sponsored project called Midas, short for Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study. The effort is also supported by the federal Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Before the scientists released results, the outbreak in West Africa was expected to be under control in nine months with only about 20,000 total cases. But modeling showed 20,000 people could be infected in just a single month. The predictions could change dramatically if public health efforts become effective, but based on the virus’s current uncontrolled spread, numbers of people infected could skyrocket. “If the disease keeps spreading as it has been we estimate there could be hundreds of thousands of cases by the end of the year in Liberia alone,” said Bryan Lewis, a computational epidemiologist with the Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. Lewis and his fellow researchers use a combination of models to predict outcomes of the epidemic. The agent-based models are adaptive, evolving as more information is fed into them to provide an accurate forecast. Pharmaceutical intervention, which is still on the horizon, is proving less effective in the models than supportive care and personal protection equipment for health care workers. “The work with Ebola is not an isolated event,” said Christopher Barrett, the executive director of the institute. “This research is part of a decades-long effort largely funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to build a global synthetic population that will allow us to ask questions about our world and ourselves that we have never been able to ask before, and to use those answers to prevent or quickly intervene during a crisis.” Barrett and other institute leaders updated U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands about the Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Lab’s role in analyzing the Ebola outbreak at the Virginia Tech Research Center in Arlington on Tuesday morning. That afternoon in Blacksburg they briefed staff members from U.S. Sen. Mark Warner's office.

The Cardiac Owls do it again! Temple posted an 83-82 win over Massachusetts Saturday night at the Mullins Center. Five Owls scored in double figures led by arguably the hottest player in the country, senior guard, who topped all scorers with 24 points.It was a Temple record fifth straight one-point game for the Owls. According to STATS, LLC, the streak is the longest in the nation by a Division I team, and longest until at least the start of the 1996-97 season. STATS, LLC does not have data going further back then that season.The Owls improve to 17-8, 6-5 in Atlantic 10 Conference play, while the Minutemen fall to 16-8, 6-5.Wyatt, who is now averaging 25.2 points over the last 11 games, made eight straight points, including two deep threes, for Temple in one stretch to give the Owls their first lead of the second half, 58-57. It was part of a stretch for the TU playmaker that included two more threes as he scored 14 of the Owls 18 points in a seven-minute period.But this was far from a one-man show as this road victory over a Top 50 RPI team (#45) had many authors.Junior(6 pts), who is starting to find a rhythm offensively, made two late lay-ups, one on a nifty steal and basket to give the Cherry and White a 72-66 lead with 6:07 on the clock.Senior(11 pts), who started the game by draining two “threes” in the first two minutes, made perhaps the biggest shot of the game when he connected on a trey from deep in the right corner with 1:25 remaining to make it 83-79 and keep it a two possession game.Or how about. The 6-6 junior forward almost recorded the first triple double since Pepe Sanchez (1998), scoring 10 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and dishing a career-high eight assists.There was also, who contributed 14 points and seven rebounds, and, who made four of his five shots, including both three-pointers he attempted, for 10 points off the bench.Still, with all of that, it took one final defensive stop to seal the win. After UMass used its final timeout with 17 seconds left, the Owls did not allow the Minutemen to get off a final shot. Hollis-Jefferson appeared to strip the ball from Williams at the top of the key. A scramble then ensued and a jump-ball was called with the clock at 0.0.The officials went to replay and determined the game was indeed over and the Owls had posted their third A10 road win, and sixth on the season (6-4).Freddie Riley, who was deadly all night from the perimeter (5-9 3pt), led UMass with 17 points. Williams added 16 points and 13 assists while Cady Lalanne came off the bench to contribute 14 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks.The Owls shot 48 percent from the field and were 12-of-22 (54.5%) from three-point range. Temple also dished 21 assists on their 31 baskets while turning the ball over just eight times.Temple next hosts La Salle (18-6, 8-3) Thursday at the Liacouras Center (7:00 p.m./CBS Sports Network/1210 AM WPHT) in a key A10/Big 5 showdown. With a win the Owls (2-1 Big 5) will share the Big 5 title with the Explorers (3-0), who clinched their first city-series title since 1990 with their 76-64 win over Saint Joseph's Saturday.

Mark Warburton and Lee Wallace at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow Lee Wallace insists that his message to team-mates was positive after Rangers dropped their first points at home in the league to Morton. The squad held a clear-the-air session in the dressing room following Saturday's 2-2 draw. As captain, Wallace was one of the senior players to address the team, but the left-back did not resort to anger or recriminations. "It was more of a chat on how we can be better," Wallace explained. Rangers maintained their three-point lead at the top of the Championship, with nearest rivals Hibernian held 1-1 draw by third-placed Falkirk. It was the nature of the performance against Morton that left the hosts frustrated, with Morton recovering from conceding a goal inside two minutes to take the lead with six minutes left. Manager Mark Waburton and midfielder Andy Halliday both made reference to a dressing room airing of views and Wallace revealed that players are encouraged to analyse performances and provide feedback. "It was more of a coached speech at the end, not just from the gaffer but from myself, Kenny Miller, Rob Kiernan and a couple of the senior boys," Wallace said. "The manager's style has never been to rant and rave. The way I'll try to captain the squad will be the same. "It was about the one per cents we can do on a day-to-day basis, being a 24-hour professional even when you're away from the club, making sure we don't get complacent, reiterating the fact that we appreciate what we have at the club. "We were below our standards. That's the feedback the players gave. We're a very honest group." Rangers needed a late goal to salvage a draw on Saturday Wallace was speaking as the Rangers squad paid a Christmas visit to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow. Falkirk and Hibs are up next but Wallace stresses that the Championship leaders will not treat the fixtures any differently, or feel any more pressure ahead of them. "It's just another time that we take to the pitch," he said. "This week is the next time we can try to make amends for the two points dropped at the weekend. "I don't think the enormity is in the opponent but that we need to try to get back being the best Rangers we can be. We've tailed off that in recent weeks, albeit we were just off the back of two 4-0 wins when we were getting our swagger back again. "We know the expectancy, we know the flak that we come in for. The only way to beat that is performing, by training hard and by making sure we're best prepared." Wallace also spoke of his "devastation and shock" at learning of the sudden death of his former Ibrox team-mate Arnold Peralta, who was shot dead in Honduras last week. "Speaking on behalf of the Rangers players, the fans, everybody involved at the club, we're devastated and send out all of our thoughts at this dark time to Arnold's family," he said.

Manila’s water crisis exposes impact of privatisation By Dante Pastrana 7 September 2010 Water supplies in Metro Manila are not expected to fully normalise until later this month after a water crisis that led to more than three million people being cut off for hours per day during July. According to a recent statement by Maynilad Water Services, Inc., which services the Philippine capital’s West Zone, restoration of full services depends on continuing rains. In 1997, the water and sewerage system in the National Capital Region was privatised. The sell-off, the largest in Asia, was presented as the only viable means for a government with empty coffers to provide sustainable and affordable water services. For years, international financial institutions hailed it as a success. July’s week-long rationing of water highlighted the reality: millions of people are denied the basic right to potable water and sanitation while private firms rake in profits at their expense. On July 16, Maynilad Water Services imposed water rationing in the West Zone concession area, which covers 7 million people in 11 cities across the National Capital Region and 5 towns in the neighbouring Cavite province. A week later, ABSCBN News reported that Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson, the former head of Maynilad, estimated that over 2.9 million Maynilad customers had water for only 6 hours a day while 700,000 people had water for up to 12 hours a day. Singson admitted that 61,000 households, or over 300,000 people, had no water at all. Maynilad Water claimed the water rationing resulted from a 30 percent cut by the National Water Regulatory Board of the company’s allocation from the Angat Dam in the Bulacan province. The level at the dam, which supplies over 90 percent of the capital’s water, had dropped 22 metres below the critical level because of a dry spell that began last November. The environment department estimated that enough water remained for just 45 days more. Nevertheless, the water rationing was conducted first and foremost to defend the profits of Maynilad Water. For years the company has underfunded the laying of new pipes and repairs of old pipes. Consequently, the West Zone loses more than 50 percent of its allocation, or over one billion litres a day, to leakages and alleged pilferage. The cut in allocation meant a reduction of 580.92 million litres each day, translating to a possible daily loss of up to a million dollars. Maynilad had to purchase water from its rival, Manila Water, which covers the capital’s East Zone. Rather than shoulder the losses, Maynilad cut off supply or reduced water pressure to those areas with leakages, penalising largely the working class and poor neighbourhoods. According to the Philippine Online Chronicle, Mark Isaiah David, Maynilad’s external communications head, stated: “Unfortunately, the reduction in our water allocation has forced us to ration water in elevated areas, in areas with a lot of water loss usually due to illegal connections, and in areas that need further upgrade.” Daily newspapers ran reports of poor people in Malabon city forcibly breaking up a pipe to gain access to water, of residents jumping queues and ensuing fistfights. On July 23, Singson rushed to defend his former employer’s assets. He announced that military forces would be deployed to maintain “order in the water distribution”. According to a Daily Inquirer report, citing Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson, Brigadier General Jose Mabanta, the army committed at least “four battalions or roughly 2,000 soldiers from the National Capital Regional Command”. The next day, faced with the prospect of soldiers patrolling the capital and possible clashes with the urban poor in the run up to his first State of the Nation address to a joint session of the Philippine congress, President Benigno Aquino III scuttled the planned military deployment. “Certain government officials,” were overreacting or merely preparing for “worst case scenarios”, he claimed. During a press conference he insisted that because of a 30 centimetre increase in the Angat dam water level, there was no longer any need to call out the troops. That same day, Maynilad Water announced an end to the water rationing. According to an ABS-CBN news report, Maynilad said it could “deliver 1.9 billion cubic metres of water,” albeit under reduced pressures. On July 26, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) officer-in-charge Macra Cruz acknowledged that water rationing remained in force in the West Zone. Twelve-hour water service represented the average or normal in the West Zone, while 17 barangays (districts) had a zero-to six-hour supply. Amid the social disaster for millions of Filipinos, sections of the elite are callously manoeuvring to advance their interests. The hydroelectric power plant at the Angat Dam is currently being privatised. Last April, the previous government of President Gloria Arroyo declared the Korean Water Resources Development Corp to be the highest bidder. It beat corporations controlled by elite families that backed Aquino against Arroyo: DMCI Power Corporation, First Gen Northern Energy Corp, SN-Aboitiz Power Pangasinan, Inc. and the Trans-Asia Oil & Energy Development Corporation. With Aquino in office barely a month, the DMCI-owned Maynilad Water demanded a stop to the privatisation. Singson moved to sack the MWSS board of directors, who regulate the water companies, on allegations of looting the government agency. The water crisis that continues to wreak havoc in the lives of millions of Filipinos is rooted in a class society that sacrifices the interests and welfare of the vast majority for the profits of a tiny elite. Government after government—from the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, to his supposed progressive alternative Corazon Aquino; from Fidel Ramos, to the so-called pro-poor Joseph “Erap” Estrada; to Gloria Arroyo, who ousted Estrada in a political coup, to the now President Benigno Aquino—has insisted that no money is available for basic social services while channelling billions into corporate hands through privatisations and so-called public-private partnerships. More than a decade after privatisation, none of the government’s targets for the companies have been met. Instead of going down, water tariff rates have increased by an average of 1,700 percent since 1997. Only about 12 percent of Manila households are connected to a sewerage system, leaving the rest to empty their wastewater directly into the rivers or estero (waterways). Nearly 60 percent of the water pollution in Metro Manila is caused by residential sewage. The Pasig River, once used for drinking water, fishing and swimming, has become polluted by untreated sewage. The Aquino administration is set to compound the social catastrophe besetting the Filipino working class. In his first address to the Philippine Congress, Aquino shed his populist posturing of being pro-poor. He claimed to have just 100 billion pesos ($US22.5 million) left in the treasury to spend on social services and programs while declaring that the hundreds of billions set aside for debt servicing, pork barrel funding and infrastructure were already allocated by law. Aquino outlined an austerity program based on zero-based budgeting and insisted that no program would be launched without a corresponding revenue measure. He called for the sacking of government employees under the guise of efficiency and for means-testing of the meagre benefits paid by social services agencies. The new president signalled an increase in public train fares and electricity rates, lambasting the previous Arroyo administration for artificially holding down the rates for political purposes. Aquino also announced more privatisations and public-private partnerships in road construction, public school building and water supply.

Afterdamp is the toxic mixture of gases left in a mine following an explosion caused by firedamp, which itself can initiate a much larger explosion of coal dust.[1] It consists of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen. Hydrogen sulfide, another highly toxic gas, may also be present. However, it is the high content of carbon monoxide which kills by depriving victims of oxygen by combining preferentially with haemoglobin in the blood. Afterdamp was the deadly gas which caused the majority of casualties in the many pit disasters of the British coalfields, such as the Senghenydd colliery disaster and elsewhere in the world. Such disasters continue to afflict working mines, especially in mainland China. Detection [ edit ] Domestic Canary Animal sentinels, such as mice or canaries, are more sensitive to the gas than humans, so will give a warning to miners. Canaries were introduced into British collieries in the 1890s by John Scott Haldane, the noted physiologist. Gas detectors are available now which detect toxic gases such as carbon monoxide at very low levels. They are widely available to protect domestic premises. The levels of gas detection depend on the methods used. See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] ^ "After-damp". A Glossary of Mining and Metallurgical Terms. Easton, Pennsylvania: American Institute of Mining Engineers. 1881.

Four members of the elite 2015 recruiting class won’t have to wait long to make their Penn State debuts. James Franklin announced after practice on Wednesday that freshmen Brandon Polk, John Reid, Juwan Johnson, and Saquon Barkley are all expected to see the field in 2015 — a notion that should excite fans a great deal. All four players came into Penn State with lofty expectations as four-star recruits, and the fact that Franklin gave each a vote of confidence bodes well for their standing on the depth chart. Franklin elaborated on his decision to green light the talented youngsters after practice. “One of the challenges that we have here is that we graduate so many guys in three to three and a half years, we have to decide whether to redshirt a guy, but now he doesn’t come back for a fifth year,” Franklin said. “We have to decide the best way to take advantage of our roster, but that’s where we’re at right now. We have up to 14 young guys who could potentially see the field, we’re just in the process of making that decision.” There’s obvious reason for excitement, especially with Johnson, Reid, and Barkley. Johnson, a towering receiver at 6-foot-4, 213 pounds, has a big frame and a wide catch radius. Ideally, he could see action in the redzone as a mismatch nightmare for opposing defensive backs, while developing into a safety valve for Christian Hackenberg in enemy territory. Wide receivers coach Josh Gattis further elaborated on his impressions of Johnson thus far. “Juwan [Johnson] is a great kid, and an extremely hard worker. He’s got a great body, and is so passionate about the game of football,” Gattis said. “He comes from a family that has great athletes, and he’s going to bring another level to this offense.” The same thing can be said about Reid, Barkley, and Polk, as all three players add a different dynamic to their respective positions. Reid is expected to add even more depth and talent to a young, loaded secondary, and could see time playing in a nickel back role. Obviously, Saquon Barkley probably won’t be the featured back with Akeel Lynch in the fold, but that doesn’t mean he won’t see his share of carries. If anything, Barkley can provide running game coordinator Herb Hand an excellent change-of-pace option to complement the powerful Lynch. His shifty, explosive running style is one that could catch defenses off guard, while giving him vital experience early in his career that could prove important as he develops as a running back. Coaches raved about Brandon Polk’s blistering speed — a trait that most likely put him in good standing with both Gattis and Franklin. While there is an abundance of talent in the wide receiver room this year, Polk’s early progression is a clear sign that his impact might be felt sooner rather than later. Of course, all of this is pure speculation at this point, seeing as nobody has seen any of those freshmen in a college game. That said, Franklin’s decision to give the talented young players an opportunity to make an impact early is good sign. In a perfect world, the transition from high school to college football is seamless, and all four freshmen make an immediate impact. Be sure to watch for the highly-touted first year players next weekend, when Penn State meets Temple for the regular season opener at Lincoln Financial Field. Your ad blocker is on. Please choose an option below. Sign Up Sign up for our e-mail newsletter: OR Support quality journalism: About the Author David Abruzzese David is a senior from Rochester, NY, nestled right in beautiful Western New York. He is majoring in Broadcast Journalism, and as an avid sports fan, he passionately supports the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. He is the first Penn Stater from his family, and couldn’t be prouder to represent Penn State University. In his free time, he likes to alpine ski, and play golf. You can follow him on Twitter @abruz11, and can contact him via email at [email protected]

A publicly-funded online platform for commercial-free children’s programmes and content will launch in 2018. Mediawatch says it's a response to modern kids' new media habits, but also our broadcasters’ lack of interest in their youngest viewers - and it won’t reach all Kiwi kids. Photo: 123RF A new publicly-funded online platform for children’s programmes and multimedia content has been announced by the government and its broadcasting funding agency NZ on Air. The service for children aged five to nine will be ad-free but may have commercial sponsors. Its charter of principles released by NZ On Air says the yet-to-be named site can also have “appropriate sponsorship, where TVNZ and NZ On Air agree”. State-owned TVNZ will create the platform with $1.5 million from NZ on Air to go live in March 2018. Local content for the site funded by NZ On Air will be supplemented with content from overseas. The website will be overseen by an advisory panel including Janette Howe of the New Zealand Children's Screen Trust. The group formed after TVNZ’s non-commercial channel closed in 2011 to push for a permanent home for children’s television. “A digital home for local content will give our children a trusted space they can call their own," says Ms Howe. Why now? Photo: supplied The new online service is designed to complement programmes on free-to-air TV funded by NZ On Air. Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry said in a statement NZ On Air would commission content through its September funding round and was about to start working with children’s content producers for new material. NZ On Air chief executive Jane Wrightson said this was “a timely and crucial intervention for children’s media in New Zealand”. New Zealand On Air has a statutory responsibility to provide for children and has spent about $15m a year on children's programmes in recent years. But it cannot force broadcasters to air them and some free-to-air TV channels have turned away from shows for kids. Viewers lost Kidzone when commercial-free TVNZ 6 closed in 2011. NZ On Air reviewed its strategy in 2015 after warning that broadcasters’ support for local kids' TV “could not be taken for granted”. A major outlet was lost in 2016 when MediaWorks turned FOUR into reality channel Bravo and some publicly-funded programmes were launched online-only on TVNZ’s on-demand service. This led to complaints that families without broadband were missing out. "The digital divide may be closing but it still exists. Kids have a right to media that informs them and educates them about their world," Janette Howe told Mediawatch in 2016. "When you have an anchor channel you can develop that, and parents and kids know where to find it. We don't have that public space any more. That's why NZ On Air has put the call out to commercial companies to build something online," she told Mediawatch last year. Is online the answer? The charter for the new online service says: “Children have a right to accessible and diverse local media which is made specifically for them.” Photo: screenshot But NZ On Air’s own research shows a substantial proportion of families can't easily access an online video service. A survey of 700 children in 2015 found children’s online time was growing but the survey also found only 77 percent of homes had broadband while 98 percent had TV in 2014. "TV is still the dominant screen in New Zealand children's lives,” said Colmar Brunton's report, while "on-demand sites are rarely used by 6-14 year olds on a daily basis". A TV channel for children didn't feature as an option in the discussion paper NZOA put out last year. In Australia, the public broadcaster ABC operates two children's channels, both of which have interactive websites and on-demand platforms for the content.

[UPDATE 2] The first images of the new Xbox One controller have been revealed by way of Austrian retailer Libro (via Eurogamer). See below. [UPDATE] Following the publication of this story, a Microsoft representative offered the following statement: "We're gearing up for an exciting E3 where we'll showcase more games and experiences. We have nothing further to share at this time." The original story is below. One of Microsoft's E3 surprises may have been spoiled. The company's own Xbox Support website reveals a new version of the Xbox One controller that features a 3.5mm headphone port at its base. A line from the description explains that this port will "only available on controllers released after June 2015." This timing would suggest an announcement at Microsoft's E3 briefing next month, though this has not been confirmed. It's also unclear if a 3.5mm port is just one of the rumored controller's new features. #16 is the new 3.5mm port As you can see in the image above, the new controller design, in terms of form factor, is identical to the existing controller. We've contacted Microsoft, asking for more information. This would be the first change to the Xbox One controller since launch in November 2013. Controller revisions are somewhat rare in console gaming, though Microsoft does have a history of making tweaks. Back in 2010, Microsoft announced a new version of its Xbox 360 controller that featured a transforming d-pad. This decision came in response to complaints about the standard d-pad, which players felt yielded insufficiently precise inputs for some games. Microsoft's E3 2015 briefing is set for Monday, June 15, starting at 9:30 AM PDT. GameSpot will bring you all the news as it's announced. For more on E3 2015, check out our roundup of all the dates and times for every E3 briefing. Via: Eurogamer

Bomber blows himself up in Tahrir Square in Damascus, in biggest such attack since March A suicide car bomber pursued by security forces blew himself up in eastern Damascus on Sunday, killing 21 people, in the deadliest attack to hit the Syrian capital in months. Syrian state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said security forces intercepted three car bombers on their way into the city early in the morning. State television said two of the vehicles were blown up on the outskirts of the city but a third managed to reach the Tahrir Square district, where the driver was surrounded but able to detonate a bomb. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but previous deadly attacks in Damascus have been claimed by Isis and rival jihadist factions. The UK-based Observatory said 21 people were killed in the bombing, including at least seven members of pro-regime security forces and two civilians. It had not identified the remaining victims. It said at least 12 other people were wounded in the blast. The Syrian state news agency Sana quoted an interior ministry statement as saying two of the vehicles had been “destroyed” at a roundabout on the road to the city’s airport. The driver of the third blew himself up while being pursued, it said, “killing a number of civilians, injuring others, and causing material damage to public and private properties.” Yara, 23, who lives near Tahrir Square, said her apartment had been rattled by the blast. “It was like war had returned after we felt that it had faded away,” she said. “I haven’t left the house yet today – I’m not afraid any more, but I just want to do nothing today.” Hours after the blast, security was still tight at checkpoints around the city centre although local authorities had reopened some streets leading to Tahrir Square. Damascus has been spared the large-scale battles that have devastated other major Syrian cities during the country’s six-year civil war but dozens of people have been killed in bombings, usually on the outskirts. In March, two suicide bomb attacks in Damascus killed several dozen people, most of them at the Palace of Justice courthouse near the Old City. Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack. Also in March, a double suicide attack in the capital killed scores of people, most of them Iraqi Shia pilgrims. That attack was claimed by the Tahrir al-Sham alliance of Islamist insurgents, which is spearheaded by a jihadist group formerly known as the Nusra Front. Syrian government forces, which have defeated rebel fighters in several suburbs of Damascus over the last year, are currently fighting in the Jobar and Ain Tarma areas on the capital’s eastern outskirts.

Monica Crowley was recently tapped as Donald Trump’s selection to be the Senior Director of Strategic Communications on the National Security Council. Unfortunately for her, former Buzzfeed researcher (now with CNN) Andrew Kaczynski has been digging into her 2012 best seller, What The (Bleep) Just Happened and has turned up multiple instances of obvious plagiarism. Crowley is a long time Fox News host and conservative columnist, so she was no neophyte when it comes to the rules of the road for journalists and authors. Trump is calling this essentially a political hit job, but it’s definitely a problem. (CNN) Conservative author and television personality Monica Crowley, whom Donald Trump has tapped for a top national security communications role, plagiarized large sections of her 2012 book, a CNN KFile review has found. The review of Crowley’s June 2012 book, “What The (Bleep) Just Happened,” found upwards of 50 examples of plagiarism from numerous sources, including the copying with minor changes of news articles, other columnists, think tanks, and Wikipedia. The New York Times bestseller, published by the HarperCollins imprint Broadside Books, contains no notes or bibliography. Crowley did not return a request for comment. Multiple requests for comment by phone and email over the past two days to HarperCollins went unreturned. Crowley, a syndicated radio host, columnist, and, until recently, a Fox News contributor, will serve as Trump’s senior director of strategic communications for the National Security Council. So is it a “politically motivated attack” as the Trump transition team is saying? Well… this didn’t come out of the Democrats’ oppo files. Kaczynski made his bones in the political news world by specializing in digging through the archives of political figures and dredging up their past to hold in contrast against what they say in the present. Now he’s apparently turning those talents to the field of uncovering plagiarism. One might argue that the position Crowley is heading toward isn’t really an editorial or publishing job, so what’s the big deal, right? Perhaps those of us who cover these stories are a bit more sensitive than the citizenry at large, but man… it is a big deal. Anyone who writes for a living knows that plagiarizing the work of others is pretty much held on the same level as a war crime. For writers, it’s just about the worst thing you can do. Steven Taylor at Outside the Beltway explains why Crowley, given her background, should have known better. The link contains the evidence, which is thorough and damning. It is also of a type quite familiar to me after years of teaching and dealing with this kind of thing: the change of a word here and there by the author, as if that is enough to make the words and thoughts original. Really, to me, it is just evidence of knowing theft: the attempt to subtly doctor paragraphs in the hopes that there will be enough change for others not to notice or to create some kind of plausible deniability. She has a Ph.D. in International Relations from Columbia and she has been a published columnist for decades. She knows exactly what she is doing. That’s all true. But we also have to ask ourselves if this High Crime among writers is, or even should be enough to sink Crowley for this new job. She’s not going to be an author or editor at the National Security Council. Being willing to commit plagiarism speaks to one’s character to be sure, but it doesn’t always sink people, even in journalism and cable news. Mike Barnicle’s employers at the Boston Globe once demanded his resignation over multiple plagiarism charges and he’d previously been accused of the crime by folks including Mike Royko. Still, you’ll find him on Morning Joe almost every day being introduced as “legendary” by the crew, so people have risen up to new careers after such charges in the past. At the end of the day, however, the rest of the world doesn’t treat plagiarism as the same sort of High Crime that we do. And it probably won’t sink Crowley on her way to an NSC post.

THE NICAP SITE PRESENTS The RAND Corporation published a paper titled "UFOs: What to Do?, Here is the actual RAND Document in pdf format Fran Ridge: Originally, the RAND Corporation, a high level research group that had nothing to do with the business-machine firms and one of the most unpublicized yet highly competent contractors to the Air Force, stated in a letter dated June 25, 1969 that they were unable to identify any RAND publication on UFOs "available for external distribution." Then, in another letter dated August 8th, 1969 RAND stated, "RAND has done very little on the subject of UFOs: therefore, no publications have been written on the subject." I also have a copy of a letter dated October ? 1969 from the Department of the Air Force, to Mr. William Laub, of Northfield, Illinois. The letter was written by Lt. Col. James H. Aikman, Chief, Civil Branch, Community Relations Division, Office of Information. It states, "The Rand Corporation has never made any reports on unidentified flying objects (UFOs) for the United States Air Force. If any reports were made by this corporation they were made on their own." RAND finally had to admit the existence of this paper and later stated that it was originally produced as an internal document and not prepared for or delivered to any of RAND's clients. RAND decided to make this paper available to the public if they asked for it. This document, which crops up for discussion every once in a while, is placed here, with commentary at the end of this page, for the record. In regard to the commentary I have made a request to CUFOS (Nov. 2006) to locate a copy of a letter from George Kocher to Dr. J. Allen Hynek to document the contents mentioned by Jan Aldrich and confirm the date of same. Below is the text version of the Rand Document The RAND Corporation RAND DOCUMENT UFOs: What to Do? George Kocher 27 November 1968 For RAND Use Only DO NOT QUOTE OR CITE IN EXTERNAL RAND PUBLICATIONS OR CORRESPONDENCE -1- INTRODUCTION Common sense is the quintessence of the experiences and prejudices of its time. It is a most unreliable advisor when one is confronted with a perfectly new situation. Gustav Naan UFOs -- unidentified flying objects, or flying saucers as they are often called -- have been on the mind of the public for at least the last 22 years. For a number of reasons, we know little more about them now than we did at the outset. There exists a great amount of misinformation about the phenomenon not only in the minds of the public, but among educated groups such as scientists as well. It is the purpose of this series of essays to describe various aspects of the phenomenon, make clear my prejudices and the reasons for them, and to suggest a means of proceeding on this interesting and potentially very significant problem. But first, a few words about the term UFO. J. A. Hynek, an astronomer having continuous involvement with UFO study for over 20 years, defines UFOs as "any reported aerial or surface visual sighting or radar return which remains unexplained by conventional means even after examination by competent persons. This definition ... specifies neither flying nor objects." (1) I would agree, but would prefer to replace "or radar return" with "or instrumental observation" and "even after examination by competent persons" to "even after competent examination by qualified persons." This, then, is the definition I have adopted in the five essays that follow. ii CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1 Part 1: UFO's: Historical Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Part 2: UFO's: Astronomical Aspects . . . . . . . . 8 Part 3: UFO's: The Character of Reports . . .. . 12 Part 4: UFO's: Phenomenological Aspects . .... 24 Part 5: UFO's: How to Proceed and Why . . . . 29 A REPORT FORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 -2- PART 1: UFOs -- HISTORICAL ASPECTS Those familiar with the UFO literature are aware that reports of sightings did not begin with Arnold's sighting in 1947, but that phenomenology much the same as is reported today can be found in documents going back to the earliest times. Vallee (2) gives a sampling of this; B.L.P. Trench (3) has made a more thorough study and reports on the research of others able to study the original documents. What was reported? Luminous discs, shields, globes and elongated objects in the sky, sometimes alone, sometimes in large numbers. Occasional descriptions of interactions with the observers are also mentioned, including landings, and seeing and communicating with occupants. The latter events especially were almost always interpreted in a religious context. A recent example is the repeated appearance of a typical UFO phenomenology at Fatima, Portugal on six successive months in 1917. The October 13 phenomenon was the best reported and was witnessed by a crowd of about 70,000 persons, including a number of scientists, reporters, atheists, and agnostics, as wel as faithful Catholics. One of the scientifically curious was Dr. A Garrett of the University of Coimbra. Rain, which had been falling that day, ceased and the crowd looked up to see the "sun" now visible through the heavy clouds. Professor Garrett wrote, "...I turned toward this (sun) which was attracting all eyes and I could see it like a disk with a clear cut edge, with a vivid rim, luminous and shining, but without hurting one. The comparison I have heard at Fatima with a disk of dull silver, does -3- not seem to me exact. It was a clearer, more vivid, richer color and with shifting tints like the luster of a pearl. It was not at all like the moon on a clear transparent night, for one saw and felt it like a living star. Nor was it spherical like the moon, nor did it have the same quality of lighter and less light. It looked like a burnished wheel cut out of mother-of-pearl. Nor could it be confused with the sun seen through a fog -- there was no fog... This disc spun dizzily round. It was not the twinkling of a star: it whirled round upon itself with mad rapidity... The sun, preserving the celerity of its rotation, detached itself from the firmament and advanced, blood-red, towards the earth, threatening to crush us with the weight of its vast and fiery mass. These moments made a terrifying impression." (4) The relationship of the old phenomenology to religion are discussed by Thomas. (5) An example of earlier celestial displays of interest is illustrated in Figs 1 and 2. These are broadsheets from Nuremberg (1561) and Basel (1566), respectively. The psychologist, C. G. Jung; provides an analysis of the contents of the woodcuts in his interesting book. (6) Reference 7 has a very interesting reproduction of a fourteenth century fresco in a Yugoslavian church. The modern period of the phenomenon began with a widely publicized sighting made by Kenneth Arnold in Washington state in 1947. A study by Bloecher of North American reports over the four week period bracketing the Arnold sighting lists 853 events, including 38 sightings made before Arnold's heavily publicized Sighting. (8) Because the early reports seemed to suggest airborne craft of unusual appearance and kinematics, the problem came to rest with the newly organized U.S. Air Force. Initial fears were that the country was being over flown by advanced foreign aircraft, possibly on intelligence missions. The latter was suggested by the large number of sightings from the White Sands, New Mexico area and from the vicinity of the Hanford, Washington atomic plant. Serious inquiry proceeded for a few years without any positive results. A number of supposedly knowledgeable people spoke out pointing out the sporadic nature of the sightings, and that since the reported -4- Both Broadsheets from the Wickiana Collection, Zurich Central Library -5- kinematics were inconsistent with current physical theory, the UFOs were not likely to be from a foreign power. Further, they argued, no other planets in our solar system were believed to support life -- certainly not intelligent life -- and since even the nearest star was over four light years away, the hypothesis of extraterrestrial origin was simply unacceptable from a scientific point of view. (9) The Air Force investigative effort worked as follows: (10) Whenever a sighting was made, a report was to be made out and turned in to the Air Force at base level. The report was forwarded to Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio for study. If the report was interesting enough, follow up inquiry was made. By 1952 the number of reports coming in was so large that the CIA was concerned that an actual attack on the country might not be immediately recognized. A panel of scientists was then convened in January 1953 to study the available evidence and see what conclusion could be reached about UFOs. After seven days of hearing evidence and discussing the matter it was concluded that there was only circumstantial evidence of the extraterrestrial hypothesis. The panel recommended a broadened study effort with full disclosure of investigations. In order to unplug the military intelligence channels, however, the CIA recommended that, since the UFOs apparently posed no threat, the Air Force should debunk UFO reports and try generally to discourage public interest in them, in the hope that they would go away. (11) It was the CIA's recommendation, apparently, that was made policy, for the investigative procedures used since 1953 have been vestigial and the handling of the subject by the authorities tended to make witnesses look ridiculous. In spite of the unfavorable publicity accorded witnesses, reports persisted, and no doubt in response to official behavior several civilian study groups were formed to receive reports and investigate sightings. The most successful of these groups is the National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). NICAP's membership is well dispersed geographically and acts to learn as much as possible from sightings. The large number of scientific and technical personnel in the NICAP membership aids the quality of their evaluations. A summary of characteristics of the UFO phenomenology published by NICAP -6- in 1964 (12) contains 575 reports that were extensively checked by NICAP for accuracy. A series of sightings in 1965 and 1966 received considerable public attention arid after the poor public reception given the official explanations, the Air Force felt compelled to contract for a 15 month (later stretched to l8 months) scientific study to be performed at the University of Colorado under the leadership of E. U. Condon, a highly respected physicist. The Condon Committee is due to complete investigations at the end of June 1968; its report will be reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences (presumably to validate that the study was indeed the objective pearl of the scientific method that was desired), and is expected to be made public in October 1968. Unfortunately, the dismissal of two members of the Committee in February 1968 resulted in publicity suggesting that the study was not, in fact, objective. It remains, therefore, to see the final report to determine the worth of the study. In the meantime, the respectability accorded UFOs by the $500,000 study contract permitted a considerable amount of scientific interest to surface. Astronomer Hynek has made a number of public statements on the basis of his long involvement as a consultant to the Air Force; atmospheric physicist James F. McDonald has turned his attention full time to the subject, and a number of scientific and technical journals have printed some dialogue - notably Science, the AIAA Journal, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Journal of the Astronautical Sciences. It is also noteworthy that the University of Toronto has recently formed a UFO study group. Even the Soviets, who previously refused even to discuss the subject now admit to having a study group with good qualifications. The USSR Academy of Sciences still holds to the orthodox scientific view that UFOs are a nonproblem, however, using the same arguments we heard so long. These arguments are just as invalid in the USSR as in the USA. It therefore appears that the subject is slowly and finally being regarded as a fit subject of scientific inquiry. It is hoped that enough scientists will acquaint themselves with the subject so that progress can finally be made. -7- (Reference 13 is a good account of how the UFO phenomenon was treated in the U.S. and is recommended to those wondering how science came to consciously ignore the subject.) -8- PART 2: UFOs -- ASTRONOMICAL ASPECTS The astonishing thing would be if they did not exist. Jean Cocteau We saw in Part 1 that the historical aspects suggest an extraterrestrial explanation to UFOs. While it has not been established that the contemporary phenomena are extensions of the historical, there does seem to be a continuity in the descriptions of the phenomena described. We shall therefore look at contemporary astronomical knowledge and theories and ascertain the likelihood of the existence of other highly developed life forms. To begin with, the observable universe -- that is, the distance to which we can observe luminous objects -- is several billion light years in radius (a light year is the distance light travels in a year at a rate of 186,300 miles per second. The sun is 8 light minutes from the earth. The next-nearest star is 4.2 light years away). Within this vast volume we find hundreds of millions of galaxies. Our own (Milky Way) galaxy is similar to many of those we see at great distances. It is a lens-shaped assemblage of some 100 billion stars having a diameter of about 100,000 light years. The sun is but one of its component stars and lies about 30,000 light years from the center, close to the plane of symmetry. Now let us just consider the stars in our own galaxy -- specifically excluding those in neighboring or distant galaxies. We would like to estimate the number of stars having planets roughly similar to the Earth. From the statistics of stars within 15 light years of the sun we find that only about one-third are single, the rest binary or multiple. Since planetary orbits are often unstable in multiple systems (depending on the details of the configuration) we will say that only 30 billion stars in our galaxy now have a dynamical environment that permits planets to exist around them. Will these stars have planets? We cannot state with assurance that they will; however, current knowledge supports the theory that planetary formation is a natural adjunct to formation of the star itself from the interstellar gas cloud. -9- We would therefore expect about 30 billion stars to have one or more planets. Now, we can reject certain classes of stars as candidates or habitable planets, because their lifetimes are too short (these are stars of high mass). Others can be rejected because of variability in light output, a characteristic that would make evolutionary development of life much more difficult. In fact if we select only those stars similar to the sun (whose peak of radiation energy coincides with a region of terrestrial atmospheric transparency) we have only a few percent of the total -- about one in 30. Therefore, we would expect about 1000 million suitable solar type stars exist. Of these, it is estimated by various astronomers that 200-600 million have planets at about the right distance and have been around long enough that life forms as developed as our own could exist. Implicit in further discussion are the assumptions that: 1. Planets and/or life evolves to a mutual compatibility; 2. The life force, whether spontaneous or otherwise, is such that whenever the environment is favorable, life will exist; 3. Our own history of past evolution and development is neither slow nor fast, but average and typical for life forms. (Ours is the only example available and no one has yet demonstrated that the "average" galactic life form should be any different.) Now let us turn momentarily to time scales. The sun and earth are on the order of 5 billion years old. We might define modern man as being about 5000 years old (Stonehenge is 4000 years old) -- just one millionth of the earth's age. The age of science is certainly not more than 500 years, so our scientific and technical development has thus far occupied only one ten-millionth of the earth's life span. We expect the sun will burn another 5 billion years before significant changes in its brightness occur. Now the age of the galaxy is between 5 and 10 billion years; therefore among the 200-600 million stars we would expect to have acceptable planets, some would be older than the sun, some younger (for star formation is still continuing, even though at a lesser rate than in the galaxy's early history) and some the same age. It should be clear from assumption (3) and the example of our own -10- development, that among the populated planets those younger than the sun would be peopled by beings very much behind us technologically, while those on older planets would be extraordinarily advanced (remember our progress of 500 years and note that some planets could be as much as a few billion years older). Indeed, we would be surprised to find someone else at just our stage of technological development. For the purposes of this paper, we can ignore both the multitude younger than ourselves and those at our point of development. Even so, we are left with the possibility of 100,000,000 planets in the galaxy having life forms very much advanced from us. (This number would be reduced significantly if life forms destroyed themselves soon after reaching our age of development. This is a philosophical point on which I am optimistic -- I believe the majority of races will learn to survive.) If these stars are uniformly distributed in the galactic disk, the average separation will be about 10 light years. The usual scientist's reaction at this point is, well, even if the assumptions are correct and this number of advanced civilizations does exist, contact is still impossible because of the speed of light limitation of the theory of relativity. An excellent example of this kind of reasoning can be found in Ref. 14. My reply is that such a statement would appear to be shortsighted. For the moment, let us ignore the possibilities of overcoming the long time of travel by suspended animation and the like. Recall that our own physical theory has been developed in only 500 years. What can we expect in the next 500? Or 1000 or million or even billion years? I suggest that _if_ a way to circumvent the speed of light restriction is possible, it has already been found by someone in our galaxy. (I haven't the faintest idea how this might be done and I fully agree that our own experimental data appear to accurately confirm the existence of this limitation.) If it has been discovered by one, we certainly would expect it to be used; if no other planet's inhabitants independently discovered the means, it makes little difference for such a thing could be taught by the discoverer. Thus we may conclude that it is very likely that at least one, and probably many of the 100 million advanced planetary populations is capable of interstellar travel. -11- The next question is, of course, have any of them been here? That question cannot yet be answered definitively. Without knowing what kind of phenomenology extraterrestrial visitors might exhibit, I will fall back on my scientific, mechanistic attitudes and say it makes sense to look for some kind of vehicle or spaceship. It appears that the class of phenomenology called UFO reports may contain, as a subset, actual observations of such craft. We shall now turn to the reports to see when and where things are seen and by whom and what phenomenology, if any) is revealed by the reports. (Further information about the astronomical and biological possibilities are in Ref. 15, whose principal defects are (1) the authors uninformed rejection of UFO phenomenology as being relevant to the subject under discussion, and (2) their meek acceptance of the speed-of-light restriction as a universal truth. References 16 and 17 provide more detailed and more technical discussions of some aspects of the problem.) -12- PART 3: UFOs -- THE CHARACTER OF REPORTS Any collection of reports of unknown aerial sightings by the public will include a large percent of noise - sightings of something explainable. The reports are made because the appearance falls outside the range of the observer's experience, and the observer believes it is sufficiently anomalous to warrant the attention of authorities. Thus, any large collection of reports will include descriptions of aircraft, balloons) spacecraft, astronomical objects, atmospheric effects and the like. Often the practiced and perceptive analyst can recognize the stimulus, particularly if he has access to records of aircraft, balloon, and satellite movements, meteorological data and astronomical phenomenology. Recognition of stimulus is aided by a high quality report which is as quantitative as possible and which shows the observer to be able to differentiate between observation and interpretation. Of course a number of reports will be so lacking in details that no conclusion can be reached about what was seen. These are of little use; they may, however, serve as corroborating evidence to another, higher quality, report and should not, therefore be rejected. The really interesting class of reports is that reporting phenomenology which is clearly extraordinary. The observer's qualifications may be such that the report is not only highly credible but is articulate and quantitative as well. It is this subclass of reports, variously estimated at 5 to 20 percent of the total, that offer hope of our learning what is going on. Hynek considers two parameters of reports) credibility and strangeness, and suggests that the investigator really needs only to be concerned with reports having high strangeness and high credibility. The physical scientist is in a position to evaluate strangeness, the social scientist should be able to provide some measure of credibility. Hynek also comments on a number of beliefs about UFOs and reports stating, (18) among other things, that most reports are made by people who previously never gave much thought to UFOs; that reports are not always vague; and that well educated, well trained, reliable, stable people also contribute reports. These conclusions have been reached by most people who have taken the trouble to collect and investigate reports first hand. -13- To illustrate the character of reports, I will quote several narratives from the literature. (Narratives, of course, are just the beginning of any report. Quantitative information, usually not given in the narrative must be obtained by careful interview of the witness.) The first is taken from a collection of 160 reports by Olsen. (19) It was originally made to NICAP. Date: 24 April 1962 Place: Springfield (Delaware County), Pennsylvania First witness, J. A. Gasslein, Jr. (Lt. Colonel, USAR Ret.) reports: "Time: Approximately 1945 hours, weather: clear, cloudless, medium blue sky, visibility good. "My wife was driving her mother home following the latter's visit to our home. They had driven around the block to higher ground when my wife's mother looked out the car window and saw a large object. It was moving slowly and silently in an east-to-west direction at not over 50 ft. above street level. (Determined by the proximity to and relationship to the size of the Cape-Cod-type bungalows over which the object was passing.) My wife then plainly saw the object herself. "Anxious to have me see the object, my wife quickly drove the car back to our house and attracted my attention. I had been working in the basement. I ran out of the house and up the street for a view. by the time I saw it, the object appeared to be about a quarter to a half-mile away, moving in a westerly direction. I saw it as an object smaller at the top than at the base, seemingly suspended in the air at an angle of about 45 degrees from my position, and giving off colored lights. I know that the object was not any kind of conventional aircraft of balloon. "Having had the advantage of a closer viewing than I, my wife describes the object as follows.. " 'The UFO appeared to be about the size of one of the Cape Cod houses over which it passed, which would make it approximately 30 ft. in diameter and about the same dimension in height. It was circular, surmounted by a dome giving off flashes of green light. The center section rotated a series of square shaped "windows", each giving off a brilliant white light. The base section was somewhat saucer-shaped, -14- curved upward. Shafts of white light were directed downward from the base.' Unfortunately, my wife cannot recall if the exterior was metallic in appearance. In any event, the object had a well-defined outline. Again, it moved silently. There was no evidence of occupants of the UFO. "Approximately 20 to 25 minutes following the first sighting described above, the following sighting occurred: "Returning from taking her mother home, my wife drove the car into our driveway alongside the house, headed westward. In the rear of our home was a wooded park area. My wife walked down the driveway to enter the house. Coming up the driveway was a neighbor friend, a young lady 20 years of age. In a tone of astonishment, she called my wife's attention to the park area, from which was emerging an object of the same description as outlined above moving easterly at low level -- not over 50 ft. above ground level, as judged by the trees in the area -- the UFO proceeded relatively slowly and without sound. It was approaching the rear of our home and adjacent properties. "Again, my wife called me from the basement. By the time I got outside, the object had made a 90 degree turn northward and was proceeding parallel to the backs of the houses in the same line as ours. It was perhaps 150 - 200 yards distant. My observation of the characteristics of the UFO tallied with my wife's and the young lady's. Each of them independently made a pencil sketch within a few minutes after the sighting, and the sketches were substantially alike. "All told, there were at least 15 persons in the vicinity who acknowledged seeing the object at about the same time as the sightings made by my wife and myself." Another witness, P. T. Scattergood, reports: "Around 8 (p.m.) I stepped out the front door, facing south and saw a brilliantly lighted object low in the southern sky. At first I took it to be a jet taking off from Philadelphia Airport, which is in that general direction. But I could hear no engine noise and it was traveling too slowly to be a plane. Also it did not have the usual blinking lights. "It appeared to have a row of yellowish lights (which I took for the windows of the "jet") with a clear green light at the top. As I -15- watched, the row of lights appeared to be obscured as though a large paddle-wheel were revolving and blotting them out, beginning with the rear lights and proceeding forward. Since the object was moving west, I saw the right hand side of it. The periodic appearance and disappearance of the lights was perfectly regular. The top green light was constantly visible. I stood on the pavement and watched the object sail leisurely to the west until it disappeared behind some trees. The observation probably lasted from 5 to 10 minutes." This report has the desirable features of the UFO being seen by a number of people (about 15) of which two actually made reports. (Hynek estimates the number of sightings to be about 10 times the number of reports turned in) . Other desirable aspects of this sighting are that it was made during daylight; that it was near enough that some details of its configuration were observable; and, it was visible long enough to allow the observers to consider "explanations" as they watched it. The second example is reported by James F. McDonald in T. Bloecher's book on an intense period of UFO activity in 1947. The report was made 20 years after the sighting to Prof. McDonald for the reasons given at the end of the quotation. "Mrs. Olavick was in her kitchen at 2101 East Hawthorne Street, Tucson, while Mrs. Down was out in the back-year patio. Suddenly Mrs. Down called her out excitedly, and both proceeded to observe what had caught Mrs. Down's eye. The time was just after the noon hour; Tucson's skies were completely cloudless. Somewhat north of their zenith lay an unusual, isolated, "steamy-fleecy" cloud at an altitude which Mrs. Olavick found difficult to estimate, though she recalled that it seemed lower than average for that time of year (thus, perhaps at or below 10,000 feet, say.). No other cloud was to be seen in the sky. In and out of the cloud moved a number of dull-white disc-like objects that rose and fell in an erratic manner, occasionally disappearing into or above the unnatural cloud. She said that these objects were round in planform but were not spherical, for they frequently tipped a bit, exposing a flattened-sphere form. She estimates that they watched these objects cavorting near the cloud for perhaps five or six minutes before the entire group suddenly disappeared within the cloud or perhaps above it. -16- "After a minute or so, as she now recalls it, a new object, perhaps three of four times as large as the little objects, came out of the cloud on its east side. After it emerged, the small objects began to emerge also, taking up a V-formation pattern behind it. The V comprised a line of four-abreast just to the rear of the large object, then a line of three-abreast behind that, and finally two-abreast in the rear. Thus the point of the V was to the rear (in the sense of the emergent and subsequent motion). This formation permitted the first accurate count of the small objects, nine in all. No sooner had the last pair emerged than all ten objects shot off to the northeast, climbing out of sight in a time that she thought was probably two to three seconds. She does not recall what happened to the cloud after the ten objects departed. "I (McDonald) have spoken with Mrs. Olavick several additional times, following her first call. Her account was presented in an unembellished manner, and her descriptions were carefully framed, specifying just which parts had become less distinct in her memory. But the basic vividness of her memory of this observation she stressed repeatedly. I had to explain that it was by no means clear that the objects she saw were identical with those reported by Kenneth Arnold two months later. When I queried her as to why she had not reported them, she pointed out that she and Mrs. Down were entirely convinced that they had been fortunate enough to witness some new American military vehicles about which the general public had not yet been informed. Later she heard of the "flying saucers," and she and Mrs. Down, when they rejoined their husbands in mid-summer in Iowa, told them about their own observation. The husbands, she recalled, made such a joke of it that they ceased mentioning it. Again we have a daytime sighting of several minutes duration, with two witnesses. As is often the case when.the phenomenon appears mechanical, it was interpreted as some secret government development. Ridicule of the sighting by family members and friends (if not by authorities) is frequently mentioned as a reason for delayed reporting of sightings. -17- A third report is taken from a paper Prof. McDonald presented at the 12 March 1968 Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute Astronautics Symposium, Montreal. "At about 5:15 am., PDT, on the morning of July 4, 1967, at least five witnesses (and reportedly others not yet locatable) saw an object of unconventional nature moving over Highway 5 on the edge of Corning, California. Hearing of the event from NICAP, I began searching for the witnesses and eventually telephone-interviewed four. Press accounts from the Corning Daily Observer and Oakland Tribune afforded further corroboration. "Jay Munger, operator of an all-night bowling alley, was drinking coffee with two police officers, James Overton of the Corning force and Frank Rakes of the Orland force, when Munger suddenly spotted the object out the front windows of his bowling alley. In a moment all three were outside observing what they each described as a dark gray oval or disc-shaped object with a bright light shining upwards on its top and a dimmer light shining downward from the underside. A dark gray or black band encircled the mid-section of the object. When first sighted, it lay almost due west, at a distance that they estimated at a quarter of a mile (later substantiated by independent witnesses viewing it at right angles to the line of sight of the trio at the bowling alley). It was barely moving, and seemed to be only a few hundred feet above terrain. The dawn light illuminated the object, but not so brightly as to obscure the two lights on top and bottom, they stated. "Munger, thinking to get an independent observation from a different part of Corning, returned almost immediately to telephone his wife; but she never saw it for reasons of tree-obscuration. At my request, Munger re-enacted the telephoning process to form a rough estimate of elapsed time. He obtained a time of 1-1.5 minutes. This time is of interest because, when he completed the call and rejoined Overton and Rakes, the object had still moved only a short distance south on Highway 5 (about a quarter of a mile: perhaps), but then quickly accelerated and passed off to the south, going out of their sight in only about 10 seconds, far to their south. -18- Paul Heideman, of Fremont, California, was driving south on Highway 5 at the time of the above sighting, along with a friend, Robert King. I located Heideman and obtained from him an account of his observation made from a point on the highway north of Corning. He saw the light from the object, and had veered east (a turn not seen from the more restricted viewing point of the bowling-alley parking lot). Heideman said that, when first seen, it lay almost straight down Highway 5, serving to check the estimate of the other observers that the object lay only a few city blocks to their west. The weather was clear, no haze, no wind, according to the witnesses. Munger's concise comment was "I've never seen anything like it before." He estimated its "diameter" at perhaps 50-100 ft, and its vertical thickness as perhaps 15-20 ft, with some kind of edge (band) perhaps 5-10 ft thick. No sound was ever heard. Overton stated to me that he had no idea what it was, but that "there was no doubt it was a craft of some sort." The next example is from a report I personally investigated. It occurred in the area where I was reared; the observers are known to my family; I am familiar with the natural phenomenology of the area. Date: 10 October 1966 Place: Near Newton, Illinois First witnesses: Mrs. A (she prefers not to be publicly identified because of the reaction of friends and neighbors). Time: 5:20 p.m. "Mrs. A was in her kitchen preparing supper; five of her children were playing outdoors. The children shouted to her to "come out and see the silent plane". She writes "I glanced out the south window and there it was coming into sight just south of our 72 foot silo moving very slowly from east to west. It was about 35 feet high. My first thought was that it was a plane making an emergency landing, but when I saw it in full view, I knew it was no plane, not like anything I have ever seen. I hurried outside to join the children in the yard. It -19- continued to move in a straight line to the west. We could see it clearly as it drifted over a 50 by 100 foot machine shed being built at the time [the workers were, however, in the fields this day]. It appeared to be larger than our car, and was more oval. There was a bluish glow around the ends, top, and bottom of it. It (the glow) wasn't bright, since it was daylight yet, but more like a low cloud, haze, or fog; or a mixture of bluish-grey tiny bubbles floating along around it. The object was seen clearly. It was blue in color and appeared to be made of metal. You could see [longitudinal] seam lines. There was one black window. I thought they (assuming someone was in it) could see out but we could not see them. I kept looking for someone to peep out and wave, but don't recall seeing or feeling anything at the time. There was a brownish-gold design on the lower back half. A raised part was on the top near the back which was noticed by all the children. It moved very quietly, making no sound at all except for a whirling or vibrating sound for 1 or 2 seconds as it drifted on toward the west... We followed it down the yard and lane, continuing to watch it as it was 300 feet, then 200 feet from the north and south gravel road and the REA electric line which is on the west side of the road. We were talking together, all very excited about what it was, where it came from, if there were people in it, and if it would rise to clear the electric line. It did; it rose so quickly and was out of sight in just a few seconds. Our eyes could not follow it fast enough. This was certainly a fantastic thing." The questionnaire, a lengthy correspondence, an interview in June 1967 and other checking produced the following details: Meteorology: Clear, warm, dry weather, cloudless. Astronomical: Moonset 3:51 p.m. EST UFO: Prolate spheroidial shape. -20- The surface appeared to be non-spectacular, like dull aluminum or metal, and blue, the color probably deriving from the self-luminous halo. Longitudinal seams were apparent, but no rivets or such were seen. The black rectangle was assumed to be a window and appeared to be recessed. It was not shiny, but "like the dark of night." The surrounding glow was partly opaque, yet self luminous. It was darker than the sky and extended about 1/4 the object's length in all directions. The halo was particularly opaque at the ends: of the object, obscuring the underlying parts. The design at the lower rear looked like a pattern of crosses and dots. Mrs. A says the glow obscured the design and in any case her attention was fixed on the "window". The only sound heard occurred when the UFO was nearest the unfinished shed, being constructed of a wooden framework covered with ferrous sheets. It is possible that some sheets were caused to vibrate. No electromagnetic effects were noted (TV was off) and no electrostatic or other effects were noted by Mrs. A or her children. As the UFO disappeared, Mrs. A was just looking along the road for a car; two of the children said the UFO pitched nose-up and as it went up a light or flame of orange color was seen at the rear. Enough angular data was provided from building and landmark placement and sizes that it is possible to estimate the size of the metallic portion of the UFO at 16 to 20 feet in length, seen at a distance of 150 to 300 feet. Its linear speed was about 4 to 8 miles per hour, based on the above distances and timings obtained by re-enactment. It was visible for 4 minutes. Angular size was 2 3/4" at arms length. In an effort to quantify the colors somewhat, a Nickerson color fan was used by the witnesses to select the colors most nearly like those on the UFO. The color selections were made independently in direct sunlight with the color fan held in front of a white field. The colors given were -21- Metallic surface Mrs. A. 7.5 PB - 7 Child 1 2.5 PB - 8/5 Child 2 7.5 B - 3/5 Glow (The color of "grayness" was not uniform) Mrs. A. 5 PB - 8/5 2.5 PB - 8/5 Child 1 5 PB - 7/7 Child 2 2.5 PB - 6/8 Orange flare on ascent Child 1 5 YR - 7/11 Child 2 5 YR - 7/11 Second event: Same day, 6:30 p.m., sky is now dark. Location is in town of Newton, Illinois, about seven miles north west of first event. Mrs. B was walking down the steps of a friend's house toward her car. "As I started down the steps my eyes were drawn by something in the south eastern sky. I stopped a moment and saw very clearly a luminous bluish object moving quite rapidly from east to west. It seemed to be rather low in the sky, but at night it is difficult to judge distance either as to how high it was or how far away it was. It did appear larger than a full moon, but instead of being round it had a definite oval shape. I would say an elongated oval. There was no sound that I could detect, and while it appeared to be blue and purple, there was also a whitish glow in it. The outline of the object was very distinct. I watched it until it disappeared behind some trees and a house a little less than a block from me. Further correspondence and discussion brought forth the following information: The major axis of the oval was horizontal; its path was not perfectly horizontal) but somewhat undulatory. Its color was brightest and whitest at the center, becoming more blue and darker toward the edges. Mrs. B. estimated the colors as shown below (Since the interview was conducted in the evening) the color fan was illuminated by an incandescent lamp). -22- In itself, this last report, which describes a sighting of 15 to 20 seconds duration, contains insufficient information to come to any conclusion. However, when put alongside the earlier report there is the possibility of a relationship -- could these be reports of the same thing seen under differing conditions of illumination? We'll never know positively but the suggestion is quite strong. As far as Mrs. A's sighting is concerned, we have obtained enough data from follow-up inquiry and on-site investigation to rule out known airborne craft, meteorological, and astronomical phenomenon. Yet the observations are sufficiently detailed to give us adequate confidence that some sort of machine was present, behaving in a very extraordinary way. Some parts of the object are similar to other reports (the effervescent glow, the orange color on acceleration, the very black "window" (which sounds like a block-body absorber)). Other parts are unusual -- the UFO's prolate spheroidal shape and the pattern (although seeing the pattern would require the observer to be quite close). The original correspondence and data sheets on Mrs. A's sighting run to over 40 pages. In correspondence and interviews over a period of 8 months no substantial inconsistencies could be found. The geometric data, particularly, are so intricately related that it is most unlikely that the witness could have fabricated a story so well. In addition, acquaintances made it clear that Mrs. A. is not prone to story telling and that "she is too busy to dream up such a tale". Mr. A, who returned from the fields that evening found the household still considerably agitated four hours after the event. He said he had no idea what it was his wife and children saw, but he obviously treated the sighting seriously for he went to considerable trouble to comply with a request to measure the sizes and locations of each building and tree on the farm. It is this kind of sighting - the kind which is clearly inexplicable in contemporary terms, which causes me (and other interested persons) to take the whole subject so seriously. Hynek suggests that it is just this kind of sighting that often goes unreported, because the witness -- especially if his education or training are appropriate -- knows that what he saw was unambiguously extraordinary. And machine-like. A number of such reports were belatedly made after the University of -23- Colorado study effort got underway. Apparently the witnesses waited for the respectability the UOC study brought to the subject. It is hoped that the scientific and intellectual climate will change to the point where witnesses, particularly those having the best qualifications, can feel free to report sightings and know that they are being taken seriously. Not all reports are visual reports only. An example of a photographic observation studied in detail is given in reference 20. Here, a 16mn movie of two objects sighted in the daytime provided the analyst enough information to conclude that no known phenomena could have caused the images. This report is, hopefully, the first in a series of instrumented sightings carefully and adequately studied. -24- PART 4: UFO'S - PHENOMENONOLOGICAL ASPECTS Since I have made a first hand study of only a dozen sightings, the phenomenology described in this section will necessarily be based on descriptions of reports collected by others, particularly NICAP, APRO, UFOIRC, and Vallee. There is, unfortunately, no central file of reports accessible to the interested scientist, although large numbers of reports are in the hands of the organizations mentioned above. (The extensive Air Force files are of very limited use, from what I can tell, because of the extremely inconsistent quality of investigation.) In an unfortunate number of cases the report consists of little more than a narrative. My experience with the Newton sightings suggests that quantitative information is available if the investigator takes the trouble to personally make an on-site study. True, it may not be the quality of an instrumented sighting, but enough quantitative data are available to permit meaningful study of sighting reports. NICAP's document "The UFO Evidence" contains a summary of patterns in appearance and behavior as determined from cases they had studied through 1963. Regarding appearance, the most common type is a disc shape, followed by spherical, oval/elliptical, cylindrical, and triangular. The breakdown of NICAP's 575 cases goes as follows Disc 26 % 149 cases Round 17 % 96 cases Oval/elliptical 13 % 77 cases Cylindrical 8.3 % 48 cases Triangular 2 % 11 cases Other (Radar, light source, 33.7% 194 cases not stated) Obviously, there may be some mis-classification within the first three groups because of projective effects. Discs may be coin-shaped or lens shaped (double convex). The domed disk is plano-convex, (sometimes double convex) with a smaller radius bulge atop the convex side. The saturn disk is a sphere or oblate spheroid with a thin ring projecting from the equator. Similar objects are -25- seen without the equatorial ring also. Another subset are the hemispheric variety, sometimes with a small protrusion at the apex and usually seen with the flat side down. All the above mentioned objects are generically oblate with the axis of symmetry usually seen oriented vertically. Another group are prolate, having the major axis horizontal, usually. This includes the elliptical (football) variety, the triangular or tear drop variety, and the cylindrical or cigar shaped species. Reported colors depend strongly on the luminous environment. NICAP finds that of the 253 cases of daytime observations where color is stated, the results are Silver or metallic 34.8 % 88 cases White 32.0 % 81 cases Specular 13.4 % 34 cases Gray 7.5 % 19 cases Black 12.3 % 31 cases It should be noted that a few reports exist suggesting that the brightness of the object first thought by the observer to be reflected sunlight, was in fact self luminosity, as ascertained by the geometry, presence of clouds and the like. In the dark-sky observations, the outline or shape of the UFO is often not seen. What is seen is a light or series of lights, sometimes extremely bright. Luminous rays are also reported, going up sometimes (particularly from domed discs) downward (from hemispheric types principally, also from discs) and from one UFO to another (spherical types). The luminous column is usually not divergent. Excluding these interesting rays, the reported colors of UFOs seen at night are, for 162 cases Red 38.3 % 62 cases Orange 15.4 % 25 cases Yellow 17.3 % 28 cases Green 13.0 % 21 cases Blue 16.0 % 26 cases Purple 0 0 -26- Brightness and color changes are also noted, and while the sample is small (82 cases) NICAP found the following: Of the 25 cases showing a change in brightness, 23 of the changes occurred at the moment of a velocity change (a change of either magnitude or direction). Concerning the change of color, 23 cases showed a color change related to acceleration. While the supporting data are not conclusive, it appears that the spectral shift is to the red upon acceleration. It should also be noted that UFOs reported at night have only a star-like appearance unless very close. Distant UFO's sometimes turn off and on. When closer to the observer, reports often indicate a number of lights, located at the top and around the rim usually. Sometimes the lights flash on and off or change color rhythmically. Several cases have been reported of the UFO flashing its lights in response to the witness flashing hand or vehicular lights. In other cases the lights winked off with the approach of another car or an aircraft, only to turn on again when the vehicle had passed. While practically any luminous behavior could be produced by someone with sufficient time and money, kinematic behavior at odds with experience or, preferably, at odds with Newtonian behavior are suggestive of non-terrestrial origin. A common kind of motion is called oscillation by NICAP and is subdivided into "wobble on axis" (frequently described also as fluttering, flipping, and tipping); pendulum motion on slow ascent, hovering and decent (also called "falling leaf motion"); and occasionally a side-to-side oscillation observed as the UFO proceeds horizontally. These motions are most often performed by discs, although examples of similar behavior by other forms also exist. The last class, that of violent and erratic maneuvers, most clearly lacks an explanation from current physical theory. Using terms like bobbing, erratic, jerky, zigzag, dark, and shot away, witnesses describe motions involving high angular accelerations and velocities. A number of radar observations appear to substantiate this anomalous behavior. Among the 40 cases showing such characteristics, NICAP finds that 28 percent were reported by scientific or other appropriately experienced personnel. -27- Variation of Sightings with Time It appears that the UFO phenomenology has been with us from the earliest times. In the last twenty-five years, however, there seems to be a drastic increase in the number of sightings. It is practically impossible to estimate the number of world-wide sightings because of the lack of suitable data collection means. In the U.S., the principal depositories are currently the Air Force, NICAP and APRO. It is estimated that currently these sources together receive about 2000 reports per year. Since only about one sighting in 10 is reported, the number of sightings is about 20,000. But of these, 80 to 95% are not interesting, leaving us with "only" 1000 to 4000 worthwhile sightings per year for North America. In addition to the background of reports more or less constantly flowing in, occasional periods of intense activity are also noted. One such period was October 1954 over most of France. NICAP lists a number of these "flaps". Sometimes they are very localized, covering only a small portion of a state for a period of a few weeks. APRO concludes, on the basis of the reports available to them, that the patterns of appearance follow phases - atomic test areas and installations in the late 1940s and early 50s, rivers, reservoirs and bodies of water in the late 50s and early 60s and now electrical distribution systems. Convincing evidence to support this hypothesis has not been published; however, if the hypothesis were true it would certainly raise a lot of question. McDonald and others suggest that reports of the last few years show more sightings of objects at low altitude (or landed) and more sightings made from urban areas (in the 40s and 50s sightings were generally inversely correlated with population densities). Interactions with the Environment Interactions of UFOs with the environment produce a kind of believability that pure visual observations will never do. Some examples of interaction are cases showing electromagnetic disturbances in practically every kind of device -- radio, TV, auto ignition, aircraft electronics, compass, magnetometer, magnetic automobile speedometer, etc. NICAP lists 106 examples. NICAP also lists 81 cases of radar -28- tracking of UFOs, most of which were simultaneous with visual sightings, and a number of which involved use of interceptors. Among the physiological effects noted are burns, temporary paralysis, prickling sensation, and eyes irritated as by ultraviolet light. A number of witnesses claim to have observed landings; depressions in the ground and damaged vegetation usually result. At a landing site in France, only weeds grow in a nine foot circular area where a disc was seen to land two years ago, despite efforts to replant. (21) At another landing site, French railway officials calculated that a weight of 30 tons would be required to make the depressions found in some railroad ties where a UFO was reported to have landed. While most UFO's are silent, some have made sounds described as hissing, rushing, swishing, humming, whirring, whining, droning, like thunder, like shotgun, and a series of staccato explosions. In the past the absence of sonic booms from supersonic UFO's bothered many scientists; it appears now that that problem might be overcome by surrounding the craft by a corona discharge (which incidentally would be a luminous blue glow around the object). (23) I will purposely not comment much on occupants, except to say that there are a few (very few) reasonably reliable and carefully investigated reports of UFO occupants. For the time being, I would prefer to concentrate on reports of the objects, however, as the frequency of reliable occupant reports is so low. I have no bias one way or the other along these lines. If UFOs are of extraterrestrial origin, they may or may not be "manned". If manned, one should expect an occasional appearance. Readers more interested in this aspect of UFOs are referred to reference 24. In summary, we see a wide, almost exasperating range of reported phenomenology. By careful interviews with witnesses and analysis of a large number of reports the significant patterns in phenomenonology should appear. If the UFOs are a new manifestation of nature, they should exhibit some patterns of appearance or behavior which would aid in identifying and predicting them. If of extraterrestrial origin and intelligently guided it may be possible to anticipate appearances. This will be discussed in the next and final essay. -29- PART 5: UFOs -- HOW TO PROCEED AND WHY We are so far from knowing all the forces of Nature and the various modes of their action that it is not worthy of a philosopher to deny phenomena only because they are inexplicable in the present state of our knowledge. The harder it is to acknowledge the existence of phenomena, the more we are bound to investigate them with increasing care. Laplace Laplace's remarks are certainly as true and significant for us today as for his contemporaries. In the preceeding essays I have suggested that there exists a class of phenomena rather widely occuring today (and perhaps since earliest times) that is elusive, puzzling and often at variance with known scientific and technical experience. What are we going to do about it? What should we, what can we do about it? J. E. MacDonald suggests that the UFO phenomena lie somewhere in the following categories of explanation: 1. Hoaxes, fabrications, and frauds. Report files contain examples of these; investigators believe about 5 percent of all reports made are in this category. Detailed study, however, usually uncovers such reports. 2. Hallucinations, mass hysteria, and rumor phenomena. Present understanding of psychology does not admit many of the significant reports to be explained in this way. 3. Misinterpretations of well known physical phenomena (meteorolo- gical, astronomical, optical, etc.). By far the largest percentage of reports fall in this category. Study by an experienced investigator can usually identify these. 4. Poorly understood physical phenomena (rare electrical or moteorological effects, plasmas). Certainly a distinct possibility in a number of cases, it is a category worthy of careful study. Some of the most interesting cases, however have sufficient observational datail to eliminate this possibility (I am referring to reports of unambiguously machine-like objects). -30- 5. Advanced technologies (test vehicles, satellites, reentry effects). Again, some reports can be attributed to this cause, but most cannot. 6. Poorly understood psychic phenomena (psychic projections, archetypal images, parapsychological phenomena, etc). It is difficult to comment on this possibility because the current lack of knowledge of parapsychology. While a (small) number of UFO reports do exhibit aspects of parapsychological phenomenology (25) general relationships have yet to be convincingly demonstrated. Reference 6 deals with this explanation. 7. Extraterrestrial probes. A possibility commonly held by the public and commonly rejected by scientists. Prof. McDonald believes a number of sightings are best explained by this hypothesis. 8. Messengers of salvation and occult truth. This explanation is listed because of the nature of certain reports (particularly "contact" reports -- reports involving communication of UFO occupants and the witnesses) and because of the historical aspects of the phenomenology. See reference 5 for elaboration. Perhaps, to play it safe, an additional category should be listed: 9. Other Clearly, the explanation of UFOs will interest someone. Psychologists have an interest in 1, 2, 3 and 6; theologians in category 8, scientists in 4 and 7. Therefore, whatever the explanation, it is a problem of at least average interest. If, by chance, the explanation is 7, or even 8 (and possibly 6) the value to society would be profound and significant. In this sense, an identification of the phenomenon would be a task of highest potential urgency. How might it be done? Because of the transient nature of UFO's we cannot expect to have the interested scientist rush to the spot to make his own observations. Reports so far accumulated, however, show that UFO's sometimes appear frequently in certain areas for a short period of time (a so-called "flap"). One characteristic of the flap is a larger percentage of sightings of objects at low levels than one normally obtains. If the reporting and analysis system were responsive enough, men and instruments -31- could be dispatched when a flap was recognized with a reasonable hope of making first hand observations. I would therefore suggest the following: 1. Organization of a central report receiving agency, staffed by a permanent group of experienced UFO investigators and having on call specialists in astronomy, physics, optics, atmospheric physics, psychology and the like for application when needed. 2. This agency should be readily and instantly accessible to the public for the purpose of reporting. (Witnesses should be able to turn to someone other than the press to make reports.) Report forms could be made available in Post Offices, for example. More urgent reports could be made by toll-free telephone lines. (Radio amateurs have recently begun cooperating with NICAP to provide an alerting system.) Because many sightings are made at night when most services are closed, the local police office should be prepared to receive reports of sightings. Experience indicates that witnesses usually turn first to the police, particularly if the UFO was close or if the witness was frightened. Such a local "data center" would be very useful for identifying flaps and could possibly serve to dispatch personnel to an area of interest. Care must be taken to properly inform the officers involved about the aims of the project and requests for assistance should be made in such a way as to minimize additional police work. An awareness of the problem by a dispatcher or desk sergeant might be sufficient to draw attention to a developing situation. An interested local scientist could then be notified, perhaps in time to make an observation. Hynek also suggests that the police carry cameras in their cars should they become involved as observers. This advice obviously applies to all interested persons. 3. A loose organization of interested scientists should be available to investigate reports in their local areas. A good start toward this has been made by NICAP. It is important that investigations be made rapidly and by properly qualified people. 4. The press should be encouraged to report sightings accurately and in a non-sensational manner. Suitable reporting would encourage other witnesses to come forth. -32- 5. Existing sensor records could be examined for anomalies, particularly if visual reports are made nearby. Since we don't know what to expect, it is difficult to say what is needed; however records of electric, magnetic and gravitational fields, radioactivity, optical and radio frequency anomalies would be a logical place to start. Radars could also contribute, if they are designed for general purpose use. As it is, most current radar detection and tracking devices are designed to ignore anomalous objects. After a few years' operation in this mode, it should be possible to study the resulting report statistics to draw generalities about appearance and behavior (such as was done in Part IV) and most importantly to anticipate times and locations of appearances. Only when this is done will it be possible to instrument sightings and therefore obtain the objective data so badly needed If the explanation is #4, some environmental correlations are bound to occur. For #7 it is possible that appearances could be anticipated, if we are clever enough; for #6 and #8 we will likely not be able to anticipate appearances. Certainly the conclusions drawn by NICAP from reports in their file are startling and, if valid worthy of considerable scientific effort. It would be much more convincing if data could be collected worldwide and if the most interesting reports could be intensively and completely investigated. I believe current reports justify the expanded data collection and analysis effort. Pages 33 to 40 consist of the basic report form used by the University of Colorado UFO project which have not been included here. A copy of this reporting form is reproduced in "The Final Report of the Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects," Bantam Books, 1968, published in association with Colorado Associated University Press. -40- BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Christian Science Monitor, May 23, 1967 2. Anatomy of a Phenomenon, J. Vallee, Ace Books, Inc H-17 3. The Sky People, B. LePoer Trench, London, Neville Spearman, 1960. 4. The Meaning of Fatima, C. C. Martindale, S. J., P. J. Kenedy & Sons, New York 1950, p. 77. 5. Flying Saucers Through the Ages, Paul Thomas, Neville Spearman, London, 1966. 6. Flying Saucers - A Modern Myth, C. C. Jung, Harcourt, Brace & World New York, 1959 7. Sputnik, January 1967 issue, p. 174 8. Report on the UFO Wave of 1947, Ted Bloecher, 1967; Available from NICAP, 1536 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20036 9. Bloecher, pp. 1-9, 10, 12 10. The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, E. J. Ruppelt, Ace Books, Inc. G-537 11. UFO's: Greatest Scientific Problem of Our Times? J. E. McDonald UFORI, Suite 311, 508 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, Pa., 15219 12. The UFO Evidence, NICAP, 6536 Connecticut Avenue, NW., Washington D.C., 20036, 1964 13. Flying Saucers: Hoax or Reality? L. Jerome Stanton, Belmont Books B50-761 14. "The Physics and Metaphysics of Unidentified Flying Objects", William Markowitz, Science, 15 Sept. 1967 15. Intelligent Life in the Universe, J. S. Shklovskii and Carl Sagan, Holden-Day, Inc. 1966 (San Francisco) 16. Habitable Planets for Man, S. H. Dole, Blaisdell Publishing Co., New York, 1964 17. Interstellar Communication, Edited by A. C. W. Cameron, Benjamin, New York, 1963 18. Science, 21 October 1966, letter by J. A. Hynek, p. 329 19. The Reference for Outstanding UFO Sighting Reports, T. M. Olsen, UFO Information Retrieval Center, Inc., Box 57, Riderwood, Md. 21139 -24- 20. Observations of an Anomalistic Phenomenon, R. M. L. Baker, Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, January/February, 1968 21. Flying Saucer Review, 14, 1, January/February, 1968, cover and pp. 6-12. 22. Vallee, p. 109 23. Aviation Week and Space Technology, 22 January, 1968, p. 21 24. The Humanoids, special issue of Flying Saucer Review, 49a Kings Grove, Peckham, London, S.E. 15, England (1967) 25. An interesting example appears in the July, 1968 issue of Science & Mechanics, starting on page 30 26. A highly recommended collection of recent views on this subject are contained in the Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Hearings Before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics, July 29, 1968 ____________________________________________________________________________________ Short Commentaries 30 Dec 1966 Jan Aldrich: George Kocher worked at RAND. He was interested in the UFOs. He wrote up a short paper for circulation within RAND. It was personal. It was not an official RAND document. Kocher got little or no response to his privately circulated document. One copy of it did make its way to Wright-Patterson. LTC Quintanilla wrote RAND a blazing letter. Once again, Quinanilla's letter was not an official ATIC response, but from Quintanilla's address and his personal opinion. Kocher's supervisor turned Quintanilla's letter over to Kocher. RAND never responded to Quintanilla. Kocher did not follow up on his paper. The matter went no further. Kocher confirmed all this in a letter to Dr. Hynek which is now at CUFOS with a copy of Quintanilla's letter. CUFOS made copies of Kocher's document available years ago. You can, I believe, still purchase copies from them. Ruppelt, I believe in his papers, mentioned that the chief of RAND in the early 1950s was hostile towards UFOs. Prior to that RAND had done a "Spaceship" study that COL McCoy requested in 1948. Parts of the study were used in the Project Grudge report. There were several RAND scientists who, like Kocher, had at one time or another a personal interest in UFOs. NICAP was in contact with one or two. However, over the years contact was lost with these people. There was one request from a scientist at RAND in 1965 to the Air Force for UFO material. The Air Force forwarded the request to Hynek. Nothing seems to have come of it. Again, it may have just been a personal interest item. 16 Nov 2006 Dick Hall: It would be perfectly legitimate and accurate to list this document as an "internal RAND document." It is exactly the same sort of thing as the NSA think piece generated by an employee, which was not an "official" NSA document. These documents are part of the history and are revealing and important in their own right. What people in positions like theirs were thinking and trying to do is significant for historians (of which I are one). Brad Sparks: The hostile RAND official mentioned by Ruppelt in his papers was NOT the President and founder of RAND, Franklin Collbohm, it was James Lipp, chief of the Missile Division of RAND. Ruppelt also mentioned that RAND astronomer James Thompson was pro-UFO and used to visit him at BB. The RAND "spaceship" UFO study was done by Lipp in Dec 1948 and included as an appendix to the Sign Report, not the Grudge Report., What is Jan's source for what Kocher said or did? Is it solely Kocher's letter to Hynek? Why is there no date or copy of it? Kocher's RAND report seems to have more status as a RAND document than the NSA paper, given that it has RAND letterhead and the NSA paper has no NSA letterhead or routing. 17 Nov 2006 Jan Aldrich: There were some UFO fans at RAND. Mary Rorig comes to mind. However, this paper is about as significant as some NICAP member writing a paper supporting contactees. It should be made clear that this was an individual effort within an organization which took no action, and had no discussion on the matter as the result of his effort other than to file it. Dick Hall: The agencies represented are not private, pro-UFO citizen groups. They are major Government agencies. So what they did and tried to do even on an in-house basis and the results (or non-results) is very significant for the purposes of historical analysis. The people mentioned all were highly qualified, reasonably high-level or respected employees. To simply label them as "fans" (sounds like "UFO buffs") and compare what they did to an internal NICAP paper is not a reasonable comparison. History has more to do with only what "officially" is said and done. A more apt comparison would be what Ruppelt or Fournet did and tried to do on the subject, and what had success and what didn't.

Developer ProjectorGames claims its Xbox Live Indie Gamesaw 16,000 sales on its April 8 launch day, selling to a full 70 percent of players who've tried out the demo so far.The 240 Microsoft point ($3) title bears more than a passing resemblance to mega-hit PC indie game, which has made over $33 million in revenue from 1.8 million buyers since its beta release last December.Console players are apparently interested in the concept, withpeaking at number 3 on the overall best-sellers list for the entire Xbox Live Marketplace during its first week on sale, ProjectorGames said. The game reached number 2 on the UK charts and number 1 in Canada, as well, according to the developer.As of this writing,is the 19th-best-seller of the day in the overall Xbox Live Marketplace, ahead of titles such asandIts fast initial sales have already made it the 41st best-selling Xbox Live Indie title of all time, ahead of popular titles likeandProjector also claims the title has made more revenue in a week than XBLIG top-sellermade in the past year. That title sold roughly 308,000 in the year following its August 2009 release, though mostly at a price of only 80 Microsoft points ($1)."All this is a significant accomplishment for the developer, ProjectorGames, as they realize the magnitude of their early success could mean bigger and better things for the game, and the XBLIG community as a whole, as FortressCraft attracts a whole new audience to the channel," the company said in a blog post announcing the sales numbers.

A nation turns its lonely eyes to Fox News tonight at 5 p.m . for the Bret Baier program and news fromwho once lived off taxpayers here, but took himself in more prosperous times o income tax-free Florida.I expect he's still running for. I can't decide if Fox's participation in the hype means he has the Murdoch/Ailes stamp of approval or if the relative dead zone of 5 p.m. Friday is a counter-indication of Fox enthusiasm.With no TV show, a coming end to his radio show and only $7.95 monthly subscriptions to his "exclusive" e-mail thoughts going these days, the Huck needs something else to keep him occupied. I'm confident his years of experience at the tradecraft will present ways to put his family and entourage on a payroll somewhere in the campaign period, however long it lasts.UPDATE: People for the American Way has compiled a list of Huckabee's Five Worst Moments to welcome him to the race. Five worst? These are pretty good (bad). But there's so much material. The Banana Republic comic book compiled in one campaign against him remains a treasure. NPR also posts five things to know about Huckabee. That first item, about how he ran marathons, doesn't include the rest of the fitness story.AND THIS JUST IN: Still your beating hearts. Tonight is only an announcement of when he's going to announce whether he's going to announce.UPDATE THE LAST: Huck said he'd announced his plans May 5 in his hometown of Hope. Probably not at the old Clinton homestead.

Los Angeles, CA – The Los Angeles area Crips and Bloods signed a cease-fire peace treaty yesterday (July 17). Shortly after Snoop Dogg and The Game’s peaceful rally to the Los Angeles Police Department, Operation H.U.N.T. (Hate Us Not Today) made another call-to-action for all their local hood gangs to congregate at a South Los Angeles community center, where the Nation of Islam would also be making an appearance represented by Minister Louis Farrakhan. “On behalf of myself @SnoopDogg, & the honorable @louisfarrakhan I want to extend the invitation to all CRIPS, BLOODS, ESE’s & all other gang members, major figures & GANG LEADERS from every hood in our city as well as the surrounding cities to our meeting,” The Game captioned under the invitation on Instagram. The topic of discussion during the symposium was how to become better role models for the youth in these neighborhoods and how to make the area a safer place. They had a great turn-out, with overflow as some attendees who couldn’t get into the center watched the proceedings on a huge screen outside. “It’s beautiful out here today people & together we are going to makes waves in the direction of saving this city & others from the re-occurring plague of death here & worldwide,” The Game wrote. “Be apart of the solution….. I’ll lead the way.” Problem was also at the scene as members of the rival gangs took an oath to stop using violence except as a means of self-defense, stop the abuse of women, including the use of “the B word,” and stop the use of drugs “or that which is destructive to my health and well-being.” Check out The Game’s Instagram posts below.

What: Shares of GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) were down 12.5% as of 1:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday after the video-gaming retailer announced disappointing preliminary third-quarter 2016 results. So what: GameStop isn't slated to formally release full quarterly results until November 22, 2016. But based on a combination of sales trends for recently released titles and sell-through rates of new video-game hardware, GameStop now expects third-quarter revenue will be approximately $2.0 billion, including a comparable-store sales decline of 7% to 6%. On the bottom line, GameStop expects earnings per diluted share to be in the range of $0.45 to $0.49. By comparison, when GameStop released second-quarter results in August, it provided guidance for third-quarter comparable-store sales to suffer a more modest decline in the range of 2% to 1%, with earnings per diluted share of $0.53 to $0.58. Now what: "Our expectation was that the new titles released in October would provide a catalyst for new software sales, but despite gaining market share, the titles underperformed our forecasted sales," explained GameStop CEO Paul Raines. "While the Technology Brands and Collectibles segments continue to grow rapidly, they will not offset the decline in gaming this quarter. " To his credit, Raines also insisted the company remains "excited about the innovation coming into the video-game category over the next 12 months," namely, with the arrival of new virtual-reality products and consoles, including Sony's Playstation 4 Pro, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft's Project Scorpio. Nonetheless, in the meantime, GameStop reduced its full-year outlook to call for comparable-store sales declines of 9.5% to 6.5% (compared to previous guidance for declines of 4.5% to 1.5%), and earnings per diluted share of $3.65 to $3.80 (down from a range of $3.90 to $4.05 previously). As such, it's no surprise to see investors bidding down shares of GameStop today.

Tourists crowd around the iconic “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign Friday. Clark County officials are planning about $800,000 in improvements to the tourist stop on Las Vegas Boulevard that would handle more visitors and improve safety. Let’s face it — we’ve all said it: “But it’s a dry heat.” Las Vegans love tolerating the heat when the tourists can’t, and it got us thinking. What other things do Las Vegans seem to love, or love to hate? We turned to social media to get answers, and weren’t disappointed. Here’s a look at 13 things locals said Las Vegans love: Mocking people who think it’s hot When a region hits the news for hitting triple digits, we roll our eyes. Tourists are complaining about the heat while we’re questioning how long a cool spell is going to last. It’s all relative, but we’re relatively certain we’ll take 110 over 10 inches of snow any day. Hating the cold On the flip side, getting used to the heat means a lower tolerance for cold. We may laugh at the tourist who shows up in January in shorts and a tank top, but you can’t take a Las Vegan to New York in December without hearing the refrain, “But I’m from Las Vegas!” Locals rewards You can bet we’re not paying full price for anything when friends from out of town visit (or ever). A wallet full of rewards cards gets us discounts at buffets, shows and almost anything else we can think of. 24-hour everything “I like being able to eat anything and everything at any hour of the day,” Reddit user Nekronicle wrote. So do we, Nekronicle. So do we. People watching A night on the town is a people watching buffet. Day and weekend trips We’re close enough to L.A. to spend the weekend on the beach, and close enough to Utah to spend the day at Zion National Park or go snowboarding at Brian Head. And we get to come home after. Nature closer to home If we don’t want to cross state lines, though, we have Mount Charleston, Red Rock, Lake Mead and Springs Preserve. Winter sunsets and mountain views without a valley coated in snow complete the picture, according to our Facebook fans. Being the Entertainment Capital of the World The entertainment options are endless, but what about world-class shopping? We’ve got it. Any kind of food you can think of? That too. And we can take part without having to use a vacation day. Cheap flights to almost anywhere When we do want to get away, though, we have plenty of options, thanks to Las Vegas being such a tourist destination. It’s not difficult to find a good price on a flight to almost anywhere we’d want to go. The cost of living It’s not bad. Las Vegas is about average when it comes to groceries, housing, transportation, utilities and healthcare, according to research by the Council for Community and Economic Research. And we may be smaller than other well-known cities, but it’s also drastically cheaper to live here than in, say, New York or San Francisco. Plus, no state income tax. Complaining about tourists even when we shouldn’t Yes, we know we owe our economy to the group of college students holding up the line at the gas station because one forgot his I.D., but that doesn’t mean we won’t complain about it. It’s our God-given right as Las Vegans. Avoiding the Strip We know a lot of people come to Vegas for the Strip. But we also know the city is more than just the Strip, and the “more” part is a lot easier to get around. We’re quick to say we “don’t remember the last time I went to the Strip,” or complain about the traffic and tourists — see above — when we do go. Being thick-skinned It’s always en vogue to talk about how dirty Las Vegas is, how despicable the culture is or how it isn’t possible that anyone could actually like living in Las Vegas. People love to hate Las Vegas, even some locals. But the rest of us defend it, wearing our residency with pride. Follow @reviewjournal on Twitter. Contact Stephanie Grimes at sgrimes@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @stephgrimes

CLOSE A New Orleans oyster bar is opening a Lafayette location in the former Mellow Mushroom building at 3151 Johnston St. Megan Wyatt Buy Photo The exterior of Drago's new location in Lafayette Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017. (Photo: LEE CELANO/THE ADVERTISER)Buy Photo The Lafayette location of Drago's Seafood Restaurant is nearing completion in the former Mellow Mushroom building at 3151 Johnston St. Drago's is expected to open for limited dinner service Wednesday and Thursday to prepare staff for the formal opening this weekend. "I'm so excited about our staff," says Tommy Cvitanovich, majority owner of the family business. "We hired everybody from Mellow Mushroom who applied — about 20 or 25 people, including my assistant manager. And we hired another 110 people." Background: Drago's (finally) secures Lafayette location Another NOLA restaurant: Opening date set for Dat Dog's Lafayette location Cvitanovich plans to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday afternoon before opening for dinner service at 5 p.m. Buy Photo Charbroiled oysters at the soft opening of Drago's new location in Lafayette Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017. (Photo: LEE CELANO/THE ADVERTISER) Can't wait that long? You can try to snag a table Wednesday or Thursday evening as the staff train. The soft opening will serve as a fundraiser, with 100 percent of food and drink sales benefiting local non-profits. "I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas now," Cvitanovich says. "I'm really excited, really excited to open up in Lafayette." The first location of Drago's opened in 1969 in Metairie. Lighten up: 4 local places that offer healthy meal prep Drago's didn't open a second location until about 10 years ago when it opened inside of the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. Drago's opened a third location two years ago inside of a Hilton in Jackson, Mississippi. Buy Photo Charbroiled oysters at the soft opening of Drago's new location in Lafayette Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017. (Photo: LEE CELANO/THE ADVERTISER) The Lafayette location will be completely family-owned like the original Metairie location. Partners are involved in the Hilton locations in Jackson and New Orleans. Cvitanovich — named Restaurateur of the Year last week by the Louisiana Restaurant Association — has spent nearly every day of the past few weeks driving from New Orleans to Lafayette as he prepares to open the new restaurant. He begins each morning at Mel's Diner for two eggs over easy with wheat toast and a cup of coffee. He breaks for lunch each day at Judice Inn for two burgers and a bag of chips. The no-frills eateries remind Cvitanovich of what he loves about Lafayette. "I love the history of the place," he says of Judice Inn. "There's a culture in there. And I love — and I mean love-love — the arrogance of them saying, 'We know everybody has fries, but we don't care. In fact, we're going to make a slogan about it.'" Read next: New food and wine event coming to Acadiana Read or Share this story: https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/2017/09/11/opening-date-set-dragos-lafayette-location/638225001/

Authorities in Southern California say they have noticed a bizarre new trend: drug users trading Tide laundry detergent for crack cocaine and marijuana. MyFoxLA.com reports the expensive detergent has become so popular with criminals it's known as "liquid gold." Police in San Bernardino, Calif. tell the station Tide is being stolen from stores and being traded for small amount of drugs on the streets. Authorities say the most popular items stolen are liquid detergent and detergent pods. The Riverside Press-Enterprise reports Tide theft is a nationwide problem, but police in San Bernardino and Riverside counties are in particular noticing a rise in instances of Tide being used as drug currency. San Bernardino police Sgt. Travis Walker tells the paper detectives raiding drug houses in recent years were puzzled when they found lots of Tide. They later determined the detergent wasn't being used to make drugs but to buy them. Walker says one local supermarket chain reports losing hundreds of dollars' worth of Tide each week. Riverside and San Bernardino officers made 38 theft arrests during a recent operation at local stores. Laundry detergent is the number two most stolen item in the nation, MyFoxLA.com reports. Click for more from MyFoxLA.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report

Updated One of the principal authors of version 3 of the Gnu General Public License (GPL) has spun off his own version of the license without the participation of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), in a move that could ruffle feathers in the often-cantankerous free software community. The new license has been dubbed GPL.next, and it's the brainchild of Richard Fontana, who along with Eben Moglen and Richard Stallman helped to draft the GPLv3, which debuted in 2007. Fontana's free software credentials are solid. He currently serves as the open source and patent licensing counsel for Red Hat, though he says the Linux vendor is not involved or affiliated with the GPL.next effort in any way. Previously, he was legal counsel to the Software Freedom Law Center. Fontana has launched GPL.next as a project on GitHub, a collaboration website popular with software developers, and development of the new license will be a collaborative effort. In the welcome text of the GPL.next project, Fontana writes: Contributions of patches, ideas, and criticism are welcome. Forks in the GitHub sense are encouraged. The goal of this effort is to develop an improved strong copyleft free software license. "Copyleft" here refers to a type of free software license that requires all modified and extended versions of the software to also be free. The Gnu GPL is the most prominent example of such a license. Non-copyleft software licenses, such as the Apache and BSD licenses, allow developers to make their modified versions of the software proprietary, if they so choose. Fontana is quick to point out that GPL.next is not really a new version of the Gnu GPL, though it is derived from it. Although the FSF discourages modified versions of the GPL, they are permitted, provided they meet certain conditions. One condition is that they go by a different name – hence, GPL.next (and no reference to Gnu). Still not altogether clear, however, is just what Fontana hopes to accomplish with the new license, or why he decided that an end-run around the FSF was the best way to achieve his goals. Neither Fontana nor the FSF responded to requests for comment on this story. A presentation Fontana gave at the Fosdem free and open source developer conference in Brussels in February 2012 may offer some clues, however. In the presentation, titled, "The decline of the GPL and what do do about it," Fontana said that "strong copyleft is vitally important," but he described the GPLv3 as "a lost opportunity to stem anti-copyleft shift." Among the problems with the Gnu GPL that Fontana identified in his presentation were the length and complexity of the license, the "collapse" of the authority of the FSF, and the shift toward cloud-based applications, which are incompatible with traditional open source licenses. Whether a new, independent software license is the answer to these problems, however, is debatable. The Open Source Initiative currently lists 69 different free and open source licenses for developers to choose from – and when it comes to software licensing matters, more is not merrier. ® Update Over the weekend, the Register was able to reach Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation and primary author of all previous versions of the Gnu GPL. "Exploring ideas for a modified copyleft license can't hurt," he writes in an email. "But we studied the field thoroughly for GPLv3, so one shouldn't presume another project will come up with a better license."

Joshua Freeman, CP24.com Police are investigating after they say a fire was deliberately set at a Peterborough mosque. The fire started around 11 p.m. Saturday night at the Masjid Al-Salaam Mosque on Parkhill Road, police said. Firefighters responded and contained the fire to the main floor, but there was heavy smoke damage to the building, Platoof Chief Rolf Erdmann told CP24. “Offences such as this, committed in relation to a place of worship are taken very seriously and the police service will make every attempt to determine who is responsible,” Peterborough police said in a news release Sunday. Erdmann said the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but it appears to be suspicious. Police said it is too early to say whether the incident was motivated by hate. But Kawartha Muslim Religious Association president Kenzu Abdella said late Sunday that authorities are treating it that way. "We're not making conjecture about who did it but it looks like it's being treated as a hate crime so we're quite upset and saddened by the situation." Abdella says he hasn't seen anything like this before. "The Muslim community has been here for quite a few years and we've not had an incident like this. We're quite concerned about what happened." The Ontario Fire Marshall’s Office is investigating, along with firefighters and the Peterborough Police Forensics Unit. Damage from the fire has been estimated at $80,000. Maryam Monsef, the newly elected MP for Peterborough-Kawartha and Canada's minister for democratic institutions, wrote in a news release that she is "deeply concerned" about the fire. "My thoughts are with the families who visit the mosque for prayer every week, and I hope that the facility will be open for prayer again soon." She stressed that Peterborough "is a warm and generous community." "We have a proud history as a welcoming and friendly place to live, just as it was when my family arrived here 20 years ago," Monsef said, referring to her arrival from Afghanistan when she was 11-years-old. Police are asking anyone with information to contact police or call CrimeStoppers anonymously. A crowdfunding effort for the mosque community to repair the damage had raised close to $14,000 by 6:40 p.m. Sunday.

All four of the connected Allye Duncan Saga tales in one collection with bonus content. True love struggles to swim against ruthless kingdom politics. A romantic affair will change the Kingdom of Heissia forever. Heissian nobility believed Allye Duncan would become Crown Prince Holtan's queen. They even called her "Little Princess." But that was before Holtan's marriage was arranged to Princess Liana of Ilya in order to secure peace between their kingdoms. A political move that stole away Holtan's ability to choose his queen. Allye and Holtan's fairytale washed away like footprints along the shore. Now as budding adults, Allye and Holtan find it increasingly difficult to ignore their heating attraction. If Allye wants to claim her prince, she must outmaneuver Liana of Ilya and win over the Heissian people. A courtly war erupts between wife and mistress. Liana proves to be a challenging foe who will go to any length to secure her position as the future queen, a destiny ensured to her since her childhood. She will resort to horrific means to keep her place. This collection includes the following individually available stories in the Heissian Royal Court serials: Rise - An Allye Duncan Novella Heaven's Will - A Liana of Ilya Short Story The Spark - An Allye Duncan Novelette Tiger's Trap - A Liana of Ilya Novelette This collection also includes three ultra-short Holtan and Allye stories as bonus content.

JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam is aiming to take an early advantage at this weekend’s Silverstone MCE British Superbike opener while some his rivals are still nailing down their final base settings and polishing electronics strategies. Haslam, who comes back to BSB after eight years in WSBK, had had five successful tests with the factory-supported Kawasaki team since January so expects to hit the ground running with this year’s 2016 ZX-10R but knows he will have some stiff opposition. “For me it’s exciting. It’s a new championship really as I haven’t been in it for eight years and everything has changed. The bike and the team is all there to go out and win. Every other year we have had hurdles and things you have had to overcome,” Haslam told Bikesport News. “No matter how well I was riding, a lot of the time I knew it was going to be tough to win a championship and for me this is the first time that if I do my job right and maximise the opportunities with the team I have got, we should be winning. “A couple of the teams are on the back foot a little bit. Yamaha have new bikes, new riders, new electronics but you can’t count either Hopper or Stuart out, they’re both fast guys. Shane has still got work to do I think with the Motec ECU on the Ducati. They are the teams that will get it sorted and be a threat, so we can’t stand still.” To get our massive BSB season preview, download the free BSN app here

Before the Industrial Revolution and the advent of factories, the cotton-spinning process was based in workers’ homes: the man of the house wove cloth on a handloom; his wife, usually helped by their children, cleaned the raw cotton, then carded and spun the yarn ready for weaving. The invention of mechanised cotton spinning moved the process out of homes and into factories. The large ‘spinning jennies’ and Mule spinning machines were worked by men, as strength was needed to operate them. As women’s traditional role as spinners was eroded, they turned to handloom weaving to make a living. But falling prices for handwoven cloth and the advent of ‘steam’ looms led weavers’ wives and daughters to seek work in the mills, powerloom weaving, working small jennies (‘throstles’) or tending cotton processing machines (carding and roving). The fixed hours of mill work were preferable to the virtual slavery of domestic service and the factory wages gave women some financial independence. Would-be reformers of the factory system focused their firepower on its widespread use of child labour. But they also claimed that the traditional family unit was imperilled: a woman’s place was in the home, caring for husband and children. Some factory owners, like Thomas Ashton at Hyde in Cheshire, insisted that female workers leave their employment upon marriage. A significant minority of wives, however, worked from sheer necessity. In the 1840s, in Lancashire alone, a survey of 412 cotton factories found that just over half of the 116,300 workers were female. Around 10,700 of them were married women. These women were not the sole breadwinners: over 9,200 of the husbands in this survey had regular work. Only 821 husbands were unemployed, undermining some critics’ claim that women worked, while their spouses boozed in the nearest pub. There was evidence that factory women’s 12-hour shifts endangered their children’s health. Mary Woodhouse, a midwife at the Manchester Lying-In Hospital, told an investigator in 1833 that factory women gave their babies ‘the breast at breakfast, and at noon, and in the evening’. Babies and children were left with childminders, while the women worked. Elizabeth Woodhouse, another midwife, said the workers’ children were left with ‘any one they can get ... some of them suffer very bad from this’ and that ‘many’ factory women worked ‘up to the very day ... some up to the very hour’ their baby arrived. Most mothers returned to work a fortnight after their confinement. After such long shifts, workers desperately needed a good night’s sleep. Children were kept quiet at night with opiates: laudanum mixed with sugar and water, opium and the infamous ‘Godfrey’s Cordial’, known as ‘Mother’s Friend’, a mixture of laudanum and treacle. The children were too drugged to eat and became malnourished. Some died from starvation; others grew up sickly and stunted. Following years of campaigning, in 1847 the working day in textile mills for women and young persons under 18 was reduced to ten hours to improve conditions. Factory inspectors interviewed workers after the new legislation was introduced, with mixed responses. One married weaver’s weekly wages had fallen from 10s (50p) to 8s 9d, but she had ‘more time’ for her family and no longer paid her neighbours for ‘cleaning the house, washing [and] cooking victuals’. Another woman, however, said that she would rather work 12 hours as she needed the extra money; her tailor husband was often unemployed. By 1873, over 26 per cent of women working in cotton mills nationally were married, three quarters of whom were of childbearing age. Factory inspector Robert Baker pointed out that, if these women were excluded from the workplace, they could not support their children or pay for their education. He thought that the best way to reduce the ‘excess of infant mortality’ in towns was to stop women returning to work until several months after the birth of each child. But he did not suggest how they could be supported while their babies were tiny (there was no statutory maternity benefit until 1911). Some thrifty women helped themselves and their families by using penny savings banks. At one Salford mill in 1874, which employed 500 women, workers paid in deposits from 6d to 5s per week. They received five per cent interest on accounts over 10s in credit. This factory bank was ‘a great boon to the married women ... as a kind of lying-in club’. A wife put away money weekly for her baby’s arrival ‘unknown to her husband, and without his being able to meddle with it’. She no longer rushed back to work ‘soon after her confinement’, safeguarding her health and that of her baby. Despite all these benefits, only 63 of the mill hands had deposited savings, so maybe few could spare the money. In 2014, three quarters of women with dependent children were in work or actively looking. Two in five women of working age not employed gave ‘looking after the family or home’ as their primary reason for being so. Despite better educational and working opportunities, today’s mothers face similar tensions between the economics of going out to work and childcare as their 19th-century forebears. Sue Wilkes is the author of Tracing Your Manchester and Salford Ancestors (Pen & Sword, 2017).

THROUGHOUT its steep climb away from Delhi, the plane remained enveloped in an acrid fug. It was not until it reached cruising altitude that sunlight could break through. Off to the north, tickling an achingly blue sky, the pristine pinnacles of the Himalayas whispered a promise of fresh air. But as the aircraft crested the lip of the jagged bowl that cradles Kathmandu, the fabled capital of Nepal looked less like Shangri-La than like a giant curdled cappuccino. The plane descended into a yellow-brown smear that stretched clear across the valley, thick enough at the centre to blur away streets and buildings entirely. Kathmandu is far smaller than Delhi, and the ingredients in its noxious halo are different. The cocktail at this dry time of year is mostly plain old dust. Stirred by swarms of motorbikes bumping over potholes, and through builders’ heaps of sand, gravel and cement made ubiquitous by the devastating earthquake of 2015, the permanent choking cloud blots out stars in the night sky. Though close by, the world’s highest mountains make only a brief appearance as tantalising wisps in the early morning before vanishing into the murk. Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. Delhi’s autumnal pollution is of a more dangerous kind. Its 25m people suffer under a seasonal plague that afflicts the Indo-Gangetic Plain from the city of Lucknow in the east all the way to Lahore, in Pakistan, to the west, as millions of rice farmers conclude their harvest by burning off the leftover stalks to clear paddies for winter planting. Add to this Delhi’s unique mix of spices: ash spewed out of coal-fired power plants, fine grit from dirty diesel engines, exhaust from generators running on the cheapest bunker and coking fuels, fumes from crematoria and malodorous miasmas from spontaneously combusting trash mountains. All this gets chucked up into the air where, in early November, rising humidity combines with falling temperatures and an almost complete lack of wind to produce a clammy, smelly suspension of ultrafine toxic dust. It hangs over the city like congealed smoke. Yet if the chemical components and proximate causes of air pollution across South Asia are different, the ultimate source is the same: poor governance. It is not that political bosses have uniformly failed to recognise the dangers of air pollution, or taken no steps to curb it. Across the region they have done both. Delhi, for instance, converted all its buses to cleaner natural gas 15 years ago. But governments have for years dealt with the issue haphazardly, half-heartedly and with all the shortcomings in state capacity that put Asia’s underbelly to shame compared with the continent’s less democratic but more efficient countries. Delhi has become the world’s most polluted mega-city, supplanting Beijing. Indeed, the contrast with China is stark. For nearly a decade its government has exerted a massive, concerted effort to tackle pollution, with encouraging results. In Beijing the average level of PM 2.5, the finest and most dangerous sort of dust, fell by about 20% between 2012 and 2016. Greenpeace, an environmental pressure group, reckons that around 160,000 premature deaths have been avoided as a result. NASA, America’s space agency, reckons that China’s emissions of sulphur dioxide have fallen by 75% since 2007. India’s grew by 50% over the same period, largely as a result of building ever more coal-fired power stations and failing to equip old ones with filters. India is not alone among its neighbours in being so neglectful. Pakistan has also made a big, controversial push for coal. Just like Delhi, Lahore has flailed feebly at tackling toxic air. Only when public anger over the stink mounted in recent weeks did the city government reveal that it had bought six pollution monitors some time ago, but had not yet installed them. As in India, Pakistan’s state governments have been wary of forcing farmers, a crucial vote bank, to curb their pyromania. In Nepal, meanwhile, it is not poverty so much as delays in disbursing budgets, compounded by an anti-corruption agency that terrifies bureaucrats, that is largely responsible for the failure to pave streets. Ignoring evidence that diesel exhaust is carcinogenic, and keen to placate the truckers and farmers who use it most, the government has maintained a steep price differential: petrol costs 30% more. In any case, lack of sufficient oversight means that petrol and diesel alike are often heavily adulterated with even dirtier stuff by the time they reach consumers. For decades India has maintained a similar pro-diesel policy, promoting a shift by consumers and carmakers such that, by 2013, some 55% of cars registered had diesel engines. In Delhi diesel accounts for 78% of the PM 2.5 produced by cars. The International Council on Clean Transportation reckons this could potentially translate into an additional 284,600 cases of lung cancer a year. Overall, perhaps as many as 2.5m people in India die prematurely every year owing in part to air pollution. The elephant in the smog-filled room Yet despite gasps and cries from the public, and stark warnings from doctors, the national government remains strangely aloof. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, loudly promotes a Clean India campaign aimed at building toilets and tidying streets. But he has shied from broaching the electorally trickier question of air pollution, which is hard to fix and risks treading on the toes of both big industry and small farmers. His environment minister, Harsh Vardan, airily waves off suggestions that anyone might actually be dying from air pollution. This is foolish. India does not even need to look to China to see what can be done. Inadvertently, for instance, another of Mr Modi’s projects, promoting cooking gas to replace traditional stoves that burned wood or dung, is saving thousands of lives previously shortened by indoor pollution. Up in the terraced hills of Nepal, meanwhile, farmers can teach their peers down on the plains a lesson. They do not burn off rice straw. They carefully dry and stack it, feeding the hay to cows and buffaloes all winter.

Since early June, the price of Western Canadian Select, the benchmark price for heavy crude in western Canada, has dropped from $94 per barrel to barely over $55 per barrel on Friday. The decline in Canadian heavy crude prices has largely mirrored the decline in U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate, which has dropped from US$107 in mid-June to just over US$66 Friday, and global benchmark Brent crude, which has declined from $115 per barrel to barely over $70 per barrel Friday. I wrote in early November that the effects of the global slide in crude prices had been partially mitigated for oil sands producers by three factors: decreasing condensate prices, a sliding Canadian dollar, and narrowing differentials between heavy and light crude oil. For the most part, these factors have not done much to buffer the losses for oil sands producers over the last month—the differential between WTI and WCS has come back to $20 per barrel, having been much lower through October, the Canadian dollar lost ground this week, but is only today back to the lows seen in early November when crude was worth significantly more than it is today, and while heavy crude is down 25 per cent since Halloween, the value of condensates used to dilute bitumen for transport have lost much less value. Put all these factors together, and a barrel of bitumen was worth almost 40 per cent less on Friday than it would have been worth on Halloween and almost 50 per cent less than it would have been worth in mid-June. This is not good news if you’re producing bitumen in the oil sands, but just how bad is it? When oil prices drop as they have, there are three immediate impacts: oil sands revenues drop, which implies lower royalties and lower taxes. The longer-term impacts, largely yet to be felt, will occur if projects start to be delayed or cancelled as a result of the drop in prices. It’s unlikely that projects currently under construction will be cancelled, especially if they have already seen significant capital investment, because the return on investing the remainder required is still likely to be sufficient to keep the project on track. However, as you’ll see below, if these trends continue, there’s reason to expect that new investment decisions on the projects that were expected to lead to further production growth later this decade may be delayed, and that could have a significant impact on pipeline discussions as well as on activity in support industries for oil sands. To give you a sense of how much the financial outlook for oil sands projects has changed, let’s consider two projects—a new mine similar to Suncor’s Fort Hills project, and a new in situ development similar to the Cenovus Narrows Lake project—and see how the changes in prices have altered potential returns, royalties and taxes. For the comparison, I’ll use prices from today compared to assumptions used last Oct. 31 when Suncor announced the decision to proceed with the Fort Hills project. Those assumptions were as follows: -Oil prices of $100/bbl (Brent) and $95/bbl (WTI) -Bitumen prices at 60 per cent of WTI (implemented via a $25.50 WTI-WCS differential in $CAD, and a $7 premium for condensate over WTI in $CAD) -Canadian dollar at 96 cents US Suncor also assumed operating expenditures of $20-24/bbl, in today’s dollars, for which I’ve used $22, and I’ve followed their assumptions of sustaining capital expenditures of $15.1 billion, and production capacity of 180,000 barrels per day of bitumen. For the in situ project, I’ve used the same pricing assumptions, operating costs of $20.40 per barrel including costs of natural gas, the same $3-per-barrel ongoing capital costs, but smaller upfront capital costs of $2.2 billion and smaller production capacity of 50,000 barrels per day of bitumen. For today’s prices, I’ve used the following: -Oil prices of $70/bbl (Brent) and $65/bbl (WTI) -Bitumen prices at 60 per cent of WTI (implemented via a $20 WTI-WCS differential in $CAD, and a $3.25 premium for condensate over WTI in $CAD) -Canadian dollar at 87.5 cents US If you compare the two project types under each of these two sets of assumptions, shown in the table below, you can see how much the changes in prices observed over the past couple of months could impact new (and existing) oil sands projects. There are three things you should notice from this table. First, the rates of return should jump out at you. The mine, which I’d always calculated below Suncor’s published figures of 13 per cent, drops significantly to less than six per cent based on my calculations—a rate at which no oil company would consider building a new mine. Even the in situ project, which would have been projected to earn a robust 18 per cent return on invested capital after taxes using Suncor’s pricing assumptions from last year would only expect 10.5 per cent using today’s prices—a rate of return that would be marginal at best. The second thing you should remark upon is what happens to the government shares of revenues from these projects—while per-barrel revenues drop by 27 per cent, expected royalty and tax revenues would drop by over 50 per cent and profits drop by almost 60 per cent. Finally, though, notice that these projects remain profitable, both in operating terms and when including the fixed costs of building capital. This last point is why you’re unlikely to see existing facilities, or even facilities for which a substantial amount of construction has been completed, being shut down—it’s likely to be better to earn six per cent on $15 billion than to lose $5 billion, for example. So, how will these changes in price affect oil sands production, and should they change the discussion around pipelines in Canada? I think it’s too soon to tell. I’ve been bearish on production forecasts for a long time, arguing that cost inflation in the oil sands meant that it was unlikely even before the price drop that near- or long-term production forecasts published by CAPP and others would be met. Simply put, over the last decade, we’ve seen a perfect storm for oil sands development, with oil prices well above forecast levels and natural gas prices at or below expected costs, and forecast production hasn’t materialized—in 2006, CAPP forecast oil sands production to reach four million barrels per day by 2020, while their most recent forecast calls for just over three million. With the recent price drop, combined with the fact that projects in construction and currently operating are likely to continue, and you’ve got ongoing concerns with regard to cost escalation combined with much lower expected revenues. As such, it seems unlikely to me that even the lower levels forecast by CAPP this year for 2020 are likely to be met. Any decisions today are not likely to affect production forecasts in the near term, but in the timeframe relevant to pipeline projects currently before the National Energy Board, the potential is certainly there. As I’ve said above, to date we’ve seen no sign of significant pull-back in capital expenditures, but if the current pricing trends continue, and appear to be longer-lived, expect to see a much lower long-term forecast for oil sands, not to mention light oil from the U.S. Bakken, the next time around. Such a change, as you can see in the figure below, could mean that at least one of the proposed pipeline projects would no longer be needed within the forecast horizon.

IBM Security, Packet Clearing House (PCH) and the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) have launched a free service designed to block access to millions of malicious websites automatically. The Quad9 domain name system (DNS) service is aimed at protecting users from websites known to steal personal information, infect users with ransomware and malware, or conduct fraudulent activity. Cyber criminals are increasingly using tools and techniques to build realistic-looking websites that mimic legitimate companies. According to those behind the project, Quad9 does not store, correlate or otherwise use any personally identifiable information (PII) from its users, unlike other DNS services that often capture information about the websites consumers visit, devices they use and where they live. An average of 27% of consumers think they are capable of staying ahead of the latest online threats and only 14% have ever changed the DNS settings on their computer, polls across the UK, the US, France and Germany have revealed. To take advantage of the security and privacy of Quad9, users need to reconfigure a single setting on their devices to use 9.9.9.9 as their DNS server. Full instructions on what a DNS service does and how to switch to Quad9 can be found at www.quad9.net. Quad9 has also laid out the four easy steps for Mac OS and Windows. As well as PCs and laptops, the protections offered by Quad9 can be extended to all internet connected devices, which often do not receive important security updates and are also difficult to secure with traditional security tools. With Quad9 used in a home or business network at the router or gateway level, users will have an added level of protection for their IoT devices. These smart devices would also be blocked from accessing remote hosts which have been identified as being harmful or IoT botnets such as Mirai, which infected millions of IoT devices in late 2016. When a Quad9 user clicks on a website link or types an address into a web browser, Quad9 checks the site against IBM X-Force’s threat intelligence database of more than 40 billion analysed web pages and images. The service also taps feeds from 18 further threat intelligence partners, including Abuse.ch, the Anti-Phishing Working Group, Bambenek Consulting, F-Secure, mnemonic, 360Netlab, Hybrid Analysis GmbH, Proofpoint, RiskIQ and ThreatSTOP. Quad9 is designed to provide these protections without affecting the speed that users expect when accessing websites and services. Using PCH’s global assets around the world, Quad9 has points of presence in more than 70 locations across 40 countries, but the number of points of presence is expected to double in the 18 months to further improve the speed, performance, privacy and security for users globally. Telemetry data on blocked domains from Quad9 will be shared with threat intelligence partners to improve their threat intelligence responses for their customers and Quad9. Quad9 began with the GCA, where the intent was to provide security to end users on a global scale by using DNS to deliver a comprehensive threat intelligence feed. To realise this aim, the GCA provided system development capabilities and brought the threat intelligence community together in collaboration with PCH, which provides Quad9’s network infrastructure; and IBM, which provides IBM X-Force threat intelligence and the easily memorable IP address (9.9.9.9).

The Braves announced today they have given righty Freddy Garcia his unconditional release. Earlier this month, Garcia told MLB.com's Mark Bowman he'd retire rather than return to Triple-A. Garcia pitched in five games this spring, allowing nine earned runs in 17 innings. He would have earned $1.5MM had he made the Braves' Opening Day roster. Garcia, 37, posted a 4.37 ERA, 5.2 K/9, 1.9 BB/9, 2.02 HR/9, and 41.9% groundball rate in 80 1/3 innings for the Orioles and Braves last year. The Braves lost Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy this year to Tommy John surgery, and have also placed Mike Minor and Gavin Floyd on the DL. Minor and Floyd hope to be activated in April and May, respectively. The Braves seem to be planning to open the season with a four-man rotation of Julio Teheran, Alex Wood, David Hale, and Gus Schlosser, with Ervin Santana joining the mix around the season's second week.

Activists and residents outside the hotel this afternoon. Activists and residents outside the hotel this afternoon. A DEMONSTRATION WAS held today in Dublin city centre in support of a number of homeless families who will soon have to leave their accommodation. Activists from the Irish Housing Network (IHN) organised the demonstration today outside Lynam’s Hotel on O’Connell Street in the support of five families who have been told they have to leave as the hotel had gone into receivership. Independent TD Thomas Pringle raised the issue of the families in the Dáil yesterday, He said the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) had appointed receivers to the hotel and all Dublin City Council could offer the families was “more of the same inadequate, insecure accommodation”. The hotel is “self-accommodating”, meaning that homeless families source rooms there themselves, and the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) – which manages the homeless services in Dublin – pays for them. The hotel is due to close on 1 August. The DRHE said that it has sourced alternative accommodation for all the families. Outside the hotel this afternoon. Speaking to TheJournal.ie outside of the hotel today, a resident Karyn Valenta said that she hadn’t been offered any appropriate alternative accommodation and was told she had to leave to hotel today. “We’ve been here about seven weeks,” said Karyn. “I work full time. I recently came back home from Manchester and I thought I’d be able to rent with my son. It just isn’t happening. Even the wages I’m on it doesn’t even cover a fraction of the rent over here. Karyn said she was living with friends for a time but had to present as homeless when this wasn’t possible anymore. She has been resident at the home for the past month and shares a room at the hotel with her 16-year-old son Marcus. “It’s hard… There’s no cooking facilities, nowhere to wash your clothes, there’s nothing,” she said. “I’ve been having really bad meltdowns the past couple of days. I’m finding it really hard. I mean I’m trying to work to better myself but now I’ve been slapped in the face with this. Karyn son Marcus said living at the hotel was difficult and compared it to “a prison”. Last week it got to me more than ever… It’s like being in a prison when you got back to the room because it’s that small and it’s stuffy and there’s no interaction with nobody. Karen said she was due to leave the hotel today, but that she would not be going anywhere. Karyn and her son Marcus speaking at the demonstration. Alternatives Also speaking outside of the hotel this afternoon, Niamh McDonald of the Irish Housing Network said that offers made to accommodate the families were “not suitable”. “The families demand that they get minimum standards and they have secure emergency accommodation,” she said. Niamh McDonald speaks to reporters. Source: TheJournal.ie She also called on Dublin City Council and the Environment Department to meet with the residents and the IHN to discuss the situation. Speaking today on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, some of the families described the conditions they were living in in the hotel and spoke about their worries for the future. Anna Farrell and her husband live at the hotel with their five children. Both work full time but say they can’t afford their own accommodation. “It’s quite difficult. We go out a lot… since we became homeless a month ago we’ve been in three different places and one night we were homeless,” she said. Anna said she didn’t know what the family would do on Saturday. She said they had been offered alternative accommodation but that it wasn’t suitable. “So far we don’t have any plan yet,” she said. “We were offered a place where there were six bunk beds and a small shower. And it’s in a basement. There’s no room to move. My husband works the night shift and I work during the days and there’s nowhere for the children to go to. A spokesperson for the the DRHE told TheJournal.ie that negotiations were ongoing with the families. “The Dublin Region Homeless Executive and Dublin City Council are currently in negotiations in relation to Lynam’s Hotel,” the spokesperson said. All families have been offered suitable alternative accommodation. The spokesperson also said that the families would not be forced to leave the hotel until it closed in August. But that it was important to try to source suitable accommodation before that date.

With the recession and scarce resources driving enterprises into virtualization, Hewlett-Packard (HP) is looking to capitalize on the trend with a slew of announcements around virtual and physical IT management from the desktop to the datacenter. Today, HP (NYSE: HPQ) and VMware (NASDAQ: VMW) jointly unveiled plans to develop management solutions for both physical and virtual datacenters. HP also today announced that it will integrate version 10.0 of its Quality Center Web-based test management application, formerly HP TestDirector for HP Quality Center, with Surgient's Virtual Automation Platform, which automates the testing and development software laboratory process. And, on Monday, HP introduced its Virtual Client Essentials software portfolio that includes multimedia, brokering and streaming solutions for desktop virtualization. The efforts aim to put HP in a very strong position for the future. Research firm IDC lists virtualization as one of the key growth areas for 2009. "With its announcement with VMware, HP is trying to provide end-to-end management tools in an integrated suite," Andi Mann, research director at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), told InternetNews.com. "This is really important stuff, and CA and BMC recently did very strong announcements around all these things in the virtual and physical environment." The tie-in with VMware will pit HP against both CA (NYSE: CA) and BMC Software (NYSE: BMC), as well as against IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Mann said. HP will also be fighting niche vendors such as Opalis, Embotics, Quest Software's (NASDAQ: QSFT) Vizioncore, which offers virtualization management technologies, and PlateSpin, now part of Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL). Virtual testing Melinda Wilken, VMware's senior director of technology, told InternetNews.com that the first step in working with HP will be integrating VMware's vCenter Lab Manager laboratory automation solution with HP's Business Technology Optimization (BTO) software. BTO enables enterprises to measure IT activities against business objectives -- making it more cost-effective. HP Quality Center is part of BTO, and integration with VMware will let its customers conduct testing in virtual lab configurations from within Quality Center, Wilken said. VMware may then integrate with BTO's HP OpsWare module, which offers automation, to automate the provisioning of physical and virtual resources in the lab environment, according to Wilken. Products from this integration will be appearing some time next year, she added. In addition, VMware is licensing HP's VDM Dependency and Discovery Mapping technology, which it will put into its own configuration management product, Wilken said. The combined product is scheduled to hit the market in the second half of 2009, she said. "That will let us go out and discover the configurations you have in your datacenter, the dependencies they have on other components in the datacenter, and feed that information back into vCenter Management Server," Wilken said. This capability ties into VMware's vision of the datacenter of the future, where servers will exist on-premises as well as in the cloud. Such datacenters will be managed by the virtualization giant's Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS), a combination of services for the infrastructure, applications and the cloud, unveiled at VMworld 2008, its annual user conference, in September. But HP isn't VMware's only partner in the area -- it's also teamed up with BMC and CA for end-to-end virtual and physical management capabilities. Wilken declined to say whether the company would also work on a similar an end-to-end solution with IBM, which is already a VMware partner. Despite all the effort, EMA's Mann said that managing virtual and physical deployments together may not be as hot a market as believed. "My research shows that 95 percent of all enterprises are deploying virtualization in some fashion, but their deployment rate internally is as low as five percent, and that trend will continue through 2010 at least," he said. "Physical deployments will remain dominant in the datacenter." Page 2: Cutting costs with virtual labs and virtual desktops

© The Canadian Press /Jonathan Hayward Bargain hunters scoured shelves at many of Canada's Blockbuster Video locations Friday, as nearly 150 stores set for closure began clearing out DVDs and video games at deeply discounted prices.The movie rental chain, which is in receivership, began liquidation sales at 146 Canadian locations that are scheduled to be shut down in June.A steady stream of shoppers seeking first pick of stock was greeted with signs saying "Everything Must Go" at one downtown Toronto Blockbuster locations.Another location was so busy by mid afternoon that a long lineup of customers snaked around the store - some shelves had already been stripped bare.Deal hunters picked over the merchandise, while yellow signs emblazoned with "30 per cent off," lured them to search through more shelves and bins.Several customers walked out with stacks of stock they could barely carry.The discount prices are not much different from Blockbuster's usual sales. The company regularly offered either 30 per cent off used DVDs or "buy two, get one free" offers on other previously viewed merchandise.But the key difference is that all the stock is on sale, with clearance prices extending to new DVDs, candy, toys and even ice cream and pop.Tony Leonardo said he rushed to his neighbourhood store on College and Crawford streets in Toronto when he heard the news of the closures, in hopes that the location isn't on the chopping block. He found that it is.He's been a regular customer for years and had built a relationship with the staff members who he praised as friendly and knowledgeable."It's very gloomy for the staff," Leonardo said, explaining they lamented about getting layoff notices last Friday. Some told him they were not sure where to look for other work."They're sad and in shock. It's almost like going to a funeral," he said.About 1,400 Blockbuster staff could lose their jobs in Canada, but the receiver in charge of selling the company has not given exact numbers.A court has ordered Blockbuster Canada be sold to pay off US$70 million in debts racked up by its former U.S. parent. The receiver in charge of selling it is closing down about a third of the stores.Ontario will have the most closures, but every province will lose at least one Blockbuster location, with stores set for closure not accepting gift cards.Shopper Jason Ahola said he went to the store the day the three week liquidation sale began to get first pick. He walked away with about 25 classic movies like Jaws, The Godfather, and Apocalypse Now, for about $175."It's a little ironic. I seem to remember all the little mom and pop video stores (Blockbuster) put out of business when they swept through," he said.Nearly every customer who stopped to chat outside one Toronto location spoke of how sad they were that the store is closing, and blamed both legal and illegal Internet movie websites, and other technology for effectively killing the video store rental industry.For every customer that said they normally buy their DVDs for next to nothing in nearby Chinatown, six more said they would miss the physical neighbourhood video stores.Customer Amy Fedrigo said she often shops at Blockbuster on her lunch break because she doesn't want to download movies over the Internet.She said she wasn't surprised that Blockbuster was closing a third of its locations."So many people are ripping stuff off on the Internet now and Blockbuster's not really flexible with its price and everyone I know, if they do rent videos, go to independently owned stores."Blockbuster Canada was placed into receivership by an Ontario court this month in the face of US$70 million in claims from various movie distributors, including Hollywood studios that provide its DVDs, and other suppliers.The Canadian operations had acted as a guarantor for Blockbuster's U.S. business, which went into bankruptcy protection in September and was later auctioned off for US$320 million to American satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp. (Nasdaq:DISH).Blockbuster's clearance sale began Friday so independent video stores are not yet reporting an increase in shoppers, though Howard Levman, who has owned Toronto store Queen Video for 30 years, said he expects the Blockbuster closures to only benefit the little guys in the short term.He explained that movie studios who provide DVDs may not see physical stores as worth their while with a big customer like Blockbuster slowly shrinking."Without the thousands of Blockbusters out there to buy these films, I'm guessing the studios will probably accelerate their efforts to make up that difference and get the movies directly to the consumers through digital means," he said.But he is optimistic that the industry is "pretty resilient" because movie watchers will always prefer face-to-face contact."When they get to the store they're often helped by somebody who is aware of what they might enjoy and you can't recreate that experience online. The industry's going to survive, it'll just be smaller."The entire list of store closures is available at http://bit.ly/lo06yS

This guest post was written by Konstantin Tretyakov, S.J.D. at Harvard Law School. On June 5th, 2015, the European Court of Human Rights (the ECHR) delivered its judgment in the case of Lambert and Others v. France. The case was about end-of-life decision-making on behalf of a persistently incompetent patient (Vincent Lambert, a French citizen) who was in a vegetative state and had to be artificially fed and hydrated through a gastric tube. The controversy arose with respect to the removal of that tube, which would result in the patient’s starvation, dehydration, and, ultimately, death: while some of the patients’ relatives (parents, half-brother and sister) wanted him to be kept fed and hydrated, his other relatives (wife and nephew) and caring physicians wanted the nutrition and hydration to be discontinued. Facts and Legal Arguments The controversy was litigated in the French courts, including the Administrative Court and the Conseil d’État. The courts came to drastically different conclusions: while the Administrative Court opined that the decision to withdraw artificial nutrition and hydration from Mr. Lambert “had constituted a serious and manifestly unlawful breach of [his] right to life,” the Conseil d’État held instead that the provision of the French Public Health Code authorizing physicians to withdraw and withhold “unreasonably obstina[te]” medical treatment “cannot be said to be incompatible with the requirements of Article 2 of the Convention [for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms] . . . , or with those of Article 8 . . . .” The Conseil d’État stressed that the law allowing the discontinuation of medical treatment provides for several procedural safeguards (reports about patient’s medical condition, ascertaining his or her wishes about being kept alive while in persistently unconscious state, consultations with patient’s family members) and therefore meets the requirements of the Convention. The ECHR, deciding on the application following the judgment of the Conseil d’État, focused its analysis on Article 2 of the Convention. In particular, the ECHR noted that the duty to protect human life, enshrined in Article 2, consists of both positive and negative obligations of the States (that is, the obligations to “take appropriate steps to safeguard the lives of those within [the] jurisdiction [of the State]” and the obligations to “refrain from the ‘intentional’ taking of life.”) With respect to negative obligations, the ECHR observed that the “therapeutic abstention” (that is, withdrawal and withholding of medical treatment) lacks the intention to end patient’s life―by contrast, a doctor discontinuing medical treatment from his or her patient merely intends to “allow death to resume its natural course and to relieve suffering.” Therefore, as long as therapeutic abstention authorized by the French Public Health Code, is not about taking life intentionally, the ECHR opined that France has not violated its negative obligation to “refrain from the ‘intentional’ taking of life.” When considering the State’s positive obligations to protect human life, the ECHR noted that the regulatory framework developed in the Public Health Code and the decision of the Conseil d’État established several “important safeguards” with respect to therapeutic abstention, and that the regulation is therefore “apt to ensure the protection of patients’ lives.” While examining the end-of-life decision-making process, the ECHR heavily relied on the margin of appreciation doctrine: the Court opined that “the organisation of the decision-making process, including the designation of the person who takes the final decision to withdraw treatment and the detailed arrangements for the taking of the decision, fall within the State’s margin of appreciation.” Finally, the ECHR also took into account the testimony about Mr. Lambert’s verbal remarks to his wife, where he expressed the “wish not to be kept alive artificially if he were to find himself in a highly dependent state,” and noted that “it was primarily for the domestic authorities . . . to establish the patient’s wishes in accordance with national law.” All this compelled the ECHR to conclude that there was no violation of the State’s positive obligation to protect human life, which, together with the absence of violation of negative obligations, resulted in conclusion that “there would be no violation of Article 2 of the Convention in the event of implementation of the Conseil d’État judgment.” Having dismissed the applicants’ claims based on Article 2 of the Convention, the ECHR briefly noted that their claims from Article 8 of the same Convention (violation of family life with Mr. Lambert) were “absorbed by those raised by the applicants under Article 2” and therefore did not merit a separate ruling. By distinguishing between euthanasia and therapeutic abstention and allowing the States to set the regulatory framework for the latter, the ECHR in the Lambert case stroke the balance between the sanctity of life on the one hand and the notions of quality of life and individual autonomy on the other hand. Not all Members of the Court, however, agreed with that approach: the Lambert decision was passed by twelve Justices, with five dissenters. The dissenting Justices filed a separate opinion, where they made several points. First, their reasoning strongly suggests that the dissenters considered Mr. Lambert an incapacitated individual who, like any other disabled member of society, needs to be cared for and whose life must be protected by the State; therefore, they put much greater emphasis on the notions of value of life and human dignity. Second, the dissenting Justices emphasizes upon the distinction between ordinary and extraordinary care: they thought that since artificial nutrition and hydration belongs to the first category, it should not be discontinued. Finally, the dissenters suggested a much higher standard of evidence than approved by their colleagues in majority: the separate opinion suggests that in the matters of end-of-life decision-making “nothing short of absolute certainty should have sufficed.” Some Comparisons and Ethical Analysis The case of Vincent Lambert is tragic, but not unique. In all countries, many patients with their family members, attending physicians, and often lawyers are struggling with the tough ethical dilemmas pertinent to end-of-life decision-making. These dilemmas include the questions of inviolability (sanctity) and quality of human life, causation and intent, standards of evidence to ascertain patient’s true will. The story of Mr. Lambert very much resembles the tragedy of Terri Schiavo in the United States, who was in persistent vegetative state for more than ten years and was also artificially fed and hydrated. Her family also split with regard to her future: while the husband of Ms. Schiavo wanted the nutrition and hydration to be discontinued, her parents objected and wanted their daughter to be kept alive. The case arose a nation-wide controversy in the United States, culminating in a narrowly tailored bill approved by the Congress and signed by president Bush, and was ultimately decided in a federal court that approved the removal of the feeding tube. Another similar story that happened in the United States was the earlier case of Nancy Cruzan, which was decided by the Supreme Court in 1990. In that case, there was no family controversy (Ms. Cruzan’s parents wanted to discontinue life-sustaining treatment from their daughter who was in persistent vegetative state), but the authorities of the state of Missouri objected, requiring “clear and convincing evidence” that Nancy Cruzan would want to terminate her life in such a condition. The Supreme Court, while acknowledging the right to refuse medical treatment, even at the risk of death, still deferred to the states in setting the evidentiary standards for end-of-life decision-making for incompetent patients. The tragedies of Terri Schiavo and Nancy Cruzan and related ethical dilemmas shed some light on the story of Vincent Lambert―in all three cases, similar ethical and legal questions were raised. First of all, all three stories were evolving around the competing notions of human dignity, inviolability (sanctity) and quality of human life. Whereas the advocates of withdrawing and withholding treatment insisted that continuing it would merely extend the biological existence devoid of autonomous decisions and meaning (quality of life), the proponents of keeping the patients alive pointed out that human life and dignity are sacrosanct and their sanctity does not depend on the exercisable capacity to make choices, deliberation, and judgments. The majority of the ECHR, as I mentioned earlier, while acknowledging the notions of both sanctity and quality of life enshrined in the Convention, sought to strike the balance between the two by deferring to the States in establishing procedural safeguards with respect to end-of-life decision-making and ascertaining the patient’s will. The dissenting Justices vehemently disagreed pointing out that the ECHR’s majority undervalued human life. Second, all three stories raise the problem of intention and the related issue of distinguishing between the foreseeable and intended effects of one’s actions―the distinction as old as the familiar (and hugely problematic) doctrine of double effect. While the ECHR majority carefully distinguished between intending to end patient’s life and intending to let the underlying medical condition take its cause, the dissenters took the broader definition of intention, pointing out that as long as medical professionals know that therapeutic abstention will necessarily cause death they indirectly intend it. Finally, the stories raise the problem of how the autonomous will of an incompetent patient who is incapable of communication can be ascertained. The Lambert Court opined that the Conseil d’État did not violate the Convention in adopting the preponderance of evidence standard, according to which the will of Mr. Lambert was determined based on some remarks that he offered to his wife in the presence of her father (it is unclear from the text of the decision whether the courts have considered that Mr. Lambert could have changed his opinion afterwards). The dissenting Members of the ECHR, by contrast, offered the “beyond the reasonable doubt” standard used in criminal law, which is much more demanding than the preponderance of evidence. (And, as I mentioned earlier, the Supreme Court of the United States held in the Cruzan case that the states can legitimately impose the clear and convincing evidence standard, which is somewhere between the two evidentiary standards.) Conclusion These are hard questions, and different courts in different jurisdictions (including those of the member states of the Council of Europe) answer them differently, offering more or less permissive regimes of end-of-life decision-making and exercising individual autonomy in making the choice about the time and manner of one’s death. What, if anything, can the Lambert decision tell us about the future of end-of-life legal regime under the jurisprudence of the ECHR? At first glance, the Lambert ruling seems permissive with respect to a right to die: the Court held that the procedure established in France for terminating the medical treatment of persistently unconscious and incompetent patients does not violate Article 2 and Article 8 the Convention. At the same time, the ECHR emphasized several times that the Lambert case was not about euthanasia and/or assisted suicide, which involve the intentional termination of human life, so it does not approve those practices under the Convention. Nevertheless, it seems appropriate to conclude that the ECHR has made a cautious, but a very important step in the direction of recognizing that the individual autonomy in end-of-life decision-making is to be protected, and if the state chooses to protect it and establishes appropriate safeguards around it, this does not constitute a violation of the Convention.

For David Dixon, Amtrak’s “Lincoln Service” is the love train. The 28-year-old Joliet resident takes two trips a month to see his sweetheart in St. Louis, and he was happy to hear that the route will be speeding up — from a maximum of 79 mph to 90 mph next year, and 110 mph in 2019. “I think it will definitely help the travel times, and people will want to take Amtrak more often, if they arrive to where they need to go on time,” Dixon said. But the Illinois Department of Transportation said that higher speeds will not be implemented until Amtrak installs a new federally mandated high-tech safety system, which possibly could have prevented a deadly Washington state crash last week. IDOT has invested nearly $2 billion in state and federal funds into a high-speed rail project on the route from Chicago to St. Louis over seven years, and it is almost complete. IDOT Secretary Randy Blankenhorn said that with improvements to tracks, grade crossings, cars and engines, the current five-and-a-half-hour trip from Chicago to St. Louis will be cut by almost an hour in two years, creating a better option to driving and helping the economies of towns along the way. “It’s not just for tourists — it’s for business people,” Blankenhorn said. “They can get back and forth to Springfield, to St. Louis, wherever they need to be and know they’re going to have a comfortable experience.” Blankenhorn said other Midwest rail corridors “are going to look to Chicago to see how to do it.” The higher speeds will not take effect until Amtrak and the private railroads that own most of the line finish testing and implementation of Positive Train Control, or PTC, a federally mandated system to prevent crashes, said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. PTC might have prevented last week’s deadly Amtrak train crash in Washington state, which may have been caused by the train going as much as 50 mph above a recommended speed limit. The official cause is yet to be determined by the National Transportation Safety Board. PTC uses GPS, radios and computers to monitor a train's position and automatically slow or stop trains that are speeding or in danger of colliding or derailing. Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson said in a statement last Friday that installation of PTC will make the whole railroad network safer. “It is imperative that the rail industry urgently work together to get PTC activated on the national network as soon as possible — and certainly by the December 2018 federal deadline, if not before." The PTC federal deadline for all railroads is December 2018, which Congress had extended from the original deadline of December 2015. Some railroads can qualify for an extension until 2020; Amtrak has not asked for an extension and does not plan to, Magliari said. “Where we own the tracks and own the infrastructure, we put it in substantially by the original deadline,” Magliari said. “Where we don’t own the tracks, we’ve had to equip the locomotives and the back office for PTC.” Amtrak reallocated money within its budget for implementation, he said. IDOT spokesman Guy Tridgell noted the Illinois route will continue to have some slow zones for curves and in populated areas. But he said this line was considered a good candidate for high-speed improvements in part because of its physical nature — it’s very flat and a relatively straight shot between two end points. The Chicago-to-St. Louis project got most of its $1.95 billion in funding from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law by then-President Barack Obama, which included billions for intercity passenger rail projects and rail congestion grants. Union Pacific also contributed to the project, IDOT officials said. Improvements include: Replacing all track along the 284-mile corridor, which involved new drainage, concrete ties and new rails, for a smoother ride. Building four new stations at Dwight, Pontiac, Lincoln and Alton, with upgrades to the stations in Normal and Springfield. A separate project to build a new transit facility in Joliet is also underway. Replacing and upgrading of 19 miles of double tracking and 32 miles of siding track. These improvements cut delays by allowing trains to pass each other — a “siding” acts like a shoulder on a highway. Improvements to 190 crossings, plus another 27 to be completed next year. Blankenhorn said while speed is important, what is key to more people using the line is reliability; the upgrades are improving on-time performance. “If I save 15 minutes, that’s great, but if I know I’m going to be on time, that’s what makes people ride,” Blankenhorn said. Delays on the route have been notorious, with trains arriving late about half the time in the three years prior to the start of construction in 2010. The on-time record rose to 79 percent as of October 2017. Guaranteed on-time performance once work is done is expected to be 85 percent. Ridership is also rising — from 359,020 on the Lincoln Service from Chicago to St. Louis in 2007 to 589,282 this year, IDOT said. The line also includes Texas Eagle service. Why is construction taking more than seven years? John Oimoen, chief of IDOT’s rail division, explained that for each of the rail crossings, IDOT needed to work with both private railroads and local communities. “We had a lot of stakeholder meetings … there was a lot of engineering,” Oimoen said. Environmental reviews also took time, and IDOT needed to hold more than 300 public information meetings up and down the corridor. The new crossings have four-armed crossing gates, to prevent people from driving around gates onto the tracks. There is also new fencing along tracks to prevent trespassing — which is the leading cause of rail-related deaths in the United States, with more than 400 fatalities annually, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. Illinois ranks second in the nation for trespassing deaths, said the Illinois Commerce Commission. “This corridor will be one of the most safe corridors in the country,” Oimoen said.

For more than a month, Norm Coleman stressed flaws in Minnesota's election system. And on Monday, Coleman lawyer Jim Langdon wrote the three-judge panel to suggest the problems are so serious they may not be able to declare a winner. "Some courts have held that when the number of illegal votes exceeds the margin between the candidates -- and it cannot be determined for which candidate those illegal votes were cast -- the most appropriate remedy is to set aside the election," Langdon wrote in a letter to the court. Coleman's team rested most of his case Monday in the U.S. Senate election trial after more testimony underscoring problems with the election system. Under questioning from the Republican's lawyers, Minnesota's elections director acknowledged inaccurate data in the registration system that could exclude otherwise qualified people from voting. Now Al Franken's team will try to convince judges that things aren't so bad after all. Franken lawyer Marc Elias said the team will begin a case today that will include evidence "about the good job that the state of Minnesota did ... that the hardworking auditors and election night officials did. How the system worked, by and large." But Franken lawyers will walk a tightrope with that strategy, because they also plan to call on voters to testify that their absentee ballots were wrongly rejected. While Coleman seeks to count 2,000 rejected ballots, the DFLer has a list of 804 rejected ballots he wants reconsidered. Elias said more than 100 voters could be called to testify, including more than a dozen today. Coleman rested the bulk of his case as the trial entered its sixth week. Franken's side of the trial is likely to last two to three weeks, Elias said. Franken holds a 225-vote lead that he gained after the state Canvassing Board, on Jan. 5, certified the results of a recount. Penalty imposed One of the more contentious episodes in the trial so far ended Monday when the judges slapped Coleman with a $7,500 fine for failing to disclose a document from a Republican election judge who claimed votes were double-counted in Minneapolis. But they allowed her testimony to become evidence. "In the event this sanction fails to deter future conduct on the part of [Coleman's] counsel, the court will not hesitate to impose harsher sanctions, up to and including dismissal [of the case]," the judges wrote. The dustup involved Republican election judge Pamela Howell, who had appeared briefly twice last week before being dismissed because of the undisclosed documents she had provided the Coleman team. Howell spoke about hearing a judge at her south Minneapolis precinct announce that some duplicate absentee ballots had been mistakenly fed into a vote tabulator without being labeled, raising the possibility that some votes may have been counted twice. During an aggressive cross-examination by Franken attorney David Lillehaug, Howell said she was "haunted" by her belief that votes may have been double-counted. But while she shared her concerns with Coleman lawyers, she didn't speak to a Franken lawyer who tried to contact her. "I didn't feel it was necessary," Howell said. Lillehaug also brought in an e-mail message to Howell from a Coleman lawyer in January telling her they didn't want to file her affidavit detailing her concerns because they wanted to avoid disclosing her statement. Howell told Lillehaug she didn't make a public statement earlier because, "I did not want the press at my door ... a target on my back." She said she felt vulnerable as a Republican living in largely DFL south Minneapolis. The Coleman lawyers also asked the judges Monday to subtract extra votes that they claim were tallied in Minneapolis precincts during the recount. They claim votes were counted twice after damaged ballots were copied to fit into tabulating machines on Election Day and the originals were added to the total in the recount. Both sides confident

Bengaluru: The city police is virtually working in the dark, without a strong intelligence network to help it deal with crime and unrest. The intelligence department, which had several units specializing in politics, trade unions, communal trouble, and terror-related activities in the city, has dismantled most of them over the past eight years and drafted their officers to other jobs. As a result the 450 strong intelligence network that the city had when its population was less than 40 lakh, has now been reduced to a mere 200-member unit when its population has doubled. ‘‘The dismantling started when Mr Neelam Achyuth Rao was in charge. When Mr Raghavendra Auradkar was in the chair, he also transferred many intelligence officers. Now, the department is virtually empty,’’ say sources. Sadly, the state and city intelligence units have stopped working on the lines of the Intelligence Bureau of the Union home ministry. ‘‘No daily briefings or meetings take place between lower rung officers. The postmen, electric meter readers and many such people are informants , but the police has virtually stopped interacting with them as well,’’ add sources.

@Alopezdemiguel MADRID.-"No puede haber liderazgos y dirigentes que se agrupen en torno a intereses de poder". Ramón Espinar Merino (Madrid, 1986) advierte de que lo que "toca" ahora en Podemos es abrir un debate con las bases para rediseñar el Consejo Ciudadano de la Comunidad de Madrid, su dirección autonómica, para establecer las bases de un nuevo Podemos. Desde que este lunes participase en la difusión de la iniciativa Podemos Escucha, el portavoz de Podemos en el Senado y diputado en la Asamblea de Madrid ha rechazado aclarar si finalmente se postulará para dirigir la formación en la CAM, y ha criticado a sus compañeras de partido Rita Maestre y Tania Sánchez por anteponer "caras y nombres" a propuestas". Sin embargo, en entrevista con Público Espinar resta importancia a la existencia de familias políticas en su organización, y refuerza y defiende la figura de su secretario general, Pablo Iglesias. "Hay una contienda mediática que pretende situar a Pablo de parte. Y él no está de parte, es el líder de un proyecto de todos". ¿Se postulará a liderar Podemos Escucha si se traduce en una candidatura? Nosotros no estamos participando en una competición entre facciones o partes de la organización, y por tanto Podemos Escucha no va a ser una candidatura. Podemos Escucha aspira a que Podemos en la Comunidad de Madrid tenga una herramienta que canalice y vertebre la participación de todo el mundo. Creo que la organización tiene que madurar y que esa maduración se sustancia fundamentalmente en que quienes hemos tenido mucho protagonismo demos un pasito al lado para que haya un paso al frente de quienes han trabajado hasta la extenuación y han sido poco escuchados. Claro que va a haber candidaturas, ya veremos cuáles. ¿Pero le gustaría presentarse? ¿Cree que podría desempeñar un buen rol dirigiendo Podemos en la Comunidad o estando en la dirección? No quiero usar la frase de Jordi Pujol, esa de “Hoy no toca”, pero creo que no toca ese debate ahora. Creo que le hacemos un flaco favor a la organización cuando nos enrocamos en el debate del "¿Quién quieres que mande?". Quiero saber qué vamos a hacer. Quiero implicarme y me estoy implicando de lleno en el debate sobre qué vamos a hacer. Y, volviendo a Jordi Pujol, ¿cuándo toca? ¿Cuándo toca hablar de las caras, de si conviene dar un paso? Cuando llegue. Lo que toca ahora es hacer un debate de proyecto. A nadie se le escapa que Podemos necesita vertebrarse como organización, madurar como organización e ir mucho más allá de lo que ha sido hasta ahora en términos de impacto en la vida social y cultural de este país. A ese debate no le ayuda que ahora generemos tensión en los medios de comunicación sobre quién va a ser el próximo secretario general de Podemos en la Comunidad. Es evidente que lo va a haber. Es evidente que va a haber una dirección y que va a haber una secretaría general que estará ocupada por algún compañero o compañera. Creo que no toca, y creo que no es una respuesta que rehúya la pregunta. Es una respuesta que sitúa la pregunta donde creo honestamente que está, y es hacia dónde vamos, y no quién va a encabezar. ¿Siente o tiene el respaldo de Pablo Iglesias para dar un paso adelante, para intentar participar en la renovación de este órgano o para impulsar candidaturas? "Hay una contienda mediática que pretende situar a Pablo de parte. Y él no está de parte, es el líder de un proyecto de todos" He hablado con Pablo de este proceso y creo que tenemos una posición compartida sobre las cuestiones sustanciales. Creo que está muy comprometido con la necesidad de que Podemos sea una organización política que vaya mucho más allá de lo que ha sido hasta ahora, y yo lo celebro. Ahora, Pablo es el secretario general de Podemos. Es decir: Pablo no es el líder de los pablistas, eso no existe. Pablo es el secretario general de todo Podemos y es fundamental que Pablo sea el secretario general de todo Podemos. Y luego en Podemos hay sensibilidades, hay facciones, hay familias y lo que quieras, como lo quieras llamar. Habrá diferentes actores que se constituyan dentro de Podemos como tales. A mí eso me parece legítimo y me parece bien, siempre que sea en función de propuestas políticas y no de intereses de poder. Ahora, creo que Pablo no forma parte de esa dinámica. Pablo está en otro sitio. De hecho diré más: Pablo es el líder de un proyecto que no se entendería sin él, luego Pablo es una figura a la que hay que preservar muy mucho y dejar muy fuera de las contiendas de poder. Hay una contienda mediática que pretende situar a Pablo de parte. Y él no está de parte, es el líder de un proyecto de todos. ¿Le molesta que le encuadren en el sector de Podemos afín al secretario general? "No puede haber liderazgos y dirigentes que se agrupen en torno a intereses de poder. Tiene que haber liderazgos y dirigentes que faciliten procesos abiertos de participación" No, a mí no me molesta nada que me encuadren como afín al secretario general, en absoluto. Lo soy. Lo que me gusta menos es que se genere en la opinión pública la sensación de que en Podemos hay diferentes grupos peleando por el poder, porque creo que no veníamos a la política a eso. En el proceso de la CAM creo que además ya no estamos en un tiempo político de palabras, sino de hechos, y yo me lo tomo en serio. Tenemos la obligación de ser coherentes con esto, con creer que Podemos es una cosa que no tiene que ver con los partidos viejos y que no tiene que tener que ver con los partidos viejos. No puede haber liderazgos y dirigentes que se agrupen en torno a intereses de poder. Tiene que haber liderazgos y dirigentes que faciliten procesos abiertos de participación. ¿Cuadraría en esa categoría de dirigentes que se agrupan “en torno a intereses de poder” el proyecto presentado por Rita Maestre y Tania Sánchez? Pablo Iglesias afirmó que habría propuestas "mejores" y le mencionó a usted. Rita Maestre y Tania Sánchez son dos compañeras valiosas por las que yo tengo mucho respecto. En particular con Rita comparto proyecto político desde hace muchísimos años; hemos estudiado en la misma facultad y hemos compartido colectivo desde entonces, desde mucho antes de que Podemos fuera ni siquiera una idea. De forma que lo único que van a recibir de mí Rita y Tania son palabras de compañerismo. Son mis compañeras. ¿Comparto que hayan presentado una candidatura al inicio de un proceso en el que yo creo que lo que tocaba era anteponer la discusión política a las caras y los nombres? Parece que no, parece evidente que no lo comparto. Pero eso no quiere decir que no me parezca legítimo que hayan constituido una candidatura. ¿Estaba al tanto de la presentación del proyecto antes de la rueda de prensa? No, no lo estaba. ¿Qué opina del resto de iniciativas presentadas? Ayer [por el jueves] se conoció que Miguel Urbán también impulsa un proyecto. Tengo una opinión positiva de muchas de las personas que participan del proyecto de Anticapitalistas. Comparto con ellos espacio de trabajo en la Asamblea de Madrid y tenemos una relación francamente buena. Pero de nuevo creo que no es tiempo de enfrentamiento entre familias políticas. ¿Ha modificado los tiempos de Podemos Escucha o su hoja de ruta la irrupción del proyecto de Sánchez y Maestre? Hemos tenido que alterar en buena medida la hoja de ruta. Estaba pensada para un proceso de reflexión política y nuestro proceso se ha mantenido intacto, pero el tratamiento mediático del proceso general no. ¿Es factible construir algo con personas de esas iniciativas? ¿Es posible que en el proceso puedan encontrarse con los proyectos de Urbán o Maestre? No me cabe ninguna duda de que compañeros y compañeras que compartimos proyecto político podemos hacer cosas juntos. Creo que también hay algunas diferencias políticas entre unos y otros que nosotros y nosotras conocemos bien, nos conocemos bien y las hemos discutido. No sé si están tan claras de cara a la gente, y supongo que llegará el momento en el debate político de dirimirlas. Pero creo que en lo sustancial estamos de acuerdo. No hay que perder de vista el hecho, que a veces parece que se diluye un poco, de que somos compañeros y compañeras que hemos participado de un proyecto que en dos años ha irrumpido en el sistema político español como nunca antes había irrumpido ningún actor. Alguna coherencia habrá en este proyecto. ¿Qué persigue exactamente Podemos Escucha? Creemos que el proceso que se abre en Podemos Comunidad de Madrid es fundamental para definir el futuro de la organización, en la Comunidad y en general, y necesitamos generar una organización que nos permita superar la fase anterior. Por decirlo en plata y claro: Twitter y la televisión han dado mucho de sí y nos han permitido una irrupción en el panorama político que se ha sustanciado en 5 millones de votos y en un cambio en el sistema político español para siempre, pero necesitamos avanzar hacia un modelo organizativo que nos permita ser una herramienta de cambio que pueda disputar las elecciones y ganarlas, y para eso necesitamos algo más que un aparato de comunicación. Necesitamos ser una herramienta política que tenga impacto en la vida social y cultural de los barrios y de los pueblos. ¿Eso cómo se consigue? Apostando por la organización. El único hormigón del cambio político es la militancia, y Podemos tiene que estar presente en los barrios y en los pueblos no sólo para hacer campañas electorales, que ha sido hasta ahora el papel de los círculos, sino también para impactar en la vida social y cultural; para identificar cuáles son los problemas fundamentales en un barrio o un pueblo y atenderlos; para generar dinámicas de apoyo mutuo, para ser una herramienta que vaya mucho más allá de las decisiones de una dirección que bajan hasta los círculos y se aplican en forma de campañas, pegadas de carteles y charlas. ¿Cómo se traduce en una hoja de ruta concreta?¿Cómo se estructuraría la organización según tienes, o tenéis, en mente? Es un debate por abrir y hay que contar con la gente. ¿Vamos a plantear algunas líneas maestras? Sí. Vamos a plantear qué papel deben tener los círculos para afrontar la realidad especifica de su territorio, pero tiene que ser la gente que vive esta realidad quien decida en qué problemas centrarse. Que sea la gente quien decida y el papel de los dirigentes sea ese, facilitar que los círculos tengan autonomía política y financiera. "El campo político del cambio va mucho más allá de Podemos, y las candidaturas de unidad popular son protagonistas del cambio" El segundo elemento es el territorial. Tenemos que ir a una estructura en la que los territorios participen en los órganos, y la forma de alicatarla tiene que surgir de un debate político y de escuchar a los territorios. Y además necesitamos normalizar e integrar una realidad que es producto de una decisión que se tomó en Vistalegre, y fue un acierto: la de no presentarnos a las elecciones municipales. Entonces surgieron candidaturas municipalistas que vinculaban a Podemos con otras formaciones políticas, pero también con el tejido social vivo de las ciudades. Hay que formalizar esa relación, hay que asumir que eso es así, que hoy el campo político del cambio en lo que tiene que ver con la política municipal es mucho más que podemos. ¿Sería partidario de repetir esta estructura? Soy partidario de atender a una realidad que se ha instalado. La realidad es que el campo político del cambio va mucho más allá de Podemos, que estas candidaturas son protagonistas del cambio político y que tienen que tener una normalización y una integración en su relación con Podemos. Nosotros hemos abierto un proceso de participación que no sólo atiende a los círculos, que atiende también a las candidaturas de unidad popular. Vamos a escuchar y vamos a ver cuáles son las diferentes realidades para atender a los diferentes problemas, y es probable que tengamos que ir a una fórmula de geometría variable. Bueno, ensayémosla. Ayer [por el jueves] Pablo Iglesias planteaba en entrevista en CTXT que a la formación le han sentado mal las instituciones. Usted ha sido portavoz en el Senado durante un año y dos meses. ¿Les han sentado mal las instituciones? "Nosotros no somos los representantes del Congreso en tu plaza, somos los representantes de tu plaza en el Congreso. Nosotros éramos tú ahí dentro, no los de ahí dentro saliendo fuera" Cuando uno está muchas horas en el Senado o en el Congreso son horas que te pueden aislar de la realidad. Y creo que los ejes de debate ahí dentro son muy diferentes de los que hay en la calle, que hay un cierto desplazamiento al Parlamento que puede parlamentarizar el discurso. Cuando hacemos una campaña que se llama El Congreso en tu plaza estamos haciendo lo contrario de lo que deberíamos hacer. Nosotros no somos los representantes del Congreso en tu plaza, somos los representantes de tu plaza en el Congreso. Somos lo contrario. Nosotros éramos tú ahí dentro, no los de ahí dentro saliendo fuera. Si te ves como el parlamentario que va a dar explicaciones has dejado de verte como la persona que circunstancialmente va al Parlamento. En el Senado van a tener que seguir conviviendo con la senadora independiente Rita Barberá. ¿Se ha cruzado con ella? ¿Cómo ve desde allí lo que está haciendo? Si el PP no hace dimitir a Rita Barberá el Senado se va a convertir en un refugio de bandidos. Creo que es complicado quitarle el escaño ahora, pero también creo que el PP tiene formas de presionarla para que salga de ahí. El Senado no puede ser un refugio de bandidos. Grabación y edición: La Barraca Producciones

Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company. Founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment, its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy specials. Shout! Factory also owns and operates Shout! Studios, Westchester Films, Timeless Media Group, Biograph Records, Majordomo Records, and Video Time Machine. History [ edit ] Retropolis Entertainment was founded by April 2002 by Bob Emmer, Garson Foos, and Richard Foos, three principals from Rhino Records,[citation needed] as the company was negotiating with the five majors for distribution. After selling Rhino to Warner Bros., the three set out to launch a new retro pop culture label.[citation needed] The company's first product was Red, White & Rock, a joint release with PBS station WQED that was produced with Warner Strategic Marketing.[2] In August 2002, Retropolis acquired Biograph Records.[3] Other early releases included blues and jazz CDs from the Biograph label, a Fats Domino CD and DVD, and several documentaries (Superstar: The Life And Times of Andy Warhol, What Happened To Kerouac?).[citation needed] Retroplis was renamed Shout! Factory in April 2003. At that time, Shout had signed a press and distribution agreement with Sony Music Entertainment.[4] With the release of Freaks & Geeks in 2004, Shout! hit its stride and shifted towards a reputable and celebrated television on DVD company. That same year, they released a brand-new CD Has Been with actor William Shatner (produced by Ben Folds) and started releasing classic SCTV box sets.[citation needed] In 2004 Shout! Factory released an expanded two-disc version of Jim Croce's first record, the Facets album.[citation needed] In 2004, Shout! got the rights to Cartoon Network staple Home Movies and released each season set, and ultimately a complete series box.[citation needed] Other pop culture releases ensued, including a pair of The Electric Company multidisc sets[citation needed], the re-envisioned Herb Alpert's Whipped Cream & Other Delights Rewhipped[citation needed], a series of Elvira's Movie Macabre DVDs[citation needed] and the first of what would be three cover CDs with Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs, called Under The Covers Vol. 1; Sweet himself was also added as a featured solo artist.[5] Still earning a reputation for the release of classic TV programs, Shout! acquired the rights to America's Funniest Home Videos, That Girl, Punky Brewster, and The Weird Al Show, all of which debuted in 2006.[citation needed] In 2005, Shout! Factory obtained the rights to Herb Alpert's catalog, launching the Herb Alpert Signature Series of CDs. These included The Lonely Bull, South of the Border, Lost Treasures, Whipped Cream & Other Delights and others.[citation needed] They also got the rights to talk show host Dick Cavett's library and started releasing theme sets focused on rock icons, Ray Charles (including all his visits to the show), John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and others.[citation needed] They also jumped into children's animation with a deal with DiC Entertainment. C.O.P.S. The Animated Series and Heathcliff And the Catillac Cats were the first releases from that deal.[citation needed] On the sports side, they entered into a licensing deal with Major League Baseball, releasing themed and World Series DVDs through 2010.[citation needed] By 2007, classic TV on DVD was a major focus, with season sets of McHale's Navy and Ironside, an authorized collection of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and themed and actor-specific editions of Inside the Actor's Studio hitting shelves. Meanwhile, they also started releasing Mickey Hart's catalogs.[citation needed] In March 2008, Shout! bought the Hightone Records catalog and added artists Tom Russell, Joe Ely, and Rosie Flores to its brand.[6] At the same time, the company was ramping up its place as a children's animation destination and continuing with a TV on DVD schedule.[citation needed] It took over the Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD series and released a 20th Anniversary set and have continued to put out box sets of episodes never before released on DVD.[citation needed] In 2009, Shout! reached another milestone when it struck a deal with children's TV producers Hasbro, releasing the original Transformers and G.I. Joe animated-series box sets. That same year, it released the first My Little Pony DVD, My Little Pony: Twinkle Wish Collection. Shout! continues to release several Hasbro properties, including the series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.[citation needed] In 2011 Shout! made another landmark deal when they struck a deal with Nickelodeon to release the live action sitcom Hey Dude and the animated Nicktoons Rocko's Modern Life, Ahhh Real Monsters, Angry Beavers, Hey Arnold!, The Wild Thornberrys, CatDog, and Danny Phantom.[citation needed] In May 2012, Shout! Factory signed an agreement with Saban Capital Group to distribute the Beetleborgs, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, Power Rangers and VR Troopers catalogs.[7] It also started releasing titles by Marvel (Super Hero Squad Show, Marvel Knights).[citation needed] In the same month, the company acquired Oregon-based home entertainment company Timeless Media Group, adding more programs to its expanding catalog, such as The Red Skelton Show, Peter Gunn, The Gene Autry Show, The Virginian, Wagon Train, Laramie, and The Roy Rogers Show, among others.[8] In June 2012, Shout! Factory announced a horror label called Scream Factory, specializing in classic and cult horror films on discs such as Halloween II, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, They Live, The Howling, Lifeforce, Deadly Eyes, and others.[9] The horror titles, both new and old, were licensed from major studios such as MGM, Fox, and Universal.[citation needed] In mid-June 2012, Shout! and Fred Seibert acquired Video Time Machine, a year and genre media-based iOS app, from Original Victories Inc.[10] In July 2013, Shout! Factory acquired the U.S. and Canadian distribution rights to the ITC Entertainment library as part of a deal with ITV Studios Global Entertainment.[11][12] In 2014, the success Shout! was having with complete-series box sets of such series as All in the Family, Route 66, and Barney Miller extended to such properties as The Bob Newhart Show, Hill Street Blues, The Jeffersons, and a Blu-Ray release of Pee-Wee's Playhouse.[13] On May 8, 2014, Shout! announced[14] their acquisition of the rights to WKRP in Cincinnati,[15] with the intention of restoring all four seasons of the show "complete" (i.e. complete as legally possible) with their original musical scores.[16] The 2014 release was a monumental event for fans of the show since the original DVD release in 2007 had been mired in squabbles regarding music rights.[17] That same year, Shout! became the distributor of Super Sentai in North America under license from Saban Brands. In 2015, Shout! released official DVDs of Super Sentai starting with Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger under the name "Super Sentai Zyuranger: The Complete Series" with English subtitles. In October, Shout! acquired Westchester Films, an independent film company whose library includes the films of John Cassavetes, Elia Kazan, and Orson Welles, as well as some early United Artists films that were previously owned by the films' producers.[citation needed] IFC Midnight signed with Scream Factory by February 2015 for home distribution.[18] On February 5, 2015, Shout! Factory launched its flagship TV ad-supported streaming services online and via Roku. Available shows and movies included 16 Werner Herzog films, Roger Corman cult films and TV shows including Father Knows Best and It's Garry Shandling's Show.[19] In June, a minority stake in the company was taken by Cinedigm, while extending their home entertainment platform distribution agreement. Cinedigm and Shout would then relaunch the Factory's streaming service and cross market each other streaming services.[1] On November 10, 2015, Shout! announced that it had acquired the rights to Mystery Science Theater 3000 from Best Brains Inc. and launched a "Bring Back MST3K" Kickstarter with the goal of producing up to 12 new feature-length episodes of the series, with series creator Joel Hodgson serving as executive producer.[20] In January 2016, Concord Bicycle Music bought the Hightone from the company.[21] The following year, Shout! (via its Westchester Films division) acquired the domestic rights to the entire library of Morgan Creek Productions (with the exception of the original Young Guns, which is still owned by Lionsgate, successor to the film's international distributor, Vestron Pictures).[citation needed] On January 10, 2017, Shout Factory acquired the worldwide television format and ancillary rights to Starcade with plans to reboot the series.[22] On January 17, Shout! Factory announced their acquisition of the broadcast and home media distribution rights for the first three Digimon Adventure tri. films with plans for a dual-language release on DVD and Blu-ray.[citation needed] On May 18, Shout! Factory acquired the North American distribution rights to In This Corner of the World, with a U.S. theatrical release to take place in August 11, 2017, co-released by Funimation Films.[23] In October 2017, it was revealed that Shout! Factory would be the distributor for GKIDS' re-releases of Studio Ghibli films formerly owned by Disney;[24] afterwards, Shout! began distributing other GKIDS films. On November 13, 2017, Shout! Factory announced the formation of Shout! Studios, a production and distribution arm that specializes in content development.[25] The first films to be distributed under the new banner include Humor Me, The House of Tomorrow, Izzy Gets the F*ck Across Town, and Basmati Blues, all slated for a 2018 premiere. In addition to film projects, Shout! Studios will also develop original television productions. In March 2018, Shout! Factory acquired the New Horizons film library from its founder Roger Corman; Shout! will distribute this catalogue in North America, Europe, Russia and Australia.[26] Shout! also expanded its U.S. and Canadian distribution deal with ITV Studios Global Entertainment to cover over 135 films and TV series from ITV's library.[27] In August, Shout! struck a deal with Sesame Workshop to distribute the Sesame Street home video library, taking over from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.[28] Licensing deals [ edit ] Shout! Factory currently has agreements with NBCUniversal, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and MGM, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Hasbro Studios, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, GKIDS, Sesame Workshop, IFC Films, Major League Baseball, ITV Studios, MacGillivray Freeman Films, and Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. Releases under these agreements have included the complete Joss Whedon/John Cassaday series of Astonishing X-Men, plus Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers and Iron Man: Extremis on DVD and Blu-ray;[29] the original Transformers, G.I. Joe, Jem and My Little Pony cartoons, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Power Rangers, VR Troopers, Sesame Street, some Nickelodeon series like Rocko's Modern Life, Hey Arnold!, The Wild Thornberrys, CatDog, Danny Phantom, Hey Dude, The Angry Beavers, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (under a former agreement with Paramount Home Media Distribution), and the Disney Television Animation series Gravity Falls. In mid-2012, Shout! Factory announced a horror sub-label called Scream Factory, specializing in classic and cult horror films such as Halloween II, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, They Live, The Howling, Lifeforce, Deadly Eyes, and others being released to DVD and Blu-ray.[30] Related companies [ edit ] In 2012, Shout! Factory acquired Oregon-based home entertainment company Timeless Media Group, adding programs to its ever-expanding catalog: The Red Skelton Show, Peter Gunn, The Gene Autry Show, The Virginian, Wagon Train, Laramie, and The Roy Rogers Show, among others.[31] Shout! Factory also acquired blues/roots label HighTone Records and continued to oversee its back catalog until 2016 when Concord Bicycle Music bought the label.[32] Units [ edit ]

Leading up to this coming week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas—the annual gadget trade show with some 160,000 attendees—we’ve been getting emails. Lots of emails. And if those emails are any sign, we’re in for a lot of new wearable devices at CES. That’s smart, because this is basically the last chance to launch one before the arrival of the Apple Watch—the wearable that’s best positioned for mainstream consumer success. In the meantime, these product pitches below—pulled directly from emails we’ve received the past few weeks—range from the jargony to the hyperbolic to the seemingly potentially useful. “the first lifestyle wearable that uses enhanced neurosignaling to shift people’s state of mind in areas related to energy, calm and focus” to shift people’s state of mind in areas related to energy, calm and focus” “the next generation of truly meaningful wearable technology … [a] new wearable consumer pain therapy device” … [a] new wearable consumer pain therapy device” “ hardware agnostic capabilities enabling first-person POV workplace collaboration for real-time project management … configure, deploy and manage industrialized wearable devices while capturing, quantifying and transforming data into actionable intelligence” … configure, deploy and manage while capturing, quantifying and transforming data into actionable intelligence” “ pioneering conversations with the next generation of wearables , applications, and other devices that we will experience as part of the connected home and connected enterprise, as well as the future of connected consumer health and fitness … including a voice-enabled consumer health app prototype on a wearable device “ , applications, and other devices that we will experience as part of the connected home and connected enterprise, as well as the future of connected consumer health and fitness … including a “ “the world’s first line of biometric smartwear “ “ “ never-before-seen wearable technologies , the intersection of culinary into 3D and robotics that fit into the everyday life” , the intersection of culinary into 3D and robotics that fit into the everyday life” “our revolutionary new product … is the first heart rate and activity monitor that can be worn all day , every day to help athletes train to the peak of performance … a small sensor-filled adhesive strip that sticks to the user’s torso as comfortably and discretely as a Band-Aid” , every day to help athletes train to the peak of performance … a small sensor-filled adhesive strip that sticks to the user’s torso as comfortably and discretely as a Band-Aid” “ text messaging sunglasses … [the CEO] believes the true case for wearables is in the enterprise, though it has practical applications for consumers, such as heads-up text messaging” … [the CEO] believes the true case for wearables is in the enterprise, though it has practical applications for consumers, such as heads-up text messaging” “ a new type of smart textile that turns garments into active motion sensors … used to make comfortable and washable clothing and provides users information not available from existing wearables, such as tips to improve posture and athletic movements” that turns garments into active motion sensors … used to make comfortable and washable clothing and provides users information not available from existing wearables, such as tips to improve posture and athletic movements” “a MouthGuard worn by football players and other athletes, with data sensors that relay real-time head impact data for concussion management protocols” that relay real-time head impact data for concussion management protocols” “the global leader in eye tracking , is set to alter the gaming, wearable and VR / AR landscape in 2015″ , is set to alter the gaming, wearable and VR / AR landscape in 2015″ “unlike any other fitness tracker, the chest-based wearable combines motion analytics and heart rate to track your reps in the gym” We’ll report back with the best ones from the show. Why all the excitement? Wearable devices are widely expected to take off—some say faster than smartphones and tablets. Morgan Stanley, for example, predicts 70 million wearable shipments worldwide in 2015, growing to 248 million in 2017. (It also estimates that wearables address $1.6 trillion in consumer and business spending, from fashion and fitness to healthcare and insurance.)

Deep Fried S’mores are an irresistible treat that’s golden and fluffy, melting in your mouth. The s’mores made the traditional way with graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallows before being dipped in a homemade batter and deep fried to perfection. Perfect for a party or midnight snack. Plus video tutorial! Deep Fried S’mores are one of those cray desserts you have to taste at least once! It could be our all-time favorite s’mores treat, inspired by our Deep Fried Cookie Dough and Deep Fried Cheesecake recipes. These party-perfect treats feature graham cracker, marshmallow and melty chocolate wrapped in a puffy batter and dusted with powdered sugar. So if the weather’s too cool for campfires and you still need s’mores in your life, look no further than this recipe for complete satisfaction. MY LATEST VIDEOS MY LATEST VIDEOS MY LATEST VIDEOS Deep fried smores originated as State Fair concoctions, but haven’t really been made at home … until now. In this recipe, we’ve adapted them into golden pouffy balls that melt in your mouth with gooey s’mores flavors on the inside. How to make deep fried s’mores There’s a bit of dedication required to make deep fried s’mores. We often sacrifice the first few balls to get the hang of it, and then the rest come along more easily. The first step is to take a square 8-inch pan and line with parchment paper. Then you can place graham crackers in the bottom. The rest of the smores is a layering process with graham crackers, melted chocolate, chocolate chips and mini marshmallows. The melted chocolate acts as the glue to hold it all together: Chill for ten minutes, and then cut them into about 36 inch-size squares. You may be wondering how square pieces become round balls, and the battering process that follows is the secret. Using a simple pancake batter, either homemade in this recipe or using a packaged mix, dip the s’more pieces in one-by-one and fry them for about a minute in 400°F oil. Repeat the process until all the pieces have been deep fried. WATCH HOW TO MAKE DEEP FRIED S’MORES: 4.25 from 4 votes Print Deep Fried S’mores (with video) Deep Fried S’mores – OMG seriously one of the most delicious desserts! Smores dipped in homemade batter, and fried to a fluffy, golden crispy ball with a warm and melty chocolate chips and marshmallow inside. A great dessert for a party. Prep Time 25 minutes Cook Time 10 minutes Total Time 35 minutes Servings 36 servings Calories 117 kcal Author TipBuzz Ingredients S'mores 9 graham cracker sheets 2 cups mini marshmallows 2 cups chocolate chips or 8 oz baking chocolate, divided Batter 2 large eggs 2 tsp oil 1 1/2 cups milk 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 6 tbsp granulated sugar 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt Frying & Serving 1 quart vegetable oil for frying powdered sugar optional for serving Instructions S'mores Line an 8x8-inch pan with parchment paper. Arrange graham crackers to cover the bottom of the pan, breaking up sheets as needed to fit. Place 1 cup of chocolate chips in a bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals until smooth, stirring in between. Drizzle 1/3 of the melted chocolate onto the graham crackers, followed by the remaining chocolate chips, followed by 1/3 more melted chocolate, followed by the marshmallows, and finally the remaining melted chocolate. Top with a layer of graham crackers according to the video, and place the pan in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, make the batter. Batter In a medium saucepan or deep fryer, add vegetable oil and set temperature to 425°F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil and milk. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Pour in the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth. Frying To get ready for frying, line a large plate with paper towel and set aside. Also get tongs and a slotted spoon. Remove the s'mores from the fridge. Lift them out of the pan and onto a work surface using the parchment paper. Using a sharp knife, cut the s'mores into 6x6 grid to make 36 pieces. If any pieces break, use melted chocolate to glue them back together. Drop a s’mores piece into the batter and using the tongs coat completely. Then lift the coated s'more out and let excess batter drip off. Place the s'more into the hot oil, and fry for about 1 minute until it has puffed into a ball and turned golden brown. Remove to the prepared plate. Repeat the battering, frying process for the remaining s'mores. (It may take a few to get the hang of it.) Dust with optional powdered sugar. Serve warm and enjoy! Recipe Tips -Instead of making homemade batter, you can use dry pancake mix and add water according to the package directions. -Keep the s'mores in the fridge until ready to fry, especially if the weather is warm. Nutrition Facts Deep Fried S’mores (with video) Amount Per Serving Calories 117 Calories from Fat 45 % Daily Value* Total Fat 5g 8% Saturated Fat 3g 15% Cholesterol 6mg 2% Sodium 51mg 2% Potassium 30mg 1% Total Carbohydrates 15g 5% Sugars 9g Protein 1g 2% Vitamin A 0.7% Vitamin C 0.1% Calcium 2.6% Iron 2.6% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Looking for more s’mores recipes? © TIPBUZZ. Images and text on this website are copyright protected. Please do not post or republish without permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please link back to this post. This post may contain affiliate links. Read the disclosure policy here

It almost takes a force of nature to move an idea from the lab to the factory. Luckily for regenerative medicine that force of nature, in the person of Dean Kamen, is on the job. Kamen, who might be best known as the creator of the Segway or the FIRST Robotics competition, actually has a very long history of creating medical devices. While still in college, he invented the first wearable infusion pump, which was used in the fields of chemotherapy, neonatology, and endocrinology. In 1976, he founded AutoSyringe, Inc., to manufacture the pumps and at age 30, he sold that company to Baxter International Corp. By then, he had added a number of other infusion devices, including the first wearable insulin pump for diabetics. Next, he founded DEKA Research & Development Corp. which developed HomeChoice, a peritoneal dialysis system which allowed patients to be dialyzed in their home. And at the request of DARPA Kamen also created Luke, an advanced prosthetic arm in for injured soldiers. He invented the iBOT (electric wheelchair) and most recently created Slingshot a water purification device that is installed across the world. Kamen talked to IndustryWeek to explain how his vision for bringing regenerative medicine to full-scale production led him to find the necessary resources and leadership that culminated in the creation of Advanced Manufacturing Regenerative Institute/BIOFabUSA. In creating any industry the vision must come first. “As a society, we have advanced through the four stages of dealing with disease,” Kamen explained. “The first is to identify the disease and in this stage, we basically watched people die and then figured out what the disease was. The second stage is learning how to treat disease. This is an improvement, but not optimal. The third stage is to become more active, for example when we are able to transplant organs. But it’s the fourth stage where the future lies. It’s where we prevent disease, for example using vaccines. And in the case of regenerative medicine, we build new organs from our own cells. That’s the optimal solution.” Building organs in the lab is not the stuff of fiction, it’s happening right now. Across the country in many labs, scientists have been working hard to create tissue and pieces of organs, through 3D printing. The advancements, supported by both private and government funding have been gaining quickly. (Note: IndustryWeek has reported on this topic, see Next Wave-Manufacturing Organs, and Expanding Medical Manufacturing.) The Current State of Industry One of the first big breakthroughs was in 2006 when Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston Salem, N.C. made history by growing and implanting a bladder into a human patient – the first time such a feat had ever been accomplished. Currently, Dr. Alala uses the patient's own tissue and expands the cells outside of the body creating new tissues and organs that can be put back into the body. The 3D printer creates customized scaffolding that enables the process. In 2016 researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center announced that they had printed ear, bone and muscle structures and successfully implanted them into animals. The structures, after being implanted, matured into functional tissue and sprouted new systems of blood vessels, and their strength and size mean that they could feasibly be implanted into humans in the future. The need for these organs cannot be overstated. Every 30 seconds a patient who could have been saved with tissue replacement dies. Science has been marching on and at the close of 2016, there were 804 clinical trials underway, with numerous approved and/or marketed products worldwide, and many approved to be marketed in specific regions and countries, according to the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine. The group has a list of products that have been approved by internationally-recognized regulatory agencies, as well as products brought to market in the U.S. under The Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and The Public Health Service Act. Moving From the Lab to the Factory “The research community has done a tremendous job in developing the field of regenerative biology,” says Kamen. There have been significant breakthroughs in cell biology, biofabrication and materials science in the last decades which have laid the foundation for large-scale manufacturing and commercialization of engineered tissues and tissue-related technologies, including tissues- and organs-on-chip. “Now it’s time to move out of the lab and into the factory and for that you need a different model,” says Kamen. Dean Kamen, CEO BioFabUSA The current model for industry and pharmaceutical companies, explains Kamen, is to only produce something that can be scaled up quickly with low risk. However, the tissue engineering field is fragmented and lacks a mechanism with which to turn laboratory breakthroughs into manufactured products. And this is where Kamen stepped in, with a team behind him, and created BioFab USA. BioFabUSA is part of the ManufacturingUSA national structure and under the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), a non-profit organization located in Manchester, N.H. BioFabUSA is the mechanism through which ARMI will realize its goal. The company brings together the expertise of a variety of fields, both in science and technology to bring the production of organs to scale. Its mission is to integrate innovative cell and tissue cultures with advances in biofabrication, automation, robotics, and analytical technologies to create disruptive research and development tools and FDA-compliant volume manufacturing processes. “If we look at the history of manufacturing, we have spent 100 years to get quality up and costs down based on an entire manufacturing ecosystem says Kamen. “We want to do the same and create a roadmap for scaling up biologic output.” While that’s a tall order, Kamen feels comfortable predicting that within in a few years --two to five - he will bring a product to market. Why this confidence? His answer is that he has gathered the support of experts in a variety of fields who will bring their experiences together to create this new manufacturing sector. In recruiting his team Kamen started with the company most known for automation and sensors, Rockwell Automation. Blake Moret, CEO of Rockwell Automation saw the opportunity. “This is literally a life-changing approach and adds a new chapter to medicine,” said Moret in January 2016. “Our contribution is to integrate biomanufacturing science with production techniques that increase the capacity, speed, modularity and consistent quality of new tissue and organ production,” said Moret. Kamen also sought out Boston Scientific approaching the 80-year-old founder to secure the company’s support. He enlisted Martine Rothblatt, the CEO of United Therapeutics Corp. And Dartmouth University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute joined as did many other companies and educational institutions One particular win was securing Dr. Richard McFarland and Dr. Becky Robinson-Zeigler, formerly of the FDA, to provide regulatory science expertise. Bringing in regulatory knowledge in the development stage is unusual in the medical device sector. But it certainly fits with Kamen’s drive to bring speed, and urgency to this process. Once the players were secured Kamen went after funding. He convinced the Department of Defense that his approach, though unusual, was the solution on how to scale up this field. It worked and the Department of Defense provided the initial $80 million. While the structure of how the funding will flow the organizations is somewhat complicated it essentially follows this format. The DoD funded a new Manufacturing USA Institute (one of twelve such organizations across the country), called the Advanced Tissue Biofabrication Manufacturing USA Institute. Biofabrication is defined as the manufacturing industry segment at the intersection of biology-related research, computer science, materials science and engineering that creates innovations, such as biomaterial and cell processing. The Institute consists of a consortium of 87 partners from across industry, academia, and government. Kamen’s group, led by ARMI, Inc. led the effort to develop this particular institute and have it located in Manchester, N.H. DoD’s particular interest was that group would develop next-generation manufacturing techniques for repairing and replacing cells and tissues, which “may one day lead to the ability to manufacture new skin for soldiers scarred from combat or develop organ-preserving technologies to benefit Americans waiting for an organ transplant.” With core funding from DoD Kamen went on to find other funding sources so when ARMI opened there was $300 million available to fund the projects necessary to scale up production. From a financial standpoint, the endgame is for the organization to become self-sustaining by attracting paying members; providing contract development services; providing contract manufacturing services and licensing technologies to its members. The organization, working through a public-private partnership has set out specific goals: Develop disruptive cell- and tissue-based technologies across five thrust areas/ The thrust areas: (1) Cell Selection, Culture and Scale-up, (2) Biomaterial Selection and Scale-up; (3) Tissue Process Automation and Monitoring; (4) Tissue Maturing Technologies and (5) Tissue Preservation and Transport Produce modular and scalable GMP-compliant manufacturing processes and integrated technologies across technology- (TRL) and manufacturing-readiness levels (MRL) 4-7 Develop and standardize manufacturing best practices throughout the industry that are aligned with existing and evolving FDA guidance, close the skills gap in tissue and organ manufacturing by providing training opportunities to undergraduates, graduates, veterans and non-college bound youth. Workforce for New Manufacturing Sector Yet another interesting aspect to the creation of regenerative manufacturing is the location. Kamen, who has a strong tie to Manchester, N.H., saw the historic Manchester Millyard as an ideal location to create a new industry. The group of buildings and factories was once the location of the textile capital of the world prior to WWI. Kamen began purchasing property in the area in the ’80s and housed DEKA there. This is where ARMI is now located. “The creation of this industry in Manchester will bring more high tech companies and talent to the area,” explains Commissioner Taylor Caswell of the Department of Business and Economic Affairs of New Hampshire. “ An entire hub of manufacturing will become centered here. And to achieve that we are looking for companies that want to be suppliers, as well as innovators in this field. As companies come here the talent pipeline will continue to expand on the foundation of manufacturing that has a long tradition in the area,” says Caswell. The city and state have a number of programs currently underway and are planning others that will connect all educational institutions to provide the skills necessary in this new field. And BioFabUSA has as its goals to close the skills gap in tissue and organ manufacturing by providing training opportunities to undergraduates, graduates, veterans and non-college bound youth, and disseminate knowledge and enabling technologies to encourage continued innovation. To achieve this goal, BioFabUSA will bring together engineering, life science, computer science, materials science, manufacturing and workforce development expertise from industry, 2- and 4-year community colleges and universities, non-profit organizations, and local, state and federal government. A diverse, multidisciplinary consortium has been established. Future is Fast Approaching With all of these pieces in place, Kamen says the realization of regenerative manufacturing is very near. “We need to keep the focus on staying on the path to high volume,” says Kamen which is why he is reaching out to companies to create a supply chain in the area. He wants companies to look to this new field and find their place in it. Perhaps it takes the form of adapting current products or creating new lines. He wants smaller companies to join this innovative effort, as they can find the resources they need through the research being conducted at BioFabUSA. He wants entrepreneurs to focus their ambitions on this field. He feels this area can be for regenerative medicine what Silicon Valley has been to high-tech. The ramifications of creating a new industry are far-reaching and occur on many levels. The first level is an entirely new industry whose products will bring new wealth to the country. On another level, it will create a new class of workforce with a higher level of skills and also higher levels of pay. From the perspective of the healthcare industry, on a macroeconomic level, the current expenses associated with treating chronic ailments will be greatly reduced. And you can extrapolate, as Kamen likes to do, where these funds could be redeployed to solve other pressing issues. And on the personal level, disease will be viewed differently. “How would the entire system of healthcare change, and someone’s personal health diagnosis change, if we could print a new kidney or liver when you needed one,” Kamen said. “This will become a reality and in the not so distant future we will look back on our current medical system in disbelief at our limitations.”

Nearly one year after Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload storage site was shuttered on criminal charges filed by the United States government, the big man is back with a new cloud storage service, called simply Mega. Why host in New Zealand? The site answers that one straight-on: “Among other important reasons, New Zealand's native Māori name is ‘Aotearoa,’ which means ‘Land of the long white cloud.’” Teased for months, Ars and other media outlets were given an embargoed look at the site—which was broken Friday morning by TechCrunch. The site will formally launch and open its doors to the public on Sunday in the United States, one year to the day following the raid of Dotcom's mansion by New Zealand authorities. The site is surprisingly simple, and it works more or less like other cloud storage services, à la Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer, or RapidShare. However, unlike Dropbox, you have to interact with Mega through a desktop Web browser (and not through a mobile device or client app). The upload and download speeds appear to be comparable to rival sites—the main advantage being that Mega keeps end-to-end encrypted data under a 2048-bit RSA key (and theoretically away from the prying eyes of government authorities). Once you create an account, the first thing the site does is generate that crypto key for you. As a Firefox user, Mega also warned me to switch to Google Chrome, as not doing so would “adversely affect [my] file transfer performance." A browser switch later, and I was faced with a blank “file manager,” which was practically begging me to upload files. My first choice? My wife’s podcast (shameless plug!), “Break the Line.” It moved along at a fairly nice pace of around 100kbps, considering I was using the site from a public Wi-Fi cafe. Within a couple minutes, I had sent my first file to Kim Dotcom’s servers in New Zealand. Among several different tests, I hit around 250kbps as a maximum. On a dedicated, high-speed home connection, you may get faster speeds. Free vs. Pro? I poked around some of the option pages and noticed that Dotcom was nice enough (at first) to give Ars a “Pro II” account, which comes with 100GB of storage. That’s double what the unwashed masses will get (50GB) but still a far cry from what he had originally promised (200GB). However, when I logged in a second time on Friday morning, this dropped back to 50GB with no explanation. Another thing I noticed when I logged in earlier that has since disappeared is mention of “vouchers,” “purchase history,” and “transaction history,” which seems to suggest that users will be able to control downloaded files through a purchase mechanism. Subsequently, I have been downgraded to a Free account and I no longer have that option. A quick glance at the “Pro” page suggests that a Pro I account corresponds with 500GB of storage and 1TB of transfers for €9.99 ($13.30) per month, while Pro II yields 2TB of storage with 4TB of transfers for €19.99 ($26.63) per month. Pro III serves up 4TB of storage with 8TB of transfers for €29.99 ($39.95) per month. (It is curious that Mega’s prices are denominated in euros when it is based entirely in New Zealand.) I was also able to generate download links for individual files, but when I tried to pass them along to a co-worker who was not yet a Mega member, he received an “access denied” error message. However, that may change as Mega opens up to the public. After all, on the site it specifically mentions sharing links to Mega-hosted files. “First of all, a word of caution: The cryptographic security of your files depends on the confidentiality of the associated encryption keys,” the site states. “Make sure that you transmit them via protected channels only! Standard e-mail, for example, is not good enough. With that in mind, select one or multiple files in your file manager, then right-click and use ‘Get link.’ A dialog with the public link(s) to the file(s) you have selected will open. You can choose to export each link and key separately or as a single combo link.” I was able to easily share files with fellow Ars editor Joe Mullin (who also received an invite.) I shared some of my wife’s podcasts with him, and they showed up on his file manager, instantly, with no notification. (I seemed unable to share entire folders with him, however, and could only do so with single files.) Ars will be covering the launch from the Dotcom mansion in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday (US time) and hopefully we'll learn more details about how the site works and what Dotcom’s plans are for it then.

Alcohol Abuse is a Dangerous Disease – But there is Help! You may not recognize the early signs of problem drinking and for many, this alcohol abuse will lead to a more severe form of addiction that is plagued by physical and psychological dependence on alcohol. Abusing alcohol can cause addiction to seemingly sneak up on you and before you know it, you’ve already suffered the rash consequences of addiction. Problem drinking can be overcome with time and treatment but the first step is to recognize the sign that there is a problem and to seek help. Alcohol abuse is common in many cultures and the effects of drinking are widely curtailed from one person to the next. For some, drinking socially will never become a problem while for others, the decision to drink can lead to long term consequences associated with addiction. The bottom line is that the only way to know if drinking is a problem in your life or if you are prone to alcohol addiction is to learn how alcohol affects you personally and to know when it’s time to stop. If you do recognize that you have a drinking problem, you can get help and achieve lasting recovery through social support, treatment and care. Various methods of recovery and treatment are available to assist you in your fight against this potentially fatal disease. If you, or someone you love has a drinking problem, seek immediate help to reduce the lasting effects that this devastating disease can have.

Fearing a possible coup in Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro has extended a state of emergency in the country for another 60 days, citing an "onslaught of the oligarchy" in collusion with the US. .@NicolasMaduro firmó Decreto de Estado de Excepción y Emergencia Económica para enfrentar amenazas contra el país pic.twitter.com/NxiJWp0zYJ — Prensa Presidencial (@PresidencialVen) 14 мая 2016 г. "Washington is activating measures at the request of Venezuela's fascist right, who are emboldened by the coup in Brazil," Maduro said during a Friday night broadcast on state television. Maduro said he fears possible intervention by foreign armies and explained that the new emergency decree includes the ability to face these external threats. An economic state of emergency has been in force in the oil-rich country since January, including rationing of food and other goods. The country is facing economic ruin largely because of the crash in oil prices. To reverse the downturn, Maduro said he had issued some 21 decrees within the framework of the Constitution, since the measures were introduced "to protect the people and socio-economic stability of the country." Read more Addressing the nation, the president warned that the "virus of the coup" could return to Latin America, after Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was suspended from office earlier this week during impeachment proceedings. "We have already seen the image ...[of] the oligarchy signing and removing power to the people," the Venezuelan president said, claiming the Brazilian parliament ousted Rousseff in "a totally unfair play," dubbing the now former president "a woman of great honesty, great courage, who knew how to confront dictatorship and torture." He noted that since the United States remains in "a complicit silence” regarding the impeachment in Brazil, Washington's “ultimate goal” is to stop the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) from threatening US global dominance. "These are issues vetted by the great world power ... attempting to impose a world government," he said. Before Maduro extended the state of emergency, two US intelligence officials, briefing a small group of reporters in Washington, said the Venezuelan president will not survive office to run for re-election, as a “plausible” scenario would see Maduro fall from grace at the hands of his own politicians. “You can hear the ice cracking. You know there’s a crisis coming,” one official said. “Our pressure on this isn’t going to resolve this issue.” “This is really not the case that the US is rooting for any outcome other than there not be an economic meltdown or social violence,” another official said. “There are reasons for concern that over the summer as Venezuela gives importance to payments on debt over imports that these events could spiral.” Besides reports of widespread looting, the deteriorating economic situation has led to a number of protests in the country. On Wednesday, Venezuelan security forces used tear gas and pepper spray against an opposition march. The protesters were trying to reach the headquarters of the electoral board after submitting a petition signed by almost two million people calling for a referendum to oust Maduro. Large-scale demonstrations are planned for Saturday in Caracas by opponents of the government and by socialists amid fears they could lead to violence.