updates here

One Indian pilot, who landed on the other side of the LoC after his plane crashed, was taken in custody by Pakistan Army. India issued a strongly worded demarche to Pakistan seeking immediate safe return of the IAF pilot.

Pompeo had spoken over phone on Tuesday with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi urging the two countries to de-escalate tensions.

In a statement, Pompeo later said, “Following Indian counter-terrorism actions on February 26, I spoke with Indian Minister of External Affairs Swaraj to emphasise our close security partnership and shared goal of maintaining peace and security in the region.”

Also Read | US, UK, France push for terrorist tag for Jaish chief Masood Azhar that China blocked

“I also spoke to Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshitwitter and radio. The six-part, 30 minute sex tape begins with the male student positioning the camera. The woman, whose name is known to Wits Vuvuzela, then begins performing oral sex. The woman from the…

Shandukani Mulaudzi and Caro Malherbe It is unclear whether an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against the former head of the political studies department, Prof Rupert Taylor, has been undertaken following a report last year in the Wits Vuvuzela. Prof Daryl Glaser, current Political Studies head of department, confirmed that an investigation is underway…


Melkersson-Rosenthal syndrome. A review of the literature and case report.
Melkersson-Rosenthal syndrome is an uncommon condition of obscure aetiology and uncertain pathogenesis. It is characterized by swelling of the lips or other parts of the face and mouth, Bell's palsy, and fissured tongue. Disturbances of salivary, lacrimal and nasal secretion, disorders of taste and vision, migraine, and febrile symptoms occasionally accompany the condition. Treatment is aimed at management of the facial paralysis and cosmetic reduction of established facial swelling.progress is: anything goes."
— Paul K. Feyerabend, "Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge"

Only that, save for Rudolf, all of his potential guardians died one by one before he returned. So even if he didn't return he didn't have anyone to take care of him really if he didn't do it. I've often thought that was the only reason he returned to the family register at all.

Well if we beleive what Kyrie says it was Asumu who cornered Rudolf and forced him to engage her not Kinzo and not Kyrie. In fact she says "I was the one who was going out with Rudolf since the beginning... Asumu shewdly cut between us... and shrewdly got pregnant".

Actually Asumu from Kyrie's perspective seems like the opposite of What


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NRC: Buildcorp National Rugby Championship launched

Nine teams. Four states and one territory. Eighteen venues. A free-flowing, tough, attractive game that will connect with the heartland of Australian Rugby. This is the Buildcorp National Rugby Championship.

This is Australian Rugby Unleashed.

The 2014 Buildcorp National Rugby Championship season was officially launched at Coogee Oval in Sydney today (13 August) attended by players and Head Coaches of the nine competing sides – Brisbane City, Queensland Country, Macquarie University North Harbour Rays, Sydney Stars, Greater Sydney Rams, NSW Country Eagles, University of Canberra Vikings, Melbourne Rising and Perth Spirit.

The inaugural Buildcorp NRC will run for 11 weeks, kicking off with the season-opener next Thursday, 21 August when Brisbane City takes on the Sydney Stars in a classic Queensland-NSW cross-border clash at Ballymore inBrisbane.

Today’s official launch coincides with the announcement of the law variation and interpretation changes that will be implemented in the inaugural season of the Buildcorp NRC.

Earlier this year, Rugby fans were asked to suggest law variations that could be trialled in the first year of the Buildcorp NRC, a process which saw a staggering 600+ suggestions come in from right across Australia.

These suggestions were reviewed and shortlisted by a panel of Australia’s leading Rugby minds, including former Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer, former international Rugby referee Wayne Erickson, former Wallaby and current FOX SPORTS commentator Rod Kafer and Qantas Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie.

In determining which law variation and interpretation changes should be considered for inclusion in the Buildcorp NRC, the ARU took into account votes from more than 6,000


the University of Canberra Vikings (Saturday 23 August); NSW Country Eagles will host the Greater Sydney Rams (Saturday 23 August); and Melbourne Rising will play the Macquarie University North Harbour Rays at AAMI Park (Sunday 24 August).

Fans of Rugby in regional NSW will see their heroes in action in round four, with the NSW Country Eagles entertaining Brisbane City at Oakes Oval in Lismore (Sunday 14 September). A week later, the NSW Country Eagles will host Melbourne Rising at Wade Park in Orange (Saturday 20 September).

Perth Spirit will be taking one of their home fixtures interstate when they play the Greater Sydney Rams in South Australia at Adelaide Airport Stadium (Saturday 6 September).

Queensland Country, meanwhile, will take their fixtures right across the State. Steve Meehan’s side plays NSWCountry Eagles at Bond University on the Gold Coast (Saturday 30 August) and will play Sydney Stars at Mike Carney Toyota Park in Townsville (Saturday 11 October).

Tickets and membership packages are now available from each of the individual NRC teams’ websites. For links to each of the team websites – visit rugby.com.au/NRC.

FOX SPORTS is the exclusive broadcaster of the Buildcorp NRC and will deliver live coverage of one match from each round of the competition in a dedicated Thursday night timeslot at 7.30pm. The NRC ‘Match of the Round’ will be followed by FOX SPORTS Rugby entertainment show Rugby HQ at 9.30pm.

All NRC teams will be broadcast across the first five weeks of the Buildcorp NRC (either home or away). FOX SPORTS today confirmed the broadcast matches for


in the world since 1814. The Gourmet line features precision stainless steel blades that resist stains and rust and hold an exceedingly ...

Description:

Perfect for a couple to enjoy for a lifetime, our heirloom quality silver plated bridal set is crafted in Sheffield, England. Designed in the 18th century by Hester Bateman, one of Englands leading female silversmiths of the era, the ...switching on the socket outlet receptacle is conditional on the position of the switch, wherein the receptacle includes a lateral groove oriented in the direction of insertion of a corresponding plug incorporating a lug adapted to engage in and slide in the groove, a locking mechanism between the switch and the groove and adapted to cooperate with the lug to make connecting or disconnecting the plug conditional on a position of the switch in which the socket outlet receptacle is switched off, the locking mechanism includes a locking member mobile along a transverse path relative to the groove and enabling it to cooperate with the lug to lock the plug in position and the locking member is attached to a cable installed and guided in the casing and


connected to a mobile member of the switch.
The cable is installed in the casing in a loop. An advantageous embodiment of the device includes an internal support extending between the switch and the receptacle and the guide is partly formed within an imprint in the support. The internal support is fixed against the inside face of a wall of the casing so that the cable is confined within a space defined by the imprint and the inside face.
The locking member includes a tongue adapted to cooperate with a lug and carried by a slider installed in a rectilinear groove forming part of the guide.
The tongue and the slider are rigidly connected and the slider is mounted in the rectilinear groove so that it cannot pivot on itself. Consequently,to an other important feature of the invention, a locking leaf spring is mounted in the vicinity of the locking member and includes a claw in line with the groove so as to be moved by the lug on the plug and a mobile abutment is shaped and positioned to hold the locking member in a position away from the path of the lug on the plug defined by the lateral groove, in which position the switch is open, and is retracted when the claw is moved by the lug on the plug. In this position, the switch is open and cannot be closed unless a plug is inserted into the socket outlet receptacle.
Connecting the plug causes the mobile abutment to be retracted when the claw is moved


of 90 days just like the current four trading contract months per year. For more details on this market see details below.

CBOE Create Joint Venture on Single-Stock Futures World's Two Largest Equity Derivatives Exchanges to Create For-Profit Company CBOT to Join With Limited
Stake CHICAGO, May 14, 2001

 - The world's largest options exchange and the largest futures exchange in the U.S. are teaming up to introduce a highly anticipated new product - single-stock futures contracts. The
Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME) today signed a letter of intent to create a joint venture to introduce single-stock futures, following
approval by the boards of directors of both exchanges. The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) has also agreed to participate in the joint venture with a limitedstake. Legislation signed
into law in December will allow the introduction of single-stock futures by U.S. financial exchanges later this year, after an 18-year prohibition on the products. "Today's
announcement highlights the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit among Chicago's exchanges," said CBOE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer William Brodsky. "This exciting new
initiative combines the best of securities and futures trading. Our willingness to work together on this venture will ensure that Chicago remains the world's center in derivatives
trading and risk management." "The creation of this joint venture recognizes the tremendous synergies of CME and CBOE, making us a formidable competitor in the global marketplace for
single-stock futures," said CME Chairman Scott Gordon. "Our complementary customer bases of retail and institutional investors will benefit from the efforts of all three Chicago
exchanges to establish


plant traits or environmental factors. One method of identifying a superior plant is to observe its performance relative to other experimental plants and to one or more widely grown standard varieties. Single observations are generally inconclusive, while replicated observations provide a better estimate of genetic worth.
The goal of plant breeding is to develop new, unique and superior cotton varieties. The breeder initially selects and crosses two or more parental lines, followed by repeated selfing and selection, producing many new genetic combinations. Each year, the plant breeder selects the germplasm to advance to the next generation. This germplasm is grown under unique and different geographical, climatic and soil conditions, and further selections are then made, during and at the end of the growing season. The varieties which are developedare unpredictable. This unpredictability is because the breeder's selection occurs in unique environments, with no control at the DNA level (using conventional breeding procedures), and with millions of different possible genetic combinations being generated. A breeder of ordinary skill in the art cannot predict the final resulting lines he develops, except possibly in a very gross and general fashion. The same breeder cannot produce the same variety twice by using the exact same original parents and the same selection techniques. This unpredictability results in the expenditure of large amounts of research monies to develop superior new cotton varieties.
Pureline cultivars, such as generally used in cotton and many other crops, are commonly bred by hybridization of two or more parents followed by selection. The complexity of inheritance, the breeding


in Shaw.

Friedman is no stranger to philanthropy; she is currently the vice chairwoman of the SEED Foundation and a member of the executive committee for the National Symphony Orchestra and the board of directors of Conservation International.

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She and her board of directors for Planet Word have hired museum consultants, architects and financial advisers to advance the plans. She said she also relies on an informal group of experts in words and language for ideas and inspiration, among them singer Paul Simon and crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz.

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Friedman said she will run a fundraising campaign to open and operate the museum but was prepared to spend her own money to ensure it opened and thrived. She hopes to open in 2019.

“If it means I have to put more moneyI was inadvertently turned on to short fiction in Grade 5. I had read through the SRA reader in a day, so our impatient, overwhelmed public school teacher, having 35 kids to deal with, tossed a book of Guy de Maupassant stories at me and said "Read this!" I ate it up, although I probably did not understand it all at the time. Later, in high school, I had an amazing English teacher, John Manley Jr. (son of the poet). Mr. Manley put a very human face on American literature, having personally known all the greats (Fitzgerald, Hemingway, E.E. Cummings) through his dad. He helped me discover the writer and the writer's voice in the writing.

Q. Which hat do you like wearing most and why?

A. As much as


behaviors that they deplore, will progress be made. As usual, liberals get it wrong.

Bill Donohue is President and CEO of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization. He was awarded his Ph.D. in sociology from New York University and is the author of seven books and many articles.

DONATEThe most challenging time of training is also during our first semester as a college student. And it is the longest time most of us had gone without seeing our parents. We weren't allowed to miss practices to go home, and the first time we would be able to wasn't until Thanksgiving. My anxiety was at an all-time high during preseason my freshman year. I think I called my mom a total of eight times claiming to be dropping out of college.

My back was falling apart in preseason. The lifting that was added to my training in college was starting to show its negative side effects. My legs were dead under me. My back hurt just as much as it did right after I broke it. My big


of sewing notion you can think of. In second grade, I had made her a memo board with woodgrain contact paper and my picture—grown out perm and overlarge permanent teeth coming in—framed in pieces of lace. It still hangs there, next to her machine. I could usually find stale pieces of Freedent gum on that table, too. The floor in that room was black tile, pitted with scars from the wheels on my grandmother’s chairs as she whipped around the room from machine to machine.

It is probably the place I associate most with my grandmother because it was where she spent most of her time when I was a child. I used to go back and visit her in the room. Often she would be humming. When askedremember going through a period when I wanted store-bought clothes because I was desperate to fit in and wear the same kinds of jeans and jackets as the other kids wore. By the time I was an adult, I appreciated the love that went into the clothes my grandmother made. She used to sew little tags into the back of anything she made for me:

Made Especially for You by
Granna

When I last visited my grandparents, I was able to interview my grandmother about her career and hobby as a seamstress. I hope you enjoy the digital story I made.

Slice of Life is a daily writing challenge during the month of March hosted by Two Writing Teachers. Visit their blog for more information about the challenge and for advice and


front of the front door, they grew marigolds with large, bulbous orange and yellow heads, almost too perfect and too similar to one another to look real. Around the corner from the front door, on the side of the house they grew roses. In the backyard, way in the corner of the yard, they planted purple irises. The power lines hung low over their backyard, and I can never hear doves cooing today without being once again in the back yard.

The other two gardens were devoted mainly to experiments. Granna usually had some zucchini going, but we tried watermelon with some success, and one year she let me pick out some seeds, and I grew some pretty little flowers that looked like closed mouths. I could squeeze rightthere is a University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and Children’s Hospital on Colfax Ave. now, and it looks completely different with all the new buildings in the huge medical complex.

I used to walk down the street to Hoffman Park to play, and as early as the 1990’s, all the playground equipment had been replaced—I’m sure the playground equipment we used was unsafe. A lot of the places I used to walk or ride my bike to are closed. The library was probably the first casualty—the old library on 13th Street, where I used to check out books and get hot chocolate from a machine on cold fall days. Dolly Madison’s ice cream and dairy—that was an old-fashioned soda fountain place. Hatch’s Gifts. The Munchen Shop, a German


annual meeting of the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities on Thursday.

Waye Mason, the federation's president until Friday, said that because so many provinces already have moved to producer responsibility systems the manufacturers have included recycling costs within the price of their products.

Mason has since relinquished his duties to Pam Mood and remains as past-president.

Nova Scotians pay twice, says Waye Mason

He said Nova Scotians pay twice by not having the system, once when they buy certain products and a second time when their taxes pay for blue bag programs.

"So we really feel that it would be advantageous to municipalities and their taxpayers to move to EPR right away," said Mason.

Meanwhile, the province is considering two reports dealing with the issue. The latest is an efficiency report delivered in September.

Wilsonbe guarded in the interests of national security.''
His order calling for automatic declassification of old records by 2000 was
characterized at the time as the most significant step in reducing
government secrecy since the beginning of the Cold War.
The plan envisioned exemptions for the most sensitive records, such as CIA
covert actions, but those exemptions were to be granted after a complex
process that calls for ``a specific date or event'' when the exemptions are
to end.
Only the FBI was given blanket immunity without any cutoff date, the Post said.
It said the arrangement first came to light in court papers last month and
was laid out in detail in a memo obtained by the Post last week under the
Freedom of Information Act.
Steven Garfinkel, director of the government's Information Security
Oversight Office and a signatory to


the plan, said the exemption was ``a
negotiated agreement whereby the FBI would get a very broad exemption in
return for a very broad commitment'' to review and declassify old records on
a document-by-document basis.
``Director (Louis J.) Freeh is absolutely committed to the spirit of the
executive order and to declassifying documents as fast as our resources
permit,'' Assistant FBI Director John E. Collingwood told the Post.
The FBI has declassified some records recently, including files from the
1960s and 1970s on the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement,
Students for a Democratic Society and various anti-war protests, including
the upheaval at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
But Garfinkel told the Post the FBI has declassified a ``very minuscule''
amount of records and that ``right now the jury is still out on whether the
results are going to justifyEuropean Society of Urogenital Radiology (ESUR) guidelines on the safe use of iodinated contrast media.
Since 1996 the Contrast Media Safety Committee of the European Society of Urogenital Radiology (ESUR) has released 19 guidelines regarding safety in relation to the use of radiographic, ultrasonographic as well as magnetic resonance contrast media. The committee has covered both renal and non-renal adverse events as well as other aspects of contrast media. The present paper is an overview of the work accomplished over the last 10 years regarding radiographic iodinated contrast media.


today, designing a new vehicle usually resulted in full-size models rendered in clay. At GM, the clay vehicle would take up residence on a patio outside the studio once much of the design work was complete. There, executives (or VIPs from suppliers) would evaluate the vehicle. If weather was uncooperative, as it often is for two-thirds of the year in Michigan, the execs would drive slowly around the clay model in a sedan, taking in its styling features to provide feedback to the automotive stylists, who were left to observe the critiques in the wintry cold or the beating summer heat.

However, once the Chuck Wagon arrived, entire executive teams and lucky designers could ride around the patio in climate-controlled comfort, with the driver-side glass wall providing a panoramicGrounded: Hollywood Takes Us to Space So NASA Doesn't Have To

After years of looking down, Hollywood has finally turned its collective gaze back up.

At least in some ways we continue to reach for new heights: It was recently reported that Chris Hadfield—the Canadian astronaut and social-media mastermind—will see his memoir, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, made into a sitcom by ABC. That strange-but-true development follows the grand success of cinematic space epics Gravity and Guardians of the Galaxy, and the near-certain domination of Christopher Nolan's upcoming Interstellar (out today). After years of looking down, Hollywood has finally turned its collective gaze back up.

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The timing is curious, given that America hasn't launched any actual astronauts into orbit since the shuttle program ended in


last-minute shift west, the area was still hit hard. Worse off are some islands in the Caribbean, the Florida Keys and parts of the west coast of Florida. As bad as the damage is, people coming together to help has made things a little easier.

Who I Like This Week

The Playoffs have been all about star power, historically as well as this season with Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas winning the first two events. Don’t expect anything different at this week’s BMW Championship, which heads back to Conway Farms north of Chicago. This will mark the third time the tournament has been played at the Tom Fazio-designed track that has modest fairways and greens and some funky spots for mishits. Zach Johnson and Jason Day won there in 2013and 2015, respectively, and Jim Furyk shot arguably the most impressive of the PGA Tour's 59s there when he did it four years ago. Going into this year’s event, two players jump off the page: Hideki Matsuyama and Rickie Fowler. Matsuyama is seventh in strokes gained/approach shots and tied for seventh at Conway Farms in 2015, plus he’s been on a hot streak most of the past month. Fowler, meanwhile, has also had a torrid run with just two finishes outside the top 15 since the U.S. Open. He’s also one of the game’s better ball-strikers, checking in at strokes gained/approach, and he finished fourth in the event in 2015. I’ll give the nod to Fowler, who while blowing a few chances this year, seems due to pick


Thursday, August 2, 2012

Bloody fighting in Syria as US-backed forces slaughter prisoners

By Patrick Martin

2 August 2012

US-backed forces opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are stepping up their offensive in Aleppo, the country’s largest city, amid with reports Wednesday that the rebels had engaged in summary execution of dozens of captured loyalist police and soldiers. A gruesome video of one such slaughter was widely distributed on the Internet.

The scale of the fighting was shown in the reported storming of a police station at al-Marju in the Salhein district of Aleppo by a force of more than 700 "rebel" fighters. The 45-man security detachment inside resisted the attack fiercely until a large bomb was thrown into the building, killing at least 15 of the defenders. Most of the rest thensurrendered.

One video showed four men, accused of being members of the pro-Assad Shabbiha militia force, lined up against a wall and forced to kneel, then mowed down with automatic weapons as their killers chanted “Allahu Akbar.” The victims were said to be members of the Barri family, a clan linked to Assad through adherence to the Alawite religion, a branch of Shiite Islam.

In another video, from the al-Marju police station, showed a rebel desecrating the corpse of the station commander, blowing his head off.

Fighting raged across much of Aleppo Wednesday, as anti-Assad fighters overran three police stations while helicopter gunships roared overhead and carried out strikes against the rebels. Heavy shelling was reported in the Salaheddine district in the southwest part of the city, scene of some of


religion-based ethnic cleansing in Syria, with Sunni insurgents killing or driving out Alawites and Christians, and pro-Assad forces targeting Sunnis.

The British daily Guardian carried a report from the Syrian-Iraqi border documenting the takeover of a border town by Al Qaeda fighters seeking to replace Assad with a Sunni fundamentalist regime.

NBC News reported that the anti-Assad forces have acquired some two dozen surface-to-air missiles, delivered to them through Turkey, the NATO ally of the United States where most of the rebels have their supply and training bases. Such missiles could play a key role in the increasingly militarized conflict with the Assad regime, which has deployed both fighter jets and helicopters to Aleppo.

There were unconfirmed reports of rebel units operating captured armored vehicles in the region between Aleppo andthe Turkish border, about 30 miles north of the city, as well as pick-up trucks with heavy machine guns mounted on them.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are reportedly spearheading the effort to supply the anti-Assad forces with heavy weaponry. However, this campaign also has enlisted the support of Turkey, which controls the supply lines, and the United States, which is the ultimate source of the weaponry and must approve any transfer to the rebels.

The Turkish army staged tank exercises near the Syrian border Wednesday, the most provocative such action since the political crisis erupted in Syria 17 months ago. Some 25 tanks were deployed in the Nusaybin district of Mardin province, only a mile from the border crossing with the Syrian city of Qamishli. Turkey’s Supreme Military Council began


a four-day meeting Wednesday, bringing together Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and top military commanders.

The military muscle-flexing was directed not only at the Assad regime, but also against the fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Kurdish separatist guerrilla force that has waged sporadic warfare inside Turkey for over three decades. PKK fighters have begun operating openly on the streets of Kurdish-populated towns in the far northeastern region of Syria, after the Assad regime removed its troops to focus on defending areas more vital to maintaining its power—the capital city, Damascus, and the main business center, Aleppo.Assad issued a written message to his troops on Tuesday, his first public statement since the July 18terrorist bombing in Damascus that killed four of his top aides, including his brother-in-law. TheToronto residents have had enough of huge parties enabled by short-term rental sites such as Airbnb.

One house in North York, in particular, has prompted residents to come together to call collectively for action from city officials and their elected representatives.

The house, in Toronto's Lawnview Drive neighbourhood, has been rented at least once a month since March 22 for large gatherings. In June, residents complained to the city four times in five days after parties were held on a Tuesday and Wednesday.

Every time the house has been rented, residents say their otherwise quiet neighbourhood is completely disrupted. Problems include an influx of parked cars in no-parking zones, hundreds of intoxicated party guests, loud amplified music and lots of litter following the event.

Jack Dupuis, a neighbourhood resident, said it is


being rented out for parties. The home is also no longer listed on Airbnb.

When asked how Airbnb tries to prevent cases like these from occurring, Lindsey Scully, an Airbnb communications representative, said: "Airbnb works with communities across the country, including Toronto, to support fair and easy-to-follow regulations that ensure a healthy home-sharing environment.

"To date, Airbnb is the only home-sharing provider that has come to the table in a meaningful way."

Scully added: "The overwhelming majority of Airbnb hosts and guests are good neighbours and respectful travellers."

The site has a tool for residents to share concerns they have about a particular listing.

'A riot on the street'

Cavell King, a resident who lives two doors down from the North York party house, said at least 100 people attended a party on July3.

"Basically, it was a riot on the street," King said. "The next morning, I had literally cleaned up garbage on the street. I found liquor bottles, beer bottles and air bombs. So basically they were setting off firecrackers and scaring, like, everyone."

This Instagram post promoted a party at a short-term rental in North York. (Instagram)

When CBC News contacted the Instagram promoter of the July 3 party, the promoter responded that they simply re-post flyers but do not plan the parties themselves.

King called Toronto police when she noticed that one of the party attendees was parked in front of a fire hydrant.

"They actually said: 'Don't worry about them blocking the hydrant because they just ram the cars to get to the fire,'" she said.

When Dupuis called the police, he


cannot find out for sure where these pictures were taken. I've seen them attributed to places in both Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Snowmobile Trail Closed Due to Traffic Jam

It makes me wonder whether someone put food on the trail to lure that many deer to one place.

I received the following from a female reader....

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer retain their antlers till after they give birth in the spring.

Therefore, according to EVERY historical rendition depicting Santa 's reindeer, EVERY single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen, had to be a girl. We should've known —one NC, and played for another. All because of a few close losses each year people think he is an idiot. Is he the best coach in the country? Maybe not, but he is pretty darn good.

People think he's an idiot because of his speaking (in)ability and some questionable game management. He is proven to be a good recruiter and a player's coach

quote:So your saying Saban has learned as a coach and has gotten OBVIOUSLY better since winning his first national championship.

Why would he, or I, be saying that?

Personally I'm ok with just saying that Saban, as an elite coach, has a MUCH easier time have prolonged success at BAMA than he did at LSU. Being BAMA's coach, with the built in advantages that comes with (I'm not


even going to bother to list these again) makes it easier for prolonged success than it is at LSU.

In addition, some fans seem to forget 2004. This was Saban's 5th team and featured a group of guys almost entirely his own. That team needed over time and the help of the gods of filed goal defense to beat an out manned Oregon State team. It lost on The Plains to AU...got prison raped by UGA 45-16, and we all know what happened against Iowa in the bowl game. In year 5, Saban had the team in a position where we had no viable option at QB (5th year Marcus Randall or RS Freshmen Russell of Flynn), had a team that looked unmotivated or unprepared to play games againstand you're right. He would do more! Les Miles didn't build anything here bro, it was built. Bobby Bowden started from scratch and built FSU from the ground up. Eventually after he got up in age, FSU fell off a little, but that happens. So please don't insult Bobby Bowden by comparing him and CLM.

quote:No I won't. Miles went full retard the day he let JJ back on the team.

Well, then we disagree. Lee was a turnover waiting to happen. The lights were too big for him in that game; he was shell shocked. Miles made the right call. I don't think we beat Alabama with Lee at quarterback during the regular season and we have one less SEC championship for it.


Neatly folded away in a box at the back of my study is a short-sleeved sweater. It is fluorescent lime-green, with red, blue and white stripes across the shoulders. It is undeniably hideous. Whoever was in charge of its design was either having a bad day or a good laugh. It is, though, one of my most treasured sporting possessions.

It is the sweater that Wasim Akram wore in the final of the 1992 Cricket World Cup in Australia and gave to me in the dressing-room of the Melbourne Cricket Ground just minutes after Pakistan had won the final against England and he had been named man of the match. How and why Wasim gave me that sweater is the story of a cricket world that has all butdisappeared.

I’d spent several afternoons at the Oval watching Surrey in 1991 and, like everyone else, I had been mesmerised by the bowling of Waqar Younis. His pace and reverse swing were breathtaking and he was picking up a hatful of wickets every time he bowled. These were friendlier, gentler times for cricket and gradually I began to chat with some of the Surrey players and was occasionally invited into the dressing-room.

At some point in the summer, I had the idea of writing a book about Waqar and Wasim. The World Cup was coming up that winter and Pakistan were touring England the following summer. I sensed that Wasim and Waqar might be the stars of both and that an English readership might be ready for a more culturally


without divisions – and they trusted me not to blab. Even Javed Miandad came to trust me. I had become part of the furniture.

For a while, though, the performances didn’t improve. Pakistan lost to both India and South Africa and, by the time they flew to Perth for matches against Australia and Sri Lanka, they had to win every remaining game. The legend has it that at this point Imran Khan told his team they had to fight like cornered tigers. That may be but it felt more to me as if the team had finally relaxed a bit and that those senior team members who had been openly feuding with each other decided to call a truce. There was also something about being in Perth, thousands ofon £35 per day out of which they were expected to pay for their own food and laundry. On matchdays they got £10 less, because the Pakistan board reckoned the players would be fed at the ground. I’m not sure how simpatico Kevin Pietersen would have found those arrangements.

Pakistan’s on-field performances picked up and wins in their last three group games booked them an unlikely semi-final place against New Zealand. By now, I almost felt as if I was part of the squad. Not least because I had been blessed by the big cheese himself. It had been one of my goals to get Imran Khan to write the introduction to the book and on several occasions I had approached him after net practice to ask about it.

He


fought my way through the MCG members’ area towards the Pakistan dressing-room. A steward tried to prevent me from getting in, but Wasim spotted me and invited me inside. I congratulated him and we hugged one another. I was overwhelmed and privileged to be allowed to share in their celebrations. The only Englishman in the room.

Everyone was dancing to the music of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and I joined in, badly. Later on, I took a chance and asked Wasim if I could have his sweater as a souvenir. I knew it was a huge thing to ask. The Pakistan Cricket Board issued each player with just one set of clothing: that sweater was the only one Wasim had and he knew that once he got back toActions

WATCH: Jim Harbaugh admires Tiger Woods' over-40 success

Jim Harbaugh is like the rest of us. He enjoys watching Tiger Woods compete at the top of a golf leaderboard.

Woods, a Stanford alum, was an honorary captain for Harbaugh in 2009.

"We've crossed paths briefly a few times. I mean, like everybody else, you always love watching tournaments and competitions when Tiger's up there in the hunt," Harbaugh said to WXYZ in our weekly conversation.

On Sunday, when the gallery at the PGA Tour Championship followed Woods down the 18th fairway, it was a scene Harbaugh caught on TV.


to 1907, today’s UPI is a credible source for the most important stories of the day, continually updated - a one-stop site for U.S. and world news, as well as entertainment, trends, science, health and stunning photography. UPI also provides insightful reports on key topics of geopolitical importance, including energy and security.

A Spanish version of the site reaches millions of readers in Latin America and beyond.

UPI was founded in 1907 by E.W. Scripps as the United Press (UP). It became known as UPI when after a merger with the International News Service in 1958, which was founded in 1909 by William Randolph Hearst. Today, UPI is owned by News World Communications.five favourites, all of which can be streamed on YouTube worldwide:

5. Peter & Kerry – Teardrops

Shot in the delectable backstreets of East London, indie-duo Peter & Kerry bring real charm with this intimate cover of Womack and Womack’s Teardrops. Their on-screen chemistry (spontanious giggles and smiles from both throughout) makes this a classic. Filmed by Miles Langley.

4. Johnny Flynn – Wayne Rooney

Continuing on with the London trend comes English Folk virtuoso Johnny Flynn, performing in the back of a taxi for Black Cab Sessions. This is actually the first video ever created for the series, and dates back over four years! Though the camera work is a bit shaky and the audio is slightly muffled, the actual context is something special. Mr. Flynn had just started dating his


childhood sweetheart after an elongated period as just friends, and this video features a nervous performance infront of her, along with copious exchanges of adoring gazes between the two. What makes this video so special is they’re now happily married with kids, awwww.

3. Marika Hackman – You Come Down

After being scouted by Burberry for their eyewear campaign, Folk goddess Maricka Hackman performed this impromptu song in her friend’s back garden for the Burberry Acoustic series. The combination of her beautiful lyrics, whispered tone and Brighton seagulls in the background makes this one of my favourites. Thanks to Bristol Couch for putting us onto Marika last year, with their own session with her.

2. The Morning Benders – Crosseyed

Another old-school video, this was actually handcrafted by the band themselves whenWearable tech pings your fingers to recognize hand gestures

We've already heard about gloves and cameras that could be used to translate hand gestures (such as American Sign Language) into text or spoken words. What might be simpler, though, is a system consisting of just a ring and a wristband – which has been created.

Known as FingerPing, the proof-of-concept setup was developed by a Georgia Tech team led by PhD student Cheng Zhang. It incorporates a ring that's worn on the thumb, along with a smartwatch-like wristband.

The ring emits a series of acoustic chirps, which travel through the hand in the form of sound waves that are detected by three receivers on the wristband. The specific position in which the hand is being held, however, alters those sound waves.


or decide if the project remained viable.

Delays such as the judicial reviews of local council decisions, Brexit, a change in government and protracted negotiations with third parties, it said, had led to an increase in cost.

As part of the financial section of the report, it stated that the total project cost was £185M, but said that ”due to hurdles still to be cleared and the ensuring delays the final cost could substantially exceed the formal estimate”. It went on to say that until the hurdles had been cleared, it would not obtain a definite amount for any increase. It said it needed to increase the unrestricted funding and underwriting available and secure the remaining private sector funding.

To date, it said it had secured £69M of private funding and£60M of public funding from the Department for Transport (DfT) and Transport for London (TfL), £20M of which was being treated as a loan which would be repayable to TfL.

A joint venture comprising Bouygyes TP and Cimolai was appointed in April 2015 to build the bridge with consultant Arup undertaking the detailed design. However it said that to reduce expenditure it had put the construction contractor on standby as of July 2016.

Before construction can start, it said that it still had to secure rights to the necessary land on both sides of the river and complete the associated planning requirements. While the previous London mayor had committed to providing a guarantee for the future maintenance and operations of the bridge, it said was awaiting the new mayor’s –


books.google.com - In Tony Blair's first term, 1997-2001, much was promised in reform of social services, but relatively little was achieved - except perhaps in Education, where Michael Barber was head of the Standards and Effectiveness Unit. For 2001-5, the commitment was to real change in domestic policy, and Sir Michael...https://books.google.com/books/about/Instruction_to_Deliver.html?id=tpqOAAAAMAAJ&utm_source=gb-gplus-shareInstruction to Deliver

Instruction to Deliver: Tony Blair, Public Services and the Challenge of Achieving Targets

In Tony Blair's first term, 1997-2001, much was promised in reform of social services, but relatively little was achieved - except perhaps in Education, where Michael Barber was head of the Standards and Effectiveness Unit. For 2001-5, the commitment was to real change in domestic policy, and Sir Michael Barber was appointed head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit (PMDU), to concentrate on specifictargets, initially 17, such as casualty waiting time, school tests, league tables, street crime, transport etc. Much was achieved, despite great tension, pressures, chaos and challenges, as a new working philosophy was created to combine otherwise 'warring parties' - the PM, the Chancellor, the Cabinet, the PM'S special team, and senior civil servants. Michael Barber reveals a fascinating insider and personal account of how the PMDU achieved so much, and provides a revealing picture of the major players, especially Tony Blair and Gordon Brown


made of trees and branches (called "manchas"), he was able to hide from the two beasts, shooting them both a few weeks apart. Patterson had the animals' skins made into rugs, and eventually sold the remains to the Chicago Field Museum. The animals were expertly reconstructed and are still on display today. [Image courtesy of Jeffrey Jung.]

However, modern science has to some extent diminished the legend of the Lions of Tsavo. Recent chemical tests on hair samples have revealed that the animals did eat people in the months before they died, but that the combined number was probably closer to 35—a far cry from the original count of 140.

2. The Man-Eater of Mfuwe

This cocky, 10-foot long lion terrorized the people of Zambia in 1991. After his sixth kill,the lion strutted through the middle of town carrying the victim's laundry bag, daring anyone to confront him. A California man on safari waited in a hunting blind for 20 nights before finally shooting and killing the monster. This man-eater is currently neighbors with The Ghost and The Darkness at Chicago's Field Museum.

3. The Champawat Tigress

In the early 1900s, a female tiger allegedly killed 200 people in Nepal before she was driven across the border into the Kumaon Province of India. Once there, she continued her murderous spree by killing another 236 people, bringing her total to 436 over an eight year period.

Determined to end the killings, British hunter Jim Corbett roamed the countryside for days searching for the tigress, but came up empty. Finally, news of a


new victim led him to the scene and he tracked the animal as she dragged her latest kill through the dense jungle. Corbett recruited the men of Champawat, a nearby village, to form a line of banging drums in an attempt to drive the animal towards him. The plan worked, and he killed the tigress with two shots. After examining the body, Corbett noticed that her right canine teeth had been damaged by a previous gunshot, which he believed prevented her from hunting her natural prey and forced her to rely on food that was easier to catch.

4. The Tigers of Chowgarh

This mother and son duo were responsible for the deaths of at least 64 people during a five year period in India. In 1930, Jim Corbett shotand killed them both as well. When the mother died, Corbett saw that her claws and one canine tooth were broken, and that her front teeth had completely worn down. Like the Champawat Tigress, these deficiencies probably made hunting its natural prey difficult.

5. The Jaws of Jersey

During the first six days of July in 1916, two men were killed while swimming at resorts on the coast of New Jersey, by what witnesses said was a 9-foot long, 500-pound shark. These sensational deaths made front-page news across the country, prompting experts to reassure Jersey Shore tourists that the attacks were a once-in-a-lifetime event and didn't expect to see another like them for 1,000 years. In reality, the next attacks came less than a week later.

On July 12, in Matawan,


New Jersey, 12-year old Lester Stillwell was swimming in the river when he was pulled underwater by a shark. Stanley Fisher, a local dry cleaner, selflessly dove in to find Lester, only to have the shark strip his right thigh of an estimated 10 pounds of muscle and skin. About 30 minutes later, young Joseph Dunn was swimming with friends by a dock when they faintly heard someone yell, "Shark!" Dunn was last in line for the ladder to safety when, after putting one foot on the bottom rung, the shark latched onto his other leg and yanked him back into the water. The other boys were able to free him from the monster's grasp, but not before it had cut his lower leg to ribbons.

Stanley Fisher diedthat day just as he was going into surgery. Lester Stillwell's body floated up a few days later, with much of the flesh missing from his left leg, part of his shoulder, and across his chest. Only Joseph Dunn survived the Jersey man-eater and, thanks to medical attention, walked out of the hospital on both legs.

For weeks, a frenzy of amateur shark hunters killed many of the big fish around New Jersey. On July 14, a seven foot Great White was snared—its stomach was said to contain "suspicious fleshy material and bones." The attacks stopped, but to this day, there is debate if that Great White really was the killer. While there haven't been any similar, large-scale shark attacks on the Jersey Shore since, the events of 1916


a blood trail led into the woods. Graham followed the trail and found a gigantic grizzly lying quietly among the trees. Thinking it dead, the miner set his rifle down and pulled out his knife, to skin the bear for its valuable fur. As he got closer, the bear lunged, mauling Graham to death. Later, a friend came to check on the miner and found the trap with three bear toes still in its jaws—they were chewed off by the determined grizzly, leaving the bear with only two toes on one foot.

Pat Welsh, a wagon train driver, became Old Two Toes' next victim. The bear happened upon the train's camp and began eating the food out of Welsh's wagon. Two Toes killed Welsh while the other members ofgovernment wagon drivers who placed dynamite under some food and waited for the big bear to come by for a free meal. The men set off the explosives and Old Two Toes lost a lot more than just a couple of claws.

8. The Sloth Bear of Mysore

The Indian Sloth Bear is a fairly small but very aggressive bear found exclusively on the Indian subcontinent. For unknown reasons, one bear attacked at least 36 people, killing 12. Some of his victims were partially eaten and had their faces ripped from their skulls. Those who survived didn't fare much better, as they usually lost eyes and noses. Big game hunter Kenneth Anderson finally ended the bear's rampage with a single shot to the chest.


NECA has been on fire in recent years releasing numerous ultimate edition 7 inch Jason Voorhees figures from the films, along with retro “Mego” figures. Now that will all be put on hold because of the continued litigation of the rights for the original Friday The 13th film.

At a large fan event this past weekend, Randy Faulk, creative director for NECA, mentioned the license has been suspended for the foreseeable future because of the rights battle. Only in-development product will still be released. Those figures will include the Freddy vs Jason and Roy Burns figure from A New Beginning. One would also assume that the Mego dream sequence Pamela Voorhees figure from Part 3 will be released too, but that has not been officially confirmed.

To watch all announcementsAttempting to punctuate the launch of his leadership campaign on Sunday with a rousing call to action, Charlie Angus made a bluntly worded vow.

"We are going to mix things up," the NDP MP said. "We're going to stir the shit up."

It is hard to imagine such a thing being said, at least in public, by Tom Mulcair, a man who generally preferred to be associated with the idea of "competent public administration."

When Canadians were last asked to pay particular attention to the NDP, during the 2015 election, the party's offer struck a similarly reassuring tone: "Change that's Ready," in the awkward wording of the campaign slogan.

An NDP government, led by a sturdy and serious man with grey in his beard, would balance the budget. It would not raise


first time in their history after the 2011 election, seemed compelled to get frisky. First, there was Justin Trudeau's promise to legalize marijuana. Then came pledges to tax the rich, pursue electoral reform (whoops) and run a deficit.

Ontario NDP member of the legislature Jagmeet Singh, left, and Manitoba MP Niki Ashton are known to be considering a run for the federal NDP leadership. Ashton ran for the leadership in 2012. (Mike Crawley/CBC and Liam Richards/Canadian Press)

Whether the NDP — a party that, deservedly or not, carries a reputation for taxing and spending — could have gotten away as easily with not promising to balance the budget is debatable. But committing to balance the budget necessarily limited the NDP's horizons.

Of course, in the early summer of 2015, with aattention from the public at large, leadership candidates need to come to the table with bold, modern and innovative ideas," says Sally Housser, a former deputy national director with the federal NDP.

"Big ideas are always controversial, but candidates just debating the minutia of status quo NDP policy won't be enough to make an impact in an increasingly crowded media market."

In lieu of power, there is, in the NDP's own history, a certain pride for having been at the forefront of public policy and of having influenced significant reforms at the federal level: on medicare and pensions and the like.

In their zeal, New Democrats have been described as "Liberals in a hurry," while Liberals have been accused of stealing NDP ideas (like, say, electoral reform).

If nothing else, the NDP


Co-director of the Matrix films Lana Wachowski has appeared on film for what is believed to be the first time since transitioning.

As one half of the Wachowskis along with Andy Wachowski, formerly known as the Wachowski Brothers, Lana has been at the helm for films including the Matrix trilogy, V for Vendetta and Speed Racer.

Reports have referred to Lana, rather than Larry, Wachowski for at least two years, but this is believed to be the first time she has spoken publicly since the transition, in a clip promoting new film Cloud Atlas.

Wachowski was the first major Hollywood film director to transition.

The film, due to be released later this year, is based on a science fiction novel by British author David Mitchell and will star Tom Hanks and HalleNew Delhi: An expert panel of the union environment ministry has recommended environmental clearance for the development of the Bhogapuram international airport in Andhra Pradesh and upgradation of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai.

A total of ₹ 5,600 crore is expected to be spent on the airports. The projects were discussed during the meeting of the environment ministry’s expert appraisal committee (EAC) for infrastructure projects such as airports, ports and townships on 12 April.

The Andhra Pradesh government has envisaged a greenfield international airport near Visakhapatnam in Bhogapuram in Vizianagaram district. The site lies on the border of Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram districts. The Bhogapuram airport will decrease the air traffic load at the existing Vishakhapatnam airport.

The land for the proposed airport has already been allotted by the Andhra


government. An area of 2004.52 acres (811.21 hectares) has been earmarked for project. The cost of the projects is estimated at around ₹ 2,260.73 crore. The CSR budget is 2% of the project cost which is about ₹ 45.2 crore.

Phase-I of the airport involves development of an airstrip to cater to the Airbus-A380 type of aircraft. It also involves construction of new runway with allied facilities such as terminal building, apron, apron shoulder, taxi track, runway shoulder, boundary wall, perimeter roads and parking facilities.

“After detailed deliberations, the Committee recommended the project for environmental clearance," according to the minutes of the meeting, which were reviewed by Mint.

The panel, however, stipulated that the site be adequately barricaded before construction begins. It also said ground water shall not be abstracted duringspending their Sundays watching him throw grenades at aliens. He stopped going to classes, moved out of his cousin’s apartment and into his own place. It had actually been a whole process, but looking back on it now, it seemed like it had happened all at once.

When it came to Destiny, Wake prided himself on being first. His clan got known when they were the first to clear the Vault of Glass raid back when it launched with the first game. It took their six-man team ten hours, which he actually hadn’t been expecting. They’d almost been the first to go undefeated in the debut Trials of Osiris competitive tournament, but were foiled by some kid DDOSing them just ahead of their eighth win. The perils of livestreaming


team-play to the point that most teams would move around in a big blob of four, but they’d wind up all looking in the same direction. Wake had taken advantage of that, coming around the side and gunning down three fourths of their team before they even realized he was there. But that fourth guy… that one was the kicker. With his health in the red, Wake rushed his last opponent and desperately pitched a Hunter throwing knife, switching to his sniper rifle and firing without aiming down the sights. He didn’t know why he switched to his sniper; just had a feeling that it’d work. Somehow the knife landed, along with his bullet. The rest would be easily reviewable in slow-mo on his YouTube channel by thesay it so many ways. Things with us just weren’t working out. He’d gotten mean, and I had to go.” Will pinched his phone between his ear and his shoulder, which allowed him to talk while keeping both hands on his game controller. On the TV across the room, he was about to blow up a giant six-legged spider-tank somewhere in the European wilderness. White damage numbers popped off of the tank every time he opened fire.

He and his sister were talking for the fifth time in as many days. The subject of their call, as ever, was Will’s recent decision to end things with his longtime partner Michael. She still sounded unconvinced. She’d really liked Michael, and was actually a little weirdly invested in their relationship, Will


patrol zones and doing strikes with randoms. He was supposed to be trawling Craigslist for apartment listings, but most days after work he’d smoke some weed, put on his headphones, and spend the night enveloped in technicolor explosions and melodramatic choral chants. He knew plenty of people liked to get lit and play Destiny with their friends—some types of cough were impossible to disguise over voice chat—but he never felt comfortable playing stoned with strangers. Their faceless voices were too remote, and he’d get paranoid. Better to go it alone.

Will liked Destiny 2’s sights and sounds, but he liked the sense of progression even more. Humans were simple animals, he figured. They liked watching progress-bars fill up and numbers climb. Destiny 2 had some really good bars andA module integrating conventional teaching and student-centered approach for critical reading of scientific literature.
One of the well-accepted ways of introducing undergraduates to the method of scientific inquiry is to introduce them to primary literature. A matter of concern is that undergraduate students of Indian universities are generally not trained to read primary literature. We combined traditional teaching and student-centered approach in a 3-day module for introducing first-year students to critical reading of primary literature. This article describes the design of the module, the method of assessment of student performance, the learning outcomes, and student feedback. We received positive feedback from students and observed significant improvement in their understanding of the rationale and results of the research paper under consideration. The module may be viewed as an example of


by the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, given orally to laboratory hamsters infected with hookworms was as effective in eliminating the parasites, curing anemia and restoring weight gain in the hamsters as mebendazole, one of the drugs currently recommended to treat infections in humans. The scientists also discovered that this protein, called Cry5B, targets both developing, or larval, stages and adult parasites, as well as impairs the excretion of eggs by female worms.

Hookworms cause anemia by attaching to the intestine and feeding on their host's blood and nutrients, causing anemia and weight loss. The researchers said in their paper that because this naturally-produced protein is safe to humans and other vertebrates and can be produced inexpensively in large quantities, it has the potential to substantially improve this globaltwenties to his last years in fertile response to the new art of others and to a new milieu. Even while holding strictly to the horizontal and vertical in the painted lines, Mondrian brought back the abhorred diagonal in the frequent diamond shape of a square canvas. Diagonal axes are implicit too in his placing of paired colors. And in his late work he deviated from his long-held principle of the single plane by interlacing the lines to suggest a layered grid in depth. If his abstract paintings of the 1920s and 1930s seem dogmatically limited in their straight forms, these constant elements, through carefully pondered variation of length, thickness, and interval, compose a scale of forces that he deploys in always individual combinations. When studied closely, the


barest works, with only a few units, reveal his canny finesse in shaping a balanced order; that variety in the sparse and straight is a ground of their continuing fascination. One need not analyze that structure, however, to sense its precision and strength. These qualities come to the eye directly like the harmony of a Greek temple. His gravely serious art unites in its forms the large regularities of architecture as a canonical constructed order with a complexity of relations inherited from the painting of nature and the city scene. The persisting white field, in heightened contrast to the black lines, is a luminous ground — it has what may be called after Keats: “the power of white Simplicity” — and, in its division by those lines, providesa measure of the rhythm of the enclosing rectangles.

Like Picasso’s art, Mondrian’s would have to be characterized very differently according to one’s choice of a particular phase as typical. Before the constructive abstract art by which he is best known, his works had been in turn impressionistic, romantic, lyrical, visionary, and symbolic; and in his last years, at seventy, after that severely intellectual style, his paintings became surprisingly sensuous and elated. In assimilating before 1914 the most advanced art of his time, he stood out unmistakably as a painter with his own qualities and powers. Moving from Holland to Paris and later to London and New York, this ascetic artist reacted to each new environment with a quiet enthusiasm, inventing new features that transformed the face of his


art. When he worked in the style of Picasso and Braque in 1911 to 1913, he was not far behind them, having absorbed the most recent stage of their rapidly evolving art, and was soon able to move on to more strictly abstract forms of his own invention. Mondrian’s warm embrace of Cubism was the more surprising since he was forty then, with a long-matured practice that would have seemed to discourage the change to a style so different in principle from his own. Even more remarkable is that in adopting this challenging art from painters younger than himself, he derived from it conclusions still more radical, which were to stimulate and guide painters in Europe and America in the following decades. His later work was an outcomeor seem superfluous to one who grasps with feeling the order of a work of Mondrian on immediate view. I shall risk it in the belief that it will also bring us nearer to his sensibility and thought.

In a painting of 1926 in the Museum of Modern Art labeled Composition in White and Black, what seems at first glance a square set within a diamond square — a banal motif of decorators and doodlers — becomes to the probing eye a complex design with a subtly balanced asymmetry of unequal lines. We see the square as partly covered and extending into an imaginary field beyond the diamond canvas. If modeling and perspective have been given up, another cue for depth comes into play in this flat painting on


triangle of black, unique in the work — a shape that resembles, however, the residual white triangles in the right and lower corners of the diamond. That revealing shift, I have noted, marks the sides of the inset square as segments of an extended grid of crossing lines, masked in part by the boundary of the diamond opening or frame. It is not the grid that is asymmetric but the appearance of an externally cropped part of its larger suggested whole. We are led to imagine a viewer so close to the plane of the grid that he can sight only an incomplete segment of one rectangular unit and a corner of a second. The enclosing diamond may be likened to an eye or eyepiece of the beholder,actuality of a near and often peripheral observer, as in later photographs and films with odd perspectives which evoke the determining presence of a viewing eye. The spectator is intimated at a localizable point at the side through the angular perspective. Monet has alluded more directly to this sense of a picture as of an encountered scene by representing a figure on a high balcony in the foreground, looking at the crowded street below.6 By sighting the prominent foreground objects from nearby and cutting them abruptly at the edges of the canvas, painters brought the viewer close to the picture space — as if a participant — and marked the resulting strange silhouettes of the very near and incompletely seen as a truth to vision. They produced through


when the painter’s need to declare the freedom and self-sufficiency of his art, together with his reflections on an ideal of pure aesthetic seeing and his confidence in the intrinsic plasticity and expressiveness of his medium when freed from all resort to likeness, inspired what in a misleading, but now established metaphor, is called “abstract art.” In Degas’s pastel the woman is testing the fitness of a work of art that is not at all a representation, yet as a part of her costume will symbolize her individuality and taste in shape and color.

The segmenting of foreground objects at the edges of a field was practiced, of course, in much older Western and Middle Eastern art. But its specific form in the later nineteenth century, with pointed referenceto a nearby spectator whose perspective position determines an incomplete and sometimes oddly silhouetted form of a primary object, was something new.7 It was a mode of painterly vision Mondrian had rarely employed in his landscapes. Before his picture of a mill or tower we hardly think of the viewpoint as that of an ambulant spectator; the arresting object is confronted there in the middle of the canvas. The painter has stationed himself straight before it in nature and calls for a corresponding central position of the attentive viewer of the picture. Although we look at a framed image as a balanced whole from a point opposite its central axis, for Degas the pattern of a scene changed decidedly with the artist’s distance and his angle of vision


integrate in a utopian spirit his theory of art with the whole of social life and the promise of a more general emancipation through an advancing modernity.

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Mondrian applied the principle of an open asymmetric grid also on his more usual oblong canvas, but with a decidedly architectural effect through the strict accord of the painted lines and the parallel edges of the field. The example I show here was done in 1935, and then redone on the same canvas a few years later. In both states two long lines reaching from top to bottom divide the surface into three subfields like the bays of a tall façade. One of these lines is in the middle of the canvas: with the line at the left, it bounds a centralspace open at the upper and lower ends. The three bays are successively narrower from right to left, as on a façade seen m perspective from the right. The effect may also be read as a schema of two separate neighboring constructions with an open space between them. each extending indefinitely on three sides and intercepted asymmetrically in the view by an imposed window-like frame. In either reading, a symmetry latent in the central vertical line is revoked by the partitioning of the canvas into three unequal fields. The division of the lateral bays by shorter horizontal bars that bound rectangular spaces of distinctly contrasted areas and proportions reinforces the asymmetry while serving also to balance the inequalities of the two halves of the canvas. All these subject-angles


are open at one or two sides. Mondrian was dissatisfied. I suppose, with the first state, for in undertaking to change it towards 1942 lie did not simply compose a variant on another canvas, but retouched the original.8 In adding horizontals — one at the right and two at the left — he brought the divisions of both bays into closer alignment and introduced a more legible rhythmic order in the proportions of the white spaces on the two sides. The horizontal has been reinforced relative to the vertical, as in other paintings of his last years. A new factor of asymmetry and contrast in the balance of the two halves of the canvas is the accenting of the rectangles in diagonally opposite corners by the addition ofdistant house, are complete. Although not composed with Mondrian’s economy and rigor, the vertical and horizontal are felt throughout as distinct elements of a constructed pattern as well as of the perceived reality. The field is partitioned by the lines of the casement and its sill and by the walls and roofs of the buildings beyond. Both the grid of the large window and the small panes in the distance are contrasted with the white surface between those black lines and spots. There are, however, beside the diagonals of the casement and the emerging roof in the lower left corner of the window view, some loose freehand touches and streaks, a gradation and blending of small picturesque detail, while Mondrian admits in his armature only strict orthogonals, the


the “pure” relations in his art to the “veiled” ones in representations, Mondrian agreed with the purist architects who wished to exclude from their buildings all ornament and preconceived symmetry as a concealment of the working structure — the truly effective elements and relations that made for beauty in their art. The affinity of Mondrian and the modern architects was recognized by both.

The extension of parallel verticals to the upper and lower edges of the canvas was also a device of Monet; it fixed for the viewer the artist’s close sighting position in the fore-space of his pictured object. In several of his paintings of the façade of Rouen Cathedral the high wall, seen at an angle from nearby, is cut by the frame at the top andcroppings and asymmetries of the Impressionists and their direct successors in near-views and eccentric angular perspectives. His Red Mill and Church Tower of Domburg (1911) are exceptional among his early works in the marked cutting of a tall structure by the upper edge of the canvas.12 But in those pictures the dominating architectural object looms symmetrically in the middle of the field. In the triptych Evolution,13 painted that same year, the rigid centralized figures with the geometric patterning of bodily details and of the symbolic forms in the background recall the Mill. The style of that Symbolist triptych may be regarded as an example of Mondrian’s growing interest in geometric elements of drawing, which led him perhaps to the curious, whimsical rendering of the nipples and navels as


skeletal tree. If, as has been supposed, the dogma of the exclusive balanced vertical and horizontal in the later work was based on a Theosophist conviction formed during his earlier years, its strict application had to wait for his experience of Cubism, an art that freed him from overt symbolic imagery, as well as from lyrical renderings of nature, and turned his mind to a conception of his art as, in essence, a constructive operation with elementary, non-mimetic forms. It was an astonishing conversion for an accomplished painter of nature at the age of forty.

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Between that Cubist experience and the abstract style with the open grid, intervened a stage of abstraction in which Mondrian reverted to features of his pre-Cubist art. In the years 1914 to 1917 hepainted a series of works formed of short vertical and horizontal units, many of them tangent or crossed.15 These black lines or bars, more graphic than painted, fill the surface compactly although with a more scattered effect than the array of parallel colored strokes of his earlier landscapes in a quasi-pointillist technique. Together they shape paradoxically an oval or ellipse without a single curved or diagonal line. In the titles Mondrian gave to certain of those paintings: Ocean, Pier and Ocean, and in the traces of perspective vision, he avowed a tie with direct perception of nature. In an example of 1915 the discrete units become progressively smaller toward the top of the field, and on the central vertical axis of the lower half a distinct series of


bars occur singly, some are paired as equal parallels, some touch or cross one or two others, and in several places four and even five or six are in contact, as in Pier and Ocean, but with a weight of black that changes the impact of the whole and the strength of contrast to the white ground. These clusters are like molecules each with a varying number and size of the two kinds of atoms. Yet certain regularities will be found in their seemingly random occurrence. Throughout, one meets only black vertical and horizontal bars (and a few tiny squares) on a common white ground. These fill the space with an almost uniform density, except for a notable decrease towards the flattened top — a lightening most markedalong the central axis of the upper half with its loose alignment of single, small units. There is also a long file of vertical bars in the” lower half, a little to the right of the central axis, and larger than the irregularly grouped units above. Together, these two sets of verticals reinforce the symmetry of the bars at the rounded edge. Exceptional too is the series of single vertical bars in diagonal file at the lower left, that parallels a similar set on the contour nearby. One cannot say, however, where the varied clusters will turn up. Most of them are asymmetric and some appear highly irregular as composite forms, although built of verticals and horizontals alone. With the single bars, their spotting of the surface determines


relatively shapeless, open ground intervals that we do not measure separately by eye, but see together as the common circular field of the assembly of distinct black units, unlike the definite, rhythmically proportioned, white areas enclosed between the black bars in the later abstract works. Still, there is a statistical order in the clusters as a set. A rough count shows that the frequency of a type of cluster varies inversely as the number of its bars. The singles are the most common; next are the doubles and triples; the clusters of five and six are the fewest of all. There is also a bias in their frequencies in the different horizontal sections of the circle. The largest clusters are almost all in the middle and lowest zones.

Inmaintains its interest as a quality of the whole, while the elements, small and large, are all visibly constructed of the same kind of regular units, some of them in symmetric relation.

It is hard to imagine how in shaping and filling this circle with several hundred small units Mondrian judged the weight of each one separately in relation to every other in the field and to the simultaneously given whole, as he could do in deciding the precise lengths, intervals, and positions of the few long bars in his later sparse abstractions. He wrote in 1914 of his use of only vertical and horizontal lines that he “constructed consciously, though not by calculation, and directed by higher intuition…; chance must be avoided as much as calculation.”18 Guided by


already fixed general constraints on the permitted elements and their relations, the painter could realize experimentally, in a process of trial and error, the balance, order, and harmony of so densely populated a field in appraising by eye with that critical intuition the progressively emerging summated effect or resultant of the immense number of black elements and the indeterminate confluent shapes of the maze of open intervals. His approach to unity was not unlike that of the Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists in achieving the coherence and harmony of a microstructure of countless indistinct points of color. Although Mondrian, in this work of 1917, has cut all evident ties with the natural scene that had supplied him for his painting of Pier and Ocean with a model or framework ofan order in the perspective and objects of the seascape, he still retained from that older art an experience of composition with very small scattered units. Their density, randomness, and variation recall the Impressionists’ free play with contrast, color, and texture in tiny, juxtaposed, and overlaid, sometimes chaotic, touches.

Long before that phase, while still practicing an old-fashioned style in browns and grays, although with an increasingly free sketchy hand, he would dose a greenish meadow with scattered accents of dark and light strokes.19 Later, towards 1910, in pictures of a tower, a windmill, a lighthouse, and haystacks, and also of a single wide-branching tree, the sky and earth and sometimes the main object are a loose array of multiplied impasto strokes of red and blue aligned in contrasted


wheeled traffic circulating in the irregular Place du Theatre Français presents an accidental strewing of figures and vehicles analogous to the multitude of single and clustered bars in Mondrian’s abstraction. But on Pissarro’s canvas we sense also the motion of the artist’s hand and the intentness of his eye scanning the site for its varied tones and contrasts. His sketchy strokes seem to reenact the intermittent movement of the crowd, the carriages, and buses, halting or advancing in their different directions toward and away from us. It is a freshness and liberty of touch in keeping with the nature of the scene as perceived by Pissarro with enjoyment of its changing face, a liberty once valued by Mondrian too but deliberately replaced by a smooth, impersonal execution andrandomness of strewn forms, without likeness to particulars of nature, could be enjoyed as a positive quality in art and preferred in a less accomplished simulation, just as in the past certain features of a represented subject — the various sentiments and associations suggested by them — were attractive to the viewer uneducated in art and blind to the weakness and banality of the work. Randomness as a new mode of composition, whether of simple geometric units or of sketchy brushstrokes, has become an accepted sign of modernity, a token of freedom and ongoing bustling activity. It is alluring in the same degree that technical and aesthetic features in figurative art, found in the works of the masters — microscopic minuteness of detail, smoothness of finish, virtuoso rendering


of textures — besides an agreeable subject, could satisfy in mediocre paintings a taste which was insensitive to relationships of a finer order. The artistically immature taste for the imitative, cliché-ridden, often skillful kind of painting, called kitsch, is now directed also to the widely publicized abstract art.

6

.

In his last years Mondrian transformed his abstract art through features that revived qualities of Neo-Impressionist painting and its successors — of their color above all. He did not return, however, to the painterly brushstroke or to representation. It was still with his regular constructive elements and dispassionate touch that he created the new style. But he reintroduced also a randomized play of small units and a symmetry of the large as a stabilizing force.

The masterpiece of this final stage hecalled Broadway Boogie-Woogie. The title points to the inspiration of music and dance; but without knowing the title, one would think of music in seeing this wonderfully lively, colorful, jazzy canvas. It is founded on a grid of vertical and horizontal bars, more varied than before in spacing and length. The firm black bands that had been a mainstay for so many years become trains of speckled color; they are divided into small units like the tesserae of a mosaic, mainly yellow alternating with red, grey, and blue. Mondrian, after Monet and Seurat, now excludes black from his palette. The bands appear filmy, bright, and vibrant in the changing sequence of those colors on the white ground and in the recurring contrasts of deep blue and red with


three colors; in others a small square of contrasting color is inlaid on the main hue as a ground. In several places a color of the larger unit extends across the slender, neighboring bar as if bonded with it. At the lower left, a square of yellow with a central gray spot is mortised into the adjoining bands by its continuity with the yellow squares on the grid. The bonding of the grid with the larger colored rectangles appears at other points and differently in each. The colors of these blocks are the same four as those on the grid; by their greater mass they contribute single forceful beats, like strong chords, to the animation of the whole, and stand out from the grid by their discoordinate groupingThe grid appears then as a network of interlaced bands that follows no regular scheme; it is an arbitrary, occasional entwining like the elusive intersection of planes in Cubist paintings of Picasso and Braque in 1911 and 1912.29 While Mondrian’s abstract paintings of the 1920s and 1930s have an architectural effect with an impressive stability and strength, the surprise of Broadway Boogie-Woogie lies in its movement and colorful visual music. The reversion to his earlier styles clearly served a new expressive intent.

In conceiving Broadway Boogie-Woogie, Mondrian could well have been inspired by the sights of New York, the dazzling night spectacle of its high buildings with their countless points of light, and in particular the moving illumined signs at Times Square. He had been prepared for this new


conception by his enjoyment of Paris where, on first encountering jazz and modern popular dance in the 1920s, he defended them against detractors. In Paris he discovered, besides Cubist painting, the beauty of a big city as a collective work of art and its promise of greater freedom and an understanding milieu. Shortly before coming to New York he had disclosed a new inspiration in paintings with more complex grids, which he called Place de la Concorde and Trafalgar Square — the forerunners of the interwoven grid in New York City and Broadway Boogie-Woogie. But his pleasure in the spotting of bright colors had been awakened before his Paris days. I have noted earlier that in 1909 and 1910, in rural scenes of Holland, often with a singledominant object, he had practiced a style of distinct touches of intense colors, less compact and less regular in form, to be sure, and in some works a more dense mosaic derived from Seurat. In his writings he had acknowledged the importance of Neo-Impressionism for the growth of abstract art. It appears that in his old age a warmer side of his nature, emotion suppressed in his search for an intellectual absolute, was released with a new freedom through his experience of a welcoming American milieu.

The elated spirit of the last paintings reminds one of the last works of Matisse in the 1950s. The convergence of these two masterly artists of the same generation, so different in temperament and culture, invites us to meditate on the old age


of the two men. For Matisse it was a rejuvenation, while Mondrian achieved then a youthfulness he had not shown as a young painter. Both had been attracted by jazz and had admired the American city, but it was Mondrian who shaped in Broadway Boogie-Woogie a captivating pictorial equivalent of the stirring rhythms and sounds of the mid-Manhattan scene. Matisse, from another standpoint, found in geometrical abstraction and in floral plant patterns a new expression of his abiding delight in color and exotic decorative forms. Those designs, despite some ingenious small deviations from regularity, preserve the traditional syntax of ornament as a system of symmetries and repeats. Mondrian was never more free and colorful, and closer to the city spectacle in its double aspect of the architectural asan endless construction of repeated regular units and of the random in the perpetual movement of people, traffic, and flashing lights.

Notes

*This paper is an enlarged version of a talk on Mondrian at the symposium at the Guggenheim Museum on October 9, 1971 during the centennial exhibition of the painter’s works. The essential points go back to lectures on Mondrian and other abstract painters in my courses on twentieth-century art at Columbia University and in lectures elsewhere since the late 1930s.

1 The letter of 1924 is quoted by Michel Seuphor, Viet Mondrian, Life and Work, Abrams, New York, n.d. (1956), p. 149.

2 In some later paintings of the square on the diamond field no line of the square crosses another, so that a grid is not suggested. See Seuphor,


works, was later to write a monograph on Saenredam; that painting of Saint Bavo’s church has been reproduced by Thomas Hess in his book Abstract Painting, Background and American Phase, New York, 1951, p. 22, fig. 12, as an example of an older Dutch artist’s taste for abstract form). A large diamond plaque hangs from the middle pillar; it is the escutcheon of a deceased, common in Dutch church interiors in the seventeenth century. Saenredam seems not to have repeated this daring perspective which remains exceptional among the paintings of church interiors by Dutch artists. But it is a noteworthy anticipation of an artistic idea of nineteenth-century painters, in accord with advanced tendencies of other Dutch artists towards the near-view and the theme of sighting. Jantzen, in hismay have saved her from being sunk outright. Not expecting a ship-to-ship confrontation, it took the crews of the two Imperial battleships several minutes to switch to armor-piercing ammunition. Nevertheless, San Francisco, almost helpless to defend herself, managed to momentarily sail clear of the melee. However, she landed at least one shell in Hieis steering gear room during the exchange, flooding it with water, shorting out her power steering generators, and severely inhibiting Hieis steering capability. Helena followed San Francisco to try to protect her from further harm.

The enemy Amatsukaze approached San Francisco with the intention of finishing her off. However, while concentrating on San Francisco, Amatsukaze did not notice the approach of Helena which fired several full broadsides at Amatsukaze from close range and knocked her out of the action. The


San Pedro  December 5, 1945, and under Carpenter subsequently made another voyage to Guam and the Philippines bringing home veterans. Carpenter left the Hocking in February 1946 as she was scheduled to go into the reserves. She left San Pedro on March 1, 1946 and was returned to the Maritime Commission via the Canal Zone to Norfolk, Virginia, where she decommissioned May 10, 1946. Hocking joined the National Defense Reserve Fleet and was berthed in the James River, near Norfolk on May 22, 1946. In 1974 she was scrapped.

Shore duty
He left Hocking in February 1946 in the Canal Zone for assignment at the Naval District 12 in San Francisco, California.

USS Burleson

Carpenter then became the captain of , a . The ship was modified as an animal researchmore than one-third larger than the nation's overall labor market. Further, the report indicates that the advertising industry is steadily falling even further behind peer industries,” the letter states.

The Madison Avenue Project is led by the NAACP and attorney Cyrus Mehri, of Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, who has won several multi-million dollar discrimination settlements against such corporations as The Coca-Cola Company, Morgan Stanley and Texaco Inc.; with the cooperation of Sanford Moore, a former advertising executive, current New York City talk radio co-host, and longtime advocate for racial parity in advertising.
The study, entitled “Research Perspectives on Race and Employment in the Advertising Industry,” was conducted by a leading research firm, Bendick and Egan Economic Consultants.

The full text of the letter and other information can be found at: www.madisonavenueproject.com.


Homosexuality has been legal in Turkey since 1858, during the Ottoman empire, and many of the same laws have been used in the country since 1923, when the Republic was founded, with transsexual people given the right to change their legal gender in 1988.

Recent years have seen a change in public opinion, however, with the Middle Eastern country becoming more conservative. Attacks against gay, lesbian and transgender people have become more frequent – and deadly. Such was the case of Hande Kader, a transgender activist and sex worker who was brutally killed and mutilated before her body was set ablaze in a park in Istanbul in August 2016.

Last month, Turkish police stifled an LGBT pride march in Istanbul after organisers went ahead with the planned event despite athird ban in three years by authorities. According to witnesses, police fired rubber bullets to disperse at least one crowd and several people were detained. Organisers of a Trans Pride March were also stopped from marching in Istanbul's main square on Sunday. Last year, members of the LGBT community were also attacked by police with water cannons and rubber bullets for trying to hold a Pride parade.

The Pride march was organised to take place on the same day as the Bayram, the Turkish name for Eid-Al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan.

Discrimination protections for diverse sexual orientation and sexual identity have been debated, but not yet ratified by the country’s Parliament. And many Turkish officials often use “homophobic and transphobic rethoric” in their speeches,


according to Amnesty International.

The situation in Istanbul is becoming increasingly dangerous for members of the LGBT community – but in rural areas of Turkey, it is far worse.

Honour killings are still practised in more rural communities, with families plotting the murders of members who they believe are engaging in ‘immoral sexual behaviours’. More than 40 hate murders have been committed against LGBT individuals between 2010 and 2013, according to a report submitted to the UN by local rights groups.

Despite the resistance – and potential danger – members of the LGBT community faced, they still took to the streets, but found their voices silenced. Here, the stories of a handful of those protesters are told.you need my help, I'll be there."

Kind of like the Avengers, the Strong Arm, the Texas Hammer and the Texas Law Hawk form a sort of brotherhood. After Sunday, the power group is down a hero.

The Dallas Medical Examiner isn't ready to rule on the death of Loncar after he was found unresponsive in his car Sunday morning. For his family, the death comes just two days after they buried his 16-year-old daughter, Grace.

The family released this statement Sunday night:

"Our family is filled with enormous sadness and profound grief following the death of our beloved son, husband, father, friend, colleague, neighbor, advisor, and a man trusted by many people in Dallas and throughout the state of Texas. We are shocked and numbed by these tragic events and ask


wisdom as well as his deep sense of caring for his clients and people in need of help. We will continue to fight for you."

The other lawyers in Texas' unofficial personal injury triumvirate are trying to understand too.

Adler, the Texas Hammer, said only that he'll be contacting the family privately.

As for Wilson, the Texas Law Hawk, a personal story showed the goodness of the Strong Arm. When he was just creating the Law Hawk concept, Wilson showed his videos and website to Loncar. After watching silently, Loncar gave his answer.

"The Strong Arm endorses the Law Hawk!" he said.

Now it's the Law Hawk wishing he had the chance to say how that moment helped form his identity and career.

Brian Loncar was 56-years-old. His memorial service will be held Fridaythe day we end AIDS in New York City much closer.”

"We are thrilled to see the many innovations that DOHMH is implementing to End the AIDS Epidemic here in New York. We are especially delighted with the City's partnership with the community to see that we achieve this goal by 2020,” said Charles King, President and CEO of Housing Works.

"Out of the worst pandemic in the past century, HIV/AIDS, and in the city which was long its epicenter, New York City, a new model for sexual health services is being launched today," said Mark Harrington, Executive Director of the Treatment Action Group(TAG). "Activists and members of New York's many communities long affected by HIV, inequity, sexually-transmitted infections, or substance use will benefit greatly from NYC's newly-named Sexual Health


children to be taught by their parents in their homes, a result achieved by many families by having the parents register as a private school, which exempts them from the requirement of having credentialed faculty.

WND earlier reported Brad Dacus, chief of the Pacific Justice Institute, is planning an appeal to the state Supreme Court on behalf of the school in which the Long children were enrolled.

He said his concern is that the ruling might be used by “overzealous” school district officials and social workers to try to remove a child from a family.

“We are hoping enough common sense prevails for everyone to wait and see how this plays out before the state Supreme Court,” he said. But in California, such appellate level rulings are binding on lower courtsThree Calgary police officers have been found guilty of nine corruption-related offences related to the harassment of a local mother whose bitter ex-husband hired them to stalk her.

Anthony Braile, Bryan Morton and Brad McNish participated in a two-year campaign targeting Akele Taylor, whose ex Ken Carter was fighting for sole custody of their daughter. Carter was trying to dig up dirt on her through a private investigation firm that employed current and former officers, including the three accused.

"The surveillance was designed to intimidate ... and to highlight the power imbalance between Mr. Carter and Ms. Taylor," said Court of Queen's Bench Justice Bryan Mahoney in delivering his decision.

"[It's] evident her fear was exacerbated by feeling police would not help her."

Mahoney delivered the following verdicts Friday afternoon.

Anthony Braile:

Bribery —


when they worked for the Waltons' firm. The Waltons and Carter go on trial on similar charges later this year.

Early on in the trial, Taylor testified she was terrorized for two years as people working for Walton surveilled, stalked and harassed her, which included installing a GPS device on her car. Friends of Taylor's were offered thousands of dollars in exchange for disclosing negative information about her.

Defence lawyers argued the accused officers were under the belief that Taylor "was a dangerous prostitute with a drug addiction and gang affiliations who posed a threat to the well-being of [her daughter]."

Akele Taylor testified that her ex, Ken Carter, hired a private investigation firm to stalk her for two years in order to gain custody of their daughter. (Instagram/Supplied)

Both McNish andMorton testified in their own defence. Mahoney found inconsistencies and credibility issues with both.

The judge found much of McNish's testimony "self serving" and in some cases "not credible."

McNish accessed police databases while off duty on Workers Compensation benefits. He knew he was risking his career by doing the unauthorized work for Walton, said Mahoney.

In Morton's case, the judge was more scathing in his assessment of the police officer's testimony.

"I find Mr. Morton was not a credible witness," said Mahoney in his assessment the evidence that at times was "impossible to accept."

Mahoney found Morton did more surveillance than he admitted to, which added to the harassment of Taylor. He said Morton was clearly — by evidence of a text message saying so — paid for the illegal police database


searches he did for the Waltons.

"[Morton's] repeated denial that he was never paid for those searches ... is incapable of belief."

Braile did not testify in his own defence but much of the evidence came as part of a affidavit sworn by the former officer.

"It was clear from the evidence Ms. Taylor was criminally harassed by Mr. Braile," said Mahoney.

Sentencing later this year

During the trial, the three officers tried to paint Taylor as a drug addicted prostitute. It was one of the first issues the judge addressed when delivering his decision.

"Let me be clear, all persons whether they use drugs, work in the sex trade or are messy housekeepers ... are individuals in Canada who are entitled to the full protection of the law," said Mahoney.

All alleged offences stemBy Galloway, with contributions from Daracha.

Recently we caught up with a friend of ours who had just left her Asatru kindred. Her story was similar to others we’ve heard over the years from women involved in Germanic Heathenry in Australia.

As a country dweller like us, she was thrilled when she first became involved with this kindred. The organisers aimed to recreate the feeling of traditional Norse festivals, so the rituals were solemn and spoken in Danish and Old High Norse. As a former reenactor this appealed to her interest in history, and coming to a Viking feast with ritual also worked for her eclectic pagan side.

After ritual, the kindred would have a feast in the hof (feasting hall). These were always wonderful, with tables packed with roast meats,


vegetables and homemade breads and cakes. They even drank mead from drinking horns.

The problems arose when she realised that it was always her and the wives and girlfriends of the men in attendance who served the food, cleared the table, and even fetched the beer and mead. In fact, after this realisation it became clear to her that the only reason the wife of the host had invited her female friends to these gatherings was because she needed help in the kitchen to produce such large amounts of food and drink.

And it didn’t stop there. After the feast, our friend found that she was usually going and sitting with the other women away from the fire. The men would stand around the fire and share stories and songsfrom the Eddas and make toasts, boasts and oaths. The women would gossip about the men. When this became apparent and she went to stand with the men to share in the music (she is one of the most talented whistle players in the state) it was suggested, not unkindly, that she should “go and sit with the others”.

As mentioned earlier, this is not an isolated incident. Over the years in our dealings with heathen folk of all walks of life, this tale seems to come up fairly frequently from Australian heathen women.

So.

Even someone with a rudimentary knowledge of history knows that the Vikings were a vibrant and varied people. War and conquest were important to them, yes, but so were a lot of other things. For some