disagreements with the WFP but they were resolved when the Governor became the endorsed candidate,” Cuomo adviser Rich Azzopardi said in an email. “Fusion voting has many opponents like The New York Times and Newsday editorial boards and proponents who support the minor parties. We have no position and it's up to the commission to propose for the Legislature and to the public how many lines and how many parties are eligible for taxpayer-financed funds. Your nameless faceless gossip suggesting our opinion are lies — when the Governor has an opinion he voices it."

The WFP has been an official party in New York for over two decades. In recent years, it has solidified its position as an organizational home for much of the state’s resurgent left. The partythe then-unknown Zephyr Teachout in 2014 was left in doubt until the night of its convention. Cuomo wound up winning the line after receiving 58 percent of the WFP committee’s vote, but that only happened after he agreed to back a list of liberal demands in a taped message now universally known as “the hostage video” for the degree of enthusiasm he displayed.

Tensions between Cuomo and the WFP remained high during his second term. After the feuding over its 2014 endorsement as well as the WFP’s decision to back Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016, several major unions close to the governor ended their financial support for the party.

And the relationship got worse in 2018, as the party decided to go all-in on backing Nixon’s challenge against Cuomo.


Richard Dawkins Reveals Best Argument for God He's Ever Heard

Richard Dawkins visited Google's office in Kirkland, WA to discuss his book "Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science," in a video published on January 11, 2016. | (Photo: Talks at Google video screencap)

Atheist author and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins says the best argument for God he's ever hard has to do with a deistic God as the fine-tuner of the universe.

Dawkins visited Google's office in Kirkland, Washington, to discuss his book, Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science, after which he took a couple of readers' questions. He was asked in a video published on Monday what is the best argument in favor of God and the best argument against evolution that he hasit difficult to grasp how long a time has been available for the changes that are talked about," the evolutionary biologist asserted.

Back in June 2011, Evangelical geneticist Francis Collins revealed that Dawkins had told him in a conversation the most troubling argument for nonbelievers he has heard concerns the fine-tuning of the universe.

"If they (constants in the universe) were set at a value that was just a tiny bit different, one part in a billion, the whole thing wouldn't work anymore," Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, said at the time.

The argument concerns the need for matter and energy, such as strong and weak nuclear forces, gravity, and the speed of light, to be precisely right during the Big Bang for the creation of life


youth alive. Our thirteen-year-olds become adults. At Passover, we entrust our oral tradition – that which has kept us united through the harshest of oppression – to the youngest person in the room. And, of course, there is that story about the young man named David.

Jews also have a long history of supporting social justice and civil rights. From Julius Rosenwald and the Tuskegee Institute to Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique to the work being done today by groups like Jewish Funds for Justice and the American Jewish World Service there is no greater ally to equality and fairness than the American Jewry.

American society, on the other hand, has a mixed record of youth empowerment. Our young people have done amazing things, but have not been entrustedwas no super-tribal
government or coordination at
this early stage.
The Ark is said to have
circulated among the different
tribal territories,
it did not rest permanently in
the territory of one tribe until
somewhat late in the period--it
comes to rest at a place called
Shiloh.
Shiloh.
And it seems that only in
extraordinary cases would you
have the tribes acting together,
perhaps by decision of the
tribal elders.
But superimposed upon the
authority of the elders is the
authority of certain inspired
individuals.
And these are known as judges,
and it is the exploits of these
individuals that are recorded in
the Book of Judges.
And we will turn to the Book of
Judges now.
The Book of Judges is set in
that transitional period between
the death of Joshua and the
establishment of a monarchic
system.
It is about a 200-year period,
from about 1200 to 1000 or so.

It is an imaginative and
embellished reconstruction of
that period of


chapters,
four chapters,
chapters 6-9,
recording the adventures of
Gideon.
Gideon fights against the
Midianites.
Gideon is interesting.

There are signs in his story
that he is divinely chosen.
There is some evidence of the
annunciation of his birth,
and some signal that he is
divinely chosen.
Then in 11 and into a little
bit of chapter 12,
you have the story of Yiftah or
Jephthah,
who fights against the
Ammonites--very interesting and
tragic story of his daughter,
which echoes similar sorts of
stories in Greek legend.

You also have in chapters
13-16, Samson who,
of course, fights against the
Philistines.
Samson is somewhat atypical.

He also has a tremendous and
fatal weakness for foreign
women, and that is a strong
theme throughout the Samson
stories.
We will come back to some of
that.
Then towards the end:
you have some interesting
chapters at the end.
17 and 18 tell the story of
Micah or Micah,
and his idolatrous shrine.

And then finally,
the quite horrifyingand
gruesome tale,
beginning in chapter 19,
going on through 20 and 21--
the story of the Levite's
concubine and the civil war.

We will come back and talk
about some of these in a little
more detail.
But that is just to give you a
sense of the different units
that are in the story,
that are in the book.

And these stories have then
been embedded in a
Deuteronomistic framework.

This framework provides the
editor's view and pronouncement
on and judgment of the period.

Some of the stories seem to
have been left pretty much
intact themselves.

There isn't in many cases,
a lot of interference inside
the story, only a few
interpolations that express the
editor's theology of history.

But the editor's theology of
history is best seen in the
preface to the book,
which is why I sort of stuck
these over to the side,
this preface that frames the
book.
And


chapter 1 gives a detailed
summary of the situation at the
end of Joshua's conquest--taking
stock,
listing the extensive areas
that Joshua had failed to take
from the Canaanites,
despite the impression that is
given by the Book of Joshua
(certainly the first part of it)
that they did everything they
were supposed to have done and
fulfilled the commandments to
Moses and so on.
But here, we get a list of all
the places they failed to take
from the Canaanites,
starting in Judah and moving
northward.
They tend to always start in
the southern area,
in Judah, and then list things
in a northward direction.
Then in Judges 2:1-5,
an angel appears before
Joshua's death,
and the angel recounts God's
redemption of the Israelites
from Egypt and then quotes God
as follows: "I will never break
my covenant with you.
And you, for your part,
must make no covenant with the
inhabitants of this land;
you must tear down their
altars."
Thatfrom
the last in background,
in class, and even gender.
We do have one female judge,
Deborah, who did exercise
judicial functions evidently,
according to the text.
The judges are not chosen
necessarily for their virtue.
Many of them seem to fall into
the literary type of the
trickster, a bit like Jacob.

Some of them.
They are crafty,
tricky types.
Gideon is explicitly chosen for
his weakness,
and not because of his
strength.
It turns out that he is quite a
ruthless fighter,
and he is clearly not a devout
Yahwist.
Jepthah is an outlaw.
Samson is hardly a moral
exemplar.
So these are not meant to be
idealized heroes,
but popular heroes.

There is a very interesting
tension in the Book of Judges
that will continue beyond into
the Book of Samuel,
as well, but a tension
regarding kingship.
The individual stories seem to
suggest a very deep-seated
distrust of kingship.

So in Judges 8,
the people ask one of the
judges, Gideon


the final
chapters.
"In those days,
there was no king in Israel."
That happens again in chapter
19:1, chapter 21:25.
"And in addition it is said
that everyone did as he pleased,
or everyone did what was right
in his own eyes."
It is in chapter 21:25.

By the end of the book,
the Israelites find themselves
spiraling out of control in an
orgy of violence and rape,
and in the final chapter,
all out civil war.
A Levite's concubine is raped
by a gang, murdered by the tribe
of Benjamin.
And this is an atrocity that is
to be avenged by all the other
tribes.
The Levite takes her body,
cuts it into 12 parts,
sends a part to each of the
tribes as a call to war,
to join together in a war of
extermination against Benjamin.
And many scholars have observed
that it is ironic and tragic
that the one time the tribes do
all actin concert is against
one of their own.

This is the only time all 12
tribes, or the other 11 tribes,
come out against a common enemy
and it is the tribe of Benjamin.
At a certain point,
however, they realize with some
regret that the tribe of
Benjamin is near extinction.
This is not a good thing,
so the other tribes then
arrange to kidnap women from
Shiloh as mates for the
remaining Benjaminites.

So as a final comment on this
horrible symphony of barbarity,
of rape, murder,
civil war, kidnapping,
forced marriage,
the Deuteronomistic historian
concludes the Book of Judges
with this refrain:
"In those days there was no
king in Israel,
and every man did as he
pleased."
It is a wonderfully polysemic
phrase, no king in Israel,
no human king,
perhaps also given their
behavior no divine king.

So again I see that as sort of
an ominous refrain throughout.
There was no king in


Israel.

Every man is doing as he
pleases, and look at the
situation we have reached by the
end of the Book of Judges.
The Deuteronomist's explanation
for the moral and social
bankruptcy of Israel at the end
of the period of the judges at
the dawn,
or on the eve,
of the monarchy,
is Israel's continued
infidelity.
And the prescription for this
situation at some level in the
text is a king.
This sits uneasily with an
anti-monarchic trend in some of
these stories.
But according to the
Deuteronomistic historian,
the institutional structure of
a kingdom of God--right,
a sort of "theocracy" is how a
later Jewish historian would
describe this period--a kingdom
in which God is the king and the
community is led by inspired
judges in times of crisis--that
structure,
that institutional structure
failed to establish stability,
a stable continuous government.

It failed to provide leadership
against Israel's enemies within
and without.
You have Ammon and Moab to the
east.
You havethe Philistines to the
west, and they soon manage to
subjugate the entire land.
So the tribes seem to be
conscious of the need for a
centralized authority,
a strong central authority;
and the demand for a king
arises.
In their search for a new
political order,
the people turn to the prophet
Samuel.
Samuel is the last in a line of
prophet judges,
and they ask him to anoint a
king for them.
So we are moving now into the
Book of Samuel.
And the Book of Samuel deals
with the transition from the
period of the judges to the
period of the monarchy.
In the first Book of Samuel,
you have the opening chapters
that record the birth and career
of Israel's last judge,
Samuel.
So that is chapters 1-4.
The next few chapters through
chapter 7 deal with the
Philistine crisis,
and at this time the Ark of the
Covenant itself is captured and
taken into Philistine territory.
Chapters 8-15


give us a story
of Samuel and Saul,
who will be Israel's first
king.
And then the last half of the
book, 16 on to 31,
are going to give us the story
of Saul and David.
So 1 Samuel opens with the
story of Samuel's birth to
Hannah, and her dedication of
her son to the service of God at
Shiloh,
at the sanctuary at Shiloh.
So Shiloh appears to have been
the most important shrine in the
period before the monarchy.

The prophet,
Jeremiah, is going to refer to
Shiloh as the place where God
first made his name to dwell.
You remember the Deuteronomist
is always speaking about
centralization around a place
where God will cause his name to
dwell.
At first that was Shiloh.
It has been noted that after
the birth of Samuel,
the text conveys a sense of
three crises,
and I have listed them on the
far side of the board over
there.
Thefirst crisis is a religious
crisis.
The priest of the time,
Eli--he is also described as a
judge, but perhaps that is just
to fit him literarily into the
pattern of leadership that
predominates in this section of
the Bible--he is said to be
aging,
and his sons are quite corrupt.
As a result,
the text says,
"The word of Yahweh is rare in
those days."
So there is a crisis in
religious leadership.
There is also a crisis in
political leadership,
or political succession to some
degree.
Judges 2 tells us that Eli's
two sons are clearly not worthy.
They dishonor the sacrifices,
and according to one reading
they lie with the women at the
door of the shrine.
God says he will cut off the
power of Eli's house.
His two sons will die in one
day.
And God will find and raise up
a faithful priest.
But in the meantime,
no leader is apparent.
So we have a crisis in
succession,


this,
and Samuel leads them.
He employs--his military
tactics mostly include prayer
and confession and sacrifice,
but he manages to lead them to
victory over the Philistines.

God thunders and the
Philistines flee in fear.
So Samuel seems to be combining
in one person several functions.
He is a priest.
He is in the shrine.
He offers sacrifices.

He builds altars.

He is also a seer and a prophet.

He receives the word of the
Lord and, like a prophet,
he will be anointing kings.

And he is also a judge in the
sense that he leads Israel to
military victory.

But he also travels a circuit
acting as a judge in a judicial
sense--it says throughout
Israel,
but really most of the places
we hear about are within the
confines of Benjamin.

So this story seems to mostly
be focused in the southern
region in the tribe of Benjamin.

But evennot interpose
himself.
Some have argued that the
editors who compiled the text
preserved the pro-monarchic
perspective of their sources,
but they chose to frame the
pro-monarchic passages with
their own anti-monarchic
passages,
with the result that the
anti-monarchic passages really
provide a stronger
interpretative framework and are
dominant.
The implication is that despite
positive contemporary
evaluations of Israel's kings,
from the perspective of the
later period,
from the perspective of the
editors and perhaps those
sitting in exile,
the institution of kingship was
a disaster for Israel.

And that negative assessment is
introduced by the
Deuteronomistic redactor into
his account of the origin of the
institution: that God,
himself, warned at the time
that this transition was being
made and this request was being
made--God himself,
warned that this had the
potential to be quite
disastrous.
Others feel that the
pro-monarchic and anti-monarchic
views were contemporaneous and
both ancient,
and we see that simply
reflected in these dueling
sources.
So whether one view is older
and one more recent,
whether both are


very
positive terms.
He is tall.
He is handsome.
He is winning.
He is charismatic.

In fact, he is associated with
ecstatic prophecy:
the spirit of the Lord comes
upon him and he prophesies in a
sort of raving and dancing and
ecstatic mode.
He defends his own tribe.

He is from the tribe of
Benjamin, and he defends them
from Ammonite raids.

And he is hailed by the tribes
as a leader in time of war.
As king he did enjoy some
initial military victories.
He drove the Philistines from
their garrisons,
and he was such a popular and
natural leader that even Samuel,
who at first resented Saul and
resented the idea of a king,
came to appreciate him and was
said to really grieve for him
upon his death.
But once David enters the
story, which is about halfway
through the Book of 1 Samuel
(it's 1 Samuel 16),
then we begin to see clearly
negativeassessments of Saul,
perhaps because the sources
about David stem from circles
that were loyal to the House of
David,
and David is going to succeed
Saul, obviously,
as the second king of Israel.
Perhaps the negative assessment
is because of Saul's ultimate
failure and suicide.

That had to be accounted for by
identifying some fatal flaw in
him.
So now his ecstatic prophecies
are presented as irrational fits
of mad behavior.
So where once the spirit of the
Lord was said to come upon him,
now he is said to be seized by
an evil spirit from the Lord
that rushes upon him suddenly
causing him to rave in his
house.
Elsewhere he commits errors.
He doesn't obey Samuel's
instructions to the letter,
and that is going to cost him
the support of Samuel and
ultimately God.
We have two stories of
disobedience related in 1
Samuel.
One is in chapter 13.

He sees that the morale of his
men


is sagging and so to rally
them together he officiates at a
sacrifice.
He was supposed to wait for
Samuel to arrive and do it,
but he sees that it needs to
happen now, and so he officiates
at the sacrifice himself.

And this appropriation of a
priestly function enrages
Samuel, and this is Samuel's
first pronouncement or
prediction that God will not
establish Saul's dynasty over
Israel,
despite the fact,
by the way, that other kings at
other times will sacrifice with
impunity.
So it is interesting because
David and others will sacrifice
and it doesn't seem to be a
problem.
But here it is given as the
occasion for Samuel's fury and
his first pronouncement that the
dynasty of Saul will not be
established.
In chapter 15,
we have a second instance of
disobedience that earns Samuel's
disapproval.
Again, against Samuel's order,
he spares the life of an enemy
king.
This is King Agag.
He spares his life and
otherwise violates theterms of
herem:
this notion of total
destruction or devotion of booty
and enemies to God through total
destruction.
And, again, when he violates
the order of herem,
Samuel again announces that God
regrets having made Saul king.

"The Lord has this day torn the
kingship over Israel away from
you and has given it to another
who is worthier than you."
That is chapter 15:28.

In any event,
with his support eroding,
Saul seems to sink into a deep
depression and paranoia.
And toward the end of his life,
he is depicted as being
completely obsessed with David
and the threat that David poses
to Saul himself,
but also his dynasty.
Saul is angry that his own son,
Jonathan, who presumably should
succeed him to the throne,
has a deep friendship with
David and, in fact,
throws his support over to
David instead of himself.

In several jealous rages Saul
attempts to kill David or to
have him


and his supporters
killed.
In one particularly violent
incident he kills 85 priests
whom he believes have given
shelter to David and his
supporters.
So in these encounters between
Saul and David,
the sources portray Saul as
this raving,
obsessed paranoid person,
and David is seen as a sort of
innocent victim,
and he protests his loyalty and
his support for Saul.
He does not seem to understand
why Saul should view him as a
threat.
And twice he passes up the
opportunity to do away with Saul
himself.
He says, I will not raise my
hand against the Lord's
anointed.
So the portrayal of Saul as a
raving and paranoid man who is
obsessed with David probably
reflects the views of later
writers who were apologists for
the House of David.

Positive views of Saul's
character weren't entirely
extinguished by the biblical
writer.
David's own lament,
when he hears of Saul's death
by suicide, and Jonathan's
death, also, may reflect Saul's
tremendous popularity.

David ordersbe
confirmed, of course,
but I think the consensus is
that David was a real person.

There are obviously some who do
not hold that and believe this
is a much later retrojection.

But David is,
surprisingly enough,
presented as very human.

He is not a divine character,
and he is certainly not even a
highly virtuous character.

The first installment of his
story through about 2 Samuel 5,
is clearly sympathetic to David
and favorable to David.
But it is not entirely
obsequious or flattering,
which is the sort of genre that
we very often have coming out of
ancient Near Eastern texts
dealing with royalty.
This part of the story may be
an apology for David,
but it is also subtly critical
of him.
Certainly David is a hero,
but if you read between the
lines, he is also an
opportunist.
He is an outlaw.
He serves as a mercenary for
the Philistines for some


of the
time, and he can act pretty
unscrupulously.
So this isn't royal propaganda
in the simple sense,
even though to some degree it
may be an apology for David.

As we are going to see in a
minute, David will fare much,
much worse in the second
installment of his story,
and this is the story that
takes up the bulk of 2 Samuel.
So moving now into the Book of
2 Samuel and the latter part of
David's story.
Actually, no, I lied!
We are going to back up for one
minute just to talk about the
different accounts of David's
emergence--the three different
stories,
if you will,
of David's discovery,
because in the first,
Samuel, again,
secretly anoints him king of
Judah.
So it is a private affair.
He anoints him as the king of
Judah, which is just the
southern region.
He does this in Saul's lifetime.
David is the youngest of his
father's sons,
so this anointmentis another
reversal of primogeniture,
the exaltation of the lowly
that we see so often in the
Bible.
In the second account we first
meet David when he is summoned
to play music for a disturbed
Saul who,
of course, is suffering from
these irrational fits.

And then in the third account,
David is introduced as the
98-pound weakling who takes on
the legendary Goliath.
Later, after the death of Saul,
David will be anointed king in
Hebron over his own tribe,
Judah.
He then manages to either win
over or kill off the rest of
Saul's household,
anyone else who could make a
dynastic claim to the throne
based on descent from Saul,
anyone who might be a threat to
his claim to kingship in the
more northern region.

And eventually the northern
tribes will also elect him king.
And so the united kingship of
the northern parts of Israel and
the Tribe of Judah is finally
formed.
Once


his reign seems secure,
and the nation is consolidated
behind him, David then captures
Jerusalem and launches attacks
against Israel's neighbors.

And the text says that the Lord
gives him victory.
This is in 2 Samuel 8 now,
verses 6 and 14.
God gives him victory.

The biblical narrative depicts
him as the master of a huge
empire that stretches from the
desert to the sea.
There is very little evidence
that Israel actually established
lasting control over all of the
states in this region.
It's likely that David was able
to take advantage of a power
vacuum.
Egypt's hold on Canaan was
crumbling.
Again, the migration of these
"peoples of the seas" throughout
this region and other peoples
pressing in from the desert had
really upset the two major
powers in Mesopotamia and in
Egypt,
and they really had lost
control of the central region.
And so David was--and the
Israelites were able to take
advantage of this andestablish
an independent state.
And David's independent state
was probably able to dominate
the area for a little while,
ending the Philistine threat,
for example,
and possibly even collecting
tribute from some of the
surrounding or neighboring
states,
Ammon and Moab and Edom.
But it is the prophet Nathan,
who transmits God's promise to
David, a promise that will
become the basis for the faith
in the eternity of the Davidic
kingdom.
And that happens in 2 Samuel,
chapter 7:8-17,
a very important passage and
very important in the
construction of what we will see
is a royal ideology;
a royal ideology that comes to
contest some of the basic
ideology of the nation.

"Thus says the Lord of hosts."

This is Nathan speaking now,
quoting God:
"Thus says the Lord of
hosts, I took you from the
pasture, from following the
sheep,
that you should be prince over
my people Israel,
and I have been with you
wherever you went and have


father,
and he shall be my son.
When he commits iniquity,
I will chasten him with the rod
of men, with the stripes of the
sons of men;
but I will not take my
steadfast love from him,
as I took it from Saul,
whom I put away from before
you.
And your house and your kingdom
shall be made sure forever
before me;
your throne shall be
established forever.
In accordance with all these
words, and in accordance with
all this vision,
Nathan spoke to David." [RSV;
see note 3]
It's a very important passage,
and it's with this passage that
you have the idea of an eternal
and unconditional covenant
between God and the House of
David,
or the dynasty of David.
And this is now the fourth
covenant that we have met:
the Noahide covenant,
the patriarchical Covenant,
the Sinaitic Covenant,
and now the Davidic covenant.
Note that God says that David
and his descendants may be
punished for sin.

Theycertainly will be punished
for sin, but he will not take
the kingdom away from them as he
did from Saul.
So God's oath to preserve the
Davidic dynasty and,
by implication we will see
later,
next time, Jerusalem as well,
would lead eventually to a
popular belief in the
invincibility of the Holy City.
In addition,
the belief in Israel's ultimate
deliverance from enemies became
bound up with David and his
dynasty.
David was idealized by later
biblical and post-biblical
tradition, and became the
paradigmatic king.

So even when the kingdom fell
finally to the Babylonians in
586, the promise to David's
House was believed to be
eternal.
The community looked to the
future for a restoration of the
Davidic line or Davidic king,
or a messiah.
Now the Hebrew word
messiah simply means
anointed, one who is
"meshiach" is anointed
with the holy oil.
That is a reference to the fact
that the king was initiated into
office by means of holy


oil
being poured on his head.
So King David was the messiah
of God, the king anointed by or
to God.
And in the exile,
Israelites would pray for
another messiah,
meaning another king from the
House of David appointed and
anointed by God to rescue them
from enemies and reestablish
them as a nation at peace in
their land as David had done.
So the Jewish hope for a
messiah, speaking now in the
post-biblical where it is
correct to say Jewish,
the Jewish hope for a messiah
was thus always political and
national.
It involved the restoration of
the nation in its land under a
Davidic king.
We are going to talk next time
about the royal ideology that
begins to emerge and challenge
the older Sinaitic and
covenantal ideology.

But that is too much to get
into now.
So we will deal with that on
Wednesday and then move on
through the rest of the
Deuteronomistic history.
Pac-Man Part IV

Here we are at the home console/computer Pac-Man titles and we start off with a classic puzzle take on the Pac-Man franchise.

Pac-Attack: Using the same puzzle game style that was cemented into gaming history by Tetris. Pac-Attack hit various consoles in 1993 and was the first none arcade Pac-Man game released by Namco.

Simple enough premise and familiar with anyone (and who hasn’t) that has played Tetris.
The player controls and drops shapes consisting of Ghosts, Blocks, Pac-Man, and even a Fairy (if you fill the Fairy Meter) to the bottom of the play area. The objective is to not let the blocks overflow and reach the top of the play area. Trying to get Pac-Man to eat the ghosts, and make lines of blocks to shorten the


Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures was nothing like the original game it was the sequel to. namco released Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures in 1994 for the Sega Mega Drive and SNES.

Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures was a very different style and tone with the game utilizing a side scrolling, point n’ click adventure concept. The game uses a lot of certain elements and similar aesthetic from the Pac-Land arcade game and the Pac-Man animated TV series from the 80’s.

The player has no real direct control over Pac-Man himself. Pac-Man moves and interacts with the world, characters, and even the player on his own. The only directional command that can be given by the player to Pac-Man is the “Look” button, which makes Pac-Man look or turn inat any one time. When Pac-Man sees the power pill and eats it, he becomes Super Pac-Man for a few seconds and flies across the screen, eating any ghosts in his way. Sometimes the ghosts may be guarding important objects needed to progress through the story.

There was even an arcade you could visit in the game and play a version of the original Pac-Man plus a bonus game if you collected pieces of a game cartridge. The unlockable bonus game for the SNES version was Ms. Pac-Man. While the Sega Mega Drive version had a different game called Pac-Jr, which was an all new Pac-Man game and not a conversion of the unauthorized arcade game Jr. Pac-Man from Midway.

Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures was a mixed bag with


many people yearning for the classic Pac-Man style back. But others really enjoyed the unique and innovative gameplay change and style.

The next Pac-Man game would again use a new idea instead of the classic Pac-Man maze styled gameplay people knew and loved.

Pac-In-Time: Developed by Kalisto, published by Namco and released just a short time after Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures. Pac-In-Time uses a side-scrolling notion and was a rebranding of one of Kalisto’s other games: Fury of the Furries. The game was released for the SNES, Game Boy, DOS and Macintosh.

Pac-Man that has transported him back in time by the Ghost Witch. Pac-Man must fight his way back through various levels to get back to present day.

You control Pac-Man as he works his way through five different worlds,make note of the difficulty. Pac-In-Time was a fun little title and yet another new gaming genre that Pac-Man appeared in.

As we leave Pac-Man’s time travelling adventure behind, we join Pac-Man for his 20th Birthday.

Pac-Man World 20th Anniversary: Was released at the end of 1999 to coincide with…as the title suggests, Pac-Man’s 20th anniversary. Developed and published by Namco, Pac-Man World 20th Anniversary was originally released on the Playstation and eventually ported to the Game Boy Advance.

Pac-Man World 20th Anniversary was Pac-Man’s first proper 3D game and offered a pseudo-open world environment and a platform style gaming genre.

Pac-Man arrives home on his 20th birthday only to discover that his friends & family; Ms. Pac-Man, Baby Pac, Jr. Pac, Professor Pac, Chomp Chomp the dog, and Pooka have all


been kidnapped by the evil Toc-Man. Toc-Man is a giant robot Pac-Man impersonator that was created by Orson, who is trying to steal Pac-Man’s identity. Pac-Man sets off to Ghost Island and works to free his friends & family.

The game is a standard 3D platformer that celebrates and plays heavily into the history of the Pac-Man character. Every non-boss level features a maze that plays by the rules of the original Pac-Man game from 1980.
Every level is littered with pellets, fruits and ghosts, plus most of the music is modified and remixed from early entries into the series and even the original Pac-Man arcade game was available for play from the menu screen.

Pac-Man is given a handful of standard platform maneuvers, including a “butt-bounce”, which was very similargenre and also brought back Ms. Pac-Man as the star.

Professor Pac learns that the evil forces have taken control of the Enchanted Castle by using black magic. The princess has disappeared and a witch named Mesmerelda is planning on stealing all four Gems of Virtue to control the four areas of Pac-Land. These four areas each have enemies in them, and are blocked by mysterious force fields. Professor Pac creates a device called the Pactrometer, which allows Ms. Pac-Man to go to these areas and recover the gems before Mesmerelda can get them first.
However, the Professor gets sucked in a mirror by the witch, leaving Ms. Pac-Man with the Pactrometer. As she journeys through the areas, she is helped by video messages that the Professor placed in the


Madness even allowed you to play the original arcade version of Ms. Pac-Man from the main menu.

The reception for Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness was mainly positive but it was aimed at a more casual gamer.

For the next Pac-Man game, we would return to the original but with a few new twists.

Pac-Man: Adventures in Time: Was only released for Windows. Developed by Creative Asylum and published by Namco via Hasbro Interactive. The game features five worlds or time-periods, set over forty 3D mazes.

Pac-Man: Adventures in Time was a return to the classic maze Pac-Man style from the original game but now using the 3D graphics style that was popular at the time.

Under orders from the villainous Mollusc, ghosts Inky and Clyde steal a magical power pill known as theexplosive projectiles. The levels also feature a variety of shapes and architectural features such as cylindrical mazes, canopies, bridges, pyramids, and even walls that allow Pac-Man to walk vertically. Also a feature is collecting a certain number of pellets to unlock other areas of a maze.

The various time frames Pac-Man finds himself in are;
Prehistoric: This era features the Ghosts as Cavemen, Dinosaurs, Fire Monsters, and Birds.
Ancient Egypt: This era has the Ghosts as Thieves, Merchants, Jackals, Egyptian Guards, High Priests and Egyptian Gods and cobras that will strike Pac-Man.
Middle Ages: This time age features the Ghosts as Peasants, Living Mushrooms, Knights, Dragonoids, Jesters, and Skeletons. There is even a sleeping dragon that will attack once it wakes up.
Wild West: This time frame has the Ghosts as Outlaws, Conductors,


and Miners and rattlesnakes that will strike Pac-Man when they are disturbed.
Future: The final time zone features the Ghosts as Robots, Scientists and Aliens.

Pac-Man: Adventures in Time is classic Pac-Man done very well indeed. The original style is still there with a nice blend of Pac-Mania along with a few new features and ideas thrown into the mix.

Ms. Pac-Man takes the limelight in the next game…but she really shouldn’t have bothered.

Ms. Pac-Man: Quest for the Golden Maze: Was again a return to the classic Pac-Man original, but this time with Ms. Pac-Man taking the lead. Developed by Namco and published by Atari/Infogrames, again this was a PC/Windows exclusive released in 2001.

One day, Professor Pac is talking to Ms. Pac-Man. He tells her about the Golden Maze in Cleopactra,operation, these steps are maintained in the same horizontal plane. The numeral 612 denotes a rear wheel rotatably mounted in the lower area of the rear end of the specific step 61 having a riser 61a. The rear wheel 612 is supported and guided by a guide rail 614 having a predetermined angle of inclination .theta. in the region of maximum inclination of the escalator.
The numeral 631 denotes a front wheel rotatably mounted in the lower area of the front end of the specific step 63 through a shaft 631a. The front wheel 613 is supported and guided by a guide rail 633 having a predetermined angle of inclination .theta. in the region of maximum inclination of the escalator.
The numeral 66 denotes a support link rotatably connected to


the region of maximum inclination of the escalator. The numeral 82 denotes a rear wheel rotatably mounted in the lower area of the rear end of the ordinary passenger step 8. The rear wheel 82 being supported and guided by a guide rail 84 having a predetermined angle of inclination .theta. in the region of maximum inclination of the escalator.
The numeral 67 denotes a support link connected to the lower areas of the front ends of the ordinary passenger steps 7 and 8 by pins 67a and 67b, the lower area of the front end of the specific step 61 above the ordinary passenger step 7, and to the support link 66 by pin 66a. Support link 67 is slidably connected to the shaft 631'a of the frontof the riser 8a of the ordinary passenger step 8 has to be formed such that its radius with the center located at the front end A8 gradually changes.
In the escalator of such construction, only the specific steps 63 and 63' of the unit step 300 are directly driven by the drive chain 22, while the specific steps 61 and 62 are driven through the support link 66 and the ordinary passenger step is driven through the support links 66 and 67, driving the unit step 300 in its entirety.
The support link 66 serves to increase the rigidity of the large-sized step 60 and the support link 67 serves to maintain the horizontal state of the ordinary passenger steps 7 and 8. At the reversal points for the


One meaning of Christmas

Senior Member

In 1914 during World War I the opposing armies put down their weapons and joined each other to celebrate Christmas. This happened in several places along the front lines, and in at least one case the soldiers refused to go back to war and had to be replaced. If you want to read more about this, you can find partial information on the snopes site and elsewhere on the web.

The solders who first walked across the "no man's land" between the trenches and extending their hands to the enemy were risking their lives. But the result was there was peace. And the peace didn't end because arguing broke out between soldiers. In some cases the soldiers had to be replaced, and in others theyAs far as names go, they don't get much bigger than Steven Jackson. As far as positions go, they don't have a shorter shelf life than running back.

Jackson has been one of the best running backs in the game for the past nine years. He is coming up on that dreaded 30 year threshold when backs begin to wear down. Not the best time for him to have to head into free agency.

In Oakland, they could use a big, bruising back like Jackson. He would share duties with Darren McFadden which could prolong his effectiveness. He is also still a 1000 yard rusher who averages over four yards per carry so if/when McFadden gets injured, he could easily carry the load just as he has done his entire


career. A career in which he has had over 1000 yards every season but his rookie season.

Jackson also could have serious interest in coming to Oakland. His best season was in 2006 when he ran for 1528 yards under the guidance of offensive coordinator, Greg Olson who is now the offensive coordinator in Oakland. The two know each others' strengths and both could prolong each others' careers should they get back together.

Here is what Tevin Broner of Rams blog, Turf Show Times had to say:

Stephen Jackson is everything you're thinking; big, strong, physical, not fast or elusive, but he's getting up there in years. He doesn't get many touchdowns, but he's a 1,000 yard rusher for the next two years, or close to it. Also good at picking    At the onset of his disability on March 1, 2003, Collins was a forty-year-old male with less

than a high school education who had worked in the past as a janitor. Collins initially filed a claim

for disability insurance benefits on September 7, 2005. This claim was denied on February 9, 2006,

and again upon reconsideration on June 12, 2006. A hearing was held on May 23, 2007, before

Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) Frank Letchworth. The ALJ issued his decision denying Collins
disability benefits on September 10, 2007, and found the facts as follows.

       Collins had suffered a work-related knee injury, for which he required multiple surgeries,

eventually resulting in a total knee replacement in November 2005. Records from Collins’s treating

physician, Dr. Christian Christensen,


showed that by January 2006, Collins was “doing well” post-

surgery, with only minimal antalgic gait. In April 2006, only minimal effusion in the knee was

noted, and an x-ray showed no loosening and good alignment of the knee replacement. Dr.

Christensen prescribed Collins painkillers and noted almost normal alignment as of his last

appointment with Collins on July 12, 2006. Again, Dr. Christensen wrote that Collins was “doing

well.” In September 2006, Dr. Christensen’s assistant, Brad Robertson, completed an assessment

of Collins and found his physical abilities limited only by his inability to kneel or crawl on hard

surfaces.

       Collins began to see a local doctor, Jose Echeverria, in June 2006. Dr. Echeverria’s June,

July, and September 2006 examinations of Collins’s knee showed some tenderness and mild

swelling, but no                                   -2-
walk would be precluded and his ability to sit would be limited to two to four hours total, and one

hour without interruption, in an eight-hour workday.

       In addition to these physical examinations, Collins underwent several one-time examinations

while pursuing his state worker’s compensation and disability claims.            The first of these

examinations, performed by Dr. Kevin Croce on January 21, 2006, revealed that Collins favored his

right leg, was unable to squat, had difficulty walking, and had limited range of


motion in his injured

knee. Dr. Croce felt that Collins had a mild impairment with standing and walking and that he

would have difficulty with climbing, squatting, quick lateral movements, and repetitive use of his

left knee. On February 10, 2007, during an examination by Dr. Daniel Stewart, Collins used a left

knee brace and cane and a physical examination revealed his mild difficulty ascending and

descending the examination table. Finally, Dr. Robert Hoskins examined Collins on March 15,

2007, at the request of Collins’s attorney. Dr. Hoskins’s examination showed bilateral knee crepitus,

decreased range of motion of the injured knee, swelling, and a slow, limping gait.

       In addition to his physical infirmities, Collins complained of depression and poor reading

ability. The record showed that he had received treatment atthe Cumberland River Comprehensive

Care Center (“CRCCC”) since 2006 for a mood disorder. As early as February 2006, his Global

Assessment of Functioning was listed at 65. Collins reported that he had been taking psychotropic

medications for his symptoms. During his last reported visit to CRCCC in September 2006, Collins

reported decreased depression and improved sleep. The staff psychiatrist, Dr. Raza, noted that

Collins was oriented and alert and that his mood was appropriate. Agency psychiatrist Dr. Jeanne

Bennett consultatively examined Collins on April 23, 2006. Collins reported that he had repeated


2006, Collins

had experienced significant medical improvement such that he was no longer disabled. Collins had

the residual functional capacity to perform light work with certain conditions such as alternating

between sitting and standing every 30 minutes. The ALJ found that although Collins experienced

some residual limitations due to his total knee replacement, he was not totally disabled by his

impairment since June 12, 2006. Specifically, the ALJ relied on Dr. Christensen’s assessment of

Collins as “doing well”and exhibiting normal gait, improved range of motion, and near normal

alignment of his knee by July and September 2006. He discounted Dr. Echeverria’s opinions

because they were “rendered only a few days after the claimant presented for treatment with antalgic

gait and walking with a cane because he had fallen at home a few days prior.” Moreover, the ALJ

believeda significant number of jobs

existed in the national economy that he was capable of performing and he was not disabled after July

12, 2006. After an unsuccessful administrative appeal, Collins filed suit in federal district court,

arguing that the ALJ erred in relying on the 2006 report by Dr. Christensen and the ALJ improperly

relied on the opinions of Drs. Bennett and Freudenberger in assessing Collins’s mental capacities.

On January 26, 2009, the district court granted the Commissioner’s motion for summary judgment

and affirmed the denial of benefits. Collins timely appealed.


President Obama Signs Mississippi Disaster Declaration

The President today declared a major disaster exists in the State of Mississippi and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the area affected by Hurricane Isaac beginning on August 26, 2012, and continuing.Arsenal have been left distinctly unimpressed to learn Jack Wilshere has been spotted at the scene of an altercation between two groups of men in the small hours of Sunday morning and are seeking clarification from the player as to what occurred at the venue close to London’s Leicester Square.

Footage obtained by the Daily Mirror appears to show Wilshere, who is back in full training after almost nine months out with a broken leg, being questioned by police officers while people, apparently his friends, attempt to obscure the 24-year-old from the view of onlookers filming on their mobile telephones. A police spokesman confirmed later that officers patrolling the area had been alerted to an altercation, with one man claiming he had been assaulted although he did not require


hospital treatment and no arrests were made.

Police investigate Twitter threats against Jamie Vardy's daughter Read more

While Wilshere was not in breach of any club rules by being out on Saturday night, there is a sense of disappointment at Arsenal that the player has put himself in a potentially awkward situation just as optimism was growing that he may be nearing a return to the first-team squad.

The midfielder broke his left fibula on the eve of the side’s victory against Chelsea in the Community Shield last August and underwent surgery in mid-September. He had envisaged returning in mid-March but is now expected to play in the under-21s match against Newcastle United at the Emirates Stadium on Friday.

Roy Hodgson has already indicated a desire to take the player, capped 24TGSPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

The player is no stranger to controversy, having been arrested and, eventually, cautioned for his part in a fight outside a nightclub six years ago. In 2011 he accepted a police warning for attempting to spit on a taxi driver, wearing a Tottenham Hotspur hat, who had refused to take him home apparently because he was too drunk. Wenger has regularly called on the midfielder to “master his life” after he was photographed on three separate occasions between 2013 and 2015 smoking in public.

In relation to the events at the weekend, a Scotland Yard spokesman said: “At 2.15am on Sunday 3 April, police patrolling Coventry Street became aware of two groups of males involved in an altercation. Officers intervened and one man claimed he was assaulted. He did


Apple recently confirmed that Siri is coming to Apple Music on the new Apple TV at the beginning of next year, but iDownloadBlog has discovered the virtual assistant can now be used for certain music-related commands on the latest tvOS 9.1 beta ahead of time.

Jeff Benjamin shared a video demo of Siri being used to search for songs, albums, artists and playlists on Apple Music from the Home screen on the new Apple TV, without needing to open the Apple Music app. Siri can also be used to play and pause Beats 1 radio.

MacRumors was able to replicate this functionality on the new Apple TV running tvOS 9.1 beta in the United States, but Siri did not always handle requests properly. Siri was also unable to complete music-relatedjustice shall be meted out to all war criminals, including those who have visited cruelties upon our prisoners....

Point Twelve: | The occupying forces of the Allies shall be withdrawn from Japan as soon as these objectives have been accomplished and there has been established in accordance with the freely expressed will of the Japanese people a peacefully inclined and responsible government.

Point Thirteen: | We call upon the Government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurance of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction.

"Prompt and utter destruction" had little meaning at this point to the men in Tokyo whose nation was being destroyed daily by fire raids and


Below they could see only a pall of smoke in the Urakami Valley. The center of the city seemed undamaged. Around the periphery of the blast they saw countless fires on the slopes of the hills.

Pappy Dehart sat in the tail of _Bock's Car_ , photographing the explosion with a movie camera given him by Dr. Alvarez. His excitement at what he was witnessing made him almost incoherent. As he focused on the scene, two aftereffects of the blast threatened the lives of the fliers.

The first was a violent series of shock waves. As Sweeney turned to come back over the city to verify the bomb's point of detonation, he and Albury saw the waves coming through the air like ripples on a pond. When they hit, Commanderthis band of unhappy men and talk of their plans for a _coup d'état_.

Anami was in an acutely difficult position. The men under him demanded that he defend what was left of the nation. Those above him accused him of trying to destroy any chance for peace and a future for the nation. He could not please both sides in the struggle. Though Anami was against unconditional peace, he was also against insurrection. Knowing that his army might erupt under him at any moment, he was trying to lull the junior officers into inaction while he worked out the best possible peace terms. In that way he could prevent his impetuous aides from disrupting negotiations. Anami hoped that his course of action would avoid bloodshed in the next


horrified as at least six girls were forcibly thrown to the sidewalks, held down and repeatedly raped. No one moved to their aid. Policemen watching the assaults looked the other way, afraid to confront the liquor-sodden servicemen. Windows were smashed in the downtown shopping area, liquor stores were looted clean. A pedestrian walking down a side street was hit on the head by a basketful of bottles loosed from an upper-story window, and died of a fractured skull. Well into the morning hours, San Francisco continued in the grip of rioters who knew no authority. During the nightlong celebration of peace in that city, twelve people died.

In Manila, Filipinos groped about in the ruins of their once beautiful city. Laid waste only months before by the savage block-by-blocktwelve P-38's of the American Air Force. The two bombers were slightly ahead, the twelve fighters around, above and below. They performed acrobatics, diving past the white Bettys which lumbered along in the middle of this concentration of protective power. The threat from the kamikazes was over.

One hour and fifteen minutes later, the island of Ie Shima appeared dead ahead. A huge white cross marked the runway. The Bettys circled over the base and proceeded into the landing pattern. American aircraft were massed below, and for a brief moment, Captain Ohmae, in the lead plane, wondered if perhaps his pilot would forget himself and dive straight into them. But his fears were allayed as he heard the pilot's radio request for landing instructions. The pilot used the call


baggage. It had been removed from the list of instructions they carried. Possibly the Americans had somehow learned of the objections Kawabe's group voiced in their private discussions.

After four hours of sleep, the Japanese were ushered to a breakfast of bacon and eggs and then taken to the City Hall for a last briefing. The August 28 deadline stayed as it was. Kawabe did not bother to argue any more.

Just before adjournment, General Sutherland handed Kawabe the draft of a surrender proclamation to be issued in the name of the Emperor. Prepared in Washington, it was now read aloud by an interpreter. Almost immediately members of the Japanese delegation tensed visibly. Kawabe's chin even began to quiver.

To some Americans in the room who were familiar with the Japaneseof the Caucasus Mountains where they captured the oil center of Maikop, only to find it burned to the ground by retreating Russians. Hitler then urged his commanders on toward Grozny, Batum, and Baku. Along the way, they acquired new allies: Moslems, Circassians, natives who rejected Communist rule. Still the Germans never trapped a large body of the Red Army. By September, with supply lines sluggish, their march toward the chief oil centers slowed. When Army Group A's commander, Marshal List, recommended regrouping, Hitler went into a tirade and threatened to fire him.

In the daily staff meetings with his "conscience," the stubborn Gen. Franz Halder, Hitler bridled under repeated warnings about weak flanks and poor communications both at Stalingrad and in the Caucasus. He began to think about


how to take cover in the front lines, how to track the enemy through the telescopic sight and, most importantly, how to wait for hours before firing a single shot that killed.

During her training as a sniper, she went out on a special mission ordered by 284th Division Headquarters after captured prisoners had pinpointed a German headquarters located in a building between the Stalingradski Flying School and the Red October Plant. Tania and five men were assigned to dynamite it.

Late at night they passed through Russian outposts and crawled into enemy territory. When they heard an occasional voice, or flares burst overhead, they froze. An hour later, they found their target in a half-destroyed apartment house with one entire wall missing.

The patrol tiptoed up an intact stairwell whilecrumpled to the bottom of the shelter. That night Slotta went to the aid station and waited beside his friend for some time. But Stefan died without saying another word.

On the eastern side of the _Kessel_ , at the Barrikady plant in Stalingrad, Maj. Eugen Rettenmaier was faced with a renewed tempo in the fighting.

The commissar's house and houses 78 and 83 erupted as Red Army soldiers infiltrated them at night and fought for control of the wrecked buildings. Grenades exploded in brief flashes in the pitch-black rooms. In the morning, half-naked bodies littered the stairwells and cellars.

Major Rettenmaier sent his officers in piecemeal to hold these battered houses behind the Barrikady. They generally lasted for three days before they, too, were wounded or dead.

His reinforcements, mostly young


though his load was limited to only a few shells, he went up the hill almost every day.

By late January, Russian planes had begun to stalk individual trucks and men, and they finally found Deifel as he drove back to the ammunition dump outside the city. A bomb landed twenty feet away; shrapnel sprayed the vehicle and tore into his legs. He fell out of the cab and crawled into a house, where he pulled off his pants and tried to staunch the flow of blood. Another bomb exploded and the walls fell out, so he ran to a nearby trench, hid until dark, then stole back to the truck. By some miracle the engine started on the first try and heavy shellfire followed him down the roadthe image production processing section, controls an operation state of the communication processing section and an operation state of the image production processing section.
Data (packet) which are transmitted from a host computer to a network such as a LAN are received by the communication processing section. Based on a protocol hierarchy and the like, the communication processing section configures print data from the received data. The image production processing section interprets the data supplied from the communication processing section, and produces image data. The print processing section controls the drive of the print engine on the basis of the image data, thereby performing printing.
The communication processing section and the image production processing section use computer resources such as a memory and a CPU. Typically, at least the communication


the transfer amount of data which are supplied from the communication processing section to the image production processing section. According to this configuration, it is possible to control the operation states of the communication processing section and the image production processing section.
The image production processing section is activated by occurrence of an event of a data entry from the communication processing section. When the transfer amount of data which are supplied from the communication processing section to the image production processing section is controlled, therefore, the communication processing section and the image production processing section are enabled to suitably operate.
When the data receiving rate is lower than the data processing rate, the operation state controlling section may decrease the data transfer amount, and, when the data receiving ratenetwork; an image production task, having a lower priority than the communication task, of interpreting the data supplied from the communication task, and producing image data; and a print processing section which controls a drive of a print engine on the basis of the image data supplied from the image production task, a single central processing unit (CPU) switchably executing the communication task and the image production task, wherein, in accordance with a rate of receiving data which are supplied from the network to the communication task and a data processing rate in the image production task, an operation state of the image production task is controlled.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a network printing method in which a communication task of receiving


data via a network, an image production task of interpreting the data supplied from the communication task, and producing image data, and a print task of performing printing on the basis of the image data supplied from the image production task are switchably executed a single central processing unit (CPU), a priority for acquiring execution privilege in the processing unit is higher in a sequence of the print task, the communication task, and the image production task, and the method comprises steps of: in accordance with a rate of receiving data which are supplied from the network to the communication task and a data processing rate in the image production processing task, determining a size of a memory block for storing data supplied to the image production task,humanitarian crisis. Because this war has never been authorized by Congress, the War Powers Resolution guarantees that this bill will get a vote on the Senate floor within weeks.

At every major juncture, the war has been enabled by Washington. U.S. pilots are refeuling U.S.-made bombers as they drop U.S.-made bombs on Yemeni men, women, and children, and the the hospitals, water sanitation facilities and other civilian infrastructure that they depend on. As the coalition continues to bomb Yemeni hospitals, schools, and neighborhoods, it is also blocking food, fuel, and other essential imports from getting into Yemen.

Under this legislation, no longer would U.S. pilots serve as gas station attendants in the sky to refuel Saudi and UAE bombers that rein down terror on Yemeni men, women, and children.

Take more


actions:

Ask your senators to end the illegal U.S. War in Yemen

Will you write a letter to the editor today urging your senators to withdraw support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen?

“Under this legislation, no longer would U.S. pilots serve as gas station attendants in the sky to refuel Saudi and UAE bombers that rein down terror on Yemeni men, women and children,” said Kate Gould, of the anti-war advocacy group Friends Committee on National Legislation.

"Intelligence is, of course, supposed to be used to make a decision," Kate Gould, the Legislative Director for Middle East Policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation told Salon. "Not to market political propaganda, and that's what we're seeing on display here."

Kate Gould is FCNL's Legislative Director for Middle East Policy. Kate isclass and received outstanding ratings early in his career. In 1991, upon transferring to the gang unit, Mr. Nolan reported what he believed to be excessive use of force by fellow officers. As an apparent consequence, Mr. Nolan experienced strained relations with other members of the gang unit, and he voluntarily returned to patrol duty in 1992.
Five months later, after an internal affairs investigation failed to substantiate any misconduct on the part of the other officers, disciplinary charges were brought against Mr. Nolan for violation of department rules. The charges included unbecoming conduct, unsatisfactory performance, misuse of sick time, and improper handling of evidence. Mr. Nolan was fired, and he took the case to arbitration. The arbitrator ordered him reinstated, but suspended for five days.
Shortly after the arbitration,


Anaheim adopted the decision, and Mr. Nolan filed this action, seeking a writ of mandamus to compel the city to grant him disability retirement.
The superior court found that Mr. Nolan was permanently incapacitated for the performance of his duties as a police officer for Anaheim. The court based its finding on the testimony of a psychologist retained by Mr. Nolan, concurred in by a psychiatrist retained by the city's insurance carrier, that he was not emotionally and mentally able to work as a police officer due to his fear for his personal safety and the retaliation he had already experienced.[2] The court further found that Mr. Nolan's fear of retaliation was based, in part, on the likelihood that he could not count on fellow officers for backup induties in the state service and is eligible to retire for disability, the board shall immediately retire him or her for disability, unless the member is qualified to be retired for service and applies therefor prior to the effective date of his or her retirement for disability or within 30 days after the member is notified of his or her eligibility for retirement on account of disability, in which event the board shall retire the member for service."
Again, the question presented is what, for the purposes of section 21156, is meant by "state service"?
Mr. Nolan contends that for a police officer, i.e., "a local safety member," to demonstrate he or she is "incapacitated physically or mentally for the performance of his or her duties in the state service,"


the officer need only show an incapacity to continue functioning in "the contracting agency employing the member."
We disagree. As the Court of Appeal observed, section 21156 does not refer to the employee's last employing department; it refers to state service. Section 20069 defines "state service" as "service rendered as an . . . officer of the state, the university, a school employer, or a contracting agency, for compensation. . . ." When sections 21156 and 20069 are read together, it becomes clear that "state service," for the purposes of section 21156, means all forms of public agency service *862 that render an employee eligible for the benefits of section 21156. Therefore, in order for Mr. Nolan to qualify for disability retirement under section 21156, he will not onlyprecedent, as well as court decisional law, and sketches a new and unworkable test of disability. Therefore, I cannot and do not join the majority.

I.
After Steven Nolan graduated from the sheriff's academy at the top of his class, the City of Anaheim hired him in 1984. In 1991, he joined the gang investigative unit, but after observing instances of what he believed to be excessive force by fellow officers, in 1992 he sought and received a transfer back to patrol duty. When a department investigation failed to substantiate his allegations of misconduct by the gang unit officers, Nolan himself was charged with and found to have violated certain department rules, leading to his dismissal in 1993.
In August 1994, an arbitrator reversed the dismissal and ordered Nolan's reinstatement. Soon


to have seen Nolan repeatedly, concluded after the last interview that Nolan was suffering from anxiety disorder and could not return as a police officer with the City of Anaheim, or "with any other municipality in Southern California," but might be able to be a police officer in a distant state such as Illinois where "his problems with the City of Anaheim" were unlikely to catch up with him. Dr. Samuel Dey was of the view that Nolan was suffering from depression and as a result "his ability to function in the work setting would be significantly impaired." In the opinion of Dr. Melvin Schwartz, Nolan did "not have a psychiatric injury," although his fear of personal harm were he to return to work was "a realistic concern."show to the satisfaction of the [PERS Board of Administration], or in the case of a local safety member, other than a school safety member, the governing body of the contracting agency employing the member, that the member is incapacitated physically or mentally for the performance of his or her duties in the state service and is eligible to retire for disability, the board shall immediately retire him or her for disability." (§ 21156, italics added.) In plain language, the statute speaks not of incapacity for a job in statewide public service, but more narrowly of incapacity to perform the employee's "duties in the state service," that is, duties the employee performs for a particular public employer. This means that state service, as applied to an employee of


 return cls.get_all().filter(cls.user_id == user_id).fetch()

    @classmethod
    def get_all_users_with_score_above_minimum_for_category(
            cls, score_category):
        """Gets all instances which have score above the
        MINIMUM_SCORE_REQUIRED_TO_REVIEW threshold for the given category.

        Args:
            score_category: str. The category being queried.

        Returns:
            list(UserContributionsScoringModel). All instances for the given
            category with scores above MINIMUM_SCORE_REQUIRED_TO_REVIEW.
       Native Smithvillian Brenda Greene Mitchell will be screening her first film as a director, award-winning "Honky Tonk Heaven: The Legend of the Broken Spoke," Friday night in Smithville as a kick-off to Saturday’s Texas Photo Festival. The documentary will also run Saturday afternoon.

Mitchell was born in Smithville in 1954 and raised in town alongside her three sisters, known collectively as "The Greene girls."

"Growing up in the 1960s and 70s here was magical," Mitchell remembered. "Weekends, Friday night picture show downtown, Saturday nights dancing."

Though she now lives in Austin, she returns to her Smithville home "as often as I can," still calling it her hometown. She said that it took moving away from Smithville to really appreciate the "beautiful, simple, friendly town."

Like most who grow up in Smithville, Mitchell


spent her teenage years dancing the night away to countless polkas and waltzes at Czech festivals at Central Texas dance halls most Saturday nights, including at the American Legion, Cistern, Kovar, Swiss Alp and La Grange.

While in college at San Marcos’ then-Southwest Texas State University, Mitchell discovered the infamous Broken Spoke dance hall in Austin.

Years later, her 50th birthday party was held there. While looking out over the dance floor, the thought hit her that someone should document the history of the place, never thinking that it would be her.

"I don’t have a film background at all," Mitchell said. "My two sons are young filmmakers. I just started helping them out on the set. I came into film making through the back door."

Nine years later, Mitchell was drivingin Austin," she said.

According to a press release, the documentary "holds a universal story about what it takes to maintain a family business in our increasingly corporate-driven society. With over 50 years under its Austin belt buckle, ‘the last of the true Texas dance halls’ has endured rapid urban growth and skyrocketing rents due to the passion and hard work of its charismatic, tenacious owners, James and Annetta White."

Interviews in the film include iconic musicians Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Dale Watson, James Hand, Jesse Dayton, the Waco Brothers and Alvin Crow.

The documentary was Audience Award Winner at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival with Mitchell and, coming into the project late to edit and co-direct, Sam Wainwright Douglas. Mitchell is the president of Wild Blue Yonder Films.

Friday’s screening


MH-240 Pedro - Pedro [2006 Edition]Originally released in Europe on Manchester's Melodic Records, Pedro's self-titled full-length debut has garnered universal critical praise, including nods from a number of his production peers. The album is the sound of an artist finding his voice through the distillation of disparate musical forms. Textures of jazz, folk, and rock sit upon a bed of hip-hop infused beats supplemented with samples chopped and layered as musical instruments. The compositions range from simple piano embellished with rhythm generating effects to complex collages filled with live synths swirling over layers of heavy drum programming. The CD version of the album contains the EP, Fear & Resilience (which features remixes by Danger Mouse, Four Tet, Prefuse 73, and others) as a bonus CD.

Tracklist

01. Intro

02. Fear &feel for the rest of the album. Unexpectedly, Pedro has an up and down presentation to it, giving it an almost bipolar feel. Many of the songs vary greatly in tempo and key, giving Pedro a pervading sense of inconsistency. To his credit, Rutledge is a versatile musician. Too often, though, Pedro is difficult to settle into because of its unexpected direction and presentation. It is not uncommon for one track to emote a completely different feeling than the following track. So on the whole, Pedro may have benefited from a reordering of sorts. That being said, these pieces show that Rutledge knows a thing or two about music sequencing programs. Oftentimes, he combines varying layers of melodies with sharp and cut-up drum lines. One of the benefits


of working with computer music is a virtually unlimited access to various sounds. Rutledge always manages to put the right ones together, using several combinations of drum kits and synthesized instrumentation. The result is something right in between Aphex Twin's Druqs and Four Tet's Rounds, and the albums certainly influenced Rutledge's work on Pedro. The Pedro package also includes an entire EP of remixes of the track "Fear and Resilience." These seven remixes are extremely varied, and it's often difficult to imagine that they have originated from the same track. In the end, it is a welcome addition to the package, but does not contain much of the artistry of the first disc. Overall, the qualities of the tracks on Pedro outweigh any inconsistencies that the package has.and less clothing than Lara Croft while playing a miniatures-based World War I air combat game with intense concentration. The effect was not unlike the moment I got my first electric guitar, learned to bash out three chords and the truth, and then heard Van Halen's "Eruption" for the first time. In both cases, I immediately realized: I'm never going to compete with that.

Gencon

56,614 people attended this year's Gencon, making it the largest gaming convention in the world. 14,000 separate events were held across the four days of the show. The official program guide, listing every single one of these events, was 354 pages long.

This remarkable variety meant that, at any given time, you could join:

Hundreds of role-playing adventurers from the Pathfinder Society, "a legendary league of explorers,


then looks at the hit points and applies the modifiers belonging to your character and weapon choice. It is, essentially, a game of dungeon shuffleboard—fun, but a little odd.

During our two-hour dungeon crawl, my party of nine men and one woman journeyed deep into the heart of the snake god's temple. Everything was going swell—monsters were dispatched, puzzles were defeated, treasure was acquired—until the second-to-last room. As our party entered, a silk screen lit up with the silhouette of a snake-headed woman. The dungeonmaster said nothing, so our party stood and watched, waiting for whatever monster was about to appear so we could get to the real business of placing crossbow bolts into our shuffleboard cradles.

Unfortunately, when the woman appeared from behind the screen, the dungeonmaster announced thatthe dungeonmaster wrote TPK—Total Party Kill—in large black letters on our party sheet.

And with that, True Dungeon—fun, frustrating, and unique—was over.

While the mechanics had been new, the basic play element—rogues, dungeons, mini-games, enchanters, dragons, and hit points—were not. This was bog-standard, Tolkien-ripoff storytelling dressed up with foam pillars and dark curtains. In the end, True Dungeon had not out-nerded me. In search of something truly novel, I turned my attention to a Gencon-recommended program in the main ballroom that evening.

It was labelled "nerd burlesque." My only thought was: it can't be. But it was.

Take off that trench coat!

Sitting in a darkened ballroom at 10pm, moments before a Glitter Guild stage show was about to begin, I figured I was missing some kind of joke here. Surely 500 people


had not gathered to watch a woman dancing round a stripper pole while wearing the Slave Leia bikini from Return of the Jedi, right?

Reader, they had not—but only because Slave Leia and her bikini had been featured at the Gencon burlesque last year.

This time around, the event opened with a different sexy Star War character: Oola, the Twi'lek dancer otherwise known as "the woman with the giant head tentacles" from Jabba the Hutt's palace. As the music began, a dancer emerged from the wings in a hooded robe, removing it to reveal authentic headgear above a purple dress. The purple dress didn't last much longer than Oola did in the rancor pit, however; it was soon stripped off to reveal the mesh outfit worn in the film. Thenit was off with the mesh—and the act ended with an LED blazing out from whatever the word is for Twi'lek genitalia.

This hilarious—and somewhat unnerving—display was quickly followed by a woman in a red trench coat doing unspeakable things to my fond memories of Carmen Sandiego. (Let's just stipulate that the original Carmen Sandiego probably wore more under that coat than red panties and blue pasties.)

Next up, as the punk stylings of The Offspring song "Come Out and Play" blasted through the ballroom, a woman swayed onto the stage... dressed as a giant die. She was followed by a man from St. Louis who quickly stripped down to a salmon-colored thong and proceeded to writhe with abandon up a portable metal pole, from which he extended himself horizontally,


supported only by his legs squeezing the pole in a death grip.

The pièce de résistance of the evening, however, had to be the moment in which a man dressed as the cop from The Walking Dead crooned a zombie-slaying song into the microphone while wearing nothing but an assless black codpiece adorned with a shiny gold star—while 10 zombie backup dancers shambled about behind him.

This was just bizarre. Though the show continued, I had done my journalistic duty and decided that sleep was more important than watching a woman in a green dress strip down in the presence of a balloons-for-tentacles Cthulhu. I headed back to my hotel and dreamed dark dreams.to the patient""s body. The sentinel lymph node can then be accessed with a cannula having an RF electrode disposed on a distal end of the cannula by activating the RF electrode to ablate tissue while passing the cannula into the patient""s body until the distal end of the cannula is disposed adjacent the sentinel lymph node. Thus, access to a patient""s sentinel lymph node corresponding to a lesion site is achieved with minimal trauma to the patient, requiring only a hypodermic injection at the lesion site and a channel through the patient""s tissue from the outside surface of the skin to the sentinel node, the channel being no larger than the outside dimension of the cannula.
Once the distal end of the cannula is positioned adjacent the sentinel


A soldier in a combat zone throwing gang signs FBI The FBI has released a new gang assessment announcing that there are 1.4 million gang members in the US, a 40 percent increase since 2009, and that many of these members are getting inside the military (via Stars and Stripes).

The report says the military has seen members from 53 gangs and 100 regions in the U.S. enlist in every branch of the armed forces. Members of every major street gang, some prison gangs, and outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs) have been reported on both U.S. and international military installations.

From the report:

Through transfers and deployments, military-affiliated gang members expand their culture and operations to new regions nationwide and worldwide, undermining security and law enforcement efforts to combat crime. Gang memberswith military training pose a unique threat to law enforcement personnel because of their distinctive weapons and combat training skills and their ability to transfer these skills to fellow gang members.

The report notes that while gang members have been reported in every branch of service, they are concentrated in the U.S. Army, Army Reserves, and the Army National Guard.

Many street gang members join the military to escape the gang lifestyle or as an alternative to incarceration, but often revert back to their gang associations once they encounter other gang members in the military. Other gangs target the U.S. military and defense systems to expand their territory, facilitate criminal activity such as weapons and drug trafficking, or to receive weapons and combat training that they may transfer back to


film pattern. In recent years, particularly, the transmittance of the semitranslucent film tends to be increased from the vicinity of 6% which is a conventional mainstream to the vicinity of 9%, and furthermore, to the vicinity of 15%. In that case, the light intensity of the side lobe light is increased so that an influence thereof cannot be disregarded. Under the present circumstances, therefore, there has been increased the necessity of a halftone type phase shift mask having a structure in which at least a phase shift effect over a semitranslucent film pattern in a transfer region is not influenced and a shielding film pattern is formed in a position in which the light intensity of the side lobe light is reduced. Further, when a pattern transfer isexhibit an effective reflection preventing function for an exposed light obtained after the change.
It is ideal that the shielding film is to be designed under the condition to satisfy the following equation in order to effectively prevent a reflection:nd=λ/4wherein λ represents a wavelength of an exposed light, n represents a refractive index of a film material at the wavelength λ, and d represents a thickness of the film. In the design of the shielding film, thus, it is very significant that the thickness of the film also has a value in the composition of the film material in addition to the selection of the same composition. In other words, the reflecting characteristic of the shielding film is determined by relating various elements such as the composition and the


ROBINS, GEORGE HENRY (1778–1847), auctioneer, son of Henry Robins, an auctioneer in the Great Piazza, Covent Garden, who died on 15 Sept. 1821, aged 68, was born in London in 1778. Before attaining the age of nineteen he was unexpectedly called on to officiate for his father at a sale in Yorkshire, and thenceforth, during a period of fifty years, conducted a large business. The tact with which every advantage connected with the property he had to describe was seized upon and turned to profit in his glowing descriptions, and his ready wit and repartee in the rostrum, caused him to be one of the most successful and persuasive advocates in seducing his auditors to bid freely that ever appeared at the auction mart. He wrote his ownadvertisements, and, high-flown and fantastic as they were, in no instance was a purchase repudiated on the ground of misdirection. Among his more remarkable sales was that of the twenty-seven years' lease of the Olympic Theatre, for the executors of Mr. Scott, when, on 20 June 1840, by his good management the price was run up from 3,500l. to 5,850l. In 1842 he was commissioned by the Earl of Waldegrave to dispose of the contents of Strawberry Hill, including the valuable collections made by Horace Walpole. This sale, which attracted buyers from all parts of the world, commenced on 23 April 1842, and occupied twenty-four days, the proceeds being 29,615l. 8s. 9d.

Perhaps no man in his station was ever more courted by his superiors; they profited by his


advice, and were amused by his eccentricities. In 1813 he gave a dinner to Lord Byron, Lord Kinnaird, Douglas Kinnaird, Sheridan, Colman, John Kemble, and other eminent men (Moore, Life of Byron, 1847, pp. 182, 282). In conjunction with Mr. Calcraft, he in 1817 and 1818 exposed the bad management of the sub-committee of Drury Lane Theatre, and became the chief means of obtaining a new arrangement by which the house was released from debt; at a later period his exertions were instrumental in resuscitating the fortunes of Covent Garden. He was a great advocate of the claims of comedians and their families to public sympathy; for John Emery's wife and children he in 1822 obtained a competency, and Mrs. Bland and others were indebted to him forexertions in their behalf.

Out of an income reputed to exceed 12,000l. a year, he devoted large sums to charity; once, at Margate, he was assisting the funds of the Sea Bathing Infirmary by holding a plate for contributions outside the church gate, when he, with others, was taken into custody as a rogue and a vagabond for begging, and was compelled to attend the Dover sessions, where, however, no evidence was offered. In an action which he instituted against the magistrates of Margate at the Maidstone assizes he obtained 50l. damages. A tablet in the wall of the institution at Margate records his victory. In a work entitled ‘D'Horsay, or the Follies of the Day, by a Man of Fashion’ [i.e. John Mills], Robins is introduced under the


name of Mr. George Bobbins, and there is a portrait of him standing in his rostrum in his sale-room (D'Horsay, 1844, pp. 46–52). Shortly before his death he was offered two thousand guineas and all his expenses to go to the United States of America to dispose of a valuable property in New York. Robins died at Regency House, King's Road, Brighton, on 8 Feb. 1847, and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery. He left to his widow and children 140,000l., besides extensive real property. He married, first, on 17 Sept. 1800, Isabella Cates, who died at Turnham Green on 19 Dec. 1828; and, secondly, on 13 Aug. 1831, Miss Marian Losack. Among other children he left three sons: George Augustus, rector of Eccleston, Cheshire; Arthur, rector ofCheval Blanc Randheli, Maldives is made up of 5 islands: the main island, the water villa island, the spa island, the tennis court island, and the private island. There are approximately 45 villas in total, and each of them are spaced out nicely to guarantee a sense of privacy.

Airport LoungeUpon arrival of the Maldives airport, we were leaded to the seaplane private lounge. The decor at the lounge aligns well with the overall design of the resort. It is very modern and refreshing with the pop of yellow. All the decor is thoroughly thought out according to their color theme and palettes. They definitely spent a lot of time trying to create the best experiences for their guests; there were also many LV fashion magazines for those who


is actually quite large in size, and guests can also spend sometime at the beach. They use Guerlain beauty products for spa treatment, and there are also non-scented and other type of skin care for guests with skin sensitivity.

Food & DiningThere are 6 dining options including room service to choose from, please see below.

Le 1947, french fine dining, which I highly recommend trying when visiting Cheval Blanc. It is my favorite, also the most popular restaurant here.It is only available on certain dates of the week for dinner, so reservations are highly recommended before arrival.

The White, breakfast and all day international dining, it is also connected to the White Bar and the main public pool at the resort.

The Diptyque, asian fusion food, dinner only. Only opens certain dayWho Will Speak for the Tatars?

Backlash against Muslim minorities is one of the largest human rights concerns of the 21th century. The culture and religion of the Uighur Muslim minority in China, a population of about 11 million mostly living in the country’s northwest, have been brutally suppressed by Beijing. An estimated million Uighurs have been forced into so-called reeducation camps. In Myanmar, the Rohingya Muslim minority was violently forced across the border into Bangladesh in 2017 as they fled burning villages, rape, and slaughter. Some 750,000 Rohingya have been forced from their homes.

But while both of these groups have garnered deserved headlines, there is yet another Muslim minority facing ethnic cleansing whose plight has not received nearly the attention it deserves: the Crimean Tatars.

In the five years


Sea of Azov. It is no wonder the largely landlocked northern region of Russia has eyed the region hungrily for centuries.

Problems began in the early 1770s when Catherine the Great made a play to seize control of Crimea, which was then a part of the Ottoman Empire. (It was known as the Crimean Khanate.) Catherine invaded, gained access to key ports, and began a process of political reorganization, which included replacing the ruling Tatar khan with a Russian governor and parceling out land to Russian officials and nobility. Catherine encouraged Russian relocation from the interior to the peninsula, which was then made up of more than a quarter of a million Tatars. The Muslim group made up nearly 85 percent of the population. In 1783, Russia formally annexedCrimea. That annexation marked the first wave of Tatar emigration; initially 8,000 to 10,000 Tatars, mostly from the nobility, left for elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire.

In 1853, when Russia set out to expand its empire beyond Crimea into the Danube, the Ottoman Turks deployed a military force to stop them. Over the next two years, Britain, France, and Sardinia joined in what became known as the Crimean War (the same one that made Florence Nightingale a legend). Russia lost— and then sought vengeance on the Tatar population, which the tsarist regime accused of abetting the Turks. They imposed the use of Russian language on the population and replaced Tatar street and place names with Russian ones. As Alan W. Fisher notes in his book The Crimean Tatars, “During


this period, the population of the Crimea dropped from an estimated 275,000 in 1850, to 194,000 in 1860.” Those Tatars who remained did so reluctantly. They did not trust their Russian rulers or compatriots, who did not hide their ambition to strengthen and extend their reach.

A century later, another Russian ruler turned his attention to Crimea. As supreme leader of the Soviet Communist Party, Joseph Stalin began eliminating the Tatar intelligentsia. This intelligentsia had been working on reviving Tatar language, culture, and self-determination. In 1927, Stalin called them “bourgeois nationalists,” rounded up as many as 40,000 Tatars, and sent them to Siberian labor camps.

That was just the beginning. Seventy-five years ago this month, on May 18, 1944, Stalin, eager to gain control over Crimean ports as well asto seek revenge on Tatars who sided with Germany, ordered the brutal purging of nearly a quarter of a million Tatars from their homes. (Convinced that the Germans could and would help liberate the Tatars, several thousand had allegedly collaborated with the Nazis to fight the Red Army on the Eastern Front.) Stalin then began a more thorough ethnic cleansing of the Tatars, deporting them to the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan. Half died on the journey from disease and starvation, by some estimates. Several thousand Tatars managed to escape to Turkey and into Europe. Some, like my family, ended up in the United States.

None were allowed to return until 1989, when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev recognized the Crimean Tatars as a repressed people who were illegally deported.


By then Crimea had spent half a century as part of Ukraine. In 1954, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had bequeathed the peninsula to Ukraine to mark the 300th anniversary of Ukraine’s merger with the Russian Empire.

Tatars began to return to Crimea after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The several thousand who did found that their homeland had been entirely repopulated by Russians. Still, committed to rebuilding and reviving Crimea’s Tatar heritage, they set up their own political body, the Mejlis. The Mejlis acted as a sort of embassy for the Tatars as well as a body that worked to reinstate Crimean Tatar rights and self-determination.

In February 2014, Russia invaded Crimea, illegally annexing the peninsula from Ukraine. Russians began to harass Tatars, especially after Moscow stagedthe March 2014 referendum, a vote purported to determine the peninsula’s future—either as part of the Russian Federation or with Ukraine. It was, as the U.S. State Department noted at the time, fabricated to be a democratic fig leaf for an illegal and violent invasion. Tatars vehemently opposed it. Many Tatar activists and journalists were arrested. Several disappeared. Reshat Ametov, a political activist who was campaigning against the referendum and Russia’s invasion, was abducted in front of the Council of Ministers building in Simferopol, Crimea’s capital. The 39-year-old’s tortured body was found two weeks later. His murder remains unsolved.

In the intervening years, Tatar newspapers, radio, and television stations have been shuttered. Crimean-language classes have been banned. In April 2014, the Crimean Tatar leader, Mustafa Dzhemilev, the head of


the Mejlis, was barred from entering Crimea after being abroad during the referendum. He has been in exile since. In April 2016, the Russians banned the Mejlis, calling it a dangerous, extremist outfit. They have since arrested many Tatars, accusing them of being terrorist sympathizers or for belonging to Muslim groups.

Last December, Dzhemilev visited the American Association of Crimean Tatars in Brooklyn, New York. Smoking cigarette after cigarette in an unheated room, he told the gathered crowd of Crimean Tatar exiles, many of whom had been forced from their homes in 1944, that the situation in Crimea was dire. He said that he feared for the next generation, whom the Russians were brainwashing and alienating from Tatar culture, language, and their Muslim religion. Indeed, last year, Russia startedAnthony Mason, Former New York Knicks Baller, Dies

According to reports, Anthony Mason, a 13-year NBA veteran has died. The 48-year-old, 6-foot-7 forward was diagnosed with congestive heart failure earlier this month. The baller is best known for helping the Knicks reach the 1994 NBA Finals and teamed with star players including Patrick Ewing, Charles Oakley and John Starks.

ESPN further reports that one of Mason’s sons told reporters earlier this week that his father was “getting better” following multiple heart surgeries.

Mason, who was honored with the league’s Sixth Man Award in the 1994-95 season, has also played with theÂ Charlotte Hornets,Â Milwaukee Bucks andÂ Miami Heat following his stint with the Knicks.Â In 1997, he earned third-teamÂ All-NBA and second-teamÂ NBA All-Defensive Team, and in 2001 was selected for


Australia has a proud history of engagement with the UN, including participating in and leading UN peace operations, from Cyprus in 1964 to East Timor in 1999. But peace operations have fallen off the Australian priority list over the past 20 years, and our experience gained in the early 2000s is beginning to look dated.

Many of those who had peace operations experience in the Australian Defence Force and the Australian Federal Police have now moved on in their careers. The nature of peace operations has also changed. UN peacekeeping missions today are much closer to war-fighting or counterterrorism operations than they were when Australia last led them.

In October last year, the prime minister announced an Australian co-deployment of peacekeepers to the Golan Heights. With this in mind, itunit focused on the particular challenges of police peacekeeping that are distinct from the day-to-day work of the AFP (such as dealing with actors with access to weapons not readily available in Australia, multiagency cooperation and international mandates). Of course, internal restructuring is a consistent feature of government. At the time, the perception was that the role would no longer be required in an environment of limited AFP resources.

However, what was lost was the readiness to deploy quickly, as instruction in those essential and specialised skills was removed from AFP training. The AFP does maintain extensive community policing and mentoring networks across the region and it’s already well represented in the front lines of relevant institutions. But the reality is that any decision to pull people from those


induction. Our beautiful daughter, Lillian, was born 22 hours later."

—Sarah

Tow-No!

Corbis

"I had just had my car towed to the dealership because the battery died. While I was waiting for it to get fixed, my water broke. The customer service representative at the dealership had to drive me to the hospital! Six hours and 15 minutes later, my son was born — after waiting for my husband to come in from out of town."

—Jill

Soaked Sofa

Deposit Photos

"I'm still on my first pregnancy, but my friend's story is the best. She was sitting watching TV with her husband the night before her C-section was scheduled when her water suddenly broke. Her husband asked, 'Did you just pee on the couch?' and she got upset with him. It took 10 minutes of goingRIT student films to show at SIGGRAPH

Several films produced by RIT students will be screened at this year's SIGGRAPH conference including 'Head Quarters' by Jason Donati, 'Evolution in the First Person' by Elouise Oyzon and 'division' by George Nadeau. RIT will have an alumni, students, faculty and friends reception on Tuesday evening. Marla Schweppe, Duane Palyka and Johnny Robinson, all of the School of Film and Animation will attend the conference. In collaboration with the RIT School of Printing, students in the RIT School of Film and Animation have produced flipbooks again. This year they are in color and include not only RIT student produced films, but also some others of interest. The flipbooks will be given away in the Art Gallery.

Complete contact information for RIT can be


to Ted Cruz’s comments on New York values

There’s One World Trade Center: the tallest building in the country, the tallest building in the western hemisphere.

And New York City was also the site of the worst terrorist attack to occur on American soil. Surely a lot of empathy remains for the people affected by 9/11.

Trump scored a powerful rhetorical point when he described watching the Twin Towers collapse – “We saw death and the smell of death was in the air for months,” he said – which left Cruz left awkwardly applauding Trump’s invocation of the terrorist attack and those who died as the New Yorker went on to describe Cruz’s comments as insulting.

So Cruz might be well advised to stop his denigration of a city of nine millionpeople and a state of 20 million people.

While Cruz may have been the champion debater on stage, Trump clearly came away the better from that exchange.

Aside from all the above, Guardian US data editor Mona Chalabi has pointed out a New York Times graphic that shows the state is not as safely Democratic as you might think: whole swaths of the north and west of the state are pretty strongly Republican.

New York political preferences. Photograph: New York Times


41.

Decade with CBC

The daughter of a French-Canadian mother and an American father, Woods grew up in the U.S., moving to Montreal to attend university.

She completed an undergraduate degree in film at Concordia University, later studying journalism and communications at the graduate level. She joined CBC Montreal as an intern while still in school and was hired as a researcher before her graduation.

“I never expected to be a journalist but I was always that one kid in the class who always had her hand raised with a question and answer for everything,” she wrote in a recent biography for Colorado Public Radio.

“I feel most at home in a newsroom because I am surrounded by people who were also ‘that kid.’”

In her decade with CBC, Woods went on to workshe would always try to accommodate Daybreak, which seemed to want to have interviews at what I consider the ungodly early hours, versus me having to have a couple of cups of coffee and compose myself before doing the interview.”

Woods' last assignment with CBC was as social media reporter with Homerun. Host Sue Smith said she fondly remembers Woods' natural talent as a broadcaster and her inexhaustible taste for adventure.

"I was always amazed at how brave Ange-Aimee was," Smith said. "She was not afraid of new challenges like jetting off to Barcelona or Colorado. Always with that dazzling smile."

In 2013, Woods left CBC to take a position as a multimedia arts reporter for Colorado Public Radio in Denver.

She had recently returned to Montreal and was working as a