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Diafra Sakho is poised to agree a new improved deal with West Ham, even though he is just four months into the five-year contract he agreed when he joined the club.
Sakho, signed from French club Metz for £3.5million in August, has proved to be an outstanding buy, scoring seven goals in his first 10 games for West Ham.
Sakho originally signed a £15,000-a-week deal but the new offer, which will kick in after he makes 25 appearances for the club, is worth an extra £10,000 per week plus bonuses to the Senegal international.
A happy Sakho posted a picture of himself and David Sullivan at the West Ham co-chairman’s house earlier this week, where negotiations took place.
Sullivan was instrumental in the summer move for Sakho when it looked likely that a proposed deal would fall through. Manager Sam Allardyce’s No1 target was Sunderland’s Connor Wickham but when that deal didn’t progress, Sullivan stepped in to seal the deal for Sakho.
Meanwhile, long-serving midfielder Mark Noble is also in line for a new deal, with the club ready to take up a two-year option on his current contract and offering him three more years on improved terms.
Noble remains a doubt for Saturday’s home match against Leicester with an Achilles tendon injury.
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With luck, you'll never be caught without a can opener with which to open canned food you may have around the house, but if you're out camping or caught up on some situation where you have cans and nothing to open them with, this video shows you how to do open a can pretty cleanly with no tools at all.
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The video is in Russian, but you don't really need to understand his instructions to follow along. Essentially, you put the can between your hands and press both ends on the edge towards each other until you fold a large, pointed dent in one side of the can. Flip it over, and repeat the process until the can has a fairly hourglass shape, with sharp edges on the sides of the dent.
From the tone (and the setting) of the video, it's pretty clear this is a survival tip, not something you'd use the next time you want to grab a can of beans from the cupboard. If your situation is something dramatic—like being caught in a flood or some other natural disaster where help is a long time coming, it can help, especially if you're hungry, you find canned food, but you have nothing to open the cans with. It's nothing a little brute force can't handle.
How to Open a Tin Can with Your Bare Hands | Digg
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NEWARK -- After serving 33 years as an officer, Sam Siino is trading in his badge for a spatula.
The 67-year-old Newark Police Department retiree and his wife, Liz, have opened Suite 304 Bar and Restaurant in the city's Central ward, the same neighborhood where Sam Siino was raised along with six siblings.
"We grew up poor, but Newark was always good to me" Siino said. "I got a job here and an education here... (That's) why I wanted to do this."
Until 2015, the space on University Avenue was home to Skipper's Plane Street Pub, a popular bar that featured live music. The Siino couple spent two years giving the building a makeover, from replacing the floor to fixing the kitchen's sink.
Speaking alongside the owners, Mayor Ras Baraka called the work put into the restaurant "heartwarming" and said he is excited another business is moving in.
"It warms my heart to be able to come back into this space because I would drive past it and see it closed down," Baraka said. "I'm glad that you're doing this."
Baraka, a spoken word poet, said he frequented the old pub with his parents to listen to live jazz and blues. The new space, he said, mixes Newark's past with its future.
"We don't want to have a city of giant chains. We want to have a city mixed with creative and imaginative places," he added.
Central Ward Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins said the Siinos' eatery will help keep residents in the city, and spending money in Newark's economy.
"You don't have to go to Montclair, you don't to Hoboken, you don't have to go to Jersey City in order to get a great dining experience" she said. "You can meet us in Newark."
Seeing recent investments in the city inspired Siino to be apart of what he called "Newark's comeback."
Among the numerous development projects is a 22-story apartment complex across from the New Jersey Performing Arts Center that will cost an estimated $116 million.
"I see the potential of Newark coming back," he said. "I saw Newark when it was good, when it went down and as it's coming back up."
Co-owner Liz Siino said her husband's bucket list has always included managing his own food place, and she was thrilled to put her 25 years of knowledge to the test. For more than a decade, Liz Siino worked for Restaurant Associates, a New York City-based hospitality company.
"He knew that I had the experience," Liz Siino said. "I said, 'Okay, let's go for it."
She said the restaurant will serve Italian and American food, and may begin offering live music on weekends.
Top Chef Michael Logan used to run his own Italian restaurant in Manalapan and previously worked in Newark's Radisson Hotel.
Avalon Zoppo may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @AvalonZoppo. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, who was nominated for an Oscar for shooting Martin Scorsese’s “Silence,” will make his directorial debut with the revenge-thriller “Bastard.”
“La La Land’s” Jordan Horowitz is producing through his Original Headquarters company. Scorsese and Emma Tillinger Koskoff of Sikelia Prods. are executive producing. Topic, First Look Media’s entertainment studio, is financing.
Prieto will direct from an original script penned by Bill Gullo. Production is planned to start in the first quarter of 2018. Adam Pincus and Annie Marter will oversee for Topic.
“Bastard” is set against a looming flood that will ravage the small town of Bird’s Point, Mo.
“It’s an honor to get to make this picture alongside my terrific partners at Topic and First Look Media,” Horowitz said. “Rodrigo’s work as a cinematographer has consistently floored me, and putting him behind the camera to direct Bill’s absorbing script has all the ingredients for truly thrilling cinema.”
Prieto, a native of Mexico, started his career shooting television commercials at the age of 22, then moved into features in 1992. He gained prominence with “Amores Perros” in 2000 and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005 for “Brokeback Mountain.”
Related 'Devil in the White City' Series in the Works at Hulu from Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Scorsese's Longtime Editor, to Receive BAFTA Fellowship
His other cinematography credits include “Argo,” “Frida,” “8 Mile,” “The 25th Hour, “21 Grams,” “Babel,” “Alexander,” “State of Play,” “Broken Embraces,” “Water for Elephant,” and “We Bought a Zoo” along with the HBO series “Vinyl.”
Prieto directed his first short film, “Likeness,” which starred Elle Fanning and premiered at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.
“Rodrigo’s work as a cinematographer encompasses some of the most beautifully photographed films and we’re looking forward to seeing his vision come to life as a feature film director,” said Michael Bloom, president of First Look Media. “Combined with Bill’s captivating script and the producing dream team of Martin Scorsese, Emma and Jordan, we’re absolutely thrilled to be a part of this project.”
WME Global brokered the deal and will represent the film for North America. Prieto is repped by ICM Partners.
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This instructable contains 3D images which are best viewed with Red and Cyan 3D Glasses. However, for those of you who do not have 3D glasses, this instructable also contains 2D images.Every year about 700,000 vehicles get stolen in US. In fact, a car is stolen every 45 seconds.We all love our cars and whether it is a roaring Lamborghini or a purring Prius, we are attached to it and wish that it never gets stolen.I am very attached to my family car and take lots of precaution that I do not park my car in secluded places or double check that I always lock my car when I park it anywhere and always carry my car keys with me. However, I am still worried whether my car is safe. In order to get rid of these genuine worries, I decided to design my own low cost car tracking system.In this instructable, I have explained the process of building one's very own Global Car Tracking System -'Athena' - for a cost of just 100$. The steps for building this device is very simple and explained in a lucid manner. The skills required for you to build this is minimum (Basic knowledge about electronics and the Arduino IDE).I have christened this device by the name 'Athena' because Athena is the Greek Goddess of navigation.So what are we waiting for.....let's get started.......
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Since Yelp was founded in 2004, we’ve made it our business to help protect consumer free speech. Consumers have the right to share their opinions about their experiences with businesses, but there will always be a small handful of businesses who mistakenly think it’s a good idea to threaten consumers who exercise their free speech rights. As a result, we started a new type of Consumer Alert to warn people about businesses that issue questionable legal threats.
Consumers don’t necessarily know that these threats are sometimes empty or meritless (and often both!), so the threat of legal action is enough to scare them into silence. We don’t think that’s right.
For example, earlier this year, a Texas couple was sued for posting an honest but critical review of Prestigious Pets, a pet-sitting service in Dallas. As a result, Yelp issued a Consumer Alert like the one above to serve as a warning for consumers. We’ve also placed Consumer Alerts on the business pages of Superior Moving & Storage in Pompano Beach, FL and Nima Dayani, DDS in New York City.
The federal government has begun taking more steps to protect consumer speech through two important pieces of legislation. The “Right to Yelp Bill,” also known as the Consumer Review Fairness Act, prohibits inclusion of gag clauses in consumer form contracts, and the SPEAK FREE Act protects consumers from lawsuits intended to silence their freedom of speech. Both are important and will work together to protect your First Amendment right to express your opinions online.
Yelp’s Consumer Protection Initiative began in 2012 with the implementation of our Consumer Alerts program, designed to protect people from attempts to mislead them on Yelp. Yelp provides a platform for two-way communication that allows businesses to resolve issues with their customers through free messaging and response tools, instead of resorting to legal action.
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Thiruvananthapuram/ Vishakhapatnam: Sitaram Yechury, the newly-elected general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has said that his party would soon merge with the Communist Party of India. "Merger is still on cards," the 62-year-old leader told reporters after his elevation on Sunday.
“There is no time-frame.... But we are trying for the merger to happen at the earliest. It may take two months or six months. But it will happen definitely and that is our determination and also promise”.
Mr Yechury was elected as the fifth general secretary following a series of dramatic developments in the run-up to the crucial election at the 21st party Congress which concluded in Visakhapatnam.
S Ramachandran Pillai, whose name was proposed by outgoing general secretary Prakash Karat at the three hour marathon meeting of the politburo on Saturday, backed out when Mr Yechury received the full support of powerful West Bengal members including Biman Bose and the Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar.
Despite enjoying the edge in politburo, especially due to Kerala unit’s backing, ahead of the new Central Committee (CC) meeting Mr Pillai informed Mr Karat that he was not prepared for a contest and his name need not be proposed before the new panel.
It made things easier for the central leadership. When the new CC met at 12.30 pm, Mr Karat proposed Mr Yechury’s name which was seconded by Mr Pillai and unanimously adopted by the new committee.
Though Mr Pillai tried to send across the message that he wanted to avoid elections, with majority CC members and state units backing Mr Yechury the Kerala leader knew that he could lose by a massive margin.
Such a defeat would have not only embarrassed Mr Karat but also caused sharp divisions in the CPM, something which the leadership cannot afford at this crucial juncture.
The party’s new CC has 91 members, besides five special invitees and as many permanent invitees. Veteran leaders V.S. Achuthanandan, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Nirupam Sen were dropped from the CC.
The new committee elected 16 politburo members, including two women — Brinda Karat and Subhashini Ali.
Mr Yechury said the new position was a very big responsibility. “We have taken important decisions in the Congress and now the party will have to collectively implement these decisions,” he said.
When asked about the dramatic developments in the run-up to his election, Mr Yechury said, “We have a vibrant inner party democracy. On the basis of that we have taken the decisions that we have taken.”
Mr Karat denied any differences in the party over the election. “There was no confusion in the party. The confusion was only in the media. We took just two hours to discuss and take decisions unanimously,” he said.
He said the Congress had decided a new political line and elected a new leadership and the entire party would now move unitedly to implement the tasks laid down at the meet.
Unlike 2005 Delhi party Congress when it was known weeks ahead that Mr Karat would be the unanimous choice to replace Harkishan Singh Surjeet as general secretary, the names of Mr Yechury and Mr Pillai started doing the rounds right from the beginning of the six day conference.
Senior leaders who backed Mr Yechury said the young face should lead the party. The powerful Kerala unit led by Pinarayi Vijayan batted for Mr Pillai, arguing that since the veteran leader had just three years left in CC, he should be given one term.
But Yechury supporters rejected the proposal saying there was no such “practice in the party of offering single term to any individual.
Mr Yechury while addressing the delegates after his election termed the 21st party Congress as the Congress of change.
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2017, Year in review
Written the 29th December 2017 .
2017 has been a surprising year at many levels for Hoa and its community. Let's dig in.
First of all: Numbers! Hoa libraries have been downloaded more than 4'318'000 times in 2017, which sets the total to 8'585'000 downloads! A peak of 700 downloads per hour has been recorded on February. Thank you for these incredible numbers. The community on Github has welcomed 493 new users, to reach 2381 stargazers. The global community now reaches 2584 members, yepee!
The community has defined an ambitious roadmap for 2017, which is not complete, and will continue to run on 2018. The main goal is: High quality. Some highlights of this roadmap:
The main contribution to the PHP community is Kitab, to render the API documentation as HTML files —with a powerful static search engine— and to test the documentation. The 0.10 version has been tagged, and we are slowly deploying it on all Hoa libraries. A more detailed blog post will be published.
This roadmap is ambitious. It contains a lot of work, maybe too much, but we have time. It's important to limit the BC break in the Hoa and PHP ecosystem. The most ambitious part is about futures and native asynchronous code, the RFC are still in draft.
Defining the roadmap as a set of RFC is a community effort. It is new for Hoa, and so far, it is a success. Everyone can focus on specific tasks, discuss, and work together. What we miss in mentorship, and it introduces the next point.
A large majority of the core members faced life hard in 2017: Move to another country, jobless, new jobs, break-ups, diseases, burnouts, babies… Well, life happens, that's expected. At this scale though, it's unexpected. Hoa has about 10-15 core members, and more or less 5 remain today. To be clear, this is not dangerous for the project. Hoa still receives new contributions, the roadmap runs at a constant rythme, the download frequency is constant, new projects include Hoa, everything is great. The only impact so far on the project is that Hoa Apex 4th edition has been canceled twice, and the mentorship program for the 2017 roadmap has been canceled too. This is unfortunate, but, eh, life happens. It can sound guileless but Hoa community members are friends: We meet often, we share life events, we help each others. Consequently, we prefer to slow things down a little bit to take care of each others. We think this is natural.
To end on a positive note: More companies or projects trust us and use us! Automattic —the company behinds WordPress.com, WooCommerce and many more softwares— uses Hoa, and especially Kitab; Doctrine is about to use Hoa too, railt is using Hoa for a promising GraphQL framework; Alice is about to use Hoa, and many more! Thank you to trust us!
The future of Hoa is bright. The project is living, the community is breathing, more and more companies and projects trust us. Thank you for this year full of surprises. We can't wait for the 2018 review!
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A new report from The Intercept claims that both the CIA and British intelligence have, for years, been working hard to skirt around the “layers of encryption” that Apple has implemented on the iPhone.
The revelations, sourced from Edward Snowden, detail for the first time just how laser focused the CIA has been in not only cracking encryption on the iPhone, but on the Mac as well.
By targeting essential security keys used to encrypt data stored on Apple’s devices, the researchers have sought to thwart the company’s attempts to provide mobile security to hundreds of millions of Apple customers across the globe. Studying both “physical” and “non-invasive” techniques, U.S. government-sponsored research has been aimed at discovering ways to decrypt and ultimately penetrate Apple’s encrypted firmware.
Don’t Miss: What the CIA used before Google Maps
The report further details how CIA and its British counterparts typically gather together at an annual conference where they discuss new strategies and methods for compromising the fortified security on the iPhone. One such method centered on a modified version of Apple’s Xcode development software which was theoretically able to install backdoors onto infected devices, disable security mechanisms, and send ostensibly encrypted data back to a U.S. intelligence “listening post.” Another proposed strategy involved a spoofed version of an OS X update.
While there’s no indication as to how successful the CIA’s efforts to hack the iPhone have been, this report along with others make it crystal clear that Apple hardware remains a high priority target for American and British Intelligence agencies.
Just a few weeks ago, we reported on how the NSA and the British GCHQ were able to steal the encryption keys for millions of smartphone SIM cards, including the iPhone.
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Bill Nye filed a $37 million lawsuit against the Walt Disney Company and a number of its subsidiaries on Thursday, alleging that he was deprived of $9 million in profits from his show, “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” which originally ran from 1993 to 1998 on PBS.
He also said that the defendants profited off his work to the tune of more than $28 million. The defendants also include Buena Vista Television and ABC, the show’s distributors.
A spokesperson for Buena Vista Television said in a statement: “This lawsuit is a publicity ploy and we look forward to vigorously defending it.”
The lawsuit’s assertions include fraudulent concealment (that Disney and its subsidiaries knew of profits from the show that they kept from Mr. Nye), breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.
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The Republican Party officially nominated Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE for president on Tuesday, capping his remarkable rise from political outsider to the standard-bearer of the GOP.
Trump officially secured the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination after his home state of New York cast 89 delegates for the businessman.
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Trump's adult children joined the New York delegation to cast the decisive vote that put Trump over the top. Donald Trump Jr. was given the honor of making the announcement, and he promised his father would put the Empire State in play in November.
"It is my honor to be able to throw Donald Trump over the top tonight," Trump, Jr. said. “Congratulations Dad, we love you.”
The Quicken Loans Arena erupted into a celebration. The convention broke for a few minutes as delegates danced to Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York.”
Shortly after, the convention nominated Indiana Gov. Mike Pence Michael (Mike) Richard PencePence meeting with Senate GOP ahead of vote to block emergency declaration 'And the award for best political commentary by an Oscar nominee goes to...' UN nuclear watchdog: Iran maintains compliance with 2015 pact MORE to be Trump’s running mate in an overwhelming voice vote.
There was speculation leading up to the event that there would be protests from a faction of Never Trump conservatives.
But the response to Trump during a state-by-state roll call vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the billionaire businessman, and there were few audible protests.
At the same time, more delegate votes went against Trump than in any GOP convention since 1976.
Votes for someone other than nominee:
1980: 52
88: 0
92: 19
96: 51
00: 7
08: 23
12: 202
16: 505 (and counting) — Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) July 19, 2016
With only a few exceptions, delegates from state after state stood to announce that their delegation would throw the entirety of their support behind Trump.
Trump will accept the party’s nomination in a speech on Thursday night at the convention's conclusion, though he is also scheduled to make an appearance on Tuesday night from New York.
It was a strong showing of unity from a party that entered the convention split over their presumptive nominee.
On a night when GOP leaders like House Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE (Wis.), House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellHouse to push back at Trump on border Democrats block abortion bill in Senate Overnight Energy: Climate protesters storm McConnell’s office | Center-right group says Green New Deal could cost trillion | Dire warnings from new climate studies MORE (R-Ky.) are scheduled to speak, the delegates to the convention rallied behind Trump and finally ended a movement that was hell-bent on blocking him from the nomination.
Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump says he hasn't spoken to Barr about Mueller report Ex-Trump aide: Can’t imagine Mueller not giving House a ‘roadmap’ to impeachment Rosenstein: My time at DOJ is 'coming to an end' MORE officially offered Trump’s name into consideration for president to huge rounds of applause.
Sessions, who is Trump’s top ally on Capitol Hill, lauded him as a disrupter who has tapped into the unease felt by Americans across the country.
“The American voters heard this message, and they rewarded his courage and leadership with a huge victory in our primaries,” Sessions said. “He dispensed with one talented candidate after another, momentum started and a movement started. Democrats and independents responded. He received far more primary votes than any Republican candidate in history.
“Mr. Speaker, it is my distinct honor and great pleasure to nominate Donald J. Trump for the office of president of the United States," he said.
Quicken Loans Arena exploded into cheers and chants of “Trump."
Rep. Chris Collins (N.Y.), another top Trump supporter on Capitol Hill, seconded Trump’s nomination.
The Republican National Committee and Trump campaign were pushing for a smooth evening at the convention, as they seek to finish off the Never Trump contingent once and for all.
Ryan received a warm reception when he opened the night by instructing the delegates that they must adhere to the rules in an effort to keep the convention in order.
A delegate from Alaska requested the state’s vote tally be recounted, saying his state’s vote count had been misreported in favor of Trump.
The GOP convention was delayed for about ten minutes at 8 p.m. so RNC officials could conduct a poll of the delegation.
But the matter was quickly resolved and there were no further meaningful protests or disruptions.
Delegates from Washington, D.C., could be seen huddling. They voted their conscience, saying they were “duly bound” to throw 10 of their votes to Sen. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioHillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid | Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration | New malicious cyber tool found | Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators Key senators say administration should ban Huawei tech in US electric grid Trump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 MORE (Fla.) and nine to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, two of Trump’s fallen GOP primary rivals.
But the rules that had been gaveled in a day earlier required all of those votes to go to Trump.
Convention-goers booed the rogue delegates, but the proceedings quickly moved on to Florida, which threw all of its support behind Trump.
The crowd erupted in cheers.
This story was updated at 8:29 p.m.
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Last month, EA released the latest big expansion for The Sims 4, Cats & Dogs. Ahead of that content's release, we caught up with PC product lead producer Grant Rodiek to see how the last three years of the publisher's life simulation project has gone.
So, The Sims 4 launched back in 2014. How have the last three years been for the game?
It's been very successful actually. We started a smidge rough and since then we have done so much. One of our big focuses was releasing tonnes of free content for our players. So pools, toddlers, the ability to have genderless outfits.... we gave all that away. We have our expansions packs, game packs, we've done everything from vampires to spa days to camping trips to work. We're at the point now where it's fun, where we have all the scary features out of the way, all the big requests out of the way, finally released toddlers for our fans and so now we can sort of focus on making fun stuff. It's not that it's easier - it's more 'wouldn't it be cool if?' content. It frees us a bit.
Our fans are very passionate. There are little things they wanted. They wanted pools, we introduced pools two months in. We didn't have toddlers; they took a little bit longer because it's a whole lifestage but we got toddlers in; they were free and deeper than we have ever done before. On some of those things, it's taken us a little bit longer than we anticipated, but we did it and did it right. A lot of times we have done it for free. We're very proud of the fact that we have been able to do that for our fans. They have in turn supported us by sticking around and helping us out. We have more people playing the game now than we have ever had. We have 200m monthly active users. That's three years after the game has launched. We want to keep making stuff for them.
You seem to have ramped up your post-launch content plan also.
We have made more products than we have ever made. That's one of the reasons it has been so crazy for us. Typically, on Sims 3 we used to do one expansion per year and then did a couple of stuff packs. Now we are doing three or four stuff packs a year, one or two game packs and we have been doing one expansion per year, in addition to the free updates. We had to fundamentally reorganise our team around that idea.
How have you adjusted your development team?
We effectively have four or five live teams at once. We have monthly patches or even quicker than that, the monthly free content. I'm on the expansion team and I oversee the game pack team. We have a lead producer on the stuff pack team, we have a lead producer on the console team and all of those have different groups and engineers, but then we need to think about how they can work together - getting one engineer make one feature that works in two places. We have to talk all the time about what bugs we have to fix, who is going to do this bug, bringing in extra staff to help us out with toddlers that we can then use for pets. It's a logistical challenge.
Another thing I'm super proud of is that we don't crunch, we don't kill ourselves working on the game, we have a pretty healthy culture. It's been a good project.
The Cats and Dogs expansion is The Sims 4's most recent release and one of the most-requested packs
Must admit, I'm still amazed that crunch is a thing that exists in 2017.
I totally agree. I've been in the industry for 12 years and I would say that for five or six years, our leadership has made not crunching a priority. We see crunch as a sign of failure. Every now and again if we do have to do it, we talk about it and figure out how to not do it again. We take crunch pretty seriously and that it's a thing we shouldn't do. We do all the products we've just talked about and mostly we leave on time and have a healthy work-life balance. It's really important. It's hard for us to make stuff that's funny and weird if we are all too tired to see straight.
The Sims audience appears to be a strange one. They are what some members of the industry would describe as 'casual', but they're largely playing on PC which is more of a 'hardcore' platform.
They're hardcore casual players. The rest of the industry considers them casual, but our average playtime is four hours a session. People play our game all the time. A part of it is there is so much content; there's creative content, there's the mod scene, people are uploading stuff on the gallery and they're able to keep making new content based on what's happening in the world. We'll see a spike in celebrities created during The Oscars. Every expansion feeds on other expansions. People are like: 'If I buy Get to Work, can I have a petstore selling pet items?' and we can do that via the pets update. You can keep adding stuff and mixing it up to tell new stories. We keep seeing a spike and more people coming in and playing more. We have tried to make our expansions just full of stuff this time to make sure people are getting their money's worth. We don't want consumers to buy one and leave; we want them to buy one, see how cool it is and come back for another.
Now that the Pets expansion is out, what's the plan moving forwards?
Historically, after pets people are like: 'Okay, we did the big pack, now we're going to think about something else. I want players to still be around because we are still making killer content. We're not going away. Pets is the biggest one but we're not going to dial it back. Some of the stuff we are thinking about is pretty ambitious, it's also fresh twists on old things and so I am hoping that people see Pets as the start of the second wave, not the end of the cycle. I want to do more content, keep upping the bar, more free content. Those are things that are super important to us and we have been talking about stuff for next year for ages already because we want it to be super good. There's crazy long cycles. Next year I want people to be like: 'Wow, I can't believe you're doing all this stuff'. Next year we'll be four years old and still here.
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During a Wednesday evening appearance on CNN’s The Situation Room, Katrina Pierson, a spokeswoman for Donald Trump, suggested Capt. Humayun Khan was killed in Iraq due to a change in the rules of engagement under Barack Obama’s presidency.
“Donald Trump never voted for the Iraq War,” Pierson said (although he supported it, at one point saying as much to Howard Stern). “Hillary Clinton did. And then she didn’t support the troops to have what they need. It was under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that changed the rules of engagement that probably cost his life.”
Khan was killed in 2004 though, invalidating this point. This is only the most recent escalation in an escalating feud between the Trump campaign and the Khan family after they spoke at the Democratic National Convention last week.
—Gideon Resnick
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Android M couldn’t be simply rooted by the fabled universal root package SuperSU, once again thanks to Google for making too many changes to the Android ecosystem for security purposes. Nevertheless, Android developers and tinkerers never give up on anything that easy just because they were bumped to the wall once. SuperSU developer Chainfire has confirmed that SuperSU is not working on Android M but there are some modified kernels which can provide access to root Android M. And today here we are with a working Android M rooting technique on Nexus 5 and 6.
If you haven’t already updated to Android M, follow the below link:
The credit for the custom kernels goes to of XDA who developed the custom kernels that helps SuperSU to root the device on Android M developer preview. You can now root your Nexus 5/6 just by flashing the Despair kernel and the latest SuperSU 2.49 through any custom recovery. So, if you’re ready to root your Nexus on Android M, just grab the below files and follow the simple instruction given below.
Downloads
Warning
Warranty may be void if you follow the below procedure. You alone are responsible for any consequences that might occur during the process, we shall not be held responsible for any damage to your device.
Prerequisites
Charge your Nexus device above 60% battery level to avoid shutdowns during the process.
Backup your device storage, Contacts, SMS etc. using Google Sync service or any third-party app as the entire device will be wiped clean.
Install TWRP recovery on your Nexus 5 | Nexus 6
Root Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 on Android M Developer Preview
Download the custom kernel and the SuperSU zip files from above and transfer it to your device’s storage. Boot your Nexus into recovery mode. To do this: Power off your device completely. Press and hold Volume UP + Volume Down + Power buttons together until you enter fastboot mode. Now, press Volume Down to highlight recovery option, and then press Power button to select it and boot into recovery mode. Now that you’re in TWRP recovery, we recommend taking a full nandroid backup of your device for safety. You can skip this step if you’ve already taken a backup. Now flash the custom kernel downloaded from your Nexus device. To do this, simply enter Install menu, select the custom kernel file from the list, and swipe to confirm flashing. Once the custom kernel was flashed, flash the SuperSU zip in a similar manner. Go back to the recovery menu and reboot the device by selecting Reboot » System.
That’s it! Once the device boots up, you can download Root Checker app to check root permissions on your device.
Let us know of any issues regarding the procedure in the comments section below.
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While Colombia defeated Greece in Saturday's first World Cup match, there was another international soccer game brewing – but this one wasn't being televised to the world.
Instead, people from New Columbia – a mixed income community in North Portland that is made up of families from more than 22 countries – happily huddled beside the fences around Bless Field, the area's new public pitch for kids. Operation Pitch Invasion, a local charity that builds, revitalizes and maintains soccer fields, hosted the new pitch's dedication and opening Saturday morning.
The organization has been fundraising for the $200,000 project over the last year. It was built entirely off donations.
"I never thought we'd be here," said Shawn Levy, the director of OPI. "I learned really quickly that there's people behind us."
The Timbers' Chief Operations Officer Mike Golub announced the team's "official partnership" with OPI at the opening ceremony. The team, which helped fund Bless Field, plans to continue to work with OPI to develop more children's fields, or facilities, throughout the Portland area. Levy said the plan is to have one field completed every two years.
"We have a vision for OPI that covers this entire community," Levy said. "From Woodburn to Hillsboro to Gresham to Clark County – that's our neighborhood. And we would like to think that we can have a Bless Field, or something like a Bless Field, in all points of the Portland compass."
For kids like Michael Underwood, 13, having more fields could make a huge difference. Underwood wants to go pro and Bless Field is a block away from his New Columbia home. He plans to be on it every day.
Before Operation Pitch Invasion started construction, the lot Bless Field now fills was still a destination for soccer – just not a very good one. It was all dirt.
"There were too many rocks everywhere," Underwood said. "On this field, I don't slip."
Bless Field, named after Timbers Army founder Howie Bless, is made of turf, a synthetic grass most often used to outfit sports arenas. Home Forward, which serves about 15,000 low-income residents in the county – including those in New Columbia – donated the lot to Operation Pitch Invasion.
The 107 Independent Supporters' Trust, or "170ist," – the Timbers Army's nonprofit organization – made the largest donation for the field at $50,000. The Portland Development Commission donated $40,000, and organizations including the Timbers, Providence Health and Services and Adidas helped make up the rest.
Ginean McIntosh has been able to watch the field's construction from her kitchen window. She said the whole community has been eager and excited for it to open.
McIntosh's 7-year-old daughter, Jasmine, has been playing soccer for the last two years. Jasmine spent Saturday morning chasing after the ball with about 30 other neighborhood kids. New Columbia is home to more than 1,200 children from across the world, according to Operation Pitch Invasion officials.
Different languages filled the field, but the love for the game was universal.
"The thing with any sport is, you don't come out with your differences, you come out together with a common goal," McIntosh said. She added the new field and the game itself is a way for her daughter to connect and meet with children from other cultures.
AC Portland will host summer soccer camps on the new field, which is across the street from a Boys and Girls Club. Nearby Rosa Parks Elementary School, which will have year-round schooling, will use the field for physical education classes.
For Jasmine, the best part of Saturday's opening was when she got to snag the ball from her competitors.
Before putting down her apple juice to return to the ongoing game, Jasmine smiled big.
"It's just really cool," she said, looking out into the field packed with kids wearing different types of jerseys.
-- Sara DiNatale
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...The title says all.
I can't decide which one of them is my favorite Crystal Gem just like how I can't decide which is my favorite movie from the Cornetto Trilogy.
(EDIT) I just realized how well they fit to the characters Simon Pegg plays in each movie mostly because Steven fits with each character Nick Frost played; Steven can work very well as Ed to Pearl's Shaun, as Danny to Garnet's Nicholas Angel and as Andy Knightley to Amethyst's Gary King, because despite being childish, Steven does act more reasonable and careful when he's with her, this is just so perfect. I'm proud of this pic.
Pearl, Garnet & Amethyst (c) Rebecca Sugar
Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz & The World's End (c) Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg
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1966 winners were paid just £1,000
THE England team together earn more than £1m a week from club football. They are paid for their international appearances but the FA refuses to say how much.
However, some time ago, an official let slip the fact they earn 'a substantial four-figure sum, and they get all their expenses as well,' each time they turn out for Queen and country.
If on July 9 in Berlin they manage to repeat the success of 40 years ago, they will each be paid a bonus of around £300,000. The 22 members of the England 1966 squad who beat the Germans at Wembley each received a bonus of £1,000.
Just how the money was divided up was recalled by Nobby Stiles, a member of the winning England team: 'We had made a unanimous decision to split our winning bonus equally among the squad, irrespective of who had actually played.
'That great man, the late Bobby Moore, our captain, knew us well enough to take an instant decision. Sir Alf had gathered us all together and said, 'Gentlemen, we have something to discuss. You have been awarded a bonus of £22,000 to be shared between you. One way of doing it would be everyone to have a basic £500, with extra money for appearances.
'Without a moment's hesitation, our captain stood up and said: 'No, boss, it will be £1,000 each. We were in all this together and that's how it will stay'.'
• Until the late Fifties, English footballers could earn no more than £20 a week, no matter how good they were. That is equivalent to £281 today. If they had been paid the equivalent of today's Premiership stars, rather than £20, they would have earned £7,000 a week.
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Torrential rains that have swept through China have killed at least 154 people and left 124 missing, officials said Saturday, with most of the casualties reported from a northern province where villagers complained about lack of warning before a deadly flash flood.
The rains, which began on Monday, have flooded streams, triggered landslides and destroyed homes across the country. Most of the fatalities were reported in the northern province of Hebei, where the provincial Department of Civil Affairs said 114 people were killed and 111 others were missing.
More than 300,000 people were evacuated in Hebei, and the province made another round of appropriations of tents, blankets, rain boots and generators, the department said.
In the Hebei city of Xingtai alone, 25 people were killed and another 13 were missing.
Flash flood while residents slept
The Xingtai village of Daxian was swamped by a flash flood early Wednesday as residents were asleep. Eight people, including three children, were killed and another was missing in the flood, according to the Xingtai government.
But the tragedy did not surface until Friday, when accounts, purportedly by local residents, began surfacing on Chinese social media of angry villagers blocking roads, accusing the local authorities of failing to notify them in time for evacuation when an upstream reservoir discharged the floodwaters.
The online posts — accompanied by photos of drowned victims — also accused local officials of covering up the tragedy by lying about having no deaths in the area. State media later confirmed that a local official had said Wednesday afternoon that the flash flood caused no fatalities.
Rescue workers fill sand bags near a flooded area in Xiaogan. (Reuters)
Some of the accompanying photos showed images of apparently drowned children lying in mud, their bodies swollen and their skin pale. In another photo, local villagers and an official knelt before each other, with state media reporting that the official was trying to console the grieving family members.
Although removed from social media by Saturday morning — apparently by censors — the postings had already caused a national uproar, with members of the public demanding accountability from local authorities. Chinese journalists rushed to the village Friday night and reported on the disaster.
In response, local authorities started to release casualty figures and offered explanations late Friday.
Public apology
On Saturday night, Xingtai Mayor Dong Xiaoyu made a public apology and bowed at a news conference for the mishandling of the flash flood. He said that the danger of the flood was underestimated, and that local officials erred in failing to confirm and report casualties in a timely and accurate fashion. He promised a thorough investigation and to hold negligent officials responsible.
Authorities blamed extraordinary rainfall and a failure of a river levee near the village for the sudden water surge. Local media reported that the river channel is particularly narrow near the village of Daxian and has been blocked by pipes from a heating utility, as well as mud.
Qiu Wenshuang, a vice mayor of Xingtai, said Saturday that the flood was sudden and that the village was already flooded when officials arrived there to evacuate residents on Wednesday morning, according to state media reports.
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How far we have come
After months of hard work by the WebMatrix team, it's exciting to introduce the release candidate of WebMatrix 2. WebMatrix 2 includes tons of new features, but today I want to give an overview of the work we've done to enable building applications with Node.js. If you want to skip all of this and just get a download link (it's free!), here you go
Less than a year ago, I was working at Carnegie Mellon University, trying to use Node.js with ASP.NET for real time components of our online learning environment. Running Linux inside of our customers' data centers was a non-starter, and running a production system in cygwin was even less ideal. Developing node on Windows wasn't exactly easy either - if you managed to get node running, getting NPM to work was near impossible. Using node in an environment favorable to Windows was more than an up hill battle.
In the last 12 months since I've joined Microsoft, we've seen various partnerships between Joyent and Microsoft, resulting in new releases of node and npm to support Windows, and a commitment to Node on Windows Azure. We've worked together to build a better experience for developers, IT administrators, and ultimately, the users who use our systems.
One of the results of that work is a vastly improved experience for building applications with Node.js on Windows Azure. Glenn Block on the SDK team has done a fabulous write up on the ways Microsoft is making Azure a great place for Node.js developers. As our favorite VP Scott Guthrie says on his blog, meet the new Windows Azure.
Enter WebMatrix 2
Empty Node.js Site
Express Site
Express Starter Site
Today, getting started with node.js is a relatively simple task. You install node, npm (which is now bundled with the node installers), and get started with your favorite text editor. There are infinite possibilities, and limitless configurations for managing projects, compiling CoffeeScript & LESS, configuring your production settings, and deploying your apps. WebMatrix 2 sets out to provide another way to build node.js apps: everything you need to build great apps is one place. WebMatrix 2 is first and foremost designed for building web applications. From the start screen, you can create applications using pre-built templates, or install common open source applications from the Web Gallery. The current set of templates support creating applications with Node.js PHP , and (of course) ASP.NET Web Pages . Out of the box, WebMatrix 2 includes three templates for Node.js:
The empty site provides a very basic example of using an http server - the same sample that's available on nodejs.org. The Express Site is a basic application generated using the scaffolding tool in the Node.js framework express. The Node Starter Site is where things start to get interesting. This boilerplate is hosted on GitHub, and shows how to implement sites that include parent/child layouts with jade, LESS css, logins with Twitter and Facebook, mobile layouts, and captcha. When you create a new application using any of these templates, WebMatrix 2 is going to ensure node, npm, and IISNode are installed on your system. If not, it will automatically install any missing dependencies. This feature is also particularly useful if you are building PHP/MySQL applications on Windows.
The end result of the Node Starter Site is a fully functional application that includes Express, Jade, LESS, chat with socket.io, logins with EveryAuth, and mobile support with jQuery Mobile:
IntelliSense for Node.js
One of the goals of WebMatrix 2 is reduce the barrier of entry for developers getting started with Node.js. One of the ways to do that is to provide IntelliSense for the core modules on which all applications are built. The documentation we use is actually built from the docs on the node.js docs site.
In addition to providing IntelliSense for core Node.js modules, WebMatrix 2 also provides code completion for your own JavaScript code, and third party modules installed through NPM. There are infinite ways to build your application, and the NPM gallery recently surpassed 10,000 entries. As developers start building more complex applications, it can be difficult (or even intimidating) to get started. WebMatrix 2 is making it easier to deal with open source packages:
Support for Jade & EJS
To build a truly useful tool for building Node.js web applications, we decided to provide first class editors for Jade and EJS. WebMatrix 2 provides syntax highlighting, HTML validation, code outlining, and auto-completion for Jade and EJS.
If you're into the whole angle bracket thing, the experience in EJS even better, since it's based off of our advanced HTML editor:
The best {LESS} editor on the planet
So I'll admit it - I'm a bit of a CSS pre-processor geek. I don't write CSS because I love it, but because I need to get stuff done, and I want to write as little of it as possible. Tools like LESS and Sass provide missing features for programmers in CSS like variables, mixins, nesting, and built in common functions. The LESS editor in WebMatrix not only provides syntax highlighting, but also provides LESS specific validation, IntelliSense for variables and mixins, and LESS specific formatting. Most node developers are going to process their LESS on the server using the npm module, but if you want to compile LESS locally, you can use the Orange Bits compiler to compile your CSS at design time.
CoffeeScript Editor
In the same way LESS and Sass make it easier to write CSS, CoffeeScript simplifies the way you write JavaScript. WebMatrix 2 provides syntax highlighting, code outlining, and completion that simplifies the editing experience. If you want to use CoffeeScript without compiling it on the server, you can use the Orange Bits compiler to compile your CoffeeScript into JavaScript at design time.
Mobile Emulators
Designing applications for mobile can't be an afterthought. WebMatrix 2 is trying to make this easier in a couple of ways. First - the visual templates (in this case the Node Starter Template) is designed taking advantage of responsive layouts in the main StyleSheet:
This is great if you don't need to change the content of your site, but is lacking for more complex scenarios. To get around that, the node starter template uses a piece of connect middleware to detect if the user is coming from a mobile device, and sends them to a mobile layout based on jQuery Mobile (more on this in another post). For individual views, there is a convention based system that allows you to create {viewName}_mobile.jade views which are only loaded on mobile devices.
It gets even better. What if you need to see what your site will look like in various browsers and mobile devices? WebMatrix 2 provides an extensibility model that allows you to add mobile and desktop browsers to the run menu:
Today, we offer a Windows Phone emulator, and iPhone / iPad simulators. In the future we're looking for people to build support for other emulators *coughs* android *coughs*, and even build bridges to online browser testing applications:
Extensions & Open Source
A code editing tool is only as valuable as the developers that commit to the platform. We want to achieve success with everyone, and grow together. As part of that goal, we've opened up an extensibility model that allows developers to build custom extensions and share them with other developers. The extension gallery is available online (more on this to come) at http://extensions.webmatrix.com. We're planning to move a bunch of these extensions into GitHub, and the NodePowerTools extension is the first one to go open source:
Everyone worked together
Enjoy!
In the coming months you'll start to see more extensions from Microsoft, and more open source. I want to make sure I thank everyone who helped make this release happen, including the WebMatrix team, Glenn Block, Claudio Caldato, our Node Advisory board, Isaac Schlueter, and everyone at Joyent. For more information, please visit:
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HARRY Redknapp has added to his midfield options with the signing of Gary O’Neil.
The 30 year-old, who was a free agent following his release from West Ham United at the end of the 2012/13 campaign, has signed a one year contract at Loftus Road.
O’Neil has been training with the R’s during the last fortnight and Redknapp has been suitably impressed by the midfielder, whom was part of his Portsmouth squad that sealed promotion to the Premier League in 2002/03.
He told www.qpr.co.uk: “Gary’s a good player and a good pro.
“He was offered a new deal at West Ham but he decided he fancied coming here because he feels maybe he’ll get more game time at QPR.
“He can run all day long, he’s good on the ball, a good passer, he sees all the pictures in front of him and is a top professional.
“We’ve got plenty of options in that department now, but he’ll certainly add to what we’ve got – he’s a good, good player and will be a fine acquisition for us.”
O’Neil, who captained England at under-21 level in the early part of his career, added: “The challenge here is an exciting one.
“Obviously I know Harry well and he was a big factor in me coming here. The promotion season we had under him at Portsmouth was fantastic.
“He’s played a massive role in my development as a player and now I’m back playing for him again and I want to repay him by helping this club get back into the Premier League.”
He added: “There are so many games in the Championship and you need a strong squad to cope.
“At this early stage when there are not too many injuries and there are no suspensions, it will look like there’s an abundance of talent and choices, but it doesn’t take a lot for people to miss games, so you need to have a competitive squad with strength in depth.
“Having been in and around the squad for the last few weeks, I’ve seen how united the squad are to achieve what we all want to do.
“The togetherness is there – it’s a really happy camp and there’s a real good feel to the place.”
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Inside his humming facility on the outskirts of Ottawa, Mark Perry's operation pumps out specialized plastic products — everything from patented storm-drain basins to giant toy guns for water parks.
For this Ontario manufacturer, business is growing. Soon it might even be looking to hire.
Perry can count himself among the survivors of Central Canada's manufacturing downturn, a tough era largely brought on by fierce competition from China and a high dollar that claimed the lives of many companies across the region.
The period devastated the once-mighty Ontario manufacturing sector, enabling the Prairie energy fields to take over as Canada's economic power plant.
But with the rapid fall of oil prices, the tumbling loonie and renewed U.S. demand, there are expectations the country's economic strength could once again shift back to Central Canada if conditions persist.
The potential reversal, however, begs a question: Can the hobbled region pick up the slack from Western Canada?
Fresh challenges
Experts believe leaner, more-specialized companies like Perry's Plas-Tech Fabrications will play a big part in any Central Canada revival.
But Perry says the changing conditions have actually created fresh challenges for his 18-year-old outfit, which employs eight people and sells finished goods domestically and as far away as China.
Petro-Canada's Edmonton Refinery and Distribution Centre glows at dusk in Edmonton in 2009. At least one Ontario manufacturer is skeptical whether the region can wrestle the national title of economic heartland back from Western Canada. (Dan Riedlhuber/Reuters) Despite his recent success, the company has yet to see the benefits of lower crude translate into cheaper prices for freight and the petroleum-filled plastic it uses in its products.
On top of that, as a net importer of raw materials from the U.S., the lower dollar has actually hurt its bottom line.
"It's kind of a mixed bag, really," said Perry, who compared the delay to gas station pump prices that are slow to follow changes in world crude prices.
"The way I look at it is, if there's any benefits, they have yet to trickle down. It's almost like everyone's holding on to that gain — and milking it as long as they can."
He credits the growth of his company, which saw sales increase by 25 per cent compared to a year ago, to constantly staying on top of things like structural costs.
It was that kind of diligence that helped Plas-Tech endure the difficult times, he said.
Looking at the big picture, experts believe Ontario stands to benefit from Western Canada's losses, but it remains to be seen how soon a full-blown resurgence could arrive.
Improvements already seen
The head of Canada's biggest industry and trade association said Ontario manufacturers, as a whole, have already seen improvements in production and sales.
Jayson Myers, the president and chief executive of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said in some cases auto-parts companies have had trouble keeping up with the growth.
Oil pumps work at sunset in the desert oil fields of Sakhir, Bahrain. Plunging oil prices are among the factors causing changes in Canada's economy. (Hasan Jamali/Canadian Press) "There's no reason in the world why Ontario manufacturing sales cannot exceed where we were back before the recession," Myers said.
However, he believes Ontario's industrial landscape will be different than before.
Many of the huge, mass-producing facilities of yesteryear will be replaced with operations that produce higher-value goods, like customized bar fridges and furniture, he said.
"It's not going to be business as usual and it is going to require companies to focus more on very specialized products and to do things that nobody else can do," said Myers.
"The money today is made in design, engineering, innovation and customer service, not necessarily made in the manufacturing itself."
North America's manufacturing industry was decimated in the 2000s by China's emergence as a low-cost alternative.
The Canadian manufacturing sector was hit hard by an extended period of a high loonie and then by the 2008-09 financial and economic crisis, which slowed demand from the U.S. and other parts of the world.
The Ontario economy is now waiting to see if the more-inviting economic environment will attract investment.
'This is the real thing'
Export Development Canada's chief economist believes it's more a question of when.
"Demand is firing up now, businesses are becoming more convinced that this is the real thing," Peter Hall said of cautious businesses looking to invest.
Hall expects it will take about a year before Ontario starts to see significant new investments, but he's convinced they will come if the current conditions last.
He said Ontario is attractive because it already boasts a clustered, highly developed manufacturing sector close to the U.S. market.
"Folks will be looking here; however we haven't seen huge evidence of that yet," Hall said.
"We're still dealing with the fallout of a long period of ... investment hibernation."
Even with the encouraging signs, Ontario's economy still faces many obstacles.
Myers said many of the skilled workers either left the province or retired during the long downturn. The education system, he added, is no longer training enough young people in the necessary practical skills and has struggled to keep up with newer technologies.
He also noted how Alberta oilsands projects, which are expected to suffer from the low oil prices, buy a lot of products, like valves, steel, pumps and technology, from Ontario.
On top of that, Ontario still has relatively high electricity prices, he said.
Perry points to hurdles like these when he thinks about Ontario's future.
He's skeptical whether the region can wrestle the national title of economic heartland back from Western Canada.
"I don't see the power shift necessarily coming back to Ontario — it will be more of an evening of the two powers, if you ask me," said Perry, who also makes plastic sheets that simulate ice for hockey players looking to practice their slapshots.
"I think largely Ontario's manufacturing sector has eroded quite a bit. There's really not much to come to, you know? A lot of things have gone to China."
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Lorenzana says PH still needs US military aid
U.S. Marine Corps Brigadier General John Jansen (left) and Commandant of Philippine Marine Corps, Maj. General Andre Costales Jr., stand side by side during the opening ceremony of the annual Philippines-US amphibious landing exercise (PHILBLEX) inside the Marines headquarters in Taguig City on Tuesday. The exercise comes amid pronouncements by President Duterte that the war games will be the last in his six-year term. Romeo Ranoco, Reuters
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana believes President Rodrigo Duterte may have been misinformed about the state of the Philippines' joint military exercises and defense agreements with the United States.
Speaking on ANC's The World Tonight Tuesday, Lorenzana said he would meet with Philippine military leaders to assess these exercises and defense pacts with the US.
Lorenzana estimates, the evaluation will start in one to two weeks.
"Pagka-na-assess natin ito, mabibigyan natin ng magandang information si Presidente para naman makapag-assess siya nang maganda...kasi mukhang misinformed lang siya ngayon...hindi lang siguro nainform si Presidente na mayroon ngang pakinabang," he said.
[After we assess this, we will be able to give the President good information so that he may also assess well...because it seems he is misinformed right now..perhaps, he has not been informed that there is benefit to it.]
"Siguro mabiyan lang siya ng tamang information para naman makita niya, para iyong mga sinasabi niya ay tumpak
sa mga facts ng mga nangyari," he said.
[Perhaps, the President just needs correct information so that his pronouncements are according to the facts of what happened.]
Lorenzana also believes, the Philippines still needs the assistance of the US military as the country continues to fight the Abu Sayyaf and other possible security threats.
"Well, as of now, dahil mahina pa tayo, kailangan natin sila dahil kailangan natin ng ally, ally with a strong country," he said.
[Well, as of now, because our country is still weak, we still probably need them. We need a strong country for an ally]
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Fellow Tricksters, we are extremely pleased today to announce to our Counter-Strike fans that we have agreed on a new two year deal with the former Team Singularity squad.
The acquisition has been underway for quite some time and we are today proud to welcome one former Trickster along with four new faces! Formerly we would like to welcome among Tricked Esport's ranks:
Peter 'Inzta' Kragelund
Thomas 'Ryxxo' Tøttrup
Ismail 'refrezh' Ali
Mads 'console' Skovby
Lucas 'Lukki' Pilheden
The team made their first big splash this year, winning Copenhagen Games 2017 and reaching the Top 20 HLTV's world ranking. Today the team is placed at the 35th spot, and will be working hard to get Tricked back into the Top 30. After Allan 'AnJ' Jensen parted for NRG, the 5 players have spend a lot of time at Tricked's gaming house to figure out new roles and work on new strats, to come back stronger than they were before.
Our Sportsdirector Morten 'Phy' Jensen had this to share about the acquisition:
"I'm happy to see Peter 'Inzta' Kragelund back in Tricked, he has always been a pleasure working with and is a very dedicated player. We have tasted what it's like as an organization, having a Top 30 team in world, so that will be our main goal to get back in that position and not let it be just an aftertaste. This team has a very different approach to the game than our last, so we also have to try and align our training to get the best performance out of them. I don't think we have seen their true top level yet, and hopefully in our environment we can help them to grow stronger."
We also made a short video interview with the new boys directly from Waoo Headquaters which you can see here:
You can follow and support our players by reaching out to them on Twitter: @Inztacsgo, @ConsoleCS, @ryxxo96, @Lukkics and @refrezhCS!
#GETTRICKED
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In case you missed it, Hillary Clinton didn’t call the Trans-Pacific Partnership the “gold standard” of trade deals. I mean, she said it, but it was within the context of hoping that it would become that or something, according to the Clinton campaign. The video clip that Wolf Blitzer played for Clinton spokesperson Brian Fallon was pretty explicit that "hope" wasn’t an aspect being considered in her 2012 speech about the trade agreement in Australia. Yet, they have to spin something about this, as TPP is deeply unpopular with Democrats and their union supporters. It could be a magnet that Trump can use to siphon off support from disaffected Democrats, especially union members.
While the leadership of our nation’s largest unions might be all in for Clinton, their members are giving Trump a fair hearing—and some feared that defections could occur this November. To mitigate this possibility, Clinton needs to do everything she can to provide a buffer between herself and TPP, though with her dismal trustworthy numbers—it’s dubious to say whether this will work or not. Clinton was hoping TPP would be the “gold standard”…that’s just a lie, folks. Clinton’s shift on trade was accelerated during the 2016 primaries when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) shifted her to the left on this issue. In fact, TPP is just one hurdle for her to overcome. NAFTA is another trade agreement signed under the presidency of Bill Clinton that’s loathed by America’s unions. Trump hammered Clinton heavily over trade, saying she’s been in public life for three decades and didn’t do anything to stop the flow of American jobs leaving the country. Love him or hate him, Trump resonates in the Rust Belt.
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Public Lands A reluctant rebellion in the Utah desert For ATVers at Recapture Canyon, realpolitik meets out-of-town zeal.
REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
Update Dec. 18, 2015:
San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman was sentenced today to 10 days in jail, three years of probation and a $1,000 fine for organizing and participating in an ATV ride in an area that was closed to motorized vehicles in Recapture Canyon in 2014. Monte Wells, a local blogger who participated in the ride, was given five days in jail and three years of probation.
The sentences are piled on top of $96,000 in restitution the two must pay for damage done to archaeological sites during the ride. Both men were anything but defiant during the hearing. Lyman said that the protest was never intended to be an "anti-government rally," and that "there are things I truly, truly wish I had done differently." Wells also expressed regret.
The two were convicted of two federal misdemeanors each in May 2015.
May 13, 2014:
“We’ve had enough of you guys telling us what to do. I’m not a violent man, but I’m getting to the point where I’ll blow up bridges, ruins, and vehicles. We’re going to start a revolution. We’re going to get back our lands. We’re going to sabotage your vehicles. You had better start going out in twos and threes because we’re going to take care of you BLMers.”
— Calvin Black, then San Juan County Commissioner, to Bureau of Land Management officials in an April 12, 1979 meeting (as reported in HCN's "Reopening of the Western Frontier").
On paper, Phil Lyman, Commissioner of San Juan County, Utah, comes across a bit like a standard libertarian do-away-with-federal-land extremist. He speaks of “first principles,” praises Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who illegally grazes his cattle on public land, and he organized a May 10 ATV ride down a trail in Recapture Canyon, which is rich with archaeological sites and closed to motorized travel, to try to assert some local say over public lands.
Lyman’s plans for a protest ride were made public shortly after the fracas at Bundy's Bunkerville ranch, in which armed militia members faced down Bureau of Land Management officers trying to round up Bundy’s cows. The ride was then touted as the “next showdown” between the feds and Sagebrush Rebels, Western anti-federal activists who have been agitating over public land management issues since the 1970s. Lyman was cast as the Bundy character; ATVs would stand in for Bundy’s trespassing cattle.
As the pre-ride rally got underway under high, puffy clouds in a park in Blanding, which sits on the edge of Recapture Canyon, the plot seemed to unfold as expected. A cadre of gun-toting Cliven Bundy supporters, including Bundy’s 40-something year-old son Ryan, listened as a variety of speakers listed the injustices Blanding had allegedly suffered under the hands of the BLM, from the closure of the Recapture trail to ATVs, to a sweeping raid of pothunters’ homes in 2009 that led to the suicide of a much-loved local doctor, Jim Redd.
But leading man Lyman — who vaguely resembles the actor John C. Reilly — refused to adhere to the Sagebrush Rebel script. He expressed disdain for the BLM, sure, and even quoted political theorist Thomas Paine. But then he adopted a soothing tone, and pleaded with the 200 or so in the audience to forgo the civil disobedience portion of the protest. He urged the group not to ride down Recapture at all, and particularly not to violate the trail closure. “My fear is that this event is looking like conflict for the sake of conflict,” he said. “I think we do more harm than good to actually cross that line today. It takes a lot of courage to go down that road, it takes a lot of courage to say you know it’s going to do more damage than good for our cause today in the media.”
The Bunkerville crew let out a collective grumble of dismay. “If we don’t open it, then we might as well go home right now,” hollered Ryan Bundy, wearing a black cowboy hat. “To hell with the media,” yelled another. When an older local bemoaned the BLM “police state,” someone said, "You've got guns, too. By God, that's what they're for!"
As the crowd fired up their ATVs, bedecked with American and Gadsden flags, a rift revealed itself between the Nevada Sagebrush Rebels and the Utah ones, between the old-school, militant rebels and the more reluctant, newer strain.
***
San Juan County contains some of the most spectacular landscapes in the United States, maybe the world (as is evidenced by the huge number of foreign tourists who visit each year). It is bordered on the west by the Colorado River and Lake Powell; the San Juan River slices through its southern edge; countless canyons drop out of the Abajo mountains and snake their way through seas of slickrock. Much of the land has been inhabited by Native Americans for centuries. The county holds a higher concentration of Ancestral Puebloan dwellings than just about anywhere else, and is now home to the Utah Navajos, the White Mesa Utes (a branch of the Ute Mountain Utes) and the San Juan Paiutes. Native Americans make up about 50 percent of the county’s population of 15,000.
About a quarter of the roughly 8,000-square-mile county is Indian land, and much of the rest is managed by the BLM or the U.S. Forest Service. Sandwiched in between are a handful of small communities, surrounded by farms and ranches. Members of those communities, particularly Blanding and Monticello, have long butted heads with the feds and environmentalists over how the public land should be managed. Much of the action in Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang takes place in San Juan County, and the novel’s main antagonist, Bishop Love, is modeled on the late Calvin Black, a San Juan County Commissioner in the 60s, 70s and 80s, uranium miner, real estate tycoon and businessman, who is often referred to as the original Sagebrush Rebel.
The ideological underpinning of Black’s rebellion has been passed down to the current generation: Black resented what he called “federal colonialism,” the notion that lawmakers in Washington, D.C. can dictate what Utahns can or can’t do in their own back yards. Lyman and his ilk toe the same rhetorical line. But the context and goals have changed. Black’s primary beef with the feds was that they were purportedly closing off lands to uranium mining and other extractive industries and cattle grazing, which at the time comprised the livelihoods of Black and the county’s communities. Since then, the market has hurt those industries far more than have any governmental restrictions. The region has become far more dependent on tourism, which is in turn dependent on a landscape that hasn't been drilled, mined and grazed into a wasteland. Some of those tourists come to jeep or ride the thousands of miles of roads and trails in the county that remain open to motorized travel, giving today’s rebels some economic justification for their fights. But mostly, they seem to be fighting for motorized access as an end in itself.
And things can still get ugly. In 2012, the grassroots group Great Old Broads for Wilderness received threats when they held an event in San Juan County. Earlier that year, the BLM physically blocked a roadway in the county with a dirt berm; the county alleged that the closure was on a county road, and was illegal. After locals “outed” the BLM official allegedly responsible for the closure, someone tore around the official’s yard on an ATV, and a fellow student harassed the officer’s kid at school. In a county meeting that March, as the officer explained that the agency had blocked a user-created trail, not a county road, he was met with general hostility, even from a local sheriff’s deputy. After the officer asked that personal attacks on him and his property cease, Lyman responded: “That (personal attacks) should not happen … but I do understand how you might take something like that (the road closure) personally.” He then invoked the 2009 raids on pothunters and the Recapture issue, which, of course, is at the root of the May 10 protest.
***
Recapture Wash runs from the aspen- and conifer-covered slopes of the Abajo Mountains down into the high desert, where the waters are impounded in a reservoir, then continues southward to the San Juan River, hugging the east edge of Blanding on the way. It’s a wide-bottomed canyon that’s easy to access, and the mostly year-round water has made it a magnet for settlement for well over 1,000 years; archaeological sites are tucked beneath many an overhang along the canyon walls and dot the valley floor for much of its 30 or so miles. Most of it is on BLM land.
The canyon was long open to motorized travel, but over time the historic trail up the canyon bottom had fallen into disrepair or been inundated by beaver ponds. So in 2005 some locals went in and constructed a new trail (or maintained an old one, depending on whom you ask). The work damaged archaeological sites and raised a furor among conservationists, and two of the trail builders were ultimately fined $35,000. In 2007, the stretch of the Recapture trail was closed to motorized travel. Adding salt to the wound, the local BLM field office in 2008 issued a new management plan closing to motorized access all land that was not explicitly designated as open, a reversal of the previous policy. Though that left thousands of miles of roads and trails open to motorized use, it chafed many locals. “That’s like going from you’re innocent until proven guilty, to you’re guilty until proven innocent,” says Lyman.
Frustrated by what he calls years of “unconscionable” actions by the BLM, including road closures without local input and the heavy-handed approach to the pothunter crackdown, Lyman called a community meeting in late February. Residents talked a lot about the 2009 pothunter raids, when dozens of heavily armed federal officers came in and arrested Blanding residents, and about public land issues in general. Lyman told the crowd that the county needed to “send a message that we do live here, that this is not a remote, desolate place, but it’s actually our home.” Someone suggested using Recapture Canyon as a “stage” for the cause, and so the ride was devised as a general protest that reached beyond the trail, itself. “I have said a number of times,” wrote Lyman on his Facebook page, “this protest is not about Recapture, or about ATVs, it is about the jurisdictional creep of the federal government.”
That may sound like an unabashed Sagebrush Rebel speaking, but in interviews leading up to the protest Lyman took a relatively measured tone, on the one hand, while still implicitly inviting along the Bundy supporters — now under FBI investigation for aiming weapons at federal agents — on the other. At the pre-ride rally, when he was booed for suggesting that the ATVers obey the closure and stay out of Recapture, Lyman looked as if he wished he could have taken the invitation back. His fellow county commissioners had refused to back the ride, and Navajo and Hopi tribal members had condemned the ride for showing disrespect to Native culture and artifacts. Lyman’s planned act of civil disobedience clearly didn’t have universal local support. Now, the people who had flocked from miles away to support Lyman were displeased with him, too.
Though Lyman’s reticence to ride the trail was shared by Michael Swenson, from the Utah Shared Access Alliance, a motorized access advocacy organization, and other locals, Lyman ultimately caved, at least partially. After buzzing through Blanding's streets, a convoy of three- and four-wheelers, joined by some Jeeps and pickups and a couple dozen pedestrians, invaded the silence of Recapture Canyon. A handful of riders carried sidearms, and a few had assault rifles, including a burly young man wearing a "Venomous American" t-shirt who rode with one hand fingering the trigger, the other on his handlebars. The whirr of motors mingled with the intense aroma of sagebrush; a cloud of fine dust obscured the vehicles, and settled in mouths, ears, eyes, hair. Most of the convoy rolled right on past the closure sign without pause, and without a word from any of the many Sheriff’s deputies out in force to “keep the peace.” There wasn’t a uniformed BLM officer in sight, though the agency later said they were on hand, incognito, and that they will prosecute the offenders.
Lyman went beyond the closure, but stopped when he came to the end of a county road that follows the path of a water pipeline, thus avoiding a smaller and more sensitive trail, where the potential for impact to archaeological resources was far greater. But Bundy and others tore down the path, paying no heed to the sagebrush that had grown into it since the closure. Lyman watched them go, saying he wished they hadn’t. Perhaps he was thinking about what Stefnee Turk, of the San Juan Alliance, said during the rally: “I want to ask that we be respectful and responsible… the consequences, negative and positive, will reflect on the people of this community,” not on those who could just load up their trucks and go back home.
Back at the trailhead, a few locals were on hand to watch and show their support without traveling down the canyon. As a group of blonde kids passed with matching "Don't Tread on Me" t-shirts, it felt a bit as if we were watching a Fourth of July Parade. Looking on was a tall, weathered man with a long, thin ponytail and a vest emblazoned with a somewhat threatening-looking San Juan County Sagebrush Rebel logo on the back. As I snapped a photo, a voice said, “My brother was the original Sagebrush Rebel." I looked over to see an older woman, Marilyn Lyman, sitting in the shade of a scrub oak, a smile on her face. "Calvin Black," she added, when she saw the question in my eyes.
“We need another Calvin Black,” she said, “and Phil might be it.” (It turned out she was Phil’s aunt.) Somehow, I don't think Black would have stopped at road's end, and he would have been piloting a bulldozer, not an ATV. But then, the world has changed a lot since Black's days; I suppose it makes sense that the Sagebrush Rebels would change along with it.
Jonathan Thompson is a senior editor at High Country News. He tweets @jonnypeace.
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Someone got creative with their attic insulation!
Yes, those are foam peanuts and restaurant to-go boxes. Bill Box, a home inspector in our HERS rater class this week, found this in an attic on a recent inspection he did.
I suppose it's better than nothing, but standard insulation materials aren't that expensive. Even Grade III fiberglass batts in there would probably perform better.
The bigger issue here, though, is fire safety. All that foam would go up quickly if a spark from a poor wiring job got to it.
You gotta admire the person's creativity and efforts to recycle, but sometimes it's best to get some advice from a pro first. (Seems like I've said that before.)
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MASON, Ohio, July 24 (UPI) -- A judge has ruled that barking and hissing are not protected by the First Amendment.
Mason, Ohio, Judge Andrew Batsche ruled Friday that when Ryan Stephens barked and hissed at a police dog in April, he was not protected by a constitutional right, The Cincinnati Inquirer reported.
Stephens was petitioning for the dismissal of a charge that he had abused a police dog, claiming the law violates free speech and is too vague.
Jim Hardin, Stephens' lawyer, argued that his client had a First Amendment right to bark at the dog, making reference to an Athens, Ohio, case in which a defendant had similar charges dropped.
However, in the Athens case, the defendant was more than 30 feet away from the police dog when he barked at it, whereas Stephens was only a few inches away from the dog, Timber, who was in a police cruiser at the time.
"Even if there was a communicative value to the defendant's barking and hissing, it is clear that this ordinance is directed toward prohibited conduct and impairment of a First Amendment right is incidental," Batsche wrote.
Stephens claimed "the dog started it," police reports said.
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Wednesday on The Talk, Julie Chen proved that she's not so different from the numerous women in South Korea famous for trying to "Americanize" their faces when she revealed that, early on in her career, she got plastic surgery to make her look less Asian.
Chen said that when she was working at WDTN-TV in the '90s, she was told by her boss "you will never be on this anchor desk because you're Chinese." (Cool thought bro! Just wait for the lawsuit.) Desperate to get another job, Chen met with an agent who told her, "I cannot represent you unless you get plastic surgery to make your eyes look bigger." So she did it.
Here's Chen's Before and After:
"If you look at the After, the eyes are bigger, I look more alert...more expressive," says Chen. "I will say, after I had that done, the ball did roll for me. Which I struggle with, you know, wow. Did I give in to 'the man' and do this?"
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Chen's co-anchor Sheryl Underwood was quick to make it clear to Chen that she "didn't give in to 'the man.' Because you didn't know about giving in to 'the man'", implying that Chen couldn't truly know about racial pressures because she's not black. (Chen responded, "Fair enough!") "You didn't do that. You made a choice that was good for you and you have represented people, you've represented your race, you've represented women and your colleagues. Don't look back."
Sharon Osbourne, the queen of plastic surgery, agreed. When Chen first described getting the surgery, Osbourne exclaimed "Fabulous!" like she had discovered there was a sale on purple eye shadow at Sephora. Later she added, "I think it was the right thing to do."
Only Sara Gilbert showed any real indication that Chen's choice might not have been the best thing ever. "I think you were beautiful before, you are beautiful now and it's really whatever makes you happy."
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Fair enough!
[Gossip Cop]
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• Former commercial director to leave at end of next season • ‘I feel proud of my achievements in the role,’ says Ayre
Ian Ayre will step down as Liverpool chief executive when his contract ends in May 2017 with the owners, Fenway Sports Group, to start the search for a successor “in the near future”.
The decision is not connected to the criticism Ayre received from Liverpool fans regarding the planned ticket price of £77 for next season. The move has since been abandoned, with FSG issuing a public apology. The Guardian understands that, privately, the owners take full responsibility, viewing Ayre as being more in line with the supporters’ stance.
Ayre first informed FSG of his plan to leave the club in December, two months before the February protests which included the mass walk-out after 77 minutes of Liverpool’s Premier League match against Sunderland. Ayre joined the club as commercial director in 2007 and became CEO after FSG bought Liverpool from Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr three years later.
Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino embodies Kloppball and enthrals the Kop | Barney Ronay Read more
Ayre said: “The time and the commitment over what will be 10 years, I think not that you walk away from being responsible or committed but you reach a point where you feel do you want to make that level of commitment and hold that level of responsibility 24-7 forever. And if you don’t or if you reach a point where you start to question that, then for me not just as CEO but a Liverpool fan then that is the right time to be passing the baton to someone else to take up the mantle.
“In the remaining 15 months I have as CEO I will continue to provide FSG, Jürgen [Klopp], the players and all the brilliant staff at Liverpool ongoing strategic leadership and a smooth transition.”
Ayre believes Klopp has made a real connection with fans and the city. “Jürgen is absolutely fantastic. If I had three goals in my mind, it was the transformation of the commercial and operational side of the business, stadium and football.
“Jürgen is well capable but that is not detrimental to managers that went before. He is outstanding to work with, he is infectious and he has had an effect on this football club, the supporter base, the city, everything.
“Historically the most successful managers at Liverpool have cracked that nut. He has not been here long but he is showing brilliant signs. Talk about me being from Liverpool and what does that mean for the role? I think the most important thing is to have a connection not just with the fans but with the whole thing and Jürgen has got that very quickly.”
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Girl Meets World, the Disney Channel's highly anticipated sequel to ABC's fondly remembered '90s sitcom Boy Meets World, is reportedly moving forward with the original show's leading stars Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel.
Better known to fans as Cory Matthews and Topanga Lawrence, the two actors have signed on to reprise their respective roles in the upcoming show, according to TVLine.
Few details have been released so far, and the pilot is said to be "in the early stages of development," but according to a rough synopsis, the show is set to take place a decade after the finale of Boy Meets World and center around Cory and Topanga's 13-year-old daughter Riley.
Boy Meets World showrunner Michael Jacobs will also be reprising his role for the new series.
Neither Savage nor Fishel have yet to issue a comment on their official Twitter feeds.
[photo via Getty]
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In honor of the 50th anniversaries of the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins, alumni legends from both clubs will renew their rivalry in a special, cross-state contest on January 14, 2017 at 7 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Center.
Flyers season ticket members will enjoy an exclusive alumni game ticket pre-sale - and the opportunity to reserve their own seats - beginning tomorrow, September 8 at 11 a.m. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday, September 16 at 11 a.m. at PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
This official alumni game will feature representation from every era of Flyers Hockey and will stand as the largest gathering of alumni since the 2012 Winter Classic outdoor game at Citizens Bank Park. Flyers fans will get to see the return of some of the most popular players in franchise history, as well as the debut of first-time alumni players.
"This game is a celebration of the past 50 years of Flyers Hockey," said Brad Marsh, president of the Flyers Alumni Association. "To bring five decades' worth of players and fans together to share in the one thing we all have in common - fiercely representing the orange and black - that's not something that happens every day."
Flyers Alumni confirmed to play in the January game include:
60's / 70's
Forwards - Bob Clarke, Bill Barber, Reggie Leach, Bob Kelly, Orest Kindrachuk
Defense - Joe Watson, Jim Watson
80's
Forwards - Tim Kerr, Dave Poulin, Brian Propp, Murray Craven
Defense - Mark Howe, Brad Marsh, Kjell Samuelsson
90's
Forwards - Eric Lindros, John LeClair
Defense - Luke Richardson, Terry Carkner
00's
Forwards - Danny Briere, Simon Gagne
Defense - Eric Desjardins
Goaltender - Brian Boucher
Full alumni rosters for both teams, in addition to other special guests attending the game, will be announced closer to the game date.
50th Anniversary Season Ticket Memberships are available now and can be reserved by clicking HERE or calling 215-218-PUCK.
The Flyers-Penguins alumni game is presented by AAA.
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In her timely new book, Jill Leovy examines one of the most disturbing facts about life in America: that African-American males are, as she puts it, “just 6 percent of the country’s population but nearly 40 percent of those murdered.” Leovy describes neighborhoods steeped in pain: A mother, dressed in a baggy T‑shirt adorned with her murdered son’s picture, spends all day indoors, too terrified to step outside; the brother of a homicide victim purposely meanders through violent streets in the hopes that he too will meet the same fate; grieving parents all wear the same haunted expression, the empty stare that one police chaplain calls “homicide eyes.” Leovy’s focus is South Los Angeles, though similar stories abound in many of the nation’s poorest communities.
This is a world that most journalists never cover, and most of America never sees. Leovy, a reporter for The Los Angeles Times, argues that as a nation we have grown far too accepting of our high rate of homicide — all the yellow crime-scene tape and sidewalk candle memorials — in large part because the media has paid too little attention. In response, she started a blog at her newspaper in late 2006 called The Homicide Report, in which she attempted to cover every murder in Los Angeles County in a single year. It was a radical idea — at the time, her paper reported on only about 10 percent of homicides — and also a near-impossible task: In a 2008 article, Leovy acknowledged that the report “has merely skimmed a problem whose true depths couldn’t be conveyed.”
In “Ghettoside,” she tackles this “plague of murders,” as she calls it, with a book-length narrative that enables her to write about it with all the context and complexity it deserves. Her protagonist is John Skaggs, a Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective, whom she portrays as both compassionate and relentless: He gives his personal cellphone number to the mothers of men who’ve been murdered, and he treats every homicide case “like the hottest celebrity crime in town,” Leovy writes, no matter how poor and unknown the victim was. Despite his white skin, Skaggs manages to win the trust of the community.
The narrative arc of “Ghettoside” traces one of Skaggs’s homicide cases: the murder of Bryant Tennelle. (The book’s title comes from a Watts gang member’s shorthand for his neighborhood and others like it — a term local detectives adopt.) One evening in 2007, Bryant walks outside with a friend not far from his home, carrying a root beer and pushing his bicycle, when a stranger jumps out of a car, shoots him and escapes. Like so many murder victims, Bryant is young (just 18 years old) and nonwhite. But as it happens, he is also the son of Wallace Tennelle, a highly respected African-American detective with the Los Angeles police. Tennelle is the first detective to arrive at the crime scene, only to find his son splayed on the grass, his brain matter everywhere.
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The mother of a 3-day-old boy has been arrested for kidnapping. The abduction of Bentley Tuttle from Faith Regional Health Services in Norfolk prompted an Amber Alert that was canceled Monday morning when the newborn was found safe.
The Norfolk Police Department said Bentley was placed into the custody of the Department of Health and Human services on Friday because his mother, 34-year-old Lacee Tuttle, tested positive for methamphetamines and marijuana when he was born.
Lacee left Faith Regional Health Services with the baby and the Amber Alert was issued at around 10 p.m. Sunday. Hospital security video showed the boy's father leaving with a diaper bag and putting it in a minivan before getting into his car. Lacee then left with the baby and got in the minivan.
The vehicle was found west of Norfolk around 4:30 a.m. Monday, but Lacee and the child were not inside. Police say a family member in Pierce, Nebraska contacted them around 5:30 a.m. and officers found Lacee and her son, who has been returned to DHHS.
The boy's father was interviewed by police but was not arrested.
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Photo illustration by Natalie Matthews-Ramo. Photos by Screen Gems Television/CBS Television and Saul Loeb/Getty Images.
Donald Trump is a baby; a child. Like a child, he whines, seeks attention, and throws tantrums when he doesn’t get what he wants. It’s appropriate that the Access Hollywood tape takes place on a bus, since it captures Trump and Billy Bush acting like pubescent boys making their way to the seventh grade. Addressing her husband’s comments on that tape in a recent interview, Melania Trump dismissed the Trump-Bush conversation as “boy talk.” She joked that she sometimes feels like she has two children at home: Barron, age 10, and her husband, age 70.
While the tape cost Trump in the polls, and lost him endorsements from mainline Republicans, it doesn’t seem to have fazed his hardcore supporters, who don’t mind his petulant debate performances or flashes of paranoid anger, either. Why doesn’t any of this evidence of puerility hurt his image among his base? It’s because Trump is a boy child. He’s Dennis the Menace, Bart Simpson, the scamp with a chemistry set who will blow up your basement; he’s snips and snails and puppydog tails. In our culture, we have long associated boyishness with freedom and personal authenticity. A boy is a man whose essential male spirit has yet to be crushed by the world.
And who represents this “world”? Women. In the United States, we have a 200-year tradition of misogynist cultural thought that tells us that male desires (to be free, to be “natural”) are in direct opposition to female ones (to make rules and impose order). Responding to a PRRI/Atlantic poll, released earlier this month, 64 percent of Republicans in the sample thought “society” had become “too soft and feminine.” Forty-three percent agreed with the statement, “These days, society seems to punish men just for acting like men.”
Many of the Republican presidential candidate’s worst faults—unpreparedness, adultery, dirty language, unchecked anger—fail to perturb voters who respond to the mystique of the natural-born, rule-breaking white male. (Boys in minority groups are not forgiven their own childish wildness, demonstrating that this particular kind of male privilege is hardly available to all American men.) And this mystique is especially effective in this election. Trump harps on Hillary Clinton’s lawlessness, which he presents as self-interested and corrupt; his own rule-breaking, on the other hand, is clever (not paying taxes) and liberating (not adhering to social niceties). Clinton, that “nasty woman,” is perfectly cast as the female who pesters, punishes, and enforces political correctness.
The belief in the incompatibility of violent, honest, and vigorous manhood, which is at its purist form in boyhood, with mannerly, educated, well-governed civilization is threaded through our cultural history. James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales, published between 1823 and 1841, were among the first popular American novels. The Tales star Natty Bumppo, a man raised by Delaware Indians who chooses to live forever outside of civilized society—a boy for life. Bumppo straddles the boundary between white (civilized, in Cooper’s cosmology) and Native (free and vital, but “savage” and doomed). Despite his rough edges, Bumppo is well-educated and intelligent, but he can never marry, settle down, and have a family; he must continually flee west, looking for a place where progress has not yet reached.
American studies scholar Henry Nash Smith writes that Cooper’s Tales had such broad appeal because “the character was conceived in terms of the antithesis between nature and civilization, between freedom and law” that preoccupied early–19th-century Americans thinking about westward settlement. The contradiction has echoed through American popular culture ever since. In the mid–19th century, scholar Ann Douglas argues, women disempowered by the removal of all economic activity from the home to the marketplace collaborated in crafting a new literature of sentimental piety, which returned some cultural power to the housebound woman. But tales of the frontier continued to sell, and perhaps due to the dominance of morality in middle-class Victorian culture, some male writers, in a rebellious spirit, took the American boy—brash, intelligent, and outspoken—as their hero.
In his 1841 essay “Self-Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that boys exemplify “the healthy attitude of human nature.” “Independent, irresponsible, looking out from his corner on such people and facts as pass by, he tries and sentences them on their merits, in the swift, summary way of boys, as good, bad, interesting, silly, eloquent, troublesome,” Emerson writes. “He cumbers himself never about consequences, about interests; he gives an independent, genuine verdict.” For Emerson’s pure boy, growing into manhood was a process of being “clapped into jail by his consciousness,” being a “committed person” who is “watched by the sympathy or the hatred of hundreds, whose affections must now enter into his account.” The nurturing woman who had provided that boy’s dinner and bandaged his scraped knees was a constraint to be overcome. Men, he thought, should try to imagine themselves boys, roaming free of those “affections,” which would inevitably temper their innate authenticity.
Trump represents himself as one of the only people in American politics who has been able to retain this uncommitted, honest quality. Think of him on Howard Stern’s radio show, casually judging women’s bodies, or his inability—his unwillingness—to stay on message, routinely defying even the rules his own advisers try to impose to keep his campaign on course; he is not prisoner to his consciousness, or anyone’s. The candidate’s outspokenness is precious to his supporters, who see it as trustworthiness; as one, interviewed by CBS in September, explained, Trump “says the things that need to be said … about the truth that nobody else says.”
Photo illustration by Natalie Matthews-Ramo. Photo by Richard Ellis/Getty Images. Illustration by E. W. Kemble.
American literature took up the Emersonian free-spirited boy as hero in the late 19th century. One of the best stories in the genre was Mark Twain’s 1885 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. As critics have recognized since Leslie Fiedler’s compelling argument to this effect in 1948, Huck’s freedom is defined in opposition to a soul-crushing female world. In Chapter 1 of Twain’s book, Huck tells the story of how he came to be adopted by the Widow Douglas, who tries to “sivilize” him. In the Douglas house, Huck goes through a series of trials. Put in new clothes, “I couldn’t do nothing but sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up”; at the table, “you couldn’t go right to eating, but had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals”; after dinner, he can’t smoke, because the widow “said it was a mean practice and wasn’t clean.” Huck can’t be educated, and fidgets, puts his feet up, and stretches until his teacher, Miss Watson, starts telling him about “the bad place” to try to keep him in line. All the female constraints of the house wear away at him: manners, clothes, education, religion. The bulk of the book—the fun parts—takes place far away from the Widow Douglas’ grasp, out in the open, on the river, where Huck can put together his own kind of ad hoc, authentic domesticity with Jim.
Surrounding the iconic Huck was a larger genre of more forgettable “bad boy” fiction. Scholar Kenneth Kidd writes that the “bad boy” book—penned by male authors like Booth Tarkington, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, and William Dean Howells—set itself up in conscious opposition to domestic or sentimental fiction for children, which was often offered with instruction in mind. The “real” boys in these late–19th-century books were averse to kitchen, parlor, and school; they ran together in gangs, indulging in snowball fights and fantasizing about leaving home to live in the woods. Women—mothers and sisters—represent bonds to be slipped.
In all the recent conversation about what goes on in the “locker room,” men testifying about the bland or polite nature of conversations in their own locker rooms have taken the idea far too literally. In American life, “the locker room” stands in for any space where women aren’t present, or cannot influence the tone of the conversation. (The Howard Stern Show, for example.) The “bad boy” books were fun because they took place in those spaces. In invoking the “locker room,” Trump is actually harking back to the “No Girls Allowed” tree fort, perceived as the divine right of American boys.
If the bad-boy fiction of the late 19th century was a rebellion against Victorian domesticity, in the middle of the 20th century, the unencumbered and boyish beat, rebel, and playboy stood in opposition to midcentury suburban life, refusing the impending responsibilities of middle-class manhood out of principle. The narrator of Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel On the Road, Sal Paradise, watches as his friend Dean Moriarty stands in the middle of a San Francisco living room, interrogated by a group of women angry with him for deciding to leave his ex-wife, girlfriend, and newborn daughter to go to Italy. Galatea, a friend’s girlfriend, takes the lead, asking:
Dean, why do you act so foolish? … For years now you haven’t had any sense of responsibility for anyone … You have absolutely no regard for anybody but yourself and your damn kicks … It never occurs to you that life is serious and there are people trying to make something decent out of it instead of just goofing all the time.
Sal writes of the scene: “It wasn’t anything but a sewing circle … They all sat around looking at Dean with lowered and hating eyes.” While Dean stands outside, Sal says a final goodbye to the women, and looks outside the window at his friend, who’s “alone in the doorway, digging the street.” Dean, just a few minutes past the confrontation, is already free: “Bitterness, recriminations, advice, morality, sadness—everything was behind him, and ahead of him was the ragged and ecstatic joy of pure being.”
Sal and Dean exist to enjoy a freedom that’s particularly male. In her 1983 book The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight From Commitment, Barbara Ehrenreich argued that Sal, Dean, and the rest of the postwar male counterculture turned their collective backs on female expectations, of stability, commitment, and responsibility. These things, to postwar men rebelling against the social order, began to look extortionate and unfair, a drag on their own ability to express themselves and be free.
Sociologists and magazine writers debated the problem of the juvenile delinquent, and worried that such boys and young men were a sign of a sick society. But the countercultural rebel was also the romantic hero of movies like The Wild One or Rebel Without a Cause. These figures served (as scholar Leerom Medovoi argues) as vital reminders of the possibility of an alternative path in an era that worried constantly about social conformity. Trump’s recent celebration of being free of the “shackles” of the Republican Party’s expectations and the strictures that come with the endorsements of the orthodox, taps into this ’50s-style antiestablishment sentiment. “Free to fight for America the way I want to,” Trump roars into town on a motorcycle in his mind.
As was the case with the bad-boy fiction of the late 19th century, this strain of midcentury thought didn’t just see male freedom as a tonic for conformity; women, in their very presence, were also actively detrimental to the male quest for independence. This is the era that saw the 1943 publication of Philip Wylie’s Generation of Vipers, a book that blamed “Cinderella” wives and their transition into grasping, demanding mothers for everything wrong with the lives of American men. Being married to women, Wylie wrote, was a “huge, invisible burden” that a husband would “carry with him into eternity.” This burden was financial, but also a weight on the spirit.
Aging women in the United States, Wylie wrote with unconcealed disgust, were “all tongue and teat and razzmatazz,” full of
hot flashes, rage, infantilism, weeping, sentimentality, peculiar appetite, and all the ragged reticule of tricks, wooings, wiles, suborned fornications, slobby onanisms, indulgences, crochets, superstitions, phlegms, debilities, vapors, butterflies-in-the-belly, plaints, connivings, cries, malingerings, deceptions, visions, hallucinations, needlings and wheedlings …
Modern medicine had extended their lives beyond their reproductive usefulness, and technology had made them less necessary in the home. Now the Mom, a relic, was a huge drag; she kept men from doing what they pleased by sheer force of her own unpleasant and irrational demands. Trump’s caricature of “Crooked Hillary” owes something of a debt to this unflattering midcentury portrait of the menopausal woman. Hillary, like Wylie’s Mom, has been corrupted by her own will to power. She’s an unnatural figure, who should just go away so that everyone around her will be free of her “nastiness.”
Wylie’s point of view was not a fringe one: Generation of Vipers was reprinted 20 times between 1943 and 1954. Wylie was also a frequent contributor to Playboy magazine, founded in 1953, which was a visual counterargument to 1950s morality, but also contained within its pages many arguments about the unfair constraints women imposed on men in service of social order. Playboy argued for what amounted to an extension of boyhood. Men, the magazine argued, would be better off never marrying, spending all of their own money on themselves, and “renting” female companionship they could enjoy on a night-by-night basis, on their own terms. In 1962, the magazine ran a roundtable that examined the “womanization of America,” arguing that a society experiencing “a massive upsurge in feminine purchasing power, the kitchen-oriented redesigning of homes,” was one in which “blurred distinctions between the sexes” had made everyone unhappy. Men and women might be better off if they let men be men—or boys.
Playboy framed male irresponsibility and freedom as “natural”—the way men should be living. Editor Hugh Hefner complained that the confusion of male and female roles, which in their “normal” form “go back to the very beginning of time”—“the man goes out and kills a saber-toothed tiger while the woman stays at home and washes out the pots”—had resulted in mass unhappiness, as women “want to dominate the male.” In the 1960s, historian Erika Milam finds, the magazine used popular evolutionary theory to paint an animalistic vision of masculinity with the scientific gloss of truth. References to evolution in Playboy, Milam writes, “tended to ignore female contributions to the evolution of humanity,” emphasizing war and polygamy at the expense of cooperation and social stability.
Photo illustration by Natalie Matthews-Ramo. Photo by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images.
Trump’s multiple marriages to successively younger women is a kind of male freedom Playboy would approve. In a 1990 interview with the magazine, the real-estate scion’s ideas about the nature of marriage blended right in with this worldview. Trump blamed Harry Helmsley for giving Leona “too much leeway” (a reversal of the normal order of things), and sympathized with Mike Tyson, who had “all this crap hanging over his head.” (The “crap” was Robin Givens’ accusations of spousal abuse.) For his part, Hugh Hefner celebrated Trump’s nomination in June, declaring it “a sexual revolution in the Republican Party.”
The association between maleness, boyishness, and a healthy freedom from a supposedly stifling social order persists today. Men looking for a diet regimen go paleo, which lets them regulate their bodies not by imposing womanly calorie-counting rules, but by casting off “modern” forms of food, like bread and sugar (long associated with domesticity and womanhood), and returning to a more “authentic” primal past. Silicon Valley entrepreneurs live by the mantra “Move fast and break shit,” drink Soylent in order to be free of the burden of cooking, and decry the ridiculous social imperative to have a kitchen in their homes. Preppers imagine a world in which might will once again make right, as it did in our pre-civilization past, and on the playground. Crusaders against “helicopter parents,” like the father interviewed recently in the New York Times Magazine who turned his house and yard into a rules-free extreme playground, emphasize the harm overanxious mothers are doing to boys who aren’t allowed to roam free.
As the Trump campaign shambles toward its end, the mystique of the rebellious, authentic, precious American boy props up what’s left of it. Of all the interpretive frameworks that have been used to try to explain Donald Trump’s success, this one is the most universally damning. The love of boyishness, and distaste for the civilizing, feminine strictures that bring boyishness in line, runs deep. It’s one of our favorite ideas, and it’s not going away anytime soon. Conservatives have spent months distancing themselves from Trump; liberals have condemned his candidacy from the start, declaring that they could never, ever understand his appeal. But this aspect of Trumpism isn’t foreign to any of us. It’s the raft we float on.
Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 campaign.
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The rise in so-called insider attacks by rogue Afghan security forces has highlighted the perils of joint operations in counter-insurgency. But former US soldier David Donovan, who fought in Vietnam, says lessons learnt long ago have been forgotten.
If you could feel the heat and sweat of the tropics. If you could hear the noise of battle and sense the fears.
If you could put yourself on the other side of the world where you are the selectee of your government to advise and help a unit of foreign fighters defend their village.
And if you and that unit are at this moment in combat but they are being slow to react, you might come close to understanding how I felt one day in 1969 in the Mekong delta of Vietnam.
The enemy were in a nearby tree-line. They had taken us under fire, and bullets were cutting leaves from the trees.
We already had wounded - one man shot in the foot, another in the side. Everyone had gone to ground and the Vietnamese officer, my counterpart, was down behind a small dike with some of his soldiers. He was fixed in place, not taking the lead.
I was an American infantry officer there to provide assistance when possible and leadership when necessary. Frustrated at our slow reaction, I ran toward my counterpart intent on getting him to lead his men. But as I made my way, a background programme had already begun running in my mind. It asked, "What are you doing here? Is this ever going to mean anything?"
About the author David Donovan is the pen name of scientist Terry T Turner, of the University of Virginia. He served in the US army from 1967 to 1970, and saw frontline action in Vietnam. He has written a number of books about his experiences there. Find out more about David Donovan
I was in Vietnam because the United States had decided to assist an ally in fighting an insurgency stimulated and supplied from across international boundaries. The rights and wrongs of our intervention were a matter of vigorous debate, but that debate was not mine.
I was an Army officer trained in counter-insurgency and I was in Vietnam to lead a small advisory team in a remote village near the Cambodian border. We were doing counter-insurgency focused on two things - improving village security and encouraging local development.
Improving security meant improving the fighting skills of the local militia. They were poorly equipped and poorly led, neither of which helped morale. Improving their fighting skills meant going into combat with them, fighting beside them and learning first hand what it means to fight a guerrilla war. Encouraging development meant helping local officials initiate projects meant to improve community life.
The main enemies to security were the local guerrillas.
The main enemy to development was a corrupt bureaucracy.
We finally made our assault that day back in 1969. When my counterpart proved hesitant, I knew the leadership had fallen to me. I signalled to my US teammate on the operation that we were moving out. Then he and I, waving and shouting at the others, began a manoeuvre against the enemy's tree-line.
The unit followed our lead, but our delay had allowed most of the enemy to slip away. It was not an uncommon result, the reasons for which are complex and range from the military to the religious and everything in between. That is why counter-insurgency is such a complicated task.
Image caption Joint patrols between Afghan and Nato-led forces have been scaled back
So you might imagine my concern during the past decade as my country has made its way into two counter-insurgency wars at the same time and has bumped first into one problem then another. Our ineptness at the enterprise has been frustrating because the difficulties reported have seemed so predictable.
Operations are in transition between counter-insurgency and a training and mentoring role. Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence correspondent Nato curbs Afghan joint patrols
I know what it means to do counter-insurgency. I know what it means to do war in the village, and I know from the outside looking in how large US units, simply because of their size and American nature, can perturb a local culture and make friends into enemies without really meaning to.
And counter-insurgency is not won by firepower alone. It is won by a government attracting the loyalty of its own people.
If Vietnam taught us anything, it is that we can help an ally do that, but we cannot do the job by ourselves. The host government has to be interested and active in winning that basic loyalty.
Those were my thoughts in 2003, 2004 and 2005 when we had American, British and other allied soldiers fighting wars in two different countries where even the people claiming to be our friends wanted us gone as soon as possible.
It didn't help that our counter-insurgency programmes seemed to lack focus. It was maddening. The US military had had decades of counter-insurgency experience in Asia, Latin America and even Europe. Where were the lessons-learned manuals? Had no-one read them? Was no-one paying attention?
Image caption Donovan arrived in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam in the spring of 1969
In 1985, I had written a book entitled Once a Warrior King about my experiences in Vietnam. On the basis of it alone, in 2006 I was invited to attend an Army conference where then Lieutenant General David Petraeus was commanding. The conference was on the training of indigenous forces by US advisors, but the related issue of counter-insurgency also came up in discussions.
Broadcasting House David Donovan contributed this viewpoint to BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House
Listen via the programme website, or download the podcast
The conference was interesting but disheartening. It became clear from the presentations that many of the lessons learned in Vietnam and elsewhere had been lost from our institutional memory.
General Petraeus acknowledged that and said the loss had occurred in the 1990s as the US military had been rebalanced after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Those old lessons were still having to be relearned in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said. That was hard for former advisors to hear. Lessons and principles that should have been learned, partly from our own sweat and blood, had been discarded like a pair of old shoes.
Image caption Gen Petraeus became the top US commander in Afghanistan
So what are those lessons? First, ask questions before you get involved - and hear the answers unfiltered by political agendas. From the US perspective, the leading question ought to be, what are the American interests in the host country and are they sufficiently vital to require American action?
South Vietnam eventually fell to North Vietnam, but with no consequences to us other than the high price we had paid to help a friend who in some ways would not be helped.
Another question - what is the level of internal support for the host government? A narrowly-supported and entrenched oligarchy does not bode well for a counter-insurgency effort. On the other hand, entrenched and unpopular does not mean irremediable.
So the next key question is, what is the host government's willingness and ability to make the changes necessary for winning the loyalty of its people? Without that, no counter-insurgency programme will succeed - and this is an important point because it is aimed at preventing Saigon Syndrome, that condition wherein the strong are pulled down by the weak.
Image caption Donovan joined an isolated, five-man US team operating in Tram Chim village
The heaviest drag downward is government corruption. It is a cancer that destroys from within. In Vietnam, corruption meant, among other things, that officials would buy or sell government jobs, peddle influence or divert procurements for their own profit. Such practices devalue a government in the eyes of its own people and in that way actually feed the insurgency.
So what has come of our more recent counter-insurgency efforts? Not much, I fear. Our military is now out of Iraq, but in that stew of government obliquity and secular animosities, no claims of success can be made until we know what kind of government survives in the long run. The possibilities there remain troubling.
Afghan 'green-on-blue' attacks 2007 - 2 attacks, 2 Isaf soldiers dead
- 2 attacks, 2 Isaf soldiers dead 2008 - 2 attacks, 2 dead
- 2 attacks, 2 dead 2009 - 6 attacks, 10 dead
- 6 attacks, 10 dead 2010 - 6 attacks, 20 dead
- 6 attacks, 20 dead 2011 - 21 attacks, 35 dead
- 21 attacks, 35 dead 2012 (so far) - 36 attacks, 51 dead Source: International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) What lies behind insider attacks?
In Afghanistan, the war continues - but that is a place of even lower promise. The Afghan government remains famously corrupt and appears either unwilling or unable to make changes.
Some allied officials have tried to dismiss corruption as a cultural matter and in that way deflect calls for action. That is a mistake. Ignoring corruption now only means the Afghan government will suffer for it later. Its people will remain disaffected while its enemy operates with two strong motivations - religious fervour and ethnic xenophobia.
The mullahs in the hills and valleys declaim against our presence today exactly as they did against British forces a century and a half ago.
I hope I am wrong, but I fear things will not turn out well.
It is hard to escape the adage that the main thing we learn from history is that we don't learn much from history - and those old questions from 1969 come to mind again.
What are we doing? Is it ever going to mean anything?
Listen to David Donovan read his essay on the BBC Radio 4 Broadcasting House programme website, or download the podcast.
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Why do I accept donations on twitch?
I get asked this pretty often so I thought I should write the answer down so I can show people who ask again in the future
as you may know, I have 'donations' turned on for both youtube and twitch. What this allows a user to do is donate anywhere between 3 dollars to A BILLION DOLLARS, if they feel doing so is justified.
There is pretty much zero perks for doing this. On twitch you get some sub icons and get to view the streams ad free, but that's about it. The only other perk is my gratitude. If you leave a message with your donation on twitch it pops up on screen and I will most likely thank you personally.
The easiest answer to the question "Why did you turn on donations?" is simply because; People kept asking me too.
I streamed for about a year before adding an option for donate to the stream and I only recently opened donations on youtube in the last 60 days.
Each time I streamed though people asked if i would ever turn donations on. After a while I just kind of gave in. I'm glad I did because people seem to enjoy the stream so much that I'm making a reasonable amount of money from streaming. This, of course, encourages me to stream more often. I went from streaming 2 nights a week to 5, because my time was being well compensated for. Its awesome. :)
A lot of people say "well, you don't need the money" and I suppose that's true. I do still recieve a considerable amount from youtube and this is more than enough to live on. Its even enough to keep up with my steady and quite steep medical bills.
But the money goes to a good cause anyways. Often I donate some of it to other streams. Sometimes I donate some to other gamers. Some goes to living expenses. But most of it goes to savings.
I never know when this 'youtube' bubble will burst and streaming on twitch and the donations I have recieved will be my only source of income. I also never know when the stroke or heart attack or accident that will keep me from being able to do my job will happen, either. I want to make sure that if these things ever happen both my health, my family, and my home are safe. I think this is a reasonable want.
But most importantly to me, it keeps me streaming and making videos. :) Whereas maybe 5% of my audience ever donates or provides income, the other 95% get to watch the show and videos for free.
So while we are very comfortable and you NEVER need to help me pay the bills, the donations you provide are creating security for myself and the people I love. It is truly appreciated. <3
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DSCL Open 2015 announced!
VanCaspel
Jetzt geht’s los! Today we’re thrilled to announce the DSCL Open of 2015! The biggest international StarCraft tournament of the Netherlands is back, with the qualifiers starting at the start of May and with big plans for a crowdfunded prize pool. Check out this page for all info about the tournament, and to sign up right away!
As always we’re also planning to host a large scale event for the finals of the DSCL Open. Write down June 20th and 21st in your agenda’s: that’s when the DSCL Open 2015 Finals Event will be held! More details on tickets and location will be announced as soon as possible.
Who do you think will take the title this year? Will uThermal extend his reign, or will Harstem reclaim what was his? Or will Ret continue his winning spree, or even: will we see a foreign champion? You’ll want to tune in to every last broadcast of this year’s DSCL Open to find out :).
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Scaramucci Slams Leaks, Hints Another White House Staff Shake-up Imminent (VIDEO)
White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci blamed Obama holdovers for a series of leaks that have plagued the White House since Trump took office.
Speaking to Fox News Wednesday morning, Scaramucci hinted at another staff shake-up as he works to get the leaks under control.
“Listen, we have to crack down on leaks on a number of different fronts,” Scaramucci said.
“There seems to be some holdovers, political holdovers from the Obama administration that are not helping,” he added.
“I certainly have the full responsibility in the comms shop, which I do believe will be corrected shortly.”
Scaramucci said it’s impossible to get the leaks down to zero, but that they must be greatly reduced.
“People are suggesting I’m going to try to get the leaks down to zero, that is absolutely impossible in Washington, I’m learning a little about this town, but what I do want to have happen is people who report to me, if there are senior people in the administration trying to get them to leak information on each other, we’re getting that to stop right now.”
Scaramucci said that people in D.C. are nice to your face then stab you in the back to which he said, “I’m more of a front-stabbing person.”
As TGP previously reported, less than a week after Scaramucci became White House Communications Director, heads already rolled. Michael Short, long suspected to be one of the leakers, was fired Tuesday (although he claims he resigned) from his role as assistant press secretary in the White House Communications Office.
Every Obama holdover should be fired ASAP!
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
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What happens when it's revealed that the man who killed 49 queer people -- most of them queer people of color -- and wounded 53 others at a queer nightclub might have been a longtime patron of that club and that he was spotted on gay sex apps?
One of the most horrific and heartbreaking moments in modern American history threatens to become even more horrific and heartbreaking.
Suddenly, instead of simply (or not so simply) blaming the mass shooting on a dizzyingly noxious cocktail of hate, extremism, mental illness and offensively lax gun laws, we now must also grapple with the gruesome and all-too-familiar specter of internalized homophobia materializing to haunt this tragedy.
We don't know if the shooter was queer (though, that didn't stop some media outlets from immediately and irresponsibly sensationalizing that claim) and we may never know any of the secrets that may have constantly skittered that long dark hallway between his heart and his head. But, sadly, if he was, it wouldn't be surprising. A study published in the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that "participants who reported their heterosexuality despite having hidden same-sex desires were also the most likely to show hostility toward gay individuals, including self-reported anti-gay attitudes, endorsement of anti-gay policies and discrimination such as supporting harsher punishments for homosexuals."
To put it more plainly: the things that we hate the most about others are often the things that we hate the most about ourselves and that hate can bring disastrous consequences. This isn't any kind of brilliantly new or incandescent truth -- it's one of the oldest, saddest stories in the raggedy book that houses our shared human history. But perhaps merely being reminded of it can offer us a way to begin to reimagine ourselves and our culture in what feels like the endless (and endlessly suffocating) dusk of Sunday's massacre.
So what do we do now? How do we mobilize in the face of hate -- from others or from ourselves? No matter what the shooter's sexuality might have been, we should take this opportunity to once again turn our attention to the dangers and devastation of the closet and band together to explode it once and for all. To anyone who can come out, I humbly suggest you do exactly that. To anyone who is out or loves someone who is or comes out, offer your support.
Homophobia -- internalized or otherwise -- is a product of a society that teaches and prizes fear, shame and secrecy in regards to queer identities and coming out instantaneously exorcizes all three of those soul-sucking demons. The sooner we all stand up and say, "this is exactly who I am -- and what?" the sooner we change the way we collectively understand what it means to be -- and who might be -- queer, the sooner we begin to vanquish the bigotry leveled against queer people, especially if that bigotry is inspired by one's own (however clandestine or unrealized) sexuality.
It saddens me that, in 2016, after all of our struggles and all of our sacrifices and all of our stunning, bittersweet victories, too many people still remain barricaded in the closet for fear of what might happen if they venture out. Some of these fears are valid and understandable -- the loss of a roof over their heads, the loss of their jobs, the literal loss of their lives. To those who cannot safely come out, I say: don't. Stay where you are until you can escape your circumstances -- if ever -- and then join us. We'll continue to fight for you as we wait here to welcome you on the other side. But for everyone else, however uncomfortable it might make you, however agonizing that vulnerability -- or even the thought of that vulnerability -- may be, if you can come out, you must. You owe it to yourself and, what's more, you owe it to the rest of us to help reprogram how the rest of the world thinks about us.
As I write this I'm already having premonitions of the comments awaiting me on social media in response to this piece. I know many people will disagree with me and claim that someone else's sexual orientation is none of my business or that it's "private" and -- perhaps most shocking to me -- that coming out doesn't matter. But it does matter. We've seen time and time again that being exactly who we are without explanation or apology is the greatest weapon we have in changing people's minds about who we are and what we're capable of.
And, as I've written before, sexual orientation shouldn't be private. No heterosexual person ever says, "I'm not going to say I'm straight because that's private." That literally never happens. You know why? Because there's no shame in being straight. Just like any other characteristic straight people are born with -- eye color, height, having a photographic memory -- it's just another part of who they are. The only time sexual orientation is suddenly supposed to be private or people say, "We have a right to privacy!" is when we're talking about queer sexuality. And why do people so ferociously cling to that privacy? Because they're ashamed or they're scared of what will happen if people truly know them and that's rooted in our society's claim that our queerness makes us immoral or unnatural or evil. But we're not. And by defending the closet, however well meaning your intentions are, you're cosigning all of those lies and that isn't OK. It's no longer OK.
Enough.
Enough covering our tracks. Enough covering each other's tracks. Enough of the making excuses and refusing to pick up where our queer forefathers and foremothers and foremother-fathers left off in their efforts to free us from the dread of simply being who we are. How dare we. Exactly who do we think we are to turn our backs on them?
I know it's hard. All of this is hard. Just existing in this country as a queer person is exhausting on any given day of any given week, much less on any day following June 12, 2016. I've spent the last three days in a seemingly never-ending state of nausea from my seemingly never-ending vacillating between rage and grief. I've cried in front of more colleagues and more TV screens and more strangers in the last week than all of the other weeks of my life combined.
Coming out is hard but we still need to do it. Every single fucking day. Even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts. It's how we move forward. It's how we fight to ensure that fewer and fewer people, no matter what their sexual orientation may be, see queerness -- their own or others -- as a danger or a disease. It's how we honor those we've lost -- this week and last week and last year and ten years ago and on and on all the way back to the beginning to when all of us were innocent and unafraid and then, finally, we can begin again.
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On Friday, an Ohio man was convicted of a hate crime — namely, insinuating he was going to “shoot up” his gym if managers didn’t banish gay people from the facilities.
He then gruffly assaulted a member of the Columbus fitness center solely because of his sexuality.
41-year-old Michael D. Smith jumped off his treadmill and charged at a man he suspected was gay, 22-year-old Michael D. Harris. Smith ranted and raved, insisting he couldn’t possibly change in the locker room “because all the f*gs are in there.”
He allegedly kept repeating that he wished he could kill “all the gays.”
During the scuffle, he had to be restrained by gym members.
The authorities weren’t told of the incident until three days later — after the gym manager emailed Smith to inform him that his membership had been terminated due to behavior.
Smith wrote back in two separate emails that were filled with profanity and homophobic slurs.
After that, he was arrested.
According to The Columbus Dispatch, he’s now been convicted of ethnic intimidation, “a ‘seldom-used charge’ in the city code.”
The charge requires proof that the defendant assaulted or menaced someone due to the victim’s age, race, religion or sexual orientation.
Smith allegedly went into Cal Fitness on two separate occasions in August, threatening to “shoot up” the gym if management didn’t follow his instructions.
In court, Smith’s attorney argued that he’d been “hit on” by members of the gym, and also ogled in the showers.
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Oracle CEO Larry Ellison Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The wealthy in America are creating their own personal stimulus. Special dividends are coming thick and fast. Oracle’s Larry Ellison and the Walton family of Wal-Mart Stores are among the noteworthy beneficiaries. Payouts have potentially saved recipients billions in taxes so far. Uncle Sam might have put that to work fixing infrastructure.
So far this quarter, U.S. companies have pledged more than $21 billion in one-off dividends – and that’s not including early payment of regular ones. Shareholders receiving them will be able to book the gains at the 15 percent tax rate currently in place rather than the worst-case 39.6 percent scheduled to go into effect next year if President Barack Obama and Congress don’t agree on an alternative rate.
Enterprises with big family shareholdings feature prominently in the special dividend ranks. Individual owners may be particularly attuned to the risk of higher taxes. Take Ellison. Oracle is paying three quarters’ worth of next year’s dividends this month. The boss could reap up to $50 million more after tax from the payouts, depending where tax rates actually end up. He would have no trouble spending it – he recently bought a Hawaiian island for 10 times that amount, according to reported estimates.
Walton family members, who hold a combined 51 percent stake of giant retailer Wal-Mart, could save as much as $166 million with the shift of a single quarterly payment from January to this month. Private equity firm KKR, which holds a 20 percent stake in HCA, could net $44 million in tax savings from the hospital operator’s one-time payout this month.
If this quarter’s special dividends alone were instead paid out next year with the highest feasible tax rates in force, the U.S. government’s coffers would be at least $5 billion heavier in a few months’ time. That’s already about one-tenth of what Obama wants earmarked for spending on much needed infrastructure upgrades across the United States.
Well spent, that seems of greater long-term national benefit than anything billionaire shareholders are likely to do with their cash. Of course, as long as they can afford it, companies are doing all shareholders a legitimate favor by paying cash out before a tax rise. And Washington can blame its own dysfunction for concern that tax rates might rise so sharply. But despite calls from corporate America for the government to right its finances, it seems some of the richest are still happy first to take care of their own pocketbooks.
Read more at Reuters Breakingviews.
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While he refuses to marry, I’m having tantrums of unexplained anger. Can this impasse be resolved, or do we need to split up? Annalisa Barbieri advises a reader
My boyfriend does not want to marry me. I am 30 and he is 35. We have been in an amazing relationship for almost two years. We moved in together after 11 months of dating and this relationship is the happiest part of my life. He is a very good man, supportive, understanding, caring and thoughtful about my needs.
The problem is that I have started to have tantrums of unexplained anger, or disappointment towards him for very silly reasons. I have tried to get rid of that and understand the cause. I analysed the occasions on which this happens and it is when our friends get married; after a cheesy movie with a happy marriage ending; whenever I am introduced as his girlfriend (and not wife) – this paralyses me.
He has told me that he does not want to ever get married. He was a coward not to tell me this news in the beginning of our relationship; he told me about seven months in, when I was fully and irreversibly in love with him. I said he should have told me earlier and he replied: “Let’s decide now in that case. Do you want to be with me, have family but no marriage?” He also said that I should be very certain because he doesn’t want me to change my mind in 10 years.
We need to have a frank discussion about marriage | Tauriq Moosa Read more
I know that it is not me personally he doesn’t want to marry, but how he feels generally. He says there is no difference to him between living together or being married. In that case, I said, if there’s no difference to you, let’s get married because it’s different for me!
But he says no. All around he has happy examples of relationships – his parents have been together for 40 years and are very happy, as well as more and more of his friends. We plan to start for a baby soon.
I ask him “Would you rather be without me than with me married?” and he either runs away from an answer/conversation or, lately, he has started to respond “No! It is you who would rather leave me than to be with me as we are now.”
I do not know what to do. Is there any other way around this apart from breaking up?
If something matters (and this counts for both of you) – be it being married, not being married, having children, not having children, living in the country v town, etc – then it matters. Whether you compromise on that, and by how much, is a matter of choice, but if you compromise too much, you sow the seed of resentment that grows into a plant of bitter leaves that you will be picking off and chewing daily. You want to get married, your partner does not. Both valid points. If you can’t reach common ground, the problem is not so much that you can’t agree on the subject (here: marriage). It’s that, ultimately, neither wants to compromise for the other. Also understandable, but it says something, doesn’t it?
I went to Dr David Hewison, a couples psychoanalytic psychotherapist (bpc.org.uk), with your problem. His first question to you is: “What makes you so angry, where is the rage coming from? This is about a control thing, for each of you, and neither is prepared to give up that control.”
It’s really not that uncommon for one partner in a couple to want to move on to the “next stage” before the other. But what seems to have happened here is that you are both so busy defending your own point of view, so busy digging your heels in, that neither can look calmly at the other’s.
I agree that if he says it makes no difference, why not get married to please you? But it clearly does make a difference to him, despite what you say.
You need to cut your boyfriend some slack that he didn’t talk about marriage in the first few months
I asked Hewison about your boyfriend’s parents’ marriage, and if that might have any bearing. He thinks that “good parental marriages can be a good example to follow or sometimes you want to react against them”. He wonders what your boyfriend’s relationship with his mother is like. If she is domineering, he may be worried about marriage. Hewison also wonders about your experiences. “Is marriage a statement for you? Did you have a male figure in your life (maybe your father?) who let you down? Is marriage standing in for something?” In other words, is marriage a seal on a relationship that makes it feel safer for you?”
You need to cut your boyfriend some slack that he didn’t talk about marriage in the first few months, that’s really understandable until you’re more serious about one another. Equally, did you bring it up? It’s hardly early dating talk. Hewison thinks that “the marriage subject carries with it all sorts of wishes and demands about the relationship. And it’s a sign of other things to work out.”
What to do? Hewison says a couple can withstand one of them not getting what they want (it happens frequently in relationships), “If the other really understands and sympathises with [the other’s feelings].”
Forcing the issue hasn’t moved things along. You need to step back, stop talking about it for a bit and think: “Is this relationship enough to fulfil me even if we don’t get married?”
“If,” says Hewison, “marriage really matters to you, but your boyfriend still doesn’t want to, then that says something.”
You are both entitled to feel the way you do, but how much you compromise is up to you.
Your problems solved
Contact Annalisa Barbieri, The Guardian, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, or email [email protected]. Annalisa regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence.
Follow Annalisa on Twitter @AnnalisaB
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Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass. talks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 14, 2010, prior to a news conference to discuss his recent trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg) AP Photo/Harry Hamburg
Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts announced today that he will travel to Afghanistan to fulfill his annual National Guard training requirements.
Brown, elected to the Senate in a 2010 special election, is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Massachusetts Army National Guard. He said he requested to conduct his training requirements in Afghanistan, following in the tradition of other lawmakers who have completed their military service requirements overseas.
"Doing so will help me to better understand our ongoing mission in that country, and provide me first-hand experience for my duties on the Senate Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs committees," he said in a statement.
Brown, 51, will serve as a Judge Advocate -- the military equivalent of a lawyer. Brownls office does not know the exact date of his deployment, but it will come this summer, according to Boston CBS affiliate WBZ.
Brown has never been deployed in a combat zone, according to the Boston Globe.
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New York City FC will take an unprecedented step in local pro-soccer with their matches airing on WFAN radio — and now, we know the voices who will drive the matches home.
Broadcasters Tom Kolker, Glenn Crooks and Roberto Abramowitz will be handling announce duties on the season. Kolker will provide play-by-play for the English broadcasts alongside Crooks, who will handle in-game analysis and color commentary. The Spanish broadcasts, which will air on WADO 1280, will be led by veteran soccer voice, Abramowitz.
The first match of the new season kicks off on March 8th when NYCFC take on fellow expansion side Orlando City on the road. NYCFC’s home opener follows on March 15th at Yankee Stadium against Eastern Conference Final winners, the New England Revolution.
Here are the bios for the new announce team:
Tom Kolker Bio
For the past three years, Kolker has been a play-by-play voice of Georgetown University, as well as a play-by-play voice for the Big East Digital Network and Barclays Center “Brooklyn Hoops” college basketball broadcast. In addition, Kolker is the Broadcast Manager for the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center, where he produces the Brooklyn Nets Radio broadcast and is a liaison between the Nets and their broadcasting partner, YES Network. A native of Washington, D.C. Kolker graduated from The George Washington University in 2005.
Glenn Crooks Bio
Glenn spent 14-years as head coach for women’s soccer at Rutgers University where he trained two Olympians, Carli Lloyd (Gold Medal, USA) and Jonelle Filigno (Bronze Medal, Canada). In all, Glenn served as a head coach on the D-1 collegiate level for 22 years where he started programs at St. Peter’s University and Long Island University-Brooklyn. In addition, he coached 10 years at his alma mater, Ridge High School, NJ, where he is a member of the Athletic Hall of Fame. Currently, he is a Head Coach at the Players Development Academy and the New Jersey Olympic Development Program. A US Soccer “B” license coach, he has been a soccer commentator for the Big Ten Network, FIOS1 Sports, and Sky Blue FC. He is a contributing writer for Soccer News Net and Our Game Magazine and is also the Coach Advisor for Polar Electro based in Lake Success, NY.
Roberto Abramowitz Bio
He’s been covering sports, especially soccer, for almost 35 years in New York City either on TV, radio, the web or print. He started his love affair for the “beautiful sport” while growing up in Mexico City. Roberto was hired as the color commentator (in English) for the New York Arrows indoor soccer team for their first season in 1978. Roberto later switched to print as a sports reporter for the new Spanish language daily, Noticias del Mundo in 1980. In 1983 he was hired away by El Diario/La Prensa as Sports Editor, all the while covering the New York Cosmos as a beat reporter in their heyday. For over 20 years Roberto has voiced a multitude of sports as a play-by-play announcer or as a color commentator including NFL (Sunday and Monday Night Football) NBA and WNBA basketball, NHL hockey and international soccer among others. At the same time (1994) in New York he became part of the broadcast crew of the Spanish language broadcasts of the New York Knicks on Radio WADO and MSG via SAP. In 2012 Roberto was named sole announcer for Thursday Night Football broadcasts in Spanish (via SAP) on NFL Network and CBS (2014). Roberto also launched one of the most popular sports websites in the world as the founding Editor-in-Chief of www.espndeportes.com in 2001.
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>>>>Just wanted to update this quickly and say I'm happy it got on Equestria Daily! www.equestriadaily.com/2014/01… It's #7! Thanks to whoever submitted! Also, I seem to have had a sudden influx of watchers! I don't know why, but thank you all so much, new watchers! And many welcomes! <<<<<<<<
__________________________________
Yes, ponies. Yes you are.
I haven't touched my tablet since last upload. I had to put a lot of effort to summon up will to finish this. Time for more artwork everybody! It's been forever since I made something! Or at least, it sure feels like forever.I haven't touched my tablet since last upload. I had to put a lot of effort to summon up will to finish this.
Aurora-Chiaro Anyway, idea for this came from a conversation I had with my dear. I got into a discussion about shipping with her, so I decided to do something with RariShy, which is actually my favorite shipping. I think it's really sweet.
And I had flashbacks (PTSD style actually, lol) to a super old picture she made way back of Rarity and Fluttershy wearing scarves. So I decided to draw these two wearing scarves! At least, at first. Then it kinda went off and became it's own thing. But I think it's cute anyway.
Also, Coco Pommell is there! Because I really liked Coco from Rarity Takes Manehattan, she was a really nice pony. And she looks adorable.
Till my next work friends! Anyway, I hope you all like this! I spent some good effort into this, so I really hope you all like it, lovelies!Till my next work friends!
MLP belongs to Hasbro
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Adam Savader, a former intern for Paul Ryan, was arrested by the FBI and charged in a weird sexual extortion scheme:
A 21-year-old Great Neck, New York man was charged in a criminal complaint in the Eastern District of Michigan with Internet extortion and cyber stalking, announced United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade. . . .
According to the affidavit, from May 2012 through February 2013, Adam Paul Savader sent anonymous text messages using Google Voice numbers to 15 women stating that he had nude photographs of the women and threatening to distribute the nude photographs to the women’s friends and family members unless the women sent him more nude photographs of themselves. Savader sent some of the victims links to a photo-sharing website where nude pictures of the victims had been posted.
The case was brought to the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation by detectives from the Ann Arbor Police Department, who received a complaint from a victim stating that she had received threatening messages from a person who had illegally obtained nude photographs of her from her e-mail account. Detectives with the Ann Arbor P.D. partnered with FBI agents to investigate the case and together identified 15 victims in Detroit; Washington, D.C.; and Long Island, New York.
If convicted on these charges, Savader faces a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.
Via Adam Steinbaugh who explain the details:
[A] recently-unsealed complaint in the Eastern District of Michigan . . . alleges, essentially, that a New York man — Adam Paul Savader — used a variety of Google Voice numbers to text women under the monicker “John Smith.” ”Smith” told the women that he had nude photos of them (or, in one victim’s case, her mother) and that he would post more online if they did not send more nude photos. He allegedly threatened to send the photos to their family members, sorority sisters, and the Republican National Committee, telling one that everyone in “D.C” would see the nude photos. The unidentified victims apparently attended the same college as Savader.
On Twitter, Adam Savader brags that he was “Formerly @PRyan’s sole intern on @MittRomney’s campaign and a @newtgingrich campaign staffer” and notes that his website is savader.com. The whois registration for the site lists his abode as being the same Great Neck, NY address as the address affiliated with the IP address used to register many of the online accounts allegedly used in the sextortion plot.
Savader’s Twitter account has not yet been deleted.
UPDATE: Reading the complaint — and trust me, it’s a must-read — I’m wondering: Do all college girls now have naked photos online?
ALL WOMEN ON THE INTERNET: I have nude photos of you that I will send to your friends if you don’t send me more! theothermccain.com/2013/04/23/pau… — Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) April 24, 2013
Hey, I could have a great future as a Republican intern . . .
UPDATE II: Welcome, Twitchy readers! It turns out, because I know everybody, I’m just one degree of separation from Adam Savader:
@rsmccain met him and we have mutual friends, we’re all in shock right now. He seemed awkward, but we had no clue just how creepy he was! — Courtney Mattison (@CourtMattison) April 24, 2013
There is a lesson here about the perils of the digital age: Anything you put on the Web — even uploaded to private accounts — can be accessed, if someone with enough skills really wants to get to it bad enough. And naked pictures? Yeah, don’t do those. Ever. Because that boyfriend you’re sending them to may not be your boyfriend forever.
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Nearly half of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group, according to classified government documents obtained by The Intercept.
Of the 680,000 people caught up in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database—a watchlist of “known or suspected terrorists” that is shared with local law enforcement agencies, private contractors, and foreign governments—more than 40 percent are described by the government as having “no recognized terrorist group affiliation.” That category—280,000 people—dwarfs the number of watchlisted people suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined.
The documents, obtained from a source in the intelligence community, also reveal that the Obama Administration has presided over an unprecedented expansion of the terrorist screening system. Since taking office, Obama has boosted the number of people on the no fly list more than ten-fold, to an all-time high of 47,000—surpassing the number of people barred from flying under George W. Bush.
“If everything is terrorism, then nothing is terrorism,” says David Gomez, a former senior FBI special agent. The watchlisting system, he adds, is “revving out of control.”
The classified documents were prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center, the lead agency for tracking individuals with suspected links to international terrorism. Stamped “SECRET” and “NOFORN” (indicating they are not to be shared with foreign governments), they offer the most complete numerical picture of the watchlisting system to date. Among the revelations:
• The second-highest concentration of people designated as “known or suspected terrorists” by the government is in Dearborn, Mich.—a city of 96,000 that has the largest percentage of Arab-American residents in the country.
• The government adds names to its databases, or adds information on existing subjects, at a rate of 900 records each day.
• The CIA uses a previously unknown program, code-named Hydra, to secretly access databases maintained by foreign countries and extract data to add to the watchlists.
A U.S. counterterrorism official familiar with watchlisting data told The Intercept that as of November 2013, there were approximately 700,000 people in the Terrorist Screening Database, or TSDB, but declined to provide the current numbers. Last month, the Associated Press, citing federal court filings by government lawyers, reported that there have been 1.5 million names added to the watchlist over the past five years. The government official told The Intercept that was a misinterpretation of the data. “The list has grown somewhat since that time, but is nowhere near the 1.5 million figure cited in recent news reports,” he said. He added that the statistics cited by the Associated Press do not just include nominations of individuals, but also bits of intelligence or biographical information obtained on watchlisted persons.
When U.S. officials refer to “the watchlist,” they typically mean the TSDB, an unclassified pool of information shared across the intelligence community and the military, as well as local law enforcement, foreign governments, and private contractors. According to the government’s watchlisting guidelines, published by The Intercept last month, officials don’t need “concrete facts” or “irrefutable evidence” to secretly place someone on the list—only a vague and elastic standard of “reasonable suspicion.”
“You need some fact-basis to say a guy is a terrorist, that you know to a probable-cause standard that he is a terrorist,” says Gomez, the former FBI agent. “Then I say, ‘Build as big a file as you can on him.’ But if you just suspect that somebody is a terrorist? Not so much.”
The National Counterterrorism Center did not respond to questions about its terrorist screening system. Instead, in a statement, it praised the watchlisting system as a “critical layer in our counterrorism defenses” and described it as superior to the pre-9/11 process for tracking threats, which relied on lists that were “typed or hand-written in card catalogues and ledgers.” The White House declined to comment.
A milestone
Most people placed on the government’s watchlist begin in a larger, classified system known as the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE). The TIDE database actually allows for targeting people based on far less evidence than the already lax standards used for placing people on the watchlist. A more expansive—and invasive—database, TIDE’s information is shared across the U.S. intelligence community, as well as with commando units from the Special Operations Command and with domestic agencies such as the New York City Police Department.
In the summer of 2013, officials celebrated what one classified document prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center refers to as “a milestone”—boosting the number of people in the TIDE database to a total of one million, up from half a million four years earlier.
The document credits that historic achievement to the Directorate of Terrorist Identities (DTI), a secretive and virtually unknown U.S. counterterrorism unit responsible for maintaining TIDE. “This number is a testament to DTI’s hard work and dedication over the past 2.5 years,” the document declares.
The number is also a testament to the Obama administration’s intensified collection of personal information on individuals with suspected links to terrorism. In 2006, CBS News obtained a copy of the no fly list and reported that it included 44,000 names, including Bolivian President Evo Morales and the head of Lebanon’s parliament. Faced with a widespread public backlash, the government cut the list down to just 4,000 names by late 2009.
The next year, after the so-called “underwear bomber” tried to bring down a commercial airliner bound for Detroit, Obama loosened the criteria for adding people to the no fly list. The impact was immediate. Since 2010, the classified documents note, the National Counterterrorism Center has “created more than 430,000 terrorism-related person records” while deleting only 50,000 people “whose nexus to terrorism was refuted or did not meet current watchlisting criteria.” The documents reveal that more than 240 TIDE “nominations” are now processed each day.
“You might as well have a blue wand and just pretend there’s magic in it, because that’s what we’re doing with this—pretending that it works,” says former FBI agent Michael German, now a fellow at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. “These agencies see terrorism as a winning card for them. They get more resources. They know that they can wave that card around and the American public will be very afraid and Congress and the courts will allow them to get away with whatever they’re doing under the national security umbrella.”
Watchlisting by the numbers
In the documents, the government emphasizes that it seeks to add only as many people to the TIDE list “as are necessary for our nation’s counterterrorism mission.” With hundreds of new nominations coming in every day, the numbers provide only a momentary snapshot of a watchlist system that is in constant motion.
An August 2013 slide from the National Counterterrorism Center called “TIDE By The Numbers” lays out the scope of the Obama administration’s watchlisting system, and those it is targeting. According to the document, which notes that the numbers are “approximate,” 680,000 people have been watchlisted, with another 320,000 monitored in the larger TIDE database. As of August 2013, 5,000 Americans were on the watchlist while another 15,800 were targeted in TIDE.
Among the other revelations in the documents:
• 16,000 people, including 1,200 Americans, have been classified as “selectees” who are targeted for enhanced screenings at airports and border crossings.
• There are 611,000 men on the main terrorist watchlist and 39,000 women.
• The top “nominating agencies” responsible for placing people on the government’s watchlists are: the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
• The top five U.S. cities represented on the main watchlist for “known or suspected terrorists” are New York; Dearborn, Mich.; Houston; San Diego; and Chicago. At 96,000 residents, Dearborn is much smaller than the other cities in the top five, suggesting that its significant Muslim population—40 percent of its population is of Arab descent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau—has been disproportionately targeted for watchlisting. Residents and civil liberties advocates havefrequently argued the Muslim, Arab and Sikh communities in and around Dearborn are unfairly targeted by invasive law enforcement probes, unlawful profiling, and racism.
“To my knowledge, there have been no Muslims in Dearborn who have committed acts of terrorism against our country,” Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told The Intercept. Walid added that the high concentration of Dearborn residents in the watchlisting system “just confirms the type of engagement the government has with our community—as seeing us as perpetual suspects.”
The documents also offer a glimpse into which groups the government is targeting in its counterterrorism mission. The groups with the largest number of targeted people on the main terrorism watchlist—aside from “no recognized terrorist group affiliation”—are al Qaeda in Iraq (73,189), the Taliban (62,794), and al Qaeda (50,446). Those are followed by Hamas (21,913) and Hezbollah (21,199).
Although the Obama administration has repeatedly asserted that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula poses the most significant external terrorist threat to the United States, the 8,211 people identified as being tied to the group actually represent the smallest category on the list of the top ten recognized terrorist organizations. AQAP is outnumbered by people suspected of ties to the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network (12,491), the Colombia-based FARC (11,275,) and the Somalia-based al-Shabab (11,547).
The documents also reveal that as of last year, the U.S. had designated 3,200 people as “known or suspected terrorists” associated with the war in Syria. Among them were 715 Europeans and Canadians, as well as 41 Americans. Matt Olsen, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, recently claimed that there are more than 12,000 foreign fighters in Syria, including more than 1,000 Westerners and roughly 100 Americans.
Biometric data
According to the documents, the government does much more than simply stop watchlisted people at airports. It also covertly collects and analyzes a wide range of personal information about those individuals –including facial images, fingerprints, and iris scans.
In the aftermath of last year’s Boston Marathon bombing, the Directorate of Terrorist Identities began an aggressive program to collect biometric data and other information on all Americans on the TIDE list. “This project includes record by record research of each person in relevant Department of State and [intelligence community] databases, as well as bulk data requests for information,” the documents note.
The DTI also worked on the subsequent Chicago Marathon, performing “deep dives” for biometric and other data on people in the Midwest whose names were on the TIDE list. In the process, the directorate pulled the TIDE records of every person with an Illinois, Indiana, or Wisconsin driver license.
DTI’s efforts in Boston and Chicago are part of a broader push to obtain biometric information on the more than one million people targeted in its secret database. This includes hundreds of thousands of people who are not watchlisted. In 2013, the directorate’s Biometric Analysis Branch (BAB) launched an initiative to obtain biometric data from driver’s license records across the country. At least 15 states and the District of Columbia are working with the directorate to facilitate access to facial images from driver’s licenses. In fiscal year 2013, 2,400 such images were provided for inclusion in the secret TIDE database.
According to the documents, BAB offers its “unique skill of facial identification support” to a “broad customer base.” Last year its analysts produced more than 290 reports for other government entities, including the CIA, the New York City Police Department, and the military’s elite Special Operations Command.
All told, the classified documents show, the government compiles strikingly detailed dossiers of data on individuals who have been swept up in its databases. Though some of the documents obtained by The Intercept offer conflicting information on how much biometric data the government collects,the most detailed report shows that:
• In 2013, the main terrorism database included more than 860,000 biometric files on 144,000 people.
• The database contains more than a half a million facial images, nearly a quarter of a million fingerprints and 70,000 iris scans.
• The government maintains biometric data on people that it hasn’t identified–TIDE contains 1,800 “BUPs,” or “biometrics of unknown persons.”
• In a single year, the government expanded its collection of “non-traditional” biometric data, including dramatic increases in handwriting samples (32 percent), signatures (52 percent), scars, marks, and tattoos (70 percent), and DNA strands (90 percent).
“We’re getting into Minority Report territory when being friends with the wrong person can mean the government puts you in a database and adds DMV photos, iris scans, and face recognition technology to track you secretly and without your knowledge,” says Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project. “The fact that this information can be shared with agencies from the CIA to the NYPD, which are not known for protecting civil liberties, brings us closer to an invasive and rights-violating government surveillance society at home and abroad.”
The DTI also goes far beyond accessing information from state driver’s licenses. In managing the main terrorism database, the directorate coordinates with the CIA and the National Media Exploitation Center, a Pentagon wing responsible for analyzing and disseminating “paper documents, electronic media, videotapes, audiotapes, and electronic equipment” seized abroad in military or intelligence operations.
By sharing information with the military, the National Counterterrorism Center asserts, the DTI is able to “obtain additional data fusion points by accessing and exploiting NMEC data holdings.” In return, the directorate “provides NMEC with a classified biometric search capability against TIDE through automated and manual facial identification support.”
The DTI also harvests information from CIA sources, including a secret database called CINEMA— short for CIA Information Needs Management—and a secret CIA program called “Hydra,” which utilizes “clandestinely acquired foreign government information” to enhance the quality of “select populations” in TIDE.
In 2013, DTI and the CIA ran a “proof of concept” for Hydra, using Pakistan as a guinea pig. The DTI provided the CIA with a list of 555 Pakistanis in the TIDE database. After inputting the names into Hydra, the CIA “vetted these names against Pakistani Passports” and provided biographic and biometric identifiers to the DTI.
Pleased with its initial success, the government plans to expand its clandestine data-mining operation. “Future initiatives,” the documents note, “will include additional targeted countries.” The CIA declined to comment on the program.
Josh Begley contributed to this story.
Photo credits: Obama: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images; Crowd: Mario Tama/Getty Images; Iris Scan: Mauricio Lima/AFP/Getty Images
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Picking a VPN service is a daunting task as we start 2019 with a lot of uncertainties when it comes to online privacy and security. With hundreds of different VPN providers out there, choosing the right one means striking the right balance between services, ease of use and pricing.
Those looking for a solid VPN service will obviously want to do their due diligence to find the best match. If that’s you – you’ve come to the right place.
We've surveyed the market and collected our pick of the best VPNs out there, all sorted into different categories. Our guide will also be constantly be updated with all the latest information, providing all the information you need to know.
The best offshore VPN for privacy and unblocking
Number of servers: 2000+ | Server locations: 148 | IP addresses: 30,000 | Maximum devices supported: 3
EXCLUSIVE - SAVE 49% 12 months $6.67 /mth 6 months $9.99 /mth 1 month $12.95 /mth ? Visit Site at Express VPN
Admirable scope of quality apps
Great customer support
Plenty of servers
Only supports a maximum of three devices
ExpressVPN has long been recognised as one of the world's top VPN providers, with fast speeds and solid customer support.
With 148 locations in 94 countries and available through plenty of clients, it’s the best services out there. Regardless of your platform, you will find a native client, as ExpressVPN offers clients for Mac, Windows, Linux, but also iOS and Android, and even BlackBerry (albeit limited to a handful of models).
ExpressVPN also offers routers with custom firmware and VPN browser extensions, making it an all-around great service.
A wide variety of simple and useful web-based tutorials will make sure you're up and running in no time. This includes P2P support, a kill switch and generally good performance.
The only negative here is that only three connections can be supported at the same time, and it's hardly the cheapest service out there. There's no demo, but there is a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can choose from these packages:
Security is its middle name
Number of servers: 5064 | Server locations: 62 | IP addresses: N/A | Maximum devices supported: 6
36 months $2.99 /mth 12 months $6.99 /mth 1 month $11.95 /mth ? Visit Site at NordVPN
Intuitive clients for both desktop and mobile
Supports up to six devices
Strong performance
Unclear session logging policy
One would expect such a powerful solution to be located in one of the world’s largest tech hubs, but NordVPN is located in Central America.
Its key advantages are a large pool of servers (5,000+), and more than 60 locations around the globe. It can support up to six devices at the same time, and the data gets a 2048-bit encryption. Features like DNS leak protection, killswitch, dedicated IP address and being able to pay with cryptocurrency are also very worth mentioning.
Even when it came to the most important part – performance – NordVPN stood strong. Its speeds for short connections were commendable, long-term ones – delicious. The downside is the privacy policy – its stance on session logging is somewhat unclear. IT does state a ‘no logs policy’, though.
There are three different packs to choose from, so here is what’s on offer:
Great for P2P and torrenting
Number of servers: 1000+ | Server locations: 60+ | IP addresses: 40000+ | Maximum devices supported: 10
12 months $6.49 /mth 3 months $8.99 /mth 1 month $10 /mth ? Visit Site at IPVanish VPN
No traffic logs
High download speeds
Adjustable software
Lacks free trial
For IPVanish, its key selling point is the quality of service.
The company claims to offer “the world’s fastest VPN”, with more than 40,000 shared IPs, almost a thousand VPN servers spread across 60 countries, unlimited P2P traffic, five connections and lo logs.
If the price is your main concern you might want to look elsewhere, but in other case, IPVanish is a serious contender with fast speeds, plenty locations to choose from and a well-built client (even though its latest Windows client could use a bit more work – it suffers from the odd network issue).
Again, it's not the cheapest product out there, but with this service you get what you pay for, and there is a seven-day money back guarantee.
Awesome solution for online browsing
Number of servers: 2500+ | Server locations: 25 | IP addresses: N/A | Maximum devices supported: 5
24 months $2.99 /mth 1 month $12.99 /mth ? Visit Site at Hotspot Shield
Affordable plans
Speedy conenctions
Offers seven days for free
Lacks on the server front
Hotspot Shield Elite is another of the market's top offerings, coming with all the necessities at a competitive price and the ability to purchase a lifetime license. Private browsing, “access all content”, and up to five simultaneous devices – those are the aces up Hotspot Shield’s sleeves.
Performance-wise it lacks for nothing, there’s an ever so slight increase in latency, with both upload and download speeds a bit faster after being connected.
What we’d like to see is more freedom for configurations, and more locations. However, with such high speeds and competitive prices, there’s very little room to feel unsatisfied. At the end of the day, there is a seven-day trial for everyone to see for themselves.
Just as with other VPN services, the two-year subscription is the best overall offer:
· Two-year plan ($2.99 / month, saves you 76 per cent) - $71.76
· Six-month plan ($8.99 / month) - $53.94
· Monthly plan - $12.99 / month
Rich clients and awesome configurability
Number of servers: 3000+ | Server locations: 60+ | IP addresses: N/A | Maximum devices supported: 7
36 months $2.75 /mth 6 months $5.25 /mth 1 month $12.99 /mth ? Visit Site at CyberGhost
Advanced features
Solid performance
Supports torrents
Interface needs work
With multiple clients, rich with different features, it’s no wonder this VPN service handles more than 10 million users. CyberGhost covers Microsoft’s and Apple’s operating systems, but also iOS and Android. The interface is not the best out there and could definitely use some work, but these disadvantages are easily overshadowed by the awesome features this VPN offers.
One feature in particular, which stands out, is the option of kicking off the VPN when specific apps are launched.
Torrent users will be happy to hear that this service supports them on most of its servers. Performance-wise it is solid.
It offers a free plan that comes with a few caveats, including just one device at a time, being a bit slower than the commercial version, and ads. Data usage is unlimited, and for those looking to buy, they have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
The service offers four different plans:
· 18 months (best buy, $2.75 / month) - $49.50
· 6 months - $4.99 / month
· Monthly plan - $11.99 / month
Easy to use VPN
Number of servers: ~1,000 | Server locations: 20+ | IP addresses: N/A | Maximum devices supported: 5
12 months $4.99 /mth 1 month $9.99 /mth ? Visit Site at TunnelBear
Great user experience
Plenty of clients to choose from
Solid privacy policy
Long-distance connections can slow down
Whenever someone mentions TunnelBear, ease of use is the first thing that comes to mind. This Canada-based VPN offers extremely good user experience, but also plenty of clients to choose from on both desktop and mobile platforms.
Its hassle-free approach is clearly visible from the company's website – the language is as simple as it can be. Experts, on the other hand, might not enjoy not being able to get access to all the nuts and bolts of the clients. So if you're a beginner – this one is for you.
TunnelBear comes with servers in more than 20 countries and offers up to five connections at the same time, which is pretty good, all things considered. It has strong privacy measures and clear policies.
It also performed really well in our tests, even though long-distance connections seem to drop in speed.
There is a free plan limiting you to 500MB per month. Paid plans offer unlimited data and are fairly cheap, including:
· One-year plan (best buy, $5 / month, saves you 50 per cent) - $59.99
· Monthly plan - $9.99 / month
A VPN which gives you unlimited connections
Number of servers: 300+ | Server locations: 50+ | IP addresses: N/A | Maximum devices supported: Unlimited
12 months $3.75 /mth 1 month $4.50 /mth ? Visit Site at Windscribe
Unlimited simultaneous connections
Great free plan
Tough privacy policy
Could be speedier
This service offers four native clients – one for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. Be advised that the Android one is still new and could be a bit unstable, so proceed at your own risk. There are also solidly built browser add-ons.
Windscribe's strongest selling point is that it offers unlimited connections with its commercial plans, so it can cover everything, regardless of how many machines you throw at it.
With a clear-cut privacy policy and a simple, powerful Windows client, it’s easy to see why Windscribe made it to this list. Performance might disappoint you a bit as we can only describe it as average.
Still, it offers a free plan with 10GB monthly data (albeit for one device only).
The Pro plan offers unlimited data, and can be bought either as a monthly, yearly or a biennial plan:
· Yearly offer (best buy, $4.08 / month, saves you 55 per cent) - $49
· Monthly offer - $9.00
Great choice for those looking for security
Number of servers: 700+ | Server locations: 70+ | IP addresses: 200,000+ | Maximum devices supported: 3-5
12 months $5 /mth 12 months $6.67 /mth 1 month $9.95 /mth ? Visit Site at VyprVPN
High performance
Competitive pricing
Easy to use interface
Monthly plans can be expensive
VyprVPN looks to stand out from the crowd with a useful unlimited data usage offering.
The service is also based in Switzerland, meaning it can benefit from the country’s advanced privacy laws. There are more than 70 server locations around the world, and comes with cool features like auto-connect or a killswitch.
Clients are very intuitive, especially the Windows offering, and the service includes VyprDNS and the Chameleon protocol to provide extra security.
There are no refunds, but there is a three-day trial. When it comes to subscribing, you can choose either a monthly or an annual plan, be it either Basic or Premium.
Here is what it offers:
· Basic yearly plan ($2.72 / month) - $32.63
· Premium yearly plan ($3.59 / month] - $43.13
Image Credit: Flickr / Mike MacKenzie
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Both senators say Malacañang should look into the decline – although still not substantial – in the President's actual trust ratings in just 100 days into office
Published 5:44 PM, October 12, 2016
MANILA, Philippines – Trust in President Rodrigo remains high but is slowly declining.
This is what Senators Leila de Lima and Panfilo Lacson said on Wednesday, October 12, on the 86% trust and approval ratings of President Rodrigo Duterte, based on the results of the latest survey of Pulse Asia Research, Incorporated released that day.
De Lima, Duterte’s fiercest critic, said the details of the survey show that there is a decline in his public trust numbers which were at 91% when he entered office in July.
Citing election results, De Lima said Duterte’s numbers slid among Class D and E. From 92% in July among Class D and E, his ratings slipped to 85% and 88%, respectively.
“Generally, mataas pa, excellent pa, dahil nga strong leadership ang pinapakita ng Pangulo (Generally it is still high, excellent, because of the strong leadership shown by the President),” De Lima told reporters.
“Sa akin, isa yan sa pinaka-significant na pinapakita ng latest survey na 'yan. Kumbaga, bumaba pa rin from the 91% survey rating as of July. So bumababa na siya. There’s some erosion already in the trust rating of the President. But hindi pa ganoon ka-substantial,” she added.
(For me, that's one of the most signficant points shown by that latest survey. His rating went down from the 91% survey rating in July. So it's going down. There's some erosion already in the trust rating of the President. But it's not yet that substantial.)
The decline, however, is statistically negligible considering the 3-percentage-point error margin of the survey. The difference has to be more than 6 percentage points to be statistically significant.
De Lima then urged Malacañang to take into consideration the President’s ratings decline, as well as the results of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey on public opinion on the spate of killings linked to the government's war on drugs. While the campaign got a net satisfaction rating of +76, 71% of the respondents said they want the suspects not to be killed.
“So dapat mag-isip din sila. The Palace also has to consider that. Malaking punto po 'yun, 'yung ganoon na mataas 'yung disapproval doon sa mga killings (They have to think about that too. It's a big point, the high disapproval on killings)," they said.
Killings as cause?
De Lima attributed the President's lower trust rating to the extrajudicial killings, and again cited the SWS survey results.
“Pero kung hihimayin 'nyo po yung mga specifics ng resulta, hindi ho ba may nagpapakita na mayroong substantial segments, especially Classes D and E, na nagdi-disapprove ng extrajudicial killings. Merong repugnance ngayon on extrajudicial killings,” she added.
(If you scrutinize the specific results, there were substantial segments, especially in Classes D and E, who disapprove of extrajudicial killings. There is a repugnance now on extrajudicial killings.)
De Lima and Duterte have long been at odds over the issue of human rights. When she chaired the Commission on Human Rights and Duterte was Davao City mayor, De Lima launched a probe into Duterte's alleged involvement in the Davao Death Squad.
This went on when she was justice secretary. When she became senator, she drew the ire of the President when she led the Senate investigation into the spate of extrajudicial killings under Duterte amid his fight against illegal drugs. (READ: De Lima witness: Duterte 'ordered' killings in Davao)
Duterte's allies, in return, launched a counter-probe at the House of Representatives, which looked into De Lima's alleged role in the proliferation of illegal drugs in the national penitentiary when she was justice secretary.
Study numbers
Senator Lacson, for his part, shared De Lima’s sentiment, saying Malacañang should look more into the trust ratings decline, even if not yet "substantial."
“Tama 'yan. Mataas pa rin pero ang dapat pag-aralan bakit may slide, bakit bumababa. At kung magpapatuloy 'yan, kailan sila magigising para i-correct?” Lacson told reporters.
(That's right. It's still high but they should study why there was a slide, why did it go down? And if it continues, when will they wake up to correct it?)
“Si Pangulong Aquino tatandaan natin tumaas pa sa 1st quarter, parang na-fortify o na-improve ang goodwill sa kanya (Remember that President Aquino's ratings went up in the 1st quarter, so it's like goodwill towards him was fortified)," he said.
Aside from Pulse Asia, Lacson said the SWS indicated a slight decline in the President’s satisfaction rating – from +79 in June to +76 in October.
This, however, is considered not significant, considering the SWS October poll's 3-percentage-point margin of error.
“Obviously may kamaliang nangyayari kasi consistent, two survey firms nagsasabing may pagbaba, di nga lang substantial. At NCR, trendsetter ang NCR pagdating sa perception na laro. So dapat pagaralang mabuti especially ng mga adviser ng Pangulo,” he added.
(Obviously, something wrong is happening because it's consistent, two survey firms are saying that it's going down, though not yet substantial. NCR is a trendsetter in terms of the game of perception. So it should be studied well especially by the President's advisers.)
But the senator was quick to point out Duterte’s numbers may still change, as it is only the first 100 days of his administration. he said. – Rappler.com
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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) revived his political career on Tuesday, edging out Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.) to keep his seat in the U.S. Senate.
Polling had suggested a narrow but consistent lead for Rubio going into Election Day, and the ultimate vote tallies gave Rubio a comfortable margin of victory in the hotly contested swing state.
Aside from the presidential race, it’s possible no electoral contest in 2016 was uglier or dumber than the Florida Senate campaign. Rubio initially said he didn’t even want the job, pledging to retire from electoral politics if he did not win the presidency. But his presidential run proved a debacle in which Rubio was reduced to suggestively mocking the size of Donald Trump’s hands in an effort to salvage his poll numbers.
Rubio withdrew from the Republican primary in March, after winning only one state ― Minnesota ― and getting blown out by Trump in Florida. Rubio reconsidered his Senate ambitions in June, after discussions with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and others, and announced his newfound intent to hold on to his Senate seat.
A September survey from Public Policy Polling gave Rubio just a 35 percent job approval rating, while 45 percent of voters said they disapproved of him. But he faced a remarkably weak challenger in Murphy, a former Mitt Romney donor who entered politics as a Democrat in 2012 to successfully challenge then-Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.).
Murphy’s time in office has been marred by his support for unwinding consumer protections in the mortgage market, deregulating large regional banks, undermining new rules to rein in payday lenders and helping car dealers overcharge customers of color.
Murphy’s viability as a candidate has largely depended on the largesse of his father, a wealthy Florida construction magnate who has contributed over $1 million to super PACs supporting his son and over $180,000 to his son’s official campaign coffers, according to the Miami Herald. Murphy’s path to the Democratic nomination was eased by the public meltdown of his chief primary challenger, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), amid a messy divorce in which Grayson’s ex-wife accused him of abuse and Grayson accused her of bigamy. A congressional ethics investigation into Grayson’s offshore hedge fund also cast a shadow over the primary.
With Rubio on the sidelines for much of the year, Murphy was widely considered the favorite to win the Senate race. When Rubio declared his candidacy, though, he leapt ahead of Murphy in the polls, a lead that he maintained for months. Murphy attacked Rubio’s absenteeism in Congress ― Rubio has missed a higher percentage of votes than any other senator since taking office in 2011― and attempted to tie Rubio to Trump. Rubio acknowledged that Trump was a “horrifying choice” during an October debate with Murphy, but stood by his endorsement of the GOP presidential nominee.
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On the CBS Evening News, Chip Reid uncritically aired video of Sen. John McCain claiming that the "crisis on Wall Street, my friends, started in the Washington culture of lobbying and influence-peddling, and [Sen. Barack Obama] was right square in the middle of it." However, Reid did not mention McCain's own ties to the "Washington culture of lobbying." According to a Mother Jones report, "at least 83" McCain aides, policy advisers, or fundraisers "have in recent years lobbied for the financial industry McCain now attacks."
During a report on the September 19 broadcast of the CBS Evening News, correspondent Chip Reid uncritically aired video of Sen. John McCain claiming that the "crisis on Wall Street, my friends, started in the Washington culture of lobbying and influence-peddling, and [Sen. Barack Obama] was right square in the middle of it." However, Reid did not mention McCain's own ties to the "Washington culture of lobbying." According to a September 17 Mother Jones report, "at least 83" McCain aides, policy advisers, or fundraisers "have in recent years lobbied for the financial industry McCain now attacks." Those lobbyists include several senior McCain campaign officials, including chief political adviser Charlie Black, national finance co-chairman Wayne Berman, congressional liaison John Green, Arthur Culvahouse, who reportedly headed McCain's vice-presidential search team, and William E. Timmons Sr., who reportedly "has been tapped by the McCain campaign to conduct a study in preparation for the presidential transition." Furthermore, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis previously served as president of the Homeownership Alliance, a Washington-based advocacy group whose founding members included Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and which "defended the two companies against increased regulation," according to the Politico.
From Mother Jones' September 17 report:
McCain has been quick with fiery, populist-tinged speeches. But one thing has been missing: any acknowledgment that McCain's own campaign has been loaded with the type of people he's been denouncing. (The McCain campaign did not respond to a request for comment; we will update the post if they do.) As Mother Jones previously reported, former Senator Phil Gramm, McCain's onetime campaign chairman, used a backroom maneuver in late 2000 to slip into law a bill that kept credit default swaps unregulated. These financial instruments greased the way to the subprime meltdown that has led to today's economic crisis. Several of McCain's most senior campaign aides have lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And the Democratic National Committee, using publicly available records, has identified 177 lobbyists working for the McCain campaign as either aides, policy advisers, or fundraisers. Of those 177 lobbyists, according to a Mother Jones review of Senate and House records, at least 83 have in recent years lobbied for the financial industry McCain now attacks. These are high-paid influence-peddlers who have been working the corridors of the nation's capital to win favors and special treatment for investment banks, securities firms, hedge funds, accounting outfits, and insurance companies. Their clients have included AIG, the newest symbol of corporate excess; Lehman Brothers, which filed for bankruptcy on Monday sending the stock market into a tailspin; Merrill Lynch, which was bought out by Bank of America this week; and Washington Mutual, the banking giant that could be the next to fall. Among these 83 lobbyists are McCain's chief political adviser, Charlie Black (JP Morgan, Washington Mutual Bank, Freddie Mac, Mortgage Bankers Association of America); McCain's national finance co-chairman, Wayne Berman (AIG, Blackstone, Credit Suisse, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac); the campaign's congressional liaison, John Green (Carlyle Group, Citigroup, Icahn Associates, Fannie Mae); McCain's veep vetter, Arthur Culvahouse (Fannie Mae); and McCain's transition planning chief, William Timmons Sr. (Citigroup, Freddie Mac, Vanguard Group).
The Homeownership Alliance announced its formation in a September 29, 2000, press release. The press release listed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as two of its founding members and announced that "Rick Davis, formerly presidential campaign manager for Arizona Sen. John McCain, will serve as president of the Homeownership Alliance, which will be based in Alexandria [Virginia]." From the press release:
Vowing to increase support for America's housing system so that it can expand homeownership opportunities for more Americans, housing, mortgage and community development leaders today announced the formation of the Homeownership Alliance. The Homeownership Alliance is a broad-based public education organization that will promote the American housing system. The group will not lobby members of Congress, but will concentrate on public advocacy, principally through its web site http://www.homeownershipalliance.com. Rick Davis, formerly presidential campaign manager for Arizona Sen. John McCain, will serve as president of the Homeownership Alliance, which will be based in Alexandria. The following organizations have joined as participating members of the Homeownership Alliance: The American League of Financial Institutions
The Enterprise Foundation
Fannie Mae
Freddie Mac
Independent Community Bankers Association
Local Initiatives Support Corporation
National Association of Home Builders
National Association of Real Estate Brokers
National Bankers Association
National Urban League [...] Rick Davis said that homeownership in America is a core national priority. "Yet, some critics of the system, particularly those who disagree with the role currently played by the housing Government Sponsored Enterprises, are implicitly calling for policy makers to reconstruct the system so it can be more like that of other industrialized countries. But our current system is much better than theirs. Forty-percent down-payments, like they have in Germany, and huge prepayment penalties that are the norm for refinancing in some European countries are things we did away with decades ago, and we certainly don't want to turn the clock back," Davis said.
In a September 1, 2000, article (retrieved from the Factiva database), Institutional Investor wrote of Davis' involvement with the Homeownership Alliance:
Rick Davis loves an underdog. After serving as Senator John McCain's campaign manager, he recently joined the cause of defending Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The agencies, which dominate the market for mortgage-backed securities, find themselves under attack from Congress, from the Treasury Department and from Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. All want to tighten regulation and strip the agencies of some of their special privileges as government-sponsored enterprises. "You can say what you want about free-market distortions, but people like the system because it gets them into houses cheap," notes Davis, who will run an advocacy group called the Homeownership Alliance out of his Alexandria, Virginia, lobbying firm. He was recruited by Fannie Mae senior vice president John Buckley, whom he met while working on Ronald Reagan's 1984 reelection campaign. Says Davis, "What we tried to do in the McCain campaign parallels what we want to do here -- protect the consumer."
Liz Wolgemuth of U.S. News & World Report noted the Institutional Investor article in a September 19 blog post.
According to the Internet Archive's cache of the Homeownership Alliance website -- which is no longer accessible -- Davis was listed as president of the organization as late as February 2006. At the time, senior vice presidents for both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac served on the Alliance's board as "Senior Advisor[s]." Tribune Media's Andrew Zajac reported on June 11 that the Homeownership Alliance "dissolved about two years ago."
In a July 16 Politico article, Lisa Lerer wrote of Davis' tenure as president of the Homeownership Alliance: "[F]or years, Rick Davis served as president of an advocacy group led by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that defended the two companies against increased regulation." The article also stated:
McCain campaign manager Davis headed the Homeownership Alliance, a lobbying association that included Fannie, Freddie, nonprofit groups, real estate agents, homebuilders and consumer advocates. The group's stated goal was to increase affordable housing. But it also worked to oppose congressional efforts to tighten controls on Fannie and Freddie. In July 2003, Davis wrote to the American Banker, taking issue with an opinion piece by Leslie Paige of Citizens Against Government Waste, arguing that Fannie and Freddie should operate with greater transparency. "Several of Ms. Paige's assertions bear correction," Davis wrote, defending Fannie and Freddie on behalf of the group. "The GSEs [government sponsored enterprises] are subject to an innovative and stringent risk-based capital stress test -- the toughest in the financial services industry."
In a letter to The New York Times, which has yet to be published by the Times but was posted on the Politico's website around the time of Reid's September 19 report, former Fannie Mae senior vice president William Maloni wrote:
Yesterday, Senator John McCain released a television commercial attacking Barack Obama for allegedly receiving advice on the economy from former Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines. From the stump, he has recently tried tying Senator Obama to Fannie Mae, as if there is some guilt in the association with Fannie Mae's former executives. It is an interesting card for Senator McCain to play, given that his campaign manager, Rick Davis, was paid by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac several hundred thousand dollars early in this decade to head up an organization to lobby in their behalf called The Homeownership Alliance. ... I worked in government relations for Fannie Mae for more than 20 years, leading the group for most of those years. When I see photographs of Sen. McCain's staff, it looks to me like the team of lobbyists who used to report to me. Senator McCain's attack on Senator Obama is a cheap shot, and hypocritical.
As Media Matters for America documented, a July 11, 2007, Politico article reported that Davis "founded a lobbying firm -- Davis Manafort Inc. -- which has made at least $2.8 million lobbying Congress since 1998." According to disclosure reports filed with Congress, Davis registered to lobby from 1998 to 2005 for Davis Manafort. A February 3, 2007, National Journal article reported that "Davis, a longtime lobbyist and financial consultant," is "on leave" from Davis Manafort to work for McCain's campaign.
Media Matters has noted that several other media outlets recently reported that the McCain campaign attacked Obama for what it says are his ties to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae without noting that several senior McCain campaign aides have lobbied for one or both of those entities.
From the September 19 broadcast of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric:
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Just ahead of one of the biggest fights in boxing history, dozens are taking to Twitter to complain of cable outages and other problems before Saturday’s Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight.
Customers of Time Warner Cable, DirecTV and Charter have been complaining about issues. Charter acknowledged the problems on its Twitter account on Saturday.
“We are aware of the issue impacting the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao feed. We are working to resolve as soon as possible,” it wrote.
DirecTV seemed prepared, tweeting troubleshooting tips on Saturday.
If you’re having any problems ordering or viewing the fight here is some troubleshooting help: http://t.co/RbW5f2QJl4 — DIRECTV Service (@DIRECTVService) May 3, 2015
Customers pay $90-$100 dollars to see the fight, which has been advertised heavily for the past few weeks. A select group of marketers are also reportedly paying about $1 million each to get their wares in front of the crowd.
The audience of the event was always expected to be massive. In 2007, approximately 2.48 million video subscribers paid to watch the similarly hyped Mayweather-Oscar de la Hoya fight.
https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/594672386705764352
https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/594674719497945088
More to come…
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Ben Reid is in for his first match of the JLT Community Series
COLLINGWOOD has picked Ben Reid for the first time in 2017 for Saturday's JLT Community Series clash with Richmond at Moe.
The All Australian carried a posterior cruciate ligament for most of last season before having surgery and his return will add plenty to the Magpie backline.
Tim Broomhead will play his first game for the Pies since last May, while they have named ruckman Brodie Grundy despite the corked calf he suffered at training during the week.
Josh Smith has also been named despite an ankle injury.
Richmond defender Bachar Houli will step out for the first time this year. The long-kicking Houli has overcome a hamstring in time to get some much-needed match practice ahead of the season opener against Carlton in a fortnight.
Dion Prestia and Shane Edwards also return to the side after being rested last week, while the Tigers squad also includes youngsters Jayden Short, Connor Menadue, Mabior Chol, Tyson Stengle and Ivan Soldo. Among those to miss include Corey Ellis and Kane Lambert.
Adelaide has regained goalkickers Eddie Betts, Josh Jenkins and Mitch McGovern for the game against the Brisbane Lions at Noarlunga on Saturday.
Betts and Jenkins were rested last week, while McGovern was nursing a minor knee injury. Dean Gore (concussion) will miss.
The Brisbane Lions have lost one gun first-year player with No.3 draft pick Hugh McCluggage sidelined for a month with an ankle injury, but have replaced him with his TAC Cup teammate, No.24 pick Cedric Cox, a skilful and versatile half-back. Otherwise the Lions have picked a strong-looking side.
Port Adelaide star Chad Wingard will be rested from Sunday's hit-out against Hawthorn at Noarlunga. Brad Ebert, Aaron Young, Jake Neade, Brendon Ah Chee and Matt White are among inclusions.
Hawthorn will leave Luke Hodge and Josh Gibson behind, but have brought back Isaac Smith, Paul Puopolo, Shaun Burgoyne, Grant Birchall and Ben McEvoy.
Former Adelaide defender Ricky Henderson is set for his first game in the brown and gold, while the club's first pick at last year's national draft, Harry Morrison and powerful Irish recruit Conor Nash are also in the squad.
Geelong regains veteran defender Andrew Mackie for Sunday's clash with Essendon at Bendigo. Joining him for the trip to skipper Joel Selwood's home town is defender Cam Guthrie, who has overcome a calf complaint. Lincoln McCarthy has been named for now despite a shoulder injury last weekend.
Essendon has picked its strongest squad of the pre-season, with Zach Merrett, David Zaharakis, Mark Baguley, Orazio Fantasia, Dyson Heppell, Patrick Ambrose, James Kelly and Matt Dea all back in.
Josh Green (foot) and Jordan Ridley (back) are out, while Mason Redman, Dylan Clarke, Jake Long, Heath Hocking and Conor McKenna have missed selection.
The Sydney squad for Sunday's clash with St Kilda at Lavington features youngsters Oliver Florent, Will Hayward, Robbie Fox and Darcy Cameron, who may be given one last chance to impress before the season opener in 16 days against Port Adelaide.
New St Kilda skipper Jarryn Geary returns, as do Nick Riewoldt, and defenders Dylan Roberton and Sam Gilbert. The Saints have included both ruckmen Tom Hickey and Billy Longer, but it could be a battle for round one selection with coach Alan Richardson yet to declare whether he can carry both players in his best 22.
The final weekend of the JLT Community Series restricts each club to six players on the bench while interchange rotations are monitored for the first time.
SUNDAY, MARCH 12
Port Adelaide v Hawthorn, Hickinbotham Oval (Noarlunga), 12.40pm ACDT
PORT ADELAIDE
1. Travis Boak, 2. Sam Powell-Pepper, 3. Jake Neade, 4. Patrick Ryder, 7. Brad Ebert, 8. Hamish Hartlett, 9. Robbie Gray, 11. Aaron Young, 12. Jackson Trengove, 15. Karl Amon, 16. Oliver Wines, 17. Tom Clurey, 19. Matthew White, 21. Jared Polec, 22. Charlie Dixon, 23. Matthew Lobbe, 24. Jarman Impey, 26. Riley Bonner, 27. Brett Eddy, 28. Willem Drew, 30. Joe Atley, 33. Darcy Byrne-Jones, 36. Jack Hombsch, 39. Justin Westhoff, 42. Tom Jonas, 43. Dan Houston, 46. Sam Gray
Notable absentees: Jasper Pittard, Chad Wingard, Nathan Krakouer, Jarman Impey, Angus Monfries
HAWTHORN
2. Jarryd Roughead, 3. Tom Mitchell, 4. Billy Hartung, 5. Ryan Burton, 7. Ben McEvoy, 8. Taylor Duryea, 9. Shaun Burgoyne, 10. Jaeger O’Meara, 11. Brendan Whitecross, 12. James Frawley, 14. Grant Birchall, 16. Isaac Smith, 19. Jack Gunston, 21. James Sicily, 22. Luke Breust, 24. Ben Stratton, 25. Ryan Schoenmakers, 26. Liam Shiels, 27. Tyrone Vickery, 28. Paul Puopolo, 29. Will Langford, 31. Ricky Henderson, 33. Cyril Rioli, 35. Harry Morrison, 40. Kade Stewart, 42. Teia Miles, 45. Conor Nash
Notable absentees: Luke Hodge, Josh Gibson, Jonathan O’Rourke, Jon Ceglar, Kieran Lovell, Daniel Howe, Tim O'Brien, Kaiden Brand
Geelong v Essendon, Queen Elizabeth Oval (Bendigo), 4.10pm AEDT
GEELONG
1. Rhys Stanley, 2. Zach Tuohy, 3. Brandan Parfitt, 4. Andrew Mackie, 5. Nakia Cockatoo, 6. Lincoln McCarthy, 7. Harry Taylor, 9. Zac Smith, 10. Daniel Menzel, 11. Darcy Lang, 13. Tom Lonergan, 14. Joel Selwood, 18. Josh Cowan, 21. Jordan Murdoch, 22. Mitch Duncan, 23. Aaron Black, 25. Lachie Henderson, 26. Tom Hawkins, 27. Sam Menegola, 29. Cameron Guthrie, 32, Steven Motlop, 33. George Horlin-Smith, 35. Patrick Dangerfield, 36. Tom Ruggles, 40. Jackson Thurlow, 44. Tom Stewart, 46. Mark Blicavs
Notable absentees: Scott Selwood, Cory Gregson, Zach Guthrie, Jed Bews, Jake Kolodjashnij
ESSENDON
1. Andrew McGrath, 3. Darcy Parish, 4. Jobe Watson, 5. Brent Stanton, 6. Joe Daniher, 7. Zach Merrett, 8. Martin Gleeson, 9. Brendon Goddard, 11. David Zaharakis, 12. Mark Baguley, 13. Orazio Fantasia, 16. Joshua Begley, 17. James Stewart, 18. Michael Hurley, 21. Dyson Heppell, 22. Matthew Leuenberger, 28. Mitch Brown, 29. Patrick Ambrose, 30. Kyle Langford, 32. Travis Colyer, 33. Jayden Laverde, 36. Michael Hartley, 40. Ben Howlett, 43. Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, 44. Shaun McKernan, 47. James Kelly, 49. Matt Dea
Notable absentees: Tom Bellchambers, Aaron Francis, David Myers, Craig Bird, Cale Hooker, Heath Hocking, Conor McKenna
St Kilda v Sydney, Lavington Sports Ground (Albury), 7.10pm AEDT
ST KILDA
1. Tom Hickey, 2. Jake Carlisle, 3. Jack Steven, 4. Jade Gresham, 5. Shane Savage, 6. Seb Ross, 7. Luke Dunstan, 8. Blake Acres, 9. Jack Steele, 12. Nick Riewoldt, 13. Jack Lonie, 14. Jarryd Geary, 15. Jack Billings, 16. Jack Newnes, 17. Dylan Roberton, 18. Billy Longer, 19. Sam Gilbert, 20. David Armitage, 22. Nathan Brown, 24. Sean Dempster, 25. Koby Stevens, 27. Josh Bruce, 28. Tim Membrey, 29. Jimmy Webster, 32. Paddy McCartin, 34. Nathan Wright, 44. Mav Weller
Notable absentees: Leigh Montagna, Daniel McKenzie, Hugh Goddard, Jack Sinclair, Nathan Freeman
SYDNEY
4. Dan Hannebery, 6. Jordan Foote, 7. Harry Cunningham, 8. Kurt Tippett, 9. Will Hayward, 10. Zak Jones, 11. Jeremy Laidler, 12. Josh Kennedy, 13. Oliver Florent, 14. Callum Mills, 17. Darcy Cameron, 18. Callum Sinclair, 20. Sam Reid, 22. Dean Towers, 23. Lance Franklin, 24. Dane Rampe, 26. Luke Parker, 27. Daniel Robinson, 28. Nic Newman, 29. George Hewett, 31. Harrison Marsh, 35. Sam Naismith, 39. Heath Grundy, 40. Nick Smith, 42. Robbie Fox, 43. Lewis Melican, 44. Jake Lloyd
Notable absentees: Aliir Aliir, Jarrad McVeigh, Isaac Heeney, Tom Papley, Kieren Jack, Gary Rohan
SATURDAY, MARCH 11
Richmond v Collingwood, Ted Summerton Reserve (Moe), 1.10pm AEDT
RICHMOND
1. Nick Vlastuin, 2. Dylan Grimes, 3. Dion Prestia, 4. Dustin Martin, 5. Brandon Ellis, 6. Shaun Grigg, 8. Jack Riewoldt, 9. Trent Cotchin, 10. Shane Edwards, 12. David Astbury, 14. Bachar Houli, 15. Jayden Short, 17. Daniel Rioli, 18. Alex Rance, 22. Josh Caddy, 24. Ben Griffiths, 25. Toby Nankervis, 26. Anthony Miles, 27. Sam Lloyd, 28. Taylor Hunt, 30. Reece Conca, 37. Connor Menadue, 40. Daniel Butler, 41. Mabior Chol, 44. Tyson Stengle, 46. Jason Castagna, 47. Ivan Soldo
Notable absentees: Ben Lennon, Jake Batchelor, Shaun Hampson, Ivan Maric, Corey Ellis
COLLINGWOOD
1. Alex Fasolo, 4. Brodie Grundy, 6. Tyson Goldsack, 7. Adam Treloar, 9. Jesse White, 10. Scott Pendlebury, 11. Jarryd Blair, 12. Matthew Scharenberg, 13. Taylor Adams, 14. James Aish, 15. Lynden Dunn, 16. Chris Mayne, 18. Travis Varcoe, 20. Ben Reid, 21. Tom Phillips, 22. Steele Sidebottom, 24. Josh Thomas, 25. Jack Crisp, 29. Tim Broomhead, 30. Darcy Moore, 31. Jackson Ramsay, 32. Will Hoskin-Elliott, 37. Brayden Maynard, 38. Jeremy Howe, 40. Josh Smith, 41. Henry Schade, 46. Mason Cox
Notable absentees: Jordan De Goey, Daniel Wells, Jamie Elliott, Levi Greenwood
Adelaide v Brisbane Lions, Hickinbotham Oval (Noarlunga), 3.40pm ACDT
ADELAIDE
3. Riley Knight, 4. Josh Jenkins, 7. Jordan Gallucci, 8. Jake Kelly, 10. Harrison Wigg, 12. Daniel Talia, 13. Taylor Walker, 14. David Mackay, 15. Kyle Hartigan, 16. Luke Brown, 17. Curtly Hampton, 18. Eddie Betts, 20. Hugh Greenwood, 21. Rory Atkins, 22. Andy Otten, 23. Charlie Cameron, 24. Sam Jacobs, 26. Richard Douglas, 27. Tom Lynch, 29. Rory Laird, 30. Wayne Milera, 31. Myles Poholke, 32. Troy Menzel, 33. Brodie Smith, 41. Mitch McGovern, 43. Reilly O’Brien, 44. Matt Crouch
Notable absentees: Brad Crouch, Scott Thompson, Jake Lever, Rory Sloane, Paul Seedsman, Kyle Cheney, Cam Ellis-Yolmen, Dean Gore
BRISBANE LIONS
1. Ben Keays, 2. Ryan Harwood, 4. Ryan Bastinac, 5. Mitch Robinson, 7. Tom Bell, 8. Rohan Bewick, 9. Dayne Beams, 10. Daniel Rich, 12. Stefan Martin, 15. Dayne Zorko, 17. Claye Beams, 18. Nick Robertson, 20. Cedric Cox, 25. Daniel McStay, 26. Tom Cutler, 27. Darcy Gardiner, 28. Lewis Taylor, 30. Eric Hipwood, 31. Harris Andrews, 32. Sam Mayes, 33. Michael Close, 35. Ryan Lester, 36. Rhys Mathieson, 38. Tom Rockliff, 40. Matt Hammelmann, 43. Jake Barrett, 44. Archie Smith
Notable absentees: Allen Christensen, Josh Walker, Jack Frost, Josh Schache, Marco Paparone, Hugh McCluggage
FRIDAY, MARCH 10
Greater Western Sydney v North Melbourne, Manuka Oval, 5.50pm AEDT
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY
1. Phil Davis, 3. Stephen Coniglio, 4. Toby Greene, 5. Dylan Shiel, 8. Callan Ward, 9. Tom Scully, 10. Devon Smith, 12. Jonathon Patton, 14. Tim Taranto, 15. Matthew Kennedy, 16. Nathan Wilson, 17. Steve Johnson, 18. Jeremy Cameron, 19. Nick Haynes, 20. Adam Tomlinson, 21. Matt Buntine, 22. Josh Kelly, 23. Heath Shaw, 25. Tendai Mzungu, 26. Dawson Simpson, 29. Zac Williams, 32. Ryan Griffen, 35. Aidan Corr, 37. Rory Lobb, 40. Adam Kennedy, 41. Shane Mumford, 50. Sam Reid
Notable absentees: Isaac Cumming, Matt de Boer, Brett Deledio, Harrison Himmelberg, Jacob Hopper, Harry Perryman, Will Setterfield, Lachie Whitfield
NORTH MELBOURNE
4. Shaun Higgins, 6. Lachlan Hansen, 7. Jack Ziebell, 8. Nathan Hrovat, 9. Andrew Swallow, 10. Ben Cunnington, 11. Luke McDonald, 12. Lindsay Thomas, 13. Ryan Clarke, 14. Trent Dumont, 16. Scott Thompson, 18. Shaun Atley, 19. Sam Wright, 21. Jy Simpkin, 22. Todd Goldstein, 24. Sam Durdin, 25. Robbie Tarrant, 28. Kayne Turner, 30. Jarrad Waite, 31. Braydon Preuss, 33. Ed Vickers-Willis, 34. Jamie Macmillan, 38. Majak Daw, 39. Mitch Hibberd, 41. Corey Wagner, 42. Declan Mountford, 43. Sam Gibson
Notable absentees: Marley Williams, Jed Anderson, Ben Jacobs, Mason Wood, Ben Brown
Fremantle v Carlton, Domain Stadium, 5.40pm AWST
FREMANTLE
1. Hayden Ballantyne, 2. Griffin Logue, 3. Zac Dawson, 4. Sean Darcy, 5. Garrick Ibbotson, 6. Danyle Pearce, 7. Nat Fyfe, 9. Bradley Hill, 10. Michael Walters, 11. Tommy Sheridan, 12. Jon Griffin, 14. Lachie Weller, 16. David Mundy, 17. Hayden Crozier, 18. Darcy Tucker, 19. Connor Blakely, 21. Joel Hamling, 22. Shane Kersten, 23. Cam McCarthy, 26. Ed Langdon, 27. Lachie Neale, 31. Aaron Sandilands, 32. Stephen Hill, 33. Cam Sutcliffe, 34. Lee Spurr, 36. Brennan Cox, 37. Michael Johnson
Notable absentees: Nick Suban, Harley Bennell, Matt Taberner, Harley Balic, Zac Clarke
CARLTON
1. Jack Silvagni, 3. Marc Murphy, 4. Bryce Gibbs, 6. Kade Simpson, 8. Matthew Kreuzer, 9. Patrick Cripps, 10. Harry McKay, 11. Sam Kerridge, 13. Jed Lamb, 15. Sam Docherty, 16. Billie Smedts, 17. Sam Rowe, 20. Lachie Plowman, 22. Caleb Marchbank, 23. Jacob Weitering, 24. Rhys Palmer, 26. Harrison Macreadie, 27. Dennis Armfield, 28. David Cuningham, 29. Cameron Polson, 33. Jarrod Pickett, 35. Edward Curnow, 39. Dale Thomas, 41. Levi Casboult, 43. Simon White, 44. Alex Silvagni, 46. Matthew Wright
Notable absentees: Blaine Boekhorst, Dylan Buckley, Charlie Curnow, Daniel Gorringe, Nick Graham, Kristian Jaksch, Liam Jones, Sam Petrevski-Setton, Andrew Phillips
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A grand jury has indicted a Tulsa County, Oklahoma, sheriff whose office came under intense national scrutiny following the fatal shooting of an unarmed and restrained man by a volunteer deputy who mistook his hand gun for a stun gun.
Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz was indicted Wednesday on two misdemeanor criminal counts. One count for refusing to release an internal report related to an investigation into Robert Bates, the former reserve deputy and longtime friend of Glanz who accidentally fired a single fatal shot into Eric Harris on April 2. The second, unrelated to the Harris killing, was for willful violation of the law over a monthly stipend he received for using his personal vehicle.
The grand jury also recommended that the sheriff be removed from office.
Glanz’s attorney, Scott Wood, told multiple news outlets that the sheriff intends to resign.
Harris, 44, had been targeted in a police sting operation after he allegedly sold a semi-automatic pistol and ammunition to an undercover cop. When officers tried to arrest Harris, he fled, and the sheriff’s office said he reached for his waistband.
In a widely circulated video of the incident, Harris, who is black and was unarmed, is seen running from police before being knocked down and restrained on the ground. Moments later, Bates, 73, who is white and a former insurance executive volunteering in the undercover operation, is heard shouting “Taser, Taser,” before firing his gun at Harris.
“I shot him,” Bates immediately exclaimed. “I’m sorry.”
According to police, Bates was attempting to assist deputies in apprehending Harris. The former reserve officer reached for his Taser, but mistakenly grabbed his gun and fired before recognizing his error.
Toward the end of the brief video, Harris cries out, “He shot me, man. Oh, my god. I’m losing my breath.”
“Fuck your breath. Shut the fuck up,” another officer shouts back in response.
Later, Harris was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Bates was charged with second-degree manslaughter involving “culpable negligence.” He has pleaded not guilty.
Two other deputies involved in the incident were reassigned to unspecified duties after receiving threats against them and their families, Glanz announced in an April news conference. Unlike Bates, neither officer was charged with a crime.
The shooting sparked outrage and calls for an investigation into the sheriff’s office, led by We The People, an Oklahoma group advocating for law enforcement reform. The group’s petition seeking Glanz’s removal from office set in motion the convening of the grand jury and, ultimately, the indictment of Glanz.
According to court documents, the grand jury met for a total of 20 days, interviewed 32 witnesses and analyzed 164 exhibits.
The sheriff’s office remains under investigation by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. The grand jury, in its report, noted it was aware of the investigation and “is supportive of its continuation.”
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Is this society blonde the 'Energiser' who's been one of Bill Clinton's secret lovers for 13 years?
Mother-of-three Julie McMahon, who lives just minutes from the Clintons, is suspected of being the 'Energizer'; and her friendship with with Clinton has been the subject of media speculation for years
She always arrives in an SUV, sometimes staying for a few hours, sometimes as long as a week — just so long as the lady of the house is away.
And, thanks to the fact that the house in question — the palatial residence of Bill and Hillary Clinton — is protected by a squad of U.S. Secret Servicemen who are in on the deception, the attractive, busty blonde can time her arrivals and departures to within minutes of those of Mrs Clinton.
The bodyguards claim they don’t know her identity, but say they are under orders neither to stop nor approach her, but to let her in. She does, however, have a codename. Every member of a family protected by the Secret Service, responsible for guarding presidents and ex-presidents, is given a codename starting with the same letter.
Given that Bill Clinton is ‘Eagle’ and Mrs Clinton is ‘Evergreen’, the special visitor was dubbed ‘Energiser’ in a rare moment of levity by the men in the mirror sunglasses.
It’s a tribute, apparently, to the fact that she’s been such a regular visitor over the years, she’s now part of the family, and also a tongue-in-cheek reference to the drumming pink bunny in the Energizer battery adverts that just keeps going.
The claim that the 67-year-old former president has a ‘blonde, buxom mistress’ who frequently visits the Clintons’ home in Chappaqua, a wealthy suburb near New York, was made earlier this week when details were leaked of a forthcoming book — The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal The Hidden Lives Of Presidents.
Its author, Ronald Kessler, is known to have impeccable contacts with Secret Servicemen.
Described as ‘charming and friendly’, Energiser will even bring the bodyguards biscuits — a small price for their silence, but a nice thought, particularly as protecting the rude and ‘nasty’ Mrs Clinton is seen as a punishment posting.
Energiser’s appeal doesn’t end with her personality. A Secret Serviceman told Kessler how his dull vigil was enlivened one day by a glimpse of her impressive décolletage as she leaned over — possibly bearing biscuits — wearing a low-cut top.
Her ‘exposed’ breasts were ‘very perky and very full and new’. The trained observer had no doubt they were ‘enhanced’.
So who could the Energiser be? One candidate, I discovered this week, is attractive divorcee, rich socialite and mother-of-three Julie McMahon, who lives just five miles from the Clintons.
Her friendship with Clinton has been the subject of sporadic, if little-noticed, media speculation for years.
The daughter of Joel Tauber, a multi-millionaire backer of the Democratic party and friend of the Clintons, she reportedly met the former president in 1998 when he was still in office, after her father let him use the family’s $25 million Colorado mansion.
They were said to have instantly hit it off, but it was claimed their relationship became intimate shortly after the Clintons left the White House and moved to her neighbourhood in 2001.
Miss McMahon had by then divorced her husband, John McMahon, a director of Goldman Sachs, from whom she had been separated for three years. It was alleged she and a ‘lonely’ Clinton would sneak to each other’s houses, sometimes at night.
They would even meet abroad, it was said, with Miss McMahon conveniently turning up in London or Paris at the same time as Clinton. Miss McMahon, 54, publicly denied they were having an affair in 2008, but her name resurfaced two years later in Game Change, an account of the 2008 presidential election.
The book named her among a long list of women, including a ‘dishy’ Canadian MP and the Hollywood actress Gina Gershon, whose rumoured friendships with Clinton were alarming Democrat grandees.
According to Game Change’s authors, investigations by Mrs Clinton’s aides discovered that the rumours about one particular woman were true and ‘that Bill was indeed having an affair — and not a frivolous one-night stand, but a sustained, romantic relationship’.
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Because the U.S Secret Service guard Bill and Hillary Clinton's home, the 'Energizer' is said to be able to time her arrivals and departures within minutes of those of Mrs Clinton
It was claimed Miss McMahon had ended their affair in 2008, after Clinton refused to leave his wife for her. But this week, another new book, Clinton Inc, related how Clinton had wanted to bring ‘his latest mistress — a woman named Julie’ — on the 2008 presidential campaign trail for his wife.
Aides reportedly persuaded him it was a bad idea. The couple’s relationship, Clinton aides told the book’s author, journalist Daniel Halper, ‘had been going on for a number of years by 2008 and, according to sources, was still referred to by an aide in the present tense as late as 2013’.
Could this be the same ‘Julie’? Miss McMahon did not respond to approaches and the Clinton camp has not responded to the Energiser story.
However, renewed focus on Clinton’s private life comes at an awkward moment, just as his wife is gearing up, as many expect, to announce her second run for presidency. According to Daniel Halper, Clinton is a man who ‘thrives on recklessness’ in his private life and might even want to ‘sabotage’ his wife’s presidential bid.
Loyal Clinton aides told Halper the ex-president is concerned his ‘legacy’ will be wiped away if his wife becomes America’s first woman president, leaving the public to remember him only as the man who was famously serviced in the Oval Office by a 22-year-old intern, Monica Lewinsky.
There is another reason he doesn’t want to return to the White House, Halper told me this week. Clinton aides say he will feel trapped. ‘Michelle Obama can’t do anything, she can’t go anywhere, even for brunch, without it being reported,’ says Halper.
‘He wouldn’t have the freedom to live the life he’s living, and this is a man who, I was told, spends about 320 nights a year on the road.’
Halper says that when he confronted a close friend of the former president, and rattled off a list of names of women, including several celebrities, with whom Clinton has been linked, the friend replied: ‘Everybody you think he ****ed, he did — and the more dangerous, more scandalous and more famous she is, the better.’ All great men had a flaw, the friend added, and Clinton’s is that he is addicted to sex. Quite by coincidence, it emerged this week that Mrs Clinton believes the same.
Clinton is said to be addicted to sex because of abuse he suffered from his mother, a journalist has claimed Mrs Clinton once told her
According to Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Lucinda Franks, Mrs Clinton told her in 1999 that her husband was addicted to sex because he was abused ‘in ways you wouldn’t believe’ by his mother, Virginia Kelley. Mrs Clinton wouldn’t elaborate; Franks never revealed the extraordinary remarks at the time, but has included them in her forthcoming memoirs.
This may all come as a shock to those who assumed that, scorched to the bone as he was by the Lewinsky scandal, Clinton would have learnt his lesson and spent the intervening years living the life of a monk during his frequent separations from his wife.
Like Miss McMahon, the women who have reportedly captured Clinton’s wandering eye in recent years are a far more moneyed bunch than previous liaisons such as Lewinsky and model Gennifer Flowers. It’s a reflection of the rarefied circles in which the international statesman and philanthropist now moves.
Belinda Stronach, a glamorous Canadian heiress 20 years his junior, has long been regarded as one of his romantic entanglements.
The blonde — they’re almost always blonde — met Clinton in 2001 at a charity benefit in Toronto.
Her father, Frank, is a billionaire Austrian-Canadian who founded a car-parts empire. It was Clinton, nicknamed Bubba, who encouraged Miss Stronach’s brief but eventful political career — a Canadian MP between 2004 and 2008, she famously saved the Liberal government by ‘crossing the floor’ from the Conservative Party.
Swiftly dubbed ‘Bubba’s Blonde’, the ambitious, twice-married business- woman was spotted alongside Clinton with eye-popping regularity at horse races, golf matches, political meetings and even on the ski slopes at the Colorado millionaires’ haven of Aspen.
Monica Lewinsky had a brief fling with Clinton in the Oval Office when she was a 22-year-old intern
They always insisted they were just good friends. But in 2003, when Miss Stronach said she was divorcing her second husband, Norwegian Olympic champion speed skater Johann Olav Koss, the whisper was that Clinton was the cause of the break-up.
As Canada’s National Post put it, the news ‘set off a wildfire of rumours in Toronto society [and] they all start and end with one word: Bubba’.
When, in 2005, the pair dined at a New York restaurant with friends including Jack Nicholson (but not Hillary Clinton), a witness claimed to see Miss Stronach feeding Clinton off her plate.
Even the staid New York Times reported that prominent New York Democrats had been alarmed by a newspaper photograph of the pair leaving the restaurant together.
Another attractive Canadian woman once romantically linked to Clinton is Lisa Belzberg, ex-wife of fabulously wealthy Matthew Bronfman, heir to the Seagram drinks empire.
According to reports, Clinton was heard boasting to a friend at a Super Bowl party he threw that the busty but brainy Miss Belzberg ‘married a guy worth $6 billion, but she still likes to flirt with me’.
A month after the party, it was announced that she and her husband were separating, for which some reportedly blamed Clinton. His friends, it was said, were stunned to see Clinton posing in Miss Belzberg’s kitchen on the front cover of Newsweek magazine for an article about him. Was this, some asked, another example of his recklessness?
‘Everybody you think he ****ed, he did — and the more dangerous, more scandalous and more famous she is, the better.’ - author Daniel Halper
Clinton, such a canny political operator in other ways, hasn’t helped his personal reputation by befriending dubious, jetset, millionaire playboys with a penchant for young women.
He has gallivanted around the world with business partner Ron Burkle, a California supermarket magnet whose custom-converted Boeing 757 was referred to by his aides as Air F*** One.
More damagingly, he was a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier friend of Prince Andrew who was jailed for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution.
Another rich friend is Steve Bing, the businessman who fathered a child by Liz Hurley. She, too, has been on some people’s list of Bubba’s conquests.
Earlier this year, the actress took to Twitter to dismiss ‘ludicrously silly’ reports that she had an affair with him, allegedly sharing a bed at the White House while Mrs Clinton slept nearby.
Actor Tom Sizemore, who made the allegation, later retracted what he said, saying it had been drug-induced ramblings.
Eleanor Mondale, late daughter of former vice-president Walter Mondale, and Barbra Streisand have long been rumoured to be Clinton conquests.
Actress Gina Gershon, for her part, was horrified to be linked to him, insisting she had met him only three times and saying rumours they were lovers ‘disturbed me on so many levels’.
Much of the gossip-mongering seems to have come from disconsolate Clinton insiders, appalled by his letting the side down.
In an excoriating article in Vanity Fair by Todd Purdum, the husband of Clinton’s former press secretary, the former president was described as consumed by a ‘cavernous narcissism’.
Purdum claimed a former Clinton aide decided to stage an ‘intervention’ with his boss after Democrat supporters kept complaining that Clinton was ‘seeing a lot of women on the road’.
The article also recounted a priceless anecdote in which Monica Lewinsky was stopped at the White House gate and told the president was out jogging with Eleanor Mondale. It wasn’t true, Clinton later told her, adding: ‘Do you think I would be stupid enough to go running with someone I was foolin’ with?’
It isn’t just celebrities and heiresses who attract Clinton’s attentions. Game Change revealed how, within days of moving to their home in Chappaqua in 2001, Clinton could be found at the local upmarket deli, ‘chatting up the stay-at-home mothers who trundled in after yoga, startling his aides that he already knew all the women by name’.
In the same year, a willowy, 19-year-old Swedish girl gave him a tulip in Oslo during a speaking tour. Clinton pulled her to him in an embrace, telling her: ‘You’re too beautiful to only get a hug.’
People close to Mr and Mrs Clinton say they have led largely separate lives ever since he left office as president. It was estimated in 2006 that they saw each other on average 14 days a month (playing Scrabble and gardening when they were together).
And that was before Mrs Clinton became even busier as Secretary of State and now as putative presidential contender.
Some Democrats have dismissed gossip about Clinton’s love life as a cynical attempt to embarrass his wife now she is set to stand again.
But the Monica Lewinsky scandal was the making of her career, turning around her unpopularity in the polls as voters felt sympathy towards the wronged woman.
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How? The one question that is easy to ask but can be very difficult to answer. It's the question I kept asking myself over and over. Reading article after article where publicized breaches and compromises were discussed. Each article alluded to the answer about how the breach or compromise occurred in the first place but each one left something out. Every single one left out the details that influenced their conclusions. As a result, I was left wondering how they figure out how the attack occurred in the first place. It was the question everyone alluded to and everyone said to perform root cause to determine the answer. They didn’t elaborate on how to actually do root cause analysis though. Most incident response literature echoes the same sentiment; do root cause analysis while omitting the most critical piece explaining how to do it. I asked my question to a supposed "incident responder" and their response was along the lines "you will know it when you see it." Their answer along with every other answer on the topic was not good enough. What was needed was a repeatable methodical process one can use to perform root cause analysis. The type of methodical process found in the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model.
I developed the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model three years ago to fulfill the need for a repeatable investigative process for doing root cause analysis. In this post I'm revisiting the model and demonstrating its usefulness by outlining the following:
- Exploring Locard’s Exchange Principle
- Exploring Temporal Context
- Exploring Attack Vectors
- Exploring the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model
- The Model is Cyclical
- Applying the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model
* Webserver Compromise
Exploring Locard’s Exchange Principle
The essential principle in the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model is Locard’s Exchange Principle. This principle states “when two objects come into contact, something is exchanged from one to the other.” Locard’s Exchange Principle is typically explained using examples from the physical world. When one object – such as someone’s hand – comes in to contact with another object – such as a glass – something is exchanged from one to the other. In this example, on the glass are traces of oils from the person’s hand, skin flakes, and even fingerprints.
The principle is not only limited to the physical world; it applies to the digital world as well. Harlan Carvey’s example demonstrated the principle in the digital world as follows: “well, in essence, whenever two computers come "into contact" and interact, they exchange something from each other.” The principle is not only limited to computers; it applies to everything such as routers, switches, firewalls, or mobile devices. The essence of this principle for the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model is:
When an attacker goes after another system; the exchange will leave remnants of the attack on the systems involved. There is a transfer between the attacker’s system(s), the targeted system(s), and the networking devices connecting them together.
The transfer between the systems and networks involved in the attack will indicate the actual attack used. By identifying and exploring the remnants left by the transfer is what enables the question of “how did the attack occur in the first place” to be answered.
Exploring Temporal Context
The second principle and one that supports the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model is the psychology principle of proximity. The principle of proximity is one of the Gestalt laws of grouping and states that “when we see stimuli or objects that are in close proximity to each other, we tend to perceive them as being grouped together.” As it relates to the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model, the grouping is based on the temporal relationship between each object. Temporal proximity impacts the model in two ways.
The first way temporal proximity impacts the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model is by enabling the grouping of remnants related to an attack. When an attacker goes after another system, remnants are left is various places within system and the network the system is a part of. Networking devices logs showing the network activity, application logs showing what the intruder was doing, and remnants on the system showing what the intruder accomplished are only a few of the places where these artifacts could be located. The attacker’s actions are not the only remnants left within the network and system. The organization and its employees are creating remnants every day from their activity as well as remnants left by the normal operation of the information technology devices themselves. Temporal proximity enables the grouping of the remnants left by an attacker throughout a network and system by their temporal relationship to each other. Remnants that occur within a short timeframe of each other can be grouped together while remnants outside of this timeframe are excluded. Other factors are involved to identify the attacker’s remnants amongst normal activity but temporal proximity is one of the most significant factors.
The second way temporal proximity impacts the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model is the time that lapses between when an attacker attacks the system and an investigation is conducted affects the ability to identify and group the remnants left by the attacker. The reason for this impact is that “ time is what permits other forces to have an effect on the persistence of data .” The remnants left by the attacker is in the form of data on information technology devices. The more time that goes by after these remnants are left the more opportunity there is for them to be changed and/or removed. Logs can be overwritten, files modified, or files deleted through activities of the organization and its employees along with the normal operation of the information technology devices. The more time that lapses between when the attack occurred and when the investigation begins the greater the opportunity for remnants to disappear and the inability to group the remaining remnants together. The Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model can still be used to identify these remnants and group them but it is much more difficult as more time lapses between the initial attack and investigation.
Exploring Attack Vectors
Root cause analysis is trying to determine how an attacker went after another system or network by identifying and understanding the remnants they left on the systems involved during the attack. In essence, the analysis is identifying the attack vector used to compromise the system. It is crucial to explore what an attack vector is to see how it applies to the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model.
SearchSecurity defines an attack vector as "a path or means by which a hacker (or cracker) can gain access to a computer or network server in order to deliver a payload or malicious outcome." Based on this definition, the attack vector can be broken down into three separate components. The path or means is the exploit used, the payload is the outcome of the exploit, and the delivery mechanism is what delivers the exploit and/or the payload to the target. The definition combines the delivery mechanism and exploit together but in reality these are separated. The exploit, payload, and delivery mechanism can all leave remnants (or artifacts) on the compromised system and network and these artifacts are used to identify the attack vector used.
Exploit
An exploit is defined as "a piece of software, a chunk of data, or a sequence of commands that takes advantage of a bug, glitch or vulnerability in order to cause unintended or unanticipated behavior to occur on computer software, hardware, or something electronic (usually computerized).." An exploit takes advantage of a weakness in a system to cause a desirable activity on that system for the attacker. Exploits can target vulnerabilities in either operating systems, applications, or the people using the system. In accordance with Locard’s Exchange Principle, when the exploit comes in contact with the system containing the weakness remnants are left by the attacker. Identifying these exploit artifacts left on a system are one piece of the puzzle for identifying the attack vector.
Payload
payload is defined (in security) as “the cargo of a data transmission.” A payload is the desirable activity on a system for the attacker that was caused by an exploit taking advantage of a weakness. In accordance with Locard’s Exchange Principle, when the payload comes in contact with the system remnants are left by the attacker. Identifying these payload artifacts left on a system are another piece of the puzzle for identifying the attack vector.
Delivery Mechanism
A delivery mechanism is defined as “a method by which malicious software places a payload into a target computer or computer network.” The delivery mechanism is what delivers the exploit and/or payload to the system to enable the desirable activity to occur on the system for the attacker. Similar to the exploit and payload, when the delivery mechanisms come in contact with the system remnants are left by the attacker. Identifying these delivery mechanisms artifacts left on a system are the last piece of the puzzle for identifying the attack vector.
Exploring the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model
When an attacker goes after another system; the exchange leaves artifacts of the attack on the systems involved. These artifacts are identified during an investigation and grouped together based on their temporal proximity to one another. Root cause analysis identifies the attack vector used by determining what of the identified artifacts are related to the exploit, payload, and delivery mechanism(s). The Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model is a methodical process for organizing information and identified artifacts during an investigation to make it easier to answer the question of how did a compromise occur. The model is a not a replacement for any existing models; rather it’s a complimentary model to help discover information related to a system compromise. The Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model organizes the artifacts left on a network and/or system after being attacked into the following categories: source, delivery mechanism, exploit, payload, and indicators. The relationship between the categories are shown below.
Source
At the core of the model is the source of the attack. The source is where the attack originated from. Attacks can originate from outside or within an organization’s network; it all depends on who the attacker is. An external source is anything residing outside the control of an organization or person. An example is attacks against a web application coming from the Internet. Attacks can also be internal, which is within the network and under the control of an organization or person. An example is an employee who is stealing data from a company file server.
The artifacts left behind by the attacker on the system is used to determine where the attack came from. For example, if the attack originated from the Internet then the data left on the systems indicate this. Firewall logs, web application logs, proxy server logs, authentication logs, and email logs all will point to the attacker’s location outside of the organization’s network.
Delivery Mechanism
Proceeding to the next layer is the first delivery mechanism. This is the mechanism used to send the exploit to the system. The mechanism used is dependent on the attacker’s location. Attackers external to the organization may use avenues such as email, network services (i.e. HTTP, SSH, FTP, etc..), or removable media. Attackers internal to the organization may use avenues such as physical access or file sharing protocols.
The artifacts left behind by the attacker on the system is used to determine how they sent the exploit to the system. Where and what the artifacts are is solely dependent on the method used. If the method was HTTP then either web proxy, web browser histories, or web application logs will contain the remnants from the attacker. If the method was email then the email gateway logs, client email storage file, or user activity involving email will contain the remnants from the attacker.
Exploit
Continuing outward to the next layer is the exploit. The exploit is what was sent to take advantage of a vulnerability. As mentioned previously, vulnerabilities can be present in a range of items: from operating systems to applications to databases to network services to the person using the computer.
When vulnerabilities are exploited it leaves specific artifacts on the system and these artifacts can identify the weakness targeted by the attacker. Where and what the artifacts are is solely dependent on what weakness is targeted. The Applying the Model section illustrates this artifact for one vulnerability.
Delivery Mechanism
The next layer is the second delivery mechanism. A successful exploit may result in a payload being sent to the system. This is what the outer delivery mechanism is for. If the payload has to be sent to then there may be artifacts showing this activity. This is the one layer that may not always be present. There are times when the payload is bundled with the exploit or the payload just provides access to the system. Similar to the exploit, where and what the artifacts are present solely dependent on what the exploit was.
Payload
The next layer outlines the desired end result in any attack; to deliver a payload or malicious outcome to the system. The payload can include a number of actions ranging from unauthorized access to denial of service to remote code execution to escalation of privileges. The payload artifacts left behind will be dependent on what action was taken.
Indicators
The last layer in the model is the indicators layer. The layer is not only where the information and artifacts about how the attack was detected would go but it also encompasses all of the artifacts showing the post compromise activity. The reason for organizing all the other remnants left by the attacker into this layer is to make it easier to identify the attack vector artifacts (exploit, payload, and delivery mechanisms.) This results in the layer being broad since it contains all of the post compromise artifacts such as downloading files, malware executing, network traversal, or data exfiltration.
The Model is Cyclical
The Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model is a way to organize information and artifacts to make it easier to answer questions about an attack. More specifically to answer: how and when did the compromise occur? Information or artifacts about the compromise are discovered by completing examination steps against any relevant systems involved with the attack. The model is cyclical; as each new system is discovered the model is used to determine how the system was compromised. This ongoing process continues until each system involved with an attack is examined to confirm if it truly was a part of the attack.
To illustrate, take the hypothetical scenario of an IDS alert indicating an organization’s employee laptop is infected with malware. The IDS signature that flagged the network traffic is shown below (signature was obtained from the Emerging Threats emerging-botcc.rules .) As can be seen in the rule, the laptop was flagged for visiting an IP address associated with the Zeus Trojan.
The network packet captured in the IDS alert indicates the employee is a remote user connected through the organization’s VPN. The network diagram below shows the organization’s network layout and where this employee’s laptop is located.
The investigation into the employee’s laptop - remotely over the network – located the Zeus Trojan on the laptop. The examination continued by doing root cause analysis to determine how the laptop became infected in the first place. The employee was surfing the Internet prior to connecting to the organization’s network through the VPN. A drive-by attack successfully compromised the laptop when the employee visited the organization’s website. The IDS alerted on the infection once the laptop connected through the VPN. The investigation now uncovered another system involved with the attack (organization’s web server) and its location is shown below.
The organization’s main website is compromised and serving malware to its visitors. The investigation continues by moving to the compromised web server. The Root Cause Analysis Model is applied to the server to determine how it became compromised in the first place. The answer was an attacker found the webserver was running an outdated Joomla plug-in and exploited it. The attacker eventually leveraged the compromised web server to deliver malware to its visitors.
In this hypothetical scenario, the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model was initially applied to a compromised laptop. The source of the attack pointed to another system under the control of the organization. The investigation continued to the newly discovered system by applying the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model against it. The attack vector pointed to an attacker from the Internet so at this point all of the systems involved in the attack have been investigated and the root cause identified. If there were more systems involved then the cyclical process continues until all systems are investigated. The Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model enabled the attack vector for each system to be determined and the incident information discovered can then be further organized using other models. For example, the overall attack can be described using the Lockheed Martin's Cyber Kill Chain model
Applying the Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model
The Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model is a way to organize information and artifacts to make it easier to answer questions about a compromise. The model can be applied to systems to either confirm how they were compromised or to determine if they were compromised. The article Malware Root Cause Analysis goes in to detail about how to apply the model for a malicious code incident involving a single system. However, the model is not limited to only malicious code incidents. It can be applied to any type of security incident including: unauthorized access, denial of service, malicious network traffic, phishing, and compromised user accounts. To demonstrate the model’s versatility, it will be applied to a hypothetical security incident using data from a published article. The incident is for a compromised Coldfusion webserver as described in the An Eye on Forensics's article A Cold Day in E-Commerce - Guest Post . The data referenced below either was influenced/borrowed from either the previously mentioned article, the Coldfusion for Pentesters presentation , or made up to appear realistic.
Webserver Compromise
An IDS alert flags some suspicious network traffic for an external system trying to connect to an organization’s Coldfusion web server located in their DMZ. The organization monitors for access attempts to the Coldfusion administrator web panel including access to features such as scheduling tasks. The external system triggered the IDS signature shown below because it accessed the Coldfusion’s scheduleedit located at hxxp://www.fake_site.com/CFIDE/administrator/scheduler/scheduleedit.cfm on an established session.
The reason the IDS alert is concerning is because what accessing scheduleedit means. One method an attacker can use to upload code on to a compromised Coldfusion server is by leveraging the scheduled tasks. The attacker can schedule a task, point it to their program’s location on a different server, and then have the task save it locally to the Coldfusion server for them to use ( see page 85 in this presentation .) Accessing the interface to edit scheduled tasks is reflected by “scheduleedit” appearing in the URL. The IDS alert is triaged to determine if the Coldfusion server was successfully compromised and if an attacker was uploading anything to the server using the scheduled tasks feature.
The Coldfusion instance is running on a Windows 2008 server with IIS and its IP address is 192.168.0.1. The IIS log was reviewed for the time in question to see the activity around the time the IDS alert triggered.
2015-03-10 22:09:00 192.168.0.1 GET /CFIDE/Administrator/scheduler/scheduletasks.cfm - 80 – X.X.X.X fake-useragent 200 0 0 5353
2015-03-10 22:09:10 192.168.0.1 GET /CFIDE/Administrator/scheduler/scheduleedit.cfm submit=Schedule+New+Task 80 - X.X.X.X fake-useragent 200 0 0 5432
2015-03-10 22:09:15 192.168.0.1 GET /CFIDE/Administrator/scheduler/scheduletasks.cfm runtask=z&timeout=0 80 – X.X.X.X fake-useragent 200 0 0 1000
2015-03-10 22:11:15 192.168.0.1 GET /CFIDE/shell.cfm - 80 – X.X.X.X fake-useragent 200 0 0 432
The IIS logs showed the activity that tripped the IDS sensor occurred at 2015-03-10 22:09:10 when the external system with IP address X.X.X.X scheduled a new task successfully. Notice the 200 HTTP status c ode indicating the request completed successfully. This single entry answers one of the questions. The attacker did compromise the Coldfusion server and has administrator rights to the Coldfusion instance because they were able to access the schedule tasks area within the administrator panel. The next log entry shows the scheduled task named “z” executed at 2015-03-10 22:09:15 and shortly thereafter the attacker accessed a file named “shell.cfm”. Applying the Root Cause Analysis Model to this incident results in this activity along with the IDS alert being organized into the indicators layer. The activity is post compromise activity and the model is being used to identify the attack vector. The investigation continues to see what remnants the attacker left in the logs just prior to tripping the sensor while trying to upload their web shell.
The IIS log was reviewed to see what occurred prior to 2015-03-10 22:09:10 for the attackers IP address X.X.X.X. The few records are listed below:
2015-03-10 22:08:30 192.168.0.1 GET /CFIDE/adminapi/administrator.cfc method=login&adminpassword=&rdsPasswordAllowed=true 80 – X.X.X.X fake-useragent 200 0 0 432
2015-03-10 22:08:40 192.168.0.1 GET /CFIDE/administrator/images/icon.jpg 80 – X.X.X.X fake-useragent 200 0 0 432
The prior activity shows the attacker requesting a strange URL followed by successfully accessing the icon.jpg image file. Searching on the strange URL reveals it’s an Adobe ColdFusion Administrative Login Bypass exploit and when successful it provides access to the admin panel. This remnant is organized into the exploit layer. The payload of this exploit is direct access to the admin panel. There is no delivery mechanism for the payload. When the admin panel is accessed certain files are loaded such as images. In this scenario one of the images loaded by default is the file icon.jpg. This remnant indicates the attacker successfully accessed the admin panel so it means the exploit worked and the payload was admin access. The access to the icon.jpg file is organized into the payload layer. At this point the following layers in the Root Cause Analysis have been completed: indicators, payload, deliver mechanism, and exploit. The remaining layers are the delivery mechanism for the exploit and source. The attacker used a tool or web browser to attack the server so the delivery mechanism for the exploit is HTTP and the source of the attack is somewhere from the Internet.
The Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model was applied to the hypothetical web compromise security incident and it made it easier to review the remnants left by the attacker to identify the attack vector they used.
Root Cause Analysis Is Easier with a Methodical Process
The Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model is a cyclical methodical process one can use to perform root cause analysis. The model is way to organize information and artifacts discovered during investigations for each system involved in the attack. The model is a repeatable investigation process enabling the questions of how and when did the compromise occur to be answered.
References
Carvey, H. (2005). Locard's Exchange Principle in the Digital World. Retrieved from
Harrell, C. (2010). Attack Vector Artifacts. Retrieved from
Harrell, C. (2012). Compromise Root Cause Analysis Model. Retrieved from
Harrell, C. (2012). Malware Root Cause Analysis. Retrieved from
Harrell, C. (2014). Malware Root Cause Analysis Dont Be a Bone Head Slide Deck. Retrieved from
Hogfly. (2008). Footprints in the snow. Retrieved from
http://forensicir.blogspot.com/2008/12/footprints-in-snow.html
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Currently, the market seems to be ignoring the decline of such short term energy reserves. This article is an attempt to understand the reasons and perspectives underlying current changes in Norwegian electricity supply policy.
Since 2007 the end of year water level in hydro storages in Norway has been steadily falling. In 2010 a low inflow of water combined with a substantial increase in electricity consumption has caused Statnett to classify the energy balance in Southern Norway as on “Alert”. This is step 2 of 5, where step 5 is rationing.
This is a guest post by Paul-Frederik Bach . Paul-Frederik has more than 40 years experience in power system planning. He worked with grid and generation planning at ELSAM, the coordinating office for west Danish power stations, until 1997. As Planning Director at Eltra, Transmission System Operator in West Denmark, he was in charge of West Denmark's affiliation to the Nordic spot market for electricity, Nord Pool, in 1999. Until retirement in 2005 his main responsibility was the integration of wind power into the power grid in Denmark. He is still active as a consultant with interest in safe and efficient integration of wind power.
The Skagerrak HVDC link
The Norwegian hydro power system has unique properties. It was designed for the supply of a certain annual quantity of electrical energy (MWh) as needed for electricity supply in Norway, with the consequence that it also offered a surplus of power (MW) as a side effect. Other properties include the considerable flexibility of the generators, and large hydro storage capacity.
The annual inflow of water varies. In wet years it may be 20% above average and in dry years 20% below average. For many years it was Norwegian policy to be self-sufficient in nine years out of ten. The result was a surplus of energy and, in some cases, spilled energy.
In the thermal power system in West Denmark the design criteria was security of supply during peak hours. Due to a low load factor Denmark had a surplus of energy available during most hours of the year.
In 1977 the Skagerrak HVDC power line between West Denmark and Norway went into service with two cables. The total capacity of Skagerrak 1 and 2 was 500 MW.
The agreement between Norway and Denmark on the Skagerrak link made it possible for both countries to save installed capacity. Norway could rely on energy supply from Denmark during dry years, and Denmark could import power during peak hours. Furthermore the agreement included rules for the pricing of Norwegian overflow energy.
The link has been successful, both technically and economically. After the Danish affiliation to the Nordic power market in 1999 the handling of the Skagerrak link was transferred to the market operator, NordPool Spot. Since then approved market operators have access to the capacity of the link on equal terms.
In 1993 Skagerrak 3 (500 MW) was commissioned. An agreement on Skagerrak 4 has been signed, and the 700 MW link is expected to be operational by the end of 2014.
Norway introducing the deregulated electricity market
In 1991 the Norwegian Parliament decided to deregulate the market for trading with electrical energy, with the aim of ending the monopoly era for the power industry and introducing competition. The main objective changed from security of supply to efficiency of the sector.
The immediate consequence was an increased risk to investors and a reluctance to install new power plants, and after a few years the result was a new balance between supply and demand of electricity.
Due to the Norwegian self-sufficiency policy Norway had mainly been a net exporter of electricity, but after 1991 years with substantial net import of electricity also occurred. This indicates a better balance between electricity demand and supply capacity in Norway.
The inflow of water is very low during the winter. Therefore it is necessary to store sufficient energy for the electricity supply until the spring flood, usually at the beginning of May. This is one of the main purposes of the large hydro reservoirs in Norway.
From the end of 2007 to the end of 2010 the storage content has been reduced from 77% to 45%. The falling water level from 2008 to 2010 right before the spring flood seems to indicate that the owners of the storage prefer to sell energy rather than store it.
The year 2010 looked more or less normal during the first half of the year, but during the third quarter a reduced inflow of water and a sustained increase in demand for electricity combined to create a deficit. At the end of 2010 the supply gap was up 30 TWh compared with the previous year.
The shortfall has been met by transforming a 9.1 TWh export into a 7.3 TWh import, and by drawing 15.4 TWh from hydro storage.
Total, theoretical, Norwegian storage capacity is estimated to be about 80 TWh, but since the end of 2007 the end of year content has been reduced by 25 TWh.
There are good reasons for the apparently relaxed Norwegian attitude to low short term energy reserve:
Considerable resources abroad will be available for export to Norway if needed. Besides interconnections with Sweden and Denmark, the NorNed interconnection to Netherlands has been in service since 2008.
Market prices will respond to a real shortage of electricity. The Norwegian electricity consumption per capita is very high. Therefore the market should be able to balance demand and supply in a reasonable way.
An ambitious interconnection program
Statnett’s Grid Development Plan 2010 (“Nettutviklingsplan 2010”) presents ambitious plans for the extension of interconnections. The plans are based on the following expectations:
increasing Norwegian surplus of energy in years with normal inflow of water
increasing occurrence of extreme wet and dry years
increasing demand for Norwegian system and balancing services
The plan includes the following list of projects, but with reservation for uncertainties:
The Norwegian investments are estimated to between 12 and 20 billion NOK.
Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Ireland are all installing wind power plants in order to reduce carbon emissions and dependency on fossil fuels. These plans all rely on the future availability of foreign services for balancing wind power variations. Smart grid measures for domestic balancing are being developed, but a large scale implementation of such internal measures will probably lag very much behind the policy targets for rapid growth in wind power capacity.
Norway has seen the forthcoming opportunity to sell system services to this market, and new interconnections can go into service in due time for meeting the demand. The total capacity of the interconnection projects may seem tremendous, but it is rather modest compared to the wind power variations which they are supposed to absorb.
This growing business will not affect the security of supply in Norway. The storage capacity is ample for the balancing services and the new interconnections will add to the opportunities for purchasing energy abroad. The bottleneck will be the interconnector capacity.
The European grid expansion will be an important contribution to the integration of an increasing wind power capacity, but it should not be an excuse for the customer countries to postpone the development of local alternatives. Most countries will need to integrate energy systems for electricity, gas supply, heating and transport in order to meet the long term energy policy targets. This will require increased use of electricity and a substantial thermal generation capacity. These changes will require a broad range of new technologies.
The price of the Norwegian services will depend on the alternatives in the countries concerned. If the customer countries have no alternatives, the trade in balancing services will be a seller’s market, with the consequence that the overall cost of wind energy will be needlessly high.
Therefore the customer countries should proceed with the development of clean and flexible generators and local smart grid measures.
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When I arrived in Afghanistan in 2011 for the first time, I proudly displayed several patches on my shoulders. One was the flag of the United States, the country I love so much. Another was the 10th Mountain Division insignia, representing the unit with which I had been deployed. But there was also one more: the Isaf patch, signifying participation in Nato’s International Security Assistance Force.
So, when President-elect Donald Trump claimed in a recent interview that Nato is obsolete in part because it “didn’t deal with terrorism,” I was dismayed. Trump’s assertion is patently untrue, and it disrespects the efforts that fellow Nato members have made to combat this threat.
In case Trump needs a history lesson, the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in 1949, including article five, provides that Nato countries will collectively defend each other in the event of armed attack on any member.
Through the Cold War, Article 5 never had to be invoked, which is a testament to the organization’s deterrent effect on adversaries. But following the 9/11 attacks on the United States conducted by al-Qaida – who had been harbored by the Taliban in Afghanistan – Nato invoked Article 5 for the first time ever, specifically to deal with terrorism.
Whether Nato’s campaign against terrorism has been effective is a fair question. Some might argue that al-Qaida, which has been unable to conduct another attack on the scale of 9/11, has largely been denied safe haven in Afghanistan, and that terrorism does not present an existential threat.
On the other hand, some might argue that al-Qaida’s persistence and a resurging Taliban provide evidence that Nato has not succeeded in its task. One could also argue that Nato should be more involved in countering Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq and Syria, because of the threat the organization projects into Europe. However, these considerations should not obscure the undoubted fact that Nato has taken concrete steps to deal with terrorism since 9/11.
In addition, despite what some may think, the burden of the Nato mission has fallen on the shoulders not only of the US. Consider the fatalities suffered by Nato members in Afghanistan. If we use the methodology of a 2010 analysis that looked at fatalities-per-population and apply it again today, we can see the tiny country of Denmark ranks higher than the United States, which comes in second.
It therefore appears that Trump was shooting from the hip, blatantly disregarding history and disrespecting Nato allies along the way. But should we be surprised?
When it comes to fighting terrorism, Trump is clueless. This is the same man, after all, who ludicrously proposed that Mosul could and should be captured from Isis in a surprise attack. According to outgoing CIA Director John Brennan, this kind of careless spontaneity is “not something that protects national security interests.” Will he ever learn?
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(If you own a Nexus 5X or 6P and you are too lazy to read the philosophy of this technique, head on down to the 2nd post and pop those values into your kernel manager and be happy. If you own a different device, please read this post in full.)
The Introduction
*At least on the Nexus 5X, you shouldn't be turning your screen brightness above about 60%. It should be more than viewable in sunlight at that brightness, and keep in mind that the brightness power requirements increase exponentially, so a 100% bright LCD screen will use about 3.5-4.5x more power than a 60% bright screen. I don't see that fact brought up often, so I thought I'd mention it here.
The Nitty Gritty
Nominal Clock Rates
Efficient Clock Rates
Clock Rate Biases
Idle - 384Mhz
Page Scrolling - 600Mhz
Video - 787Mhz
App Loading - 960Mhz
High Load Processing - 1440Mhz
Idle - ???Mhz efficient / 384Mhz nominal
Page Scrolling - ???Mhz efficient / 600Mhz nominal
Video - ???Mhz efficient / 787Mhz nominal
App Loading - ???Mhz efficient / 960Mhz nominal
High Load - ???Mhz efficient / 1440Mhz nominal
The Set Up
most efficient
above_highspeed_delay
highspeed_freq
above_highspeed_delay
above_highspeed_delay - 20000
frequency:delay
above_highspeed_delay - 20000 460000:60000 600000:20000
highspeed_freq
target_loads
highspeed_freq
The Money Shot
If you have not read the previous sections, DO NOT COMPLAIN IF THE DEFAULT SETTINGS DON'T PROVIDE WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR!! These settings are templates only and these need to be adjusted for each case based on your system and usage patterns! IF YOU ARE NOT GETTING THE PERFORMANCE OR BATTERY LIFE PROMISED, ***READ THE SECTIONS ABOVE!!!***
(If you are using a phone other than a Nexus 5X, you must read the above sections and replace the frequencies with your own efficient clock rates!)
above_highspeed_delay - 20000 460000:60000 600000:20000
20000 460000:60000 600000:20000 boost - 0
0 boostpulse_duration - 80000
80000 go_highspeed_load - 99
99 hispeed_freq - 600000
600000 min_sample_time - 30000
30000 target_loads - 98 460000:19 600000:80 672000:12 787000:81 864000:9 960000:69 1248000:95 1440000:95
98 460000:19 600000:80 672000:12 787000:81 864000:9 960000:69 1248000:95 1440000:95 timer_rate - 20000
20000 timer_slack - 80000
Optimize Idle Frequency
timer_rate - If your idle frequency is not being exceeded much , adjust this downward in increments of 5000 until it is, then increase it by 5000. If your idle frequency is being exceeded often , adjust this upward in increments of 5000 until your CPU primarily stays at or below your desired idle frequency.
, adjust this downward in increments of 5000 until it is, then increase it by 5000. , adjust this upward in increments of 5000 until your CPU primarily stays at or below your desired idle frequency. above_highspeed_delay - Only if your timer_rate has matched or exceeded 50000 and still won't stay at or below your desired idle frequency most of the time, set timer_rate to 50000 and adjust the "20000" portion of the value upwards in increments of 5000 until the idle frequency has stabilized.
Enhance Task Responsiveness
above_highspeed_delay
target_loads
Find Optimal Loads
target_load
(clock rate * 0.9) / next highest clock rate
(600000 * 0.9) / 672000 = 80.36% (rounded and normalized: 80)
(1 - next highest clock rate / clock rate) * -1
(1 - 672000 / 600000) * -1 = 12.00% (rounded and normalized: 12)
384000:75
460000:69
600000:80
672000:76
787000:81
864000:81
960000:69
1248000:78
384000:0
460000:19
600000:30
672000:12
787000:17
864000:9
960000:11
1248000:30
1440000:15
384000:72
480000:68
633000:74
768000:80
864000:81
960000:69
1248000:83
1344000:84
1440000:84
1536000:84
1632000:86
1689000:83
384000:0
480000:25
633000:32
768000:21
864000:13
960000:11
1248000:30
1344000:8
1440000:7
1536000:7
1632000:6
1689000:3
1824000:8
Using Optimal Loads
target_loads
target_loads
Fix Stuttering
min_sample_time
min_sample_time
min_sample_time
But What About That 2nd CPU?!
384Mhz
1248Mhz
1824Mhz
The Money Shot: Part Deux
(If you are using a phone other than a Nexus 5X, you must read the above sections and replace the frequencies with your own efficient clock rates!)
above_highspeed_delay - 20000
20000 boost - 0
0 boostpulse_duration - 80000
80000 go_highspeed_load - 99
99 hispeed_freq - 1824000
1824000 min_sample_time - 20000
20000 target_loads - 98 480000:25 633000:32 768000:21 864000:13 960000:11 1248000:95 1344000:8 1440000:7 1536000:7 1632000:6 1689000:3 1824000:95
98 480000:25 633000:32 768000:21 864000:13 960000:11 1248000:95 1344000:8 1440000:7 1536000:7 1632000:6 1689000:3 1824000:95 timer_rate - 20000
20000 timer_slack - 80000
What About Bob Touchboost?
The Conclusion
You must otherwise optimize your phone first! This will not "fix" a poorly optimized system and will, in fact, reduce performance and battery life without further optimization and proper tweaking.
This will not "fix" a poorly optimized system and will, in fact, reduce performance and battery life without further optimization and proper tweaking. I will not answer questions about "what is a governor?" There are plenty of resources available already, so search for them.
I will not answer questions about "how can I tweak [some other] governor?" This is about the Interactive governor only.
I will not respond to "nuh uh! show proof!" posts. The fact that I spent 12 hours writing this up should be proof enough that I am satisfied with the results. You can take it or leave it; makes no difference to me. The default settings should work with any fully optimized Nexus 5X running ElementalX Kernel, so just try them on your own. If you're not absolutely satisfied (and trust me, either it'll work out-of-the-box with flying colors and you'll know it works for your system, or it'll be an awful experience which means you must tweak it), then you haven't adequately adjusted the settings to suit your system.
I'm about to tell you how to get buttery smooth, lag free performance withgood battery life, using an old school governor featured in practically every kernel...Yeah, yeah... everyone promises good battery with great performance, but who actually delivers? Maybe it isn't as smooth as you want, or maybe it requires something your kernel or ROM don't support. Or maybe the battery life promises just aren't what you expected. There's always some awful compromise. Not here!This isn't a guide to get 36 hour battery life.... That's deep sleep optimization, which is lovely and all, but what good is the phone if you can never use it?! And with the new Marshmallow Doze feature, this strategy is becoming a think of the past.Without compromising, you can get 7-8 hour screen on usage with(Up to 14+ hours if you can stand minimum brightness and WiFi-only with a custom ROM and other stuff turned off! And this is with stock voltages and full frequency range--you'll likely get even more if you choose to optimize those as well!)However, it should be noted that this doesapply to gaming, heavy camera use, etc. Anything that is an automatic battery killer in and of itself. There's nothing that can be done about anything that forces the phone to utilize its maximum resources all the time. But you should know that by now. Further, this guide is about optimizing the CPU as much as possible. It does not cover things like eliminating wakelocks so your phone sleeps well, removing unnecessary and battery draining stock apps, keeping your screen brightness down*, and all that stuff that's been covered in other posts ad infinitum.optimizations are up to you.After a bit of tweaking and experimenting, I developed some settings that provide absolutelybattery life, buttery smooth performance, and a lag free experience. And you don't need a fancy governor, or a custom kernel, custom clock rates, or even a Nexus 5X. This will work onROOTed phone with the Interactive governor!So, after writing a (nearly identical) guide for the EvoLTE folks over a year ago, I'm now back to update this information to provide strategies for multi-CPU devices, as well as specific settings for the Nexus 5X you can useEnough long winded preamble! Let's get down to...Before I lay out all the settings so you can blindly enter them into your governor control, I should to explain some of the principals I employed to get the results I did. The primary thing to understand before I do is: little might you know, the settings in the Interactive governor can be tweaked on abasis. That is to say, you can finely control how the governor responds at a variety of clock rates, thus better dictating how it should operate under various loads. This is integral to the configuration, because it means the difference between jumping from the slowest speed to the highest speed under load and sustaining lower clock speeds for tasks that don't really require higher clock speeds.By default, the Interactive governor will jump from lowest speed to a "nominal" speed under load, and then scale up from that speed as load is sustained. That is lovely, but still too twitchy to provide serious efficiency and power savings. It spends most of its time at 2 or 3 clock speeds and barely hits other clock speeds that are ideal for other tasks or usage patterns.Instead, what we want to do is configure it to handle different types of loads in different ways. A load suited for scrolling through a webpage is not the same as a load suited for downloading/processing streaming video is not the same as a load suited for snappy loading of an app is not the same as a load suited for high performance gaming. Every kind of load has different tolerances at which their minimal speed is indistinguishable from their maximal speed.To understand what's best under a variety of tasks, we have to identify two types of load profiles:andNominal clock rates are theCPU clock rates that perform a given task smoothly and without stuttering or lag. To find the nominal clock rate for a given task, turn onCPU using the Performance governor and turn them both down incrementally until you find the minimum clock rate that works best for what you're trying to do, without introducing hiccups. (If you have a CPU or kernel that hotplugs individual cores, multiply that clock speed by your number of cores.) Keep the 2nd CPU on the Powersave governor with the lowest frequency your kernel supports. (Or turn it off completely if hotplugging allows.)For example, on my Nexus 5X, scrolling (not loading, simply scrolling) through a large webpage smoothly will occur when the first CPU clock rates are460Mhz. (This is on mine without background tasks taking any CPU. Yours may be different depending on services running, the browser you use, your ROM, kernel, etc.) Thus,Efficient clock rates are CPU clock rates that are unique in that they are the most optimal frequency given the range of voltage requirements. If you map out the frequency jump and the voltage requirement jump between each of the available clock rates, you will find that occasionally the voltage requirement will jump significantly without the frequency jumping proportionally to the previous differentials. For example, using stock voltages, the EvoLTE's msm8960 chipset clock/voltage ratios jump significantly higher from 702Mhz to 810Mhz than the ratios from 594Mhz to 702Mhz.Using the information provided above, figure out both yourfor the tasks you perform most often and yourdepending on your kernel/custom voltage settings. For me, since I cannot determine the efficient clock rates, I use the nominal clock rates listed above. For the tasks I generally perform on my phone, my nominal clock rates are as follows:With this done, you will want to start the fine tuning phase! Correlate thewith their closest, similar to below:Keep these handy, as they're going to be necessary for...Now that we know what are thenominal clock rates we want to focus on and what the most optimal are for what we want to do, we will start low and scale up as necessary.In its default state, the Interactive governor has a hair trigger that will raise and lower the clock rates, which means it spends too much time at unnecessary clock speeds, wasting power, and scales down too quickly, leading to stuttering performance. We will take advantage of a seldom used feature of the Interactive governor. Specifically, that with which it determines when it is okay to scale up to each higher clock rate,We have two primary goals:and. To do this, we will instruct the Interactive governor to trigger certain clock rates in different ways depending on our expected load.I won't explain all of the settings of the Interactive governor--there are plenty of summaries all around. (Go search now if you don't know what any of the settings for Interactive governor do. I'll wait here.) However, I will explain an incredibly powerful feature of the Interactive governor that isincluded in those summaries: multiple frequency adjustments.Thesetting, for example, defines how long the governor should wait before escalating the clock rate beyond what's set inFor example, we want theas low as possible to get the CPU out of the idle state as quickly as possible when aload is applied. However, wewant it to jump immediately to the fastest clock rate once it's gotten out of idle, as that may be overkill for the current task. Our target trigger (which you will later adjust to suit your system and usage profile), will begin at 20000μs. That means 20,000μs (or 20ms) after our idle max load has been reached, we want to assume idle has been broken and we want to perform an actual task. (We want this value as low as possible without false positives, because it is one of a few factors that determine how snappy and lag free the CPU's response is.)But at this point we're not ready to take on aprocessing load. We may just be briefly scrolling a webpage and don't need the full power of the CPU now that we've allowed it to break out of idle. So we need it to reach a particular frequency and then hold it there again until we're sure the load is justified before we allow it to push the frequency even higher. To do that, rather than just settingwe will instead use the format "" to setThis tells the Interactive governor to hold out 20ms after our target load when it's at our(which we're actually using as ourfrequency--a burst frequency as originally intended),it tells the governor to hold forafter it's reached 460Mhz. Once it has exceeded 460Mhz, it then has free reign to scale up without limitation. (This will be optimized with thesetting in a minute. And if you don't know what I'm talking about when I say "" then you didn't go search for the basic Interactive governor settings and read about it!These settings are among the most important, because they limit the phone's clock rates when you are not interacting with it. If it needs to do something in the background,Background and idle tasksbe limited to thereasonable clock rate. Generally speaking, if you're just looking at your phone (to read something, for example), you want the phone to use as little CPU power as possible. This includes checking in with Google to report your location or fetching some pull data or... whatever. Things that youneed performance for.So now that we know how to specify different settings for different frequency ranges, let's finish it all up with...If you've made it this far, you're ready to put these strategies into play!With that out of the way...If you are using a Nexus 5X, use the following Interactive governor settings("little"–the one with 4 cores) and then tweak with the instructions below:These defaults work fine for me, but I have otherwise optimized my system fully, so they are at the minimal adequate values.Anything more than about 15-20% idle CPU use at any given timenegatively affect the results you see without further tweaking!Now that you've got the base configuration, we need to tweak it so that the CPU stays at your efficient idle frequency (384Mhz in this case) without spontaneously jumping when your phone is actually idle. To do this, open a CPU monitor that displays the current core frequencies (I like CoolTool, but you can use what you like--you're best off using a passive monitor and checking the results after 30-60 seconds of no activity), watch the frequencies and see how often they go above your efficient idle frequency, and adjust the following:The lower these two values are, the more snappy/lag free your system will be. So try to get them as low as possible without the idle frequency being exceeded too much, as this inversely affects the snappiness and efficiency of your phone when you're not doing anything. Lower = snappier but uses more CPU when you're not doing anything (such as reading a webpage); higher = less snappy but stays in a power saving state more often reducing CPU use when you're not interacting with the device.Now use the efficiency and nominal clock rate correlations you made for your master clock rate list in the section above and adjust your frequencies to suit your usage patterns. For example, I had web page scrolling as my 600Mhz rate, so I will open a web page and scroll and see how everything feels. If it feels sluggish, I will increase all the references to "600000" in bothandupwards to the next available clock rate until that task is smooth.If the task becomes sluggish/stuttery as it winds down (such as a scrolling webpage slowing to a stop),If the task is smooth(or after) it slows down, then you have reached your optimal clock rate and can move on.Now here's where we get a little math-heavy to determine what the optimalfrequencies are for each clock rate. (Might want to bust out a spreadsheet to do the math for you if you're not using a Nexus 5X.)We want to determine 2 values for every available clock rate: the maximal efficient load and the minimal efficient load. To make this determination, we need to bust out our calculators. (Or spreadsheets!)For the, we want to correlate a load value90% of a given clock rate before it would be more efficient to jump to the next clock rate–to avoid overwhelming a particular rate while avoiding premature jumps to the next. For this value, we calculate it as:For example, the maximal efficient load for 600Mhz on the Nexus 5X would be caluclated as:For the, we want to correlate a load value at which anythingwould be better served by a higher clock rate. To calculate this:For example, the minimal efficient load for 600Mhz on the Nexus 5X would be calculated as:For the Nexus 5X, theof CPU 1 are:For the Nexus 5X, theof CPU 1 are:For the Nexus 5X, theof CPU 2 are:For the Nexus 5X, theof CPU 2 are:Now, you might be asking,Well, we had put some values intoearlier, but those values weren't arbitrary. See, for all of our nominal clock rates, we want the CPU to hang out on them for as long as possible,. For each frequency tagged as our nominal clock rate, we want to use thein. For everyfrequency, we want to use ourvalue.We don't care about those other frequencies. We don't want the CPU to hang out in those states for very long, because it just encourages the device to be reluctant to jump to a higher nominal frequency and causes stuttering. We eliminate the desire for the governor to select those frequencies unless it isefficient to do so. For all the nominal clock rates, wethe CPU to hang out there... but not for too long! So we set those values to the maximal efficient load, so they can escape to the next nominal frequencythey overwhelm the current frequency.All said and done,Now that you have adjusted your frequencies for optimal high CPU use in each given task, you may notice some stuttering as the task winds down. (Such as a scrolling webpage slowing to a stop.) If this bothers you, you can tweak this at the expense of(minor) battery life by adjustingup in increments of 5000 until you are satisfied.change it back to 40000 and increase (and re-optimize) your idle frequency by one step. This will impact battery life more, but less than if you were to keep increasing the value ofHowever, this stepif you properly calibrated your maximal and minimal efficient loads!So we've all but ignored the 2nd CPU. The reason? It's a horribly inefficient processor designed for high load tasks that generally don't come into play during normal usage patterns. It's good for gaming and image processing, but not for most moderate tasks a user might employ.But itgood for one thing thatusers do pretty frequently...Fortunately, at least for the Nexus 5X, the system is pretty smart about when to employ the power of this inefficient 2nd CPU. So it's generally kept at bay most of the time. What we want is to configure it to be ourprocessor–we want it to come into play spontaneously andduring tasks that necessitatehigh loads, like loading and switching apps. To do this, we will ignore all but 3 frequencies:In this case,, but only worry about keeping it idle as much as possible, allow it to jump to 1824Mhzwhen needed, and encourage it to fall back to 1248Mhz if a sustained load is needed.These values are ideal for the Nexus 5X, so if you have a different phone, choose the lowest clock rate, highest clock rate, and medianclock rate, using the instructions previously.For the Nexus 5X, we'll jump straight to...If you are using a Nexus 5X, use the following Interactive governor settings("big"–the one with 2 cores)Touchboost is a nifty feature in a lot of kernels (including stock on Nexus 5X) that jumps up the frequency so that you experience minimal lag. However, with all the above settings,We generally want to keep the CPU on thepossible frequency, and touchboost interferes with that. Further, because we've set up the maximal and minimal efficient clock rates, as well as burst processing from the 2nd CPU core,If your kernel allows you to shut it off, try to do so and see if the responsiveness of your device is acceptable. On the Nexus 5X, touchboost addsperceptual performance gain andhurts efficiency and battery life. If your kernel doesn't allow you to turn off touchboost, try another one, like the excellent ElementalX Your battery life will thank you!I have achieved unprecedented performance, smoothness, snappiness, and battery life. However, your mileage may vary, as every phone, ROM, kernel, installed applications, etc are different.If it is not optimally tuned, performance and battery lifesuffer! If you're not seeing buttery smooth, snappy performance,However, if youhave superb performance (and you tweaked the values conservatively andin large steps), then youalso get the aforementioned battery life.I will be happy to answer any questions, or provide any guidance I can. However:Lemme know what you think, and good luck!
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Global demand for meat is expected to double by 2050, and in order to avoid serious environmental repercussions, scientists are now working to make meat without animals, eliminating the need for cruel and destructive factory farming.
Civil Eats is highlighting an effort to create a lab-grown chicken breast: In 2013, the first lab-grown hamburger made its debut in London. Now,is highlighting an effort to create a lab-grown chicken breast:
Gefen, a bioengineer and professor at Tel Aviv University, believes that lab-grown chicken could help satiate a growing global demand for meat at a time when livestock production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions , land degradation, water pollution, and biodiversity losses.
This is exciting news for those of us who care about farmed animals. Meat grown in labs requires zero animal slaughter and as mentioned above, would also eliminate the harmful environmental effects of raising animals on factory farms.
With animal agriculture accounting for the overwhelming majority of greenhouse gas emissions and the daily suffering of billions of factory-farmed animals , lab-grown meat has enormous potential to foster positive global change.
“Until then, those who prefer their protein to be less energy and resource-intensive might want to look towards plant-based ‘meat’ made from soy and pea protein. Or just extend that Meatless Monday into Tuesday and Wednesday,” the article concludes.
Luckily, there are tons of delicious, totally animal-free options that are sure to satisfy even the most die-hard meat eater.
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You know what? Over the past couple of months this blog series has forgotten its roots. Lately I’ve been doing more and more special posts about special holidays and even departing from the beloved Golden Age of Comics. I think it’s time to return to form and talk about some of the sillier moments that made up the early days of comic books in the 1940’s but who can I talk about? What early superhero from an early publishing company would fit the bill and be just ridiculous enough to get this blog back on track?
Oh, well this looks promising.
Origin and Career:
The Red Bee made his first appearance in Hit Comics #1 in July of 1940.
I’m not going to lie, that cover image is pretty darn cool. Also, he was created by writer Audrey Blum,
one of the few ladies writing comic books at the time.
The Red Bee started out as mild mannered Rick Raleigh, an Assistant District Attorney living in Superior City Oregon. Rick grew tired of watching criminals go free thanks to loopholes in the system and decided to take matters into his own hands and become a costumed vigilante.
Now most of the pictures I found involved The Red Bee using his hands and feet to beat the bad guys and he was pretty adept at hand to hand combat. But he had another power, something far greater, and much more terrifying, than mere physical strength.
Bees, the man could train and control bees to do his bidding.
and he used them.
The Red Bee usually winds up on a lot of “worst heroes ever” lists. I really don’t understand why because HE CAN CONTROL BEES!!
All yelling aside the Red Bee was pretty silly. In all my research I never saw him use his power to it’s terrifying potential and control a swarm of bees. Instead he used the power to control a few bees at a time in order to augment his physical combat skills.
Fun fact: apparently he had a favorite bee named Michael.
beating out Ant-Man’s “Anthony” by several decades.
So what happened?
Sadly the Red Bee didn’t catch on and become that popular of a superhero. He would battle a collection of gangsters and Nazis until his final Golden Age appearance in 1942.
He would remain largely forgotten until 1983 when he made a comeback with DC’s alternate universe team “All Star Squadron”
Without going into too much detail the All Star Squadron was a group of established DC superheroes BUT they were from an alternate dimension that was still stuck in the 1940’s and fighting in World War 2 against the Nazis. I won’t go into too much detail explaining it but basically it gave DC writers a way to write stories about WW2 superheroes without having to worry about screwing up their main comic book universes.
That man in the yellow uniform with the pink cross on his chest and the swastikas on his neck? That’s Baron Blitzkrieg and he did this to the Red Bee
The Red Bee died a hero’s death saving the lives of his friends and fellow heroes.
The Red Bee’s legacy does live on in the modern day. Richard Raleigh’s daughter, Jenna, took up the mantle of the Red Bee in a 2006 miniseries entitled Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters.
The new Red Bee had some serious upgrades to her gear and weaponry.
She now had a special battle suit that allowed her to fly, granted her super strength, and two robotic bee assistants capable of firing lasers. However, a year later she would undergo another major change and became more insect like.
While still in possession of the battle suit she now had actual wings with antennae on her head and the ability to spray pheromones onto targets in order to track them.
Sadly Jenna suffered the same fate of her father in that she just didn’t become all that popular. She briefly went bad, tried to colonize the Earth, and was stopped at the last minute. After regaining her mind she quit being a superhero and pursued a career of academic research.
So that’s the history of the Red Bee and to be honest, while I think that the story of the Red Bee and his daughter is kind of ridiculous I do think the idea was pretty good. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery and the Red Bee was the first superhero with insect related powers and who was named after a bug.
Seems like a pretty good legacy to me.
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Back in 2012, I wrote about an economical boom coming my home district Batroun’s way (link). It promised great things for the caza and North Lebanon. Now, more than 2 years later, that project is going through the bureaucratic motions of Lebanese governance on its (hopeful) way for fulfillment.
A parliamentary committee consisting of MPs Ibrahim Kanaan (Metn), Nadim el Jesr (Tripoli), Hekmat Dib (Baabda), Jean Ogassapian (Beirut), Neamtalah Abi Nasr (Keserwan), along with a representative of the Minister of Economy Alain Hakim, is studying the law required in order to make the zone a reality.
The zone will be spread over an area of 200,000 m², donated by the Maronite Church in Batroun. The project was championed mainly two years ago by the Maronite League (الرابطة المارونية).
The purpose of the Maronite League behind the project is to improve the economy of that region in order to prevent its people from moving to Beirut and its youth from emigrating. Certainly, even if unknowingly by the League, such a project’s benefits will not be exclusive to the people of Batroun or Maronites for that matter. Let’s hope they don’t mind.
The feasibility study of Batroun’s economic zone indicates that there’s a possibility to generate over 5000 jobs. The companies that will operate in said area won’t be those of heavy industries akin to the ones present in nearby Shekka or Selaata; they will be high-tech industries similar to the ones operating in California’s Silicon Valley, which is where many Lebanese youth today are heading as career choices.
In order to bring in such high-caliber investors, the law that is being studied by parliament will give investors and their companies many advantages:
The zone will not be run by the Lebanese government, but by a separate appointed committee whose members are, in theory, not chosen based on sectarian distribution but on qualifications, They will have their products exempt from custom fees, which would make their prices competitive, They will have their mode of business not constricted by Lebanese bureaucracy, which means they won’t have to face months of legal paperwork to finish anything that’s remotely crucial for business, Permits will be issued by the committee in charge of the zone and would therefore be more easily obtained, Taxes will be reduced on companies to make their business more profitable.
As is always the case in Lebanon, there’s big fat “HOWEVER” lurking in the background. It is not all awesome news. Is it ever?
Batroun’s Silicon Valley-like area isn’t Lebanon’s first to be suggested. Back in 2004, late PM Rafic Hariri came up with an idea for a similar zone in Tripoli, and in August 2008 Lebanese parliament actually passed the law required to set such a zone in action. This is a copy of the law (link) if you’re interested.
For the first time in years, Tripoli – and North Lebanon – were to have major development coming their way. Keep in mind that in 2008, Tripoli was not the war-torn city you all love to criticize today. It was, at the very least, much stabler than Beirut.
In numbers, Tripoli’s zone was more impressive than Batroun’s. Its area was to be spread on 1,000,000 m² of reclaimed land facing the city’s port, of which 350,000 m² has already been done.
At poverty rates ranging between 57 and 63%, Tripoli would have witnessed a tangible and drastic improvement in its economical state as well as the living standards of its people. The study of the area indicated the possibility of generating more than 6000 jobs.
Couple that with Batroun’s numbers and North Lebanon, the country’s poorest and most forgotten mouhafazats, gets more than 11,000 new jobs for its market.When has it ever had such development take place? Never.
Soon enough, the situation in Tripoli decompensated miserably into what things are today. The situation in the country as well wasn’t better. Tripoli was Lebanon’s battleground for the subsequent years. However, those two broad headlines weren’t the only reasons why Tripoli’s zone came to a standstill. Our government couldn’t appoint the committee that would oversee the project. As such, that massive economical development has been sitting on shelves for the past 7 years.
Why wasn’t our government able to appoint the required committee? Because they haven’t found the appropriately backed people of appropriate sectarian backgrounds. Even getting decent jobs to the poor and unemployed in this country is a matter of religious calculations.
Today, here’s what’s at stake. The country can remain as it is, with our youth leaving the country and ending up on best end-of-year lists (link) for doing things abroad that they could have done here. The status quo can remain. Excuses such as “Tripoli is too unstable” and “Batroun is too far” can be used to kill such projects in order to keep all the money flowing to Beirut and Mount Lebanon because only those matter. Tripoli can be kept poor, Batroun can be kept underdeveloped and North Lebanon can also easily be kept needy. The people can be kept jobless and uneducated. Let them stay hungry, let them stay foolish, let them forever remain prone to political manipulation.
Or, infrastructure-issues notwithstanding, we can realize that such projects are a solution, not a symptom, and that it’s high time to realize that Lebanon is 10452 km², not only confined to Beirut, and that sectarian balances are second-rate when it comes to being part of a 20 trillion dollars economy (this is the number in zeros for magnitude: 20,000,000,000,000). Let’s hope those in charge realize the latter, and don’t succumb to the former.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) spoke Wednesday before a roaring audience of nearly 10,000 people, the most impressive crowd in the presidential election race so far. Sanders remarked on how he expected his authenticity and his policy ideas help him overcome his campaign's financial hurdles.
"I am more than aware that my opponents will be able to outspend us. But we are going to win this election," Sanders told the supporters gathered at an arena in Madison, Wisconsin.
Sanders is right that he has some serious financial competition — Hillary Clinton is raking in about half a million dollars a day. But according to the numbers released Thursday by the Sanders campaign, Sanders' war chest is far from a laughing matter.
Since April 30, when he launched his presidential run, Sanders' campaign has raised about $15 million — about $5 million more than he had anticipated based on estimates earlier this month.
Sanders' camp reports 99% of the contributions of around 250,000 individuals were $250 or less, and the average donation was $33.51.
Sanders, who is receiving a vast majority of the donations through his website, has set his sights on raising $40 million to $50 million by year's end. The new numbers suggest that his long-term goal is certainly reachable.
Of course the best way to measure the power of a candidate's campaign coffers is through comparison to their rivals, and Clinton, the front-runner in the polls, is a fundraising colossus. Clinton, who announced her bid for the White House a few weeks before Sanders, has pulled in $45 million so far — the largest quarterly figure pulled off in the primary stage of a race.
While Clinton's greatest advantage over Sanders in piling up cash is that she has strong ties with Wall Street and is coordinating her campaign with powerful super PACs, 91% of the contributions to her campaign were for $100 or less.
Bernie-mentum has certainly proven itself to be bigger than a social media fad. But as the press and the Clinton camp begin to take him more seriously, it will be interesting to see if it will carry on at its current pace.
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Tornado rips through sleepy Suffolk village leaving trail of destruction
A freak tornado left a trail of destruction after it ripped through a quiet Suffolk village without warning.
The twister destroyed a 250-year-old forge, wrecked a car, uprooted trees, blew down a chimney, ripped off tiles and tore off roofs from a house and outbuildings.
Power and telephone lines were also brought down as the 120mph wind swept across the outskirts of Great Livermere, near Bury St Edmunds.
Devastated: Brian Hardman, the village blacksmith, by the remains of the Old Forge at Great Livermere in Suffolk after the tornado struck
Incredibly nobody was injured when the tornado struck just before 5pm on Monday, although several people had a lucky escape.
The wind blew up just seconds after village blacksmith Brian Hardman, 56, had been in his forge lighting up his fire to fashion horseshoes.
He said: 'I had just come back into my house over the road to make a cup of tea. I shut the door and then I heard this loud crashing noise. It sounded like a train going past.
'I looked out and saw a few tiles had flown off my roof. Then I looked across at the forge and saw it was in ruins. It was heartbreaking to see.
'I was very lucky because I was standing inside just a few moments earlier and I could easily have been caught up in it.
'The wind just seemed to come from nowhere. It only lasted about 20 seconds or so.
'Before it happened there was a bit of drizzle and it was a bit overcast - but there was nothing to suggest there was going to be a tornado.'
The wind brought down half of the timber-framed forge and most of its roof, wrecking an MG sports car that Mr Hardman had been renovating inside.
The father-of-two's Land Rover Discovery car which was parked next to the forge was written off when it was smashed by rubble and debris.
A 40ft cherry tree and a 30ft apple tree in Mr Hardman's garden were also brought crashing down.
Tony Redman examines the damage caused by the twister which blew through Great Livermere on Monday
Chartered building surveyor Tony Redman, 59, had a six foot tall chimney blown down at his 18th century home The Cottage which is opposite the forge.
Scores of bricks from the chimney smashed through his roof, littering a stairway of his house which was unoccupied at the time.
A slate roof on an extension to the house was also ripped off, along with the roof of a barn and the gable end of a brick and flint outbuilding in the garden.
Swept away: Tony Redman witnessed the twister rip the roof of his house and barn
The tornado left a wake of devastation after it ripped through the quiet Suffolk village
Huge branches were ripped off eight oak trees in the meadow behind the house as the tornado made its way out of the village.
Mr Redman, a non-stipendiary priest, said: 'The wind came from a westerly direction and then crossed this end of the village before disappearing over the fields again.
'We are just very fortunate nobody was hurt - but my cat which was in the house at the time was left a bit traumatised.
'My family have lived here since 1810 and the buildings have stood here without any problem all that time.'
Calm before the storm: Great Livermere village green before the tornado struck
Retired maintenance fitter Bill Dean, 69, said he was watching television in his home when the tornado struck.
He said: 'I heard a roaring sound coming down the chimney and then a crash which was our TV aerial coming down.
'I looked out of the window and there was debris of all shapes and sizes flying past, including a plastic garden table and chairs.
'In a matter of second it was all over - but when I went outside I saw chaos.
'I had lost several roof tiles and the 50ft walnut tree in my garden was split in two, bringing down the power line and my telephone.'
What a mess: The village blacksmith's shop in Great Livermere was also hit by the tornado on Monday
Mr Dean also lost the 20ft top of a sycamore tree in his back garden and had the roofs of three of his wooden sheds blown off.
He said: 'It's fair to say we were scared for our lives. Hopefully it is something you only experience once in a lifetime.
'The incredible thing is that the tornado only hit a small area. The rest of the village was unaffected.'
Mr Dean said his granddaughter Lauren Dean, 13, who lives in the village had a lucky escape as she had been in his garden collecting her bike just five minutes earlier.
Met Office spokesman Barry Gromett said he believed the tornado was caused by a belt of low pressure in East Anglia drawing up warm and humid air from sub-tropical parts of the Atlantic.
He said: 'There was a lot of energy in the atmosphere which led to storms. When you have tall clouds with sufficient up-draught and down-draught, you get these vortices developing.
'Everyone thinks about tornados in America - but the UK actually has more per square kilometre than any other country. They are more common in high summer when you have heat and energy in the atmosphere.
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For the first time since the late 1980s the iconic Mercedes-Benz G-Class will see a major relaunch coming January. At a secret location in Southern Germany I had a first opportunity to take a closer look at the interior of the new Mercedes G.
The Mercedes G-Class road car was first introduced in 1979 and still remains very true to the original today. Along with the Lada Niva it is one of very few cars from that era that remain on sale today. In the late 1980s the ‘460’ G-Class became the ‘463’ G-Class, since that time the G received many smaller updates and spawned many different body styles including a convertible and more recently six-wheeler variant but the dimensions and look remained largely unchanged. Although the ‘463’ designation will remain with the upcoming relaunch it is as significant as the one from the 1980s.
New Mercedes-Benz G-Class Interior 1 of 6
Most importantly the new G will be 100mm wider and 54mm longer as the current G-Class. This particularly aids the driver and passengers with rear passengers gaining as much as 15 cm more legroom. This all sounds good – knowing how limited the space is in my G63 – but will the new G remain as iconic as the old one?
My encounter with the new G interior was staged in a dark room – no pun intended – with just the interior light of the car on as Mercedes intends to keep the new exterior a secret for a bit longer. Inside a brand-new interior awaits. But before I acknowledge all that’s new; a few things that remain.
What stayed
Inside you will find a few familiar things like the handle bar for the passenger to hold on to, the three distinct buttons to engage the differential locks and the switches to open the windows on top of the door.
Although this preview was very much about the interior I couldn’t help but notice some exterior elements that remained too. Even in the dark I could clearly recognize the indicators on the top of the front bonnet, the old school door handles, the side exhaust pipes, side steps and the spare wheel cover mounted at the single rear door. Opening the door to the driver’s seat I could hear the familiar clicking sound every G owner will recognize immediately. When I closed the door, or should I say slammed the door shut, it made the same distinct sound as the old G. Great!
What is gone
A few things that have gone: the basketball net that doubled as the only front cup-holder (the current G has no storage space whatsoever so the two center cup holders and the two in the doors are welcome additions but the basketball net is gone) and the gear lever in the center console (is replaced by a lever on the steering wheel).
What is new
The rest is all new, partly inspired or carried over from the latest generation E- and S-Class like the steering wheel (which is a bit too thin for my liking), center console and the optional dual infotainment display. The interior also sports a few unique design elements like the air vents shaped like the front headlights and the Burmester speakers shaped like the front indicators. Several new trim lines are available including ‘Metal Structure’ and various different open pore woods.
The most significant upgrade are the seats and the space inside in general. Tall drivers and passengers will no longer struggle to find a comfortable driving position and the seats now offer all the latest luxury you can also find on the S-Class like a massage function. The rear bench comes with a ski hatch and 8-step adjustable cargo setting. The rear passengers sit slightly higher as the front row giving them a better view at the same time the rear floor is raised slightly as well.
The infotainment systems (version 5.5) provides the latest in connectivity and entertainment. You can charge your smartphone wirelessly in the center console. Adjustable ambient lighting is now also available and so is keyless GO. Customers can choose between two digital displays or one digital display with analogue speedometer and rev counter. I would probably opt for the latter as it fits the G-class character better. Judging by the buttons found on the left side of the steering wheel new assistance systems like lane assist will also come to the mighty G.
Overall the new Mercedes-Benz G represents a serious leap in driver and passenger comfort and pretty much all my issues with the interior of the current G-Class have been resolved. I’m very happy many of the elements that make the Mercedes G such an iconic car appears on the next generation too. The interior design is a bit too playful for my taste but you can’t have it all!
Stay tuned for more about the new G here on GTspirit in the upcoming weeks.
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'Brain finger-printing' could soon be used as evidence in Australian courts
Posted
Technology that can read the human mind sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but researchers in New Zealand say a technique they are testing gets pretty close.
Key points: 'Brain finger-printing' method can tell if a person knows certain information
Results have previously been accepted as evidence in US and Indian courts
New Zealand scientists say more research is needed before more courts adopt it
Forensic brain wave analysis, or "brain finger-printing", is a method of analysing brain waves to see if a test subject has knowledge of certain information.
It was developed by American biological psychologist Lawrence Farwell in the 1980s but has failed to gain much traction as accepted evidence in courts.
The technique involves tracking the brain's involuntary responses to external stimuli, with the brain emitting an electrical pulse in response to information it has encountered before.
Christchurch-based University of Canterbury neuroscientist Richard Jones said after further testing the technique might be able to help solve crimes.
"The idea is that if you have committed a crime, then you've got something in your memory of the scene, or of a weapon, or whatever," he said.
"So if you and other suspects are tested later on by being shown some photos or words, your brainwaves react in a certain way to those stimuli."
Professor Jones said the technique has been admitted as evidence in a criminal case in the US state of Ohio, as well as in one case in India, but not yet in Australia or New Zealand.
"Dr Lawrence Farwell, who developed this, his claims of accuracy is that he's never faulted it," Professor Jones said.
"Of the 200 people he's seen and about 16 studies, it's never been faulted."
Professor Jones said it was still not clear if it was possible to defeat the tests by tricking the brain into forgetting or inventing memories.
"It is possible to inject fake memories, and we just don't know to what extent the brain finger-printing paradigm is quite robust relative to that."
Technique 'still a fair way to go'
But Professor Jones said more work needed to be done on the technique, and that he hoped his team's work in New Zealand would inspire other researchers to look into the method.
"There still needs to be more done in this space," he said.
Robin Palmer, who spearheaded the brain wave trial and works as director of clinical studies at the University of Canterbury law school, said the technology had a lot of potential.
But he admitted it could be a while before forensic brain wave analysis was admitted as evidence in Australian or New Zealand courts.
"From an admissibility to court situation, it's still a fair way to go," Professor Palmer said.
"If you go back to DNA, which was virtually discovered in 1953, the first time it was admitted in courts was 1988."
He said courts were reluctant to be first to admit new technology as acceptable expert evidence.
"Nobody wants to be first when it comes to scientific evidence, because you're putting your career on the line by making a decision which may turn out to be wrong or humiliating for you," Professor Palmer said.
The Christchurch trials will continue later in the year.
Topics: computers-and-technology, courts-and-trials
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The defective China-made MRT trains in the news are not the only ones to have developed cracks here.
The entire first batch of 19 US-made Bombardier trains on the Bukit Panjang LRT also developed cracks during their service here.
The defects, however, were fixed here, unlike the 26 Chinese trains being shipped back to China to have their aluminium bodies recast.
The affected LRT trains belonged to the first batch of automated people movers to arrive here in 1999.
SMRT Trains managing director Lee Ling Wee said the cracks were discovered "during a routine assessment by Bombardier in 2015".
He said the cracks were also examined by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the trains deemed "safe for passenger service".
In total, 19 trains were found to have the defects. Twelve have since been rectified by SMRT, using welding methods.
The remaining seven have yet to be repaired as the cracks on them are said to be less serious.
In all, the Bukit Panjang LRT system has 32 trains - 19 from the first batch and 13 added recently.
Related Story Qingdao Sifang breaks silence, saying trains were still safe
It is not known what caused the cracks, but an LTA spokesman said they were "due to normal wear and tear". Each crack measured "no more than 12cm", and they were found on the "lateral beams of the underframe". "Cracks may develop over time after years of operations," the LTA said. It added that the defects "are not safety-critical".
The Qingdao Sifang MRT trains were found to have developed cracks because of impurities in the aluminium used to cast the chassis.
The Bukit Panjang LRT system has been beset with technical problems since day one. Despite efforts to improve it, the line remains the most problematic rail system here.
The first batch of trains were made by Adtranz (ABB Daimler- Benz Transportation) before it was taken over by Canada's Bombardier in 2001. They were manufactured in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The Qingdao Sifang MRT trains were made in Qingdao in China's eastern Shandong Province, in collaboration with Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
Qingdao Sifang also has a joint venture with Bombardier.
In a statement released yesterday, Kawasaki-Sifang confirmed the flaws. But it refuted online allegations that the group had falsified test results to meet manufacturing standards.
"There is no way to cover up non-conformity to specifications," it said, adding that the allegations were groundless, and that it reserves the right to take legal action against parties perpetrating them.
SEE FORUM
Train cracks a telltale sign of inferior materials used
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“Sorry lads, it just wasn’t good enough.”
If someone was to ask me to sum up Mark Farren, my mind drifts back to the car park in Gortakeegan after Derry crashed out of the League Cup to Monaghan United. Gavin Dykes was the manager and Derry had put in a fairly abject performance including two red cards. We had filled a bus from Belfast and travelled down for the game and the spirits were pretty low.
Lads were just finishing up in the bar at the ground and we were waiting on the last few stragglers to get on the road. Mark appeared out of the building and wandered over to us. For a chat. Those of us who had travelled were more in shock at what we had seen and the low ebb around the club. Mark saw us, felt that it was the right thing to do to come and have a word. And that was the testament of the man, a man who prided himself on what was the right thing to do.
I’m traveling with work at the moment so learned the news overnight of Mark’s sad and untimely passing. A broken sleep saw me lift my phone and find numerous texts and tweets. I’ll admit that I got less sleep afterwards, as I lay in a foreign bed thinking of the many games and goals that Mark was involved in over the years.
Mark was less than a year older than myself and therefore I truly did “grow up” watching him. From that explosive hat trick against Limerick which saw his appearance on the stage, to the record breaking final goal, I’ve been there for the vast majority of those. It co-incides with a lot of my involvement with the club, be in involvement with this site, covering the games on “Match Night Live” or involvement in other activities around the club. So Mark was a central figure in my time around the club and we were all the better for it.
On the field his record speaks for itself. Goals, goals and more goals. Goals to keep us up. Goals to win us Cups. Late winners. Early winners. He had them all and after years of City fans crying out for a striker than could score 15 a season, Farren was that man. Signed under Gavin Dykes, he blossomed under Stephen Kenny and was feared by defences across the land. I can remember a night that Colin Green and I were covering the game back on the radio, when Jason McGuiness seemed to be on a one man mission to see if it was possible to perform an amputation using only late tackles from behind. As McGuinness performed a variety of fouls, Colin was getting increasingly incensed. As were some of the enforcers on the Derry side. Not Farren, he took the hit, got up and went again.
In terms of the goals that he scored the years, everyone will have their own favourites. It may be the Cup final goal, the hat trick v Linfield, the “perfect hat trick” against Drogheda, the late winner against Waterford in 2006, the promotion winner in Monaghan. The struggle of trying your pick of a favourite goal is that for a man with over a hundred goals, there is an awful lot to choose from. Some many goals, so many times I uttered the words “And Farren runs onto it” before describing the goal that would invariably follow.
Close your eyes for a moment and let your mind drift back to glory days of 2005/06. Farren scored 18 goals that season and not a penalty amongst them. A flighted through ball splitting the defence as Farren rushes onto it and rolls it past the keeper. How many times was that scene repeated over the years in grounds, up and down the country?
Mark was also a pleasure to deal with off the field as well. Whether it was stuff for the club website, the programme or Drive 105, Mark was always generous with his time. He was never cocky or arrogant, he was a humble man who didn’t exude bravado. He knew what he could do and he let his play do his talking for him. As Stephen Kenny once said “He is one of the most decent and unassuming human beings that you could ever meet”. That’s not to say that he didn’t have a twinkle in his eye and wasn’t capable of telling us a story or two about his team mate if we were looking for material for a future podcast episode or the like.
As part of the fundraising campaign Glenavon organised a fundraising game for Mark, a player that had only turned out for them for a couple of years. A number of us travelled up from Dublin for that game and to hear the warmth and affection with which the Glenavon players and support spoke about Mark showed once again his character as a man. The game in the Brandywell and at Mourneview were emotional occasions to see how a young man had been reduced to a shadow of the physical specimen he had been at the peak of his powers. Again, due to the close age range I know this really had an impact on me and was very conscious of this.
Mark fought the illness in the same way that he played full of energy and committing himself wholeheartedly to it. He faced up to it and tried every avenue that was available to him. The footage in October gave some hope that the treatment had proved a success, but ultimately the news today was that it hasn’t been enough. The severity of Mark’s condition was never underestimated but I’m not shy to admit that the news today still shocked me. I can only extend my sincere sympathies to Terri and to the extended families on both sides. We got to see the player for 90 minutes every week. Their loss will be immeasurably larger than ours.
I have many other memories of Mark Farren’s career with Derry and his all too short life on this earth. I count myself to have been lucky to have seen Mark in full flight, terrorising defences and scoring for fun. Every supporter will have their own memories and should treasure them. So when people ask me in the future about Mark Farren, my mind will drift not first to a rippling goal or a celebration. It will be to a rapidly emptying car park in Monaghan when a throughly decent fella came over for a chat, when he easily could not have bothered. A talented player and an absolute gentleman.
Rest in peace in Mark
Kevin McDaid
Mark Farren: A personal appreciation was last modified: by
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Ben, a young Irish boy, and his little sister Saoirse, a girl who can turn into a seal, go on an adventure to free the fairies and save the spirit world.
In Ancient Polynesia, when a terrible curse incurred by the Demigod Maui reaches Moana's island, she answers the Ocean's call to seek out the Demigod to set things right.
Kubo lives a quiet, normal life in a small shoreside village until a spirit from the past turns his life upside down by re-igniting an age-old vendetta. This causes all sorts of havoc as gods and monsters chase Kubo who, in order to survive, must locate a magical suit of armor once worn by his late father, a legendary Samurai warrior.
Did You Know?
Trivia The Skeleton Demon (based on the Gashadokuro of Japanese folklore) is the largest stop-motion puppet to be built, standing at eighteen feet tall. The Skeleton Demon (based on the Gashadokuro of Japanese folklore) is the largest stop-motion puppet to be built, standing at eighteen feet tall. See more
Goofs Kubo is told in his dream to "follow the setting sun" in order to find the helmet. He immediately wakes up and leads his group into the rising sun. Then the shadows indicate light is behind them, then in front again. Kubo is told in his dream to "follow the setting sun" in order to find the helmet. He immediately wakes up and leads his group into the rising sun. Then the shadows indicate light is behind them, then in front again. See more
Quotes [ first lines ]
: [ narrating ] If you must blink, do it now. Pay careful attention to everything you see and hear, no matter how unusual it may seem. And please be warned: If you fidget, if you look away, if you forget any part of what I tell you - even for an instant - then our hero will surely perish.
[ baby crying ]
: His name is Kubo. His grandfather stole something from him. And that really is the least of it.
See more » Kubo : [] If you must blink, do it now. Pay careful attention to everything you see and hear, no matter how unusual it may seem. And please be warned: If you fidget, if you look away, if you forget any part of what I tell you - even for an instant - then our hero will surely perish. Kubo : His name is Kubo. His grandfather stole something from him. And that really is the least of it.
Crazy Credits The initial end credits appear over a background animation of characters and scenes from the film, as well as scenes from Japanese culture. After this, there is a time-lapse sequence that depicts the assembly of the giant skeleton demon. The credits then continue with images and short animations of elements of the film (characters, backgrounds, etc.) appearing beside the credits. The initial end credits appear over a background animation of characters and scenes from the film, as well as scenes from Japanese culture. After this, there is a time-lapse sequence that depicts the assembly of the giant skeleton demon. The credits then continue with images and short animations of elements of the film (characters, backgrounds, etc.) appearing beside the credits. See more
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KOCHI: Kalamassery police have registered a case against a 12-year-old boy and a private hospital here after an 18-year-old girl gave birth to a baby.While the boy was booked under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act for allegedly impregnating the girl two months before she turned 18, the hospital was charged for breaching the POCSO Act by not informing the police.Denying any wrongdoing, hospital authorities said the girl was 18—and hence not a minor—when she approached them and went into labour and .The hospital said it informed the Childline once the young mother’s relatives informed that a 12-year-old boy had fathered the newborn girl.“Besides reporting the case, all files regarding the girl was handed over to the Childline soon after she was discharged on November 4, hospital sources added.Childline volunteers, meanwhile, were suspecting that whether the 12-year-old had impregnated the girl.“The hospital authorities had followed the protocol and informed us about the incident on the morning of November 2. We alerted Thrikakara ACP about the incident,” said Father Tomy SDB, director of Childline, Kochi.Kalamassery circle inspector Jayakrishnan said the girl had given birth in the hospital the night before they were informed.“As per Section 18 of the POCSO Act the hospital was supposed to inform us immediately. The case was registered against the hospital for failing to do so,” he said.Meanwhile, Childline and child welfare commission officials said it was not mandatory to inform the police. The information could be passed on to any agency listed under the Juvenile Justice Act.The grandparents of the young mother later attended a sitting of the child welfare commission and handed over the newborn to the panel, saying they were not ready to bring her up. The panel sent the infant to its care centre.
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Martin O'Neill led Aston Villa to three top-six finishes, Remi Garde played a major role in their relegation and Steve Bruce has been tasked with reviving their fortunes
When Aston Villa were relegated from the Premier League in April 2016, caretaker manager Eric Black spoke of the potential for the club to fall into "anarchy".
In an attempt to halt the decline, Villa's spending in 2016-17 has exceeded £70m - more than the total paid on transfers by nine top-flight clubs - and they appointed a manager, Steve Bruce, who has won promotion from the Championship four times.
With Bruce in charge and the most expensively assembled squad in Championship history at his disposal, Villa ought to be targeting an instant return to the Premier League.
Instead, back-to-back wins over Derby on Saturday and Bristol City on Tuesday - their first of 2017 - were required to lift them to the relative heights of 15th. They remain closer to the relegation zone than the play-offs, but fears they could be involved in a relegation battle have eased, for the time being at least.
Their prospects look brighter now but a rare good week on the pitch has not been mirrored off it, as the club announced on Monday a loss of £81m for the past financial year (2015-16), more than three times the deficit from their previous accounts.
For a club whose trophy cabinet boasts a European Cup, seven top-flight titles and seven FA Cups, these are dark days.
How drastic has their decline been?
When Martin O'Neill walked out five days before the start of the 2010-11 season, he left having secured top-six finishes in each of the three previous campaigns.
Villa were preparing for a third consecutive year of European football and ought to have been looking up, focusing on how best to mount a challenge for the Champions League places.
But since O'Neill's departure - reports suggested he was unhappy at the lack of funds made available for transfers by then owner Randy Lerner - their decline has been dramatic.
In the six and a half years that have followed, Villa have collected about half the number of points amassed by Manchester City (262 compared with 521), the team that finished just one place above them in O'Neill's final season.
And they have won 197 points fewer than Tottenham, the "worst" performing side from that year's top six.
In fact, of every club to have competed in the Premier League and Football League/EFL since the start of 2010-11, only Stockport - now in National League North - have won less regularly.
"Villa are one of the biggest clubs in the country - if it were down to size they would be in the top six in the Premier League," said Dean Saunders, who played for Villa from 1992-95 and helped them finish second in 1992-93.
"That's what their fans expect, and that is what I would expect from them too. When you think of Villa, with their magnificent support, you should be thinking of a team full of top international players that everyone knows about, pushing for trophies. They are a million miles away from that at the moment."
'They could have done a Spurs, instead they've done a Sunderland'
For Saunders, watching the club's slide has made for painful viewing. Their relegation in April with four games remaining - the earliest a team had dropped out of the top flight since Portsmouth in 2010 - was merely the culmination of years of under-investment during Lerner's time at the helm.
"The reason they aren't where they once were is there has been a lack of investment in the years since O'Neill left in 2010," he said. "It makes me sad seeing what has happened to them. I feel sorry for their fans, but it was coming.
"You can go back to the departure of players like Gareth Barry (2009), James Milner (2010) and Ashley Young (2011).
"They never replaced them, or even tried to. Until this season they tried to do things on the cheap and that lack of investment is why they have not stayed with the big-hitters - the big teams, which they are one of.
Transfers of £5m or above since O'Neill's departure Ins Outs 2016-17: Ross McCormack (Fulham, £12m), Scott Hogan (£12m), Jonathan Kodjia (£11m), James Chester (£8m), Aaron Tshibola (£5m) 2016-17: Idrissa Gueye (Everton, £7.2m), Adama Traore (Middlesbrough, £7m), Rudy Gestede, (Middlesbrough, £6m), Ciaran Clark (Newcastle, £5m), Jordan Ayew (Swansea, £5m), Ashley Westwood (Burnley, £5m) 2015-16: Jordan Ayew (Lorient, £10.2m), Jordan Amavi (Nice, £9.3m), Jordan Veretout (Nantes, £8.5m), Adama Traore (Barcelona, £8.5m), Idrissa Gueye (Lille, £7.6m), Rudy Gestede, (Blackburn, £7.2m) 2015-16: Christian Benteke (Liverpool, £32.5m), Fabian Delph (Man City, £8m) 2014-15: Carlos Sanchez (Elche, £5.1m) 2014-15: None 2013-14: Libor Kozak (Lazio, £5.5m) 2013-14: None 2012-13: Christian Benteke (Genk, £7.5m) 2012-13: None 2011-12: Charles N'Zogbia (Wigan, £9m) 2011-12: Stewart Downing (Liverpool, £20m), Ashley Young (Man Utd, £17m) 2010-11: Darren Bent (Sunderland, £18m), Stephen Ireland (Man City, £8.25m), Jean Makoun (Lyon, £6m) 2010-11: James Milner (Man City, £18.7m)
"Villa are bigger than Chelsea, Manchester City, Tottenham and Everton.
"Compare them to Tottenham, who were trying to break into the Champions League at the same time as O'Neill was in charge, or Everton, who are trying to do it now - there is no difference in the size of those clubs. Villa are actually bigger than both of them.
"The difference is the way they have been run. That is the reason Villa have gone in the opposite direction.
"So instead of doing a Spurs, they have done a Sunderland - they were hanging on and just avoiding relegation for the past four or five years, but it was inevitable it was going to happen."
And so it proved.
Their dire form and off-field issues at the end of last season led Black, standing in following the disastrous reign of Remi Garde, to say that the club "could very easily implode".
The downward spiral was supposed to end in the summer when Dr Tony Xia took over from Lerner as owner and, following the short-lived tenure of Roberto di Matteo, appointed Bruce as manager, the surest thing there is to a guarantee of promotion from the Championship.
Wasn't Bruce the man to finally end the decline?
Despite a poor start to the season and the departure of Di Matteo after 124 days and just 11 league games, Villa were still sixth favourites for promotion with the bookmakers when Bruce was appointed on 14 October.
They might have been languishing in 19th place in the Championship, but that optimism came from Bruce's record of securing two promotions to the top flight with Birmingham, and two with Hull.
"They're one of the big clubs in this country," said Bruce, who became the sixth man in 12 months to pick the Villa team.
"I relish the challenge of trying to take the club where it wants to go and needs to be - and to try to turn around the misfortune we seem to have had over the past few years."
Unlike when Alex McLeish - another former Birmingham City manager - took over across the city just five years earlier, there was little opposition to his appointment among the club's supporters.
Bruce initially justified that faith, with seven wins from his first 12 games in charge - and only two defeats.
Since then - and despite still boasting the best win percentage of any Villa boss since O'Neill - the magic seems to have worn off.
Seven years, eight permanent managers Manager Games Win % O'Neill, 2006-10 190 42.1 Houllier, 2010-11 39 35.9 McLeish, 2011-12 42 21.4 Lambert, 2012-15 115 29.6 Sherwood, 2012 28 35.7 Garde, 2015-16 23 13 Di Matteo, 2016 12 8.3 Bruce, 2016- 23 39.1
Following the 2-1 home win over Burton Albion on Boxing Day, Villa have played 12 games, won twice (their past two matches), drawn at home to Leeds and Preston and lost the other eight.
Saunders, though, is convinced Villa have the right man in charge.
"I couldn't have picked a better manager than Steve Bruce to turn things around," said Saunders, who played under the former Manchester United defender when he was in charge at Sheffield United.
"I have managed in the Championship and it is not so much Premier League players you need, you need players who, mentally, can go to the likes of Rotherham or Burton on a Tuesday night and show the correct attitude and respect to those teams.
"It is extra hard for a team like Villa because when they play at home the crowd are waiting for a four-niller, when it does not happen like that.
"Mentally it is a war, week-in, week-out. A lot of the time these games are more like an actual battle than a football match, so you need players who can fight.
"Sometimes you have to clear the decks and start again before you can really turn things around, but that can take a couple of years. The one thing Villa need now is stability."
Villa have spent big - so why has it not worked?
Aston Villa were involved in three of the five most expensive Championship arrivals this season, with Helder Costa's £13m move to Wolves and Newcastle's £12m deal for Matt Ritchie the other two
Along with Newcastle, Villa were considered strong favourites for this season's Championship title and, unlike in some previous Premier League seasons, they have backed their managers financially.
Much of the money spent first by Di Matteo and more recently by Bruce has been used to try to improve their strikeforce, with about £24m spent bringing Bristol City's Jonathan Kodjia and Fulham's Ross McCormack to the club in the summer, while Brentford striker Scott Hogan arrived in January for a fee which could rise to £12m.
But as early as January, three of their summer signings had left the club, as McCormack (£12m) and Aaron Tshibola (£5m) joined Nottingham Forest on loan until the end of the season, while goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini (£4m) moved to Atalanta on an 18-month loan deal.
In the past two transfer windows about £40m has been recouped in player sales.
"I think in hindsight you could argue this was always going to be a tough season given the issues the club had the previous year," said Matt Lynch, presenter of YouTube channel The Villa View.
"We needed time to restructure even the basics at Villa Park and perhaps attempting to do it over one summer was too much. I think we do have to look at people in charge of the summer recruitment though, like Roberto di Matteo. The strategy didn't pay off."
Bruce was not helped by the loss of top scorer Kodjia for a month to the Africa Cup of Nations. Nor could he have foreseen the gate-related problems that would contribute to McCormack leaving the club.
Villa's forward signings Player League games Goals Goals per game Assists Jonathan Kodjia 26 12 0.46 1 Ross McCormack 20 3 0.15 1 Albert Adomah 26 3 0.12 8 Scott Hogan 4 0 0 0
Hogan, the newest big-money arrival, failed to score in four appearances before injuring an ankle against Newcastle on 20 February, which will keep him out for up to five weeks.
Though Kodjia has arguably justified his transfer fee with 12 goals in 26 league games, Villa's big spending has not consistently translated into goals, as they have the third worst scoring record in the division.
Nottingham Forest's Henri Lansbury and Barnsley's Conor Hourihane, who leads the Championship with 11 assists, were signed in January to add creativity to the midfield, but they have provided just one assist and one goal since moving to Villa Park.
"The churn of managers has led to chronic instability and uncertainty among the players," said BBC Radio 5 live's Midlands football reporter Pat Murphy. "An average of eight new signings per season since 2010 doesn't lead to a coherent strategy.
"Villa have brought in 16 new players in the past two transfer windows, 10 of whom started their recent match against Newcastle. It's hard to expect them to bed in easily and now that the inevitable Bruce bounce of the autumn has worn off, justified questions are being asked of the players' character."
So is there any hope of an imminent Villa revival?
Henri Lansbury helped Aston Villa to their first win of 2017 on Saturday, when they beat promotion hopefuls Derby 1-0
The fear for any Premier League club relegated to the Championship is that they suffer the kind of fate that befell Leeds, whose financial and ownership issues have been a constant narrative throughout their 13 years outside the top flight.
As one anguished caller to BBC WM 95.6 said on a pre-match phone-in two weeks ago: "If even Steve Bruce can't put it right, I can't imagine who can."
So is Villa's decline irreversible? Or could they yet re-establish themselves as the force they were during the 1990s?
"I can see green shoots of optimism, believe it or not," said Murphy. "For years Villa have needed a director of football to organise a uniform style of play and to finesse recruitment worldwide. They have the right man now in Steve Round - vastly experienced, but he's only been there for five months.
"Keith Wyness is an old pro of a chief executive. He also deals directly with the fizzing ideas and energy of Dr Xia, who is very hands-on, no matter where he finds himself in the world.
"His contributions on Twitter are always welcome, albeit sometimes gnomic. Dr Xia is a laudable contrast to the lethargic leadership of Lerner in his last few years at Villa Park, where a state of permanent executive stasis existed.
Sorry, this content is no longer available.
"Then there's Bruce. He needs a couple more transfer windows to clear up the mess that's accumulated down the years. You don't get to be Manchester United's captain for five years under the demanding Sir Alex Ferguson without understanding and embracing pressure. Bruce should be judged at Villa this time next year."
Saunders takes solace in the presence of Round and Bruce, but is wary of the problems a long Premier League absence can cause.
"It is vital that they get up next season, before a gap opens up," said the former Wales striker. "Every season you spend in the top flight is worth £100m thanks to TV money, so every season a team like Swansea or Burnley stay up, they are going further away from Villa.
"It is so hard to get out of that division but Villa will get back up there because of the supporters who keep turning up and keep the money coming through the gate.
"They will be back - it is just a question of when."
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WASHINGTON -- As the United States government approaches a deadline for raising the debt limit and the government shutdown nears its second week, Senate Democrats are taking a stand on sequestration.
The party’s leadership rejected an offer from Senate Republicans on Saturday morning mainly because the proposal locked in those budget cuts for too long.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) called it the “single biggest sticking point” in negotiations, while his counterpart in leadership, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) deemed it the central dispute.
“The parties have different views. We passed a budget of $1.058 trillion and they passed one -- the Ryan budget -- [at] $988 [billion],” Schumer said. “So that is a serious issue.”
Democrats' stand over sequestration is a nice surprise for some progressive members who worried leadership would cave in this area. But instead, they were emboldened after polling showed them with the upper hand in budget fights. Democrats also noted that they, too, were concerned about the severity of the cuts.
Under a Senate Republican proposal crafted by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the government would have been funded at $988 billion for the next six months. Many Senate Democrats said they could live with that number -- just not for that long.
“If we can have a short term [continuing resolution at $988 billion] to get us through, say, the first of December, that is fine with me,” Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told The Huffington Post.
The question, said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), was: “Are we locked into the number for what amounts to the next year, or are we going to be able to get to the point where there are budget negotiations that can work with that number?”
The concern for Harkin and King, among others, is that the party could sacrifice too much negotiating power by signing off on Collins’ plan. Under the Budget Control Act, annual spending will be reduced to $967 billion around Jan. 15, regardless of the budget at the time. Democrats want to avoid that. They've concluded that it would be a misstep to put off a motivating moment (such as a budget deal ending) for those negotiations for six months, or to go on record supporting a six-month, $988 billion budget.
“[Waiting] would dis-incentivize the negotiation. It would put Democrats on a weaker ground,” said a top Senate Democratic aide. “If, in the next few days, we break the will of [Speaker] Boehner and Senate Republicans, and we pass both a clean CR and debt limit increase, I think that there is a belief within the Senate Democratic caucus that there is absolutely no way that they would have any leverage to make major demands in future negotiations about this, that we would be in a better position.”
Hints that Republicans may end up playing ball on sequestration emerged this week. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) hinted that he would be willing to trade sequestration relief for entitlement reforms. Democrats aren’t ready to make that exchange yet because they view it as imbalanced, and because they want to get through the current crisis first.
During talks Saturday morning, aides with knowledge of the meeting say, Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) implored her colleagues that it would be a misstep to agree to the spending levels in Collins’ plan. Many lawmakers emerged from that meeting calling Murray’s presentation convincing.
“Patty Murray makes a very important point,” said Durbin. “If she is bound going into a budget conference by the Paul Ryan number, where is her bargaining power? Some Senate Republicans were insisting on that. But that’s unfair.”
White House officials, meanwhile, have signaled to Senate Democrats that waging a fight over sequestration during current talks is acceptable. An administration official told The Huffington Post that while they found the Collins’ proposal “constructive,” they had concerns about the spending levels.
With just five days until the debt ceiling deadline, the party is now holding out. The goal, ultimately, is to produce a deal that funds the government at $988 billion, but only for a short period of time, and to include a framework in which both chambers negotiate to replace sequestration more fully.
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Rolex 6536/1 Vintage Submariner 6536 'James Bond' INCREDIBLE (26314)
More about Rolex 6536/1 Vintage Submariner 6536 'James Bond' INCREDIBLE
This is a vintage c. 1956 stainless steel Rolex Submariner 6536/1. It has an integral stainless steel link stretch rivet Oyster bracelet with 64 end links, and a double deployment clasp, dated 2/57. It has the original Brevet screw down winding crown, and it has a screw down solid case back, inside of which is stamped: "MONTRES ROLEX SA-GENEVA-SWITZERLAND-PATENTED-STAINLESS STEEL-6536/1," and a serial number. The 38.5mm diameter solid three-body case, curved lugs, and original flat knurled-edge bezel, are polished/brushed. The black bi-directional revolving bezel has graduated /Arabic numeral decompression times, with a luminous dot/triangle at 60 minutes. The black dial is aged with a consistent patina, as are the dot, baton, and triangular hour markers. The luminous radium plots are unusually bold, and the gilt Rolex signature and perimeter minute/second chapter ring are bright and fresh. The original skeletonized Rolex hands with luminous inserts are extremely clean and match the rest of the dial perfectly, as does the center sweep second hand. The dial says 100m=330 feet, and the 12.2mm thick case, dial, and movement are all signed.
This Rolex Submariner 6536/1 has a mechanical automatic Rolex caliber 1030 movement. It's rhodium-plated, and constructed with 25 jewels, a shock absorber device, and a straight-line lever escapement. It includes a monometallic balance that's adjusted to temperatures, isochronism, and 5 positions, and a self-compensating Breguet balance spring.
The Rolex Submariner 6536/1 is a very early "James Bond" submariner, originally introduced in 1954.
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Donald Trump always says how much he loves Veterans.
Yet, his record shows he fires them for serving, fought to have them not be able to earn a living as street vendors, ridiculed a decorated war hero by saying "I like people who weren't captured", ridiculed a Gold Star family repeatedly and mercilessly, gloated when a man gave him his Purple Heart saying "it was much easier" to get it handed to him and minimized the damage IED's cause by calling them a "little ride upward."
Yeah, he loves the Vets.
Anyways, 3 days after Trump won the Presidential election it would seem fitting for him to honor the veterans in some way, right? Visit Arlington Cemetery while he was in DC meeting President Obama, go to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial or at the very least make some sort of donation or acknowledgement at a VA or Veterans center, right?
Guess how much he did.
Zero. That's right, our president elect loves veterans so much that he completely ignored the one day of the year designated as a day to honor current, past and future members of the military.
At least he sent a tweet written by a staffer that read:
"Today we express our deepest gratitude to all those who have served in our armed forces. #ThankAVet"
Just a tweet. Can you imagine the rage if President Obama did that?
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Immigration: Who The U.S. Lets In, And Why
America's economy would be better off if the U.S. admitted more highly skilled workers, James Surowiecki recently argued in the New Yorker. That got us thinking: How does the U.S. compare to the rest of the developed world when it comes to immigration policy?
The short answer: The U.S. mostly lets in family members of people who are already in this country. Other developed countries focus much more on letting in workers.
A few notes on the data:
The data are for immigrants who are admitted for permanent residence (in the U.S., this corresponds to immigrants who are issued Greencards) or, in the case of some countries, on visas that are renewable indefinitely.
"Open Borders" refers to people who don't need a visa to move from one country to another. A German citizen, for example, is able to relocate to Britain for work without a visa because both countries are in the EU.
According to a spokesperson from the OECD, most people who move from one "Open Border" country to another for work, though a number of Europeans move to the Southern regions permanently to retire.
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Image copyright AFP Image caption Ms Le Pen has thus far evaded a conviction for her inflammatory words
France's parliament has stripped Marine Le Pen of immunity from prosecution over a series of grisly images she published on Twitter in 2015.
A cross-party committee in the National Assembly decided to remove the protection Ms Le Pen enjoys as a deputy in the assembly.
The three images referred to the so-called Islamic State group and were captioned "Daesh is THIS!"
One showed the decapitated body of IS victim James Foley.
Ms Le Pen later deleted that image amid the resultant outcry on social media and from Foley's family, claiming she was unaware of the victim's identity.
The other images showed a tank running over a man in an orange jumpsuit, while another jumpsuit-clad man was shown in a cage being burned alive.
The images resulted in Ms Le Pen being investigated by prosecutors.
In theory, if found guilty she could face a heavy fine or even imprisonment according to French law, but Ms Le Pen has always been protected by her status as an elected official.
Ms Le Pen reacted caustically to Wednesday's decision on Twitter , saying: "Better to be a jihadist returning [to France] from Syria than an MP who denounces the abasement of Islamic State: one takes fewer judicial risks".
This is only the latest attempt by an elected body to pave the way to legal action.
In March, the European Parliament took a similar step to strip the immunity of Ms Le Pen , who was an MEP at the time. But her immunity was restored once she was elected to the National Assembly in June.
She has also been placed under formal investigation over her alleged misuse of European Parliament funds while she was an MEP.
From a strong showing in much of her campaign to become president, Ms Le Pen's fortunes have floundered since - she lost badly to Emmanuel Macron and her party then fared badly in legislative elections.
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Strathclyde review
In October 2015, the Government was defeated in the House of Lords on its proposed changes to Tax Credits. This prompted the Government to commission Lord Strathclyde to examine the House of Lords' powers over Statutory Instruments, reporting in December 2015.
In our May 2016 report on the Strathclyde Review, The Strathclyde Review: Statutory Instruments and the power of the House of Lords, PACAC argued that the House of Lords' excessive size and unbalanced composition, rather than its role in Statutory Instruments, was the more pressing issue facing the Upper Chamber and announced that we would hold an inquiry on these subjects later this Parliament.
Prime Minister's resignation honours list
At present, appointments to the House of Lords are the subject of Prime Ministerial patronage, with the role of the House of Lords Appointments Commission limited to vetting all nominees purely for propriety and proposing the creation of Crossbench peers. In recent years the exercise of the Prime Minister’s patronage and the ever increasing size of the House of Lords has become a subject of growing concern and controversy. Following the publication of the former Prime Minister's resignation honours list on 4 August, the Chair of PACAC, Bernard Jenkin MP, announced that he would be asking the Committee to launch an inquiry into the size and composition of, and appointments to, the House of Lords.
Since the House of Lords Act 1999, the House of Lords has grown in size from 666 members to just over 800 eligible members (840 when currently ineligible peers are included). The pace of appointments has also increased in recent years. According to research from the Constitution Unit at UCL, between May 2010 and February 2015, 187 new peers were appointed, at an average rate of 40 per year (PDF 1.6 MB).
Largest second chamber in the world
While recent reforms (House of Lords Reform Act 2014) have enabled peers to retire from the House and provided for the removal of non-attending peers, the House of Lords remains by far the largest second chamber in the world. In fact, since the 2014 retirement provisions were introduced the size of the Lords has grown overall – thanks to the number of new appointments.
Though a far-reaching attempt by the coalition Government at House of Lords reform (in the form of the House of Lords Reform Bill) failed during the last Parliament, and the current Government's election manifesto expressly stated that a reform to introduce an elected component was "not a priority", the manifesto did commit the Government to ensuring "the House of Lords continues to work well by addressing issues such as the size of the chamber".
Incremental reforms
This inquiry will focus on how best the Government can fulfil this pledge, while acknowledging that a more extensive reform is unlikely in the short to medium term. In doing so this inquiry builds on the work undertaken by the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee during the last Parliament into possible incremental reforms. The Committee will seek to identify the “unarguable next steps” for reform of the House of Lords.
Call for written submissions
PACAC would welcome written evidence submissions addressing the following issues:
What function and role should the House of Lords have within the UK's system of Parliamentary Government
Given that successful Lords reform has generally been on the basis of incremental, small steps, what is the next most urgent reform needed in order to allow the House of Lords to perform its functions most effectively
How the size of the House of Lords can be most effectively managed, including whether there should be a fixed size for the House of Lords, with a phased reduction in the number of peers towards that maximum size
How a reduction in the size of the House of Lords can co-exist with renewal of the different groupings in the chamber
Whether there should be greater oversight of the patronage the Prime Minister exercises over appointments to the House of Lords
What role the House of Lords Appointments Commission should play in the appointment of all new peers and what additional powers and resources are required for it to play such a role
How it might be possible to ensure that peers, when appointed, will contribute to the function and role of the House of Lords
The effectiveness of the new retirement system, provided by the House of Lords Reform Act 2014, and the potential scope for reform of leaves of absence.
The deadline for written submissions is Tuesday 10 January 2017.
Further information
Image: House of Lords 2016 / Photography by Roger Harris
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The people of Delhi NCR woke up from their slumber, to find that their surrounding has been enveloped in thick fog which made breathing a bit difficult when people stepped out of their homes for morning walks etc.
AFP/Representational Image
Pollution level is alarming in Delhi, but today morning was different as pollution levels went up. Many schools in Delhi/NCR have also issued an advisory to the parents to send their children to school wearing masks. AT least 12 trains and 20 flights were also delayed due to low visibility.
At places like RK Puram, Anand Vihar, Punjabi Bagh and Mandir Marg, the levels of PM2.5 are at 999 microgrammes per cu (mg/cu), 704 (mg/cu), 999 (mg/cu), and 658 (mg/cu), respectively against the prescribed level of 60 (mg/cu). According to the experts, the air quality is far worse than what’s visible as the meters which measure air quality have stretched to their extreme limits and they don’t monitor PM2.5 beyond 999 mg/cu.
aqicn.org (The data was collected at 11 am)
Don't Miss 127 SHARES 1.4 K SHARES 1 K SHARES 694 SHARES
The average AQI was a staggering 411 mg/cu at 9 am in Delhi NCR and calling it hazardous would be an understatement.
IMA writes to Delhi Govt to cancel Delhi Half Marathon
Citing the alarming levels of pollution, Indian Medical Association (IMA) has written to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to cancel the Delhi Half Marathon scheduled to take place in the capital on November 19.
AFP
The event’s sponsor Bharti Airtel has also softly threatened to pull out of the event from next year onward unless adequate steps are being taken to ensure pollution levels remain in check.
“Air pollution poses serious health risks and it is important that these concerns are addressed urgently and appropriately by the authorities for Airtel to continue associating with the event next year and beyond,” read Airtel’s statement.
aqicn.org
The government, as well as the judiciary, have taken cognizance of the situation and a slew of steps have been taken lately. If odd-even, regardless whether it was a success or not, was one big initiative taken by the Delhi government last year, judiciary pitched on this year with Supreme Court banning the sale of crackers in Delhi for Diwali on October 9 and Punjab and Haryana High Court Banning stubble burning in the beginning of October.
aqicn.org
Though cracker ban was implemented well this resulted in roughly 40 percent emission drop from fireworks in comparison to Diwali in 2016. Yet the Delhi NCR woke up on October 20 while breathing in extremely hazardous air.
Air Quality hit emergency level post-Diwali
aqicn.org
Despite the ban on firecrackers, the PM2.5 during Diwali and the morning after (12 pm - 12 am), October 19-20) was a staggering 397 microgramme per cubic metre (mg /cu) which was 6.6 times higher than the prescribed standards. It was twice the levels of pre-Diwali day when the 24-hour average was 184 microgramme per cu. But this Diwali was less hazardous than the last one
AFP
According to the data analysed by Centre for Science and Energy (CSE) by comparing four stations (Mandir Marg, Punjabi Bagh, Anand Vihar and R K Puram), there was a reduction of 29.5 per cent in 24-hour average PM2.5 levels (12 am - 12 pm) this year. The average PM2.5 concentration in these four stations was 325 microgramme per cu in 2016 to 229 microgramme per cu this year.
Blame stubble burning but is it the only reason behind
Though Punjab and Haryana High Court had banned the stubble burning in the two states and the respective state governments even tried to ensure that no stubble burning takes places with giving any option to farmers. But despite that Delhi’s air quality has touched new low and now Delhi’s air is highly dangerous to breathe in.
aqicn.org
Indian Meteorological Department had warned a couple of days back that Delhi is likely to witness dense fog as easterly winds, blowing from Uttar Pradesh, will introduce moisture into the city's air over the next few days, and fog will start building from October 29.
"As a result, pollutants having local sources (vehicular combustion, road dust, smoke from garbage-burning) shall remain at the ground level for longer hours. Their ground level concentration will be building up," Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) member secretary A Sudhakar had told ET.
AFP
"Northwesterly or westerly winds, which are generally dry but laden with smoke, are not entering the capital, thus preventing the influx of air-borne residue of stubble-burning. That way it is good but easterly winds will bring a lot of moisture, which will trap local pollutants," he added indicating that more than stubble burning, Delhi’s indigenous pollutants like vehicles etc are more responsible for the air quality touching new nadir every day.
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Invicta FC 25 Co-Main Event Now Non-Title Strawweight Affair Between Brazilians Livia Renata Souza and Janaisa Morandin
Two changes have been made to the Inivtca FC 25 fight card, taking place from Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino in California on Thursday, Aug. 31.
An injury suffered during training has forced strawweight title challenger Jodie Esquibel out of the co-main event. In her place, undefeated 22-year-old Janaisa “Evil Princess” Morandin (9-0) faces her toughest test to date, taking on former strawweight champion Livia Renata Souza (10-1) in a three-round, non-title bout.
Brazil’s Souza most recently defeated former atomweight champion Ayaka Hamasaki, winning by first-round knockout at Invicta FC 22. Morandin joined the promotion as an atomweight, but has competed and won at 115 pounds during her time on the Brazilian fight scene.
Bantamweight Amberlynn “ALO” Orr (0-1) also has a new opponent for Invicta FC 25, accepting the challenge of fellow prospect Sarah “Chucky” Kleczka (0-0), who replaces Kelly McGill.
Kleczka is making her professional debut after compiling a 7-0 amateur record that includes three submission victories.
The updated nine-fight card for Invicta FC 25 can be found below:
Bantamweight Title Bout: Raquel Pa’aluhi (6-5) vs. Yana Kunitskaya (9-3, 1 NC)
Strawweight Bout: Livia Renata Souza (10-1) vs. Janaisa Morandin (9-0)
Bantamweight Bout: Alexa Conners (4-1) vs. Katharina Lehner (5-0)
Strawweight Bout: Sharon Jacobson (3-1) vs. Kali Robbins (4-0)
Atomweight Bout: Shino VanHoose (5-5) vs. Alyse Anderson (3-0)
Bantamweight Bout: Amberlynn Orr (0-1) vs. Sarah Kleczka (0-0)
Bantamweight Bout: Yaya Rincón (1-0) vs. Stephanie Egger (2-1)
Flyweight Bout: Cheri Muraski (3-0) vs. Tracy Cortez (0-0)
Atomweight Bout: Ashley Medina (0-0) vs. Jillian DeCoursey (0-0)
Invicta FC 25 streams live and exclusively via UFC FIGHT PASS at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT on Thursday, Aug. 31.
Tickets for Invicta FC 25, priced at $120, $60, $40, or $30, are on sale now via TachiPalace.com.
For more information about Invicta Fight Championships, visit invictafc.com.
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THE SOUND of ghungroos associated with sugarcane juice stalls in the city is missing from these hand-pulled carts. A common sight in the suburbs of Navi Mumbai and Thane, however, is a steady crowd around the carts, seeking a quick respite from the heat by guzzling sugarcane juice on street corners. The people operating these carts are mostly farmers from rural Maharashtra. Competing with sugarcane juice stalls, pulling along the hand-cart business is a tough task.
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Sunita and Ashok Andhale, a farmer couple from Ahmednagar, have come to Navi Mumbai for the first time this year. The two work as labourers in farms to cut sugarcane back home. With not much work between October and May, the couple decided to come to the big city this time, like others from their village have before this. The two first bought a cart built in a workshop in Ahmednagar from money got by selling their cattle. They then hired a tempo and brought the cart to Navi Mumbai. The first few days they observed other carts, before setting out to assemble their own.
“It took one whole day to build it together from dismantled parts,” says Sunita. The three-wheeled cart has two wooden crushers between which the sugarcane sticks are placed. A long handle on top has to be pushed with a lot of strength to crush the sugarcane for its juice.
Sunita and Ashok begin their day around 10 am, when the sugarcane is delivered to them from the nearby APMC market. They also buy ice, lemon and plastic glasses for the day before lugging the cart to a street corner, despite their frail frame. “We carry many kilograms of sugarcane on the cart, so it becomes very heavy. The work involves so much labour that by the end of the day, we are too tired to walk,” says Ashok. They work till 8 pm before returning to their rented space nearby.
The couple is hopeful of making more money than their Rs 500 per day as labourers back home. Their three children, including a toddler, are in the care of their parents. “We miss them but only manage to speak to them once or twice a week. It is difficult to make ends meet with the meagre amount we earn at home, and that is why we came here,” Sunita says. For now, the couple is attempting to get used to the city hustle.
They skip lunch every day, too shy to eat in a public place on a road. “We do not eat sitting on the road in our village. We are not comfortable doing that here,” 25-year old Sunita says.
Others, like 22-year old Rajendra Shirsat, also from Ahmednagar, have been coming to Navi Mumbai for a few years now. “We first came here over four years ago. We have a small farm for jowar and bajra in Ahmednagar district. We will go home once monsoon begins and the demand for sugarcane juice goes down,” Shirsat says.
Neelam,too, has been operating a cart for a few years in Navi Mumbai. “Earlier, I used to hire a man from the labour market every day to help me with the cart. On days the labourer did not turn up, I would end up losing the entire day’s earning, since I could not operate the cart by myself,” she says.
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Neelam then took a loan and bought a motor, through which the crushers could turn without any manual push. Estranged from her husband, Neelam single-handedly manages the cart to make enough for her only son’s education. “I began this work to earn more than I would as a domestic worker in other people’s homes. Summer is a good time, even though I will have to work in the scorching heat through the next two months. If I don’t slog in the heat, I will not make my son’s life better,” she says.
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“They are afraid of the results, that the country can’t take it now,” he said, adding that he felt psychologically unable to keep working.
Essam Sharaf , the interim prime minister, also offered his resignation to the ruling council, but it was not accepted. A statement on the cabinet’s Web site said that Mr. Beblawi’s resignation was “still being reviewed.”
New evidence emerged Tuesday night confirming reports that Egyptian soldiers drove over protesters with armored vehicles and fired live ammunition into a crowd of unarmed Coptic Christians in Cairo on Sunday night. The demonstrators were protesting about a recent attack on a church in southern Egypt.
Khaled Ali, a human rights advocate working with the families of 17 of those who were killed, said in a television interview on Tuesday night that autopsies found that 7 died of gunshot wounds and 10 were crushed to death by vehicles.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the Egyptian foreign minister, the State Department said in a statement, “to convey our deep concern about the violence that occurred over the weekend.”
Photo
The State Department said that Mrs. Clinton “reiterated the need for the Egyptian government to ensure that the fundamental rights of all Egyptians are respected, including the rights of religious freedom, peaceful assembly, and the end of military trials for civilians, and that efforts be made to address sectarian tensions.”
The Egyptian military has offered condolences to the victims but has taken no responsibility for the deaths. The military has asked Mr. Sharaf to initiate an investigation.
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Although Mr. Sharaf was initially appointed as the choice of Egypt’s protest movement, his acquiescence to the ultimate authority of the military council has cost him much of his credibility, and in the aftermath of the killings a growing chorus of political figures called for his resignation.
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Egypt’s largest independent newspaper, Al Masry al-Youm, declared in a front-page editorial on Tuesday that the clash was the breaking point for both Mr. Sharaf and the interim government.
“The state lost its prestige, the regime is about to fall apart, and Sharaf’s government doesn’t have any credit anymore; the only thing they have left is the dignity of resignation,” the editorial said. “In transitional periods, good intentions, gullible smiles and seeking the consent of the presidential military council are not enough.”
In contrast, a state-run newspaper, Al Ahram, alone among the major Egyptian papers, devoted its front page to positive steps Mr. Sharaf was taking to address what it called “the incident,” including strengthening antidiscrimination laws.
The newspaper’s front page also reported on the hanging Monday morning of a Muslim man convicted of murdering six Christians and one Muslim in a shooting at a Coptic Church service nearly two years ago.
The timing of the execution, as thousands of angry Coptic Christians in Cairo prepared to bury those killed the night before, recalled what human rights activists had long described as a pattern by the Mubarak government of using its criminal justice system to placate Egyptians angry over episodes of sectarian strife, often without an open investigation or an airing of the facts.
Tapping into the deep resentment here of American military interventions in the region, several news outlets publicized false reports that Mrs. Clinton had offered to send American troops to Egypt to protect Coptic Christian churches. The American Embassy, which denied the rumors on its Web site on Monday, said in a statement on Tuesday that “the conversation never took place.”
The resignation of Mr. Beblawi, an economist, comes as he was reported to be renegotiating a loan from the International Monetary Fund that Egypt had previously rejected, another sign of the nation’s decaying economy.
Friends called Mr. Beblawi a principled liberal who had long advocated justice and democracy. “Everyone, governed and governor, is subject to the rule of law, free from arbitrariness and whims,” he wrote in 2009. “The law defines the scope and limits of activity and guarantees respect for commitments.”
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Bayern Munich recorded their biggest ever semifinal win in Europe with a dominant 4-0 victory against Spanish giants Barcelona. For the Catalan side it was their biggest European defeat in 16 years. Before the match, Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes said they prepared a specific gameplan for Barcelona and on Tuesday they executed it to perfection.
No side has ever turned around a 4-0 deficit at this stage of the competition and with Bayern having one foot firmly in their third final in four years, let’s take a look at some of the deciding factors in this historic and impressive win.
Müller’s movement
Bayern’s width is one of their key strengths and Ribery and Robben both tore Barcelona to shreds at times on Tuesday. But perhaps even more important was the relentlessly energetic, unpredictable and clinical Thomas Müller. The Bayern attacker has become one of the team’s best big-game players over the last couple of years and was the difference maker once again versus Barcelona. Bayern’s shape is usually quite static and that was also the case against Barcelona, with one exception: Müller.
Whether it was from the left, the right or through the middle, Müller was everywhere and no Barcelona player could quite get a grip on him. Robben and Ribery did their part by constantly running at Alba and Alves, thereby also freeing up Müller to do damage in and around the box. If Busquets was indeed assigned to mark Müller it certainly didn’t go as planned. Müller is only the second player to score two goals against a Spanish team, joining Alexander Zickler, and is also the first German player to both score and assist a goal against Barcelona in the last decade.
He has now been involved directly in 10 goals in the Champions League in 11 matches this season. Below are three of Müller’s attempts in the game, each unique, each from a different pattern of play and each symbolizing the variety and sheer unpredictability that made him such a threat against Barcelona.
Javi Martinez – Anchor and Pivot
As outlined so well by Michael Cox in the Guardian, one of Martinez’s functions was to track Andres Iniesta’s runs. With Lionel Messi not completely fit, a lot of the work fell on Iniesta’s shoulders against Bayern. He saw the ball more than any other player on the pitch and that overreliance combined with the fact that Martinez expertly tracked and nullified a lot of his attacks played a big part in the final outcome.
Martinez stuck close to Iniesta on the left and the two contested several duels throughout the game, of which Martinez usually came out on top. Much has been made of the difference in size and height between the two teams and that advantage was certainly helpful to Bayern, especially on set pieces, but more than anything it was Bayern’s tight marking, disciplined positioning and excellent tactical execution that persevered, Martinez being the prime example.
The former Athletic Bilbao midfielder has been in brilliant form since joining Bayern and against Barcelona he may have put in his best performance yet. With Busquets trying to keep an eye on Müller and Xavi busy enough shuffling the ball around looking for an outlet, Iniesta had to drop deep quite a bit to pick up the ball. But wherever he went, Martinez was right behind him. That’s also one of the reasons why Pedro and Sanchez were as quiet as they were.
Drop and Press Tactics
Captain Philipp Lahm said after the game that the team did really well to drop behind the ball as quickly as possible when Barcelona went on the attack. Bayern’s ability to transition quickly between defending and attacking was instrumental in their win. Barcelona were always going to enjoy the majority of the possession and at times they had close to 70% of the ball against Bayern. What Heynckes and the team did really well, and this is a page directly out of Jose Mourinho’s book, was to grant them that possession but in turn clog the channels and spaces they normally utilize so well.
Ribery, Müller, Robben and Gomez all defended expertly when they had to, whether it was dropping into their own half of pressing in Barca’s. Schweinsteiger and Martinez each doubled up on the left and right respectively when Alves and Alba got forward and Robben and Ribery often tucked inside to apply pressure to Xavi and Iniesta. Simply put, they made it next to impossible for Barcelona to find pockets of space anywhere on the pitch, at least long enough for them to utilize it.
Surprisingly enough, Barcelona only had four attempts at goal and three of those came from their defenders on set pieces. Seldom have they looked so anemic in attack. Messi’s injury played a big role but Bayern’s focused defending and tireless pressing were perhaps the biggest factors for their impressive win.
Header courtesy of facebook.com/FCBayern
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After protesters at a Washington state college called for a day without white people, a biology professor says he no longer feels safe on campus — and student activists complain they’re being vilified by conservative media.
Evergreen State College students said racial tensions have been simmering in recent weeks, but reached a boiling point when a faculty member disagreed with their plans to protest what they say is institutional racism at the Olympia campus, according to The Olympian.
Students were particularly incensed by an email that surfaced on Twitter on May 25 between Professor Bret Weinstein and Rashida Love, director of First Peoples Multicultural Advising Services. Weinstein, who is white, allegedly condemned the “Day of Absence” event that asked white people to leave campus for the day.
He called the day “an act of oppression in and of itself” and said he would visit campus in spite of the demonstration, according to USA Today.
“If there was interest in a public presentation and discussion of race through a scientific/revolutionary lens, I would be quite willing to organize such an event,” Weinstein wrote.
In a YouTube video posted on May 27, a group of students is heard calling for Weinstein to be fired. Demonstrations have involved as many as 200 students pouring into classrooms and the school president’s office.
“Hey-hey, ho-ho, these racist teachers have got to go,” the students chanted in the video.
Weinstein told news station KING that he was advised last week not to go to campus for safety reasons.
“I have been told by the Chief of Police it’s not safe for me to be on campus,” Weinstein told KING. The station notes that Weinstein has spoken out in this year against increasing the role race plays in the admissions process.
Multiple protest videos have been picked up by conservative media outlets, but the students disagree with the coverage, calling the footage “edited.”
“We demand that the video created for Day of Absence and Day of Presence that was stolen by white supremacists and edited to expose and ridicule the students and staff be taken down by the administration by this Friday,” students said in a statement to the College Fix.
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Xenoblade Chronicles 3D) feature a different template layout. The international white Nintendo 3DS banner used on current and upcoming retail game covers (top). In Japan, the banner is black for Nintendo 3DS games rated by CERO as C or higher (bottom). Nintendo Network-compatible games feature a small logo on top of the banner, but as of November 2014, the small Amiibo logo is dominantly featured instead, even if said games also supported Nintendo Network. The Nintendo Network logo will continue to feature if Amiibo support is definitely absent. Actual retail game case covers the banner are flipped vertically. Game cases for games dedicated exclusively to New Nintendo 3DS (such as) feature a different template layout.
This is a list of Nintendo 3DS games released or planned for release physically on Nintendo 3DS game cards and/or digitally on the Nintendo eShop.
Games [ edit ]
The Nintendo 3DS portable system has a library of games, which are released in game card and/or digital form.[1] Numerous titles of games here are subject to change. This list does not include downloadable games available via the Virtual Console service.[2] The Nintendo 3DS family is backward compatible with its predecessor, the Nintendo DS line, and its software, including most DSi software.[3]
The list is initially organized alphabetically by their English titles or their alphabet conversions, but it is also possible to sort each column individually by clicking the square icon at the top of each column. The Nintendo 3DS system is region locked, meaning that in reality each system has a restricted library of games to select from, depending on the region of the device;[4] the list below displays the availability of games within each of the four regions.
For a chronological list, click the sort button in any of the available regions' column. Games dated February 26, 2011, (Japan), March 25, 2011, (Europe), March 27, 2011, (North America), and March 31, 2011, (Australasia) are the launch titles of each respective region.
There are currently 1302[a] games on this list.
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ This number is always up to date by this script
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Doug Mataconis · · 10 comments
In case you were wondering if Lisa Murkowski is holding a grudge against Sarah Palin for backing Joe Miller in the primary last August, wonder no more:
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she would not support Sarah Palin if she decides to seek the presidency because the former governor lacks the “intellectual curiosity” for the job.
“I just do not think she has those leadership qualities, that intellectual curiosity that allows for building good and great policies,” Murkowski told Katie Couric in a “CBS Evening News” interview. “You know, she was my governor for two years, for just about two years there, and I don’t think that she enjoyed governing. I don’t think she liked to get down into the policy.”
Murkowski, who is on track to win her write-in campaign to retain her Senate seat, has said previously that Palin is not an ideal presidential contender. The two Alaska Republicans have had a long, tense relationship stemming from when Murkowski’s father, former Gov. Frank Murkowski, appointed his daughter to serve out his Senate term instead of Palin.
Murkowski didn’t do much to downplay the iciness of the relationship.
“I’m still her senator. I’m going to work hard to represent her too. We don’t really have much of a relationship,” said Murkowski.
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The Vinyl Thoughts Art Show 5
In the next few days see the The Vinyl Thoughts Art Show launch! and TTC wish we could be there to show our support. With an Impressive lineup including our boy from UK – Gary ‘Blue Frog’ Boon as well as on two of our Artist spotlight artists The Bots and One Eyed Girl plus the Euro star RX which was mentioned in past post HERE. For anyone who lives in Dallas its a show not to be missed and you are all in for a treat!
To celebrate ten years of the MAD*L™, Jeremy has partnered with the Vinyl Thoughts Nation to bring you The Vinyl Thoughts Art Show 5 – MAD*L Makers. Each of the artists in the show will be using the MAD*L™ as their base figure for at least one vinyl custom. It’ll be very interesting to see where each of the artists takes this iconic piece.
Mr Boon has put together two pieces for the show, a Heaven & Hell Mad*L set for this Vinyl Thoughts show.
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There is a nice video featuring info on this year’s Vinyl Thoughts Art Show!
The Vinyl Thoughts Nation is thrilled to host the fifth edition of their Vinyl Thoughts Art Show at The Quixotic World in Deep Ellum.
Curated by Shelby Miller and Cody Phillips, the show will feature over seventy local, national and international artists customising vinyl art toys for one night only. The theme for the show is “Mad*l Makers” and celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Mad*l vinyl blank created by Jeremy Madl. Don’t worry, your favorite platforms, such as the Kidrobot Munny, will also be customised by the artists.
This year’s show will feature Special Guest Jeremy Madl making a rare Dallas appearance. The Creatures for Kids art auction will once again have a silent auction of custom art pieces benefitting Children at Risk. Sponsors Deep Eddy Vodka, Saint Arnold Brewing Company, ZICO Premium Coconut Water, illy issimo and Honest Tea will provide beverages. Oberto will provide the snacks.
Attendees will have chances to win prizes from yelp, and a variety of raffle and giveaway items provided by KidRobot, yelp, Bioworld Merchandising, Oberto and Dallas’ Round Eye Toys.
Dallas vinyl toy store ATAMA will have a pop up shop inside the event.! !
The Dames of the Roundtable will be podcasting the event live!
Named one of the top five art events in Dallas in 2013 and 2014 by the readers of the Dallas Observer, the Vinyl Thoughts Art Show began in 2011 and has grown and evolved with every show. Past shows have included different themes, cosplayers, spontaneous breakdancing, charity auctions, raffles and giveaways. The show has become known nationwide for it’s different take on the traditional art show.
Show Information
Show Date: September 25th
Show Time: 7pm – 11pm
Free to Attend
Here are some sneak peeks of other artist customs for the show
Vinyl Thoughts Art Show Facebook Page for more info on the show HERE
http://www.vinylthoughtsartshow.com/
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US supercomputer needs more people power
A large computing network that has helped design cancer drug candidates and search for extra-terrestrial life is struggling to maintain its volunteer network.
Ivy Shih
Xinhua / Alamy Stock Photo
A citizen science initiative that encourages public donations of idle computer processing power to run complex calculations is struggling to increase participation.
Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC), a large grid that harnesses volunteered power for scientific computing, has been running for 15 years to support research projects in medicine, mathematics, climate change, linguistics and astrophysics.
But, despite strong demand by scientists for supercomputers or computer networks that can rapidly analyse high volumes of data, the volunteer run BOINC has struggled to maintain and grow its network of users donating their spare computer power. Of its 4 million-plus registered users, only 6% are active, a number that has been falling since 2014.
“I'm constantly looking for ways to expose sectors of the general population to BOINC and it's a struggle,” says David Anderson, a co-founder and computer scientist at the University of California Berkeley.
Anderson says BOINC, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, currently hosts 56 scientific projects that span an international network of more than 760,000 computers. The platform’s combined processing power simulates a supercomputer whose performance is among the world’s top 10.
Access to such supercomputers can be expensive and require lengthy waits, so BOINC offers research groups access to processing power at a fraction of the prohibitive cost.
“A typical BOINC project uses a petaflop of computing — which typically costs maybe USD $100,000 a year. If you were to go to buy the same amount of computing power on the Amazon cloud, it would cost around $40 million,” says Anderson.
Kevin Vinsen, a scientist at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Australia, leads a project that analyses photos of galaxies. BOINC’s helps analyse the SkyNet's huge dataset, which is especially valuable given the project's shoestring budget.
“In BOINC I can have 20,000 people working on it at the same time. Each one is doing a small portion of the galaxy,” he says.
Anderson wants to connect BOINC to major supercomputer facilities in the United States, to reduce the lengthy wait researchers have to process their data. He is working to add the network to the Texas Advanced Computing Center as an additional resource for researchers.
Trying to draw a crowd
Despite several initiatives to boost participation, BOINC has struggled to increase its number of users donating computing power. It partnered with a Taiwanese mobile phone company, HTC, which preinstalled a BOINC app on Android phones to encourage users to donate their handset’s idle processing power to the network. But the app didn’t really take off.
Anderson is also talking with video game manufacturers to include BOINC in gaming consoles, so that players that choose to contribute to BOINC can be rewarded with game credits.
Some researchers get creative. Vinsen rewards contributors to his project by sending Lego sets. He’s looking into 3D printing to make custom toys as a further incentive.
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303 SHARES
On April 17, Uncle Sam will once again take his cut of the past year’s earnings. And many taxpayers are already wondering how that will affect their finances. However, since the tax code is so complicated and has rules based on individual household characteristics, it’s hard for the average person to tell. And with a new tax code recently signed into law, next year’s taxes will be quite different.
One simple ratio known as the “tax burden” helps cut through the confusion. Unlike tax rates, which vary widely based on an individual’s circumstances, tax burden measures the proportion of total personal income that residents pay toward state and local taxes. And it isn’t uniform across the U.S., either.
To determine the residents with the biggest tax burdens, WalletHub compared the 50 states across the three tax types of state tax burdens — property taxes, individual income taxes and sales and excise taxes — as a share of total personal income in the state. Read on for our findings, commentary from a panel of tax experts and a full description of our methodology.
For more fun (or not so fun) facts about 2018’s tax landscape, check out WalletHub’s Tax Day Facts infographic.
Main Findings
Overall Tax Burden by State
Overall Rank
(1=Highest) State Total Tax Burden
(%) Property Tax Burden
(%) Individual Income Tax Burden
(%) Total Sales & Excise Tax Burden
(%) 1 New York 13.04% 4.62% 4.78% 3.64% 2 Hawaii 11.57% 2.20% 2.85% 6.52% 3 Maine 11.02% 4.80% 2.69% 3.53% 4 Vermont 10.94% 5.20% 2.32% 3.42% 5 Minnesota 10.37% 3.00% 3.70% 3.67% 6 Connecticut 10.19% 4.17% 3.34% 2.68% 7 Rhode Island 10.14% 4.70% 2.31% 3.13% 8 Illinois 10.08% 4.11% 2.44% 3.53% 9 New Jersey 10.02% 5.12% 2.46% 2.44% 10 California 9.57% 2.66% 3.65% 3.26% 11 Ohio 9.48% 2.90% 2.71% 3.87% 12 Maryland 9.45% 2.77% 3.92% 2.76% 13 West Virginia 9.40% 2.43% 2.87% 4.10% 14 Iowa 9.32% 3.43% 2.50% 3.39% 14 Mississippi 9.32% 2.80% 1.72% 4.80% 16 Wisconsin 9.26% 3.52% 2.67% 3.07% 17 Nebraska 9.17% 3.83% 2.39% 2.95% 18 Massachusetts 9.03% 3.60% 3.40% 2.03% 19 Arkansas 8.99% 1.79% 2.29% 4.91% 20 New Mexico 8.94% 2.03% 1.75% 5.16% 21 Kentucky 8.79% 2.03% 3.16% 3.60% 22 North Dakota 8.69% 2.20% 1.28% 5.21% 23 Pennsylvania 8.66% 2.98% 2.56% 3.12% 24 Indiana 8.56% 2.33% 2.33% 3.90% 25 Kansas 8.54% 3.07% 1.66% 3.81% 26 Michigan 8.53% 3.21% 2.18% 3.14% 27 Louisiana 8.43% 2.03% 1.49% 4.91% 28 Oregon 8.38% 3.17% 4.10% 1.11% 29 Utah 8.36% 2.46% 2.66% 3.24% 30 North Carolina 8.32% 2.30% 2.70% 3.32% 31 Arizona 8.21% 2.62% 1.39% 4.20% 31 Nevada 8.21% 2.23% 0.00% 5.98% 33 Texas 8.15% 3.70% 0.00% 4.45% 33 Washington 8.15% 2.66% 0.00% 5.49% 35 Colorado 8.10% 2.67% 2.26% 3.17% 36 Georgia 8.09% 2.75% 2.31% 3.03% 37 Wyoming 8.03% 4.17% 0.00% 3.86% 38 Missouri 7.95% 2.34% 2.42% 3.19% 39 South Carolina 7.88% 2.91% 1.97% 3.00% 40 Idaho 7.87% 2.48% 2.30% 3.09% 41 Virginia 7.77% 2.92% 2.73% 2.12% 42 Montana 7.64% 3.55% 2.69% 1.40% 43 Alabama 7.24% 1.41% 1.86% 3.97% 44 South Dakota 7.22% 2.90% 0.00% 4.32% 45 Oklahoma 7.17% 1.54% 1.89% 3.74% 46 New Hampshire 7.07% 5.60% 0.13% 1.34% 47 Florida 6.64% 2.72% 0.00% 3.92% 48 Tennessee 6.47% 2.05% 0.11% 4.31% 49 Delaware 5.68% 1.82% 2.70% 1.16% 50 Alaska 4.94% 3.54% 0.00% 1.40%
Red States vs. Blue States
Ask the Experts
For more insight on the differences in state tax policies, we asked a panel of taxation experts to weigh in with their thoughts on the following key questions:
What state and local tax instruments are most fair? Least fair? What’s the relationship between state tax burden and economic growth? Should states and localities tax property at different marginal rates like income? What makes some state and local tax systems better able to weather economic downturns?
Methodology
In order to determine the states that tax their residents the most and least aggressively, WalletHub compared the 50 states across the following three tax burdens and added the results to obtain the overall tax burden for each state:
Property Tax as a Share of Personal Income
Individual Income Tax as a Share of Personal Income
Total Sales & Excise Tax as a Share of Personal Income
Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the Tax Policy Center.
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Scott Ackerman
Chief Executive Officer
Scott Ackerman is the CEO of TuneCore, and serves on its Board of Directors.
Scott received his B.A. in Business Communications from Pepperdine University, and his J.D. from the Beasley School of Law at Temple University. He has held executive operations positions at American Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and US Airways, and served as the VP for Customer Care and Call Centers at Orbitz. Scott then took on the position of VP of Customer Service at eHarmony where, in 2009, his department earned Customer Service Department of the Year from the American Business Association.
Scott joined TuneCore as Senior VP of Customer Care in 2010, and became Chief Operating Officer that same year. In 2012, he was promoted to the position of President, and in 2014 he was appointed CEO. In that time, Scott has overseen the expansion of TuneCore’s digital store partnerships and affiliate Artist Services programs, as well as TuneCore’s 2015 acquisition by Believe Digital. During Scott’s tenure, TuneCore has also opened new offices in Atlanta, Austin, Nashville, New Orleans, France, Germany, Japan, and the UK.
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At first glance, the center of the Milky Way seems like a very inhospitable place to try to form a planet. Stars crowd each other as they whiz through space like cars on a rush-hour freeway. Supernova explosions blast out shock waves and bathe the region in intense radiation. Powerful gravitational forces from a supermassive black hole twist and warp the fabric of space itself.
Yet new research by astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shows that planets still can form in this cosmic maelstrom. For proof, they point to the recent discovery of a cloud of hydrogen and helium plunging toward the galactic center. They argue that this cloud represents the shredded remains of a planet-forming disk orbiting an unseen star.
“This unfortunate star got tossed toward the central black hole. Now it’s on the ride of its life, and while it will survive the encounter, its protoplanetary disk won’t be so lucky,” said lead author Ruth Murray-Clay of the CfA. The results are appearing in the journal Nature.
The cloud in question was discovered last year by a team of astronomers using the Very Large Telescope in Chile. They speculated that it formed when gas streaming from two nearby stars collided, like windblown sand gathering into a dune.
Murray-Clay and co-author Avi Loeb propose a different explanation. Newborn stars retain a surrounding disk of gas and dust for millions of years. If one such star dived toward our galaxy’s central black hole, radiation and gravitational tides would rip apart its disk in a matter of years.
They also identify the likely source of the stray star — a ring of stars known to orbit the galactic center at a distance of about one-tenth of a light-year. Astronomers have detected dozens of young, bright O-type stars in this ring, which suggests that hundreds of fainter Sun-like stars also exist there. Interactions between the stars could fling one inward along with its accompanying disk.
Although this protoplanetary disk is being destroyed, the stars that remain in the ring can hold onto their disks. Therefore, they may form planets despite their hostile surroundings.
As the star continues its plunge over the next year, more and more of the disk’s outer material will be torn away, leaving only a dense core. The stripped gas will swirl down into the maw of the black hole. Friction will heat it to high enough temperatures that it will glow in X-rays.
“It’s fascinating to think about planets forming so close to a black hole,” said Loeb. “If our civilization inhabited such a planet, we could have tested Einstein’s theory of gravity much better, and we could have harvested clean energy from throwing our waste into the black hole.”
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If there was a problem with predatory animals in your community, such as coyotes, foxes, and cougars; what do you think would be the best solution? Hiring hunters to exterminate them? Setting traps to catch the animals and release them elsewhere?
Well apparently in Idaho, the Wildlife Service has been planting spring activated “cyanide bombs” in rural areas. Recently, one of these devices detonated and accidentally injured a teenage boy.
14-year-old Canyon Mansfield was playing with his dog in Bannock County, Idaho, when he noticed what he thought was a sprinkler head in the ground. When he touched it, it burst into an orange cloud of cyanide, which injured him and killed his dog. His father tried to revive the animal but to no avail. The boy and his father, as well as several first responders, had to be decontaminated after the incident.
The Wildlife Service says that they only plant these devices (which are called M44s) with the permission of property owners and land managers, and that they are always accompanied by warning signs. Bannock County Sheriff Lorin Nielsen stated that he wasn’t told about the placement of these devices. “I’ve been a sheriff here for 20 years and worked for the office for 39 years, and I’ve never heard of leaving around a device that emits poisonous gas.”
This isn’t the first time that this sort of thing has happened. In 2003, a man from Utah was poisoned by an M44 when he mistook it for a survey marker, and it killed another Utah man’s dog in 2006. Environmentalists have long criticized the M44, because it’s indiscriminate, and routinely kills the wrong animals.
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Recently, when the Somalia-based terrorist organization al-Shabab released a video calling for attacks on shopping malls located around the world, including Minnesota’s Mall of America, the U.S. government responded by assuring the public that “no credible or specific evidence” exists that any such attack is in the works.
But former Rep. Michele Bachmann is not buying it, telling Newsmax host Steve Malzberg today that the call for an attack itself constitutes a credible threat, claiming that the shooting of two New York City police officers back in December was carried out in response to a similar call put forth by ISIS.
The government’s reaction to the latest threat, Bachmann said, “is an absolutely apathetic, clueless response.”
“The video from al-Shabab,” she said, “that’s the credible threat because that message is being sent to sympathizers to light a match and take action and actually have something happen at Mall of America. Don’t forget, last fall, there was a call from terrorists for those who couldn’t come to the Islamic State in Syria to join the jihad to take jihadist actions locally and that’s when we saw that attacks in Canada, at the Parliament and also against government figures, and we also saw two police officers innocently killed in Brooklyn. That was in direct response to a call to take action”:
There is no evidence that Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the man who murdered the two NYPD officers, was inspired by ISIS. Not surprisingly, the theory that he was inspired by ISIS seems to have originated from Alex Jones’ InfoWars website.
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The Minister for Women is standing by Prime Minister John Key, after he was forced to apologise to an Auckland waitress for pulling on her ponytail.
Rosie cafe worker Amanda Bailey, 26, wrote an anonymous blog on Wednesday, claiming the Prime Minister had pulled on her hair numerous times over many months when he visited with his wife Bronagh.
Key apologised for his actions, saying he initially thought of it as "banter" and "a bit of horseplay". He said he apologised when it became clear Bailey did not appreciate his advances.
Ross Giblin Minister for Women Louise Upston is standing by the Prime Minister, who has apologised for repeatedly pulling a woman's ponytail
Since then, Key has faced international ridicule and a chorus of condemnation from opposition MPs, women's rights groups and lawyers, as well as Human Rights Commissioner Jackie Blue.
But while Women's Minister Louise Upston released a statement repeating Key's apology, she refused to comment on issues of women's rights in the workplace.
"As the Prime Minister has said his actions were intended to be light-hearted. It was never his intention to make her feel uncomfortable," she said.
"He said that in hindsight it wasn't appropriate, and that is why he apologised."
READ MORE:
* Top 10 John Key gaffes
* Newspaper defends ponytail-gate journalist
* Tracy Watkins: Horsing around or just plain weird?
* PM's ponytail pull labelled sexist
* 'You can't just walk away'
Key's behaviour has been described by many as "weird", and others as sexist. In her first blog, Bailey said she felt like she was the target of a "schoolyard bully".
Labour leader Andrew Little said the incident did not match the standards expected of a prime minister.
NZ First leader Winston Peters has suggested Key has a hair fetish, while saying he could face criminal charges.
Peters said Key pulling Bailey's hair was "inexplicable".
"It's not conduct becoming of any gentleman."
Asked what he thought of Key's actions, Peters responded: "You know what a trichophiliac is, don't you?"
"A trichophiliac is someone with a hair fetish."
Peters questioned what Key's bodyguards were doing while Key was bothering Bailey.
"When you read what that woman has written, she is entitled to her human rights - but no one is giving them to her, by the looks of it."
The police had been put "in a most invidious position," Peters said.
"In the case of an assault, you don't need a complainant, you just need the evidence."
"And if you look at the elements of an assault, this, on a prime facie case, is there."
A police spokesman said police were not currently investigating the matter.
Peters said Key's apology "doesn't cut it", and it was inappropriate that he had given Bailey two bottles of wine after the incident.
'REDUCE SEXISM'
In an open letter, The National Council of Women said Key had "crossed the line", even if his antics were "well-intentioned".
"Now your eyes have been opened to how easily sexism can occur, we call on you, as Prime Minister, to do more to reduce sexism and its effects in New Zealand," council chief executive Sue McCabe said in an open letter to Key.
She said Key's apology was appreciated but his hair-pulling was a symptom of a wider culture of casual sexism.
"We don't see this as an isolated case and the real story is not about you. Rather, the fact that our Prime Minister has joined the list of people outed for sexism highlights how much sexism is a part of our culture. And it starts at the top," McCabe wrote.
The Human Rights Commission backed the council's letter and Blue - a former National MP - said it was "never OK to touch someone without their permission."
"Talking about what's acceptable and what isn't is a conversation worth having and one every New Zealander needs to be part of."
Women's rights campaigner and former National Party MP Marilyn Waring said on Radio New Zealand Key's conduct amounted to sexual harassment.
But while Upston refused to comment on the issues raised by her party's leader, National MP Judith Collins said Key "overstepped the mark".
Collins told Paul Henry's breakfast show, while she believed Key's apology was genuine, she felt "a lot of sympathy" for Bailey.
In a second blog post on The Daily Blog, Bailey stood by her decision to go public.
"The public had a right to be aware of how poorly their Prime Minister had behaved".
KEY SHOULD BE 'HELD TO A HIGHER STANDARD'
The National Party caucus needs to look closely at the Prime Minister's behaviour when his actions could trigger a Police and Human Rights Commission complaint and an employment dispute, says the Greens.
John Key should be judged by the same high standards that have been the "downfall of MPs and state sector bosses", Green Pary co-leader Metiria Turei said.
"Backbench MP Aaron Gilmore lost his job for abusing a waiter, and Former CERA chief Roger Sutton lost his job for behaving in a way that women in his office found offensive.
"The Prime Minister of New Zealand should be held to a higher standard than either of them, the problem is he's only answerable to himself."
Key was clear that hospitality staff should be treated with respect when he "came down hard" on Gilmore for his inappropriate behaviour towards a waiter, Turei said.
"Arguably, John Key's repeated harassment of the Auckland waitress is even worse than Gilmore's one-off drunken rant."
She said Key needed to lead by example and needed to respect workers and women.
Meanwhile, other senior Ministers also appeared reluctant to comment.
Education Minister Hekia Parata would not be drawn on the incident.
"I don't want to get into commenting on this, there are enough people commenting on it already."
It has since emerged serial litigant Graham McCready has lodged a sexual harassment complaint against the Prime Minister.
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By Sean Lin / Staff reporter
A Taipei resident on Friday found his home knocked down after returning from a meeting at the Taipei Urban Regeneration Office to discuss an urban renewal project for the building in which he had been living.
The man, surnamed Chang (張), a holdout in the project, said he returned to what would have been his home on Changan W Road at about noon, following a meeting with representatives of project contractor SWJ Construction Co (欣偉傑建設).
Chang, who lived on the fourth floor, said the building had collapsed and accused SWJ of tearing down his home.
Chang said that after he left the meeting, in which the two sides failed to reach an agreement, he was hit by a scooter and had to go to a police station to give an account of the accident, which he said was a ploy by the firm to stall him.
SWJ president Cheng Ko-shi (鄭可熙) said the company did not mean to tear down Chang’s home, but only the first three floors, whose owners had agreed to the renewal project.
Chang demanded NT$120 million (US$3.87 million) to vacate the building, which was far higher than what the home was worth, he said.
The firm is willing to pay Chang about NT$30 million, Cheng added.
He said the company in June last year had been granted a demolition permit from the office, as 98 percent of homeowners in the area agreed to the urban renewal project.
Chang denied Cheng’s claim, saying he had priced his home higher than its market value as a bargaining tactic.
Chang’s lawyer said he would file a suit against the firm for trespassing and causing damage.
The office said the demolition was legal, as SWJ had obtained construction and demolition permits according to Article 34 of the Urban Renewal Act (都市更新條例).
Office chief engineer Chang Li-li (張立立) said the office had no prior knowledge of the demolition, which he said was “regrettable.”
He said the company should have ensured that sufficient communication had taken place before it tore the building down.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said the city government’s role in private urban renewal projects is to issue demolition permits in accordance with the law.
The way SWJ tore down Chang’s home is controversial, he said, adding that he had instructed the Taipei Department of Urban Development to redouble efforts to publicly explain the procedure for urban renewal projects.
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What follows is a guest post by Olavi Tonisson from Digital Fruit, the makers of LimeJS.
Only few days ago web and mobile developement company Digital Fruit has released under Apache open source licence HTML5 game engine LimeJS. Our desire to create game toolkit was initially driven from lack of tools for developing HTML5 based games generally and specially for touchscreens (iOS, Android). LimeJS’s goal is quite clear and simple: to provide an easy way to build good game experience without thinking about inner workings.
There were two main questions what we tried to solve. First, how to make HTML5 based game experience so close to any Flash game or native game on modern smartphone that regular user will not see difference. Secondly, how to bring development time (and therefore cost) of game to similar level what Flash games enjoy today. I think we succeeded in both of our goals.
You can go and check it out from Lime JS webpage http://www.limejs.com.
From the editor: LimeJS looks like another great entry into the HTML5 gaming space. It is based on the Google Closure library, and supports rendering to both the DOM and to the HTML5 Canvas element. There are some nice demos of LimeJS here, and an excellent programming guide here. The code is availalble on Github.
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We haven’t quite gotten to the global ‘year without a winter’ yet. But it sure looks like we’re heading in that direction –fast.
Due to the highest volume of heat-trapping gasses hitting the Earth’s atmosphere in all of the past 4-15 million years combining with a warming of Pacific Ocean surface waters, the period of 2014 through 2016 saw an unprecedented three consecutive record hot years. With Pacific Ocean waters cooling during late 2016, it appeared that 2017 would become ‘just’ the 2nd to 5th hottest year ever recorded. But that was before the waters off South America’s west coast began to blaze with unexpected heat during early 2017 even as temperatures at the poles climbed to surprisingly warm levels.
(Due to the combined effects of extremely high levels of heat trapping gasses in the Earth’s atmosphere and a switch to the warmer phase of natural variability, the global rate of temperature increase has rocketed over the past three years. 2017 was not expected to continue this trend. But it might. Image source: Karsten Haustein. Data Source: NASA GISS.)
These two sources of unexpected added heat have left their mark. And though it’s still early in the global warming game for 2017, there appears to be an odd, but not entirely outlandish, chance that this year could beat out 2016 as the hottest year ever recorded.
The month of January 2017 came in at 1.14 C hotter than 1880s averages. Meanwhile February measured 1.32 C hotter than this 19th Century benchmark. In total, the first two months of 2017 averaged about 1.23 C hotter than 1880s — which is a hair hotter than 2016’s never-before-seen by modern humans annual average temperature.
Both, March GFS analysis & NCEP reanalysis 0.03K warmer than Feb. Corresponds to +1.07K in @NASAGISS Easily 2nd warmest March #climatechange pic.twitter.com/OHA9hKhgUO — Karsten Haustein (@khaustein) April 2, 2017
(Extreme warmth over parts of Siberia and the Arctic appear to have helped push March of 2017 into the range of second hottest on record. The first three months of 2017 currently appear to be running in a range that’s ahead of 2016 annual record hot average.)
Looking ahead, early indications are that March was also around 1.3 C hotter than 1880s. If a first or second hottest March on record pans out as indicated by early NCEP and GFS model reanalysis, then the first three months of 2017 will come in nearly 0.1 C hotter than all of last year.
During the present human-forced warming trend, it has tended to take about ten years for a global temperature increase of 0.15 degrees Celsius to occur. And that rate of warming is about 30 times faster than the warming that occurred at the end of the last ice age. Since 2013, the world has warmed 0.25 C — which could jump to 0.3 to 0.35 C in the period of 2013 to 2017 if the present trend for this year continues.
There are many months still to go in 2017. So this potential isn’t at all certain at this time. However, with the Pacific Ocean heating up again, it appears that 2017 is going to give 2016 a real run for its ‘hottest ever’ title.
Links:
NASA GISS
Karsten Haustein
NCAR Reanalysis by Moyhu
Hat tip to Colorado Bob
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We wrap up the Becoming Contenders series with what I see as the third and final pressing item on the Flames’ offseason agenda: the bottom six.
Every contender has a quality offensive engine. The Monahan line got a ton of offensive zone starts – and though they started slow usually created a number of quality scoring chances per game. Overall, they were the team’s best offensive line. Check.
Every contending team has a great shutdown line. 3M was monstrous for most the season, shoving the puck down their opposition’s best line’s throat on a nightly basis, and finishing shifts which began in the defensive zone at the opposite end of the rink with regularity. Check.
Every contending team also has a quality bottom six, and that’s where two ‘checks’ are missing for the Flames. The Versteeg-Bennett-Chiasson line was reasonable down the stretch and had a good playoffs, but for the most part, the bottom six was a nightmare for the Flames this past season.
3. Fixing the bottom six
Versteeg, Bennett, Chiasson, Bouma, Stajan and Brouwer made up the Flames’ bottom six for the majority of the second half when things were going well, and all finished the year with poor underlying numbers. The fourth line consisting of the latter three guys mentioned also make an appalling amount of money for how bad they were, so something needs to give there.
@CRoatis 'The 10MM 4th Line' – I trademarked this shit months ago. — Ryan Pinder (@SNRyanPinder) May 9, 2017
Well played, Pinder.
Bouma and Brouwer especially are the two I would identify as needing replacement. Bouma can take the Bollig treatment next year in Stockton until his contract runs out at season’s end, while Brouwer is a more complicated fix. Maybe Vegas takes him, but like… why? Why would they do that to themselves? Both Gulutzan and Treliving spoke complimentary of Brouwer after the season so I do doubt he goes anywhere but Vegas.
Apparently Brouwer is good in the room, which is a qualification you hear a lot and drives me up walls. If Brouwer’s value to your hockey team is “good in the room” then sign him to your hockey ops as a Dressing Room Morale Influencer (I got the corporate lingo down) and stop pissing away $4.5 million of valuable salary cap space on a player who makes literally everyone he plays with much worse than they are otherwise.
Assuming Stajan and Brouwer remain on the team and Bouma does not, that still leaves three open spots (two on Bennett’s line, one on the fourth line) on the bottom six to fill, and there’s a number of avenues the Flames can go down if they wish to properly fill that void.
In-house
The Flames have a number of options “in-house” that could effectively fill bottom six roles.
Sam Bennett and Curtis Lazar need new deals but immediately come to mind as fixtures moving forward. Bennett especially really came around as a third line centre near the end of the year and into the playoffs.
Kris Versteeg is a UFA but expressed interest in returning to the team, and was very good this past season – showing some great chemistry with Bennett late in the year and into the playoffs – on a sub-million dollar deal. He’ll demand a bit of a raise, but given his modest 15-goal, 37-point output, it won’t be a massive one. Two years at $2.5 million a pop, if I were to guesstimate.
Alex Chiasson was the third member of the trio with Vertseeg and Bennett, and is an RFA this summer. He too was on a sub-million dollar deal and will want a raise, but likely one less than Versteeg. Chiasson is best suited as a fourth liner in my eyes, and along with Stajan and Brouwer could form a functional fourth line, with enough skill to not be useless and enough size to quench Burke’s thirst.
Freddie Hamilton is also an example a functional fourth liner, with enough speed and skill to keep his head above water for eight or so minutes a night. He was very well suited as the 13th forward this year, I thought, and is signed through next year.
Then there are the kids in Stockton. Jankowski, Hathaway, Mangiapane, Shinkaruk and Klimchuk all come to mind as bottom 6 possibilities come next training camp. Shinkaruk especially is in a spot that really feels “do or die”. This log jam of kids on the bud of making the big leagues is another source of frustration for the contracts the Flames have signed to their bottom 6. Having a fourth line free to try the kids out on is a luxury the Flames don’t seem to have.
Free agency
Names like T.J. Oshie and Martin Hanzal will dominate free agency talk leading up to July 1, but it’s the smaller names the Flames could look at to fill bottom 6 roles.
Sam Gagner had a renaissance season in Columbus, putting up 18 goals and 52 points with a 54% ES CF. Those aesthetic numbers are what will likely drive his price beyond what the Flames are willing to pay. If he can be had on a deal shorter than four years at less than $3 million, I would certainly be interested.
If the Flames are okay with taking on an older type that can still drive play, Justin Williams is going on 36 but remains a very effective scorer, and might be a nice compliment to a Bennett-Versteeg pairing. Williams is also a very effective 5 on 5 scorer, potting 20 of his 27 goals at evens this year, so he won’t rely on consistent power play time to be a contributor.
In a similar vein, Patrick Marleau may move on from the Sharks and at 37 years old, still managed 29 goals and pushed possession forward in a reduced role. He would be more of an add on the power play though, as 26 of his 49 points came on the man advantage.
The Flames have had multiple opportunities to add P.A. Parenteau in the past, so I won’t waste my breath on him, though he also qualifies as a nice bottom six add for the Flames and would form a formidable trio with Bennett and Versteeg, one would think.
As is true every year, there are a few dangerous landmines lurking in the weeds, and with an exceptionally weak free agent class, Nick Bonino figures to be one of those mines. His 44.7% CF on a monster Penguins team is abysmal, and his stock has been elevated by superior linemates such as Carl Hagelin and Phil Kessel. Bonino is also a centre, and would derail Bennett’s development down the middle by taking away his minutes. He’s also likely to demand Brouwer dough, and he’s about to turn 30. Best to just stay away.
Brian Boyle is another one to stay away from, if only because you won’t get the bang for your buck with him. He’s a great bottom six forward and penalty killer, and pushes the play up ice, but he doesn’t score much. Boyle had just 27 points last year, and will likely be demanding somewhere in the neighbourhood of $3-4 million with term, and will be highly sought after to boot.
Free agency is usually chock full of old overpays waiting to happen, and I wouldn’t be terribly choked if the Flames avoided it this year altogether.
Trade
Then there’s the topic of trading for another forward.
A quick look at the expansion draft rules would reveal that many a team will be left at risk of losing a quality top nine player to Vegas and get nothing in return. Given this climate, the trade market will be ripe for action. The Flames no longer have any spots on their protected list for another player though, so it is unlikely they trade for someone’s unprotected asset before the draft.
After it, however, the Flames could be active. The idea of making a deal with Vegas to “select a player then trade him” has been bandied about, and the Flames could, in theory, negotiate that style of deal with George McPhee. Having said that, the Golden Knights want to be competitive off the hop, and any worthwhile player they select in the expansion draft, they’ll likely keep. If the Flames like a player the Knights do not, however, then this isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
The Flames could also push all their chips to the middle and make a play for Matt Duchene or Gabriel Landeskog, solidifying their forward core in a big way. However, given their lack of draft picks and need of prospect replenishment, especially at forward, I don’t really foresee this as being a possibility.
Series conclusion
The Calgary Flames are steps away from being contenders. Those steps aren’t straightforward, they aren’t easy and there’s a myriad of traps scattered along the path, but the reality is they’re close.
Brad Treliving’s competent three years in Calgary gives hope that he can avoid most of those traps (he’ll undoubtedly make another dumb free agent signing because NHL GMs just can’t seem to help themselves), but for the most part I expect him to navigate a pivotal offseason well and, come October, this Calgary Flames team will be of a quality unseen in the last decade.
Rebuilds, if executed properly, are said to be five-year processes. You tear it down in Year 1 and you enter your window of contention in Year 5. Well friends, the 2017-18 season will be Year 5 of the Calgary Flames’ rebuild (they only needed one, take that Edmonton!), and it looks like they’re right on schedule.
Becoming Contenders series
Agenda Item 1/3: Defence
Agenda Item 2/3: Goaltending
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Preserved Lemons: Older, Wiser And Full Of Flavor
On many occasions in my longtime relationship with cookbooks, I have had this experience (which will sound familiar, if you like Middle Eastern flavors as much as I do). I'm happily paging through my new Moroccan or Lebanese or Israeli book, lost in dreams of lamb and sumac, saffron and figs. "Mmmm," I murmur over a glossy page, "that looks delicious."
I trace my finger down the ingredients list. Shallots, check. Tomatoes, check. Cinnamon stick, check. And then there it is: Preserved lemon. "Drat," I think. "Foiled again."
The flavor of a preserved lemon needs no justification. It's mellow yet intensely lemony, with none of the nose-tickling bright high notes of the fresh lemon.
Here's the thing about preserved lemons: They're not the sort of thing you can just pick up anywhere. And while they're easy to make, it's not like you can just say, "Oh, I'll do them tomorrow afternoon, and then we'll have the lamb Thursday." Preserved lemons can take a month — certainly not less than two weeks. By that time, I've put aside my North African cookbooks and I'm on to an easy French or Hunan cookbook, or a book that's all about ice cream or pickles. Preserved lemons are not great if you have a short attention span.
On the other hand, they keep practically forever. So if you can just make up your mind one afternoon to spend the 15 minutes it takes to cut, salt and jar them, afterward you can pretty much forget about them for as long as you like, or until you happen to think about Mediterranean citruses again.
The only real problem is that they might be taking up valuable real estate in the fridge, where someone not in the know might mistake them for a project gone wrong and toss them. If this is a habit among members of your family, I recommend that you train them out of it. ("Whoever throws something out has to taste it first" is an extremely effective rule.)
Once you've stashed away your very own golden hoard, you're set. You can pair your preserved lemons with olives (is there any other cuisine which makes such magic with old, salty fruits?) in the traditional, braised fashion. You can dress them up with lashings of butter in potatoes or risottos or couscous. They stand up to garlic, and they cooperate with cilantro. They nicely balance sweet flavors, such as dried apricots or honey.
Once, the reason for preserving lemons was the usual one: It was a way of continuing to enjoy the fruit after its season had passed. But the flavor of a preserved lemon needs no justification. It's mellow yet intensely lemony, with none of the nose-tickling bright, high notes of the fresh lemon. The peel — which is the part you use, usually — is soft to the touch and satiny in the mouth. It's translucent, with a muted yellow luster when you hold it to the light, which I like to do just for fun after pulling out the pulp and rinsing off the salt. Sometimes, if the peel happens to be particularly thick, I laterally slice off another quarter-inch layer of pith from the inside, the better to taste and smell that shining cortex.
These days, of course, you can get adorable young lemons pretty much any time you want. (You can even get organic ones by the bag.) They're firm, fresh and tart, and sometimes there really is nothing you want more. But give me my old lemons, mild and mellowed, a little soft and salty, making everything around them seem a little sweeter. They're not the only ones, I hope, that grow more tender as they age.
Recipe: Preserved Lemons
You can find a recipe for preserved lemons just about anywhere, they're that easy. Here's an adaptation of one from Claudia Roden's Arabesque (Knopf, 2005). I used kosher salt, and I can't see that it did any harm.
4 lemons
4 tablespoons sea salt
Juice of 4 additional lemons, or more to taste
Wash and scrub the lemons. The classic Moroccan way is to cut each lemon in quarters but not right through, so that the pieces are still attached at the stem end, and to stuff each with a tablespoon of salt and squeeze it closed. Put them in a sterilized preserving jar, pressing them down so that they are squashed together, and close the jar.
Leave for 3 to 4 days, by which time the lemons will have disgorged some of their juices and the skins will have softened a little. Open the jar and press the lemons down as much as you can, then add fresh lemon juice to cover them entirely.
Close the jar and leave in a cool place for at least a month. The longer they are left, the better the flavor. (If a piece of lemon is not covered, it develops a white mold that is harmless and just needs to be washed off.)
Before using, scoop out and discard the pulp, and rinse the lemon peel under the tap to get rid of the salt.
Recipe: Chicken With Preserved Lemon And Green Olives
This is the absolute best-known way to eat preserved lemon, and for good reason. I have two-dozen recipes for chicken with preserved lemon and olives on my shelves, but Claudia Roden's recipe from Arabesque (Knopf, 2005) is my choice for its sheer clarity and sure-footedness.
Enlarge this image T. Susan Chang for NPR T. Susan Chang for NPR
Makes 4 servings
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 onions, grated or very finely chopped
2 to 3 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 teaspoon crushed saffron threads or saffron powder
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 chicken, cut up in 8 or 10 pieces
Salt and black pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
Peel of 1 large or 2 small preserved lemons
12 to 16 green olives
In a wide casserole or heavy-bottomed pan that can hold all the chicken pieces in one layer, heat the oil and put in the onions. Saute, stirring over low heat, until they soften, then stir in the garlic, saffron and ginger.
Put in the chicken pieces, season with salt and pepper, and pour in about 1 cup water. Simmer, covered, turning the pieces over a few times and adding a little more water if it becomes too dry. Lift out the breasts after about 15 minutes and put them to one side. Continue to cook the remaining pieces for another 25 minutes or so, after which time return the breasts to the pan.
Stir into the sauce the lemon juice, the chopped coriander and parsley, the preserved lemon peel cut into quarters or strips, and the olives. Simmer uncovered for 5 to 10 minutes, until the reduced sauce is thick and unctuous. If there is too much liquid, lift out the chicken pieces and set aside while you reduce the sauce further, then return the chicken to the pan and heat through.
Present the chicken on a serving dish with the olives and lemon peel on top of the meat.
Recipe: Root Vegetable Couscous With Preserved Lemon
I had my doubts at first about this recipe, which you can find in Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty (Chronicle, 2010), under the name "Ultimate Winter Couscous." Could any such medley of starchy roots, I wondered, be made to sing? Well, sing they did, and so decisively that I hoarded the leftovers for lunch. I should also note that the day I made it, the refrigerator shelves were at high tide and I couldn't find my harissa. Instead, I used a Turkish red pepper paste, and it was smashing.
Enlarge this image T. Susan Chang for NPR T. Susan Chang for NPR
Makes 4 servings (or more)
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
2 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
8 shallots, peeled
2 cinnamon sticks
4 star anise
3 bay leaves
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon hot paprika
1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
2 1/2 cups cubed pumpkin or butternut squash (from a 10-ounce squash)
1/2 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
1 cup chickpeas (canned or freshly cooked)
1 1/2 cups chickpea cooking liquid and/or water
1 cup couscous
Large pinch saffron
1 cup boiling vegetable stock
3 tablespoons butter, broken into pieces
2 tablespoons harissa
1 ounce preserved lemon, finely chopped
2 cups cilantro leaves
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Place the carrots, parsnips and shallots in a large ovenproof dish. Add the cinnamon sticks, star anise, bay leaves, 4 tablespoons of the oil, 3/4 teaspoon of salt and all the other spices and mix well. Place in the oven and cook for 15 minutes.
Add the pumpkin, stir and return to the oven. Continue cooking for about 35 minutes, by which time the vegetables should have softened while retaining a bite. Now add the dried apricots and the chickpeas with their cooking liquid and/or water. Return to the oven and cook for another 10 minutes, or until hot.
About 15 minutes before the vegetables are ready, put the couscous in a large heatproof bowl with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, the saffron and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Pour the boiling stock over the couscous. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave for about 10 minutes. Then add the butter and fluff up the couscous with a fork until the butter melts in. Cover again and leave somewhere warm.
To serve, spoon couscous into a deep plate or bowl. Stir the harissa and preserved lemon into the vegetables; taste and add salt if needed. Spoon the vegetables onto the center of the couscous. Finish with plenty of cilantro leaves.
Recipe: Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette
I discovered the original of this one, unexpectedly, in the pages of Hot and Hot Fish Club, a Southern cookbook published by Perseus in 2009. I can't think of a more perfect way to use it than drizzled thickly over a batch of crisp roast potatoes.
Enlarge this image T. Susan Chang for NPR T. Susan Chang for NPR
Makes 1/2 cup dressing
1/4 of a whole preserved lemon peel
1 teaspoon very finely minced or grated shallot
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
2 tablespoons finely chopped thyme
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
If the lemon peel is thin, simply mince it as finely as you can. If it's thick, divide the lemon peel quarter lengthwise and set each half peel-side down on the cutting board. Steadying the peel by flattening it with the tips of your fingertips, carefully make a lateral slice between the pith and peel and work your way across until you've removed a layer of soft pith. Repeat with the other half, and then you can mince the peels with ease.
Combine the preserved lemon with the other ingredients and give them a good whisk. You may not need to salt at all, given the saltiness of the lemon peel. Use at room temperature.
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The Top 10 Movies of 2014...so far
10- Captain America: The Winter Soldier- One of the best marvel movies to date works as a superhero film or a fantastic edge of your seat political thriller. A Marvel movie that raises the stakes and sets up the next phase of the Marvel cinematic universe, Chris Evans hits his mark and has finally become the leader this franchise deserves.
9- Dawn of The Planet of The Apes-An excellent sequel, helped out by fantastic special effects and motion capture and led by another fantastic performance from Andy Serkis.
8. 22 Jump Street- A comedic sequel that hits all of its marks, Tatum and Hill are impeccably funny and a smart script made 22 Jump Street one of the most memorable films of 2014.
7. X-Men Days of Future Past- By far the best film in this series, breathes new life into the franchise and should be considered one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.
6. Locke- An absorbing experience as Tom Hardy leads this nearly one man show through twists and turns. A creative and brilliantly written drama about a man whose life is coming apart at the seams while driving to meet someone from his past, Locke is a breath of fresh air thanks to it’s real life scenario and Hardy’s Oscar worthy acting.
5. Guardians of The Galaxy- Marvel‘s change in tone serves as its best origin story yet. Thanks to flawless casting and James Gunn's colorful direction Guardians is still the best time I had in a theater this year. Chris Pratt becomes a super star thanks to his performance and Dave Bautista may have a future following his scene stealing role as Drax.
4. Begin Again- Keira Knightley gives her best performance to date in this love letter to New York City and Indie rock and roll. Filled to the brim with excellent original music and a number of fun performances Begin Again was an excellent follow-up to Once.
3. The Lego Movie- The most original, gleefully self-aware film of 2014. The Lego movie was the perfect animated film, cute for kids and beyond hysterical for adults, the best animated film of 2014 so far.
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel- How does one of Wes Anderson's best movies get released so early on into 2014? I have no idea but Anderson's first attempt at an R rating goes unbelievably well thanks in large part to an incredible performance from Ralph Fiennes.
1. Calvary- A dark comedy with excellent imagery, a fantastic supporting cast and the perfect mix of comedy and murder mystery. Brendan Gleeson shines in his best performance to date, one of the first real oscar contenders of the year.
Just missed the cut- Obvious Child, Snowpiercer, The Trip to Italy
Comments
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Many of those would top my worst movies of the year list.
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French outfit Lille are eyeing up a January move for Newcastle frontman Emmanuel Riviere, reports Le10 Sport.
Riviere arrived on Tyneside last summer for a fee of £6m, and he hasn’t exactly set the world alight for the Magpies.
The former Toulouse striker has made 23 Premier League appearances for the club, scoring only one goal during that time.
Lille are reportedly looking to bolster their currently depleted attacking options, and Riviere has emerged as a potential target for Les Dogues.
However, Riviere’s high wage packet could pose a stumbling block in any potential deal, with the French side searching for a cheap option.
The 25-year-old hasn’t featured for United this season, after suffering a harrowing knee injury earlier in the year.
With the signing of Aleksandar Mitrovic, many of the Toon faithful remain intrigued in seeing Riviere forming a potential partnership with the big Serb, but his time on Tyneside looks limited.
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