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100 | true | 452 | If you're training for a pilot's licence, these are the best books for pilot training at the moment. Check them out.
Air Pilot's Manual: Flying Training Volume 1
The book which starts the training of most pilots. It introduces all of the vital information on how to fly an aeroplane, from basic to more complex maneuvers, and techniques for landing, circuit flying and much more.
AFE The Private Pilot's Licence Course
Like the previous book, this one covers all you need to know about flying an aircraft. It also goes on to explain and take you through the PPL course.
AFE Principles of Flight: Aircraft General Knowledge Flight Performance and Planning
An essential guide to learning how to plan safe flights with your aircraft as a private pilot. Plenty of diagrams and easy to understand.
Take Your Wings and Fly – A Journey Through a Private Pilot's Licence
This book is not a technical manual, but a useful companion when you're learning to fly. Follow Jason Smart through his training in a diary style commentary on all of the highs and lows, the struggles, and the joys of gaining his licence.
Air Pilot's Manual – Navigation Training
One of the more useful books in this series. It accompanies the later stages of your training when you start learning how to go places, and all of the techniques and methods involved in aircraft navigation.
Air Pilot Manual – Communications
Learning to communicated with air traffic control is one of the hardest parts of learning to fly for many pilots. This guide covers the subject from scratch and includes many example situations and scripts for different airfield and flight types.
PPL Licence Course: Air Law, Operational Procedures and Communications
This book also includes instruction on Communications. It also includes Air Law, which is one of the important exams trainee pilots must pass before flying solo for the first time. Contains essential tips and instruction.
PPL Q and A
A guide to the PPL training exams with lots of example questions and answers for the EASA tests. Includes lots of examples and supporting material for the questions. Useful for anyone training to be a pilot. |
101 | true | 113 | metrodemontreal.com
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102 | false | 1,024 | Is Binance Finally Starting to Run Low on Walton?
How Demand for Guardian Masternodes is Affecting Binance's Token Supply
This post builds upon the ideas raised by Mr. Laserman's great article Guardian Masternode Token Lockup, so you may want to read that article first.
If you don't want to read a lot, but like data, you can get the basic narrative from this spreadsheet: Transactions on Binance's Walton Wallet.
You can watch the Binance Walton wallet balance here.
BACKGROUND
On November 27 Walton announced their Guardian Masternode program. (Guardian Masternode AMA)
Anyone with 5000+ Walton tokens in their wallet before 7:00 PM EST on Saturday, December 9 can run a Guardian Masternode. (Countdown timer)
can run a Guardian Masternode. (Countdown timer) No additional Guardian Masternodes will ever be created after this deadline.
Guardian Masternodes will receive higher mining rewards than standard masternodes.
WATCHING THE BINANCE WALLET
Mr. Laserman's Helpful Analysis
On November 30, Mr. L posted his article "Guardian Masternode token lockup," showing why the introduction of Guardian Masternodes would cause a rapid reduction in the number of tokens available for purchase, and thereforce likely cause a price increase.
Because Binance is the only major exchange that currently trades Walton, Mr. Lasermen pointed out that Binance represents "96% of all tokens kept on exchanges," and showed the effect that the announcement had already on Binance's supply of Walton tokens:
November 27th: One hour before the Guardian Masternode was announced, Binance had 3,760,193 WTC (15% of the circulating supply) in its wallet.
November 30th: Binance had only 2,013,874 WTC (8% of the circulating supply) in its wallet.
44% of all liquid tradable WTC have been removed from the marketplace in 3 days.
Mr. L then speculated that if 50% of Binance's remaining Walton tokens were withdrawn during the run-up to the Guardian deadline, that would leave only 1 million tokens for sale on Binance, or about 4% of the circulating supply.
This drastic reduction in available supply would then affect the price accordingly:
If demand remains constant, I would expect a 200–300% increase in price over the next 30 days as the market tries to find a new equilibrium. This would translate to a price in the range of $10.34 to $15.51.
If demand increases, I would expect a 400% increase in price at a minimum. The upper bounds are impossible to predict if a FOMO event takes place. However, 1000% is entirely possible in that scenario. This would translate to a price in the range from $20.68 to $51.70.
How Things Have Played Out Since Then
As it turns out, despite his great insights, Mr. L drastically underestimated the rate at which Walton would be withdrawn from Binance.
On November 30, around 5:30 pm EST, he speculated that perhaps about 1 million WTC would be withdrawn over the next 10 days leading up to the deadline.
In fact, 1 million WTC had already been withdrawn from Binance by 8:30 pm the next day, just 27 hours later.
Plot Twist
But what Mr. Laserman didn't count on was that Binance was going to "re-up" their Walton wallet, using customer deposits from other wallet addresses.
On December 1 at 5:00 am, Binance added another 1.2 million in WTC to their wallet address, bringing the balance up to 2.6 million.
And again, on December 2, Binance deposited an additional 1.1 million WTC to their wallet.
On this spreadsheet you can see all of deposits and withdrawals on Binance's wallet address for Walton.
STUDYING THE RE-UPS
So, what can we learn about Binance's token supply based on their patterns of refilling their Walton wallet?
Here are the re-ups before the Guardian Node Announcement:
August 25 — Wallet is created. First deposit batch adds 1.3 million WTC. September 4 — Wallet balance dwindles to 500k WTC. Binance adds 9 million WTC to the wallet. September 11—Binance adds another 7.4 million to the wallet, bringing the wallet to it's highest balance so far, 14.1 million.
And here are the re-ups since the Walton Guardian Node Announcement on November 27.
December 1 — Binance deposits 1.2 million. Resulting balance = 2.6 million WTC December 2 — Binance deposits 1.1 million. Resulting balance = 2.8 million |
103 | true | 280 | English [ edit ]
Alternative forms [ edit ]
Etymology [ edit ]
The Oxford English Dictionary has this as a native English word, first appearing in print in 1762 (Smollett). The OED and other etymologists do not consider the possibility that the word was introduced from India into the English language. The term 'Hullabol' is still used in Indian English to describe a type of public demonstration, involving making a great noise. 'Hulla' is either derived from 'Hamla' meaning 'attack' or from 'halhala' meaning 'ululation' (both words from Persian and then Urdu). 'Bol' is from the Hindi verb 'bolna', 'to utter or say'.
Pronunciation [ edit ]
Noun [ edit ]
hullabaloo (plural hullabaloos)
An uproar or fuss. They made such a hullabaloo about the change that the authorities were forced to change it back. 1902 — Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness Certainly they had brought with them some rotten hippo–meat, which couldn't have lasted very long, anyway, even if the pilgrims hadn't, in the midst of a shocking hullabaloo, thrown a considerable quantity of it overboard.
Synonyms [ edit ]
Translations [ edit ] |
104 | false | 1,024 | Originally Posted by TheLionLegend Originally Posted by
Right now, at its first stage, the new card system is amateur.
Hirez tried to make players happy by giving them a purpose in the game; level up cards!
People have been asking for a form of grinding and Hirez acted based on the feedback people gave in the forums. (no more champs, no more skins, please fix bugs, please add new features, please add a purpose).
What Hirez didn't realize is that the millions of players that already play Paladins, don't play this game because of its grinding (which does not exist); they play this game because of its unique strategy which combines a balanced diversity of different play-styles (champions) the player can choose from... either to support the overall strategy of his team (comp/pro scene) or to kill as many enemies as possible with that strategy and enjoy it(casual).
Now because Hirez didn't realize that, they disturbed that so unique game balance, the balance between those completely different play-styles (champions), the diversity of equally strong yet extremely different styles that makes Paladins stand out of the crowd in the world of gaming!...
They allowed players with non-equal (up to 400% stronger) loadouts to face each other in every game mode of Paladins, except Competitive!
No! Balancing Competitive is not all that matters!
Casual has always been a critical success factor for Paladins!
Much more people played Casual than Competitive...
I agree that Competitive needs a boost to become a bit more popular but ruining the rest of the game modes isn't the way to go for it!
It is true that the Pro Scene have been advertised a lot lately and literally formed the meta, the trends, the play-styles for both Competitive and Casual.
I don't say everyone used those play-styles (especially in low ELO) but the need to catch the opponents off-guard using new strategies in Pro Scene generated a lot of new strategie which kept the game alive and going!
It wasn't the new skins coming out that kept the game alive all this time, but the new strategies developed by the Pros and advertised by the YouTubers!
The disadvantage of this mechanism (although it worked pretty well) is that it only affects more experienced players who spend time to study and test these new strategies.
The newest players aren't affected directly and the only thing that keeps them playing is their curiosity to try out all the champions and make them work somehow... maybe try all the legendary as well.
After that stage (around level 30-40, idk for sure) and before they enter the stage we mentioned above (where they can test the most of those advanced, team based strategies suggested by Pros) there is a gap where many players might find Paladins boring and give up on it.
There is where the new card system is useful!
It gives a purpose to those players; max out their cards to enjoy an over-powered experience in Casual (e.g. infinite roll cassie, infinite ammo vivian, super mobility maeve, godlike counter zhin, super tank inara, healing god mal'damba etc.)!
This is how the new casual should be advertised; a mode without pressure, where you can experience the ultimate versions of your champions and play around in a variety of maps and modes!
The ONLY way this dream can become reality is to make the process of maxing out cards relatively easy!
Every player that is experienced enough to ''spontaneously form a battle plan, play as a team and adjust his/her playstyle to according to the situation'' or else reach around level 80, should have the majority of his/her cards maxed out!
While grinding might seem exciting for a new player, for an experienced player it will be frustrating and confusing.
Jumping from a fair battlefield (like Competitive) to an unfair battlefield (like Casual) will have the following circumstances:
A) Confusion (like playing a whole different game).
B) Need to adjust strategy based on the team's card levels (more thinking, less casualty).
C) Limitation of viable strategies (due to low level cards).
D) The player can't trust on his/her own skill and the instincts he/she has developed in Competitive.
The level at which an experienced player is playing, demands a fair battlefield even in Casual settings.
Why?
Because even the smallest interaction counts.
Because the way that player use his/her game understanding to succeed is spontaneous and based on those interactions.
That's why the grinding should stop after a certain level and every match should be fair (even in casual).
A quick calculation on how many cards |
105 | true | 88 | No. of kids / No. of baby mamas: 9 / 8
We get that there's not much to do in Buffalo, but McGahee still fathered three kids in only two seasons with the Bills. He's also left a trail of children in his wake on the various stops throughout his 10-year NFL career. He's played with four teams, and reportedly has fathered nine children with eighth different women. |
106 | true | 293 | The Los Angeles Police Department incorrectly reported 14,000 assaults as minor offenses between 2005 and 2012, according to a new report, making the city's crime rate look significantly lower than it really is.
The Los Angeles Times analyzed eight years of LAPD crime data and found that aggravated assaults had been routinely classified as "simple assaults" and therefore weren't counted in the city's numbers tallying violent crime.
L.A.P.D officials acknowledged the botched reporting and said they were working to make the department's reporting more reliable. "We know this can have a corrosive effect on the public's trust of our reporting," Asst. Chief Michel Moore, who oversees the LAPD's system for tracking crime, told the newspaper. "That's why we are committed to … eliminating as much of the error as possible."
Reclassifying the incidents increases the number of violent crimes in L.A. by 7% and makes the number of serious assaults 16% higher than originally reported, according to the Times. The reclassified numbers, however, do not affect the overall downward trend in crime throughout the city.
The Times launched a similar investigation last year involving 2013 crime statistics and found similar errors. An internal LAPD audit released last week found that serious assaults in 2014 had also been misclassified. The review found that the number of aggravated assaults was 23% higher in 2014 than previously reported.
[L.A. Times] |
107 | true | 349 | "I have immediately summoned the US ambassador and he will be received this morning at the Quai d'Orsay (the French Foreign Ministry)," Fabius told reporters on the sidelines of an EU meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.
NSA secretly recorded millions of phone calls made in France, French daily "Le Monde" reported on Monday, citing documents leaked by former NSA intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has taken temporary refuge in Russia.
The allegations risked turning into a diplomatic row just as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Paris for the start of a European tour over Syria.
Earlier, France's interior minister, Manuel Valls, said Le Monde's revelations that 70.3 million pieces of French telephone data were recorded by the NSA between Dec 10, 2012 and Jan 8, 2013 were "shocking."
"If an allied country spies on France or spies on other European countries, that's totally unacceptable," Valls told.
US Ambassador to France Charles Rivkin declined immediate comment on reports that he had been called in by the French foreign ministry but stressed that US-French ties were close.
"This relationship on a military, intelligence, special forces ... level is the best it's been in a generation," Rivkin told.
In July, Paris prosecutors opened preliminary inquiries into the NSA's programme, known as Prism, after Germany's Der Spiegel and Britain's The Guardian revealed wide-scale spying by the agency leaked by Edward Snowden.
"We were warned in June (about the programme) and we reacted strongly but obviously we need to go further," Fabius said. "We must quickly assure that these practices aren't repeated."
RA/NJF |
108 | true | 550 | We're incredibly grateful for the support that all of you have shown over the past few weeks, and now we're in the home stretch of the Kickstarter campaign with just four days left.
PS4/Vita Releases in the Works
We've been talking to people at Sony for quite a while now, and we're finally at a point where we can say: we're working towards PS4 and PS Vita releases of Drift Stage, and the fact that we've exceeded our funding goal is certainly going to help make it happen. We're still focused on PC/Mac/Linux right now, but we're hoping to hit PS4/Vita in 2016.
If you're a fan of other non-Sony affiliated game devices, we haven't ruled them out, but we don't have anything to say right now.
Press Highlights
We've gotten a lot of great press coverage over the course of the Kickstarter, and we're super flattered by all of it. Here's a few recent highlights:
Track Creator
If you don't follow us on Twitter, you probably should, but also you may have missed some glimpses of our work-in-progress track creator. So, here's a few images to take a look at:
Backer Forums
We've gotten our forums setup at discuss.driftstagegame.com. If you're a backer (either on KS or through Humble), you can expect an invite to show up in your inbox as early as this weekend. Eventually, we'll be opening up the site for anyone to join or view, but the backer/tester forums will remain private and exclusive, so that we can share things with you guys before we share them publicly.
Some Other Kickstarters that Look Cool
We'll leave it up to you to take a look and decide if they're something you'd like to support, but these are a few cool looking projects from cool people that caught our eye.
Moonman
It seems kinda like Terraria, but with really nice art direction and more objective based gameplay.
Starr Mazer
Adventure game + shoot 'em up seems like an interesting combo, and there's really no denying how amazing the cinematic moments look.
Children of Morta
The action RPG / roguelike market is pretty crowded, and they're ambitious and hard to get right. We've got our fingers crossed that this one manages to deliver an experience on par with its art.
Thanks, Again
We've still got a long road ahead, but we're glad to already have some amazing people supporting us. Thanks! |
109 | false | 1,024 | There are still a lot of elbows being thrown in the squabble about "creation" versus "curation," and it seems to be getting worse. As humans tend to do, we're talking past each other and pretending to simplicity in the face of the complex and the weird. Here's what I think is going on. I think we're getting tripped up by two things: clumsy language and a misapprehension about competition for limited resources.
Springtime for Snipefest
Earlier this spring, two well-known bloggers—Maria Popova of Brainpickings and Tina Roth-Eisenberg of Swissmiss—introduced the Curator's Code, a proposed convention for attributing credit to bloggers and other link-finders. The initial discussion that followed mostly skipped over rational critique and went straight for sneering and overheated bluster: it was, apparently, intolerable cheek for these "self-proclaimed curators" to want their efforts as digital gravediggers to be recognized when others passed their work along. (Interestingly, comments from journalists whose work is likely to be actually "curated" by bloggers, like The Atlantic' s Megan Garber and the NYT' s David Carr, were far more measured than those that sprang from the jumpy heart of the web design world.) It was all a bit discouraging, but also seemed to be over by mid-April.
Alas, it seems not. Last Friday, Jonathan Harris—a sweet internet hippie who makes lovely things—had a quote from a talk tweeted out of context, as tweets from talks inevitably are:
"Curation is replacing creation as a mode of self-expression." – Jonathan Harris @jjhnumber27 #creativemornings — Tina Roth Eisenberg (@swissmiss) June 1, 2012
And that sent The Awl 's Choire Sicha—who is not a hippie—into a snarkfest about faux-curators and their cultural climbing. (For the record, Harris was apparently suggesting that this "replacement" of creation by curation was something he wanted to combat, not to celebrate.)
"Curation" Is Still a Stupid Term
"Curation" strikes a lot of people as a weird, inaccurate thing to call the selection/connection/display activities made possible by the internet. (I wrote a gigantic thing about that awhile back—tl;dr is that we're stuck with the term, and that maybe we should work toward the traditional senses of curation by becoming better caretakers of the content we "curate.")
It's probably so difficult to find a word for the practice because it's quite difficult to isolate the underlying impulse from just…being human. This stuff we do on Pinterest and Pinboard and Polyvore and (some) blogs is much less like "editing" or "curating" and much more like the casual forms of taste display that we participate in when we get dressed in the morning, create mix tapes, collect art, buy and arrange furniture, collect books or records, and banter with clerks in one of the world's three remaining video shops.
The hilarious thing about the "know your place and respect your elders" screeds—there are many, and I'm not going to link to them—besides the fact that they make those of us who write them sound ancient, is that they don't even read to the people doing the "curation." Serial pinners aren't fighting for cultural credibility by using terms like "curation." They just need a term. Popova herself doesn't like the word.
If I were more awesome, I'd go back in time and suggest an alternate word like "blogger" that is just palatable enough to come into mainstream use. But I'm stuck here like everyone else, so I'm going to just tell you that in my own house, and in conversations with my friends, I don't say "curator" without hand-flapping airquotes. I say "bowerbird."
Birds Not Blogs
If you haven't seen David Attenborough's glorious series The Life of Birds, you're missing out on something really wonderful. In one segment, he introduces the Australian bowerbird, which is notable for the extraordinary display of found materials it creates in order to seduce a mate.
So for now, I'm going to just say "bowerbirds" instead of "content curators" so that I can talk about the practice instead of the title. (I'm not suggesting that everyone switch to this term—y'all can fight about the language somewhere else.)
When taste-display happened only offline, it didn't really threaten anyone—except the geniuses at the RIAA, who think mixtapes are deadly and would happily sneak charge you royalties on earworms if they possibly could.
Online, it's different. For one thing, |
110 | true | 75 | The TEX CNC keytap is made out of high quality aluminum. The aluminum will stay looking good for years. As a fan of mechanical keyboard, you can put this on your pocket and show your friends what mechanical keyboard really means. Not only can you use these as a key chain you can also use them as luggage tabs to help identify your luggage at the airport. |
111 | true | 521 | Top of the list of places to stay, the only 7-Star hotel in the world, Dubai's Burj Al Arab, is possibly the most luxurious hotel on the face of the planet. It should be, too, considering the $1,500 starting price for a double room. If you are lucky enough to be able to count yourself amongst the few people that can afford to frequent the place though, you'll be greeted with your very own iPad to use during your stay. Not just any iPad though. Oh no.
These iPads are 24-carat gold plated – all 202 of them, and are designed exclusively for Burj Al Arab with engraved logo of the hotel. Don't get too used to it though, because you'll have to hand it back when you leave!
Not content with having an iMac in every room, the hotel has now branched out to offering an iPad to each visitor throughout their stay, with a virtual concierge service as well as menus for the hotel's restaurants being housed on Apple's little tablet of wonder. House keeping and butler services are also handled by the slate, somehow managing to make even the most mundane of things interesting!
If you really do want to take a golden iPad home with you, they're apparently available to purchase via the hotel although we shudder to think how much that will set you back. There's no word on which model of iPad is used, either, but we would expect it to be the latest and greatest model given the standard of the establishment.
Obviously the iPads aren't the end of the luxury at the Burj Al Arab. Walk-in showers and Jacuzzis, huge plasma TVs, Rolls-Royce and a private butler service are all part of the package during your stay, though having never been to somewhere like this ourselves, that may well be standard fare!
The fact that the IT people at the hotel went with Apple's iPad rather than one of the numerous competitors may be of interest to some, though we suspect it's more a case of sticking with the Apple theme than some more deep rooted hatred of Android! Regardless, we're sure it'll make a story somewhere.
We'd just be happy to stay at the Burj Al Arab, iPad or no iPad!
(source: Twitter)
You can follow us on Twitter, add us to your circle on Google+ or like our Facebook page to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google, Apple and the web.
Related Stories |
112 | true | 575 | Posted 21 January 2015 - 12:43 AM
I installed mine yesterday and it seems to shoot visibly harder than my OMW Alpha Trooper and Rampage. I'll be running the Immortal Longstrike through its paces in a few weeks at the Bowling Green HvZ Winter Invitational, but until then, I'll spend time making it functionally a better blaster for HvZ purposes.
Did yours not come with catch springs either?
w/ barrel extension
without barrel extension
Nope Mine did not come with the catch springs. I've already emailed OMW along with a few other issuesSo I finished the install with the 7kg srping, well let's start off with the Pros-direct install, no modding neededCons-7kg spring priming gets tiring after 80+ rounds of constant firingBefore picAfter PicI was able to run some shots off the chrony but before the results I ran into some quality issues with the kitAs stated above mine also did not come with the catch springs. In addition dart fit on the breech was looser than what I am accustomed to from OMW. During test fit some of the darts fell out. I cant use my Xplorer darts because of the fit or any other dart where the diameter is smaller than a stock elite. Stefans, forget it, the performance was horrible (glue tip, xtip, stock tip, back rod, cut down nerf, xplorer). Last but not least the plunger tube was not molded well. For whatever reason mine had some casting or something leftover. I had to do my best in sanding it down without compromising the tube. I will check the o-ring after a few more rounds to see if it is tearing it up. Here are the picsPlunger tube out of the packagePlunger tube afterwardsOn with the Chrony numbers (10 shots, with new elites)92.1195.8890.9290.8892.5389.7698.69100.790.05125.10 (anamoly..)99.82102.5107.3105.4105.4102.0103.1109.9109.9103.6So all in all, the kit is definitely better than the massacre kit. Good performance and can probably get better with some more tweaks and even a brass breech or angel breech. Priming with my xplorer grip was tiring so not sure that will work well in a war. My stage 3 OMW retaliator easily outperforms this kit. But it's a nice drop in kit and this is what the longstrike really needed and should have been from the beginning.Should you buy it? That's a decision left for you decide. I like the kit. |
113 | false | 1,024 | While Christian Pulisic was offering compelling and historic evidence in Dortmund that he's more than ready to start on the right in this month's vital World Cup qualifiers, his national team coach, Bruce Arena, said Wednesday that he's ready to see another Bundesliga star anchor the U.S. left.
It's been an issue that's followed Fabian Johnson since he became a U.S. regular in 2012. He's dangerous and dynamic going forward and has spent much of his career as a wide midfielder, first for TSG Hoffenheim and now for Borussia Mönchengladbach. But he's an effective outside back as well, and it's there that the USA's need has been greatest.
Johnson started at right back during the 2014 World Cup and then once DaMarcus Beasley stepped aside (temporarily), the Munich native spent more time on the left. Former U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann experimented in an effort to get Johnson higher up the field but never found a solution. Johnson was in back at the 2015 Gold Cup and 2016 Copa América Centenario and made only his second and third midfield starts of '16 in Klinsmann's final two games. Sporting Kansas City center back Matt Besler was out on the left as the USA fell to Mexico and Costa Rica.
Speaking during a Facebook chat on Wednesday, Arena indicated that he's ready to see if he can steer Johnson toward becoming regular international midfielder.
"He plays almost on a regular basis as a left-sided midfielder at Mönchengladbach and if we can, we want to play Fabian in the midfield," Arena said. "So that's obviously one of our goals in 2017, is to find a position for him and allow him to play it on a consistent basis."
Arena wasn't ready to make a full commitment, however, because spots in back remain unsettled. And with the Honduras (March 24) and Panama (March 28) games coming up, and with at least four points a virtual necessity, Arena may have to keep the tweaking to a minimum this month.
"I wish I could give you the answer right now," he said when asked who was the current first-choice left back. "All kinds of possibilities exist—from Fabian Johnson, who I indicated our preference is to have him in the midfield. Jorge Villafaña and Greg Garza had good showings in January and February with us in camp. Also DaMarcus Beasley showed well in his first game with Houston over the past weekend, so those are all four candidates."
Arena went on to mention Tim Ream, Besler and Eric Lichaj as dark-horse options.
"We're hopeful that we're going to arrive at the right plan," the manager said.
Arena reiterated that he's considering a pool of around 40 players and plans to name a team of 23-25 on March 15. The squad won't gather in San Jose until the 20th, leaving Arena and his staff with the option to make a change or two based on form, injury and what happens that final weekend. They face an interesting challenge. The players with whom Arena is most familiar are in MLS. He coached against them while with the LA Galaxy and spent a month working with them at the recent U.S. camp. But the players who are the fittest and most in-form are in Europe and Mexico. The only interaction Arena has had with them has been from the stands or over the phone. The four days of training leading up to the Honduras game will be vital, as Arena told reporters earlier this week that his foreign-based charges have an edge.
"The players abroad are certainly match fit and a little bit sharper," he said. "You could see the MLS games this weekend. The teams aren't fit yet—not a whole lot of combination play. They're just starting. It takes time. That's what the Premiership looks like in August as well. It's no different. I think all things being equal, I would think we would lean towards a player who has been playing on a regular basis or training on a regular basis."
He added Wednesday, "For the most part I was fairly pleased [with the MLS openers]. This weekend is going to be very important for the MLS players as we make our final decisions."
Arena said he likely would be in Kansas City this weekend as Sporting KC hosts FC Dallas.
Here are a few more highlights from Arena's chat on Wednesday:
— Regarding the goalkeepers, he said Real Salt Lake's Nick Rimando emerged from January camp with "a little bit of an edge" over his domestic competition. Tim Howard has been out since suffering a groin injury against Mexico and wasn't on the active roster when the Colorado Rapids began their season last weekend.
"We're waiting to see whether he plays for Colorado this weekend," Arena said. "If |
114 | false | 1,024 | Ask any startup veteran: Mistakes are made. No matter how successful a company ultimately becomes, you can be sure that its early days were peppered with missteps and failures—most minor, but a few likely painful and spectacular.
So, why would anyone want to share those mistakes with the world? That's the question of the day for Lauren Kay and Emma Tessler, co-founders of Dating Ring, an online matchmaking service. The company is the subject of season two of the podcast Startup, which premieres on Thursday.
Startup devotes each season to chronicling the ups and downs of a single fledgling company. The first season followed the show's creator, Alex Blumberg, as he attempted to launch his own podcasting company. As far as podcasts go, Blumberg is something of a superstar, with successful runs at both This American Life and NPR's Planet Money. That didn't stop him from going off the rails during the show, though. Listeners heard Blumberg stutter through disastrous VC pitches and agonize over whether he was taking the company in the right direction. The tape caught dozens of fraught exchanges between Blumberg and his wife, his partner, his investors and several of his overworked employees.
Kay and Tessler say they expect Dating Ring to get the same warts-and-all treatment. (They are continuing to tape through June and will not hear any of the episodes before they air.) Fundraising—"or trying to"—will be a major theme of the season, says Kay. The company has raised only $355,000 so far, so listeners will also hear frank discussion of how long the founders can continue without an infusion of cash.
What else will we hear this season? A partner leaves the company unexpectedly, say Kay and Tessler. The pair will also discuss the details of their experience at Y Combinator; Dating Ring was part of the incubator's class of January 2014. They say the Startup staff has interviewed a number of people, including Y Combinator partners and the head of competitor Match.com. And of course, Kay and Tessler don't know what was said in these interviews. "Maybe it will be cool," says Kay. "Or maybe it will be more like middle school, when people would talk about you behind your back."
The pair say that, while they're "terrified" of what the podcast may expose about the company (or the founders themselves), they didn't hesitate to sign on when they were selected by the Startup producers. They hope the publicity will boost their user numbers (Dating Ring currently has 3,000 or so active members, about 15% of whom pay the $240 fee for a three-month membership ) and push the company achieve profitability. "We're really hoping that being on Startup will be the push we need," says Kay.
This isn't the company's first time in the media spotlight. Last year, Kay noticed a striking imbalance in the Dating Ring membership: In New York City, they had far more female clients, while their San Francisco database was dominated by men. So, the company cooked up a stunt: Cross-Country Love, a crowdfunded event where the company flew 16 single female New Yorkers out to the west coast for a long weekend of dates with Silicon Valley bachelors. Not surprisingly, the trip got a lot of press—not all of it positive. Valleywag memorably compared the participants to "comfort women," the women forced into sex slavery in World War II.
While much of the coverage was biting, Kay says she still sees the Cross-Country Love trip as a success. "It was huge for us, it put us on the map," she says, adding that in the wake of the publicity, Dating Ring's user base doubled in size.
"It's totally nerve-wracking to put your professional and personal life out there," says Tessler. "But everything is fair game." The founders say were willing to answer almost any question Startup producers threw their way. Because their startup is a dating company, they say they talked a lot about their dating and sex lives, though Tessler asked that the podcast skip the questions about her boyfriend's sex life. "That's the only place I drew the line," she says.
"Occasionally I didn't record certain things," says Kay. "There were a lot of difficult moments when I was really upset." On the other hand, she says the recordings also captured some great moments. "I had a very emotional conversation with my mom, where she said some of the nicest things she's ever said," says Kay. "Now I'll always have that."
Fortune plans to follow up with Kay and Tessler once the season is underway. That, says Kay, sounds great, provided "we are able to show our faces in the media again."
To subscribe to Kristen Bellstrom's daily newsletter on the world's most |
115 | true | 136 | The following major hex is available only to tiefling witches.
Effect: The witch can steal the voice of one creature within 30 feet, causing it to lose, for a number of rounds equal to the witch's Intelligence bonus, all abilities that rely on speech, including talking, casting spells with verbal components, and using auditory bardic performances. A successful Will saving throw negates this effect. If this hex is used upon a willing target, the duration lasts for a number of hours equal to the witch's Intelligence bonus. Additionally, the witch can change her voice to match that of any creature whose voice she has stolen with this hex, as per vocal alteration. |
116 | true | 104 | The training and salary you get as a Soldier are only some of the ways the Army strengthens you for tomorrow. The Army also offers money for education, comprehensive health care, generous vacation time, family services and support groups, special pay for special duties and cash allowances to cover the cost of living.
Want to experience life on an actual Army base? Take the goarmy.com virtual tour, which will give you a first-person view of the locations you will visit every day as a Soldier on post. |
117 | true | 292 | the tourneau advantage Authorized Retailer of Premium Brands Nationwide In-Store Pick Up 5-Year Warranty Free Lifetime 5 Point Check-Up Free and Easy Returns for Online Orders Free Standard Shipping
Specifications i Model Number- Consists of a combination of letters and/or numbers that are found on the back cover of a watch
Collection- Watch family name
Circa- Year watch was made
Case Thickness- Width between the case back and the top of the crystal
Bezel Type- Indicates whether the bezel is functional or purely aesthetic
Movement- The internal mechanism of a watch (either Manual, Automatic, or Quartz)
Water Resistance- The amount of pressure a watch can endure (typically underwater) The following are common watch specifications and their definitions: Manufacturer's Reference # 603
Collection: Tangomat
Gender: Mid-size
Case Shape: Round
Case Size: 38 mm diameter
Case Thickness: 8.2 mm
Case Material: Stainless Steel
Crystal: Sapphire
Dial Color: Black
Dial Markers: Arabic
Movement: Automatic
Movement Caliber: Epsilon
Water Resistance: 30 meters
Strap/Bracelet: Strap
Strap/Bracelet Material: Patent Leather
Features: Second Hand
Manufacturer Warranty: 2 years |
118 | false | 1,024 | I just read this comment in another diary.
"The analogy I have with Bernie is if you invite someone into your home and then they take over and trying to run YOU out of your own house."
Yes. This is exactly what it's like. And that's what bothers me so much about Bernie right now.
To me, Bernie is the guy who never got married because he couldn't commit but then turned 40 and realized he was all alone, but instead of finding someone to start a family with, he pursues a married woman.
A woman who has been married for just over 20 years and the youngest kid is just about on their way to start college. She and her husband have their problems, but they love each other and they are learning to focus on each other again after raising a family together. But it's hard. They were married young, because she got pregnant. They struggled a lot early on, because they were poor. But after a lot of sacrifices and a lot of fights they figured out how to make it work and pull ahead and now that their kids are moving out they finally have another chance to have a life together. But there is a lot of work to be done to rebuild their relationship. There is a lot of hurt to heal. It's really hard for both of them, but they love each other and they want to be together. It was really scary for a while there, but if they don't give up on each other, they are going to make it.
That's the Democratic party to me. Is it perfect? No. Has it fucked up? Yes. But it's also a wonderful party that has done incredible things including electing the first black President and after a lot of ups and downs it's really finally feeling like it's on it's way to being a truly great party again.
And just as that is happening, along comes Bernie. He knows how to push all of the buttons pointing out all of the imperfections and fuck ups and pain and he promises a wonderful future and there is no history with him of struggling and fighting and your kids have really seem to like him and it is so tempting to just walk away from a painful difficult history and start over with someone new.
There was a reply to that comment I quoted above.
Yes, party loyalty should come before anything else.
When I read that I felt sick to my stomach. Loyalty being talked about as if it were a weakness instead of a strength.
I have liked Bernie for years. Since around 2007/8. But I have never liked that he is running for the nomination of our party. It didn't seem right to me, since he's been an independent for 40 years. But I have really not liked how he has treated this party as he has run. Throwing everyone under the bus who stands in his way.
My wife and I have been married for over 15 years. In the first few years, we moved to a big city for me to get a programming job and for her to go to college. I didn't get one right away, so, we both ended up getting shift manager jobs at a video store chain. It was a hard time for us, because we were very poor and in a new city all alone and we ended up working opposite shifts from each other, so, we bare saw each other for months.
My wife and I had pretty different approaches to running shifts. She was by the book and I was more relaxed. She got everything done on time. I made the store a lot of money by making friends with all the customers. My boss quit and for a while her boss ran my store as well. He was a pretty good looking guy who flirted with the girls who worked at the store a lot. He didn't particularly care for my style, but my shifts made more money than any other store in the city and he was stretched pretty thin, so, he just let it go. At least with me.
With my wife he started talking shit about me. He had already tried flirting with her and it hadn't really worked out for him. He was the kind of guy who didn't take that as a hint. He took it as a challenge. He just tried harder and part of how he tried was to try to put a wedge between her and I. He actually pressed her for why she was with me. I didn't know this was happening at the time, because… well, because she didn't want me to walk into the store and knock him the fuck out… but she told me months later when I left.
I have never hated anyone in my life, but I came pretty close with that guy. He wanted something, so he fucked with my marriage to try to get it. I didn't really have anything to worry about, because my wife loves me. But I still felt violated. For her, for having to endure that from her boss. But also |
119 | true | 65 | OVERVIEW
The Leather Old Skool Cup, a new take on the Vans classic skate shoe, is a low top lace-up featuring leather uppers, re-enforced toecaps to withstand repeated wear, padded collars for support and flexibility, and clean vulcanized cupsoles with detail stitching. |
120 | true | 198 | Neko Atsume, the greatest game in the history of mankind, hasn't been getting a ton of attention in the figure world. Which is, like, basically a crime against humanity. We did get that really cute set of keychains, but I want more! A scaled Cream-san! Plush Haihachi! Give me all the kitties!
Well, we are indeed going to be getting more goodies. Plushes, mostly, of quite a few of the kitties, including two rares. The highlight is definitely the giant Manzoku-san, I just wanna squish him. There will also be keycahins, but sadly I don't think any of this will be easy to get: they're prize figures from Banpresto, so you'll have to hunt on the aftermarket most likely. But who cares?! I would do anything for kitties, even that.
[via Crane King] |
121 | true | 199 | When Sansa flees from King's Landing, her boat is intercepted at Dragonstone and she is made ward of the lately-widowed King Stannis, who refuses to listen to his bannermen's pleas that he wed the key to the North. Luckily for them, and for the prospective bride and bridegroom, Melisandre is of a similar mind, and has some tricks up her sleeve to help smooth the way...
This is madness, a voice inside of him says, as the girl, as Lady Sansa, rides his lap, as she clutches a small hand at the back of his neck and bends her face to meet his, panting her wine-soured breath into his open mouth, biting her lip on moans, as he holds onto her hips, fingers tight enough to bruise, as he groans in a manner utterly unlike himself, as he bucks his hips up and captures her mouth in a sordid kiss wet with tongues— |
122 | true | 58 | SEE ALSO: Babylon reveals plans for his 1st Album 'CAELO'
The visual identity starts from 'light', which symbolizes their celebrities and contents, and goes to the 'line' that changes into a 'circle'.
You can check out their introduction below. |
123 | true | 239 | From the outside at least, the actress Mo'Nique and her husband of 11 years, Sidney Hicks, would seem to be in the middle of a rocky marriage. Both have had sexual relationships with other partners for years — and continue to do so. And each is well aware of the other's escapades.
But, the couple insist, the relationship is actually quite stable and they are quite happy. In fact, it has been a decade since Mo'Nique revealed in an Essence magazine article that she and Mr. Hicks, an actor and producer, were in an open marriage.
Now they have begun a podcast that plays on their unusual partnership. In "Mo'Nique and Sidney's Open Relationship," which is on Play.It, the CBS podcast network, the couple explains how the so-called polyamorous lifestyle works for them.
The open-marriage concept has been around for a long time, but some marital experts (though not all) say that couples interested in reaching a golden anniversary, or maybe even a first one, should be wary of following the example of Mo'Nique and Mr. Hicks, who are both 48. |
124 | true | 290 | CPU-Z yields an impressive data sheet of a computer system's functions and operations. By cutting out a lot of technical and manual searching, this handy freeware generates a list of information that computer lovers will find very helpful.
We had no trouble operating the program's interface since it had practically no command icons. The program is basically like reading a report, though one rich in information. Casual computer users probably won't get much from CPU-Z, since the information it presents is heavily data oriented. However, technophiles will love its attention to detail. The interface features seven tabs that catalog everything from your motherboard's chipset and manufacturer to your clock's technical details. In between, we were able to quickly find information about our PC's memory, cache, graphics, and SPD. CPU-Z lays everything out in easy-to-read tables full of highly technical terms and numbers. Seeking this information out through traditional methods would have taken much longer. The program, unfortunately, doesn't have any special features, though some accompanying charts and graphs would have been nice. Overall, this tool yields an impressive collection of raw data in an easy-to-ready format that makes it easy to use, too.
CPU-Z is freeware. Though those not well versed in technology may be turned off by all that data, computer lovers will discover a lot about their PCs. For them, CPU-Z is a must. |
125 | true | 47 | If anyone told you what would you do if there was a zombie apocalypse, what would you say? Would you be the judging one and say that, "It wouldn't happen. It only happens in movies." Maybe you would b... |
126 | true | 445 | WASHINGTON — The United States on Thursday tentatively welcomed possible Turkish-Russian cooperation against jihadists in Syria, as Ankara has proposed to Moscow, even if those countries support opposing camps there.
"We remain in close contact with our Turkish allies and our partners in the fight against Daesh," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said, using another name for the Islamic State group.
Working against the jihadist group "is a priority for all of us," she said. "If this is truly a step in that direction, we would welcome that."
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Pressed by reporters to confirm the US reaction, Trudeau said, "We've been very clear that if Russia is interested in fighting against (the IS group)," then "we would welcome that."
How that cooperation would work is unclear. Moscow is allied with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, while Ankara has supported rebel groups seeking his overthrow in a bloody civil war.
But Russian-Turkish relations have warmed amid pique in Ankara that Washington and other Western capitals did not seem more supportive after the attempted military coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month.
Erdogan traveled to Moscow on Tuesday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Thursday, Turkish officials representing the army, intelligence agencies and the foreign ministry were in Russia for talks on Syria, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Putin last month to discuss coordinating the two countries' air strikes against IS militants and their allies.
Also Thursday, the United States expressed concern about mounting reports of alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians in Syria, including during an attack in Aleppo a day earlier.
Washington is "very concerned about the increasing number of allegations of chemical weapons use over the last few weeks," Trudeau said.
The United States and Russia are responsible for overseeing a UN resolution from late 2013 to dismantle the Syrian government's chemical weapons arsenal.
Confirmation that Assad's regime has used such weapons since then would constitute a "violation" of the resolution, Trudeau said. |
127 | false | 1,024 | words - min read
5 True All-American Handguns Made In USA
Whether it's an overall good thing or not – we live in a globalized economy. Almost nothing is made 100% in the United States anymore. But what about firearms? As one of the few countries that affords its citizens the right to bear arms, you'd think more firearms manufacturers would be exclusively based out of here.
Well, turns out that's not always the case. If you follow the supply chain long enough, you're going to find a part of a product made outside of the United States. But if you're adamant about keeping your hard earned money inside the country and supporting good craftsmanship, we'll discuss a few firearms manufacturers that mostly stay within the United States.
Ruger
Ruger and Smith & Wesson are almost tied in terms of firearms production and sales in the United States. Ruger, however, tries to keep much of their manufacturing process located right in the United States. Smith & Wesson – especially for the M&P Shield line of pistols – stayed within the United States.
Both are considered the leaders in United States firearms manufacturing. The quality of their arms is well recognized throughout.
A few notable pistols from Ruger:
Ruger SR9c – The SR9c is a compact pistol with full-size capabilities. A magazine capacity of 17 rounds and plenty of accolades on function – it's an affordable choice for compact concealed carry.
Ruger Sr9c Holster
Ruger Sr9c Holster Ruger LCP – This is one of their flagship pistols designed especially to be affordable, reliable, and very concealable.
Ruger LCP Holster
Kimber
Kimber quickly rose to fame with their heavily customized 1911 variants. Hailed as champions of match-grade quality 1911s as well as compact carry versions, Kimber can easily be said to be a company that has focused heavily on craftsmanship over quantity. And it shows – both in the price tag as well as the function. But, they keep it local and do the vast majority of their manufacturing within the United States.
Notable Kimber pistols:
Kimber 1911 Compact – A slightly more compact 1911, it's for those who want a shorter form factor without sacrificing full-size capability.
Kimber 1911 Compact Holster
Kimber 1911 Compact Holster Kimber 1911 Pro Model – How much better does it get in the world of 1911s? Not only does Kimber make a beautifully designed full-size professional grade 1911, it works surprisingly well as an everyday concealed carry choice.
Kimber Pro Holster
Kimber Pro Holster Kimber Solo – Kimber decided to dip its feet into the waters of the sub-compact concealed carry community with the Kimber Solo. Despite some complaints on its function, it's overall proven itself to be durable and easily hidden in an IWB holster.
Kimber Solo Holster
Kel-Tec
A lot of people like to rag on Kel-Tec because their pistols and rifles don't look as sleek and attractive as Kimber or Ruger. If you subtract the aesthetics, you wind up with a fantastic, cheap, and All-American made series of concealed carry pistols. This company has prided itself on staying within the United States despite the easy reduction in manufacturing cost of going overseas. And you know what? They produce excellent concealed carry pistols.
Notable concealed carry pistols:
P-3AT – This concealed carry pistol, chambered in .380 ACP, has proven itself to be a reliable choice for concealed carriers. It is classified as a sub-compact and no matter how critics want to hate it – most end up admitting it's a very decent choice for those looking for reliability and price point.
P-3AT Holster
Hi-Point
Hi-Point makes the Walmart of pistols. Dirt cheap and backed by a life-time guarantee, despite the overwhelming bad talk about their main pistol line – this is a reasonably reliable American-made firearms manufacturer.
Best of all? Hi-Point is guaranteed to produce a compact pistol in most major calibers that will fit nearly anyone's budget.
Notable compact pistols:
Hi-Point 916 – At less than $200 (MSRP), it's priced to sell. The Hi-Point 916 is surprisingly rugged for it's polymer frame.
Hi Point 916 Holster
Honorable Mention: Wilson Combat
Wilson Combat's 4-inch 1911 - Wilson Combat's 4 inch 1911 was designed for those who preferred the 1911 frame and need match-grade quality in their concealed carry choice.
Wilson Combat 1911 4 inch Holster<
There are certainly more manufacturers that have a legacy of producing their excellent firearms in the United States. If keeping your money local is your goal, certainly |
128 | true | 1,004 | Give a man a fish, the adage goes, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. But what happens when the one who needs fish is a fisherman?
Last month, the federal government took a long-awaited step toward answering that question when Congress allocated $75 million in fisheries disaster aid. Now the hard part begins for the National Marine Fisheries Service. First it must come up with a plan to divide the assistance among six different fisheries nationwide. Then it must determine how to spend the money that goes to each region.
The New England groundfishery, which targets cod, haddock, and flounders, received its disaster declaration in 2012 following decades of overfishing, and a failure of fish populations to recover despite increasingly strict limits on the catch. In addition to excessive harvest of fish, the ecosystem has also suffered from the compounding challenge of climate change.
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Together, these factors have left it dangerously out of balance. With this influx of cash, which could represent the last hope for America's first fishery, regulators and fishermen must weigh their desire to provide immediate assistance to industry members against the opportunity to make the entire groundfishery more solvent. The easy path — one for which some industry members and local politicians have advocated — would have regulators simply divide the money among active fishermen, allowing them to pay down their loans and perhaps save their boats or houses for another year or two. But then what? This fishery won't recover for far longer than that.
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According to a recent report from the National Marine Fisheries Service, groundfish revenue fell by $24 million in 2012, a 23 percent decline. And this plunge doesn't account for drastic reductions in catch limits which took effect in 2013 and will remain for at least another two years. When the revenue figures for 2013 come out, things will undoubtedly look much worse than they do today. Thus, no matter how much of the $75 million ends up in New England, there won't be enough to sustain the industry until the fish come back.
Absent adequate fish or funding to solve the problem, the only solution is to reduce the number of fishermen, something that is already occurring albeit in an unplanned way. Since 2009, the number of boats making at least one groundfish trip has dropped by 30 percent. And it will fall further.
One way regulators should help to responsibly manage this loss of fishing businesses, is through implementation a buyback of groundfish permits. While the total amount likely won't be enough to fund the entirety of a buyback program, a relatively small amount of disaster funding could be used for a federal loan guarantee, leveraging additional cash to buy permits from willing sellers.
Those who remain would then pay back the loan over time using a percentage of revenue they generate from having access to more fish. Additional funds could also be made available to cover the first year or two of interest payments. Past attempts to implement buyback programs in US fisheries have shown that designing an effective framework isn't easy, but it can be done. In groundfishery, the industry must develop a structure that allows for a graceful exit from the fishery for those who choose it while preventing a scenario in which the only surviving operators are large vessels consolidated in fewer fishing ports.
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The program must not simply shift the focus onto other fisheries like monkfish or lobster. And it must allow access to the next generation of fishermen once fish populations have begun to bounce back, with continued participation in traditional ports from downeast Maine out to Provincetown and down to Long Island. Because the upfront cost of a buyback would be low, it could be just a small part of a broader disaster relief package. There would still be funding to alleviate fishermen's financial hardship, to implement programs aimed at protecting smaller fishing communities, and to pay fishermen who remain to engage in cooperative research programs with scientists.
Accepting a buyback will be no easy decision for many fishermen. Any New Englander knows fishing is not just a job. It's a way of life — often one that spans generations. There will be anguish in leaving it behind. But for some, there will also be relief. And for those who remain, less competition may mean a real chance at a future.
Regardless of how the agency and the industry decide to allocate the funding, it must be used to not just buoy the existing industry, but primarily to invest in its future. They may not be able to give fishermen more fish. But they may yet be able to make this fishery last a lifetime.
Michael Conathanis director of ocean policy at the Center for American Progress. |
129 | false | 1,024 | When I saw the announcement last week from RunKeeper and Pebble that RunKeeper had released the final non-beta integration with the smart-watch, I was excited to dive into it. While the Pebble watch was certainly not the first smart watch out there (that title goes to a long line of poorly designed watches aimed at geeks like me), it was the first watch to get massive media attention. Which in turn translated to massive Kickstarter sales and funding. Becoming at the time the biggest Kickstarter project ever (by funds raised).
During their Kickstarter campaign a year ago both Pebble and RunKeeper had touted the potential integration between the two companies. After all, it was the very first app partnership announced. It seemed like it might just be the start of a new wave of fitness watches driven by the phone. For those not familiar with Pebble as a concept, it's a smart-phone connected watch that displays notifications from apps (be it e-mail, texts or 3rd party apps) on your wrist. The idea was that apps could leverage Pebble for deeper integration and control – ultimately minimizing the need to remove your phone from your pocket. It would still be there, you just won't have to touch it as often.
However, after using it, there's really only one word to describe it:
Underwhelmed.
No wait, there's another one. Well, actually, an image might be better:
So why am I so un-impressed? Well, let's go through a brief overview.
First, you'll need the RunKeeper app installed. Quite logically obviously, since in the Pebble 'design', the app is driving the experience. No problems, I had that and was good to go! Note, available on both Android and iOS.
Now, there isn't really any configuration options for the Pebble watch within RunKeeper. You can't turn it on or off, it's just…well…there. You can see it in this tiny little icon in the upper left corner:
Essentially if your Pebble is nearby, it's about to get RunKeeper'd.
Once that's done, you're basically ready to run. You'll just want to hit the big 'Start Activity' button on the app and stash your phone somewhere.
I stash mine in a simple armband. Nothing fancy.
About 15 seconds later, the run will actually start. This is a timer delay built-in to ensure you have time to do the stashing. In the meantime, the Pebble display will now change to the RunKeeper page:
Once you've started your run, the watch will display your total time, total distance and average pace.
If you want to pause the timer (like at a cross-walk such as below), you simply press the middle Pebble button, which pauses the app on the phone instantly. Same goes for resuming. I'll give credit where credit is due, this part works well.
Next, if you want to change the display field to something other than pace, you'll just press one of the up/down buttons.
Oh.
Wait.
You mean those buttons don't do anything?
Oh, I see.
No worries, I must be able to configure it somewhere else, right? You know, like in the RunKeeper app settings on my phone or something. Or change to speed for cycling? Or trigger a lap, right?
No, no, and no? Oh.
Hmm.
So, what can you do Mr. RunKeeper Pebble?
That's it? You mean, this post isn't destined for In-Depth Review status?
Well then. That's…uhh…underwhelming.
And thus, the end of my Pebble/RunKeeper experience.
I guess I don't get it. As it stands now, the level of coding displayed seems to rival that of what a single high school student could do in an afternoon (without even a can of Mountain Dew or pizza). They had a YEAR to do something cool. And ultimately, it does the most basic thing on earth – display three non-changeable data fields.
They had a year to sit there and make a mess of Cambridge whiteboards on creating a kick-ass app that could have shown the rest of the smart-watch world what an app could have done in a connected device scenario. Surely that's 365 days of back of the napkin ideas that could have been implemented.
They had a year to leverage the power of Bluetooth Smart on the phone platform and do stuff like show heart rate metrics that RunKeeper already supports today. How hard could it really have been to simply add a way to customize the data pages? Or to create laps? Or to show laps since RunKeeper was tracking them anyway.
On RunKeeper |
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131 | true | 399 | In women, the association between obesity and endometrial cancer is stronger than in any other type of cancer.
In women, the association between obesity and endometrial cancer is stronger than in any other type of cancer.1 Recent analyses predict a 55% increase in endometrial cancer rates from 2010 to 2030.2
"Obesity results in a state of increased estrogen, which drives the cells of the lining of the uterus to grow and divide. In addition, the 'brakes' are also not working as well in obese women. The 'brakes' are from progesterone, which is lower in obese women," said Karen H. Lu, MD, J. Taylor Wharton distinguished chair in gynecologic oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, in an interview with Cancer Therapy Advisor.
The increased levels of estrogen in obese women causes increased cellular proliferation and increased double-stranded DNA breaks, resulting in DNA instability and mismatch repair defects.
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"Some estrogen metabolites are also known to be genotoxic. The more frequently endometrial cells divide, the greater the accumulation of genetic mutations, which can ultimately result in neoplastic transformation," continued 1 of the review's co-authors, Rosemarie E. Schmandt, PhD, an associate professor at the department of gynecologic oncology and reproductive medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
"This is particularly relevant in women with Lynch syndrome, who lack certain DNA repair mechanisms, and are more likely to acquire early, deleterious mutations in the endometrium, which lead to cancer."
RELATED: Use of Aromatase Inhibitors in Advanced Endometrial Cancer
"Obesity is associated with elevated levels of insulin, IGF-1, and glucose levels, all of which promote endometrial growth and fuel endometrial cancer progression," explained Dr Schmandt. |
132 | true | 496 | Olivier Giroud believes Arsenal must bolster their attacking options before the transfer window closes even if it means competing for a place with a high profile star.
The French international appears to be the club's first choice (only?) striker as things stand and picked up where he left off in pre-season with a tidy finish to open his account against Villa. However, with Yaya Sanogo lacking any top flight experience and Lukas Podolski seemingly destined to ply his trade on the left, there were few options to replace the former-Montpellier man as he tired in the second half.
Having welcomed links with Luis Suarez earlier in the summer, the attacker told Le Parisien (link paywalled, alternative here) after Saturday's opening day defeat that he still thinks arrivals are needed.
"In my opinion, it's necessary for the club to recruit another striker.
"Obviously, I think about it a little bit. It may have an influence, especially if it's a high profile signing.
"It's useless lamenting this though. I know what I have to do and what I'm capable of. I'm focusing on me and my work. The coach is counting on me, so I don't think too much."
Looking back on his first year in England, Giroud continued:
"The first year I acclimatised! The season was good, but I know I can do better. I learned much and improved a great deal. I know how the defenders behave, how to position against them, and how to be smart in the duels. This experience is invaluable.
"Individually, I want to score more than 17 goals in my last year, and do better than my 10 assists. I want to be more decisive and effective."
Arseblog News has already documented the number of times players have spoken in the press about the need for new recruits. For some time now it's felt like they're pushing the boss to act as much as the fans.
On one level it's great that they are receptive to competition, on the other it's very worrying that squad morale could be seriously damaged by inaction. If they think extra quality is needed to challenge for honours, do they believe they can achieve that aim without it? Perhaps not…
___
Thanks to @GrooverBlog for the help with the translation. |
133 | true | 847 | In The Arena Barack Obama's Better Half Why the first lady is so popular.
Michelle Obama is a popular first lady. On average, her favorable ratings have been higher than those of her predecessors, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton. This may well reflect the fact that more so than other first ladies, Mrs. Obama has a stand-alone personal image. Unlike other recent first ladies, her popularity has not fallen or risen with her husband's.
How popular is Michelle? A steady two-thirds of the public has held a favorable view of Mrs. Obama, according to nationwide Gallup poll and Pew Research Center surveys, for most of her time as first lady. At 69 percent, her average Pew Research Center favorable ratings have been only somewhat higher than Laura Bush's (65 percent) but considerably higher than Hillary Clinton's (55 percent) during Bill Clinton's term in office.
Story Continued Below
Laura Bush was never a polarizing first lady, but views of her soured somewhat near the end of her husband's unpopular second term. In late 2007, her favorable rating fell to 54 percent from a high of 70 percent.
Hillary's ratings rose and fell substantially over the course of her time in the White House, reaching a low of 42 percent in early 1996 as fallout from her spearheading her husband's unpopular health care reform effort. But they rebounded over the course of Bill Clinton's second term, especially during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, when the public rallied sympathetically to the first lady. Her ratings slipped again afterward, even as Bill's approval ratings remained fairly high.
The arc of Michelle's popularity is strikingly different — in fact, it's more of a flat line than an arc. Barack's sinking poll numbers haven't dragged down Michelle. As the president's approval score has ranged from the mid 50s to the low 40s, the first lady's have oscillated around the mid to high 60s. The polls do show consistently, however, that in an era of polarization, she has been much less well liked by conservatives, Republicans and white men. Her biggest fans have been women, Democrats and African-Americans.
So why did the president's unpopularity drag down Laura Bush's and Hillary Clinton's numbers but not Michelle Obama's? In-depth polling about perceptions of her by The Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation suggests that broad segments of the public hold positive views of Michelle's personal qualities that transcend partisanship, gender and race. Supermajorities of men and women, blacks and whites, Republicans and Democrats alike see Michelle as intelligent, a good role model for women and a good mother.
And even though Republicans, white men and conservatives have held only mixed views of her overall, her strong positive image has prevented a sharp downturn in attitudes among groups that have become super critics of the president.
In short, more so than other recent first ladies, the public views Michelle Obama as her own person, and her image has not been tied closely to swings in judgments about her husband.
The numbers inevitably raise the question of what Michelle will do with her popularity — an increasingly rare asset in these hyperpartisan times. In recent weeks, as rumors circulated that she might run for Senate in Illinois, Michelle quickly quashed them, telling Robin Roberts of ABC News that her next act would be "service focused," not political. Roberts pressed: "You sure you're not getting into politics?" Replied Michelle: "I am positive." White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, a longtime Obama family friend, was even more Shermanesque in a recent appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I'm absolutely 100 percent positive that will never happen."
That seems like a pretty firm no. It should also be borne in mind that in this highly polarized era, any political move will be judged in a much more partisan way than Michelle Obama has experienced thus far — witness how Hillary Clinton's poll numbers have slid as she has reentered the political arena. But should she change her mind, the first lady would have a strong head start.
Andrew Kohut is founding director of the Pew Research Center. |
134 | true | 508 | Spring is the ideal time to tour the Arts District. Let's walk down Granby and begin to identify green spaces. In time we can take ownership, and watch our ideas grow.
Ever want to plant wildflowers in a vacant lot? Is there a business on Granby Street where the curb appeal should be creatively updated? Do terms like vertical gardens, upcycling, or guerilla gardening turn you on? Do plants and flowers make you feel good? Who wants to start a community butterfly garden? Do you dream about fresh rosemary and parsley? Does this cabin fever make you want to grow legal herbs outside? Maintain your own food plot?
Let's plant green life in the Arts District, and watch the community flourish. Plants give off energy! Let's give them a place to root.
art | "the" walt taylor
When: 10am, Saturday, March 8th, 2014
Meeting location: The New Plot, (Former Zedds corner of Onley/Granby)
Participants will be split into groups and given a section of the Arts District. We will then identify potential blank canvases for future art or planting. Each team will use a worksheet to describe an area, recording the address, and snapping a picture. Teams will then submit information to Ashley Grove to compile a catalog of the area.
Looking for enthusiastic volunteers!
Initial vision: 10 to 20 small and large green spaces, which are created and maintained by individuals, children, families, local business, artists, restaurants, green thumbs, entrepreneurs, master gardeners and beginners. A group leader or "Head Gardener" for each plot. Some "plots" small enough for individuals, others maintained by a group, a local restaurant , or even sponsored by a business. Planting VA native plants? Having an herb garden? Children's area? Outdoor yoga area?
Above mentioned opportunities will be documented, photographed before and after, and possibly "sponsored." I want to encourage all sociodemographic groups to have opportunity. Even recruit and encourage diversity. Follow up with meetings, talks, on-line groups and discussions, events, plant sales. Could morph into farmer's market, open air market.
Mission: Add greenlife to Arts & Design District. Create community. Create relationships and desire in businesses and individuals to take ownership of an area, beautify it, and maintain it.
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135 | false | 1,024 | Zalovar
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Sr. MemberPosts: 254 Re: Nintendo 2DS « Reply #30 on: August 29, 2013, 07:22:59 PM » Personally, the reason I might get one is because I like the fact that it's backward compatible. I still play my DS quite a bit, which is why I haven't gotten a 3DS yet. Might not need to now. I've played the 3DS and honestly, I couldn't care less about the 3D graphics. Logged "Don't confuse me with your reasonableness" - Rick Castle
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Sr. MemberPosts: 254 Re: Nintendo 2DS « Reply #32 on: August 30, 2013, 06:17:57 AM » Hmmm, makes sense, not sure why I didn't think it was. Maybe I was thinking the DS should be able to play the 3DS games in 2D. Oops, sorry about my confusion and thank you for clearing that up for me. Logged "Don't confuse me with your reasonableness" - Rick Castle
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Jr. MemberPosts: 72 Re: Nintendo 2DS « Reply #33 on: August 30, 2013, 10:33:58 AM » Quote from: Zalovar on August 30, 2013, 06:17:57 AM Maybe I was thinking the DS should be able to play the 3DS games in 2D.
That'd be like expecting the NES to play SNES games in 8-bit. 3D isn't the only thing the 3DS does that the DS does not; the DS is roughly on par with the N64, although not quite at its level. Meanwhile, the 3DS can run games much more closely with those of Gamecube level graphics, although, again, not quite at its level. It's simply stronger, more advanced hardware, and it wouldn't make sense for the games to run on an older, less powerful system. That'd be like expecting the NES to play SNES games in 8-bit. 3D isn't the only thing the 3DS does that the DS does not; the DS is roughly on par with the N64, although not quite at its level. Meanwhile, the 3DS can run games much more closely with those of Gamecube level graphics, although, again, not quite at its level. It's simply stronger, more advanced hardware, and it wouldn't make sense for the games to run on an older, less powerful system. Logged My created covers
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Sr. MemberPosts: 304 Re: Nintendo 2DS « Reply #34 on: August 30, 2013, 11:29:05 AM » You know I might buy one if I see it one sale for less than a $100. Like mentioned, it seems like one of those odd Nintendo systems and it reminds me of a cross between a DS and a game boy. Logged
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Retro Deckades
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Sr. MemberPosts: 444 Re: Nintendo 2DS « Reply #36 on: August 30, 2013, 06:47:43 PM »
http://ca.ign.com/videos/2013/08/30/nintendo-2ds-unboxing
I am definitely getting one of these. In many ways it's bizarre, but I love my Nintendo handhelds. A neat little 2DS unboxing video, courtesty of IGN.I am definitely getting one of these. In many ways it's bizarre, but I love my Nintendo handhelds. Logged
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Sr. MemberPosts: 444 Re: Nintendo 2DS « Reply #37 on: October 11, 2013, 11:06:01 PM » This bad boy drops tomorrow, along with the newest versions of some little known series called Pokemon (?)
I'm actually going to go back on my earlier decision and abstain from buying one, the only reason actually being that it just seems a little smaller than I'd like. My adult-sized hands need an adult-sized grip. That being said, if they ever release a 2DS XL, count me in! « Last Edit: October 12, 2013, 09:58:13 AM by Retro Deckades » Logged
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Extra cheese please!
The one.. the only... whateverMaximum Volume PosterPosts: 7905Extra cheese please! Re: Nintendo 2DS « Reply #38 on: October 12, 2013, 07:14:17 PM »
Not so |
136 | false | 1,024 | The Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles in this file photo. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Chinese Consulate Behind University Protest Against Dalai Lama
The University of California–San Diego has invited the Dalai Lama to speak at commencement in June, and a group of Chinese students at the university is rallying to stop his speech. There may be more to the events than meets the eye, however, as a social media posting said to be from the student group states it has been given directions by the Chinese Consulate.
The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibet and has been in exile since March 1959, when he fled Tibet fearing the Chinese occupiers intended to abduct him. Tibet was invaded by the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) People's Liberation Army in October 1950. The CCP pushes a line that it "liberated" Tibet and heavily censors information on the topic, while calling the Dalai Lama a "separatist."
The group trying to prevent the speech is a local branch of the Chinese Student and Scholars Association (CSSA), a nationwide student organization known to receive funding and directives from the CCP through its consulates in the United States.
The CSSA has openly stated it is working under the guidance of the Chinese regime.
It published a statement on WeChat (a Chinese instant messaging platform) that states, translated from Chinese, that "the Chinese Student and Scholar Association has asked the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles for instructions and, having received the instructions, is going to implement them."
It tells students to not act outside official guidance of the CCP, and says "specific measures to be taken will be elaborated on in future announcements."
"Our association has been forced to take tough and unyielding measures," it states.
The statement appears to have been taken offline, but a web archive of the page is still available.
The "About Us" page for the CSSA at the university, translated from Chinese, says it is a "public benefit organization" and is "affiliated to the Chinese Consulate General in Los Angeles." It also says it works as a "Chinese Embassy bridge."
Overt Espionage
According to the report "China's Espionage Dynasty: Economic Death by a Thousand Cuts," published by cybersecurity think tank Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT), there are active CSSAs at more than 150 U.S. universities.
Officially, the CSSAs help native Chinese students by acting as a bridge between China and foreign institutions. On the other hand, "CSSAs may also be a pivotal overt espionage platform for the Chinese government," says the ICIT report.
"The vast majority of CSSAs receive funding from the Chinese government or have an active liaison via the consulate back to the CCP," it states.
It adds that CSSAs may work to "persuade students to act as temporary or prolonged intelligence assets," and that "through CSSAs, students can be manipulated into passing intellectual property or research back to their home state or planting malware on a university system."
According to an FBI podcast on April 14, 2014, it's not uncommon for foreign intelligence agencies to manipulate students to achieve their objectives—and the students are often unaware they are being used until they're already in over their heads.
"To foster the relationship, foreign intelligence operatives will flatter and encourage students, show interest in their future success, and even promise to help them obtain a government-issued visa or work permit—but it's all disingenuous and empty promises," said Mollie Halpem, host of the "Inside the FBI" podcast.
She added, "The truth is, the operatives are just using the student as a pawn to achieve their own ends, without concern for the student's welfare or future."
Controlling the Narrative
Preventing a speech by the Dalai Lama at a U.S. university may not seem like a big deal, but for the CCP, its use of censorship and controlled narratives are cornerstones of its hold on power. The Party simultaneously pushes its own narratives on issues, peppered with disinformation, while also using extreme censorship to stop the true narratives from being known.
The issue of Tibet—which includes the CCP's suppression of Tibetan Buddhists—is one of the CCP's five "no-go topics," which also includes its persecution of Falun Gong, its persecution of Muslim Uyghurs, the issue of Taiwanese independence, and the issue of democracy in Hong Kong.
The CCP's censorship apparatus stretches beyond its own borders, and looks to control similar narratives being raised by foreign governments and news outlets.
"In many cases, Chinese officials directly impede independent reporting by media based abroad," states a 2013 report from the Center for International Media Assistance.
It adds, however, that "more prevalent–and often more effective–are methods of control that subtly |
137 | false | 1,024 | The Pentagon has spent billions of dollars on efforts to make itself audit-ready in time for not one, but two deadlines – one in 2014, the other in 2017.
It won't meet the first and probably won't meet the second.
The deadlines represent efforts inside and outside of the Pentagon toward meeting a goal that has eluded it since the mid-1990s, when all government departments were first required by law to submit to annual audits. The Defense Department, alone among all federal agencies, has so far failed to meet that requirement – leaving trillions of dollars in cumulative annual defense budgets unaudited.
Amid fierce national debate over ballooning national debt, Congress in 2009 passed a law to prod the Pentagon, setting a 2017 deadline for audit-readiness. Two years later, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta added to the pressure, ordering that a significant portion of the Pentagon's books – its annual report on the status of all appropriations – be audit-ready by 2014.
That report, the Statement of Budgetary Resources, is, in essence, the Pentagon's checkbook, showing the amount of money from congressional appropriations spent or committed to being spent, and the amount remaining for new spending. Without it, there is no way to budget accurately or ensure accountability.
Tina Jonas, Defense Department comptroller from 2004 through 2008 and now president of UnitedHealthcare Military & Veterans, says that when she was drafting budgets, the lack of reliable financial statements made it impossible for her to know how much money the Pentagon had and how much it needed. "I didn't want to ask Congress for money that we didn't need," she says.
A senior Pentagon official confirmed that the 2014 deadline won't be met. The Pentagon discreetly acknowledged the same in an unremarkable passage on page 5 of section II of the November 2012 "Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness (FIAR) Plan Status Report" from Defense Department Comptroller Robert Hale's office: "The scope of first year audits of the SBR (Statement of Budgetary Resources) in FY 2015 will be limited to audits of schedules containing only current year appropriation activity." (Panetta's order requires that the SBR be audit-ready in 2014 so that a first audit can be conducted in 2015.)
That means the audit will ignore the hundreds of billions of dollars in unspent appropriations from previous years, as when, for example, Congress approves a multiyear weapons contract. The reason, Pentagon officials said, is that huge amounts of essential data have been lost in the Pentagon's accounting systems, or were never recorded in the first place. The comptroller's office said that out of $992 billion in appropriations, about $220 billion won't be examined, using estimates based on 2012 numbers.
"This is a tactical change that refines the scope of the audit," said Jennifer Elzea, a spokeswoman for the secretary of defense. "It does not change the goal, which is to improve the strength of our business processes and the quality of our financial information."
Comptroller Hale said through a spokesman this month: "I expect most DoD budget statements will be ready for audit. It is possible that, because of budget turmoil and other problems, a few may not be ready."
Lack of trustworthy data also makes the 2017 legally mandated deadline a long shot. Absent reliable accounting systems in the military services and other defense agencies, it will remain impossible to trace specific accounting entries to the "transaction level" to determine what the money paid for and whether the goods or services were delivered. Rivalries among the military services and Defense Department offices that want to keep their own systems also stand in the way. So does the services' inability to figure out a way to value assets like ships, planes and weaponry.
For these reasons, says Gordon Adams, an American University professor of U.S. foreign policy and a specialist on defense issues, "we'll get to 2017, and if past is prologue, the Defense Department will just move the goal posts again."
For decades, fighting and winning the Cold War dominated Congress's permissive approach to annual Pentagon appropriations. Then Congress passed the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1992, requiring annual audits of all federal departments, did lawmakers begin to pressure the Pentagon to manage its purse like any other government department. The law mandated that the Pentagon by audit-ready by 1996.
But year after year, top defense officials would appear before the House and Senate armed services committees to be scolded for missing their deadlines, and then they would set new ones. The next year, and the next, the scene was re-enacted. Congress and the White House stood back as more than half a trillion taxpayer dollars a year went unaudited.
Just weeks into his new job as secretary of defense under President George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld stated the problem: "Our financial systems are decades old. According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion |
138 | false | 1,024 | �What do you know, people outside our company actually played our games,� joked Noah Falstein, Google�s chief gamesman, in response to the turnout for his �Lucasfilm Games Postmortem� panel session at GDC 2014 this morning.
It�s the first time GDC has ever hosted a postmortem discussion of a studio, rather than a game, and while Falstein worked to guide the talk through a chronological retelling of Lucasfilm Games� formation and early work, discussion amongst the panelists � former Lucasfilm Games members Ron Gilbert, Chip Morningstar, David Fox, Peter Langston, and Steve Arnold � quickly slid into the realm of reminiscing and fond remembrances.
Peter Langston, who wrote his first computer game in 1965, was essentially the founding member of Lucasfilm Games, and the first panelist to share his memories of working at the studio.
�My main goal was to use modern technology in the games business,� said Langston, when describing how he was first hired in 1982 to start a new enterprise on behalf of Lucas, outside of the film business.
�Console games at that time were pretty crude�they had to run on machines like the Atari 2600.�
Times were so tough, said Langston, that console developers would often think of available memory in bits rather than bytes, because it was wasteful to devote a byte of memory to something if 7 bits would do.
Langston claims Lucasfilm Games took in a million dollars in its first year, even though they didn�t make any games � they made tools. But they also started experimenting with game development � one prototype generated anti-aliased graphics in real-time, while another was able to generate music from places beyond the player�s point of view. .
David Fox, a founding member of Lucasfilm Games who worked on games like Labyrinth and Zak McKracken, shared stories of trying to pitch what would become Rescue on Fractalus.
�I wanted to do a Star Wars game, but I was told that we were not allowed to do Star Wars titles,� said Fox, who had joined the company specifically to work within the Star Wars universe.
Fox says when he first showed his space fighter pilot game prototype to George Lucas, the filmmaker pointed out that Fox had failed to include a fire button -- the developer had assumed players would simply defeat enemies by outmaneuvering them and leading them into crashing into the mountains.
Steve Arnold is now an experienced venture capitalist, but back in the early '80s he left Atari to lead Lucasfilm's "Games Group," which would go on to become Lucasfilm Games.
�We were creating a culture that was designed around innovation,� said Arnold, trying to explain why Lucasfilm Games was able to produce a remarkably diverse array of games -- BallBlazer, Rescue on Fractalus, Habitat and the like -- in a relatively short span of time.
�One of the important constraints we had was that we weren�t working with Star Wars,� said Arnold. �We didn't have to play in that universe -- we got to do our own creation, and we were literally the only group � outside of George � within the Lucasfilm company that got to make up new stories and call them Lucasfilm.�
�George had simple rules for us: �Stay small, be the best, and don�t lose any money.��
To hear Arnold tell it, those rules were liberating because they inspired the team to experiment with new ideas. The culture of Lucasfilm Games that Arnold remembers was much akin to an indie film studio � the team wanted to build things that people wanted to buy, but they also wanted to make something artful.
Chip Morningstar served as a designer and programmer at Lucasfilm Games, most notably as project lead for the early graphical online game Habitat.
�One of our principles was that we never did anything with the company�s own money � we had to get someone else to pay for it,� said Morningstar, who went on to explain how early Lucasfilm Games staffers would keep an �idea file� full of game pitches that would be plundered whenever representatives of other companies would visit in order to �bask in the glow of Star Wars.
When a representative from Quantum Link came through one day, Morningstar remembers pitching him on the idea of making something like Habitat. The guy went for it, and Morningstar suddenly found himself responsible for leading development on what would prove to be a groundbreaking online game.
�It was kind of radically egalitarian,� said Morningstar. �Almost all developers� titles were �designer/programmer� at Lucasfilm Games, and everyone was entitled to contribute.�
Ron Gilbert, a veteran developer known for his work on critically-acclaimed games like Maniac Mansion and The Cave, shared his own memories of the relatively flat operating hierarchy |
139 | false | 1,024 | Tanaka, and the second part is a series of the aforementioned interviews in segments called "Portrait of an Otaku".The animation first:Kubo and Tanaka were college friends; Kubo the typical Gary Stu kind of guy- tennis team, has a beautiful girlfriend, scholar, and everything seems right in his life, except he's rather bored. He meets up with Tanaka by chance in an elevator, and from that fateful reunion on is slowly drawn into the Otaku lifestyle of making fanfiction magazines, garage kits (modified figurines), and eventually full on anime and video games in an attempt to become the OTAKING- King of the Otakus!After rising to the top, Kubo and Tanaka get screwed, and then have to decide what it was that was really important to them- the grubbing, hand to mouth lifestyle of being an artist and original creator, or selling out and making all the money. There's only one true path for the Otaking, and that's to take it beyond the stars.----The pacing is broken up by the interviews, but the narrative is both engaging and humorous, along with providing a very loose version of how Gainax was started, and their goals of shooting for the stars, both in animation and in business practices. It's very interesting to see how Otaku no Video inspired later works, and drew from the doujinshi (amateur produced works) that put Gainax on the map. Real life science fiction conventions Daicon 3 and 4 (1981, 1983) are explored, which Gainax also produced shorts for. Other character stylings and symbols seen in later works also make appearances, like Kamina's glasses on a building, robots from Gunbuster, and more.-----Portrait of an Otaku:Through a series of live interviews, the movie also explores the lives and disparate interests of those who call themselves Otaku. Garage Kit Otaku, Military Otaku, Anime and Manga, Fanzines, Cosplay enthusiasts, and Fan Video Otaku, and even an art thief are all shown, and asked series of questions that either mock their interests and lifestyle, or that give some insight into what it is that drives them to their obsession.While it's believed that the people interviewed were either Gainax employees themselves (who created their studio to put a name behind their amateur original works, and thereby personifying some of these stereotypes), some of it is plainly staged. Hideaki Anno himself is shown as a Hentai-game addict, even. Typically, the faces and voices are censored, so it's still unknown who some of them are. It's interesting in that they're making fun of Otaku, and at the same time themselves, because that's how Gainax started out: geeks making their own originals to hawk at conventions.The portrait section also provides some hilarious statistics on what Otaku are interested in, and how different groups see different themes. A foreigner was also intereviewed, and it was stated that some 50% of those surveyed come to Japan solely out of anime and manga fandom, and the other half either "like" or "are not opposed" to it. A fanzine convention survey of 100 Otaku revealed that only 15% of them had cosplayed, and an overwhelming 60% had not. Of those 15 that responded yes, the "Otaku who did cosplay tended to be repeat offenders".Another survey included those who "talk to themselves", of which the overwhelming majority with 70% did.-----There's also a deep sociological background to Otaku culture; stemming from how a more collectivist culture like Japan operates vs an intensely individualistic one like the US. "The nail that sticks out gets hammered" they say, and to a point, it's true. In a collectivist culture, the ideal person fits in with their group, their family, their society, and don't express their individualism much when around others. In private, they can be a night and day different person.The Otaku have long been branded as "no life losers", and in a sense shunned from their culture as they're perceived "deviant", no different from the US, really. People with anime and manga obsession, people obsessed with doomsday preparation, zombie fanatics, etc.-all these groups share a common thread in that they're on the fringe of 'normative' society. In that, they find a bond together, and create their own subculture outside of the norms.For anyone who's interested in the Otaku culture, this half mockumentary is a great video for insight into what it was like back in the day, even if it's somewhat parodical. In all honesty, what they portray satirically here is not far from the truth, neither in 1991 nor in 2015. There are tons of people out there like the ones shown in this movie, that are obsessive enthusiasts of different fandoms, and though their interests may be broad, they're all bound by a label |
140 | true | 412 | The demonstration of the new robot's abilities. Credit: RT/YouTube.
On Tuesday, the Russian military unveiled a prototype of its new combat robot, designed to look and act like our favorite science fiction androids. Vladimir Putin himself traveled to the town of Klimovsk, where the robot was developed by the Russian Defense Institute "Tochmash," to watch the robo-soldier in action.
Putin looked on as the robot fired five gunshots, and drove an ATV cautiously around a snowy track with a random fire in the background. But despite the sophistication of the android, the Russian President seemed visibly bored by its antics. Perhaps he was imagining something more in the vein of the Terminator, and less like an anemic RoboCop, or a droid you might find at a Jawa yard sale. If I was told that I was going to watch a new warrior robot take a quad bike out for a spin, I probably would've been disappointed how epically unintimidating the end result was, too.
Indeed, the cherry on the cake is that this robot wasn't even driving the vehicle autonomously—it was operated remotely by a Tochmash engineer. Unless further details were left out of Russia Today's video coverage of the unveiling, it's basically a glorified remote control toy car. But with guns.
According to Sputnik News, future versions of the robot will be able to provide emergency first aid, assist in the construction of infrastructure, and travel over difficult terrains. The project is part of a larger Russian initiative to revitalize the military with "autonomous tanks, unmanned vehicles, and other weapons one won't be ashamed of in the 21st century," according to Russia Today.
That all sounds interesting, if it does come to fruition. But for now, Putin's "meh" expression pretty much sums up our feelings about the terrifying new robot soldier that appears to drive at a stultifying four miles an hour. |
141 | true | 428 | San Antonio commuters in 2012 wasted 12.4 hours stuck in gridlock traffic, according to a new report by Inrix, the international traffic information company.
That puts San Antonio at the 34th worst city in the nation for traffic congestion.
Inrix stresses that the 12.4 hours is not the time motorists spent commuting in general last year. That is simply the amount of extra time that we wasted because traffic was stopped on the highway.
But the real story from the Inrix report is Austin. The Capital City now has the fourth worst traffic congestion in the country. Austin congestion is worse that New York City, and trails only Los Angeles, Honolulu, and San Francisco when it come sto time spent wasted in highway congestions.
Inrix says traffic around the country is getting worse because the economy is getting better. Nowhere is that more noticeable than in the comparisons between traffic in the U.S. and in Europe.
While two thirds of U.S. cities experiences increaeed traffic congestion in the first three months of 2013, most cities in Europe, which is in a recession, have seen traffic declines in the same period.
In fact, the coutnries with the biggest declines in traffic have he hgihest rate sof unemployment as they continue to struggle throught he European debt crisis, Inrix ssid.
Austin commuters spent 38 hours, or nearly a full work week, stuck in traffic in 2012, and that figure is up significantly just this year.
Several locations along I-35 in Austin are among the worst stretches of highway in the country for commuters.
The single worst stretches of traffic in America are the Cross Bronx Expressway in New Yrok City, the San Diego Freeway in Los Angeles, and the Santa Monica Freeway, which is Interstate 10, also in L.A. Inrix says it is not uncommon for people who have to commute to work on those freeways routinely take 45 minutes or more to travel two miles during rush hours, and waste sixty hours a week or more stuck in traffic. |
142 | true | 683 | By Bernard Hickey
Prime Minister John Key has given the strongest signal yet that he expects the Reserve Bank to announce new measures to limit lending to rental property investors as the Government grapples with double-digit housing inflation and the Reserve Bank faces having to cut interest rates again.
Key told reporters before Question Time in Parliament he expected the Reserve Bank to take action sooner rather than later as he responded to questions about figures from Barfoot and Thompson and QV showing rental property investors jumping in and house prices accelerating ahead of an expected third round of Loan to Value Ratio (LVR) controls.
He was asked about what the Reserve Bank was considering, given it announced earlier on Tuesday that Deputy Governor Grant Spencer would deliver a speech on Thursday evening that covered the areas of macro-prudential policy and the housing market.
Spencer and Governor Graeme Wheeler signaled on June 9 they were considering the potential for a third round of LVR controls before the end of the year "or before that." See our article on that here.
Speculation has intensified in recent weeks that the Reserve Bank could either lower the current 70% LVR threshold for rental property investors in Auckland, and/or extend it to the rest of the country.
Key said he did not know what Spencer would say in the speech, but that the Government had been having regular discussions with the Reserve Bank about the issue.
'They should get on with it'
Asked about Spencer's planned speech and whether the Reserve Bank needed to introduce a third round of controls on investors, he said: "Yeah, I think there is a responsibility for the Reserve Bank to have a look at the question around investors. We've had those discussions with the Reserve Bank."
"They can control that part of the market and I don't know exactly what he'll say on Thursday, but certainly the government's perspective I think has been that having a look at that might make some sense," he said.
Asked if the Reserve Bank could extend the Auckland investor restrictions across the country and/or further lower the threshold in Auckland, Key said: "My own view is that he should make some movements in that area, yes."
Asked if he was optimistic about the Reserve Bank further tightening those restrictions, he said: "Not on Thursday, but over time, potentially."
Key said he had had broad ranging discussions with the Reserve Bank.
"It's a double edged sword, of course. You need investors in the market to make sure there is rental property, but my sense is that potentially one of the risks is that you have got people buying properties at the moment, borrowing more money, but fearful that the Reserve Bank is going to move," he said.
"So if they are going to make changes, probably better they should get on with it."
Key was then asked if it was an issue all over the country or just in Auckland.
"It depends a little bit. It's in those high growth areas. Actually if you look at the QV data, Auckland did go up, obviously, rapidly, but places like Tauranga and Hamilton were faster."
Asked if he preferred the Reserve Bank should focus on Auckland or all of the country, he said: "They should look at those high growth areas." |
143 | false | 1,024 | While seated in the visitors dugout and holding court with the media, the Orioles uniform-adorned manager Buck Showalter is asked if he liked wearing those duds.
"No," the Orioles manager replies wryly. "Have you seen me in a uniform?"
Despite his self-deprecating humor, the 59-year-old skipper presents a more graceful look than other older or more rotund managers. Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda still sported a uniform at 68, and so did 69-year-old Phillies manager Charlie Manuel.
"You have Jack McKeon at age 80 dressed up like a jockey," says John Thorn, Major League Baseball's official historian.
Decked out in the same MLB uniforms as their players, these figures make for a peculiar -- and unique -- sight.
In the other major sports, the coaches wear suits or sport coats (basketball and hockey) or a team logoed top and pants (football).
"We're glad we're different," Orioles reliever Tommy Hunter says. "It's a niche that baseball has."
That niche actually has a historical precedent.
During the origins of the game, the business manager -- who made travel arrangements, handled the books and ensured players received appropriate compensation -- was called the "manager." He wore street clothes.
The "captain," who typically was a uniformed player, determined the batting order, made player substitutions and pitching changes, etc. He was basically what would be later known as a player/manager.
Around 1900, according to Thorn, the term "manager" stopped referring to the business manager and began referring to the person making strategic moves, player substitutions, etc.
The original "manager" would evolve into the modern-day general manager, and the player/manager would eventually fall out of vogue. (Only six -- Hank Bauer, El Tappe, Frank Robinson, Joe Torre, Don Kessinger and Pete Rose -- have occupied the latter role since 1960.)
By the 1940s managers Connie Mack of the Philadelphia A's and Burt Shotton of the Brooklyn Dodgers wore street clothes long after their playing days had expired, but they were the exceptions.
Presently, MLB's only official rule regarding the matter is 1.11 (a) (1) and states: "All players on a team shall wear uniforms identical in color, trim and style, and all players' uniforms shall include minimal six-inch numbers on the back."
Note that managers are never specifically referenced.
When asked about the discrepancy, MLB released this statement: "The tradition of managers and coaches wearing uniforms has long been an accepted practice and well understood, even without formal rules being in place."
MLB managers seem agreeable toward the understood rule regarding uniforms.
"It's better than wearing a suit," White Sox manager Robin Ventura says.
But it's also a bit perplexing, considering the clubs' trainers wear short-sleeve polo shirts and khaki pants, and their job of working on players' injured joints seems as physically taxing -- if not more so -- as any manager's.
"It's a lot of work to put on the whole uniform," says Orioles All-Star closer Zach Britton, "especially for the manager when there's no need for you to go sliding or diving."
***
When eccentric Braves owner Ted Turner made the brazen move to manage his team for one game on May 11, 1977, he crammed a chunk of chaw in his cheek and sported jersey No. 27.
"He had never been a player, never been a coach, never worn a uniform, but for the day that he was manager, he was outfitted with a uniform," Thorn says. "That tells you something about the strength of the tradition."
Some managers dress like their players -- down to the very last detail. Showalter wears stirrups. Bobby Cox wore a cup and spikes for every game.
"You never see a manager wearing actual cleats … It was hilarious," says Adam LaRoche who played for Cox while with the Braves from 2004-2006. "It's just his style. He went from playing right into coaching and managing and never took his cleats off."
Cox, who has the most ejections in managerial history with 158, explained part of the rationale behind his shoes to Sports Illustrated: "Could you imagine going out there in shiny dress shoes?" he said. "How would you kick dirt on the umpire?"
There are other reasons why it does make sense -- as silly as it might look -- for managers to wear uniforms.
One is the weather. Baseball is the only major sport played outside in the dog days of summer when the heat can be oppressive.
"George Costanza had it right," Showalter joked, in reference to the Seinfeld episode in which |
144 | false | 1,024 | Still loading...
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z AA 1 INNER SPHERE CLAN 2 ENERGY New Hp Values Old Hp Values Difference ENERGY New HP Values Old HP Values Difference 3 Small Lasers 7.5 10 -2.5 C-Small Lasers 5 10 -5 4 Medium Lasers 7.5 10 -2.5 C-Medium Lasers 5 10 -5 5 Large Lasers 10 10 0 C-ER Large Laser 6 10 -4 6 PPCs 12.5 10 2.5 C-Large Pulse Laser 7.5 10 -2.5 7 C-ER PPC 7.5 10 -2.5 8 9 BALLISTIC New Hp Values Old Hp Values Difference BALLISTIC New Hp Values Old Hp Values Difference 10 Machine Gun 7.5 10 -2.5 C-Machine Gun 3.5 5 -1.5 11 AC/2 10 10 0 C-UAC 2 & C-LBX 2 7.5 10 -2.5 12 AC/5 & UAC/5 10 10 0 C-UAC 5 & C-LBX-5 7.5 10 -2.5 13 AC/10 & LBX-10 15 10 5 C-UAC 10 & C-LBX-10 10 10 0 14 Gauss Rifle 10 10 0 C-Gauss Rifle 5 5 0 15 AC/20 25 18 7 C-UAC 20 & C-LBX-20 16.5 10 6.5 16 17 MISSILE New Hp Values Old Hp Values Difference MISSILE New Hp Values Old Hp Values Difference 18 SRM 2 & Streak 7.5 10 -2.5 C-SRM 2 & Streak 3.5 10 -6.5 19 SRM 4 7.5 10 -2.5 C-SRM 4 & Streak 3.5 10 -6.5 20 SRM 6 10 10 0 C-SRM 6 & Streak 7.5 10 -2.5 21 LRM 5 7.5 10 -2.5 C-LRM 5 3.5 10 -6.5 22 LRM 10 10 10 0 C-LRM 10 7.5 10 -2.5 23 LRM 15 12.5 10 2.5 C-LRM 15 10 10 0 24 LRM 20 15 10 5 C-LRM 20 12.5 10 2.5 25 26 OTHER New Hp Values Old Hp Values Difference OTHER New Hp Values Old Hp Values Difference 27 AMS 7.5 10 -2.5 C-AMS 7.5 10 -2.5 28 TAG 7.5 10 -2.5 C-TAG 7.5 10 -2.5 29 BAP 7.5 10 -2.5 C-BAP 5 10 -5 30 ECM 3 3 0 C-ECM 3 3 0 31 Command Console 7.5 10 -2.5 TC 1 5 10 -5 32 Ammo 10 10 0 TC 2 5 10 -5 33 Half Ton Ammo 5 10 -5 TC 3 7.5 10 -2.5 34 Single Heat Sink 10 10 0 TC 4 7.5 10 -2.5 35 Double Heat Sink 7.5 10 -2.5 TC 5 10 10 0 36 Cyclops Sensor 7.5 10 -2.5 TC 6 10 10 0 37 Jump Jets 7.5 10 -2.5 TC 7 12.5 10 2.5 38 MASC 1 & 2 7.5 10 -2.5 C-Ammo 10 10 0 39 MASC 3 10 10 0 C-Half Ton Ammo 5 10 -5 40 MASC 4 12.5 10 2.5 C-Double Heat Sink 5 6.6 -1.6 41 MASC 5 15 10 5 C-Jump Jets 7.5 10 -2.5 42 C-MASC 1 5 10 -5 43 C-MASC 2 & 3 7.5 10 -2.5 44 C-MASC 4 10 10 0 45 INTERNALS New Hp Values Old Hp Values Difference INTERNALS New Hp Values Old Hp Values Difference 46 Life Support 4 10 -6 Life Support 4 10 -6 47 Sensors 4 10 -6 Sensors 4 10 -6 48 Cockpit 4 10 -6 Cockpit 4 10 -6 49 Gyro 10 10 0 Gyro 10 10 0 50 Hip 7.5 10 -2.5 Hip 7.5 10 -2.5 51 Upper Leg Actuator 7.5 10 -2.5 Upper Leg Actuator 7.5 10 -2.5 52 Lower Leg actuator 7.5 10 -2.5 Lower Leg actuator 7.5 10 -2.5 53 Foot Actuator 7.5 10 -2.5 Foot Actuator 7.5 |
145 | true | 59 | High Engagement Mobile Health Research
The first five ResearchKit apps lost 90% of their users in the first 90 days. By taking inspiration from popular consumer apps, we show it's possible to improve retention by 5x, exceeding even Twitter and Instagram, with high retention across age groups. |
146 | false | 1,024 | 1 Clean Video A Patient's Journey This video takes you through a patient's journey in the healthcare system on their way to surgery. Including pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative care; highlighting all the people they meet on their journey. Free View in iTunes
2 Clean 263. Endometrial Cancer Follow up In this episode, with the help of Dr. Jimenez, a Gynecologic Oncologist from the Juravinski Cancer Centre, 3rd year McMaster medical student Emma Herrington discusses an overview of, and approach to, endometrial cancer. After listening to this... Free View in iTunes
3 Clean 262. Endometrial Cancer Introduction In this episode, with the help of Dr. Jimenez, a Gynecologic Oncologist from the Juravinski Cancer Centre, 3rd year McMaster medical student Emma Herrington discusses an overview of, and approach to, endometrial cancer. After listening to this... Free View in iTunes
4 Clean 261. Scoliosis In this podcast University of Alberta 3rd year medical student, Katie Girgulis, will discuss the topic of Scoliosis in the pediatric population. After listening to this podcast you should be able to: Understand how to recognize and diagnose scoliosis.. Free View in iTunes
5 Clean 260. Spina Bifida In this episode medical student Alick Wang will discuss Spina Bifida. After listening to this podcast you should be able to: Define Spina Bifida and understand it's importance Discuss the relevant pathophysiology; Explain how it's diagnosed, and... Free View in iTunes
6 Clean Video The Deathly Hernia A sequel to "The Prisoner of the Gallbladder", something even has returned to the abdomen! This time, it is Harry the Hernia stirring up trouble for Carmine the Small Intestine. Luckily, her older brother, Chris Pine the Large Intestine is here to... Free View in iTunes
7 Clean 259. Complications of Bariatric Surgery In this episode of Surgery 101 final year McMaster medical student, Julie La, will discuss the complications associated with Bariatric Surgery. By the end of this podcast you should be able to: List some common complications of the various bariatric... Free View in iTunes
8 Clean 258. Flow of a Bariatric Patient In this episode of Surgery 101 final year McMaster medical student, Julie La, will discuss the Flow of a Bariatric Patient. By the end of this episode you should be able to: Understand the process required to get a patient to the point of having... Free View in iTunes
9 Clean Surgical Management of Obesity Notes PDF Notes for Surgery 101 episode on Surgical Management of Obesity. Free View in iTunes
10 Clean 257. Surgical Management of Obesity In this episode of Surgery 101 final year McMaster medical student, Julie La, will discuss surgical management of obesity. By the end of this episode, you should be able to: Describe various types of bariatric surgery including adjustable gastric... Free View in iTunes
11 Clean 256. Medical Management of Obesity In this episode of Surgery 101 final year McMaster medical student, Julie La, will discuss medical management of obesity. By the end of this episode, you should be able to: Describe medical management options for weight loss. Free View in iTunes
12 Clean 255. Introduction to Obesity In this episode of Surgery 101 final year McMaster medical student, Julie La, will discuss obesity. By the end of this podcast you should be able to: Define what is obesity. Describe the most recent epidemiology of obesity globally and in Canada.... Free View in iTunes
13 Clean 254. Stomas In this podcast Dr. Ryan Snelgrove, General at the University of Alberta discusses Stomas. After listening to this podcast you should be able to: Explain the difference between a loop and an end enterostomy recognize an ileostomy and a colostomy Free View in iTunes
14 Clean 253. Complications of Segmental Colectomy In this podcast Dr. Ryan Snelgrove, a General Surgeon at the University of Alberta, discussed complication of Segmental Colectomy. After listening to this podcast you should be able to: Discuss possible complications of a segmental colectomy Free View in iTunes
15 Clean 252. Digital Rectal Exam/Perianal Abscess In this podcast Dr. Ryan Snelgrove, a General Surgeon at the University of Alberta, discusses the Digital Rectal Exam and Perianal Abscesses. After listening to this podcast you should be able to: Explain why this topic is important Discuss proper... Free View in iTunes
16 Clean 251. Unexplained Weightloss In this podcast Dr. Leah Gramlich, a gastroenterologist from the University of Alberta, will discuss weight loss. Weight loss is a common problem seen by generalists. Patients who are overweight or obese may intentionally lose weight to improve their... Free View in |
147 | false | 1,024 | Bug Description
Pulseaudio apparently crashes or restarts but I couldn't identify what triggers the problem.
The indicator icon suddenly shows the speaker with two dashes, no sound at all, and then after a few seconds the soundcard is detected either as "dummy audio device" or as "Analog output", in which case sound works again for a few minutes until it happens again.
Tried removing ~/.pulse and restarting the session. It didn't helped.
This is the only sign I found in /var/log/syslog:
Mar 13 15:55:42 e6510 pulseaudio[4592]: ( 0.009| 0.009) [pulseaudio] pid.c: Stale PID file, overwriting.
Mar 13 15:55:43 e6510 pulseaudio[4597]: ( 0.060| 0.060) [pulseaudio] pid.c: Daemon already running.
Mar 13 15:58:48 e6510 pulseaudio[5030]: ( 0.000| 0.000) [pulseaudio] main.c: User-configured server at {7d28ecb219f790 d63712405500000 00b}unix: /home/dschulz/ .pulse/ 7d28ecb219f790d 637124055000000 0b-runtime/ native, which appears to be local. Probing deeper.
Mar 13 15:58:48 e6510 pulseaudio[5031]: ( 0.000| 0.000) [pulseaudio] main.c: User-configured server at {7d28ecb219f790 d63712405500000 00b}unix: /home/dschulz/ .pulse/ 7d28ecb219f790d 637124055000000 0b-runtime/ native, which appears to be local. Probing deeper.
Mar 13 15:58:51 e6510 pulseaudio[5041]: ( 2.258| 2.258) [pulseaudio] pid.c: Daemon already running.
Mar 13 15:59:03 e6510 pulseaudio[5046]: ( 0.000| 0.000) [pulseaudio] main.c: User-configured server at {7d28ecb219f790 d63712405500000 00b}unix: /home/dschulz/ .pulse/ 7d28ecb219f790d 637124055000000 0b-runtime/ native, which appears to be local. Probing deeper.
Mar 13 15:59:03 e6510 pulseaudio[5049]: ( 0.013| 0.013) [pulseaudio] pid.c: Stale PID file, overwriting.
Mar 13 16:02:33 e6510 pulseaudio[5103]: ( 0.000| 0.000) [pulseaudio] main.c: User-configured server at {7d28ecb219f790 d63712405500000 00b}unix: /home/dschulz/ .pulse/ 7d28ecb219f790d 637124055000000 0b-runtime/ native, which appears to be local. Probing deeper.
Mar 13 16:02:33 e6510 pulseaudio[5104]: ( 0.000| 0.000) [pulseaudio] main.c: User-configured server at {7d28ecb219f790 d63712405500000 00b}unix: /home/dschulz/ .pulse/ 7d28ecb219f790d 637124055000000 0b-runtime/ native, which appears to be local. Probing deeper.
Mar 13 16:02:33 e6510 pulseaudio[5107]: ( 0.009| 0.009) [pulseaudio] pid.c: Stale PID file, overwriting.
Mar 13 16:02:34 e6510 pulseaudio[5112]: ( 0.056| 0.056) [pulseaudio] pid.c: Daemon already running.
Mar 13 16:19:59 e6510 pulseaudio[5819]: ( 0.000| 0.000) [pulseaudio] main.c: User-configured server at {7d28ecb219f790 d63712405500000 00b}unix: /home/dschulz/ .pulse/ 7d28ecb219f790d 637124055000000 0b-runtime/ native, which appears to be local. Probing deeper.
Mar |
148 | false | 1,024 | Plus/Minus Functions and Quadra Values by Victor Gulenko
.
+/- signs have seen various interpretations and changes over time. Please refer to this article for further information: http://www.the16types.info/vbulletin...unctions-Eglit Discussion thread - http://www.the16types.info/vbulletin...042#post584042 Original article - http://socioniko.net/ru/articles/quadra-soc-psy.html Notes: Remember. These are +/- descriptions. They're not descriptions of the full functions, which are much, much more complex. They only describe how one Reinin dichotomy (process/result) alters the function -- one out of a possible fifteen. That's right! Just one stinking dichotomy. So don't complain that they're simplistic descriptions of your personality, because they're not meant to convey very much about you anyway.ALPHA-Fe= minimization or avoidance of negative emotions, prevention of quarrels, scandals, and other situations causing emotional instability, which is valued as more important than creation of positive emotional effect.-Ti= global structural logic. Systematic analysis is the instrument that they use in understanding the world. They are primarily interested in the universal laws that govern its workings. To that end, all traditions, conventions and restrictions are discarded. Everything is subjected to analysis, redefinition, analogies. Their main goal that they are pursuing is the creation of a comprehensive, breathtaking, singular picture of the world. The idea of unity, reasonableness and the fairness in all things permeates their vision completely.+Si= positive feelings of comfort. They cannot effectively realize their potential if their lifestyle is full of hardships. Style of activity is characterized by relaxation, freedom, by conveniences. Relations with the external environment, where their activities unfold, must be friendly and pleasant. Their groups are always comfortable, relaxed as if at home, and never rough or eccentric.+Ne= promising ideas. In this quadra, which can be attributed the element of air, there are frequent talks about the future, the unexplored and unknown possibilities. They may seem to be incorrigible dreamers. And this is so: they look out further than anyone, beyond the horizon, they put forward "crazy" theories and discuss them with pleasure. Some of these theories, however, are destined to have long lives, so long that they will outlast their creators.BETA+Fe= maximization of positive emotions. Even small doses are enjoyed. Against the backdrop of the dramatic, turbulent emotions that always accompany this quadra, every small occurrence deserving a positive response is seen as an occasion for joy and uplifts their spirits.+Ti= organizational logic. They have a developed sense of duty, citizenship, loyalty to the elected project. It is therefore the most disciplined and organized quadra that knows how to quickly rally its forces in the event of imminent danger or emergency situations.-Se= minimization of weaknesses, i.e. steadfastness in the struggle against deprivation and resistance against the enemy. In this quadra, the force of will is an indispensable condition for effective operation. Persistence, determination, endurance and firmness are always the supreme authority.-Ni= desire to bypass danger. They aim t avoid previously committed mistakes. In their groups, experience, skill, know-how, sophistication are highly valued. They feel confident in extreme situations.GAMMA-Fi= minimization of negative relationships. This element is critical of evil. They desire to get away from bad people and poor relationships, and to protect themselves from enemies and adversaries. They want to minimize negative experiences, because as we know from psychoanalysis, all extruded problems are liable to generate an emotional reaction one way or another, with a physical cost for the purification of the subconscious.-Te= business logic of risk and entrepreneurship. For them it is characteristic to reject that which is useless, insignificant, mundane. This aspect is valued as more important than accumulation and rational consumption. Gammas successfully operate in environments of economic scarcity, where in order to survive it is necessary to use something that may appear useless at first glace, but which is present in abundance.+Se= durability and resistance. This quadra is well capable of defending itself and its position. For them power is not easy to acquire, as to do this they must resist the volitional Beta quadra. However, once it is seized, they can hold on to it despite all attempts at restoration. Protectiveness, ability to defend themselves against all force, ability to keep that which was acquired - these are the principles that they respect. This quadra can be called the quadra of criticism and reforms. In contrast to the 'fire' Beta quadra, which is oriented primarily politically, this quadra is oriented more socially.+Ni= constraining their hot temper, these sociotypes prefer to advance gradually into the future, though they may sharply reject obsolete ideas, criticizing past mistakes. Adv |
149 | false | 1,024 | Chris Froome is certain he is on track to contend for a fourth Tour de France victory next month despite his not managing to win the Critérium du Dauphiné, traditionally his warm-up race for La Grande Boucle. The Team Sky leader won the eight-day race in France each time before his Tour victories in 2013, 2015 and 2016 but this year could finish only fourth to the Dane Jakob Fuglsang.
"I'm not the superstitious type, to think that winning the Dauphiné is a precursor to winning the Tour," Froome says. "It's certainly good for the morale and the confidence to win your last race before the Tour but I don't think it's a prerequisite."
Chris Froome's Tour de France win puts him among greats | William Fotheringham Read more
The 32-year-old Briton added that. if he was not at his peak in June, that might be explained by the need to keep his powder dry for later in the season. "I have been very light on race days this year – going into the Dauphiné I was on 19 race days – but that has been a conscious decision to keep me fresher for what's to come.
"Potentially with the Tour and the Vuelta a España afterwards it could be a busy summer of racing. It's worked in the past going into this part of the season fresher. I feel the Dauphiné was just what I needed in terms of intensity and it was a very intense Dauphiné – especially the back end of it. When we hit the mountains it was a full-on race and it will have moved me on, condition-wise, a lot."
Unlike in other years Froome has yet to score his first win of the season but that barely seems to worry him. However, he professes fascination with a radical route for this year's race that includes nine potential sprint stages and only two genuine mountain-top finishes, at Peyragudes in the Pyrenees and the Col d'Izoard in the Alps, with a third, smaller one at Plateau des Belles Filles in eastern France.
"I genuinely think this year's Tour route presents the biggest challenge to me that I've faced in my career to date. It's an open course and the level of my rivals is higher than it has ever been. It will be a much closer race in July, more hard fought than we've seen in the last few years. I think what strikes me most is the lack of time-trial kilometres."
There are only two time trials in the Tour this year: 13 kilometres on the opening stage, this Saturday in Düsseldorf, and 22 kilometres in Marseille on the final Saturday three weeks later. That is a massive contrast with the 1990s and the noughties when there might be two stages against the watch of up to 50 or 60 kilometres, a prologue time trial and possibly a team time trial.
Chris Froome wins third Tour de France in Paris – as it happened Read more
It follows a recent trend, as the 2015 Tour won by Froome had an even smaller amount of individual time-trialling. This year, however, the race is short of obvious set-piece stages, as Froome notes. "It's not as if it's been made up for with mountain-top finishes, it's also very light on those. It's a very open race. Of course there are some mountain-top finishes – the Izoard stage, for example, that's going to be a straightforward general classification race up to almost 2,500m. You've got a very open course, almost begging for riders to be more aggressive, to take opportunities to create situations on the road that will lead to exciting racing.
"It will be interesting to see if that happens or if it's a more controlled race, because the guys are watching and waiting because there are so few typical general classification days, the [favourites] will get their teams to ride and wait for those rather than going for it. It will be interesting to see who is going there with what kind of tactics."
That is far from the only source of speculation. Froome will race this year's Tour against the backdrop of an eight-month long investigation by UK Anti-Doping into allegations of possible wrongdoing at Team Sky in the wake of the Jiffy bag saga. That culminated in the revelation that the team had acquired 55 doses of the corticosteroid triamcinolone between 2010 and 2013, with no paper trail to explain what it was used for. Triamcinolone is banned, unless used under certain conditions with a therapeutic use exemption, and is known to enhance performance.
There have also been reports of dissent within Team Sky over the affair, with the role of the Sky principal, Sir |
150 | false | 1,024 | ESPN college basketball analyst Andy Katz, right, broadcasts courtside. (Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press)
For the second year in a row, Disney is poised to have another "Star Wars" megahit on its hands with the company on track to sell $130 million in U.S. pre-release tickets for next week's "Rogue One."
But no matter how well it performs at the box office, the film's success may be overshadowed by Disney investors' rising alarm about another part of the Magic Kingdom: ESPN, which is shedding viewers in record numbers.
ESPN was thrust into the spotlight in November when the ratings company Nielsen predicted the sports juggernaut would lose 621,000 cable subscribers that month. Nielsen estimated the sports network would lose another 555,000 subscribers in December.
The staggering losses have led to calls by analysts for Disney to spin off or sell the beleaguered network, which has lost 9 million subscribers in three years, according to company filings.
The challenges ahead are not unique to ESPN. The pay-TV industry as a whole has seen many consumers trim back their cable subscriptions in favor of online video services — or, fed up with the rising cost of TV, forgo cable altogether.
With YouTube TV on the horizon and other streaming services becoming more affordable, it may be time to cancel your cable service. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)
"There's an underlying theme of the bundle being the problem," said Gene Kimmelman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge. "People don't want to pay for what they don't want to get."
But ESPN remains one of the world's most profitable sports networks, and its struggles raise troubling questions about the entire TV ecosystem. Long considered the linchpin of the traditional bundle, live sports is often what compels viewers to stay with their cable provider rather than cut the cord. But as more consumers defect in the face of growing cable bills, what is happening at ESPN could end up affecting channels up and down the lineup. And for Disney, one of the world's most powerful media companies, the problems at ESPN risk dampening the success of its other brands, such as Star Wars, Marvel Studios and Pixar.
"Most of the Disney empire is healthy, but its stock price has been suffering to the downside because we have weak subscriber growth at ESPN," said Laura Martin, a media analyst at Needham and Co. "So that weak subscriber growth is a shadow over the whole empire."
ESPN and its siblings, such as ABC, account for the biggest chunk of Disney's business by far, pulling in $24 billion in revenue this fiscal year. The company's next biggest segment, theme parks, made $17 billion.
It wasn't that long ago that observers were calling ESPN "the most valuable media property in the United States," estimating its value at 20 times that of the New York Times Co. and five times the size of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
Since hitting a high of nearly $122 in the summer of 2015, the stock has dropped about 14 percent; that includes a 5 percent rally this week.
Although ESPN disputed Nielsen's methodology, the ratings firm ultimately stood by its numbers.
[John Skipper is steering ESPN through turbulent times]
A spokesman for ESPN referred questions to the network's parent company. Disney did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Last month, in an interview with CNBC, Disney chief executive Bob Iger said he remains confident in ESPN. "We think the long-term revenues are going to be just fine," he said.
ESPN is hardly the only programming company facing long-term pressure as consumers increasingly opt for Internet-based video streaming that undercuts the legacy cable bundle. TV providers such as Dish Network and AT&T have raced to offer packages of traditional channels as Internet-based apps; the outlook for those efforts is still uncertain, but some analysts say ESPN faces a steeper challenge than most because of the rapidly rising cost to the network of acquiring sports broadcasting rights.
"Let's face it - sports has changed," said Jim Hill, a longtime Disney analyst. "It's gotten so expensive ... it's a scary time all around the barn right now for sports, and that's another thing that Disney's eyeballing."
The rights to broadcast live sports cost cable companies a collective $16 billion last year, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers — up 50 percent from 2011. That figure is expected to grow another 30 percent by 2020.
Between the rising content costs and the defection of consumers, some analysts have proposed that Disney spin off its ESPN unit. This week, Steve Cahall, a media analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said the move would allow investors to gain a better understanding of Disney's fundamental profitability. He added it could earn Disney some cash to invest in its remaining businesses, or make Disney |
151 | true | 130 | The Division of Water Resources, with central offices in Raleigh and seven regional offices located across the state, ensures safe drinking water in accordance with federal requirements, issues pollution control permits, monitors permit compliance, evaluates environmental water quantity and quality, and carries out enforcement actions for violations of environmental regulations. The division's administrative staff and five sections (Public Water Supply, Water Planning, Water Quality Permitting, Water Quality Regional Operations and Water Sciences) administer the laws, policies and rules established by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, the state's Environmental Management Commission and the N.C. General Assembly, the state legislative body.
Learn More About The Division |
152 | true | 850 | SAN DIEGO — Didi Gregorius and the Arizona Diamondbacks have plenty of experience by now in winning extra-inning games.
Gregorius tripled home the tiebreaking run in the 12th inning to lift the Diamondbacks over the San Diego Padres 2-1 on Tuesday night.
Arizona's 78 extra innings played this season are the most since 1920 — surpassing the 76 played by the Minnesota Twins in 1969 — but are four short of the all-time record of 82, set by the Washington Senators in 1918. The Diamondbacks are 17-7 in extra-inning games.
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"A lot of the games we played extra innings were because of blown saves," reliever Brad Ziegler said. "But it also says a lot about our offense because there were a lot of games that we came from behind to get to extra innings, too. We've won a whole lot of those games. It's hard on the pitching staff and it's fatiguing for everybody, but we fought through and played those games well."
Paul Goldschmidt hit his NL-best 36th homer for the Diamondbacks, extending his hitting streak to 14 games and increasing his league-leading RBI total to 124.
It appeared his solo shot in the sixth might hold up, but the Diamondbacks were destined for another extra-inning game. Arizona took a four-hitter into the eighth before San Diego tied it on a passed ball.
"We have been resilient in these games all year," Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said. "You have to go through it and we hung in there. It feels good to get this win."
Gregorius tripled down the right-field line against Luke Gregerson (6-8) to score fellow rookie Chris Owings, who doubled with one out.
"Luke just hung a breaking ball to Owings and the ball was up to Gregorius that he put enough bat on the ball and hit it hard," San Diego manager Bud Black said.
Josh Collmenter (5-4) pitched a perfect inning and Ziegler got three outs for his 12th save.
Diamondbacks reliever David Hernandez gave up consecutive singles to pinch-hitter Mark Kotsay and Chris Denorfia to open the eighth inning. The right-hander then struck out Jesus Guzman, retired Jedd Gyorko on a grounder and intentionally walked Chase Headley to load the bases.
With rookie Tommy Medica batting, catcher Miguel Montero allowed a passed ball on Hernandez's off-speed pitch that let pinch-runner Reymond Fuentes score the tying run.
Arizona starter Wade Miley allowed just four singles, including two infield hits, in six innings. Miley, making his career-high 32nd start, struck out seven, walked one and let just one runner reach third base.
Miley lost all four of his previous starts against San Diego this season.
Tyson Ross kept San Diego in the game with eight strong innings, allowing one run and three hits. Ross struck out six, walked two, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch.
Goldschmidt's homer to right-center barely cleared the top of the wall.
"I wanted it off the plate, but it caught too much," Ross said. "He's one of the best hitters in the National League and he put a good swing on it."
NOTES: During his hitting streak, Goldschmidt has six doubles, five homers and 17 RBIs. … Padres SS Ronny Cedeno wasn't in the lineup after being hit in the head by a pitch from reliever Heath Bell on Monday night. "He's not doing great," San Diego manager Bud Black said. "The doctors said (Monday) night he was concussed to a certain point." … Padres OF Will Venable (abdominal strain) missed his second straight game. … Diamondbacks RHP Randall Delgado (5-6, 3.96 ERA) faces Padres RHP Ian Kennedy (6-10, 5.06) on Wednesday night. |
153 | true | 929 | The following UFO photos are from the archives of Lt. Col. Wendelle C. Stevens, and the accompanying details have been reproduced as close to the original sighting report as possible.
19 April 1978, Colfax, Wisconsin
On Wednesday 19 April 1978, Mr. S. (name witheld (sic) by specific request) and his girlfriend were driving in the vicinity of Tainter Lake, when they decided to stop and attempt some fishing since most of the ice was already thawed.
They found a spot along the shore where they could do some casting. Mr. S. had also brought along an FM portable radio. They had been at this spot for about a half an hour when the radio began picking up interference. It was then that Mr. S. looked up into the sky, thinking an airplane must be going over-head.
At that point the object "appeared" out of the southwest, moving northeast. He and his girlfriend became very excited and frightened. Remembering that they had a camera with them, (an Instamatic) Mr. S. went and got it to take some pictures. He almost dropped it several times trying to get it out of the case. He finally got it out and started to point it at the object when the object suddenly veered off course in their direction and came towards them. They became even more frightened but Mr. S. was determined to get a photograph of the thing!
At that point, the object began to circle them at a high altitude as Mr. S. began taking pictures. The object flew around the area only once and then disappeared into the sunlight. The whole incident lasted about 3 or 4 minutes.
Mr. S. was hesitant about showing anyone the photos because he was afraid of people thinking the wrong thing. He finally sent a UFO lecturer a copy after attending one of his slide lectures on the UFO subject.
Mr. S. was unable to determine the size of the object for lack of reference, or how fast it was moving. He did say, however, that it gave off a "crackling sound" as it passed around them.
From personal letter:
Photo #1: Shows the object moments after it veered off its original course. Mr. S. said it slowed down considerably after he took the first picture. He said he had "the feeling it knew it was being photographed".
Photo #2: The object is moving slower now as it begins to make its pass. At this point Mr. S. and girlfriend grew apprehensive. Both experienced extreme fear.
Photo #3: The object tilts as it begins a "roller coaster" type descent. Mr. S. and friend become increasingly frightened. He has the feeling it is going to "get them".
Photo #4: The object has leveled off and is just above the treetop height. It begins moving toward Mr. S. at a slow gliding pace. No sound comes from the object but Mr. S. remembers he left his transistor radio on and it is "buzzing" and "crackling like crazy".
Photo #5: Mr. S. turns his camera sideways to get this shot of the object as it passes almost directly overhead. At this point Mr. S. experienced a sensation of "heat" as well as "prickling sensation" around and "in" his head and eyes, however Mr. S. stated that he experienced no permenant or temporary after-effects except a bad case of the "jitters". This shot was taken while Mr. S. was in a crouched position and remembers falling over on his back afterwards. He said he noticed an "amber or orange-red light" underneath in addition to several small lights which would blink on and off erratically for different lengths of time. (See Photograph) He also noticed 4 "pods" or "landing gear". The bottom appeared to be a "dull" black. The shock of falling backwards prevented him from taking any more pictures of the object as it continued overhead.
The object has now climbed back up into the sky as Mr. S. shoots this picture.
Photo #7: Shows the object heading into the sun. At this point it began to pick up speed and soon was lost in the sunlight. Mr. S. took 9 pictures in all, only these 7 turned out.
View the: Colfax UFO Case Drawing.
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154 | false | 1,024 | Despite the often chaotic world of professional wrestling, Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling has existed as an operating promotion since 2002, while Dixie Carter began serving as President of the company in 2003.
Born in Dallas, Texas in 1964, Carter studied Business Administration at the University of Mississippi, and owned a business focusing primarily on sport and music representation in Nashville before she joined the wrestling business, initially in TNA's marketing and publicity department, before financial turmoil within the organisation saw her help broker a deal which saw her parents, under the Panda Energy banner, buy the company.
Over the past decade TNA has continued to survive and has featured many of the greatest names in the history of wrestling, while also giving worldwide publicity to talents who were previously unknown. Speaking to The Independent on the phone from her office in America, Carter began the conversation by talking about the success of Challenge TV's British Bootcamp 2, the reality show which was won by TNA standout Rockstar Spud in its first instalment.
"I'm proud of the show, the first season was very successful, our ratings have doubled for this one which is almost unheard of, and there is such a great talent pool from the UK and Ireland.
"I hope this show has given everyone a shot in the arm to raise their game and to define their characters more, because if they really take the process seriously, every single one of those talents should come out better for it."
One such talent on the show which has attracted much attention over the course of the show has been Grado, who has become one of Britain's biggest stars in the recent past, stemming from his appearances in Insane Championship Wrestling and his strong YouTube fame. Carter likes what she sees in the comedic Scot, who recently finished in the top six of the show.
"I'm a big Grado fan, and I'm excited about him, and the other five finalists being on the upcoming UK tour, and there is something about him that I know he will try to steal the spotlight from everybody. He didn't get off to a good start with Al Snow in particular, he felt it was Grado's downfall that he didn't take it seriously enough, that he felt he could funny his way through it, and it really bothered Al, which could have kept him from winning."
Grado has spoken about possibly facing Snow on the tour, and that is something that has piqued the interest of the TNA President.
"He has been on at me for that to happen, and Al Snow is in as good condition as he has ever been in, he loves stepping into the ring but Grado would have the entire UK with him. Al would take that match very seriously, and he should be prepared."
TNA has achieved a startling degree of success in the UK, thanks to their flagship television show Impact being aired on Challenge TV, and the company tour yearly in arenas which attract thousands of fans.
This year, all six of the final contestants from British Bootcamp 2, Noam Dar, Kay Lee Ray, Rampage Brown, Dave Mastiff, Mark Andrews and Grado will be appearing on the shows, as well as TNA World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Roode, Magnus, Rockstar Spud, James Storm, MVP and more. The events, in Glasgow, Manchester and London will also all be taped for television, which has excited Carter.
"The UK has been such an integral part of the success that we have had, it gave us an early success story when we needed one with the television ratings, ticket sales and media exposure. Now having British Bootcamp, and the tours getting bigger, I wanted to raise the bar this year and I needed to know from a scheduling standpoint in the US that I could turn the UK shows into TV tapings so I was thrilled to announce that.
"Having the British Bootcamp participants on the shows is great, and I want the fans to get there early, from the time the doors open for it to be a party atmosphere, and to make it fun and special."
After a nine year relationship with Spike TV, TNA has signed a deal to partner with Discovery Communications, and Impact will begin to air on Destination America in January 2015. Despite some wrestling insiders tipping the switch as a backwards move, Carter was positive about the change, and the possibilities that the partnership can bring.
"I'm very excited about it, we talked with a lot of networks and at the end it came down to that I was looking for somebody who didn't want to just license a two hour television show, but somebody who wanted to be a true partner. This deal is not just about Impact on a network, and it's not just about being part of a group of networks in the US which are the largest and who have vowed their support, it's about the global reach, and I'm very confident we can help Destination America, and be one of the |
155 | true | 430 | Jared Jeffrey Height: 5'11"
Weight: 165
Midfielder
Born: 06/14/1990
Age: 23
Hometown: Richardson, TX
Previous Club: Mainz (Germany)
Acquired via the waiver draft on July 3, 2013.
D.C. United today announced that the club has picked up former U.S. youth international Jared Jeffrey through a waiver draft conducted this afternoon. Per club and League policy, the terms of the deal were not disclosed. Jeffrey will join the Black-and-Red roster on July 9, pending receipt of his International Trasnfer Certificate.
"We are pleased to add another quality young player to our squad in Jared Jeffrey," said D.C. United General Manager Dave Kasper. "He is a technically gifted midfielder who has solid experience at various U.S. Youth National Team levels and recently with Mainz. We look forward to his future contributions to our club."
Most recently with German side Mainz of the Bundesliga, the 23-year-old made 87 total appearances (79 starts) with the club's reserve squad from 2010-13, notching four goals in the process. Parade Boys Soccer National High School Player of the Year in 2008, Jeffrey signed with Club Brugge (Belgium) at age 18.
Jeffrey boasts a decorated youth international resume as well. During his three semesters in the U-17 Men's National Team Residency Program, Jeffrey led all players with 39 caps. A former captain of the U.S. U-17 Men's National Team for the 2007 U-17 FIFA World Cup, the Texas native also competed in the U-20s' three group stage matches for the U-20 FIFA World Cup in 2009. Appearing alongside the Black-and-Red's Bill Hamid and Perry Kitchen in the U.S. U-23's 2012 London Olympic Qualifying campaign, Jeffrey started two of those matches, a 6-0 win over Cuba and a 2-0 loss to Canada. |
156 | true | 735 | Illegals is NOT a race, it is a crime!
Mexico: Puts their illegals in jail, and deports them. They only let people/citizens with secure and verify IDs vote in their country too. So not latinos from central America infiltrate their political system.
Honduras: building a more secure border to prevent illegals and gangs from Salvador
Israel: has a muslim wall, and they control their immigration. They even protect their religion fiercely there.
Saudi Arabia: building a 700 mile long border wall to control illegals, and ISIS from their Iraq Border. They dont even let Christians be citizens there. Control their immigration tightly. They are not even taking any of their own cultural economic migrants/rapefugees.
Hungary: Just built a 100 mile long better security border fence. That helped them keep their sovereignty, country, and prevent the insane suicide of Germany and Sweden. And they guard it:
Every country has immigration laws. At least the ones not brainwashed into destroying themselves. Liberals have just forgotten, or been brainwashed into thinking America is no longer a country. But some Marxist globalist Disney movie bullshit. All by the cancer that is cultural marxism.
Bill Clinton, and even globalist Obama deports Illegals. Millions of them. MILLIONS each. And so has every president for the last 60 years deported Illegals. Bush jr deported many millions. So did Bill Clinton. And even Obama is nearing 4 million deportations. He just does it on the downlow, and our liberal media does not make a big deal of it. It is following our LAWS.
They are not invited guest. They are invaders. Even if they benefit.
Liberal mentality is ruining western countries. They have been made to believe, America, and western countries, are no longer countries. But the legal mommy and daddy, and welfare state, to anybody that wants it.
I am latino. Was a LEGAL immigrant. As any immigration should be. Legal process only. Or there is no more country. And liberals might as well call themselves traitors to America, and to Western Civilization.
This guy is not "undocumented". He is a criminal. Yes, he benefitted. But so does every criminal that robs a store, or robs your house. They benefit too.
Are they "undocumented" owners of the store, and your house when they rob it?
Just because a criminal might be cute too, or have family, or get good grades, does NOT make them any less of a criminal when they break laws. In fact, it makes them more devious when they advertise it. Because they then only do it to sway opinion that their crime is no big deal. To convince useful idiots, that maybe its not even a crime.
Also "undocumented" is just the new politically correct brainwashing word to manipulate baby minds. Call it what they are. ILLEGAL invaders. Mexico does not bullshit with its illegals like liberal baby minds do in USA. It puts them in jail, and deports them. They dont call them "undocumented".
Just like the new Obama appointed moron at the Justice Department, that does not like calling criminals and felons criminals and felons, and wants to try a baby brainwashing word like "justice involved
Besides, for every guy like this, there are 100 other illegals doing crime, selling drugs, and not giving any fuck about anything. |
157 | true | 827 | OTTAWA — The federal government is saying little about an apparent breach involving classified information - one that could snowball into a serious compromise of closely guarded secrets.
Digital hacking collective Anonymous made good late Monday on a threat to release what it says is the first of many sensitive documents.
It posted online what appeared to be a 2014 Treasury Board memo about funding of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's overseas communications capabilities. But as of Tuesday morning, the document could not be accessed through the original link.
It was disabled by Lunaweb Ltd., which runs upload site DocDroid, "because it seems to be leaked'' and DocDroid is "simply not the right place,'' said Lunaweb's Josias Montag.
"Such documents should be published on WikiLeaks; they do have the resources and experts for such things."
The Canadian Press could not confirm the document's authenticity and Jeremy Laurin, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, would not comment.
Laurin said Tuesday that officials "continue to monitor this situation closely."
One senior official said it was still unclear Tuesday as to whether the document, which appears to be genuine, was indeed pilfered by hackers, or simply leaked.
"There are obviously concerns about the document being released, except there's no confirmation it has been obtained through a hacking," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
Anonymous has carried out cyberattacks against governments, corporations and others in the name of free speech, Internet liberties and anti-capitalist causes.
In a video statement discussing the document, Anonymous denounced the July 16 fatal shooting of a supporter in Dawson Creek, B.C., during a confrontation with the RCMP.
Officers challenged and subsequently fired on the man, who was wearing a Guy Fawkes mask - an Anonymous trademark - outside a public hearing for a dam project to be built by BC Hydro. A knife was recovered from the scene.
The man has been identified as 48-year-old James McIntyre. B.C.'s police watchdog, the Independent Investigations Office, is probing the death.
The Anonymous video begins with a moment of silence for McIntyre, "our fallen friend." The shadowy, loosely knit collective is demanding the immediate arrest of the RCMP officers involved.
"Unless and until that happens we will be releasing stunning secrets at irregular intervals."
The video harshly criticizes the Harper government, police, security agencies and corporations, saying they have branded "anyone opposing their fossil-fuel agenda to be a terrorist."
It also denounces "covert, warrantless surveillance" and the government's recently passed omnibus security bill, known as C-51.
"Anonymous has been collecting bits of evidence and making plans for many months," the video says.
The group seems to have selected the initial document for posting because - if authentic - it shows federal ministers made decisions over at least a four-year period to update security systems domestically and internationally.
"Congratulations, you left many doors open for us," the video says. "We are now privy to many of Stephen Harper's cherished secrets.''
Anonymous has claimed responsibility for a June attack that shut down several federal sites and wreaked havoc with email - billing it as a protest against the federal security legislation that broadened CSIS's mandate, boosted information-sharing and expanded no-fly list powers.
No personal information was compromised during the cyberattack, Blaney said at the time.
Regardless, the federal official said Tuesday, there is obviously interest in "trying to identify these hackers, it goes without saying."
"All the agencies involved in security ... we'd really like to be able to put an end to this."
Last week Blaney's department announced $142 million in new digital security spending, which will fund initiatives including an RCMP investigative team to combat high-priority cybercrime.
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158 | true | 378 | In September 2009 we predicted that average 8GB DIMM prices (DDR2 and DDR3) would reach $565/stick by year end (with DDR3 being higher than DDR2) and at now we're seeing the reversal of fortunes for DDR2. At year end, the average price for benchmark DDR2/DDR3 was $591 retail, with promotional pricing pushing that below$550 as predicted. Today, we're seeing DDR3 begin to overtake DDR2 in the 8GB ECC category, dropping below $510/stick, while DDR2 climbs to $550/stick (promotional, on $625/stick retail.)
In 4GB ECC configurations, DDR2 enjoys only a slight retail advantage (13%) while promotional pricing (likely due to inventory reduction initiatives) are providing a bit better value short term. However, the price gap is only 1/2 the power gap, with DDR3 delivering a greater than 35% reduction in power over its DDR2 equivalent (about $1.25/year/stick at $0.10/kWh). The honeymoon is almost over for DDR2.
SOLORI's Take: With strong DDR3 demand and short-falls in DDR2 supply (according to DRAMeXchange), the only thing keeping DDR3 prices above DDR2 at this point is demand and inventory. As Q2/2010 introduces a rush of new workstation and server products based on DDR3 systems, the DRAM production ramp will eventually stabilize demand somewhere towards the end of Q3/2010. Meanwhile, technology companies like VMware, Microsoft, Intel and AMD are betting on new infrastructure spending on operating systems, virtualization and hardware refresh to drive-up economic market factors. If the global economic crisis deepens, this anticipated spending spree could be short-lived and its impact shallow. |
159 | true | 768 | For a place called Brooklyn Coffee Shop, there is quite an extensive food menu at this new Mills 50 spot.
Also, for a place named after a New York borough, there's a lot of South American influences. Seattle, too. Also Miami.
But that's all explained, at least partially, on the business's website. Owners Daniel and Patricia Carvalho lived in Seattle and New York but moved to Brazil, where, in 2010, they opened the first Brooklyn Coffee Shop as a paean to Seattle's favorite liquid and Brooklyn's neighborhood bistros. That location in Curitiba and a second one there continue, though its Facebook page makes a lot of references to Orlando.
The Orlando BCS takes the space most recently occupied by Restaurant Ash, which was also the original Funky Monkey Wine Co. So there's a kitchen to be put to use.
They fire it up in the morning for breakfast fare such as Shakshuka, house-made doughnuts and a variety of dishes with eggs, including empanadas.
It continues through lunch with the morning menu available plus a variety of salads, sandwiches and other empanadas.
It's clear that empanadas are a specialty, so I had the Pastel de Carne when I stopped in for a late lunch. It was filled with lots of shredded brisket, seasoned with garlic, onions and chili spicing. The turnover-like device had a wonderfully flaky crust, at least on the top. When I picked it up I found the bottom part quite moist. This apparently was from the fatty brisket, so it just added flavor. Lots and lots of flavor. It was even better when dipped in the mildly spicy chimichurri.
I also had the Bauru sandwich. Bauru is a traditional Brazilian sandwich that is usually made with roast beef and melted cheese, typically mozzarella. For some reason -- perhaps in an attempt to Brooklynize it? -- here it is made with Canadian bacon and swiss cheese, unmelted, along with tomato and sliced pickles. What makes this odder is that the restaurant's website says this sandwich is made with brisket. And since we know that brisket is available for the making of empanadas, why Canadian bacon?
Whatever. It was a very good sandwich, with plenty of meat, and a buttery taste in the toasted bread. I don't think it quite warranted the $8 fee, especially served solo. (The $3.50 charge for the empanada was fair.)
And then there's the coffee. It's a bit strange that a place named Brooklyn would specify Americano as a choice. I'd think that would be the default. The beans are from Panther Coffee in Miami. This would have been a great chance to bring in the Seattle connection, or even the South American angle.
My $2.50 cup of Americano, served in a Christmas themed mug, was only so-so.
Little seems to have been done with the interior other than moving some furniture around. To wit, a hightop communal table that was near the front window is now in the back of the restaurant. The Edison lights that hung low over the table remain, below head level. Screws and hangers where photos and other accouterments of the previous occupant used to be are still in the walls. Some sprucing up may be in order.
Brooklyn Coffee Shop is at 912 N. Mills Ave., Orlando. It is open for breakfast and lunch daily, with dinner hours to be announced soon. A brunch menu is served on Saturday and Sunday. The phone number is 407-704-1757 |
160 | true | 512 | H.R. 4164 (114th) was a bill in the United States Congress.
A bill must be passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then be signed by the President to become law.
This bill was introduced in the 114th Congress, which met from Jan 6, 2015 to Jan 3, 2017. Legislation not enacted by the end of a Congress is cleared from the books.
How to cite this information.
We recommend the following MLA-formatted citation when using the information you see here in academic work:
GovTrack.us. (2018). H.R. 4164 — 114th Congress: Regulatory Agency Demilitarization Act. Retrieved from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr4164?utm_campaign=govtrack_feed&utm_source=govtrack/feed&utm_medium=rss "H.R. 4164 — 114th Congress: Regulatory Agency Demilitarization Act." www.GovTrack.us. 2015. October 3, 2018 <https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr4164?utm_campaign=govtrack_feed&utm_source=govtrack/feed&utm_medium=rss> Regulatory Agency Demilitarization Act, H.R. 4164, 114th Cong. (2015). {{cite web
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|title=H.R. 4164 (114th)
|accessdate=October 3, 2018
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GovTrack automatically collects legislative information from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. This page is sourced primarily from Congress.gov, the official portal of the United States Congress. Congress.gov is generally updated one day after events occur, and so legislative activity shown here may be one day behind. Data via the congress project. |
161 | true | 80 | Welcome to our second video update!
In this update Dan talks about the character customization system we have built on top of Cryengine sandbox. It allows us to create hundreds of different NPCs by few simple clicks. And of course, it also allows the players to customize their characters. We hope you are going to like it as much as we do!
Let us know what you think! |
162 | true | 83 | Forbidden Cornucopia of the Unheard: Concave Cosmologies & Radical Fakery Part 1 Your browser does not support the audio element. Download Forbidden Cornucopia of the Unheard: Concave Cosmologies & Radical Fakery Part 2 Your browser does not support the audio element. Download Out Of Darkness, Into The Light's Talkshoe Out Of Darkness, Into The Light 2A's Talkshoe |
163 | true | 447 | Chasing Pokemon has landed more than a dozen Hamilton kids in the emergency room since the popular game was launched in Canada July 18.
Anthony Crocco, chief of pediatric emergency medicine at McMaster Children's Hospital, said the injuries have all been minor so far – bruises and sprained ankles – but some of them "could have been much worse."
"What's really worrying here is the potential for kids to wander into traffic," he said. "We asked ourselves do we wait until someone gets hit by a car or do we speak up now?"
The decision was for the hospital to issue a news release Thursday warning players, and their parents, to ensure the game is played safely.
Pokemon Go is an "augmented reality" video game which uses the GPS capabilities of smartphones to superimpose fictional monsters over real locations. Players gather at those hotspots to lure creatures they capture and then pit against each other in virtual battles. It was created by Niantic Corp.
Praised by some, including Crocco who said "anything that gets you off the sofa and outside and moving around is good," the game has also stirred a cloud of controversy over safety.
On the safety side, a Toronto comic was recently fined for walking on TTC subway tracks while shooting a video about the game; in July police in Auburn NY, near Rochester, reported a man crashed his car while playing the game and police in the Belgian port city of Antwerp issued a warning about the potential dangers of pedestrians playing the game. An Alberta town has threatened a lawsuit against players crowding into the town.
Crocco saw that danger in his own neighbourhood recently. While walking his dog one night he observed three teenagers of bicycles wheeling down the centre of the roadway, all with their eyes glued to their cellphones.
"It was just luck that a car didn't come around the corner and knock them all over," he said.
Only three days after the game was released in Canada Hamilton police received a report of a teenaged male cyclist who may have been "bumped" by a vehicle in the lower city Tuesday afternoon while focusing on his Pokemon hunt. |
164 | true | 646 | The bound T: Mul does not imply that the result of the binary operator is also of type T . The result type is an associated type of this trait: Output .
The other issue is that at some point in time the operator traits switched from pass-by-referece to pass-by-value. In generic code this can be a bit of a pain in the butt (for now at least) because these operators consume their operands unless you also require the types to be Copy .
Just for completeness (in case you don't like to require Copy ), let me add some information about a possible alternative direction.
For the sake of generic code, authors of "numeric types" are encouraged to provide additional non-consuming implementations of these operator traits so that you don't need Copy or Clone . For example, the standard library already provides the following implementations:
f64 implements Mul< f64> f64 implements Mul<&f64> &f64 implements Mul< f64> &f64 implements Mul<&f64>
with each implementation having f64 as Output type. But making use of these traits directly is not pretty:
fn cube<T>(x: &T) -> T where for<'a> T: Mul<&'a T, Output = T>, for<'a,'b> &'a T: Mul<&'b T, Output = T> { x * x * x }
Eventually, we might get some (slightly) higher level traits, which would reduce the noise. For example: T: Mul2 could imply T: Mul<T> + Mul<&T> and &T: Mul<T> + Mul<&T> . But at the time of writing this, the Rust compiler does not seem able to handle this. At least I could not successfully compile the following code:
use std::ops::Mul; pub trait Mul2 where Self: Mul<Self, Output=Self>, Self: for<'a> Mul<&'a Self, Output=Self>, for<'a> &'a Self: Mul<Self, Output=Self>, for<'a,'b> &'a Self: Mul<&'b Self, Output=Self> {} impl<T> Mul2 for T where T: Mul<T, Output=T>, T: for<'a> Mul<&'a T, Output=T>, for<'a> &'a T: Mul<T, Output=T>, for<'a,'b> &'a T: Mul<&'b T, Output=T> {} fn cube<T: Mul2>(x: &T) -> T { x * x * x } fn main() { let c = cube(&2.3); println!("Hello, world! {}", c) }
I think it's safe to say that things will improve in this area. For now, the ability to generically implement numeric algorithms in Rust is not as good as I would like it to be. |
165 | true | 626 | 15 ft. Glow Rod Set is rated 4.5 out of 5 by 13 .
Rated 5 out of 5 by derekp from very useful As a homeowner doing a lot of re-wiring on our old house, I'm finding these very handy. I've never had much luck with steel fish tape. These are just the right amount flexible, and a good length. I personally haven't found the glow feature useful so far. The bullnose tip tends to come unscrewed, easy to lose it in the wall as I did. They don't sell replacements of those, apparently. I ended up drilling carefully through the end of one of the rods, which is working well.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Coon from Klein Glow Rod Set As a veteran electrician, I have used various brands of glow rods from different companies and the ones that I have found to be the best are the ones made by Klein Tools. They are durable as well as flexable and hold up well on jobsites. They even come with a convient tube to be carried in from job site to jobsite.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Sparky from Great set of rods. Pro electrician here These are great rods as with any of the Klein products. I am a professional commercial electrician and these hold up extremely well as well as some of my other Klein tools I have had for years. It is the industry standard. To the gentleman giving this product 2 stars, you do not run rods through a conduit you should run a flexible fiberglass snake or a metal snake provided no wires are in the conduit that may have power so shut power off before doing so and use wire lube. You sound like the type of person that should not be doing the work in the first place so don't rate a product low because you are going beyond the limitations of the product and using it for other than what it was designed for.
Rated 2 out of 5 by Wile from glow rod This product worked as expected, but as some of the other reviewers mentioned one of the rods splintered on the first use. I would have expected that if I was trying to bend the sections too sharp or putting too much force on them, but in this case it was a fairly gentle bend and I was trying to be careful and not putting too much pressure on it. The other two sections still look brand new and it did the job as i mentioned. It was just a fair amount of money spent for something that only lasted one use.
Rated 4 out of 5 by C7882 from The New Glorod If you have the older version the difference you will see is the that the newer version is a little thicker in diameter and also has the splinter guard feature.
Rated 5 out of 5 by noonie from great Worked perfectly. Great design. Came with hook and round head with a hole for drag line.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Aaron from Customer service is awesome !!!! Product is always good but the customer service here exceeded all expectations. |
166 | false | 1,024 | Philadelphia DA Seth Williams (left) has slammed Pa. AG Kathleen Kane
Why did the AG drop a case that exposed Democratic corruption?
Prosecutors almost never go to war against each other. But in Pennsylvania, Democratic attorney general Kathleen Kane is being brutally criticized by Seth Williams, Philadelphia's district attorney and a fellow Democrat. Williams is upset that last year one of Kane's first acts in office was to decline to prosecute four Philadelphia state legislators and other government officials. In a sting operation, all had been caught accepting cash or Tiffany jewelry in exchange for votes or favors. Kane, who is white, has defended herself, saying that the investigation was badly managed and tainted by racism. She claims the criticism comes from what she calls the "Good Ol' Boys Club." Williams, who is African American, has shot back: "I have seen racism. I know what it looks like. This isn't it."
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#ad#The sting operation followed pretty much the same playbook as the federal Abscam investigation of the 1970s. Begun in 2010, the Philly probe was conducted under Kane's three immediate predecessors as attorney general, and it resulted in more than 400 hours of video and audio recordings. Tyron B. Ali, a lobbyist originally from Trinidad, served as the undercover agent; after he was charged with fraud, he agreed to wear a wire in exchange for lenient treatment. Word of his cash offers eventually got around and prompted some elected officials to call him first. "Sources with knowledge of the sting said the investigation made financial pitches to both Republicans and Democrats, but only Democrats accepted the payments," the Philadelphia Inquirer reported last week.
Attorney General Kane inherited the investigation when she took office in January 2013. She told the Inquirer that she stopped it without filing any charges because it was "poorly conceived, badly managed, and tainted by racism." She quoted Claude Thomas, the chief investigator in the case, as saying he had been ordered to target "only members of the General Assembly's Black Caucus" and to ignore "potentially illegal acts by white members."
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In response, Williams issued an angry statement and penned an op-ed in Sunday's Inquirer. "The notion that they would target anyone based on race is ridiculous," Williams said in a statement. "I am confident they are not racist, and it is regrettable that the attorney general would casually throw around such an explosive accusation." Thomas, who is also African American, now works for Williams and denies he ever made such a statement.
What is clear is just how damning some of the collected evidence is. The Inquirer reported this exchange between Ali, the lobbyist, and state representative Vanessa Brown:
Ali went to Brown's office and handed her an envelope with $2,000, according to people who have reviewed a transcript of a tape Ali made on that day. As Brown accepted the money, they said, she put it in her purse and said: "Yo, good looking and Ooowee. . . . Thank you twice." After he gave Brown the money, Ali urged her to vote against a bill that would require voters to show identification at the polls, the sources said.
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Kane's supporters say that federal law-enforcement officials she consulted believed the probe had suffered from a lack of "quality control" and could be viewed as entrapment. "Is the acceptance of cash alarming? Absolutely," one person close to Kane told the Inquirer. "But you've got to think: I've got to try this case."
It certainly may have been politically awkward for Kane, as a Democrat, to prosecute only African-American defendants, but a conviction on something should have been a slam dunk. Even if prosecutors couldn't prove a quid pro quo, it is illegal for politicians to accept payments to enrich themselves and also illegal not to report the income. Further, the prosecutors in this case have a sterling track record in securing convictions against the leadership of both parties in the legislature, winning 21 convictions in the 2010 "Bonusgate" scandal, which involved illegal payments to legislative staffers who performed political work. All of those convicted were white.
Kane has declined to answer detailed questions about why she dropped the investigation. Her critics, she says, are "playing political games to discredit me in order to fulfill their own selfish and improper agenda." When she met with Inquirer editors last Thursday, she brought her personal attorney and on his advice declined to answer any questions after the meeting. Her attorney says she may file a defamation suit against the paper, a ploy frequently used by public figures to intimidate journalists.
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Williams says he is tired of Kane's "escalating excuses." He points out that when she took office, the files on the probe were with federal prosecutors who hadn't yet concluded whether they wanted to pursue their own case. "All she had to do was leave the investigation in the hands |
167 | true | 123 | Ok, we have some good news and bad news here. The good news is the update. I have completely translated Chapter 209 here.
The bad news is, IRL is beating the crap out of me. As I said from Chapter 206, I am just a temporary translator. So I'll be stopping the updates for now. If this series is left unattended for 2 weeks, I may or not pick it up again, but for now, I'm busy trying to live my ass out. I won't give any promises. Those are death flags.
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168 | false | 1,024 | DAMASCUS, Syria — During the second part of a lengthy interview with Al-Monitor in Damascus, a senior Syrian official said that the reality on the ground, the power balance and the military developments in the field were important, and in this regard, the Syrian authorities were content and reassured.
The official, who requested anonymity, started by analyzing the Syrian map: "Each line extending from our southern border to Aleppo is under the control of Syrian troops. The militants received overwhelming blows in Homs and Qalamoun. Today in Aleppo, any military expert understands the meaning of controlling the central prison and the air force intelligence site in the city. Everybody recognizes that Aleppo is almost militarily fallen. Of course, cleansing it of militants and terrorists may need time. But the battle there, according to military battlefield logic, has already been decided and its results are clear."
In response to claims that the regime's opponents have provided the government a great service with their behavior and mistakes, he smiled, saying, "This is absolutely true. Suffice it to mention two things: first, their collaboration with Israel and their openness to several contacts with it. That really helped us in our media battle in the Arab world. Second, and more importantly, the significant dominance by extremists and terrorist groups over those forces."
Al-Monitor asked about allegations that the regime released fundamentalist prisoners to facilitate the formation of these groups. The Syrian official answered calmly: "It is true that a number of fundamentalists were released as a result of amnesty decrees for prisoners by the leadership in Syria during the years of strife. But the domination of extremist groups on the armed groups and their aspiration to control Syria preceded any act by us. Don't forget that the battle with these extremist groups began more than 30 years ago. It didn't break out in 2011. [It broke out] before the conflict [in our region] turned into open military battles. [Al-Qaeda leader] Ayman al-Zawahri was clear in his recorded message when he raised the slogan, 'The glory of the East starts in Damascus.' …
"Of course, we worked through all media, political and diplomatic means, to expose the extremist danger on us and on all our surroundings and the world. This is part of our natural and legitimate response to the terrorist plot. You only need to read the message by Zawahri to an extremist group that he disagreed with, namely, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). He told them that one of the reasons why he disagreed with them is that they came out into the open. Al-Qaeda wanted to keep its battle secret until it was strong and could gain control. This is proof that the first way to fight them is to reveal their true image and highlight their presence and their danger, and that's what we did."
The official continued, "It is important now that the war between them has become very fierce, especially after the split between their groups became an expression of the divide between the countries that were sponsoring and funding terrorists in Syria. One battle between two factions, ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, resulted in 1,400 people dead. Remarkably, in this area, they themselves have become aware of their own destiny and where they are headed. It is no coincidence in this context that Zawahri himself, in a message addressed to the battling rival extremist groups in the first week of April [2014], described some ISIS militants killing an Ahrar al-Sham official as a major crime. More importantly, Zawahri compared it to the incident where the Islamic Fighting Group in Algeria assassinated two other Islamic jihadists in 1995. Zawahri concluded, in his message, that what the Islamic Fighting Group did in Algeria that day was 'the moral death of those groups, which was followed by their material death.'"
The Syrian official smiled at Zawahri's comparison of events in Algeria two decades ago to present-day Syria. The official said, "By making this comparison, al-Qaeda's leader wanted to threaten the terrorists beyond his control with death, as happened in Algeria. But he didn't pay attention, in that he expected the war in Syria to have a similar fate to their war in Algeria. The result there was that all terrorists and extremist groups were defeated and the state won and it is still in place to this day, and this is what will happen in Syria."
What about the recent US escalation and Washington's willingness to boost military aid to the opposition? The Syrian official's face turned more serious. "A few weeks ago, we agreed with our allies in Russia that a high-level delegation from Moscow would visit Damascus. We were officially informed that the delegation will be headed by the Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov. But two weeks ago, officials in the Russian Embassy in Damascus surprised us by telling us that the date of the visit has been postponed for four days. We asked why. They told us it has to do with changes |
169 | true | 342 | John Clint Williamson has been named by the European Union mission in Kosovo as the chief prosecutor in a task force which has been set up to investigate the accusations against Hashim Thaci which date back to 1999.
In a Council of Europe report released last year, Dick Marty, a Swiss MP, alleged that Mr Thaci and other rebel commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army ran detention camps where civilian prisoners, most of them Serbs, were killed and their organs sold on the black market.
The prime minister has denied the allegations, describing them as a plot being orchestrated against Kosovo, and says he is ready to cooperate with any investigation.
He said the accusations were slanderous lies and had besmirched the reputation of the entire nation, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
Mr Williamson was the head of Kosovo's Justice Department in 2001-2002 when the territory was under the administration of the United Nations.
He then served as US Ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues.
The American prosecutor has also been tasked with investigating claims that some of Kosovo's most senior leaders run a criminal network dealing in drugs.
The claims of a trade in human organs were first made public in a book, 'The Hunt', by Carla del Ponte, former UN war crimes prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia, who claimed hundreds of Serb civilians died in camps ran by the KLA in the north of neighbouring Albania.
So far, both the UN and EU have maintained that their investigations into the alleged organ harvesting have failed to yield any evidence.
But pressure from Serbia and its ally Russia for a full investigation has brought the issue to international attention. |
170 | true | 189 | This WSJ article about economists in search of a model takes it as given that all our models have failed completely in the crisis — which is a gross exaggeration.
It's true that if you bought completely into rational-expectations macroeconomics, the crisis in the economy should be causing a crisis in your faith — although as far as I can tell, the freshwater types remain smugly convinced of their rightness. But those of us who hadn't forgotten Keynes, who paid attention to things like Japan's lost decade and developing-country financial crises, aren't feeling all that at sea.
More specifically, we knew all about liquidity traps, and had at least thought about balance-sheet crises, a decade ago. Remember, I wrote the first edition of The Return of Depression Economics in 1999. The world we're now in isn't that different from the world I suspected, back then, we'd find ourselves in. |
171 | true | 354 | Despite releasing some very capable hardware this year, LG's mobile division hasn't been performing particularly well lately. Although the V20 looks to be off to a strong start in the US, the launch of the G5 earlier in the year saw a 23 percent drop in mobile sales in the previous quarter, which is pretty much a full blown disaster for a flagship manufacturer. To help steer LG's various divisions to brighter horizons, the company is appointing CEO Jo Seong-jin to head up the business.
LG announced a management reshuffle on Thursday, in which the company eliminated its triple-CEO structure and promoted Jo as sole CEO of LG Electronics. Jo had previously headed up LG's home and appliance unit since 2013 and oversaw a 25 percent boost to the company's operating profit last year. Despite the reshuffle, LG Electronics' mobile chief Cho Juno will retain his position into next year.
"LG Electronics decided to name Jo as our new sole CEO in recognition for his charismatic decision-making in recent years to launch innovative new products, and his performance has been proven in quarterly earnings," – LG Electronics official.
The reshuffle comes after LG's mobile division reported an operating loss in six consecutive quarters, since Q2 2015. Although much of the focus has been on LG's flagship G5 and V20 releases this year, the company's strategy for the lower end market hasn't been working out either. Budget smartphone launches in the US have failed to grab a significant market share and has ended up worsening the division's profitability at a time when the G5 also posted weak sales.
LG clearly needs to try something a little different next year, and the G6 flagship is rumored to be packing in plenty of bells and whistles. |
172 | false | 1,024 | MAMMOGRAPHY IS A TOOL FOR DOCTORS TO PUT THEIR HOOKS ON WOMEN WHO DO NOT HAVE BREAST CANCER PROBLEMS. . .
Mammography screening creates breast cancer patients out of healthy women who would never have developed symptoms. . . .
Unnecessary treatment of these healthy women increases their risk of dying from heart disease . . . .
Healthy women are discouraged from having babies . . .
THIS IS A CONSPIRACY-INDIAN WOMEN NEVER NEEDED MAMMOGRAPHY . . . AS INDIAN WOMEN BREAST FEED BABIES FOR MINIMUM 6 MONTHS . .
THEY DO NOT HAVE PLASTIC IN THE BREASTS . . NOR DO THEY TAKE BIRTH CONTROL PILLS ( XENO ESTROGEN ) SO THAT ALL OTHER MEN CAN FUCK THEM BEHIND THEIR HUSBANDs BACK. NO JOKES—I AM DROP DEAD SERIOUS . .
By avoiding going to screening, a woman will lower her risk of getting a breast cancer diagnosis by doctors whose religion is money. . . .
Since it is not possible to tell the difference between the dangerous and the harmless cell changes and cancers, all of them are treated. . . .
These women will have either a part of their breast or the whole breast removed, and they will often receive radiotherapy, and sometimes chemotherapy. . . .Almost all the women in iindia who had mammography were fooled into treatment . . .
Giving a women under age 50 a mammogram on a routine basis is close to unethical. . . .
In the past 7 years this blogsite have given information to discourage women with lumps on breast from taking extreme measures and diving into extreme depression and all are happy for it. . . .
Here is a sample which I have forgotten to delete - -
hi XXX,
more than 90% of women referred to a breast clinic do not have breast cancer-- so dont go into depression.
breast cancer usually causes no pain in the breast and you have been having pain for 10 years. ..
many women have breast swelling and tenderness in the week or two before their periods.
most breast lumps are caused by hormonal changes that during the menstrual cycle when a woman gets her monthly period--- changing estrogen and progesterone hormone levels
pain is usually most obvious in the week before your period. it quickly goes when your period starts. it is more common in women aged 30-50.
in most cases, a benign (non-cancerous) breast lump needs no treatment unless it is particularly large or painful. . .
in some types of lump, such as a cyst or abscess, there can be fluid that may need draining . antibiotics alone cannot adequately treat an abscess. . .
a lump caused by infection is fairly common in women who are breast-feeding. the ducts that carry the breast milk can become blocked. bacteria can enter through cracks in the nipple. this can lead to the development of an abscess in the breast. inflammation of the lactating breast tissue is known as mastitis.
a lipoma is a fatty growth that develops within the fatty tissue of your breast. it is non-cancerous and usually does not need any treatment. however, they can be removed if they are large . ..
a mammogram is essentially an X-ray of your breasts.. each breast is compressed between two X-ray plates. ..
this may feel a little uncomfortable but the discomfort should only last for a few minutes. . a mammogram is estimated to be able to detect about 90% of breast cancers.
a doctor inspects any suspicious skin changes that may be a sign of breast cancer. .. .
ultrasound is useful in the evaluation of breast lumps. . .It can distinguish between a cyst (such as a benign cyst, which is filled with fluid) and a solid lump (which may or may not be cancerous) . .. the first step in the evaluation of a breast lump is to determine whether it is a cyst or solid mass.
MRI is performed if results of mammography and ultrasound evaluations are not conclusive. MRI cannot detect the presence of calcium deposits, which can be identified by mammography and may be a sign of cancer. ..
A lipoma is a benign tumor of the breast composed of normal fat cells.
Typically, a lipoma grows slowly and does not require surgical removal. Once the diagnosis of lipoma is confirmed careful observation is usually all that is required.
Breast lipoma is a soft, smooth mass in the breast that is somewhat firm to the touch.
there only one way to be certain that a lump is not cancerous is to have a tissue sampling (biopsy) . .
TAKE A SECOND OPINION |
173 | false | 1,024 | With the help of celebrities and professional activists, protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota have attracted international attention. The shouting and violence have drawn sympathy from people who are hearing only one side of the story — the one told by activists. Were the full story to be heard, much, if not all, of that sympathy would vanish.
The activists tell an emotionally charged tale of greed, racism and misbehavior by corporate and government officials. But the real story of the Dakota Access Pipeline was revealed in court documents in September, and it is nothing like the activists' tale. In fact, it is the complete opposite.
The record shows that Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the pipeline, spent years working diligently with federal, state and local officials to route the pipeline safely and with the fewest possible disruptions. The contrast between the protesters' claims and the facts on record is stunning.
CAPTION A former "Sesame Street" writer who said he always thought of Ernie & Bert as gay had "Sesame Street" clarifying that the roommates have no sexual identity. A former "Sesame Street" writer who said he always thought of Ernie & Bert as gay had "Sesame Street" clarifying that the roommates have no sexual identity. CAPTION A former "Sesame Street" writer who said he always thought of Ernie & Bert as gay had "Sesame Street" clarifying that the roommates have no sexual identity. A former "Sesame Street" writer who said he always thought of Ernie & Bert as gay had "Sesame Street" clarifying that the roommates have no sexual identity. CAPTION An Orange County pilot program would help find missing people, like those with Alzheimer's or autism. An Orange County pilot program would help find missing people, like those with Alzheimer's or autism. CAPTION Work emails are filled with phrases that can just make you have a case of the Mondays all week long. Work emails are filled with phrases that can just make you have a case of the Mondays all week long. CAPTION Civil rights acivist Jesse Jackson speaks about healthcare. Civil rights acivist Jesse Jackson speaks about healthcare. CAPTION A man is suing a cryogenics firm for only cryogenically freezing his dad's head (not his whole body). A man is suing a cryogenics firm for only cryogenically freezing his dad's head (not his whole body).
Protesters claim that the pipeline was "fast-tracked," denying tribal leaders the opportunity to participate in the process. In fact, project leaders participated in 559 meetings with community leaders, local officials and organizations to listen to concerns and fine-tune the route. The company asked for, and received, a tougher federal permitting process at sites along the Missouri River. This more difficult procedure included a mandated review of each water crossing's potential effect on historical artifacts and locations.
Protesters claim that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to consult tribal leaders as required by federal law. The record shows that the corps held 389 meetings with 55 tribes. Corps officials met numerous times with leaders of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which initiated the lawsuit and the protests.
Protesters claim that the Standing Rock Sioux pursued meetings with an unresponsive Army Corps of Engineers. Court records show that the roles in that story were in fact reversed. The corps alerted the tribe to the pipeline permit application in the fall of 2014 and repeatedly requested comments from and meetings with tribal leaders only to be rebuffed over and over. Tribal leaders ignored requests for comment and canceled meetings multiple times.
In September 2014 alone, the corps made five unsuccessful attempts to meet with Standing Rock Sioux leaders. The next month, a meeting was arranged, but "when the Corps timely arrived for the meeting, Tribal Chairman David Archambault told them that the conclave had started earlier than planned and had already ended," according to a federal judge. At a planned meeting the next month, the tribe took the pipeline off the agenda and refused to discuss it. This stonewalling by tribal leaders continued for a year and a half.
Typical of the misinformation spread during the protests is a comment made by Jesse Jackson, who recently joined the activists in North Dakota. He said the decision to reroute the pipeline so that it crossed close to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe's water intake was "racism."
He did not mention, possibly because he did not know, that the company is paying to relocate the tribe's water intake to a new spot 70 miles from the location of the contested pipeline crossing.
The pipeline route was adjusted based on concerns expressed by locals — including other tribal leaders — who met with company and Army Corps of Engineers officials. The court record reveals that the Standing Rock Sioux refused to meet with corps officials to discuss the route until after site work had begun. That work is now 77 percent completed at a cost of $3 billion.
In response to a lawsuit filed by the Standing Rock Sioux, the court documented " |
174 | true | 273 | Story highlights The girl is in stable condition
To date, the WHO has been informed of 54 cases, including 30 deaths
A 14-year-old Saudi girl is the latest confirmed case of the sometimes deadly MERS virus, the WHO said Wednesday.
To date, the World Health Organization has been informed of 54 cases, including 30 deaths.
The Saudi health ministry told the agency that the girl became ill on May 29. She is in stable condition.
Middle East respiratory symptom coronavirus, or MERS, acts like a cold virus and attacks the respiratory system, the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. But symptoms, which include fever and a cough, are severe and can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure.
JUST WATCHED Saudi Arabia has more MERS cases Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Saudi Arabia has more MERS cases 00:59
Coronaviruses cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, as well as a variety of animal diseases.
Health officials do not yet know much about how the newly discovered virus spreads, which makes it hard for scientists to prevent infections, Chan said.
The WHO is calling for the world to pull together its resources to study and tackle the virus. |
175 | false | 1,024 | By Emman Ovuakporie and Johnbosco Agbakwuru
ABUJA-BARELY 24hours after former President Olusegun Obasanjo lampooned the President Muhammadu Buhari All Progressives Congress, APC led government,Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Abdulrazaq Namdas on Thursday took a swipe at the former president describing him as the grand father of corruption in Nigeria.
He also alleged at a press briefing held at the NASS complex that Obasanjo has the intention of bringing down President Muhammadu Buhari's government.
Namdas who read a prepared statement said:"Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to former President Olusegun Obasanjo at a lecture he delivered recently, wherein, in his characteristic manner accused everybody but himself of corruption.
" He ventured to accuse the National Assembly of Budget padding, accused the House of criminal activities of threatening the life of a "whistleblower", lampooned constituency projects which he approved as President, ventured to discuss the budget of National Assembly which is highly underfunded?
" The House of Representatives would ordinarily not join issues with the former President as he has held an office that deserves respect and reverence. "However, because of the material mis-statement of facts, outright lies and falsehoods, and mischievous innuendo introduced in his statement, we are left with no option but to correct him.
" We have repeatedly maintained that there was no "padding" of the 2016 Appropriation Act, which is a legitimate document passed by the National Assembly, authenticated by the Clerk to the National Assembly as provided in the Acts Authentication Act and assented to by Mr. President.
" It is most unfortunate that a former President of Chief Obasanjo's stature would allow himself to be hoodwinked and procured by a renegade member of the House, who embarked on massive propaganda and lies just because he was removed from office. For the avoidance of doubt, there is no crime that was committed by the National Assembly by exercising its constitutional function of appropriation.
"If Chief Obasanjo has an issue with the execution of the 2016 Budget or indeed other Appropriation Acts, he should direct his anger elsewhere.
"He claimed that the National Assembly Budget is very high, when by all standards, the National Assembly is grossly underfunded and is hampered from effectively and legitimately carrying out its Constitutionally assigned functions. The National Assembly Budget funds a bureaucracy of about 5,000 civil servants.
" It has some other agencies under its preview such as the National Assembly Service Commission with its own staff of about 500, even the Public Complaints Commission is now a parastatal of the National Assembly. National Assembly Budget also funds the National Institute for Legislative Studies, which is a legislative think-tank and highly rated academic institution that serves both National and State Houses of Assembly and even international legislators.
" All these agencies also have their capital budget including development of their headquarters, procurement of office equipment, procurement of regular items for running their offices; the National Assembly maintain legislative aides of about 3,000 in number, that aid the work of the Assembly; it also conducts regular public hearings involving the media and stakeholders and oversight activities, involving huge sums of money.
"The cost implications of running the National Assembly is high because of the nature of our Presidential democracy. Then of course, there are 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives, that require proper equipment to function effectively.
" They require adequate travel and transport support to carry out legislative functions. The National Assembly also has buildings and offices to build and maintain. "National Assembly staff and members attend conferences, trainings, seminars to keep abreast of legislative developments worldwide. The activities are very encompassing and expensive.
" It is also unbecoming of a former President to quote figures of sums of money that are factually incorrect. No member of the House of Representatives receives N10m every month. The salaries and allowances of members of the House are as determined by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).
" Of course further sums of money are spent as running costs, that is, the cost of running the office of a member. If a Minister, Chief Executive or Director in a Ministry travels on official duties, for instance, do you include the cost of his ticket and accommodation as part of his salary or allowances? Does the cost of stationery and maintenance of equipment like computers used in their offices, form part of their salaries and allowances? These are some of the costs that must be taken care of by the National Assembly and the media calls these costs "jumbo pay".
"For goodness sake, the National Assembly is an arm of government, not just an ordinary agency of government.
"The Budget of many agencies in the Executive Branch are indeed higher than the current Budget of the National |
176 | false | 1,024 | Heroes of Antarctic exploration-past famously include Shackleton, Scott, and Amundsen who raced to the South Pole in search of fame and discovery. They encountered harsh conditions and suffered extreme hardships, cut off from communication with the outside world. It took years of planning, then years of recovery, for these explorers to even begin to understand what they went through – let alone to describe what they discovered.
Over one hundred years later, filled with probably just as much excitement and anticipation, a new group of explorers has again journeyed to Antarctica. After years of planning, the Antarctic Peninsula Paleontology Project, or AP3, an international team of scientists, of which I am a part, headed off to probe a new frontier of Antarctic exploration. Our mission was not to discover the South Pole, but to find evidence of ancient life on a continent largely void of anything alive today. Would we really get there? Could I carry my own weight? Was my mom justified in worrying like I was her six-year-old daughter, not a 36-year-old professional paleontologist? These questions, among others ran through my mind, as I got ready to join 11 other paleontologists for this extreme fieldwork experience.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Taking the Zodiac to the shore from the Nathaniel B. Palmer icebreaker ship Photograph: Kerin Claeson
This amazing journey was made possible thanks to a merger of science and technology, of geologists and paleontologists, pilots and professors, seafarers and students, of Mother Nature and Deep Time. With the generous support of the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs, the AP3 was able to venture to the Antarctic to answer questions about life near the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. As the name of our project indicates, we targeted a region of Antarctica known as the Antarctic Peninsula, specifically the islands within the James Ross Island Group.
These islands were once covered by ocean, when non-avian dinosaurs roamed the land, giant marine reptiles swam the seas, and swarms of strange fish schooled along the shores. We know the Antarctic Peninsula was warmer back then, teeming with plant and animal life, yet we know so little about the species that lived there. Therefore, we sought to travel to Antarctica ourselves, to collect data to answer questions about the extinct ecosystems that inhabited the continent during the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleogene. Actually getting there was among the first of the many significant hurdles that the AP3 team would eventually overcome.
Unlike Shackleton, who met with unexpectedly formidable sea ice and was to surrender his vessel to a frozen horizon, the AP3 was fully informed of the ice conditions on and around the Peninsula. In 2013 and 2014, there were near record amounts of sea ice surrounding the James Ross Island Group. Those would have been the first two years of our AP3 expedition, supported by the US Antarctic Program research vessel Laurence M. Gould. Warned in advance, however, we knew we were going nowhere and cancelled those field seasons. Fast-forward through two years and lots of negotiations, and we were ready to defy the sea ice via passage on the Nathaniel B. Palmer (NBP), a larger ice-breaking vessel equipped with small boat and helicopter support.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The team's campsite in Antarctica Photograph: Kerin Claeson
Then (wouldn't you guess it?) 2016 was among the warmest austral summers on record, with little sea ice and extensive exposure of potentially fossil-bearing rock. So, it took AP3 only four years of patient preparation, two days of flights to reach Chile, five days of polar field-camp and preparedness training, and four days of cruising through the Straits of Magellan, Drake Passage, and Weddell Sea before we took a short Zodiac ride to the shore of Vega Island on February 13, 2016. We had made it, and we were ready to science day and night for the next five weeks, on and off the shores of the islands in the James Ross group.
Of course we were not done facing the elements: water, earth, wind, but no fire (no wood means no campfires and no marshmallows!). By water, I mostly mean the frozen sort. We were not permitted to traverse over ice, much to the dismay of all my friends and family who honestly hoped we would be the team to actually uncover The Thing. No, we were intent on prospecting and digging for fossils, so regardless of potential safety issues, we simply avoided travel over glaciers. We stuck to exposed rock and soil surfaces, of which there were many, and fortunately for the AP3, most of these areas were filled with fossils peeking out of the earth.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Part of a fossil fish skull recovered this year Photograph: Kerin Claeson
We encountered a lot of frozen ground, which actually was great to work on – that is, until it thawed later in the day and we (well |
177 | true | 312 | Brewmaster Olaf is an alcohol merchant in Leopard's Tail Valley.
Location [ edit ]
Items offered [ edit ]
Merchant
Click here to edit this table
Belcher's Bluff Kit
Click here to edit this table
Dialogue [ edit ]
Only while preparing ale (and not currently a merchant) Care for some ale? No camp is complete without some fine brew, especially not a Pact camp. And you won't find finer brew anywhere. Finest ale around, huh? Absolutely. The glaciers here are the finest source of pristine, fresh water that any brewmaster could hope to find. Is it just the water that makes the difference? Not entirely. I get some special ingredients delivered straight from Hoelbrak; those certainly help. I've also found some surprisingly good ingredients native to this area that add a unique flavor. Where did you find those? Ha! I'm not giving away my secrets. You're welcome to buy some ale when the next batch is ready, though. I look forward to it. Hoelbrak, huh? Interesting. So the secret is quality water. Good to know. Why would a Pact camp need it more? Members from three organizations with different ideals trying to work together and collaborate? They're gonna need something to get along over. I think ale can help with that. And you say yours is the finest? same as "Finest ale around, huh? That make sense. Not right now.
Quotes [ edit ] |
178 | true | 514 | Please enable Javascript to watch this video
BALLWIN, MO (KTVI) – St. Louis County is unveiling its new radio system for first responders this week. Tax dollars from a special sales tax will pay for $66.4 million dollars of equipment. It will connect police, fire and emergency medical crews on special radio channels when multiple agencies are needed for a natural or manmade emergency.
St. Louis County Public Safety Supervisor Daniel Davis said surrounding counties are in the process of joining the communication effort. The terror attack on September 11, 2001 magnified the old system's shortcomings.
"We didn't have the capability for police, fire and medical to talk to one another," Davis explained. "Now we can supply a radio channel for a particular incident or a tornado. Everybody can speak with one another to give optimal service in the area where it's required."
The unified system should reduce the time it takes for commanders on the scene to reach first responders when additional help is needed.
A new emergency operations center is now open and the county's outdoor tornado siren system has been upgraded thanks to the special emergency communications sales tax that was approved by voters in 2009.
The operations center includes a new 911 answering and police dispatch facility that is large enough to accommodate countywide dispatching service if that is needed. Forty agencies contract with St. Louis County for dispatching service.
Nineteen other 911 answering centers exist in St. Louis County. Municipal police departments own and operate the other centers. Some of them offer service to smaller police departments under a contract. St. Louis County provided the upgraded radio equipment to each of those centers.
But each 911 center has its own computer dispatching system. Emergency 911 calls made with cell phones can also produce varying results.
"There are still many cell phones out there using older technology. Those cell phone companies are not able to provide us with exact coordinate information for where the call is originating from," Davis said.
Cell phone users need to give dispatchers their precise location to insure first responders can find them.
St. Louis County is in the process of upgrading the 911 system but cell phone owners and their service providers must also improve their technology. "The next generation 911 will certainly allow us a little better ability to pinpoint cell phone users and as everybody upgrades their cell phones and the older technology phones go by the wayside then we'll certainly be able to do a better job pinpointing where they are calling from," said Davis. |
179 | false | 1,024 | BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) - At a rally on Alain Juppe's home ground in Bordeaux last week, a group of supporters tried to get the crowd clapping and chanting before the conservative presidential hopeful took to the stage. They failed.
French politician Alain Juppe, current mayor of Bordeaux, a member of the conservative Les Republicains political party and candidate for the centre-right presidential primary, attends a political rally as he campaigns in Bordeaux, France, November 9, 2016. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
And during the meeting, there was nothing to match the electric atmosphere at rallies for former president Nicolas Sarkozy, Juppe's rival to be the French conservatives' candidate in next year's presidential election.
The scene in the town where Juppe has been mayor for most of the past 20 years showed the challenge he faces ahead of Sunday's voting for the Republican party nomination: Can he fire up enough voters to back him?
The former prime minister, 71, has been ahead in opinion polls for months, seen as a safe bet in a primary election whose winner has a good chance of becoming president next year.
But the race is tightening in its final days, with one poll showing Juppe losing to another former prime minister, Francois Fillon, who has unexpectedly gained momentum.
Even if Juppe does win the primaries, his path to the Elysee Palace is complicated by Wednesday's announcement by Socialist President Francois Hollande's former economy minister Emmanuel Macron that he will run for president. Macron, 38, is popular among centrists and could take votes from Juppe in the presidential election.
Polls show the bigger the turnout the better are Juppe's chances in the primaries. Party managers are working furiously to get the vote out.
"What matters is not how loud the crowd is but who turns up to vote," said Gilles Boyer, Juppe's campaign director.
French politician Alain Juppe, current mayor of Bordeaux, a member of the conservative Les Republicains political party and candidate for the centre-right presidential primary, arrives to attend a political rally as he campaigns in Bordeaux, France, November 9, 2016. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
"It's time to engage everyone!" Juppe told supporters in Paris.
But Donald Trump's surprise U.S. election win against Hillary Clinton, a candidate in many ways similar to Juppe, has given hope to the French politician's opponents, amid fears that polling is failing to give the full picture.
Anybody can take part in the conservative primaries, making it hard to identify who will vote and who will win.
"That was the case in the United States and is also a problem for pollsters for the primaries," said Sciences Po Bordeaux university professor Jean Petaux. "We must take opinion polls with a big pinch of salt."
What could help Juppe is the fact that many voters don't much like the alternatives.
"He's a good mayor and I like what he did in Bordeaux," said local resident Maryline Coudouin. "But I have a bit of an issue with his age." She was however likely to back Juppe "for lack of any other option".
AUSTERE IMAGE
In an effort to shed his austere image, Juppe has allowed himself to be photographed dancing with pensioners at a retirement home and has gone on television to confess to numerous affairs between his two marriages.
In an autobiography published in September he recalled a childhood dream of growing up to be the pope.
Slideshow (4 Images)
Under Juppe, a refurbished Bordeaux has attracted tourists and new residents. Old buildings have been cleaned up, a tram network built and the Garonne river quays opened to the public.
He has worked with local left-wing mayors and promoted inter-faith dialogue, which differentiated him from Sarkozy, who has mocked Juppe's political alliances and taken a hard line on Islam.
The two candidates' economic policies are largely similar — cutting public spending and scrapping a tax on the wealthy. But aides say that, unlike Sarkozy, Juppe can unite people across party lines.
"He is shy and not much of an extrovert and doesn't much like to talk about himself," Virginie Calmels, Juppe's deputy in Bordeaux, said in an interview. "But he is a statesman, he is pragmatic and he brings people together."
Juppe's long political history has come under scrutiny in this latest campaign. He has been seen as cold and rigid, especially since his time as prime minister in 1995-1997, when he faced weeks of strikes over pension reform.
But he seemed |
180 | true | 866 | The chase to corral two runaway capybaras in a Toronto park had, by last week, seen strategy after strategy falter and fall by the wayside.
First, searchers tried to blitz the animals, sending more than 30 High Park staffers out in hot pursuit. Then they tried to lure them back to their zoo pen with corn. Then they tried to catch them with a net, and almost snared one of them in a coyote trap, which proved too small.
And then they finally found something that worked: Blocking cars and people from an area where one of the capybaras was known to lurk, deploying a larger cage out in the open, and watching patiently as they waltzed inside, as one did Sunday evening.
Now — with that rodent back at the zoo, recovering from its ordeal — the searchers have to do it again.
"(The second) one's going to be posing its own challenges," said Ben Lovatt, a local museum owner who has participated extensively in the chase, along with park staff and rescuers from the Toronto Wildlife Centre.
"We're giving it some time. This one's going to require a lot more study and observation before people actually go in."
The first capybara was retrieved Sunday evening in the park's southeast corner, near the drainage area of a pond, where passersby had spotted them in the days before the rescue. It came nearly three weeks after the animals — new arrivals to the High Park Zoo from a breeding program in Texas — absconded from their pen and disappeared into the park's array of trees, trails and creeks.
The search party, since then, has relied heavily on reported sightings, and on the help of Lovatt and a few other private citizens, who have spent dozens of hours in recent weeks tracking the animals' movements and behaviour.
That reconnaissance led to the first capture, said Megan Price, a spokeswoman for Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation. In a game of wits, they don't plan to stray from what has worked.
"The second plan is the same as the first plan: To narrow down, through sightings, the area that it might be located, and then to spend a couple of days looking at its patterns and its habits and where it is, so that we can really situate the traps in the best possible locations," Price said.
"We've had a couple of credible sightings. We're following those up," she added, declining to specify exactly where the second rodent has been seen.
Rescuers aren't sure which capybara they captured Sunday, and which one remains loose. One is male and the other female, but both are around six months old. Due to their youth, Price said, the veterinarian who examined the captured animal "wasn't able to ascertain the gender."
Regardless, the rodent was deemed healthy, save for a few minor scratches.
The fundamentals, meanwhile, are in place to make the second apprehension. Once sightings of the second animal become fixed in one area of the park, staff will block off nearby roads and paths, as they did on the weekend.
"It was great that they were able to cordon off the area and keep people back and keep people away," said Nathalie Karvonen, the executive director of the Toronto Wildlife Centre, whose cage made the ensnarement.
"If there had been 30 people standing there, staring at the trap, (the capybara) would never have gone in."
For now, the cat-and-mouse saga continues. Price said more than 20 staffers are stationed across High Park every day, performing their regular duties and watching, hopefully, for any flicker of fur in the distance. The public is also encouraged to stay vigilant.
"When you're working with an animal, it's a dynamic environment," Lovatt said. "You kind of have to see how things go as they go."
Price agreed, noting that the city has no projected or hopeful timeline for the second capture.
"You should probably ask the capybara that," she said. |
181 | true | 509 | Getty Images
The teams picking at the top of drafts are always hoping for immediate impact.
But for teams deeper in the order, patience is a necessity, especially with a growing sense that players entering the NFL aren't as ready as they used to be. Whether it's because of increased early entrants or the systems college teams are running, more and more teams end up drafting players who can't be immediately useful.
Panthers General Manager Dave Gettleman invoked former 49ers coach Bill Walsh saying he had a "two-year rule" to see if a player had a future with the team, but said it now has to be a three-year process.
"We're not getting instant oatmeal anymore," Gettleman said. "And you've got to understand there's going to be growing pains. Nothing's easy. A guy can have all the talent in the world. But this game is about fundamentals and when we're getting them they don't have it. So our coaches have to really coach and teach, and it takes longer."
Gettleman illustrated his willingness to take the long view last year, drafting linebacker Shaq Thompson with the 25th pick, choosing a guy who might eventually replace Thomas Davis. Thompson started 10 games but played a fairly limited role for the Panthers this year (only 34.3 percent of their defensive snaps), as they try to get the college utility player ready to contribute more.
And the guy Gettleman might have preferred to Thompson also illustrates that principle. The Panthers would have taken Florida offensive tackle D.J. Humphries, but the Cardinals chose him a pick before. Humphries wasn't ready to win a starting job out of training camp, and was inactive for all 16 games this season.
"We drafted D.J. last year knowing we were going to redshirt him because we had so much to teach him," Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said. "If he threw him out there, he was going to fail. Once they fail, it's hard to get those scars off. He didn't dress a game purposefully just to get better and better."
For teams like the Panthers and Cardinals which have had success recently, it's easier to give a guy time to learn, since the staffs have a sense of security that allows development. Bad teams with coaches under pressure don't have the luxury. It also takes a roster talented enough that rookies aren't forced into situations they're not ready for. |
182 | false | 1,024 | Net
Net is a HttpRequest wrapper written in Swift
Features
GET, POST, PUT, DELETE method
GET, POST, PUT, DELETE method Powerful request params: nested params, number, string, dic, array, image, data
Powerful request params: nested params, number, string, dic, array, image, data Json, Image, Xml Response
Json, Image, Xml Response Download file: resume, suspend, cancel
Download file: resume, suspend, cancel Upload file, data, params(multi-part)
Upload file, data, params(multi-part) Progress closure
Progress closure Background donwload, upload
Background donwload, upload Authentication
Authentication Batch of operations
Batch of operations BaseURL
BaseURL Customizable header
Demo app
Usage
Use one of the following methods to create a Net instance
// without baseURL let net = Net () // with baseURL let net = Net ( baseUrlString : " http://www.puqiz.com/ " )
HttpRequest
GET Request
let url = " get_path " let params = [ " integerNumber " : 1 , " doubleNumber " : 2.0 , " string " : " hello " ] net. GET (url, params : params, successHandler : { responseData in let result = responseData. json ( error : nil ) NSLog ( " result \( result ) " ) }, failureHandler : { error in NSLog ( " Error " ) }) // you can also make a request with absolute url let url = " http://www.puqiz.com/get_path " net. GET ( absoluteUrl : url, params : params, successHandler : { responseData in let result = responseData. json ( error : nil ) NSLog ( " result \( result ) " ) }, failureHandler : { error in NSLog ( " Error " ) })
You can also use nested params
// nested params let params = [ " string " : " test " , " integerNumber " : 1 , " floatNumber " : 1.5 , " array " : [ 10 , 20 , 30 ], " dictionary " : [ " x " : 100.0 , " y " : 200.0 ], " image " : NetData ( pngImage : img, filename : " myIcon " )]
By using responseData in sucessHandler closure you can quickly
get json dictionary
get image
parse xml
for GET, POST, PUT, DELETE request.
// get json dictionary from response data let jsonDic = responseData. json ( error : error) // get image from response data let image = responseData. image () // parse xml with delegate let result = responseData. parseXml ( delegate : self )
POST Request
Net will automatically check your params to send request as a URL-Encoded request or a Multi-Part request. So you can easily post with number, string, image or binary data.
URL-Encoded Request
let url = " post_path " let params = [ " string " : " test " , " integerNumber " : 1 , " floatNumber " : 1.5 ] net. POST (url, params : params, successHandler : { responseData in let result = responseData. json ( error : nil ) NSLog ( " result: \( result ) " ) }, failureHandler : { error in NSLog ( " Error " ) })
Multi-Part Request
let url = " post_path " let img = UIImage ( named : " puqiz_icon " ) let params = [ " string " : " test " , " integerNumber " : 1 , " icon " : NetData ( pngImage : img, filename : " myIcon " )] net. POST (url, params : params, successHandler : { responseData in let result = responseData. json ( error : nil ) NSLog ( " result: \( result ) " ) }, failureHandler : { error in NSLog ( " Error " ) })
PUT Request
let url = " put_path " let params = [ " string " : " test " , " integerNumber " : 1 , " floatNumber " : 1.5 ] net. PUT (url, params : params, successHandler : { responseData in let result = responseData. json ( error : nil ) NSLog ( " result: \( result ) " ) }, failureHandler : { error in NSLog ( " Error " ) })
DELETE Request
let url = " delete_path " let params = [ " id " : 10 |
183 | true | 935 | "If the position I'm taking — which is that we need a lot more information — is rocking the boat," he said, "then I'm going to be rocking the boat."
Much of the attention surrounding Qatar has focused on its climate. It is hot in the Middle East . In the summer, temperatures can routinely reach 130 degrees. Even if the stadiums use advanced cooling technology — promised by the Qataris in their bid, but still untested — it is not a stretch to think there will be issues. No one disputes this.
Photo
But that does not mean there are not other considerations. Gulati divides the concerns into four categories: how a change affects participants, including players, officials and fans; how it affects FIFA's economics (as it relates, for example, to television agreements); how it affects FIFA constituents, like the various domestic leagues and club teams around the world; and how it affects the Qatari organizing committee, which ostensibly bid on a summer World Cup.
All of these factors are significant. Some observers have speculated that a change in dates could lead various entities — including the countries that lost out on the bid to host the 2022 World Cup — to seek legal action. Corporate partners with FIFA might take similar paths, opening the organization to serious liability. Would the Qatari organizers indemnify FIFA against potential legal problems? "We don't know anything about that," Gulati said. "But obviously that is important to know."
Many of the European leagues have come out against a move to winter because of the havoc it would cause with league schedules. The United States would not have that issue ( Major League Soccer 's season runs from spring to fall), but that does not mean there would not be conflicts with a switch to a tournament in November. In just one example, Fox and Telemundo bid about $1 billion to broadcast the World Cup in the United States in 2018 and 2022. The expectation was that those tournaments would be played in the summer.
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"There is another rather important sport that plays in the United States in the fall," Gulati said. "How does a move affect us trying to promote the game if we're up against the N.F.L. or college football now? That's a reality we have to consider. And it's just one of a hundred things like that which need to be considered."
Blatter and Platini, among others, seem to feel otherwise. Platini has taken public digs at the English officials questioning the logistics of a switch, chirping that "we respect your calendar for 150 years — for one month in 150 years you can change." Blatter appears uninterested in dissenting opinions, noting in an interview with the Web site Inside World Football that his organization is "the owner of the FIFA World Cup" and adding that he thinks "it is high time that Europe starts to understand that we do not rule the world anymore."
At this point, it seems all but certain that the World Cup will be staged in Qatar. A change in nations is unlikely, and while there are human rights concerns with Qatar — just as there are with the 2014 Olympics and the 2018 World Cup in Russia — that is not the main problem of the moment.
Gulati, who was part of the failed bid from the United States to host in 2022, acknowledged that losing to Qatar stung. "It was a significant setback, personally and professionally and for our federation," he said. Still, he said he was not interested in looking back. "I am in a different role now," he said. "There is a different question now."
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That question is simply when. Summer or winter? Winter or summer? It is a switch that makes all the difference, and that is why Gulati wants a little more time. Not years, he said. Maybe just a few months. A few months for a tournament that isn't for nine years. Even coming from FIFA's loudest critics, that hardly sounds unreasonable. |
184 | true | 953 | Spare us any more hooey about "preventing fraud" and "protecting the integrity of the ballot box." The Republican-led crusade for voter ID laws has been revealed as a cynical ploy to disenfranchise as many likely Democratic voters as possible, with poor people and minorities the main targets.
Recent developments in Pennsylvania — one of more than a dozen states where voting rights are under siege — should be enough to erase any lingering doubt: The GOP is trying to pull off an unconscionable crime.
Late last month, the majority leader of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Mike Turzai, was addressing a meeting of the Republican State Committee. He must have felt at ease among friends because he spoke a bit too frankly.
Ticking off a list of recent accomplishments by the GOP-controlled Legislature, he mentioned the new law forcing voters to show a photo ID at the polls. Said Turzai, with more than a hint of triumph: "Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania — done."
That's not even slightly ambiguous. The Democratic presidential candidate has won Pennsylvania in every election since 1992. But now the top Republican in the Pennsylvania House is boasting that, because of the new voter ID law, Mitt Romney will defy history and capture the state's 20 electoral votes in November.
Why on earth would Turzai imagine such a result? After all, the law applies to all voters, regardless of party affiliation. It is ostensibly meant only to safeguard the electoral process and eliminate fraud. Why would a neutral law have such partisan impact?
Thanks to figures released last week by state officials, we know the answer. It turns out that 758,939 registered Pennsylvania voters do not have the most easily obtained and widely used photo ID, a state driver's license. That's an incredible 9.2 percent of the registered electorate.
Most of the voters without driver's licenses live in urban areas — which just happen to be places where poor people and minorities tend to live. More than 185,000 of these voters without licenses, about one-fourth of the total, live in Philadelphia — which just happens to be a Democratic stronghold where African Americans are a plurality.
Could suppressing the urban minority vote really give Pennsylvania to Romney? It probably wouldn't have made a difference in 2008, when Obama trounced John McCain handily. But the statewide contest is often much closer — and turnout in Philadelphia typically is key to a Democratic candidate's prospects. In 2004, for example, John Kerry's margin over George W. Bush in the state was a mere 144,248.
Perhaps these numbers are so intoxicating that Turzai forgot the cover story about how voter ID is supposed to protect the franchise rather than selectively restrict it. His spokesman later explained that Turzai meant "the Republican presidential candidate will be on a more even keel thanks to voter ID" — in other words, there will be a level playing field once the new law eliminates all that pesky voter fraud.
That might be reasonable, except for one fact: There's no fraud to eliminate.
Prodded by GOP political activists, the Justice Department under Bush conducted an extensive, nationwide, five-year probe of voter fraud — and ended up convicting a grand total of 86 individuals, according to a 2007 New York Times report. Most of the cases involved felons or immigrants who may not have known they were ineligible to vote.
Not one case involved the only kind of fraud that voter ID could theoretically prevent: impersonation of a registered voter by someone else. Pennsylvania and other voter ID states have, in essence, passed laws that will be highly effective in eradicating unicorns.
The Pennsylvania law and others like it are under attack in the courts; this week, a federal three-judge panel in Washington is hearing arguments on Texas's year-old law, with a ruling expected next month. Meanwhile, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a conservative Republican, broke with orthodoxy last week and vetoed bills that would have toughened an existing voter ID statute. Maybe the tide is turning. If it doesn't, these laws will potentially disenfranchise or discourage millions of qualified voters.
In a previous column, I wrote that voter ID was a solution in search of a problem. I was wrong: The problem seems to be that too many of the wrong kind of voters — low-income, urban, African American, Hispanic — are showing up at the polls. Republican candidates have been vowing to "take back" the country. Now we know how.
eugenerobinson@washpost.com |
185 | true | 450 | Amazon wants to build more distribution space in Romulus, and the state will vote Tuesday on whether it should support it with $5 million in tax incentives.
The facility will cost $140 million.
"(Amazon) plans to construct a new state-of-the-art fulfillment center in the City of Romulus, make investments and create jobs related to general warehousing and storage," according to background material for the Michigan Strategic Fund meeting in Lansing.
The online retail giant is considering property in Romulus for the facility. An exact location was not immediately available, though it is in the Aerotropolis boundaries along the I-94 and I-275 corridors.
The move would create 1,600 new jobs, according to the state memo.
"In order to make the operation move at the level of efficiency necessary, there are substantial road and other infrastructure improvements needed," according to the MSF memo.
"Providing this performance based incentive will help the Company offset some of the costs related to infrastructure improvements. In addition, Wayne County Aerotropolis is evaluating establishing an LDFA to capture state and local taxes to assist with infrastructure improvements."
This is the second tax incentive request by Amazon in the past year for property in Wayne County.
In December 2016, it was awarded a $7.5 million Michigan Business Development Program performance based grant for the creation of 1,000 jobs in Livonia. None of that money has been disbursed, since the facility is under construction.
The Livonia facility is 1 million square feet, according to city records. That property will open later this year, and it represented one of the largest job creation announcements by the state in 2016.
Amazon employs about 250 in a Detroit tech office, at Brilliance Audio in Grand Haven - where employees record audio books, among other things - and at a 210,000-square-foot sortation center in Brownstown Township, southwest of Detroit.
Amazon [NASDAQ: AMZN] stock traded at $998 per share on Monday, giving the company a value of $477 billion, based on outstanding shares.
The company employs about 200,000 globally. |
186 | true | 389 | The metabolic syndrome is a complex clustering of metabolic defects associated with physical inactivity, abdominal adiposity, and aging.
PURPOSE:
To examine the effects of exercise training intensity on abdominal visceral fat (AVF) and body composition in obese women with the metabolic syndrome.
METHODS:
Twenty-seven middle-aged obese women (mean +/- SD; age = 51 +/- 9 yr and body mass index = 34 +/- 6 kg x m(-2)) with the metabolic syndrome completed one of three 16-wk aerobic exercise interventions: (i) no-exercise training (Control): seven participants maintained their existing levels of physical activity; (ii) low-intensity exercise training (LIET): 11 participants exercised 5 d x wk(-1) at an intensity < or = lactate threshold (LT); and (iii) high-intensity exercise training (HIET): nine participants exercised 3 d x wk(-1) at an intensity > LT and 2 d x wk(-1) < or = LT. Exercise time was adjusted to maintain caloric expenditure (400 kcal per session). Single-slice computed tomography scans obtained at the L4-L5 disc space and midthigh were used to determine abdominal fat and thigh muscle cross-sectional areas. Percent body fat was assessed by air displacement plethysmography.
RESULTS:
HIET significantly reduced total abdominal fat (P < 0.001), abdominal subcutaneous fat (P = 0.034), and AVF (P = 0.010). There were no significant changes observed in any of these parameters within the Control or the LIET conditions.
CONCLUSIONS:
The present data indicate that body composition changes are affected by the intensity of exercise training with HIET more effectively for reducing total abdominal fat, subcutaneous abdominal fat, and AVF in obese women with the metabolic syndrome. |
187 | false | 1,024 | A sex tape featuring the late transgender rights activist Alexis Arquette has been sold to a porn company for $25,000.
The tape, part of which has been seen by DailyMail.com and which shows the actress in a compromising position, has now been destroyed.
Arquette, who was 47, died from AIDS-related complications in the early hours of Sunday morning in a Los Angeles hospital.
But less than 24 hours later, a former lover began hawking the tape – which is thought to have been made around two years ago – in a bid to cash in on her death.
Online porn site xHamster.com paid the five-figure sum for the video late on Monday but told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that every copy of the tape has now been obliterated.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, xHamster spokesman Alex Hawkins said the company acted to stop the man from 'smearing her memory'.
Arquette, who was 47, died from AIDS-related complications in the early hours of Sunday morning in a Los Angeles hospital. A sex tape hawked by an ex-lover less than 24 hours later has been bought by a porn site which subsequently destroyed it
Arquette had reportedly been living as a man in the final months, a former boyfriend earlier revealed
'Ms. Arquette was an icon and activist in the trans community and we could not see someone smear her memory the way the selling party was trying to do,' he said.
'We acquired the tape and subsequently destroyed all copies of it.
'We hope people will remember Ms. Arquette for the activist that she was and that her memory will continue to live on.'
Few details can be released about the seller, apart from the fact he is male, due to a legal agreement signed by the porn company.
Arquette, who died surrounded by her loved ones on Sunday morning, was born Robert in July 1969 but transitioned in 2006 – becoming one of the world's most famous transgender women.
After transitioning, she became a high profile campaigner for LGBTQ rights but remains best known for her acting career, which included roles in Pulp Fiction and The Wedding Singer.
Arquette, who died surrounded by her loved ones on Sunday morning, was born Robert in July 1969. But she transitioned in 2006 – becoming one of the world's most famous transgender women
The 47-year-old is thought to have been in a coma in the four days leading up to her death and passed away to the sound of David Bowie's Starman.
News of her death was broken by her brother Richmond on social media, who took to Facebook to pay tribute to the late actress.
He wrote: 'I am feeling immense gratitude to have been afforded the luxury of sharing life with him/her, for learning from Alexis, for being given the gift of being able to love him/her.
'Thank you, Alexis, I love you and will love you always.'
The following day, a former boyfriend, Robert Dupont, 47, revealed that the actress had died of complications related to AIDS – and claimed she had begun living as a man again just before her death.
'Alexis was living with AIDS and he had an inoperable tumor and he had developed an infection. I was told that went to his liver and throughout his body,' Dupont told Radar Online.
'My twin brother Richard and I had lunch with him in Santa Monica less than a month ago,' Arquette's former boyfriend continued.
'Ms. Arquette was an icon and activist in the trans community and we could not see someone smear her memory the way the selling party was trying to do,' a spokesman for xHamster said
'Alexis had changed over and was living as a man again and he asked me if I had any clothes I didn't want that he could wear. I had only a few things I had with me as I was visiting from Palm Springs.'
He also revealed that Arquette had spent his final months living in an Actor's Fund home for people with HIV but 'hated it'.
'He was working as an artist and living in an Actors Fund home in West Hollywood for people with HIV and AIDS. He hated it,' said Dupont.
'People kept breaking into his apartment and they did alcohol and drugs. Alexis hated that. He never did drugs and he didn't drink.'
Meanwhile, tributes to the late star have flooded in – including from Arquette's former sister-in-law Courtney Cox, 52.
The ex-Friends actress, who was married to Arquette's brother David between 1999 and 2003, wrote on social media that she would 'love and miss you forever'.
David Arquette was spotted attending a funeral home on Monday following the death of his |
188 | true | 551 | Updated August 11, 2012, 1:28 AM ET
(CBS/AP) NORFOLK, Va. - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will announce his running mate Saturday morning in Norfolk, Va., his campaign said Friday night.
The short list of candidates -- if there is one -- is believed to include Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. In a statement issued Friday night, the Romney campaign said the running mate would be revealed at 9 a.m. EDT at the Nauticus Museum. Romney is kicking off a four-day bus tour through swing states.
A source tells CBS News that Romney called Portman to say he wouldn't be vice president. Portman will be participating in a bike ride in Ohio Saturday, as planned, to raise money for cancer research.
Speculation has focused in recent days on Ryan, the seven-term congressman. Conservative pundits have been urging Romney to choose Ryan in large part because of his authorship of a House-backed budget plan that seeks to curb overall entitlement spending and changes Medicaid into a voucher-like system to save costs.
Pawlenty was maintaining his Saturday schedule campaigning for Romney in New Hampshire, an official close to Pawlenty's political team said. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak ahead of the formal announcement.
The Wall Street Journal, in an editorial on Thursday, praised Ryan as a strong choice for Romney: "The case for Mr. Ryan is that he best exemplifies the nature and stakes of this election. More than any other politician, the House budget chairman has defined those stakes well as a generational choice about the role of government and whether America will once again become a growth economy or sink into interest-group dominated decline."
Romney's choice comes as he tries to repair an image damaged by negative Democratic advertising and shift the trajectory of a campaign that's seen him lose ground to President Barack Obama.
The vice presidential selection will dominate headlines, and Romney's team has been relentlessly teasing the announcement for weeks.
Romney's bus tour was expected to include appearances with Portman, as well as two others talked about as possible contenders for running mate: Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
The tour starts Saturday and will take Romney through four must-win states in as many days: North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and Ohio. All are battlegrounds where Obama won in 2008. While Obama could afford to lose in one or more of them and still reach the 270 electoral votes needed for another term, Romney almost certainly needs all four to beat him. |
189 | true | 259 | A man has become the first person in Scotland to be convicted of illegally recording in a cinema and uploading films for profit.
Christopher Clarke pleaded guilty to a charge under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The 25-year-old was sentenced at Glasgow Sheriff Court to 160 hours of community service.
Clarke was caught after an operation between police, Cineworld and the Federation Against Copyright Theft.
The Crown Office said it was a landmark conviction for illegal recording in a Scottish cinema.
John Dunn, area procurator fiscal for Glasgow, said: "Christopher Clarke repeatedly pirated films from cinema screenings and uploaded them to the internet for profit.
"Piracy is by no means a victimless crime - it undermines legitimate businesses and the arts sector as a whole, and can be used to channel money into organised crime.
"I hope this sends a strong message to all those who believe that they can remain anonymous solely because they commit their crimes over the internet.
"They should beware that the investigative authorities of Scotland work tirelessly to remain at the forefront of forensic computer analysis and technological specialism - we can and will track down those who pirate films, whether the profit is made in cyberspace or a marketplace." |
190 | false | 1,024 | ◄ Hosea 2 ► Parallel Chapters Israel's Unfaithfulness Punished NIV ESV NASB KJV HCSB 1 "Say of your brothers, 'My people,' and of your sisters, 'My loved one.' 1 Say to your brothers, "You are my people," and to your sisters, "You have received mercy." 1 Say to your brothers, "Ammi," and to your sisters, "Ruhamah." 1 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. 1 Call your brothers: My People and your sisters: Compassion. 2 "Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. 2 "Plead with your mother, plead— for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband— that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; 2 "Contend with your mother, contend, For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; And let her put away her harlotry from her face And her adultery from between her breasts, 2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; 2 Rebuke your mother; rebuke her. For she is not My wife and I am not her husband. Let her remove the promiscuous look from her face and her adultery from between her breasts. 3 Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst. 3 lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. 3 Or I will strip her naked And expose her as on the day when she was born. I will also make her like a wilderness, Make her like desert land And slay her with thirst. 3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. 3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her as she was on the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and like a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst. 4 I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery. 4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. 4 "Also, I will have no compassion on her children, Because they are children of harlotry. 4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. 4 I will have no compassion on her children because they are the children of promiscuity. NIV ESV NASB KJV HCSB 5 Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.' 5 For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.' 5 "For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.' 5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. 5 Yes, their mother is promiscuous; she conceived them and acted shamefully. For she thought, "I will go after my lovers, the men who give me my food and water, my wool and flax, my oil and drink." 6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. 6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. 6 "Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths. 6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she |
191 | false | 1,024 | Currently the labeling of rivers is a bit of kludge (i.e., a complete kludge) that happens separately before all the other labeling. The algorithm looks along the river for a spot long enough to accommodate the label and not too curvy. If there's a city or another river joining this river, the algorithm skips over that obstruction and starts looking again. If it eventually finds a suitable spot, it makes a copy of the river (path) where it wants to place the label, relaxes the copied path (so it's less curvy than the river) and then writes the label along that path with an offset so that it isn't directly on top of the river. Somewhere in there it also has to figure out whether to flip the label so that it doesn't end up reading left-to-right. (In the above map, you can see that "R. Geheyusckuta" has been flipped.) Generally speaking, this works fairly well but has some drawbacks. The algorithm is conservative, so when it places a river label it usually looks okay, but it means a lot of rivers go unlabeled. And since river labels are placed before all other labels and treated as obstacles, they sometimes prevent good placement of other labels. Finally, the algorithm is specific to rivers, and doesn't work for labeling other paths. For these reasons, I'd like to build general path labels into the simulated annealing algorithm, and let them get positioned in concert with all the other labels. Much of what I have written for the existing river labels algorithm will still be applicable. The simulated annealing will find a location for the label, but the rest of displaying the label on the map will be very similar to the current algorithm. (I hope!) To add path labels to the simulated annealing algorithm I need two elements: (1) a way to find new candidate locations, and (2) the criteria for judging how good a location would be for the label. A candidate location for a path label starts by selecting a location on the path. Just to get the code going, I started by selecting the start of the river and anchoring the labels there.
(I've turned off the forests to make the labels more visible.) That seems to be working, so now I'll extend that to anchor the label at a random point along the length of the river, like this:
This is actually a little harder to do than you might imagine, because I have the path as a series of line segments. So picking a random point along there involves something like picking a random line segment -- weighted by the length of the segment -- and then picking a random point within the segment. Fortunately, there turns out to be an easier approach. Since I've drawn the path, I can make use of some of the browser-provided methods for dealing with SVG paths. It turns out that the browser provides a method for measuring down the length of a path and finding the screen point at that location. So I can generate a candidate point by generating a random number between 0 and the length of the path and then using the SVG method to find the point at that distance. This point represents the start of the label. Here's what it looks like to generate random start points this way and anchor the labels there:
So now I have a method that can generate a new candidate position for the start of the label somewhere along the river. However, recall that in simulated annealing there's a "temperature" that drops as the algorithm progresses. As the temperature drops, new candidate positions should jump around less -- that is, they should progressively be restricted to being closer and closer to the current position. I accommodate this by picking points in a window around the current position, rather than randomly along the whole length of the river. As the temperature drops, I make the window smaller and smaller. In the picture above, the labels are horizontal like the city and area labels. But for path labels, I don't want them to be horizontal, but to follow the path. To get started implementing that, I need the point on the path where the label would end if it was lying along the path. In other words, if the label has a length 'l', I now want to look along the path until I find a point that is at least 'l' distance away from the start point:
The closest this point can be (if the path in-between is a straight line) is an additional distance "l" down the path. If the path is not perfectly straight, then it's actually further along the path. In that case, I step along the path in small increments until I hit the first point that is "l" or further away from the start point. (Mentally you may be objecting that this isn't exactly right if |
192 | true | 85 | Taiko skin runs really bad (at least on my machine) because taiko-slider.png and taiko-slider-fail.png are just 1x1px and (I guess) are rendered thousands of times. Resizing them to 776x162 (size taken from other skin), it runs just fine. Other than that, really nice skin, I will be using it for a while. |
193 | false | 1,024 | Survivor: Blood vs. Water was the first season to see loved ones competing against each other, and two of those loved ones pairs were married couples Brad and Monica Culpepper and John and Candice Cody. The castaways were divided into two tribes: Galang, comprised of returning players, and Tadhana, the returning players' loved ones. John's wife Candice was booted from Galang in an immediate vote-off and sent to Redemption Island. Despite this initial setback, John quickly got himself into the majority on Tadhana as part of Brad's all guys alliance. John trusted Brad, even going so far as to share idol clues with him, but as Tadhana continued to lose, Brad became paranoid that Candice would return to the game and take John away from him. Brad's paranoia led to him blindsiding John and sending him to Redemption Island; this move saw the end of the all guys alliance when at the next tribal council the tribe voted out Brad. Both John and Brad eventually lost at Redemption Island, leaving the game pre-merge.
Inside Survivor reached out to John to get his thoughts on Brad's return to Survivor: Game Changers.
Disclaimer: This interview was conducted in June 2016 while Survivor: Game Changers was still filming in Fiji.
1) Hey John, thanks for doing this. In Blood vs. Water, it was presented on TV as if Brad was in control of those first few votes. Was that true? If so, how did he gain such control?
Brad was definitely in control for the first vote, since he quickly went around and got all the guys together. Everyone was on board with not being the first to go home, so we let it ride. He definitely was less in control the second vote. At that point, Vytas Baskauskas really took over until the swap in my opinion.
2) He came across to viewers as a bold, in-your-face type character. What was he like to live with day-to-day? Big personality all the time? Or did he have a chill side too?
Brad is a very entertaining guy. He's very much a "talk first, think later" kind of guy which is great for entertainment purposes. He had a ton of stories and jokes and was generally well liked. That's not to say that his personality isn't off-putting to some people. He would definitely fill the air if it were vacant, which means a lot coming from a loud, talkative guy like me, and I think that bothered some people. So I guess he's a big personality all the time. Even his "chill" side is intense and high energy.
3) Brad seemed to be all about the "bro down" in Blood vs. Water. What was his relationship like with the women on the tribe?
I don't know what most of the women (except Marissa Peterson) thought on the whole about Brad, but he didn't make much of an effort at all to include them in strategy. I do know that a few people felt like he talked "at" them a lot and not "with" them.
4) Brad blindsided you because he didn't trust that you'd stay loyal to him at the merge. Was Brad right to make that move? What was your plan moving forward?
No, it was an idiotic move! We've talked about it since, and he agrees, but always defends it in the context of worrying about his wife, Monica. Ultimately it led to his downfall. Before I was voted out by Brad and Vytas, we hadn't talked about breaking up the five guys alliance at all. His concern was that if Candice came back in (which she very likely would have), that she would not want to work with Brad and Monica. That is probably true, but that was many many moves ahead. He had no idea if Monica would even make it that far. He made a move that fractured our alliance and made people not trust each other, and basically helped keep the tribe weaker and going to tribal council over and over again.
At the end of the day, at a really early time point, he turned on the one person who said they would look out for him because I needed people like him around to keep the target off of me. It didn't work out for either of us. I would have kept working with Brad and even Monica if it suited my gameplay, but if I had the opportunity to vote Monica out, I absolutely would have done it after she voted for Candice. The family dynamic was pretty suffocating in our season from a gameplay perspective.
5) What is Brad's most positive attribute and his most negative attribute?
Brad is a likable guy, very good at challenges, and really helpful around camp. Honestly, if he can lay low, he probably can do really well and make it far. He's |
194 | false | 1,024 | So you bought hair products with the word "curl" on the bottles and watched a few tutorials by a YouTuber who has your dream curls, but for some reason your hair still isn't coming out the way you want it to. Let's take a step back: Do you have the same curl pattern as the person whose curls you're envying? If not, you may be setting your curls up to fail.
If you are new to the world of natural curls, getting to know your curl pattern can help you discover styling techniques and products that will work for you. You'll also be able to more easily find the videos that'll be most relevant to you.
Related: What's Your Hair Type? Take The Quiz
What's a curl pattern?
At NaturallyCurly, we find it useful to divide curl patterns into three main groups: wavy, curly, and coily. We know "curly" means a lot of things to a lot of people, and we wince when we see comments on social media saying "Those aren't real curls; those are just waves!" We have no tolerance for comments that insinuate that one curl pattern is better or worse than another. It goes without saying, but we'll say it anyway: We want women of all curl patterns to love and embrace their hair. This texture-typing system is not meant to be divisive, but to provide guidance that will help you care for, style, and LOVE your mane.
Where to start
The best time to identify your curl pattern is when your hair is at its healthiest state; this means moisturized and free of damage. If you have been straightening your hair for the past few years or even months, you may have heat damage. To get a clear idea of your natural curl pattern, it's best to look at it once you have stopped using heat tools — including blow dryers, flat irons, and curling wands — for at least three months. If the roots are curlier than the ends of your hair, then this is a clear indicator of heat damage, and figuring out your curl pattern may be a struggle until your natural curls grow in and the damaged ends have been cut off.
If you have curl patterns that are drastically different from each other, you may want to treat those sections of your hair differently
Remember, most people are a mix of a couple of curl patterns. As you can see in the graphic above, we included examples of someone who could be considered Type 2c/3a, and someone who fits in between Types 3c and 4a. If you feel you fit multiple curl patterns, that is totally normal. If you have curl patterns that are drastically different from each other, you may want to treat those sections of your hair differently (for example, using heavier products in one section) or some use perm rods to create a uniform curl pattern. Finding an experienced stylist who knows how to work with curls can also help customize your haircut to accommodate your multiple curl patterns (so one section doesn't look longer than another).
Below, find descriptions for the three most common types of curly hair. Within each of the categories, there are more subtle distinctions; read on to determine which one fits you best.
Wavy Hair
Wavy hair is characterized by S-shaped waves (rather than coils). Women with wavy hair typically use mousses, leave-in serums, and heat protectants rather than creams or gels, and are generally most concerned with reducing their frizz and finding products that will give their waves light hold without weighing them down. Those with wavy hair are less likely to avoid certain ingredients like silicones and sulfates, and more likely to use heat-styling tools like flat irons or curling wands. Think Taylor Swift (back before she straightened her hair) and Lorde.
If your hair is close to straight but has a loose, gentle bend, you likely have Type 2a waves. If your hair is mostly straight at the roots and more defined waves form below your eye level, your waves are Type 2b. If your waves start right at the roots and you have very defined waves mixed with actual ringlets, then you are Type 2c.
Curly Hair
Type 3 hair has more defined, springy curls that form spirals or ringlets. Those with Type 3 hair are mostly concerned with reducing frizz and adding definition. They use creams and gels to give their curls definition, and they're more likely to avoid drying ingredients in their shampoos.
If your curls are similar in size to the large sidewalk chalk you used as a kid, then you're Type 3a. If your curls have the circumference of a Sharpie, then you're Type 3b. And if your curls have the circumference of a pencil or a straw, then you're Type 3c. Many people believe ( |
195 | true | 229 | "We knew that hatred will hit us one day but there was always a brink of hope that our community outreach efforts may deflect it away from us," mosque spokesman Muhammad Babar wrote in a letter Thursday. "But fact of the matter is that we are hit hard right here in our compassionate city of Louisville at a place that is [a] center of tolerance and compassion."
Louisville police are reviewing surveillance video in an effort to identify any suspects. The FBI is also helping to investigate the vandalism as an apparent hate crime, NBC affiliate WAVE reported.
As a way to unite the community, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer is asking Muslims, Jews and others to come to the center and help paint over the graffiti Friday afternoon.
"This is an act of extremism here," Fischer said Thursday, according to the station. "Extremism of any kind will not be tolerated in our city and in our country."
Islamic centers across American have been similarly defaced in recent months. Earlier this year, a nonprofit Muslim school in Rhode Island was vandalized with "senseless, hateful comments," police told NBC News. |
196 | true | 300 | Adelaide warship arrives at Garden Island in Sydney, ahead of commissioning
Posted
Australia's newest warship, the Adelaide, has been welcomed to its new home at Garden Island in Sydney.
After its fit-out in Melbourne and a program of sea trials, the landing helicopter dock NUSHIP Adelaide berthed at Garden Island, pulling in past its sister ship, HMAS Canberra, which was commissioned last year.
The 230-metre-long air, land and sea amphibious ships, with their ski-jump flight decks, are the largest ever built for the Australian Navy, displacing a massive 27,000 tonnes and costing just more than $3 billion together.
Once Adelaide is commissioned in December, it will carry about 1,000 soldiers alongside the ship's company and apart from its defence role, it will be deployed for humanitarian duties and disaster relief.
Robyn Croucher, whose son Matthew is a Leading Seaman aboard the ship, said there was a lot of new equipment on board.
"They'll go to sea in December, so I think it will be in and out a lot in the next four years; he's on there for four years now," Mr Croucher said.
"There's a lot of training to go on because the technology on here is different than all the other ones anyway."
Topics: navy, defence-forces, garden-island-2011 |
197 | true | 651 | FEDERAL Health Minister Tony Abbott has said that while he may be seen as a "cruel, callow, callous, heartless bastard", he would not be rushing to have his own daughters vaccinated against cervical cancer.
"I won't be rushing out to get my daughters vaccinated, maybe that's because I'm a cruel, callow, callous, heartless bastard but, look, I won't be," Mr Abbott said on Southern Cross radio.
"If there is a national immunisation program, I certainly will be making sure that they get vaccinated under the program.
"The program is what the experts think clearly is absolutely necessary, and at the moment the experts don't think this is absolutely necessary."
The PBAC yesterday knocked back the application from Australian manufacturer CSL to make the Gardasil vaccine available free to all females aged 12 to 26.
Gardasil halts the spread of sexually-transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes 70 per cent of cervical cancers. At present it costs $460 for the recommended three doses.
The PBAC said it made the decision because the vaccine program - which would have cost about $625 million during its first four years - was not value for money.
CSL and scientists involved have disputed that conclusion, while politicians from both sides have condemned the decision.
Liberal Senator Jeannie Ferris, who is recovering from ovarian cancer, said the opportunity should not be lost, particularly in the country where the vaccine was developed, winning its developers a Nobel Prize.
"How embarrassing that our country is the one that is not going to vaccinate its daughters," she said.
Senator Ferris said the PBAC had made a number of recommendations and Health Minister Tony Abbott said today he was hopeful the decision could be reconsidered by March.
"I have to say I am very disappointed with the decision because the average family might have two daughters and is looking at almost $1000 to decide to give their children lifetime protection. And who doesn't want to do that," she said.
"I am optimistic that commonsense will prevail. Put a price on somebody's mother, somebody's sister, somebody's wife - $400 - I don't think so.
Labor health spokeswoman Julia Gillard said 270 women a year died from cervical cancer and 40 women were operated on every day for the disease.
That made the vaccination both cost-effective and clinically effective, she said on ABC radio.
Queensland Deputy Premier Anna Bligh said the decision was ridiculous and should be reconsidered.
"They should immediately reconsider it, and frankly the Health Minister Tony Abbott, in all conscience, has to intervene."
Ms Bligh said there were medical and economic reasons to subsidise Gardasil.
"This drug has the capacity to keep young women of the next generation free from a very serious life-threatening disease," she said.
"Secondly, if we prevent this disease, we save money in the health system. So it is a false economy for the committee to argue that this is an expensive exercise." |
198 | true | 156 | In the early 1970s during the Cold War, the head of British Intelligence, Control, resigns after an operation in Budapest, Hungary goes badly wrong. It transpires that Control believed one of four senior figures in the service was in fact a Russian agent - a mole - and the Hungary operation was an attempt to identify which of them it was. Smiley had been forced into retirement by the departure of Control, but is asked by a senior government figure to investigate a story told to him by a rogue agent, Ricky Tarr, that there was a mole. Smiley considers that the failure of the Hungary operation and the continuing success of Operation Witchcraft (an apparent source of significant Soviet intelligence) confirms this, and takes up the task of finding him. Written by David Brain |
199 | true | 658 | Apple USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter MJ1L2AM/A
Apple paves the way in today's notebooks by equipping their latest MacBook creation with the new USB-C type port. This new port technology thereby signals the new age of inputs and outputs through the association of the Apple USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter.
This multiple-interface-supporting adapter provides you with:
Power to your MacBook
One of the main functions of this MJ1L2AM/A multiport adapter is to provide power to your MacBook. The MagSafe element of the power connection has been replaced with this USB-C type connector so as to eliminate the need for bulky adapters. Just simply plug in a USB-C charging cable to your MacBook until it has sufficient battery power to enable you in working on your personal and professional tasks when you're out and about. There's actually no need for you to charge your MacBook as often, since the remodeled battery of the new MacBook is designed to give you more battery capacity to get you through the day.
Output to your display
Via a separately sold VGA cable, this multiport adapter can give you the ability to extend your MacBook's display to any VGA-enabled monitor. And, the adapter can actually support up to 1080p HD video or movies. Simply connect this adapter to your projector or TV monitor for your entertainment satisfaction!
USB connectivity options
Fully-integrated with the 1st-generation USB3.1 interface, this adapter can connect with a wide range of peripherals such as cameras, printers, flash disks, external hard drives as well as solid state drives, and other USB-compatible devices. You may even use a USB cable to charge or sync your iPod, iPhone, or iPad using your MacBook.
Split into three interfaces that work together just like they're parts of your MacBook's hardware, this adapter makes a great addition to your MacBook.
So get the Apple USB-C VGA MJ1L2AM/A Multiport Adapter today and maximize the full use of your MacBook. Shop for the USB-C accessories you need only here at MacMall!
USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter
Lets you connect your MacBook with USB-C port to a VGA display, while also connecting a standard USB device and a USB-C charging cable. The USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter allows you to mirror your MacBook display to your VGA-enabled TV or display in up to 1080p HD. It also outputs video content like movies and captured video. Simply connect the adapter to the USB-C port on your MacBook and then to your TV or projector via a VGA cable (sold separately). Use the standard USB port to connect devices such as your flash drive or camera or a USB cable for syncing and charging your iPhone, iPad, or iPod. You can also connect a charging cable to the USB-C port to charge your MacBook. Connections USB 3.1 Gen 1
USB-C
VGA System Requirements Requires a VGA cable (sold separately) for connection to your TV or projector. |
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