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Well having ranked my favourite H!P members I felt I should at least talk about my other main idol interest.
Sakura Gakuin are a great group. They have some really entertaining members and many damn catchy singles to their name. Plus once a year they release an album that is generally top quality from start to finish. In fact if I had to choose my top ten jpop albums I’d put at least three of their four albums in that top ten. That despite all the H!P albums that have been released over the years.
I guess the main gimmick with Sakura Gakuin is that they are a school-aged group where members leave once they reach a certain age. It means the groups’ image is sweet and happy with cute uniforms and lots of energy but it also means that just as the members are reaching an age where they are improving and maybe gaining popularity they leave. That’s a shame really. However the agency looks after graduated members well. After all original leader Muto Ayami is now a solo singer, Babymetal are continuing as an “after school activity” with Nakamoto Suzuka still at the helm, Iida Raura seems to be part of a duo now and Horiuchi Marina and Sato Hinata are doing voice work and have released a single with two other voice actors. Plus there are several ex-members now modelling.
The other gimmick is that the group has many sub-units all with a theme that is supposed to relate to some kind of school activity. Although I’m not sure how many schools have a metal music club! These units are a brilliant idea. They give the different members a chance to shine in units of smaller numbers, they give the opportunity for lots of different music styles and they give the opportunity for different visual styles too. Of these units Babymetal are of course the best known. They have become something far beyond what could ever have been expected. However other groups should not be overlooked. There have been some great units although most from previous albums have now ceased activities due to graduations. Even so the baton twirling Twinklestars, the Science Club, the, err…sleepy unit sleepiece and the tennis club have all had great songs. The tennis club is still going and will be joined by some new units for their upcoming fifth album. I’m particularly looking forward to the wrestling club. It sounds like a bizarre idea for a unit but one of the members, Taguchi Hana, is a huge wrestling fan and I think it’s great they can incorporate members own tastes like that.
Babymetal. World Domination underway!
Science Club Kagaku Kyumei Kiko Logica.
Sleepiece.
Twinklestars.
I can’t enthuse enough over how many great tracks Sakura Gakuin have had. Singles like Wonderful Journey, My Graduation Toss and Ganbare are well worth checking out but so are so many album tracks and spin-off sub-unit singles. For album tracks I’d suggest tracking down Friends, Message, Sleep Wonder, Hana Hana plus many sub-unit tracks. The Science Club’s Welcome to My Computer and Delta for starters and anything from sleepiece. The Science Club’s single Science Girl▽Silence Boy is a personal favourite too as is Twinklestars Please Please Please. And that’s without even mentioning global superstars Babymetal. Okay they are maybe not superstars (yet) but they are certainly global. They started off as a Sakura Gakuin sub-unit and have now travelled America supporting Lady Gaga. Surreal!
Another great thing about Sakura Gakuin is that their albums come with bonus DVDs that as well as including PVs also come with various other things such as their annual school test (thing of that Momusu idiot girl test), group quizzes, interviews and odd humorous mini-dramas. It’s a good way of getting to know the members and they are usually very entertaining to watch. They are also always fun to watch on tv shows. Their two-part appearance on Idoling a couple of years ago was a particular highlight. There are often subtitled versions of these appearances available on Youtube and they are worth checking out.
Having talked about the group I’d also like to mention my favourite members past and present. Since they say you shouldn’t live in the past I’ll start with the present. So my favourite members…
1. Ooga Saki.
When I first noticed Saki she’d only just joined. It was the PV to Suzuka’s last single My Graduation Toss and I have to say first impressions weren’t favourable. Saki gave me the impression of a more mental Mitsui Aika type. Horrified wasn’t the word! However having watched her a few times after that (especially on Idoling) my opinion changed massively. She’s just incredibly sweet, very energetic and positive, very funny, adorably cute and very very very spaztastic. In the end disliking her would feel a bit like bullying someone for being disabled. Okay that sounds like the weirdest thing to say about someone I really like. Seriously though she is very much a Marmite type. I’m sure to many people she’d be a bit too all over the place but for me the energy, positivity and sweetness just made her slowly grow to be my mumber one. She has all the happiness, energy and humour you could ever want from an idol.
2. Taguchi Hana
Hana has always been a favourite of mine ever since she joined. She has the stereotypical “Morningtime’s perfect daughter” look (previous perfect daughter: Nakajima Saki) plus she always seems good to watch live. Her mannerisms are very likeable and she’s often got humour in her performances. There’s one live song where she sings half of it lying down and then there’s her great love of wrestling which gets brought into their member rundown song Mezase! Super Lady (no she isn’t wrestling other members! Just speaking into a pretend microphone as though in the ring). On top of all that she has a big smile. ^^
3. Mizuno Yui.
One third of Babymetal and cute in personality and looks in that way only Japanese idols can be. Moa is the sweet looking one in Babymetal next to Yui who seems more mischevious looking but also somehow more grown up. Moa is just someone who captures the attention and seems like fun to watch. Another great purveyor of happiness! She also seems to fit perfectly alongside…
4. Kikuchi Moa.
Yui and Moa seem inseparable. They are always in units together. In fact I don’t think they have ever been split up for any unit yet. Babymetal, Twinklestars, the Cooking Club, it’s MoaYui all the way.
Moa gives off the impression of being the more polished performer while at the same time having a smile that makes you think she’s just put salt in the sugar bowl. She’s also that most wonderful of things: An idol that loves idols. Especially Suzuki Airi. She has even spoken of buying C-ute photobooks in the past. What’s not to like? Sakura Gakuin’s current leader has great taste!
As for past members Horiuchi Marina is the first that comes to mind.
Marina is up there with my favourite idols of all time from any group. Funny with a very weird mind (I’d like to visit MarinaWorld. I think it’d be a bit like a Japanese version of The Mighty Boosh), very expressive in her hand and body movements (and by “expressive” I mean “hyper”), pretty and with a lovely personality. Marina is awesome!
The other past member who stands out is Babymetal’s frontmetalidol Nakamoto Suzuka.
A really good singer with a very likeable personality and cute too. A strong performer and absolutely perfect for Babymetal. Like many of the members she’s been performing for a long time already. There’s even a clip of her on stage at some performing school many years ago alongside Momusu’s Sayashi Riho. These idols work bloody hard to develop their talent and they often do it from a really young age. Suzuka deserves the success she’s currently enjoying.
So that’s Sakura Gakuin. A group that also deserves success. Babymetal are riding the wave right now. I’d like Sakura Gakuin to have at least a bit of the surfboard too. They are a great group plus Amuse (their agency) really does nurture their talent and ensures it’s not limited just to their Sakura Gakuin days. An idol group that has great pop songs, interesting sub-units, entertaining members and where the members are actually being nurtured to go onto other things beyond the group? What”s not to like? | {
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Helen Keller, even though she was unable to hear or see, was famous from the age of 8 until her death in 1968. Her wide range of political, cultural, and intellectual interests and activities ensured that she knew people in all spheres of life.
Leading personalities were her friends
She counted leading personalities of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries among her friends and acquaintances. These included Eleanor Roosevelt, Will Rogers, Albert Einstein, Emma Goldman, Eugene Debs, Charlie Chaplin, John F. Kennedy, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Katharine Cornell, and Jo Davidson to name but a few.
Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama and died June 1, 1968 in Westport, CT.
She was the first of two daughters born to Arthur H. Keller and Katherine Adams Keller. She also had two older stepbrothers. Keller’s father had proudly served as an officer in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The family was not particularly wealthy and earned income from their cotton plantation. Later, Arthur became the editor of a weekly local newspaper, the North Alabamian.
Helen Keller Birthplace in Tuscumbia, Alabama
Contracted brain fever
Keller was born with her senses of sight and hearing, and started speaking when she was just 6 months old. She started walking at the age of 1.
In 1882, however, Keller contracted an illness—called “brain fever” by the family doctor—that produced a high body temperature. The true nature of the illness remains a mystery today, though some experts believe it might have been scarlet fever or meningitis. Within a few days after the fever broke, Keller’s mother noticed that her daughter didn’t show any reaction when the dinner bell was rung, or when a hand was waved in front of her face. Keller had lost both her sight and hearing. She was just 18 months old.
2nd House Built in Tuscumbia
As Keller grew into childhood, she developed a limited method of communication with her companion, Martha Washington, the young daughter of the family cook. The two had created a type of sign language, and by the time Keller was 7, they had invented more than 60 signs to communicate with each other.
But Keller had become very wild and unruly during this time. She would kick and scream when angry, and giggle uncontrollably when happy. She tormented Martha and inflicted raging tantrums on her parents. Many family relatives felt she should be institutionalized.
Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan
Saw a specialist
Looking for answers and inspiration, in 1886, Keller’s mother came across a travelogue by Charles Dickens, American Notes . She read of the successful education of another deaf and blind child, Laura Bridgman, and soon dispatched Keller and her father to Baltimore, Maryland to see specialist Dr. J. Julian Chisolm.
After examining Keller, Chisolm recommended that she see Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell met with Keller and her parents, and suggested that they travel to the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts.
There, the family met with the school’s director, Michael Anaganos. He suggested Helen work with one of the institute’s most recent graduates, Anne Sullivan. And so began a 49-year relationship between teacher and pupil.
Alexander Bell talking to Helen Keller with family and friends
Helen Keller Anne Sullivan in Tuscumbia
Started with the gift of a doll
The story of how Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become widely known through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker .
In March 1887, Sullivan went to Keller’s home in Alabama and immediately went to work. She began by teaching Helen finger spelling, starting with the word “doll,” to help Keller understand the gift of a doll she had brought along.
Helen Keller at her home 1887
Helen refused to cooperate
Other words would follow. At first, Keller was curious, then defiant, refusing to cooperate with Sullivan’s instruction. When Keller did cooperate, Sullivan could tell that she wasn’t making the connection between the objects and the letters spelled out in her hand. Sullivan kept working at it, forcing Helen to go through the regimen.
Helen Keller, Alexander Graham Bell and Anne Sullivan
Frustration grew
As Keller’s frustration grew, the tantrums increased. Finally, Sullivan demanded that she and Keller be isolated from the rest of the family for a time, so that Keller could concentrate only on Sullivan’s instruction. They moved to a cottage on the plantation.
Ivy Green Rose & Honeysuckle House Helen Keller House, 300 West North Commons, Tuscumbia, Colbert County, AL
Dramatic struggle
In a dramatic struggle, Sullivan taught Keller the word “water”; she helped her make the connection between the object and the letters by taking Keller out to the water pump, and placing Keller’s hand under the spout.
While Sullivan moved the lever to flush cool water over Keller’s hand, she spelled out the word w-a-t-e-r on Helen’s other hand. Keller understood and repeated the word in Sullivan’s hand. She then pounded the ground, demanding to know its “letter name.” Sullivan followed her, spelling out the word into her hand. Keller moved to other objects with Sullivan in tow. By nightfall, she had learned 30 words.
Helen toiled 25 years to learn to speak
In 1890, Keller began speech classes at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston. She would toil for 25 years to learn to speak so that others could understand her. From 1894 to 1896, she attended the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York City. There, she worked on improving her communication skills and studied regular academic subjects.
Around this time, Keller became determined to attend college. In 1896, she attended the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, a preparatory school for women. As her story became known to the general public, Keller began to meet famous and influential people.
Bedroom at Ivy Green
Hellen Keller and Anne Sullivan ca. 1893
Friend with Mark Twain
One of them was the writer Mark Twain, who was very impressed with her. They became friends. Twain introduced her to his friend Henry H. Rogers, a Standard Oil executive. Rogers was so impressed with Keller’s talent, drive and determination that he agreed to pay for her to attend Radcliff College. There, she was accompanied by Sullivan, who sat by her side to interpret lectures and texts.
By this time, Keller had mastered several methods of communication, including touch-lip reading, Braille, speech, typing and finger-spelling. With the help of Sullivan and Sullivan’s future husband, John Macy, Keller wrote her first book, The Story of My Life. It covered her transformation from childhood to 21-year-old college student. Keller graduated, cum laude, from Radcliffe in 1904, at the age of 24.
Helen Keller and Peter Fagan
Helen Keller’s chance for love
In 1916, Peter Fagan was hired as a secretary to accompany Helen Keller and her assistant Polly Thompson. After the tour, Annie Sullivan became seriously ill and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. While Polly took Annie to a rest home in Lake Placid, plans were made for Helen to join her mother and sister, Mildred, in Alabama. For a brief time, Helen and Peter were alone together at the farmhouse, where Peter confessed his love for Helen and asked her to marry him.
The couple tried to keep their plans a secret, but when they traveled to Boston to obtain a marriage license, the press obtained a copy of the license and published a story about Helen’s engagement. Kate Keller was furious and brought Helen back to Alabama with her.
Although Helen was 36 years old at the time, her family was very protective of her and disapproved of any romantic relationship. Several times, Peter attempted to reunite with Helen, but her family would not let him near her. At one point, Mildred’s husband threatened Peter with a gun if he did not get off his property.
Helen and Peter were never together again. Later in life, Helen described the relationship as her “little island of joy surrounded by dark waters
Helen Keller was a prolific author
A prolific author, Keller was well-traveled and outspoken in her convictions. A member of the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, she campaigned for women’s suffrage, labor rights, socialism, and other radical left causes. She was inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame in 1971.
Helen Keller’s birthplace in West Tuscumbia, Alabama is now a museum and sponsors an annual “Helen Keller Day”.
You can now give a gift of Amazon Prime = click this link to learn how – Shop Amazon – Give the Gift of Amazon Prime – A prime membership includes FREE movies, FREE music and FREE photo storage as well as FREE shipping.
Discordance: The Cottinghams (Volume 1) – A novel inspired by the experiences of the Cottingham family who immigrated from the Eastern Shore of Virginia to Bibb County, Alabama
Filled with drama, suspense, humor, and romance, DISCORDANCE continues the family saga from the Tapestry of Love series with the children of Mary Dixon who married Thomas Cottingham.
Inspired by true events and the Cottingham family that resided in 17th century Somerset, Maryland and Delaware, colonial America comes alive with pirate attacks, religious discord, and governmental disagreements in the pre-Revolutionary War days of America. | {
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Updated: September 2020; Share on: Twitter / Facebook
L: CN, CZ, DE, EN, EO, ES, FR, FI, HBS, HE, HU, IT, JP, KO, MS, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, RU, SE, SI, SK, TR
Fully referenced facts about Covid-19, provided by experts in the field, to help our readers make a realistic risk assessment. (Regular updates below)
“The only means to fight the plague is honesty.” (Albert Camus, 1947)
Overview
See also
Overview diagrams
September 2020
Medical updates
Covid lethality : Most Western countries report a covid lethality (IFR) of about 0.3% in the general population (excluding nursing homes). The IFR may be even lower as antibody tests appear to miss about half of all infections. The IFR is higher if there was a local collapse of health care or elderly care. Countries with a younger population report lower IFRs: India reports about 0.1%, African countries report about 0.01%. Read more.
: Most Western countries report a covid lethality (IFR) of about 0.3% in the general population (excluding nursing homes). The IFR may be even lower as antibody tests appear to miss about half of all infections. The IFR is higher if there was a local collapse of health care or elderly care. Countries with a younger population report lower IFRs: India reports about 0.1%, African countries report about 0.01%. Read more. Why covid is a “strange pandemic” : Why does covid-19 appear to be a somewhat strange pandemic? It is because of the covid-19 mortality profile, which is almost identical to natural mortality. But this doesn’t mean covid is just a “casedemic”. Read more.
: Why does covid-19 appear to be a somewhat strange pandemic? It is because of the covid-19 mortality profile, which is almost identical to natural mortality. But this doesn’t mean covid is just a “casedemic”. Read more. Face masks : Evidence from around the world indicates that cloth face masks used by the general population have little to no impact on coronavirus infection rates. The WHO study on face masks and social distancing turned out to be seriously flawed.
: Evidence from around the world indicates that cloth face masks used by the general population have little to no impact on coronavirus infection rates. The WHO study on face masks and social distancing turned out to be seriously flawed. Treatment of covid-19 : Early or prophylactic treatment of covid-19 is essential to prevent progression of the disease. New studies confirm the effectiveness of zinc, vitamin D, bromhexine and malaria drug HCQ in early treatment of high-risk patients. Read more.
: Early or prophylactic treatment of covid-19 is essential to prevent progression of the disease. New studies confirm the effectiveness of zinc, vitamin D, bromhexine and malaria drug HCQ in early treatment of high-risk patients. Read more. Disease mechanisms : Several new studies show that (severe) covid is first and foremost a cardiovascular disease that causes thrombosis (blood clotting) and lung embolism by damaging the blood vessels. This explains the age and risk profile of covid-19 mortality.
: Several new studies show that (severe) covid is first and foremost a cardiovascular disease that causes thrombosis (blood clotting) and lung embolism by damaging the blood vessels. This explains the age and risk profile of covid-19 mortality. Post-acute (“long”) covid : About 10% of symptomatic people, including young and healthy people, develop “long covid” that may last for several weeks or months. Of particular concern is the impact of the new coronavirus on the heart muscle. Read more.
: About 10% of symptomatic people, including young and healthy people, develop “long covid” that may last for several weeks or months. Of particular concern is the impact of the new coronavirus on the heart muscle. Read more. PCR tests : As previously reported, many of the people testing positive may not carry infectious virus. A new analysis now confirms that in the US, up to 90% of positive PCR tests may have been “false positives” detecting non-infectious virus fragments.
: As previously reported, many of the people testing positive may not carry infectious virus. A new analysis now confirms that in the US, up to 90% of positive PCR tests may have been “false positives” detecting non-infectious virus fragments. Origin of the new coronavirus : Evidence is increasing that the new coronavirus may be linked to a covid-like pneumonia incident in a Chinese mine back in 2012. Read more.
: Evidence is increasing that the new coronavirus may be linked to a covid-like pneumonia incident in a Chinese mine back in 2012. Read more. Children: The risk of transmission and disease in children continues to be extremely low. The following chart shows cases and hospitalizations of children in Florida.
Country profiles
In large parts of previously locked-down Europe as well as in parts of the US, antibody values are still rather low and the risk of a renewed increase in coronavirus infections and disease is therefore high. Read our latest covid-19 country profiles:
USA: Several short regional waves, mortality comparable to 1957/68 flu pandemics
Germany: No excess mortality so far, but still very low antibody values
Sweden: No lockdown, no masks, mortality comparable to strong flu wave.
Australia and New Zealand: Last Western countries following a zero-covid strategy
Africa and Latin America: Lowest and highest covid mortality in the world.
Belarus: Very low covid mortality despite no lockdown; unique demographics.
Belgium: Very high mortality; 66% of deaths occurred in nursing homes.
Italy: Huge differences between northern and southern Italy.
Nembro (Italy): The hardest hit place in Europe. What happened?
Switzerland: Low mortality in spring, but very low antibody values.
Political updates
Additional resources
For daily covid updates from an independent perspective, see also Lockdown Skeptics (UK), CovidInfos (France), and Corona Transition (Switzerland/Germany/Austria).
August 2020
A. General part
Pre-existing immunity against the new coronavirus
At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was assumed that no immunity against the new coronavirus existed in the population. This was one of the main reasons behind the initial strategy of “flattening the curve” by introducing stay-at-home orders.
From March and April onwards, however, the first studies showed that a considerable part of the population already had a certain background immunity to the new virus, acquired through contact with earlier coronaviruses (common cold viruses). Nevertheless, it remains unclear to what extent this “background immunity” may indeed protect against the new coronavirus.
Further important studies on this topic were published in July:
A new study from Germany came to the conclusion that up to 81% of people who have not yet had contact with the new coronavirus already have cross-reactive T-cells and thus a certain background immunity. This confirms earlier studies on T-cell immunity.
and thus a certain background immunity. This confirms earlier studies on T-cell immunity. In addition, a British study found that up to 60% of children and adolescents and about 6% of adults already have cross-reactive antibodies against the new coronavirus, which were created by contact with previous coronaviruses. This is probably another important aspect in explaining the very low rate of disease in children and adolescents.
against the new coronavirus, which were created by contact with previous coronaviruses. This is probably another important aspect in explaining the very low rate of disease in children and adolescents. In the case of Singapore, a study published in the scientific journal Nature concluded that people who contracted SARS-1 in 2002/2003 still had T-cells that were reactive against the new SARS-2 coronavirus 17 years later. In addition, the researchers found cross-reactive T-cells, which were produced by contact with other, partly unknown coronaviruses, in about half of the people who had neither contracted SARS-1 nor SARS-2. The researchers suspect that the different distribution of such coronaviruses and T-cells may help explain why some countries are less affected than others by the new corona virus, regardless of the political and medical measures taken.
Analysts have previously pointed out that many Pacific countries, and especially China’s neighbouring countries, have so far had very low Covid death rates, regardless of their population structure (young or old) and the measures taken (with or without lockdown, mass tests, masks, etc.). A possible explanation for this could be the spread of earlier coronaviruses.
Harvard immunologist Michael Mina explained that the “drop in antibody concentration” after Covid disease, dramatized by some media, was “perfectly normal” and “textbook”. The body ensures long-term immunity through T-cells and memory cells in the bone marrow, which can quickly produce new antibodies when needed.
See also: Immunological studies on the new coronavirus
Other medical updates
Wuhan: A Harvard modelling study in the scientific journal Nature came to the conclusion that even in the Covid epicentre Wuhan, up to 87% of the infections went unnoticed, i.e. remained without symptoms or mild. This means that the Covid19 lethality (IFR) in Wuhan may also fall to about 0.1% or below. The Nature study confirms an earlier Japanese study in the journal BMC Medicine, which calculated an IFR of 0.12% for Wuhan already back in March.
However, Chinese authorities couldn’t yet know this comparatively low lethality in January and February and therefore built additional clinics at short notice, many of which eventually remained mostly unused. Only the systematic test results from South Korea and the cruise ship Diamond Princess showed that the lethality of the new corona virus in the general population is indeed lower than initially feared.
Italy: The Italian health authority ISS published a new analysis of the cause of death in about 5000 corona patients. According to this analysis, Covid was the direct cause of death in 89% of the cases. In 11%, other diseases such as heart problems, cancer or dementia were the primary cause of death. Covid was the sole cause of death in 28% of cases. It is also known that in about 4% of the deaths, no medical preconditions were present.
Covid lethality: In May, the US health authority CDC published a cautious “best estimate” of covid lethality (IFR) of 0.26% (assuming 35% asymptomatic infections). In July, a new IFR of 0.65% was published. However, this new value is not based on own calculations or new studies, but on a meta-study in which the existing literature was simply searched for all previous IFR values.
Thus, the meta-study mainly consists of previous modelling studies as well as “raw IFR values”, which are much too high compared to the actual, population-based IFR values from antibody studies. With few exceptions, the real IFR values are between 0.1% and 0.4%, and when mucosal and cellular immunity are taken into account, they are approximately 0.1% or less.
However, the virus has spread much faster than anticipated, thus causing a temporarily high death rate in some places, especially if nursing homes and hospitals got affected.
Non-infectious virus fragments: The U.S. CDC points out that in most Covid patients, infectious virus particles are no longer detectable ten to fifteen days after the first symptoms. However, non-infectious virus fragments (RNA) can still be found up to three months after the first symptoms. This is likely to be a significant problem with regard to PCR tests, as many people who have long since ceased to be infectious still test positive, triggering far-reaching tracing and quarantine false-alarms.
Deaths with or by or without coronavirus: In England and some other countries it has been reported that all deceased persons who tested positive for the new coronavirus since the beginning of the year were counted as Covid deaths – regardless of the time of the test, a possible recovery, and the actual cause of death. In the US state of Colorado, it was found that about 10% of deaths were with but not from coronavirus. In other US states, further cases of “corona deaths” became known that in reality were test-positive homicide victims and motorcycle accidents.
Children and schools
It has been known since March that the risk of disease and transmission in children is minimal in the case of Covid19. The main reason for this is probably a pre-existing immunity due to frequent contact with previous coronaviruses (i.e. cold viruses). There was and is therefore no medical reason for the closure of primary schools, kindergartens and day-care centres and for special protective measures in schools.
In the meantime, further studies on this issue have been published:
The British epidemiologist Professor Mark Woolhouse stated that there is not a single confirmed case of infection of a teacher by a pupil worldwide.
Tracing pioneer Iceland found “not a single case where a child under 10 infected their parents.”
US CDC director Robert Redfield explained that additional deaths from suicides and drug overdoses by adolescents have been “far greater” than Covid deaths in recent months.
A joint report from Sweden (without primary school closure) and Finland (with primary school closure) concluded that there was no difference in infection rates among children in the two countries.
In the USA, three times more children up to 14 years of age have died of influenza than of Covid-19 (101 versus 31) since the beginning of the year, according to the CDC.
A Canadian study found that most of the children with “Kawasaki-like” inflammatory symptoms had no corona infection at all. The disease in children is “very, very rare”, the researchers said.
A German study came to the conclusion that children act epidemiologically “like brake blocks” and slow down the spread of the new corona virus.
Critical expert opinions
The German virologist Hendrik Streeck advocates a pragmatic approach to the new coronavirus and targeted measures for people at high risk. According to Streeck, the long-term suppression of the virus and the hope for a possible vaccine are not sensible strategies.
advocates a pragmatic approach to the new coronavirus and targeted measures for people at high risk. According to Streeck, the long-term suppression of the virus and the hope for a possible vaccine are not sensible strategies. Professor Carl Heneghan , Director of the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, explains in an interview that there is still no evidence for the effectiveness of masks in the general population. A permanent suppression strategy like the one in New Zealand is not sensible and causes high damage in the long term. The lethality (IFR) of Covid-19 is about 0.1% to 0.3% and is thus comparable to previous flu epidemics and pandemics.
, Director of the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, explains in an interview that there is still no evidence for the effectiveness of masks in the general population. A permanent suppression strategy like the one in New Zealand is not sensible and causes high damage in the long term. The lethality (IFR) of Covid-19 is about 0.1% to 0.3% and is thus comparable to previous flu epidemics and pandemics. The Swedish chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell explains in an interview that eradication of the virus is not an option. In Sweden, the infections slowed down considerably even without a lockdown, and daily deaths now are close to zero. The evidence for the benefit of masks is still “very weak” and they might even be counterproductive. An introduction of masks at this point in time would make no sense. The lethality of Covid-19 is between 0.1% and 0.5% and does not “radically differ” from influenza.
explains in an interview that eradication of the virus is not an option. In Sweden, the infections slowed down considerably even without a lockdown, and daily deaths now are close to zero. The evidence for the benefit of masks is still “very weak” and they might even be counterproductive. An introduction of masks at this point in time would make no sense. The lethality of Covid-19 is between 0.1% and 0.5% and does not “radically differ” from influenza. The epidemiologist and systems biologist Professor Francois Balloux , Director of the British UCL Genetics Institute, explains in an article that Covid-19 is comparable to a pandemic (but not seasonal) influenza. The main difference is the age-risk distribution: while Covid-19 is mainly dangerous for older people, a pandemic influenza is also life-threatening for younger people and children. Professor Balloux points out that the “Russian influenza pandemic” of 1889 may have been triggered by the coronavirus OC-43, which is now considered one of the four typical cold viruses.
, Director of the British UCL Genetics Institute, explains in an article that Covid-19 is comparable to a pandemic (but not seasonal) influenza. The main difference is the age-risk distribution: while Covid-19 is mainly dangerous for older people, a pandemic influenza is also life-threatening for younger people and children. Professor Balloux points out that the “Russian influenza pandemic” of 1889 may have been triggered by the coronavirus OC-43, which is now considered one of the four typical cold viruses. The Swiss chief physician for infectiology, Dr. Pietro Vernazza , pleads for a “controlled natural immunization” of society as an alternative to the “eradication strategy”. In most cases, Covid-19 is mild and the actual mortality rate is about 0.1%, which is in the range of a severe influenza. The Swedes “did nothing wrong” with their strategy, according to Vernazza.
, pleads for a “controlled natural immunization” of society as an alternative to the “eradication strategy”. In most cases, Covid-19 is mild and the actual mortality rate is about 0.1%, which is in the range of a severe influenza. The Swedes “did nothing wrong” with their strategy, according to Vernazza. The former director of the Institute of Immunology at the University of Bern, Professor Beda Stadler, also pleads for a controlled spread of the virus. The danger of the virus had been overestimated due to the false assumption of a lack of immunity. Professor Stadler is critical of compulsory masks and mass tests. Stadler, who is now emeritus, explains that many younger immunologists no longer dare to speak out publicly on the subject due to the extreme polarisation of the debate by politics and the media.
On the other hand, Professor Karin Mölling, the former head of the Department of Virology at the University of Zurich and one of the earliest critical voices on corona measures, has now partly changed her opinion: Due to the sometimes serious lung damage, the virus should not be underestimated and containment measures are important.
The clinical picture of Covid-19
The lower-than-expected lethality of Covid-19 should not hide the fact that the new coronavirus, due to its efficient use of the human ACE2 cell receptor, in some cases can lead to severe disease with complications in the lung, the vascular and nervous systems and other organs, some of which can persist for months.
While it is true that most of these symptoms can also occur in severe influenza (including thrombosis, heart muscle inflammation, and the temporary loss of the sense of smell), they are indeed more frequent and more pronounced in the novel Covid-19 disease.
In addition, even apparently “mild” disease (without hospitalization) can in some cases lead to protracted complications with breathing problems, fatigue or other symptoms. The US CDC came to the conclusion that after one month, about one third of the “mild” cases still showed such symptoms. Even in the 18 to 34-year-olds without preconditions, about 20% still had after-effects.
On the positive side, researchers at a German clinic recently reported good chances of recovery: “We can see that the lungs can heal well, even in patients who have had three weeks of intensive care”. After three months, 20% of the intensive care patients had healthy lungs again, and in the remaining patients a clear regeneration was visible.
Nevertheless, the primary goal should be to avoid a progression of the disease.
On the treatment of Covid-19
Note: Patients are asked to consult a doctor.
Many countries adopted the strategy of imposing a lockdown during or after a wave of infection, thereby locking already infected high-risk individuals in their homes without treatment until they developed severe breathing problems and needed intensive care treatment immediately. Even today, test-positive high-risk persons are often simply quarantined without treatment.
This is not an ideal approach. Numerous studies and doctors’ reports have now shown that for people at high risk or with high exposure, early treatment immediately on onset of the first typical symptoms is crucial to avoid disease progression and hospitalization.
Studies and medical reports from various countries in Asia and the West recommend a combination protocol of zinc (which inhibits the RNA replication of coronaviruses), the antimalarial agent HCQ (which promotes the cellular uptake of zinc and has other anti-viral properties), and, if necessary, an antibiotic (to prevent bacterial superinfections) and a blood thinner (to prevent thrombosis and lung embolism).
Yale professor and physician Harvey A. Risch argues in a recent commentary that early treatment with HCQ and zinc as well as an antibiotic has proven to be “highly effective”. In the USA alone, according to Professor Risch, 70,000 to 100,000 deaths could have been prevented by the systematic use of HCQ. Risch is therefore calling for an immediate and prescription-free release of this medication, as is already the case in many other countries.
Meanwhile, a bizarre battle has broken out in western industrialised countries over the use of low-cost HCQ, which has been used successfully and safely for decades in the prevention and treatment of malaria and several other diseases. This battle appears to be driven in part by political and commercial interests and may produce a great many casualties.
Opponents of HCQ went as far as publishing falsified studies and using lethal doses during trials, as Dr. James Todaro explains, who uncovered one of these frauds that fooled top science journals, the WHO and health experts worldwide.
Many of these anti-HCQ activities are connected to pharmaceutical company Gilead, which wants to sell a drug that is over a hundred times more expensive (Remdesivir), but which is only used on intensive care patients and has some severe side effects.
In addition, a potentially effective early treatment stands in the way of the billion-dollar global vaccination strategy being pursued by numerous governments, pharmaceutical companies and vaccine investor Bill Gates. Directors of vaccine companies have already made about one billion dollars with stock and option gains alone, even without yet delivering a vaccine.
The hope for a safe and effective vaccine, however, remains questionable: Contrary to the positive media presentation, in the second test round of the RNA vaccine from the US company Moderna, 80% of the volunteers in the medium and high-dose groups (average age 33 years and healthy) reacted with moderate to severe side effects.
Read more: On the treatment of Covid-19
Bill Gates on vaccine side effects (CBS, July 23, 2020)
The effectiveness of face masks
Various countries are discussing or have already introduced mandatory face masks in the general population. In the updates of June and July, however, it was shown that the evidence for the effectiveness of cloth masks in the general population is still rather weak, contrary to what is reported in many media.
In previous influenza pandemics, cloth masks had no influence on the occurrence of infection. Despite masks, Japan had its last flu epidemic with more than five million diseased just one year ago, in January and February 2019. Even the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in Wuhan could not be stopped by the widespread use of masks there.
Due to the significantly lower hospitalisation and mortality rates of Covid-19 (compared to the original assumptions), masks are not necessarily required to “flatten the curve”. Masking only makes sense – if at all – in the context of a vaccination strategy that aims to suppress the virus until a vaccine is available.
BBC medical correspondent Deborah Cohen explained in mid-July that the partial update of the WHO recommendation on masks was due not to new evidence but “political lobbying”: “We had been told by various sources WHO committee reviewing the evidence had not backed masks but they recommended them due to political lobbying. This point was put to WHO who did not deny.”
The “political lobbying” is likely referring to the group “Masks for All”, which was founded by a “Young Leader” of the Davos forum and which is lobbying authorities and governments for a worldwide face mask obligation.
In connection with masks, the question also arises as to whether the new coronavirus can be transmitted over large areas by aerosols. According to experts, true aerosol transmission even outdoors still seems unlikely – otherwise the spread of the virus would have a different dynamic and, contrary to reality, would often be untraceable.
However, an aerosol-like transmission indoors – especially with closed air circulation by fans or during intensive activities such as singing and dancing – seems increasingly probable or certain due to various incidents.
In the case of aerosol transmission, however, cloth masks are likely to offer even less protection than against droplets due to their pore size and inaccurate fit. This was demonstrated, for example, by the corona outbreak at the German meat processor Toennies, which occurred at an air-conditioned workplace over a distance of up to eight metres despite the requirement to wear masks.
On the question of “asymptomatic transmission”, it can currently be said that true asymptomatic transmission still seems to be rare (which may explain the very low transmission rate in children), whereas pre-symptomatic transmission in the days before the first symptoms appear (with already high virus load) is very likely and may explain the rapid spread of the virus.
Pre-symptomatic transmission is also known from influenza, but the incubation period of influenza is much shorter, so this may be somewhat less relevant.
The following expert reviews and articles critically examine the effectiveness of cloth masks in the general population:
The Swedish chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell recently stated that the introduction of masks at this point in time, and even in public transport, would be “pointless” in view of the rapidly decreasing number of cases in Sweden. The Dutch government has stated that it will not in general recommend masks because the scientific evidence for their effectiveness is weak.
On the other hand, face masks are not harmless, as the following evidence shows:
The WHO warns of various “side effects” such as difficulty breathing and skin rashes.
Tests conducted by the University Hospital of Leipzig have shown that face masks significantly reduce the resilience and performance of healthy persons.
A German psychological study with about 1000 participants found “severe psychosocial consequences” due to the introduction of mandatory face masks in Germany.
The Hamburg Environmental Institute warned against the inhalation of chlorine compounds in polyester masks as well as problems in connection with disposal.
The European rapid alert system RAPEX has already recalled 70 mask models because they did not meet EU quality standards and could lead to “serious risks”.
In China, two boys who had to wear a mask during sports classes fainted and died.
In the US, a car driver wearing an N95 (FFP2) mask fainted and crashed into a pole.
Conclusion: It is still possible that cloth masks can slow down the rate of infection in the general population, but the evidence for this is currently limited and the potential benefits are mainly relevant in the context of a long-term and still uncertain vaccination strategy.
Read more: Are face masks effective? The evidence.
Is Covid-19 a pure “test epidemic”? Certainly not.
Some particularly skeptical observers still seem to perceive Covid-19 mainly or solely as a “test epidemic”. However, this position has been untenable for months already.
The best known “test epidemic” is the so-called swine flu of 2009/2010, a rather mild influenza virus that only caused worldwide anxiety due to mass testing and media panic. A commission of the Council of Europe later called the swine flu a “fake pandemic” and a “big pharma fraud”.
What was noteworthy at the time was that a few months earlier, the WHO changed its pandemic guidelines and removed the criterion of increased lethality. In addition, pharmaceutical companies signed secret contracts worth billions with governments for a vaccine that later led to sometimes serious neurological damage and had to be disposed of for the most part.
Finally, researchers discovered that the swine flu virus itself probably originated from vaccine research and was released through a leak (or worse).
On the other hand, due to its special characteristics – in particular the very efficient use of the ACE2 cell receptor – the new coronavirus is a rather dangerous and easily transmissible SARS virus which can cause severe damage to the lungs, blood vessels and other organs. The good fortune is that many people already have a certain immunity to the new virus or at least are able to neutralize it on the mucosal membrane.
Covid-19 is therefore a real and serious pandemic and comparable to the (still stronger) flu pandemics of 1957/58 (Asian flu) and 1968 to 1970 (Hong Kong flu). The comparison with the swine flu of 2009 is only possible because the deaths caused by swine flu were greatly exaggerated.
(On the other hand, it should be remembered that during the 1968/1970 flu pandemic – or rather in the summer between the two main waves – the famous Woodstock festival was held and social life mostly went on as usual).
However, it can be argued that the real Covid19 pandemic has been amplified by a “test pandemic” due to mass testing in the general population, causing additional panic and high costs.
Stanford Professor Scott Atlas argued already in May that mass testing in the general population is of little use and that testing should instead be limited to vulnerable institutions such as nursing homes and hospitals (including for visitors).
Daily mass testing is also not effective because, according to antibody studies, the virus is already much more widespread than PCR tests show, anyway. Moreover, the tests are susceptible to false-positive (and false-negative) results and non-infectious virus fragments.
Countries such as Japan, Sweden and Belarus have shown that the pandemic can be controlled without a lockdown and without mass testing – and in the case of Sweden and Belarus also without masks – as long as the sensitive facilities are protected.
Conclusion: Covid-19 is a real and serious pandemic comparable to the (still stronger) influenza pandemics of 1957 and 1968, but in addition to the real Covid-19 pandemic, there is indeed a “test pandemic” that causes unnecessary panic and high costs.
The origin of the new coronavirus
The origin of the new SARS coronavirus remains unclear. However, researchers with access to Chinese documents were able to show in May that the closest related coronavirus was found in a mine in southwest China, where six miners contracted Covid-like pneumonia in 2012 and three of them died.
The miners’ illness was clinically virtually identical to today’s (severe) Covid-19, which is why some analysts have proposed to call the disease Covid-12 instead of Covid-19.
The Virological Institute in Wuhan received virus samples from the mine as well as from the tissue of the deceased miners in 2012 and 2013. It is conceivable that this virus escaped from the laboratory in autumn 2019.
In addition to the Chinese institute, however, the US health authority CDC and the US Department of Defense have also been shown to be working with SARS-like viruses from bats. The US NGO “Eco Health Alliance” cooperated on this issue with both the US Pentagon and the Virological Institute in Wuhan.
Direct transmission by an animal is also still conceivable, although previous candidates such as the well-known animal market in Wuhan or the Pangolin theory have been ruled out by experts in the meantime.
Read more: Origin of Covid-19 Virus: The Mojiang Miner Hypothesis
B. Countries and regions
USA
The USA is one of the countries most affected by the new coronavirus so far. This could have political and medical reasons.
Medically, there are many relevant pre-existing conditions in the US population, such as obesity, heart problems and diabetes. Air conditioning systems could promote aerosol-like transmission indoors. Politically, there have been serious mistakes in dealing with nursing homes, misplaced incentives in the treatment of patients, and problematic back-and-forth with lockdowns.
The US already has over 150,000 corona deaths, putting it in the range of a pandemic influenza, comparable to the 1957 and 1968 pandemics.
45% of corona deaths occurred in nursing homes. Over 50% of all deaths occurred in the six states that actively placed Covid patients in nursing homes.
For people of school and work age (up to 65), corona mortality is comparable to mortality from other pneumonia diseases (e.g. influenza), according to the CDC. For children and adolescents, Covid is three times less dangerous than influenza.
A nationwide antibody study showed that the new coronavirus is 6 to 24 times more widespread than assumed on the basis of PCR tests, depending on the region. However, the antibody levels are still in the single-digit percentage range in most regions, indicating that exposure to the coronavirus is less much less than 50% in many places.
While the number of daily positive tests reached a peak in mid-July due to the high number of tests, the number of daily deaths was only half as high as in April, although recently with a slight upward trend again (see graph below).
In Florida there were reports of at times allegedly very high positivity rates. However, an analysis showed that various laboratories only reported the number of positive tests and thus an apparent positivity rate of 100%. The actual positivity rate in Florida was mostly in the single-digit percentage range. In terms of deaths per capita, Florida remains in the lower midfield compared to the other states.
The median age of Covid deaths in the USA is 78.5 years. This is higher than the median age of “other deaths”, but lower than the median age of Covid deaths in Europe (80 to 86).
Yale professor and epidemiologist Harvey A. Risch recently called for immediate over-the-counter availability of HCQ for the early treatment of Covid disease.
A group of doctors calling itself “America’s Frontline Doctors” held a press conference with the same goal of making HCQ available. The video of the press conference was seen by 20 million people within a day before it was deleted by Facebook & Co. as “misinformation”.
Great Britain
In England and Wales there have been about 50,000 corona deaths so far. The overall mortality rate is thus still about 10,000 deaths below the strong flu epidemic of 1999/2000.
There has been no excess mortality among those under 45 years of age compared to the last five years.
The cumulative corona deaths since March correspond almost exactly to the cumulative influenza and pneumonia deaths since the start of the winter season in December 2019.
Since mid-June, England and Wales have been in relative under-mortality and daily corona deaths have been below daily influenza and pneumonia deaths since then.
By mid-April, 45% of NHS nursing staff had already been infected with corona. A significant proportion of patients may have been infected with corona in hospital. Corona patients were also transferred to nursing homes in England, which led to additional deaths.
France
France was relatively hard hit by the corona pandemic and registered about 30,000 corona deaths by the end of May according to the health authority SPF. About 50% of these deaths occurred in nursing homes, the average age of the deaths is 81.3 years. The median age of intensive care patients was about 67 years.
The region around Paris, eastern France and northern France were particularly hard hit, while large parts of western France and southwestern France were hardly affected at all (so far).
So although only part of France was affected by Covid, the cumulative excess mortality since the beginning of the year (compared to the baseline) is about 50% higher than during the seasonal flu waves of the past five years. In Greater Paris, the excess mortality rate is even around 500% or 10,000 people higher than in previous years (see graphs below).
Covid deaths accounted for around 16% of all deaths nationwide, but in Greater Paris, the figure was almost 40% of all deaths from early March to late May. The weekly peak mortality due to Covid-19 is comparable to the record hot summer of 2003 (see graph below).
Didier Raoult, a well-known professor of medicine and HCQ pioneer from Marseille, criticized the lack of early treatment and the ban on HCQ at a parliamentary hearing at the end of June. Until 2019, HCQ was available in France without prescription. At the beginning of the pandemic, however, its use was restricted to clinics and eventually banned altogether. The reason for the ban was the falsified Lancet study from the end of May (which was later retracted).
In his clinic, Prof. Raoult had been able to reduce the case fatality rate to a very low 0.9% by early treatment with HCQ, according to a published retrospective analysis.
Charts and report: Santé Public France
Germany
Germany counts only about 9000 corona deaths and has not experienced any significant excess mortality (in population-adjusted terms there was even a slight undermortality).
At the end of June, however, only 1.3% of blood donors had IgG antibodies against the new coronavirus. This value is very low. Even if non-blood donors (including children and sick persons), T-cells and mucosal (IgA) immunity are taken into account, exposure of the population to the virus is hardly more than 10% to 15%.
This means that the new coronavirus has not yet spread widely in Germany. The measures or – more likely – the anticipation of the measures by the population therefore seem to have been “successful” in this sense (see graph below).
On the other hand, this means that epidemiologically, Germany is essentially still where it was in April and that the risk of a new and stronger increase in infections and disease is indeed real. The comparison with France shows what this can entail.
The German government currently seems to be following a suppression and vaccination strategy. This strategy is socially and economically costly and its success remains uncertain. As an alternative or addition, an early treatment concept should be examined.
The political corona situation in Germany remains tense. Repeatedly, sanctions have been imposed on doctors, professors, lawyers and civil servants who are critical of corona, and in some cases serious attacks occurred against skeptical journalists and activists.
Since June, an extra-parliamentary committee of inquiry consisting of lawyers and medical experts has been dealing with the German Corona government policy. It should not be forgotten, however, that the corona pandemic in Germany is probably not yet over, given that by the end of June, only 1.3% of blood donors had IgG antibodies against the virus.
Switzerland
Sweden
In Sweden, daily corona deaths are now close to zero. The overall mortality rate is in the range of earlier strong flu waves. Even the monthly peak mortality (in April 2020) remained below the strong flu waves of the 1990s.
are now close to zero. The overall mortality rate is in the range of earlier strong flu waves. Even the monthly peak mortality (in April 2020) remained below the strong flu waves of the 1990s. The example of Sweden (and Belarus) shows that a lockdown was not necessary if the population and institutions were well prepared. However, from the perspective of many lockdown advocates – governments and the media – this is very difficult to admit.
was not necessary if the population and institutions were well prepared. However, from the perspective of many lockdown advocates – governments and the media – this is very difficult to admit. Sweden is one of the few Western countries that – on the basis of the medical evidence – has not closed its primary schools . This decision was correct, too.
. This decision was correct, too. Sweden made two real mistakes , which ironically are not covered by most of the media: 1) The nursing homes in the Stockholm area were protected too late and caused over 50% of Swedish deaths. 2) Sweden had no early treatment strategy that could have reduced the hospitalisation and death rates.
, which ironically are not covered by most of the media: 1) The nursing homes in the Stockholm area were protected too late and caused over 50% of Swedish deaths. 2) Sweden had no early treatment strategy that could have reduced the hospitalisation and death rates. Swedish cities showed an IgG antibody prevalence between 10% and 20% in July, which, together with mucosal and cellular immunity, indicates that the population was exposed between 50% and 100%. Sweden is therefore probably the best placed of all western countries to start the coming winter.
The following graphs compare the deaths in Sweden with those in England and New York.
Charts: Paul Yowell
India
India, which relies on early treatment and even prophylaxis with the antimalarial drug HCQ, officially counts only about 35,000 corona deaths among its 1.3 billion people.
An Indian antibody study came to the conclusion that around 23% of the 20 million inhabitants of the Indian capital Delhi already have antibodies against the new corona virus. This is about 35 times more people than confirmed by PCR tests.
This means that Delhi (and some other major cities) could already be beyond or near the herd immunity threshold, taking into account mucosal and cellular immunity.
Latin America
Brazil has by now suffered 90,000 Covid deaths and thus ranges between the Netherlands and France in terms of deaths per population. In the meantime, Brazil has introduced an early treatment concept based on zinc and HCQ.
Chile and Peru currently have an even higher death rate than Brazil (based on population). With close to 20,000 deaths, Peru is in the range of Italy and Spain.
C. Political notes
The US economy contracted by an annualized 32.9% in the second quarter, the highest rate since 1947. The second highest decline was in 1958 (10%) – in the wake of the Asian flu pandemic.
In the US, up to 28 million people might lose their homes due to corona lockdowns and the economic downturn, which could trigger a new mortgage crisis.
The German economy contracted by 10.1% in the second quarter compared with the same quarter of the previous year – the biggest decline since 1970.
According to the UN, the corona lockdowns and the global economic depression could plunge up to 225 million people worldwide into a famine by the end of the year.
The EU Commission demands or plans the “networking” of national corona tracing apps.
The NGO Privacy International warns of a “looming disaster” with immunity passports and digital identity cards.
The authoritarian government of Turkmenistan apparently banned the use of the word “coronavirus”. Consequently, there are no coronavirus deaths in the country, at least officially. Those who wear a mask are arrested by police, Reporters without Borders said.
July 2020
On the development of the pandemic
In most Western countries, the peak of coronavirus infections was already reached in March or April and often before the lockdown. The peak of deaths in most Western countries was in April. Since then, hospitalizations and deaths have been declining in most Western countries (see graphs below).
This development also applies to countries without a lockdown, such as Sweden, Belarus and Japan. Cumulative annual mortality in most western countries continues to be in the range of a mild (e.g. CH, AT, DE) to strong (e.g. USA, UK) influenza season.
After the end of the lockdowns, the number of corona tests in the low-risk general population has increased strongly in many countries, for example in connection with people returning to work and school.
This led to a certain increase in positive test results in some countries or regions, which was portrayed by many media and authorities as an allegedly dangerous increase in “case numbers” and sometimes led to new restrictions, even if the rate of positive tests remained very low.
“Case numbers” are, however, a misleading figure that cannot be equated with sick or infected people. A positive test can, for example, be due to non-infectious virus fragments, an asymptomatic infection, a repeated test, or a false-positive result.
Moreover, counting alleged “case numbers” is not meaningful simply because antibody tests and immunological tests have long shown that the new coronavirus is up to fifty times more widespread than assumed on the basis of daily PCR tests.
Rather, the decisive figures are the number of sick people, hospitalisations and deaths. It should be noted, however, that many hospitals are now back to normal operation and all patients, including asymptomatic patients, are additionally tested for the coronavirus. Therefore, what matters is the number of actual Covid patients in hospitals and ICUs.
In the case of Sweden, for example, the WHO had to withdraw the classification as a “risk country” after it became clear that the apparent increase in “cases” was due to an increase in testing. In fact, hospitalisations and deaths in Sweden have been declining since April.
Some countries have already been in a state of below-average mortality since May. The reason for this is that the median age of corona deaths was often higher than the average life expectancy, as up to 80% of deaths occurred in nursing homes.
In countries and regions where the spread of the coronavirus has so far been greatly reduced, it is nevertheless entirely possible that there will be a renewed increase in Covid patients. In these cases, early and effective treatment is important (see below).
Global Covid-19 mortality is currently – despite the significantly older population nowadays – a whole order of magnitude below the flu pandemics of 1957 (Asian flu) and 1968 (Hong Kong flu) and in the range of the rather mild “swine flu pandemic” of 2009.
The following charts illustrate the discrepancy between “cases” and deaths:
The following charts compare Covid mortalities to earlier flu seasons (more):
The following chart compares deaths in Sweden (no lockdown) New York State:
The following chart compares the Covid-19 pandemic to earlier pandemics:
On the lethality of Covid-19
Most antibody studies have shown a population-based Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) of 0.1% to 0.3%. The US health authority CDC published in May a still cautious “best estimate” of 0.26% (based on 35% asymptomatic cases).
At the end of May, however, an immunological study by the University of Zurich was published, which for the first time showed that the usual antibody tests that measure antibodies in the blood (IgG and IgM) can detect at most about one fifth of all coronavirus infections.
The reason for this is that in most people the new coronavirus is already neutralised by antibodies on the mucous membrane (IgA) or by cellular immunity (T cells) and no symptoms or only mild symptoms develop.
This means that the new coronavirus is probably much more widespread than previously assumed and the lethality per infection is around five times lower than previously estimated. The real lethality could therefore be significantly below 0.1% and thus in the range of influenza.
At the same time, the Swiss study may explain why children usually develop no symptoms (due to frequent contact with previous corona cold viruses), and why even hotspots such as New York City found an antibody prevalence (IgG/IgM) of at most 20% – as this already corresponds to herd immunity.
The Swiss study has in the meantime been confirmed by several more studies:
A Swedish study showed that people with mild or asymptomatic disease often neutralized the virus with T-cells without the need to produce antibodies. Overall, T-cell immunity was about twice as common as antibody immunity. A large Spanish antibody study published in Lancet showed that less than 20% of symptomatic people and about 2% of asymptomatic people had IgG antibodies. A German study (preprint) showed that 81% of the people who had not yet had contact with the new corona virus already had cross-reactive T-cells and thus a certain background immunity (due to contact with previous corona cold viruses). A Chinese study in the journal Nature showed that in 40% of asymptomatic persons and in 12.9% of symptomatic persons no IgG antibodies are detectable after the recovery phase. Another Chinese study with almost 25,000 clinic employees in Wuhan showed that at most one fifth of the presumably infected employees had IgG antibodies (press article). A small French study (preprint) showed that six of eight infected family members of Covid patients developed a temporary T-cell immunity without antibodies.
Video interview: Swedish Doctor: T-cell immunity and the truth about Covid-19 in Sweden
In this context, a US study in the journal Science Translational Medicine, using various indicators, concluded that the lethality of Covid-19 was much lower than originally assumed, but that its spread in some hotspots was up to 80 times faster than suspected, which would explain the rapid but short-duration increase in patients.
A study in the Austrian ski resort of Ischgl, one of the first European “corona hotspots”, found antibodies in 42% of the population. 85% of the infections went “unnoticed” (i.e. very mild), about 50% of the infections went completely without (noticeable) symptoms.
The high antibody value of 42% in Ischgl was due to the fact that Ischgl also tested for IgA antibodies in the blood (instead of only IgM/IgG). Additional tests for mucosal IgA and for T-cells would undoubtedly have shown even higher immunity levels close to herd immunity.
Ischgl saw two Covid-related deaths (both of them men over 80 with preconditions), resulting in a ‘crude IFR’ of 0.26%. Considering the population structure and the actual extent of immunity, the population-based Covid lethality is likely to be below 0.1%
Due to its rather low lethality, Covid-19 falls at most into level 2 of the five-level pandemic plan developed by US health authorities. For this level, only the “voluntary isolation of sick people” is to be applied, while further measures such as face masks, school closings, distance rules, contact tracing, vaccinations and lockdowns of entire societies are not recommended.
The new immunological results also mean that “immunity passports” and mass vaccinations are unlikely to work and are therefore not a useful strategy.
Some media continue to speak of allegedly much higher Covid lethality levels. However, these media refer to outdated simulation models, confuse mortality and lethality, or CFR and IFR, or “raw IFR” and population-based IFR. More about these errors here.
In July, an antibody prevalence of allegedly up to 70% was reported in some New York City districts. However, this is not a population-based figure, but rather antibodies in people who had visited an urgent care center.
The following graph shows the actual development of corona deaths in Sweden (no lockdown, no face mask obligation) compared to the forecasts of Imperial College London (orange: no measures; grey: moderate measures). Swedish annual all-cause mortality actually is in the range of a medium flu wave and 3.6% lower than in previous years.
On the health risks of Covid-19
Why is the new coronavirus harmless for many people, but very dangerous for some people? The reason has to to with special features of the virus and the human immune system.
Many people, including almost all children, can neutralise the new corona virus with an existing immunity (due to contact with previous corona cold viruses) or through antibodies on the mucous membranes (IgA), without it causing much damage.
However, if this does not succeed, the virus can penetrate the organism. There the virus can cause complications in the lung (pneumonia), the blood vessels (thromboses, embolisms), and other organs due to its efficient use of the human ACE2 cell receptor.
If in this case the immune system reacts too weakly (in older people) or too strongly (in some younger people), the course of the disease can become critical.
It has also been confirmed that the symptoms or complications of serious Covid-19 disease can last for weeks or even months in some cases.
Therefore, the new coronavirus should not be underestimated and early and effective treatment is absolutely crucial for patients at risk.
In the longer term, the new coronavirus could develop into a typical cold virus, similar to the coronavirus NL63, which also uses the ACE2 cell receptor and nowadays affects primarily young children and nursing patients, causing upper and lower respiratory tract infections.
On the treatment of Covid-19
Note: Patients are asked to consult a doctor.
Several studies have now confirmed what some front-line physicians have been saying since March: Early treatment of Covid patients with zinc and the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is indeed effective. US doctors have reported a reduction in hospitalisation rates of up to 84% and a stabilisation of the health condition often within a few hours.
Zinc has antiviral properties, HCQ supports zinc absorption and has additional antiviral properties. These drugs are supplemented by doctors if necessary with an antibiotic (to prevent a bacterial superinfection) and a blood thinner (to prevent infection-related thromboses and embolisms).
The alleged or actual negative results with HCQ in some studies were based, according to the current state of knowledge, on delayed use (intensive care patients), excessive doses (up to 2400mg per day), manipulated data sets, or ignored contraindications (e.g., favism or heart problems).
Sadly, the WHO, many media and some authorities may have caused considerable and unnecessary damage to public health in recent months through their negative stance, which may have been politically motivated or influenced by pharmaceutical interests.
French professor of medicine Jaouad Zemmouri, for example, estimates that Europe could have avoided up to 78% of Covid deaths by adopting a consistent HCQ treatment strategy.
HCQ contraindications such as favism or heart problems need to be considered, but the recent Ford Medical Center study achieved a reduction in hospital deaths of around 50% even with 56% African-American patients (who more often have favism).
However, the crucial point in the treatment of high-risk patients is early intervention as soon as the first typical symptoms develop and even without a PCR test in order to prevent progression of the disease and avoid intensive care hospitalization.
Most countries did the exact opposite: after the infection wave in March, they imposed a lockdown, so that infected and frightened people were locked up in their homes without treatment and often waited until they developed severe respiratory distress and had to be taken directly to the intensive care unit, where they were often sedated and intubated and were likely to die.
It is conceivable that a zinc HCQ combination protocol, which is simple, safe and inexpensive, could make more complex drugs, vaccinations and measures largely obsolete.
More recently, a case study from France showed that in four of the first five patients treated with the much more expensive drug Remdesivir from the pharmaceutical company Gilead, treatment had to be discontinued due to liver issues and kidney failure.
Read more: On the treatment of Covid-19
On the effectiveness of masks
Various countries have introduced or are currently discussing the introduction of mandatory masks in public transport, in shopping malls, or generally in public.
Some may argue that the discussion has become largely obsolete because of the lower-than-expected lethality and hospitalization rate of Covid-19 and the available treatment options, which have mostly eased the initial concern of “flattening the curve”.
Nevertheless, the question of the effectiveness of masks can be asked. In the case of influenza epidemics, the answer is already clear from a scientific point of view: masks in everyday life have no or very little effect. If used improperly, they can even increase the risk of infection.
Ironically, the best and most recent example of this is the often-mentioned Japan: Despite its ubiquitous masks, Japan experienced its most recent strong flu wave – with around five million people falling ill – just one year ago, in January and February 2019.
However, unlike SARS corona viruses, influenza viruses are transmitted also by children. Indeed, Japan had to close around ten thousand schools in 2019 due to acute outbreaks of the flu.
With the SARS 1 virus of 2002 and 2003, there is some evidence that medical masks can provide partial protection against infection. But SARS-1 spread almost exclusively in hospitals, i.e. in a professional environment, and hardly to the general public at large.
In contrast, a study from 2015 showed that the cloth masks in use today are permeable to 97% of viral particles due to their pore size and can further increase the risk of infection by storing moisture.
Some studies recently argued that everyday masks are nevertheless effective in the case of the new coronavirus and could at least prevent the infection of other people. However, these studies suffer from poor methodology and sometimes show the opposite of what they claim.
Typically, these studies ignore the effect of other simultaneous measures, the natural development of infection numbers, changes in test activity, or they compare countries with very different conditions.
An overview:
A German study claimed that the introduction of compulsory masks in German cities had led to a decrease in infections. But the data does not support this: in some cities there was no change, in others a decrease, in others an increase in infections (see graph below). The city of Jena, presented as a model, simultaneously introduced the strictest quarantine rules in Germany, but the study did not mention this. A study in the journal PNAS claimed that masks had led to a decrease in infections in three hotspots (including New York City). This did not take into account the natural decrease in infections and other measures. The study was so flawed that over 40 scientists recommended that the study be withdrawn. A US study claimed that compulsory masks had led to a decrease in infections in 15 states. The study did not take into account that the incidence of infection was already declining in most states at that time. A comparison with other states was not made. A Canadian study claimed that countries with compulsory masks had fewer deaths than countries without compulsory masks. But the study compared African, Latin American, Asian and Eastern European countries with very different infection rates and population structures. A meta-study in the journal Lancet claimed that masks “could” lead to a reduction in the risk of infection, but the studies considered mainly hospitals (Sars-1) and the strength of the evidence was reported as “low”.
The medical benefit of compulsory masks therefore continues to remain questionable. A comparative study by the University of East Anglia, for instance, came to the conclusion that compulsory masks had no measurable effect on the incidence of Covid infections or deaths.
It is also clear that widespread use of face masks couldn’t stop the initial outbreak in Wuhan.
Sweden showed that even without a lockdown, without mandatory masks and with one of the lowest intensive care bed capacities in Europe, hospitals need not be overburdened. In fact, Sweden’s annual all-cause mortality has remained in the range of previous flu seasons.
At any rate, authorities shouldn’t suggest to the population that mandatory masks reduce the risk of infection, for example in public transport, as there is no evidence of this. Whether with or without masks, there is an increased risk of infection in densely packed indoor areas.
Interestingly, the demand for a worldwide obligation to wear masks is led by a lobby group called “masks4all” (masks for all), which was founded by a “young leader” of the Davos forum.
The role of contact tracing
Numerous countries have introduced smartphone apps and special units for “contact tracing”. However, there is no evidence that these can make an epidemiologically relevant contribution.
In the case of tracing pioneer Iceland, the app has largely failed, in Norway it was stopped for data protection reasons, in India, Argentina, Singapore and other countries it became mandatory after all, in Israel contact tracing is operated directly by the secret service.
A WHO study on influenza pandemics in 2019 came to the conclusion that contact tracing is not useful from an epidemiological point of view and “is not recommended in any circumstances”. The typical area of application is rather sexually transmitted diseases or food poisoning.
Moreover, serious concerns about data protection and civil rights remain.
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden warned as early as March that governments could use the corona crisis as an occasion or pretext for expanding global surveillance and control, thus creating an “architecture of oppression”.
A whistleblower who had taken part in a training program for contact tracers in the US described it as “totalitarian” and a “danger to society”.
Swiss computer science professor Serge Vaudenay showed that the contact tracing protocols are by no means “decentralized” and “transparent”, because the actual functionality is implemented through a Google and Apple interface (GAEN) that is not “open source”.
This interface has now been integrated by Google and Apple into three billion mobile phones. According to Prof. Vaudenay, the interface may record and store all contacts, not just those that are medically “relevant”. A German IT expert, for his part, described tracing apps as a “Trojan horse”.
For more information on “contact tracing”, see the June update.
See also: Inside the NSA’s Secret Tool for Mapping Your Social Network (Wired)
On the origin of the new coronavirus
In the June update it was shown that renowned virologists consider a laboratory origin of the new coronavirus to be “at least as plausible” as a natural origin. This is due to some genetic peculiarities of the virus in the receptor binding domain, which lead to high infectivity in humans.
In the meantime, further evidence for this hypothesis has emerged. More in these articles:
Developments since the beginning of 2020 show that the new coronavirus cannot be seen as a “bioweapon” in the strict sense of the term, as it is not deadly enough and not targeted enough. However, it may well cause fear among the population and be exploited politically.
Nevertheless, besides a potential lab origin, a natural origin continues to be a realistic possibility, even though the “Wuhan wet market” hypothesis and more recently the pangolin hypothesis have in the meantime been ruled out by experts.
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[Update: Press Renders] Photos reveal Samsung’s next flagship tablet is the Galaxy Tab S6
We may earn a commission for purchases made using our links.
Update (7/17/19 @ 12:50 PM ET): Press renders show the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 in three colors with redesigned S Pen.
It appears that Samsung is going to be skipping the Galaxy Tab S5, instead of jumping straight to the Galaxy Tab S6, according to both Evleaks and SamMobile. Oddly enough, Samsung actually announced a Galaxy Tab S5e earlier in the year that is currently available for purchase. That does beg the question as to where the regular Tab S5 actually went. Regardless, not only is the Galaxy Tab S6 seemingly on the way, SamMobile has even managed to grab multiple pictures of it. The photos show a magnetized dock for the S Pen, the device name, and Android Pie running on it.
According to SamMobile, we can expect to see a 10.5-inch display, with the whole device powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855. There’s no other confirmed information. SamMobile mentions a Geekbench benchmark, although those aren’t always trustworthy. SamMobile has also heard that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 will forego a 64GB option, offering instead a 128GB option or a 256GB option. The magnetic charger on the back also suggests that the included S-Pen may have the same Bluetooth capabilities as the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. The Note 9’s S-Pen allowed users to take screenshots, skip media, and more. There are very few flagship-level tablets on the market, and by the looks of things, the Galaxy Tab S6 is going to be one of them.
The same photos also show that it will have a dual-camera setup on the back, although tablets typically have poorer cameras than smartphones anyway. We don’t know when the Galaxy Tab S6 will launch, and there have been no rumors to suggest that it may launch alongside the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 at Samsung Unpacked in August. A launch at IFA Berlin is possible, though again, nothing is confirmed. The Galaxy Tab S6 will apparently launch in three colors – Gray, Blue, and Brown – and there will be both a Wi-Fi (SM-T860) and an LTE model (SM-T865). There will also be a keyboard cover accessory, just like its predecessor.
Source: SamMobile
Source 2: Evleaks (Private)
Update: Press Renders
We now have our first look at press renders of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6. The renders give us a look at the three color options, redesigned S Pen, and the keyboard cover. The S Pen is shown in the groove that we saw in the real-life photos above. The report does not confirm if the pen can be charged while in this position.
The S Pen itself has been redesigned slightly. The metal ring around the middle is gone and the finish is matte to match the back of the tablet. Speaking of the back, the device is shown in these renders in grey, light blue, and rose gold with matching S Pen. It may also come in brown.
The renders once again show dual cameras on the back. We still don’t have solid information about the camera specs, but rumors suggest a 13MP + 5MP wide-angle or a secondary ToF sensor. It’s unusual for tablets to have exciting cameras, so we’re curious about what Samsung is doing here. Lastly, there is no headphone jack in sight. The device is still expected to be announced alongside the Galaxy Note 10.
Source: Android Headlines | {
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The mother of a crying baby at a Donald Trump rally in Ashburn, Virginia, is speaking out after she says the mainstream media completely twisted a non-story into a controversy.
Devan Cierra Ebert, who took her baby to a Trump rally Tuesday and was jokingly called out by the GOP nominee when the child started to cry, took to Facebook to explain how the media turned what actually occurred into a “Trump kicks baby out of campaign rally” headline, according to Red Alert Politics.
Here’s the incident that got the media stirring up their anti-Trump narratives:
Trump kicks crying baby out of his rally… @HFord2: He crosses a new territory https://t.co/7TLiULmkPc — Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) August 3, 2016
But now, the mother of that baby says the incident did not happen the way the media presented it, writing “I am in no way offended and I again reiterate, Mr. Trump NEVER kicked me or my child out of the Briar Woods High School, Trump rally.”
“The media has severely blown this out of proportion and made it out to be something that it wasn’t and is clearly using this as political gain for the Democratic Party. I hope this message sheds light to what really happened,” the mother wrote on social media.
Check out her full Facebook statement via Red Alert following the back-to-back media coverage on the incident:
“Hello, this message is for Donald J. Trump. I was the mother in his rally on Tuesday, August 2nd, in Ashburn, VA, with the baby who started to cry. I would just like him to know personally that I, by no means felt I was ever “kicked out” of his rally. I excused myself and my child when he awoke from his nap and began to cry. It was only because I had to grab my child’s belongings and then make my way out of the aisle I was seated in that I wasn’t out of there sooner. I realize Mr. Trump doesn’t know me personally, but for those that do, know that I am the first one to excuse myself and my child when he begins to cry because I personally believe it’s rude to disturb anyone else’s ability to hear what they came to see. I’ve left movies, violin recitals, and other events if I felt my child was disturbing others. It is the considerate thing to do. I stood right outside the doors of the auditorium continuing to watch and listen to what Mr. Trump had to say. In fact, the police that were right outside in the same hallway with me, treated me with so much respect it was incredible. They were so kind and made me feel welcomed to stand with them. One officer commended me on my bravery to bring my child to Mr. Trump’s rally. I fully support Mr. Trump. I thought he responded very graciously to my child crying and he made a lighthearted moment out of what I usually consider to be stressful. I actually was out of the auditorium before he even made his follow up comment about my child and even then, when I was informed of his comment, I laughed. I understand he says things jokingly, and I understand no one wants to speak over or struggle to listen over a crying baby. I am in no way offended and I again reiterate, Mr. Trump NEVER kicked me or my child out of the Briar Woods High School, Trump rally. And for the record, while my child and I stood outside of the auditorium, my eleven year old stepdaughter and my Grandmother sat inside the auditorium and continued to support and listen to everything Mr. Trump had to say. We all were so excited to be able to see Mr. Trump so close to home. I didn’t have a babysitter to watch my kids and honestly, to me it was a historical moment that I am happy that my kids were there for. I apologize for the trouble this has caused Mr. Trump. The media has severely blown this out of proportion and made it out to be something that it wasn’t and is clearly using this as political gain for the Democratic party. I hope this message sheds light to what really happened.” “Thank you for your time. Best of luck! You have our vote. Trump 2016”
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A gagged priest at Springfield’s St. Aloysius church called 911 late last year and asked them for help because he had been “playing” with handcuffs and he got stuck.
Audio of Father Tom Donovan’s Nov. 28 911 call was published by the Illinois Times on Thursday.
“I’m stuck in a pair of handcuffs and I’m going to need help getting out before it becomes a medical emergency,” Donovan tells the dispatcher in a muffled voice.
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“You’re stuck in a pair of handcuffs?” the dispatcher replies.
“Yes,” Donovan admits. “I was playing with them so I need some help getting out.”
When police arrived at the church, they discovered that the priest’s voice had sounded garbled because he was also wearing a gag, according to the Illinois Times.
Although the Diocese of Springfield had been provided with a police report and a audio of the 911 call, they had refused to comment on the incident.
“I wouldn’t be able to tell you where Father Donovan is,” diocese spokesperson Kathie Sass said. “There’s a matter of privacy there.”
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Sass told The State Journal-Register that Donovan had been granted a leave of absence in December for “personal reasons.”
Listen to this audio, uploaded Jan. 3, 2013.
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[Photo: Shutterstock.com] | {
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Przedstawiam Wam definitywnie najstarszy polski serwis poświęcony zagadnieniom z dziedziny o/c, który tak naprawdę działał tylko 6 lat i 2 miesiące. Ale każdy fan overlockingu z początku XXI wieku zapewne go pamięta. Wszakże w pierwszych latach tego milenium setki tysięcy pasjonatów podkręcenia podzespołów komputerowych z niusów Tweak'a uczyło się jak podkręcić (procesor, kartę graficzną, płytę główną...), żeby jak najbardziej przyśpieszyć swój komputer. Tweak.pl nie był zatem stroną dla grzecznych chłopców, tylko skupiał żądnych ekstremalnych wrażeń „podkręcaczy” komputerowej maszynerii. Zresztą jego historia jest równie burzliwa.
Geneza, czyli jak zacząć coś z niczego
Tweak.pl był jednym z pierwszych polskich serwisów technologicznych. Wszystko zaczęło się w lutym 2000 r., kiedy Piotr 'Lisek' Lisowski postanowił uruchomić fachowy serwis przeznaczony dla osób zainteresowanych szeroko pojętym overlockingiem. Na którym czytelnicy mogliby się dowiedzieć się jak podkręcić procesor, kartę graficzną, pamięć RAM lub która płyta główna ma największe możliwości overclockingu. Prawie 20 lat temu w polskim internecie nikt w tak wyspecjalizowany sposób tą tematyką się nie zajmował. Więc Lisek podjął się prekursorskiego zadania. Jednak wiedział, że w pojedynkę ciężko mu będzie zrealizować ten ambitny cel i w ciągu kilku miesięcy zebrał podobnych do siebie maniaków podkręcania sprzętu komputerowego. W poczet tego grona wybrańców wchodzili: Bartłomiej 'Vodniq_Shuvarex' Michoń, Mateusz A. 'MKa11' Kapela, Tomasz 'berkut' Szytenchelm, Daniel 'Tirinti' Dutkiewicz i Mateusz 'RMX' Styrc. Z powodu tego, że nie znalazł takich w rodzinnym Chełmie, zamieszkiwali oni różne strony Polski (Wrocław, Sokolice, Warszawa, Ruda Śląska). Łączył ich młody wiek i chęć stworzenia od postaw czegoś nowatorskiego. Oni też stali się członkami pierwszego zespołu redakcyjnego Tweak.pl, którego skład przeszedł „rewolucję” personalną w 2003 roku.
Od zera do lidera
Serwis wystartował 30 sierpnia 2000 r. pod nazwą Tweak.adrem.pl, a przed końcem tegoż roku przeszedł na domenę Tweak.pl. W latach 2000-2001 był stroną, jakich wiele było wtedy w sieci z sypiącym się layoutem, softem do obsługi niusów i forum dyskusyjnym na dyskusje.pl. Można więc stwierdzić, że w tym czasie każdy dzień był dla serwisu walką o przetrwanie. Przełom nastąpił początkiem 2002 roku, gdy został stworzony dla strony sprawnie działający system aktualizacji, a następnie otwarto testowo forum działające na phpBB 2.0-beta. Wtedy Tweak.pl z brzydkiego kaczątka stał się pięknym łabędziem i wygląd jego strony głównej nie dość, że przyciągał oko, to jeszcze wabił coraz większe grono użytkowników mnóstwem dostępnych funkcji.
Tweak.pl z 2001 roku ... i 2003
Kilkanaście lat temu Tweak.pl wzbudzał zainteresowanie czytelników fachowo napisanymi artykułami, recenzjami, testami i opisami. Na Tweak'u overlocking'owcy mieli dostęp do działu Modyfikacja, na której inni pasjonaci overclockingu prezentowali podkręcone przez siebie konfiguracje sprzętu. No i jak przystało na serwis overlockingowy, posiadał dobrze zaopatrzony sklep i giełdę, na których można było kupić wszystko do komputera.
Tweak.pl jako jeden z pierwszych wortali technologicznych w kraju oferował swoim sympatykom do kupienia koszulki i bluzy z własnym nadrukiem. Co było normą w tamtym czasie, serwis posiadał czat, na którym użytkownicy online wymieniali się ze sobą różnymi spostrzeżeniami. Archiwum pomagało czytelnikom w zapoznaniu z zestawioną chronologicznie bazą danych serwisu. Natomiast dla rozluźnienia atmosfery, każdy na serwisie mógł przejrzeć zabawne memy z polskiej strony satyrycznej Joe Monster.org.
Od 2004 roku Tweak.pl był propagatorem projektu naukowego SETI@home, którego celem jest poszukiwanie cywilizacji pozaziemskich przez analizę emisji radiowej kosmosu rejestrowanej radioteleskopem Arecibo. W projekcie tym mógł uczestniczyć, każdy użytkownik serwisu instalując darmowy program klienta. Była to bardzo ciekawa inicjatywa, którą żaden innych krajowy serwis technologiczny nie prowadził. Na okrasę dodam, że Tweak.pl wspierał inne serwisy technologiczne działające w owym czasie i na swej stronie głównej przedstawiał linki do ich stron. Z perspektywy czasu, gdy teraz serwisy IT w większości zwalczają się jak zajadłe psy, trzeba przyznać, że postawa ta była czymś godnym pochwały.
1000 dni blasku i chwały
W latach 2002-2005 Tweak.pl posiadał więc bogatą ofertę i miał nie mniej do zaoferowania od konkurujących z nim o miano najlepszego wortalu w kraju — FrazPC.pl i TwojePC. Wtedy to właśnie urosło w potęgę jego forum, które wyglądało rewelacyjnie i było naówczas największym w kraju. Na nim też każda overlockingowa dusza mogła znaleźć, co jej było potrzebne do pełni szczęścia. Tweak'owe forum było podzielone na 8 działów, które przestawiały się następująco: Najważniejsze, Sprzęt i podkręcania, Chłodzenie i Modyfikacje, Oprogramowanie, Sieci Komputerowe i Internet, Inne, Giełda, Archiwum. Każdy z nich zatem dotyczył zupełnie innej tematyki, a porządku na nim pilnowała zgrana ekipa Adminów i Moderatorów. O jego sile najlepiej poświadczy fakt, że do sierpnia 2006 roku zawierało ponad 2 mln wiadomości.
Wielką zasługą Tweak.pl było zainicjowanie zlotów najaktywniejszych użytkowników wśród polskich serwisów internetowych. Łącznie były trzy takie zloty (2003, 2004, 2005), na które przyjeżdżało 80-100 uczestników. Odbywały się one w drugiej połowie sierpnia. Na miejsca zlotów organizatorzy wybierali malownicze miejscowości tj. Dziwnów na wyspie Wolin (dwa razy gościł zlotowiczów) i Białowieża w województwie podlaskim. Uczestnikom za kilkanaście złotych wpisowego zapewniono wiele atrakcji m.in. konkursy z nagrodami, LAN party, konferencje i różne pokazy. Zresztą od niedawna można obejrzeć bogatą galerię zdjęć, z tych kultowych już zlotów i poczuć ich niepowtarzalny klimat.
Tweak Zlot 2003 Tweak Zlot 2004 (źródło: Janusz Pasternak)
Patronem medialnym tych imprez był Komputer Świat Ekspert, współorganizatorami 4MAX.pl, FPP.pl, a sponsorami nagród m.in. IBIT, Intel, ATI, Zenfist.pl. Natomiast cała infrastruktura techniczna i noclegowa była załatwiana przez redakcję serwisu. Tweak.pl tym samym stał się pierwszym organizatorem portalowych zlotów w Polsce. Inna sprawa, że serwis ten był w stanie pociągnąć tylko trzy takie zloty, a dopiero od 2007 roku portal Dobreprogramy.pl pokazał jak je regularnie organizować.
Ryba psuje się od głowy
Jak już pisałem do 2006 roku Tweak.pl, był bardzo popularnym serwisem technologicznym. Fakty są jednak takie, że nawet w najlepszym swoim okresie nie działał w pełni profesjonalnie. Nie najlepiej się też układały relacje na linii Redaktor Naczelny a reszta redakcji. Animozje te wynikały z coraz gorszej sytuacji finansowej Tweak'a. Tę sytuację miało poprawić pojawienie się w 2004 roku na stronie głównej serwisu reklam. Niestety to nie przyniosło spodziewanego przypływu gotówki.
Problemy finansowe doprowadziły do tragicznej sytuacji, kiedy w połowie 2005 roku w celu zabezpieczenia serwisu przed groźbą wyłączenia serwera jego redaktorzy za własne pieniądze wykupili serwer do składowania backupów wszystkich danych. Spędzili oni wtedy długie miesiące, żeby forum mogło funkcjonować i było odpowiednim źródłem informacji. Niestety bez większego wsparcia Liska, który wówczas był jednym z redaktorów w Komputer Świat. Na domiar złego jesienią 2005 r. przestał istnieć serwis Barwkomp.pl, który został przejęty przez firmę Bestcom. Ta z końcem grudnia zadecydowała o wyłączeniu serwera, z którego Barwkomp z Tweak'iem były wspólnie hostowane.
Marek 'marco' Pieróg administrator serwera Tweak.pl oficjalnie przekazał na forum gazeta.pl, iż w dniu 30 grudnia 2005 poinformował Liska „że czas szukać alternatywnych rozwiązań w zakresie hostingu”. Jednak wszelkie informacje i zapytania co do przyszłości serwisu pozostały bez jego odpowiedzi. Wtedy doszło do rozłamu, po jednej stronie stała załoga adminów pod dowództwem Marka Pieroga, a po drugiej ekipa Liska. Podzieliła się tak samo społeczność serwisu, która w większości była za adminami. To wszystko doprowadziło do tego, że 10 kwietnia 2006 r. upadło tweak'owe forum, przez co serwis stracił wtedy jakieś 70% użytkowników. Pomimo tego Lisek nie złożył broni i wydał odezwę potępiającą „zbuntowanych” adminów. Przez kilka następnych miesięcy z niejakim Bryndkiem ciągle też publikował na łamach dogorywającego serwisu.
Z czasem Piotr Liskowski vel Lisek stracił jednak zapał i przestał być zainteresowany dalszym prowadzeniem i utrzymywaniem „porzuconego przez wszystkich” - Tweak.pl. W wyniku czego 24 października 2006 roku wystawiono go na sprzedaż w serwisie aukcyjnym Allegro.pl. Minimalna kwota, jaką można było zalicytować, wynosiła 10 tys. zł. Aukcja skończyła się 30 października bez żadnej oferty kupna. Tego dnia nastąpił koniec „liskowego” Tweak'a — bo nie można traktować serio próby jego returnu w 2012 roku.
Umarł Tweak.pl, niech żyje PurePC!
Z powodu zaistniałego kryzysu ekipa złożona z doświadczonych forumowiczów i redaktorów Tweak.pl zdecydowała, żeby „zawczasu” przenieść ostatnią zachowaną kopie forum na wykupiony przez nich serwer oraz zakupić licencje Invision Power Board (IPS). 11 kwietnia 2006 roku wydano zaś oświadczenie, aby rozwiać wszystkie wątpliwości dotyczące tego co, się dzieje z „prawdziwym” Tweak'iem:
W taki to sposób na starej bazie z Tweak.pl — 6 czerwca 2006 r. oficjalnie wystartował jego następca PurePC.pl. Serwis, który już od blisko 13 lat jest jednym z bardziej poważanych wortali technologicznych w kraju, niezmiennie mający kilkaset tysięcy wiernych użytkowników. Zatem ponad 6 lat istnienia Tweak.pl nie poszło na marne, a stało się „zaczynem” do działania jeszcze potężniejszego serwisu.
Wczoraj Tweak.pl, dzisiaj PurePC
Powstanie, walka o byt, wzlot, upadek i przeistoczenie. Tak się przedstawia cykl przemian w działaniu kultowego Tweak.pl, który przedstawiłem, opierając się na analizie Freytaga. | {
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Some Neanderthals may have had pale skin and red hair similar to that of some modern humans.
Our ancestors started wearing clothing about 170,000 years ago, a date pinpointed with the aid of another creature that lives with clothes — skin-crawling body lice.
This advance helped our species migrate out of Africa to spread across the world.
Since body lice or clothing lice are so well-adapted to clothing, they "almost certainly didn't exist until clothing came about in humans," said evolutionary biologist David Reed, associate curator of mammals at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville.
As such, Reed and his colleagues investigated when the parasites first began evolving to see when people started clothing themselves. This data would be virtually impossible to find with archaeological digs, since early clothing would almost certainly not have survived up to now. [The 10 Most Diabolical and Disgusting Parasites]
The researchers sequenced the DNA of clothing lice to see when the bugs began diverging genetically from head lice, which would suggest the lice were adapting to life on cloth rather than skin and hair. Their findings suggest modern humans started wearing clothes about 170,000 years ago, 70,000 years before we began migrating into colder climates and higher latitudes in our spread across the world.
"I find it surprising that modern humans were tinkering with clothing probably long before they really needed it for survival," Reed told LiveScience. "But that tinkering really paid off when they finally left Africa and moved into Europe and Asia."
This date shows we started wearing clothes well after we lost body hair, which research into human genetic skin coloration suggests happened about 1 million years ago. In other words, humanity spent a considerable amount of time without either clothes or body hair.
"It's interesting to think humans were able to survive in Africa for hundreds of thousands of years without clothing and without body hair, and that it wasn't until they had clothing that modern humans were then moving out of Africa into other parts of the world," Reed said.
A past study of clothing lice in 2003 estimated humans first began wearing clothes about 107,000 years ago. However, the latest research form Reed and his colleagues includes new data, as well as calculation methods better suited to minimize errors in estimates.
"The new result from this lice study is an unexpectedly early date for clothing, much older than the earliest solid archaeological evidence, but it makes sense," said archaeologist Ian Gilligan at the Australian National University in Canberra, who did not take part in this research. "It means modern humans probably started wearing clothes on a regular basis to keep warm when they were first exposed to ice age conditions."
Adopting clothing some 170,000 years ago would have made sense, as the last ice age began 130,000 to 180,000 years ago, according to temperature estimates from ice-core studies. Modern humans first appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago.
Of course, extinct relatives of humanity might have clothed themselves in some fashion as well, researchers said. Unfortunately, they did not leave clothing lice for sampling.
"We are now looking at other questions such as the peopling of the Americas to see if lice can tell us when and from where the first Native Americans arrived," Reed said. "There are two clearly different types of lice in North America. One may have arrived on the first peoples and the other on Europeans much more recently."
The scientists detailed their findings in the Jan. issue of the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.
Top 10 Mysteries of the First Humans
Lice Shed Light on Ancient History of Americas
10 Things That Make Humans Special
You can follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. | {
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The PlayStation Blog has officially announced the date, and price of the PSN exclusive The Punisher: No Mercy.
The Punisher: No Mercy, will hit PlayStation Network on July 2nd, with a great low price of just $9.99. The feature chocked title features a single player campaign, as well as multiplayer, which modes such as deathmatch, one vs many, and co-op.
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ALLIANSE: Ap-leder Jonas Gahr Støre må ta Rødt og MDG og bygge en ny allianse, mener Raymond Johansen. Han ønsker Martin Kolbergs oppgjør med partiet velkommen.
ARBEIDERPARTIET
Oslos byrådsleder Raymond Johansen har en klar beskjed til partileder Jonas Gahr Støre om hva en av hans og Arbeiderpartiets viktigste oppgaver blir de neste fire årene.
– Noe av det viktigste for Ap framover, er å bygge opp et nytt rødt og grønt alternativ på venstresida, sier Johansen.
Han er tidligere partisekretær i Ap og sitter i partiets sentralstyre.
Som byrådsleder i hovedstaden er han dessuten partiets desidert mektigste politiker i posisjon. Dit har han kommet gjennom et rødgrønt samarbeid. Johansens byråd består av Ap, SV og Miljøpartiet De Grønne, og har et forpliktende budsjettsamarbeid med Rødt.
Aps samarbeid: • Arbeiderpartiet satt i regjering med SV og Senterpartiet fra 2005 til 2013. • I valgkampen i 2017 åpnet Jonas Gahr Støre for å sitte i regjering med SV, Sp og KrF, men ikke Rødt eller MDG. • I lørdagens Klassekampen felte Martin Kolberg en knusende dom over partiet. Ap-nestoren mener blant annet at det ble utydelig om partiet ønsket en rødgrønn regjering. • Oslo styres av et byråd sammensatt av Ap, SV og MDG. Partiene har budsjettsamarbeid med Rødt.
Allianse med MDG og Rødt
– Jeg har hatt et veldig godt samarbeid med Bjørnar (Moxnes, journ.anm.) Det har vi fått til fordi vi har bygget opp tillit til hverandre over tid. Selv om ikke Rødt er med i byrådet, samarbeider vi godt om budsjett, sier han.
Jonas Gahr Støre gikk tidlig ut i valgkampen og avviste at Ap kunne samarbeide med Rødt eller MDG i regjering. Støre sa at han heller ville styre sammen med KrF.
Johansen understreker at det er forskjell på å styre en kommune og en stat. Det er ikke gitt at Ap sentralt skal ha identisk modell som Oslo-partiet, men framgangsmåten er uansett den samme:
– I valgkampen var både SV og MDG utydelige på regjeringsspørsmålet. Det viser at du må jobbe i forkant. Skal du bygge et nytt samarbeid, er det ikke gjort over natta. Det betyr mange kaffekopper, mye skravling, møter og alt som skal til for å sørge for at du synger fra det noenlunde samme notearket.
– Bør Ap være åpne for å regjere med Rødt og MDG?
– Om det er et alternativ, er altfor tidlig å si. Uansett må Arbeiderpartiet sette seg i førersetet for å bygge opp et rødgrønt alternativ til den blå-blå regjeringen framover.
Enig med Kolberg
Lørdag slo Ap-veteran Martin Kolberg fast at sosialdemokratiet står i en krise etter valget. Den tidligere partisekretæren pekte ut mangelen på et tydelig rødgrønt regjeringsalternativ som en hovedgrunn til valgnederlaget. Johansen er enig med Kolberg i mye.
– Martin uttrykker noe veldig klokt: Når vi sammen med fagbevegelsen er en sterk bevegelse, har vi kraft til å definere hva som er rett og galt. I valgkampen så vi at den kraften er for liten nå, sier han.
– Er du enig med Kolberg i at partiet er krise?
– Jeg vil ikke si krise. Vi er i en kritisk situasjon fordi vi har tapt to valg og Høyre og Frp fortsatt sitter i regjering.
Raymond Johansen er hovedpersonen i Aps største suksesshistorie de siste årene. Ved kommunevalget i 2015 sørget han for rødgrønn valgseier i Oslo, og en slutt på 19 år med borgerlig styre i hovedstaden. Vel så oppsiktsvekkende var måten han gjorde det på: Ap gikk til valg på å innføre eiendomsskatt i Oslo.
– Jeg skal være varsom med å dra det jeg selv har gjort for langt, men det vi klarte i 2015, var å definere hva som var de store problemene. Vi snakket om den uverdige eldreomsorgen, om de 6000 ungene som manglet barnehageplass, og om skolene. Så hadde vi en løsning på hvordan vi skulle betale for det, nemlig eiendomsskatten, sier Johansen.
I 2017 gikk Ap til stortingsvalg på å øke skattene med 15 milliarder kroner. Feilen var ikke skatteløftet i seg selv, men at partiet aldri fikk fram hvorfor skattene skulle økes.
– I valgkampen hadde vi ikke kraft til å definere hva problemet var. Folk kjente seg ikke igjen i vår problembeskrivelse. Vi snakket i stedet om løsningen vår, 15 milliarder mer i skatt. Da var det løsningen som ble problemet, ikke problemet. Skjønner du?
Svak partiorganisasjon
Ap har de siste hundre årene bygget opp landets desidert største partiorganisasjon. Johansen ser tegn på at den en gang så mektige organisasjonen har mistet noe av kraften.
– Du taper ikke valg på grunn av de seks ukene i valgkamp. Det handler også om hva du har gjort i forkant. Hvor er reformviljen, evnen til kritisk tenkning, viljen til å reise de store diskusjonene? Det har vi ikke brukt partiet godt nok til de fire siste årene, sier han, og legger til at han selv har mye av ansvaret for at det ble slik.
– Jeg var partisekretær fra 2009 til 2013. Det var ikke en periode preget av sprudlende nye ideer, det ble mye styring. Etter åtte år i regjering, da vi skulle over i opposisjon, var partiet ganske stillestående.
[email protected] | {
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A recently completed investigation of the killing of Daniel Pearl in Pakistan nine years ago makes public new evidence that a senior al-Qaeda operative executed the Wall Street Journal reporter.
Khalid Sheik Mohammed -- the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, who is being held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- said at a military hearing in 2007 that he killed Pearl. But there have been lingering doubts about his involvement, and the United States has not charged him with the crime.
According to the new report, which was prepared by faculty members and students at Georgetown University, U.S. officials have concluded that vascular technology, or vein matching, shows that the hand of the unseen man who killed Pearl on video is that of Mohammed. The report also says Mohammed told the FBI that a senior al-Qaeda operative advised him to take control of Pearl from his original kidnappers.
The 31,000-word report, published in conjunction with the Center for Public Integrity at www.publicintegrity.org, is among the most complete and graphic accounts of Pearl's death. The 3 1/2-year investigation, called the Pearl Project, was led by Asra Q. Nomani, a former colleague of Pearl's at the Journal, and Barbara Feinman Todd, director of the journalism program at Georgetown.
Pearl, 38, was kidnapped on Jan. 23, 2002, while investigating alleged connections between a radical Pakistani cleric and Richard Reid, who had attempted to detonate a bomb hidden in his shoe on a transatlantic flight in December 2001.
Pearl was duped into thinking that he was heading to an interview with the cleric when he was seized by a group of militants organized by Omar Sheik, a British-educated Pakistani, who is in prison for Pearl's kidnapping and murder, as are three accomplices. At the time he was orchestrating Pearl's abduction, the United States was pressing Pakistan for Sheik's extradition.
The report concludes that while Sheik set the kidnapping in motion, the group was uncertain about its ultimate goals and, at one point, appeared to consider releasing Pearl. According to the report, Mohammed told FBI interrogators at Guantanamo Bay that he received a call from Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian and a senior figure in al-Qaeda.
Adel "says, 'Listen, he's been kidnapped. These people don't know what to do with him. They want to know if we want him,' " Mohammed told the FBI, according to the report, which is based on hundreds of interviews as well as court records, FBI reports, and Pearl's e-mails and personal notes. Adel "thought this was an opportunity. We can take advantage of it. He said he wanted to make sure it's an Al Qaeda thing."
The report said it is still unclear how Adel, who remains at large, was able to direct Mohammed to the kidnappers.
The report said Mohammed and two others arrived at the compound on the outskirts of Karachi, where Pearl was being held. According to the report, some U.S. and Pakistani officials think the accomplices were Mohammed's nephews, including Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, who is also being held at Guantanamo Bay.
Mohammed slashed Pearl's throat, killing him, but one of his accomplices failed to operate the video camera, which they had brought to capture the murder for propaganda purposes. Mohammed restaged the killing, this time decapitating Pearl, according to the report. He then dismembered Pearl's body, and it was buried on the compound. Guards washed the bloody floor and then prayed, foreheads to the ground, on the same surface where their prisoner had just been killed, the report said.
The report said that 27 men, including guards and drivers, played a part in the kidnapping and murder, and that 14 remain free in Pakistan. Mohammed has not been charged with Pearl's murder, in part because he first confessed while in CIA custody, where he was waterboarded 183 times. Prosecutors fear that his treatment at the hands of the agency could compromise any case, the report said.
Mohammed told the FBI that he wanted to exploit the murder for propaganda. But the report also quoted a former chief military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay as saying that "one of the high value detainees told interrogators that Osama bin Laden was angry that [Mohammed] had slaughtered Pearl so publicly and brutally, arguing that the murder brought unnecessary attention on the network." | {
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The following table shows the points and championship position at the midway stage of the 2015 MotoGP season compared with this time last year.
The biggest difference is a drop of 111 points for reigning champion Marc Marquez, who had won all nine races this time last year but has only taken two wins - and suffered three DNFs - in 2015.
The next biggest points loss if for Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa, no surprise given he has missed three rounds due to arm pump surgery.
The biggest increase is by Movistar Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo, who has gained 69 points, followed by a 56 point rise for new factory Ducati rider Andrea Iannone.
Iannone's Pramac replacement Danilo Petrucci has also benefited massively from his change of team. The Italian has scored 47 points more than this time last year (Petrucci was injured early in 2014), risen ten places in the championship and has almost doubled his previous best tally for an entire season.
Other notable gains have come from Tech 3 Yamaha's top satellite rider Bradley Smith (+39 points and five positions), plus world championship leader Valentino Rossi and new LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow - both 38 points better off than at the halfway stage last year.
Further down the order, former satellite Honda riders Alvaro Bautista (Aprilia) and Stefan Bradl (Forward Yamaha) have unsurprisingly taken a step back, with Scott Redding's change from an Open to Factory class Honda yet to translate into better results.
Aspar's Nicky Hayden has remained on the same team and machine, but also lost significant ground, while Open class leader Hector Barbera is seven places higher on the Ducati compared to the Kawasaki-powered machine run by Avintia until Aragon last year.
Comparison: MotoGP 2015 v 2014 (after nine rounds). Ranking by 2015 championship order
1. Valentino Rossi Yamaha +38 points, +2 championship positions.
2. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha +69 points, +3 positions.
3. Andrea Iannone Ducati +56 points, +5 positions.
4. Marc Marquez Honda -111 points, -3 positions.
5. Andrea Dovizioso Ducati -12 points, -1 position.
6. Bradley Smith Yamaha +39 points, +5 positions.
7. Dani Pedrosa Honda -81 points, -5 positions.
8. Cal Crutchlow Honda +38 points, +6 positions.
9. Pol Espargaro Yamaha -3 points, -2 positions.
10. Maverick Vi?ales Suzuki 2015 rookie.
11. Danilo Petrucci Ducati +47 points, +10 positions.
12. Aleix Espargaro Suzuki -33 points, -6 positions.
13. Yonny Hernandez Ducati +5 points, +3 positions.
14. Scott Redding Honda -3 points, -2 positions.
15. Hector Barbera Ducati Open +17 points, +7 positions.
16. Loris Baz Yamaha Open 2015 rookie.
17. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia -37 points, -7 positions.
18. Jack Miller Honda Open 2015 rookie.
19. Stefan Bradl Yamaha Open -47 points, -10 positions.
20. Michele Pirro Ducati Wild-card/Replacement.
21. Nicky Hayden Honda Open -21 points, -8 positions.
22. Eugene Laverty Honda Open 2015 rookie.
23. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda/Honda Open Replacement.
24. Mike Di Meglio Ducati Open +2 points, NA positions.
25. Alex De Angelis Aprilia +1 point, NA positions. Karel Abraham Honda Open -18 points, NA positions.
Constructors: MotoGP 2015 v 2014 (after nine rounds). Ranking by 2015 championship order
1. Yamaha +53 points, +1 championship position.
2. Honda -66 points, -1 position.
3. Ducati +38 points, = position.
4. Suzuki Not present in 2014.
5. Yamaha Forward -58 points, -1 position.
6. Aprilia Not officially present in 2014.
7. ART -3 points, -1 position.
Teams: MotoGP 2015 v 2014 (after nine rounds). Ranking by 2015 championship order
1.Movistar Yamaha +107 points, +1 championship position.
2.Ducati Team +78 points, +1 position.
3.Repsol Honda -187 points, -2 positions.
4.Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +36 points, = position.
5.Suzuki Ecstar Not present in 2014.
6.Pramac Racing -6 points, -1 position.
7.LCR Honda* +22 points, +2 positions.
8.Marc VDS Not present in 2014.
9.Forward Racing -62 points, -3 positions.
10.Avintia Racing* +19 points, +3 positions.
11.Aspar MotoGP -42 points, -3 positions.
12.Team Gresini* -70 points, -5 positions.
13.Iodaracing -3 points, -1 position. * LCR has expanded to two bikes, Gresini has switched from Honda to Aprilia and Avintia from Kawasaki to Ducati (Open).
Championship features same nine circuits, in same order, during first half of 2014 and 2015. | {
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Danmarks største hackersag: Det kan ikke udelukkes, at hackere har pillet ved strafferegistret
RETTEN PÅ FREDERIKSBERG (Ekstra Bladet): Kun iført sokker flygtede et 21-årigt dansk computergeni, som er hovedmistænkt i Danmarkshistoriens største hackersag, ud ad døren, da politiet bankede på hans dør 5. juni 2013.
På sig havde han sin bærbare computer og en skakbrik, der senere viste sig at indeholde et hemmeligt rum med et hukommelseskort.
Hukommelseskortet indeholdt halvdelen af en kode til en del af hans computer, der var stærkt krypteret. Men hvad der ligger på denne del af computeren, er der ingen der ved, for trods et års efterforskning er det ikke lykkedes politiet at trænge ind, og det 21-årige geni nægter at give nogen adgang.
Se også: Kaos i hackersag: Politiet beskyldes for svinestreger
Det kom frem tirsdag i Retten på Frederiksberg, hvor den unge ukendte dansker sidder på anklagebænken sammen med den verdensberømte computerspecialist, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, der grundlagde den kontroversielle fildelingstjeneste Pirate Bay.
Samtlige CPR-numre stjålet
Vicestatsadvokat Anders Riisager og anklager Maria Cingari fremlagde i dag sagen om det månedlange hackerangreb på det danske it-firma CSC i 2012, der varetager flere offentlige danske it-systemer.
– Jeg har det med computere, som supermand har det med kryptonit. Det er ikke noget, jeg har synderligt meget forstand på. Men det er heller ikke nødvendigt, lagde Riisager ud med at sige.
– Samtlige CPR-numre er blevet stjålet, og ingen ved, hvor de er. Det ligger bevismæssigt fast, at angrebene er foretaget via Wargs computer i Pnomh Penh i Cambodja. Skaden er sket i Danmark, og derfor kan han blive retsforfulgt i Danmark, sagde han.
PORTRÆT: De tiltalte i den store hackersag Gottfrid Svartholm Warg - født 17. oktober 1984 Svensk computergeni, der flere gange er dømt for it-kriminalitet. Han er også kendt under navnet Anakata. Tilbage i 2004 var han medstifter af Pirate Bay, hvor der ulovligt blev delt film og musik via internettet. Det udløste i 2009 en dom for brud på ophavsretslovene i Sverige, og det kostede Warg et års fængsel. Dommen har han ikke afsonet, da han forinden flygtede til Phnom Penh i Cambodja. Her blev han i august 2012 anholdt efter anmodning fra svensk politi, som mistænkte ham i en ny sag om hacking af virksomheden Logica, der administrer offentlige oplysninger i Sverige, og banken Nordea. Sidste år fik han i den svenske landsret et års fængsel for hacking mod Logica, mens han blev frifundet for bedrageri over for Nordea. I november 2013 blev han udleveret til Danmark og varetægtsfængslet i forbindelse med den store danske hackersag. Warg har færdedes i miljøet omkring WikiLeaks-stifteren Julian Assange. Hovedmistænkt dansker - født 18. marts 1993 Oplysningerne om den 21-årige er endnu sparsomme. Men det er kommet frem, at han har arbejdet for en stor dansk konsulentvirksomhed tilbage i 2010 og 2011. Oplysninger på den 21-åriges computer tyder på, at han har været i Phnom Penh i Cambodja, mens Warg opholdt sig der, og mens der foregik hacking mod CSC i Danmark. Omkring anholdelsen i juni 2013 opholdt den 21-årige sig i en lejlighed i Thomas Laubs Gade på Østerbro i København. Ifølge anklagemyndigheden er den 21-årige identisk med en person, som på nettet har kaldt sig Advanced Persisten Terrorist Threat. Personen har i en chat hævdet, at hans bedstefar var blandt grundlæggerne af CPR-registret.
I Power Point-præsentationer blev det udpenslet, at angrebet gav hackerne omfattede adgang til danskernes personlige oplysninger. Blandt andet oplysninger om igangværende politiefterforskninger og kriminalregistret, som indeholder oplysninger om alle tidligere domme mod personer i Danmark.
Se også: Hackede cpr-numre kan bruges til afpresning af Danmark
– Man kan ikke udelukke, at min straffeattest er blevet ændret, så der står, at jeg er straffet for drab for to år siden. Intet tyder på det, men man kan ikke udelukke det, sagde Anders Riisager.
Nogle af filerne blev kopieret eller downloaded til computere i henholdsvis Tyskland, Iran og Cambodja, mens andre blev overført til en computer på rådhuset i Pnomh Penh.
Bedstefar grundlagde CPR
Politiet kom på sporet af den 21-årige dansker, da de fandt en chatlog på Wargs beslaglagte computer i Cambodja.
Her forklarede en person med aliaset ’Advanced Persistent Terrorist Threat,’ at han var født i 1993 og havde arbejdet for en stort revisions- og konsulentvirksomhed.
– Min bedstefar var en del af den gruppe, som grundlagde det oprindelige CPR, skrev personen i chatten, der også oplyste, at han talte dansk.
Oplysningerne passede på den 21-årige hovedmistænkte og ingen andre. På den baggrund valgte politiet at anholde ham sidste år.
Anklageren går efter fire års fængsel. Både Warg og den 21-årige dansker nægter sig skyldige.
Se også: Mistænkt for CPR-tyveri: Her er superhackerens brev til danske ministre | {
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Last fall, Google introduced a new system for machine-assisted language translations, Google Neural Machine Translation system (GNMT), which takes advantage of deep neural networks to translate entire sentences – not just phrases – for greatly improved translations. The company put the system to work in Google Translate for eight language pairs in November, and is today expanding support to three more: Russian, Hindi and Vietnamese.
Neural Machine Translation went into action late last year with support for translating to and from English and French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Turkish. These represent the native languages of around one-third of the world’s population, covering more than 35% of all Google Translate queries, the company said at the time.
Today’s news is also fairly significant in terms of scale, as in the U.S. alone, 1,292,448 people speak Vietnamese; another 836,171 speak Russian; and 586,173 speak Hindi, Google says, citing U.S. census data. And more languages will be added in weeks ahead, including Thai, which didn’t quite make today’s release.
Google Translate serves over 500 million monthly users in need of 140 billion words per day, The New York Times reported in December. According to the report, Google’s switch to this A.I.-powered machine translation system is expected to complete this year.
Neural translation is a huge leap over prior translation systems, as it’s able to take advantage of the progress made in the machine learning field to make translations more accurate, and sound more like the way people speak the language. What makes the difference is that the system doesn’t translate each part of a sentence piece by piece, but looks at the sentence as a whole. This helps the system figure out the broader context and the most relevant translation. It then rearranges and adjusts the sentence using proper grammar.
In addition, the Neural Machine Translation system learns over time and improves, resulting in better and more natural translations the longer it works.
The new translations powered by this system will go live across the Google Translate platform, starting today. This includes online at translate.google.com, through Google search and the Google Search app, and in the Google Translate apps for iOS and Android. The translations will soon be made available for automatic page translations in Google Chrome. | {
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Meta kritika od strane Ivana Vilibora Sinčića i Ivana Pernara u Saboru je danas bio Tomislav Karamarko. Nakon što je Pernar, nakon izbacivanja iz sabornice, iznio ozbiljne optužbe na njegov račun, pitali smo i Karamarka za komentar.
Nakon izbacivanja iz sabornice, Ivan Pernar se pred novinarima odmah obrušio na Tomislava Karamarka: "Zviždačica Sonja Vlahek rekla da je firma Soboli morala dobiti posao video nadzora u Hrvatskoj pošti. Zašto? Zato što je Karamarko iza nje stajao. Ona je to rekla i ona je o tome progovorila. Poslije toga je premlaćena. I onda je Karamarko tužio za klevetu. I Karamarko je izgubio tu tužbu za klevetu", rekao je Ivan Pernar nakon izbacivanja sa sjednice Sabora.
Karamarko za DNEVNIK.hr: To su laži!
Za komentar Pernarovih ozbiljnih optužbi kontaktirali smo Tomislava Karamarka koji je rekao da se radi o lažima: " Izjava navedenog je od prve do zadnje riječi laž i izmišljotina. Niti znam tko je ta gospođa, niti sam ikoga tužio, niti ikakvu tužbu za klevetu izgubio, niti imam ikakve veze s cijelom tom konstrukcijom. Te iste paranoične stupidarije su već izgovarane od rečenih i njima sličnih. Vrlo rado bih o tome na sudu ako su navedeni spremni odreći se imuniteta saborskog zastupnika. Jer kao što smo vidjeli, klupe tog visokog doma mogu biti dobra zaštita od odgovornosti za izrečeno, raznim klevetnicima, lažljivcima, pozerima i prodavačima jeftine demagogije", poručio je Tomislav Karamarko za DNEVNIK.hr.
Podsjetimo, tijekom izlaganja Ivana Sinčića, Ivan Pernar je neprestano dobacivao Reineru iz klupe nezadovoljan što Reiner prekida Sinčićev govor o Tomislavu Karamarku. U konačnici je sjednica prekinuta, a Pernara su na silu iznijeli pripadnici Saborske straže.
Ivan Sinčić je zato svoje izlaganje dovršio iz klupe: "Danas je tema kleveta, pitanje je je li Karamarko kriminalac. Ja sam to htio objasniti na temelju zviždača koji su opisali kako se izvlačio novac. Objasnio sam da vlasti namjerno ne žele promijeniti kadrove i da ne daju dovoljno sredstava. Za DORH već desetljećima nema dovoljno novca. Htio sam govoriti kako su se u MUP-u vršila kadroviranja i kako je Karamarko raspolagao svim informacijama o Sanaderu i ostalima", kazao je Sinčić. | {
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WASHINGTON—Jotting down the instructions so the incoming commander-in-chief would be able to quickly and easily access the personal information of the American populace without any hassle, outgoing President Barack Obama left a Post-it note on the White House kitchen counter Friday explaining how to use the government’s extralegal surveillance apparatus, sources confirmed. “Domestic surveillance can be a little tricky—check to make sure NSA is connected to ISP servers first,” read the bulleted message in part, which went on to direct President Donald Trump to “keep trying” several times if a request for communications records from private internet and telecom companies didn’t work on the first attempt. “Select whether data will be collected by individual or in bulk. Download it. IMPORTANT: MAY NEED TO EXPAND STORAGE TO HANDLE ALL DATA. That’s it! Enjoy! P.S. If leak happens, you’ll have to wait a while, then reboot the whole thing.” Obama reportedly also left a stack of classified files regarding American citizens suspected of terrorism overseas on top of the Resolute desk with a note inviting his successor to “help yourself!” to any targeted killings.
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and LEHI, Utah – August 2, 2017 – Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC), the world’s leading cyber security company, and DigiCert Inc., a leading provider of scalable identity and encryption solutions for the enterprise, today announced an agreement under which DigiCert will acquire Symantec’s Website Security and related PKI solutions. Under the terms of the agreement, Symantec will receive approximately $950 million in upfront cash proceeds and approximately a 30 percent stake in the common stock equity of the DigiCert business at the closing of the transaction.
The addition of Symantec’s website security solutions to DigiCert’s offerings will bring together the industry’s top talent and provide customers with an enhanced technology platform, unparalleled customer support and market-leading innovations. DigiCert will gain capabilities to take advantage of growth opportunities in IoT and bring new approaches to the SSL market. DigiCert will continue to operate from its headquarters in Lehi, Utah and will employ over 1,000 professionals.
“Transitioning our Website Security and related PKI solutions to DigiCert allows us to sharpen our enterprise focus on delivering unparalleled protection for the cloud generation through Symantec’s Integrated Cyber Defense Platform. As our recently announced deals with Fireglass and Skycure demonstrate, we are accelerating the pace of innovation we bring to market through a combination of acquisitions as well as development from the ground up,” said Symantec CEO Greg Clark.
Clark added, “We carefully examined our options to ensure our customers would have a world-class experience with a company that offers a modern website PKI platform and is poised to lead the next generation of website security innovation. I’m thrilled that our customers will benefit from a seamless transition to DigiCert, a company that is solely focused on delivering leading identity and encryption solutions. Symantec is deeply committed to the success of this transition for our customers.”
“We look forward to building a great security company and supporting all of Symantec’s and DigiCert’s customers well into the future. We have assembled the best team in the industry to help us deliver even better security solutions and service to our customers,” said DigiCert CEO John Merrill. “DigiCert is committed to providing the market with innovative products, the highest level of trust, and experienced leadership in the SSL and PKI community. We are excited about the opportunities ahead, and will work toward a smooth transition for customers and employees of Symantec’s Website Security business.”
“We know the cyber security market well and have worked closely with DigiCert to achieve high growth and develop customer-friendly solutions,” said Robert Sayle, a Partner at Thoma Bravo, the private equity firm that has backed DigiCert since 2015. “With this transaction, DigiCert expands its incredible talent and experience to lead the next generation of global website security. We are excited to support this enhanced company as it serves its customers and pursues opportunities for innovation and growth.”
DigiCert will continue to be led by CEO John Merrill and an executive team with significant industry experience. Given the shared commitment to customer service, existing Symantec Website Security customers will be able to transition to a new platform that meets all industry standards and browser requirements and provides the foundation for future innovation in the Certificate Authority space for the benefit of customers.
The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the Symantec Board of Directors, is expected to be completed in the third quarter of fiscal 2018, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is serving as financial advisor, and Fenwick & West LLP is serving as legal counsel to Symantec. Financing for the transaction was provided by UBS Investment Bank, Credit Suisse, Jefferies Finance LLC and Goldman Sachs Bank USA. UBS Investment Bank, Credit Suisse and Jefferies LLC are serving as financial advisors, and Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as legal counsel to Thoma Bravo and DigiCert.
About Symantec
Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC), the world’s leading cyber security company, helps organizations, governments and people secure their most important data wherever it lives. Organizations across the world look to Symantec for strategic, integrated solutions to defend against sophisticated attacks across endpoints, cloud and infrastructure. Likewise, a global community of more than 50 million people and families rely on Symantec’s Norton and LifeLock product suites to protect their digital lives at home and across their devices. Symantec operates one of the world’s largest civilian cyber intelligence networks, allowing it to see and protect against the most advanced threats. For additional information, please visit www.symantec.com or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
NOTE TO U.S. EDITORS: If you would like additional information on Symantec Corporation and its products, please visit the Symantec News Room at http://www.symantec.com/news. All prices noted are in U.S. dollars and are valid only in the United States.
Symantec, the Symantec logo and the Checkmark logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
About DigiCert
DigiCert is a leading provider of scalable security solutions for a connected world. The most innovative companies, including the Global 2000, choose DigiCert for its expertise in identity and encryption for web servers and Internet of Things devices. DigiCert supports SSL/TLS and other digital certificates for PKI deployments at any scale through its certificate lifecycle management platform, CertCentral®. The company has been recognized with dozens of awards for its enterprise-grade management platform, fast and knowledgeable customer support, and market-leading growth. For the latest DigiCert news and updates, visit digicert.com or follow @digicert.
About Thoma Bravo
Thoma Bravo is a leading private equity firm focused on the software and technology-enabled services sectors. With a series of funds representing more than $17 billion in capital commitments, Thoma Bravo partners with a company’s management team to implement operating best practices, invest in growth initiatives and make accretive acquisitions intended to accelerate revenue and earnings, with the goal of increasing the value of the business. Representative past and present portfolio companies include industry leaders such as Blue Coat Systems, Deltek, Digital Insight, Global Healthcare Exchange, Hyland Software, PowerPlan, Qlik, Riverbed, SailPoint, SolarWinds, SonicWall, Sparta Systems and TravelClick. The firm has offices in San Francisco and Chicago.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains statements regarding the pending sale of our website security and related PKI solutions, which may be considered forward-looking within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws, including statements regarding the expected benefits to be realized as a result of the sale and statements with respect to the proposed timing of the closing of the sale. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from results expressed or implied in this press release. Such risk factors include those related to: satisfying all closing conditions and consummating the pending transaction; general economic conditions; maintaining customer and partner relationships; fluctuations in tax rates and currency exchange rates; the timing and market acceptance of new product releases and upgrades; the successful development of new products, and the degree to which these products and businesses gain market acceptance. Actual results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements in this press release. We assume no obligation, and do not intend, to update these forward-looking statements as a result of future events or developments. Additional information concerning these and other risks factors is contained in the Risk Factors section of our Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2017.
Contacts
Symantec Corp.
Media:
Kristen Batch, 650-527-5152
[email protected]
or
Investors:
Nate Pollack
[email protected]
DigiCert
Media:
Jeff Chandler, 801-701-9653
[email protected]
Thoma Bravo
Matthew Gorton, 212-776-1161
[email protected] | {
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Last updated on .From the section English Rugby
Leicester Tigers' under-18s side retained their academy league title earlier this month with victory over Gloucester
While the sheer unrelenting physicality of top-level rugby has never been greater - or scarier - the recruitment process is far more complicated.
Understandable notions of simply selecting the next Herculean adolescent in line, the biggest, quickest and strongest, are way off the mark.
An academy boasting an all-conquering side who are unbeaten in two seasons is the by-product of a meticulous approach concentrating on attitude, commitment and developing the individual. Results are not the driving force.
BBC Sport visits the Leicester Tigers academy to see what's behind their knack for finding and nurturing the best talent around.
Avoiding 'Bearded Bill'
Leicester Tigers' world-renowned academy has long been known as one of the greatest rugby player factories in Europe.
More than 100 age-grade internationals have learned their trade in Leicester's development programme in its 21-year existence - and, in Manu Tuilagi, Dan Cole and Ben Youngs, Tigers players are driving England's current Six Nations success.
The future looks bright too for their current batch of graduates - known as Tiger cubs - having picked up their second consecutive under-18s title following an unbeaten run lasting two seasons.
Through a combination of careful talent spotting, a wide-ranging rugby education and increasing first-team opportunities under a new coaching regime, Tigers continue to build on their world-class reputation for bringing through quality English talent.
"It was quite daunting when I first started working here," said academy manager Dave Wilks, who joined from Sale Sharks in 2015.
"There's a lot of expectation - quite rightly. That doesn't mean there's pressure, it just means there's lots of people wanting us to succeed."
England's World Cup-winning captain Martin Johnson spent his entire club career with Leicester Tigers
England's World Cup-winning captain Martin Johnson was developed from its strong youth structure, and names such as Tom Croft, Harry Ellis, Ollie Smith, as well as current England players Cole and Tuilagi, are part of the academy's impressive alumni.
Tigers pick their talent from a huge area, which includes Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and, surprisingly, Norfolk.
There is a long line of East Anglians who have excelled in a Tigers shirt, notably the Youngs brothers, hooker Tom and England's first choice scrum-half Ben.
He typifies the talent-spotting approach implemented by Tigers. Although small in stature at 5ft 8ins tall, his attitude and mental strength made him stand out, leading him to become Tigers' youngest-ever league player in 2007.
Since then he has played more than 80 times for his country.
"It is very easy to wander around and just find the lad we might term 'Bearded Bill' - who, as a 13-year-old, is running over everyone and is finding the game very easy," said academy head coach Jamie Taylor.
Ben Youngs was brought from a Norfolk school to the Tigers academy, and is now England's first choice scrum-half
"But that's the sure route to getting players who aren't hitting the high point when they're in their early twenties."
Leicester look to bring players through their 'player pathway' from as young as 13, with a 16-18 programme and a development squad for those looking to break into the first team.
Taylor added: "The biggest thing I look for when looking at young players is what they are like mentally.
"How hard are they going to work? How committed are they? How good are they at practicing when no one else is looking?"
Making 'better people' not just better players
Geordan Murphy's appointment as head coach has seen an increased drive to get academy players in the first team
Once young players are fully embedded in the academy programme from 16, they will attend their training facilities every Friday and Monday during term time, and full time during school holidays.
"It is very challenging," said Ollie Ashworth, a 17-year-old back-rower who lifted the academy finals trophy this week. "My teachers have really helped, from just making me catch up with work."
Ashworth, one of a new generation of Norfolk-born players, added: "At first, when I got into the academy, my dad was taking me up to Leicester most weekends, so he lost his social life. Nowadays we have a bus which takes us up to Leicester each week."
An intensive period of individualised rugby education follows, which looks at teaching academy pupils more than the basics of rugby tactics and fitness.
"We have a curriculum of strength and conditioning, right the way from 14, and it's the same with nutrition and with the mental side of it too," said Wilks.
Jamie Taylor and the rest of the academy staff lead the search for new talent
"Ultimately, it's up to them to want to do that and live those professional values every day, from the age of 16-17, and hopefully that will continue through to the first team when it really matters."
Another academy forward Emeka Ilione, 16, says their programme helps players "become better people", not just better rugby players.
He added: "Mainly it's about just physical development and being able to look after myself. Knowing little things like sleep, and hydration, and so I can make myself feel as well as I can."
'It's not about winning'
Their approach is clearly paying dividends.
The Tigers' under-18s team has not lost a match in two seasons, beating Gloucester earlier this month in a dramatic game at Allianz Park external-link to retain their under-18s League title.
However, the club have a more pragmatic approach to their on-field achievements.
"We're not sure how successful we have been," said Taylor.
"The purpose of what we are doing is not winning academy matches. It's long-term opportunity, whether that's with the club, or life in general."
Academy manager Dave Wilks has a tough choice to make over who will get development contracts
Since Geordan Murphy's appointment as first-team head coach in December, there has been a greater drive to include players from the academy in the senior squad.
In a recent Premiership Cup defeat by Northampton Saints, 15 of the 23-strong matchday squad learned their trade at Tigers and four of those were still part of the development programme.
Wilks added: "I think there's just more clarity, because we know the direction Geordan wants to take the team.
"My job is to make sure that if we're going to give some young players a chance, that they're able enough, talented enough and at the right level to go and take those opportunities." | {
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Titanic and Other White Star Line Ship s An In-depth Examination of the Ships of the Legendary White Star Line | {
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In my recent , I created a simple High Level Synthesis (HLS) IP block to which filtering and effects could be added. To ensure this IP core would interface with the I2S TX and RX IP cores from Xilinx, I needed to create AXI streaming interfaces on the HLS IP block.
Audio processing block diagram
Doing this got me thinking a little about how we perform interfacing using Vivado HLS, so in this blog I am going to explain how we control what interface our HLS IP block uses.
We are going to start right at the beginning with a simple HLS IP block which performs simple addition. For all these examples we are going to be targeting the Zedboard.
In HLS, the interfaces on the synthesized block are defined by the arguments we pass to our C/C++ function along with any return parameters. The direction depends upon how the are used in the function; though if we use pointers or arrays, these can be used as IO.
In addition to the inputs and outputs, an ap_cntrl interface will also be created in the synthesised HLS IP block. This control interface provides clock, reset and handshaking, for example, enabling the block to be started (ap_start), reporting when a result is ready (ap_done), when the block is ready to take a new input (ap_ready), and if the block is idle (ap_idle).
However, even the behavior of the ap_cntrl interface depends upon our solution setting and the code itself.
For the first example, we are going to use a slow clock at 100 ns. The first stage of the HLS process is scheduling, which is when the HLS tool assigns operations to clock cycles. If the clock period is long enough, then it may not even need registers, resulting in a combinatorial design.
The clock period defined in the solution settings will therefore have an impact on the synthesis and the interfacing. The very simple code below when synthesized with a clock period of 100 ns will result in a combinatorial implementation.
As such, there is no need for the handshaking signals. If you examine the output VHDL or Verilog, you will see while the signals exist, they simply assign the inputs and constants to the outputs. Another indication the synthesized block is combinatorial is there is no clock or reset input.
If we change the clock period to one of 5 ns, we will see the reported latency increase as the HLS tool inserts a register stage. This is also reflected in the interfaces with the clock and reset now being present and the behavior of the handshaking signals being updated to correctly implement the required handshaking.
This simple ap_cntrl port therefore gives us the ability to work with the HLS IP block in our design, and for that reason is called the block level protocol.
Of course, for many applications we want to be able to interface our HLS IP block with designs which use AXI or memory interfaces.
This is where the port level protocols come in and for these the type of C construct used for the variable becomes important. Port level protocols enable us to define for each port on the HLS block a specific interface protocol such as AXI Lite, AXI, FIFO, BRAM etc.
By updating the simple example above to use arrays, we can modify the interfaces to use FIFO type interfaces. We define this interface type using the pragma:
#pragma HLS interface ap_fifo depth = port =
To define the interface type, we can either type these in by hand as above or use the directives window on the right-handside of the HLS window.
As this is a port level interface, we need to define this for each of the interfaces in the HLS block.
When we run this through HLS, we will see the synthesis report generated which defines the interfaces implemented. As you can see, the FIFO interfaces have been implemented.
FIFO interfaces are interesting when we want to stream data between HLS modules.
Often, however, we want to implement interfaces which use a flavor of AXI (s_axilite, axis, s_axi, m_axi). We can use the same approach to implement AXIS and AXI master and slave interfaces.
If we are working with a heterogeneous SoC, such as the Zynq or Zynq MPSoC, we may want to use a AXI lite for control of the HLS IP block and not the discrete block interface. We can do this by using the pragma as below:
#pragma s_axilite port=return bundle=cmd
This will create not only a AXI lite interface that allows us to control the HLS IP core, it will generate the software drivers necessary to work with the HLS IP core in SDK as well.
If there is no need to stop and start the HLS IP core, then we can use the pragma:
#pragma HLS interface ap_ctrl_none port=return
Understanding how we can control the interfaces on our HLS IP blocks means that when we are working with HLS, we can ensure our IP block easily integrates with the rest of our design saving time and effort in creation of conversion blocks.
See My FPGA / SoC Projects: Adam Taylor on Hackster.io
Get the Code: ATaylorCEngFIET (Adam Taylor)
Access the MicroZed Chronicles Archives with over 280 articles on the Zynq / Zynq MpSoC updated weekly at MicroZed Chronicles. | {
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AH-64 Apache and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters arrived at an Airbase on Friday afternoon, May11 2012. | {
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The Russian equivalent of NASA has announced plans to permanently station 12 cosmonauts in a secret base on the moon.
It might sound like the plot of a James Bond movie, but the very real plan is likely to leave politicians from the West feeling both shaken and stirred.
The space agency RosCosmos has spent years working on its lunar base scheme and has slowly released tantalising details of the plans.
3 An artist's impression of what a moon base might look like Credit: RT
Now it has announced that a dozen cosmonauts - the Russian word for astronaut - will live on the base.
"At the initial stage, the Moon base will be manned by no more than 2-4 people, with their number later rising to 10-12 people," Olga Zharova from the Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIIMash) told the newspaper Izvestia today.
The base is likely to be built near one of the moon's poles, with a power station buried beneath it.
3 Star Wars... will the next conflict take place in space? Credit: RT
A fallout shelter will also be built underground, serving the dual purpose of protecting the crew from radiation and shielding them from any nuclear attacks.
It is likely that Russia's moon base will be used for scientific research and perhaps the mining of minerals, but it may also have some sort of military function.
The lunar surface would be the perfect place to build a satellite detection base, which could allow enemy spaceships to be detected and destroyed in the event of a conflict back down on Earth.
Related Stories MEET HUMANITY'S PET ASTEROID Space rock is Planet Earth's "constant companion", NASA reveals New world Astronomers spot a 'baby planet' born 50 million years after the dinosaurs went extinct Latest honey i'm home! UK astronaut Tim Peake makes emotional call on return to Earth and admits he can't wait for PIZZA and BEER In a galaxy far, far away Planet with two suns like Luke Skywalker's home Tatooine spotted in deep space Tim Peake is coming home British astronaut prepares for dangerous journey back to Earth
Russia previously revealed plans to "conquer the moon" by 2030 and currently has the edge on America and Europe in the space race.
Both NASA and ESA rely on its Soyuz rockets to get astronauts up to the International Space Station.
Deputy premier Dmitry Rogozin has also claimed his country is planning to set up a lunar base and be there "forever".
3 Lunar-cy... A view of a full moon from the surface of Earth Credit: Getty Images
The US, UK and Russia signed a UN treaty in 1967 agreeing that "the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind".
This means no country is allowed to claim ownership of the moon or any other planet and bans nations from placing nukes on the lunar surface.
"States shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner," the agreement said.
NASA also has plans to build a lunar base, which could open up as early as 2022, whilst the European Space Agency is working on a similar scheme.
But there's no telling whether the next space race will be peaceful or spark the first conflict fought on the surface of another world.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 | {
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By Barry Ungary
With the success and overwhelming positive response with previous expansions and stuff packs EA, Maxis and The Sims Studio have announced the latest Expansions to The Sims 4: Sims “Stuff.” “We know how positive an experience “stuff” can be with games from our work in other franchises, and the player experience with their Sims’ excretion is a major part of the experience,” an EA spokesperson stated. “So it makes sense to continue to offer more in depth experience with shi- I mean “stuff”.”
That’s right, defecation, crap, dropping your kids off at the pool, s**t, whatever your euphemism, is now the focus of a Sims expansion.
Per the press release, Sim’s can expect variances in their current needs, a “bowels” bar. Unlike most other needs, this is not a higher is better bar, but middle is better. To high, and your Sim will have diarrhea, to low and they will be constipated. Foods will have factors relating to fiber or tendency to constipate, and so balancing your food intake will be important. Though it is not stated, it is implied that a higher cooking skill will lead to a better balance in your current “bowels.” But be careful of the effect of the new “spice it up” setting. Apparently this can have unpleasant effects on your Sims a few hours later.
Do not worry if you are over constipated or have the runs, though, because the expansion adds a lot of “stuff” related items and features. Laxatives and anti-diarrhea medications are an important aspect. Additionally, at least 215 new types and varieties of toilets are also present.
Yet another feature has the ability to intentionally “stuff your pants” while interacting with people. Though only available if situation is correct, this fun new feature adds a whole new social dynamic. Sufficient to say, it dramatically lowers your relationship with others.
EA also announced their intention to add a stuff pack entitled “Pet Stuff.”* This Stuff Pack adds new interactions with Pet’s Stuff. It also adds to pets the same feature of “bowels” and how their diet can effect it. Further, a new pet monkey is expected, which notably when upset will “stuff” in its hand and throw it at whatever its angry at.
*requires “Cats & Dogs” and “Stuff” expansion as well “My First Pet” Stuff pack | {
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This recipe from registered dietitian Lisa Gibson provides protein, fiber, iron and vitamin C, and can be easily added to the couple’s culinary repertoire:
Note: this recipe has not been tested.
Swiss chard with cannellini beans
(Serves four)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 to 2 medium onions, sliced thin
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup vegetable broth
8 cups chopped Swiss chard leaves (remove and discard the long center stem before chopping)
1 15-ounce can chopped tomatoes (with the juice)
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano leaves
Salt and pepper
Grated vegan or dairy mozzarella (optional)
1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and crushed garlic and cook until soft.
2. Add the Swiss chard and cook until the chard starts to wilt.
3. Add the vegetable broth and cook until the chard is completely wilted.
4. Add the tomatoes, beans, and salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add the fresh herbs and cook an additional 5 minutes. Adjust seasonings if necessary.
This dish can also be served over brown rice. Cheese can be added at the end if desired. | {
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Texas has the highest rate of uninsured citizens in the country — a fourth of Texans lack medical coverage — but that hasn't swayed Gov. Rick Perry into implementing Obamacare.
Less than two weeks after the Supreme Court upheld the vast majority of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Rick Perry announced on Monday morning that Texas would not expand its Medicaid program or create a state-wide health insurance exchange.
"They would only make Texas a mere appendage of the federal government when it comes to health care."
"I will not be party to socializing healthcare and bankrupting my state in direct contradiction to our Constitution and our founding principles of limited government," Perry said in a statement. "Neither a 'state' exchange nor the expansion of Medicaid under this program would result in better 'patient protection' or in more 'affordable care.'
"They would only make Texas a mere appendage of the federal government when it comes to health care."
The Supreme Court ruled that states cannot be penalized for failing to comply with the Medicaid expansion that is part of Obamacare. Officials with the Department of Health and Human Services have said that the federal government will set up a Health Insurance Exchange for Texas if the state fails to have one in place by January 2014.
Talking about his decision on Fox News, Perry said that "every Texan has health care" adding "We don’t trust this administration and we don’t trust Washington, D.C."
While he couches his decision with references to "freedom" and "socialism," the practical effect is that the state will lose hundreds of millions of dollars provided by the federal government to offer Medicaid to needy adults, a Texas health insurance exchange will be run by the federal government and, presumably, Texas will continue to lead the nation in citizens lacking access to medical care. | {
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Story highlights In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed the scope and scale of the National Security Agency's massive surveillance program
Jimmy Wales: We should pardon Snowden because he was critical to reinstating privacy as a core value in our society
Jimmy Wales is the founder of Wikipedia and a board member of the Wikimedia Foundation. In 2015, the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, sued the NSA over the agency's mass surveillance of international communications. The views expressed in this commentary are his own.
(CNN) Wikipedia is founded on a bedrock principle of neutrality, seeking to describe all relevant sides without taking a political stance. As an individual, I, too, try to stay out of most political debates -- except where they directly impact my personal passion for the free flow of information. This is one of those times.
When I founded Wikipedia in 2001, the Internet was a place where ordinary people could freely create and share with one another. Wikipedia emerged from that egalitarian spirit, as a community committed to the free exchange of knowledge. Our mission was and continues to be to collect the sum total of all human knowledge and make it available to everybody in their own language.
Jimmy Wales
Since its founding, Wikipedia has become one of the most popular websites in the world. And we zealously guard the privacy of our users, both the 75,000 people who write the encyclopedia and the half-billion people who read it. In 2013, when Edward Snowden revealed the scope and scale of the system of mass surveillance that had been built by the National Security Agency and other national security agencies, we were horrified.
It is thanks to Snowden that we can now participate in an informed and democratic debate about how the US government subverted the power of the Internet in the name of mass surveillance. As a result of what he disclosed, people began to realize their privacy had been massively eroded over the past decade, and not just by the NSA. They recognized that their personal information was being collected, stored, analyzed and shared. Text messages, emails and phone records they thought were private were actually up for grabs, easily accessed by the US government either directly from major tech companies or by tapping the cables and switches that comprise the Internet's "backbone." And all of the surveillance was done without a warrant.
JUST WATCHED Meet the people who hid Snowden Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Meet the people who hid Snowden 03:11
That is why I've signed onto the campaign asking President Barack Obama to pardon Snowden. Without him, ordinary people around the world would still know little of the growing dragnet stifling the Internet's enormous potential for good. | {
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It's been a crazy few weeks. Illness, time away from Frisco, and that's not even the players! After a short (month) break, we're back to power rank all 41 players signed to professional contracts with FC Dallas and North Texas SC. There isn't an exact science, it's a power ranking after all, so we take into consideration which players are performing well in games and practice, who is being covered in the media, and who the fans are talking about.
Just be warned, since it's been a while there are some larger moves than usual.
Let's get down to business then...
Starting XI:
In The Mix:
Second Team:
In Reserve:
North Texas SC winger Ronaldo Damus is our joint winner with Francis Atuahene. Both leap a massive twelve spots. After not featuring much for NTXSC, the Haitian forced his way into the side at the expense of Oscar Romero. As mentioned in the comments, he's scoring every 120 minutes played, is being talked up as a contender for the USL League One Young Player of the Year. He also just missed out on the Gold Cup after making the 40-man preliminary roster.
Atuahene has had a rough go with injuries, tearing a pectoral muscle in preseason. He made the bench last week against Seattle and is looking to get back on track.
On the other end, there are a few big slides. None more so than Callum Montgomery. We last ranked as Bressan went down with a hamstring injury and Montgomery's prospects looked up as far as first team minutes. While a solid defender, Montgomery's passing needs a lot of work to suit Luchi-ball's build from the back approach. We've seen more than a few balls from the Canadian find their way to the opposing keeper in League One. With both Hedges and Ziegler out, missing out on a hometown start to a player who had never played as a center back is a huge blow.
Santiago isn't far behind, slipping 11 spots. Illness, injury, and a perceived soft mindset have all played their part. The overall feeling is to question whether Mosquera has what it takes to be a viable season-long starter.
NTX center backs Brecc Evans and Hector Montalvo also took big hits, dropping ten spots. Evans has been laid low with a long injury, while most of his slide has related to the likes of Colman, Atuahene, and Twumasi moving up after working their way back. Montalvo simply isn't up to speed yet. He's been struggling against academy kids in training, but he's also coming off a long time without playing competitively and is working back.
Who do you think makes a first-team debut in the US Open Cup and jumps up in our rankings next week? Who is the next player to experience a drop-off? Hit us up on social media individually (see byline) or at @3rdDegreeNet. | {
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The news comes amid fears of a new nuclear arms race in Europe
Brussels: Belgian opposition politicians on Tuesday demanded answers from the government after a document published online inadvertently drew attention to US nuclear weapons deployed in the country.
A draft report for the NATO parliamentary assembly's defence and security committee seen by AFP gave details of six air bases in Europe and Turkey where it said the US stores 150 nuclear weapons, specifically B-61 gravity bombs.
The news comes amid fears of a new nuclear arms race in Europe, as a landmark Cold War treaty between Moscow and Washington is on the brink of collapse.
Green lawmaker Samuel Cogolati said the report confirmed the "open secret" that US nuclear weapons were stationed at the Kleine-Brogel air base in northern Belgium.
"We demand a fully transparent debate - we must stop this lying and put an end to this hypocrisy," he told AFP.
A section of the draft report by Canadian senator Joseph Day, refers to a total of "approximately 150 nuclear weapons" stored at Kleine-Brogel, Buechel in Germany, Aviano and Ghedi-Torre in Italy, Volkel in the Netherlands and Incirlik in Turkey.
The report, titled "A New Era for Nuclear Deterrence? Modernisation, Arms Control, and Allied Nuclear Forces" was written in April and then amended last week to remove the detailed references to the air bases.
The information appears to come from an annual paper on US nuclear forces in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which gives details of the reported locations of all American nuclear warheads.
The United States is one of three atomic powers in NATO, along with Britain and France, and although the nulcear threat is a key part of its deterrence strategy, the alliance routinely refuses to discuss it in detail.
The alliance distanced itself from the report, with an official stressing that it was "not an official NATO document".
An official said the alliance would not comment on nuclear matters.
"The document quoted is a draft report by parliamentarians of NATO countries, who come together under the NATO Parliamentary Assembly."
A spokesman for Belgian Defence Minister Didier Reynders refused to comment.
In the late 1980s a Belgian minister acknowledged the presence of US nuclear weapons at Kleine-Brogel, which lies some 90 km (55 miles) northwest of Brussels, near the Dutch border.
But no details have been given before of the number of warheads or how they could be used. | {
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Google Lens will let smartphone cameras understand what they see and take action
At Google’s I/O developer conference, CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new technology called Google Lens. The idea with the product is to leverage Google’s computer vision and AI technology in order to bring smarts directly to your phone’s camera. As the company explains, the smartphone camera won’t just see what you see, but will also understand what you see to help you take action.
During a demo, Google showed off how you could point your camera at something and Lens tells you what it is — like, it could identify the flower you’re preparing to shoot.
In another example, Pichai showed how Lens could do a common task — connecting you to a home’s Wi-Fi network by snapping a photo of the sticker on the router.
In that case, Google Lens could identify that it’s looking at a network’s name and password, then offer you the option to tap a button and connect automatically.
A third example was a photo of a business’s storefront — and Google Lens could pull up the name, rating and other business listing information in a card that appeared over the photo.
The technology basically turns the camera from a passive tool that’s capturing the world around you to one that’s allowing you to interact with what’s in your camera’s viewfinder.
Later, during a Google Home demonstration, the company showed how Lens would be integrated into Google Assistant. Through a new button in the Assistant app, users will be able to launch Lens and insert a photo into the conversation with the Assistant, where it can process the data the photo contains.
To show how this could work, Google’s Scott Huffman holds his camera up to a concert marquee for a Stone Foxes show and Google Assistant pulls up info on ticket sales. “Add this to my calendar,” he says — and it does.
The integration of Lens into Assistant can also help with translations.
In addition, Pichai showed how Google’s algorithms could more generally clean up and enhance photos — like when you’re taking a picture of your child’s baseball game through a chain-link fence, Google could remove the fence from the photo automatically. Or if you took a photo in a low-light condition, Google could automatically enhance the photo to make it less pixelated and blurry.
The company didn’t announce when Google Lens would be available, only saying that it’s arriving “soon.” | {
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Me (to a group of 13-year-olds): “Can anyone here define the term ‘concentration camp’?”
Kid: “It’s a place where they sent people to shrink their heads and make them into paperweights.” | {
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Readers! You might be knowing about the Gionee’s remarkable Smartphone Elife S5.5L? Well, here’s a good news for the lovers.
Gionee is going to replace the MT6592 with the Snapdragon 400 (MSM8928 quad-core/A7 1.6G) as the new processor for the ELIFE S5.5L. Maybe this is going to happen because the company needs to wait till July end for the shipping of MediaTek processors.
As the company is replacing the processors in nrew manufacturs, other changes are also in loose suggestions for this new 4G edition. The camera won’t be sticking out anymore, instead, the S5.5L’s thickness increased from 5.55mm to 5.75mm! Also, the battery is increased to 2450mAH!
It also supports TD-LTE/WCDMA/TD-SCDMA and GSM internet but still, it will be supporting 3G dual-mode. Rest specs are unaffected. The S5.5L sports a 5inch 1080p Samsung SA screen, 2GB RAM, 16GB ROM, a 5MP 95° wide angle front-facing camera, and 13MP Sony rear camera. The phone is also topped-up by Amigo2.0 UI.
As per news, Gionee ELIFE S5.5L will be available in market from July, and is expected to remain constant in terms of price(Original Octa-core Edition). | {
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What does a country look like as a font? That’s an abstract question, but one that Stockholm-based design firm Söderhavet had to try to answer as part of a project to design a comprehensive identity for its home country of Sweden. Led by designers Jesper Robinell and Stefan Hattenbach, the company has designed a typeface for Sweden that it thinks sums up the country’s own design heritage. Which is what exactly?
“In Swedish, we have this word called lagom,” Robinell tells me by phone. “It means not too much, but not too little. Not edgy, but not boring either. Something in-between and right in the middle.” Söderhavet’s typeface, Sweden Sans, is just right–ahem, lagom!–through and through.
When designing Sweden Sans, Söderhavet began by flipping through thousands of examples of old Scandinavian signage: old street signs, company logos, and more. The idea, Söderhavet says, was not to necessarily find one specific typeface to emulate, but to soak in the ambience of Sweden’s own rich heritage of type.
To design the font itself, Söderhavet started with a simple criteria: it needed to be able to support the Swedish flag. A cross pattée of gold overlaid on a background of blue, the Swedish flag’s design heralds back to the mid-1600’s–the period in which the country was founded–in one variation or another. Any typeface that Söderhavet designed needed to look great next to the flag, and compliment its angular, cross-sectioned design, to form a consistent logotype.
One way that in-between-ness surfaces in the finished product is that, although it’s called Sweden Sans, that’s a misnomer: it actually has a few serifs. The ‘i’, the ‘j’, the ‘l’ and the ‘1’ all have feet, where as letters like the lowercase ‘g’, ‘p’ and ‘q’ all have serifs at the end of their strokes. But while Sweden Sans might be more properly called Sweden Serif, it does somehow manage to still feel like a sans serif font.
“The serifs are there because we discovered in testing that the typeface really looked great in headlines where it has a loose kerning,” Hattenbach explains. “So we designed it almost like a monospace font. But because of that, characters like ‘l’ and ‘1’ can be very hard to tell apart without serifs.” Söderhavet’s rationale is the very definition of lagom: just because we’re designing a sans-serif font here, let’s not go crazy and rule out using serifs!
Although Sweden Sans reads perfectly normal in English, it still tips its hat to Scandinavia with some clever design touches. Take the capital ‘Q’ for instance, which is neatly bisected below the waist by a purely vertical descender. Or the number ‘0’, with its diagonal slash. Even in English, these characters help bring to mind some of the diacritics that, thanks to Ikea, we think of when we think of Sweden. | {
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"I think my best bet is to recreate what happened the last time my gem glowed. So... Garnet and Amethyst were here. Pearl was next to the fridge. Hmm... Amethyst, I think your arms were crossed?"
"Okay, your majesty."
Y O U R M A J E S T Y | {
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I heard 40% of south Ameristralian women have DD boobs Then why is that continent so flat?
194 shares | {
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In December 1964, over a single evening session in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, John Coltrane and his quartet recorded the entirety of A Love Supreme. This jazz album is considered Coltrane’s masterpiece – the culmination of his spiritual awakening – and sold a million copies. What it represents is all too human: a climb out of addiction, a devotional quest, a paean to God.
Five decades later and 50 miles downstate, over 12 hours this April and fuelled by Monster energy drinks in a spare bedroom in Princeton, New Jersey, Ji-Sung Kim wrote an algorithm to teach a computer to teach itself to play jazz. Kim, a 20-year-old Princeton sophomore, was in a rush – he had a quiz the next morning. The resulting neural network project, called deepjazz, trended on GitHub, generated a buzz of excitement and skepticism from the Hacker News commentariat, got 100,000 listens on SoundCloud, and was big in Japan.
This half-century gulf, bracketed by saxophone brass and Python code, has seen a rise in computer-generated music and visual art of all methods and genres. Computer art in the era of big data and deep learning, though, is a reckoning for algorithms, capital-A. We must now embrace – either to wrestle or to caress – computer art.
In industry, there is blunt-force algorithmic tension – ‘Efficiency, capitalism, commerce!’ versus ‘Robots are stealing our jobs!’ But for algorithmic art, the tension is subtler. Only 4 per cent of the work done in the United States economy requires ‘creativity at a median human level’, according to the consulting firm McKinsey and Company. So for computer art – which tries explicitly to zoom into this small piece of that vocational pie – it’s a question not of efficiency or equity, but of trust. Art requires emotional and phrenic investments, with the promised return of a shared slice of the human experience. When we view computer art, the pestering, creepy worry is: who’s on the other end of the line? Is it human? We might, then, worry that it’s not art at all.
Algorithms’ promise holds potent popular allure. A search for the word ‘algorithm’ in the webpages of the empirically minded site FiveThirtyEight (where I’m on staff) returns 516 results, as I write. I’m personally responsible for more than a few of those. In the age of big data, algorithms are meant to treat disease, predict the decisions of the Supreme Court, revolutionise sports and predict the beauty of sunsets. They will also, it’s said, prevent suicide, improve your arugula, predict police misconduct, and tell if a movie will bomb.
The more grandiose would-be applications of algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) are often preceded by ostensibly more manageable proving grounds – games, say. Before IBM’s question-answering computer, Watson, treats cancer, for example, it goes on the TV quiz show Jeopardy! Google’s AlphaGo took on a top human Go champion in a ‘grand challenge’ for AI. But these contests aren’t trivial stepping stones – they can be seen as affronts to humankind. One commentator, realising that Google’s program would win a match, said he ‘felt physically unwell’.
It’s much the same for computer art projects. Kim and his friend Evan Chow, whose code is used in deepjazz, are members of the youngest generation of a long lineage of computer ‘artists’. (These two aren’t exactly starving artists, though. This summer, Kim’s working at Merck, and Chow’s at Uber.) As the three of us sat in a high-backed wooden booth in Cafe Vivian, on the Princeton campus, actual, honest-to-God human jazz played over the speakers – Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s frenetic ‘Pedal Up’ (1973) – and as Kim played me samples generated by deepjazz from his laptop, we were awash in an unholy jazz + jazz = jazz moment.
‘The idea is pretty profound,’ Kim said, as I strained to decipher what was human in the cacophony. ‘You can use an AI to create art. That’s normally a process that we think of as immutably human.’ Kim agreed that deepjazz, and computer art, is often a proving ground, but he saw ends as well as means. ‘I’m not going to use the word “disruptive”,’ he said, then continued: ‘It’s crazy how AI could shape the music industry,’ imagining an app built on tech like deepjazz. ‘You hum a melody and the phone plays back your own custom, AI-generated song.’
Like a profitless startup, the value of many computer-art projects thus far is their perceived promise. The public deepjazz demo is limited, and improvises off just one song, ‘And Then I Knew’ (1995) by the Pat Metheny Group (Kim wasn’t quite sure how to pronounce ‘Metheny’). But the code is public, and it’s been tweaked to noodle the Friends theme song, for example.
Of course it’s not just jazz music, and not just deepjazz, that has gotten the computer treatment – jigs and folk songs, a ‘Genetic Jammer’, polyphonic music, and quite a bit else has been put through the algorithmic ringer.
Visual art, too, has been subjected to algorithms for decades now. Two engineers created this image – probably the first computer nude – at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, somewhere geographically between Coltrane and Kim, in 1966. The piece was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 1968.
The New York Times reviewed one of the first exhibitions of computer art, in 1965 (just a few months after Coltrane’s recording session) featuring work by two scientists and an IBM #7094 digital computer, at a New York gallery, now long shuttered. ‘So far the means are of greater interest than the end,’ the Times wrote. But the review, by the late Stuart Preston, goes on to strike a surprisingly enthusiastic tone:
No matter what the future holds – and scientists predict a time when almost any kind of painting can be computer-generated – the actual touch of the artist will no longer play any part in the making of a work of art. When that day comes, the artist’s role will consist of mathematically formulating, by arranging an array of points in groups, a desired pattern. From then on, all will be entrusted to the deus ex machina. Freed from the tedium of technique and the mechanics of picture-making, the artist will simply ‘create’.
The machine is just the brush – a human holds it. There are, indeed, examples of computers helping musicians to simply ‘create’.
Emily Howell is a computer program. A 1990s creation of David Cope, now a professor emeritus at the University of California at Santa Cruz, ‘she’ was born out of Cope’s frustrating struggle to finish an opera of his own. (Howell’s compositions are performed by human musicians.)
This music is passable. It might even be good and, for me, is safely on the right bank of the uncanny valley. But another thing that makes it more interesting is the simple fact that it I know it was composed by a computer. I’m interested in that as a medium – an amplification of Cope’s artistic expression, rather than a sublimation. But the tension persists.
I’ve fallen down other rabbit holes, too: for one, the work of Manfred Mohr, an early algorithmic art pioneer who is himself a (human) jazz musician, as well as an artist. Namely his painting, P‑706/B (2000), based on a six-dimensional hypercube. I spent the next hour reading about Mohr, the man.
Courtesy Manfred Mohr
Sometimes in ‘computer music’ it’s also the other way around – humans name the tune, software dances to it. And in one of these cases, the market has spoken loudly. Vocaloids are singing synthesisers, developed by Yamaha, and anthropomorphised by the Japanese company Crypton. One popular Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku (the name translates to ‘the first sound from the future’), headlined a barn-burning North American tour this year, where Miku appeared as a hologram, drawing lines around the block for $75 tickets at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom. Miku is a huge pop star, but not a human. ‘She’ also appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman.
So it’s increasingly not just dorm-room hackers and cloistered academics pecking at computer art to show off their chops or get papers published. Last month, the Google Brain team announced Magenta, a project to use machine learning for exactly the purposes described here, and asked the question: ‘Can we use machine learning to create compelling art and music?’ (The answer is pretty clearly already ‘Yes,’ but there you go.) The project follows in the footsteps of Google’s Deep Dream Generator, which reimagines images in arty, dreamy (or nightmarish) ways, using neural networks.
But the honest-to-God truth, at the end of all of this, is that this whole notion is in some way a put-on: a distinction without a difference. ‘Computer art’ doesn’t really exist in an any more provocative sense than ‘paint art’ or ‘piano art’ does. The algorithmic software was written by a human, after all, using theories thought up by a human, using a computer built by a human, using specs written by a human, using materials gathered by a human, at a company staffed by humans, using tools built by a human, and so on. Computer art is human art – a subset rather than a distinction. It’s safe to release the tension.
A different human commentator, after witnessing the program beat the human champ at Go, felt physically fine and struck a different note: ‘An amazing result for technology. And a compliment to the incredible capabilities of the human brain.’ So it is with computer art. It’s a compliment to the human brain – and a complement to oil paints and saxophone brass. | {
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PSG estuda não renovar o contrato de Thiago Silva
Com contrato apenas até junho de 2020, brasileiro é visto como 'obstáculo' para rejuvenescer o setor defensivo
A renovação de contrato de Thiago Silva no está em xeque. A Goal apurou que parte da diretoria do clube francês não é farovável à extensão do vínculo do veterano zagueiro, que é válido apenas até junho de 2020. A situação tem sido discutida com mais rigor nos últimos dias.
Quer ver jogos ao vivo ou quando quiser? Acesse o DAZN e teste grátis o serviço por um mês!
Com a possibilidade de assinar pré-contrato com qualquer equipe a partir de janeiro, o brasileiro de 35 anos tem a total confiança da comissão técnica, mas, internamente, é visto como um "obstáculo" no planejamento de rejuvenescer o setor defensivo.
No atual elenco do PSG, Thomas Tuchel conta com três jovens na zaga: Kimpembe (24), Diallo (23) e Kehrer (23), além de Bakker (19), que é lateral-esquerdo de origem, e Marquinhos (25), hoje cumprindo o papel de primeiro volante. Há ainda a intenção de contratar mais um jogador promissor para fortalecer a posição.
Ídolo e capitão do time, Thiago Silva chegou ao PSG em 2012/13, depois de três temporadas no . Já são sete anos no futebol da , onde conquistou 20 títulos oficiais: Liga Francesa (6x), Francesa (5x), (4x) e (5x). | {
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Last week was a whirlwind. On Monday I was in the green and gently rolling hills of Dorset, England in the beautiful old Victorian house where I grew up. It was early summer, the buttercups were flowering and even the sheep were smiling. I left with great reluctance after a break that was all too short. By Tuesday night I was curled up on the floor sleeping in a small frozen heap in Doha airport in Qatar in the Middle East. Wednesday night brought me back to a cold and wintery Cape Town. Exhausted I was thrown headlong into the chaos of the Department of Home Affairs where the international residents of South Africa go in their hundreds crowded like cattle for visa applications and renewals. By Saturday I was on the road again for the weekend in the name of pollination biology research. Our destination was the Swartberg Mountains, a little more than 400 km east of Cape Town. This rugged range towers high over the small ostrich farming town of Oudtshoorn to the south with the wide open, sparsely populated semi-arid plains of the Great Karoo extending northwards.
Protea lorifolia
We three made good progress eastwards along Route 62 squished inside the ‘Jimny’: a tiny underpowered box on wheels carefully disguised as a 4×4. Immediately after driving under the stunning rock arch of Cogman’s Kloof near Montagu I spotted a huge snake crossing the road and we quickly u-turned and stopped to make sure no motorists ran over it. Mr. Snake was one of the largest puff adders I’ve ever seen at nearly a metre in length and we watched carefully as it continued its journey safely into the grass at the verge. Puff adders have highly cytotoxic venom and are responsible for more deaths on the African continent than any other snake. That said, encounters with this beautiful snake are rare and a privilege at a safe distance where they will not feel threatened or cornered and be likely to strike. They should be treated with the respect any living creature deserves and are a vital part of the ecosystem to which they belong.
Left: Klipspringer. Right: Orange-breasted Sunbird
After a long drive west we overnighted in the small Karoo town of Prince Albert before an early morning start for the main business of the trip. We were there to collect some camera traps from high in the Swartberg Mountains placed as part of a pollination biology research project. Camera traps are movement triggered cameras that automatically take pictures of any living critter that happens to walk past them. They have a variety of different applications in biological research and can provide valuable information to scientists on everything from population distribution to behaviour of mammals and birds. They are particularly useful when stationed in remote or inaccessible areas and generate footage easily without the disturbance caused by the presence of a human researcher.
Left: Lower reaches of the Swartberg Pass. Right: Message loud and clear!
In this case we were collecting cameras which had been placed to monitor and provide new insights into pollination biology of altimontane Proteaceae species. The species being studied grows high up in the Swartberg and is thought be pollinated by mice. However to date unsurprisingly nobody has been crazy enough to sit up there through rainy days and chilly nights to confirm this ‘educated hunch’ and camera trap film footage promises to provide new ecological insights into exactly who visits this species during its flowering season. This is thought to be one of a number of Protea spp. which are adapted to facilitate rodent pollination. Other examples include Protea humiflora and Protea amplexicaulis. Rodent pollinated Proteaceae can usually be distinguished by their low hanging flowers and often yeast-like odour.
Protea montana
We took the dirt road out of town towards the base of the Swartberg Pass which led us as close as possible to our high altitude field site. This 24 km stretch of dirt road ascends from adjacent to Prince Albert southwards over the Swartberg Mountains climbing to an altitude of 1,575m asl along a series of beautifully designed switchbacks. The road was engineered by Thomas Bain and built by 250 convict labourers, being opened to the public in 1888. Some paid the ultimate price for their hard work during the second winter of the construction when the roof of one of their camps collapsed under the weight of snow. Much of the road was constructed using perfectly dovetailed dry stone walls which are immaculately preserved to this day more than 120 years later. The Swartberg Pass is a National Monument and was the final road that Thomas Bain engineered in the Cape. It is also one of the greatest achievements of his career.
The long and winding road: View northwards over the Swartberg
As we ascended up the pass early on Sunday morning we were treated to the sight of no less than five klipspringer. This beautiful antelope stands only a little more than half a metre in height and their name when translated from Afrikaans means ‘rock jumper’. Remarkably they derive all the moisture they need from the vegetation on which feed and never need to visit water to drink. As we drove slowly upwards we were rewarded with views over some of the most spectacular geology in the world where the sandstone of this mountain range is contorted into a myriad of anticline and synclinal folds more than 120 million years old. Slowly as we climbed upwards the vegetation changes with splashes of pink of the last few flowers of the year of Protea punctata being visited by numerous orange breasted sunbirds.
Standing atop the Swartberg Pass buffeted by icy cold winds with the Swartberg foothills spread out far below
Eventually we arrived as ‘Die Top’, the summit of the pass and the start of our ascent on foot. We made steady progress up the steep and rocky trail typical of most in the Cape mountains through stands of Protea lorifolia with their pale yellow and pink flowers. The wind was bitterly cold and scattered grey clouds flew past us at the same level as we climbed upwards. Our reward was stupendous views in all directions throughout the Swartberg range and beyond as we arrived at the research site to collect the cameras. The winding road where we started was visible far below us as we sat hunkered down beneath the rocks out of the wind. We paused briefly to take a photograph to mark our achievement before beginning the long journey homewards, with luck armed with new information about the ecology of these achingly beautiful mountains of the Cape. | {
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Because Wednesday was a particularly bad day for me, this post will be brief. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocascio-Cortez introduced The Loan Shark Prevention Act. Its main features:
Capping credit card interest rates at 15%, which the Fed may increase if needed for a period of 18 months to preserve the safety and soundness of banks Relaunching the Post Office Bank, which would offer basic services, such as checking and savings accounts as well as loans
The title of the bill is a well-deserved poke in the eye to the financial services industry. While a Post Office Bank has been presented as a solution both to payday lenders as well as the high level of “unbanked” individuals, it can also be taken as a criticism of the credit card industry.
And it’s hardly radical to propose a credit card interest rate cap. None other than that great American socialist, Republican senator Al D’Amato, did so in 1990. D’Amato’s proposal was even more aggressive than the Sanders/AOC loan shark bill. He called for 14%, the logic being that that represented a 10 point spread over the prime rate. Sanders and AOC pointed out that banks now charge 17% on average when their cost of funding is 2.5%.
Credit cards had been subject to state usury ceilings until in 1980 Citibank took advantage of a Supreme Court decision that allowed for cards to be marketed out of state, then persuaded South Dakota, which was already set to eliminate its usury laws, to “invite” Citi into the state.
Banks had also implemented annual fees as a way to cope with the super-high short-term interest rates of early 1980s. This new way of skinning the cat produced healthy incentives. With an annual fee, banks profited from every type of customer: ones that paid off their card every month, ones that ran occasional balances, like after a Christmas buying spree, and ones that were chronically in debt.
But limits on credit card interest rates, which even in the deregulating 1980s were generally an awfully rich 19.8%, produced an even more important salutary effect: it encouraged lenders to take some care in extending credit. The Classical economists were forceful advocates of usury ceilings, because otherwise lenders would seek out the most desperate or reckless borrowers, such as aristocratic gamblers, since they’d be willing to pay rapacious interest rates. The Classicals saw this lender preference as bad for the economy, since lenders would prefer lucrative but often bad risks to lending to businessmen who understandably would not be willing to pay super high interest rates.
The incentives in the credit card industry got worse in 1990s, when AT&T introduced a fee-free credit card. It was soon widely emulated, making it harder for credit card issuer to levy annual charges. That change pushed the industry even more strongly in the direction of seeking to land customer who’d be running balances all the time. In the topsy-turvy world of credit card economics, customers who paid off their charges in full every month were called “deadbeats”.
Critics of the Sanders/AOC credit card plan whine that it would restrict credit issuance to the poor. That’s a feature, not a bug. As New York Magazine noted:
The bill’s broader aim is to protect low-income people from predatory financial practices. It’s often difficult for low-income people to access credit at all, and when they do, they’re more likely to have poor credit and to take out subprime credit cards with high interest rates. Struggling families often bear higher-than-average debt burdens, too, as they take on more debt to keep up with costs of living that have far outpaced wage growth. “About 1 in 5 American families who make $41,200 or less have what’s considered a hefty debt burden — defined as more than 40% debt-to-income load,” CNN reported in 2015, drawing from a Morgan Stanley Institute study. And while wealthier households can afford to pay down credit cards quickly, lower-income households struggle to do so and can trap themselves further and further into debt. As Gary Rivlin noted in a 2014 piece for the Daily Beast, it’s expensive to be poor.
The bigger picture is that starting in the early 1980s, easier access to consumer credit served as a way for middle and lower class households to increase their standard of living in the face of stagnant real incomes. That’s obviously a self-limiting solution in the long run. With corporate profits at a record-high share of GDP, most businesses have plenty of room to pay workers more. And if consumers are maxed out, or will have more limited access to borrowing due to the long-overdue imposition of standards, they won’t be able to spend all that much. Maybe enterprises that serve those customers will work out that higher wages helps growth.
As for the Post Office Bank, it’s a testament to the power of the banking lobby that this idea is almost never discussed in polite company. It’s not only not radical, it’s a part of American history. From Slate in 2014:
Every other developed country in the world has postal banking, and we actually did too. It is important to remember this forgotten history as we begin to talk seriously about reviving postal banking because the system worked and it worked well. Postal banking, which existed in the United States from 1911 to 1966, was in fact so central to our banking system that it was almost the alternative to federal deposit insurance, and served as such from 1911 until 1933. The system prevented many bank runs during a turbulent time in the nation’s banking history—essentially performing central banking functions before the Federal Reserve was up to the task. Postal banking helped fund two world wars and reduced a massive government deficit after the Great Depression.
The entire article is very much worth reading. It describes how bankers succeeded in placing enough limits on the Postal Saving Bank, like a low level of interest on savings accounts and maximum account sizes, so as to make it difficult for it to succeed.
Post Office Banks would have a great foundation by virtue of their extensive locations and long hours. And they would considerably curtail the ability of banks to prey on customers who are now un or under banked.
But the idea that it’s only the poor or unsophisticated who use payday lenders is false. From a 2018 post:
Enter Lisa Servon, a professor and chair in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. She’s also the author of The Unbanking of America, an at-times startling look at the way Middle America is surviving in an increasingly tumultuous U.S. economy. Servon started her research on specifically how the middle class is using check cashing and payday loans when she started reading about how low-income people didn’t know any better. The theory—which you are probably familiar with—says that the poor and people of color don’t use mainstream banks because they aren’t financially savvy. They are, the insinuation goes, stupid about money…. So, Servon started looking at how, and why, people use check cashing and payday loans. In a nutshell: Most people are using them because they’re not making a high enough minimum wage, and the economy is unstable—the perfect environment for the “alternative financial services” industry to flourish in…. “The job of policymakers,” she says, “is to get them to be banked and to stay there.”… “People who are taking payday loans are people who make $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 a year, own their homes and have a college education. That’s the fastest-growing group. It’s not people who ‘don’t know better.’” Banks have become more expensive, says Servon, making more of their money from fees, and that automatically excludes people who can’t afford it.
Mind you, this discussion doesn’t even consider the legitimate-looking forms of preying on the poor, like government benefit cards provided by banks like Chase that have high fees and other gotcha features.
The Postal Service Inspector General issued a report in 2014 making a case for a Post Office Bank. The trust of its arguments are just as true now. From our write-up:
One of the stunning parts in reading the document is to see how wildly successful this program could be, precisely because traditional banks are withdrawing from many of the neighborhoods in which moderate and lower-income people live, and non-banks offer targeted, richly priced services, too often designed to take advantage of desperation or simple lack of alternatives. Even though most of us are aware of this general picture, the USPS IG, dimensions the scale of this problem and the costs to the affected households There are 34 million un and underbanked American households, which translates into 28% of the population. And consider what this second-class status translated into in fees and other charges: The average underserved household has an annual income of about $25,500 and spends about $2,412 of that just on alternative financial services fees and interest. That amounts to 9.5 percent of their income. To put that into perspective, that is about the same portion of income that the average American household spends on food in one year.5 In 2012 alone, the underserved paid some $89 billion in fees and interest. And this level of charges plays directly into financial distress: For the most vulnerable Americans — including many of the underserved — the difference between making it and not is a small amount of money. Among the 1.1 million people who filed for personal bankruptcy in 2012, their median average income of $2,743 a month was just $26 less than their median average monthly expenses. Put another way, these people were just $26 a month away from making ends meet.
Of course, another benefit of a Post Office Bank is that it would strengthen the Post Office against attacks by conservatives intent on dismantling it and handing the pickings over to Fedex, UPS, and Amazon. Post offices are often the anchors of rural communities, and the ongoing pruning of Post Office branches has increased stress in small towns in flyover. .
And please, spare me “What about bank profits?” As we have discussed at nauseating length, banks get such extensive explicit and implicit subsidies from government that they cannot properly be considered to be private enterprises. We’ve argued that they need to be regulated like utilities. But if that looks too hard to do in a direct manner, the end-run is to force them to compete with a utility. | {
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There’s more proof that Democrats don't give a hoot about immigration, IRS tax refund checks, or anything of the sort. Why do I say that? Because they were finally making some headway on some kind of funding package to keep the government open after Friday. So what happened on Saturday? Democrats threw another monkey wrench into the machinery and are now demanding -- in exchange for any wall funding -- that they decrease the number of detainment beds available for people who cross into the country illegally.
Why would the Democrats do that?
Think about that. We plan to detain lawbreakers who broke our laws, those who came into the country illegally, and Democrats want a fewer number of detainment beds available and detainment facilities to hold these people?
DAN BONGINO: HEY, REP. OCASIO-CORTEZ, SHOW US HOW IT'S DONE AND DONATE 70 PERCENT OF YOUR INCOME TO THE GOVERNMENT
Why?
Because it's not about immigration. The Democrats are trying to propose something they know Donald Trump won't agree to because he clearly cares about enforcing our immigration laws.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE DAN BONGINO SHOW
So what will happen? The government will shut down again and they'll try to blame it on Trump.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Democrats don't care. This is a pure political play. Don’t kid yourself, this was never about immigration.
Democrats have been offered political compromises in the past where people who were already in the country illegally would be allowed to stay for some period of time but wouldn't be allowed to vote, and they've turned that down.
Again, this is not about immigration. It's about a pure power play and a political victory against Donald Trump.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The Democrats understand they had a disastrous week last week. The party of identity politics is now knee-deep in scandals. There is a photo of one of their governors either in blackface or a Ku Klux Klan outfit. You have the Green New Deal. They’re attacking Medicare patients, hospital workers, the airline industry, farting cows.
They desperately need to change the conversation and they need a government shutdown. -- American citizens be darned.
This article has been adapted from The Dan Bongino Show Ep. 913: The Democrats’ Really Bad Week. | {
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Hiroki Kokubo didn’t drop any hints about who would be on the Samurai Japan team for the 2017 World Baseball Classic. He did, however, help reveal what they would be wearing.
Samurai Japan unveiled the national team uniforms for the tournament during a news conference at the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame on Friday afternoon.
The design is similar to what has been worn by Japan teams (the senior squad, women’s squad, etc.) since the national team system was revamped in 2013. The home and away versions each feature thin, gold pinstriping and have “Japan” written across the chest in blue letters with a gold border. A Japanese flag is on the right sleeve, and a gold stripe runs across the bottom of both sleeves. The home version is white and the away uniform is dark blue, as in past years.
Japan will debut its new uniforms during four exhibition games at Tokyo Dome in November, when Samurai Japan is scheduled to play two games apiece against Mexico and the Netherlands.
As for who will be wearing these uniforms, Kokubo didn’t reveal much, but said he’s been keeping track of everything that’s happened this season.
“The Central League was finished quickly, the winning team is already decided,” Kokubo said. “There’s an amazing battle going on in the Pacific League. Right now, the players are thinking about their own situations and doing what they can to win.
“As for my job, first of all, there will probably be players from the Climax Series among with the other candidates who are called up. We will have to bring them all together quickly and begin our preparations.”
Kokubo’s hiring was the centerpiece of the national team overhaul following the team’s semifinal loss at the 2013 World Baseball Classic. Japan had won the previous two editions of the tournament. Kokubo was formally hired in October of that year and next year’s WBC will mark the end of a long journey for the former star player who had never managed when he took over the Japan team. | {
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Article originally appeared on aliziolaw.com
All restaurants in New York will have the responsibility to collect and remit state sales tax. Regardless of the type of entity of the restaurant (Corporation or LLC), certain individuals who are active in the management of the restaurant may be deemed “Responsible Persons” and can be held personally liable for any outstanding sales tax liability of the restaurant.
If you ever have an opportunity to invest in a restaurant located in New York the first inquiry should be is the restaurant an LLC. The reason it is important to ascertain the type of entity of the restaurant is because all members of LLCs are “Responsible Persons” with regards to sales tax under the current New York Tax Law. This means a passive investor of an LLC would be held jointly and severally liable for any outstanding sales tax liability of the restaurant.
Unfortunate Scenario:
An individual decides to invest $25,000 in Restaurant LLC for a 10% interest in the LLC. The restaurant is losing money and after a couple years cannot pay the rent and shuts down. The investor figures he has lost his entire $25,000 investment. Then 6 months later, the investor is notified that no sales tax returns have been filed and no sales tax deposits have been made by the restaurant for the last year of operations. There is $180,000 sales tax liability which needs to be paid and the investor along with the other members of the LLC are all jointly and severally liable for the entire balance.
The Unfortunate Scenario above would have been prevented if the restaurant was setup as a Corporation instead of an LLC. If the restaurant was a Corporation, then none of the passive investors would be considered “Responsible Persons” and therefore would not be personally liable for any outstanding sales tax liability of the restaurant.
New York Response to the Unfortunate Scenario Above:
The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance recognizes the unfortunate consequences to individuals who have no involvement or control of the business. The Department has developed a policy to provide relief to these individuals. To be eligible for relief an individual must:
(1) own less than 50% of LLC;
(2) have no duty to comply with the Tax Law on behalf of the LLC;
(3) be willing to cooperate with the Department by providing information to help identify other potentially responsible persons.
If you are granted relief, you may only be personally liable for your share (based on ownership % or profit and losses %) of the outstanding sales tax liability. In the scenario above, if the passive investor was granted relief, he would only be personally liable for about $18,000 ($180,000 X 10%) instead of being jointly and severally liable for the entire $180,000 balance.
This policy is a gift from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and is not recognized by law. In other words, this relief would not be granted by a court of law.
In conclusion, the type of entity of the restaurant is an issue to be considered by the investor. Investors investing in a New York restaurant are better protected with regards to outstanding sales tax liability by investing in a Corporation versus an LLC.
If you would like further and more detailed information, please read TSB-M-11(17)S
About the Author: Peter Alizio is both a CPA and an Attorney who writes on tax-related issues. Check out his website: www.coffeewithacpa.com | {
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By IVAN MORENO, Associated Press
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Former President Barack Obama plans to visit one of Milwaukee's most impoverished black neighborhoods Friday to campaign for Wisconsin Democrats, underlining his party's efforts to encourage African-Americans to vote.
African-Americans traditionally vote Democrat, so low black voter turnout in Milwaukee in 2016 proved costly for Hillary Clinton. She narrowly lost Wisconsin, which was among a handful of states that helped determine the presidency.
When Obama won Wisconsin in 2012, black voter turnout was at 74 percent, but that number plummeted to 55 percent in 2016, according to the liberal Center for American Progress. The group's analysis concluded that Clinton would have narrowly won Wisconsin if black turnout had remained at 2012 levels.
"We're excited to have him here to energize that base and to really amplify the candidates that we're trying to elect in two weeks," said Angela Lang, the executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities. The group formed after the 2016 election with the goal of engaging and building trust with black voters in Wisconsin.
The overall number of people who voted in Milwaukee declined by 41,000 votes in 2016 compared to 2012 — a drop the city's election chief said was likely caused by tighter voter ID restrictions in Wisconsin.
Democrats saw black voter turnout fall elsewhere in 2016. In Detroit — a majority-black Democratic stronghold — turnout also dropped by 41,000 votes, or 14 percent, from Obama's 2012 re-election. That was also a factor in Clinton's narrow loss to President Donald Trump in Michigan.
Emboldened by higher turnout in the Michigan primary, Democrats are confident about November but say they are not taking anything for granted. After campaigning in Milwaukee, Obama will head to Detroit later on Friday to stump for Democratic candidates at a high school.
African-Americans make up 6.7 percent of Wisconsin's 5.8 million residents. But in Milwaukee, a city of nearly 600,000, blacks comprise 40 percent of the population. The vast majority live north of downtown in neighborhoods hardest hit by poverty and crime.
The setting for Obama's rally is a high school in a ZIP code where nearly half the residents live below the poverty level, 21.6 percent are unemployed, and a quarter of the housing units are vacant, according to 2016 census estimates .
"What we are talking about is a plan to actually improve the lives of people across the state — whether it's better-paying jobs, access to affordable health care, criminal justice reform, investments in schools. Those are motivating factors to get people to vote," said Mandela Barnes, who is trying to become the state's first African-American lieutenant governor and only the second black person in Wisconsin's 170-year history to hold statewide office.
"We got Barack Obama and people felt like, 'Oh, we've got black voters, younger voters locked down forever,'" Barnes said. "That's just not the case. We learned a hard lesson."
Obama will also be stumping for Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and congressional candidates Randy Bryce and Dan Kohl. He didn't campaign for Clinton in Milwaukee and the last time he visited the city for a political event was to celebrate Affordable Care Act enrollments in March 2016.
BLOC staffers have been visiting black neighborhoods on Milwaukee's west side, to encourage people to take part in the Nov. 6 midterms.
"If we don't vote, we're only hurting ourselves and our community," BLOC staffer Tony Horton said during one such visit.
One retiree, 67-year-old Charles King, told Horton that he felt Obama was stifled in Congress and that fewer African-Americans voted in 2016 "because they lost hope."
King said he's confident he will benefit from Social Security and Medicare, but that he worries about the next generation. Democrats have been warning voters that Republicans will gut entitlement programs to pay for the new GOP tax law. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week that entitlement spending is contributing to the rising federal deficit.
King said the reason African-Americans in Milwaukee should vote is simple: "They don't get their ass now, I pity their future."
___
Associated Press writer David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.
___
Find Ivan Moreno on Twitter: https://twitter.com/1TrueIvan
___
Sign up for "Politics in Focus," a weekly newsletter showcasing the AP's best political reporting from around the country leading up to the midterm elections: https://bit.ly/2ICEr3D | {
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The 55-year-old CEO of a classified listings website notorious for its robust escort section was arrested yesterday in Texas on a California warrant. State Attorney General Kamala Harris announced in a press release that Carl Ferrer, who runs Backpage.com, will be charged with felony pimping a minor, pimping, and conspiracy to commit pimping.
Hundreds of trafficking cases across the country have been linked to Backpage.com, the New York Times reports, and an affidavit for a warrant filed by a California Department of Justice special agent alleges that “defendants have known that their website is the United States hub for the illegal sex trade and that many of the people advertised for commercial sex on Backpage are victims of sex trafficking, including children."
Court records show that authorities raided Backpage.com's Dallas headquarters, and the LA Times reports that Ferrer was taken into custody after he arrived on a flight to Houston from Amsterdam. His arrest is a culminating moment in a three-year investigation by the California Department of Justice that included undercover operations.
“Raking in millions of dollars from the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable victims is outrageous, despicable and illegal,” Harris stated in a release. “Backpage and its executives purposefully and unlawfully designed Backpage to be the world’s top online brothel.” According to the Attorney General's office, 99 percent of Backpage’s income from January 2013 to March 2015 was "directly attributable" to its “adult” section, generating $51 million in revenue during that period in California alone.
Other conspiracy to commit pimping charges have been brought against Michael Lacey, 68, and James Larkin, 67, the founders and controlling shareholders of Backpage.com. A spokesperson for Harris told the LA Times that neither is in custody but that warrants have been issued for their arrests. Lacey and Larkin previously owned the Phoenix-based Village Voice Media Group, whose 13 alt-weekly publications included SF Weekly until the two sold them all off in 2012 in a move that separated Backpage.com, the duo's real cash cow, from its legit publication holdings. SF Weekly, for one, appeared relieved at the time to be separated from the sordid dealings of a website whose association with them had become a sore spot.
“They’re like the McDonald’s of trafficking,” Carol Robles-Román, who is president and chief executive of a women’s legal defense and education fund called Legal Momentum, characterized Backpage.com to the NYT. “They made is so easy.”
An anonymous 15-year-old girl identified in court documents claimed that Backpage “profits off of women and men." She added that, "I mean really, coming from someone my age, there is too much access, like it’s too easy for people get on it and post an ad.”
John Clark, President and CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children was heartened by news of the charges and arrest. "NCMEC knows that the primary way children are sold for sex in this country is through the use of online classified advertising websites, such as Backpage.com," he said according to a press release.
Related: And Now A Federal Officer Is Accused Of Trying To Pimp The Oakland Teen At Center Of OPD Scandal | {
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Black women surpassed any other group based upon race and gender in 2014 by having the highest percentage that is the most educated. Reports by the National Center of Education Statistics as reported by the US Census state that black women have the highest numbers for current enrollment in college.
Black And Married With Kids posted a YouTube video last spring titled, “Black Women Top This List.” This video explains the significance behind the 9.7% mark that states that black women are #1. Hosted by Janks Morton, he questions media’s reactions to this data and states that this history in the making. “I’m here to tell you today that African-American women and African-American men today are holding up the lamp that has always been a testament to blacks in this country. We have always valued education.”
Another report in 2014 from the Black Women’s Roundtable displays that African-American woman are also at the top of the polls in voter turnout among women. According to The Washington Post, “Black Women in the United States, Progress and Challenges” “offers a glimpse of the state of black women across the country over the last six decades, a rare look at a population that numbers over 20 million people.” It extracts data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. | {
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That Awful Moment When You First Wake Up in the Morning
Civilization is also a bitchin' excuse to wear monocles.
That's right MORE THAN ONE. | {
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The police have blocked off the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 64th Street in Brooklyn's Sunset Park as a massive sinkhole opened up around 7:30 am Tuesday morning, taking most of the street corner with it.
MyFoxNY reports that there are no reported injuries from the collapse.
National Grid workers are on the scene to work on affected gas lines, and the north bound N train is expecting delays due to the wreckage, CBSNewYork reports. The footage of the sinkhole shows at least one disconnected pipe, and the water lines to several nearby businesses have reportedly been cut off.
A closeup of the sinkhole. The Guardian
Pictures posted on Twitter show a large hole that could have easily swallowed up a car. The cave-in is limited to the street, and the sidewalk remains intact. The New York Fire Department tweeted these photos:
It isn't yet clear what caused the sinkhole or whether there was any negligence in maintaining the road that led to the collapse.
Here's the intersection on a normal day:
Watch aerial footage of the sinkhole: | {
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Episode notes
Bonjour amigos!
Get ready for some intense journalism this week as Renee updates us on EVERYTHING dog going on in Solvang. Absolutely nothing but dogs. Alexis tells us all about Crumb’s biggest adventure yet! That’s right, this little puppy had his first beach day! Did he have fun? Did he poop only sand? Is he half shark now?
The only way to find out is to tune in! | {
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The former "The Tonight Show" host is getting ready for a tour so he decided to test out new material at the small off Broadway theater.
NEWPORT — You could say The Bit Players improv group had a hard act to follow Friday night at the Firehouse Theater.
Or you could say "OMG look who's opening for The Bit Players!" The answer: None other than former "The Tonight Show" host Jay Leno, that's who.
Leno, who bought a residence on the Ocean Drive in Newport two years ago, made a surprise appearance for a 20-minute standup set at the theater located off Broadway at 4 Equality Park Place.
Frank Fusaro, the theater's artistic director, said he was getting the theater ready, sitting with box office manager Tim "Lobo" Linhares and going through tickets when the phone rang Friday. Linhares picked up and the caller told him he was Leno and wanted to do a set on stage. The box office manager thought it was a prank call.
“Yes, of course you can do time, why don’t you come 20 minutes early?” Linhares told the caller.
When the call ended, Fusaro told the box office manager Leno lives in the area. He didn't want to get his hopes up, but told the box office manager to have someone come and grab him if Leno actually showed.
Sure enough, shortly afterward, Leno walked through the doors of the Firehouse Theater.
“He shocked all the performers, their jaws hit the floor,” Fusaro said. “They were kids on Christmas morning.”
Fusaro then took the stage and told the sold-out audience he had a “friend” who was going to perform, if they didn’t mind. He finished off by saying, “Please welcome Jay Leno!”
Some members of the audience were shocked, some didn’t believe it while others cheered and screamed.
“One kid in the front row was like ‘Yeah right,’ and then when he saw him, ‘Holy, expletive!’” Fusaro said.
Apparently, Leno was looking for a place to “workshop some new stuff. He’s starting to do some more standup again. He’s just trying out some new material,” Fusaro said.
He’s getting ready for a tour so he decided to test the waters, even making a couple of jokes that didn’t land well and quipping he “won’t be using that one on tour.”
Right before he went on stage, his wife Mavis called asking where he was, and when he got off stage he told the box office he had to head home, Fusaro said.
The Firehouse Theater has a capacity of 80 people. Every seat was filled for the show, Fusaro said. The next day, Leno called Fusaro and left a voicemail thanking him for letting him perform.
"So in addition to booking his own gig, he followed up,” Fusaro said. “That pretty much sums the guy up, very genuine, straightforward normal guy.”
So will Leno be taking the stage at the Firehouse Theater again? “I hope so!” Fusaro said, “The last thing he said [on the voicemail] was ‘See you soon.’ It’d be really cool.”
Leno, 69, could not be reached for comment. He will be the cover story for the September/October issue of Newport Life Magazine. The issue will hit newsstands Sept. 1.
[email protected] | {
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Submitted by admin on Fri, 12/10/2010 - 05:40
For the complete list of current events, please click here.
UNITED STATES
Wikileaks National Rally for Transparency
Washington DC, other locations: Saturday, January 15
Location: To be announced
Event page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wikileaks-National-Rally-for-Transparency/...
Miami FL:: Monday, December 13, 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Location: U.S. Attorney's Office Building, 99 Northeast 4th Street, Miami, FL
Event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=175854382432344
San Jose, CA: Friday, December 10, 2010, 12pm - 3pm
Location: In front of San Jose City Hall
Event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=178828535463159
San Jose, CA: Thursday, December 16, all day
Location: San Jose State University
UNITED KINGDOM
London:, Monday, December 13, 4pm
Location: Swedish Embassy, 11 Montagu Place, London W1H 2AL
Topic: Against extradition to Sweden (JusticeforAssange.com Campaign)
Event page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Justice-for-Assange-UK/169102599797422?v=wall
Campaign website: http://www.justiceforassange.com
SPAIN
For freedom, say no to state terrorism
Madrid: Saturday, December 11, 6pm
Location: Embajada británica en Madrid (British Embassy), Torre Espacio, Paseo de la Castellana 259D, 28046 Madrid
Event page: http://freewikileaks.eu/
A Coruña: Saturday, December 11, 6pm
Location: Embajada de Suecia en A Coruña (Swedish Embassy): Sale del Cantón Grande a las 18.00 en el Obelisco hacía la Avenida de Linares Rivas 18-21, A Coruña, Spain
Event page: http://freewikileaks.eu/
Barcelona: Saturday, December 11, 6pm
Location: Consulado General Británico en Barcelona (British General Consulate), Edificio Torre de Barcelona, Avenida Diagonal, 477, 13º, 08036 Barcelona
Event page: http://freewikileaks.eu/
Sevilla: Saturday, December 11, 6pm
Location: Ayuntamiento de Sevilla, Plaza Nueva 1, Sevilla, Spain
Event page: http://freewikileaks.eu/
Valencia: Saturday, December 11, 6pm
Location: Consulado de Suecia en Valencia (Swedish consulate), Plaza Porta de la Mar 4, pta 8, Valencia, Spain
Event page: http://freewikileaks.eu/
Zaragoza: Saturday, December 11, 6pm
Location: Diputación de Zaragoza, Plaza de España 2, Zaragoza, Spain
Event page: http://freewikileaks.eu/
ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires: Saturday, December 11, 1pm
Location: Embajada Británica en Argentina (British Embassy), Dr. Luis Agote 2412, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Event page: http://freewikileaks.eu/
PERU
Lima: Saturday, December 11, 1pm
Location: Embajada Británica en Perú (British Embassy), Torre Parque Mar piso 22, Lima, Perú
Event page: http://freewikileaks.eu/
AUSTRALIA
Melbourne: Monday, December 20, 7.00 p.m.
Location: Conference Room, Arts House, Meat Market, 5 Blackwood Street, North Melbourne
Getting there: Melway Reference: 2B A9
Organizer: SEP Australia public meetings
Tickets: $4/$2 concession
Event page: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/mtgs-d08.shtml
Sydney: Tuesday, December 21, 7.00 p.m.
Location: Tom Mann Theatre, 136 Chalmers Street, Surry Hills
Getting there: Close to Central Station
Tickets: $4/$2 concession
Event page: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/mtgs-d08.shtml
MEXICO
Ciudad de México: Saturday, December 11, 6pm
Location: Embajada Británica en Mexico (British Embassy): Río Lerma 71 (esquina con Rio Sena), Del. Cuauhtemoc, Mexico DF.
Event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130062810387847
BRAZIL
São Paulo: Saturday, December 11, 11am
Location: Consulado Geral Britânico (British Consulate), Rua Ferreira de Araújo, 741 – Pinheiros, São Paulo, Brasil
Event page: http://liberdadeparaassange.noblogs.org/
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Amsterdam: Location for December 11 rally has been changed from De Dam to Museum Square. | {
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Side blog for random doodlies like steven universe( Pearlapis) or others.
My blog All of Tumblr
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Anthony Scaramucci. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Last Friday, just a week into Anthony Scaramucci’s brief tenure as White House communications director, his wife, Deidre, filed for divorce. According to “Page Six,” his “naked political ambition” was a precipitating factor; while she was giving birth to their son, her husband was with President Trump at the Boy Scouts jamboree in West Virginia.
But Anthony wasn’t entirely absent. A source told “Page Six” that “when James was born, he sent her a text saying, ‘Congratulations, I’ll pray for our child.’”
The oddly formal text received its fair share of attention on Twitter over the weekend, for reasons that are probably obvious to people who have been married, or had children, or engaged in really any kind of social interaction at all. Sadly overlooked has been the context in which the text was sent, and the way that technology might have transformed the message entirely. That is, Anthony’s congratulatory text to his wife on the occasion of the birth of their child might have triggered a confetti animation in iMessage.
Apple’s text-messaging software was updated last year to include fun animations that users can add to their messages — lasers, balloons, fireworks, etc. Perhaps the most used of these animations is the confetti one, because it automatically triggers if someone sends a recipient a message such as “Congratulations!” or “Congrats!”
Practiced iPhone users noted almost immediately that Scaramucci’s use of “congratulations” might have triggered the confetti, and we took it upon ourselves to investigate. First things first: Based on a study of paparazzi photos, both Anthony and Deidre are iPhone users, a necessary requirement for iMessage. (Metadata on both of their Twitter accounts backs this up.) Assuming that both of their phones have received an operating-system update in the last 10 or 11 months, the confetti effect is active.
But — sadly — rigorous testing demonstrates that the message “Congratulations, I’ll pray for our child” does not trigger the iOS confetti. Even playing around with punctuation, the full phrase remains coldly un-confetti-ed.
That being said, the unknowns allow us to keep the dream of tonally inappropriate digital confetti alive. The phrase “Congratulations, I’ll pray for our child” was relayed to “Page Six” via a paraphrasing anonymous source, so we can’t be certain of spelling or format. If, for instance, Anthony Scaramucci texted “Congratulations,” and then quickly followed up with “I’ll pray for our child” in a separate message, then he will have activated confetti mode. You can also manually add the confetti effect to any text message, so maybe he intentionally included it as a nice gesture — or even added a separate effect, like balloons or lasers.
But until Deidre Scaramucci speaks to this issue, we will never know which, if any, iMessage effects accompanied her husband’s first communication after their son was born. Democracy, as they say, dies in darkness. | {
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A bully is defined as “a blustering, browbeating person, especially one who is habitually cruel, insulting or threatening to others who are weaker, smaller, or in some way vulnerable.” And bullying is the act of “causing someone to do something by means of force or coercion.”
This definition, though, has a flip side. For when confronted by someone who is stronger, bigger or more powerful, the bully turns into a patsy, suddenly reduced to a craven, sniveling coward. The transformed bully is then bullied in turn, rushing to do the new overlord’s bidding.
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This is the scenario now playing out in the wake of the ramming of a Filipino fishing boat by a Chinese vessel, which caused the FB Gem-Vir 1 to sink. The Chinese vessel then turned on its lights and, after seeing the Filipino fishers thrashing in the sea, turned off its lights and fled the scene.
Now disputed, the story outline is being “investigated” by Filipino authorities, though it is based on the first, early accounts of the Filipino fishers and of their Vietnamese rescuers.
One would think, as former Filipino diplomat (to the Asean) Wilfrido Villacorta told a TV interviewer, that “we should first believe our fellow Filipinos before (we believe) foreigners.”
But this simple formula is being turned on its head by the nation’s current leaders and their mercenary partisans. The administration’s army of trolls, both named and unnamed, have ganged up on the 22 victims of what can only be described as Chinese aggression in our own waters.
Unanimously, it seems, they assert that the fishermen are at fault, that they are too ignorant to be credible, that their eyewitness accounts are illogical and fantastic, that those who were present when the ramming took place and spent miserable hours in the dark sea are lying and those who heard the story only from far away know better.
Of course, these attack dogs are only taking their cue from those in government. After keeping an uncharacteristic silence in the days following the near-tragedy, President Duterte dismissed the boat-ramming as a mere “maritime accident,” downgrading the fishermen’s contention that the ramming had been intentional.
Even Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who at the start expressed outrage over the boat sinking, has seemingly softened his stand, now “entertaining doubts that the Chinese ship intended to bump the Filipino boat.”
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, dispatched to the fishers’ hometown, managed to fish out a witness to the contrary, boat cook Richard Blaza (who was the only one awake at the time, he claimed) who said he was “unsure” whether it had been a ramming or an accidental but severe bumping.
Later, after failing to bring fishing boat captain Junel Insigne to a purported meeting with the President, Piñol led a police force in full battle gear to Insigne’s home for a “dialogue.”
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It was a painful sight, indeed: the boat captain clad in a pitiful undershirt apologizing to the President for disputing Mr. Duterte’s version of events, capped by a photo-op with everyone thrusting out the trademark Duterte fist at the Filipino public.
This, even as Chinese authorities themselves admitted to the “accident” and excused their vessel’s failure to come to the fishers’ aid by citing the alleged but proven to the contrary presence of other Filipino boats which they said were about to “besiege” them.
One thought: If the other boats were indeed nearby, why was the rescue of the beleaguered fishers carried out by a Vietnamese vessel?
The latest development in this saga of infamy and treason by Filipino officials is that China has “agreed” to a joint inquiry into what the President insists was a mere “accident” at sea. One can only make an educated, cynical guess at the conclusion of the investigation, since, after all, Filipino officials and their rabid minions have already twisted the story around.
This is what bullying gets you: a scenario of stupidity, and the downgrading, nay, crushing of a nation’s dignity. Given the way the story is being reversed, and the fishers’ abysmal treatment by the very same people who should be protecting and defending them, one shouldn’t be surprised if, after the facts of the boat-ramming have faded from memory, the fishermen will be told that it was all their fault.
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Never actually seen an Amazon Giftcard before, so it's pretty sweet that they put a cute little Christmas card around it. Pretty sure I'll find a nice use for this as I buy pretty much -everything- from Amazon.
Thank you, Santa! | {
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Or us. Preferably us. He can always recant and say, "Oops, I was wrong" in his bunker. We'll be long gone by then, so what does he care?
Very little, in all probability. Bush is a bit like an unhinged iconoclast who has arbitrarily decided he doesn't believe in cows, and loudly and repeatedly denies their existence until you get so annoyed you drive him to a farm and show him a cow, and he shakes his head and continues to insist there's no such thing. At which point it moos indignantly, but he claims not to hear it, so in exasperation you drag him into the field and force him to touch the cow, and milk the cow, and ride around on the cow's back. And, finally, he dismounts and says, "That was fun'n'all, but dagnammit, I still don't believe in no cow." And then he shoots it in the head regardless, just to be on the safe side. Just so it isn't a threat.
Come to think of it, Bush is so vehemently fact-phobic, he might as well expand the war on terror into an outright war on reality, in which anything palpably authentic is the enemy. There'll be an "Axis of Real Stuff", encompassing everyone and everything from hairbands to dustmen, all of which Must Be Eliminated. "If it's provable, we can kill it." That's our new motto. God's on our side, because he can't be proved or disproved. He's one of our most valuable allies - the others being Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, ghosts, the bogeyman, and Bigfoot. Not to mention a vast fleet of UFOs, which the enemy won't have a chance of defeating because it never existed in the first place. Our armies won't be constrained by the laws of physics, and even if we lose, we'll simply say we won, even if we have to say it from an afterlife which doesn't exist either. That's the power of unwavering denial. It makes deities of us all.
Of course, by rejecting anything he doesn't want to hear, Bush is simply proving he's human. Humans hate the truth. Once someone's made up their mind, they rarely change it, no matter how much evidence to the contrary you show them. Changing your mind or admitting you were wrong is seen as weak, as though life itself were an almighty pub quiz where incorrect answers are penalised. The only option left is to interpret the facts in a new and interesting way that supports your overall position. This is what Bush has done. He says that since the report indicates that Iran halted its weapons programme in 2003, there's a clear possibility it could start it up again. The very fact that the Iranians don't have a nuclear bomb proves they might still develop one. Therefore, Iran is dangerous.
That's a clever thing to say, because a) the future is unknowable, so it's impossible to tell him he's wrong, and b) the more he says it, the more likely it is to come true. Since Bush has shown that he'll view Iran as a nuclear threat regardless of whether it's got the bomb or not, the Iranians might as well build one. What have they got to lose?
Also, the report doesn't say whether the Iranians are developing a giant laser beam capable of sawing the sun in two, but that's no reason to assume they won't be starting work on it next week. Picture a world in which Ahmadinejad holds us to ransom by threatening to plunge one sawn-off half of the sun into the Atlantic, sending 900ft waves of boiling water rushing toward our shores. We can't let that happen. We've got to get in first: drive a space shuttle into the sun and blow the damn thing up before the enemy get their hands on it. It might solve global warming too. Let's hope the Pentagon is across this. Don't let us down, guys. Knock that baby out.
Another benefit of ignoring the report and piling in regardless is that at least this time round we'll know for sure that the invasion and subsequent war is based on a false premise in advance, which beats finding out later and feeling a bit disgusted with ourselves. Forewarned is forearmed. It's a narrative tweak which keeps things fresh and interesting. The TV series Columbo used a similar device: instead of being served a common-or- garden whodunnit, you'd see the murderer committing the crime at the start, so the fun came from watching his plan slowly unravel. There's no danger of that happening to Bush though, because he doesn't believe in plans either. So nothing unravels. It's a win-win situation. He should unleash the hounds tomorrow. Go ahead, George. We'll be fine, out here, outside the bunker. Don't you worry about us.
· This week Charlie watched what felt like the entire year's worth of television in preparation for his Screen Wipe review of 2007: "It was like being a crap Doctor Who: I didn't go back very far and I achieved nothing." Charlie felt sorry for the canoe couple: "The authorities should free them for Christmas on the grounds that they have entertained the whole nation." | {
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Veteran teacher Dawn Neely-Randall and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown look at a post Neely-Randall wrote for The Answer Sheet about the reform movement. (Photo by Tom Traut)
Dawn Neely-Randall, who just started her 25th year of teaching, is sick and tired of the effects that obsessive standardized testing is having on her students. She is a member of the Badass Teachers Association, a national group of more than 51,000 educators who came together to organize resistance to school reform that focuses on using standardized test scores for high-stakes accountability purposes and that ignores the role that poverty plays in student achievement.
In this powerful post she explains how her work as a teacher has been skewed by mandated standardized testing and how students are reacting. One child, she wrote, “sobbed” because she cared so much about her test score, and “it became blatantly obvious how one high-stakes standardized test had just negated the year’s worth of reading confidence and motivation she had worked so hard to attain.” And, she wrote, “I can no longer be a teacher who tries to build these 10-year-olds up on one hand, but then throws them to the testing wolves with the other.”
Here’s the whole post.
By Dawn Neely-Randall
I’m not a celebrity. I’m not a politician. I’m not part of the 1 percent. I don’t own an education testing company. I am just a teacher and I just want to teach.
My life changed dramatically after a Facebook lament I wrote was published on The Answer Sheet last March. I was explaining how weary I was from the political addiction to mass standardized testing and how educationally abusive it had become to so many of the students in my care.
Last spring, you wouldn’t find the fifth-graders in my Language Arts class reading as many rich, engaging pieces of literature as they had in the past or huddled over the same number of authentic projects as before. Why? Because I had to stop teaching to give them a Common Core Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) online sample test that would prepare them for the upcoming PARCC pilot pre-test which would then prepare them for the PARCC pilot post test – all while taking the official Ohio Achievement Tests. This amounted to three tests, each 2 ½ hours, in a single week, the scores of which would determine the academic track students would be placed on in middle school the following year.
In addition to all of that, I had to stop their test prep lessons (also a load of fun) to take each class three floors down to our computer lab so they could take the Standardized Testing and Reporting (“STAR”) tests so graphs and charts could be made of their Student Growth Percentile (SGP) which would then provide quantitative evidence to suggest how these 10-year-olds would do on the “real” tests and also surmise the teacher’s (my) affect on their learning.
Tests, tests, and more freakin’ tests.
And this is how I truly feel in my teacher’s heart: the state is destroying the cherished seven hours I have been given to teach my students reading and writing each week, and these children will never be able to get those foundational moments back. Add to that the hours of testing they have already endured in years past, as well as all the hours of testing they still have facing them in the years to come. I consider this an unconscionable a theft of precious childhood time.
One parent sent me her district’s calendar showing that students would complete 21 mandated (K-3) assessments before a child would even finish third grade. When I asked an Ohio Department of Education employee about this, she insisted there were not that many tests. When I read them to her one by one from the district’s calendar, she defended her position by saying that some of them were not from her department, but from another one. “But it’s the SAME kid!!!” I told her.
Indeed, it sure seems that school just isn’t for children anymore.
As I sat in my recliner writing about my frustrations all those months ago, I felt that I was sitting alone in a darkened theater watching a horror movie with my students in the starring roles. After it was published, however, it seemed as if the lights had been switched on and I found that the room was full of people from across the nation and they were just as traumatized as I.
Many Ohio teachers told me they were afraid to speak out because it might hurt their rating based on the new Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES) framework for scoring (now House Bill 362). When I, for example, worked through this process last year, I was evaluated based on my students’ test scores as well as the evidence of “teacher performance” my principal had collected on me. One 40-minute lesson alone took me over seven hours to write up.
Since OTES also evaluates teachers based on their “positive rapport” as well as their “active volunteer, community, and family partnerships,” of course, teachers were afraid to speak out against harmful test practices and risk sounding negative and, of course, they worried about not being perceived as a team player if they didn’t want to be a part of test pep rallies or hosting parent PARCC information nights.
When teachers are being rated based on student test scores as well as their own attitudes about such, speaking out becomes a very risky business.
Principals too are afraid to speak out. Why? What if their disgruntlement empowers their staff to rally against all the testing and parents started opting their children out of taking the tests? In Ohio, a zero is given in place of a score if a student does not take a standardized test. This zero is then averaged into the school’s rating on the state report card, which then affects the district’s rating. Administrators don’t have a union backing them to give them the freedom to advocate on behalf of students; most of them only have term contracts.
Parents were afraid to speak out because they are worried that school officials might consider them trouble makers or, worse, hold it against their child. And parents have no idea how their child’s teacher feels because — back to the beginning — many teachers are afraid to speak out.
One parent told me recently that she asked her daughter’s teacher if she thought her 10-year-old could handle the stress of the new PARCC pilot test and the teacher said she had been advised to say “no comment” when it came to either topic of the Common Core curriculum or testing. (What country do we live in, anyway?!)
Many students didn’t speak out as much as they acted out. Cried. Gave their parents a hard time about going to school. Disengaged in class. Got physically sick. Or became a discipline problem. Struggling students struggled even more.
Last school year, one of my fifth-grade below-level readers was working hard and making great gains. However, during the big Ohio Achievement Assessment in reading at the end of April, when she had already put in about an hour and a half of testing with an hour to go, the stress became too much and she had a total meltdown. As much as I had already reminded her “this is just one test on one day in your life” and “just do your best,” this student was smart enough to know that this “one test” would determine the class she would get into in middle school and I knew she was worried about being pulled out of class for remediation (again).
This child sobbed because she cared so much and watching her suffer became a defining moment for me. It became blatantly obvious how one high-stakes standardized test had just negated the year’s worth of reading confidence and motivation she had worked so hard to attain. I can no longer be a teacher who tries to build these 10-year-olds up on one hand, but then throws them to the testing wolves with the other.
My student had trusted me and jumped through hoops for me all year long, but then in her greatest moment of testing distress, all I could do was hand her some tissues.
A lot of people in our Buckeye state (and country) are making nutty decisions that aren’t at all good for children; ones I feel sure teachers could prove are harmful in a court of law (don’t even get me started with the testing that’s going on in kindergarten classes with 5-year-olds).
And most disconcerting of all, in my entire 24-year career, not one graded standardized test has EVER been returned to the students, their parents, or to me, the teacher. Also, for the past three years here in Ohio, released test questions have no longer been posted online. In addition, teachers have had to sign a “gag order” before administering tests putting their careers on the line ensuring they will not divulge any content or questions they might happen to oversee as they walk around monitoring the test.
This lack of transparency seems very suspicious to me and many educators and parents alike are beginning to agree that testing companies have been given a “full faith” free pass for way too long.
Aren’t schools supposed to be in the business of teaching and learning? If we’re forced to stop instruction to give state tests, shouldn’t a student’s results at least be used to help further that student’s academics? Just how exactly is my student taking a high-stakes standardized test at the end of the year, the test questions of which I never see, the scored tests and essay questions which are never returned to the child, helping that fifth-grader to learn?
If you are still with me, let’s talk about Ohio’s 8-year-olds who are getting caught right in the middle of the madness. Our state legislature has mandated a Third Grade Reading Guarantee that fails an 8-year-old an entire school year even if he or she is only one point off from passing a 2 ½-hour standardized reading test (the same amount of time as a tenth-grader taking an Ohio Graduation Test), which is first administered in October.
That same 8-year-old must try to pass yet another 2 ½-hour reading test again in the spring. If the child fails again, the child must take yet another (shorter) test to try to get into fourth grade.
So, apparently, a third grader is going to fail a school year based on tests that the teacher and parents have never seen, neither the questions nor the answers, and yet, the test company held the key to the specific errors the student made and could have learned from all along the way, after the very first test was given in October? In my opinion, this is complete and utter education malpractice.
Are the third graders failing the test or is the test failing the third graders?
Let’s add to that all the test-scoring nightmares that have been reported in state after state after state (students receiving zeros due to scoring errors, missed graduations due to erroneously failed tests, parents receiving incorrect scorecards, blank pages found on tests, appealed scores found to have been miscalculated, etc…) and what does our nation do? It keeps shelling out millions upon millions of dollars for standardized testing.
Shouldn’t our country demand accountability from the testing company? Is simply accepting phantom test scores from assessors even good business?
One Ohio School Board member shared with me that although she asked, the testing company would not allow board members to take the same PARCC tests the students would soon be mandated to pass. Shockingly, she was told that board members could not see a sample test in its entirety until the students piloted them. She said the legislature had, indeed, mandated that Ohio third-graders pass a reading test that not one legislator or Ohio School Board member had even seen; one that had not yet even been written.
Also, please note: If so many of our schools are seen as “failing,” yet so many of our students are using a test company’s test prep materials ($$$) which are being reported to the state via the test company’s computerized program ($$$) and then taking the test company’s multitude of standardized tests ($$$), which are then assessed by the test company’s evaluators ($$$), and then remediation is done with students using, again, the test company’s intervention materials ($$$); and are then taking the same test company’s own graduation test ($$$) that the test company has prepared the K-12 materials for in the first place……. then, just exactly who, or what, is really failing that child? But have no fear, dropouts can later take a GED ($$$) administered by the same testing company.
As for my language arts classroom, just give me some uninterrupted time with my students, some paper and pencils, and a great book and I’ll show you what amazing things my fifth-graders can do.
I’m just a teacher, but I do propose that we (myself included) stop the education bickering, the lawsuits, the union bashing, the political polarization and the spinning of our wheels and all take a moment to at least start SOMEWHERE to be the adults in the room and start a patriotic, non-partisan revolution for lasting, real school reform on behalf of our students who are already getting slammed by way too many societal woes.
Let’s all come together to find one area, at least ONE, in which the majority of our citizenship (legislators and constituents alike) can agree will be in the best interests of our nation’s youth.
I think I know one starting place that not one person could dispute would benefit students and their learning. I can’t imagine how anyone, other than a test company executive, could say this request is unreasonable. I hope you agree so our country can then move on and figure out a Reform #2.
So, may I, just a teacher, speak?
Transparency in Education Reform #1 : No student, in the United States of America, will be given a high-stakes standardized test by any state or testing company unless said standardized test is returned scored, and in its entirety, to the parents, teacher, and child in an efficient and timely manner.
Can we at least start there? Let’s just then see how “failing” our schools really are. Let’s publicly lay the tests out, in full K-12 panoramic view, and evaluate how many tentacles of testing are being inflicted upon the psyches of our children. Let’s analyze if these tests are truly measuring what we would like and if these tests are, indeed, an appropriate measurement tool to be used to determine “good” or “bad” teachers or to label, or flunk, our children. Let’s just see what exactly is wrong with the answers our students are giving, anyway. And let’s do it quickly, because we might just be failing an entire generation.
However, in the meantime, beware. Remember that the current climate of education bashing will keep wafting down into the ears of our children until they take to heart that in those failing schools sitting in the classroom of those “bad teachers” can be found them, the “failing” students.
Is this the way we do education today in the United States of America? Is this the way we treat the children on our watch? | {
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Cam Newton has expressed his frustration about what he feels is the NFL’s failure to provide him with protection on the field.
Newton’s father had spoken out earlier in the season after the Carolina Panthers quarterback had taken several helmet-to-helmet hits, for which opposition defenders were not penalized. On Sunday, Cam Newton was incensed when Arizona Cardinals defensive tackle smashed into the quarterback’s knees but was not punished.
Mediocrity on turf: the NFL is stumbling, but will it recover? Read more
“Enough is enough,” Newton said after Carolina’s 30-20 win over Arizona on Sunday. “I don’t think there’s a person that can go through what I go through and keep their head, you know what I’m saying? Hits to the head, that’s one thing, but when you’re not protected in the pocket, that’s another thing. It became the story of my life ever since I came in [to the league]. It’s always, ‘Oh, we missed that, I’m sorry.’ That’s bull crap.”
Newton said he intends to talk to the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell about his treatment. “I just can’t keep accepting, ‘Oh, we missed that one,’ or ‘I apologize for doing that’ or ‘I didn’t see it.’” Newton said. “That’s horse crap. Coming from a person who’s been fined before, coming from a person who everybody’s expecting a lot from, I’m still going. But yet, when you constantly see the hits, when you constantly see flags being picked up and flags not being thrown, and to see other quarterbacks getting it for lesser physical hits, it’s taking the fun for me out. I’m just being honest about that.”
Newton was not the only person complaining about a lack of protection on Sunday. The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith had to leave the field twice after taking hits to the head in his team’s game against the Indianapolis Colts. On one occasion the Colts safety Clayton Geathers pushed Smith’s head into the turf and was not punished.
Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) #Chiefs Alex Smith got hit hard in the head twice today, went to Locker room after both, here's the first pic.twitter.com/ixLBxpOIRg
That led Smith’s wife, Elizabeth, to speak out: “How many hits does he have to take before a flag is thrown,” she wrote on Twitter. “Funny when some QB’s gets tapped flags go flying.” | {
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A University of Pennsylvania student died inside her apartment overnight.
Philadelphia Police investigated the apparent suicide inside a row home on the 4000 block of Sansom Street in University City.
Investigators said that they found a female student, later identified as Amanda Hu, dead in her bedroom late Sunday night. Hu, a native of a North Caronlina, left a note at the scene, according to police.
They spent the early hours of Monday going in and out of the off-campus home. The university said there were no signs of foul play.
"The Division of Public Safety, the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life and the Chaplain’s Office are assisting members of the Penn community who may be affected by this loss," said Penn media relations director Ron Ozio.
Hu took a voluntary leave of absence this semester and was working in a biochemistry lab, according to the university.
The apparent suicide is the latest involving a University of Pennsylvania student -- late last school year the UPenn community came together for a rally to raise awareness of mental health issues with college students. The university also expanded its counseling center outreach and expanded counseling hours, according to Ozio.
SUICIDE PREVENTION: If you know someone who needs help, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255). | {
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Los campos de la provincia de Buenos Aires pagarán más por la devaluación
Mientras preparaban los festejos de la Nochebuena, las autoridades de las entidades rurales de la provincia de Buenos Aires intercambiaban mensajes entre ellos y los técnicos para descifrar el incremento impositivo que el gobernador Axel Kicillof acaba de enviar a la legislatura provincial y que podría ser aprobado hoy en la sesión de diputados. Antes de viajar al exterior para pasar fin de año, la ex gobernadora María Eugenia Vidal garantizó que los legisladores de Cambiemos darán quórum.
El texto de más de 150 páginas, que entró el 24 de diciembre a la legislatura, explica que en el marco de la emergencia social, económica, productiva y energética en el ámbito de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, “ resulta indispensable contar con una Ley Impositiva que se enmarque en los principios establecidos en la Ley de Emergencia y que procure recuperar autonomía fiscal y contar con los recursos necesarios para la atención de la situación actual”.
<b>La nueva ley impositiva que establece subas promedios de 50% para todos los sectores ingresó a la legislatura el 24 de diciembre y podría ser aprobada este jueves por el senado provincial y girado a diputados</b>
A partir de esto, la administración provincial dice que la iniciativa que presenta “tiene como lineamiento general dotar de mayor progresividad a la estructura tributaria para evitar que el esfuerzo recaiga sobre los sectores más vulnerables, que son los principales afectados por la actual crisis que atraviesa el país y la provincia”.
El incremento del impuesto rural tendrá un piso de 15% y un techo de 75% con excepciones impositivas para los pequeños productores
El sector rural que esperaba un cambio se encuentra con un crecimiento de la presión por varios sectores. Y esto genera preocupación porque aseguran que gran parte de las unidades productivas quedarán en el tope del aumento.
En el artículo 10 de la norma se fijan las escalas de alícuotas a los efectos del pago del impuesto Inmobiliario Rural, con un piso de una base imponible para unidades de hasta de $105.000 donde no paga una cuota fija y queda con un alícuota de 1,059%, y un techo para tierra rurales con una valuación fiscal de más de tres millones de pesos queda con una cuota de $112.327 y una alícuota sobre el excedente límite mínimo de 7.058%.
<b>Si el campo está valuado en más de tres millones de pesos -USD 48.000- y posee más de 2.000 hectáreas, el incremento del impuesto tiene un techo de 75 por ciento</b>
Estos datos mantienen la escala de la ley de 2019 que había enviado María Eugenia Vidal a la legislatura. Pero a diferencia de esa edición, en la que envió el ministro de Economía Pablo López se establece que el impuesto resultante por la aplicación de la presente escala “no podrá exceder respecto del calculado en el año 2019 según las previsiones del Titulo I de la Ley Nº 15.079, los porcentajes que a continuación se detallan”:
a) 15% cuando las valuaciones correspondientes al año 2019, de la tierra libre de mejoras sea de hasta $260.870 inclusive.
b) 35% cuando las valuaciones correspondientes al año 2019, de la tierra libre de mejoras sea superior a $260.870 y hasta $816.075 inclusive.
c) 55% cuando las valuaciones correspondientes al año 2019, de la tierra libre de mejoras sea superior a $816.075 y hasta $3.000.000 inclusive.
d) 55% cuando las valuaciones correspondientes al año 2019, de la tierra libre de mejoras sea superior a $3.000.000 y la superficie de la tierra libre de mejoras sea inferior o igual a 2.000 hectáreas.
e) 75% cuando las valuaciones correspondientes al año 2019, de la tierra libre de mejoras sea superior a $3.000.000 y la superficie de la tierra libre de mejoras sea superior a 2.000 hectáreas.
“El problema que esto tiene es que, aunque se mantienen las escalas con la devaluación de 2018 y 2019, como los campos cotizan en dólares, sus valuaciones empieza a subir y sin hacer nada cambiaste de categoría y pagas más o empezás a pagar. El otro punto tiene que ver con el techo de 75%, porque la gran mayoría de las unidades productivas de la provincia cotizan más que 48.000 dólares, que es el piso de los tres millones de pesos”, señaló a Infobae un gran productor de la zona núcleo de la provincia.
<b>La provincia de Buenos Aires asegura que sólo el 7% de los campos serán alcanzados por el techo de la suba del impuesto rural</b>
Por otro lado, el gobierno bonaerense señaló que otorgará exenciones impositivas para propiedades de hasta 100 hectáreas “dedicadas total o parcialmente a la producción tambera” y a las de 50 hectáreas “destinadas a la producción agropecuaria”.
Desde una de las entidades del campo señalaron a este medio que los funcionarios provinciales les habían “adelantado parte de las medidas que hoy están en la norma. Nos habían comentado lo de Ingresos Brutos y lo de Sellos -que por el pacto fiscal se congelaba la baja-, ahora estamos analizando bien lo del inmobiliario rural” pero como recién ayer, 24 de diciembre, accedieron al texto final “todavía los técnicos la están analizando bien el impacto del impuesto que propone la ley”.
Por su parte, fuentes de la provincia señalaron que “más de la mitad de los propietarios van a tener incremento que será por debajo de la inflación ”.
El gobierno de Kicillof dice que se busca la progresividad contributiva
Progresividad
A la hora de justificar este aumento, la norma que envió la administración de Kicillof hace un repaso del estado de situación del país -contracción del Producto Bruto Interno entre los años 2015 y 2019 que supera el 5%, una reducción de 8% del PBI per cápita, una inflación acumulada de 276%, una suba del tipo de cambio de 508%, 40,8% de la población debajo de la línea de pobreza, 9,5% de indigencia, 10,6% de desempleo y una deuda que representa el 95% del Producto Bruto Interno- y señala que en ese modelo “pocos sectores (concentrados y minoritarios) se han enriquecido como consecuencia del plan económico aplicado durante los últimos cuatro años”.
<b>Kicillof asegura que la provincia enfrenta a una situación de “escasez de recursos totales –de origen nacional y provinciales- para hacer frente a las obligaciones que debe atender el Estado”</b>
En este contexto señala que la Provincia “se enfrenta a una situación de escasez de recursos totales –de origen nacional y provinciales- para hacer frente a las obligaciones que debe atender el Estado, tanto en materia financiera, como en materia económica y social” y que frente a esto el proyecto de ley que envía “busca dotar a la provincia de las herramientas impositivas para engrosar los recursos disponibles con el objetivo de hacer frente a las diversas demandas sociales que se precipitan a partir de la crisis existente, pero sin afectar los ya muy golpeados niveles de vida y de actividad”.
El gobernador Kicillof junto al ministro de Producción, Augusto Costa
Este último punto se vuelve a explicar cuando señala que “cada cambio o modificación” que se propone atiende a la “doble necesidad fiscal que evidencia la estructura tributaria bonaerense vigente: por un lado, incrementar los recursos con los que cuenta el estado provincial para atender las demandas sociales y necesidades de desarrollo productivo, recuperando las pérdidas de recaudación en términos reales. Por otro lado, en vista de la delicada situación social, generar una estructura tributaria más progresiva, donde el mayor esfuerzo recaiga en los contribuyentes que puedan realizarlo a partir de su capacidad contributiva efectiva”.
La explicación del ministro
En Twitter, el ministro Pablo López mencionó el envió de la ley al Parlamento provincial. “El proyecto de Ley Impositiva 2020 busca sostener la recaudación tributaria para atender la emergencia que atraviesa la Provincia, y a la vez dotar de mayor progresividad a la estructura tributaria”, detalló.
Con respecto al impuesto rural destacó que “el principio que guía la propuesta es, precisamente, la progresividad tributaria, lo que se logra mediante topes segmentados a las variaciones”.
Parte del hilo en Twitter del ministro López
El funcionario dijo que están exentos quienes tienen una única vivienda pequeña y que "la gran mayoría de los contribuyentes -en particular aquellos que poseen propiedades de menor valuación- afrontarán aumentos sensiblemente por debajo de la inflación”. Y ejemplificó que para las propiedades de menor valor, la variación máxima es de 15% y en el segmento que le sigue la variación no supera el 35%.
“Esto implica que los amplios sectores medios urbanos tendrán aumentos muy moderados: el 86% de los contribuyentes afrontarán aumentos menores a 3.500 pesos para todo el año, se trata de cerca de 3,8 millones de contribuyentes de los 4,5 millones que afrontan el impuesto. En el Inmobiliario Rural además de una serie de exenciones a propiedades pequeñas de producción agropecuaria, en especial la tambera, se estableció un esquema de segmentación que beneficia a pequeños y medianos productores partiendo de un 15% para las propiedades de menor valor ”, escribió López en la red social.
“ En consecuencia, a más de la mitad de los propietarios rurales se les aplicará una actualización por debajo de la inflación 2019, a lo cual además se suma el descuento del 20% por pago en una cuota” , cerró el ministro bonaerense.
Seguí leyendo:
El año cerrará con un 30% menos de fusiones y adquisiciones: qué empresas argentinas se vendieron | {
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KINSHASA (Reuters) - An influential African bloc urged Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday to recount votes cast in its disorganized presidential election, raising pressure on Kinshasa to ensure the legitimacy of the next government and avert widespread violent unrest.
FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the runner-up in Democratic Republic of Congo's presidential election, Martin Fayulu hold a sign before a political rally in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, January 11, 2019. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo
The Dec. 30 vote was supposed to mark Congo’s first uncontested democratic transfer of power in 59 years of independence, and the beginning of a new era after 18 years of chaotic rule by President Joseph Kabila.
But irregularities including faulty voting machines, poorly run polling stations and a halt in the vote for over a million people due to insecurity and an Ebola outbreak in opposition strongholds, have overshadowed talk of democratic progress.
Sunday’s intervention by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which contains regional allies of Kinshasa like South Africa and Angola, could push Kabila to tackle the presidential runner-up’s accusations that the vote was rigged.
Second-place finisher Martin Fayulu says he in fact won by a landslide and that the official winner, opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi, struck a deal with Kabila to be declared the victor. Tshisekedi and Kabila deny this.
Isolated post-election violence in the country of 80 million people that sprawls across central Africa, has many fearing a return to the kind of conflict and upheaval that has killed millions since the 1990s.
Congo is the world’s leading miner of cobalt, a mineral used in electric car batteries, Africa’s biggest copper producer and also mines gold and diamonds.
International pressure on Kabila has been building since the vote, in part because Congo’s influential Catholic Church said that tallies compiled by its 40,000-strong monitoring team show a different winner to that announced by the electoral commission, without saying who.
France, Belgium, the United States and Britain have all expressed concern about the vote.
But the SADC will hold greater sway in Congo. Its approval of the election results are critical for the legitimacy of president-elect Tshisekedi’s new government.
SADC previously said the election went “relatively well” despite some problems. But on Sunday it said it had taken note of the “strong doubts” cast on the poll by the Church.
“A recount would provide the necessary reassurance to both winners and losers,” a SADC statement said.
CREDIBILITY AT STAKE
The Church’s bishops conference, known as CENCO, was not immediately available for comment on Sunday, nor were spokespeople for Kabila and Tshisekedi.
But Fayulu, who has already called for a recount, welcomed the announcement.
“It is essential that this process of recounting and validating the real results be carried out in all transparency, in order to proclaim the real winner,” he said in an emailed statement.
“The credibility of the process is at stake.”
The 16-nation SADC also recommended a government of national unity including parties representing Kabila, Fayulu and Tshisekedi that could promote internal peace.
“SADC draws the attention of Congolese politicians to similar arrangements that were very successful in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya (that created the) necessary stability for durable peace,” the statement said.
The chances of this kind of unity in Congo appear slim for now. Fayulu, who is backed by bitter political rivals of Kabila, on Saturday filed an election complaint with the Constitutional Court to have the result overturned.
Meanwhile, Kabila’s ruling coalition won a majority in legislative elections, according to results announced on Saturday.
This will undercut Tshisekedi’s ability to deliver on campaign promises and fuels suspicions in Fayulu’s camp that Kabila will retain influence over important ministries and the security forces after stepping down. | {
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Confidential document reveals details of Gilbert Arenas and Laura Govan's life together
By The Reliable Source
Gilbert Arenas arrives to face felony gun charges at the District of Columbia Superior Courthouse in Washington, January 15, 2010. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
The on-again, off-again relationship between former Wizards star Gilbert Arenas and his girlfriend Laura Govan looks like it's off for good -- and a document obtained by the Reliable Source offers a window into their life together and what could be a stupendously expensive court battle.
In confidential notes, Govan -- who is expecting her fourth child with Arenas -- describes fights where he repeatedly threw her out of the house, his profligate spending (including a shark tank/pool/grotto complex said to cost $1 million), lavish vacations and spending sprees at toy stores.
And yet they never had a nanny, Govan complains, according to the notes: "he would state 'you had them you watch them.' "
Their nine years together came to an end in November, shortly before Arenas was traded to the Orlando Magic and moved to Florida; Govan last month claimed through a rep that he had abandoned her and the kids, cutting off all communications and support.
That might have been the end of the public drama. But then Govan contacted Trope and Trope, a high-profile family law firm in Los Angeles, and met with an attorney from the firm. Somehow, nine pages of typewritten notes from their meeting ended up in the midst of a court filing in another, unrelated case handled by the firm. All the pages were filed in a public docket in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Trope and Trope did not return calls for comment. According to a court order allowing the firm to remove the notes from public record because they contained "confidential attorney-client privileged communications," the firm "inadvertently copied and submitted" them due to a "clerical error."
A representative for Govan said she declined to comment on the public disclosure of the document or their contents.
Laura Govan with two of her and Gilbert Arenas's three young children: Izela and Alijah. (Avid Exposure Public Relations)
But the notes -- which appear to be her version of their life together -- reveal lots of details about their relationship. Arenas, 29, and Govan, 31, first met in 2002, when she was coaching basketball at a Golden State Warriors camp. In addition to their three young children (the fourth is due in June), they went through other pregnancies that ended in miscarriages. Along the way, there were lots of break-ups and make-ups.
Some of the meeting notes confirm what Arenas himself shared on his popular, now-defunct blog: "I've done kicked her out of my house almost every weekend, yet she's still here and she still believes in me," he wrote in 2008 in a post describing his marriage proposal to her. The notes tell an almost identical story: "The reason he proposed to her is that he put her out of the house every other weekend since they met and she stays with him, so something must be working."
There's a lot about how Arenas spent his money, based on her understanding of the household finances: "he states he makes 1.5 million per month," read the notes. Arenas lavished plenty on their Great Falls home, dropping $100,000 on landscaping, $5,000 a month for housekeepers, $675 "per car" washing, and $1 million for his backyard pool and grotto. His sharks are expensive: $5,000 a month to feed them and $1,500 for a keeper to drive from Columbus to take care of them.
He was extravagant when it came to toys for the children -- ages 5, 4 and 2 -- buying a $60,000 train set and an $8,000 toy Mercedes-Benz electric car, and dropping between $30,000 and $40,000 during a shopping spree at FAO Schwartz. (Arenas also told this story on the blog, but didn't divulge the amount of money spent.)
The notes say Arenas gave Govan $8,000 a month for expenses; more than half went to pay the mortgage on a home she owns in California, and the rest went for groceries ($500-$600 a week from Peapod), doctors, classes and other expenses for the children.
Arenas's business manager, Los Angeles-based CPA to the stars Lester Knispel, is mentioned twice. Contacted by the Post, Knispel's office declined to discuss his client's expenditures and referred calls to Arenas's manager.
The end -- and it appears this time it's for real -- came on the day before Thanksgiving, when she threw him out of the house, according to the notes. Govan and the children left Great Falls less than two weeks ago and are now in California.
All signs point to a messy split.
David Cornwell, an attorney for Arenas, said in a statement that the notes contain "numerous inaccuracies and inflammatory statements by a disgruntled and vindictive woman." He declined to address any specific inaccuracies in the document, saying, "we will not dignify it by responding to Laura Govan's false and fanciful assertions. Rest assured, however, that Gilbert Arenas remains committed to providing his children with boundless love and support." | {
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Wool Blend Touch Screen Gloves
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Let’s start out by stating the obvious: Barring a miracle, the “Amazon Tax” proposed by Seattle council members Kshama Sawant and Tammy Morales will not become law in its current form. The bill, which the council will continue discussing into next month, would slap a 1.3 percent payroll tax on companies with more than $7 million in payroll expenses, raising more than $500 million a year from about 800 Seattle companies.
Sawant and Morales decided to designate the bill as an “emergency,” which makes it invulnerable to a future voter referendum; the tradeoff is that they need 7 votes for approval, plus the support of Mayor Jenny Durkan, since the city charter requires mayoral approval of all emergency legislation. In other words, even if Morales and Sawant got five other council members on board—unlikely, if comments at Wednesday’s budget committee from council members who are ordinarily sympathetic to tax-the-rich arguments are any indication—the mayor could simply let the proposal die without a formal veto. Durkan fought Sawant’s last effort to “tax Amazon,” a $275-per-employee tax on employees of companies with gross receipts of more than $20 million, and is implacably opposed to this one as well.
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There is also some question whether the proposal complies with an emergency order issued by Gov. Jay Inslee in March, and extended this week, barring public agencies from adopting or discussing legislation unless it’s “routine” or “necessary to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak and the current public health emergency.”
Despite all that, it’s still worth taking a look at the legislation, which dwarfs the “head tax” the council passed in 2018, then overturned, by a factor of more than ten. What would happen if, against all apparent odds, the bill were to pass in its current form?
In its first year, 2020, the legislation would fund cash payments of $2,000 over four months to 100,000 low-income Seattle residents to respond to the COVID crisis. (This is the part of the bill most obviously compliant with Inslee’s order). Because revenues from the tax wouldn’t be available until 2021, the bill would fund these checks by taking a short-term loan from six city funds that, according to a companion bill, have “sufficient cash” to contribute up to $50 million each. Those funds would be paid back in 2021, plus $5 million interest.
From then on, assuming all the assumptions that went into the proposal remain correct, the tax would pump more than $500 million a year into funding for “social housing” for people making between 0 and 100 percent of the Seattle median income, operational support for permanent supportive housing, and funding to implement the Green New Deal, which includes strategies like weatherization and converting buildings from gas to electric heat. The amount of funding from the tax would be less, of course, if the number of businesses spending more than $7 million annually on payroll declined because of the recession.
The $200 million “interfund loan” would come from six voter-approved levies and taxing districts, including the Move Seattle levy; the Families and Education Levy; the Seattle Parks District; and the Library Levy. Some of these funds do have “sufficient cash” to give up $50 million in the short term, but it’s worth taking a look at why that is, and how this might impact their ability to fund promised projects.
The Low Income Housing Fund, which receives money from the Housing Levy and payments from developers through the Mandatory Housing Affordability program, has more than $146 million on hand because property taxes have continued to flow in to fund future projects that are not yet off the ground. That money is in the city’s “bank,” but it’s already spoken for. Other funds, such as the Library Levy Fund, the Move Seattle Fund, and the Parks District Fund, have significantly less than $50 million lying around. The Parks District fund, in fact, is actually in the red; the 2020 budget makes up a $6 million shortfall with an interfund loan, to be repaid as more revenues come in. Some of these funds simply aren’t that big to begin with—the library levy, for example, is supposed to raise just over $200 million, total, over seven years,
None of that might matter if the $200 million could be repaid in just one year as proposed. But even if the legislation is safe from any future referendum, it would still be subject to lawsuits, and there’s no guarantee that litigation over the tax would be resolved quickly, or in the city’s favor. If funding from the tax didn’t come through quickly, or ever, it’s unclear how the $200 million would be repaid. If, say, the Library Levy found itself short $50 million, that could significantly impact the library’s ability to provide services promised to voters—especially as the recession eats into the city’s tax base.
There are also other interests competing for that money. As city budget director Ben Noble noted in his grim revenue forecast presentation Wednesday, the city may have to dip into some of the dedicated levy funds to pay for basic services—using the parks levy to fund basic maintenance instead of new capital projects, for example. “If the base levels of funding for which the levies were intended to be additive are no longer feasible, the question is whether it would make sense to use the levy funds for operational purposes,” Noble told the council Wednesday.
Ordinarily, the city’s general fund pays for basic services, growing or shrinking marginally from year to year. However, in a recession—particularly a rapid recession, like the one caused by the current economic shutdown—the fund shrinks dramatically, because it is funded largely by sales and business and occupation taxes that take a dive when the economy slows down. The city’s projections show a general-fund shortfall, just in 2020, between about $100 million and $186 million (the overall shortfall, which includes funds from levies and other sources, is projected to range between $210 million and $300 million). During last recession, then-mayor Mike McGinn had to cut the general-fund budget by 7 percent. Tying up levy funds for a temporary loan on the gamble that revenues from a contentious tax will be available right away seems like a risky bet.
There are also several scenarios in which other city council members might propose alternative, scaled-back bills that would stand a better chance of passing; budget chair Mosqueda, for example, is reportedly working on a proposal that would exempt businesses with employees who make less than a certain income threshold (targeting the tax on wealthy tech companies and their workers, for example, rather than restaurants or hotels with many low- or moderate-wage employees; such a bill might also include exemptions for certain industries and be focused on funding food-security programs, child care, and wage assistance, as Mosqueda suggested at Wednesday’s meeting.
Another alternative—one that would get around the requirement that Durkan sign off on the bill—would be to remove the emergency clause from the legislation, allowing it to pass on a 6-3 vote. (Ordinary legislation requires five votes to pass, but six to override a mayoral veto). This would lead to a referendum and an ugly battle at the polls—a do-over for the aborted “No Tax On Jobs” referendum campaign backed by Amazon, Starbucks, and other big companies in 2018. The objection to this idea would be that big business can simply buy votes by barraging voters with misleading information, as supporters of the previous “Amazon tax” charged in 2018. On the other hand, if a veto-proof vote is the only way to get a payroll tax to pass, and if it’s going to the polls anyway, perhaps the best solution is to send it straight to the ballot.
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In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the situation in Paris where they find, “Je suis en terrasse, mais je vote FN.” They cut to a special interview on the Champs des Elysees with Alec Baldwin in Paris for COP21. In the second half, Max interviews Chris Ellis of ProTip - Not Just Made In China, handmade Bitcoin Fullnodes to support the decentralization of the bitcoin network and the ProTip fundraiser at StartJOIN.com. Chris demonstrates how the Fullnode works and discusses his plans to send them to places around the world, like Botswana. The Bitcoin Fullnode project would not have been possible without the support of Whaleclub Teamspeak, in particular: Alex Kosinski (@PQMerkle) and Drak (@BTCDrak), Bitcoin Core Developer and everyone at the World Crypto Network and a special thanks to the guys at Bitseed: Jay Feldis & John Light.
Check Keiser Report website for more: http://www.maxkeiser.com/ | {
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www.ccn.com Reading time: ~2 m
Litecoin (LTC) has gained more than 14 percent in 24 hours, surging from a low of $77.60 on Tuesday to a high of $93.05, before dropping slightly to $90.09 where it is currently trading.
A Wild Week for the Litecoin Price
The move saw the litecoin price outpace its peers as the crypto market struggled to recover from a punishing correction. LTC sunk as low as $76.70 during the sell-off.
It is fair to say that it has been an up-and-down week for the crypto market’s fourth-largest player. CCN reported earlier in the week that the Litecoin Foundation secured a partnership with the Miami Dolphins to accept cryptocurrency payments for the team’s 50/50 raffle using LTC and BTC. Despite this, litecoin found itself locked firmly in a downtrend mirroring that of market leader bitcoin.
Typically, when bitcoin sneezes, the entire crypto market catches pneumonia, but litecoin has bucked the trend somewhat, defying bitcoin’s dominance to break out on its own back in February. This time around, however, litecoin was sucked down with bitcoin, only finding its way back into positive territory over the past 24 hours.
More Volatility Still to Come
As a result of the halving event, which will cut the cryptocurrency’s inflation rate in half 18 days from now, the expectation is that LTC traders will yet experience some more unpredictable activity. When the halving takes place, the block rewards generated per successful hash will halve from their current rate. It is far from clear what effect this will have on the cryptocurrency itself, however.
Litecoin founder Charlie Lee believes that halving will hit miners hard, even predicting that some of them will close shop altogether. Afterward, he says, “everything will be fine.”
LTC is now trading at 200 percent of its price level at the start of the year, underlining the strength of the crypto market’s recovery from 2018’s year-long bear period.
Regardless, LTC is now worth only about 22 percent of its all-time high value of $420 which it achieved on December 12, 2017, during the historic crypto market bull run.
Click here for a real-time litecoin price chart. | {
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When he spotted an American flag in the middle of Route 24, West Bridgewater resident James Deely turned around to retrieve it as he noted it was the "right thing to do."
WEST BRIDGEWATER — A “patriotic moment” coming over him led to resident James Deely running across Route 24 on a busy Friday afternoon to save a fallen American flag, he said.
“It was just important to me because it’s the American flag and you should respect it,” Deely, 33, of West Bridgewater, said. “I still have the utmost respect for this country. I expect as an American anyone else would do the same thing.”
He was on his way home from his job in Franklin, he said, when he saw the flag attached to a pole in the middle of Route 24 northbound between exits 15 and 16 near the West Bridgewater-Bridgewater town line.
“I drove past it, just like pretty much everyone else did, and I kept going up the highway,” he said. “I was torn, (thinking), ‘You know, I should really go back and pick it up.'’’
He then decided to turn around to grab it. He waited for 15-20 minutes on the side of the highway with his hazards on for a break in the busy 5 o'clock traffic, he said, before running over to where the flag lay on the road by the median. He then waited another 15 minutes or so for a break in the traffic to cross back over.
“People kept beeping at me, like positively beeping at me – I think, at least,” he said. “Just saying ‘Good job’ for picking up the flag. I was just holding it in my hand at that point.”
After crossing back over, he said he folded the flag the best he could, laid it on the passenger side and brought it home. He estimated that the flag is about five feet wide by three feet and said he thought it may have fallen off a mount on a pickup truck. If the owner of the flag reached out to him, he would return it, he said, but he hasn’t heard anything so far.
He later posted about the incident on a town Facebook group for West Bridgewater residents as a “positive” story, he said. But he did not anticipate the reaction, with over 300 likes and 60 comments commending him, not including private messages he said he also received.
“I think it got such a strong reaction from people because I think a lot of people, especially the generation before mine like my parents’ generation, had a different upbringing and they have always held this country and the flag being the main symbol of this country with the utmost respect," he said. “That’s the way they were raised.”
Despite the largely positive reaction, Deely said he did get some criticism,
“A lot of people were saying it was really stupid that I did that, but people do things that are far, far worse or risky and dangerous than running across a highway to support and protect the flag,” he said. “I cautiously waited for the traffic to pass and cautiously went across the highway to retrieve the flag.”
The ordeal reminded him of his own experience of learning to respect the flag as a kid.
“I remember standing in the classroom every morning, getting up and putting your hand over your heart and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance,” he said. “It became a thing you did everyday, you didn’t even think about it as a kid."
With turmoil rampant in the media with mass shootings and racial tensions, he said, he believes the meaning of the flag has gotten lost, especially with the NFL protests with kneeling during the anthem.
“When I was young … everyone respected the flag,” he said. “Everyone respected the USA. This was the best country. I still believe it’s the best country, and now people don’t seem to think that way anymore."
He plans to hang the flag, which was in pretty good condition, in his backyard after he gets it professionally cleaned at a local dry cleaner, he said. Going back for it was the right thing to do, he said, and he wants to pass those morals on to his son, Lincoln, who is turning two next month.
“I want to try and teach my son the difference between right and wrong the best I can,” he said.
Staff writer Corlyn Voorhees can be reached at [email protected] | {
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Just had the worst nightmare About my iPhone getting broken
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Internal police politics can make cage-fighting look as dangerous as stamp collecting.
This is probably because there used to be a promotion appeal system where an officer could argue in a court-like process they should have got the job rather than the successful applicant. This involved ego, ambition and dirty pool.
In the early 1980s, my father Fred, who had just been appointed Chief Inspector in charge of the Bureau of Criminal Intelligence, suffered a heart attack.
Days later I opened the front door of the family home to a concerned police colleague asking about his condition. Days later that officer appealed against the appointment citing Silvester’s ill health. He lost. Fred recovered. He did not receive a get well card from his “mate.” | {
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Chloé Zhao’s second film as a writer-director is a contemporary western about a young rodeo rider, Brady Jandreau, who was kicked in the head by a horse. He knows that if he returns to the rodeo, he is risking his life – his best friend’s brain damage is even more severe – but he can’t imagine what else to do. This humane account of his slow recuperation has fascinating things to say about macho peer pressure, Wild West iconography, and people with wide open spaces all around them, but nowhere to go. But what is truly awe-inspiring is the way Zhao stitches together fact and fiction. Make no mistake, The Rider is a well-honed drama, but it derives its power from being based on Jandreau’s own experiences, and most of the people in it are playing versions of themselves. Rarely, if ever, have documentary realism and poetic grandeur been combined so deftly or to such desperately moving effect. (Credit: Highwayman Films) | {
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Article content continued
“It struck a chord with our officers,” Parkinson said. “It wasn’t a normal call. It was an emotional time for all once they determined what had happened.”
The identity of couple has remained private — Parkinson describes the husband as “an extremely proud man” who would be mortified by the publicity.
But the chief is proud of his staff and what they did.
“Believe it or not, they don’t do this for the recognition. They did it because it’s what they do best, which is to respond compassionately.”
Parkinson told the police service board about the incident, which in return reported to council. The story was picked up by local media and soon spread around the world. Parkinson says the police service has been contacted with offers of help from as far away as Texas and the United Kingdom. Police aren’t accepting money, but have referred the offers to its victim services unit.
The incident was unusual, but similar situations are increasingly common, Parkinson said, be it drug and alcohol addiction, mental health issues, homelessness or some other social problem.
“The bigger story here is you have a couple in distress in the midst of our community and it’s the police that have to go. It’s not a police matter but it turns into one because there’s no other services out there on a Saturday or a Sunday,” he said.
“It really has caused us to become the social service of choice — we’re here 24/7, 365 days a year. If there’s anything that happens that requires assistance, it seems to roll to us. We don’t oppose intervening, because someone needs to, but our officers are called upon to deal with these things and ensure people are referred on to the proper help.”
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With careful attention and patience, it's possible to dry age beef at home, for steaks with unparalleled flavor and tenderness.
Sometimes I get emails from readers that say something along the lines of "You said in article X one thing, then, a couple years later, in article Y, you said almost the complete opposite. What gives? Don't you believe in science, and doesn't science deal in facts?"
There's only one kind of science that isn't open to contradicting itself: the bad kind. Science needs to be open to accepting and considering contradictory evidence and redefining "facts," by definition. Heck, if new theories weren't allowed to be formed and conclusions debunked with further experimentation, we'd still believe in crazy things like spontaneous generation, static universes, or even that searing meat seals in juices. And then where would we be today?
I bring this up because, a few weeks back, I went through great pains to test and explain precisely why you cannot dry-age meat at home, no way, nohow. Today, I'm going to explain to you exactly how you can dry-age at home, how relatively simple it is, and how it can vastly improve the eating quality of your steaks and roasts until they are better than what you can buy at even the best gourmet supermarket.*
* And, unlike many sources that claim similar results, I actually have the blind taste tests to prove it!
Now, before you go and call up the National Committee of Good Science and send them to confiscate my calculator (by which I mean my head), let me first explain that I stand by 100% of what I wrote in that article: Given that you are starting with individual steaks, dry-aging at home is not feasible, despite what some otherwise reputable sources have said in the past. Blind tasting showed that between the first day and the seventh day of such aging, there was absolutely zero perceptible improvement in the eating quality of the steaks.
But we all know that individual steaks is not how meat is dry-aged by professionals, right? No, they start with whole sub-primals—large cuts of meat with bones and fat caps fully intact—and they age them, uncovered, in temperature-, humidity-, and air-speed-controlled rooms designed to allow them to age for weeks or months without rotting. The question is, can we do this ourselves at home?
I got my hands on 80 pounds of prime-grade, bone-in, fat-cap-intact beef ribs to get my answers.* Over the course of more than two months, I aged them in close to a dozen different ways in order to determine what works, what doesn't, and what matters. Here's what I found.
* Special thanks to Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors for donating much of the fine beef used for this testing.
The Purpose of Aging
How does aging work?
Good question! First, a brief rundown on why you might want to age meat. Conventional wisdom cites three specific goals of dry-aging meat, all of which contribute toward improving its flavor or texture.
Moisture loss might be a major one. A dry-aged piece of beef can lose up to around 30% of its initial volume due to water loss, which concentrates its flavor. At least, that's the theory. But is it true? (Cue dramatic foreshadowing music.)
might be a major one. A dry-aged piece of beef can lose up to around 30% of its initial volume due to water loss, which concentrates its flavor. At least, that's the theory. But is it true? (Cue dramatic foreshadowing music.) Tenderization occurs when enzymes naturally present in the meat act to break down some of the tougher muscle fibers and connective tissues. A well-aged steak should be noticeably more tender than a fresh steak. But is it?
occurs when enzymes naturally present in the meat act to break down some of the tougher muscle fibers and connective tissues. A well-aged steak should be noticeably more tender than a fresh steak. But is it? Flavor change is caused by numerous processes, including enzymatic and bacterial action, along with the oxidation of fat and other fat-like molecules. Properly dry-aged meat will develop deeply beefy, nutty, and almost cheese-like aromas.
But is aged meat really better than fresh meat?
It depends. I had a panel of tasters test meat aged to various degrees and rank them by overall preference, tenderness, and funkiness. Almost everybody who tasted meat that had been aged for a couple of weeks—the period after which some degree of tenderization has occurred, but seriously funky flavor has yet to develop—preferred it to completely fresh meat.
On the other hand, folks were more mixed about meat aged longer than that. Many preferred the more complex, cheese-like flavors that developed with meat aged between 30 and 45 days. Some even liked the ultra-funky flavors that developed in 45- to 60-day-old meat. Where you lie on that spectrum is a matter of experience. I personally prefer meat aged to 60 days, though beyond that, it gets a little too strong for me.
Okay, I'm sold. Why would I possibly want to do it at home when I can order it online or from my butcher?
Two reasons. First, bragging rights. How awesome is that dinner party gonna be where you tell your friends, "Like this beef? I aged it for eight weeks myself"?
Second, it saves you money. Lots of money. Aging meat takes time and space, and time and space cost money. This cost gets passed on to the consumer. Well-aged meat can cost anywhere from 50 to 100% more than an equivalent piece of fresh meat. At home, so long as you're willing to give up a corner of your fridge or you have an extra mini fridge, the extra costs are minimal.
You may have read that, in addition to the time and space required, much of the cost of aged meat comes down to the amount of meat that is wasted—that is, meat that dries out and needs to be trimmed. This is not as big a factor as you'd think, and we'll find out why soon.
Selecting Meat to Age
What cut of meat should I buy for aging?
To age meat properly, you need to choose a large piece that is best cooked with quick cooking methods. This makes the standard steakhouse cuts—the New York strip, the rib steak, and the porterhouse—the ideal cuts for aging. (See here for more information on the four high-end steaks you should know.) The easiest to find whole (and my personal favorite) is the rib steak, which is what you get when you cut a prime rib between the bone into individual steaks.
What's the minimum size I'll need to buy for proper aging? Can I age an individual steak?
Nope, unfortunately, you can't age individual steaks. (See here for more details as to why not.) You can wrap them in cheesecloth or paper towels, set them on a rack, and leave them in the fridge for about a week, but during that time, no detectable level of texture or flavor changes will take place. Try to age them even longer, and (assuming they don't start rotting)*, here's what you get:
* In my experience, this can happen when the cheesecloth or paper towel holds moisture against the meat and you don't have enough ventilation.
The meat is so dried out as to be completely inedible. After trimming away the desiccated and slightly moldy bits (perfectly normal for dry-aged meat), I was left with a sliver of meat about a half centimeter thick. It was impossible to cook to anything lower than well-done, making my effective yield a big fat zero.
The simple truth is that in order to dry-age, you need larger cuts of meat, and you need to age them in open air.
So, of the larger cuts of meat, what should I look for?
Rib sections come in several different forms, each with its own number designation.
The 103 is the most intact. It's an entire rib section (that's ribs six through 12 of the steer), along with a significant portion of the short ribs, the chine bones completely intact, and a large flap of fat and meat (called "lifter meat" and not to be confused with the coveted spinalis dorsi*) covering the meaty side. It's unlikely you'll find this cut, even if you ask the butcher.
is the most intact. It's an entire rib section (that's ribs six through 12 of the steer), along with a significant portion of the short ribs, the chine bones completely intact, and a large flap of fat and meat (called "lifter meat" and not to be confused with the coveted spinalis dorsi*) covering the meaty side. It's unlikely you'll find this cut, even if you ask the butcher. The 107 has been trimmed somewhat, with the short ribs cut short, some (but not all) of the chine bone sawed off, and the outer cartilage removed. This is commonly how rib sections are sold to retail butcher shops and supermarkets, where they can further break them down.
has been trimmed somewhat, with the short ribs cut short, some (but not all) of the chine bone sawed off, and the outer cartilage removed. This is commonly how rib sections are sold to retail butcher shops and supermarkets, where they can further break them down. The 109A is considered ready to roast and serve. It's had the chine bone nearly completely sawed off and the lifter meat removed. The fat cap is put back in place once the lifter meat is gone.
is considered ready to roast and serve. It's had the chine bone nearly completely sawed off and the lifter meat removed. The fat cap is put back in place once the lifter meat is gone. The 109 Export is essentially identical to the 109A, but has had the fat cap removed. This is the cut you'll see on your Christmas table or at that fancy-pants hotel buffet. The meat on this cut is only minimally protected on the outside.
* The spinalis, also called the ribeye cap, is the tastiest cut on the cow!
I aged a 107, a 109A, and a 109 Export in an Avanti mini fridge set at 40°F, in which I placed a small desk fan in order to allow air to circulate (I had to cut a small notch in the sealing strip around the door to allow the fan's cord to pass through), simulating a dry-aging room on a small scale. I made no attempt to regulate humidity, which bounced around between 30 and 80% (higher at the beginning, lower as the aging progressed).
I found that the more protection you have, the better your final yield. Why does protection from the exterior matter when aging meat? It's because when you dry-age meat for any length of time that's enough to make a difference, the exterior layers get completely desiccated and must be trimmed away. The less protected the "good" meat, the more of it you'll throw in the trash and waste. Here's what happens when you try to age a 109 Export:
See how much of that poor spinalis muscle has withered away and dried? I had to completely remove it before I found meat that I was able to cook underneath. And that is not meat you want to waste.
On the other hand, here's what you're left with after removing the fat cap on a 109A:
The fat cap effectively guards the meat against moisture loss, leaving us with a spinalis muscle that is 100% edible.
Trim off the fat a bit more, as well as the cut faces, and here's what we've got:
The yield you get amounts to basically the equivalent of a completely normal-sized roast. If you imagine your prime rib as a long cylinder, the only meat you actually end up losing is from either end. The fat cap and bones will completely protect the sides.
What Causes Flavor Change?
So really, aged meat doesn't lose much moisture. But, wait a minute, haven't I read that aged steaks can lose up to 30% of their weight in water? Isn't that one of the reasons why aged steak is so expensive?
Don't believe everything you read. That 30% figure is deceptive at best, and an outright lie at worst. Yes, it's true that if you dry-age an untrimmed, bone-in, fat-cap-intact prime rib, you'll end up losing about 30% of its total weight over the course of 21 to 30 days or so. What they don't tell you is that the weight is almost exclusively lost from the outer layers—that is, the portion of the meat that is going to be trimmed off anyway, regardless of whether it's aged or not.
Has it never struck you as not just a little bit odd that the aged ribeye steaks in the butcher's display aren't 30% smaller than the fresh ribeyes in the display? Or that aged bone-in steaks are not stretching and pulling away from their bones—I mean, surely the bones aren't shrinking as well, are they?
The fact is, with the exception of the cut faces that need to be trimmed off, the edible portion of an aged prime rib is pretty much identical to that of a fresh prime rib.
Okay, let's say I'm convinced about that. Does that mean that the whole idea that "meat flavor is concentrated" in an aged steak because of dehydration is also false?
I'm afraid so. It's a great idea in theory, but several facts don't support it.
First, there's simple visual inspection: A trimmed steak cut from an aged piece of beef is pretty much the exact same size as a trimmed steak cut from a fresh piece of beef.
In addition, I measured the density of beef aged to various degrees against that of completely fresh meat. To do this, I cut out chunks of meat of identical weights from the centers of ribeyes aged to various degrees, making sure to exclude any large swaths of fat. I then submerged each of these chunks of meat in water and measured their displacement. What I found was that meat aged to 21 days displaced about 4% less liquid than completely fresh meat. A slight increase, but not much. Meat aged all the way to 60 days displaced a total of 5% less—showing that the vast majority of moisture loss occurs in the first three weeks.
What's more, once the meat was cooked, these differences in density completely disappeared. That is, the less aged the meat was, the more moisture it expelled. Why is this? One of the side effects of aging is the breakdown of meat protein and connective tissue. This makes the meat more tender, as well as causing it to contract less as it cooks. Less contraction = less moisture loss.
When all was said and done, in many cases, the meat that was 100% fresh ended up losing even more liquid than the dry-aged meat.
Finally, a simple taste test was the nail in the coffin: Meat dry-aged for 21 days (the period during which the largest change in density of the internal meat occurs) was indistinguishable from fresh meat in terms of flavor. The improvements were in texture alone. It wasn't until between the 30- and 60-day marks that real, noticeable changes in flavor occurred, and during that time period, there was essentially no change in internal density. Thus, moisture loss is not tied to flavor change.
So why does meat that's being aged stop losing moisture after the first few weeks?
It's a matter of permeability. As meat loses moisture, its muscle fibers get more and more closely packed, making it more and more difficult for moisture under the surface to continue escaping. After the first few weeks, the outer layer of meat is so tight and tough that it is virtually impermeable to moisture loss.
Take a look here:
You can see that the layer of dried meat in a four-week aged piece of beef is as thick as one aged for over eight weeks. No matter how long I aged the steak, the waste was about the same—just about a centimeter from the exterior cut faces.
If it's not moisture loss, what factors do affect the flavor of aged beef?
A couple of things. The first is enzymatic breakdown of muscle proteins into shorter fragments, which alters their flavor in desirable ways. But this effect is completely secondary to the far more important change that occurs when fat is exposed to oxygen. It's the oxidation of fat, as well as bacterial action on the surfaces of the meat, that causes the most profound flavor change—the funkiness you get in meat that has been aged for over 30 days.
It's true that much of this funky flavor is concentrated on the outermost portions of the meat—the parts that largely get trimmed away—and, for this reason, if you want to get the most out of your aged meat, it's vitally important that you serve it with the bone attached. Unlike the fat cap, which is completely removed and discarded, the outer areas of bones will still house tons of oxidized fat and affected meat. The aromas from this meat reach your nose as you're eating, altering your entire experience. Lovers of aged steak also prize the spinalis (again, that's the outer cap of meat on a ribeye) for its richer, more highly aged flavor.
Aging Setup
What sort of setup do I really need for aging steak at home? How simple is it?
It's very simple and requires virtually no special equipment. There are just a few things you'll need:
Fridge space. The best thing you can use is a dedicated mini fridge, one that you can keep closed so that the meat smells don't permeate the rest of your food, and vice versa. It can get a little... powerful. The mini fridge I kept by my desk would fill the office with the aroma of aging meat if I peeked inside it for even a moment or two. Similarly, aged meat can pick up aromas from your refrigerator. Unless your refrigerator is odor-free, a mini fridge is the best possible option.
The best thing you can use is a dedicated mini fridge, one that you can keep closed so that the meat smells don't permeate the rest of your food, and vice versa. It can get a little... powerful. The mini fridge I kept by my desk would fill the office with the aroma of aging meat if I peeked inside it for even a moment or two. Similarly, aged meat can pick up aromas from your refrigerator. Unless your refrigerator is odor-free, a mini fridge is the best possible option. A fan. To promote drying of the surface and even aging, you want to stick a fan inside your fridge to keep air circulating. This works in much the same way as a convection oven, promoting more even cooling and humidity all around. I used a standard desk fan. In order to get it in there, I cut a small notch in the seal for the fridge door—just large enough for the cord to fit through.
To promote drying of the surface and even aging, you want to stick a fan inside your fridge to keep air circulating. This works in much the same way as a convection oven, promoting more even cooling and humidity all around. I used a standard desk fan. In order to get it in there, I cut a small notch in the seal for the fridge door—just large enough for the cord to fit through. A rack. Your meat must be elevated on a rack. I tried aging a piece of meat on a plate and directly on the floor of the fridge. Bad idea. The part in contact with the plate didn't dehydrate properly and ended up rotting. Aging on a wire rack, or directly on the wire shelf of a fridge, is the way to go.
Your meat must be elevated on a rack. I tried aging a piece of meat on a plate and directly on the floor of the fridge. Bad idea. The part in contact with the plate didn't dehydrate properly and ended up rotting. Aging on a wire rack, or directly on the wire shelf of a fridge, is the way to go. Time. Patience, little grasshopper. You will be rewarded with the steak of your dreams for your patience.
But what about humidity? I hear humidity needs to be kept high [or low, or medium, or nonexistent, or et cetera]? Where should it be, and how can I control it?
The three different fridges I used to aged meat all had different humidity levels. The mini fridge's was consistently high—around 80% through the entire aging process (I kept it there by leaving a small tray of water in the back of it). One piece was left in the office fridge, which was opened and closed regularly throughout the process. Its humidity ranged from 30 to 80%, with no regularity. Finally, my home fridge was lower in humidity, closer to 50% at all times (similar to ambient room humidity).
Guess what? All three produced excellent aged beef.
And it makes sense. As my testing above shows, after the first couple of weeks, the outer layers of the beef become all but impervious to moisture. It really doesn't make much difference how humid or dry the environment is; the internal meat is protected. That's good news for home dry-agers!
Timing
Okay, I'm nearly convinced. How long should I be aging my meat for?
I had tasters taste steaks aged for various lengths of time. In order to ensure that all steaks were fairly ranked and that differences in actual cooking were minimized, I cooked them to 127°F in a sous vide water bath before finishing them with a cast iron pan/torch combo. Steaks were tasted completely blind.
The results showed that aging time was largely a matter of personal preference, but here's a rough guide to what happens over the course of 60 days:
14 days or less: Not much point. No change in flavor; very little detectable change in tenderness. Very few people preferred this steak.
Not much point. No change in flavor; very little detectable change in tenderness. Very few people preferred this steak. 14 to 28 days: The steak starts to get noticeably more tender, particularly toward the higher end of this scale. Still no major changes in flavor. This is about the age of a steak at your average high-end steakhouse.
The steak starts to get noticeably more tender, particularly toward the higher end of this scale. Still no major changes in flavor. This is about the age of a steak at your average high-end steakhouse. 28 to 45 days: Some real funkiness starts to manifest itself. At 45 days, there are distinct notes of blue or cheddar cheese, and the meat is considerably moister and juicier. Most tasters preferred 45-day-aged steak to all others.
Some real funkiness starts to manifest itself. At 45 days, there are distinct notes of blue or cheddar cheese, and the meat is considerably moister and juicier. Most tasters preferred 45-day-aged steak to all others. 45 to 60 days: Extremely intense flavors emerge. A handful of tasters enjoyed the richness of this highly aged meat, though some found it a little too much to handle for more than a bite or two. Ed said of the 60-day steak, "I may have hit my aging threshold." It is rare to find any restaurant serving a steak this well-aged.*
* I know of only two in New York: Minetta Tavern, which has an 80-day steak, and Eleven Madison Park, which serves slivers of a 120-day-aged steak as part of its tasting menu.
I've Got Some More Questions!
What about wet-aging? What is it, and does it work?
Wet aging is simple: Put your beef in a Cryovac bag, and let it sit on the shelf (or, more likely, on refrigerated trucks as it gets shipped across the country) for a few weeks. Tell your customers that it's aged; sell it at a premium.
The problem is that wet-aging is nothing like dry-aging.
For starters, there is no oxidation of fat in wet aging, which means that there is no development of funky flavors. A minimal amount of flavor change will occur through enzymatic reactions, but they are, well, minimal. Additionally, wet-aging prevents the drainage of excess serum and meat juices. Tasters often report that wet-aged meat tastes "sour" or "serum-y."
Wet-aging can offer the same tenderizing and moisture-retaining benefits as dry-aging, but that's about it. In reality, wet-aging is a product of laziness and money-grubbing. It's easy to let that Cryovacked bag of beef from the distributor sit around for a week before the bag is opened, allowing it to be called "aged" and sold for a higher price. I don't buy it. When you are being sold "aged" meat, be sure to ask whether it's been dry-aged or wet-aged. If they don't know the answer or are unwilling to share, it's best to assume the worst.
The other drawback to wet-aging: It can't be carried out for as long as dry-aging. It seems counterintuitive, considering that a wet-aged hunk of meat is largely protected by the outside environment. But if even a smidge of harmful anaerobic bacteria makes its way into that bag, the meat will rot inside its cover, giving no indication that it's done so until you open it up.
To anyone who was in the office the day I opened up that package of rotten wet-aged beef, my sincerest apologies. As Robyn described it, it smelled like "rotten excrement taking a poop."
Yeah, it was that bad.
What about those fancy "dry-aging bags" I've been reading so much about?
Like me, you must have seen those dry-aging bag videos kicking around the internet. The idea is that you seal a cut of beef in some sort of special bag that allows you to safely age it at home. Supposedly, it aids in aging by allowing moisture out, but letting no air in.
I ordered a few kits to test this out myself. Before I even began aging, there were problems. I went through an entire $25.50 kit's worth of three bags, none of which were able to form a tight seal using my standard FoodSaver vacuum sealer (and yes, I followed the directions to a T). After ordering one more kit (spending a total of $51 on this), I finally got a single bag to seal, only to discover the next day that it in fact was not sealed properly and had leaked:
I decided to let it go anyway, pressing out as much air as possible and trying to ensure good contact between the bag and the surface of the meat, as the instructions recommended.
After aging it for several weeks, I unwrapped the roast and found this:
Not the most promising sight, but I dutifully trimmed away the molded areas, trimmed down the roast, and cut steaks from it. The taste tests I performed showed no significant difference between steak aged in one of these bags and steak aged in the open air. Where I did feel a difference was in my wallet, which was now $51 lighter than it was when I started.
I'll pass on the special equipment.
N.B. For more thoughts on the UMAi Dry Bag, check out this informative post from the Go Lb. Salt blog. If the analysis here is correct, it's probably a good thing that the bag did not work as advertised and instead let air come into contact with my meat. I mean, don't we want the fat to oxidize?
Quick and Dirty
Okay, just give me the tl;dr version. How do I age my steak?
Step 1: Buy a prime rib. Make sure that it is bone-in, preferably with the chine bone still attached and the complete fat cap intact. If you are buying from the butcher, ask them not to trim it at all. A decent butcher will not charge you full price, since they are making money off of selling you that extra fat and bone.
Make sure that it is bone-in, preferably with the chine bone still attached and the complete fat cap intact. If you are buying from the butcher, ask them not to trim it at all. A decent butcher will not charge you full price, since they are making money off of selling you that extra fat and bone. Step 2: Place the meat on a rack in a fridge. Preferably a dedicated mini fridge in which you've stuck a desk fan set to low, with a small notch cut in the door lining to allow the cord to come out. Set the temperature to between 36 and 40°F.
Preferably a dedicated mini fridge in which you've stuck a desk fan set to low, with a small notch cut in the door lining to allow the cord to come out. Set the temperature to between 36 and 40°F. Step 3: Wait. Wait anywhere from four to eight weeks, turning the meat occasionally to promote even aging. It'll start to smell. This is normal.
Wait anywhere from four to eight weeks, turning the meat occasionally to promote even aging. It'll start to smell. This is normal. Step 4: Trim. For a step-by-step slideshow of the process, check out the slideshow above.
For a step-by-step slideshow of the process, check out the slideshow above. Step 5: Cook. (See above or below for some recipe links.)
(See above or below for some recipe links.) Step 6: ???
Step 7: Profit.
You all got that down? There will be a pop quiz in, oh, let's say 60 days.
And you want to know the best way to cook these awesome steaks you've produced? Here you go!
Further Reading
Edit: Many people asked for photos of the drying setup. I unfortunately don't have any photos from when the meat was in, but here's a photo that shows the fan positioning and basic layout. It's pretty darn simple.
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学生の頃、電車の中で友達数人と話していたら若い男性に「どけよ」と言いながらタックルされた事がある。友達含め数人いる中で私に向かってだ。なぜか。答えは簡単で他の友達は部活動をやっていて体格が良くオマケに垢抜けててイケメンだ。私は体格は良くなくメガネをかけていてぱっと見オタクだ。そんな2種類のターゲットがいたら後者に行く決まっている。動物でもそうだ。わざわざ強そうな相手に勝負は挑まない。
もう一件あって、これは社会人になってだがゲームセンターで中学生がゲームをしているのを後ろで見ていた。プレーが終わりその中学生は振り向き、こちらの存在には気がついたがそのまま連コインした。私はそのゲームがやりたいわけではなかったが、そうこうしているうちにもう1人ギャラリーが増えた。今度はホスト風ないかにもチャラい兄ちゃんだ。中学生はプレーが終わりまた連コインするのだが、コインを入れた後にチャラい兄ちゃんの存在に気づく。そしたら中学生は立ち上がり、チャラい兄ちゃんに近づき「プレーしますか・・・・？」とペコペコ尋ねたのだ。結局その兄ちゃんはタバコを吸いにきただけでゲーム目的ではなかったのだが、中学生にも舐められてたことに私は非常にショックを受けた。
どちらも外見がヘッポコなのが原因なのだが、これらを解決する1番の方法が外見をイカツクする作戦だ。そうすれば電車内で見ず知らずの人に体当たりされたり、ゲーセンで連コインされることもなくなる。パッシブスキルとして厄介ごとから回避できるのだ。
さらにメリットはこれだけではない。
ヤンキーがお年寄りに親切にすると感動が増すように、普段からアウトローな装いをしておくことで少し良い行いをするだけで大きく評価される。人に与える印象の大きさは物事の絶対値ではなく上がり幅だ。キングコングの西野さんも先日ラジオで近いことを言っていたのだが、「これは絶対に勝てる。成果が出る。」と確信がある場合、その手前であえて負けを挟むそうだ。負けて評価が下がってから上げたほうが同じ成功でも上がり幅が大きくなり周りに与える影響が大きくなるからだ。
ということでこれを読んだみんなは今すぐ金髪鼻ピアスにするんだ。
私はドレッドヘアにバカでかいサングラスで金のネックレスをジャラジャラ言わせるスタイルでいくからさ（嘘 | {
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Image copyright AFP Image caption Mr Uematsu in court - he now has long black hair tied in a ponytail
A Japanese man has admitted killing 19 disabled people at a care home near Tokyo in 2016 but pleaded not guilty because he claims he is mentally ill.
Satoshi Uematsu, a former employee at the care centre, is charged with numerous crimes, including murder.
In interviews, the 29-year-old has said severely disabled people are harmful to society and should be killed.
The case is one of Japan's worst mass killings and has shocked people in a country where violent crime is rare.
The case has also raised questions about Japan's treatment of disabled people. Almost all of the victims will not be named at the trial - apparently because their relatives fear the stigma associated with having a disabled family member.
What happened in court?
At the opening of the trial, the former employee of the Sagamihara care home did not dispute he had stabbed his victims.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Satoshi Uematsu when he was detained in 2016
After the prosecution read out the details of charges, Mr Uematsu was asked whether "anything in the charges differs from the facts" and he replied "No, there isn't".
Despite his admission, the defence team pleaded not guilty, citing their client's mental state. They said he had been under the influence of drugs at the time.
"He abused marijuana and suffered from mental illness," his lawyer said. "He was in a condition in which either he had no capacity to take responsibility or such a capacity was significantly weakened."
There were traces of marijuana found in the defendant's blood after the attack.
Prosecutors insist he was mentally competent.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Members of the public formed long queues in the rain to attend the trial
Wednesday's proceedings were interrupted shortly after they began when the accused appeared to try to put something in his mouth and had to be restrained by security.
Mr Uematsu faces the death penalty if convicted. The court's verdict is expected in March.
How did the attack unfold?
In the early hours of 26 July 2016, Mr Uematsu drove to the Tsukui Yamayuri-en care facility, located about 50km (31 miles) from Tokyo, armed with several knives, the court heard.
He entered one of the buildings by breaking a window and began attacking sleeping residents one by one in their rooms, prosecutors say.
His 19 victims were aged between 19 and 70, according to Japanese news agency Kyodo. Another 25 people were wounded, 20 of them seriously.
Soon after the attack, Mr Uematsu handed himself in at a police station.
"When Uematsu turned himself in, he was found carrying kitchen knives and other types of knives stained with blood," a Kanagawa prefecture official told reporters at the time.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Japan knife attack: Aerial shots show emergency crews at scene
The facility, set in extensive grounds, had about 150 residents at the time of the attack, according to local officials. Nine staff members were on duty at the time.
It later emerged that a few months before the attack Mr Uematsu had taken a letter to Japan's parliament saying he would kill 470 severely disabled people if authorised: "I want Japan to be a country where the disabled can be euthanised."
He was subsequently taken to hospital but released after two weeks. Since his arrest, he has shown no remorse.
In an interview with Japan's Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, he said there was "no point in living" for people with mental disabilities and that he "had to do it for the sake of society". He told Kyodo last month disabled people "bring misfortune" and are "harmful".
How has Japan responded?
The country was stunned by the Sagamihara care-home stabbings. Japan is considered to be one of the safest countries in the world, in part because of strict gun control laws.
The attack has also raised the issue of how disabled people are treated in Japan. To this day the identities of most of those killed have not been revealed by their families, apparently because they do not want to reveal they have a disabled relative.
Before the start of the court hearing, however, one mother whose daughter was killed in the attack revealed that her first name was Miho.
"I was proud of her as she had a lovely smile and was so adorable," the woman said in a letter to the press.
She said Miho, who was 19 when she died, had been autistic but good at getting along with others, Kyodo reports.
"Miho was living her life to the fullest, and I would like to leave proof for that. I want the name Miho to be remembered," she wrote. | {
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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say the number of active-duty troops on the border with Mexico will drop from 5,600 to about 4,000, and their deployment will be extended through the end of January.
Officials say the Department of Homeland Security submitted a formal request for the additional military support Friday. It hasn’t been approved by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. But military officials have been working with DHS for weeks to help craft a request that would be accepted by the Pentagon.
President Donald Trump deployed the troops to the border in response to a caravan of migrants walking to the U.S. from Central America. Critics have called the deployment a political stunt before the midterm elections.
U.S. officials talked about the troop deployment on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. | {
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A Survey for Tim
With the current surge of r/Tim, I have to decided to conduct a little research on the state of Tims all across the world. Please only answer if you identify with any variant of the name Tim. | {
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Disney Channel has ordered Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, an original animated series based on Marvel’s comic book series, from Disney Television Animation. Laurence Fishburne and Helen Sugland’s Cinema Gypsy Productions (ABC’s Black-ish), Marvel Animation & Family Entertainment, and Emmy winner Steve Loter (Disney’s Kim Possible) will executive produce.
The series follows the adventures of 13-year-old super-genius Lunella Lafayette and her ten-ton T-Rex, Devil Dinosaur. After Lunella accidentally brings Devil Dinosaur into present-day New York City via a time vortex, the duo works together to protect the city’s Lower East Side from danger.
The news was announced today by Fishburne during Disney Television Animation’s panel at Disney’s D23 Expo.
Related Story 'Lizzie McGuire' Sequel Series Starring Hilary Duff Set At Disney+ From Creator Terri Minsky & Disney Channel
“As an avid comic book fan, I am thrilled to be involved with Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur,” Fishburne said. “Disney Channel is the perfect platform to explore this pint-sized female African American superhero, and I can’t wait for their audience to enjoy the lighthearted adventures of Lunella and Devil Dinosaur.”
The series will be executive produced by Cinema Gypsy Productions, Marvel Animation & Family Entertainment, and Loter. Jeff Howard (Planes) and Kate Kondell (The Pirate Fairy) serve as co-producers and story editors.
Disney’s D23: Deadline’s Complete Coverage
Meredith Roberts, senior vice president, Animation Strategy, Disney Channels said, “Disney TV Animation is thrilled to collaborate with renowned producers Laurence, Helen and Steve and the talented Marvel Animation team to bring this modern-day roller-skating, gadget-wielding tween superhero and her larger-than-life partner to Disney Channel.”
“Lunella doesn’t know she is the smartest person on the planet, but audiences will soon know how very cool Moon Girl is,” added Cort Lane, SVP of Marvel Animation & Family Entertainment.” Her adventures with giant buddy, Devil Dinosaur, are filled with so much wonder and joy, and this historic partnership with Disney Television Animation and Cinema Gypsy Productions proved the right formula to bring them to television.”
2019 Disney Channel/Disney XD Pilots & Series Orders | {
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The federal government has appointed Bill Ferris as chair of Innovation Australia, an independent body established by the government to push forward the country's innovation performance.
Ferris is the former chair of Austrade, and for 12 years was the chair of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. He is also a 45-year veteran of private equity, having founded Australia's first venture capital firm in 1970.
Minister for Industry, Innovation, and Science, Christopher Pyne, said the government is committed to making innovation a key element of the economic agenda, including developing a specific innovation and science agenda.
"Boosting innovation and entrepreneurship will create jobs and stimulate growth, and will position Australian businesses to take advantage of new technologies and opportunities," he said.
Ferris has been appointed to the position for three years.
"Now with the Prime Minister's and Minister Pyne's expressed determination to make innovation core to the government's economic policies, I relish the opportunity as chair of Innovation Australia to assist in identifying what changes are necessary for meaningful improvement in commercialisation and how to best get on with it right away," Ferris said.
Next month the federal government is expected to unveil its innovation agenda, which will contain a set of policies focused on how Australia can attract and retain talent, as well as how the nation should support and encourage startups.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had previously said the innovation agenda is part of the government's commitment to deliver better jobs and greater opportunities.
"Across government, business, the labour movement, and the wider community, we need to have a grown-up discussion which first clarifies the policy goals and then identifies and removes any obstacles that may be hampering our capacity to generate growth, productivity, investment, and jobs," he said.
Historically, Turnbull has given prominence to issues hindering on the country's innovation, as a result increasing awareness of the issue. For example, in February during an opening speech at a National ICT Australia's event, he called for the country's schools to introduce IT skills to children as young as five years old.
Turnbull made a similar point in May when he admitted that education has gone backwards, revealing the numbers of students taking up STEM learning has dropped significantly.
"Of our 600,000 workers in ICT, more than half work outside the traditional ICT sector. 75 percent of the fastest-growing occupations require STEM skills, but only half of year 12 students are studying science; that's down from 94 percent 20 years ago. That is really a retrograde development, and we have to turn that around," he said at the time. | {
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For my articles or the work I do every day I often have to make some screenshots to be included in the documentation, but until now had not found a program that fully satisfied … until today.
In this article i’ll show you some of the program i’ve used and tested and as last, the one that fit perfectly on my need.
So if you are impatience just jump at the end of the article, or continue and see what i’ve used so far.
Using a Xubuntu, this was the first program I ever used. This application allows you to capture the entire screen, the active window or a selected region.
You can set the delay that elapses before the screenshot is taken and the action that will be done with the screenshot: save it to a PNG file, copy it to the clipboard, open it using another application, or host it on ZimageZ, a free online image hosting service.
A plugin for the Xfce panel is also available.
Pro:
Integrated in XFCE.
Easy to use.
Upload on remote site functionality integrated.
Cons
No edit of the image (crop, change) available.
Many programs can take screenshots, but few are as good at doctoring the image after it’s taken as the GIMP is.
On the main panel, click on the “File” menu, and select “Create -> Screen Shot …” you’ll be presented with a windows like that on the right.
You can choose to take a screenshot of the whole screen or just a window, and you can set a delay in seconds.
After the delay in seconds the GIMP will takes a screen shot of whatever window you clicked on – if it isn’t at the front, the GIMP takes the shot with whatever other windows are overlaying it.
Pro:
Many opportunities to change a picture
Cons
Lack of function to do a remote upload
Too complicated to be used only to take a screenshot
And finally I met shutter, I must say that this program is exactly what I wanted.
Shutter is a feature-rich screenshot program. You can take a screenshot of a specific area, window, your whole screen, or even of a website (uses gnome-web-photo to capture a website without opening a browser window) – apply different effects to it, draw on it to highlight points, and then upload to an image hosting site, all within one window.
This is the impressive list of his Edit options.
Especially if you are taking screenshots for writing tutorials or manuals you need to edit the image, e.g. highlighting some part of it. With Shutter you don’t need to open an external graphics editor like GIMP, because Shutter ships with its own built-in editor. Here are some of the most important features:
Add Text, Arrows, Rectangles, Ellipses… The built-in editor allows you to add primitives (e.g. rectangles, lines etc.) , arrows or text to your screenshot. Every shape can be customized by changing the color, fonts and/or the line width.
Censor / Pixelize to Hide Private Data – Don’t want to show sensitive data like IP or e-Mail addresses? Shutter gives you two simple but effective tools to hide this data.
Auto-Increment Shape – When writing a step-by-step guide people often add incremental digits to the screenshots (usually via text). Shutter offers a specific auto-increment shape that can be added to the screenshot. It cannot be easier!
Crop – The built-in editor also includes a tool to crop your screenshot. Simply select a region with your mouse or enter the desired dimensions into the input fields.
Share
We all spend much of our time in forums, wikis, chats etc. From time to time we need to do some screenshots and upload them so we can share them with other people.
Shutter includes the ability to upload images to a remote host and the latest version of supports Ubuntu One as well.
Pro:
Easy to use
Image editing functions designed for the screenshots
Upload on remote site functionality integrated.
Con
The only one I see is that it is not integrated into any window manager.
And since a video is better than many screenshots here is Shutter in action:
Popular Posts:
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Shaniece Sturdy was watching TV as a teenager when she happened upon a documentary about surrogacy. From that moment on, she was interested in one day becoming a surrogate for a couple struggling to grow their family.
Years passed, and after the birth of her son, Shaniece decided to seriously pursue surrogacy by contacting a local agency.
“I was only 21 at the time, but I wasn’t interested in partying and drinking,” Shaniece said. “I wanted to help another couple fulfill their family dream.”
In case they didn’t approve, the steadfast young mother decided to keep her plans a secret from her parents. She quietly conducted her own research and went through the process by herself.
The second she met hopeful parents Joanna and Steve, she knew she wanted to help them. That’s when she shared the news with her loved ones.
Shaniece then flew to a specialist clinic in Los Angeles to have Joanna and Steve’s embryo implanted. It was a success! At 21 years old, Shaniece became one of the U.K.’s youngest surrogates.
Though she was only supposed to be carrying a son or daughter for the couple, Shaniece couldn’t help but notice her baby bump looked particularly huge.
Joanna and Steve attended Shaniece’s first prenatal scan — and the trio was stunned to learn it was twins. The delighted couple immediately rushed out to buy baby supplies, times two.
But then, at the 10-week scan, Shaniece was shocked by what the midwives discovered.
Meet this amazing surrogate mama below, and please SHARE her incredible story with your friends on Facebook! | {
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THE SENATE HAS rejected the idea of witnesses in US President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, all but ensuring his eventual acquittal.
But senators considered pushing off final voting on his fate to next week.
The vote on allowing new witnesses was defeated 51-49 on a near party-line vote.
Despite the Democrats singular focus on hearing new testimony, the Republican majority brushed past those demands to make this the first Senate impeachment trial without witnesses.
Even new revelations today from former national security adviser John Bolton did not sway Republican senators, who said they had heard enough.
That means the eventual outcome for President Trump would be an acquittal “in name only”, said Democrat Val Demings, a House prosecutor, during final debate. Some even called it a cover-up.
Trump was impeached by the House last month on charges he abused power and obstructed Congress like no other president has done as he tried to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden, and then blocked the congressional probe of his actions.
The Democrats had wanted testimony from John Bolton, President Trump’s former national security adviser whose forthcoming book links Trump directly to the charges.
But Bolton will not be summoned, and none of this appeared to affect the trial’s expected outcome.
In an unpublished manuscript, Bolton writes that the president asked him during an Oval Office meeting in early May to bolster his effort to get Ukraine to investigate Democrats, according to a person who read the passage.
In the meeting, Bolton said the president asked him to call new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and persuade him to meet with Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who was planning to go to Ukraine to coax the Ukrainians to investigate the president’s political rivals.
Bolton writes that he never made the call to Zelenskiy after the meeting, which included acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.
The revelation adds more detail to allegations of when and how President Trump first sought to influence Ukraine to aid investigations of his rivals that are central to the abuse of power charge in the first article of impeachment. | {
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People will tune in to the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday to see who will wear black for the planned anti-harassment protest on the red carpet.
The 75th annual awards show is scheduled to take place Sunday in Beverly Hills.
The gala will be held against the backdrop of a spate of sexual harassment scandals that have rocked Hollywood to the core since revelations about alleged crimes by movie giant Harvey Weinstein.
Actresses seeking to call attention to sexual harassment in the workplace are being encouraged to wear all-black as a form of silent protest.
While there may be sympathy with the overall message, it is unclear whether everyone will go along.
At Sunday's Golden Globe awards, the red carpet will turn black as A-listers wear sombre ensembles in protest at Tinseltown's culture of sexual harassment. Pictured left is the man at the heart of the scandal Harvey Weinstein with Nicole Kidman and right Renee Zellweger
Rose McGowan - who accused Weinstein of rape - has branded actresses who happily worked for him (Jennifer Lawrence pictured left and Emma Watson right) as 'hypocrites'
Actresses seeking to call attention to sexual harassment in the workplace are being encouraged to wear all-black as a form of silent protest. Jessica Chastain (seen above at the 2014 Golden Globe awards) also plans on taking part in the protest on Sunday
The Handmaid's Tale actress Elisabeth Moss posted a picture of herself wearing a black t-shirt with the words 'Time's Up' emblazoned on it
For one, the surge in demand for all-black outfits has apparently left Hollywood stylists scrambling to find enough dresses, according to the Telegraph.
There is also talk that not all actresses are on board with the all-black silent protest that was first started by Time's Up, the initiative to combat sexual harassment in the workplace.
'There's some backlash to the wear-black mandate,' a well-embedded Hollywood source told PEOPLE.
'Some feel women should celebrate their newfound power, strong voices and the future by wearing a wide variety of brighter shades.
'Instead of distracting from the real issue with a mandate to wear one particular color.
'There will be big important speeches, no doubt, and they will make a much better statement.'
McGowan blasted the all-black fashion protest as hypocritical and vapid. She also took aim at actress Meryl Streep for her 'silence' and for agreeing to 'happily work for the Pig Monster'
Robin Givhan, a fashion critic for The Washington Post, says there's something 'regressive' about imposing a uniform dress code that 'takes the fizz out of fashion.'
'It smacks of sexism to say, even indirectly, that fashion - the quintessential realm of women - must be shunned in order for women to be taken seriously... mostly it reads like the proper response to sexual harassment is to change one's attire,' she wrote.
'Understandably, there is a desire to expand the solidarity of the #MeToo movement, which made plain the breadth of the problem, to provide a visual image of women aligned and displaying their strength in numbers,' she wrote.
'But why black? Why choose a kind of full-body uniform that drains women of their individuality and paints the issue at hand with a single, nuance-free stroke?'
Givhan came out in support of actress Rose McGowan, who was one of the first to accuse Weinstein of rape.
Last month, McGowan blasted the all-black fashion protest as hypocritical and vapid.
On Twitter, McGowan expressed anger at Meryl Streep.
This year's Golden Globes will be held against the backdrop of a spate of sexual harassment scandals that have rocked Hollywood to the core since revelations about alleged crimes by movie giant Harvey Weinstein (seen above with Streep in Los Angeles in 2012)
'Actresses, like Meryl Streep, who happily worked for The Pig Monster,' McGowan said, referring to Weinstein, 'are wearing black @GoldenGlobes in a silent protest. YOUR SILENCE is THE problem.'
McGowan - who was one of the first of 84 women to accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct, claiming the producer raped her in 1997 - said that Streep and her contemporaries were putting on little more than a dog and pony show to adhere to the current trend in Tinseltown.
'You'll accept a fake award breathlessly & affect no real change,' McGowan said, adding, 'I despise your hypocrisy.'
McGowan wrapped up in saying, 'Maybe you should all wear Marchesa,' in reference to the fashion line presided over by Weinstein's estranged wife Georgina Chapman, who McGowan has past implied was complicit to her husband's decades of alleged criminal behavior.
Weinstein's rep has said repeatedly that 'any allegations of nonconsensual sex are unequivocally denied by' the producer.
Streep responded to McGowan's criticism of her, saying: 'I wasn't deliberately silent. I didn't know. I don't tacitly approve of rape. I didn't know. I don't like young women being assaulted. I didn't know this was happening.'
Eva Longoria, the actress and one of the chief spokeswomen for the Time's Up initiative, defended the all-black dress code as a necessary show of female solidarity.
'This is a moment of solidarity, not a fashion moment,' Longoria told The New York Times.
'For years, we've sold these awards shows as women, with our gowns and colors and our beautiful faces and our glamor.
'This time the industry can't expect us to go up and twirl around.'
On Saturday, The Handmaid's Tale actress Elisabeth Moss posted a picture of herself wearing a black t-shirt with the words 'Time's Up' emblazoned on it.
She wrote alongside the photo: 'The clock has run out on sexual assault, harassment and inequality in the workplace. It's time to do something about it.'
Among the actresses who have confirmed they will be wearing black at this Sunday's event are Gal Gadot, Saoirse Ronan, Mary J. Blige, Allison Janney, and Jessica Chastain.
It is not yet known which actresses will choose not to conform with the all-black fashion statement.
Yet there are already those who are calling on women not to criticize the actresses who decline to take part.
Andre Walker, Oprah Winfrey's hair stylist for over 30 years, said the #MeToo movement should show restraint.
'They have their own reasons,' he said of the actresses who choose not to wear black on Sunday.
'There might be a backlash. I think if you show up in something really bright, they'll get a lot of attention.
'But there are some people who think there is no such thing as bad publicity. I don't think there should be any judgement.' | {
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2019-09-22T18:35:29+00:00
2019-09-22T18:35:29+00:00
2019-09-22T18:35:54+00:00.
The champs put on a show of strength.
By Eurohoops team/ [email protected]
Zalgiris Kaunas began the 2019-2020 Lithuanian League season with a 94 – 63 blowout win over Siauliai at home.
Newcomers Zach LeDay and Jock Landale led Zalgiris with 17 and 14 points apiece. Lukas Lekavicius added eight points and six assists in his Lithuanian League return following a two-year stint in Greece with Panathinaikos.
Benas Griciunas scored 18 points for Siauliai while Rokas Gustys contributed 14 points and eight rebounds.
Photo: @bczalgiris
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As shown here in a city rendering, Milwaukee Avenue will remain four lanes between Lawrence and Elston avenues. View Full Caption Chicago Department of Transportation
GLADSTONE PARK — Proposals to remove a lane of traffic in each direction along Milwaukee Avenue in Jefferson Park and Gladstone Park — which proponents said would improve traffic flow and reduce crashes — are dead, Ald. John Arena (45th) said Friday evening.
The fierce opposition to the project, which has become a major issue in the 45th Ward aldermanic election, would have required "extensive and costly" environmental studies that would have delayed the project and reduced its scope, Arena said.
Those delays could have jeopardized the federal grant expected to fund 80 percent of the $1.5 million project, Arena said.
"It is a trade off," Arena said. "We can't let the desire for the great defeat the good. This is the best way to move forward."
The project, which is being finalized by city engineers and is expected to start in the spring, will keep two lanes of travel in each direction along Milwaukee and expand the white buffered bike-lane pavement markings between Carmen and Elston avenues by reducing the center turn lane, Arena said.
A new westbound buffered bicycle lane will be created between Lawrence and the Kennedy Expressway where the narrower street will allow, Arena said.
New crosswalks will be installed throughout the two-mile stretch, traffic lights will be coordinated and existing crosswalks will be shortened to make it easier for pedestrians to cross the busy street used by about 20,000 cars a day.
In addition, intersections will be marked to alert drivers to the presence of bicycles, Arena said.
The decision to drop the lane-reduction plan was made recently by the Chicago Department of Transportation in consultation with his office, Arena said.
From 2008 to 2012, there were 910 crashes on the stretch of Milwaukee. More than 40 percent of the crashes that resulted in an injury involved a bicyclist or a pedestrian, according to a city study.
In addition, a traffic study conducted by city engineers found that 75 percent of drivers exceeded the 30 mph speed limit and 14 percent went faster than 40 mph.
However, the plan that keeps all four lanes of traffic on Milwaukee Avenue will have no measurable impact on vehicle safety along Milwaukee, and only a "minor positive" impact on pedestrian safety and bicyclists' safety and comfort, according to a city analysis.
However, it will still be a "vast improvement" over current conditions, Arena said.
"We're going to take these steps now and keep having the conversation," Arena said.
The project is a part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's Complete Streets effort, which is designed to "ensure that everyone — pedestrians, transit users, bicyclists and motorists — can travel safely and comfortably along and across a street," according to the city.
Arena said he was pushing city engineers to include more green space in the project, in an effort to "fill up" the "wide open" stretch of road in an effort to prompt drivers to slow down naturally.
However, businesses or community groups would have to agree to maintain those plants after the city installs them, Arena said.
Opponents of the proposal contended narrowing Milwaukee would snarl traffic and hurt neighborhood businesses in an area that has struggled for years to fill empty storefronts, but supporters said it would bring new life to both the Jefferson Park and Gladstone Park business districts by making them safer and more attractive for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Arena's announcement that Milwaukee Avenue will remain four lanes will undoubtedly ripple through the 45th Ward aldermanic election.
Chicago Police Lt. John Garrido, who is running against Arena in the Feb. 24 election, led the fight against the plan to reduce the number of lanes on Milwaukee Avenue.
Along with the Gladstone Park Chamber of Commerce, Garrido collected 4,000 signatures against the plan to reduce the number of lanes on Milwaukee Avenue.
Garrido said Friday evening he was pleased by the decision.
"Even though the alderman made it clear to us that he disagrees and has begrudgingly taken the lane reductions off the table, I am confident this is the best thing for our community as a whole," Garrido said.
Michelle Baert, who publishes a website and Facebook page filled with listings for family friendly activities as the 45th Ward Mom and is also running for alderman, said she also favored keeping Milwaukee Avenue four lanes because many families in the area rely on cars for transportation.
Candidate Michael Diaz, who works as an attorney for the state in the department that regulates banks, said he needed to learn more about the project. A bicyclist, Diaz said he favored making the road safer for all.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: | {
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We include products we think are useful for our readers. If you buy through links on this page, we may earn a small commission. Here’s our process. Iron is a mineral that is vital for human survival. It is an essential component of hemoglobin, a protein that transports oxygen in red blood cells. A shortage of iron can lead to dizziness, tiredness, and even anemia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend adult males get 8 milligrams (mg) per day, and women up to the age of 50 years who are not pregnant or breastfeeding consume 18 mg of iron per day. Amounts vary from person to person. There are many ways to meet daily iron requirements, boost iron levels, and still eat a varied, tasty, and nutritious diet. This article looks at the 10 best sources of iron in the diet.
1. Fortified breakfast cereals Share on Pinterest Fortified cereals can provide all the iron a person needs during the day. Breakfast cereals are often a leading source of iron, but it is essential to choose the right types. The key is to look for a fortified cereal that contains 100 percent of the daily value of iron. Heading straight for the colorful, sugar-heavy cereals is not the best way to boost dietary iron. A one-cup serving of fortified cereal contains 18 mg of iron.
2. Cooked oysters Next time you go to your favorite seafood restaurant, consider ordering some oysters. A 3-ounce (oz) serving of cooked oysters contains 7.82 mg of iron. Raw oysters contain a wide variety of nutrients, but cooked oysters are safer to eat.
3. White beans White beans have the richest iron content of any bean. In fact, a one-cup serving contains 5.08 mg. Canned white beans are also an excellent source of iron for people who do not have the time to sort and soak raw beans, packing a punch with 7.83 mg. Keep an eye on the sodium content, as manufacturers often add it to canned goods as a preservative. Enjoy white beans by themselves in a salad, or add them to stews, soups, and pasta dishes.
4. Dark chocolate Dark chocolate lovers have another reason to tuck into their favorite treat. Just 3 oz of dark chocolate contains about 6.82 mg of iron. Choose dark chocolate with at least 45 percent cacao solids.
5. Organ meats Share on Pinterest Organ meats are high in iron and a range of other nutrients. While people often overlook organ meats, they are a great source of vital nutrients, including iron. The exact amount depends on which type of organ it is, as well as its source. Beef liver, for example, has 4.15 mg of iron per a regular 3-oz serving. In the same serving, pork liver sausage has 5.44 mg, and chicken liver contains 7.62 mg of iron.
6. Soybeans Soybeans are an ideal protein source in vegetarian diets. But these nutrient-dense legumes have a range of other benefits, including dense iron content, which is valuable to everyone. A half-cup serving contains 4.54 mg of iron. Try replacing meat with soybeans in main dishes, or add dried versions to salads to add a nutritious crunch to the texture.
7. Lentils These types of pulses are similar to beans and contain comparable amounts of iron. A half-cup serving contains 6.25 mg of iron. Lentils cook more quickly than beans, so they are perfect when seeking a quick fix of iron to meet the daily requirement.
8. Spinach Spinach has a reputation for its high vitamin A content, but it is also a valuable source of iron. A half-cup of boiled, drained spinach contains 3.21 mg of iron, as well as a range of other essential nutrients.
9. Tofu Share on Pinterest Tofu is an important source of iron for people following a vegetarian diet. Another staple of the vegetarian diet is tofu, which often comes fried. Tofu contains 4.14 mg of iron in a 3-oz serving. Sourcing iron from plant-based foods is particularly important in the vegetarian diet, as iron is most abundant in animal products. That need not mean vegetarians and vegans become iron-deficient. Eating enough foods, such as tofu and soybeans, can ensure that a vegetarian diet provides more than enough iron to meet daily requirements.
10. Sardines Scaly fish are excellent sources of protein and omega-3 fatty acids. While shellfish have the edge on iron content, sardines can also pack a powerful iron punch. 3 oz of sardines provides 2.48 mg of iron. Eat sardines on their own as a fishy snack or as part of a more substantial meal. | {
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SINCE Johnson mused recently on English in Singapore, I was looking forward to "India Faces a Linguistic Truth: English Spoken Here", a "Letter from India" by Manu Joseph in the New York Times. Unfortunately, it has some nice detail, but is unusually one-sided for the normally cautious newspaper. Yes, English is everywhere in India, near-universal in the upper classes and crucial to getting the best jobs there, after getting higher education in it. So why don't they just be done with it and adopt English as the national language, asks Mr Joseph? He doesn't seem to have been able to find someone who could give a basic answer to that question. The only quoted proponent of non-English is Raj Thackeray, a Mumbai politician "enraged" by the encroachment of English on Marathi in his city (though he sends his son to an English-language school).
Since it goes unanswered in the article, I'll give that question a stab myself, while confessing my utter lack of qualification as an American working on a British newspaper who doesn't speak an Indian language. Indians don't adopt English as a national language, I imagine, because it's not their national language: it's an extraordinarily useful auxiliary language, but it was imported from halfway around the world via centuries of colonialism that are not a beloved memory in India. Because India has many large and proud language communities, and many more small ones that face extinction. Or, put more briefly, because language choice isn't sheer pragmatism. We should abhor language "rage" like that of Mr Thackeray (especially when it comes to beatings; good grief). But the answer to that cannot simply be "oh, get over yourselves and your silly little languages"—especially when those languages are in fact rather large. Marathi has about as many native speakers as German does.
India, fortunately, is more enlightened than most countries. In its idealised form, it has a three-language policy: students learn their regional or state language, Hindi and English over the course of their educations. In practice, though, there are many holes. Hindi-speaking natives are supposed to take another Indian language, but some study Sanskrit, a classical language, to the annoyance of speakers of India's many living languages. And even a three-language policy will leave many languages threatened in hugely multilingual India; K. David Harrison claims discovery of a language unknown to outsiders until just last year. But at least India is trying to take advantage of English while preserving some diversity; the trickiness of that balancing act would have made a better story than condescension to Marathi and the rest.
(Via Reihan Salam.) | {
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Macs and PCs have been locked in an epic battle for many years.
PCs were once the go-to computer because developers used to write the best apps for Windows first.
But over the last several years, that's changed. Now it's almost impossible to find an app on Windows that isn't also on Mac.
Now that Windows 8 has been available for about two years, Apple and Microsoft's platforms seem even more different than ever.
We put together some of the key differences between Macs and PCs to help you out.
This is an update of an article originally written by Kevin Smith. | {
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Article content continued
“I’m really glad that everybody in our organization and on that plane is now doing well, but it’s certainly a scary time. Yeah, it hit us, but at the same time it probably saved a lot of us because unless you see it up close that quickly, we probably got a little bit of a jump on this.”
Smith is hopeful the worst is behind the organization.
“The good news is that everyone who had it didn’t have horrible symptoms (like) what we’re seeing on TV and some of the people that have really struggled,” said Smith. “Some guys didn’t feel well, but being athletes, they all go through it and they’re all on the other side of it now.”
The Senators flew to California on March 6 to prepare to play the San Jose Sharks the next night. The Santa Clara health authorities issued a warning that the games should be played with no fans in the stands, but the Sharks went ahead with the game anyway. Looking back on it now, Smith admits it was different.
“In San Jose, it was kind of weird, we got onto Santana Row and there wasn’t really a lot of people out,” Smith said. “Guys usually like to try and go for a walk and dinner — at that point no one knew what we know now. Guys were aware, but I don’t think there’s any way of telling that it would have gotten to this level, certainly for us, anyway.
“But the fear hadn’t set in. I mean, San Jose was a little bit lighter, but when we were in Anaheim everything was normal and everybody in Anaheim and L.A. was living life as normal. You’d see the odd person with a mask on in L.A. at the end of the trip, but the world as we know it today was nowhere near it back then. That’s just part of it, is learning.” | {
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If you own a Galaxy Note or Surface Pro, then you probably already know how useful a stylus can be. Much more than a faux finger, a digital pen can give you a sense of precision and control that your meathooks just can't replicate. But based on the work going on in Microsoft Research, the stylus still isn't close to reaching its full potential.
Microsoft researchers have put together an impressive demonstration of what just might be the next step for tablets as content creation devices. Going beyond today's pressure-sensitive writing and pointing tools, this next-generation of stylus can sense the way you're holding it (as well as the tablet you're writing on) and respond accordingly.
Grip sensors in the stylus let you simultaneously hold the pen near the screen, rest your palm on the screen and pinch/zoom with your other hand
The key is grip sensitivity. Today's palm rejection is based on the pen's proximity: hold the pen tip near the screen, and it rejects non-pen touches. Hold it away from the screen, and it allows non-pen touches.
Microsoft's new grip-sensor prototypes, though, base their palm rejection on the way that you're gripping the pen. So you can still hold the pen in a writing stance and bump your palm on the display without registering it as a touch. But then, with the pen still near the screen (and your palm still taking a siesta on the Gorilla Glass), you can also reach over with your other hand to pinch and zoom.
It's smarter about registering touch where you want it, and rejecting it where you don't.
One example shows an airbrush tool that's positioned with a finger while the angle is adjusted with the pen
This could also open new doors that aren't available on today's tablets. Microsoft's demo shows us one example (above) of a multi-handed approach to tablet art: use your hand to move the target area of a virtual airbrush, while your pen hand tilts the angle of the spray.
Microsoft is also throwing tablet grip sensing into the mix. So the pen/tablet combo can sense not only whether you're holding the pen in a writing stance, but also which hand you're holding the tablet in (to pop up a contextual menu on the appropriate side). It can even sense if you hand the device off to someone else, and automatically hide your private information from that Nosy Nancy.
It all gives the tablet more real-time context to respond to. If we're moving towards a future of tech products that can predict the best way to respond to you in the moment, then it looks like this research could be a big step in that direction.
Given the crude, jerry-rigged appearance of Microsoft's demo units, we wouldn't bet on this showing up in the Surface Pro 4. But, even if it's still a few years away from consumer adoption, it could give Microsoft's hybrid devices (and other pen/tablet pairings) more of a reason for existing.
For more detail, be sure to hit up Microsoft's demo video below.
Source: Microsoft, via Engadget | {
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It’s 7:30 p.m. on a Monday in June at an undisclosed location somewhere in northern Europe. I’m sitting in a private dining room in an upscale hotel, talking to Pavel Durov—the “Mark Zuckerberg of Russia,” a young internet mogul who had built the country’s most popular social network and lost it to the Kremlin all before he turned thirty. Not long after the famed American whistleblower Edward Snowden had fled to Russia to avoid federal prosecution, Durov had offered Snowden a job—but then himself had to flee Russia because of a widening conflict with the Russian government. Initially hailed as a cyber-dissident because of his spat with the Kremlin, Durov has since drawn the repeated, aggressive interest of American intelligence officials, as well.
A group of wealthy tourists milled around in the lobby, excitedly chattering about their day of sightseeing and museum tours. Our conversation was of a darker nature. Durov and I were talking about the murky, hyper-paranoid world of the crypto-obsessed privacy movement—a place where spies ruled, nothing was what it seemed, and no one could be trusted.
For me, the paranoia made sense. For the last three years I had been investigating the grassroots crypto tech accessories at the heart of today’s powerful privacy movement: internet anonymizers, encrypted chat apps, untraceable drop boxes for whistleblowers, and super-secure operating systems that even the NSA supposedly couldn’t crack. These tools were promoted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, hackers, whistleblowers, and the biggest and most credible names in the privacy trade—from Edward Snowden to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union. Apps like Tor and Signal promised to protect users from America’s all-seeing surveillance apparatus. And the cryptographers and programmers who built these people’s crypto weapons? Well, many of them claimed to live on the edge: subversive crypto-anarchists fighting The Man, pursued and assailed by shadowy U.S. government forces. Citing harassment, some of them had fled the United States altogether, forced to live in self-imposed exile in Berlin.
At least that’s how they saw themselves. My reporting revealed a different reality. As I found out by digging through financial records and FOIA requests, many of these self-styled online radicals were actually military contractors, drawing salaries with benefits from the very same U.S. national security state they claimed to be fighting. Their spunky crypto-tech also turned out, on closer inspection, to be a jury-rigged and porous Potemkin Village version of secure digital communications. What’s more, the relevant software here was itself financed by the U.S. government: millions of dollars a year flowing to crypto radicals from the Pentagon, the State Department, and organizations spun off from the CIA.
My investigation of this community had brought me a lot of abuse: smears and death threats lobbed by military contractors against me and my colleagues; false slanderous stories planted in the press about me being a sexist bully and a CIA agent paid to undermine trust in encryption. So I learned long ago to approach my sources with skepticism and wariness—especially someone as infamous as Durov, who had recently gotten into the crypto business with Telegram, which now enjoys the distinction of being ISIS’s favorite chat app.
Mogul on the Move
Durov, who asked me to obscure the location of our meeting because of his ongoing conflict with the Russian government, was wary, too. He had a right to be.
Now thirty-two, he is a multimillionaire—and, if the papers are to be believed, Russia’s most radical internet mogul. In 2006, while only twenty-two, he had cofounded VKontakte (“In Contact”), a Facebook social networking clone that became more popular in Russia and across the former Soviet Union than Facebook itself. The company didn’t stay under his control for long. In 2011, following mass opposition protests against Vladimir Putin’s ruling party organized largely via social media, the government wanted a firmer grasp over VKontakte. Durov resisted, and pulled off all sorts of acts of defiance: he took photos of documents ordering the company to block certain political groups and posted them online, and publicly mocked officials of Russia’s FSB state security forces.
But the Kremlin persisted, and finally got its way. Durov had wearied of the Russian state’s steady barrage of dramatic pressure tactics—including attempts by police to raid Durov’s apartment, a bizarre blackmail incident involving what Durov says was a fake video purporting to show him in a black Mercedes running over a traffic cop, and trumped-up criminal charges that forced him to flee the country. So in 2014, the young social media mogul was forced to sell his 20 percent stake of VKontakte to a business concern run by Uzbek-born Alisher Usmanov, a scary billionaire loyal to President Putin. Stripped of his empire, Durov could no longer claim to be the Zuckerberg of the Russian polis.
Durov fled Russia and, after making a strategic investment on the two-
island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, became a citizen of the Caribbean. For the past three years, he’s lived the life of an autonomous, self-facilitating multimillionaire, wandering the globe living in luxurious hotels, while forsaking material possessions like land and real estate. Durov could have done anything he wanted, and so while in exile, he worked with his elder brother Nikolai on the next big thing: channeling his time and wealth—estimated to be about $300 million—into the development of a new messaging app, Telegram.
With about 100 million users worldwide, Telegram is ten times smaller than Facebook’s WhatsApp, its closest competitor. But Telegram has found success in strange places: it’s huge in Iran and big in Uzbekistan. It’s got some users in Europe, as well as a growing fan base among Russia’s journalists. It’s also been a big hit with Al-Qaeda and ISIS, who seem to see Telegram as the most secure tool on the market. The groups have used the app’s encrypted chats to plan attacks, while deploying its “public channels” feature to broadcast propaganda, recruit lone-wolf terrorists and claim responsibility for successful strikes. Telegram has been implicated in attacks in France, Germany, Turkey and, most recently, in Durov’s hometown of St. Petersburg, where a lone suicide bomber struck a metro station in the heart the city, killing fifteen people and maiming many more.
Getting the Message
Not surprisingly, the Russian government has again put Durov in its sights. Russian security officials have been pressuring him to share data with them, or risk having his service blocked. But the Russians aren’t the only ones trying to put the screws on Durov. Apparently, the Americans want a piece of the action, too.
As a waitress brought out a plate of bread and some appetizers—sliced squid and tuna tartar—Durov explained that over the past several years, the FBI has been attempting to pressure him into secretly cooperating with the agency, and that agents had gone as far as trying to bribe one of his developers into becoming a mole. He had never fully discussed the details of his run-ins with the FBI in public—until now.
Durov says the pressure started in 2014, shortly after he sold his stake in VKontakte. That’s when he first started routinely getting interviewed and questioned by FBI agents on the American border. Sometimes they would detain him for further questioning on entry; other times they would catch up with him to “chat” while he was at the gate getting ready to board a plane. At first, the FBI was curious about his work portfolio at VKontakte and the company’s relationship with Russian law enforcement, including the procedures it followed for complying with government data requests. “I wasn’t comfortable with these questions,” he said. “I had no inclination of becoming an American mole, so I just provided them with the minimum information that was already available in the media.”
Durov and I were talking about the murky, hyper-paranoid world of the crypto-obsessed privacy movement.
On later trips, though, FBI officials began asking about Telegram. Where was it based? How did it work? How could the FBI get in touch with Durov in the future? The agents followed up with friendly notes by email, telling Durov to reach out to them if he had trouble or needed help with anything. Durov says he continued to ignore the overtures, but the FBI clearly wanted something; the question was what. In 2016, Durov got his answer. That May, he flew from Europe to San Francisco to attend the annual Google I/O conference. The first morning of his visit, two FBI agents showed up unannounced at eight in the morning at a Mountain View home he was renting through Airbnb. “How did they get the address?” Durov asks. “Maybe they tracked my sim card? Followed me from the airport? Maybe they got the info from Uber? I don’t know.”
In any event, the two agents were clearly on a mission. “Right away they started asking about Telegram, which made me worry,” says Durov, explaining that it didn’t take long for his early-morning visitors to get to the point: the FBI wanted to set up some kind of informal backchannel process that would enable Telegram to hand over data on particular users in the event of a terrorist threat; they even came prepared with official-looking documents in hand. “They showed me a court order and told me, ‘We respect your values about privacy and cryptography very much, and we respect what you’re trying to do. But there is terrorism, it is a serious problem and we have a duty to protect society. We hope you understand and share our views. We want to create a process of data exchange so that you can help us when there is a terrorist threat,’” Durov recounted. During the twenty-minute interview, the agents made it clear they hoped that this was just the start of a long and fruitful relationship.
Telegram is registered in the UK as Telegram Messenger LLP, a company owned by two other companies—one in the British Virgin Islands; the other in Belize. Its data is also cut up and spread out over multiple jurisdictions—part of Durov’s master plan that in theory made legal access to user data as difficult as possible. The company had no legal presence in the United States, and so the FBI had no real authority to demand anything from Durov or his company. Durov said he understood that the court order was a ruse—an attempt to get him to cooperate—but he played along and promised that he would get back to the agents after he had Telegram’s legal team look at the document.
Still, Durov says he was a bit shaken by the experience. “In Russia, the FSB guys I’ve interacted with were not impressive. They were of middling ability; not really qualified. In the United States, the FBI is different. The ones who questioned me were competent. They spoke multiple languages. They had done their research, and knew exactly what questions to ask. They were of a high caliber. And I understood that America has so many resources dedicated to security that it is downright scary. Law enforcement in America is so much more efficient.”
Whack-a-Mole
The FBI agents went away, but they weren’t done. As Durov tells it, they also had set their sights on a Telegram developer who had flown in for the Google conference, and was also staying at the same Mountain View Airbnb with Durov. (An FBI spokesman declined to discuss any details of Durov’s account with The Baffler.)
This developer had already been stopped and questioned at the airport by agents from the FBI’s cyber division, but the FBI scheduled a follow-up meeting at a San Francisco café. The agents who met the developer there started by peppering him with general questions about Telegram’s architecture and how its encryption algorithm worked, all while lavishing him with praise for his expert knowledge. It didn’t take them long to get to what they really wanted: access, for which they were willing to pay. Durov would not disclose the name of this developer, but he recounted the story that his employee eventually told him. The FBI wanted to work out an arrangement in which the developer would secretly feed its operatives information about Telegram’s inner workings—things like new features and other components of the service’s architecture that they might want to know about. The arrangement would be strictly confidential, and they were willing to pay. “We will make it worth your while,” they said. They said he would be “consulting” for the FBI—a thinly veiled euphemism for what was clearly a pay-off. “The FBI agents gave him a range,” said Durov, munching on a piece of bread. “It was on the order of tens of thousands of dollars.”
After the developer turned down the offer, the FBI met him one more time. This time, the FBI interviewers asked that he not say a word to anyone about their conversation—and especially not to tell his boss. “They were specific,” said Durov. “Don’t tell Pavel about this, this is our secret.”
He shrugged and smiled. It appeared that the FBI was unable to close the deal. “We pay our developers very well,” he said in a small flourish of managerial self-congratulation. “Our developers are all millionaires. Naturally they can’t be bribed with that kind of offer.”
The FBI trying to turn his own employee into a mole against him? I was expecting Durov to make a big deal out of this disclosure. Silicon Valley companies and crypto privacy types jump at any opportunity to paint themselves as victims of government oppression, and frequently blow up tiny incidents that might redound to their brand advantage in the secrecy wars. Think, for example, of how Apple turned the FBI’s request to unlock a single phone used in a 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino that left fourteen people dead into a stand against government oppression—even as the company was also submitting to China’s data demands. (In the end, of course, the FBI got the data it was seeking in the San Bernardino case by using a third-party data hack.) Or there was the recent case of a developer who had worked for Tor, an internet anonymity tool funded by the Pentagon, and fled to Germany after an FBI agent left his business card at her parents’ home.
Given Durov’s libertarian leanings and his proximity to that world, I thought he would start raving against government tyranny—but Durov was surprisingly, almost unnervingly, levelheaded and reasonable about the whole thing. He was troubled and upset by the FBI’s pressure tactics, and pledged to resist all attempts by the agency to get at Telegram’s data. But he wasn’t surprised that it happened, either. After all, that’s what the FBI was there to do. “Basically, the Americans are doing their job. Look at it from their perspective. Here’s a young guy, his app is used by terrorists. We need to find out who he is. What kind of team he has. This is logical. I don’t see anything extraordinary in this,” he said. “I could have gone public with this when it happened and made a big stink. ‘Look at me, look how the Americans are putting the screws on me.’ But I thought it would be a bit pretentious and melodramatic.”
So why make the story public now? Durov says that he’s coming forward to make a bigger point that’s typically lost in the self-dramatizing scripting of Silicon Valley showdowns with the Feds: what happened to Telegram is quite representative of how the government seeks to gain influence over big data services. “I’m raising this issue only to point out that American security agencies are persistent and pushy, and that they’re just carrying out their jobs. They’ll catch up with you at the airport. They show up unannounced at your Airbnb—the address of which no one should know but you. They try to pay off developers. One way or another, the FBI is very carefully doing its job, and they do all this in the span of just a couple of days that my team and I spend in America,” he says.
If the FBI was so persistent and pushy with Telegram—going as far as trying to bribe its employees while they are on a short business trip—then what does the U.S. government do to companies permanently based in America? “I can’t imagine myself or anyone else running a privacy-oriented app in that environment. They may start their information requests with data related to terrorism and then gradually widen it to who knows what.”
Encrypt or Die!
In June 2013, Edward Snowden engineered a data leak heard round the world. An NSA contractor working for the Beltway data and law colossus Booz Allen Hamilton, Snowden blew the whistle on America’s internet surveillance apparatus, and helped shine a light on the symbiotic relationship between Silicon Valley and the U.S. government.
Documents that he stole from an NSA facility in Hawaii provided the first real evidence that our most respected tech companies—including Google, Facebook, and Apple—worked closely with American spies, secretly tapping their own server farms for the NSA and FBI. Snowden’s dramatic leak put the issue of privacy on the internet on the map in a way that it had never been before.
Suddenly, internet privacy was netting daily cable news coverage, Frontline investigations, and Pulitzer prizes. There were anti-surveillance protests, online campaigns, and a flurry of reports by government watchdogs and consumer rights nonprofits. Back in 2013, it seemed like we could be on the verge of a global movement that would galvanize people to push for meaningful privacy laws that would not only curb government surveillance, but put limits on Silicon Valley’s unrestricted data collection practices, as well. But things went a different way.
Now, four years after the Snowden leak, we can see that all that energy and outrage and potential for civic action has been redirected into a narrow band of mass-politics-by-app. The new consensus, bruited loudly in and around Silicon Valley, holds that all we need to do to protect ourselves from surveillance is download whatever crypto chat app is in vogue at the moment, and run it on our iPhones. Instead of finding political and democratic solutions to the government and corporate surveillance crisis plaguing our society, the privacy movement somehow ended up in a libertarian rut. In remarkably short order, online privacy advocates had abandoned the idea that people and politics could change the world for the better, and instead chased something closer to an NRA fantasy: the idea that if everyone was equipped with a crypto weapon powerful enough, they could single-handedly take on both corporations and powerful spy agencies like the NSA. They could use technology to guarantee their own privacy on their own terms.
If your enemy was the United States government, it didn’t really matter what crypto app you used.
Edward Snowden himself has been the principal promoter of this idea, never missing an opportunity to tell people that collective politics is useless, and that arming yourself with technology is where it’s at. He shrugged off the for-profit surveillance that powered the businesses of Silicon Valley, pithily telling the Washington Post that “Twitter doesn’t put warheads on foreheads.” Instead, he saw private companies like Apple and Facebook as allies—perhaps the only places that offered even a modicum of safety in the dangerous wilderness of the internet. To him, private developers and software engineers were the true protectors of the people, and he called on them to rise up against government oppression. “If you want to build a better future, you’re going to have to do it yourself. Politics will take us only so far and if history is any guide, they are the least reliable means of achieving the effective change . . . at the end of the day, law is simply letters on a page. They’re not gonna jump up and protect your rights,” he told the audience at Fusion’s 2016 Real Future Fair in Oakland via video-robot link from Moscow. To Snowden—now a leaker-
turned-political-philosopher—political movements and collective action were fickle, merely human endeavors that offered no guarantees; encryption and computer technology was a sure thing, based on the laws of math and physics. “Technology works differently than law,” the fugitive leaker told the crowd at the Real Future Fair. “Technology knows no jurisdiction.”
It was an absurd position. Substitute “technology” with “assault rifle” and Snowden’s speech turns into something you’d hear at a Republican CPAC conference. Still, Snowden got a standing ovation at the Real Future Fair. And why not? From the moment Snowden appeared on the scene, his tech-centric worldview has been backed up by a chorus of award-winning journalists, privacy activists, left-leaning think-tankers, and powerful advocacy groups like the Electronic Freedom Foundation and the ACLU. Silicon Valley supported Snowden’s call to arms, as well. A brave new cohort of app developers backed very narrow technological privacy solutions that they claimed would protect their users from government snooping, all while shamelessly tracking these very same users for private profit and gain.
As it happened, Snowden’s call to encryption-arms helped inspire Pavel Durov to build Telegram. “I am far from politics and cannot lobby for a ban on total surveillance,” he wrote in October 2013, a few months after Snowden fled to Moscow and right before Durov in turn had to flee Russia. “But there is something that we as IT-entrepreneurs and programmers can do. We can develop and finance technologies aimed at making total surveillance technically impossible.”
In America, the initial movement to take the anti-surveillance fight to Silicon Valley fizzled and turned into something else that was at once bizarre and pathetic: privacy activists working with Google and Facebook to fight the NSA with privacy technology. This made precisely as much sense as siding with Blackwater (or Xe or Acadami or whatever the Pentagon contractor calls itself now) against the U.S. Army. Yet this trend of politics-by-app went into overdrive after Donald Trump was elected president. You saw it everywhere: civil libertarians, privacy advocates, and demoralized liberals arose to proclaim that encryption—even the stuff rolled out by Silicon Valley surveillance giants—was the only thing that could protect us from a totalitarian Trump administration.
“Trump Is President. Now Encrypt Your Email,” urged New York magazine’s technology editor Max Read in an opinion piece published in the New York Times in March. “In the weeks after Donald J. Trump won the election, a schism threatened to break my group of friends in two. Not a political argument brought about by the president-elect, or a philosophical fight over the future of the country, but a question of which app we should be using to chat. . . .” Buzzfeed concurred: “Here’s How To Protect Your Privacy In Trump’s America: Easy tips to shield yourself from expanded government surveillance,” wrote the outlet, offering its millennial readers a listicle guide to “going dark” on the net.
What were these apps? Who made them? Did they really work? That’s where the story got even stranger.
Secrets and Lies
Durov’s involuntary encounters with the FBI drive home one unpleasant fact of life in the big data economy: today’s app-obsessed privacy movement relies almost entirely on crypto tools that were hatched and funded by America’s foreign policy apparatus—a body of agencies and organizations that came out of an old-school Cold War propaganda project run by the CIA.
In 1948, the CIA was given a blank check to wage a full-spectrum “covert operations” program to contain and roll back the spread of communism, starting with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Radio propaganda was a central tool in this covert war of ideas, and the CIA used private front groups to run stations with names like “Radio Liberation from Bolshevism” and “Radio Free Europe.” In the 1950s and 1960s, the agency expanded its radio network to include operations targeting communist, left-leaning, and otherwise suspiciously reformist forces that might be spreading the dread bacillus of Bolshevism through Asia and Latin America.
The idea was to prevent these states from exercising sovereign control over their information space—as well as to dominate and influence people’s ideas in a way that aligned with America’s interests. As far as the CIA was concerned, this sub rosa propaganda operation was a beauty, and the agency still proudly boasts that it remains one of the most successful covert psychological warfare projects ever run by the United States.
Eventually, the CIA’s multi-tentacled propaganda operation shed its covert status, and was transformed by Congress into the Broadcasting Board of Governors, a sister federal agency to the State Department. With a nearly billion-dollar budget, today the BBG operates America’s sprawling foreign propaganda nexus. The American public is only dimly aware of the BBG’s existence, but this media empire leaves almost no corner of the world untouched by satellite, television and radio transmissions. And just as was the case nearly seventy years ago under the CIA, the mission of the BBG is to systematically perpetrate the very same thing that America’s esteemed political establishment is currently accusing Russia of doing: sponsoring news—some of it objective, some wildly distorted—as part of a broader campaign to project geopolitical power.
But there was more. When the internet spread around the world, it became a powerful medium of influence, and the U.S. government moved ruthlessly to exploit its competitive edge against rivals under the banner of “Internet Freedom.” The policy, put into place by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was about more than just broadcasting news. Its aim was to weaponize this global communications technology in all sorts of creative ways to weaken rivals, topple unfriendly governments, and support opposition movements from China to Russia and Iran, Syria, and Libya. “The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy ‘shadow’ internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks,” reported the New York Times in 2011, when the Internet Freedom program first got going in a major way.
The effort includes secretive projects to create independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries, as well as one operation out of a spy novel in a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington, where a group of young entrepreneurs who look as if they could be in a garage band are fitting deceptively innocent-looking hardware into a prototype ‘Internet in a suitcase.’ . . . The suitcase could be secreted across a border and quickly set up to allow wireless communication over a wide area with a link to the global Internet.
This was just the beginning. Over the next several years, the BBG, backed by the State Department, expanded the Internet Freedom initiative into a $50 million a year program funding hundreds of projects targeting countries across the world—China, Cuba, Vietnam, and Russia. And here things, yet again, took a turn for the surreal: the Internet Freedom apparatus was designed to project power abroad—yet it also emerged as the primary mover and shaker in America’s domestic privacy movement. It funded activists and privacy researchers, worked with the EFF and ACLU and even companies like Google. Wherever you looked, privacy tools funded by this agency dominated the scene. That included the most ardently promoted privacy products now on offer: Tor, the anonymous internet browsing platform that powers what’s known as the “dark web,” and Signal, the chat app championed by Edward Snowden. Both of them took in millions in government cash to stay afloat.
From a Whisper to a Scream
When Pavel Durov first had VKontakte taken away from him by the Kremlin and fled Russia, he was hailed in the West as a hero—a modern-day Sakharov who fought for freedom and paid the price with his business. America’s crypto and privacy community embraced him, too. But it did not take long for the relationship to sour—and the chief culprit was Signal, a crypto mobile phone app built by a small opaque company called Open Whisper Systems, aka Quiet Riddle Ventures LLC.
Invented by a self-styled radical cryptographer who goes by the name of Moxie Marlinspike (although his real name may or may not be Matthew Rosenfeld or Mike Benham), Signal was brought to life with funding from the BBG-supported Open Technology Fund (which has pumped in almost $3 million since 2013), and appears to rely on continued government funding for survival. Despite the service’s close ties to an organization spun off from the CIA, the leading lights of America’s privacy and crypto community back the app. “I use Signal every day. #notesforFBI,” Snowden tweeted out to legions of followers who went out and downloaded the app en masse. Marlinspike leveraged Snowden’s praise to the max, featuring the leaker’s endorsement prominently on his company’s website: “Use anything by Open Whisper Systems.”
Largely thanks to Snowden’s endorsement and support, Signal has become the go-to encrypted chat app among American journalists, political organizers, and activists—from anarchists to Marxists to Black Lives Matter. These days, it’s also the secure planning app of first resort for opposition rallies targeting Trump. The app’s even made major inroads into Silicon Valley, with Marlinspike working with management at Facebook and Google to get them to adopt the chat app’s encryption architecture into their mobile chat programs, including WhatsApp. Not surprisingly, Facebook’s adoption of Signal into its WhatsApp program won plaudits from the BBG; managers at the propaganda shop boasted that government-funded privacy tools were now going to be used by a billion people.
Despite Open Whisper’s continued ties to the U.S. government, leading lights of America’s privacy and crypto community have taken to warning off people from using anything else. That includes Telegram, which deploys a custom-built cryptographic technique designed by Pavel Durov’s brother, Nikolai, a mathematician. Even Snowden has taken it upon himself to shoo people away from Telegram, advising political activists, journalists, dissidents, whistleblowers—in short, everyone—to use Signal or even Facebook’s WhatsApp instead. “By default, it is less safe than @WhatsApp, which makes [it] dangerous for non-experts,” he tweeted in response to a question from a Telegram-curious supporter.
But for an app designed to hide people from the prying eyes of the U.S. government, Signal’s architecture has given some security and crypto experts pause. Its encryption algorithm is supposed to be flawless, but the app’s backend runs as a cloud service on Amazon, which is itself a major CIA contractor. The program also requires that users connect the app to a real mobile phone number and give access to their entire address book—strange behavior for an app that is supposed to hide people’s identities. Signal also depends on Google and Apple to deliver and install the app on people’s phone, and both of those companies are surveillance partners of the NSA. “Google usually has root access to the phone, there’s the issue of integrity. Google is still cooperating with the NSA and other intelligence agencies,” wrote Sander Venema, a developer who trains journalists on security. “I’m pretty sure that Google could serve a specially modified update or version of Signal to specific targets for surveillance, and they would be none the wiser that they installed malware on their phones.” And given Signal’s narrow marketing to political activists and journalists, the app works like a flag: it might encrypt messages, but it also tags users as people with something to hide—a big fat sign that says: “WATCH ME, PLEASE.”
And anyway, Signal or no Signal, if your enemy was the United States government, it didn’t really matter what crypto app you used. A recent dump of CIA hacking-tool documents published by WikiLeaks revealed that the agency’s Mobile Devices Branch has developed all sorts of goodies to grab phone data, even when it’s quarantined by the firewalls of apps like Signal and WhatsApp or even Telegram. “These techniques permit the CIA to bypass the encryption of WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Wiebo, Confide, and Cloackman by hacking the ‘smart’ phones that they run on and collecting audio and message traffic before encryption is applied,” wrote WikiLeaks.
Durov admitted that cryptography has its limits. Still, as he recounted how Snowden had talked down Telegram, Durov was frustrated and bewildered. He says he and his brother were very cautious about choosing cryptography techniques promoted by American experts—particularly since the NSA docs leaked by Snowden revealed the NSA secretly paid RSA, an influential computer security firm, to use a flawed technique that the NSA knew how to crack. The Durov brothers wondered if the same thing could now be happening with other popular encryption algorithms. They became even more concerned when Telegram began to draw public attacks on social media from American cryptography experts. “They based their criticism of our approach not on any actual weakness, but solely on the fact that we didn’t use the algorithms they were promoting,” he said. “Since they failed to engage in any meaningful conversation on cryptography, we started to realize there was some other agenda they were pushing rather than finding truth or maximizing security.”
But the attacks continued. Not only were Snowden and his crypto allies telling people to trust Facebook, a company that runs on surveillance and partners with the NSA; they were also promoting an app that was actively funded by the foreign policy wing of the U.S. national security state. It just didn’t make any sense.
Durov was dumbfounded. As we sat talking, he told me he could not understand how people could trust a supposedly anti-government weapon that was being funded by the very same U.S. government it was supposed to protect its users from.
We’ve entered a paranoid game theory nightmare world.
I told him that I shared his bewilderment. Throughout all my reporting on this set of crypto radicals funded by a CIA spinoff, I asked a simple question that no one could properly answer: If apps like Signal really posed a threat to the NSA’s surveillance power, why would the U.S. government continue to fund them? I couldn’t help but think of how this alignment of government and corporate power would have been received among the tech and media establishment in the United States had something similar taken place in the former Soviet Union: imagine if the KGB funded a special crypto fax line and told Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and dissident samizdat writers to use it, promising that it was totally shielded from KGB operatives. Then imagine that Solzhenitsyn would not only believe the KGB, but would tell all his dissident buddies to use it: “It’s totally safe.” The KGB’s efforts would be mercilessly ridiculed in the capitalist West, while Solzhenitsyn would be branded a collaborator at worst, or a stooge at best. Ridiculous as this fusion of tech and state interests under the rubric of dissidence is on the face of things, in America this plan can somehow fly.
As I laid out this analogy, Durov nodded in agreement. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we both understand how naïve this kind of thinking is, and that we were both born in the Soviet Union.”
Trusting the Force
Political agreement wasn’t exactly what I was expecting when I prepared to meet with Pavel Durov. From what I had read in the press, our politics and view of the world could not be further apart. He was a libertarian, a guy who threw 5,000-ruble notes down at pedestrians just to watch them scramble and fight to pick them up, someone who tweeted out that Hitler and Stalin were no different on the day that people across the former Soviet Union celebrated their victory over Nazi Germany.
Still, on a personal level, he was likeable and even humble. For someone in the crypto world, he was also unexpectedly realistic about the limits of cryptography, displaying none of the cult-like belief in technology that you see in America’s privacy movement. But there was something else as well: he was a fighter.
Begin with the simple fact that he was publicly coming out to detail the FBI’s attempt to bribe his team and pressure Telegram into secretly working with the agency—despite Durov’s own disclaimers and efforts to downplay the revelation, it was a big deal. Despite being chased out of Russia, he wasn’t throwing in with the U.S. security apparatus, but electing instead to fight a two-front war. It was an unusual and impressive move. Most people who run afoul of politics in Russia and find themselves seeking safety in the West as modern-day dissidents usually fall into line with the West’s own propaganda aims, uncritically siding with American interests and players, no matter how unpleasant. Think Pussy Riot fleeing Russia and criticizing Vladimir Putin, while doing photo ops with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
As far as his cryptography, well, there’s no assurance that Telegram will prove to be more secure than its Silicon Valley rivals. Then again, there’s no way that the West’s spy-funded, profit-driven quest for online privacy can yield any reasonable approximation of the real thing, either.
In our post-Snowden world, we have outsourced our privacy politics to crypto apps. By doing so, we’ve entered a paranoid game theory nightmare world—a place where regular people have no true power and must put their faith in the people and organizations stoking the algorithms that make this crypto tech. In the end, it all comes down to trust. But can any of these people and organizations be really trusted? The young Russian mogul on the skids with the Kremlin? The former American spy-for-hire on the run and hiding out in Russia? Boutique crypto apps funded by the regime change wing of the State Department? Google and Facebook, who partner with the NSA?
Confused? Don’t know who to trust? Well, that’s the state of our privacy movement today. | {
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PRINCETON, NJ -- A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds Americans saying the Republicans in Congress would do a better job than the Democrats in Congress of handling seven of nine key election issues. The parties are essentially tied on healthcare, with the environment being the lone Democratic strength.
The Republicans' advantage on most issues is an indication of the currently favorable political environment for the party. Of particular note is the parity between the two parties on healthcare, an issue on which Americans historically have viewed the Democrats as superior.
A similar USA Today/Gallup poll conducted in October 2006, just prior to Democrats' major gains in that fall's elections, highlights the potential implications of these findings. That poll, which includes several issues measured in the current survey, found the Democrats leading on all eight issues tested at that time, including some usual Republican strengths like terrorism and moral values.
With Republicans now having the advantage on most issues, the party may be poised to make major gains in congressional seats, just as the Democrats did in 2006. Indeed, Gallup tracking of registered voters' preferences in the 2010 generic ballot for Congress continues to find the Republicans ahead of the Democrats, as it has for the past five weeks.
The Economy Matters Most
The Democrats' advantage on the issue of the environment is likely not something the party can leverage to improve its 2010 electoral fortunes, as Americans rank it at the bottom of the list in terms of its importance to their vote. Rather, economic concerns are paramount, with a majority of Americans rating the economy, jobs, and federal spending (along with government corruption) as extremely important.
The Republican advantages on these economic matters range from a low of +5 on jobs to a high of +15 on federal spending. Terrorism -- the issue on which Republicans have the greatest advantage over Democrats -- is rated as very important by 47% of Americans, putting it in the middle of the list.
Bottom Line
Republicans' perceptual advantage on most key election issues reinforces the party's advantageous positioning heading into the stretch run of the 2010 election campaign. It is not clear whether Americans give the Republicans the edge on these issues because they have confidence in the GOP to make progress in addressing the major problems facing the country, or whether the ratings have more to do with the public's frustration with the incumbent Democratic Party's performance to date.
The Democrats' hopes for improving their fortunes may hinge on convincing voters they have superior plans for jump-starting the economy, the issue of uppermost importance in Americans' minds. That could be tough to do when, after nearly 20 months of Democratic leadership in Congress and the White House, Americans' opinions of the economy remain negative and have become more pessimistic in recent weeks.
Explore more Gallup data relating to the upcoming congressional midterm elections, including Gallup's complete generic ballot trend since 1950, in our Election 2010 key indicators interactive. | {
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The Russian-built Soyuz capsule will reach the International Space Station in October with three new crewmembers. Apart from the cosmonauts, 32 small fish will be reaching the orbiting outpost by the space shuttle Soyuz TMA-06M capsule. Medaka fish — a type of fish native toSoutheast Asia— are being carried to the space station for scientific experiment at the space lab.
NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitskiy will head to the Space Station with the fish. They are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on October 15 and the launch would be made from the Baikonour Cosmodrome inKazakhstan.
The experiment is mainly aimed at investigating the effects of microgravity on fish. The fish would be made to stay in a special aquatic habitat. This special habitat is being delivered to the space station by a robotic Japanese cargo freighter, the unmanned H-2 Transfer Vehicle-3, or HTV-3 (which has already arrived at the space station on July 27).
Kevin Ford said that the experiment was essentially for osteoporosis. Julie Robinson, an International Space Station program scientist, explained that the study analyses how the skeletal systems of fish change in the near weightless environment of less or no gravity. | {
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“Disney Animation’s “Zootopia” was the runaway winner at the Chinese box office over the weekend.
Topping the charts on each day, it scored $57.5 million between Friday and Sunday, giving a 10-day total of $110 million. Data from Ent Group showed the film scoring $25.5 million on Saturday alone.
“Gods of Egypt,” acquired by Chinese firm Le Eco in a deal announced at the American Film Market in November, came a creditable second with $19.6 million over its opening three days.
The two Hollywood titles nudged aside “Ip Man 3,” the martial arts biopic which topped the chart last week, but whose box office reporting is now being probed by regulators. It earned $13.1 million in its second weekend – down from the reported $71.3 million in its first weekend – and stands on a 10 day cumulative of $112 million.
Stephen Chow’s “The Mermaid” slipped to a $3.7 million weekend in fourth place, but extended its record-breaking cumulative total to $517 million.
Behind it a gaggle of newcomers entered the chart but failed to score even $1 million. They included “Under The Bed” on $0.75 million; “Spicy Hot Love” on $0.47 million; “Judge Archer” on $0.45 million and “Wang Mao” with $0.15 million. | {
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Republican nominee Donald Trump, like all Republican politicians, place our veterans on a pedestal and use appeals to shallow nationalism to convince his followers that he somehow cares for this nation and our military. But Trump’s recent statements show that the draft-dodging mogul cares absolutely nothing for well-being of our fighting men and women, just as he cares nothing for anybody not named Trump.
In an exchange missed by most of the media, Trump today insulted all of our veterans who have suffered psychological trauma during their overseas tours by saying that only weak soldiers suffer from PTSD, and that therefore our “strong veterans” don’t require psychological counseling when they return home.
When asked how he would approach mental health issues such as PTSD and if he would support spiritual counseling for veterans affected by them, Trump implied that veterans who are “strong” don’t suffer from such afflictions. “When you talk about the mental health problems,” he said, “when people come back from war and combat and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in the room have seen many times over and you’re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it.”
So, in Trump’s mind, only “strong” veterans don’t get PTSD – therefore anyone who does is “weak.” This is probably a bizarre line of thinking that he will try to link to his efforts to privatize veterans’ care (which is strongly opposed by veterans groups), but it also reveals the callous disrespect for the struggles our military men and women go through – a disrespect which has by now become a running theme throughout his campaign.
Trump has had the nerve to insult the family of war hero Humayun Khan for challenging him on his un-American immigration policy. Draft-dodging Trump even had the nerve to criticize veteran Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) for being shot down, captured, and tortured while being held in a Vietcong prison for years, saying “I like people who weren’t captured” and that he wasn’t a war hero. He’s held fundraisers for veterans and never paid out the funds raised, and all he can promise policy wise is an extraordinarily vague “we’re going to take care of our vets better than anybody.”
As low as 11% and as high as 20% of our veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, which is an extremely serious mental affliction that can affect anyone exposed to trauma. Donald Trump, having never faced a situation he couldn’t buy his way out of, has no conception of what sacrifice or trauma truly is. A child of a golden spoon who’s had everything in his life handed to him, Trump’s disdain for the struggles of our veterans is disgusting, and is just more proof that he would be an atrocious commander-in-chief.
Sun Tzu, the world’s oldest recorded strategist, wrote that one must “treat your men as you would your own beloved sons, and they will follow you into the deepest valley.” Trump doesn’t treat our fighting men and women with any more respect than he does the workers in his hotels or the women on his television shows, and it’s obvious that our fighting men and women won’t follow him anywhere after these comments.
PJ Reikoff, the CEO of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, responded to Trump’s comments with this spot-on comparison with President Obama.
Sponsored Links
How dare @realDonaldTrump tell me I or my Marines couldn't handle it. I'm shaking. — Mister Megative (@mistermegative) October 3, 2016
Veteran Tim Pritchett was also displeased with Trump’s comments:
@Mediaite @ChrisCuomo Trump also only likes the veterans without Ptsd, not just us vets that weren’t captured. #VetsagainstTrump — Tim Pritchett (@T_Bone1964) October 3, 2016
Here’s video of Trump’s quote:
| {
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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton completed no security briefings or courses on the proper handling of classified materials and how to conduct secure communications while at the Department of State, according to new Obama administration legal filings before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The surprise admission was released late Friday and could reignite the controversy over Clinton’s “careless” handling of classified materials as asserted by FBI Director James Comey, which has already been a central part of the presidential race.
The revelation also could renew calls for the Department of State to strip her of her security clearance. The co-founder of at least one retired military officers organization has called for a suspension of her clearance.
State Department officials previously reported they could not locate records certifying that Clinton or her top aides took the annually required security courses and briefings.
But on July 29, Obama administration officials went further, saying their failure to locate any documents meant that the “courses were not completed” by the secretary or her aides.
[dcquiz]
In comparison, State Department officials reported that Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy engaged in 12 separate security classes and briefings during Clinton’s time in office.
“If the search of these databases did not locate any such training records, then the courses were not completed,” concluded Eric Stein, the co-director of the State Department’s Office of Information Programs and Services in the July 29 filing before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon.
Mark Toner, the State Department’s deputy spokesman, told TheDCNF in a statement that the lack of briefing records doesn’t necessarily mean they were not trained.
He said Clinton received “in person orientation” on handling classified information. “The absence of documentation from training resources they did not use does not indicate that they were not trained.”
But Department of Justice officials were clear in their filing that if Clinton had security briefings or classes, it would show up in their databases.
They reported to the court that the State Department scoured the files and databases held by four different department training divisions: the Student Management Training System; the Cyber Security Administration; the Sensitive Compartmented Information electronic training records; and the certification records at the Foreign Service Institute’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
“State searched the record systems and databases that would contain records showing that the specified individuals completed the mandatory training courses — if they in fact completed them,” stated Benjamin Mizer, the principal deputy assistant Attorney General, and Marcia Berman, the assistant director of the Federal Program Branch at the Justice Department, in their filing before Judge Leon.
The government’s lawyers explained that the Bureau of Diplomatic Security is “the primary training institution for [State]” and would possess training records for Clinton and her aides. The SCI also “has access to SCI electronic training records.”
“If its search of STMS, the Cyber Security Administration database, and SCI electronic training records did not locate training certifications, then such courses were not completed,” both DOJ officials concluded.
Stein said that the same is true concerning the Bureau of Diplomatic Security records.“If DS’s search of the SCI training records did not locate any training records for an individual, then the training was not completed,” he stated in his affidavit before the court.
The government’s unexpected admissions were filed in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
TheDCNF is seeking records that confirmed Clinton and her top aides completed mandatory security briefings on the handling of classified materials and on the proper way to engage in secure communications.
When the State Department released only a few documents to TheDCNF earlier this year, the news organization asked the department to search the private hard drives of the computers operated by Clinton and her aides.
State was not obligated “to conduct an additional search of individual-specific or shared drives for copies of the requested training certifications, because such certifications, if they existed, would be retained in the databases and records systems previously searched,” the Justice Department filed before the court.
“The State Department, under penalty of perjury, effectively just threw a former Secretary of State and her aides under the bus for failing to do what all State Department officials are required to do,” said Bradley Moss, a national security attorney who handled TheDCNF case.
DOJ lawyers also explained that the Cybersecurity Administration database further “contains records of all online training activity specifically related to the Department’s Cyber Security Awareness course.”
“There is no real wiggle room in the affidavit submitted by the State Department. If the training records are not there, then Secretary Clinton and her aides never did the training. Period,” he said.
All government officials within the national security establishment must take annual reviews of the handling of classified materials.
Some of the reviews are conducted in face-to-face briefings and others are in online sessions.
“You have to complete paperwork. You have to have face-to-face briefings,” recalled retired Col. James Williamson, a former Special Operations Forces officer and co-founder of OPSEC, a nonpartisan organization of Special Operations and intelligence officers.
“There’s an electronic record,” Williamson recalled in an interview with TheDCNF. “I would get a nastygram if I didn’t complete my online course. I have to make sure every year my employees would take the online course.”
He called the latest information about Clinton “just mind-boggling.”
State Department records released to TheDCNF show that Cheryl Mills and Jacob Sullivan, two top Clinton aides, took cybersecurity awareness courses once, but not for all four years.
The records show Clinton and aide Huma Abedin never took any cybersecurity awareness training.
Last March retired Lt. General Michael T. Flynn, President Barack Obama’s former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told TheDCNF that the State Department should suspend her security clearance. He said the former secretary of state should be denied “any access to any classified or sensitive information.”
This was echoed by Williamson. Her security clearance “absolutely should be pulled. There is no way this woman should be trusted with classified documents, period,” he told TheDCNF.
Mark Zaid, the lead attorney for TheDCNF, said the latest filing shows the State Department is in “disarray” over its security requirements.
“The recent admission portray a State Department in disarray when it comes to upholding security requirements of senior officials with the greatest access to classified information,” he said.
The admission also could play a role in the State Department’s re-opening of an internal investigation of Clinton and her aides over their handling of classified materials.
The new State Department internal probe was announced after Comey declined to call for an indictment of Clinton over her use of a private email server to conduct official State Department business. The FBI noted that 22 emails found on Clinton’s private server were “Top Secret.”
Toner refused to respond to the effect of the revelations on their internal investigation. “As we have previously stated, in order to protect the integrity of our internal review we are not going to comment on its scope.”
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Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected]. | {
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NEW YORK — Coronavirus has claimed the lives of 50 Department of Education employees in New York City since the middle of March, officials announced Monday.
Of the 50 victims, 21 were teachers, 22 were paraprofessionals, two were administrators, one was a facilities staffer, one was a guidance counselor, one was a food service staff member and two were central office employees, according to the DOE.
The United Federation of Teachers union identified over a dozen members who have succumbed to COVID-19, including Sharon Kaufman, a special education teacher at PS 31 in the St. George section of Staten Island; Carol King-Grant, a sixth-grade special education teacher at Mott Hall Science and Technology Academy in the South Bronx; and Rosario Gonzalez, a paraprofessional at P79 in East Harlem.
“Our thoughts are with their families, loved ones, and school communities during this difficult time,” a DOE spokesperson said in a statement.
The deaths were recorded between March 16 and April 10. Each week going forward, the department will release updated numbers every Monday, reflecting the prior week.
While the deaths were reported to the DOE by family members as related to COVID-19, the data has not been verified with the city Department of Health.
“In the unfortunate reality of the public health crisis we are facing as a city, we need to ensure that our schools, students, and employees have the support they need. We are tracking COVID-19 fatalities in order to effectively deploy crisis support through guidance counselors and social workers remotely and when school buildings reopen,” the DOE spokesperson said in the statement. “This current data was collected through a variety of mechanisms as we move closer to one streamlined, comprehensive system.”
The DOE noted that the sources of transmission in each case are unknown, since community spread of COVID-19 has been prevalent since March.
The statewide death toll from coronavirus surpassed 10,000 on Monday, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo. | {
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by Sunny Hundal
Activists from #occupyLSX unmasked and surrounded an undercover police officer who had infiltrated their protest on Wednesday, a video reveals today.
The hoodie-wearing police officer admits to a crowd that he was an undercover office.
The incident took place when activists from #occupyLSX were trying to protest at the offices of the mining company Xstrata
When unmasked, the man admits: “Yeah, I’m a Met Police officer, yeah.”
One protester says in response: “He has no uniform and no [badge] number… we have no way of identifying him, so how are we supposed to complain about him.”
Activists said they unmasked at least seven undercover officers that day.
Full story at the Independent | {
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The growing prevalence of smartphones in recent years has forced government and welfare organizations to rethink their approach to creating awareness campaigns targeting youths at risk of suicide.
A recent survey conducted by the Cabinet Office showed that the number of high school students who owned a smartphone had risen from 54.8 percent in 2012 to 93.6 percent in 2015. The same survey showed that students aged between 10 and 17 spent an average of 136 minutes online on their smartphones each day.
Vickie Skorji, lifeline director at TELL Japan, says such statistics clearly show that traditional awareness campaigns are missing the mark.
“We don’t get as many calls from young people as we would like and that has been something we’ve been trying to do for the past five years,” Skorji says. “How do we engage them? Lifelines around the world are also struggling with that. Young people are less likely to pick up a phone and that is why we are thinking of moving into chat and other sorts of mediums.”
TELL Japan launched a free and anonymous chat counseling service on Saturdays. The service is available each weekend from 10:30 p.m. on Saturdays to 9 a.m. on Sundays and is open to any English speaker over the age of 13.
Skorji says that counseling by text message has so far proven to be effective.
“We found that people were more likely to identify their problems faster,” Skorji says. “You can’t see callers or hear their voices, so they feel as if it is safer.”
Central and local governments have also begun to take notice of the importance of offering online support for children.
Starting next fiscal year, the education ministry will trial an SNS network to try to support children who are being bullied, while the city of Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, has announced a collaboration with Line Corp. that will allow it to use its messaging app to offer a bullying consultation service that starts on a trial basis in November. The city of Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, has also introduced an app called STOPit, an anonymous reporting and management system originally created by a company in the United States.
Meanwhile, several schools in Japan are using private services to prevent bullying and other problems faced by students.
Adish, a private subsidiary of Gaiax Group located in Tokyo’s Shinagawa district, currently offers two specialized services to help schools create safe learning and social environments for students.
Adish first launched School Guardian in 2007, using a system it designed on its own to monitor students’ online posts. Students’ posts are scrutinized for meaning, with teachers monitoring comment threads to find potentially harmful material. The findings are then shared with school managers in the form of a report.
Adish later launched Kids’ Sign in 2015, creating a website on which students can anonymously report any problems they witness or experience.
“Young people today are digital natives,” says Yu Hirata, operational manager of the School Guardian division at Adish. “The proliferation of smartphones now allows more people to access the internet and report any concerns they may have anytime.”
While positive about the potential that such services offer, Hirata is also careful to highlight some obstacles.
“We want to provide transparency,” Hirata says. “We can collect and report the voices of students, but the way in which we follow up on each issue depends on each school.”
Kazuaki Izawa, director of Ijime Kara Kodomo o Mamoro Network, says the key to preventing bullying depends on the manner in which schools take action. However, experts such as Izawa say the absence of penalties in the 2013 anti-bullying legislation prevents teachers from taking true responsibility for cases involving bullying.
“I do understand that bullying won’t be eradicated by introducing penalties in the legislation, but I do believe that teachers simply aren’t trying to stop it,” Izawa says. “I think the consequences that teachers face are too light compared to what is actually going on.”
As an expert on issues related to bullying, Izawa holds lectures at schools nationwide. He also operates a hotline, although most children who are experiencing bullying contact him by email. When bullied children do reach out to him, Izawa takes his time, carefully building a relationship with each child and corresponding dozens of times with the victim before he or she is ready to share contact information.
“The emails usually begin with short phrases such as ‘I want to die’ or ‘Please help me,'” Izawa says. “These children are guarded at first … so I try to build trust through email and create a safe place for them to talk about their problems.”
(Masami Ito contributed to this report)
KEYWORDS suicide, bullying, education, Timeout | {
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2016-37
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Rhode Island agency and its bond underwriter Wells Fargo Securities with defrauding investors in a municipal bond offering to finance startup video game company 38 Studios.
The Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC, now called the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation) issued $75 million in bonds for the 38 Studios project as part of a state government program intended to spur economic development and increase employment opportunities by loaning bond proceeds to private companies.
According to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal district court in Providence:
The RIEDC loaned $50 million in bond proceeds to 38 Studios. Remaining proceeds were used to pay related bond offering expenses and establish a reserve fund and a capitalized interest fund.
The loan and, in turn, bond investors would be repaid from revenues generated by video games that 38 Studios planned to develop.
The bond offering document produced by the RIEDC and Wells Fargo failed to disclose to investors that 38 Studios had conveyed it needed at least $75 million in funding to produce a particular video game.
Therefore, investors weren’t fully informed when deciding to purchase the bonds that 38 Studios faced a funding shortfall even with the loan proceeds and could not develop the video game without additional sources of financing.
When 38 Studios was later unable to obtain additional financing, the video game didn’t materialize and the company defaulted on the loan.
"Municipal issuers and underwriters must provide investors with a clear-eyed view of the risks involved in an economic development project being financed through bond offerings,” said Andrew Ceresney, Director of the SEC Enforcement Division. “We allege that the RIEDC and Wells Fargo knew that 38 Studios needed an additional $25 million to fund the project yet failed to pass that material information along to bond investors, who were denied a complete financial picture.”
The SEC also charged Wells Fargo’s lead banker on the deal, Peter M. Cannava, and two then-RIEDC executives Keith W. Stokes and James Michael Saul with aiding and abetting the fraud. Stokes and Saul agreed to settle the charges without admitting or denying the allegations and must each pay a $25,000 penalty. They are prohibited from participating in any future municipal securities offerings. The SEC’s litigation continues against Cannava, Wells Fargo, and RIEDC.
The SEC’s complaint further alleges that Wells Fargo and Cannava misled investors in an additional way in bond offering materials:
Wells Fargo disclosed its bond offering compensation as a share of the placement agent fee plus a $50,000 payment from 38 Studios. No other fees or compensation to Wells Fargo were disclosed, and the bond placement agreement stated that no other money was anticipated.
Investors weren’t informed that Wells Fargo had a side deal with 38 Studios that enabled the firm to receive nearly double the amount of compensation disclosed in offering documents.
This additional compensation, totaling $400,000 and paid from bond proceeds, created a conflict of interest that Wells Fargo should have disclosed to bond investors.
Cannava was responsible for Wells Fargo’s failure to disclose its additional fees.
“An underwriter’s ‘skin in the game’ is material information to investors,” said LeeAnn Ghazil Gaunt, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit. “We allege that Wells Fargo failed to fully disclose its own economic interest in this bond transaction.”
The SEC’s complaint charges the RIEDC and Wells Fargo with violations of Sections 17(a)(2) and (a)(3) of the Securities Act of 1933, and charges Stokes, Saul, and Cannava with aiding and abetting those violations. Wells Fargo also is charged with violations of Section 15B(c)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules G-17 and G-32 of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB). Cannava is charged with aiding and abetting those violations.
In a separate administrative proceeding, the RIEDC’s financial advisor for the bond offering – First Southwest Company LLC – agreed to settle charges that it violated MSRB rules by failing to document in writing the scope of the services the firm was providing in the bond offering until seven months after the financial advisory relationship began. Without admitting or denying the findings, First Southwest agreed to pay disgorgement of $120,000, prejudgment interest of $22,400, and a penalty of $50,000.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by its Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit, including Louis Randazzo, Joseph Chimienti, Jonathan Wilcox, Kevin B. Currid, and Deputy Chief Mark Zehner. The SEC’s litigation is being led by Kathleen B. Shields of the Boston Regional Office and Mr. Randazzo.
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RIYADH/DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has asked state agencies to submit proposals for cuts of at least 20% to their budgets in a fresh austerity drive to cope with a sharp drop in oil prices, four sources familiar with the matter said.
FILE PHOTO: A car drives past the Kingdom Centre Tower in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November 12, 2017. Picture taken November 12, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser
The requests were made more than a week ago due to concerns about the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on crude markets, and ahead of the collapse of an oil output deal between OPEC and its allies on Friday, according to the sources.
One of the sources told Reuters that when the budget requests were sent, Saudi officials had been anticipating difficult talks with Russia over the need for deeper output curbs to stabilise markets. Moscow did reject the proposal, triggering a war for market share between the two countries which has sent crude prices plummeting.
The finance ministry instructed government agencies to submit proposals for cuts of between 20% and 30% in their 2020 budget, according to the four sources, who declined to be identified as the reductions have not been made public.
The foreign ministry has already implemented a 20% cut, one of the sources said, adding that the cuts will not impact salaries but projects could be postponed and contracts yet to be awarded could be delayed.
The Saudi foreign ministry referred Reuters requests for comment to the finance ministry which did not respond.
Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s de facto leader and the world’s top oil exporter, relies heavily on crude revenues. The International Monetary Fund has said Riyadh needs oil at $80 a barrel to balance its 2020 budget, which carries a deficit of 187 billion riyals ($50 billion).
Crude prices LCOc1 stood at $38.48 a barrel at 0418 GMT Wednesday. [O/R]
Economists expect Saudi Arabia’s budget deficit to climb from 4.7% of GDP in 2019 to double-digit percentage territory this year. In December, the government projected a deficit of about 6.5% for 2020.
“Saudi Arabia needs an oil price of about $85 per barrel to balance the government’s budget deficit, but only $50 per barrel to balance the current account,” Capital Economics said in a research note on Tuesday. “Both will be in deficit at the current oil price, but the budget deficit will be much larger at 15% of GDP.”
Thanks to ample foreign reserves, Saudi Arabia can live with lower crude prices if the face-off with Russia continues, but may need to increase borrowing in addition to spending cuts, analysts have said.
Riyadh ratcheted up the standoff with Moscow on Tuesday by announcing it would raise its crude supply to a record high in April and appeared to reject Russian overtures for new talks.
Even before the directive, the kingdom had reduced spending in its 2020 budget, reversing three years of expenditure increases intended to spur growth. It has also taken measures to narrow the gap by diversifying revenue streams with taxes and economic reforms.
Saudi Arabia has been running a budget deficit since oil prices plunged in 2014, when it scrapped a strategy of supporting prices in favour of a drive for market share.
Mohammed al-Suwayed, a Saudi asset manager and financial commentator, said that with oil prices falling, additional spending cuts were to be expected.
“For Vision 2030 to work, the government has to stop relying on an irresponsible increase in spending and rely more on organic growth from the economy itself,” he said, referring to the reform agenda championed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. | {
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Meet Goliath
Say hello to Evolve's first monster, the brutish Goliath. Alex and Daniel tell you everything you need to know about playing as this fire-breathing beast. | {
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The Chinese health authority has scaled up testing and treatment for COVID-19 infections in border areas as the country faces a rising risk of imported cases.
The Chinese health authority has scaled up testing and treatment for COVID-19 infections in border areas as the country faces a rising risk of imported cases.
With an over 22,000-km land border dotted with 91 land ports, along with a large number of shortcuts and side routes, China faces a high risk of COVID-19 importation via its land border.
However, the medical service capacity in some border regions is relatively insufficient for the epidemic response, Guo Yanhong, an official with the National Health Commission (NHC), said at a press conference Tuesday.
The NHC has instructed the country's nine provincial-level regions with land ports to make targeted response plans in a bid to intensify containment efforts and get prepared for imported cases, Guo noted.
Describing the epidemic control in border areas as a priority in the current stage, Guo said that the commission had conducted a thorough assessment of the capacity for laboratory testing and medical treatment in border cities.
Groups of medical professionals and epidemic containment experts have been dispatched to some border areas facing a mounting challenge of imported cases, such as Suifenhe, a border city in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.
Meanwhile, essential medical equipment, including mobile P3 laboratories, computerized tomography (CT) scan machines, have also been sent there to improve the local ability to detect and cure COVID-19 infections, said Guo.
According to statistics released by the NHC, the Chinese mainland reported four new imported COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total number of imported cases to 1,587.
Of the total imported cases, 776 had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 811 were being treated in hospitals with 44 in severe condition, the commission said. | {
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