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Beds, Herts & Bucks Megan-Leigh Peat's father organises self-defence courses Megan-Leigh Peat Image caption Megan-Leigh Peat was 'never down; always up', said her father David Peat The father of a girl murdered by her ex-Premier League academy footballer boyfriend has organised self-defence classes to protect other teenagers. David Peat, 40, said he had been through "absolute hell" since Megan-Leigh Peat, 15, of Westoning, Bedfordshire, was stabbed to death. He said he wanted to reduce the chance of anyone else being killed in similar circumstances. Andrew Hall, 18, was jailed for life last September for her murder. Hall, released by Stoke City, admitted killing Megan-Leigh at a house in Ampthill on 9 June last year. She suffered at least 60 stab wounds in the attack. 'Typical teenage girl' Mr | Peat, of Flitwick, has now organised self-defence classes to teach young people how to protect themselves. "I know this one self-defence course isn't going to stop it ever happening again, but if I can help limit it happening again, then that's what I would like to do," he said. Image caption David Peat said he hoped to reduce the chances of others being killed "It's just something positive out of something that's been so negative." Mr Peat said Megan-Leigh was a "typical teenage girl" and a "bright, bubbly chatterbox". 'A terrible thing' He said: "She was so full of life. She was never down; she was always up. "If you felt a little bit down, you could always ring her up and you would always feel better straight afterwards. "She was a very good listener to her friends. She's just missed." Mr Peat said he was learning to live without his daughter, but added: "It's been a long-term process, which I'm not at the end of and I don't think I ever will be. "No parent wants their child to go before them and it's a terrible thing to go through. "I can remember it as if it was just this morning. It's very much my memory and I don't think that will ever go." In jailing Hall for life, with a minimum term of 10 years, Judge Richard Foster at Luton Crown Court said it was clear he had been jealous of Megan's friendships with others. In December, his minimum jail term was increased to 15 years by the Court of Appeal. More on this story | http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-23085491 |
New Mutants to take inspiration from The Shining While I enjoy the X-MEN films for the most part, and haven't felt the superhero fatigue many others have claimed to have, I can understand the feeling that superhero movies are due to run their course. I mean, how many times can there be a world-ending threat that only punching, explosions, and witty quips can solve? A lot, apparently...but probably not an infinite amount. Which is why many people are shrugging with a "meh" about the release of NEW MUTANTS, the most recent live-action feature film spin-off of the (as of now) popular franchise. However, here's what Stacey Snider - head of FOX studios - had to say about this very issue in an exclusive interview with Variety: What, a | haunted house movie with superheroes? That's...actually kind of brilliant. I know there might be comics that have similar plots, but the idea of a horror film in the vein of SHINING starring X-Men characters? I'm already on board! I think the closest we've come to something like this was ALL SUPERHEROES MUST DIE which was superheroes meets SAW...though let's hope this one turns out better. Meanwhile, NEW MUTANTS will hit theaters April 13th, 2018. Extra Tidbit: What genre do you think would be great to go with superheroes? Sound off below! Source: Variety Latest Entertainment News Headlines Featured Youtube Videos | https://www.joblo.com/movie-news/new-mutants-to-take-inspiration-from-the-shining-201 |
The one thing you can’t buy at Lululemon to help you with your fitness routine is motivation. But IMAX thinks it can get your butt off the sofa with a new cycling class that takes place in front of one its massive and immersive movie screens. The first IMAXShift spin class will be available in DUMBO neighborhood, an affluent neighborhood in Brooklyn, and will accommodate 50 cyclists plus an experienced instructor leading the stationary charge. What sets IMAXShift apart from other spin classes is that riding in front of a massive IMAX screen will make the participants feel as if they’re actually riding through whatever environment is projected in front of them, filling their field of view. One morning it could be an idyllic forest, but the next | it could be the rings of Saturn. Will the spin class guarantee a more rigorous workout? Probably not. But it’s easier to stay focused and determined to stick out to the end if you’re distracted by a giant eye-melting screen in front of you. | https://gizmodo.com/you-might-throw-up-after-taking-the-worlds-first-imax-s-1771560792 |
Campaigner profile is deleted A feminist campaigner from north London - subjected to rape and death threats on Twitter - has deleted her account. It comes a day after Caroline Criado-Perez raised concerns about the police investigation into abuse. View all 4 updates › Police accused of insensitivity and incompetence Caroline Criado-Perez said: It's just appalling. I got an email saying 'why don't you go through what you've had' from three users with certain handles. It just shows such insensitivity to someone who's been through so much, I can't believe it. I've spent the afternoon crying just from the sheer awfulness of it. They wanted me to go through all the Tweets again because of their incompetence. Every time I have to go through it it's reliving it | all over again. More top news | http://www.itv.com/news/london/update/2013-09-06/police-accused-of-insensitivity-and-incompetence/ |
If rumors are to be believed, Apple's entry into the smartwatch world is coming soon: Reuters says production will start in July, with an expected launch date sometime in October. And it's going to be (literally) big. Admittedly, this is still speculation, and we're hesitant to call this definitive reporting. But unnamed sources at Taiwan's Quanta Computer say that the company will start producing up to 70 percent of the components for the forthcoming iWatch next month. The report says Apple's smartwatch will have a touchscreen measuring 2.5 inches diagonally (which frankly sounds huge for a wrist-worn device), with wireless charging and the ability to measure the wearer's pulse. But again, that's all still rumor. Regardless of the timeline, it's pretty much assumed that Apple will set foot | in the smartwatch arena. It's just a question of when—and if this report pans out, the answer is soon. [Reuters] | http://gizmodo.com/40-larger-insert-emoji-with-the-really-big-wide-e-1593403951 |
Our Drone Pilots Are Burning Out Three years ago, a Navy study showed UAV pilots were suffering from the stresses of their job. Three years later, nothing has changed—and that's very bad news. The Air Force study, Reuters reports, says that 17 percent of US-based drone pilots are showing signs of "clinical distress"—an ambiguous but unsettling diagnosis. The pilots are understaffed and overworked—but hey, so are most American employees, you might say. But think of it like this: most American employees aren't remotely piloting drones that kill Taliban and spy on Iranian nuclear facilities. These are rigorous tasks, to say the least, even if they're done in some air conditioned office in the US. Lives depend on the decisions made by these pilots, and if they make the | wrong decisions—say, identifying the wrong man as an insurgent because everyone is too damn tired and stressed to tell the different—the wrong life ends. Three years later, this is also a much more prominent, rigorous task—America is out of Iraq, and drones are at the fore throughout the mideast. They're an increasingly popular, palatable way to wage war. So we should be increasingly sure that these remote pilots aren't going to snap, or at the very least, use poor judgment—because poor judgment in this case involves firing hellfire missiles at tiny people from very, very far away. [Reuters via CBS] | http://gizmodo.com/5869484/our-drone-pilots-are-burning-out?tag=Air-Force |
VW is known for its diesels--and, lately, so-called clean diesels--but the company is also experimenting with compressed natural gas here and there. But now VW is taking the idea very public: it plans to launch a series of races next year specifically for cars that burn bio-CNG, according to Autopia. The new series, called the Scirocco Cup, will feature CNG-powered, turbocharged four-cylinder versions of the redesigned VW coupe making 220 horsepower and 202 lb-ft of torque, and will run on some of Europe's most challenging race tracks, according to the report. VW is focusing on bio-compressed natural gas, made from renewable sources like grass and biological waste. The report said that energy produced from a ton of organic residue equates to about 15 gallons of fuel oil, or | 200 kilowatt-hours of electrical power. | http://goodcleantech.pcmag.com/automotive/279137-volkswagen-launches-natural-gas-eco-racing-class |
EAST LONDON, South Africa (AP) _ After dropping five shots, first-round leader Hennie Otto of South Africa rallied to retain the lead after the second round of the South African Open Friday. Otto shot a 4-under 70 for a 9-under 135 total on the East London Golf Club course. Countryman Roger Wessels, who led for much of the day after shooting a 69, wound up one stroke back, tied with England's Greg Owen. Owen birdied the 16th for a share of the lead, but bogeyed the 18th, finishing with a 69. Otto, starting on the back nine, double-bogeyed the 15th and fell to fourth place. Three more bogeys after his first 11 holes dropped him to 4 under. But birdies at the second, third, fourth, sixth and seventh | holes catapulted him back into the lead. Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland, the world No. 11, missed the cut at 155 after a second-round 78. | https://www.apnews.com/db651b5cdc3244d189deae3d904a7552 |
7 Years for Drug Trafficker It's 7 years in prison for a cocaine trafficker who pleaded guilty at Canterbury Crown Court Louis Bridgen, 47, formally of Ware, Hertfordshire, had previously pleaded guilty at Canterbury Crown Court on Wednesday 26 May 2010, to knowingly being concerned in the importation of cocaine between July 2003 to January 2006 with intent to supply. Kent Police led the investigation after intercepting a package in March 2005, which contained one kilo of pure cocaine and was destined for an address in Canterbury. Bridgen was identified through DNA found on the package containing the high-grade cocaine. The court heard that between July 2003 and January 2006, Bridgen flew to Los Angeles, America, on at least 16 occasions, where he sourced several kilos of cocaine | that he then sent back to the UK via an international courier. During this time two packages were intercepted by police and customs that were found to contain the Class A drug. In July 2003 two kilos of cocaine were intercepted, followed by a further two kilos in December 2004. In March 2005 Kent Police intercepted one kilo destined for Canterbury. In total the five kilos of pure cocaine had an estimated street value of £420,000. In January 2006 officers from Kent Police's Serious and Organised Crime Unit executed a search warrant at an address in Hertfordshire where Bridgen was living at the time. He was subsequently arrested and officers seized a quantity of cocaine (182 grams) valued at around £5,000 as well as £12,300 in cash. Bridgen was released on police bail in January 2006 while evidence was secured from the USA, but he absconded almost immediately and this resulted in an extensive manhunt, including appeals on Crimewatch UK and via Crimestoppers. In July 2009, the investigation team was contacted by the Royal Thailand Police, who informed them that Bridgen had been arrested for a minor offence of failing to pay a $20 bar bill in Pattaya, Thailand. It is understood that officers from Royal Thailand Police were alerted that Bridgen had given them a false name, and they began checking the British Crimewatch and Crimestoppers websites for information. They then identified Bridgen, whose real identity was confirmed through fingerprints. In March 2010 he was extradited back to the UK where he was remanded in custody. Detective Inspector Eddie Fox from Kent Police's Serious and Organised Crime Unit, who led the investigation said: "Bridgen thought he was being clever by posting the drugs to addresses in the UK but the packages were intercepted and we were able to identify him as being responsible. Following his initial arrest he absconded and fled to Thailand where he thought he was beyond the reach of British Justice, but one minor incident in Thailand resulted his arrest and many uncomfortable months in a local prison. The Thai authorities worked together with Kent Police to secure his extradition back to the UK. ”This enquiry spanned three continents and this sentencing is a very satisfying conclusion for us. The message to anyone considering fleeing justice is that if you do go you will spend all the time looking over your shoulder in the knowledge that we will hunt you down wherever you are." | https://www.heart.co.uk/kent/news/local/7-years-drug-trafficker/ |
A WOMAN whose mother died after being hit by a bus at Oldham bus station says she will never give up fighting for justice. Ann Kerridge, 56, was knocked down while using a pedestrian crossing at Cheapside bus station in January 2007. She suffered serious head injuries and died in the arms of her daughter Sharon hours later at Royal Oldham Hospital. At an inquest into Ann's death, police investigators said the the position of the crossing in relation to how a bus would manoeuvre the bend caused a blindspot which led to the driver spotting her seconds too late. The crossing was relocated a year later but an an investigation into the accident by the HSE has concluded that no-one was at fault. Sharon, 39, of Granite | Street, Derker, said: "Me and my sister Karen cannot put a closure on this until someone is to blame for what's happened. "My mum still had years ahead of her when her life was snatched away. "She was doing the right thing and using a crossing so someone needs to hold their hands up and admit they were at fault." In a recent letter to the family informing them the investigation was closed, the HSE admitted improvements to the pedestrian crossing point were necessary. But it said "standards did not fall significantly below what was expected" - so did not have enough evidence to prosecute GMPTE. It added that standards at First Manchester were reasonable and no action would be taken against them. In a double blow Sharon and her sister also lost their father Brian just months later. Sharon said: "He was devastated after my mum died. They did everything together and he just died of a broken heart. "The accident totally destroyed my family and we all miss mum dearly, especially her grandchildren Amy, 12, and Holly, 4 - sadly my mum never got to meet her grandson Jake, 2. "Someone needs to be prosecuted for this. It is not just about justice for my mum, it's justice for everyone. "A lot of people had been using that crossing - it could have easily happened to a child. "We will not stop fighting for this until the day we die." | https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/well-fight-on-for-mum-937698 |
The Herald of Everett, Washington HeraldNet Newsletters Newsletters: Sign up Green editions icon Green editions As county loses staff, neighbors' complaints have to wait By Noah Haglund Herald Writer If you're bothered by a noisy neighbor, an oversized fence or illegal signs on the roadside, you might have to wait a while for Snohomish County code officers to respond. Those are among the code violations the county has deemed lower priority. Because of short staffing, the county's planning department said lower-level violations must take a back seat to more serious problems, those that pose an immediate fire hazard or a threat to people's lives or safety. Even getting to those top-priority calls can take up to four days. "We're doing the same thing we've always done, and responding | to every code enforcement complaint that comes in," county planning director Clay White said. "Really all it's saying is making sure we're getting to those that are of danger right away." Snohomish County has jurisdiction over code violations in unincorporated areas. About 1,200 code complaints reach the county each year, or about five on an average workday. Fielding all of those complaints are just four code officers, plus a supervisor and a support person. That's only half the number of code enforcement officers the county employed in 2007. Meanwhile, the number of complaints has remained steady. The loss of staff is one consequence of the economic downturn, which sapped the county planning department of permitting dollars and other revenue it relies on. The planning department has been the hardest-hit, staffing-wise, of any in the county, shrinking from about 250 positions at its peak to about 100 now. As county leaders begin preparing next year's budget, it's unlikely that any money will magically appear to pay for extra code staff. "We're still in the cutting mode, not in the building mode," County Councilman Dave Somers said. As it stands, two of the county's four code officers are funded by the public works department, and are directed to focus on public works issues including drainage problems, construction along public roads. Code enforcement response times issues arose as a topic during a County Council planning meeting late last month. Several council members expressed alarm at a memo that appeared to say that county staff would be unable to respond to some lower-level offenses, including complaints involving noise, sign or fence problems. They wondered aloud how the county could tell people that it was unable to enforce laws on the books. "To tell citizens that we know there might be a violation, but we're not going to do anything ever? We can't do that," Councilman Dave Gossett said later. Somers had a similar thought: "People lose all respect for the county if we tell them we're not going to enforce the complaints about code violations, and enforce our own code." So did Councilman John Koster: "If you're the victim of a noise complaint, if you've got really noisy neighbors or constantly barking dogs, you don't want the county to blow you off." As it turns out, the county has been able to respond to all of the code complaints brought to its attention, White said. The planning department intends to keep things that way. Some poor wording in the memo may have caused the confusion. "The upshot is that we're still doing a great job of enforcing county code, but we set priorities (of the service) that we can provide," he said. In some cases, a lower-priority violation can become high priority. That's possible when an illegal sign or improperly built fence blocks traffic sight lines or is in danger of falling down. Gossett said he's glad that the planning department clarified that it has no intention of brushing off lesser complaints. "I think you can do a prioritization structure, but I think there's always going | http://archive.heraldnet.com/article/20120904/NEWS01/709049920/-1/taxonomylist |
A thug who tied up a woman up with present ribbon on Christmas Day and stabbed her with a steak knife has had his sentence cut by top judges. Patrick Stephen Connors, 23, beat, bit and knifed his victim during a drunken rage on December 25, 2015. He then tied the woman up with Christmas ribbon so she couldn't escape. Connors, of Wolverhampton, repeatedly threatened to kill her and “she believed that he might very well carry out his threats”. Only when the drunken Connors finally fell asleep the abuse stopped, Mrs Justice McGowan told London’s Appeal Court. The Court of the Appeal at The Royal Courts of Justice Connors’ case reached the Appeal Court as he challenged his jail time, claiming it was far too tough. Mrs | Justice McGowan slammed his “appalling act of violence”. | https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/thug-who-stabbed-woman-before-11297116 |
Accessibility links Thousands Rally For Tymoshenko's Birthday Yulia Tymoshenko was jailed for seven years Some 3,000 supporters of Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko have staged a birthday concert at the gates of the Kyiv prison where she is being held. People heaped flowers and nailed up greetings messages on cards outside the prison to mark the former prime minister's 51st birthday. Others joined in when popular singer Nina Matvienko, one of several performers who Tymoshenko's party said would appear during the day, sang a Ukrainian song. Tymoshenko was jailed this summer for seven years for abuse of office. She and her supporters describe her prosecution as a political vendetta launched by President Viktor Yanukovych. compiled from agency reports | https://www.rferl.org/a/thousands_rally_for_tymoshenko_birthday/24403850.html |
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Hostess Twinkies: hardly the 'sweetest comeback ever' Twinkies are back on shelves this week, but it's hard to erase the 18,000 layoffs and management mistakes Hostess Twinkies Return To Stores Twinkies returned to store shelves after Hostess filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late last year. Photograph: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images The return of America's favorite spongy cake and goo, better known as Twinkies, is being marketed as "the sweetest comeback in the history of ever". For whatever reason, Twinkies are one of those items, like the Big Mac, Oscar Mayer wieners and Oreos, that have an iconic status. We know they aren't particualrly good for us. We're not entirely sure what's in them (Twinkies even have something new that extends their shelf life a few more weeks), but most | of us have eaten them at some point. They remind us of childhood when we had deep discussions about the right way to eat the oval-shaped cakes (In one big gulp? Eat the filling out first? Savor every bite?) When Hostess, the parent company that makes Twinkies and other bakery delights, filed for bankruptcy last year and then announced it would shut down in November, people bought out all the Twinkies in stores within hours and boxes started appearing on eBay for astronomical amounts. So it's easy to see why the return of Twinkies this week is generating a lot of fanfare. But there's a sour side to this comeback that's getting lost as millions of boxes Twinkies hit the shelves again: this is also a tale of 18,000 job losses and questionable corporate management. Just ask Erwin Merrill of Westbrook, Maine. Merrill is a former Hostess employee who was laid off when the company closed. He worked there for over a decade, doing everything from mixing cakes to shipping. He has vowed never to eat a Twinkie again: Corporate America just don't care about the little people. The people who actually did the work for them got the short end (or shit end, excuse my French) of the stick. Merrill used to be paid $15.51 an hour with benefits and "enough overtime to take care of the bills". He hasn't been able to find full-time employment since he was laid off. His new job pays $11 an hour, but comes with no insurance since he's only part-time. The plant where he used to work was bought by another company, but he says it has refused to hire the old workers out of fears of employees unionizing. A spokeswoman for the revamped Hostess company said it plans to grow to 1,800 workers soon. To put that another way, Hostess went from over 30 major bakery centers to four, and many of the former workers were not rehired. It hasn't been such a great comeback for many old employees – or taxpayers who picked up the tab for various programs to aid the laid off workers. When Hostess was threatening bankruptcy last year, the headlines centered on the greed of the unions, especially the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, and how they were driving the company into the ground. Like most stories, it's a lot more complex than that. Keep in mind that Hostess had been in and out of re-organizations for about a decade and had filed for bankruptcy before in 2004. Anyone who followed the company even loosely knew that it had failed to evolve its products over the years. By the time the last ditch negotiations with the unions started in 2012, Hostess was offering to pay workers like Merrill less than they had been paid when he started with the company 13 years prior. He recalls the day the CEO showed up at the Maine plant to try to convince the union to take the deal: He comes in an Armani suit and $5,000 Rolex | http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/17/twinkies-hostess-sweetest-comeback-ever-not-quite/print |
HomeAbout UsExpertisePeopleLocationsCareersMore .. Vinaora Nivo SliderVinaora Nivo SliderVinaora Nivo SliderVinaora Nivo SliderVinaora Nivo Slider mod_vvisit_counterThis week780 mod_vvisit_counterThis month2055 Anti-human trafficking program for 2016-2020 released The Prime Minister recently issued Decision No. 2546/QD-TTg, approving the Program on prevention and control of human trafficking during 2016-2020, with the overall goals of reducing human trafficking risk and crime, and effectively receiving, protecting and providing aid to human trafficking victims. A border police officer warns ethnic minority people of human trafficking__Photo: Internet To implement its specific targets, the program proposes five component projects on anti-human trafficking communications; prevention and combat of human trafficking crimes; receipt, verification, protection and provision of aid to human trafficking victims; improvement of the legal system and monitoring the enforcement of anti-human trafficking policies and laws; and international | cooperation in human trafficking prevention and combat. Major solutions and tasks set forth by the program include intensifying the management, direction and inspection by Party Committees at all level and local authorities in the human trafficking prevention and combat; enhancing the state management; improving anti-human trafficking regulations and incorporate anti-human trafficking policies in social development programs and plans; and formulating interdisciplinary cooperation mechanisms for effective implementation of policies and laws on human trafficking prevention and combat. The program will be launched nationwide and in other territories under Vietnamese law and international commitments that Vietnam has made, prioritizing strategic routes and localities, especially provinces bordering on Cambodia, Laos and China.- (VLLF) Source: http://vietnamlawmagazine.vn | http://www.groupcounsel.com/index.php/en/news-a-events/335-anti-human-trafficking-program-for-2016-2020-released.html |
Fri Oct 21 20:31:07 CAT 2016 'I screamed for help for hours, but nobody came' By unknown | Sep 01, 2008 | COMMENTS [ 0 ] Zinhle Mapumulo Zinhle Mapumulo The teenage girl who was allegedly gang-raped in police cells screamed for help for hours but nobody came to her rescue. The four men who allegedly raped her took advantage of the fact that the cops on duty were asleep and the doors thick enough to muffle her screams. In a twist of events, police claim the 19-year-old from Galeshewe in Kimberley is lying. She was never raped in their holding cells, police say. "We never place men and women in the same cells," said police spokesman Tshepo Mofokeng. "If the girl was raped it happened elsewhere before | she was arrested for being drunk." The teenager, on the other hand, is adamant that had it not been for police negligence and arrogance, she would not have been raped. "I asked the policeman if this was not a men's cell because I saw men's clothing hanging on bars. "He said it wasn't and he pushed me inside, saying it made no difference as I looked and acted like a tomboy. He then closed the gate." The teenager said while she was still shocked by the policeman's insults, she heard male voices coming from the other side of the cell. "I went to investigate and found seven men smoking what looked like dagga. One of them was my neighbour. He asked me why I was there. "I told him I was arrested for being drunk," said the teenager. "He then said he had always wanted me to be his girlfriend, and that I should have sex with him. He told me to undress and I refused. His three friends were already standing next to us at that time." "We argued and he started pulling off my jacket and his friends helped him. "He was the first one to rape me. I screamed for help but nobody heard me," she wept. The teenager says that another man tried to stop the four from raping her. But they did not stop. She said when she was released the next day, she reported the incident to the police. She was taken to the Kimberley Hospital for medical treatment and later returned to the police station where she pointed out the four men who had allegedly raped her. She also pointed out the cell where the incident took place. Asked how the teenager was able to point at the cell and insist it was where she was gang-raped, Mofokeng responded: "Cells are all the same, she may have just pointed at any cell." He, however, failed to say if the four men were detained in the same cell or not. "We don't keep records of which cells detainees are placed in. We just have to wait for DNA results," said Mofokeng. The results are expected to be released later this week. The four men appeared in the Kimberley magistrate's court last Monday. Login OR Join up TO COMMENT | http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/sowetan/archive/2008/09/01/i-screamed-for-help-for-hours-but-nobody-came |
The FDA’s recent findings over the popular drug Chantix have some painfully obvious advice for doctors: accepting money and gifts from pharmaceutical companies could cloud judgment when prescribing medication. The FDA’s findings reported that at research sites where Pfizer, Inc. had paid doctors at least $25,000, doctors reported better results for the smoking-cessation drug Chantix. Pfizer asked the FDA to remove certain serious side effects from the Chantix warning label, but instead the FDA discovered dangerous bias. Doctors at Chantix research sites investigated the link between Chantix and suicide, among other behavioral symptoms. Doctors at research sites that accepted payments lower than $25,000 or no payments at all reported 6.4% of patients already diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder experienced side effects, such as anxiety, agitation, hostility, or suicidal | thoughts when taking Chantix. Sites that accepted more than $25,000 only reported 1.8% of patients suffering such symptoms. The difference of 4.6% might not seem like much, but considering the drug can cause suicidal thoughts, this could be difference between life and death. Concerns over the influence pharmaceutical companies have over doctors have been mounting for some time. In 2010, new laws were passed requiring drug manufacturers to report any money paid to doctors for speaking, consulting, or other fees to be recorded to a public database. However, it appears the public reporting hasn’t slowed Pfizer down. Pfizer has a lot to gain if it can get more serious warnings removed from Chantix. Last year alone, the drug brought in $671 million in sales, and lighter warnings could help the drug’s popularity expand even more. Healthcare companies like GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson have paid billions of dollars to resolve charges of illegal marketing and promotion of bad drugs, and Pfizer could find themselves in a similar situation. | https://baddrug.news/news/fda-doctors-money-clouding-judgment/ |
The systems will provide a permanent power source for Sky Sports cameras and microphones at live outside broadcasts, reducing the cost and the time it takes to set up cables before matches. SEC, of Vastern Road, is working closely with outside broadcast company TTL Video to design the systems. John O'Keefe, SEC regional manager, said: "The biggest problem we're likely to come up against is the construction of the grounds themselves. Because they were built at different times, varying construction methods and materials have been used." Almost 20,000 metres of cable will be installed at each ground, including audio-multi-core, single audio, triax, video and power cables. These will be connected to an outside broadcast box at the entrance to the grounds, containing all power, audio and visual inlets. | Mr O'Keefe added: "At Old Trafford, for instance, the box is 250 metres from the stadium itself. This means we will have to dig a 250-metre trench before we even begin to cable the stadium itself." Installation work at Tottemham Hotspur's ground, White Hart Lane, has already been completed. Sky TV camera teams now arrive on a Saturday for a Sunday match to plug in the cameras. Before the new installation they had to come on a Thursday to cable up for a Sunday match. TTL Video director Alan Green said: "As live outside broadcasts have become more complex, cabling up before a match has become more complicated and time-consuming and it becomes more difficult to hide or control the miles of cabling. There are increasing time, cost and safety considerations. "The challenge for SEC and ourselves is to integrate television and football into one smart, unobtrusive installation." | http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/business/skys-no-limit-cable-firm-4275616 |
Trap Karaoke Hits a New Level at Warehouse Live Trap Karaoke is a thing. It’s the kind of thing that unifies 1,200 friends and complete strangers into swaying back and forth to a one-hit wonder from 2009. The kind of thing that combines regionality with crowd approval; a safe haven for anybody who’s rapped a song hard in the mirror thinking they were the artist. There’s fear in stepping onto a Trap Karaoke stage because it’s just you, your song and a host encouraging you to do your best. You breathe, you announce your name and where you’re from and you just let go, let loose. "A user-generated concert experience," Trap Karaoke creator Jason Mowatt said in a conversation days after Trap Karaoke owned Warehouse Live. "I used | to go to festivals and see 20 feet of barricade separate the fans from the artist. The most important element of Trap Karaoke was to bring fans & artists together." Mowatt, an original investor of D.C.'s Trillectro festival didn't see TK as something merely marrying trap music and karaoke. He wanted to give attendees the feeling and aura of being on stage with their favorite artist. To him it preaches intimacy, tying together social media with hashtags, Snapchat filters and the community within a certain venue to create what he calls, "a new paradigm". "A totally new paradigm," he emphasized. "It's like going to church, very community oriented and everyone there to have fun. Warehouse was a little shocked that we packed it out." Friday night, Trap Karaoke’s continued evolution came to Houston as part of their BET Experience tour. Since the event’s initial debut, it has grown in stature with memorable events in Atlanta (Pastor Troy and his trademark WCW Heavyweight Championship Belt made an appearance), Raleigh (Petey Pablo showed up), New Orleans (Mannie Fresh showed up!) Toronto (NBA All-Star Weekend) and Washington D.C. (allegedly, a Obama impersonator arrived and fooled everyone in attendance). There were rumors of potential Houston rappers making appearances (Slim Thug had to bow out at the last minute), jokes about people trying to use the stage as a platform for fledging careers, the feeling that no genre or era of your teenage and college years was off-limits and more. Once it got down to business, host LowKey and DJ Austin Millz knew what they had to do. Well beyond his Howard University radio days, LowKey has managed to cultivate a following. Joking and casual, he twists complete strangers into newfound acquaintances. Even as some TK participants shied at first when grabbing the microphone, Low kept it relaxed. 1,200 people watching karaoke sounds like an unbelievable thing. 1,200 people rapping “Mo City Don” word for word during an intermission probably equals the same high as dunking on somebody with their girlfriend watching. Letting a big dude in Jesse Frazier II rap “Big Pimpin” (a Houston cheat code, if anything) all the way to Pimp C’s verse? Instant high. But it wasn’t even the best performance of the night. A woman clad in a black T-shirt and jeans came onstage during a Wild Card period. She requested "6’7”" by Lil Wayne, one of his first “wait, this dude can still kinda rap his ass off” post-prison songs. Wayne’s fast-paced helium raps from 2011 somehow embodied this woman and she took off, a cappella ripping Wayne’s track to shreds. She received the loudest ovation of the night, even causing LowKey to stop and applaud her efforts. "She killed it," Mowatt exclaimed. "What people don't get about Trap Karaoke is that they think it's a hardcore event or something. 90% of our RSVP's were women!" There were characters at Warehouse Live on Friday night. One blonde-haired man, probably nicknamed Crisco as the Desiigner version of Sisqo, did his best to impersonate R. Kelly and whatever singer of the moment he | https://www.houstonpress.com/music/trap-karaoke-hits-a-new-level-at-warehouse-live-8497327 |
"We have biologically shifted ourselves so we can't fall asleep earlier," said Charles A. Czeisler, a professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School. "The amazing thing is that we are still trying to get up with the chickens." The result is less sleep -- and less time for the body to recover. Routinely getting fewer than eight hours of sleep compromises alertness, reaction time, efficiency, productivity and mood, according to Australia's Sleep Health Foundation. "Sleep is in a battle for our time with work life, social life and family life," said David Hillman, a sleep specialist at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, Western Australia, and the chairman of the Sleep Health Foundation. "For a lot of us, it comes off a poor fourth in that | battle." advertisement | advertise on newsday Modern technology isn't helping. "It's a massive issue, particularly when you talk about technology," said Sarah Loughran, a sleep researcher at the University of Wollongong, south of Sydney. "We're not just talking about mobile phones but iPads, TVs, laptops. A lot of these things are in the bedroom." While the noisy ping of a nocturnal email or text message can interrupt sleep, staring at the gadgets' screen late at night may be more detrimental, according to researcher Czeisler, who is also head of sleep medicine at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. "It's our exposure to artificial light, particularly in the evening between the timing of sunset and when you normally go to bed, that's dramatically changed the timing of our endogenous circadian rhythms," Czeisler said in an interview. advertisement | advertise on newsday "It may be that gradually lowering the light might be more powerful than just shutting them off all at once," Czeisler said. If computers can't be avoided at night, he recommends reducing the screen's blue wavelength light. advertisement | advertise on newsday "We put it up just for some of our friends to try," Herf, 38, said in a telephone interview. "This one kind of took off." "In evolutionary terms, as soon as you have something to which you have to respond, a little blip of adrenaline let's say, you're in a mode that might require a response," said Susan Greenfield, senior research fellow at England's Oxford University, whose interests include the impact of modern technologies on the brain. "You have to put yourself in an environment where you can feel relaxed and safe, where you can go back into your inner world just before you go to sleep." Sleep specialist Russell Rosenberg, who was an adviser on the International Bedroom Poll, offers simple advice: "Relax, turn off the mobile phone and TV, and create a more pleasant bedtime routine." | http://www.newsday.com/business/technology/ipads-smartphones-tvs-rob-americans-of-sleep-harvard-medical-school-scientists-say-1.6763660 |
Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/20/gonzales_calls_for_data_retention/ Gonzales calls for ISP data retention laws How else to catch child porn viewers? Posted in Broadband, 20th September 2006 17:04 GMT The US Attorney General has asked senators to pass a data retention law for telcos and ISPs. Alberto Gonzales told a Senate panel that such a law would help to prosecute child pornographers. Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller have discussed the proposal with ISPs who have considered lengthening their current retention periods on a voluntary basis to avoid legislation. ISPs tend to oppose data retention laws because of the increased cost and responsibility it puts on them. "This is a problem that requires federal legislation," said Gonzales at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee. "We need information. Information helps us make | cases." The Banking Committee was investigating ways of combating child pornography and has also been looking into how co-operation with credit card companies could help, as well as how ISPs could help law enforcement. "We have to find a way for internet service providers to retain information for a period of time so we can go back with a legal process to get them," said Gonzales. Any data retention law would not preserve the content of communications, only logs of email, internet and phone activity. The telecoms companies would keep the data and it could be accessed only by court order in the same way as a physical search. A letter to Congress recently contained the support of 49 state attorneys general for a law mandating data retention. Data retention laws have been passed across Europe and earlier this year a EU Data Retention Directive was passed. Civil liberties groups often oppose the move, though, because the information can be used for other purposes, not just for chasing child pornographers, and because it could leak out of the telcos or government agencies. In Ireland a case has just been launched by TJ McIntyre of Digital Rights Ireland. It believes that the Irish data retention law is unconstitutional and that the EU Directive violates the European Convention on Human Rights. "If we're successful it will strike down the Data Retention Directive and that will invalidate a lot of the data retention laws across Europe," McIntyre told OUT-LAW. "We're hoping that there will be a knock on effect. A ruling on the human rights case would be very persuasive for national courts." Copyright © 2006, OUT-LAW.com OUT-LAW.COM is part of international law firm Pinsent Masons. | http://www.theregister.co.uk/Print/2006/09/20/gonzales_calls_for_data_retention/ |
Kinect-based system dramatically cuts cost of telemedicine February 15, 2013 Kinect Console Microsoft Kinect (credit: Microsoft Corp.) A Kinect game controller and Microsoft software could cut the U.S. healthcare bill by up to $30 billion by allowing physicians and other medics to interact with patients remotely, reducing the number of hospital visits and the associated risk of infection. It could also bring medical services to underserved areas around the world. Janet Bailey of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and Bradley Jensen of Microsoft have developed the Collaboration and Annotation of Medical Images (CAMI) system, which can make the knowledge and skills of healthcare workers available remotely to where they are needed, they say. This could cut patient transport costs for those who live considerable distances from | suitable hospitals and health centers and would also lower the risk of hospital-acquired infections. For a few hundred dollars, CAMI could replace or augment existing telemedicine systems that cost tens of thousands of dollars, the researchers say. CAMI uses a laptop, Kinect, Microsoft Azure connection, and Office 365 (credit: James Taylor) The Kinect also allows doctors to “control the system without breaking the sterile field via hand gestures and voice commands, with a goal of reducing the direct cost of healthcare-associated infections to hospitals and patients,” the team says. In many regions, there is a shortage of specialists at a time when they are needed most, due to growing populations and increasing numbers of individuals suffering from the diseases of old age. The issue of access to expert healthcare is particularly acute in remote parts of the developing world and even in many rural communities removed from U.S. cities in the West. The team has demonstrated that the system works even where only low-bandwidth and unreliable connectivity is available. | http://www.kurzweilai.net/kinect-based-system-dramatically-cuts-cost-of-telemedicine |
Sweden is divided into Tusse, the African refugee who won the Eurovision- Corriere.it competition From our correspondent Paris at the Eurovision competition in Rotterdam, one of the finalists is a nineteen-year-old singer who represents Sweden. Tousin Chiza, stage name Tusse, has been a celebrity in the Scandinavian country since winning the talent show then Melodifestivalen, choosing the Swedish Eurovision candidate. Tusse has a complicated history behind him, in spite of himself, and the fact that he sings for Sweden has sparked controversy on The country that sees the far right grow And populist anti-immigration formations. Tosi was born on January 1, 2002 in Kinshasa, In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at the age of five, his family was forced to leave the village due to armed clashes | between militias. On the trip he lost his parentsHe was taken over by an aunt in a Ugandan refugee camp, where he had lived for three years. I was afraid of wild animals, but the time wasn’t bad. She went to school and started singing in church. My passion for music and singing was born. at 2009 Tossi arrived in Sweden as a refugeeAnd, after a stage at the shelter, he was finally welcomed by a family. In 2015, he discovered that his parents were still alive. He was able to speak again with his father, who lives in Goma, Congo, and his mother, who then disappeared the following year. It was the Swedish adoptive mother who started his music career Surprisingly, by scoring the Swedish talent Talang, he reached the semi-finals, before winning a year after the other talent, Swedish Idol. Tossi now represents Sweden, nearly fifty years after Abba’s victory over Waterloo. Sweden was the best home for me That I can get. I was raised and educated here, and I love the Swedish family who took care of me. I do my best on the Rotterdam theater because My way would be to thank Sweden. READ Confusing Video - Libero Quotidiano The Swedish Tussees live in Tallberg, a small village between a forest and a lake, where is also the headquarters of the Northern Resistance Movement, a neo-Nazi formation. Tosi continued despite the racist insultsLast March, Melodefestivalen won nearly three million votes. But The divided countryAnd if it was for the Swedish Democrats, Jimmy Ackison’s far-right party that wants to break the Swedish tradition of welcoming refugees, Tossi would not only represent Sweden in Eurovision, but he would not reach Scandinavia. May 22, 2021 (Change to May 22, 2021 | 12:36) © Reproduction reserved Please enter your comment! Please enter your name here | https://persiadigest.com/sweden-is-divided-into-tusse-the-african-refugee-who-won-the-eurovision-corriere-it-competition/ |
President Trump described meatpackers’ “liability problems.” Here’s what that could mean for workers. As the country reopens, businesses say they’ll need liability protection. But from what, exactly? Legal experts weigh in. Last week, amid a rash of closures in the major meatpacking sector, and after much public conversation over a full-page newspaper ad taken by Tyson Foods’s chairman proclaiming America’s food supply chain was “breaking,” President Trump issued an executive order to keep meat plants open. The Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law enacted to put control over industrial production into government hands, was the mechanism Trump used to require that packers stay open during the Covid-19 crisis. That’s not particularly unusual: the act has been used on many occasions during Trump’s time in office. What made | it of particular note was the language he used. He told reporters in the Oval Office on April 28 that it would address “liability problems” related to the supply chain, specifically mentioning Tyson Foods. What “liability problems” was he referring to? Well, worker safety for one. As we’ve reported, meatpacking plants have become coronavirus clusters, infecting as many as 5,000 workers industrywide and killing at least 20. But the language in the executive order offered little in the way of further clarity. In the days after the order was issued, pundits savaged the president, saying it was part of a plot to “indemnify corporations in advance” for what might happen to their employees. That is, the companies would be able to avoid being held accountable for exposing their workers to a potentially fatal virus. “For what it’s worth, the ‘liability shield’ language is confusing, and I suspect the reason is strategic.” That vague language, as it turns out, was part of a trend. As states have begun to lift their stay-at-home orders, and restaurants in some regions have clamored to reopen their doors to customers, there’s been a lot of chatter from politicians and business owners about the need for “liability shields.” It’s happening in cities like New York, for instance, where real estate and hospitality interests are pushing for legal immunities that have been afforded to doctors and hospitals. It’s happening in statehouses, thanks to a template bill being circulated by ALEC, the influential conservative legislative group. And it’s happening in Washington, D.C. In the Senate, majority leader Mitch McConnell has demanded business liability protections in the next stimulus bill, citing the prohibitive costs of warding off hundreds of coronavirus-related lawsuits that have already been filed. “This epidemic of lawsuits,” he told reporters, “is going to impact our ability to get back to work.” If you’re confused, you’re not alone. Legal experts contacted by The Counter say that language is deliberately vague—and meant to achieve rhetorical goals as much as legislative. A “liability shield” could be a way to limit employees’ claims for coronavirus-related medical bills. It could be a way to end consumer lawsuits. Or, some say, it could be a Trojan horse for tort reform. “For what it’s worth, the ‘liability shield’ language is confusing, and I suspect the reason is strategic,” said Brad Wendel, a Cornell University law professor. “I think business groups have said, here’s our chance to get some liability protection for businesses under the guise of public health—that we have to do this, otherwise we won’t be able to reopen the economy safely.” According to Wendel, employers are already shielded from their employees, so to speak, in the form of workers’ compensation—a non-judicial insurance system that handles the vast majority of workplace injuries. If employers provide their workers with access to personal protective equipment, and enforce social distancing, then there’s “no way” they’re liable to employees who contract Covid-19 at work. “They don’t need a liability shield,” Wendel said. “They’ve already got one.” The real issue, Wendel thinks, is that there’s no version of that | https://thecounter.org/trump-meatpackers-liability-protection-tort-reform-tyson-covid-19/ |
Whirlwind World Cup awaits Fox's lead voices Strong, Holden (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File) AP Sports Writer The lead broadcasters for Fox's English-language coverage of the World Cup in the United States are starting their Russian adventure in Sochi, where they spent time a year ago calling the Confederations Cup. The teams in their opening game - Portugal and Spain - are well known and have obvious story lines. "I think it's the best job in the world, and now I think about covering the biggest sporting event in the world and my first game being Portugal vs. Spain, that's where it starts to kick in how cool this is," Holden said. The burden isn't directly on Strong and Holden, and ratings are the last thing they're worried about | while in Russia. Their job is to give their broadcasts enough context to satisfy hardcore fans without confusing novices who don't know all the backstories. "If they're hearing our voice, they're already there. But you are acutely aware there are going to be people watching these games that have not watched much soccer in the preceding year, perhaps the preceding four years," Strong said. "There are going to be fans who, as well-known as Cristiano Ronaldo is, haven't followed the saga of his season and the fact that within minutes of his third consecutive Champions League crown is asking out and all of these things. And that's not an American thing. That's true of any broadcaster at this World Cup." Landing the prime broadcasting slot for the World Cup is just part of the rapid rise for Strong and Holden, who are both 32. Strong will celebrate his 33rd birthday later this month in Nizhny Novgorod, where he'll call Argentina vs. Croatia. That's just one stop on a wild ride through Russia for the duo and the rest of their crew. It begins with the Group B showdown between Spain and Portugal and doesn't take a break until the completion of the group stage. The pair will be calling a match, traveling via plane, or both for every day of the group stage. The ambitious start includes Friday's game in Sochi, returning to Moscow to call Argentina vs. Iceland on Saturday, and then heading to Rostov-on-Don for Sunday's match between Brazil and Switzerland. All told, they will see 17 different teams during the group stage. Or as Strong described it, "You're at the stadium but you're filming a Russian remake of `Planes, Trains and Automobiles' with me in the John Candy role." Strong believes the pushback is overblown, noting the many games he's called in the past off a monitor, including the Champions League final last month. He said even when in the stadium he's usually got one eye on the monitor to make sure what he's saying corresponds with what's being shown. "Obviously it is our job, as well as J.P. and Tony's, to make sure we are adding as much as we possibly can, as much of the color and as much of the flavor, and taking as much advantage of it," Strong said. Then there's Telemundo and the challenge being presented by the Spanish-language network broadcasting games in the U.S. Telemundo has been aggressively promoting its telecast, calling it more authentic and taking shots Fox's presentation. Some Telemundo broadcasts will also be livestreamed on NBC Sports Network beginning with Sunday's Brazil-Switzerland match, another encroachment on Fox's territory. "I haven't been paying much attention to it, and I hope when people tune in they enjoy what we have to say and don't change the channel," Holden said. "I have confidence in our own work." Find all of AP's World Cup coverage at https://apnews.com/tag/WorldCup Updated June 14, 2018 | http://hosted.stats.com/ifb/story.asp?i=20180614073755563656208 |
Japan practices amphibious landing in Hawaii KANEOHE BAY, Hawaii (AP) — Japan is practicing storming beaches with the U.S. at the world's largest maritime exercises. Helicopters dropped a reconnaissance team of Japanese soldiers into the ocean off a Hawaii beach during Rim of the Pacific exercises on Tuesday. In particular, it's concerned about uninhabited small islands in the East China Sea that it controls but that China claims. Pacific Forum Executive Director Brad Glosserman says there's fear in Japan that China will attempt to land forces on the islands and Japan will need to repel them. | http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/apexchange/2014/07/30/us--us-japan-amphibious-landing.html |
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Local // Houston Abbott's promise of a 'new lens' clouded by red-meat rhetoric and mistakes AUSTIN - Attorney General Greg Abbott sent some signals early on that he planned to be a different kind of Republican gubernatorial candidate. As he looked toward his announcement, he agreed with a friend who said he expected Abbott to present "a message which is a bit more balanced" than Gov. Rick Perry's. While describing himself as a "rock-solid conservative," Abbott said he has a unique perspective as someone who lives with a disability, married into a Hispanic family whose culture he values and, as a former judge, makes decisions by bringing everyone to the table. "I see Texas from a complete different lens," he said. I'm trying to see that lens, because | Abbott so far hasn't been shy about relying on the red-meat rhetoric we're used to in GOP primaries, and his campaign's insensitive tweets - mistakes or not - have shown something less than the empathy he says he feels for others. He regularly slams President Obama's policies and talks up the state's lawsuits against the federal government as the ultimate "Don't Mess with Texas" move. He says Texas must address challenges in education, transportation and water, speaking largely in generalities while certain of one thing: "We do this not by raising taxes." 'Abortion Barbie' In a campaign video, he described a battle for freedom itself: "It takes warriors to defend freedom, patriots who are willing to step into the fight and secure the freedom that has elevated this nation to unparalleled position in American history." That led to head-shaking from Texas Monthly's Paul Burka, who wrote, "This is a version of Greg Abbott I haven't seen before, one that is tea party all the way." And now there's another eyebrow-raising tweet leaving Abbott's camp open to Democratic charges of being offensive to women, just as Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, prepares to announce whether she'll seek the governorship. His top political adviser, Dave Carney, re-tweeted this headline: "Total Recall in CO (and why Wendy Davis is too Stupid to be Governor)." The article cited the recall of two Colorado Democrats over gun restrictions and attacked Davis on the issue, calling her "even dumber than her fake blonde hair would imply" and "Abortion Barbie," used by some Republicans because of Davis' much-noted filibuster against tighter abortion restrictions. That came after Abbott thanked a Twitter supporter who called Davis "retard Barbie" (he later said he hadn't read that part of the tweet, telling TV station KTBC in Austin that he found the language reprehensible). Abbott doesn't talk exclusively in red-meat sound bites. For example, he has touted his work to help children and women through his office's collection of child support and efforts against crimes like human trafficking. He has yet to sketch out policy proposals in detail, and it's possible they'll reflect the empathy he said his life experience has brought him. Red meat and mistakes But for now, it's red meat and mistakes that are getting attention, at a time when people are just learning what Abbott's like. The tough talk fits into what Rice University political scientist Mark P. Jones calls Republicans' propensity to focus their campaigns on conservative GOP primary voters, because elections in Texas have for so long been decided in the primary. But Abbott will have to keep the general election in mind if Davis runs. He wouldn't lose, given Texas' political landscape, Jones said, but he could be damaged if she does well against him - both in how he'd be viewed as governor and in future contests. "If his image becomes one of an extreme conservative, that could hurt him down the road. For Greg Abbott, it's not going to be enough to win in 2014 ... For Abbott, it's important not only to win, but | https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Abbott-s-promise-of-a-new-lens-clouded-by-4816919.php |
Havana International Jazz Festival Ron Scott | 1/12/2017, 10:33 a.m. The annual International Jazz Plaza de la Habana attracts musicians from around the world. Lazaro Valdes Ron Scott The annual International Jazz Plaza de la Habana attracts musicians from around the world. More importantly, it boosts the history and culture of this Caribbean country that preserves the music as the distinct drum voice sways through the leaves providing a rhythmic flow as the birds sing in flight. Havana is one city where the concept of jazz dying is a mute issue. There are entirely too many young people playing everything from straight ahead jazz to Afro-Cuban jazz, fusion, to a mix of Santeria, Yoruba and Congolese rituals, Sun and hard mambo rhythms, where the conga drum retains a | prominent role. Cuba’s streets have their own unique rhythms that seem to be caught in a time warp. The cobblestone streets set the melody as horses gallop by (working harder than any cab driver). The passengers (school children or mothers with their young children) sit in the covered wagon, hiding from the midday sun. They bounce and swing to the gallop, a thumping flow vibrating from century-old cobble stones. Shhhh… listen! Their conversational sounds represent the musical form of guajira, evoking a rural ambience, countryside lyrics that rhyme like poetry. The bread man called out with a blues cadence, advertising bread for sale, as he walked neighborhood streets with the basket sitting on his shoulder, like in 1930s Harlem, when the iceman or the watermelon man called out with that same soul cadence. The festival’s opening gala performance was sold out. The locals and tourists were all crowded together like anxious farmed salmon waiting to rush the state-of-the-art Teatro Mella. The largest venue of the festival, with a capacity of more than 1,500, had people sitting in the aisles and standing in the rear of the auditorium. The all-star line-up featured native son pianist, composer, arranger and multi-Grammy winner Chucho Valdes, the trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard, the bassist/bandleader Christian McBride and his trio and special guest vocalist Omara Portuondo. The native Cuban, age 86, is the original vocalist of the Buena Vista Social Club project, which she has been working with since 1996. Portuondo began singing with her sisters in the popular group, Cuarteto d’Aida, in the early 1950s. On her introduction, she received a rousing standing ovation and flowers were presented to her. The grand lady of Cuba, known for singing boleros, sang a touching ballad and romped through a song with Chucho’s quartet’s spirited Cubana jazz inflictions. She was inspired to dance, showing off some steps from her days as a dancer in Havana’s Tropicana Club in 1950. Chucho, whose career spans more than five decades, has earned international status, like his father, the pianist, composer and arranger Bebo Valdes, who died in 2013. Chucho played a variety of songs, from mambos to Afro-Cuban rhythms and a few tempered with a folklorish African beat. He was later joined by Blanchard and McBride, which connected the links of the days when Dizzy Gillespie was onstage with the Cuban bandleader/composer Mario Bauza and percussionist Chano Pozo. Blanchard later joined the Christian McBride Trio in performing their version of “Blue Monk” and “Caravan,” the extended Afro-Cuban version. | http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2017/jan/12/havana-international-jazz-festival/ |
Idris Elba jokes about flattering crotch shots | Daily Star Idris Elba jokes about flattering crotch shots Actor IDRIS ELBA has laughed off speculation about the size of his manhood, blaming a microphone wire in his pants for creating the big bulge he was photographed with while filming in London. The Thor star's crotch became a hot topic among fans online this week (ends08Aug14) after images obtained by WENN, depicting Elba on the set of his upcoming movie A Hundred Streets, went viral. In the snaps, the actor is featured walking down a street in a tight-fitted tailored blue suit, which appeared to suggest he was well endowed. However, Elba has since taken to his blog to calm the fan frenzy, admitting the bulge in his pants was | not actually his penis. In a post on Saturday (09Aug14), he wrote, "The good news is i got a s**tload of (new Twitter) followers. The bad news is, that is a mic wire. #egowentintospaceshipmodethough (sic)". He then joked about landing a modelling gig as a result of the headline-grabbing photos, adding, "Calvin Klein called my mobile, they want me in their next campaign. Foot long john's Coming Winter 2014." | https://www.dailystar.co.uk/gossip/393739/Idris-Elba-jokes-about-flattering-crotch-shots |
British PM: Tottenham Soccer Fans Can Call Themselves 'Yids' Hate speech should be prosecuted only when it's motivated by hate, says David Cameron. British Prime Minister David Cameron says that London's Tottenham Hotspur fans should be allowed to use the word "Yid" in their chants because they are not motivated by hate. Tottenham, which has a strong Jewish fan base, has been targeted by anti-Semitic insults for years and the club's supporters use the word "Yid" to describe themselves. But the Football Association has recently warned Spurs fans that they could be prosecuted if they continue to use the term. During a Premier League match on Yom Kippur, Spurs fans, who call themselves the "Yid Army," chanted “We’re Tottenham Hotspur, we’ll sing what we want” and applauded team | stars with the chant “Yiddo.” Cameron told The Jewish Chronicle that "there's a difference between Spurs fans self-describing themselves as Yids and someone calling someone a Yid as an insult. You have to be motivated by hate. Hate speech should be prosecuted - but only when it's motivated by hate." | https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/british-pm-yid-soccer-fans-is-ok-1.5336273 |
The state teachers' union wants lawmakers to approve legislation that would increase state aid to school districts for the coming school year. A staffer for the Iowa State Education Association told senators at a subcommittee meeting Wednesday that one rural district would likely have to layoff teachers if lawmakers don't increase aid to schools. Democratic lawmakers have proposed a 4 percent increase in state support to school districts, putting them in conflict with Gov. Terry Branstad. The governor is pushing for passage of changes to Iowa's education system before considering state aid. The Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to vote on their school funding plan next week. Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House say they will take up the governor's plan first, or at the same time as school funding. | http://www.news8000.com/schools/Iowa-teachers-union-seeks-school-funding-boost/18260172 |
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NASA Finds Starfleet Insignia on Mars Landscape and Mark Hamill and William Shatner Trade Tweets NASA HiRISE has found something that Star Trek fans should be able to appreciate. On Twitter, they shared a picture of some dune footprints in Hellas Planitia on Mars that look like the Starfleet insignia. They even make a joke about it in the tweet. If you go to their website, they even explain how these dunes are formed: Long ago, there were large crescent-shaped (barchan) dunes that moved across this area, and at some point, there was an eruption. The lava flowed out over the plain and around the dunes, but not over them. The lava solidified, but these dunes still stuck up like islands. However, they were still just dunes, and | the wind continued to blow. Eventually, the sand piles that were the dunes migrated away, leaving these “footprints” in the lava plain. These are also called “dune casts” and record the presence of dunes that were surrounded by lava. I think this is fantastic and I absolutely love it. However, it should be noted that all of this is nothing more than a coincidence. Mark Hamill and William Shatner also had an amusing little exchange of words regarding this image on Twitter which you can read below: GeekTyrant Homepage | https://geektyrant.com/news/nasa-finds-starfleet-insignia-on-mars-landscape-and-mark-hamill-and-william-shatner-trade-tweets |
FREEPORT - A student-centric education model Freeport school leaders have been discussing for more than a year continued to draw questions Monday. The Freeport School District is considering Personalized Mastery, a teaching approach championed by Superintendent Roberta Selleck that emphasizes individual, rather than group, learning. School Board members Abbe Hayner and Billy Shroyer voiced concerns in November about not having enough information to be able to vote as a board to adopt the mastery portion of the model. Personalized Mastery involves dividing subjects like reading and math into smaller units that the students have to master before moving on to the next level. Selleck has said students who have trouble will receive more one-on-one instruction while those who excel can advance. She spoke Monday about getting students engaged | in their own learning: "We need to hold the kids accountable to competency. How can we reach the children? It all comes down to what we can do to meet our needs and our student's needs." This would also mean no more passing students along to the next grade level when they don't have the foundation to build on. Selleck believes the current system allows some students to fail, and she wants that to change. Shroyer asked how Personalized Mastery would be paid for. "There doesn't have to be an additional cost. It's about the reallocation of funds," Selleck replied. "No program has been identified for elimination, but all programs should always be re-evaluated or restructured." Hayner said: "I have heard some of the teachers are not ready. They are overwhelmed with the Common Core Standards. Are they ready to do this?" Justin Yeager, president of the Freeport Education Association, said he's heard concerns from teachers about how well the mastery plan will work at all grade levels. Yeager said union members do not have enough information to feel comfortable with the district adopting such an approach. "We are in favor of the student accountability, but the teachers want to know more," Yeager said. "We are interested in Personalized Mastery, but our concern is how it will be implemented. "The association and the administration want to work together. It will be a tough switch, but it does come down to accountability. Yes, we do need to put it back onto the student." For Patrick Hardy, assistant superintendent of curriculum, "Personalized Mastery is a mind-set, and this isn't about changing the curriculum. It's about grading and promotions." What's next The School Board plans to discuss Personalized Mastery tonight but isn't likely to vote on it. The meeting begins at 7 o'clock at the Administration Building, 501 E. South St. Jane Lethlean; jlethlean; @achates86 | http://www.journalstandard.com/article/20131216/NEWS/131219539/10289/twitter.com/achates86 |
Rise of the zombie airport: How ghost hubs are brought back to life Story highlights • Many abandoned, or 'ghost' airports, are finding new uses. • Ciudad Real Central Airport was used in the backdrop of Pedro Almodóvar's film, 'I'm So Excited'. • Malmö, Sweden's Bulltofta Airport has been converted into park space. • Old U.S. airports in Denver and Austin have been turned into housing complexes. Though Ciudad Real Central Airport sits just 150 miles south of Spain's capital, Madrid, the bankrupt complex is a desolate stretch of concrete. In happier times, it was an expensive symbol of Spain's thriving economy and optimism for the future. Now, it serves as a reminder of the country's financial failings. "The construction of an airport like this, and of other | places that are completely worthless; there were a lot of them -- is responsible for the crisis," director Pedro Almodóvar told Slate. Almodóvar is one of several people who have since found a use for the airport, which shut down April last year. He shot his latest film, "I'm So Excited", on the empty runways. Almodóvar shot at night. During the day, Lexus Spain used the site to show off their latest model to journalists. "There are 4.5 kilometers of unused runway -- it's basically the longest in Europe," says Jose Antonio Galve, the PR Manager for Lexus Spain. What is the future of aviation? What is the future of aviation? What is the future of aviation? What is the future of aviation? 06:57 How do planes work? How do planes work? How do planes work? How do planes work? 02:59 See an airport checkpoint of the future See an airport checkpoint of the future See an airport checkpoint of the future See an airport checkpoint of the future 03:27 "When you're on it, it's strange, because there's no sensation of it being a road, and you have no sense of when it will end. It appealed to us because it was a very different experience." There is little chance that the airport will recover its investment; it cost $1.3 billion to build, and though not in use, it continues to incur maintenance costs. "Although having that kind of surface would be great for racing, how much are you going to make to justify the cost of acquiring that much land?" asks Angela Gittens, the director general of Airports Council International. Likely, says Gittens, the owners are simply biding their time until they sell it, piecemeal. "Typically, there's not a whole lot of instances where someone comes along and buys the whole property," says Gittens. "The facilities, or set of facilities, don't lend themselves to other uses." At Berlin Bradenburg Willy Brandt Airport, the $5.7 billion travel hub that has yet to open, tourists can tour the empty grounds via bus or bike. According to the airport's spokesman Lars Wagner, its opening has been stalled because of problems with the fire protection system. An airport tour now, he says, gives visitors an opportunity to walk areas that, once opened, will be cordoned off. Mainly, though, he hints it's a chance to market the airport while it waits to open. Situated on the fringes of one of Hong Kong's most densely populated areas, the city's Kai Tak International Airport was renowned as one of the most exciting to land at. Replaced in 1998 by Chek Lap Kok airport (built on a purpose-made island to the west of the city) the Kai Tak site lay largely unused until construction began in 2009 to convert the runway into a new cruise ship terminal. The first ship docked at the site in June and is set to welcome more regular visitors from October. Some former hubs have reinvented themselves for good. In Malmö, Sweden, Bulltofta Airport was converted into a park and entertainment complex. Though one | http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/29/travel/rise-of-zombie-airport/index.html?hpt=ibu_mid |
Although cancer is sometimes referred to as a modern disease, that's actually not the case. In fact, an international team of researchers have just discovered that a fossil of a 69-million-year-old species of hadrosaur — a duck-billed dinosaur — has evidence of a large tumor on its face, reports The Washington Post. The find is actually the first evidence ever uncovered of a facial tumor on a fossil. Interestingly, the growth has been classified as an ameloblastoma, which is a type of tumor that afflicts humans and other animals today. The good news for this lucky dino is that ameloblastomas are benign, though the tumor may have been rather cumbersome. "The discovery of an ameloblastoma in a duck-billed dinosaur documents that we have more in common with dinosaurs | than previously realized," said Bruce Rothschild, lead researcher on the study. This specimen, a Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus, was a smaller critter by dinosaur standards, and it occupied land in what is today Romania. Hadrosaurs are sometimes referred to as "the cows of the Cretaceous" because of their voracious vegetarian appetites. In fact, this dinosaur's favorite food was conifers, which are known to be carcinogenic. So it's possible that its diet is what caused the tumor, though it's impossible to know for sure. Researchers made the diagnosis thanks to advanced micro-CT scanners that allowed them to peek inside the creature's jawbone without cutting it open. Though the tumor was benign, it may have caused painful swelling that could have affected the animal's breathing. The ailment probably wasn't serious enough to cause the dinosaur's death, but the disfigurement might have made it a target for predators. "The tumor in this dinosaur had not developed to its full extent at the moment it died, but it could have indirectly contributed to its early demise," explained Zoltán Csiki-Sava, who led the field expedition that uncovered the fossil. | http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/duck-billed-dinosaur-had-tumor-its-face |
FORT STEWART -President Barack Obama on Friday launched an offensive against diploma mills that lure military personnel, veterans and their families. Obama outlined an array of deceptive practices by schools eager for a cut of the billions of dollars in federal educational subsidies for such people. "It's not right," the president told an audience of more than 10,000 - mostly soldiers. "They're trying to swindle and hoodwink you. He stood with his back to a giant American flag, a powder-blue sky and the white columns and red brick of 3rd Infantry Division headquarters. First lady Michelle Obama was at his side. His 16-minute speech, which unveiled a crackdown against unscrupulous for-profit career colleges, was interrupted by applause more than a dozen times. Before describing measures in an executive | order he signed afterward, he described an abuse cited by The White House on Thursday. "One of the worst examples," he said, his voice rising with anger, " ... is a college recruiter who had the nerve to visit a barracks at Camp Lejeune and enroll Marines with brain injuries - just for the money." "These Marines had injuries so severe some of them couldn't recall what courses the recruiter had signed them up for. That's appalling. That's disgraceful. It should never happen in America." But he said deception often starts when service members, vets or family members scroll the web for schools, find a site that looks official, and enter contact data. "Almost immediately," he said "your phone starts ringing. Your inbox starts filling up. You've never been more popular in your life." "But ... sometimes you're dealing with folks who aren't interested in helping you," he said. "They're not interested in helping you find the best program. They are interested in getting the money. They don't care about you; they care about the cash." Echoing what some of his top aides said Thursday, the president said many schools do a good job and deliver on their promises. But he said some tell students they won't have to pay for courses and then make them borrow at high interest rates, or tout job-placement programs that never materialize. And others, he added, falsely assure students their credits can be transferred. "The executive order I'm about to sign," he said, "will make life a whole lot more secure for you and your families and our veterans - and a whole lot tougher for those who try to prey on you." The first prong of the order requires schools pitching programs to such people to provide more accurate and clearer information about their qualifications and financial aid programs. "You'll be able to get a simple fact sheet called "Know Before You Owe,'" Obama said. " ... And it will lay out all the information that you need to make your own choices about how best to pay for college." The second prong requires such schools to provide more counseling. "If you've got to move because of a deployment or a reassignment," he said, "they've got to help you come up with a plan so that you can still get your degree." Next, the president said, the order will "strengthen the rules about who can come on post and talk to service members." Lastly, he said, "we're going to make it a lot easier for all of you to file complaints and for us to take action when somebody is not acting right." The order directs the Department of Education, the Veterans Administration, and the Department of Defense to set up a centralized complaint system. Obama's remarks drew praise from state legislators who attended the mid-day event. "I was inspired and motivated by the president's message," said state Sen. Lester Jackson, D-Savannah. "I think he is on the right track and doing the right thing. People are being scammed, bamboozled and just plain being used." | http://www.savannahnow.com/news/2012-04-27/president-barack-obama-cracks-down-diploma-mills-woo-military-fort-stewart |
Baltimore police not meeting terms of legal settlement, ACLU says Nearly 20 percent of arrests made by Baltimore police for low-level, "quality-of-life" crimes haven't been properly documented, according to a new audit that a civil liberties group says understates the agency's shortcomings in meeting terms of a legal settlement. Independent auditor Charles Wellford, a University of Maryland criminologist, sampled about 1,100 arrests from April to December 2011 and found that 17 percent of reports written by officers did not support a finding of probable cause. Wellford, appointed as part of a 2010 settlement in a lawsuit over the agency's "zero-tolerance" policies, said the agency was making progress despite falling short of overall goals. The audit included arrests in which police approached someone for a minor offense — such | as loitering or trespassing — and found a more serious infraction, such as drugs or a weapon. The American Civil Liberties Union, a plaintiff in the original lawsuit, said Monday that if those arrests were not included, the number of cases in which officers did not provide proper documentation increases to 35 percent. And it noted that records from another 230 expunged cases, in which the arrestee was released without charges, were not made available to the auditor. The ACLU accused the agency of attempting to skew the numbers and of violating the settlement by withholding records. "The ACLU insisted on an independent auditor because we were worried that the Baltimore Police Department would not live up to its settlement obligations in the absence of oversight," David Rocah, staff attorney for the ACLU of Maryland, said in a statement. "The first status report shows that our skepticism was well placed, and demonstrates a police department that is not making a good faith or effective effort to correct its wrongdoing." Wellford disagreed with the civil liberties group's conclusions, saying he believed the department is trying in good faith to comply. In most cases where he determined the officers' reports weren't in compliance, Wellford said, the officers had not explained why they didn't pursue alternatives to an arrest, such as "counseling," verbal warnings, and written citations. "For the most part, they're stating probable cause for the arrest, but not stating as to why an alternative wasn't considered," said Wellford, who submitted the audit Monday. "It doesn't mean they didn't do it, it just means it wasn't stated in the report." Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi referred questions to the agency's chief legal counsel, Mark Grimes, who did not return messages. The ACLU and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People filed the lawsuit in 2006 on behalf of 14 people who alleged that their arrests indicated a pattern in which thousands of people were routinely arrested without probable cause during the tenure of then-Mayor Martin O'Malley. As part of the $870,000 settlement, the Police Department, under CommissionerFrederick H. Bealefeld III, formally said it was rejecting "zero-tolerance policing." It agreed to institute training and new directives to avoid low-level arrests when possible. The number of arrests since then has plummeted — since 2005, when a peak of about 110,000 people were arrested, the number has declined to about 50,000 last year. Last year alone, the number of people who were arrested and released without charges declined by about 70 percent from the previous year, according to preliminary police statistics. Reacting to Wellford's first report, the ACLU said it believes that the records withheld on those arrested and released without charges greatly skews the overall picture and had led in part to the lawsuit "in the first place." Prosecutors tend to decline to charge in cases where the statement of probable cause is insufficient, meaning that leaving such records out of the review would eliminate a large number of cases that were not properly handled, Rocah said. The police department has also failed to implement | http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/breaking/bs-md-ci-aclu-settlement-police-20120430-story.html |
LG disappointed with Windows Phone 7 launch visibility LG Electronics thinks Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone 7 is a great fit for a certain part of the smartphone market--but the company has been underwhelmed by the response to the platform so far, a senior LG marketing executive said. AT&T sells the Windows Phone 7-powered LG Quantum for $99 with a rebate and two-year contract."From an industry perspective we had a high expectation, but from a consumer point of view the visibility is less than we expected," James Choi, marketing strategy and planning team director for LG Electronics, told Pocket-lint. Windows Phone 7 devices from LG, Samsung and HTC went on sale in Europe and the Asia Pacific region Oct. 21 and in the United States and Canada Nov. 8. | Microsoft said in late December that Windows Phone 7 licensees shipped a combined 1.5 million Windows Phone 7-powered gadgets to carriers during the first six weeks of the platform's availability. However, the figure represented phones on store shelves and not phones sold to end users. "LG has been closely collaborating with Microsoft from the beginning," Choi said. "What we feel is that it is absolutely perfect for a huge segment out there. What we feel is that some people believe that some operating systems, mainly Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), are extremely complicated for them. But Windows Phone 7 is very intuitive and easy to use." Despite the lackluster response, Choi said LG is still committed to seeing Windows Phone 7 grow. He said having a balanced smartphone portfolio is crucial. "From a vendor perspective, having that balance is critical, being dependent on one OS is not beneficial for us. That's the same with not just the manufacturers, but the operators as well," Choi said. "There is a need and demand from the operators saying there is too much Android in the portfolio. In that sense, LG always tries to balance our portfolio, and that's not just in sense of hardware but OSs as well." Microsoft expects to release Windows Phone 7 in several major international markets in the second half of the year as part of an effort to broaden the platform's reach. Greg Sullivan, senior product manager for Windows Phone, recently told FierceWireless that Microsoft will add language support for simplified Chinese, Russian, Portuguese for Brazil, Japanese and Korean in the second half of the year. For more: - see this Pocket-lint article Related Articles: Microsoft plans major overseas Windows Phone push for second half Microsoft: 1.5M Windows Phone 7 devices shipped in 6 weeks Was the Windows Phone 7 launch a success? Microsoft kicks off Windows Phone 7 sales Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 7, partners with AT&T and T-Mobile | http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/lg-disappointed-windows-phone-7-launch-visibility/2011-01-14 |
Pulse.ng logo Finance 'WE WERE WRONG:' Netflix pops after Deutsche Bank upgrades the stock (NFLX) • Published: Deutsche Bank says it overestimated the impact of negative cash flow at the streaming giant. Netflix stock price play Netflix stock price (Markets Insider) Shares of Netflix surged more than 3%, as high as $317.80, Friday morning after Deutsche Bank reversed course on the stock, upgrading it to buy. "We've liked the secular growth story for some time, but have always struggled with valuation given what we saw as much higher investment levels (relative to the market's expectations) required to grow the international business," analyst Bryan Kraft said in a note to clients Friday. "We had underestimated the market's willingness to underwrite several years of negative FCF to drive growth. We | were wrong about that, but it's more or less irrelevant now." Deutsche Bank has upped its price target for the stock to $350, roughly 10% above where shares were trading Friday morning. It's a steep departure from other Wall Street analysts, who have a bearish average target of $297 for the stock as they worry about continuing cash burn. One of Netflix's biggest pessimists, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter, told Business Insider earlier this week that Netflix investors were "oblivious" to the company's ballooning debt. He has a target price less than a third of Deutsche Bank's. Instead of a burden, Deutsche Bank sees the $8 billion Netflix plans to spend on 700 original shows this year as a way to further set itself apart from competition like Hulu, HBO, Amazon, and others. "Netflix has changed the economics of content production by leveraging a global DTC revenue base and, in doing so, has changed the strategic direction for the rest of the industry, pushing them to follow Netflix's lead, not knowing whether or not they'll succeed," Kelly writes. "Netflix continues to capitalize on this lead by reinvesting in content, marketing, and the user experience; which is growing subscribers and making it more of a magnet for talent, further extending the company's lead." Netflix has easily outpaced its big tech company peers in the so-called FAANG group in 2018 so far, rising 56%. The closest competitor, Amazon, is up just 22% in the same period. The company is scheduled to report earnings results for the first quarter on Monday April 16 after markets close. | https://www.pulse.ng/bi/finance/we-were-wrong-netflix-pops-after-deutsche-bank-upgrades-the-stock-nflx-id8250512.html |
Spike Lee Offers First Glimpse of 'Chiraq' | NBC Connecticut Spike Lee Offers First Glimpse of 'Chiraq' The first glimpse into Spike Lee's film "Chiraq" was revealed to the public Tuesday as the official trailer was released. Punctuated by the sound of gunshots, the trailer confirms the film's focus on gun violence in Chicago. It opens with a narrator saying, "Homicides in Chicago, Illinois, have surpassed the death toll of American Special Forces in Iraq," followed by the proclamation, "Welcome to Chiraq." The film is set to be released on Dec. 4 in select theaters, according to an Instagram post from Lee on Friday. During the filming and the days leading up to the film's release, Lee offered few details about the plot or nature of the film. | A May report from Screen Daily, however, claimed "Chiraq" would be a reimagined production of the ancient Greek comedy "Lysistrata," a story in women withhold sexual privileges to try to stop the Peloponnesian War. Clips in the "Chiraq" trailer appear to confirm this report. The movie was filmed in Chicago over the summer with many Chicagoans standing in as extras. It features several stars, including Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson, Teyonah Parris, Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack, who appears to be a priest and activist, according to a shot in the trailer. "Chiraq" is a slang term some use to compare America's third largest city to a war zone because of its violent crime. Its use as the name of the film was criticized heavily by some politicians, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who said it denigrates residents of Englewood and surrounding areas, where much of the movie was filmed. Lee tried to quell the onslaught of criticism in May by telling Chicagoans to "see it first" before they offer negative comments. "A lot of things have been said about this film, by people who know nothing about the film" Lee said in a past news conference. "A lot of people have opinions about the so-called title of the film. Again, they know nothing about the film." The film, released by Amazon Studios, is the first-ever Amazon Original Movie. The company said the movie could be Lee's "greatest, and definitely his boldest, film yet." | http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/watch-trailer-for-spike-lees-chiraq-chicago-violence-339892022.html |
Gill, Saxena Star as India A Take Control Against South Africa A Shubhman Gill and Jalej Saxena strengthened India A’s grip over South Africa A in the first unofficial Test being played at Thiruvananthapuram. Resuming at 129/2, hosts lost Ankit Bawne early as Marco Jansen (2/39) struck for visitors. However, Gill continued his fine form and looked set for a ton before off-spinner Dan Piedt (3/84) removed the skipper for 90. Wicket-keeper KS Bharat looked good for his 33 but then India A lost wickets in a heap and were reduced to 199/7. Paceman Lutho Sipamala (2/46) removed Bharat and K.Gowtham in the same over. All-rounder Shivam Dube didn’t last long either as Lungi Ngidi struck but just when it seemed South Africa A would fight back into | the game, Saxena and Shardul Thakur stitched together a 100-run partnership for the eighth wicket. Saxena struck 11 boundaries while Thakur provided good support and made a solid 34. Ngidi then came back to dismiss Thakur as Saxena ran out of partners at the other and remained unbeaten on 61. With a 139-run trail, South Africa A needed a solid start to have any hope of fighting back. However, Indian pacers struck early as Siraj and Thakur sent back the Pieter Malan and Aiden Markram for just 4. Zubayr Hamza then played a vital hand, scoring 44 before the Indian spinners got into action. Shahbhaz Nadeem (2/13) struck twice to send back Khayelihle Zondo and Senuran Muthusamy. Just when it seemed Hamza had found a partner in Heinrich Klassen, Gowtham struck for India A as Hamza edged one through to the keeper. Klassen stayed unbeaten on 35 but South Africa A were reduced to 125/5 at stumps and face an uphill task of staying in the game. | https://qualitysportsnews.com/gill-saxena-star-as-india-a-take-control-against-south-africa-a/ |
Man lays dead in his home for a month unnoticed By: Tanya Malhotra A young man was found dead in his home, and according to reports was dead for more than a month before neighbors realized that something was wrong, Police in Ireland said in a statement. The newly discovered male body, who was the father of two children in Wexford, may have gone unnoticed up to a month. The remains of 49-year-old Philip Knight, an estranged father, were discovered on Monday night, when residents expressed concern that he had not been seen for some time. Police discovered his body after they broke down the door to his two-story house located in the Charlton Hill Estate in New Ross, Wexford. The man's decomposed remains were discovered on the | platform at the top of the stairs. The father was often seen coming and going, and he used to spend two or three weeks away from home. The surrounding residents of the development had reported a foul smell coming from the house. "He was very secretive. He had some relatives in England, so it was not unusual for him to be away for a couple of weeks and back again. This is why nobody in the area was suspicious after he was not seen in a while," a neighbor said. A police spokesperson said that his body was taken to Waterford Regional Hospital, for a postmortem examination. "This will determine the nature of the investigation, but at this point, there is nothing to suggest foul play was involved," the police spokesperson said. | http://www.breakingworldnewstoday.com/2014/11/12-b3219.html |
Subscribe to Mic Daily We’ll send you a rundown of the top five stories every day Republican nominee Donald Trump has a shaky record when it comes to his views on reproductive rights. Before his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump once identified as "very pro-choice," but throughout his candidacy has gone so far as to endorse "some form of punishment" for those who have abortions. At Wednesday night's debate, though, Trump made at least one thing plain: He hasn't the faintest idea of what an abortion entails. Trump exposed this blind spot when he attempted to justify his support for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision guaranteeing the right to abortion, with a graphic — and inaccurate — description of the procedure. "In the | ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby," Trump said, going on to claim this horrific act can happen even on the "final day." Donald Trump at the third and final presidential debateSource: David Goldman/AP Donald Trump at the third and final presidential debate David Goldman/AP But he's got it wrong. While Trump grossly distorted the way any abortion is performed, he particularly misrepresented the experiences of people who receive them later in pregnancy. "These statements are so far away from medical fact it's hard to interpret what he could have meant," Dr. Diane Horvath-Cosper, an obstetrician and gynecologist in the Baltimore-D.C. region, said Thursday. "I think people say those kinds of extreme things to incite fear and anger when, in reality, every person who needs an abortion later in pregnancy has a unique set of circumstances that need to be taken on a case-by-case basis," she said. Horvath-Cosper explained that most "late-term abortions" — a colloquial term people commonly use to describe abortions 20 or more weeks into a pregnancy — occur under extreme circumstances in which either the pregnant person's or the fetus' life is in jeopardy. Because the fetus' development kicks into high gear in the second trimester, it's typically around this time a doctor might discover a serious problem. Such was the devastation of Judy Nicastro when she was pregnant with twins five years ago. At the 20-week mark, Nicastro's doctors delivered news that one fetus, who they called "Baby A," had only developed one lung, which was at 20% capacity. The fetus also had a severely herniated diaphragm, meaning the organs would eventually migrate upward through a gaping hole in the diaphragm. "The likelihood of him living was very slim," Nicastro said over the phone. "If he were to survive, he would spend the rest of his life on machines." Nicastro and her husband were faced with not one, but many, difficult choices. And it wasn't just Baby A's life hanging in the balance — the expectant parents had to think of his twin's wellbeing too. A second-trimester abortion would entail aborting Baby A in the womb. Nicastro would have to carry the terminated fetus, which doctors said her body could reject at any point, causing her to go into premature labor. Going into premature labor could mean the difference between life and death for her healthy twin. Hoping to ensure that at least one of the twins would live, Nicastro wondered about a third-trimester abortion. In addition to guaranteeing a safer delivery for the healthy fetus, Nicastro and her husband reasoned that this option would also reduce the suffering Baby A would endure. She asked her doctor if she could carry both to term and terminate Baby A at the end of the pregnancy, in utero, while he was comfortable in her womb, rather than gasping for air and dying on the delivery table. The doctor informed her that, in the state of Washington, third-trimester abortions are illegal. | https://mic.com/articles/157325/let-these-women-not-donald-trump-tell-you-what-late-term-abortions-are-really-like |
• French Open, Day 11 Nadal's half-century and Murray's man-boobs ESPN staff June 6, 2012 Murray punished by Ferrer Nadal marches on Sharapova storms into semis Day 11 Gallery Half ton Rafa Rafael Nadal celebrated his 50th victory at Roland Garros with a straight sets win over Nicolas Almagro - taking his record at the French Open to an astonishing 50 wins from 51 matches - that 2009 defeat to Robin Soderling the only blemish on an otherwise perfect record. Another half-century also beckons - if Nadal wins the opening two sets in his semi-final against David Ferrer, he will have won 50 consecutive sets on the red clay. What goes around comes around We're big fans of karma at ESPN.co.uk, and having seen Almagro have a lucky | break against Nadal, we knew it wouldn't be long before it came back to bite him. Playing the whole rally on the back foot, Almagro's scrambled return bobbled off the top of the net and snuck over, but the very next point, he inexplicably netted a smash at the net. Murray's moobs Andy Murray may have bowed out with defeat to Ferrer, but he did not go down without a fight. As an increasingly frustrated Murray saw the match slip from his grasp, he was heckled by a spectator. Rather than ignore the man in the crowd, Murray defended his corner: "I'm trying my tits off man." Ten for originality, Andy. Rain stop play Murray looked to be back on track after winning the second set on a tiebreak and grabbing an early break in the third set against Ferrer, only for his progress to be halted by a brief rain shower. Play was only suspended for a few minutes, but when the players reemerged, Ferrer broke back before steaming through the third set, and then the fourth. History evades Shvedova No qualifier has ever reached the semi-finals of the French Open, but Yaroslava Shvedova came agonisingly close to making history on Wednesday. Leading 4-2 in the final set, the world No. 142 was eventually beaten 3-6 6-2 6-4 by fourth seed Petra Kvitova. Having come through three qualifiers, the Kazakh had already won seven matches - the number most players have to win to get their hands on the trophy. You've been framed Having saved one match point, Kaia Kanepi was desperately trying to stave off defeat in her match against Maria Sharapova. But defeat beckoned, and she mis-hit her return, the ball cannoning off the frame of the racket and rocketing up in the air. Not a nice way for anyone to lose a match. © ESPN Sports Media Ltd. | http://en.espn.co.uk/tennis/sport/story/154119.html |
Page last updated at 15:29 GMT, Monday, 7 December 2009 Wales' first minister's last year Rhodri Morgan, Wales' outgoing first minister, has been filmed during his last year in office for a special programme on BBC One Wales by Gareth Jones. BBC Wales cameras followed Rhodri Morgan for his final year as first minister My first outing with the Welsh Labour leader, in September last year, was pure Rhodri. There we were on a flight to Louisville, Kentucky for the prestigious Ryder Cup golf tournament. From my seat in economy, I could see him up ahead, reading James Joyce's fiendishly difficult novel, Ulysses. And wearing the scruffiest pair of jeans I have ever seen in business class… The man who's led the Welsh Assembly Government for nearly 10 | years has no time for the modern obsession with image. His advisers, though, would have loved him to have given it a bit more thought, especially when trying to boost Wales' standing abroad. On arrival at Louisville airport, his battered old suitcase actually began to fall apart as his welcoming party helped him get it into the waiting limo. There were other moments like that which illustrated the Rhodri Morgan package. It's a sometimes disconcerting disregard for what's expected of him, combined with a formidable focus on his twin passions: Welsh jobs and sport. Rhodri Morgan celebrating his 70 birthday Rhodri Morgan celebrated his 70th birthday in September It seems to have worked. He's leaving office with popularity ratings that other politicians would kill for. Both at home and abroad I watched him astound people with his grasp of economic detail or some obscure sporting statistic. His trip to Kentucky may have started badly, but at times he clearly impressed his hosts. I filmed him telling Americans far more than they apparently knew about their own country. In Washington last July, during the biggest overseas trade mission Wales has ever mounted, the first minister greeted many of the visiting Welsh delegates by first name. He often knew what their company did and what deals they were there to do. And because of his famous lack of formality, they all felt comfortable approaching him for a quick word. Over a year or so I was only able to record a tiny fraction of the hundreds of speeches, briefings and decisions that make up the demands of the job. Rhodri Morgan often worked a 14-hour day and showed no signs of flagging. Not bad for someone who's now 70 and who had heart treatment two years ago. His successor takes over from him this week. He will have a tough act to follow in terms of sheer intellectual energy and passion for promoting Wales. He should, however, be able to improve on the trousers and baggage. Rhodri Morgan: Portrait of a First Minister is on BBC One Wales on Monday at 2235 GMT. Print Sponsor Portrait of a First Minister 07 Dec 09 | TV and Radio Morgan's "fuzzy" childhood 08 Dec 09 | TV and Radio Jones is new Welsh Labour leader 01 Dec 09 | Wales politics Morgan is stepping down as leader 01 Oct 09 | Wales politics Tributes to 'great Welsh leader' 01 Oct 09 | Wales politics The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites The Independent Dominic Lawson: Roll up, roll up for the great Copenhagen emissions-fest - 11 hrs ago Has China's housing bubble burst? How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit Sign in BBC navigation Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8399133.stm |
Edition: U.S. / Global Congress Gets Serious On the Capital Gains Tax Published: September 10, 1989 ONE of President Bush's favorite ideas, to cut the capital gains tax, has been transformed this summer from long shot to near certainty. But what form it will take is not at all certain as Congress sets out to decide how to restore a tax preference that was abolished in the tax overhaul legislation of 1986. To do this, legislators will have to overcome a lingering reluctance to tamper with the rewritten tax code - in the process undermining the goal of eliminating loopholes - and resist the temptation to reduce a fiendishly complex subject to rhetorical oversimplification grounded in class warfare. The 1986 legislation was itself a compromise. Along with abolishing | the special rate on profits from the sale of stock and other assets - which for 65 years had been lower than the rate on other income - the new law cut overall tax rates, to the current maximum of 33 percent. But now the Republicans argue that restoring the capital gains preference would stimulate the economy by encouraging investment and raising revenue. Those who oppose the cut say that it amounts to tax relief for the wealthy, and that in any event it would cause a revenue drain in the long term. Little is known about the impact of changing the levy on capital gains. The budget, the economy and various groups of taxpayers would all be affected in largely unpredictable ways, various analysts say. One reason is that taxpayers can exercise a large degree of control over when, if ever, they pay a capital gains tax. The sale of assets that have risen in value can in most cases be accelerated or postponed at will, and tax liability can be avoided entirely if the assets are passed along at death to the next generation. Another reason for uncertainty is the volume of potential sales. At the end of 1987, Americans held an estimated $4 trillion of unrealized capital gains, about half in stocks and bonds and half in real estate. Securities values have since risen an additional $750 billion. On Verge of Victory Nonetheless, President Bush, whose campaign pitch for capital gains reduction seemed so unrealistic at the time, is on the verge of a victory that the Administration asserts will provide broad economic gains. ''It's likely to lead to increased entrepreneurial activity, investment, risk-taking and long-range economic growth,'' Michael J. Boskin, the President's chief economic adviser, said last week. He sees these putative benefits as ''swamping'' any loss of revenue or other possible disadvantages. The political breakthrough came in late July, when six of the 23 Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee joined the 13 Republicans to form a majority favoring a rate cut. This forced the chairman, Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois, to devise his own relief plan. Most Democrats still say capital-gains reduction is ''effectively a tax break for the wealthy paid for by the middle class,'' as the Senate Majority Leader, George J. Mitchell, put it last week. Republicans say everybody benefits from a strengthened economy and insist that taxation of the rich and taxation of a certain form of income are different issues. It has become clear, in fact, that many ordinary people do have sizable, though perhaps occasional, capital gains. This may help account for the liberal Democrats' inability to bury the idea. Yet Republicans cannot offer much proof that a rate cut is good policy. It is generally agreed that a straightforward tax-rate cut will raise money for the treasury in the first year or two as people rush to take profits, but nobody can predict what it would do to revenue over the longer term, as the stock market, inflation and other factors would affect decisions about cashing in gains. There | http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/10/weekinreview/congress-gets-serious-on-the-capital-gains-tax.html?src=pm |
Glasgow & West Scotland Serial rapist given life sentence for Coatbridge attacks Gerard Porteous Image copyright CIARAN DONNELLY Image caption Gerard Porteous had previously been jailed for 12 years for a string of other attacks A serial rapist has been given a life sentence after one of his victims came forward after learning from a news report that he had abused other women. Gerard Porteous targeted the woman in the late 1980s and 90s. She came forward to report the assaults in 2016. Jurors heard this was after the woman saw a report about him being jailed for 12 years for other sex attacks. He has now been given a lifelong restriction order after being convicted of assault, rape and indecent assault. This followed a trial last year | when the High Court in Glasgow heard how he attacked the woman while they were alone at his home in 1990. The case had been adjourned for a risk assessment to be carried out. Attacked another woman The court heard that Porteous regularly abused the woman at a house in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, between 1987 and 1993. A witness described hearing the distressed woman "screeching" so loud, it was thought to have come from an animal. The woman was also seen "crying, in a state" with a swollen mouth. A friend tried to help her escape Porteous by taking her away disguised in glasses and a coat but she was seen by him and attacked again. Years later, the woman went to police after seeing "something in the news in 2016" about Porteous. This was after he was locked up for raping and abusing a number of women between 1994 and 2013. An investigation found that Porteous had also attacked another woman at the house in Coatbridge after she had gone to visit the victim, who was not in. Porteous sexually assaulted her while they were alone. 'You can go now' Prosecutor Steven Borthwick said: "Porteous did not say a word. He instead grabbed her and pushed her face against a wall." The woman recalled how she was "numb" and "terrified". Mr Borthwick told jurors: "After he was finished, he spat in her face and said: 'Aye, you can go now'." Porteous, formerly of Paisley, Renfrewshire, had denied the allegations. He claimed any sex with the first woman was consensual and insisted nothing happened with the other victim. Lord Mulholland told Porteous he must serve at least six years behind bars. He added: "You have been convicted of serious crimes of violence and rape. "This involved two victims and you subjected them to horrific ordeals. "This [six-year sentence] is the minimum period and should not be thought as reflecting my view of when you should be released." Related Topics More on this story | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-50503192 |
Series of failures led to BP rig blast The timeline described in the documents provides the most detailed account of what may have caused the April 20 blast that killed 11 workers and touched off the underwater gusher that has poured more than 3 million gallons of crude into the Gulf. Portions of the interviews, two written and one taped, were read to an Associated Press reporter by Robert Bea, a University of California Berkeley engineering professor who serves on a National Academy of Engineering panel on oil pipeline safety and worked for BP PLC as a risk assessment consultant during the 1990s. He received them from industry friends seeking his expert opinion. Seven BP executives were on board the Deepwater Horizon rig celebrating the projects safety record, | according to the transcripts. Meanwhile, far below, the rig was being converted from an exploration well to a production well. As the workers removed pressure from the drilling column and introduced heat to set the cement seal around the wellhead, the chemical reaction created a gas bubble and the cement around the pipe destabilized, according to the interviews. Deep beneath the seafloor, methane gas is in a slushy, crystalline form. But as the bubble rose up the drill column from the high-pressure environs of the deep to the less pressurized shallows, it intensified and grew, breaking through the rigs various safety barriers, the interviews said. A small bubble becomes a really big bubble, Bea said. So the expanding bubble becomes like a cannon shooting the gas into your face. Up on the rig, the first thing workers noticed was the seawater in the drill column suddenly shooting back out at them, rocketing 240 feet in the air. Then, the gas surfaced. Then the oil. What we had learned when I worked as a drill rig laborer was swoosh, boom, run, Bea said. The swoosh is the gas, boom is the explosion and run is what you better be doing. Thats where the first explosion happened, said Bea, who worked for Shell Oil in the 1960s during the last big northern Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout. The mud room was next to the quarters where the party was. Then there was a series of explosions that subsequently ignited the oil that was coming from below. The executives were injured but survived. Nine rig crew on the rig floor and two engineers died, according to one account. The furniture and walls trapped some and broke some bones but they managed to get in the life boats with assistance from others, said the transcript. The reports made the 73-year-old industry veteran cry. It sure as hell is painful, he said. Tears of frustration and anger. | https://nypost.com/2010/05/08/series-of-failures-led-to-bp-rig-blast/ |
Is Instagram your go-to photo app on that trusty Android handset? If so, you're about see a improved performance with a new look. The filter-powered social snapshot software has been updated with a more polished UI that "feels native and at home on any Android device." This means simplified (read: flat) design elements are used throughout and the app is faster and more responsive all the way around, on larger gadgets and smaller feature phones too. The difference is immediately visible in the main navigation bar across the bottom. Some controls have been shuffled around, but the outfit promises the changes are in the interest of maximum usability, making the app "faster, cleaner and easier to use than ever." If your Android device doesn't alert you to update | the app, mosey over to the Google Play store today and snag it. | http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/11/instagram-for-andoird-update/ |
Sports // Astros Astros' ability to get two-strike hits causing fits for Red Sox in ALDS Pitch-recognition skills, deep lineup have given Astros noticeable edge against adversary on way to 2-0 lead Two strikes? No problem for the Astros through the first two games of their best-of-five American League Division Series with Boston. A batter typically is most disadvantaged with two strikes. He is less likely to see a good pitch to hit, extend the at-bat or increase his contact percentage. His chances of being productive dwindle. The Red Sox, who have twice lost 8-2 in the series, have discovered that the Astros are atypical. Boston players and manager John Farrell acknowledged the Astros finished the regular season leading the majors in every significant offensive category. The Astros | scored more (5.53 runs per game) and struck out less (17.3 percent) than any other team. They also led with a .596 OPS in two-strike counts. In the ALDS, Red Sox pitchers have lost leverage in counts that should favor them considerably. The Astros are batting .263 (10-for-38) with two strikes. Three of those hits came after the batter went down 0-2, including the first of Jose Altuve's three home runs in Game 1. By showing less stress and more relentlessness, the Astros seem to have psyched out the Red Sox before Game 3 begins Sunday. "Any mistake that we've made in these past two games, they've made us pay," Red Sox starter Drew Pomeranz said after completing only two innings in Game 2. Added Red Sox right fielder Mookie Betts: "We can't go out and bang like them. We can't go out and do a whole lot of things that they can do." "We haven't done anything right," Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. Whole greater than parts The Astros' hitters could put up impressive numbers were they another team, but their combined talents have formed a juggernaut because manager A.J. Hinch and his staff have indoctrinating a unified approach for lineups: recognize pitches headed out of the strike zone, do not chase them and force the pitcher to throw something more hittable. "I keep getting asked about 2015 to '16 to '17 and how the improvement in the offensive production's come, and some of that is hitters getting better," said Hinch, who is in his third year as Astros manager. Hinch mentioned the progress of second-year third baseman Alex Bregman, former Cuban star Yuli Gurriel and backup catcher Evan Gattis. This trio often is not lauded like the franchise's superstar core, but each player punished the Red Sox with two-strike hits. Bregman jump-started the Astros's 8-2 win in Game 1 with a homer on Chris Sale's boomerang slider. He later let three of Sale's changeups sail low-and-away for balls. Sale got ahead 0-2 on Gattis. Gattis then laid off sliders headed for his back foot until he swung one that stayed a bit higher, around his knees. Gattis hammered the pitch off the left-field wall for a double. Gurriel worked a 10-pitch at-bat against reliever Austin Maddox that ended with a single off a hanging changeup. "If you can control the strike zone, you can make good decisions on what to swing at," Hinch said. "That's the key. And it's really hard to do at this level. It's not that simple as just saying, 'Hey, swing at strikes and take the balls.' That's cool when you're young and in little league and there's not as elite pitching. But for us, we work really hard at pitch selection and recognizing the pitches that we want to swing at that we can do damage at. "Some of that is swinging at strikes and taking the balls. Some of it is taking strikes. You have to take some really, really tough strikes that you could normally put in play, but you're not | https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/astros/article/Astros-ability-to-get-two-strike-hits-causing-12261225.php |
WESTFORD -- The last hurrah of Bishop Guertin tennis star Briana Leonard's stellar varsity career was especially loud, and has been resonating for far too long, stretching well beyond New Hampshire's borders for all the wrong reasons. There's no telling when the echo will die down, silencing critics regarding the commotion caused by the senior from Westford's decision to abruptly end her final high school match after the completion of the first set. No Published Caption Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our MyCapture site. After falling behind, 1-0, in the best-of-three sets championship match of the NHIAA Girls Individual Tournament last week, Leonard, who never lost a dual meet singles or doubles match during the two seasons she played at Bishop Guertin, left the court | and went home with her parents, citing injuries sustained from a fall during the match as the reason for retiring early. However, the fan base at the title match was very much in favor of Leonard's opponent, Bow High senior Sunday Swett. The excessive crowd noise/cheering against Leonard made for a very tough environment to play in, according to her parents, Tim and Kristin. The fans didn't show any sympathy when she fell, scraping both knees and injuring/spraining a left wrist she broke several years ago, making it difficult to strike shots. The Leonards also feel tournament officials didn't go out of their way to aid Briana, who was visibly upset and hurting after she fell, nor did they try to quiet the crowd. According to the Leonards, a trainer at the tourney did give Briana some bandages to put on the scrapes on her knees. This combination of factors was why Leonard left the match when she did. Leonard was the No. 1 seed in the tourney, and Swett was the No. 2 seed. Swett, who won the first set, 6-4, was declared the state champion after Leonard's departure. Briana Leonard was part of four state championship tennis teams, but her high school career ended in controversy. SUN/DAVID H. BROWSun staff photos can Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our MyCapture site. Prior to last week, Leonard had compiled a 4-0 record against Swett, including a straight-set win in an NHIAA tourney quarterfinal last spring. "You just want to be treated fairly on the court," said Kristin Leonard. "Briana has played in lots of USTA and high school matches with big crowds and never experienced anything like this. "We go to a match and we mind our own business. We say thank you at the end of the tournament. My daughter is there to play tennis. We did what we felt was in Briana's best interest." Prior to the state final, Leonard played a semifinal match against her Bishop Guertin teammate, Jennifer Dai. According to the Leonards, Briana arrived one minute late for the scheduled 3:30 p.m. start time for her semifinal after being stuck in traffic. Because she was late, tournament officials docked Leonard a point and loss of service. Leonard defeated Dai, 6-1, 6-4. According to an NHIAA rule produced by the Leonards, there is a 15-minute default rule from the posted start time, but nothing else. After Swett won the first set of the finals, officials decided to shift the match to another court at the same venue for better sunlight. It was during the switch in courts that Kristin Leonard approached Briana at the fence and they went to the car before leaving. "It wasn't the ending to my high school career I had hoped for, but I really enjoyed playing tennis at Bishop Guertin," said Briana Leonard, a three-star recruit who will attend Bryant University on a tennis scholarship. "Overall it was a good experience, definitely. I'm glad I was able to help the team win. Winning team titles last year and this year | http://www.lowellsun.com/sports/ci_23472185/fantastic-run-ends-controversial-walk |
[an error occurred while processing this directive] BBC News watch One-Minute World News Last Updated: Thursday, 7 June 2007, 09:57 GMT 10:57 UK Tracey Emin gets personal in Venice By Rebecca Jones BBC arts correspondent in Venice Tracey Emin Emin is only the second woman to represent the UK at the Biennale Tracey Emin is running late. That's normal. There's always a reason. This time it's because her private jet has been delayed. Last week she was late because her airline lost all her luggage on a flight to Venice, where she is representing the UK at the world's longest-running international art exhibition, the Venice Biennale. When she finally arrives at the British Pavilion, situated in the city's public gardens, she's a curious mix of the fearless and | the fragile. "What do you think of the exhibition?," she asks, before adding: "I'm really happy with the show." Like so much of Emin's work, it's intensely personal. For the first time, she's showing a series of drawings she made about being sexually abused when she was nine - as well as 27 watercolours about her abortion in 1990. People see me as a loudmouth, a bull in a china shop Tracey Emin "I wanted to show the work that really means something to me," she says. "It's probably going to be the most important show of my life. "It's not every day you represent your country doing what you've been working at for 25 years." Yet Emin was not the British Council's unanimous choice to be the country's art ambassador at this year's Venice Biennale. She doesn't care, though, and she isn't surprised. Tracey Emin's After My Abortion Emin's exhibition includes a series of paintings about her abortion "I thought I'd be too edgy, I thought I was too risky," she admits. "I've really let myself down so often in loads of ways. I don't mean with my art, but with my moods and my wildness. "People see me as a loudmouth, a bull in a china shop. "Often at the Venice Biennale, countries tend to show their big 'wow' stuff, in a big wow kind of way. "And I can be a big wow kind of person if I want to, but I decided to be as intimate as possible." 24 hours later Emin has switched to party mode. It's VIP day at the Biennale and the star of the show is wearing a low-cut blouse with a black and yellow satin bra underneath. Tracey Emin's Bed Emin's most famous work is her unmade bed She welcomes celebrity guests, including Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish. Viscount Linley and the model Naomi Campbell arrive minutes later. And today is just the start - this week will be a hectic round of lunches, dinners, parties and interviews. But after it's all over and the art circus has moved on, Emin plans to remain in Venice to look at other people's exhibitions. "I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone else is doing. "That's when it's exciting." In pictures: Venice Biennale 2007 07 Jun 07 | In Pictures Emin art show planned for Venice 25 Aug 06 | Entertainment The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Has China's housing bubble burst? How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6729747.stm |
Major's Pratfall The wrangle over allowing Austria, Finland, Norway, and Sweden to join the European Union has turned into another setback for British Prime Minister John Major. He blocked the entry for two weeks because it would dilute British veto power over workers' rights and other social measures he opposes. But he ended up getting only minor concessions. Now, his standing is even lower in Britain, and some members of Parliament from his own Conservative Party are openly calling for his resignation. Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/1994-04-10/majors-pratfall |
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BBC News watch One-Minute World News Last Updated: Friday, 21 March 2008, 01:03 GMT Archbishop performs feet washing Archbishop of Canterbury performing feet-washing ceremony The feet-washing ceremony was reinstated after 400 years The Archbishop of Canterbury has taken part in the ancient Maundy Thursday ceremony of feet washing. Dr Rowan Williams washed the feet of 12 members of the congregation during the evening Canterbury Cathedral service. The ritual represents Jesus's washing of his disciples' feet at the Last Supper as a gesture of humility. The feet-washing ceremony at Canterbury was reinstated in 2003 following a move away from symbolic ceremonies since the Reformation in the 16th Century. Easter celebration Dr Williams was assisted by the Very Reverend Robert Willis, who suggested the restoration of the ceremony. Canterbury Cathedral | spokesman Christopher Robinson said: "It is a symbol of humility that all Christians are there to serve other people and it also marks the start of the three days leading up to the celebration of Easter." In 2003, the feet-washing ceremony was performed by an Archbishop of Canterbury for the first time in 400 years. Maundy Thursday feet washing was performed by monarchs until James II, but in the 18th Century the Archbishop of York did it on their behalf. Historic first for Maundy service 20 Mar 08 | Northern Ireland The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Has China's housing bubble burst? How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7308084.stm |
Do chimps go through midlife crises too? According to a new study, our closest biological relatives experience an emotional lull in middle age, much like we humans do Sigh. Midlife can feel bleak for chimps too, only they can't perk themselves up with extravagant gifts. The question: Because of a phenomenon widely known as the midlife crisis, men of a certain vintage, for reasons still not entirely understood, sometimes feel compelled to blow their life savings on things like a Porsche. Evidence of the often wallet-breaking condition has been found "in many datasets across human cultures," Alex Weiss, a psychologist at Edinburgh University, tells The Guardian. While the existential burden may help finance the sports car industry, its exact origin still remains a mystery. To get a better | understanding of the origins of the midlife crisis, an international team of researchers from the U.S., Japan, Germany, and the U.K. tested whether apes, our closest living relatives, faced similar demons as they aged. How it was tested: Using the U-shaped curve of happiness that humans experience over their lifetimes — a sense of well-being in youth that dips to a low in 50s age range and picks up again afterwards — as a basis, researchers looked at more than 500 chimps and orangutans of varying ages from different zoos, sanctuaries, and research centers from all over the world to see if the same happiness curve could be applied. The apes were chosen because they had similar genetics, physiology, social pressures, and stress factors. Scientists catalogued each animal numerically, rating each ape's well-being and happiness levels by asking their keepers a series of questions about the animal's behavior. The outcome: Apes experience a similar "lull in happiness" in their middle-age years, says Ian Sample at The Guardian. In captivity, great apes often live to 50 or more, and the animals often posted the lowest well-being scores around age 30. What experts say: Researcher Dr. Alexander Weiss, a primatologist and evolutionary psychologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, says that like humans, middle-age chimps and orangutans experience more anxiety and less pleasure than their younger peers, and aren't as successful at getting what they want. "You'd probably see it in their posture." Senior author Andrew Oswald said the results make "one's head spin." Whether the changes are hormonal, related to brain structure, or due to other factors will need to be investigated in future studies. The positive takeaway, says Oswald, who describes himself as "58 and very happily accelerating," is that all humans are designed to suffer a similar low before things get inevitably better. In other words: A midlife crisis is "completely normal," and it's "apparently out of your control." Subscribe to the Week | http://theweek.com/article/index/236656/do-chimps-go-through-midlife-crises-too |
Bills being proposed for the upcoming special session of the Wyoming Legislature would attempt to ban employers from being able to fire workers for not being vaccinated against COVID-19. Among the bills aiming to do that is House Bill 101House Bill 104, and House Bill 106. Several other bills in both houses attempt to limit the rights of employers to fire or coerce employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and further such legislation could be proposed before the session convenes on Tuesday. Supporters of such legislation say it is needed to protect the rights of individuals to make their own medical decisions. They also say such a law is needed to push back on the Biden administration's vaccine mandate. That mandate, which has not yet been formally released | by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will require either vaccinations or negative COVID test results for employees of the federal government, companies with over 100 employees, and front-line health care, workers. Opponents argue that it interferes with a business owner's right to run their business as they see fit. They see it as government interference in private business decisions. Some opponents also argue that such legislation would deviate from Wyoming's tradition of "at-will'' employment, which allows businesses to fire people without having to provide a reason for doing so. Wyoming has traditionally limited interference in the workplace other than some safety regulations in some industries. Answers to 25 common COVID-19 vaccine questions | https://wakeupwyo.com/poll-should-wyoming-businesses-be-able-to-require-covid-shots/ |
Japan lifts Covid-19 state of emergency, eyes new stimulus package Japan is ending its Covid-19 state of emergency after a drop in infection numbers, and is considering a stimulus package worth more than $900 billion. The government earlier ended restrictions on economic activity in 42 of the country’s 47 prefectures, and has now opened up the remaining five regions, including Tokyo. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said: “We did not enforce restrictions with punitive measures, but we have been able to bring the outbreak under control in just a month and a half.” “I would like to say that we were able to show the strength of the Japanese model,” he added. Also on rt.com Japan lifts coronavirus-related state of emergency in most regions, Tokyo not included The country | had been in a state of emergency since April 7. To cope with the financial downturn, the government is now pushing for a new stimulus package, worth around 100 trillion yen ($926 billion). A new budget is also expected to be announced, including subsidies to help companies pay rent and salaries. The pandemic has triggered a recession in Japan, which some analysts are predicting will be the worst since World War II. Questions have been raised over the government’s handling of the crisis, with Abe’s approval rating slipping below 30 percent. Also on rt.com Is that Big Brother behind the medical mask? Bill Gates to co-fund South Korean research of next-gen quarantine methods Despite ending the state of emergency, Abe has urged the public to continue wearing masks, maintain social distancing, and work from home if possible. The government is also outlining a transitional period, in which infection numbers will be reassessed every three weeks. In the meantime, music venues and gyms remain closed due to the high risk of infection. Japan has so far registered 17,200 cases of the coronavirus, with 853 deaths and 13,413 recoveries. Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! Dear readers and commenters, RT Team. | https://www.rt.com/news/489684-japan-covid19-pandemic-emergency/ |
Gojira Reveal Title, Release Date for New Album By Pauline France April 9, 2012 French metallers Gojira announced L’Enfant Sauvage as the name of their new album, due June 26. The band’s frontman, Joe Duplantier, recently talked to Noisecreep about the album’s title, which translates to “The Wild Child.” “When you become a musician, you don’t have a boss telling you what to do so you have to be very responsible,” Duplantier said. “With freedom comes responsibility, so I’m asking myself, ‘What is freedom? What does it mean to me?’ L’Enfant Sauvage reflects on that. There’s no answer though. There’s just life and questions.” The track listing for L’Enfant Sauvage is below: 1. Explosia 2. L’Enfant Sauvage 3. The Axe 4. Liquid Fire 5. The Wild Healer 6. | Planned Obsolescence 7. Mouth Of Kala 8. The Gift Of Guilt 9. Pain Is A Master 10. Born In Winter 11. The Fall Visit Gojira’s website here for more info. | https://blog.jacksonguitars.com/gojira-reveal-title-release-date-for-new-album/ |
Hall of Famer Buddy Jeannette, Bullets player-coach, dies at 80 He won pro championship with Baltimore in '48 Pro Basketball March 12, 1998|By FROM STAFF REPORTS Buddy Jeannette, a former Baltimore Bullets player-coach and member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, died yesterday in Nashua, N.H. He was 80. Jeannette had been in ill health and suffered a stroke recently. Harry "Buddy" Jeannette spent nine seasons between 1946 and 1967 in Baltimore as a player, coach and general manager of the Bullets. He played pro basketball in a much different era from today's multimillion-dollar contracts. Jeannette was lured to Baltimore in 1946 by making what was then a large salary demand. "I told [Bullets owner Jake] Embry, 'I'll come to Baltimore if you make me player-coach and pay | me $15,000,' which was just about the highest salary back then," Jeannette recalled in 1994. "I was kind of shocked when Embry said OK." And it wasn't exactly glamorous to play in those days. "The basketball record doesn't show it, but I once played for a team called the Cleveland White Horses in 1942," Jeannette said. "I guess the team's biggest claim to fame was the beautiful white stallion it had as its mascot. "Before the game, they'd parade him around the arena. Unfortunately, he wasn't housebroken, and the games never started on time." When he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994, Jeannette was asked to compare himself to modern players. Jeannette said he was a point guard before the position had a name. He was a 5-foot-11 passer who averaged double figures in points three times in 12 professional seasons (1938 to 1950). At the induction, Jeannette said he had recently been shown an old newspaper article about a game in which he scored 27 points. He had no memory of it. "Twenty-seven points from me?" Jeannette said. "The other team must have quit." Jeannette, a native of New Kensington, Pa., who played collegiately at Washington & Jefferson, had the distinction of playing on six championship teams in four different cities and in three different pro leagues, including the 1948 Bullets title as a player-coach. He also was MVP four times in two leagues. Jeannette won his first title in 1941 with the Detroit Eagles of the National Basketball League. In 1943, he was the floor leader for the champion Sheboygan Redskins and played the same role for the Fort Wayne Pistons in 1944 and 1945. He won his first title with the Bullets in 1947, when they were still part of the barnstorming American League. A year later, the Bullets shifted to the Basketball Association of America, forerunner to the NBA, and brought Baltimore another championship. "Jeannette was a winner, period," Lester Harrison, owner of the Rochester Royals and himself a Hall of Fame member, once said. "Wherever he played, he brought tremendous enthusiasm for the game." Embry once recalled a particularly clutch performance by Jeannette during the team's playoff run to the 1948 title. "With two minutes left, New York led by eight points," Embry said. "But Buddy Jeannette stole the ball three times from Carl Braun -- Braun had that high dribble -- and Buddy went down and scored." Paul "The Bear" Hoffman, a rookie forward on that championship team, said: "We owe that title to Buddy." His coaching career with the original Bullets ended in 1951. Jeannette returned as coach of the modern-day Bullets in the 1964-65 season. He then became GM and was instrumental in drafting Earl Monroe. At Jeannette's own Hall of Fame induction, he said: "The grandchildren got me cable television, and I sit on the couch and watch games. I still love the game." Pub Date: 3/12/98 Baltimore Sun Articles | http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1998-03-12/sports/1998071107_1_jeannette-bullets-hall-of-fame |
Skip to navigation | Skip to content How will the Square Kilometre Array telescope work? Why do we need such a big telescope? What will it look like? How will it be built? How will it handle the data? Artist's impression of dishes that will make up the SKA radio telescope. (Source: Swinburne Astronomy Productions/SKA Program Development Office) The Square Kilometre Array Telescope (SKA) will delve further into the Universe than ever before, produce more data about the cosmos than modern-day computers can handle, and shift the focus of radio astronomy from the 'dish' to silicon. In essence, what we are seeing is the evolution of telescopes away from the concrete and steel that forms the antennas and into the world of supercomputing, says Professor Brian Boyle, CSIRO's | SKA director. "The supercomputer is as much a part of the telescope as is the antenna. "In the 1960s you built really big dishes to take all the data, now you put all your effort into the silicon brains behind it," Boyle says. An array telescope is composed of lots of different antennas connected to a supercomputer via a super-fast fibre optic network. "So in the SKA's case we're talking 3000 antennas over a minimum distance of 3000 kilometres. "All that data is transported from the SKA at speeds of 400 terabits per second across the continent — that's about ten times greater than global internet traffic today. "Then it's processed by a super computer capable of doing one million, million, million operations per second — about one hundred times faster than the world's fastest super computer today," says Boyle. Scientists hope that by delving deeper into space than ever before they will be able to investigate fundamental questions about the universe, such as the evolution of galaxies, dark energy and cosmic magnetism, and probe the earliest stars and black holes. ^ to top What will the telescope look like? Australia's bid for the telescope (see box below) will see 3000 antennas spread across Australia and New Zealand. "The distance between the telescopes gives you the resolution the telescopes can see. "The bigger the baseline the more fine detail you can see. So the baseline is 3000 kilometres at wavelengths we're talking about here you get to see features about 10 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope, says Boyle. The Australasian bid covers a distance of 5000 kilometres on an east-west axis. "East to west follows the rotation of the Earth — that allows us to do higher quality imaging over a larger area of sky," says Boyle. The SKA will use three kinds of antennas: • Parabolic dishes around 12–15 metres in diameter, which collect data in frequencies of 1–20 gigahertz. These dishes can be rotated and will collect data on gravity, cosmic magnetism and life in the universe. • Sparse (low frequency) aperture arrays, which look a bit like TV/radio antenna, are fixed antenna that collect data in frequencies of 70–300 megahertz. They will be used to research the earliest stars to evolve in the Universe. • Dense (mid frequency) aperture arrays, which are touching dipole arrays lying on, or under, the ground. These antennas collect data in the 300 megahertz to 1 gigahertz range and will be used to study the evolution of the cosmos. When it is finished, half the 3000 antennas will be concentrated within a 5 kilometre zone centred on the Murchison Radio Astronomy Observatory, a remote location in Western Australia. Seventy-five per cent of the antennas will be located in clumps within 180 kilometres of this central point, then another 25 stations will reach out across the continent and into New Zealand. ^ to top Building big The project is big, ambitious, and will grow in stages, says Boyle. "The scale is so immense and the technological challenges are so immense that part of | http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/02/14/3430265.htm |
1. ITV Report Family set free after being held captive for five years by Taliban-linked group Caitlan Coleman and her husband Joshua Boyle had three children in captivity. An American woman, her Canadian husband and their three young children have been freed by a network with ties to the Taliban after being held hostage for five years. Pakistan secured the release of Caitlan Coleman and her husband, Joshua Boyle. Mrs Coleman was pregnant when they were abducted while traveling in Afghanistan in 2012. The couple had their three children while being held by the Haqqani network. The Pakistani Army said it had “recovered five Western hostages including one Canadian, his US national wife and their three children from terrorist custody through an intelligence-based operation by Pakistan troops and | intelligence agencies”. “All hostages were recovered safe and sound and are being repatriated to the country of their origin,” the Pakistani military said in a statement. The family were taken into the custody of officials from the US Embassy in Pakistan. But a US official reportedly told NBC News that Mr Boyle had refused to get on the C-130 plane sent by the US to return the family to the US. It was not immediately clear why they rejected the transportation. The couple set off in the summer 2012 for a journey that took them to Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. Mrs Coleman’s parents last heard from their son-in-law on October 8, 2012, from an internet cafe in what Mr Boyle described as an “unsafe” part of Afghanistan. In 2013, the couple appeared in two videos asking the US government to free them from the Taliban. President Donald Trump said the US government had worked with Pakistani officials to secure their release and that it was "a positive moment for our country's relationship with Pakistan". | http://www.itv.com/news/2017-10-12/family-set-free-after-being-held-captive-for-five-years-by-taliban-linked-group/ |
Tengrinews TV Радио Tengri FM Радио Жұлдыз FM Laws of Kazakhstan искать через Tengrinews.kz искать через Google искать через Yandex USD / KZT - 314.40 EUR / KZT - 343.83 CNY / KZT - 45.60 RUB / KZT - 5.51 Migrants storm re-opened Budapest train station 03 september 2015, 15:11 Several hundred migrants stormed into Budapest's main international train station early Thursday after police re-opened it following a two-day standoff, an AFP reporter said. The main entrance was re-opened around 08:15 am (0615 GMT) and migrants burst in, rushing towards a standing train on one of the platforms, the AFP reporter said. In scenes of utter chaos, with the police seemingly entirely absent, hundreds tried to get on board the train, pushing, shoving and fighting with each other | to get on. A public announcement said however that no trains for western Europe would be leaving the Keleti station "for an indefinite period". "In the interests of rail travel security the company has decide that until further notice, direct train services from Budapest to western Europe will not be in service," Hungarian Railways said in a statement. Hungary is a key arrival point for tens of thousands of migrants entering the European Union, with some 50,000 entering the country in August alone. On Monday, Hungary allowed several thousand to board trains bound for Austria and Germany but the following day Keleti station was closed to anyone without an EU passport or a valid visa. The move left around 2,000 men, women and children stranded around the station or in the underground "transit zone", a makeshift refugee camp beneath the station where thousands have been sheltering on blankets in cramped conditions, looked after only by Hungarian volunteers. Over the past two days there have been a number of demonstrations by several hundred of the migrants chanting "Germany! Germany!" and tense standoffs with riot police as well as a number of scuffles. Add comment Most Read Most Discussed | https://en.tengrinews.kz/unrest/Migrants-storm-re-opened-Budapest-train-station-261948/ |
Thief sells her story to pay back stolen cash A security company driver who has been on the run for 12 years after stealing $2.5m has given herself up. Heather Tallchief, 33, said she had spent most of her time at large working as a hotel maid in Europe. She told a court her alleged accomplice, Roberto Solis, who has not been found, had kept all the money. She decided to give herself up for the sake of her 10-year-old son with Mr Solis, who was becoming curious about his past. Before giving herself up Ms Tallchief sold her story to a Hollywood company, to raise funds to reimburse the stolen money. | http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/sep/17/danglaister.mainsection |
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The Johns Hopkins Gazette: December 14, 1998 Dec. 14, 1998 VOL. 28, NO. 15 APL-Managed Missions Selected as NASA Discovery Program Candidates By Ben Walker Applied Physics Laboratory Johns Hopkins Gazette Online Edition The Applied Physics Laboratory is a major team member in two proposals led by Brown University and the Carnegie Institution of Washington that are among the five selected by NASA for detailed study as candidates for the next missions in the agency's Discovery Program of lower-cost, highly focused scientific spacecraft. The proposals--Aladdin, designed to return samples from two Martian moons to Earth, and MESSENGER, which would orbit the planet Mercury-- were among 26 full-mission proposals submitted to NASA. Also selected was a Jet Propulsion Laboratory proposal to study the interior of Jupiter, a proposal by | the University of Maryland to excavate and study material from deep inside a comet and a proposal by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to explore the middle atmosphere of Venus. Following submission of detailed mission concept studies, due by March 31, 1999, NASA intends to select in June 1999 one or two of the mission proposals for full development as the seventh and possibly eighth Discovery Program flights. "Aladdin and MESSENGER were finalists in the previous round of Discovery Program selections in 1997, and their selection this time again confirms their technical excellence and the strength of their scientific promise," says Tom Krimigis, head of the APL Space Department. The Aladdin spacecraft would visit the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos in early 2003 to gather samples by firing five projectiles into the moons' surfaces and gathering ejecta during slow flybys. The samples, returned to Earth in January 2006, would help scientists answer fundamental questions about small bodies, remnants of the building blocks of the solar system. Under the direction of Ted Mueller, APL would design the spacecraft and many of its scientific instruments, conduct integration and testing, and provide overall mission management and operations for a total cost of $247.7 million, which includes the launch vehicle. The Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging mission, or MESSENGER, would be the first spacecraft to visit the closest planet to the sun in more than two decades. The spacecraft's seven instruments would study Mercury for a year beginning in September 2009, gathering data to help scientists understand the forces that have shaped it and other terrestrial planets. Planners also intend the mission to yield technology that can be transferred to robotics, medicine, oil exploration, laboratory instrumentation and aircraft communications. Under the leadership of Max Peterson, APL would provide overall mission management, including spacecraft and instrument design, spacecraft assembly and mission operations, for a total cost of $279.3 million. | http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/octdec98/dec1498/14nasa.html |
BIG Brother reject Dennis Rodman has shaken off his eviction blues by signing for the Genesis Brighton Bears basketball team. The 6ft 7in former Chicago Bulls star has re-ignited his career by agreeing to play one game with the Sussex club against Guildford on Saturday. The club, which announced the high-profile signing today, also has a retention option for two further games if Rodman performs well. Bears owner Nick Nurse described the signing of Rodman as "awesome". He said: "It's a dream to work with Dennis, and it's going to be amazing for the guys to play out there with him. It's going to be a story they can all tell their grandchildren. "It's not the first time I have thought about signing Dennis, but when I heard | about the whole Big Brother thing, and how amazing he was in the house, I just had to go get him, and that's what we did. "Obviously he's 44 and everyone saw him smoking all week long on Big Brother but actually his people say he's in the best shape of his life and very serious about playing, so much so that he has a clause in his contract that if an NBA club in the States wants to sign him then he can go." Scot Doug Currie, the chief executive of principle Bears sponsor Genesis Forwarding Services, spoke today of the announcement at the firm's HQ in Eastbourne. He would not be drawn on how much Rodman was being paid, saying only: "It recognises his achievements, his stature and his personality. "We do not want to be a docile sponsor and we see this as a wonderful opportunity. The club and Genesis hope Rodman's celebrity status and new-found fame with the British public will boost ticket sales. The gentle giant dated Madonna and in 1998 married ex-Baywatch star Carmen Electra for just nine days. He was considered one of the best defenders of his generation of players, winning five NBA titles but was also known for his controversial antics on and off the court. He claimed he could not even remember getting hitched to Carmen Electra in the Las Vegas chapel because he was so drunk. Born in New Jersey, he only became prospective basketball material in his late teens, when he grew 11in in 12 months. The Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls star grabbed the world's attention with his tie-dye hair colours, tattoos, and body piercings. During his basketball career he was found sitting in his pick-up truck with a loaded shotgun - he later claimed he had purged the old Dennis Rodman for a new one. Dennis has been a campaigner for gay rights, Aids and breast cancer sufferers, and is a staunch anti-fur campaigner. | https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/showbiz-news/celebrity-bb-dennis-gets-back-1017943?service=responsive |
YOU ARE HERE: LAT HomeCollections In Aristide's Wake, a Land Long Divided by Class, Color Explodes Looting and attacks on businesses and the rich could lead to deepening of the nation's poverty. March 05, 2004|Carol J. Williams | Times Staff Writer PETIONVILLE, Haiti — From the palm-shaded swimming pools and marble terraces of this wealthy suburb's hillside villas, the distant squalor of Port-au-Prince looks like a tranquil, opalescent coastal setting. The lavish comforts enjoyed here by Haiti's small class of industrial kingpins inspired former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to label them "rocks washed by cooling waters," while his people, the impoverished masses in the slums below, were "the rocks in the sun, taking the heat." In a populist drive to show the rich how poverty feels, Aristide once urged | his followers to drag the rocks from the river into the inferno -- a metaphorical appeal that lives on after his departure as armed supporters continue to loot and burn the businesses of the upper class in a frenzy of revenge. "Aristide sold people that image, that we were the rocks in the water," said Michael Madsen, an industrialist of Danish descent who is the embodiment of the light-skinned elite whom Aristide demonized as Haiti's economic vampires. "He told his people to take us out, to show us what it was like on the outside. Why didn't he encourage them to come themselves into the water? Because he was incapable of building anything. He only knew how to destroy." Two days before Aristide stepped down, gunmen armed by his Lavalas Party broke into Madsen's Haiti Terminal port freight yard, he said, ransacking the offices to punish him for supporting the political opposition. It wasn't long before desperate slum dwellers began looting the shipping containers in the yard, which were filled with food, clothing and electronics. In the torrent of reprisals unleashed against his perceived enemies in ideology, class and color as his power vanished, Aristide succeeded in sharing the pain of the poor with some of the elite that had never felt it. But the strategy of sacking enterprises owned by Aristide's political opponents promises to only widen the social gap between the industrial dynasties that have controlled the economy for generations and the impoverished masses that will have even fewer jobs. As U.S. Marines patrolling the capital refuse to intervene to halt the looting, the damage could spread. Aristide, who departed early Sunday, had long promised a "cleansing flood" -- his party's translation of the Creole word lavalas, whose close French derivation more accurately means "deluge." The inundation of the last few days has wiped out the workplaces of thousands and perhaps the gains of the relatively few blacks who succeeded, under Aristide, in penetrating the so-called bourgeoisie. How much longer the attacks on the rich will continue is uncertain, but the damage has dealt a staggering blow to an economy that was already the poorest in the Western Hemisphere and spiraling downward. At least $160 million in property has been destroyed, estimated Maurice Lafortune, head of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce. The loss could represent half this devastated nation's private investment, said importer Sandro Masucchi, whose Honda auto dealership was looted and burned on the morning of Aristide's departure. The roots of the mob rampage run deep in Haitian history. The minuscule population of whites and mulattos -- as those of mixed black-and-white ancestry are called in Haiti -- thought to be no more than 1% of the populace of 8.5 million, has long occupied a disproportionate position in the equally tiny echelon of the wealthy. That is a consequence of landownership dating to Haiti's 1804 independence, when some offspring of French colonial masters and African slaves acquired property amid the panicked exodus of the Europeans after the slave revolt triumphed. With no redistribution of land, the haves and have-nots | http://articles.latimes.com/2004/mar/05/world/fg-elites5 |
1. Permission Dalai Lama: Osama’s Death Justified The Dalai Lama has suggested that Osama bin Laden’s death was justified. The leader of Tibetan Buddhism says that he believes in compassion to such an extent that he tries not to kill mosquitoes. But during an appearance at USC, the Dalai Lama said that while bin Laden may have deserved forgiveness, but, "Forgiveness doesn't mean forget what happened… If something is serious and it is necessary to take countermeasures, you have to take countermeasures." This is the Dalai Lama’s first visit to the U.S. since stepping aside as the day-to-day political leader of the Tibetan government in exile. Read it at Los Angeles Times | http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2011/05/04/dalai-lama-osamarsquos-death-justified.html |
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IBM's Palmisano on innovator's dilemma, avoiding tech's 'bone pile' IBM CEO Sam Palmisano said technology is filled with a "bone pile of enterprises" that couldn't find a second act. The problem: These companies couldn't break an emotional tie to whatever made it successful in the first place. That leadership can equate to strategy shifts to setting up a company to operate when you're gone to creating an institutional culture. The message is quite current as many technology companies are working through leadership transitions (Apple, Yahoo), trying to create new acts (Microsoft and Google) and managing their first big crises (Netflix). Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently referenced the innovator's dilemma challenge in his mea culpa post to customers. Palmisano, speaking at IBM's Think leadership conference at the Lincoln Center | in New York, argued that the world is becoming a system of systems and that's why there's so much upheaval in the world. Part of that upheaval revolves around short-term management. Related: IBM at 100: 15 inflection points in history For IBM, the challenge to long-term management is a 90-day earnings cycle. But governments, universities and other institutions also face short-term issues whether it's a budget or electoral cycle. Palmisano added that leaders have to ignore the pull of short-term management. Palmisano took an optimistic tone and noted that historians will look back to current issues as an innovative golden age. The challenge is that leaders have to be more collaborative than competitive. "You have to see self as not only a competitor, but a broad collaborator," said Palmisano. IBM's definition of collaboration differed from the standard---which revolves around Facebook, social networking and other tools---and focuses on addressing society issues and bringing multiple groups together and "assembling the right talent pools." "The technology is not the issue these days," said Palmisano. He added that boundaries across companies, governments and disciplines are crumbling and that creates a lot of discomfort---and opportunities---around the world. See All See All | http://www.zdnet.com/article/ibms-palmisano-on-innovators-dilemma-avoiding-techs-bone-pile/ |
Even RIAA Violates SOPA: Report | NBC Bay Area Even RIAA Violates SOPA: Report Russian BitTorrent site reveals the IP of downloaders. A Russian website that tracks and publicly posts the IP addresses and downloads of BitTorrent users has revealed that pretty much everyone downloads stuff illegally, including the RIAA, major movie and music studios, and even the Department of Homeland Security. It may not be entirely realistic to expect every single member of organizations like movie and music studios and the RIAA to be able to appreciate the goals of that organization, but still, it's hard to enforce controversial policies on others if you can't even enforce them on yourself. From the IP addresses logged by the Russian website, TorrentFreak was able to tie illegal downloads to | Sony Pictures Entertainment (an HD copy of Conan the Barbarian), Fox Entertainment (an HD copy of Super 8), and NBC Universal (the first season of Game of Thrones). These are just the smallest examples of what's been stolen; since the website only tracks something like 2% of all downloads, the magnitude of the crime (are we calling it a crime?) is actually about 50 times worse. Oh, and did we mention that the RIAA itself is responsible for downloading illegal rips of the first five seasons of Dexter? In response to these downloads being made public, one music royalty collection agency claimed that really guys honest it wasn't them, their IP addresses were just spoofed so it looked like it was them. You heard it here, folks: "but my IP was spoofed" is an acceptable defense if anyone ever accuses you of online music theft. And of course, we'll be waiting to see all those lawsuits that the RIAA and major studios will soon be filing against themselves based on this evidence. YouHaveDownloaded, via TorrentFreak, 2 For the latest tech stories, follow DVICE on Twitter at @dvice or find us on Facebook | http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Even-RIAA-Violates-SOPA-Report-135884908.html |
A Utah House committee raised suspicion that data missing from Attorney General John Swallow's computers was deliberately destroyed. But his lawyer said Thursday that Swallow never deleted emails to hide anything. Tom Smart, Deseret News Enlarge photo» SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah House investigative committee's findings raised suspicion that information missing from Attorney General John Swallow's computers and other electronic devices was deliberately destroyed. Swallow didn't make himself available to answer that question Wednesday, but his lawyer said accusing him of erasing emails for nefarious reasons is ridiculous. "To my knowledge, the attorney general never deleted any emails with the purpose of trying to cover anything up or trying to hide anything," Rod Snow said. Snow took issue with a report the committee's lead counsel made to | the nine-member bipartisan panel Wednesday, saying it "way overstated the problem." Steve Reich outlined during a House committee meeting Tuesday what he described as a troubling pattern of missing documents in the attorney general's office to an extent that he has never seen. He said data are missing from every electronic device Swallow has had since he served as deputy chief in December 2009. Swallow swapped out his desktop and laptop computers as he took office earlier this year. The hard drive on his home computer crashed in January, and he got a new cellphone last year, according to Snow. Reich said investigators want to find what happened to records on those devices and suggested in his presentation that they could have been intentionally deleted. "Why they're missing, we don't know, and I don't think John knows," said attorney general's office spokesman Paul Murphy. Kirk Jowers, head of the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, said the "whole story could be 'it just looks bad.'" At best, it's just another suspicious aspect of Swallow acting unethically, and at worst, it's not an improbable accident that the records disappeared but an effort to hide something incriminating, he said. "The question I would ask the attorney general is, 'Would you believe this story if one of the people you were investigating claimed this accidental mass loss?'" Jowers said. "I think the attorney general's office would treat this story with a lot of skepticism." Reich explained to the committee why he thinks going to the time and cost to recover the missing data is important. He said he raised the question because representatives of the attorney general's office have called the effort a "fishing expedition." "Apparently, the attorney general's representatives believe that in the face of a very disturbing pattern of missing records, this committee should throw up its hands and conclude that nothing can or should be done to get to the truth of how this broad set of records went missing and what information it might contain about the underlying issues," Reich said. The time frame for the missing data, 2009 to 2011, is "highly relevant" to the committee's work, said Reich, a former Justice Department and White House attorney who represented congressional Democrats in President Bill Clinton's impeachment. House Majority Leader Brad Dee, R-Ogden, challenged Reich to not let the issue get lost in the minutiae of the investigation because it is "extremely germane" to what the committee is looking at. Snow said the question is, How do investigators know how much email and data are missing? "We don't know, but whatever it is, we hope they recover it. We think it will be benign and unrelated to anything significant here," he said. Furthermore, Snow said, the House investigation "isn't so much a document case as a witness case." It is a class B misdemeanor under state law to destroy government records. Get The Deseret News Everywhere | http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865590026/Attorney-General-John-Swallow-didnt-delete-emails-to-hide-anything-lawyer-says.html |
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Zsa Zsa the Parrot to Deliver Bucs' Fourth-Round Pick By now you've heard, that yes, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are announcing their fourth-round pick of the 2018 NFL Draft via a parrot's help this Saturday. What you may not have heard is where our parrot, Zsa Zsa, comes from, as well as her incredible story. Did you know Catalina Macaws live an average of 70-90 years? Most people don't, which is partially how the Florida Exotic Bird Sanctuary came about and how Zsa Zsa ended up at Florida's "retirement home for parrots." "Zsa Zsa is only eight years old and has been with us for four years," said Patricia Norton, founder of the Florida Exotic Bird Sanctuary where Zsa Zsa resides with over 750 other | exotic birds. "A 20-year-old young lady brought Zsa Zsa to us four years ago saying she just had no idea what she was getting into." Indeed, the 70-90-year lifespan of Macaws like Zsa Zsa is a commitment in itself, but the birds themselves aren't solitary animals. "They should be flying, they should be in the wild, they should be seeing trees, interacting with each other," Norton said. "They are social animals. People are starting to realize that sticking a parrot in a cage and leaving it all day long is a bad thing." At the Florida Exotic Bird Sanctuary, found in Hudson, Florida, birds can 'just be a bird' as Norton puts it. "That is my mission, that is my goal: to create a sanctuary where the particular species are kept together," Norton said. "We have over 150 Macaws. They are in aviaries larger than most peoples' homes. They're allowed just to be a bird. That is our motto. That is my mantra. Just be a bird." It's not to say the birds that do come into Norton's care are mistreated or abused. In fact, quite the opposite rings true. "These are all birds that have come from very loving homes, but the biggest reason that people reach out to us is because we are one of the only sanctuaries in the country that does not adopt their birds back out once they bring them to us." Zsa Zsa herself is a very young Macaw and has certain things she likes to say. Norton says that the first thing most people will teach their birds is how to say phrases like: 'hello' and 'I love you' but what they are best at is mimicking sounds. "They pick up things like ringtones on telephones," Norton says of Macaws. "I have to change my ringtone almost every other day because these birds learn my ring tone and I'm constantly picking up my phone when it's not ringing. They're perfect mimickers." When she isn't changing her ringtone, you can find Norton at the Sanctuary, which she has made her life's work. "I founded the Florida Exotic Bird Sanctuary 20 years ago after going to vet school here in Tampa Bay," Norton said. "I just realized that so many people were turning their birds into the vet clinic and there needed to be a sanctuary as opposed to a vet clinic. I just thought I was going to rescue maybe 50 parrots. Twenty years later I have rescued over 750 parrots." So, while the parrot-delivering-a-draft-pick thing is a (forgive the pun) splashy way to do it, its purpose extends to raising awareness for the care of these exotic animals and all the work the Florida Exotic Bird Sanctuary is doing here in the Sunshine State. Not bad for a bunch of pirates, right? "We're honored [the Bucs] called us because even if this does nothing but raise awareness, I think that would be just fantastic," Norton said. Zsa Zsa will be making her debut on Day Three of the 2018 NFL Draft held Saturday, April 28, | https://www.buccaneers.com/news/zsa-zsa-the-parrot-to-deliver-bucs-fourth-round-pick-20571936 |
Skip navigation Docker CEO Tries to Navigate Business Threat From Google While Docker and Kubernetes serve slightly different purposes, customers who choose Google’s tool can avoid paying Docker. (Bloomberg) --Docker Inc. helped establish a type of software tool known as containers. Thanks to the startup, containers have become an essential part of many companies’ app development process, and they’ve made the company rich. Venture capitalists have poured about $240 million into the startup, according to research firm CB Insights. Then along came Google, with its own free container system called Kubernetes. Google has successfully inserted Kubernetes into the coder toolbox. While Docker and Kubernetes serve slightly different purposes, customers who choose Google’s tool can avoid paying Docker. The startup gives away its most popular product while trying to | convince developers to pay for extras, notably a program that does the same thing as Google’s. “Kubernetes basically has ruled the industry, and it is the de facto standard,” said Gary Chen, an analyst at IDC. “Docker has to figure out how do they differentiate themselves.” It’s up to Steve Singh to escape a situation that’s trapped many startups battling cash-rich tech giants like Google, dangling free alternatives. Singh was appointed chief executive officer of Docker in May. His focus is on convincing customers to buy a collection of software to set up and manage their containers. And he needs to persuade them that his startup can offer things Alphabet Inc.’s Google can’t. “Google’s business around Kubernetes is around Google Cloud,” Singh said. “There’s a real play for an independent company that sits on all the clouds.” Two and a half years ago, investors valued Docker at about $1 billion—coveted unicorn-startup status—but it had less than $10 million in sales at the time. The valuation hasn’t gone up much since then—it was about $1.3 billion, people familiar with the latest fundraising round said a few months ago—but sales have improved a lot, according to Singh. He declined to disclose numbers but said the business will break even on a free cash flow basis by mid-2019. In the past year, 400 corporate customers have paid Docker for its services, and Singh expects to add the same number next year. MetLife Inc. is one of them. The insurance company is moving 6,000 software applications to Docker’s platform, which will cut costs by 60 percent, said Singh. Docker is appealing to companies that want to take older apps and move them to the cloud or modernize them without having to rewrite everything. Other customers include Visa Inc. and Automatic Data Processing Inc. [Container World delivers real-world case studies from the cloud-native ecosystem, hands-on technical education, the best speakers and cutting-edge startups under one roof. Get your ticket.] With a container, applications can run on just about any cloud or server hardware without needing to be customized. Containers have been around since the late 1970s, but Docker popularized their use in the cloud. Containers are used more than 100 million times right now, and that’s expected to grow to nearly 1 billion by 2020, according to IDC. Google’s decision to hand out container management software for free created a problem for Docker. The startup planned to sell management tools while continuing to give away its container technology. Now Singh is having to both work with Kubernetes and add more products and tools Docker can sell to its container customers. “They invented this great tech, but they are not the ones profiting from it,” said Chen, the IDC analyst. Before Singh joined, his predecessor Ben Golub was focused on building up a large developer community and interest around the free product. He once told Bloomberg that most of his customers would never pay Docker anything. Singh, who has a background in paid-software businesses, is more focused on revenue and is hiring sales people rapidly. He plans to | https://www.itprotoday.com/containers/docker-ceo-tries-navigate-business-threat-google?utm_source=mosaicsecurity |
Senate OKs tougher hit-and-run penalties ALBANY — Lawmakers in New York have voted for tougher penalties for drivers who leave the scene of an accident. The state Senate voted Wednesday in favor of legislation that would impose up to seven years of prison on a motorist who flees the scene of an accident resulting in an injury. Currently, the crime carries a sentence of up to one year. The fines and potential prison sentence for leaving the scene of a fatal accident would also be increased. Similar legislation is pending in the state Assembly. | http://www.troyrecord.com/general-news/20140508/senate-oks-tougher-hit-and-run-penalties |
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More Fatal Car Crashes on Thanksgiving Day: Advice That Could Save Your Life Tanya was on her way to help out with a Thanksgiving Day run called the Turkey Trot. "Of course she was in a hurry. She was always in a hurry," Sean said. Just two miles from home, Tanya came to a hill she'd traveled hundreds of times, but this time, there was a patch of black ice. The car skidded across the road, hit a barricade and tumbled 300 feet to the bottom of a canyon, where she and Andrew were ejected from the car. But no one saw them. When the race ended and they didn't come home by 1 p.m., Sean became worried. The sheriff tried to help, but no one could find | them. Finally, Sean saw the tire marks on the barricade. Looking into the canyon, he saw a piece of the car. "I ran to the bottom and that's when I found them," he said, adding that they were both barely alive and hypothermic. "I ripped my son's clothes off of him and put clothes around him, and he died. I gave him CPR, and he came back around again." Neighbors came out to help, but the helicopters couldn't land in the bad weather. It would take hours for the ambulance to get there. The hospital was able to keep Andrew alive, but Tanya died in Sean's arms. Both had brain injuries, but the hyperthermia helped keep Andrew's brain from fatally swelling, crushing itself against his skull. Now 12, Andrew is back at school as the star pitcher on the baseball team. He lost his mother, spent two weeks in a coma and has problems moving his left side because the right side of his brain was affected, but he's about 90 percent back to normal, Sean said. Sean said he doesn't know what he would have done without his tight-knit community, family and friends over the last two years. According to AAA, 67 percent of all fatal accidents happen in rural areas, in part people are less likely to wear their seat belts there. But people also die because it can take a long time for help to arrive after a crash. Nelson said the "golden hour" refers to the need for trauma patients to receive care in the first 60 minutes to increase their chances of survival. But in rural areas like Bonners Ferry, medical care and fast treatment can be harder to come by because hospitals are farther away. Advice to Travelers Even Dill, with his ER career, said he's been at fault for making the wrong decision during holiday travel. One Christmas, with his pregnant wife in the passenger seat, Dill was speeding and drove off the road on the way to dinner. He and his wife were shaken because they could have died, but everyone was fine. "I was rushing to get to her folks' house," Dill said. "I'm a pretty safe, cautious person who knows people can get hurt in cars." He said he realized that people don't recognize how the holidays can make them drive too fast for the road conditions. His accident was a wake-up call, and it's something he tells his patients about because they sit up and pay attention. "Just because you're late for meal, slow down because you'll be a lot later if you'll get in a car accident," Dill said. Dill and Nelson reminded drivers to buckle up because they can't control other people on the road, but they can drive the speed limit and be vigilant. "You have to drive knowing that you're going to be passing people who are impaired, who are rushing, who are intoxicated," Dill said. Sharma said the best advice for anyone who has been in an accident is to stay still until help arrives unless | http://abcnews.go.com/Health/fatal-car-crashes-thanksgiving-day/story?id=17771573&page=2 |
Reg comments25 Supermassive Wolf-Rayets go up in blaze of supernova glory Wolf-Rayet star explodes in a Type IIb supernova Astroboffins have confirmed for the first time that Wolf-Rayet supermassive stars can die in a violent explosion known as a Type IIb supernova, using a global rapid response protocol to capture the moment. Wolf-Rayet star explodes in a Type IIb supernova The life and death of stars is an endlessly fascinating subject for astroboffins, since it’s this activity that enriches galaxies with the building blocks for life, but a number of stars and supernovae are still a mystery. By the time the light from a spectacular stellar explosion reaches Earth, the action has already happened, making it difficult for astronomers to figure out which stars create which type of | supernovae. Cosmic behemoths known as Wolf-Rayet stars, which are twenty times more massive than the Sun and at least five times as hot, are particularly compelling objects for study, as they contain heavy chemical elements that will eventually become bits of planets. "We are gradually determining which kinds of stars explode, and why, and what kinds of elements they produce," said Alex Filippenko, Professor of Astronomy at UC Berkeley and co-author of the study. "These elements are crucial to the existence of life. In a very real sense, we are figuring out our own stellar origins." Only some supermassive stars become Wolf-Rayets in the last stages of their life, making them relatively rare. That’s why when the Palomar 48-inch telescope at the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) in California spotted a Type IIb supernova, the team sprang into action. The iPTF team is always on call, which allowed one member in Israel to put out an alert about the discovery, getting another ready with the spectrum analysis on the Keck telescope in Hawaii before the Sun rose. "The global rapid response protocol ensures the Sun never rises for the iPTF team," said team member Mansi Kasliwal of the Carnegie Institution. When a supernova explodes, its flash ionises the immediate surroundings, helping astronomers to figure out the chemistry of the star that exploded. But the ionisation only lasts for a day before the blast sweeps it away, making it crucial to get telescopes trained on the spot as quickly as possible. “Newly developed observational capabilities now enable us to study exploding stars in ways we could only dream of before. We are moving towards real-time studies of supernovae," said iPTF team leader Avishay Gal-Yam, from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Supernovas occur when a stars core collapses, sending a shockwave out into space carrying all of the remains and debris. All stars spend their lives fusing hydrogen atoms to create helium, but supermassive ones are different. If the star becomes more massive, wielding more gravity, that fusion is accelerated in a process that will eventually lead to gravitational collapse. When the hydrogen runs out, a supermassive star can continue to fuse heavier elements like carbon, oxygen and sodium, until its core turns to iron. At that stage, the only thing holding the star together is quantum mechanical law that stops two electrons from occupying the same quantum state, since fusion is no longer energising the star. Once the core becomes even more massive, even that won’t work anymore and the star collapses. The Wolf-Rayet phase comes in just before the star goes supernova. As the fusion is slowing down, heavy elements created in the core start rising to the surface, setting off powerful winds, which throw material out into space and hide the star from telescopes on Earth. "When a Wolf-Rayet star goes supernova, the explosion typically overtakes the stellar wind and all information about the progenitor star is gone," said Peter Nugent, who heads Berkeley Lab's Computational Cosmology Center (C3) and leads the Berkeley contingent of the iPTF collaboration. Before | http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/22/wolf_rayet_star_type_iib_supernova/ |
Hillary Clinton Talks Mansplaining, Campaign Slogans on 'Kimmel' Jimmy Kimmel pitched ideas for Clinton's new campaign slogan to compete with Bernie Sanders' "Feel the Bern," including "Netflix and Hill" and "Hillin' Like a Villain." Randy Holmes/ABC Hillary Clinton on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' Hillary Clinton returned to Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday night to discuss the latest Donald Trump news and hear some catchy new campaign slogans. "Bernie Sanders was here on Tuesday; Secretary Clinton is here tonight," Kimmel said in his monologue. "They’re an interesting pair because they’re still competing with each other, obviously, but eventually we know they're going to team up to stop the deranged billionaire who wants to take over the world. Which, if you think about it, is basically the plot to Batman v. | Superman." Sitting down with the late-night host, Clinton addressed campaign-finance reform, the latest fights among Republican candidates, her emails, decriminalizing marijuana and the current election cycle. "Have you ever seen anything like it, historically, an election that has descended to such incredible depths? I mean, for me, they're great, don't get me wrong," joked Kimmel. "I'd like to see some punches thrown." "I've never seen this at the presidential level, no," responded Clinton, adding that she looks forward to debating Trump, if it comes to that, because she believes the voters want a responsible, knowledgeable leader. Kimmel read aloud one of Clinton's emails to show how boring they are and asked Clinton if an email about apples was code for something else. "This is really top-secret stuff," joked Clinton. Kimmel pitched some of his ideas for a new campaign slogan for Clinton to compete with Sanders' "Feel the Bern," including "Take a Hill Pill," "Netflix and Hill," "You Be Hillin' " and "Hillin' Like a Villain." He also offered to help Clinton with her debate rhetoric through "mansplaining," in which he would condescendingly "correct you whenever I feel the need." "You want to be stylish without looking like you're trying to be stylish and also presidential," suggested Kimmel, adding that she sounded "shrill," mocking political pundits who recently have told Clinton to "smile more" and have criticized her outfits. "Don't smile like that because it's too forced, it looks like you're faking it." "You know, Jimmy, your comments are kind of contradictory," said Clinton, "It's like nothing I do is right." Kimmel agreed, joking that she wasn't a man, and that must be the problem. This was Clinton's second appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Clinton has made her rounds on TV shows lately, first appearing on Comedy Central's Broad City and then premiering an endorsement ad by Shonda Rhimes' Thursday-night lineup: Scandal's Kerry Washington, How to Get Away With Murder's Viola Davis and Grey's Anatomy's Ellen Pompeo. Fellow Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders joined Kimmel on Tuesday night, when he discussed Trump, the Brussels terrorist attacks and the long election process. Kimmel also aired a segment on Thursday night in which he asked kids why women get paid less than men. He also welcomed additional guests The Catch's Peter Krause and band Fifth Harmony. comments powered by Disqus | http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/hillary-clinton-talks-mansplaining-campaign-877471 |
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have gone back to the source for inspiration with their new artificial lens, creating a so-called "shape-shifting" lens that mimics the way a human eye works. Like other liquid lenses, theirs uses a glass-oil-water interface, but it also adds a a ring of polymer gel around the lens that acts like a muscle, changing the focal length as it expands and contracts. What's more, the gel apparently works simply by reacting to environmental changes, like a rise in temperature or change in acidity, allowing for both smaller and more power-efficient imaging devices than other similar lenses. One example the researchers give is an implantable lens that could react to protein changes in the human body. Not quite Fantastic Voyage territory, but we'll | take what we can get. World's largest Etch A Sketch unveiled | http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/04/researchers-create-human-like-shape-shifting-lens/ |
*Judges in the war crimes trial of Liberian president Charles Taylor have allowed prosecutors to summon supermodel Naomi Campbell to testify whether he gave her a raw diamond as a gift. The order did not say when Campbell, along with and actresses Mia Farrow and Carol White, will be called, reports the AP. Taylor is accused of stoking civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone partly to exploit its mineral resources and diamond fields. Campbell is believed to have received the diamond at a 1997 reception in South Africa for former president Nelson Mandela. Defense attorneys argued that prosecutors were introducing evidence too late, nearly 1-1/2 years after they closed their case. But judges ruled Wednesday the prosecution only learned of the incident a year ago and it was | relevant to the case. | http://www.eurweb.com/2010/06/naomi-campbell-to-testify-at-charles-taylor-trial/ |
Studying How ‘Star Wars’ Mined History The events in “Star Wars,” the opening credits reveal, happened “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” But did similar events happen before? That is the question posed by “Star Wars and History,” a book planned for 2013 by the publisher John Wiley & Sons. In an e-mail posted in June, Nancy Reagin, a history professor at Pace University, and Janice Liedl, an associate professor of history at Laurentian University in Ontario, asked their peers to submit essays that explore the parallels between world history and Star Wars history. For example, their note to the historians of slavery sought essays “where historical examples of slavery are detailed to inform an exploration of how slavery was depicted in Star Wars | (e.g., the persistence of slavery on Tatooine) and how these parallels provide historical models for the Star Wars universe.”... comments powered by Disqus Subscribe to our mailing list | http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/140379 |
Advertise with us New regulations in place to protect consumers Aug. 7, 2010 at 3:07 a.m. By Alan Bligh Often, we have warned you about the problems cause by some debt relief companies. At last we are receiving help. The Federal Trade Commission recently announced amendments to the Telemarketing Sales Rule which will prohibit for-profit companies that sell debt relief serves over the phone from collecting any advanced fees prior to settling or reducing debt. These new regulations offer consumers additional protections when trying to reduce credit card or other unsecured debt. This indeed is great news. This year, BBB has processed more than 2,600 complaints nationwide against debt relief companies, which include credit counseling, debt settlement and debt negotiation services. Generally, consumers allege companies in these industries | may charge large advance fees, fail to reduce debts, or misrepresent their services. On Oct. 27, for-profit debt relief companies who make telemarketing calls, or are called by a consumer in response to debt relief advertising, are prohibited from collecting advance fees for their services. Companies can only charge their customers after: 1. There is a written agreement between the consumer and their creditor; 2. The company successfully renegotiates, settles, reduces or otherwise changes the terms of at least one of the consumer's debts; 3. The consumer makes at least one payment to their creditor after the successful negotiation or settlement. In addition, on Sept. 27, 2010, three other Telemarketing Sales Rule provisions will take effect. These provisions will: 1. Require companies to disclose to consumers how long it will take to see results, how much their service costs and any negative consequences that could occur; 2. Prohibit companies from misrepresenting their success rate or claiming they are non-profit; 3. Extend the Telemarketing Sales Rule to cover calls consumers make to these companies in response to advertising. These rather tough rules should go a long way in curbing many of the abuses perpetrated by some debt relief companies. College students have enough to juggle when it comes to school, work and their social life and fighting fraud often doesn't make the list of priorities. Because college students are so susceptible to identity theft, the BBB recommends that they take simple steps to protect themselves on campus. Remember: School mailboxes are not always secure and can often be easily accessed. Have sensitive mail sent to a permanent address such as the parents' home or a post office box. Important documents should be stored under lock and key. Never, ever loan your credit or debit card to anyone. Also, just say no if your friend wants you to co-sign for a loan or financing for items like a TV. Powered By AdvocateDigitalMedia | https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2010/aug/07/ym_alan_bligh_080810_106299/?business |
Bobby Dixon led Fenerbahce past Khimki Bobby Dixon was tremendous from beyond the arc (4/5) and helped Fenerbahce beat Khimki at home (93-85). The Turks had an 11-point advantage in the first half (54-43), but the Russians came back and cut the deficit to three at the end of the third quarter (66-63). Bobby Dixon, though, scored crucial points (14 in total) and the hosts stood tall and claimed their second straight win (2-0). On the other hand, Khimki suffered their second defeat in a row (0-2). Nicolo Melli was the top scorer for the winners, with 16 points, as five more players scored in double figures. Alexey Shved had 26 points and eight assists for the visitors, while Tony Crocker added 17. | https://www.talkbasket.net/31286-bobby-dixon-led-fenerbahce-past-khimki |
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Neutrino 'Costume Change' Mystery Solved? Another piece of the neutrino puzzle has fallen into place, thanks to new results announced last week by the Daya Bay collaboration in China. The experiment has only been up and running for a couple of months, but the international collaboration’s latest measurement might explain how neutrinos change “flavors” — akin to a costume change — as they move through space. ANALYSIS: Physicists Observe Neutrino Quick-Change in Japan Neutrinos are subatomic particles that travel very near the speed of light. They have no charge and, until quite recently, physicists believed they had no mass. They’re extremely difficult to detect, because they very rarely interact with any type of matter. Only one out of every 1,000 billion solar neutrinos would collide with an atom | on its journey through the Earth. There are three different kinds of neutrinos (electron, muon and tau). In recent years, physicists have discovered that neutrinos have another bizarre feature: they can change into another kind of neutrino as they travel. This is called “neutrino oscillation.” Why does this happen? It has to do with the wavelike nature of neutrinos. Waves oscillate back and forth. Add two waves together and you get a new composite wave. For instance, when two very similar musical notes are played together, there’s an interference effect that causes the sound to wobble between loud and soft, producing “beats.” ANALYSIS: Fermilab’s MINOS Experiment Also Sees Neutrino Quick-Change Similarly, oscillating neutrinos are comprised of three different waves that combine in different ways as they travel through space. The “beats” are caused by small physical differences in mass that lead to those tell-tale interference effects. So each flavor of neutrino is a mix of three different masses that constantly fluctuate over time. There’s no way of knowing which flavor it is (or has become) until it’s remeasured at its final destination — in this case, the detectors at Daya Bay. The Daya Bay experiment gets its (electron) antineutrinos from nuclear power reactors owned by the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group. The neutrinos then travel 1.7 kilometers to six massive underground detectors filled with liquid laced with gadolinium, hitting another group of detectors midway at about the 500-meter mark. When electron antineutrinos collide with the atoms in the liquid, the result is a pretty blue glow. This glow is then picked up by the photomultiplier tubes lining the detectors and recorded for posterity. Okay, but how can they tell if any of the neutrinos changed flavors en route to the detectors? The number of antineutrinos measured at Daya Bay should be slightly less than the number produced by the nuclear power plants, picked up by the midrange detectors. And that’s what the Daya Bay collaboration found: some of the original electron antineutrinos seem to disappear en route to the final detector site. From that data, physicists were able to deduce the value of something called the “mixing angle.” It’s the last of three critical numbers needed to plug into the equations used to describe neutrino oscillations. The next step is to bring the remaining two detectors online in order to collect more data and further refine these preliminary results. That’s right, they got these significant results even before the experiment was fully online. Those refined results will likely help physicists design future neutrino experiments, thereby gleaning even more insights into what Isaac Asimov dubbed “ghost particles.” We still don’t know the specific masses of the neutrinos — all are likely to have masses significantly less than one-millionth the mass of an electron — or even if there’s any significant difference between neutrino and antineutrino oscillations. Mostly, however, physicists are hoping that learning more about neutrinos will shed light on one of the current grand challenges in particle physics and cosmology: why we live in a universe dominated by matter. There should have | http://news.discovery.com/space/chinas-daya-bay-experiment-finds-missing-piece-of-neutrino-puzzle-120313.htm |
Landmark judgement: Man sentenced to death for rape, murder of 5-yr-old girl in Telangana By Newsmeter Network Published on 9 Feb 2021 1:30 PM GMT Hyderabad: In a landmark judgment, a court in Ranga Reddy sentenced a man to death on 9 February for the rape and murder of a 5-year-old girl in the Narsingi police limits. A fine of Rs. 1,000 was also imposed against the accused Dinesh Kumar Dharne. The accused, 23-year-old Dinesh, is from Madhya Pradesh. The victim's family was from Odisha and her parents worked as labourers. The family lived in a labour camp in the Narsingi police limits. On 12 December 2017, the victim's mother lodged a complaint at Narsingi police station claiming that Dinesh had taken her daughter on the pretext of | giving her chocolate. Dinesh took the girl from a tea shop into the bushes and then raped her killed her. Meanwhile, Dinesh returned to the camp even as the girl's parents were searching for their daughter. When the girl's mother questioned him, the accused told her that he had dropped her at the labour camp some time ago and that she might be playing somewhere. After a detailed investigation, the police zeroed in on Dinesh. The police raided his room and brought him to the station. During interrogation, he confessed to the crime. He was remanded to judicial custody on 13 December 2017. However, Dinesh absconded after obtaining bail and went to Madhya Pradesh, interrupting the trial for a brief period. Special teams were formed to nab him and he was produced before the court. He was awarded the death penalty on Tuesday. Capital punishments in Telangana So far, the state has seen seven death penalties, including the one awarded on Tuesday. In 2016, a death sentence was awarded for the rape and murder of a 4-year-old girl in Karimnagar district while in 2019 death penalty was awarded to the person accused in the rape and murder of a 6-month old girl in Warangal. In 2020, four death penalties were awarded in two cases of rape and murder of young girls in Rachakonda Commissionerate, a murder case in Warangal, and another rape and murder case in Asifabad district. Next Story Share it | https://newsmeter.in/top-stories/landmark-judgement-man-sentenced-to-death-for-rape-murder-of-5-yr-old-girl-in-telangana-673968 |
Accessibility links Global Population On The Move The world population reached 6.6 billion this year, up from 6 billion in 1999. By 2025, researchers expect nearly 8 billion people will be living on the planet. Ninety-nine percent of those new inhabitants will be in developing countries. She says people are moving within the developing world for the same reasons they migrate to wealthier nations. "People from very poor countries [are] going to less poor countries and fleeing wars and conflict." She adds that they are also responding to population pressures because, she says, "Some countries are very densely populated, and they often have high population growth. Those people need to go somewhere, and they often are going looking for jobs." Nugent says migration from Guatemala to Mexico is | one such example. "And many Guatemalans go to Mexico, probably 25,000 a year that stay and 100,000 a year that go back and forth. And that is a pretty high proportion of the Guatemalan population." The United Nations projects that by 2050, the population of Europe, now at 750 million, will fall by 75 million; and Japan, home to 128 million people, will lose 16 million. Population Reference Bureau senior demographer and survey author Carl Haub says a shrinking population is a threat to economic health. "The number of young people in many European countries is half the size of their parents' generation," he says. "So what you see today are the corporations, the health care system saying, 'Listen! We can't find workers. We haven't had enough workers and now we can't find workers.' So they will have to have to come from some place and that's going to have to come from outside the country." Rachel Nugent says that issue is one of two new environmental indicators in this year's survey. "We can see that in rural areas in the developing world and in some parts of Africa and Asia we don't have high rates of access to sanitation. That needs to be addressed." Nugent says another indicator measures protected areas within a country. "This means land, protected land for wildlife, for plant biodiversity, and for the indigenous and other populations that live nearby." Report author Carl Haub says the easy-to-read "World Population Data Sheet" is designed to raise awareness among the public and public officials. "The numbers are there, and it's always a question of whether politicians will pay any attention to them,'" he says. "I think that some of the problems with making the projections [is that] they are too far in the future. And, a politician probably doesn't want to look past the next election. That is something that they [the politicians] will have to get over." | https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2006-08-24-voa70/315796.html |
Tens of thousands of Quebecers are spending the day packing their belongings into trucks and vans and moving them to new homes as part of the province's annual moving day. July 1 is moving day for many people in Quebec because it is the start day for many leases. About 70,000 people will move July 1, according to Jean-Pierre Leblanc with the Quebec Rental Board. He said that number represents just under 10 per cent of the province's renting tenants. Leblanc said the rental board has a hotline open to help movers who have questions or run into problems. Hydro-Québec is also offering to help movers, by taking away their old fridges or freezers. As part of its recycling program called Recyc-Frigo, the company sends movers to pick | up unwanted but working appliances and recycles them. Louis-Olivier Batty with Hydro-Québec said they have already picked up more then 300,000 appliances since the program launched. "The metal and the plastics are recycled and we also extract all the gases in the refrigerating system so we make sure it's destroyed completely so it doesn't go in the environment," Batty said. He said the appliance must be more than 10-years-old, still plugged in, and have a capacity of between 10 and 25 cubic feet. If your fridge or freezer doesn't meet those requirements, Alan DeSousa, an executive committee member for the City of Montreal, said there are eco-centres around the city that accept unwanted appliances. "With appliances or with electronic waste, there are often ecologically acceptable ways of dealing with it so they don't wind up in landfills and contaminate soil or groundwater," he said. | http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/thousands-on-the-move-across-quebec-1.1034138 |
Yoga, Pilates, pedicures. They don't sound like the workout routine of a pro-basketball player. But Dwyane Wade, the superstar shooting guard with the Miami Heat, has embraced them. During last year's lockout, players couldn't get access to NBA team facilities or trainers. "The lockout meant I was working out with a different trainer," said Wade, "and he introduced me to different types of workouts that I didn't even know my body needed, like yoga." Wade, who turned 30 in January, could be considered old by NBA standards. He said a large part of his preseason training was focused on keeping his body healthy and injury-free through the season. Nevertheless, he has struggled with injuries, including a strained calf and sprained right ankle. In addition to his time on | the court and in the gym, Wade, who stands 6 feet 4 inches and weighs 220 pounds, puts in time on the massage table. "I'm huge on massage work," he said. "I've done more stretching this season than ever before. My therapist's hands get tired from working on me." Since his size-15 feet take a lot of pounding, he also incorporates foot baths, ice baths and regular pedicures into his regimen. "You need to take care of your feet," said Wade. "My feet aren't going to look any prettier from a pedi, but they feel better from the massaging." The workout "I have tight hips and I felt I needed to loosen up and be more flexible as I got older," said Wade. He started taking private yoga lessons. "Just basic yoga—I wasn't ready for the hot stuff," he said. "Yoga is a totally different way of stretching and really challenging." Mr. Wade says he persuaded his teammate, LeBron James, to join him. "He's stiffer than me," he joked. James, in turn, persuaded Wade to try machine-based Pilates, which lengthens muscles and strengthens the core muscles. "I really felt the Pilates loosen up my muscles," said Wade. The attention to stretching has paid off during the season. "I recall making a move, and the basketball ended up on my foot and I almost did a split on the ball. Normally, that's a groin pull, but I bounced back." Wade also started running on the beach this summer. "Running on the sand strengthens your quads and calf muscles," he said. He adds that he used to avoid running because it gave him shin splints, but running barefoot in the sand has helped him avoid that. He does some runs for distance, others for speed. "I try to do a lot of quick sprints where I'm starting and stopping and training myself to push through fatigue," he said. Wade has also worked on his fast-twitch muscles, which come into play for brief bursts of strength or speed. To do this, his trainer had him work out with elastic bands on his wrists and ankles. He throws a medicine ball, turns, and then catches the ball with his torso facing one way and his arms turning another. "In a game, you never know what is going to come at you. I have to be ready to react quickly." The diet Wade said he always avoided vegetables until he turned 30. "I hated all of them," he said. But "I knew it would help me in the long run both mentally and physically" to start eating them. His solution was to have his personal chef turn them into juice. He now starts the day with a juice that might include celery, carrots and beets. His chef sticks to healthy, low-fat, high-protein meals that often include grilled chicken and rice. He doesn't splurge often, but when he does he has a burger, fries and a Coke. "That is heaven to me. I have a favorite burger spot in nearly every city. Sometimes I might even order two." | http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/03/20/pilates-key-workout-for-miami-basketball-star-dwayne-wade.html |
Thailand’s Democrat Party Uses Blockchain Technology to Conduct Elections It's The First Ever Election Vote on Blockchain As blockchain technology continues to surprise us, here is it’s another major use case which is making the headlines. As per reports, Thailand opposition party used blockchain technology in its just-concluded primary elections. This has made Thailand opposition party as the first political party in the world to use blockchain technology to conduct elections. As we’ve covered, Japan has tested a polling system based on the blockchain. Zcoin blockchain powered live e-voting system provided the voting process in Thailand, in which more than 120,000 votes were cast between November 1 and November 9, 2018, according to a press release on November 13 Growing Popularity of Zcoin and IPFS in Thailand Reportedly, | a few days ago, a Thai rap music video entitled ‘Rap Against Dictatorship’ was released which soon became viral and received 30 million views in two views, was stored using blockchain technology to protect it from the government censorship. As revealed, an unknown user saved a copy of the music video in a decentralised file storage system, called IPFS, on the Zcoin blockchain using the Zerocoin protocol. Taking a cue from here, the Thai democrat party took the concept even further and used IPFS to store election records with integrity. Voters were able to cast their votes using a mobile app by submitting their photo ID or by voting manually on physical voting stations which were geared up by Raspberry Pi system. The encrypted data packets were then stored using IPFS, and the hashes were stored in the Zcoin blockchain, thus guaranteeing both auditability and immutability. What is Zcoin? Zcoin is a decentralised and open source privacy coin that uses Zerocoin protocol to maintain privacy scheme. It went live in September 2016 and is currently traded on Huobi, Binance, and Bittrex. Speaking on the success of the company, the founder and lead developer of Zcoin, Poramin Insom, said that Zcoin has achieved a massive milestone in the political industry of the country and hopes that more countries would prefer blockchain technology for conducting elections. Insom said, “The unique circumstances of this election made Zcoin’s blockchain a good fit to record votes and sets the stage for future deployment of e-voting systems in the country,” This sounds positive, and we are excited to see how blockchain will help in conducting elections moving forward. Nikita Mittal Related Articles Leave a Reply | https://theblockchainland.com/2018/11/19/thailands-democrat-party-uses-blockchain-technology-to-conduct-elections/ |
A decade ago, ancient technology - using natural water to perform work - was the green goal. Today, dams are bad but now wind is back in fashion. What changed? Dams got used, and 'our energy production is fine' is a terrible fundraising call to action so current methods have to be criticized. Now, dams that were once prized by activists, they generate more energy than all other renewable sources combined, are being criticized for the devastation of aquatic insect populations and the food webs that those insects underpin. Take that, native American scientists of yore. The virtual absence of mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies from the Colorado River in Grand Canyon has also been a mystery to modern scientists. Dr. Ted Kennedy, an ecologist with the US Geological | Survey's Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center, and colleagues blame "hydropeaking", which is basically controlling how much water flows from the dam. A paper says this generates artificial tides that extirpate insect species. Aquatic insects play an essential role in river food webs and are the main food source for countless species of fish, birds, bats and other wildlife. The research was based in part on a large citizen science project with more than 2,500 insect samples taken on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, downstream of Glen Canyon Dam. This dataset was collected almost entirely by river guides, educational groups, and other citizen scientists. Researchers also tested the effects of abrupt water levels changes on river health by comparing insect diversity across 16 large dammed rivers in the western United States that vary in the degree of hydropeaking. In BioScience Talks, they offer possible solutions to the hydropeaking conundrum, such as mitigation measures like leaving river levels low and stable at times when impacts on power production at Glen Canyon Dam would be minimal, for example on weekends. This could allow insects a few days to lay their eggs with success. | http://www.science20.com/news_articles/old_green_is_the_new_black_hydroelectric_dams_linked_to_food_web_havoc-176406 |
Orozco has two counts of possession dismissed On June 25, Morrison County District Courts dismissed two counts of fifth degree possession of drugs against Dennis John Orozco, 49, of Little Falls. On May 5, 2012, Little Falls police officers responded to a fight and when they arrived at the scene, spoke with Orozco. Orozco acknowledged there was a person in the residence with a warrant out for his arrest. Officers entered the residence and arrested that person. While there, they saw a number of marijuana plants inside a bedroom. They obtained a search warrant and returned. At the door, the officers smelled marijuana and when they entered, found 82 marijuana plants, ranging in size from starter plants to some three feet tall. Also found was miscellaneous drug paraphernalia | including grow lights, a pipe and a mirror with white residue that appeared to be methamphetamine. Orozco was placed under arrest and taken to jail. While there, he gave a taped statement, at first claiming he had no idea the plants were in his apartment and that none of the items in the apartment belonged to him. He later admitted he knew the plants were present, but denied they were his. He did admit he used marijuana daily. Todd Kosovich, assistant Morrison County Attorney, said the charges were dismissed because the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension was unable to complete scientific testing in time for the trial. | http://mcrecord.com/2013/06/28/orozco-has-two-counts-of-possession-dismissed/ |
Saudi Women Stand Up for Their Rights to Drive Sign Up for Free eNewsletter ›› By Fidelis Iyebote, Christian Post Contributor June 17, 2011|10:48 pm Some women in Saudi Arabia were seen Friday, openly driving cars in defiance of the ban on female drivers in the kingdom known for its strict restrictions on the rights of women. In a move similar to the pro-democracy movement sweeping across the Arab world, the protest is largely being organized on social networks. Some women have been posting videos of themselves on various social networks as they operated automobiles to press for the “right of Saudi women 2 drive protest." Many Saudi women have reportedly signed up on social media sites to take part in the protest. As the protest kicked off, | some women were seen driving to stores. Others reportedly made pleasure trips in their cars without their usual male chauffeurs in and around the capital, Riyadh. It was not clear if the women have the support of their husbands, but observers said some of them did not restrain their wives from embarking on the protest. The movement is believed to be growing, but it is not known yet how many women are likely to join in a nation where it is accepted that women are subservient to men. Follow us Get CP eNewsletter ›› No arrests have been made so far, although a woman driving in an SUV in Riyadh was reportedly stopped by a policeman. She was allowed to continue her trip. However, a female activist, Manal al-Sherif, was sentenced to jail for two weeks last month for violating the ban. Only men are allowed to drive automobiles in the oil-rich kingdom. But there are no official national or provincial laws forbidding women from going behind the wheels of cars. Islamic laws, widely accepted and respected in the kingdom, however, restrict women from driving. Muslim leaders believe that if women are allowed to drive, and go wherever they want on their own, they could turn the liberty into license to engage in activities that could result in unfaithfulness to their husbands. For that reason, most Saudi ladies are chauffeur-driven. Some husbands carry their wives everywhere they go. The women may be on the way to winning their rights to operate automobiles, as their movement is believed to have the blessings of key member of the Saudi royalty, including Prince Talil. Saudi authorities arrested 47 women during a similar protest in 1990, but the government has been careful this time to avoid any actions that may provoke its citizens, since the pro-democracy movement began in the winter. Videos that May Interest You A Devout Muslim from Saudi Arabia Converts to Christianity | http://www.christianpost.com/news/saudi-women-stand-up-for-their-rights-to-drive-51295/ |
North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un salutes as he and his uncle accompany the hearse carrying his father [Reuters] North Korea has announced the appointment of Kim Jong-un, the anointed successor and youngest son of Kim Jong-il, as supreme commander of its 1.2 million-strong military, two days after official mourning for the late leader ended. The North's state news agency KCNA said on Saturday the official appointment was made at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party on Friday. KCNA said the Political Bureau members "courteously proclaimed the dear comrade Kim Jong-un, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, assumed the supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army", according to a will made by Kim | Jong-il on October 8. It did not elaborate on the details of the will. Since Kim Jong-il's death on December 17, state media have dubbed Kim Jong-un "supreme commander". "Kim Jong-il was made supreme commander in 1991 some three years before his father's death," Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett, reporting from Seoul, said. "But the difference is that he had control of North Korea [already]." Some Korea-watchers say it may take Kim Jong-un months to assume the two other official titles which were attained by his father in 1997, a full three years into his reign: General Secretary of the Party and Chairman of the National Defence Commission. But the announcement of the politburo's decision not only meant formal approval of his control of one of the world's most powerful armed forces, but also indicated the consolidation of his power could be much faster than expected - perhaps a sign of Kim Jong-un's relative lack of a power base. Third-generation Kim Footage aired recently by state TV showned Kim Jong-un, who is believed to be in his 20s, flanked or followed by the North's top military officers and a coterie of leaders during a series of mourning ceremonies for his father. The pictures appeared to signal a smooth transfer of power to Kim Jong-un, the third generation of his family to rule the unpredictable and reclusive communist state since shortly after World War Two. "Faced with the sudden death of his father, Kim Jong-un and his supporters, who appear to be less prepared and insecure, may think they do not have much time in solidifying the young Kim's position," Professor Koh Yu-hwan, an expert on the North's leadership from Seoul's Dongguk University, told the Reuters news agency. "The approval [of his supreme leadership of the military] should be one of the fastest ways to allow him the sovereign ruler position," Koh said. This ties in with the North's "military-first" policies on which Kim Jong-il relied heavily. Kim Jong-un was named a four-star general and given the vice-chairmanship of the ruling party's Central Military Commission by his father in 2010. Political entourage Many analysts also expect the inexperienced new leader, who had only been groomed for rule since 2009, to lead with the aid of a close circle around him that includes his uncle and key power-broker, Jang Song-thaek, at least in the early stages of the power transition. Jang, husband of Kim Jong-il's younger sister, Kim Kyong-hui, stood behind his nephew in Wednesday's mass funeral parade, escorting the hearse carrying Kim's body. Despite Pyongyang's determination to project an unbroken line from Kim Jong-un's predecessors, which began with his grandfather, Kim il-sung, there have been questions among outsiders about his capacity to lead the country. North Korea, whose military is pursuing a nuclear arms programme, is technically still at war with the South and is suffering from chronic food shortages. Labelling its opponents "foolish", North Korea warned Seoul on Friday it would stick to its hardline policies and said Pyongyang would never engage with the current government of South Korea. Source: Al Jazeera and | http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2011/12/2011123144533153779.html |
Moroccan denies link to London blasts | News | Al Jazeera Moroccan denies link to London blasts A Moroccan who was given asylum in the UK and named in British media as a suspect in last week's London bombings has told Aljazeera that he is innocent and not on the run. The attacks left more than 50 people dead "I am not hiding and I am not a terrorist," said Muhammad al-Guerbouzi, speaking from London. London media reported that British investigators asked their European counterparts, including Europol, to search for al-Guerbouzi, 44, but Europol spokesman Rainer Wenning declined to comment on the reports. "These are all lies. They have made up this story," al-Guerbouzi said in the Aljazeera interview aired late on Saturday night. He accused someone | at the Moroccan embassy in London whom he refused to name of being behind the allegations that he had links to groups described as terrorist. Al-Guerbouzi was convicted in absentia in his native Morocco in 2003 and sentenced to 20 years in prison in connection with bombings that killed 33 bystanders and 12 bombers in Casablanca two years ago. French officials consider al-Guerbouzi, who has British and Moroccan nationality, to be the founder and principal recruiter of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group. He was given asylum in Britain. The suspect was convicted in absentia for 2003 Morocco blasts The British tabloid The Daily Mail appeared on Saturday with a front-page banner headline: "Is Moroccan mastermind of the plot?" In the Aljazeera footage al-Guerbouzi is heard speaking while his face is barely visible through a celluloid shadow the television network used to shield his face. He said he did not want to be shown so to avoid public harassment after his picture was published in Saturday's papers. The reporter who interviewed him confirmed it was al-Guerbouzi by checking his passport. Volunteer fighters The London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported that al-Guerbouzi settled in the United Kingdom with his family in 1974. It said he was close to a group that used to send Muslim volunteers to Bosnia to fight the Serbs during the Yugoslavia civil war and to Chechnya to fight the Russians. The paper also quoted him as saying in an old interview that he opposed "suicide bombings". "My position is clear. I won't accept for a person to go into a restaurant or a hotel and blow himself up," he was quoted as saying. SOURCE: Aljazeera + Agencies 'Money can't buy us': Mapping Canada's oil pipeline battle 'Money can't buy us': Mapping Canada's oil pipeline battle Women under ISIL: The wives Women under ISIL: The wives Diplomats for sale: How an ambassadorship was bought and lost Diplomats for sale: How an ambassadorship was bought and lost | https://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2005/07/200841015123391235.html |
Research sheds light on the molecular basis of crib death Sudden Infant Death Syndrome [SIDS] is a condition that unexpectedly and unexplainably takes the lives of seemingly healthy babies aged between a month and a year. Now researchers of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Monterotondo, Italy, have developed a mouse model of the so-called crib or cot death, which remains the leading cause of death during the first year of life in developed countries. The model, published in this week’s issue of Science, reveals that an imbalance of the neuronal signal serotonin in the brainstem is sufficient to cause sudden death in mice. The brainstem, the lower part of the brain that forms the link to the spinal cord, coordinates many fundamental functions including control over cardiovascular | and respiratory systems. Victims of SIDS show alterations in those brainstem neurons that communicate using the signalling molecule serotonin. Cornelius Gross and his group at the EMBL Mouse Biology Unit modified the serotonin system of mice to understand the role of this signalling molecule in the brainstem. They overexpressed an important receptor that regulates serotonin signalling, called serotonin 1A autoreceptor. “At first sight the mice were normal. But then they suffered sporadic and unpredictable drops in heart rate and body temperature. More than half of the mice eventually died of these crises during a restricted period of early life. It was at that point that we thought it might have something to do with SIDS,” says Gross. Until now it was unclear how changes in serotonin signalling in the brainstem of SIDS infants are involved in sudden death. The findings in the mouse show that deficits in serotonin signalling in the brainstem can be sufficient to cause sudden death and strongly support the idea that a congenital serotonin defect could play a critical role in SIDS. Serotonin neurons in the brainstem communicate to nerve cells in the spinal cord that innervate the heart and organs involved in temperature regulation such as brown fat tissue. This signalling is defective in the mouse model of SIDS. For example, when placed into a cold chamber the animals cannot properly activate brown fat tissue to produce heat. This inability to activate fundamental body systems under certain conditions is likely to explain why the mice succumb to sudden death. While a complete block of serotonin signalling does not lead to death, upsetting its intricate balance by overexpressing serotonin 1A autoreceptor can. In response to serotonin the receptor initiates a negative feedback mechanism that reduces serotonin release and dampens down the signal to the body. The researchers caution, however, that it is unlikely that the exact same molecular mechanism leads to SIDS in humans. Nevertheless, the mouse model will help to shed light on how serotonin signalling, when dysfunctional, can be life-threatening. “We hope the mouse model will help identify risk factors for SIDS. One open question is whether like in SIDS, the animals die during sleep and whether we can identify which mice will die by looking at their heart rate or body temperature before the crisis. Ultimately, we hope it will give new ideas to doctors about how to diagnose babies at risk for SIDS,” says Enrica Audero, who carried out the research in Gross’ lab. Please enter your comment! Please enter your name here | https://scienceblog.com/16820/research-sheds-light-on-the-molecular-basis-of-crib-death/ |
Canada let the US spy agency conduct widespread surveillance during the G8 and G20 summits in Toronto in 2010, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency contractor and whistleblower. Reported exclusively by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday, the documents reveal that American officials turned the US embassy in Ottawa into a security command post during a six-day, NSA spying operation as US President Barack Obama and other world leaders met in June 2010. The CBC report said the documents did not reveal the precise targets of the NSA operation, but described part of the US mandate during the Toronto summits as "providing support to policymakers". The spying operation was reportedly "closely coordinated with the Canadian partner", according to a leaked NSA | briefing note. A spokesperson for Stephen Harper, Canadian prime minister, declined to comment on Wednesday on the report's allegations. "We do not comment on operational matters related to national security," spokesperson Jason MacDonald said. A spokeswoman for Canada's equivalent of the NSA, the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), said they could not comment on the operations of Canada or its allies. "Under the law, CSEC does not target Canadians anywhere or any person in Canada through its foreign intelligence activities,'' Lauri Sullivan, spokesperson, said. "CSEC cannot ask our international partners to act in a way that circumvents Canadian laws.", a Canadian civil liberties group, condemned the spying. "It's... clear this spying was aimed at supporting US policy goals during a highly contentious summit," Steve Anderson, the group's executive director, said in a statement. "This is sure to cause huge damage to Canada's relationships with our other G20 partners." Harper came under fire last month after a report by a Brazilian broadcaster alleged the CSEC spied on a Brazilian government ministry, straining ties between the two countries. Snowden began leaking top-secret documents detailing the NSA's collection of millions of US communications records earlier this year. Reports coming out of the leaked materials allege the NSA monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone, scanned millions of French telephone records, and hacked the computer network of Brazil's state-run oil company, Petrobras. Source: Agencies | http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/11/reports-us-spied-at-canada-conferences-2013112871735413374.html |
According to a report today from 9to5Google, a web client for Duo will be launched "in the coming weeks." When it happens, Duo will join desktop-compatible ranks of Android Messages and dearly departed Allo, expanding the reach of the service away from phones and Smart Displays. Functionality at launch remains a question. 9to5Google speculates that the app's trademark features like "knock knock" (which provides a live feed of the caller before you answer) and sending/leaving video messages are likely to be included. Duo connects to your account using both your phone number and Google credentials, making it possible one could sign into the desktop client more conveniently (and sanely) than the existing QR code system used by Allo and Messages. The apparently short schedule and the lack of | a QR system in recent Duo teardowns also support the idea that a different mechanism may be used. Although Allo wasn't successful, Google's Duo Video Calling service has seen more widespread adoption, recently crossing 1 billion downloads on the Play Store as it continues to add features like group calling and low-light mode. A web client represents a significant ongoing investment into the platform, and spreading functionality to desktop browsers and Chromebooks will only increase consumer use. | https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/01/25/duo-app-rumored-to-expand-with-upcoming-web-client/ |
Dancing On Ice's Ria Hebden reveals why she'll never attempt the headbanger (exclusive) ·TV Reporter, Yahoo Entertainment UK ·3-min read From Lifted Entertainment Dancing on Ice: SR14 on ITV and ITV Hub Pictured: Ria Hebden. For further information please contact: [email protected] / 0207 157 3052 Ria Hebden says she will never do the headbanger. (ITV) Dancing On Ice star Ria Hebden has vowed she will never try the show's riskiest lift - the headbanger. TV presenter Hebden admitted she had been asked many times during training about whether she might give the move a go - which involves female celebrities being spun around from high in the air down to millimetres from the ice while holding onto their partner's neck by just their ankles - but said she | drew the line at trying it. Read more: Dancing On Ice returns after most chaotic series in show's history Hebden told Yahoo UK: "Production keep teasing me about this headbanger and I keep saying you can tease all you like, I'm not doing it. "I know it would be great to show me saying I'm not doing it and then by the end of it you're doing it, but actually, I just think it's so dangerous. Watch: Jake Quickenden and Vanessa Bauer pull off a headbanger "There are other amazing lifts that you can do that I'd be up for, but I also don't think it gets the wow factor that it used to do, so I'm going to stick to my instincts on this one." Lorraine star Hebden acknowledged that the skating could be "very dangerous" and said that she had been given a "precarious" prop to use in her first routine when the show launches on ITV on Sunday, but that it had arrived with only a couple of days of rehearsal to get used to it. Read more: Who are the Dancing On Ice 2022 judges? She said of the top secret prop: "It's a precarious one, so it's just another thing that's going to add another layer of potential hazard. It's not enough that I haven't ice skated before, I need a precarious prop, too." But she added that she had been amazed by her ability to pick up routines that looked impossible to begin with thanks to skating partner Lukasz Rozycki's help. Ria Hebden will dance in the 2022 launch show. (ITV) She said: "It's really made me think in general about life - how many things do we give up on trying or talk ourselves out of doing when it gets difficult rather than breaking it down into smaller chunks, how many other things could we have been potentially good at?" For Hebden, there are two of the judges that she thinks would be a lifetime highlight to impress. "Obviously I want to impress Jayne (Torvill) and Chris (Dean), they're world champions, so to get positive feedback from them would be amazing. "This is something I'm going to be telling my grandkids about. Anything positive they say, I'm going to treasure that." Dancing On Ice begins on Sunday at 6.30pm on ITV. | https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/dancing-on-ice-ria-hebden-never-attempt-headbanger-162342557.html |
Toyota reignites the hydrogen debate Comment on this story IOL mot apr17 Toyota FCV concept . The FCV Concept points towards the fuel cell car that Toyota plans to launch in 2015. Toyota City, Japan - In 1997, Toyota caught its competitors by surprise with the revolutionary Prius, the first commercially successful petrol-electric hybrid car. Now, the Japanese firm is trying to do the same with a technology that seems straight out of science fiction. Next year Toyota plans to launch a hydrogen-powered car in the USA, Japan and Europe. For now, people at Toyota are calling it the 2015 FC car, for fuel-cell. Fuel-cell cars use a “stack” of cells that electro-chemically combine hydrogen with oxygen to generate electricity that helps propel the car. Their only emission, | bar heat, is water vapor; they can run five times longer than battery electric cars, and it takes just minutes to fill the tank with hydrogen - far quicker than even the most rapid charger can recharge a battery electric car. The 2015 launch culminates a 20-year zig-zag quest during which Toyota first struggled to get the technology to work and then strained to lower manufacturing costs enough to permit realistic pricing. It has also been playing catch-up to Honda, which has set the early pace with its FCX Clarity. IOL mot apr17 hydrogen Toyota A hydrogen nozzle is plugged into a Toyota Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle during the Toyota Advanced Technologies media briefing in Tokyo last year. File photo: Uya Shino/Reuters The cost-cutting continues, though Toyota thinks it has cracked the code with incremental design improvements, such as using wider, flatter “fettuccine-style” copper in coils that make the motor more powerful, and thus smaller and cheaper. “With the 2015 FC car we think we've achieved a degree of dominance over our rivals,” Satoshi Ogiso, a Toyota managing director, said in a recent interview at the group's global headquarters. “With the car, we make a first giant step” toward making fuel-cell vehicles practical for everyday use. What's more, executives and engineers say Toyota is willing to sell the car at a loss for a long while to popularize the new technology - just as it did with the Prius, which, with other hybrids, now accounts for 14 percent of Toyota's annual sales, excluding group companies, of around 9 million vehicles. As a result, drivers in key “green” markets such as California may be able to buy the car for a little more than $30 000 to $40 000 (R315 000 to R420 000), after government subsidies - if management approves a pricing strategy put forward by a group of managers and engineers. By comparision, GM’s Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid starts at around $35 000 (R367 500) in the US. The stakes are high - for global carmakers, oil producers, economies, and the environment. As with battery electric cars, a major challenge for fuel-cell carmakers is a lack of infrastructure, with few hydrogen fuel stations in the world. Estimates vary, but it costs about $2 million (R21 million) to build a single hydrogen fuel station in the United States, according to Toyota executives. Safety is also a concern. Hydrogen is a highly flammable element when not handled properly. The Toyota launch pits fuel-cell technology against battery electric in a race to capture the hearts and wallets of drivers looking for engines that are easier on the environment. Takeshi Uchiyamada, the 67-year-old “father of the Prius” whose success catapulted him from mid-level engineer to Toyota board chairman, says technology inefficiencies will make the battery electric car little more than an “errands car” - a small run-around for shopping, dropping the kids at school and other short-haul chores. Other carmakers in the fuel-cell camp include Daimler, Hyundai and Honda, which plans to introduce an upgraded FCX Clarity next year with seating for five, a smaller | http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/cars/toyota/toyota-reignites-the-hydrogen-debate-1.1677628 |
Law Grad, 32: Don't Do What I Did A 32-year-old Boston University law graduate is on a one-woman crusade to save others from making the same mistakes she made. High on Kirsten Wolf’s list of don’ts is spending the time—and especially the money—she did to get a law degree. Now saddled with $87,000 in educational debt that she expects to be paying off until she retires because of her relatively low-salaried job she otherwise loves in the publishing industry, she says she went to law school with unrealistic ideas about what the degree would be worth to her, reports the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. While a legal education does have value in the job market, even for those who don’t practice, it’s not worth what many pay | for it, Wolf contends. “I’m on a one-woman mission to talk people out of law school,” she tells Law Blog. “Lots of people go to law school as a default. They don’t know what else to do, like I did. It seems like a good idea. People say a law degree will always be worth something even if you don’t practice. But they don’t consider what that debt is going to look like after law school. What Rookie Duty Were You Glad to Shed As You Gained Seniority? White House Admits Erasing Pre-2003 E-Mail Backups Commenting is not available in this channel entry. | http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/law_grad_32_dont_do_what_i_did/ |
Memory loss hitting some fentanyl abusers - KTTC Rochester, Austin, Mason City News, Weather and Sports Memory loss hitting some fentanyl abusers © Hemera / Thinkstock © Hemera / Thinkstock By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter (HealthDay News) -- Using fentanyl or other opioids alongside other illicit drugs could trigger possibly permanent amnesia caused by brain damage, doctors warn. Over a dozen cases have emerged in which drug abusers have developed severe short-term memory loss, possibly after experiencing an overdose, said Marc Haut. He's chair of West Virginia University's department of behavioral medicine and psychiatry. "They all have difficulty learning new information, and it's pretty dense," Haut said. "Every day is pretty much a new day for them, and sometimes within a day they can't maintain information they've learned." | Imaging scans of patients revealed lesions on the hippocampus, a region of the brain associated with memory, Haut explained. These amnesiac drug users do not recover quickly, and there's some question whether they will ever fully regain their short-term memory, Haut added. "Based upon the imaging, I would be surprised if they didn't have at least some significant memory problems permanently," Haut said. The latest case occurred in May 2017, when doctors at a West Virginia hospital treated a 30-year-old Maryland man suffering from persistent memory impairment. Family members reported that the man had a history of heroin use, and had recently left a residential addiction treatment program. The patient had been off drugs for a month when one evening he returned home late and couldn't be awakened the next morning. His family found him in his room with drug paraphernalia, asking repetitive questions as he became more alert. Blood tests revealed the presence of cocaine in his system and urine tests detected norfentanyl, a chemical produced by the breakdown of fentanyl in the body, the researchers said. Meanwhile, imaging scans showed lesions on the man's brain, along the hippocampus and basal ganglia. Digging further, the investigators found another similar case of drug-related amnesia in Virginia in September 2015, as well as a total of 14 cases between 2012 and 2016 in Massachusetts. None of these previous amnesiac patients were tested for fentanyl, but 15 of the total 16 known cases tested positive for opioid use, the researchers reported. Half also had a history or tests indicating cocaine use. These observations are new, very unusual and quite troubling, said Dr. Tim Brennan, director of the Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospitals in New York City. "I've not seen that with other opioids. I have patients who have abused heroin for years and they've never complained of that or shown any signs of that," Brennan said. "This is very unique. This is nothing I've seen before." Haut noted that the researchers aren't sure what's causing the brain damage revealed by imaging scans. It's possible that these patients experienced an undetected drug overdose that temporarily stopped their heart or lungs, cutting the flow of oxygen to their brain, he suggested. "You get that cutoff of oxygen and that can produce lesions like this, but not to this extent typically," Haut said. "We think the fentanyl is adding to that effect and exacerbating that effect," possibly when taken in combination with a stimulant like cocaine. For example, Haut suspects the Maryland man overdosed, but no one saw his heart or breathing stop. Overdose was noted in other patients, but doctors need to discover more cases to compare and figure out what's really going on, he said. Overdose risk is extremely high with fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. That makes the synthetic opioid much more powerful than either heroin or other prescription painkillers, according to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Because fentanyl is so potent and cheaper than heroin, Brennan said, many | http://www.kttc.com/story/37377332/memory-loss-hitting-some-fentanyl-abusers |
Mitsotakis calls for Shipping Minister Koroumblis to resign over oil spill (video) Major opposition leader visited affected areas Major opposition party New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday Greek PM Alexis Tsipras must accept Shipping Minister Panagiotis Kouroumblis’ resignation while touring areas affected by the oil spill in the Saronic Gulf. “There are grave responsibilities and major questions,” said the main opposition leader and asked: “Who said that the tanker was seaworthy and why was the state mechanism’s response delayed? How can a ship sink in completely calm seas?” “Who judged the boat was seaworthy? How does a ship sink in calm conditions in the harbour? Why did the government aparatus delay to mobilise? Have all the Coast Guard boats been mobilised as they should?”, wondered | Mr. Mitsotakis. | http://en.protothema.gr/mitsotakis-calls-for-shipping-minister-koroumblis-to-resign-over-oil-spill-video/ |