text
stringlengths 1
100k
|
|---|
They had fought for the Roman general Julius Caesar in his invasions of Britain in 55 BC and 54 BC. |
'These guys were expert slingers; they'd been doing this the whole of their lives,' Dr Reid said. |
A heavy sling bullet or stone could reach speeds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h) in the right hands. |
WAS BURNSWARK THE SITE OF A BATTLE OR A TRAINING CAMP? Rising nearly 1,000 feet from the rolling countryside around it, Burnswark Hill in Dumfriesshire were an imposing defensive position. Archaeologists have found evidence for an Iron Age hill fort and settlement that crowned the top of the lumpy formation, which lies just ten miles north of Hadrian's Wall. Either side of the fort are the remains of what appear to be two Roman camps – one to the north and one to the south. Historians have argued over this unusual configuration of Roman military camps on either side of the hill fort since it was first discovered in 1785. The earliest interpretations claimed that it was the site of a siege as the Roman army attempted to capture the imposing fort. The fort and the camps are thought to date from around a time when the Roman emperor Antonius Pius ordered the reconquest of Scotland during the 140sAD. However, in 1964, further excavations led to the suggestion that the fort had been abandoned by the second century AD when the Roman army is thought to have set up the camps. This has led to the theory that the hill fort was actually being used as a training site for the Romans, partly due to the unusual shape of the camps. They were unlike any other Roman military camp – rather than having a centrally placed entrance on each side of the square camp, the North camp had a smaller rectangular square tacked onto the side. The presence of 'obsolete' acorn shaped lead sling bullets has also led to claims that the site was used for training rather than a real battle. However, others have pointed to the scatter of sling bullets around the site and say they match what would be expected from a besieging attack rather than target practice. |
'We undertook a ballistic assessment of the lead sling-bullets previously found on the site in order to assess the performance of this ammunition,' Dr Reid said. |
The group made replica bullets cast in lead and high-density clay and used a volunteer to weave slings from various materials. |
'We found that the larger 1.7 ounce (50g) bullets could be cast at least 656ft (200 metres) depending on whether the low-trajectory direct (more accurate) or lob style (greater distance) of slinging was used.' |
The Trimontium Trust is directing a year-long archaeological investigation of Burnswark Hill. |
TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — Florida authorities say a police officer was shot and killed in Tarpon Springs early Sunday. |
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the shooting occurred at around 3 a.m. in the Tampa Bay-area city and that a suspect has been taken into custody. |
Authorities say the suspect fled the scene of the shooting in a vehicle and crashed into a pole and another vehicle. He was then apprehended by police at that location. |
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said the officer was a member of the Tarpon Springs Police Department, though no names have been released. |
A news conference is to be held later today, the statement said. |
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
Newcastle United have completed the signing of Facundo Ferreyra on loan from Shakhtar Donetsk |
By Anthony Marshall - Newcastle United Managing Editor |
Newcastle United have completed the signing of Facundo Ferreyra from Shakhtar Donetsk. |
The 23-year-old Argentine striker joins on a season-long loan, with an option to buy at the end of the campaign, and has joined up with Magpies' squad in Germany as they take part in this weekend's Schalke 04 Cup. |
Ferreyra came through the ranks at Banfield in his homeland and spent four seasons in the first team before earning a switch to Vélez Sársfield in the summer of 2012. |
An instant hit at Vélez, he was their top goalscorer and the league's joint leading marksman in his one and only season, netting 17 goals in just 24 games. |
That attracted the attention of Shakhtar Donetsk, who signed Ferreyra in July 2013, and he represented the club in the Champions League and Europa League last term, scoring six times. |
Ferreyra said: "I am very pleased to sign for Newcastle United. |
"I like the Premier League and when I knew that Newcastle were interested in me, it was a very easy decision to make. |
"I spoke to my friend Fabricio Coloccini, and when he told me about the Club, I didn't need to think twice." |
Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew said: "Facundo is someone we know on a number of levels, including his friendship with Fabricio (Coloccini), and we think he could be a big success here at Newcastle. |
"This is a player who has played at the top level and is highly-regarded in Argentina. |
"He has tremendous potential and hopefully he can realise that here at Newcastle United." |
Stay tuned to nufc.co.uk throughout the day for an exclusive nufcTV interview with Ferreyra, along with the thoughts of manager Alan Pardew on his new signing. |
Donald J. Trump reeled on Sunday amid a sustained campaign of criticism by the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq and a rising outcry within his own party over his rough and ethnically charged dismissal of the couple. |
The confrontation between the parents, Khizr and Ghazala Khan, and Mr. Trump has emerged as an unexpected and potentially pivotal flash point in the general election. Mr. Trump has plainly struggled to respond to the reproach of a military family who lost a son, and has answered their criticism derisively — first implying that Ms. Khan had been forbidden to speak at the Democratic National Convention, then declaring that Mr. Khan had “no right” to question Mr. Trump’s familiarity with the Constitution. |
And Mr. Trump’s usual political tool kit has appeared to fail him. He earned no reprieve with his complaints that Mr. Khan had been unfair to him; on Sunday morning, he claimed on Twitter that Mr. Khan had “viciously attacked” him. Mr. Trump and his advisers tried repeatedly to change the subject to Islamic terrorism, to no avail. |
Instead, Mr. Trump appeared to be caught on Sunday in one of the biggest crises of his campaign, rivaling the uproar in June after he suggested a federal judge, Gonzalo P. Curiel, was biased because of his Mexican heritage. By going after a military family and trafficking in religious stereotypes, Mr. Trump once again breached multiple norms of American politics, redoubling pressure on his fellow Republicans to choose between defending his remarks or breaking publicly with their nominee. |
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Two veteran Los Angeles police officers faced fraud and other charges Thursday for allegedly stealing taxpayer funds by making phony injury claims. |
KNX 1070’s Brian Ping reports the charges come in the wake of an investigation by the LAPD Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit. |
LAPD Officers Charged In Alleged Workers' Compensation Fraud Case |
LAPD investigators working with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office determined that John Hall and Ralph Mendoza had provided false testimony during depositions related to their industrial injury claims. |
Hall, a 19-year veteran who was last assigned to the Emergency Services Division, surrendered Wednesday in response to an arrest warrant listing four felony counts of workers compensation fraud, insurance fraud, grand theft and attempted perjury, police said. |
Bail for the 45-year-old officer was set at $80,000. He is assigned to home confinement pending the outcome of the criminal and administrative investigations. |
Mendoza, a 13-year veteran, was last assigned to the Hollenbeck Division patrol. He surrendered on an arrest warrant listing two felony counts of workers’ compensation fraud and grand theft, according to investigators. |
Mendoza, 44, who lives in San Bernardino County, was held on $40,000 bail. He has been relieved of duty pending the outcome of an investigation. |
LAPD Officer Sarah Faden said the investigation’s findings are troubling. |
“Certainly, the public trust is at the very core of our police profession, and when that trust is violated, we must employ every measure to restore it,” Faden said. |
Anyone with information related to this or any other case was asked to call the LAPD’s Special Operations Division at (213)473-5672. |
(©2013 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.) |
Beer does not make itself properly by itself. It takes an element of mystery and of things that no one can understand. – Fritz Maytag, Anchor Brewing Co. |
As a homebrewer, I remember first learning just how critical yeast is to homebrewing—sometimes the hard way. More than any other fermented beverage, beer depends on yeast for flavor and aroma. Sure, hops, grain and water are all important, but it’s yeast that can really make or break your beer. |
There is no doubt homebrewers have access to lots of yeast strains, but sometimes a particular strain isn’t available. We’re here to show you that it may be possible to culture your desired yeast from a bottle-conditioned beer. |
Most commercial beers are filtered, but some brewers will bottle-condition their beers and it’s usually advertised on the label. You can also look to see if there is a layer of sediment on the bottom of the bottle (this is the yeast). |
Before culturing commercial yeast, you need to know the condition of the yeast you’re trying to culture. Fresh beer that has been stored cold and is not extremely alcoholic will have a good shot at recovery. Yeast stressed from heat, age and/or high alcohol levels will be much harder to salvage. |
So without further adieu, here are the steps to harvesting bottle dregs. |
Harvesting and Culturing Yeast |
Take your sanitation seriously. Sanitation is extremely crucial in this process. The number of viable yeast cells in a bottle is probably low and any contaminating microorganisms that mix in with your culture may grow faster than your yeast, making everything you’re doing useless. Make sure everything you use and touch in this process is well sanitized. Gathering the yeast. Wipe down your bottle with 70% ethanol solution or isopropanol. Pour off the beer slowly, leaving behind the sediment at the bottom. Let the alcohol evaporate then sanitize the top of the bottle to kill any microorganisms that were hiding underneath the cap. Cover the top of the bottle with sanitized aluminum foil and let the bottle warm to room temperature. Wake up the yeast. You’ll want to create a small amount of wort (specific gravity between 1.015 – 1.020) using DME to cover the bottom of the bottle (2-3 mL). You want to feed your yeast a manageable amount of wort. Giving too many carbohydrates, oxygen and other nutrients can stress your yeast. Pour the wort down the side of the bottle so as to not disturb the yeast. Add a small pinch of yeast nutrient. Sanitize the top of the bottle again and cover it with the sanitized aluminum foil. Let it sit and incubate for no more than three days at 70-90°F (21-32°C). A good place to do this is on top of a refrigerator that provides a little warmer climate. Make sure to keep it out of direct sunlight. When stepping up healthy yeast cultures, a good rule of thumb is to pitch the yeast culture to a wort 5-10 times the volume of the culture. Earlier step up stages stick with five times the amount so you don’t stress the yeast. Limiting the amount of wort you add also helps prevents unwanted microorganisms from culturing. Once three days have passed, transfer the fermenting wort to a small culture of fresh wort (about 15 ml, which is five times as much liquid as you have now). Before transferring, sanitize the tip of the bottle and pour the yeast sample into the new container. Make sure whatever container you use is properly sanitized and preferably sterile. You can add a pinch of lysozyme—an enzyme that kills lactic acid bacteria and is available at most home winemaking shops. This gives your yeast just a little more protection than it otherwise had before. Cap immediately and incubate at 70-90°F (21-32°C) for no more than three days. You should see signs of fermentation, such as foam on top of the wort, cloudiness in the wort or just a layer of yeast at the bottom. This is fantastic! You’re (nearly) home free! Now that your yeast is healthy, perform another step up at 10 times. In other words, from 15 mL you’re going to create a culture of 150 mL. Use a higher OG wort to improve culturing (1.030 – 1.035), aerate well and add a pinch of yeast nutrient. Incubate for no more than three days at 70-90°F (21-32°C). The 150 mL culture should ferment like a little batch of beer. When it’s finished fermenting, the resulting liquid should taste like beer. As a test, transfer some of the liquid into a sanitized container and refrigerate overnight so the yeast settles. If it tastes good, then proceed with the process. Follow step 10 again, doing another 10 times step up, to get 1.5 L. Once the 1.5 L yeast starter shows activity, it is ready to pitch to your homebrew. If you want to be cautious, you can let it ferment out, do a second tasting similar to step 11 before using it. |
There are other methods to culture yeast from bottle-conditioned commercial beers, and if those work for you then by all means stick with your proven method. The above method is a cautious, meticulous approach to ensure you don’t stress the yeast and end up with a high success rate. |
Which ever method you choose, know the yeast is strong with you. |
Sources |
The country of Girls' Generation took over the popularity map for 2013. |
A map previewing the popularity of major girl groups in 2013 was recently uploaded on an online community board which has sparked some debate.�The land of each girl group country was based on their achievement for 2012 and projections in 2013. |
Girl's Generation had the largest country and took over most of the map. Not only so, but they even had a section for subgroup Taetiseo. Labelmates f(x) also took up a large portion of the map. Despite being a solo act, IU also enjoyed a large country. |
The countries closest in size to the top included KARA, SISTAR, and 2NE1. |
After School, 4minute, Brown Eyed Girls, Girl's Day, A Pink, Crayon Pop, Dal Shabet, and Rainbow showed up on the map as well. miss A also had a significant portion, but Suzy had a large part by herself. The map also showed Wonder Girls and T-ara with significantly less area than before. |
Do you think this is accurate? |
Written by Daisy Sindelar based on reporting by Ivan Belyayev of RFE/RL's Russian Service |
On March 4, Roman Romanenko, a journalist and publisher in Russia's northwest Vologda region, took a break from the news in Crimea and sat down to write a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin."We've learned that you want to send troops to Crimea to defend the rights of the Russian-speaking population," Romanenko typed. "In relation to that, we have a big request -- to send troops into Vologda. We all totally speak Russian here, and our rights are frequently violated."Romanenko went on to describe just some of the ills affecting Vologda residents -- poor medical care, sinking education standards, and agricultural stagnation.If Putin was intent on rescuing a foreign territory like Crimea from similar squalor, Romanenko reasoned, then surely he'd want to do the same in his own country."You're planning to spend a lot of money to normalize life in Crimea," he hinted gingerly. "I hate to ask, but is there any chance you could spend that money on normalizing life in Vologda?"The letter, not surprisingly, was never sent. Instead, Romanenko -- the head of Vologda's Premier media company and publisher of the "Premier" newspaper --, thinking it would amuse his friends.Since then, the letter has been shared more than 3,500 times and spawned copycat jokes in cities like Tver, Yaroslavl, and Perm. With Russia's own crumbling infrastructure and widespread poverty, Romanenko says many people were ready to laugh at the notion of Putin leaping to the rescue of Russian-speakers who not only lived in another country, but had lived there for years without asking for help."We conducted an opinion poll on the air on Premier Radio. We asked our listeners whether they would sign this letter. Eighty-two percent out of more than a thousand respondents said they would," he says. "That's why I don't even find [this letter] provocative. Apparently, the reason behind its popularity is that it hit a very sensitive spot."Not everyone, however, was amused. This week, Romanenko returned from a vacation to find he had been invited to a meeting with local prosecutors. Romanenko, whose bushy mustache covers a wide, playful grin, says he went out of "curiosity" -- and was shocked to realize his letter was being investigated for possible extremism at the request of the regional governor, Oleg Kuvshinnikov."The next hour and a half was pretty tiresome, with me trying to explain the point of my prank -- whom I was referring to, what kinds of facts and documents I had to back up my claim that local health care and agriculture weren't all that they could be, etc.," Romanenko says. "I had the impression that the staffers in the prosecutor's office were fairly intelligent and civilized. I didn't sense any aggression from them."Romanenko's sense of well-being didn't last long. He went home to discover the door of his apartment had been covered with a swastika and the slogan "Stop Maidan," a reference to Ukraine's pro-democracy protests."We called the police and they found leaflets in [my neighbors'] mailboxes that said: 'To the knowledge of the residents of this apartment block -- there is a Lviv scum living in your neighborhood who supports the West and the destruction of Ukraine, blah-blah. Beware! The apartment of Romanenko, a Ukrainian Jew, may be used as an undercover headquarters of Ukrainian "patriots."'"Russia's SeverInform news agency quoted an unnamed law enforcement official as explaining the attack by saying the population of Vologda was "almost unanimous" in its support for Putin's policy on Ukraine, and that the graffiti was a direct response to Romanenko's "cynical" stunt.For his part, Romanenko believes the pressure comes not from the public but from Kuvshinnikov, the target of several critical articles published in "Premier."The Facebook letter -- which refers to local officials as "occupiers who seized power through fraudulent elections" -- probably didn't help, either. ("We'll be very grateful to you and will guarantee that there will be no partisan war against our liberators," Romanenko wrote, adding that no international sanctions were likely to follow.)Prosecutors have a month to conclude their investigation. |
Blake is the content manager for DailyMTG.com, making him the one you should email if you have thoughts on the website, good or less good (or not good). He's a longtime coverage reporter and hasn't turned down a game of Magic in any format ever. |
We're going to be trying something a little different this month compared to previous Friday Night Magic promo updates. So if you're used to our old format, I'd avoid simply scrolling to the bottom to get the next new card. Because today you're going to be seeing three new upcoming cards. |
Here's what we're going to be trying out. We're going to try releasing three Friday Night Magic promos at a time, as we currently batch three of them together in a "season" of sorts. For example, the three new cards I'm going to show you today are all cards from Kaladesh, while the previous three were from Eldritch Moon. |
Let's start off by looking at that previous batch, as they're all still relevant. |
January |
February |
March |
That means that for what's left of January (this week), you can get a promo Noose Constrictor at your local Friday Night Magic. In February, that changes to Fortune's Favor. In March, Incendiary Flow. Each of these cards is unique to Friday Night Magic. |
The next batch will all be cards from Kaladesh. Let's take a look. |
April |
With Sram's Expertise getting a lot of attention, will Servo Exhibition make the leap to Standard? Time will tell, but if it does, this promo version with Vincent Proce's new art sure will look good alongside whatever expertise Sram has going for him. |
May |
I would stand back, but I really do want to get my hands on one of these premium versions of a premium removal spell. Unlicensed Disintegration is certainly the most powerful removal spell in Standard, and this new art from Florian de Gesincourt is powerfully great. |
June |
This might just be the most-played card in Standard, and Jonas De Ro's version of the card is certainly worthy of that title. Players will want to pick up a number of these come June, and I have a feeling that number is four. |
Stay tuned to DailyMTG near the start of every month, as we'll find a way to remind you what Friday Night Magic Promo will be available that month. But in the meantime, here are three months to look forward to. |
: A History of Computer Animation Tom Sito MIT Press , 2013 - 362 pages , 2013 - Art 0 Reviews Computer graphics (or CG) has changed the way we experience the art of moving images.Computer graphics is the difference between Steamboat Willie and Buzz Lightyear, between ping pongand PONG. It began in 1963 when an MIT graduate student named Ivan Sutherland created the first truecomputer animation program. Instead of presenting a series of numbers, Sutherland's Sketchpadprogram drew lines that created recognizable images. Sutherland noted: "Since motion can be putinto Sketchpad drawings, it might be exciting to try making cartoons." This book, the firstfull-length history of CG, shows us how Sutherland's seemingly offhand idea grew into a multibilliondollar industry. In Moving Innovation, Tom Sito -- himself an animator andindustry insider for more than thirty years -- describes the evolution of CG. The history oftraditional cinema technology is a fairly straight path from Lumière to MGM. Writing the history ofCG, Sito maps simultaneous accomplishments in multiple locales -- academia, the military-industrialcomplex, movie special effects, video games, experimental film, corporate research, and commercialanimation. His story features a memorable cast of characters -- math nerds, avant-garde artists,cold warriors, hippies, video game enthusiasts, and studio executives: disparate types united by acommon vision. Computer animation did not begin just with Pixar; Sito shows us how fifty years ofwork by this motley crew made movies like Toy Story and Avatarpossible. Preview this book » |
Sunday’s episode of CNN’s news program Reliable Sources was mostly interesting, focusing on the dramatic decrease in media reporting of the Oregon college shooter’s name and face. This was a response to the gunman making clear he did this for fame, after wistfully writing online of the limelight won by other high-profile murderers. I expect this to be a trend for the future as we belatedly catch on to the problem. |
But then, the usually reliable host Brian Stelter had this to say: |
… There’s misinformation that sometimes spreads after these massacres. I’ve been seeing a lot of misinformation about the religion of the gunman. Some people have wrongly claimed that he was a Muslim convert, when in fact, it seems he was an atheist who was targeting anyone who is religious. That kind of misinformation is something that can only be countered by accurate information about the gunman. |
So much misinformation in that one bolded phrase. It’s unfortunate that Stelter’s zeal to debunk unfounded rumors tarnishing Islam ended up deflecting wrongly to atheism. The claims that the gunman was an atheist who targeted the religious are, to this date, unsupported by the evidence. |
Were the victims in fact Christians? |
There is a massive narrative in media and in Christian communities that the victims were all Christians, with social media filled with references to the “nine Christian martyrs” that at least one presidential candidate is exploiting for votes. |
So far this site appears to be the only one to have actually examined the religious beliefs of the murder victims. And our analysis found that the claim of the shooter “targeting anyone who is religious” does not appear to hold up. Only two of the victims were confirmed Christians. One was an Agnostic, another a Pagan, and a third was apparently a secular Jew. The remaining four, amidst everything they did or did not put out there about themselves, gave no indication they wanted to be known publicly by any religious identity whatsoever. This must be respected. No one has the right to co-op our memories of the deceased and revise them to fit an agenda. |
Did the shooter intend to “target” anyone who was religious? |
The media has reported no first-hand accounts of the shooter treating people differently based on their responses to his questions about religion. Yet we do have first-hand accounts that he did not target people according to their religious beliefs. Shooting survivors Tracy Heu and Rand McGowan specifically reported they didn’t think the religious were targeted, as they were not treated differently depending upon their response. Anastasia Boylan and Kortney Moore reported only that the shooter asked about religion but did not specify whether he treated people differently depending on how they answered. |
The conflicting accounts about Christians being treated differently came only second-hand and have not been confirmed by the actual witnesses. That lack of confirmation seems significant. One of those second-hand accounts came from Boylan’s grandmother, Janet Willis, but in Boylan’s own interview later, she did not make the claim. Given the great amount of interest in this point, one would think she’d have wanted to confirm it if it were indeed true. Another second-hand account comes from high-schooler Autumn Vicari about her older brother J.J., who escaped without injury. For whatever reason, there is still no reported interview with J.J. himself that might confirm or deny this. |
Was the shooter “an atheist”? |
The sheriff in charge of the response who has been relaying statements from families said he has not been informed of alleged religious targeting , either by families or survivors. |
The shooter himself didn’t think so. |
Much has been made, in the media and by Christians, of the gunman’s dating profile at “Spiritual Passions,” where he checked two boxes for his religious views: “Not Religious,” and “Not Religious But Spiritual.” |
What has not been reported anywhere are the boxes he did not check. I had to sign up on that site to find this out, but it’s free and only took a few minutes. Here are the choices he had available to him: |
The shooter could have checked boxes for “Atheist” or “Agnostic,” but he didn’t do that. |
As for what he sought in his match, he checked “Pagan,” “Wiccan,” and “Not Religious, but Spiritual.” This meant he wanted to screen out women who had checked “Atheist” or “Agnostic.” He wanted to date theistic women, not atheistic women. |
The site also allows you to join groups that align with your beliefs. Again, much has been made of what he checked: “Magick and Occult,” “Left-Hand Path,” “Meditation,” “Not Religious But Spiritual,” and “Doesn’t Like Organized Religion.” But once again, no one has reported which groups he did not check. What were those options? |
There are only two nontheistic groups on that list — only two that an atheist or Agnostic would be likely to check: “Philosophy” and “Humanism.” He checked neither. |
Looking at all the available evidence, the gunman, at least at the time of this profile, was not an atheist. |