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Rep. Eric Swalwell (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) And then there were 24. Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) will reportedly drop out of the 2020 presidential race, concluding a campaign that had struggled to stand out in the crowded primary field, according to the Los Angeles Times. He will instead run for re-election in California’s 15th Congressional District based in East Bay. The announcement comes less than a week after Swalwell abruptly cancelled five Independence Day-themed campaign events in New Hampshire, a crucial early primary state. The Californian struggled to attract national attention or popular support from the very beginning of his campaign, never polling above 1 percent and often failing to register at all in national polls. Swalwell appeared on the second night of the Miami Democratic debates, notably admonishing frontrunner and former vice president Joe Biden to “pass the torch to a new generation of Americans” and attacking Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s handling of a police-involved shooting in South Bend. Ironically, Buttigieg had become a favorite of wealthy Bay Area donors while Swalwell remained obscure. While the campaign’s finances have yet to be disclosed to the FEC, digital records show that the Swalwell campaign spent heavily on digital advertisements, spending nearly $109,000 on Facebook ads and $33,000 on Twitter ads. He had $1.7 million left over from his 2018 congressional race, a war chest far smaller than that of most of his Democratic rivals. Help us keep government accountable by making a donation today. In the days following the debate, Swalwell was questioned by CNN anchor John Berman and attributed his polling woes to his lack of speaking time during the debate. “Yeah, it’s early. You know, I got about four minutes total to talk. Others like the vice president and, you know, people who are polling higher right now talked for about 12 to 13 minutes.” Swalwell’s campaign was centered around gun control. The candidate released a comprehensive eight-part plan to tackle gun violence in America, notably calling for a ban and buy-back of all semiautomatic weapons and increased regulations on gun manufacturers. Influential gun control groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America publicly applauded Swalwell for his positions on gun issues. Swalwell appeared unlikely to qualify for the July Democratic debates, with Montana Governor Steve Bullock pushing him out of the final qualifying spot. Swalwell had been open about retaining the option of returning to run for his current congressional seat, telling The Hill, “I hope to be part of the field as it shrinks. If I don’t, I’m going to be realistic about my options.” Unlike the governors and senators he ran against in the primary, Swalwell needed to drop out by December 2019 to mount a re-election bid. He will be the presumptive frontrunner in the race and will face Republican entrepreneur Peter Yuan Liu and Democratic Hayward City Council member Aisha Wahab in California’s unique “top two” primary. Wahab had previously left open the future of her campaign open should Swalwell decide to seek re-election. Note (7/8): Eric Swalwell confirmed his departure from the race in a press conference late Monday afternoon. He announced that he will indeed seek reelection for his House seat, saying, “Today ends our presidential campaign, but it is the beginning of an opportunity in Congress with a new perspective.” For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: [email protected] Support Accountability Journalism At OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2020 presidential fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. Every donation we receive from users like you goes directly into promoting high-quality data analysis and investigative journalism that you can trust.Please support our work and keep this resource free. Thank you. Support OpenSecrets ➜

WASHINGTON — The White House's current explanation for why allegations against top aide Rob Porter failed to have an impact for roughly a year pins the blame on an obscure internal office of personnel security — but more than a day after they first pointed to it, it remains far from clear that office serves the function that the Trump administrations said it does. Former White House officials paint a different picture of the security office, saying the career professionals who staff it perform largely administrative functions, lacking the authority to keep information from senior administration officials or to make the final determination on whether or not personnel are granted permanent security clearance. One former senior White House official told NBC News Tuesday night that the personnel security office does "not make decisions," nor do they "do vetting" of White House aides. While they might make recommendations based on background check investigations completed by the FBI, the ultimate decision would be left to senior White House staff, according to this official. Bob Bauer, former White House counsel to President Barack Obama, described the personnel security office as playing "a logistical role" during an interview on MSNBC Wednesday. Bauer said that the description Sanders offered of the role of the personnel security office — which she said Tuesday was responsible for making "a recommendation for adjudication" regarding Porter's permanent security clearance — "doesn't correspond" with his experience with the office "at all." Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings. This site is protected by recaptcha Another former Obama senior White House official, speaking anonymously with NBC in order to talk freely about their past interactions with the office, said that the career staffers in the personnel office are primarily responsible for passing along information to top White House aides, including the White House counsel, in a timely fashion. "That's their obligation," the official said. "If they get something, they gotta push it." The final impact of the completed investigations is then up to the political staff, said the official. Those staffers who are approved for security clearances are contacted by the personnel security office — which may have been referred to by different names during past administrations — to go over how to handle that information, and details about their clearances. Asked Wednesday on MSNBC if there was any way the White House counsel could have been unaware of the outstanding allegations uncovered over the course of Porter's security clearance investigation, former chief of staff to President Barack Obama Bill Daley said "absolutely not." "The story just doesn't hold up," he said. "People didn't want to know why Mr. Porter couldn't get cleared...and they didn't ask or they kept hoping that the issue would go away," he said. To date, White House counsel Don McGahn has been the target of less scrutiny with regard to his role in the Porter clearance scandal than has Chief of Staff John Kelly. Experts have told NBC News that McGahn deserves scrutiny over what he knew, and when, about Porter. The White House first made mention of the "White House personnel security office" on Tuesday, hours after FBI Director Chris Wray upended their previous narrative, which blamed the administration's failure to act on the serious allegations against Porter on an ongoing FBI investigation into his background. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that the office, which staffers later said was located next to the White House in the New Executive Office Building, may have received details unearthed in the FBI's background investigation into Porter that they did not fully pass along to top West Wing aides because they had not yet made a final recommendation on Porter's security clearance. She did not specify whether the details she referred to included all allegations of domestic abuse. Several other questions remain unanswered about the role of the personnel security office in the Trump administration: The White House did not answer questions from NBC about how many employees staff the office, who runs it, and whether or not the Trump administration has fundamentally altered its role, asking it to serve a different function than it has under prior presidents. The Porter story has dominated coverage of the White House for over a week, as the West Wing struggles to produce a consistent account of the timeline that led up to the former staffer's exit. Messaging isn't the only Porter-linked problem plaguing the Trump administration. In the wake of the incident, and questions raised over the chief of staff's handling of the situation, the president has also been polling allies on possible replacements — though Sanders said Tuesday that John Kelly still has Trump's confidence.

Originally Posted by Scapes Originally Posted by Then let's fix that. The team has shared the constructively critical feedback from ArcheAge's passionate drivers and XLGAMES agrees that the speed cap should be adjusted. We're finalizing the hard limit but it will be much faster than anything else on the road and will be uniform among the three cars. This change will likely arrive in the next build we receive but may take a little time to test and apply. Thanks for keeping your feedback civil and on-point, really helped us convey that a change was warranted!

I am an old fashioned scientist more interested in numbers than in diplomatic agreements or parsing diplomatic language. So I have no real view of whether the Paris climate change agreement is a historical triumph or a fraud. But as a long time observer, and sometime contributor, to debates over whether we can limit temperature rises to 2 C above pre-industrial levels, I am rather perplexed by the unexpected inclusion in the agreement of the aspiration to keep temperature rises to 1.5 C. Here is what the agreement says: Emphasizing with serious concern the urgent need to address the significant gap between the aggregate effect of Parties’ mitigation pledges in terms of global annual emissions of greenhouse gases by 2020 and aggregate emission pathways consistent with holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C. [my emphasis] Let me state some simple facts that show this is an act of cynicism, wishful thinking, or delusion. Each year existing fossil fuel infrastructure emits approximately 36 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is what is now happening, but what will obviously need to change to get anywhere close to 1.5 C. Now, some undiluted fantasy. Let’s imagine that tomorrow we stopped building any new fossil fuel infrastructure and simply retired the existing stuff when we expected to. How much CO2 would it emit? Fortunately, this has already been estimated by the important work of Steve Davis and others. In a paper in Science in 2010 they calculated that future fossil fuel emissions from existing infrastructure would increase atmospheric CO2 levels to 430 ppm and would increase temperatures by 1.3 C above pre-industrial levels. That paper was published 5 years ago. Since then atmospheric CO2 levels have gone up by around 10 ppm, and the rapid construction of long lasting coal power plants in China means we have actually increased the level of “committed” CO2 from existing infrastructure. So, existing fossil fuel infrastructure has more or less locked us into 1.5 C. And as Glen Peters points out we will probably eat up a 1.5 C carbon budget by 2020. That’s the fantasy. What is the reality? Here are some more simple facts: Fossil fuels continue to dominate new energy infrastructure. Maersk is not unveiling solar powered container ships. Boeing and Airbus appear content with the age of kerosene. Steel makers are sticking with coal. 20 million new cars are added to China’s roads each year. Electric cars remain marginal everywhere: in Germany, where they wanted 1 million of them on the roads by 2020 and in America where Obama spoke of 1 million being on the roads by 2015. Despite what you may read, China is still opening roughly one new coal power plant each week. India plans to double its coal production by 2020. Green Germany just opened a new coal power plant last month. Britain announced a phaseout of coal power plants, but plans to build a new fleet of gas power plants. Despite what most EU policy-makers believed we now appear to be entering an era of cheap oil and natural gas. I can go on. This leaves us with an obvious conclusion. The 1.5 C barrier will be breached, regardless of what the countries of the world ostensibly aspire towards. With one deus ex machina: we figure out a way to suck billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere each year. That’s what simple arithmetic tells us will be needed. And that is not something any of the world’s leaders appear to want to discuss.

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Hamid Mir, a prominent Pakistani journalist and a critic of the nation’s powerful military, was wounded by gunmen in the southern port city of Karachi on Saturday evening, according to police officials and local news media reports. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but within hours of the attack, Amir Mir, Mr. Mir’s brother, accused the chief of the intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, or ISI, of being behind it. In an emotional outburst on Geo TV, the network on which Hamid Mir hosts a popular talk show, Amir Mir assailed the intelligence agency, saying that the ISI “was eating up Pakistan like termites” and accusing its director, Lt. Gen. Zahir ul-Islam, and other ISI officials of planning to kill Mr. Mir. He said that his brother had told him about two weeks ago that his life was in danger and that he had recorded a video that had been sent to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

(ECNS) - Foxconn Industrial Internet, a subsidiary of the world's largest contract manufacturer Foxconn, has enabled most of its production lines and factories to be fully automated by using industrial Internet solutions, said its vice president Vincent Chen. At a forum organized by Tencent, Chen said that many clients were surprised by Foxconn's lights-out factory where no human workers are needed. Chen said a lights-out factory can reduce labor costs, improve manufacturing quality, cut down on energy use, and increase data and production safety, among other notable benefits. The Foxconn unit, which is known as FII and makes electronic devices, cloud service equipment and industrial robots, just announced plans to raise up to 27.1 billion yuan ($4.26 billion). Chen added that Foxconn will not only achieve smart manufacturing itself but also empower small and medium-sized companies to upgrade production through offering an industrial Internet solution based on artificial intelligence. A combination of sensor technology, smart logistics and automated industrial control systems will make it possible to have customized industrial products, according to Chen.

Wynn Resorts Ltd. faced calls Friday to oust or investigate Steve Wynn, the company’s founder, chairman and chief executive, over allegations that he sexually harassed or pressured numerous women who work for him. Wynn investor Richard “Trip” Miller, managing partner of Gullane Capital Partners, recommended an outside investigation, similar to six years ago when Wynn Resorts hired former FBI chief Louis Freeh to investigate claims that company co-founder Kazuo Okada had bribed foreign casino officials. As result of that report, Wynn Resorts unilaterally bought out Okada’s shares. “These are darn serious allegations,” said Miller, whose company is based in Memphis, Tenn. “We would welcome someone like that coming back and doing a full investigation.” Wynn, who serves as finance chairman for the Republican National Committee, paid $7.5 million to settle claims brought by a former manicurist at his resort who said the executive pressured her to have sex with him, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Wynn coerced massage therapists to perform sex acts for $1,000 tips, and others at the spa created fictitious appointments to avoid contact with him, said the newspaper, which contacted more than 150 people who worked with the casino magnate. Wynn, who is turning 76 Saturday, denied the allegations. “The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous,” he told the Journal. In response to the allegations, Wynn Resorts pointed to Wynn’s ex-wife, Elaine Wynn, accusing her of running a smear campaign “in an attempt to pressure a revised divorce settlement from him.” An attorney for Elaine Wynn told the Journal that she did not instigate Friday’s report. The legal settlement detailed by the Journal in Friday’s report has become a major focus of a lawsuit between Steve Wynn and Elaine Wynn, who is seeking to gain control of her 9% stake in the casino giant. Steve Wynn has long sought to maintain his hold over the company because he lost his previous business, Mirage Resorts, to an unsolicited bid from mogul Kirk Kerkorian. The Republican National Committee — which urged the Democratic National Committee last year to return campaign donations from movie mogul Harvey Weinstein when Weinstein was accused of sexual assault — did not respond to a request for comment. Wynn Resorts shares slumped 10.1% on Friday, their biggest decline since December 2016. Even with the drop, they’re still up nearly 89% over the past 12 months. “We’re aware of the situation and reviewing the information,” Becky Harris, chair of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said in a statement. The board is the chief regulator of casinos in the state. In Massachusetts, where Wynn Resorts is building a $2.4-billion Boston Harbor casino project, regulators also plan to review the allegations. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is “taking very seriously the troubling allegations detailed in the Wall Street Journal article,” the agency said in a statement. Nita Chaudhary, co-founder of the women’s advocacy group UltraViolet, called on the board of the casino company to fire Wynn and for the Republican National Committee to remove him as finance chair. “Steve Wynn needs to go,” Chaudhary said in a statement. “He is a predator of the worst kind who used his position of power to sexually coerce his female employees.” Wynn Resorts is based in Las Vegas, but it generates more than 70% of its business in the Chinese gambling market of Macau. After reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings this week, the company said it plans to develop the next phase of the $4.2-billion Wynn Palace there on 11 acres. The company also announced plans for a new 2,500-room property across Las Vegas Boulevard from its current towers on the site of the former Frontier casino and is constructing a new hotel, convention and lake resort behind its existing properties. Palmeri writes for Bloomberg. UPDATES: 2:10 p.m.: This article was updated throughout with additional details and comments, including from the Nevada Gaming Control Board. This article was originally published at 11:10 a.m.

I’m not denying this is territory I’ve covered before. There’s no disguising that I’m a fan of single-playing gaming over multiplayer. Finally it’s time to just say it. We need to stop avoiding the matter, stop not saying what everyone’s thinking. I’m the man brave enough to do this. I am a valiant man, and maybe I won’t be recognised within my own lifetime, but by God one day I shall be heralded as the prophet and man of integrity I truly am. But please, don’t think me immodest. I would hate that. The very last thing I would want is to come off as snobbish. But I’d like to make the argument that multiplayer gaming is the going down to the pub to watch the “match”, to single-player gaming’s evening in with a glass of wine. What I’m trying to say is, I’ve had quite enough of loud, yobbish multiplayer gamers making noise outside my window as they drunkenly make their way home, because I have guests. I would like you all to keep it down please. I remember the first time I played a multiplayer game. The internet had yet to find its ways into homes, and my friend Fred carried his PC to my house on his back. Setting them up in my father’s study, we linked the two together with something people back then called a serial cable, and with a fizz and a pop the two were connected. Their entities so entwined, when we each loaded up Doom by some sort of witchcraft we appeared on the other’s monitor. Dazzled, we found ourselves unable to look at only one screen, frantically swinging our heads back and forth to see how when we moved in our game, we moved at the same time in the other. It barely made sense. But now, just as how the modern world has forgotten the value of a phone call now you no longer have to carry the coal from the bottom of the garden, multiplayer gaming falls too easily into the hands of the unwashed, and it becomes the grubby equivalent of teenagers comparing ringtones on a crowded train. I stress again, I would hate it if I appeared pompous at all when I suggest that single-player gaming, ever-more the forgotten gem of our hobby, is for the more sophisticated, intellectual individual. It takes something more, a different kind of mind, a more educated, refined view, to understand and value the art of the single-player. Let me tell you why. The worth of single-player comes in the form of narrative. As with any good novel, or a finely crafted film. It is the equivalent to literature. While multiplayer is an ill-informed argument. It has no direction, no beginning nor end, no meaning. Games are made with intent. Like books, films and television, the finest examples among them are those that both exist to say something, but allow the player to create his own interpretation. And while of course there are any number of poor or stupid single-player games, there is no multiplayer that evenly closely matches the finest RPG or adventure. Like I say, I would be just mortified if anyone interpreted these words to be snooty or condescending. I’m just saying people who prefer single player games are a better class than people who mostly opt for multiplayer. But what about massively multiplayer games, one may ask. Well, it’s quite simple. When approached as a single-player game, with a world to explore, stories to be told, and a beginning, middle and end, they are firmly in the category of the more refined arts. Once they’ve descended into mindless raiding in an endless, empty pursuit of a trinket, looped for eternity, then they are something quite other. I can hear those loutish grunts of protest. “Who are these ‘guests’ drinking your wine if you’re playing single-player?” they ask, thinking they’ve been so astute. Well, my generously foreheaded friend, they’re the characters in the game. Yes, indeed, characters. Something of a mystery to our hooligan brethren. The closest they can understand would be the cartoons that accompany Team Fortress 2, pretending that these outlines of personalities have any effect on their Möbius strip of gaming. Meanwhile I am meeting people, people with lives, backgrounds, motivations and goals. People I can influence, and who can influence me, beyond temporarily making them be dead for a fifteen second wait. My company in these single-player games does not berate me, nor shout racial and homophobic epithets after me. If I choose to play at my pace, on my terms, the cast of the game does not huff and grumble, nor question my parents. If I do extremely well they do not grow bitter, or question my methods. They play their parts, along a journey. A journey with a goal, and ending, a purpose. Mine is a gaming infused with meaning. Mine is a simulacrum for life, a reflection on experience and a metaphor for understanding my existence. Multiplayer gamers emulate some Sisyphean torture, yet as the ball rolls back down the hill these creatures cheer and high five. I do not argue that these people should be stopped, nor that their games should not be made. Of course not – they need their entertainment, and it’s best if they’re kept busy. Far better that they’re imagining progress within their 45,000th match of Modern Warfare 2 than out smashing windows or selling drugs in parks. But where I object is when the games that sate them become greater in number than those for the more discerning player. I remember the days when every game had a multiplayer component bundled in with it, something to keep the children happy while the adults played the proper game. But this has now swung the other way, with single-player modes often a bot-based version of the multiplayer nothingness. This absolutely has to stop. The yobs cannot be allowed to dominate, or I would argue all of society can only be minutes from collapse. So as I have said, coming across in any way as if I think myself superior is far from my intent. I apologise if anyone has gotten that impression. But let’s not let the multiplayer lot take over, eh?

Just last week, there was considerable speculation that Microchip would buy Atmel. The deal wasn’t done, and there was precedent that this deal wouldn’t happen – earlier this year, Dialog made an approach at Atmel. Now, though, the deal is done: Microchip will acquire Atmel for $3.56 Billion. There are three main companies out there making microcontrollers that are neither ancient 8051 clones or ARM devices: TI’s MSP430 series, Microchip and Atmel. Microchip has the very, very popular PIC series microcontrollers, which can be found in everything. Atmel’s portfolio includes the AVR line of microcontrollers, which are also found in everything. From phones to computers to toasters, there’s a very high probablitiy you’re going to find something produced by either Atmel or Microchip somewhere within 15 feet of your person right now. For the hobbyist electronic enthusiast, this has led to the closest thing we have to a holy war. Atmel chips were a little easier (and cheaper) to program, but were a little more expensive. Microchip’s chips have a very long history and proportionally more proper engineers who are advocates. PIC isn’t Arduino, though, a community that has built a large and widely used code base around the AVR family. Microchip’s acquisition of Atmel follows several mergers and acquisitions in recent months: NXP and Freescale, Intel and Altera, Avago and Broadcom, and On Semiconductor and Fairchild. The semiconductor industry has cash and wants to spend it. What this means for the Atmel product line is left to be seen. The most popular micros probably won’t be discontinued, but if you’re using unpopular Atmel micros such as the ATtiny10 you might want to grab a reel or two before they’re EOL’d.

Suprema Corte dos EUA autoriza que veto de Trump a militares transgêneros entre em vigor Juízes não analisaram o mérito do caso. Medida tinha sido a bloqueada pela Justiça, que a considerou discriminatória.

Poland has hit back after the European Parliament voted in support of launching sanctions against it. The 438 to 152 resolution in favour of initiating Article 7 proceedings against the Central European country — which could see its EU voting rights suspended, among other penalties — was preceded by a fierce debate, the Associated Press reports. Guy Verhofstadt, a former Prime Minister of Belgium, a European Parliament group leader, and a Brexit negotiations representative — logged as a “reliable ally” by the Open Society organisation run by billionaire open borders campaigner George Soros — accused the Polish government of having “lost its senses”. Verhofstadt later took to social media to disparage the Slavic country at greater length, saying it had “degraded itself” to the level of Hungary, another conservative EU member-state which is frequently subject to the Belgian’s vituperative attacks. Poland could still be a leader in Europe, but has degraded itself to the gang of Orbàn and its illiberal societies. Kaczynski has copied Orbàn by politicizing the constitutional court, curtailing the civil society, muzzling the free media #EPlenary — Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) November 15, 2017 In theory, the European establishment’s major issue with Poland is its attempts to increase the accountability of the judiciary, which they claim undermine the rule of law. The Poles insist they are only trying to strengthen the system of checks and balances, as, at present, a judicial bench which harbours holdovers from the Communist era and answers only to itself can block the executive and the legislature, but cannot be checked by the executive or the legislature itself. There is a lot of #fakenews concerning the reform of the judiciary in Poland. Help us to fight lies and disinformation. ➡️Retweet please! pic.twitter.com/xkeINAag7u — Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (@pisorgpl) July 22, 2017 How Poland chooses to organise its judiciary internally is thought by many to be a mere pretext for EU intervention, however, with the Central European country being unpopular for its friendly relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and its status as a key bastion of opposition to efforts to redistribute illegal immigrants throughout the EU by a system of compulsory migrant quotas. Indeed, Ryszard Legutko, who heads Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) delegation of MEPs, has accused EU elites — and in particular Germany’s Manfred Weber, who heads the dominant European People’s Party (EPP) bloc in the European Parliament — of harbouring a “colonial” attitude towards the EU’s eastern member-states. With respect to Weber’s early and enthusiastic denunciation of Poland’s judicial reforms, Legutko pointed out that “Mr. Weber does not know the Polish language, did not know the contents of these laws, did not know any expert opinions, [and] is not interested in the subject at all” — but still felt able to weigh immediately after their publication. The EU Parliament's Brexit negotiations rep just branded Trump white supremacist and Poland and Hungary “alt-right” https://t.co/L2ITTWKsWj — Jack Montgomery ن (@JackBMontgomery) September 13, 2017 “This is not a dialogue, it is not an invitation to talk, it is an ultimatum,” said Legutko, highlighting the EU’s apparent hypocrisy in turning a blind eye to the excesses of the Spanish government in Catalonia while launching an “anti-Polish crusade” against his country. “This is what Shakespeare called ‘the insolence of office’ — the insolence of bureaucracy; the impudence of power. “You think you can say anything. You think you can do anything. “Your actions will not harm Poland, we have dealt with bigger problems — they will harm the European Union,” he warned. “All the anti-EU diatribes made in this parliament have done less harm to the image of the Union than you have. “To destroy the image of the EU, you have done more than Nigel Farage and Marine Le Pen together.” Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery

'The Sea of Trees': Cannes Review This pre-Cannes Roadside Attractions acquisition officially ends Matthew McConaughey’s exceptional recent run of top-notch performances Gus Van Sant’s sticky, gooey side — previously on display in the likes of Finding Forrester and especially in the 2011 Restless — oozes out once more in the woefully sentimental and maudlin The Sea of Trees. What happens to the more tough-minded and adventurous sides of the director’s personality on such ventures is a mystery, as they are entirely absent in this theoretically promising tale of two distraught men, an American and a Japanese, who meet while venturing into Japan’s infamous “suicide forest” to kill themselves. This pre-Cannes Roadside Attractions acquisition officially ends Matthew McConaughey’s exceptional recent run of top-notch performances and films, although his name will attract a bit of business in a modest theatrical release. There are numerous ways that the spectacle of an American man headed to Japan to officially do himself in could be treated. But screenwriter Christopher Sparling (2010’s Buried) has chosen an approach that is sincere to the point of utter banality, a posture further reinforced by an obvious music score, inescapably indulgent acting and the project’s overriding motivation to turn a story of suicidal distress into something generically life-affirming in the most elementary Hollywood manner. Sporting a scruffy, short beard and glasses, Massachusetts science teacher Arthur Brennan leaves the keys in his car at the airport and takes no luggage on his flight to Japan, where he heads straight to the Aokigahara Forest. Considered a haunted place going back centuries, this lushly wooded, darkly green enclave in the distant foothills of Mount Fuji is festooned with video cameras and signs reminding visitors that “You only have one life. Take good care of it.” See more Cannes: The Red-Carpet Arrivals (Photos) Blithely ignoring a “no entry” barrier, Arthur, wearing just a thin trench coat over his street clothes, stumbles upon physical evidence of previous like-minded death-seekers, including skeletons, and begins having flashbacks of nasty exchanges with his vituperative alcoholic wife Joan (Naomi Watts). But then he encounters a man who looks rather worse off than he does, Takumi Nakamura (Ken Watanabe), a failed businessman who conveniently speaks good English, is bloody from cuts but has, after two days in the forest, somehow not managed to accomplish what he came to do. After a flash flood nearly does them both in, the men abruptly decide they don’t want to die after all, and Trees becomes a survival tale as the guys, who take turns getting injured worse than the other, struggle to find a way to contact help (cellphone service is shamefully unreliable in the suicide forest), while Arthur wallows in memories of his wife’s battle of cancer. This cheery scenario isn’t helped by the increasingly maudlin and sorry-for-himself blathering by Arthur, who breaks down repeatedly and truly has nothing other than dully commonplace things to say about Joan and their life together. As the character sinks deeper into wet, self-pitying gushings, McConaughey’s performance conversely becomes less expressive and more ordinary, to the point where you simply don’t care about how he feels and what happens to him. As for the distinguished Watanabe, he has never been less so, here in a stressed out role that seems defined by deliberate vagueness. Watts hits her prescribed dramatic highs and lows with customary skill, but the characters compose a uniformly dull and not detailed lot with little but platitudes to utter. Although most of the forest scenes were actually shot not in Japan but at Purgatory Chasm and other woodsy areas in summertime Massachusetts, the film does have an agreeably dark green-dominated look that’s easy on the eyes. Production company: GN/Waypoint Enterprises Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Ken Watanabe, Naomi Watts, Katie Aselton, Jordan Gavaris Director: Gus Van Sant Screenwriter: Chris Sparling Producers: Gil Netter, Ken Kao, Kevin Halloran, F. Gary Gray, Brian Dobbins, Allen Fischer, Chris Sparling Director of photography: Kasper Tuxen Production designer: Alex DiGerlando Costume designer: Danny Glicker Editor: Pietro Scalia Composer: Mason Bates Rated PG-13, 110 minutes

Tensions are rising between Iran and the U.S., and President Trump isn’t showing any signs of backing down to the oppressive regime. During his recent State of the Union, President Trump referred to Iran as a “radical regime” who does “bad things.” “My administration has acted decisively to confront the world’s leading state sponsor of terror: the radical regime in Iran,” Trump said Tuesday evening, delivering his address in the U.S. House of Representatives. “They do bad, bad things. To ensure this corrupt dictatorship never acquires nuclear weapons, I withdrew the United States from the disastrous Iran nuclear deal,” he said, referring to the 2015 sanctions-relief-for-nuclear-rollback agreement negotiated under President Barack Obama. “And last fall, we put in place the toughest sanctions ever imposed by us on a country. “We will not avert our eyes from a regime that chants death to America and threatens genocide against the Jewish people,” he continued, to applause, mostly from the Republican side. “We must never ignore the vile poison of anti-Semitism, or those who spread its venomous creed.” Yesterday, CBS News reported from Tehran where hundred of thousands of Iranians were celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Speaking in the capital Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani told a huge crowd Iran didn’t need to ask the world’s permission to develop missiles, and it would continue to build up its military power despite U.S. sanctions. Some of the people in the crowd were old enough to have actually participated in the revolution, but for the younger ones, the Islamic Republic that followed is the only country they’ve ever known. That means all they’ve ever known is a relationship with the U.S. that ranges from hostile, to downright toxic. Now, according to the Free Beacon – Iran is being accused of committing cyber attacks on the U.S. and of recruiting a U.S. Air Force member to steal classified information from the U.S. government, including the identities of U.S. agents. The Trump administration has announced a new package of sanctions on Iranian entities tied to the cyber backing of U.S. individuals, a move that comes on the heels of American authorities indicting a U.S. Air Force officer who allegedly tried to pass classified information to Tehran after defecting to the country. The Department of Justice has announced early Wednesday that it had indicted Monica Elfriede Witt, also known as Fatemah Zahra, a former active duty U.S. Air Force Intelligence Specialist and Special Agent, for attempting to pass classified American information to Iran. The disclosure of this information leak was timed to coincide with an announcement by the Treasury Department that it is sanctioning a handful of Iranian entities for their role in cyber hacks on Americans. The sanctions hit an Iranian-based entity tied to the country’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, or IRGC. This includes “efforts to recruit and collect intelligence from foreign attendees [of various conferences], including U.S. persons, and four associated individuals,” according to the Treasury Department. Should Trump appoint a new Supreme Court Justice before the election? Yes No Just show the results Enter your email to see the results... * Name This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Completing this poll entitles you to 100 Percent Fed Up updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime with a single click. Here's our Privacy Policy. “Treasury is taking action against malicious Iranian cyber actors and covert operations that have targeted Americans at home and overseas as part of our ongoing efforts to counter the Iranian regime’s cyber attacks,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “Treasury is sanctioning New Horizon Organization for its support to the IRGC-QF. ”

Peacock — who was born without part of his brain and suffers from multiple mental health issues — filed a misdemeanor assault charge in November with the help of a magistrate. Prosecutors later reviewed a video of the incident and decided to drop the misdemeanor and pursue felonies.

Breast milk provides optimal nutrition for infants, and it gives them immune protection that no formula company has been able to replicate. How many other secrets does it contain? Many mothers claim that it is also an effective treatment for eye infections, or conjunctivitis. The anecdotal evidence for this practice is overwhelming, but is there any scientific evidence that it actually works? What is conjunctivitis? Conjunctivitis is an infection and/or swelling of the membrane that lines the eyelids. Symptoms include redness, swelling, and goopiness of the eyes. The most common cause of conjunctivitis is a viral infection, also known as pink eye. Pink eye is highly contagious and often passed around daycares and schools. Viral conjunctivitis usually goes away without treatment within a week. Bacterial conjunctivitis is less common and is often treated with antibiotic eye drops [1]. Allergies or irritation (from something like shampoo, for example) can also cause conjunctivitis in children [2]. Babies can also have a blocked tear duct, which causes excessive tearing, sometimes with thick, goopy tears. A blocked tear duct can affect a baby off and on for the first year of life – beyond that, the child should see an eye doctor for treatment [2]. What is the research on breast milk and eye infections? There are three studies that might have some relevance to this question, but all of them focus on eye infections or blocked tear ducts in newborns. To my knowledge, there are no studies of breast milk as a treatment for conjunctivitis in older babies or children. Note that colostrum was used in the studies described below. Colostrum is the first milk produced for several days after the baby’s birth, before the mature milk comes in. Colostrum is much higher in antibodies than mature milk. Study #1: Conducted in India, 51 newborns were given drops of colostrum in their eyes for 3 days, while 72 control newborns received no eye treatments [3]. About 35% of the control infants and 6% of the colostrum infants developed visible eye infections during the experiment. At first glance, these results make colostrum look like a champion infection-preventer! Unfortunately, this is an example of a study that had so many design problems that the data just aren’t that useful. During the 4 years prior to the study, the hospital had just a 5% rate of conjunctivitis. Why then did the control group have a 35% rate of infection? This isn’t clear. The colostrum babies roomed in the South Wing of the hospital, and many of them were delivered by C-section. The control babies were housed in the North Wing and were all vaginal births. It would have been better to randomize the colostrum and control babies with some in each wing so that they had equal pathogen exposure. What if the North Wing (control) had a huge outbreak during the two months of this study? On the bright side, this study found no safety issues with using colostrum in newborns’ eyes. Study #2: This was an in vitro study (conducted in petri dishes) of eye infections in 22 Nigerian newborns [4]. The infected babies’ eyes were swabbed, and the bacteria on the swabs were incubated with several different antibiotics, colostrum, and mature milk. The major bacteria types found in this study were Staph aureus and coliforms, and the graphs below show how sensitive they were to 3 of the most effective antibiotics, colostrum, and mature milk. For example, the growth of Staph aureus was 100% inhibited by the antibiotic gentamicin, 50% inhibited by colostrum, and not inhibited at all by mature milk. What does this study tell us? It tells us that the effectiveness of breast milk against eye infections depends on the type of infection and that colostrum is more effective than mature milk. Remember that this study only looked at two types of bacteria among the many that might cause eye infections, and it didn’t look at viral infections at all. Plus, we always have to be careful about interpreting an in vitro study, because bacteria might grow differently on a petri dish vs. on the eye. Study #3: A small study conducted in Spain retrospectively compared antibiotic drops and breast milk as treatments for blocked tear ducts in newborns [5]. The blocked tear ducts cleared up faster with breast milk than with antibiotics, and breast milk appeared to be completely safe. Conclusion: Will breast milk cure my child’s eye infection? What about her blocked tear duct? There isn’t enough research on the subject to know for sure. The studies described above show that using breast milk in a baby’s eye is likely safe and may be effective against bacterial infections and blocked tear ducts. Colostrum appears to be more effective than mature milk, probably because it has higher concentrations of antibodies (especially IgA). Whether or not mature milk will cure an older baby or child’s viral pink eye has not been studied at all. One important caveat: If your newborn has an eye infection, you should call your child’s pediatrician right away. If left untreated, neonatal conjunctivitis can cause lasting damage to your child’s eyes, including blindness. Don’t risk waiting several days to see if breast milk clears things up in these cases. (As always, I am not a medical doctor, and the information presented here is not medical advice. Please seek the help of a medical professional if you need medical advice.) Have you tried breast milk as a treatment for eye infections? Did it seem to help? REFERENCES 1. PubMed Health. Conjunctivitis. A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia 2010 [cited 2011 November 6]. 2. Fields, D. and A. Brown. Baby 411: Clear Answers and Smart Advice for Your Baby’s First Year. 3rd ed. Boulder, CO: Windsor Peak Press. 2008. 3. Singh, M., P.S. Sugathan, and R.A. Bhujwala. Human colostrum for prophylaxis against sticky eyes and conjunctivitis in the newborn. J Trop Pediatr. 28(1): p. 35-7. 1982. 4. Ibhanesebhor, S.E. and E.S. Otobo. In vitro activity of human milk against the causative organisms of ophthalmia neonatorum in Benin City, Nigeria. J Trop Pediatr. 42(6): p. 327-9. 1996. 5. Verd, S. Switch from antibiotic eye drops to instillation of mother’s milk drops as a treatment of infant epiphora. J Trop Pediatr. 53(1): p. 68-9. 2007.

Bill O’Reilly in 2015 on the set of “The O'Reilly Factor” in New York. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters) Fox News and its star host Bill O’Reilly appear to have developed a strategy in response to allegations of serial sexual harassment and the mass defections of advertisers from O’Reilly’s program: Say as little as possible. The voluble TV personality has said nothing on the air about the controversy since it broke over the weekend. Fox News has all but ignored any reporting about it in its broadcasts and on its website; its one acknowledgment was a 25-second summary on its “Media Buzz” program on Sunday. It has not mentioned the advertiser reaction. Fox’s parent company, meanwhile, has confined its comments to a brief statement issued Saturday saying, in part, that it “takes matters of workplace behavior very seriously.” Dozens of advertisers have suspended their sponsorship of O’Reilly’s top-rated program, “The O’Reilly Factor,” since the story broke that O’Reilly and Fox have settled five claims that he harassed women at Fox, paying out $13 million since 2002. A sixth woman, who has not sought payment, said she, too, was pressured for sex by O’Reilly and was punished at Fox when she refused. Fox News’s only statement on the matter was one issued Tuesday from its top ad executive, Paul Rittenberg, who said ads withdrawn from “The O’Reilly Factor” would be moved to other Fox programs. (Erin Patrick O'Connor/The Washington Post) The network declined again Thursday to respond to questions. Fox’s parent, 21st Century Fox, did not respond at all when asked for comment. The takeaway from Fox’s non-response isn’t clear. On one hand, the lack of supportive statements for O’Reilly could reflect official disapproval, while Fox has shown no outward signs that it has disciplined O’Reilly or that it intends to punish its biggest star. Conversely, the blanket of silence could represent the best of a series of bad options. By not responding publicly, O’Reilly, Fox and 21st Century may be hoping that the attention surrounding the issue will eventually subside. So far, O’Reilly’s audience has not only stuck with him — it has grown. “The O’Reilly Factor” attracted 3.8 million viewers Tuesday night, according to Nielsen, a 20 percent increase over the program’s ratings a week before and 19 percent more than on the same date last year. O’Reilly’s silence in this instance stands in stark contrast to the last time he was the story. After Mother Jones magazine published a piece in 2015 questioning O’Reilly’s claims about reporting on the Falkland Islands war in the early 1980s, O’Reilly mounted an aggressive campaign to rebut the article’s premise. In various interviews with reporters, he called the story “slander” and labeled its principal author, David Corn, “a liar” and “a guttersnipe” who should be put in “the kill zone.” O’Reilly also warned a New York Times reporter, Emily Steel, that if the Times’ coverage of the topic was inaccurate or inappropriate, he would be “coming after you with everything I have. You can take it as a threat.” (Steel was an author of the Times story, published Saturday, about O’Reilly’s harassment settlements.) O’Reilly’s attack on Corn and other journalists in 2015 did not quell the controversy, however. News organizations soon dug up other instances in which O’Reilly had exaggerated his exploits as a reporter. For Fox, the current controversy is complicated by its connection to a larger scandal about the network — the sexual-harassment allegations that led to the ouster of its chairman, Roger Ailes, last year. Given that context, O’Reilly and Fox may have no choice but to keep mum now lest they remind people of the earlier scandal, Corn said. “O’Reilly lives to fight,” he said. “But in this instance, who’s he going to attack? The women? Anything he can say would only elongate the newsiness of this scandal. His only play is to hope this passes. It must make him very, very sad that there’s no one for him to insult here.” (O’Reilly addressed the issue Saturday in a brief statement portraying himself as a target of opportunistic people.) Crisis management experts, however, say silence is rarely a good idea in the midst of controversy. Michael Fineman, who heads a crisis-counseling company, advises clients in such situations to put out all the facts at once, take responsibility for the controversy, express concern for those affected and make assurances of reform. In this case, that may mean Fox should remove O’Reilly from the air, temporarily or permanently, said Steven Fink, the author of “Crisis Communications: The Definitive Guide to Managing the Message.” Fink said NBC News sent a strong and reassuring signal to viewers and nervous advertisers in 2015 by suspending anchor Brian Williams for six months after finding that he exaggerated various stories. “As long as O’Reilly’s on the air, I don’t think this story will die,” Fink said. “In an era of social media, there are enough people who will not let this go by quietly.” But Eric Dezenhall, a Washington-based communications counselor, said Fox and O’Reilly have very few choices. “Crisis management is the art of navigating abominable options,” said Dezenhall, who has appeared on O’Reilly’s show. “The question is not whether silence is the best option. It is a question of it being the least awful option given a variety of variables we just don’t know about as outsiders.”

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映画作家の想田和弘氏がツイッターのハッシュタグを用いて行っている実験が恐ろしいと話題になっています。詳細は以下から。 これまで幾度となく「全く問題ない」「批判は当たらない」などと記者会見で繰り返し批判をかわしてきた菅官房長官。説明責任を果たしていないとの批判もありましたが、当たり前のように発せられるこれらの言葉にいつしか慣れてしまった人も多いのではないでしょうか。 「選挙」「精神」「演劇1・2」などを観察映画という独自の手法で撮影してきた映画作家の想田和弘氏が昨日からツイッター公式アカウント上で始めた実験が、菅官房長官の実際の言葉を用いて延々と自分へのリプライに答えていくというもの。 想田氏はハッシュタグ#菅官房長官語で答える を用いてこの返答を行っていますが、どんな問いかけや誹謗中傷に対しても幾つかのパターンで応答できてしまう上に、それらを無効化してしまうまさしくマジックワードであることが明らかにされていきます。 フォロアーらも最初は微笑ましく見ていたものがそのうち苛立ちを覚え始め、最後には恐怖を感じさせるという事態になっており、通常届いていたクソリプ（編集部注：クソのようなリプライ）も激減してしまったとのことです。 ついにはこれは想田氏の新しい表現活動の一部と言えるのではないかとの意見も。 これがあくまでも現役の官房長官の記者会見での発言のコピペであるという事実から、政権と国民との間の意思の疎通が恐ろしいほどにできていなかったのではないかという感想が多くの人から漏れ聞こえてくるようになります。 さらには#橋下語で攻撃 #安倍語で補足 というハッシュタグも登場、バリエーションは豊かになりましたがコミュニケーション不在は進む一方 ツイッター上では大喜利になりがちなハッシュタグという存在で、あくまで大喜利を装いながらも官房長官らの実際の発言を用いることで炙りだされたものは何だったのか。慣れてしまった記者会見ではなく、別の人の口から同じ言葉が出ることで、見えてくるものもありそうです。 なお、このタグについてはこちらのtogetterに多くのつぶやきがまとめられています。 【追記】 想田氏が自らのFBでこの実験についての解説を行っていましたので追記します。 #菅官房長官語で答える コツは、相手の質問や抗議に対して決して答えないこと。自然にしていると、思わずうっかり答えそうになるんですけど、そこをグッとこらえる。そして木で鼻を括ったような定型句を繰り出す。するとコミュニケーションがそこで遮断され... Posted by 想田 和弘 on 2015年10月1日 ・関連記事 「難民は他人の金で贅沢したいだけ」、Facebookで拡散中のイラストがあまりにもひどい | BUZZAP！（バザップ！） 中国脅威論は何だったのか？「戦争法案」の初適用が南スーダンPKOでの中国軍らへの駆けつけ警護という皮肉 | BUZZAP！（バザップ！） 介護問題のネックはどこに？「介護離職ゼロ」を目指した特別養護老人ホーム増設案に「現場無視」との指摘 | BUZZAP！（バザップ！） 時事通信経済部の鈴木記者、沖縄問題で「見限ってもいい」「もう、そんな連中は放っておいてもいい」と菅官房長官に「提言」 | BUZZAP！（バザップ！） 10段ピラミッド崩壊で6人負傷、巨大化する組体操に「誰のためのものか」と大きな批判 | BUZZAP！（バザップ！）

Rapper besucht US-Präsident Trumps West-Bindung "Ich liebe diesen Kerl": Von den vielen merkwürdigen Auftritten im Weißen Haus unter Donald Trump war das einer der merkwürdigsten. Kanye West huldigt dem US-Präsidenten - und spekuliert darüber, sein Nachfolger zu werden.

È l’uomo del vento d’oro! Incredibile a Oestersund: anche Dominik Windisch trionfa ai Mondiali nella Mass Start di 15 km. Anche lui di Anterselva come Dorothea, si prende l’oro più pazzesco, sotto una nevicata che ha stravolto le condizioni di gara e sconvolto l’ultimo poligono. Dominik è stato perfetto perché non ha mai mollato, ha tenuto il suo ritmo ed è uscito in testa dall’ultimo poligono nel quale tutti gli avversari davanti, a cominciare dal leader di Coppa Johannes Boe, hanno sbagliato bersagli in serie (il norvegese addirittura 5). Dominik era entrato 11° a 55” ed è uscito dall’ultimo poligono primo: gli ultimi chilometri sono stati come una passerella trionfale. Dominik in 40’54”1 (3) batte il francese Antonin Guigonnat a 22”8 (3), bronzo all’austriaco Julian Eberhard a 23”3 (4), quarto il russo Loginov a 27”4 (5). Per il bronzo nella Sprint ai Giochi di PyeongChang 2018 (3 le medaglie in totale) è l’apoteosi dopo una delle gare più folli del biathlon, sport che si conferma imprevedibile. Windisch con l’oro. Ap Il ragazzo che è cresciuto insieme a Dorothea, dietro il fratello Markus, il mite Domme che arriva ultimo nelle gare giovanili ma non si arrendeva mai lo stesso, conquista un titolo maschile che all’Italia mancava dal 1997 con Willy Pallhuber. Per l’Italia è la quinta medaglia con 2 ori, 2 argenti e un bronzo. Lukas Hofer, argento con la Wierer, un 17° posto a 1’38”6. E’ la prima volta che l’Italia vince l’oro con uomini e donne lo stesso giorno. Bisogna crederci sempre, è la filosofia di Windisch: anche stavolta l’uomo del vento ha avuto ragione. STRATOSFERICO - “Il biathlon azzurro non dimenticherà mai questo giorno, che fa rima con leggenda. Dopo il trionfo della Wierer arriva anche l’oro stratosferico di Dominik Windisch nella Mass Start mondiale. Sventola il tricolore a Oestersund. Orgogliosi di voi”: così, su Twitter, il presidente del Coni, Giovanni Malagò. “Storiche e strepitose vittorie italiane in Svezia! Auguri a Dorothea Wierer che ha vinto i mondiali di biathlon a Oestersund regalando all’Italia un oro emozionante. Complimenti di cuore anche all’altro oro italiano, Dominik Windish che trionfa, anche lui nella mass start. Successi ai quali si aggiunge quello di Lisa Vittozzi che è riuscita in un’impresa che ha del miracoloso. Sarò onorato e felice di festeggiarli e stringere loro la mano personalmente a Palazzo Chigi dove spero possano venire il più presto possibile”: così il sottosegretario alla presidenza con delega allo sport, Giancarlo Giorgetti. PARLA DOMME - Dominik Windisch dice: “Sensazione fantastica, sono contento per la Nazione soprattutto perché ha vinto anche Dorothea e lei lo ha meritato perché ha fatto bene durante tutta la stagione. Questo Mondiale è non era andato comunque male per l’Italia, perché erano arrivate già tre medaglie e potevamo tornare a casa contenti, ma ovviamente finire così è ancora più bello e si va via con una sensazione bellissima, possiamo festeggiare a casa, ad Anterselva. Oggi era molto difficile sparare, ho cercato di concentrarmi soltanto su me stesso, anche perché in staffetta non era andata bene. Sono riuscito a gestire bene il vento, ma all’ultimo poligono per me non era così forte e sono stato fortunato. L’anno prossimo non vedo l’ora di gareggiare ai Mondiali perché saranno ad Anterselva e succede una volta nella carriera di un atleta di poter gareggiare in casa, per noi è come una mini Olimpiade. Vincere nello stesso giorno di Doro? Non scono scaramantico ma quasi comincio a crederci”. MEDAGLIERE - Con il doppio oro di Dorothea Wierer e Dominik Windisch nella mass start, l’Italia chiude al terzo posto nel medagliere. Soprattutto, per la prima volta nella storia, l’Italia ha conquistato cinque medaglie nella stessa edizione. Oltre alle due medaglie odierne, l’Italia ha conquistato il bronzo nella staffetta mista (Vittozzi, Wierer, Hofer e Windisch) e due argenti: con con Lisa Vittozzi nell’individuale femminile e con la coppia Wierer-Hofer nella staffetta single mixed. Prima nel medagliere la Norvegia (5 ori, tre argenti e un bronzo), davanti alla Germania (2 ori, 2 argenti, 3 bronzi) e, appunto, l’Italia, davanti alla Svezia (1 oro, un argento, un bronzo). Hofer, Vittozzi, Windisch e Wierer con gli organizzatori dei Mondiali di Anterselva 2020 e l’ambasciatore italiano in Svezia Mario Cospito Classifica Mass Start uomini : 1. Windisch (Ita) 40’54”1 (3); 2. Guigonnat (Fra) a 22”8 (3); 3. Eberhard (Aut) a 23”3 (4); 4. Loginov (Rus) a 27”4 (5); 17. Hofer a 1’38”6 /7).

There is a tendency both amongst Angelenos and New Yorkers to view the others’ city as the polar opposite of their own. New York is dense and space is oriented around the sidewalk and the train; Los Angeles is spread out and space is oriented around boulevards and freeways. New York is brutally cold in the winter and stiflingly hot in the summer; Los Angeles is just slightly too warm year-round. New York is built around a clearly defined urban core; Los Angeles is the place Dorothy Parker once derided as “72 suburbs in search of a city.” This mythos contains some truths, but the overriding reality is that the similarities of these two cities far outweigh their differences. Both are home to peoples from around the world, modern testament to America’s dynamism as a melting pot. Both are cultural and economic engines on a global scale, the 2nd and 3rd largest urban economies in the world (Tokyo holds #1). And both contain a vast array of neighborhoods, each with its own distinctive character and culture. LA also has a more ‘normal’ urban form than many observers think, which is manifested in its similarities to New York. Of course, LA doesn’t have the defined central municipality and boroughs as New York does, and there are many lifestyle differences between the two metros. But when you look at LA’s historic development patterns and the current functions of its various regions, they mirror those of New York City to a surprising degree. Most areas of the greater Los Angeles region can find direct analogs in New York and its surroundings. LA has its own iterations of Brooklyn, Central Park, Times Square, and more – and the social roles they all play here are similar. There is a “there there” in LA, it just doesn’t present itself as obviously as it does in many other great cities. This article will serve as a guide for all those New Yorkers making the trek across the continent, either for a little while or permanently, and it may provide long-time Angelenos with a new way of thinking about the city as well. Additionally, given how much of the literature about this city is shaped by those from outside of it, it is my hope that this article will give those external writers a more familiar reference point as they grapple with this seemingly overwhelming metropolis. (Note: It may help to open Google Maps for Los Angeles and New York City to follow along through this article.) ManhattAngeles Comparing Los Angeles to other cities can be difficult due to its unusual political boundaries. While many metro areas have a central primary city, such as San Francisco in the Bay Area, in LA there are major job and cultural centers such as Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, and Santa Monica which are centrally located but are legally their own municipalities, while distant suburbs at the edge of the San Fernando Valley are part of the City of LA. To make a true ‘apples to apples’ comparison between LA and other cities, we would need to define a legitimate core to the Los Angeles region – a ManhattAngeles, if you will. I believe that the Manhattan of LA runs in a linear fashion westward from Downtown LA to Santa Monica. Its width encompasses Greater DTLA (including USC and Exposition Park), then moving westward it extends from the Santa Monica Mountains / Hollywood Hills in the north to roughly the 10 freeway in the south, widening as it approaches the coast to include Culver City and the beach cities south to LAX. It encompasses a few municipalities, but only some portions of the City of LA. Most of the remaining area within official City bounds, as well as some other proximate communities, constitute LA’s “outer boroughs”, to be described in the next section. What defines a city’s center? Perhaps the best research on this subject when it comes to Los Angeles came from USC graduate student Samuel Krueger. With a focus on clusters of lifestyle and cultural elements, Krueger mapped what he called the “Wilshire - Santa Monica Corridor” – a linear belt of “centrality” running along those two boulevards from Downtown LA to Santa Monica. His data-driven approach was verified in that it correctly identified the “centers” of New York and Chicago, as well. I accept Krueger’s core methodology, however I would add to it a consideration of job centers, high value homes, transit nodes, and hotbeds of real estate investment. Additionally, the means through which Angelenos move about says something about its different boroughs. Within a single borough, it is often most efficient to drive on surface streets rather than trek to and from the freeway; freeways are usually necessary for inter-borough transit. LA may be a region of freeways, but it is a city of boulevards. Part of what makes ManhattAngeles such an interesting place in comparison to Manhattan is in fact how similar their historic development patterns are. Moving north up the island of Manhattan presents a very similar pattern of neighborhoods and development history as does moving west from DTLA toward the beach. New York was founded on the southern tip of the island and expanded northward over time. Its original business hub was in Lower Manhattan, and the newer hub is in Midtown. Los Angeles was founded in what is now Downtown and the core of the city expanded westward over time. Its original business district was Downtown, and the newer hub is on the Westside. Both cities’ patterns of expansion, divestment, and reinvestment, following broader trends in American culture and history, have left many parallel neighborhoods in analogous locations across their main urban cores – though all of these neighborhoods are a bit more smushed together in New York, of course. Lower Manhattan was the original New York, back when Harlem was pastureland and Broadway was a Native American trail through the wilderness. It housed and continues to house the city’s government and other major legacy institutions. It is also home to the city’s original business district, centered around Wall Street. Over the course of the 20th Century, much of Lower Manhattan was to some extent abandoned in favor of the newer, cleaner, and bigger business, residential, and cultural districts further uptown. Over recent decades, this process has reversed to some extent, as Lower Manhattan has been revitalized with businesses, people, and cultural outlets. This story may sound familiar to anyone who follows Los Angeles development patterns, or even read my “L.A. Urbanized” series on this site. Downtown LA too was largely abandoned and turned into a super-sized office park in the middle of the 20th Century. However, reinvestment over recent decades is turning this part of the city around. It is developing an array of neighborhoods largely analogous to those in Lower Manhattan. DTLA’s Financial District, Civic Center, and Chinatown have clear parallels in the southern tip of Manhattan. Over years to come, we may see DTLA’s South Park emerge as a West Coast Tribeca, and its Arts District as a California SoHo. The areas immediately west of DTLA (Westlake/MacArthur Park and Pico-Union, for example) are in some respects analogous to Manhattan’s Lower East Side as the arrival point for many of the city’s successive immigrant groups. The urban economist Joel Kotkin was making this comparison as early as 1997. As we move a bit up the island of Manhattan and ‘up the island’ of ManhattAngeles we encounter more districts whose stories are similar to one another. Here we find neighborhoods with a fair bit of history and urban vibrancy, though not quite so dense as the cities’ original centers. Serving as cultural trendsetters with a historic vibe for their cities and the world beyond, neighborhoods such as Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Gramercy, and NoMad in New York share a lot of similarities as lifestyle centers with West Hollywood, the Sunset Strip, Beverly Grove, Mid-Wilshire, and Hancock Park in Los Angeles. Moving further north to New York’s Korea Town, its analogue in LA is, well, Koreatown. Both are centrally located within the cities’ urban cores. They play prominent roles in the regions’ transit networks. And they are both secondary business and nightlife hubs; not quite so prominent as the major clusters on either side of them, but still notable in those regards. The next stop on the northbound subway is at Times Square. Times Square is the icon of New York to an outsider, so it is no surprise that the place is fully overrun by tourists and associated shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues. Hollywood Boulevard and its “Walk of Fame” is, similarly, most outsiders’ primary image of Los Angeles. Accordingly, Hollywood Boulevard primarily serves a tourist audience. With its flashing lights, entertainment venues, throngs of people, and mixed feelings amongst locals, it is not hard to see the similarities between these two world famous destinations. Venture a few blocks east of Times Square, however, and you’ll find yourself in Manhattan’s Midtown business district, which is probably the most important commercial agglomeration in the world. Ironically, many of the “Wall Street” banks are in fact headquartered here uptown, today. The city largely shifted its center of gravity uptown during the mid-20th Century, and though Lower Manhattan has recovered quite a bit, Midtown remains extremely vibrant as a business hub. LA’s Westside developed as its own business hub over the course of the mid-20th Century as well. Many of New York’s most prestigious firms are based in Midtown, rather than the original city core; many of LA’s most prominent offices are based in Century City or Beverly Hills, rather than in Downtown. Offices in Westwood, Brentwood, and Santa Monica round out this robust, more recent business district. Moreover, this area also has much of the city’s high end housing stock, in a manner similar to Midtown Manhattan. To the west of Times Square is Hell’s Kitchen, a neighborhood that used to be mostly industrial, but which has in recent years benefited from its Midtown proximity and has become a true lifestyle and creative hub. A similar pattern can be observed today in LA’s Culver City, which is emerging as a major creative office hub in its own right, located close to the existing Westside commercial core. As you move further up Manhattan, you ultimately cross 59th Street, also known as Central Park South. This street acts in some respects as a dividing line, with the tonier and more residential Upper East and West Sides to its north, and the more commercial parts of the city to its south (though with no shortage of tony residential too). In Los Angeles, the same could be said of crossing west of the 405 freeway into the upscale residential neighborhoods such as Brentwood, Santa Monica, and the Pacific Palisades. The world to the west of the 405 is generally lower density and more residential in nature than the world to its east. These neighborhoods are home to many of the city’s elite, in a manner very similar to those on the Upper East and West Sides. Both Manhattan and its Los Angeles counterpart are quite densely developed, but they are also both home to world famous open spaces. Those are New York’s Central Park, and LA’s expansive coastline of beaches. The most prominent of these is Santa Monica Beach, which together with its pier is a prominent draw for visitors from around the world and icon of the city, in a manner similar to Central Park. It also serves a similar function for its surrounding residential communities as Central Park does for its own. Much as Central Park serves as a focal point on the Upper East and West Sides, the beach and ocean is the open space around which much of the urban form and culture west of the 405 is organized. Taken together, this “ManhattAngeles” represents a compelling “center” to the Los Angeles region nearly as much as Manhattan represents the center of New York. Those who would argue against this notion often say that LA is extremely polycentric, more so than is the case in other major cities. This line of reasoning is less convincing when we compare the rest of the metro area with New York outside of Manhattan. Manhattan has multiple ‘centers’ in its own right. Moreover, its outer boroughs and suburbs thereafter all serve important roles in the region as well, in a manner fairly similar to the arrangement in LA. The subsequent sections of this article will compare the two cities beyond their central cores, showing how their similarities of urban form continue. The Outer Boroughs New York’s outer boroughs are “suburbs” in some senses of the term, however in other respects they feel more like a part of the central city than do the more distant true suburbs beyond. The boroughs are deeply knit into the city’s economic and social fabric, and they entertain relatively few conflicts of identity as compared to the more distant suburbs (a topic I will return to in the subsequent section). In Los Angeles, there is a set of neighborhoods and municipalities that surround ManhattAngeles and function in a parallel manner to Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. The borough of Brooklyn conjures images of bearded hipsters, tattooed artists, and trendy shops and restaurant, rubbing up against much of the city’s diverse immigrant population and pockets of serious poverty. It feels decidedly different from Manhattan, though no one would say that it isn’t part of the city. The “East Side” of Los Angeles is very similar in many regards. I’ll take an expansive definition of the East Side, an area including Thai Town and Los Feliz east of Hollywood across the 101 freeway, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Atwater Village, Highland Park and the broader Northeast LA area, and moving southeast to include Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles. This area encompasses a vast range of peoples, income levels, and lifestyles. It is certainly the spiritual home to the city’s counterculture, bohemians, and “bobos”. Yet at the same time most of the people who live in this area have little to do with those cultures. They are living the American immigrant experience, centered around their own ethnic/cultural communities. Developed mostly in the years after WWII, the San Fernando Valley was built essentially as the prototype for suburbia in America. Ranches were subdivided into “ranch-style” homes as “the Valley” became LA’s primary bedroom community. Over the decades, however, I would argue that The Valley has developed an urban form, its own commercial centers, and its own suburbs. These, taken together with its tight economic integration and City of LA governance, make it play much more of a city borough role than an outer suburban one. Indeed, the Valley is the Queens borough of Los Angeles. It is located just across the ‘river’ from ManhattAngeles (filled in here by the Santa Monica Mountains and Hollywood Hills). People transit to and from The Valley by taking one of a few ‘bridges’ through the mountains: the 405, 101, or 5 freeways. In a manner similar to Queens, the Valley is home to a wide array of lifestyles and migrant groups. However both Queens and the Valley are generally more middle class and suburban in orientation than are Brooklyn or the East Side. They are also both major population centers, with almost half of City of LA residents living in the San Fernando Valley. Some parts of Queens today (such as Long Island City) are being developed as effective extensions of Manhattan across the river; Valley neighborhoods such as Studio City, North Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, and Encino are taking on a similar character themselves. On the other side of ManhattAngeles is South LA. This is an area of the city which is too often overlooked, but which forms an essential component of LA’s civic identity. The clear parallel in New York is the Bronx. Both are home to a diverse set of immigrants and many lower income people. Both of their pasts have been characterized by challenges with crime and civil strife, by “redevelopment” projects, and by frictional relations with law enforcement. Yet both communities have also been essential for their respective cities, providing housing at a lower cost for many of the people who do the work to keep these cities functioning, and serving as a cultural wellspring for musical and artistic styles that have defined these cities on the global map. Today, the impact of crime has lessened in these boroughs, and they have seen some new outside investment. There is a growing concern over gentrification in both boroughs, however it has not yet arrived there to the degree it has in the Brooklyns or Manhattans of both cities. The final New York City borough is Staten Island. Generally more suburban in character and located across the harbor from the other boroughs, Staten Island is relatively less plugged in to the city center. Yet, with relatively affordable housing and straightforward access to Lower Manhattan by ferry, Staten Island serves as an effective bedroom community for many of the municipal employees and others who are quietly keeping the city running. In Los Angeles, the San Gabriel Valley and the Gateway Cities at least historically served in a similar capacity. Their appropriateness for this role is evidenced by the location of several key Los Angeles County offices in this region. Over recent years, however, the transformation of these two areas into specific ethnic/cultural suburban enclaves: Chinese in the San Gabriel Valley and Latino in the Gateway Cities (see Chapter 3 of William Fulton’s The Reluctant Metropolis) has added a distinct character to these areas for which there are few comparisons in New York City. Up to this point all of the neighborhoods of Los Angeles we’ve discussed, sprawled and diverse as they are, I would consider to be a part of the core ‘city’ of Los Angeles, akin to being within the city boundaries of New York City. Moving forward, we will take another step back to observe those areas which no longer feel like they are ‘in the city’, yet which still fall within the city’s broader metro area. Suburbs and Exurbs Moving further out from LA’s center and surrounding ‘boroughs’, we arrive at an outer ring of suburbs and exurbs which complete this metropolitan region. Some of these neighborhoods function mostly as bedroom communities for the more central parts of the city, while others have defined cultures and lifestyles of their own – which at times clash with those of the core city. Indeed, I think that the key differentiator between outer boroughs and true suburbs and exurbs is that many may believe these suburbs and exurbs are ‘not a part’ of the main city, but rather urban agglomerations of their own. I do not subscribe to that line of reasoning for Los Angeles and New York in particular, where the fundamental growth stories and economic systems of the city and suburbs are inextricably linked. However, where people are so far from the city that they begin to believe they are not a part of it, that is where true suburbia begins. Head northeast from Manhattan through Queens, and after a while the city will fall away behind you, and you’ll find yourself amongst the sumptuous homes, greenery, and coastlines of Long Island’s North Shore. This is Gatsby-land; a place for wealthy New Yorkers to have their space just outside the city. Head northwest from ManhattAngeles through LA’s Queens, the San Fernando Valley, and you will arrive in LA’s Gatsby-land. It is a stretch of spacious and scenic communities generally oriented around the Santa Monica Mountains and the Malibu coastline, including Malibu itself, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Agoura, and Westlake Village. This area is famed for being the home of the Kardashian clan. It is not much of a stretch to see the similarities between the fictional story of Jay Gatsby and the “reality” story of the Kardashians. LA’s South Bay beach cities and adjacent Palos Verdes play a similar role, as well. Setting the Kardashians aside, most people choose to live here not because it is convenient to the rest of the city, but rather because it is decidedly out of the city. Here, social life is less mediated by larger civic institutions. In the manner of a small village, social life is organized around tight-knit community groups, or it is direct between individuals and families. Private residences often substitute for public space when it comes to parties or dinners or other such gatherings. The North Shore and LA’s equivalents are worlds unto themselves, retreats into small town life at the edge of the big city. Moving deeper into Long Island, there is a long stretch of suburban neighborhoods. Notably, some of these serve as bedroom communities for Queens and other New York outer boroughs and suburbs. Moving deeper beyond LA’s San Fernando Valley, the suburban communities of Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Santa Clarita, and the Antelope Valley serve a similar function, providing relatively affordable and more spacious housing (at a greater distance) for people who work in the Valley and the rest of the city beyond. Due north of Manhattan and the Bronx is Westchester County. Wealthy, well-educated, and at one time the home of many industrial tycoons, Westchester County finds its LA counterpart in the leafy streets of Pasadena and its surrounds. Both have a feeling of erudition in addition to affluence, with deep ties to local universities. Pasadena’s early development was driven largely by gilded age Midwestern magnates seeking a retreat during the freezing winters; Westchester’s early development was driven largely by gilded age Manhattan millionaires seeking a retreat during the hot and humid summer. Today, one can visit the historic Gamble House or Fenyes Mansion in Pasadena just as one can visit Kykuit or Lyndhurst in Westchester. Across the Hudson River from Manhattan are the dense and industrially-oriented neighborhoods of the New Jersey waterfront. New York has always been a great port city, however today almost all of the shipping activity is concentrated on the New Jersey waterfront. In Los Angeles, industrial waterfront places such as Long Beach, Wilmington, and San Pedro play a very similar role – together processing nearly half the country’s oceanbound shipping, while supporting major population centers as well. This city-adjacent part of New Jersey has seen a boom of new residential and office development over recent years as prices in the city center have skyrocketed; the same has occurred in Long Beach. Moving further inland from the New Jersey waterfront, you arrive at more typically suburban cities and towns, some of which are quite large. In Los Angeles, the equivalent region of the city is the inland suburban expanse of Orange County (not its coastline, which I will return to shortly). The reason this comparison is particularly sensible is because both places have an uncertain identity in relation to the centers of their metro areas. These New Jersey suburbs are across state lines from Manhattan, so can it they really be a part of New York? A similar reasoning goes for Orange County, which of course is not within Los Angeles County. Add to this some degree of cultural enmity in both cases. With many New Yorkers looking down on New Jersey and with Orange County’s history of being “across the Orange Curtain” from Los Angeles as a bastion of conservatism in California, it is clear why so many feel a divide. However, both northern New Jersey and Orange County are intricately linked into the dominant economic, social, cultural, and historical fabrics of their respective metro areas. The strings of towns and cities feel interminable as you progress deeper and deeper west into New Jersey, even crossing another state boundary into northeastern Pennsylvania. The same experience is true as you continue east from the center of Los Angeles. LA’s “Inland Empire”, its stretch of development that extends forever eastward from the city, is akin to those westernmost suburbs of New York. The exurbs of San Bernardino and Riverside serve to anchor this distant region in a manner similar to Allentown and Trenton. All have largely industrial histories, and maintain a fair degree of that character to this day. To the northeast of New York sits a series of exurbs with a fairly different orientation. The southwestern coast of Connecticut is one of the wealthier parts of the region. In particular, it serves as a home to the headquarters of several major corporations and financial institutions. Historically, many executives and well-paid employees have enjoyed its spacious suburban environment and spectacular coastline. Within the Greater Los Angeles area, the Orange County Coast and its surroundings have played a similar role as an exurban center of business within Southern California. Cities such as Newport Beach, Irvine, and Santa Ana are home to such businesses as PIMCO, Broadcom, First American Financial, and many regional headquarters. Conclusion At first glance, the differences between New York and Los Angeles as cities is starkly clear. New York builds up while Los Angeles builds out, and accordingly Angelenos are driving everywhere while New Yorkers are taking the subway and walking. It is clear that the spatial arrangement of the two cities and the means through which people move about them are quite different. However, on a more fundamental matter of which sorts of neighborhoods shape the city and how they developed and relate to each other, those differences begin to melt away. The experience of transporting yourself between neighborhoods is not the same, but the types of neighborhoods you’re moving between, and roughly the amount of travel time involved as well (even with traffic), are quite similar. Both New York and Los Angeles boomed and expanded out from their historic cores, largely abandoned those original neighborhoods over the 20th Century, and have re-discovered and re-invested in them over the past few decades. The main thrust of this expansion moved north up Manhattan, and west across the LA Basin to form an area I call ManhattAngeles. The northward development of Manhattan was pursued along a similar timeline (however in different decades) to the westward development of ManhattAngeles, leaving both cities with comparable neighborhoods arranged in analogous patterns. Other urban and suburban growth spread in every which direction in both cases, creating a series of ‘boroughs’ that ring the core cities, and subsequent layers of suburbs and exurbs further out still. Perhaps there is a set of underlying fundamentals which encourages parallel growth across these two megalopolises, as well as several others not addressed in this article. That notion may be well suited for further exploration. For now, it is my hope that this article has demonstrated that, despite their lifestyle differences, Los Angeles and New York are fundamentally similar animals. Los Angeles is not an impenetrably strange and exotic land, where none of the rules from back home apply, as many an outside writer might have you believe. Rather, it is the flip side to the same coin. Jason Lopata works as a land use consultant with Craig Lawson & Co., LLC, helping real estate development projects in LA navigate the city approvals process. Jason previously spent time on the Business Team of LA Mayor Eric Garcetti. He also writes articles on globalization and urban development for Stratfor, the geopolitical analysis website. Jason received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and completed programs of study at the University of Oxford and at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. While at Stanford, he founded and led the student real estate organization, and authored his senior thesis on Los Angeles development over the past 30 years. Read his earlier longform series "L.A. Urbanized." by clicking here.

By - LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News) – A Christian with a mental disability in Pakistan has been arrested under the country’s blasphemy law after a Muslim neighbor outside his home overheard him arguing inside, sources said. Francis Masih, older brother of 42-year-old Stephen Masih, said that Muslim neighbor Hafiz Mudassir on March 11 burst into their home in Imranpura, Wadiala, Sialkot District, beat the younger brother and accused him of speaking ill of the prophet of Islam after overhearing an argument. At about 7 a.m. Stephen Masih, who belongs to a Pentecostal church, had become embroiled in a heated discussion with a Christian brother-in-law over fasting and praying during Lent when he lost his temper and started shouting loudly, Francis Masih said. “This is when Mudassir barged into our house and started beating Stephen without any reason,” he told Morning Star News. “We told Mudassir that it was not right for him to intervene in our family issue, but he took offense and raised hue and cry in the street, alleging that Stephen had committed blasphemy.” Soon a mob gathered outside their house, he said. “Mudassir and Mohammad Rafiq, another neighbor, provoked them to attack Stephen,” Masih said. “They not only beat him up mercilessly but also attacked other family members who tried to save him.” Someone called police, and they rescued Stephen Masih from the violent mob, he said. “The police took my brother away, and it was after some time that we learned that he had been charged with blasphemy,” Masih said, adding that the family has not seen him since his arrest or heard about his condition. “We have been running from pillar to post, as we are very worried about his condition, especially since he was ruthlessly beaten up by the mob, but the police are not arranging our meeting. They keep telling us that he is safe and being taken care of.” Their mother has not eaten enough or slept well since the arrest, he said. “The police should show some mercy for the sake of my mother’s health and allow us a meeting,” Masih added. Mudassir alleged in the First Information Report (FIR) registered at Badiana Police that he was standing outside his house when he heard Stephen Masih shouting derogatory words about Muhammad. “I and another neighbor, Mohammad Rafiq, repeatedly asked Stephen to refrain from uttering blasphemous remarks, but he did not pay heed to our requests,” Mudassir said in the FIR. “This blasphemous act has caused immense agony to Muslims of the neighborhood, therefore Stephen should be punished as per the law.” The FIR was registered under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s blasphemy law, which calls for the death penalty for defaming Muhammad. The sub-inspector who registered the case, Mohammad Ashraf, told Morning Star News that police have yet to determine whether the accused’s mental capacity will be a factor. “We are investigating the matter, but I cannot yet comment on the family’s claim that Stephen is mentally disabled,” he said. “It is up to the judge to decide once we present him in court.” Condition Unknown Francis Masih said his brother has been mentally disabled since birth, but that his condition worsened after the death of their father a little over 17 years ago. “The entire locality knows about Stephen’s mental health status,” his brother said, adding that area residents used to tease him, provoking him into quarrels. A doctor had advised them to admit him to a mental health facility, but their mother was unwilling to send him away, Masih said. “And now we don’t even know where he is being kept and in what condition,” he said. Lahore High Court attorney Sardar Mohammad Akhtar told Morning Star News that Section 84 of the Pakistan Penal Code states, “Nothing is an offense which is done by a person who, at the time of doing it, by reason of unsoundness of mind, is incapable of knowing the nature of the act, or that he is doing what is either wrong or contrary to law.” Intent must be demonstrated for a blasphemy conviction. Pakistan’s blasphemy laws have long polarized public opinion, with intense emotions leading to assassinations of senior politicians and judges who have advocated for repeal. Critics within Pakistan and in the international community point to the malicious use of the laws to harm minorities, while advocates say the self-proclaimed Islamic nature of the Pakistani state mandates such laws to justify its existence. Although the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has long recommended Pakistan be designated as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), the U.S. State Department had never done so until last November. On Nov. 28, the United States added Pakistan to its blacklist of countries that violate religious freedom, the government announced on Dec. 11. Pakistan ranked fifth on Christian support organization Open Doors 2019 World Watch list of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit https://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved. If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at https://morningstarnews.org/donate/? ### © 2019 Morning Star News. Articles/photos may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News.

Without failure, we can’t learn and progress. Plus, we wouldn’t be able to watch hilarious footage like this, so celebrate your failures proudly (just don’t forget to send us the footage :-).

Jonathan Swift’s satire Gulliver’s Travels, published in 1726, still has much to tell us about the way we live now and how politics is conduced across Europe. One image from the book, of the small, vain Lilliputians tying down Gulliver, resonates with recent comments from ministers in larger European countries on the rise of the “Hanseatic League 2.0”, an alignment of finance ministers from Ireland, the Netherlands and the Baltic and Nordic states. The name comes from the federation of towns and merchant guilds that exercised considerable economic power in northwestern Europe in the late middle ages. Perhaps, unlike the Lilliputians, there are reasons for the European Commission and the larger European countries to take the Hanseatic countries, and their message, seriously. Indeed, in a bad year for politics and economics in Europe, the emergence of the Hanseatic countries is a new, positive development. The first reason to focus on them is that they reflect the changing shape of the European Union. For some of the smaller European states – Ireland and the Netherlands, for example, the UK was a policy and political ally around which they could coalesce. Like the Hanseatics, Britain preferred a more liberal, decentralised conception of the EU and now Brexit means that small states need to club together in order to have a voice. Further, a consequence of EU enlargement has meant that older members of the EU such as Denmark have felt that their influence has been diluted. Grouping together with like-minded small states, many of whom share the same economic problems and viewpoints, helps to enhance their power. Stress testing A second reason is that the near-perpetual stress testing of Europe’s states through the euro-zone crisis has altered its political economy in that the need for high growth and stable state finances has been internalised in many small state capitals, though much less so, it seems, in larger countries. The Hanseatic view of the euro zone is that it should never again allow itself to be encumbered by debt, that focusing on economic growth is the best way to avoid another euro-zone crisis and to solve the underlying problems that provoke Europeans to opt for increasingly radical solutions at the ballot box. Small states have some form here. The Nordic countries, Ireland and the Netherlands, together with the likes of Switzerland, Singapore and New Zealand, top the lists of most globalised, most innovative (Bloomberg Innovation Index), rule of law (World Bank) and democratic quality (Economist Intelligence Unit) league tables. They have a common emphasis on quality of life, and in crises have shown a singular ability to tackle big problems (for example, Sweden repairing its banking system, Ireland fixing its unemployment crisis and Denmark leading the world in renewable energy). This is indicative of the fact that small, advanced states, most of whom are European, have a ‘secret sauce’ when it comes to promoting economic growth and social stability. Other small states in, say, Eastern Europe can learn from this, but the larger countries should also take heed. One example is Italy. In the past four months the exchanges between the European Commission and Italy on its budget deficit has been marked by the absence of a determined, detailed debate on a set of economic policies that could transform Italy’s trend rate of growth. Instead, the tone from Rome has sounded opportunistic while that from Brussels has been punitive. Fiscal policy as dictated from Brussels sounds a little too much like another Swift book, A Modest Proposal. Italy’s growth rate The Hanseatic League 2.0 countries have already issued a number of policy papers. A provocative one would be for them, in a constructive way, to present Italy with a set of suggestions on how to increase its growth rate, based on their experience. The education sector is an obvious example. Italy has a couple of universities in the top 200 in the world (Times Higher Education rakings) while the four Nordic countries have 13. There is a third dynamic at work, which makes the perspective of the Hanseatic nations worthwhile. The marked geopolitical trend of the past year has been the growing schism between the United States and China and the way in which this is forcing the transition from a globalised to a multipolar world. The US and China are so far the dominant poles here. This reality is leading to a slow change in mindset in Europe, such that it must less debate the merits of the Italian versus the French view of the world, but rather how Europe looks compared with both the US and China. Talk of a European army is part of this. While the Hanseatic League 2.0 countries do not have a manifesto, the kinds of things they value – economic openness, innovation and human development – are the factors that can empower the EU to hold its own relative to the US and China into 2019. Michael O’Sullivan is the chief investment officer in the wealth management division at Credit Suisse and author of Ireland and the Global Question. David Skilling is director of Landfall Strategy

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A new model from the University of Washington shows that Ohio has more than enough hospital and intensive care unit capacity to handle the onslaught of expected coronavirus cases. According to projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, Ohio’s coronavirus cases are expected to peak April 19, with 3,900 hospital beds needed, 585 of them in the ICU, and 468 ventilators. Ohio has about 34,000 hospital beds at more than 100 hospitals across the state, and 2,500 ICU beds, according to data compiled by the Associated Press. The Washington study says Ohio has less than 1,300 ICU beds. The predictions are far less dire than models Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton and Gov. Mike DeWine have cited at statehouse news briefings. DeWine said Friday that hospitals need to build up beds and other capacity to three times what they currently have, with 6,000 to 10,000 newly diagnosed coronavirus patients a day in coming weeks. The state has used models from Ohio State University and the Cleveland Clinic. On Monday, Acton said she wanted hospitals to at least double capacity, in time for a peak in mid- to late-April, depending on how successful successful distancing is. That includes increased staffing and equipment. “Our forecast, our weather station gets a little better each time,” Acton said. “It gets better with each day and more accurate... We already see from the stories from the front line; it’s a lot of work in ICUs and hospitals.” Acton said she believes the Washington model looks at peak capacity day-by day, but that coronavirus patients will have to remain in the hospital much longer than patients with other illnesses -- up to 20 days. She said scientists will continue to collaborate, to work through their projections. “You can’t just look at who might be sick and the number of cases when they’re piling on top of each logarithmically," she said Monday. Terry O’Sullivan, associate director of the Center for Emergency Management and Homeland Security at the University of Akron, said he expects a lot of controversy in modeling the effect of the coronavirus, mostly because there are so many unknowns. “A lot of this is guess work,” O’Sullivan said. “In the modeling world they refer to it as garbage in, garbage out. They are sophisticated models, but they are limited by the information and inability to fully anticipate the interaction of these variables. We don’t know exactly who’s been infected.” David Gurarie, who studies mathematical biology infectious diseases modeling and epidemiology at Case Western Reserve University, agreed. “The main challenge of COVID-modeling at present are big uncertainties of its transmission (rates, pathways), as well as recovery, pathogenicity (fraction of “heavy infections” over “light/asymptomatic”), fatality,” Gurarie said in an email. “It is believed, large pool of undetected (asymptomatic) hosts contributes to transmission, which creates large uncertainty for model prediction.”. Given these uncertainties, I’m not surprised two models ("UW " vs. “Cleveland clinic”) gave vastly different predictions. The Washington study doesn’t predict total cases, but says Ohio will peak at about 1,203 deaths total, with the model showing deaths could be between about 400 and 2,100. The study examines every state, based on confirmed COVID-19 deaths from the World Health Organization, local and national governments, as well as “COVID-19 utilization data from select locations." It estimates that approximately 81,000 people will die from the virus in the United States over the next four months -- less than the up to 200,000 warned by White House coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx on Monday. The latest Ohio Department of Health projection of the coronavirus curve. Ohio is one of nine states with hospitals that won’t be overwhelmed, according to the projections, which are updated daily. Michigan, which has had about three times more coronavirus cases than Ohio, is forecasted to need nearly triple the ICU beds than it has available. The projection shows Michigan will have about 2,855 coronavirus deaths -- double Ohio’s. New York, which is currently overwhelmed with coronavirus cases, is expected to peak 10 days before Ohio, in line with Acton’s predictions. The state has a more steeper projected spike, with an expectation of more than 11,000 ICU beds needed and only 718 available. Study director Dr. Christopher Murray in a news release stressed that his projections are based on strict continuance of social distancing measures. “Our estimated trajectory of COVID-19 deaths assumes continued and uninterrupted vigilance by the general public, hospital and health workers, and government agencies,” Murray said. “The trajectory of the pandemic will change – and dramatically for the worse – if people ease up on social distancing or relax with other precautions. We encourage everyone to adhere to those precautions to help save lives.” Ohio State University said it will release more information on the methodology of its projections later this week.

EAST MEADOW, N.Y. -- The New York Islanders enter their game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Barclays Center on Friday (7 p.m. ET; SN, TVA Sports, MSG+, ROOT, NHL.TV) in last place in the Eastern Conference, but hours before the opening faceoff, general manager Garth Snow reiterated his faith in coach Jack Capuano. "Jack, the coaching staff, our players, I have a lot of confidence in everyone in that room," Snow said during an impromptu press conference at the Islanders' practice facility. "The great part about when you face adversity, [you see] who rises to the top. Although it doesn't always feel easy for our fans, when you go through adversity, it's a great challenge and I always look forward to see who rises to that challenge, and it doesn't matter whether it's a player, coaches, staff … we're all in this together and I've got a lot of belief in everyone in that room." The Islanders (5-8-3) have scored 40 goals in 16 games, forcing Capuano to constantly shuffle his lines with the hope of finding some offense. New York could receive a boost via trade, which Snow did not rule out. "Like every other team, we're always looking to improve our team," Snow said. "All avenues, whether it's the draft, whether it's free agency, whether it's trades, waivers, we've gone every route to build this team. Like I said, I believe in the guys that we have in that room right now. It'll never prevent us from always looking to try to improve our club, but those guys in there are gonna rise to the top, and I have a lot of belief in them. "I've had the luxury to work with [co-owners] Jon Ledecky [and] Scott Malkin, and I've had their support," Snow said. "For me, I've been very fortunate to be a manager and to have had the support from ownership that I've had for the last 10 years. I know that doesn't always happen. I'm grateful and I'm appreciative about the support that I get from them." Ledecky and Malkin showed their support on July 1, when the Islanders signed left wing Andrew Ladd to a seven-year, $38.5 million contract. Ladd started the season on the top line with John Tavares but failed to produce and has since been shuffled around. He enters the game Friday with two goals and one assist in 16 games. "Andrew brings a lot of different things to our club," Snow said. "[He's] a very high-character guy. We knew that when we signed him. A lot of people don't know last year, I don't think he had many goals around Christmas and then he turned it on. But Andrew Ladd isn't defined as a hockey player by scoring goals; it's a lot of different things he does, whether it's [being tough] to play against, his leadership … he's a winner. Andrew's a big part of our club. It's the reason why we signed him, because of all those positive attributes that he brings to the club." Prior to the start of the regular season, Snow opted to keep three goaltenders on the 23-man roster rather than right wing PA Parenteau, who had signed a one-year contract on July 2. Parenteau, who had 120 points playing alongside Tavares from 2010-12, was claimed off waivers by the New Jersey Devils and has five goals and two assists in 16 games. Tavares is the only player on the Islanders roster with five goals. Meanwhile, No. 3 goalie Jean-Francois Berube has yet to play a game this season. Jaroslav Halak will make his seventh straight start Friday, with Thomas Greiss as his backup. "I wouldn't want to be in that situation," Snow, a former goaltender, said of Berube. "It stinks. I think he's handling it like a professional. You rewind the last year so start the season [against] Chicago home-and-home, [Halak] was injured. We picked up J-F off waivers, and thank goodness we did. There were times during the season where we had three goalies on our roster, [but] two were healthy. We've got three good goalies. It's one of the strengths of our organization; we've got good goaltending in Bridgeport, we have a couple of great goaltenders in the pipeline that are playing in other places. It's a strength of our organization. I get [the frustration], but it's a 23-man roster. We'll carry as many goalies as we see fit. "And by the way, the CBA says a player is an unrestricted free agent at a certain time. It is what it is." For now, Snow's main concern is getting the Islanders back on track. The game Friday is the first of 66 remaining, and the Islanders are seven points in back of the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the East. "I understand the frustration of our fans," Snow said. "It's the same passionate fan base that blew the roof off the Coliseum in the Pittsburgh series [in 2013], the Washington series (in 2015), the last year of the Coliseum, and they blew the roof off the Barclays Center last year. We were fortunate enough to get to the second round. "It's a passionate fan base; we're in New York. Of course, we're going to hear it when we do well and we're going to hear it when we don't do so well. It's what we signed up for. I can appreciate the passion. Quite frankly, it's one of the best parts of being a general manager of a New York-based team, is you've got the most passionate fan base in the world."

In Defense of Walk on Girls “Walk-on girls,” “Grid girls,” whatever you call them, they all serve the same functions: hype up the crowd, wear the sponsors’ logos, and most of all, look pretty. It’s a sports modeling job, plain and simple. You fill the entrance pit at the races or entertain the crowd between rounds of darts. Sexuality is absolutely an aspect of the job, but this doesn’t mean it’s always a bad job. Furthermore, taking these jobs away from women in the name of feminism makes absolutely no sense and anyone who claims this is a good idea doesn’t give a fuck about the lived experiences or needs of the women they say they want to help. Recently, the Professional Darts Corporation announced it would no longer have walk-on girls accompany their competitors as they come out to perform on stage. Formula One has also announced that they have ended the practice of using grid-girls to promote their sport and have instead decided to use “grid kids” to welcome their drivers to the track– as if child labor is more defensible than just letting women keep their jobs. Not to mention, because these grid kids are said to be “youngsters from motorsport clubs” who will be getting the chance to rub elbows with the professionals, these children will likely be volunteers, meaning that F1 conveniently gets to replace paid labor with free child labor and label it progress. Now, as an anarcha-syndicalist, I believe that the people who know how to best operate a business are the workers themselves. So why then, in a conversation centered around sexist exploitation of workers, are the workers themselves not at the center of the conversation? It’s because these companies who fired them are full of shit. This is just a massive corporate layoff disguised as social justice. Instead of trying to figure out how to not sexualize their employees, it is much easier to fire them and play it off as feminism for PR points. If we really want to help those women, then let’s actually ask what their needs are. From what has been said publicly by those laid off from the industry, many found the job to be safe and rewarding and are greatly upset that outsiders are claiming the loss of their jobs as a win. To quote former PDC walk-on girl Daniella Allfree, “It’s a shame this vocal minority have ended our job, like they’re doing us a favour.” If we’re really concerned about walk-on girls being put in a role that is defined by sexual exploitation, then how about redefining the role a bit? F1 has already taken steps towards this end by experimenting with using walk-on kids but so far only at the expense of these women’s jobs. Instead, they could have had walk-on models of all genders and ages, mascots, and more, all hyping the crowds up together. I mean, minus the sexual aspect, is the role of a walk-on girl any different from that of a hype man? So let’s call this what it is – an attack on women’s jobs – instead of trying to dress it up as some sort of feminist victory. Such rhetoric only allows for corporate interests to profit from a good public image at the expense of now unemployed women. As this trend threatens to continue across various sports, we must stand in solidarity with these workers and fight against such layoffs.

Google Traffic is the main source of traffic all over the internet, as

【3月19日 AFP】ドイツのアンゲラ・メルケル（Angela Merkel）首相は18日、国民に向けたテレビ演説で、新型コロナウイルスの流行でドイツは「第2次世界大戦（World War II）以来」最大の問題に直面しているとし、包括的な感染抑制措置に従うよう呼び掛けた。 メルケル氏は「事態は深刻だ。真剣に受け止めてもらいたい。ドイツ統一以来、いや、第2次世界大戦以来、わが国の命運がこれほど、われわれの団結にかかっている事態になったことはない」と語った。 メルケル氏は過去15年の首相在任中、金融危機、2015年の難民危機、そして英国の欧州連合（EU）離脱（ブレグジット、Brexit）といった数々の難問に直面してきたものの、毎年恒例の新年のあいさつを除けば、指導者として長い経歴を持つ同氏がテレビで国民に直接演説をしたことはこれまでなかった。 メルケル氏は「自分がなすべき課題を全国民が本当に理解したならば、われわれはこの課題を成し遂げることができると私は心から信じている」と呼び掛けた。 ドイツでは数日前から連邦政府と各地方行政府が学校や多くの商店や企業、公共の場を閉鎖。新型ウイルスの拡散を抑えようと必死の取り組みを打ち出していた。 もっともドイツでは外出禁止などの指示は出されておらず、より厳格な規制を導入したフランス、ベルギー、イタリアやスペインとは対照をなしている。 社会的接触を避けるようにとのメッセージを人々に届けようと、当局が苦心する中、ドイツ人は春の日差しを楽しみ、社交のための外出を継続。「コロナパーティー」まで開かれていた。(c)AFP/Michelle FITZPATRICK / Tom BARFIELD

Durante los primeros 6 meses de este año, se realizaron 450 interrupciones legales de embarazo de manera ambulatoria en la provincia de Santa Fe. Las prácticas fueron resueltas en el primer nivel de atención de parte del Ministerio de Salud provincial. Actualmente, la ciudad de Rosario tiene tasa cero de mortalidad materna por aborto. Según informaron fuentes oficiales, las mujeres acceden a la Interrupción Legal del Embarazo (ILE) mediante un protocolo vigente desde el año 2012 al cual adhirió la provincia. El mismo fue elaborado por el Programa Nacional de Salud Sexual y Procreación Responsable del Ministerio de Salud de la Nación, mediante la resolución provincial Nº 612, con sus posteriores modificaciones. De este modo, el gobierno provincial garantiza el acceso a esta práctica dentro del marco legal y a través de la red que posee el sistema de salud pública. En este sentido, la ministra de Salud, Andrea Uboldi, explicó que “en la provincia, los abordajes se realizan de manera ambulatoria en el primer nivel de atención en el cual equipos interdisciplinarios están preparados para asistir a las mujeres cuyos casos estén encuadrados en el protocolo de ILE. En situaciones de mayor complejidad, las prácticas están garantizadas en cualquier hospital público”. “En Santa Fe, estos resultados son posibles por una decisión política que desde 2007 viene fortaleciendo a sus equipos de salud y mejorando la infraestructura edilicia y tecnológica para que la red funcione siempre centrada en las personas y sus derechos”, agregó. “Venimos trabajando fuertemente en la provincia en esta idea de la atención integral que pasa también por la preservación de los derechos de la mujer y la posibilidad de elegir un método anticonceptivo y contar con acompañamiento”, sentenció Uboldi. La ministra sostuvo que “hay un posicionamiento fuerte de la provincia en acompañar y en garantizar los derechos de la mujer, así que esperamos este tratamiento en forma oportuna”. Por su parte, el coordinador de Salud Sexual y Reproductiva del Ministerio de Salud, Oraldo Llanos, recordó que según el protocolo vigente, “la interrupción del embarazo es un procedimiento sumamente seguro si es practicado con los instrumentos y en las condiciones adecuadas. Las personas que solicitan esta práctica reciben una atención integral y humanitaria que involucra a diferentes actores que las entrevistan y analizan el encuadre de cada caso. También se cumple con el proceso de acompañamiento y cuidados posteriores que se solicitan en el Protocolo”. En la actualidad, la ciudad de Rosario tiene tasa cero de mortalidad materna por aborto y se avanza en ese sentido en toda la provincia: en el año 2017, la tasa de mortalidad materna (que incluye al aborto entre otras causas) es de apenas el 1,1%. Llanos explicó que la provincia trabaja en reducir las muertes y complicaciones por aborto desde hace diez años: “El acompañamiento a la salud sexual reproductiva y no reproductiva se hace de manera integral, desde la realización de actividades para promover derechos y poner en discusión las pautas culturales hegemónicas, hasta garantizar el acceso a insumos”. La provincia considera que el riesgo en la salud de la persona gestante mencionado en el artículo 86 del Código Penal debe entenderse de manera integral y contemplar no solo cuestiones biológicas, sino también psíquicas (embarazo adolescente, pareja violenta) y sociales (situación o pobreza, familiares a cargo), entre otros aspectos. Protocolo Luego de la recepción de la solicitante “se le realiza una entrevista inicial y se establece una consejería, como se denomina, para asesorarla sobre todas las alternativas posibles en relación al embarazo y, en los casos en que los hubiera, los riesgos para la salud relacionados con dichas opciones. Si la persona decide abortar después de esta instancia, debe firmar un documento que se denomina de consentimiento informado, en el cual se describe todo el proceso de atención y se deja constancia de que se recibió toda la información necesaria para tomar decisiones en forma autónoma y consciente”, detalló Llanos. Las causales de la interrupción voluntaria del embarazo Las mujeres acceden al aborto no punible en todo el territorio provincial, realizado por un equipo de profesionales, de acuerdo con el Código Penal de la Nación Argentina que en el artículo 86 inciso 2 menciona: si se ha hecho con el fin de evitar un peligro para la vida de la mujer y si este peligro no puede ser evitado por otros medios (artículo 86, segundo párrafo, inciso 1º, Código Penal de la Nación); si se ha hecho con el fin de evitar un peligro para la salud de la mujer y si este peligro no puede ser evitado por otros medios; si el embarazo proviene de una violación; si el embarazo proviene de un atentado al pudor sobre mujer idiota o demente. Además, en marzo de 2012, la Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación determinó, a través del fallo F.A.L., que quien se encuentre en las condiciones descriptas para un aborto legal "no puede ni debe ser obligada a solicitar una autorización judicial para interrumpir su embarazo toda vez que la ley no lo manda, como tampoco puede ni debe ser privada del derecho que le asiste a la interrupción del mismo ya que ello, lejos de estar prohibido, está permitido y no resulta punible". En relación a las edades de las mujeres que solicitan un aborto no punible y en base al nuevo Código Civil se considera que las mayores de 16 años son responsables para decidir acerca de intervenciones sobre su persona y las menores a esa edad tienen derecho a ser escuchadas y participar en las decisiones que se tomen. En el caso en el que sean menores de 14 años, el consentimiento para ILE necesita de la firma de representante legal. Objeción de conciencia “En la provincia existe un listado de profesionales que han adherido a la Objeción de Conciencia, lo que implica que ellos, en lo personal, se niegan a realizar esta práctica médica ya sea por cuestiones religiosas, morales o éticas”, explicó Llanos. En tal sentido, aseguró que “el Estado no puede obligar a realizar ninguna práctica a los profesionales, lo que sí debe garantizar es el acceso de la población a ese derecho. Por este motivo es que, al igual que en otras prácticas, se trabaja en red con diferentes profesionales que resuelven las situaciones en una institución u otra. Cualquiera sea la objeción, primero está nuestra obligación de garantizar el derecho a la salud de las personas”, concluyó.

Image copyright Thinkstock Women over 40 are having more babies than the under 20s for the first time in nearly 70 years, official figures for England and Wales show. The Office for National Statistics data showed there were 697,852 live births in 2015. There were 15.2 births per 1,000 women aged over 40, compared with just 14.5 per 1,000 women in their teens. The last time the over 40s had the higher fertility rate was in 1947, in the wake of WWII. The figures show two key trends in who is having children and when in England and Wales. The teenage pregnancy rate has been in long-term decline and has more than halved from the 33 births per 1,000 teenagers in 1990. Meanwhile, pregnancies have soared in older age groups from 5.3 per 1,000 in 1990. The average age of having a child is now 30.3 - a figure that has been increasing since 1975. Advances in fertility treatment as well as more women in higher education and attitudes around the importance of a career and the rising costs of childbearing are behind the rise, the ONS says. Liz McLaren, head of vital statistics outputs at the ONS, said: "The trend for women to have babies at older ages continued in 2015. "Over the last 40 years, the percentage of live births to women aged 35 and over has increased considerably. "Women aged 40 and over now have a higher fertility rate than women aged under 20 - this was last recorded in the 1940s." The data also shows that fertility rates have dropped in all age groups under 25 while increasing for all age groups 30 and over. Women aged between 30 and 34 have the highest fertility of any age group - with 111 births per 1,000 women. The number of births to women born outside the UK has also continued its rise, reaching 27.5% of all births. Prof Adam Balen, the chairman of the British Fertility Society, said: "We know that female fertility starts to decline gradually from the late 20s and more rapidly from the mid-30s onwards. "While the risks should never be overplayed, men and women should be aware that reproductive outcomes are poorer in older women. "As well as it potentially taking longer to get pregnant, later maternity can involve a greater risk of miscarriage, a more complicated labour, and medical intervention at the birth." The British Pregnancy Advisory Service said: "The trend towards older motherhood is here to stay, and there are many understandable reasons why women today are waiting longer to start or expand their families than those in previous decades. "Rather than bemoaning this development, we should seek to understand and support the decisions women make. "More affordable childcare and improved maternity rights may make it easier for some women to start their families earlier if they wish, but we also need to ensure we have high quality reproductive healthcare services configured to meet women's needs, whatever the age at which they conceive." Follow James on Twitter.

Ví da nam da cá sấu (hay còn gọi là bóp da nam cá sấu) là món phụ kiện thời trang nhỏ gọn để thay thế những chiếc ví làm từ da bò những những chiếc túi xách làm từ vải để đựng tiền và giấy tờ thêm gọn nhẹ và phong cách hơn cho người dùng. Chi tiết Ví da nam cá sấu: Mã sản phẩm: Ví da nam V2C101N0 Chất liệu: da cá sấu tự nhiên Kiểu dáng: dáng ví ngang. Kích thước: 11,5*9cm Màu sắc: nâu cánh gián Bên ngoài: bề mặt chiếc ví bên ngoài được cắt may từ miếng da cá sấu nguyên miếng tự nhiên, ví được thuộc gam màu nâu cánh gián sang trọng lịch lãm, các đường vân da với độ gồ rất nhẹ nhàng, đường chỉ may viền chắc chắn. Bên trong: các ngăn thẻ của ví được thiết kế cắt may bằng lớp da bò nguyên miếng, ngăn thẻ được thuộc với gam màu nâu cùng tông mặt ngoài với chiếc ví, nội thất bên trong ví có 2 ngăn chính lớn, 1 ngăn kéo khóa để giữ tiền và những vật dụng quan trọng mà không sợ lộ, ví có 8 ngăn đựng thẻ dọc, 2 ngăn đựng thẻ ngang để chiếc ví có thể đựng được nhiều thẻ card hơn mà vẫn không bị dày cộm. Phong cách cá tính cùng ví da nam da cá sấu V2C101N0 Ví da cá sấu V2C101N0 với sắc màu nâu cánh gián sang trọng nổi bật sẽ là món phụ kiện với gam màu mới giúp đấng mày râu có thêm nhiều sự lựa chọn mới . Thiết kế ví da nam da cá sấu là món phụ kiện thời trang sang trọng với chất liệu da cá sâu tự nhiên mang lại cảm giác mới lạ tự tin. Chiếc ví sẽ bộc lộ được bản chất cá tính mạnh mẽ nếu biết kết hợp cùng với các phụ kiện khác như trang phục, túi đeo chéo, giày dép, hay chiếc vòng tay một cách hợp lý. Ngoài gam màu nâu cánh gián sang trọng, lịch lãm ra ví còn có thêm màu đen truyền thống, và màu vàng bò nổi bật giúp người dùng có thêm nhiều sự lựa chọn cho sở thích của mình. chính sách bảo hành và ưu đãi khi sử dụng chiếc ví da cá sấu của LODY Với chiếc ví da cá sấu tự nhiên V2C101N0 khi người dùng sử dụng sẽ được hưởng những chính sách và ưu đãi đặc biệt như: Bảo hành 1 năm bảo trì trọn đời về tất cả các lỗi do nhà sản xuất trong quá trình sử dụng mà người dùng có phát hiện ra lỗi, và khách hàng sẽ được đổi mới sản phẩm trong vòng 3 ngày kể từ ngày khách hàng nhận được sản phẩm. Đối với khách hàng mua online dù ở đâu trên mọi miền tổ quốc khách vẫn được hưởng ưu đãi freeship toàn quốc với tất cả đơn hàng dù to hay nhỏ. Tất cả các sản phẩm đồ da cũ đã sử dụng quá lâu thì khách hàng có thể đem qua cửa hàng bất kỳ của LODY để được nhân viên tư vấn và làm sạch đồ da miễn phí, giúp sản phẩm đồ da của quý khách được vệ sinh bảo dưỡng làm mới lại mà khách không phải mất thêm chi phí phát sinh nào. LODY sẽ hoàn trả gấp 100 lần giá trị sản phẩm nếu khách hàng phát hiện ra sản phẩm là giả da.

ポンと捺すだけで見やすく綺麗に！自分だけのスケジュールスタンプ 「ポンプラン」 シヤチハタ株式会社※1（代表取締役社長 舟橋正剛 本社：愛知県名古屋市）は、この度バリエーション豊富な印面の中から、好きな種類を選んで1本に連結できるスケジュールスタンプ「ポンプラン」を、11月28日(月)より発売いたします。なお本商品は、女性に人気のかわいい印鑑「おしゃれはんこ」を提供する、株式会社クローバー365と共同開発した商品です。 ※ 社名表記は「シャチハタ」ではなく「シヤチハタ」です。 「ポンプラン｣は、イラストやネーム印など自分の好きな印面を選んで組み合わせて使うスケジュールスタンプです。既製印面は全部で30種類で、ケーキやカフェ、病院などの日々のプライベートなスケジュール管理に便利なデザインから、「済」や「お願い」など仕事で活躍するデザインまで、バラエティ豊かに取り揃えました。インキ色はピンク、イエローグリーン、スカイブルー、パープル、ブラウンの5色。スケジュール帳に捺しても主張しすぎることなく、すっきりと見やすくやさしい色を採用しました。 ネーム印の枠はレースや花柄などのかわいらしいデザイン5種もしくは枠なしから選択可能。書体も5書体から選ぶことができて、プライベートな手紙やメッセージのアクセントにも役立ちます。ネーム印は、商品ご購入後にインターネットで申し込みができるメールオーダー式です。 ＜商品イメージ＞ 商品特長 ●好きな印面を組み合わせて自分だけのスタンプが作れる 全30種類の印面およびネーム印の中から、使いたい印面を選んでつなげることで、1本のスタンプとして持ち歩くことができます。ケーキやカフェ、病院などのプライベートのスケジュール管理に便利なデザインや、「済」や「お願い」など仕事で活躍するデザインなど、用途にあわせて自分好みにカスタマイズができます。 ●かわいらしいデザインのネーム印が作れる レースや花柄などのかわいらしいデザイン枠のネーム印5種と、枠なし1種の、計6種よりネーム印のデザインを選べます。書体も5書体から選ぶことができ、自分だけのおしゃれなネーム印を作ることができます。 ※ひらがな、カタカナ、アルファベットでも作成できます。書体や画数によって文字がつぶれたり読みにくい場合があります。マークやロゴは作成できません。印鑑証明には使用しないでください。 イメージカット 標準小売価格 商品名 インキ色 品 番 価 格 ポンプラン ＜スタンプ＞ ケーキ ピンク ＰＥＲ-Ｈ-Ｐ００１ ¥３００＋消費税 プレゼント ブラウン ＰＥＲーＨーＢＲ００２ 食事 ブラウン ＰＥＲーＨーＢＲ００３ カフェ スカイブルー ＰＥＲーＨーＳＢ００４ カクテル パープル ＰＥＲーＨーＶ００５ 靴 ピンク ＰＥＲーＨーＰ００６ 鏡 パープル ＰＥＲーＨーＶ００７ バッグ ブラウン ＰＥＲーＨーＢＲ００８ 病院 スカイブルー ＰＥＲーＨーＳＢ００９ 出勤 ピンク ＰＥＲーＨーＰ０１０ 休日 パープル ＰＥＲーＨーＶ０１１ 時計 ブラウン ＰＥＲーＨーＢＲ０１２ 財布 イエローグリーン ＰＥＲーＨーＹＧ０１３ ロゼット ピンク ＰＥＲーＨーＰ０１４ 指輪 スカイブルー ＰＥＲーＨーＳＢ０１５ 飾り枠1 パープル ＰＥＲーＨーＶ０１６ サンキュー ピンク ＰＥＲーＨーＰ０１７ お願い イエローグリーン ＰＥＲーＨーＹＧ０１８ OK ピンク ＰＥＲーＨーＰ０１９ 済 スカイブルー ＰＥＲーＨーＳＢ０２０ いちご ピンク ＰＥＲーＨーＰ０２１ クローバー イエローグリーン ＰＥＲーＨーＹＧ０２２ 花 イエローグリーン ＰＥＲーＨーＹＧ０２３ 音符 スカイブルー ＰＥＲーＨーＳＢ０２４ キラキラ スカイブルー ＰＥＲーＨーＳＢ０２５ 猫 パープル ＰＥＲーＨーＶ０２６ リボン ブラウン ＰＥＲーＨーＢＲ０２７ ビジュー スカイブルー ＰＥＲーＨーＳＢ０２８ 桜 ピンク ＰＥＲーＨーＰ０２９ 結晶 スカイブルー ＰＥＲーＨーＳＢ０３０ ポンプラン パーツ ＜トップ＆ボトム＞ ー ＰＥＲＰーＣＰ／Ｈ ￥２００＋消費税 ポンプラン メールオーダー式 ※トップ＆ボトム付き 赤 ＰＥＲーＡ／ＭＯ ￥８５０＋消費税

“We feel that it’s against the American spirit of freedom in education,” said Amir Azadi, a member of UMass’s Iranian Graduate Students Association, which he said has about 60 members. The college’s new policy, which appears to be rare if not unique among US universities, appeared to catch the US State Department by surprise and also drew criticism from some Iranian students in UMass Amherst graduate programs. The University of Massachusetts Amherst told students this week that it will no longer accept Iranian nationals into graduate programs in chemical, computer, and mechanical engineering or the natural sciences, to avoid violating US sanctions against Iran. In explaining its stance, the university cited a US Department of Homeland Security policy, based on a 2012 federal law, that declares Iranian citizens ineligible for US visas if they seek higher education in preparation for careers in Iran’s energy sector or any field related to nuclear power. The decision was announced as the United States and other nations pursued restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. Iran says its program is for civilian purposes, but some Western countries fear it is seeking to build a nuclear arsenal. A US State Department official said that the department was aware of news reports about the UMass decision but that there had been no changes in federal policy regarding Iranian students and he could not say why UMass would change its policy. The department will contact UMass to discuss the decision and will answer any questions from other academic institutions about the law, the official said. “All visa applications are reviewed individually in accordance with the requirements of the US Immigration and Nationality Act and other relevant laws that establish detailed standards for determining eligibility for visas and admission to the United States,” the official, who declined to be quoted by name, said in an e-mail. “US law does not prohibit qualified Iranian nationals coming to the United States for education in science and engineering,” the official continued. “Each application is reviewed on a case-by-case basis.” The UMass policy was formalized and published online after an inquiry by an Iranian student. The university’s goal was to clarify the rules and protect students, faculty, and fund sources from disruptions to research caused when current students are delayed or prevented from reentering the country because of visa issues, said Mike Malone, UMass’s vice chancellor for research and engagement. He said such a situation arose with an Iranian student in the past two months. “We don’t like it,” Malone said. “We’d rather have free access, but we consulted with the law and with outside counsel on this.” The written UMass policy, which includes an acknowledgment that “the exclusion of a class of students from admission directly conflicts with our institutional values and principles,” was developed “reluctantly” and after consultation with faculty and graduate students, Malone said. He could not say whether Iranian students were among those involved. Azadi said the policy was announced to students by e-mail Thursday. He said it is discriminatory and goes beyond federal law in excluding students from learning opportunities. “We totally understand the concern of UMass that Iranians should not pursue any research in nuclear energy, in those fields mentioned in the law,” said Azadi, a doctoral student in theoretical physics who studies the formation of crystalline structures, such as snowflakes. “We just want UMass not to generalize to all the Iranians,” he said. Malone said that after discussing the issue with outside legal counsel and with faculty at other institutions, administrators believe UMass is in the mainstream of American institutions in having such a policy, though it is rare to publish it. Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, said it is “not aware of any other universities that have announced it” but that others probably have quietly developed similar policies. “There are undoubtedly other universities that have misinterpreted the law,” he said. Parsi said that after the passage of the federal Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012, “several companies had misinterpreted the law this way,” but he had hoped that phase had passed. Before Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, Parsi said, Iranians made up perhaps the largest group of foreign students in the United States. While those numbers have dropped significantly, many top students still come from Iran and go on to take leadership roles in major US companies and important positions in Iran, he said. “It has actually created a tremendous amount of soft power for the US in Iran; in fact several top Iranian ministers are US-educated,” he said. This is why, despite poor relations between the nations’ governments, the Iranian people remain among the most pro-US in the Middle East, he said. “It’s much more difficult to vilify the United States when you actually know the United States,” Parsi said. UMass’s guidelines also affect currently enrolled Iranian students, who will be required “to acknowledge the restrictions imposed by the 2012 sanctions and certify their compliance in writing,” according to the statement. Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at [email protected]. Steve Annear can be reached at [email protected].

Valitsus teatas tänasel erakorralisel pressikonverentsil, et Stenbocki maja nimi muudetakse Bocki majaks. (foto: MM) jagamist Riigieelarve strateegia aruteludel andis valitsus ministeeriumitele ülesande kärpida kulusid. Peaminister näitab ka ise eeskuju ja kärbib Stenbocki maja nime poole lühemaks. Lisaks läheb see nüüd paremini kokku valitsuse alkoholipoliitikaga. Stenbocki maja ümbernimetamine läheb valitsusele maksma küll 800 000 eurot, kuid pikemas plaanis loodetakse mingisugust kokkuhoidu. Kulutused tehakse selleks, et kokku hoida „Kui otsustasime, et meil tuleb säästlikumalt elama hakata, siis saime ka aru, et peame ministeeriumitele eeskuju näitama,“ märkis peaminister Jüri Ratas. „Me ei saa niisama nõuda kõigilt, et kuulge, kärpige. Niisiis istusime oma partneritega maha ja otsustasime, et alustame kärpeid meie staabist – Stenbocki majast,“ selgitas Ratas. „Jah, kohe tuleb teha selleks 800 000 eurone kulutus, sest majal tuleb mitmes kohas ära võtta Sten Bocki eest, lisaks tohutu hulk blankette ja templeid ümber teha. Aga näiteks peame tellima mulle ka uued pidzhaamad, kuhu tuleb maja uus nimi ja uus logo ju tikkida,“ sõnas peaminister. Tänane pressikonverents oli valitsusel eriti lõbus – viimast korda joodi Lätist toodud õlut. Varsti see muutub. Pikemas plaanis paistab asi hea „Oleme arvestanud, et tulevikus Stenbocki…vabandust…Bocki maja kulud hoopis vähenevad, sest näiteks logode ja maja nime trükkimisel kulutatakse ju vähem printerivärve ja tahma. Tehtud kuludega oleme tasa umbes 400 aasta pärast aga sellest pole midagi – niikaua peaks ka praegune võimas koalitsioon püsima, nii et kõik on okei,“ märkis peaminister Ratas. „Ja muidugi ei tasu ära unustada, et see valitsus on teinud juba ühe ja peamise otsuse rahva jaoks – me oleme lasknud alla alkoholi hinna. Midagi muud me saavutanud pole aga sellest pole hullu – meil on aega mitusada aastat vähemalt, et võib-olla mõni otsus veel vastu võtta,“ sõnas Ratas. „Kui Eesti rahvas on alates 25.juulist pidevalt maani täis, siis ei ole sobilik ka valitsusel oma peene suurustleva staabinimega laiata – muutes maja nime Bocki majaks, oleme ka meie rahvale lähemal ja tuttavama nimega,“ lisas peaminister. Stenbocki maja nimevahetusega on juba alustatud ja lõplikult saab see tehtud lähima paari kuu jooksul. Kõige kauem läheb Ratase pidzhaama vahetusega, sest see tuleb eritellimusega Indoneesia väikesest külakesest, kus oodatakse hetkel, et vastsündinud nõela ja niidi kasutamise ära õpiksid. Hea lugeja! Mida arvad Sina valitsuse maja ümbernimetamisest? Kas see tohutu summa on seda ikka väärt? Või ongi õige, et valitsus lõpuks ometi tuleb ka oma rahvale lähemale? Anna oma arvamusest märku loo all kommentaarides! Hakka Lugejakirja jälgijaks Facebookis(kliki siia!) ja sa ei maga enam kunagi ühtegi head lugu maha!

Barack Obama may be the former leader of the free world, but that doesn’t mean that he’s above the challenges that every parent experiences and that includes the struggles that come with sending a child off to college. As the inaugural guest on David Letterman’s new, six-episode Netflix series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, the Dad-in-chief divulged that, like most people, he sometimes has issues when it comes to assemble-yourself furniture. According to Obama, when he and the rest of the family moved in his daughter Malia into her new college digs (she’s currently a freshman at Harvard,) he was feeling pretty emotional about firstborn moving out, so Malia suggested that he help her put together a lamp that she had gotten for her desk. While the lamp initially appeared to be easy to put together, Obama ran into some challenges assembling it. “I was basically useless. Everyone had seen me crying and misting up for basically the previous three weeks, so Malia, who’s very thoughtful, she goes, ‘Dad, you know, I’ve got this lamp in this box, could you put the desk lamp together?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ It should have taken five minutes or three minutes and it had one of those little tools. It only had like four parts and I’m just sitting there, toiling at this thing for half an hour and meanwhile, Michelle has finished scrubbing and she’s organizing closets and I was just pretty pathetic.” While Obama noted that dropping off Malia at college was like having “open-heart surgery,” he also divulged that it’s been easier because of technology since the two text on an almost daily basis, with Malia checking in on him and sending him lots of heart emojis. Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Now Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder. Write to Cady Lang at [email protected].

Japanese researchers will launch a project this year to resurrect the long-extinct mammoth by using cloning technology to bring the ancient pachyderm back to life in about five years time, a report Monday said. The researchers will try to revive the species by obtaining tissue this summer from the carcass of a mammoth preserved in a Russian research laboratory, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. "Preparations to realize this goal have been made," Akira Iritani, leader of the team and a professor emeritus of Kyoto University, told the mass-circulation daily. Under the plan, the nuclei of mammoth cells will be inserted into an elephant's egg cells from which the nuclei have been removed to create an embryo containing mammoth genes, it said. The embryo will then be inserted into an elephant's womb in the hope that the animal will eventually give birth to a baby mammoth. Researches hope to achieve their aim within five to six years, the Yomiuri said. The team, which has invited a Russian mammoth researcher and two US elephant experts into the project, has already established a technique to extract DNA from frozen cells. The researchers had once given up similar plans after nuclei in the cells of mammoth skin and muscle tissue were damaged by ice crystals and proved unusable. However, another Japanese researcher, Teruhiko Wakayama of the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology, succeeded in cloning a mouse from the cells of another that had been kept in deep-freeze for 16 years. Based on Wakayama's techniques, Iritani's team devised a method to extract the nuclei of mammoth eggs without damaging them. "If a cloned embryo can be created, we need to discuss, before transplanting it into the womb, how to breed [the mammoth] and whether to display it to the public," Iritani said. "After the mammoth is born, we will examine its ecology and genes to study why the species became extinct and other factors." More than 80 percent of all mammoth finds have been dug up in the permafrost of the vast Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia. The most perfectly preserved remains of the Ice Age mammals still have hair and internal organs.

And now Alsip has been given the Christmas present of a lifetime. Police found the old Mustang at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Salinas last September. Apparently a man attempted to have it registered after owning it for 23 years. Sounding not at all suspicious, authorities began to investigate whether the car had been stolen. "It had been out of the system for so long that it came back with no file," according to the California Highway Patrol. "The officer did some digging and found out the car was stolen in 1986." And so 28 years after its disappearance, the Mustang was returned to its rightful owner, who plans to have it fixed up and start driving it again.

SAN ANTONIO — One day after a bystander’s cellphone video was released that appeared to show sheriff’s deputies fatally shooting a Hispanic man who had his hands raised in surrender, officials here voted Tuesday to finance additional body cameras for deputies in the field, as federal authorities said they had opened an investigation into whether the man’s civil rights had been violated. The action by commissioners of Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, will eventually put cameras on all uniformed officers on the street, part of a program that has been underway for more than a year. The two deputies involved in the shooting on Friday were not wearing body cameras. Only about eight deputies have them, all motorcycle officers, officials said. The commissioners approved nearly $1 million for hundreds of body and dashboard cameras for the department. Before the vote, it was clear that the shooting and the video were on the minds of the County Commissioners Court. One commissioner, Tommy Calvert, questioned a sheriff’s official about the department’s use-of-force policy and training. Nelson W. Wolff, the county’s top elected official, asked sheriff’s officials to prepare a presentation comparing their policies with those of other law enforcement agencies.

Getting to college can be tough. Especially for athletes. However, many athletes out there don’t understand that they can use the power of the internet in order to get their name out there. So, we’ve provided a step by step guide on how to get recruited by college coaches so that you can get your name out there and be seen. According to the NCAA, its extremely hard to play collegiate athletics. And as sports become more and more popular, the opportunity to compete as an NCAA athlete shrinks each year. Depending on your sport, the percentages of kids who earn some form of college scholarship can fluctuate, but the average is around 2% of high school students. Plus, more and more parents and athletes are trying to find out how to get recruited so that the NCAA is in the future for them. So if only 2% make it, and you want to make it yourself, you need to do everything in your power to make sure you become recognized. That’s how to get recruited by college coaches. You can’t sit back and assume that college coaches are going to contact you. College coaches are extremely busy. Especially the coaches that don’t have the ability to hire elaborate staffs and have to do the recruiting between them and their assistant coach. Related: 8 Traits That Your Kid Needs To Become An Elite Athlete If you want to figure out how to get recruited by these schools, you first need to assume that none of these coaches have ever heard of you, let alone watched you play. And, its your job to introduce yourself to them and keep them up to speed on everything about you in a professional, mature manner. If you’re nervous about contacting college coaches, you should be. You only have one chance to make a first impression. If you come off as a showboat, arrogant, or even desperate, you will have a hard time trying to recover in the eyes of a potential coach that you are interested in playing for.

A flood of renewable capacity in the European Union is forcing member countries to consider grid upgrades that offer a more substantial power supply management role to distribution system operators. With the final numbers now in, European grid operators and regulators report that almost 90% of all new power coming online in the European Union (EU) last year came from renewable sources. This trend is anything but over: Of the 24.5 GW of new capacity built across the EU in 2016, 21.1 GW—or 86%—was from wind, solar, biomass, and hydro, eclipsing the previous record of 79% in 2014. Also, for the first time, wind farms now account for more than half of installed capacity in the region, according to data from trade group WindEurope. Wind energy has now also overtaken coal as the EU’s second largest source of power capacity after natural gas—though due to the technology’s intermittent nature, coal still meets more of the bloc’s actual electricity demand. Gas, because of its expense, remains primarily as a back up to maintain grid integrity. 1. A gust for the grid. The influx of renewable power in Europe may require an expansion of its grid and upgrades to its distribution networks, along with measures such as smart grid technologies and demand response. Courtesy: Tennet Not surprisingly, Germany installed the most new wind capacity in 2016. However, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Ireland, and Lithuania all set new records for wind farm installations too. Although total capacity added was 3% lower than in 2015, a surge in offshore wind farms—which are twice as expensive as those built on land—saw investment from nearly every European country (including in Britain, which has opted to leave the EU), hitting a record €27.5 billion. Integrating Renewables With renewables booming, one of the biggest challenges for European distribution systems operators (DSOs) is integrating all these new intermittent sources that are coming online, which often flood into existing grid systems. According to the European Commission (EC), to keep up the pace with the estimated renewable expansion, €400 billion worth of new distribution network investments will be needed across Europe by 2020. Going forward, if electric vehicles catch on in Europe (so far they have not), even more complexity could be added to the situation. Also challenging the status quo: As the price of solar continues to fall and small-scale installs remain popular, increasing amounts of “prosumers” have also come into the market. These developments are birthing new, innovative, tech-heavy smart meters and smart grids, which are now being built across Europe. Throughout the region, the distribution grid will have to rapidly adapt as the wind gush is upending how energy needs to flow. Overall, integration of decentralized sources along with robust demand-side management/response may allow DSOs to become central platforms for the energy transition by coordinating between energy producers and consumers—attempting to play something of a neutral referee. DSOs have to straddle the boundaries between existing and emerging fields, particularly flexibility, energy storage, data handling, and analysis, providing real-time information as well as helping to analyze where markets are heading—all, perhaps, while subtly helping involved parties move in concert. A Flurry of Mergers and Acquisitions Over the next three years, many of Europe’s top utilities are planning to invest tens of billions of euros to catch up with the green energy revolution. One simple growth path is through acquisitions. This is driving a flurry of takeovers by tech and engineering firms of niche, smart-energy innovators, according to reports by Reuters and other news organizations. “Everywhere in the supply chain of power there is disruption going on,” said Bruce Jenkyn-Jones, co-head of listed equities at Impax Asset Management, which focuses on investments in environmental markets and resource efficiency. The massive volume of renewables coming online has translated into a need for intelligent information technology (IT) systems that can balance out demand and supply swings while meeting energy and carbon emissions targets. Industrial and technology providers like Siemens, ABB, General Electric (GE), and others have become key players in this transformation, often working in close partnership with grid developers and operators to manage the grid’s evolution. Merger and acquisition activity is also moving forward in storage and smart meter providers, both of which are key sectors in securing access to customers and, more importantly, their data, to help the utilities tailor their power purchases and save costs. According to Reuters, three major German meter makers—Techem, Ista, and Qundis—are up for sale, and in France, energy conglomerate Total recently purchased battery maker Saft Groupe for €950 million. Across the pond, Oracle took over Opower, a maker of utility software, in a bid to reap key markets, especially emerging European ones. Other niche players being showcased include U.S. smart meter maker Itron, which relies on Europe for more than a third of its sales. Utilities Prioritize Network Upgrades Together, major European utilities may spend more than €40 billion over the next three years to upgrade their networks, according to ongoing investment plans. This includes replacing old cables, buying new smart meters, and putting new IT in place. These investments follow almost a decade of steep losses for major power producers like E.ON and RWE, which hemorrhaged many billions of euros in value as their fossil fuel systems were marginalized by increasingly less-expensive renewables. Also in France, national utility EDF is moving quickly to install smart meters as that nation looks to increase renewable systems. The country’s future, however, is clouded by upcoming elections that could change its energy direction back towards nuclear. But if a left-leaning coalition government comes into office, then renewables will likely continue to grow there as well. Goldman Sachs estimates power producers might invest more than €60 billion by 2025 to digitalize their grids. In Europe, big conglomerates, including ABB and Siemens, are so far seen as the leading integrated providers of smart grid technology and hardware, simply because they already cover a wide range of sectors, including IT. “Sometimes it is hard to draw the line between IT and industrials. A company like Siemens is a bit of both,” Frederic Fayolle, senior fund manager at Deutsche Asset Management, said. GE in November bought Bit Stew Systems and Wise.io to expand its platform for industrial internet applications, which connect big machines such as power plants to databases and analytical software. Utilities, however, will likely stay on the sidelines rather than become developers themselves. “I doubt that a utility can compete with Siemens, GE, nor with Google and Apple,” said Oskar Tijs, senior investment analyst at NN Investment Partners. “On the grid side, the utilities will be mostly clients of technology companies.” New Technology, New Partnerships: E.ON and Siemens Meanwhile, a partnership between E.ON and Siemens is breaking new ground as it develops smart metering technology in Germany. The collaboration forms part of E.ON and Siemens’ efforts to contribute towards Germany’s plan to replace, process, and systemically convert a large numbers of meters. Additionally, Siemens is providing its smart grid platform EnergyIP for integration with E.ON’s existing EniM program. According to Siemens, the integration will allow E.ON network operators ease and optimal integration of smart metering infrastructure into IT systems to allow meter data acquisition for improved grid management and customer billing. “By integrating EnergyIP into our systems, we will be able to offer our customers the best possible advice and support with regard to the smart meter rollout,” said Paul-Vincent Abs, metering managing director at E.ON. Looking ahead, “with implementation of our EnergyIP smart grid application platform, E.ON Metering is prepared for future rollout scenarios as a metering point operator and, when it comes, to smart meter gateway administration,” said Ute Redecker, head of the Siemens Digital Grid business unit in Germany. The integration will allow the analytics application to utilize various big data options for administering smart meter gateways and meter data processing for external market participants on the German market. Siemens hopes the development will yield a rich treasure of finely granulated data for functionalities including energy theft and overloaded distribution equipment detections through grid load analysis, grid incident analysis, and end-customer consumption load analysis. In other words, Siemens will have a clear insight not only into E.ON’s grid, but a much better platform on which to build going forward, as other grid operators tackle the demands of a renewable energy backbone. The inclusion of the big data option will also allow for the creation of load forecasts for different levels in the distribution grid as well as an analysis of distributed energy resources. EU Steps Up Funding for New Energy Infrastructure In February, the EC announced that it would fund almost half a billion euros in selected power, smart grid, and gas energy infrastructure projects through the Connecting Europe Facility, the EU’s funding scheme for infrastructure. An ongoing project—valued at a total €5.35 billion—has been allocated to trans-European energy infrastructure between 2014 and 2020. This year, more than a third of the selected projects are in the energy sector, winning support of €176 million. Another EC–funded project is a €40.25 million investment in Tennet’s “SuedLink” smart grid system. The project is planned to connect wind power generated in breezy northern Germany with consumer and industrial centers in the nation’s economically booming south. To do this and get buy-in from conservatives in Bavaria annoyed by the “unsightliness” of so many new wind towers, the project will require over 700 kilometers of new, buried underground, high-voltage cables—the first system of its kind on such a large scale. Despite everything else Germany has done, this represents the nation’s largest energy infrastructure project to date. One of the challenges the nation faces is that Germany has an ambitious objective: to get 80% of its power supply from renewables by mid-century. To do that, not only do existing power grids have to be upgraded, but also political compromises have to be made. SuedLink satisfies what has been something of an imbroglio that has gridlocked future renewable development in the nation. The north has offshore wind, but the south has the load that needs it. Sitting in between have been a lot of folks already shocked by the transformation of Germany’s landscape to accommodate the Energiewende. New transmission lines across conservative Bavaria have long been politically unpopular and local opposition has been a serious bottleneck. German energy companies are pouring resources into digitalization across the entire value chain of the industry, writes Bernward Janzing in the Handelsblatt, a German language business newspaper. Both old, established companies and new, creative start-ups are jumping on board, he writes. “Digitalisation is one of the biggest topics in the energy industry,” Janzing quoted Stefan Kapferer, head of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries, as saying. Interflex: Demonstrating a Grid Revolution Another new initiative announced this year, again with key participation by E.ON, is the new European smart grid project, InterFlex, which aims to explore new ways of using various forms of flexibilities to optimize electric power systems on a local scale. Coordinated by the University of Aachen, the project focuses on the interoperability of systems, the replicability of solutions, and on the possible resulting business models. Twenty industrial partners, including utilities, manufacturers, and research centers, are involved in the project, which has a budget of €23 million and seeks to apply smart grid technologies at an industrial scale to achieve a high penetration of renewables. Part of the biggest current EU Research and Innovation program, Horizon 2020, InterFlex is scheduled to run three years. During that time, project participants will investigate the interactions between flexibilities provided by energy market players and the distribution grid, with a particular focus on energy storage, smart charging of electric vehicles, demand response, islanding, grid automation, and the integration of different types of energy carriers (gas, heat, electricity). Project findings will allow consortium members to replicate the demonstrated solutions and business models. Their overarching goal is to further develop advanced monitoring, local energy control, and flexibility services at the EU level. Six projects (Figure 2) are slated for demonstration by five European distribution companies—CEZ Distribuce (Czech Republic), Enedis (France), E.ON (Sweden), Enexis (The Netherlands), and Avacon (Germany). The demonstration project in Germany will be implemented by Avacon, a German grid operator belonging to the E.ON group. Avacon will manage a centralized platform of flexibilities and distributed energy resources in a rural area to use energy only where it is generated in order to relieve congestion on the distribution grid. 2. A continental experiment. InterFlex, a three-year-long European smart grid demonstration, kicked off in January 2017, seeking to investigate interactions between flexibilities provided by energy market players and the distribution grid. It will involve six demonstrations hosted by five European distribution companies as shown here. Courtesy: Trialog E.ON subsidiary Sverige, will undertake two projects. One is in Malmö, Sweden, designed to study energy integration, using the heat inertia of buildings as a flexibility measurement to achieve more optimized and environmentally friendly production throughout a distributed energy system. The other is in southern Sweden. It will explore ways of operating part of a distribution grid on a stand-alone basis (“islanding”). NiceGrid—a demonstration project located in Nice, France—will be spearheaded by Enedis. It is pioneering peer-to-peer energy exchanges between solar photovoltaic installations and storage suppliers, allowing the integration of intermittent renewable energy into the distribution grid to be maximized. CEZ Distribuce will lead another project to use grid automation and energy storage to integrate decentralized renewable energy within the distribution grid. Smart functions for electric vehicle charging stations will also be developed as a source of flexibility. Finally, the Enexis demonstrator project, in Eindhoven, Netherlands, proposes a multiservice approach to harnessing local flexibilities. It will use stationary storage and electric vehicle batteries, and involve distribution system operators, charge point operators for electric vehicles, and other relevant parties. ■ —Lee Buchsbaum (www.lmbphotography.com), a former editor and contributor to Coal Age, Mining, and EnergyBiz, has covered coal and other industrial subjects for nearly 20 years and is a seasoned industrial photographer.

Ontario just dropped a staggering $11 billion to start building the first-ever high-speed commuter train line. The trains will travel at 250 km/hour to get travellers from London to Union Station in a little over an hour. Considering how far people are willing commute these days, this trains seems like a godsend. Premier Kathleen Wynne says a high speed rail line is on track to carry passengers between London and Toronto by 2025 with the help of an $11 billion investment from the province. https://t.co/zkXnH279ou — 980 CFPL London News (@AM980News) April 6, 2018 The plans, announced by Premier Kathleen Wynne, are apparently well underway. Station stops have already been decided. They include London, Kitchener, Guelph, Union Station and Pearson Airport. The second phase of the project would include stops in Windsor and Chatham. Via Dreamstime/Yinan Zhang As far as commute times and travel opportunities in Ontario, this train line could be a game changer -- but not everyone's on board. There's definitely concern that, because of how expensive the train line will be to build and operate, it may not be a realistic option for everyday commuting. Can the government keep the ticket prices low enough so people can get to work without going broke? Big news for @RegionWaterloo. #OntarioBudget 2018 promises $11 billion towards phase one of high-speed rail between Toronto to @CityKitchener and on to London! Major vote of confidence in importance of #TOWRCorridor for Ontario's future! pic.twitter.com/PtLWufvIRA — Berry Vrbanovic (@berryonline) March 28, 2018 In one article, a transportation policy expert says that there are only two similar high-speed rail lines in the world that actually make any money now that they're up and running. One is in Tokyo and the other is in Paris. In Ontario, especially with station stops in tiny cities like Windsor and Chatham, the loss of money could be devastating. But, the government has already committed to the $11 billion investment. Service for the train line could begin as early as 2025. While there are lots of promises that this project will change commuting in Ontario for the better, there are also tons of unanswered questions. Source: Macleans, Global, Government of Ontario

By Sajjad Din, M.Sc., P.Geo. Generally speaking, remediation or reclamation is a process in which consultants, contractors, construction managers, engineers and scientists conduct a series of steps to return contaminated land back to its original pre-human activity state, in terms of concentrations of various compounds in the soil and groundwater. A risk assessment scientifically assesses the potential risk that exists for humans, plants, wildlife and the natural environment from exposure to a contaminant. The purpose of a risk assessment is to develop site specific standards that will allow uses, such as residential, that are being proposed to take place on the property. Standards and Regulations In Ontario, remediation may only require clean up to certain standards as outlined in the Soil, Ground Water and Sediment Standards for Use under Part XV.1 of the Environmental Protection Act. In many circumstances, achieving cleanup to these standards may be physically or chemically difficult due to various factors such as existing infrastructure, current land use, depth of impacts, soil types or shallow bedrock. For example, impacted groundwater may not be treatable due to it being at depths greater than 20 metres within the bedrock. Cleanup cost for said groundwater may be astronomical and hence beyond the financial reach of the owner or interested parties. Subscribe to our Newsletter! The latest environmental engineering news direct to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time. First Name * Email * This iframe contains the logic required to handle Ajax powered Gravity Forms. Prior to completing a remediation program, remedial options feasibility assessment should be carried out, in order to assess what method or methods of cleanup would be most suitable and effective. This may also be called a comparative analysis, in order to prepare a Remediation Action Plan. As part of this process, the options of natural attenuation and/or a risk assessment should be considered. Natural attenuation considers the allowance for the natural breakdown and reduction in contaminants over time. This is verifiable by monitoring, i.e., testing of samples collected in the field. Risk assessments consider existing natural barriers or placing artificial administrative or engineered barriers between human occupants of a property and the contaminants present. Municipalities want to curb urban sprawl and brownfields redevelopment is one way to do this. The site assessment process is a significant part of urban brownfield development. However, once Phase I and II site assessments are complete and the aerial and vertical extent of impacts have been defined, depth to bedrock determined, soil characteristics verified, hydraulic conductivity and groundwater flow direction ascertained, it still is not always clear as to what remedial approach would be best suited to a site. This is because there may still be uncertainties regarding subsurface biochemical oxygen demand and other soil and groundwater characteristics. A major factor in determining remedial methods is the type of pollutant and its potential mobility and reactivity. Most contaminants can be broken down into volatile organic compounds, petroleum hydrocarbons, metals and inorganics, pesticides/herbicides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The type of contaminants found should be considered when deciding on whether to simply risk assess. This is because the mobility and the fate and transport of them will determine the level of risk to the local human and ecological populations. Remediation Cost With remediation one can aspire to end up with a property that meets applicable standards. Ideally, all impacted material is removed or treated. This allows the site owner or developer to carry out any type of land use they wish. Also, lending institutions are more willing to front the funds to purchase such a property. However, remediation work may cost millions, depending on the level and extent of contaminants of concern on site, soil types, existing buildings, infrastructure and groundwater conditions. The remedial approach may involve both ex situ and in situ treatment methods. Additionally, there would likely be disruption to site activities. Though certain costs are inherently a part of any risk assessment process, this route may be far more cost-effective and time efficient. With remediation projects, specifically in situ, there is an inherent uncertainty of the amount of time that would be required for completion. The process would require study of which site specific standards should be developed to allow contaminants to remain on site in higher concentrations then would otherwise be permitted under the generic Ministry standards. For risk assessment, a team of professionals with diverse skills in science and engineering would develop specific standards based on the current and proposed site use. This would involve an assessment of site conditions such as geology, concentrations of contaminants, human occupancy, building structures (existing and proposed) and infrastructure. Based on these parameters, acceptable levels of contaminants left in place are determined. Additionally, certain engineering controls such as sub-slab ventilation, concrete barriers, solidification/stabilization, Waterloo Barriers and underground slurry walls are introduced into the assessment calculations. In the long run, a wiser use of both remedial and risk assessment options will be required for greater urban redevelopment and revitalization. Too many contaminated properties lie unused that could be redeveloped if a risk assessment is conducted and the risk posed by on site contamination is deemed to be acceptable. Sajjad Din, M.Sc., P.Geo., is a part time professor at Seneca and Centennial Colleges and also a consultant with Toronto Inspection Ltd. (References are available upon request)

Togolese footballer Francis Kone won an award after his quick-thinking on the pitch saved an opponent's life. High on a shelf in an unassuming living room on the outskirts of the Czech city Brno sits a trophy with the words 'THE BEST - FIFA' on it. It's a modest place for such a prestigious award yet its equally-humble owner hopes its symbolism can change one of football's - and society's - greatest scourges. Francis Kone was awarded the Fifa prize last month after the Togo international, then playing for Slovacko FC, saved the life of Bohemians' Martin Berkovec while playing a Czech league game in February. He did so by reacting quickest after the Bohemians goalkeeper was knocked out by one of his own players - putting his fingers inside Berkovec's mouth to stop him from swallowing his tongue. If you are viewing this page on the BBC News app please click here to vote. Although it may not strictly meet medical guidelines, the act has become something of a speciality for Kone who has saved four players this way. Yet the presence of TV cameras this time around meant he has since shot to global fame. Nonetheless, he still didn't expect to receive the annual Fifa Fair Play Award, his name glittering brightly alongside the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gianluigi Buffon and Zinedine Zidane during October's ceremony in London. "I was very surprised. It was like a dream," said the Ivorian-born Kone, who has won two caps for Togo because of his mother's nationality. Over the shock, the 26-year-old now believes the award can help combat the scourge of racism - the striker suffered racial abuse from some Bohemian fans during the opening 30 minutes of February's match in Prague. "It is a message. Fair play means something like this too - to stop racism, this is fair play," he said. "I know what they said because they called my club to apologise. They said thanks because I saved one of their players. They apologised because they were saying bad things, like monkey and many other things. "It's not normal to treat a person as like a monkey - it's incorrect. Football is fair play and I showed them that. Football is not what they are doing with racism. They have to stop it - for me, that's the message." Kone (left) was labelled a hero after his actions in Prague's Dolicek Stadium on 25 February Kone's heroic actions did not just change the attitudes of some Bohemians fans, he says, but nearly all the people he meets in a country where he has become a local celebrity. "Now there is more respect because the way they looked at me and treated me before is not the same as the way as they look at me and treat me now. Now there is more friendliness, a better relationship. For them, I am famous." One of Kone's proudest moments came when he travelled with FC Zbrojovka Brno, who he joined in July, to the Czech capital last month to play at the home of reigning champions Slavia Prague. "I was warming up and I could hear the fans say 'it's that guy who saved Martin' and after that, they started clapping and chanting 'Francis' - not my fans, but the fans of Slavia," he says with a sense of wonder. "The feeling made me like 'Oh My God' and I was not concentrating on warming up - I was away - because it was amazing, very amazing." Martin Berkovec was quick to praise Kone after the incident and the pair have stayed in touch From racial abuse to widespread applause, it's quite a leap, quite a journey. After starting out at FC Bibo in Ivory Coast (the same academy where his late friend Cheick Tiote came through), Kone played in Thailand, Oman, Portugal and Hungary before moving to Czech Republic. He says he was racially abused in only his third game in European football, when his Portuguese side Olhanense played at the home of two-time European champions Porto in December 2013. A combination of the abuse and shock - "it was very scary" - meant he almost walked away from football there and then, but he stayed on and now believes he can play a vital role. "I am a Christian, I pray a lot, I fast a lot so I think God is trying to give me a message. Maybe I am a little angel sent by him. There are some people now who see me as an angel - I have a lot of messages like this. I say 'I am just Kone Francis and it is God who is doing this, not me.'" Like many, Kone is flummoxed that he has saved the lives of four people in a similar way, describing it as "not normal - but something extra-normal." After hearing how two people in his neighbourhood died in such fashion, he was inspired to learn from an older friend who stopped another death by preventing the individual from swallowing their tongue. Francis Kone has dedicated his Fifa Fair Play award to his mother, Akoudji Yawavi Victorine Kone says he has since saved players' lives in Thailand (2011) and twice in Abidjan (2013 and 2015), despite the physical pain that can come his way. He has scars on his fingers and surprisingly high up his hand, explaining that people who are slipping away find a lot of power "because they are fighting for their lives" - the problem being that any potential saver tends to have to slip his fingers between teeth that often want to clench tightly shut. "Martin bit me but the second guy bit me so much - it was horrible," he says. "All his mouth was blood - blood from his mouth, blood from my fingers." Francis Kone (right) and his agent pose with the Togo international's Fifa Fair Play Award Nonetheless, he still wasted no time in helping Martin and the pair have stayed in touch, meeting twice despite their conversation being limited by language. "Unfortunately my English is not that good, or it's as good as his Czech, but we talk somehow so we go for a coffee," Berkovec, who now plays for MFK Karvina, told BBC Sport. "I remember only what happened before the collision and then I blacked out. The following day I saw what had happened, through the media, and it was horrible. I thank him for saving my life. "He also got the (Fifa) prize for it so I congratulate him, even though it would be much better if that hadn't happened at all." Despite the knock-on effects of his actions in south-eastern Prague in February and his belief in the message the Fifa awards sends to racists, Kone shares the sentiment. "I don't want this to happen again - really - because it's so dangerous and so horrible," explains one of football's quiet heroes. "But if it happens, I have to do what I can do."

Likely to step in as acting secretary is Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt, a former oil and gas lobbyist who has played a key role in many regulatory rollbacks during Zinke’s time as agency chief. In a statement posted to Twitter, Zinke said he is “extremely proud of all the good work” he and Trump accomplished but “cannot justify spending thousands of dollars defending myself and my family against false allegations.” “It is better for the President and Interior to focus on accomplishments rather than fictitious allegations,” he added.

Even with all of the other things that have been going on with the Minnesota Vikings recently, I can't believe we missed something as major as this. I'd like to thank Michael Rand for bringing it to our attention. Yesterday, 5 November, marked the 25th anniversary of the Minnesota Vikings' 23-21 victory over the (then) Los Angeles Rams at the Metrodome. The score doesn't sound like a terribly out of the ordinary NFL score, until you take a look at the boxscore and see how the Vikings scored their points. The Vikings got 21 points courtesy of 7. . .yes, seven. . .Rich Karlis field goals, with the majority coming from relatively short distances. To be exact, Karlis' field goals were from 20, 24, 22, 25, 29, 36, and 40 yards, as the Vikings' offense fell apart inside the red zone on numerous occasions. The game went into overtime, and the Vikings won when Mike Merriweather blocked a Rams' punt that went out of the end zone for a safety. Because of the Vikings' offense sputtering in the red zone on so many occasions, the wrath of the fans came down largely on offensive coordinator Bob Schnelker, including Schnelker getting a sizeable quantity of beer dumped on his head as the team retreated to the locker room after the game. And from that came the real reason that this is an important day in Minnesota Vikings' history. . .because the combination of those things gave us the greatest post-game rant in the history of the league. Better than Jim Mora's "PLAYOFFS!?" rant. . .better than Denny Green imploring us to "crown their asses". . .Minnesota Vikings' head coach Jerry Burns set the bar by which all other post-game tirades shall be measured. And his team won the game. I mean, any excuse we have to post Burnsie's rant is a good one, but it's actually a special occasion for it this time. This is the "uncensored" version, so there's a whole lot of bad language involved and you might want to avoid watching it at work. Other than that, sit back. . .once again. . .and enjoy. And we're sorry that we got this out there a little bit late. I don't know who to blame for it, but is sure isn't f***ing Schnelker.

The Senate has voted 64-12 with one abstention to send the federal government's assisted-dying bill back to the House of Commons for a vote. MPs passed a motion Thursday morning to allow the amended bill to be debated in the House right away, without the usual waiting period that would have delayed debate until Monday. While in the Red Chamber, senators made seven amendments to the legislation. The Senate rarely alters a government bill to this extent, as the honourable senators often defer to the Commons to craft legislation. But many senators have voiced serious concerns about Bill C-14's constitutionality, particularly the government's move to restrict physician-assisted dying to people whose natural death is "reasonably foreseeable." If the Liberal government rejects the Senate's move to expand eligibility for assisted dying beyond those who are terminally ill, it could result in a showdown between the two chambers. The Conservative leader in the Senate, Claude Carignan, has already said there is a risk of the bill being "completely rejected" if it comes back in its original form. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, for her part, has said one of the Senate's key amendments goes too far. "It will broaden the regime of medical assistance in dying in this country and we have sought to ensure that we, at every step, find the right balance that is required for such a turn in direction," she said of Liberal Senator Serge Joyal's amendment. Senate communications have been active on social media since the senators got their hands on the controversial bill. They've tweeted out the following quote cards, detailing the seven amendments that passed the Red Chamber. 'Reasonably foreseeable' (Senate of Canada) Joyal's amendment is arguably the most significant. It proposes to drop the "reasonably foreseeable" condition and replace it with eligibility criteria that are closer to that drafted by the Supreme Court of Canada in its Carter decision. All Canadians with "a grievous and irremediable medical condition" causing "enduring suffering" would be able to access an assisted death — a much broader definition than initially intended. Palliative care (Senate of Canada) Conservative Senator Nicole Eaton's amendment would require all patients considering physician-assisted dying to get a full briefing on available palliative care options. Materially benefit from death (Senate of Canada) Another important change to the legislation is Conservative Senator Don Plett's amendment that would restrict who can help a person in their assisted death, tightening the rules around what role a person who would materially benefit from the death could do. Death certificates (Senate of Canada) Conservative Senator Elizabeth Marshall's amendment would compel the health minister to draft regulations around death certificates and provide greater clarity on what information is collected by medical practitioners. Parliamentary reports (Senate of Canada) Liberal Senator Art Eggleton's amendment calls for a report to be issued to Parliament, within two years, on issues that have arisen from the provision of physician-assisted dying. Minor language amendments (Senate of Canada)

EPA Watchdog Finds Ex-Chief Scott Pruitt Spent $124,000 On 'Excessive' Airfare Enlarge this image toggle caption Pete Marovich/Getty Images Pete Marovich/Getty Images Scott Pruitt, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and his staff spent roughly $124,000 in excessive travel costs during a ten-month period, according to a new report from EPA's internal watchdog. Pruitt, who resigned from EPA almost a year ago amidst a litany of ethics allegations, and his personal security detail flew in first or business class "without sufficient justification and, initially without appropriate approval authority," the report says. The EPA's Office of the Inspector General recommended that the agency consider recovering the estimated $123,942 in excessive costs. In a statement, the EPA says it believes that it complied with federal travel regulations, "making cost recovery inappropriate." The audit reviewed 40 trips, including six canceled ones, that Pruitt planned or took in 2017. Nearly half of those trips stopped in, or were to, Tulsa, Okla., where Pruitt maintained a personal residence while he was the nation's top environmental steward. The report found "missing detailed support" for some of those trips. The travel during that ten-month period cost taxpayers almost $1 million. Pruitt's 24-hour security detail ate up most of that money. In a previous audit, EPA's inspector general found that the agency spent twice as much protecting Pruitt as it did his predecessor. The EPA and Pruitt, who now works as a consultant for coal companies, said those protections were necessary because of personal threats against the former-administrator. During his 16-month stint as head of the EPA, Pruitt's security costs, travel and other actions drew criticism from his predecessors, Democrats, environmental groups and even some Republican lawmakers. The EPA's inspector general says the office received numerous congressional requests and hotline complaints about Pruitt's travel. The new report came as a result of those. In addition to first-class travel, the audit found that lodging expenses exceeded per diem limits during some of Pruitt's travel as well. There was also inaccurate or incomplete reports for international travel. Pruitt is not the first member of the Trump administration to be questioned about his travel on the taxpayer dime. Tom Price, the former head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, broke federal rules on using chartered and military planes for government travel. Price resigned amidst controversy over that, as President Trump complained that he "didn't like the optics" of using taxpayer-funded charter flights. A report by the Interior Department's inspector general found that former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke violated the agency's travel policy by having his wife travel with him in government vehicles. The EPA's watchdog says that actions are needed to strengthen controls over travel at the agency to "prevent fraud, waste and abuse."

The Obama administration is considering an end to the practice of keeping immigrant detainees in for-profit centers, weeks after the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced it would stop its use of private prisons. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, whose agency includes the immigration service and the Border Patrol, in late August ordered a review of ways to end the use of the private facilities. For the record: A previous photo accompanying this article had a caption saying it showed the immigration detention center in Adelanto, Calif. The photo showed the Desert View Modified Community Correctional Facility, which is next to the detention center. A decision to do so would mark a major victory for the coalition of civil rights groups and immigrant advocacy organizations that has sought to roll back the growth of the private-prison industry. Immigration detention facilities house far more detainees than the private facilities the federal prison system has used. But immigration officials have pushed back against the idea, arguing that they have no cost-effective alternative to the private facilities and that other choices could be worse. “It would be remarkably detrimental,” said a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, speaking anonymously to comment on the internal debate. Cutting out private companies from the system would cost taxpayers billions of dollars more a year and take more than a decade to implement, the official warned. Johnson’s Homeland Security Advisory Council is expected to make a recommendation by the end of November. The secretary has not indicated which side of the debate he favors. Nine of the country’s 10 largest immigration detention facilities are operated by private companies, and they hold about two-thirds of the detainees in a system that currently keeps more than 31,000 people in custody on a typical day. While some centers are located in border areas, others are far from the border because deportation officers arrest migrants living in the interior of the country as well. The federal government contracts with four privately run detention facilities in California that hold about 3,700 people each day, including immigrants in the country illegally, asylum seekers, green card holders and those awaiting immigration hearings. The California Legislature recently passed a bill that would block local governments from contracting with private companies wanting to run immigration detention centers in the state. Senate Bill 1289, also known as the Dignity Not Detention Act, is now on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk. The Obama administration has budgeted $2.1 billion for detention operations in 2017, a slight decrease from 2016 as the administration has moved to reduce the number of people held in detention each day from 34,000 to about 31,000, including 960 “family beds.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement estimates the cost of housing a person in immigrant detention at $127 a day and $161 a day for those held in facilities designed for families. ICE has not publicly said how much of that money goes to private facilities, but an analysis of federal budget data by Grassroots Leadership, an organization based in Austin, Texas, that advocates against the use of private companies indicated that about half the annual spending — or roughly $1 billion a year — went to private firms. Civil rights advocates have documented a pattern of poor medical care and abuse inside private immigration facilities over the last several years. They say such prisons have an incentive to cut corners and reduce costs. Although the allegations of abuse are not limited to privately run prisons, “we certainly see a lot of these problems magnified when a company is seeking to extract as much profit as it can out of a detention center,” said Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership. A review by medical experts of the deaths of 18 migrants held by immigration authorities from 2012 to 2015 concluded substandard medical care had contributed to at least seven of the deaths, according to a Human Rights Watch report published in July. In December 2012, for example, a 34-year-old Guatemalan man named Manuel Cota-Domingo died of heart disease and complications related to diabetes and pneumonia shortly after being transferred to a hospital in Phoenix from Eloy Detention Center, a private facility run by Corrections Corporation of America about 60 miles southeast. Cota-Domingo was having trouble breathing for about three hours before detention officers responded and a medical evaluation was conducted, delays which probably contributed to his death, according to a review of the file by medical experts. ICE officials warn, however, that if they have to reduce or eliminate private detention centers, they could be forced to put more detainees into state and local jails because the federal government does not have enough facilities of its own. That could be a worse outcome for detainees, they say, because conditions in the jails are sometimes harsher than in the private detention centers and are more difficult for immigration officials to oversee. The use of jails also means putting detainees who have not been accused of a crime into facilities where they are in contact with potentially dangerous criminals. Geo Group and Corrections Corp. of America, major operators of private detention facilities, said they welcomed the Department of Homeland Security’s review of their business practices. Geo Group said in a statement that its facilities “are highly rated and provide high-quality, cost-effective services in safe, secure, and humane residential environments pursuant to strict contractual requirements and the federal government’s national standards.” Corrections Corp. of America said it is “proud of the quality and value of the services we provide and look forward to sharing that information” with the advisory panel. A former senior official of ICE, by contrast, said the time has come to reexamine the government’s reliance on private companies for detention. “They should do a real in-depth review,” said Alonzo Peña, who was deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement from 2008 to 2010. Peña said he has long been concerned that for-profit prison companies have been hiring former immigration officials to help them secure favorable contract terms. “They are not better-run, they are not better-managed, they are not providing better service,” he said. If the immigration service stopped using private facilities, some major changes would be necessary. The federal government stopped training its own immigration detention officers in 2002 during the massive bureaucratic shakeup that created the Department of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “Before this ever happens, the facilities we currently use have to be replaced — that’s basically the only way, or it will shut us down,” said Chris Crane, president of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, the union that represents federal deportation officers. Eliminating private detention facilities “can’t be an excuse to not hold anyone or let bad guys back on the street because we can’t lock them up,” he said. Reducing the overall number of people in detention, however, is exactly what many civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups have pushed for. They argue that the government could allow more community organizations to vouch for immigrants and work with courts to ensure that people show up for deportation hearings and other proceedings. Even if the federal government completely ended its use of private detention facilities, the private-prison industry could still thrive — most people in custody in the U.S. are held by state and local governments, not federal authorities. Many local prisons and jails are run by private companies. Still, a decision by Washington to cut its chief tie to the industry could set a pattern that states might follow and would be a significant blow to the industry. In mid-August, the administration decided to end using privately run facilities for federal prisoners. The Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Prisons determined that the private facilities were not substantially cheaper than government-run institutions and did not provide “the same level of correctional services, programs and resources,” according to a memo written by Deputy Atty. General Sally Yates. [email protected] Follow me @ByBrianBennett on Twitter ALSO No more nation of immigrants: Trump plan calls for a major, long-lasting cut in legal entries Trump’s immigration speech decoded: What he said, what it means and how it would work California’s new climate change laws almost didn’t happen this year. Here’s how lawmakers pulled it off.

Stop waiting for the safe to open It's not going to happen 337 shares

Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us. Gamergate has declared another victory after software maker Adobe implicitly condemned a recent series of tweets from Gawker writer Sam Biddle that made fun of the Gamergate movement. Biddle’s tweets came in the aftermath of generally negative coverage of Gamergate by many of Gawker Media’s blogs — including the main Gawker blog, for which he penned a piece, as well as gaming blog Kotaku, feminist blog Jezebel and sports blog Deadspin. In one tweet, Biddle said the online movement, which is ostensibly about journalistic ethics but is in fact about trying to censure any discussion of gender politics in the gaming industry, reaffirmed the idea that “nerds should be constantly shamed and degraded into submission.” To Gamergate supporters, who believe that media collusion and “corruption” have kept them from being heard, this was like throwing a lit match into a powder keg. Whether he was joking or not (and Biddle’s Twitter persona is very often jokey), his tweet bolstered a widely-held Gamergate narrative: That they, rather than the game developers and critics who have had their lives threatened as a result of Gamergate, are the real victims, and are being bullied by radical feminists. “I have literally not seen a single person who is not a Gamergate supporter who did not get that I was very obviously joking,” Biddle said in an email to Re/code. “Not a single one.” Pressed for a response to Biddle’s tweet by a Gamergate supporter, Adobe initially tweeted the following: https://twitter.com/Adobe/status/524625011919708160 By “remove our logo,” Adobe is referring to a section of Gawker’s advertising info page that already disappeared days ago (though an archived version of the page with the section intact is available here), which contained the logos of brand “partners” Gawker Media had worked with in the past, including Adobe. Adobe confirmed via email that the tweet did come from them, and spokespersons directed Re/code to another tweet from the same account, issued seven hours later: https://twitter.com/Adobe/status/524727259844718592 The relationship between Adobe’s tweeted condemnation and Gamergate is more tenuous than Intel’s prior turn in a similar position. Earlier this month, Intel pulled its advertising from the website Gamasutra under pressure from Gamergate supporters, who were unhappy with an opinion column written by Gamasutra editor-at-large Leigh Alexander. Intel also apologized for its association with the movement after the fact, but declined to reverse the ad pull. Gawker Media did not respond to a request for comment.

We zijn een bierland, cafés zijn onze nationale trots, en toch sloten bijna 600 Vlaamse kroegen het voorbije jaar de deuren. Wat is er precies aan de hand? Wij doken in de cijfers tijdens onze zoektocht naar het Beste Café van Vlaanderen. “Misschien moeten we vaker onze smartphone wegleggen, en samen iets gaan drinken. En da’s niet alleen goed voor de sector.” STEM HIER. Kroon jouw favoriete kroeg tot Beste Café van Vlaanderen 8.984. Zoveel cafés telt Vlaanderen anno 2019. Meer nog: bijna één vierde van onze horeca bestaat uit bars. Een stevig en indrukwekkend aantal, zou je denken. Maar in werkelijkheid is de hoeveelheid kroegen nog maar een schim van wat het ooit geweest is. “Midden jaren 90 telden we in Vlaanderen volgens Statbel nog ruim 18.000 cafés. Een kwarteeuw later blijft daar slechts de helft van over”, zegt Matthias De Caluwe, CEO van Horeca Vlaanderen. Bron: Graydon Zware klap voor Vlaanderen Elk zichzelf respecterend dorp heeft een café, maar toch staan we steeds meer voor een gesloten deur. Wanneer we alle Vlaamse provincies samentellen over een periode van vier jaar, dan komen we uit bij een verlies van net geen 1.200 cafés. In het Oost-Vlaamse straatbeeld zijn er sinds 2015 maar liefst 347 cafés verdwenen. Ook in West-Vlaanderen en Antwerpen doekten meer dan 250 eigenaars hun kroeg op. Bron: Graydon/Bewerking: Guidea Maar vooral het voorbije jaar was de klap stevig voelbaar. In het tweede kwartaal van 2018 waren er nog 597 cafés meer dan na dat van 2019. Wat is er plots aan de hand? LEES OOK. Cafébazen klappen uit de biecht: “Ze waren bezig op het toilet terwijl hun partners braaf in het café zaten” (+) Snel naar de nachtwinkel “Het is inderdaad onmiskenbaar een bijzondere daling. En er zijn verschillende oorzaken”, zegt De Caluwe. “Een samenleving verandert constant, en dat is voor onze horecasector niet anders. Vroeger ging je bijvoorbeeld vaker gewoon op café om te horen hoe de week van je vriendenkring was geweest of om nieuwe mensen te ontmoeten. Vandaag verlopen sommige contacten vaker eerst via sociale media. Misschien moeten we daar een beter evenwicht in vinden: onze smartphones vaker wegleggen in het voordeel van een koffie, cola of pint. Dat is niet alleen goed voor onze sector, maar ook voor de sociale cohesie. Daar is zeker vandaag nood aan.” De tijden zijn veranderd, merken ze bij Horeca Vlaanderen, en dat zet klassieke cafés voor een forse uitdaging. “Het rookverbod en het feit dat mensen nu een gewijzigde kijk hebben op alcoholgebruik, doet minder mensen naar de bars trekken. Jongeren drinken ook vaker thuis voor het uitgaan, in een ‘pre-drink’. Ze halen hun alcohol in de nachtwinkel of trekken pas later naar feestjes. Ook dat heeft zijn effect op het cliënteel van de cafés.” Het clichébeeld van de bruine kroegen is allang niet meer realiteit. Vlaamse cafés onderscheiden zich door hun eigenheid en creativiteit. Wie in het straatbeeld op zoek gaat naar een dorpscafé ziet ook heel andere etablissementen dan enkele jaren geleden. “De grenzen vervagen tussen de verschillende types horeca. We zien steeds vaker dat het concept ‘café’ verschuift naar een eetgelegenheid. Er zijn meer koffiebars, er is een trend van meer tijdelijke pop-uphoreca”, legt de CEO uit. En die creativiteit en ruimdenkendheid is een zegen voor die eigenaars, maar een pijnlijke klap voor de cijfers van de gemiddelde Op ’t Hoekske of De Statie. Vlaanderen toch speciaal Toch mogen we volgens De Caluwe nog steeds heel fier zijn op onze Vlaamse cafés, dalende cijfers of niet. “In het buitenland zien we steeds meer ketens, ook als cafés. Hier mogen we nog genieten van heel originele eigenwijze concepten, van café-uitbaters die met hart en ziel een eigen zaak uit de grond stampen. Dat kunnen we alleen maar bewonderen.” De cijfers zijn ook niet zó drastisch als ze lijken. “Daarin zitten ook die verschuivingen van cafés naar eetgelegenheden. Ze zijn dus niet per se stopgezet, maar mee geëvolueerd om zich aan te passen aan gewijzigde marktomstandigheden.” LEES OOK. Steeds minder cafés, maar zo krijgen we onze nationale trots er weer bovenop Hoe dan ook: onze favoriete kroegen kunnen een opsteker gebruiken. En wat beter dan hen uit te roepen tot Beste Café van Vlaanderen? Stem nog tot 29 september via Het Nieuwsblad om een winnaar te kronen. bekijk ook De meest memorabele momenten op café? “Gedronken en ja… wakker geworden met een eenhoorn op mijn borst” Zo tap je de perfecte pint

Market Capitalization of Tokens > $1.2B While it’s interesting to look at Token Sales in terms of in dollars raised, it’s equally important to calculate the value of the tokens after they have been issued. Of the 56 successful Token Sales in the dataset, 34 tokens have started trading and are listed on Coinmarketcap. The market capitalization (the USD value of available supply of tokens) for these 34 tokens currently stands at $1.16B. Figure 3: Market Capitalization of “Listed” Tokens The 33 projects that these tokens represent raised $150M in their respective token sales. A back of the envelope calculation shows a 8x increase in dollar value, and our impulsive reaction might be to rush into every single token sale we can get into. Tokens ARE Risky The theoretical case for Token Sales is that it they are the optimal way to launch decentralized business models, ranging from core blockchain protocols to Decentralized Applications (dApps) on top of existing blockchains. Ethereum itself started as a Token Sale raising $18M worth of Bitcoin. In these decentralized business models tokens should be the core value unit that represent some combination of usage, work and/or ownership. As Nick Tomaino explained, we should think of tokens primarily as a product feature and not as a fundraising feature. The majority of projects behind the tokens have not yet launched. They’re in various stages, ranging from beta launch to being stuck in endless ideation. Simultaneously, many projects are taking advantage or “exploit” the exponential growth and interest from unsophisticated investors interested in digital currencies. This ranges from projects that have no obvious network effects at all or are outright scams (Google “ico scam” for starters). This indicates that Token Sales are a very young and very risky market. It will take time and more data to get a sense of how risky tokens are and what factors determine winners and outperformance. Sophisticated investors and VC’s in the cryptocurrency space look at the development teams, network potential and core technology as factors that could mitigate some of the risks. The average investor and many digital currency enthusiast will have very few of these skills. Nonetheless, there is some data that we can use to conduct a straightforward analysis and answer the following question: Have Token Sales returned more money than Bitcoin and/or Ether? Tokens Do Not Outperform Ethereum Given the limited amount of data needed for financial return analysis, I was able to calculate the returns for 28 tokens since their sale and compared them with returns on Bitcoin and Ether during the same timeframe. The 28 tokens and the projects they represent were the only ones on which I could collect data from multiple sources to calculate the price at issuance, price now and market capitalization. Figure 4: Absolute Returns and Hypothetical Portfolio Returns If you were to invest $1 in each of the 28 Token Sales, held onto the tokens and sold them at the time of writing you would have made roughly 9x of the notional investment. This compares with “only” 2x if you had invested $1 in Bitcoin tokens at exactly the same times as the Token Sales. More importantly, a portfolio of Ethereum tokens would have yielded 11x, beating the portfolio of tokens. Because of the limited data, outliers skew the results drastically. For example, Augur’s token sale took place in October 2015, when Ether was trading at $0.70. Since then, Augur REP-tokens have increased by 29x vs 134x for Ether. Taking Augur out, the results swing in favor of tokens, as per the figure below. When I remove the 2 largest return outliers for Tokens and Ether (i.e. remove 4 in total) the Ether and Token portfolios return roughly the same amount. Figure 5: Multiples for various portfolio combinations It’s not the goal of this analysis to determine which tokens are the best investments. We can slice and dice the dataset in many ways that tip the returns in favor of either Tokens, Ether or even Bitcoin. We must not forget that many of the Token Sales are an application layer on top of the Ethereum blockchain. By investing in tokens you are essentially exposing yourself to some (undetermined) amount of Ethereum exposure, and taking on additional risk. One could argue that the performance swings in my hypothetical portfolios are merely reflections of this additional risk. Until there is more time series data the jury is still out on whether this is the case. Figure 6: Market Cap of Tokens vs Market Cap of Ethereum Conclusion The conclusion that I am confident to make is that the data shows that most digital currency enthusiasts are better off staying away from Token Sales. Unless you’re planning to actually use the tokens for the services that the underlying projects will offer, tokens as a speculative investment come with great risks. Investors who are unable to do a full due diligence (development team, technical specifications, network model) on a new Token Sale are probably better off investing in core cryptocurrencies such as Ether. This will yield better results than rushing into every single Token Sale or even token portfolios. It’s common sense and is backed by some data now. — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Appendix All data used in the analysis is publicly accessible on the websites or via the public API’s of Coinbase, Coinmarketcap, Smith & Crown, ICOrating & Tokenmarket Most of the terminology that I’ve used were first coined by the following persons on a variety of websites and podcasts: Chris Dixon & Olaf Carlson-Wee: a16z podcast on tokens and polychain capital Olaf Carlson-Wee & Ryan Zurrer: Ether review podcast Fred Ehrsam: one, two, three, four Fred Wilson: Decentralized Startup Naval Ravikant: The Fifth Protocol

My three-year-old daughter is worried about dying. She tells us one morning that she’s going to die when she turns 18. Maybe to her, 18 is how I feel about turning 90 – that’s properly old. Later, I ask what is worrying her about dying. She doesn’t know. She’s three. She can’t quite articulate what it is that’s bothering her. We’re sitting in her room, getting ready for nursery. I’m trying and failing to brush her hair. She’s trying her best to not yelp in pain as I drag a brush through her curls. I look up and see the small photo of my mum that sits on her shelf. My sister gave it to me to put in my daughter’s room around the time she was born. Mum died in 2011 and it devastated our family. She talked a lot about grandchildren, so it feels sad that she won’t be around to meet them. I start to worry that the photo is the thing that’s making my kid obsess about dying. She likes to run through various members of our family. She wants to know who my siblings are and how they are related to her, who her cousins are, who her grandparents are. She’ll ask me who my dad is, who my sister is and then make the connection with who they are to her. When she first asked me where my mum was, I was taken aback. I didn’t initially know how to answer her. On the one hand, I hate it when parents do saccharine lies to their kids: they’re on holiday, they live on a farm far away, they’re having a long sleep. On the other, my kid’s three. She won’t really understand about death. I chose to be honest. I told her: “My mum isn’t around any more. She’s dead. She would have loved you very much.” My daughter then asked me: “Do you miss your mum?” “Yes,” I said. “It makes me feel sad she is not here.” After that, my daughter kept asking where Mum was and whether I felt sad. One day, she said: “What happens when we die?” I told her that it meant we weren’t around any more. “I don’t want to die,” she said. I think she has an existential dread when it comes to death. It’s not so much about the dying, it’s about the simply not being there, the void created by your absence. It’s a lot for a three-year-old to take in. A visit to an Egyptian exhibition at Bristol Museum further confused her, because the mummies and the coffins and the death rituals that were explained to her didn’t really answer her question about where my mum was. How do you talk to kids about death? There are some great books that help you talk about grief and loss with them. I like how Michael Rosen’s Sad Book tries to encapsulate the emotion of sadness and demystify it, make the reader feel like it is OK to feel sad, because we all do. Oliver Jeffers’s The Heart and the Bottle is another tear-jerker about loss and dealing with the death of a grandparent. Both of the books help kids navigate the emotions around loss and bereavement. The particular issue I seem to have is that my mum has been dead for a while. How do you functionally explain death to a child who has no emotional attachment to the dead person, because they didn’t know them? Maybe that’s the wrong question entirely, but it’s one I keep circling back to. Mostly because I grieve for my mother every day and I wear my pain at her death very overtly on my sleeve. My daughter, being empathetic, can sense that that picture of my mum is important to me, but how does she make a connection with someone she only knows in the abstract? These conversations we have with kids around death need to be tangible. And while I work out the best way to talk about it with my child, she’s still doing her own version of processing the very concept of death by checking in with me about what it even means. While death is something we’ll all experience in some way, is three years old too early to be dealing with the preciousness of life?

A man who called 911 to report a customer waving a gun inside a Walmart, resulting in a fatal police-involved shooting in 2014 in a Dayton, Ohio suburb, could now be charged with making a false alarm, reports The Associated Press. Judge Beth Root of Ohio’s Fairborn Municipal Court ruled this week that there is enough probable cause to charge Ronald Ritchie with a misdemeanor in the Aug. 5 police shooting of John Crawford III, 22, in suburban Beavercreek, writes the news outlet. From The AP: Root reviewed sworn statements from several private citizens, who submitted a copy of Wal-Mart surveillance video synchronized to the 911 call and alleged Ritchie violated several laws. The judge leaves it up to the Beavercreek city prosecutor to decide whether to charge Ritchie. […] Ritchie, the only person to call 911 from Wal-Mart before shots were fired, told police in his call that there was a man walking around with a gun in the store. “He’s, like, pointing it at people,” Ritchie told a dispatcher. Ritchie said the man appeared to be loading what looked like a rifle and was “waving it back and forth,” according to a recording of his call. Police have also claimed that Crawford had a real rifle and said he didn’t respond to commands to put it down. SOURCE: Miami Herald | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty SEE ALSO: Report: Loretta Lynch Vows To Investigate John Crawford’s Death Also On NewsOne:

Dear users, In anticipation of OCE listing, we are going to do a lucky draw! Retweet our countdown tweet (tweet will be sent out via OceanEx Official at 20:00 each day from March 28th to 30th)to win OCE and OceanEx Hoodies! Five numbers (11, 30, 3, 31, 113) are selected each day to be rewarded with 300 OCE each, namely number 3rd, 11th, 30th, 31st and 113th followers who retweet the countdown tweet of each day and meet the requirements will be rewarded. These five numbers represent 2 important milestones for OceanEx —OceanEx exchange was online on 11–30 (Nov 30th) and OCE listing on 3–31 (Mar 31st). Please don’t hesitate to join us on Twitter to celebrate the OCE listing and witness another milestone together. Event Time Period: 20:00, Mar 28th — 20:00, Mar 31st, 2019 (UTC+8) Steps and Requirements: 1. Follow us on Twitter @OceanExOfficial 2. Retweet every day’s countdown tweet within the event time range with your wishes to OceanEx or your amazing OceanEx trading experiences, along with the hashtag #OCEListing 3. TAG 3 friends whom you would like to invite to experience OceanEx together with Special Bonus: OceanEx Hoodies are prepared for special followers! On 29th and 30th, followers who retweet at 03:31 am (UTC+8) and meet our requirement will get an OceanEx Hoodie each. On 31st qualified retweet at 03:31 am (UTC+8) will get an OceanEx limited edition hoodie. Important Notice: Winners will be announced every other day at 22:00 (UTC+8) during the event. If you are on our winner lists, please PM our official twitter to provide your OceanEx email account or address for receiving OCE or OceanEx hoodie. If there are no RT at 03:31 (UTC+8), the Hoodie will be given to the next one who is qualified. OCE will be distributed to all winners within 7 business days after the event. OceanEx reserves all the rights of final explanation. Looking forward to your participation! OceanEx Team Mar/28/2019 Follow us on our official channels: Website: https://OceanEx.pro Twitter — https://twitter.com/OceanexOfficial Telegram — https://t.me/OceanEx_Official

I’m not sure why so many people are sleeping on this game. It gives me a lot of Mass Effect vibes from it with this companion system. The Technomancer could be the dark horse of 2016. What do you guys think? Just a content creator using his influence to create an outlet to express his views on pop culture

A San Diego man who operated a “revenge porn” website and then charged victims to remove nude images and personal information was sentenced on Friday to 18 years in state prison, the attorney general’s office has said. Kevin Bollaert, 28, was convicted in February of 21 counts of identity theft and six counts of extortion in San Diego superior court for running a pair of websites that capitalised on the internet as a forum for public shaming. Jilted lovers and hackers could anonymously post nude photos of people without their consent, along with personal information, at a website Bollaert created called ugotposted.com. More than 10,000 images, mainly of women, were posted between December 2012 and September 2013. People who sought to have the explicit images taken down were directed to changemyreputation.com and charged $250 to $350 to remove the content. The compromising photos cost people jobs, damaged relationships and led to one attempted suicide. Bollaert earned about $900 a month in website ad revenue and collected about $30,000 from victims. Bollaert’s lawyer claimed at the trial that the business was gross and offensive, but that their client did not break the law by allowing others to post the explicit material.

Map of Ukraine locating the eastern city of Donetsk; Ukraine's interior minister says the military is now in control of the city's airport, a day after pro-Russian separatists were defeated in the national election. DONETSK, Ukraine — The Ukrainian army said Tuesday that it had evicted armed separatists from the international airport in Donetsk after a 24-hour gun battle, but the government in Kiev warned of a new threat as truckloads of armed Russian volunteers reportedly crossed the border. Donetsk Mayor Oleksandr Lukyanchenko said 48 people were killed, including two civilians, in the fighting at Sergei Prokofiev International Airport. The pro-Russian rebels said they had suffered more than 50 fatalities, many of them the result of an army attack on a truck evacuating wounded. A government spokesman said the incident was under investigation. Shots still were being fired near the airport Tuesday afternoon, and it wasn’t clear when the facility would reopen. If the Ukraine military has cleared the facility of insurgents, it would mark a rare and swift success for a force that repeatedly has failed to dislodge separatists from city halls and police stations in eastern Ukraine. The unity of Ukraine is riding on how the government handles the separatist uprising in the east, the latest installment of which began at 3 a.m. Monday, just hours after the conclusion of national elections that installed candy billionaire Petro Poroshenko as president. Dozens of armed insurgents of the self-styled Donetsk People’s Republic stormed the airport terminal, closed it to passenger traffic and then sent in a truckload of reinforcements. The military waited 10 hours to respond, then flew combat jets over the scene before mounting a helicopter assault and air attacks against the insurgents. No details of the raids have been released, including government casualties, but according to an initial account, only one government soldier was wounded. Also unknown is the fate and whereabouts of the 200 or more insurgents who took part in the assault. U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt said Tuesday that the militants who took part in the attack on the airport had come across the border from Russia. Donetsk was tense Tuesday, and most residents heeded Lukyanchenko’s warning to stay indoors. Many residents expected further clashes, particularly if the military decides to attack the Donetsk regional administration building, which the Donetsk People’s Republic now occupies and uses as its headquarters. “We have posed another ultimatum to them, and if they do not surrender, we will strike them with special weapons,” Vladislav Seleznev, a government spokesman, told reporters in Kiev. He didn’t say whether the army had acquired precision-guided munitions or some other weapons system. Equally ominous was the possibility that more armed volunteers will head to this city of 1 million for the showdown. Just hours after a Monday appeal for help to Russian President Vladimir Putin by Dennis Pushlin, the self-appointed chairman of the “Supreme Soviet” of the Donetsk People’s Republic, armed Russian volunteers were reported to have crossed into Ukraine. In the Luhansk region, whose People’s Republic is linked to the Donetsk People’s Republic through a union called Novorossiya, Ukrainian border guards intercepted several carloads of militants who attempted to cross illegally from Russia with a stash of assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and explosives. One gunmen was captured but several escaped, the state border service said. At another location, an enormous number of armed militants appear to have crossed in early Tuesday. The Ukraine Foreign Ministry said it was protesting Russia’s failure to take action against 40 truckloads of militants who entered near Astakhovo, also in the Luhansk region. “There are grounds to believe that Russian terrorists are being sent onto Ukrainian territory, organized and financed under the direct control of the Kremlin and Russian special services,” the ministry said. “In fact, we are dealing with undisguised aggression against Ukraine from Russia, the Russian export of terrorism on the territory of our country,” the ministry said, asking the international community to take “immediate and decisive action” to stop Russian “aggression.” McClatchy independently confirmed that a large number of militants had crossed into Ukraine from Russia. A Ukrainian official who closely follows issues along the border said hundreds of Russian volunteers had entered Ukraine. The official could not be quoted by name because he is not authorized to speak to the media. ——— McClatchy special correspondent Kira Zheleznyak contributed to this report

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New Orleans Saints try out linebacker Paul Hazel, according to a league source

When your game has a 4GB patch to download but your Internet connection decides to be nasty!Ryuko : "ZzzZzzzzz, so tired of waiting. ZzzZzZz"Mako : "Wake up, Ryuko!"Satsuki : "She looks so adorable when she's asleep. <3 "Thank you for viewing. I hope you enjoyed this photo. :DFB page: [ www.facebook.co... Instagram: www.instagram.c...

Scarlet Ozmafia By Kohai-Noticed-You Watch 7 Favourites 0 Comments 181 Views I decided to draw Scarlet from Ozmafia. He was a lot of fun to color, especially his hair. I think he turned out pretty good, at least imo. Scarlet is one of my favorites though both of his routes disappointed me a bit. You don't get a kissing CG with either them which made me really sad. I do believe Scarlet will grow up to be a tol boi one day though just like he dreams of being. While drawing him though I noticed he had a very similar appearance to another character from another show. They are both based off the same fairy tale but they basically have the same hair style and similar weapons as well. I think I might go back and draw them in just as a side by side comparison. IMAGE DETAILS Image size 1280x780px 1.23 MB Show More

New York (CNN Business) President Donald Trump's escalating trade war against China threatens to inflict a powerful shock to the American economy that not even the Federal Reserve can fully absorb. The Fed cut interest rates this week for the first time in nearly 11 years , effectively lowering the odds of a recession in the United States. Just 24 hours later, Trump raised those odds by vowing to unleash tariffs on $300 billion of US imports from China, which will for the first time directly impact American shoppers. The new front in the trade war will only add to the downturn in manufacturing spanning the globe . It will further dent shaky business confidence and could even puncture the optimism among consumers. In short, little good can come from these new tariffs — and the ensuing retaliation from Beijing. Tariff man is back and more dangerous than ever to our economy." "It could be incredibly damaging to the global economy. The risk of a recession has gone up because of the ratcheting up of the trade war," said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco. Trump blindsided investors on Thursday by announcing an abrupt end to the trade truce between the United States and China. Although talks will continue, Trump tweeted that he plans to impose a 10% tariff on the remaining US imports from China. US stocks plummeted on the tweet, a selloff that deepened on Friday. Cash rushed into ultra-save government bonds, sending Treasury yields to multiyear lows. "That's telling me there is a lot of concern we are headed toward a significant global slowdown," Hooper said. Trump has also kept open the possibility that tariffs on China will go up to 25%. Consumer goods targeted Beyond the direct impact of the tariffs, the escalation in trade tensions risks dealing a sizable blow to business confidence. The on-again, off-again nature of the trade war makes it difficult for CEOs to plan for the future. Instead of hiring workers and opening new factories, many companies may decide to sit on the sidelines. "Tariff man is back and more dangerous than ever to our economy," Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group, wrote in a note to clients on Friday. In an interview with CNN Business, Boockvar argued that the only thing keeping the United States out of a recession is the strength of consumer spending. However, Trump's tariffs would impact a wide swath of consumer products, likely resulting in higher prices on items including apparel, footwear and electronics such as smartphones, laptops and tablets. In 2018, 42% of apparel and 69% of footwear sold in the United States was imported from China, according to the American Apparel & Footwear Association. "This is going to damper consumer spending," Boockvar said. If the tariffs go into effect, Boockvar said there is likely a greater than 50% chance the United States succumbs to a recession. How will China respond? It's possible that Trump, spooked by market turmoil, backs down on his latest tariff threat. Another possibility is that the looming tariffs force Beijing to make enough concessions to allow both sides to claim victory. In either case, that would be a huge positive for the economy. But some observers fear Trump's increased pressure on China will backfire, provoking retaliation that deepens the economic pressure. "Trump's gambit is unlikely to work," Michael Hirson, Eurasia Group's practice head of China and Northeast Asia, wrote in a note on Thursday. "Chinese President Xi Jinping cannot afford the perception that he has been blackmailed into a deal by Trump." A spokesperson from China's Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that although China does not want a fight, the country "will fight if necessary." The official said that China will have to "take necessary countermeasures," but did not explain what that retaliation will be. Beijing's options include firing back with tariffs of its own, restricting the supply of the rare-earth minerals that the global tech industry relies on, and devaluing the country's currency. Piling onto the global factory slowdown Even before this week's trade escalation, the world's manufacturing industry was in a severe slowdown. The Barclays global manufacturing confidence index dipped further into negative territory in July. Barclays said it's "yet another warning of an ongoing global industrial recession." US factory activity tumbled in July to the weakest level in nearly three years. Many blame the trade war for the global manufacturing downturn, but that may only be partially true. Lakshman Achuthan, co-founder of Economic Research Institute, said the factory slowdown began before the trade war erupted in the spring of 2018. "The trade war is entirely a negative. It is piling on top of the cyclical downturn," Achuthan said. In other words, the United States is self-inflicting a shock at a time when the global economy was already exposed. "People don't understand. We are slow walking toward a window of vulnerability. A negative shock we thought we could withstand becomes a recessionary shock," Achuthan said. "We're definitely on recession watch." Others doubt that the 10% tariffs on China will be very destabilizing because the Federal Reserve is coming to the rescue with more easy money. "The risk to growth is somewhat small," said Aditya Bhave, senior global economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, pointing to the Fed's rate cuts as a cushion. Risk of a 'feedback loop' Some have speculated that Trump is escalating the trade war to get the Fed to listen to his pleas for lower interest rates. That would be a risky gamble because there is no guarantee the Fed will act, nor that the rate cuts will work. "It simply makes no sense to risk a global recession in order to get the Fed to cut rates," Win Thin, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, wrote in a note to clients on Friday. Bhave said it's possible Trump turned up the heat on China because he feels emboldened by the Fed's rate cuts. "We think the Fed is inadvertently encouraging a more hawkish stance on trade," he said. Wall Street is already pricing in the chances of more rate cuts later this year in response to the spike in trade tensions. "There is a risk we get stuck in a feedback loop," Bhave said. "The Fed keeps cutting rates, trade policy keeps getting more hawkish and the Fed runs out of ammunition to fight the next recession."

YANGON (Reuters) - More than 2,000 people have been forced to flee from their homes, and 19 have been killed, since fighting broke out between government troops and ethnic minority insurgents in northern Myanmar last week, government officials said Wednesday. The escalation in hostilities in Myanmar’s fractured north is another setback for civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s bid to bring peace amid a stuttering transition from full military rule. The people displaced in the latest fighting are sheltering in monasteries around Lashio town in the north of Shan State, and are depending on aid groups and the government for their supplies, aid workers said. “We are providing basic rescue materials as well as cash to displaced people in the camps, the injured people and also to family members of those who got killed,” Soe Naing, director of the Department of Disaster Management in Shan State, told Reuters. Aid would be delivered as long as people needed to stay in the camps, he said. Tension in the region has risen since Thursday, when a coalition of anti-government insurgent groups known as the Northern Alliance staged attacks including on an elite army college that killed more than a dozen people, mostly security forces personnel. Nobel laureate Suu Kyi came to power following a landslide election win in late 2016, vowing to prioritize peace talks between ethnic minority guerrilla groups, the military and civilian government. But conflict has escalated in Kachin State in the north and in Shan State, as the western Rakhine region on the border with Bangladesh.

SAN DIEGO, California, November 28, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy is calling on his city's priests to embrace "LGBT families," and to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion in certain cases. Following a much-hyped diocesan synod on the family last month, Bishop McElroy encouraged priests to publish a diocesan notice in their bulletins saying the Church will "assist those who are divorced and remarried and cannot receive an annulment to utilize the internal forum of conscience in order to discern if God is calling them to return to the Eucharist." "The Synod proposed a spirituality of family life which is deeply inclusive," and embraces "LBGT families," the statement went on to say. "During the coming months Bishop McElroy will be working with a committee of synod delegates who will focus on the implementation of these goals." The statement, which multiple sources confirmed the bishop sent to priests of the diocese, has appeared in at least three San Diego parish bulletins and is one of the most liberal interpretations by a U.S. bishop of the pope's controversial exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The “internal forum” is the process by which a “remarried” couple living in a state the Church considers adultery may “discern,” usually with the help of a priest, whether they may receive Holy Communion. This is at odds with the Church’s perennial teaching on sexual morality and the Sacraments, which stipulates that only the divorced and remarried who live abstinently as “brother and sister” may be admitted to the Sacraments. The notion that couples who are in sexual relationships with individuals other than their valid spouse--adultery--may decide they are eligible to receive the Sacraments anyway has long been condemned by the Church, including by Pope St. John Paul II in his apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio. In the wake of Amoris Laetitia, it has again been condemned by numerous Church experts, including a renowned philosopher and close friend of Pope St. John Paul II as "completely inappropriate" and a potential “pastoral catastrophe." Cardinals, bishops, theologians, and other prelates have raised questions about how Amoris Laetitia should be interpreted, reiterating that the "internal forum" could lead to sacrilege and scandal. The Catholic Church teaches that the Eucharist is the literal body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ and therefore in principle only allows Catholics who have repented of and confessed serious sins (Catholics in a "state of grace") to receive Holy Communion. The Diocese of San Diego's full statement is below: On the weekend of October 30-31, the diocese of San Diego held the first diocesan synod in the nation of the theme of marriage and family life outlined in Pope Francis' encyclical on The Joy of Love. A synod brings together representatives of the entire Catholic community in a diocese for dialogue, deliberation, prayer and decision making. For our synod here in San Diego, every parish had a delegate, as well as the university communities, theological faculties and members of the diocesan pastoral staff. These delegates included priests, religious sisters, mothers, fathers, deacons, and young adults of every culture and language. The deliberations at the synod pointed to the need for renewed dedication of married couples toward embracing the depth, permanence, sanctity and sacrifice which lie at the heart of the Catholic conception of marriage. The discussions emphasized the need to make a spirituality of marriage and family life more available to our parishioners, especially to young couples who often find it less automatic to bring prayer and the Gospel into their marriage and role as parents. The Synod pointed to the need to invite young couples lovingly, non-judgmentally and energetically into Catholic marriage and to provide mentors for them. The delegates spoke movingly to the need for the Church to reach out to divorced men and women at every moment of their journey, to support them spiritually and pastorally, to help them move through the annulment process, and to assist those who are divorced and remarried and cannot receive an annulment to utilize the internal forum of conscience in order to discern if God is calling them to return to the Eucharist. Finally, the Synod proposed a spirituality of family life which is deeply inclusive: embracing mothers and fathers beautifully bonded in their married love and the love of their children, as well as single parents, those who are widowed, our many military families where deployment brings great stress, LBGT families, families which deportation has split and families with members who have special needs. During the coming months Bishop McElroy will be working with a committee of synod delegates who will focus on the implementation of these goals. It is our hope that through this initiative the grace of married and family life will be profoundly deepened. The synod recommended that in providing “authentic pastoral support for those who are divorced,” the diocese “provide formation in the areas of conscience formation and the Internal Forum, not only to implement the pathway to sacramental participation outlined in the Joy of Love but even more fundamentally to illuminate a core element of Christian discipleship itself.” IMPORTANT: To respectfully express your support for the 4 cardinals' letter to Pope Francis asking for clarity on Amoris Laetitia, sign the petition. Click here. Of Holy Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried, Pope St. John Paul II wrote in his exhortation Familiaris Consortio: …the Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried. They are unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist. Besides this, there is another special pastoral reason: if these people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church's teaching about the indissolubility of marriage. Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children's upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they "take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples." Footnote 351 of Amoris Laetitia has caused confusion about whether the pope is intending to allow divorced and "remarried" Catholics to receive Holy Communion. Different prelates, theologians, and philosophers have interpreted the exhortation in different ways. Four cardinals asked Pope Francis to clarify whether Amoris Laetitia is at odds with Catholic moral teaching, but he has yet to respond. 'LGBT families' The use of the term "LGBT families" is unusual for a Catholic bishop, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, "A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family" (CCC 2202) and family "is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life" (CCC 2207). The Catechism of the Catholic Church also teaches that sexual acts between members of the same sex are "intrinsically disordered," "contrary to the natural law," and "under no circumstances can they be approved" (CCC 2357). McElroy has previously called the Catechism's language "very destructive." The synod also recommended the creation of a diocesan office that will specialize in outreach to the “LGBT” population, that he hire a senior level marriage and family staffer whose sole job will be to focus “on all stages of separation and divorce,” and that the diocese provide “formation” on the “internal forum” that is referenced in Amoris Laetitia. In interviews with local media, McElroy stressed, “Our notion of family is an inclusive notion” and individual “conscience” is the “real core of Catholic teaching.” ‘Internal forum’ to be incorporated into adult catechesis? San Diego synod participants recommended the diocese: “Provide forums on conscience formation for pastoral leadership: priests, deacons, religious, and lay leaders” “Evaluate current programs of faith formation for children, youth, and adults regarding conscience formation” “Identify and develop resources including print, web-based, video, and other media on conscience formation” “Incorporate catechesis on [the] external forum and internal forum in programs of adult faith formation” The proposed diocesan office for “family spirituality” would “develop resources for parishes to minister to families (i.e divorced, single-parent, widowed, deployed, deported, special needs, multigenerational households, LGBT),” according to the synod’s recommendations. This reconfiguration of the Marriage and Family Life office would “serve the separated, divorced, and remarried populations.” McElroy said “judgmentalism or stigmas” surrounding divorce must be “cast aside” and that “large numbers of people” are divorced and remarried “through no fault of their own or some fault of their own.” In the synod report, there are no mentions of sin or the Church’s teaching that those with same-sex attractions are called to chastity. It make allusions to the Church’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage in its suggestions that the diocese “provide education, based on canon law, on the annulment process and remarriage” and “provide guidance on the annulment process in collaboration with the Tribunal.” The San Diego Union Tribune reported: “McElroy said all parishes need to welcome LGBT worshippers. Some — the bishop cited Hillcrest’s St. John the Evangelist — have developed a reputation where LGBT worshippers ‘feel particularly welcome. And that’s a very good thing.’” In a National Catholic Reporter video, synod attendees praised the diocese’s “positive energy…around what it means renew our approach to marriage and family” and said McElroy is a “spiritual” man. RELATED: Who are these four cardinals who wrote the ‘dubia’ to the Pope?

Article content He may have won a $279-million lottery jackpot but his ex-wife still thinks he’s a loser. And Eileen Murray won’t take him back. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or $279M lotto winner's ex-wife doesn't want him or his money Back to video Murray told the New York Post that during her 15-year marriage to Mega Millions winner Mike Weirsky, he was unemployed. And she’s been paying him support. “He’s not appealing to me all of a sudden because he has this money,” Murray, 53, told the Post. While she worked as a cost analyst for a utility company, her 54-year-old husband sat around. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or And unlike a lot of former spouses, she has no plans to get her slice of the $162.5-million lump sum Weirsky will be collecting. “I’m not going after anything. I have morals. I know what I’ve worked for and it’s everything that I have,” Murray said, adding she doubts her ex will do “the right thing.” “Think about it. How long did I work? How long did I support him? I had to give him a lot of money in the divorce. “You tell me what’s the moral thing to do.” At a press conference, Weirsky said he heard from his ex-wife. Not so, Murray said. She thinks the jackpot winner will help out his family and give money to animal charities. “He’ll think I’m there with my hand out and I have no intention to do that,” she said. “I truly wish him well … though I know he doesn’t believe that,” she added. “I want him to surround himself with good people. I don’t think anybody should be taken advantage of.”

Temple of Orsis Help Reno Jackson track down the first piece of the artifact by uncovering the mysteries of the time-lost Temple of Orsis. These ruins have lain undisturbed for centuries, but that doesn’t mean they don’t hold their fair share of danger. Getting in may turn out to be much easier than getting out alive!

Oakland And The Warriors: NBA Team's Success Mirrors Rise Of Home City They're called the Golden State Warriors and are claimed by the entire Bay Area. But really, the Warriors belong to Oakland, Calif. The rise of the team from irrelevance to NBA champions mirrors the rise of the city itself. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Tonight, the Golden State Warriors go for win number 73, an NBA regular-season record. This has been a magical two-year run for the defending champions. The four decades before that, though, had very little magic and very few wins. It was also a rough time for Oakland, the city the Warriors call home. High crime and budget woes were annual problems. Now, the once boarded-up buildings that blighted its downtown are filling up with young people, techies and Golden State Warriors. Youth Radio's Garrison Pennington reports. GARRISON PENNINGTON, BYLINE: Just a few blocks from Youth Radio's headquarters, past some nondescript office buildings, is a huge Marriott Hotel with a secret. Hidden on the fifth floor is the practice gym for the Golden State Warriors. Past a set of grey double doors, you walk into what looks like a nice high school gym - not the kind of practice space you'd expect for the NBA's best team and their reigning MVP. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Seven, nine, eight, 10. PENNINGTON: I'm watching Stephen Curry shoot three-pointers right now. He's insanely fast. Four in a row - just seems like he can't miss. The moment Curry takes a break, he's swarmed by reporters. STEPHEN CURRY: So our focus is on the big picture and what it's going to take to go to the playoffs and what it's going to mean - or take to win your last game of the season. That's the only goal we really have. PENNINGTON: While the Warriors' management has announced the team is moving to San Francisco in three years, many players have made a home in downtown Oakland. Oaklanders often report seeing players at the grocery store, coffee shops, pumping their own gas and appearing at events with local youth groups. Before the current wave of gentrification hit downtown, the Warriors set up the team's rookies in apartments in what was an otherwise gritty part of town just blocks away from their practice space. Forward Harrison Barnes, who grew up in Iowa, was one of those rookies. Drafted by the Warriors at age 19, he found he loved the city. HARRISON BARNES: When it came to the off-season, it was pretty much a no-brainer that I would stay around here. You know, there was just so much to explore, so much to do that I wanted to stay around here. And for four years now, I've been - been living here all year round. PENNINGTON: Barnes recently did a promotional photo shoot for a mom-and-pop restaurant on the corner of his downtown neighborhood. Passersby quickly took to social media to capture the moment. It's clear the Warriors' support for small local businesses wins them a lot of love. Twenty-three-year-old forward James McAdoo says, coming from Virginia, he'd heard the negative stereotypes about Oakland, but now loves it and sees a parallel between the success of the city and the Warriors. JAMES MCADOO: Just to speak on, you know, the correlation between this team - you know, how things have, you know, been great this season. But, you know, when we've hit rough patches, we've continued to persevere. I think that also helps, you know, with the Warriors being able to be a bright spot that the city of Oakland can rely on. PENNINGTON: The Warriors' success has done a lot for Oakland's pride. Kyndall McCoy works as a security guard in the City Hall plaza. KYNDALL MCCOY: It's really put a real positive note on the city. All downtown, you see banners of Warriors, go Warriors. So that's a good, positive thing for Oakland. SAM AMICK: It's a city that is known for its grit, you know? And it's known as a tough place. It's a tough place to come up, but it's also a great place in a lot of ways. PENNINGTON: That's Sam Amick. He covers the NBA for USA Today Sports. Amick grew up in nearby Pleasanton and knows Oakland well. AMICK: the mood with team doing what they're doing - it's contagious. And people - their smiles are a little bit bigger, and folks are talking about last night's game. And the connection is, you know, these guys are their guys. PENNINGTON: Warriors' power forward Draymond Green is one of their guys. Here he is speaking at a press conference about the way the players also thrive off the energy of Oakland. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) DRAYMOND GREEN: The support that we receive around here is amazing. And so, you know, you can tell that it's doing a lot for the city. It's bringing life to the city. And, I mean, that's the position that you're in. You want to try to take advantage of that, and I think, you know, we're doing that. And, you know, I'm happy to be in a position to help. PENNINGTON: As the Warriors and their fans continue to chase history, Oakland is enjoying the moment. For NPR News, I'm Garrison Pennington. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHOICES - YUP - WARRIORS REMIX") E-40: (Singing) Everybody say Warriors. Warriors. SHAPIRO: That piece was produced by Youth Radio. And a disclosure - Youth Radio is a Hoops For Kids recipient, a program of the Warriors Foundation. Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

With several weeks to go before the new Congress is seated, House Democrats have eagerly announced plans to begin a spate of investigations into the White House on a variety of topics -- including one of Trump's executive decisions that followed precedent set by former President Barack Obama. The slew of potential probes comes as new polling indicates that Democrats run the risk of alienating moderate voters by overplaying their hand as they retake committee gavels for the first time in eight years. The incoming chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., on Monday vowed to look into the White House's refusal to fully defend the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ObamaCare, in court against a lawsuit by 20 states. Justice Department lawyers argue that because a tax penalty is no longer imposed on those who fail to obtain health insurance, the legal justification that the Supreme Court used to uphold ObamaCare's constitutionality -- Congress' taxing power -- no longer holds. “In the next Congress, this committee expects to examine the department’s refusal to defend a duly enacted federal statute, the abrupt resignation of veteran department employees and an apparent determination by this administration to undermine affordable healthcare coverage for millions of Americans,” Nadler said in a statement. But Trump's Justice Department, in choosing not to defend a law in court that it believed was unconstitutional, was following in the footsteps of the previous administration. In 2011, the Obama DOJ announced it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Meanwhile, House Oversight Committee Democrats said Tuesday they will also investigate Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner’s use of private email accounts for official White House business, re-launching a 2017 probe into whether Trump administration officials are complying with the Presidential Record Act. Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who is expected to become chairman at the beginning of the 116th Congress in January, announced that he wants more information about Ivanka's use of a personal email account while conducting official administration business one day after a Washington Post report highlighted White House officials' apparent unease about the issue. “We launched a bipartisan investigation last year into White House officials’ use of private email accounts for official business, but the White House never gave us the information we requested,” Cummings said in a statement to Fox News. “We need those documents to ensure that Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and other officials are complying with federal records laws and there is a complete record of the activities of this Administration.” "They weren't classified like Hillary Clinton's, they weren't deleted like Hillary Clinton's." — President Trump But there were early signs that Democrats may be overplaying their hand. In a statement to Fox News, Peter Mirijanian, the spokesperson for Trump's ethics lawyer Abbe Lowell, emphasized several key distinctions to the Hillary Clinton email scandal that engulfed the 2016 presidential campaign. HOUSE INVESTIGATIONS ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLY PARTISAN AND LESS EFFECTIVE, EXPERT TELLS FOX NEWS "To address misinformation being peddled about Ms. Trump’s personal email, she did not create a private server in her house or office, there was never classified information transmitted, the account was never transferred or housed at Trump Organization, no emails were ever deleted, and the emails have been retained in the official account in conformity with records preservation laws and rules," Mirijanian said. He added: "When concerns were raised in the press 14 months ago, Ms. Trump reviewed and verified her email use with White House Counsel and explained the issue to congressional leaders." Mirijanian told the Post that Trump had used a personal account prior to being briefed on ethics rules. President Trump also made that argument in remarks to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, saying the Post's story was "fake news" and that his daughter had complied with the law and, unlike Clinton, had not deleted tens of thousands of emails -- after receiving a subpoenea or otherwise. "They weren't classified like Hillary Clinton's, they weren't deleted like Hillary Clinton's; she wasn't doing anything to hide her emails," Trump said. "They're all in presidential records. ... There was no servers in the basement, like Hillary Clinton had. You're talking about fake news." While Special Counsel Robert Mueller is leading the investigation into any potential illegal collusion between Trump officials and the Russian government, House and Senate Democrats have indicated they are eager to explore peripheral issues. For example, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., requested on Tuesday that DOJ watchdog Michael E. Horowitz probe whether there were any “unlawful or improper communications” between new Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and the Trump White House. TRUMP SUBMITS WRITTEN ANSWERS TO MUELLER, AS RUSSIA PROBE WINDS DOWN Whitaker previously served as chief of staff to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and had open lines of communications with the administration. Schumer particularly expressed an interest in whether Whitaker had shared any “confidential grand jury or investigative information from the Special Counsel investigation or any criminal investigation" with the Trump White House. And last week, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said in an interview with "Axios on HBO" that he and his colleagues will employ committee subpoena powers -- which are backed by the legal threat of contempt of Congress -- to conduct the triple-threaded inquiry into Trump's possible use of the "instruments of state power to punish the press," as well as potential money laundering involving the Trump Organization in Russia. (Trump has since derided Schiff as "little Adam Schitt.") Specifically, Schiff charged that Trump "was secretly meeting with the postmaster [general] in an effort to browbeat" her into "raising postal rates on Amazon," whose founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, separately owns The Washington Post. "This appears to be an effort by the president to use the instruments of state power to punish Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post," Schiff said in the interview. Schiff also raised the possibility that the Trump administration's opposition to AT&T's $85 billion takeover of Time Warner on antitrust grounds may have been motivated by the president's animus toward CNN, whose parent company is Time Warner. Trump frequently claims that CNN speads "fake news" and that when it does so, it is acting as the "enemy of the people." "We don't know, for example, whether the effort to hold up the merger of the parent of CNN was a concern over antitrust, or whether this was an effort merely to punish CNN," Schiff said. "It is very squarely within our responsibility to find out," Schiff said. But former GOP Judiciary Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who is now a Fox News contributor, told Politico in October that Cummings and Schiff shouldn't get their hopes up. “If [North Carolina Rep.] Mark Meadows and [Ohio Rep.] Jim Jordan can’t get documents out of the White House, I don’t know why Elijah Cummings and the Democrats think they’ll do any better,” Chaffetz said. Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Officials from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have confirmed that there are now 234 pregnant women in the continental US carrying the Zika virus – an infection spread by mosquito bites that can cause a devastating birth defect called microcephaly. Out of these women, there have been six "abnormalities" – three babies born with birth defects so far, and another three who died before birth – though officials did not say how many of the women have given birth in total, and how many are still pregnant. As Sabrina Tavernise from The New York Times points out, the report poses more questions than it gives answers. For example, without knowing the number of babies born, how do we make sense of the six abnormalities? Do these represent a large or small amount of the women infected? In response to those questions, one of CDC’s leaders on pregnancy and birth defects, Denise Jamieson, said that the newly released numbers are only the first in a series of updates that will provide more information. "We’re sort of in a hard place," Jamieson told The New York Times. "We can’t provide a lot of information about where these women are in their pregnancy. We don’t want to inadvertently disclose information about difficult decisions these women are making about their pregnancies." The CDC also hasn't disclosed where any of these women were infected with the virus, or how they came in contact with it. So far, we do know that one of the babies was born was microcephaly – a birth defect that causes a baby’s brain to not fully develop during pregnancy, resulting them being born with an abnormally small head and cognitive complications. Jamieson said that the risk of an infected woman giving birth to a child with birth defects is around one to 15 percent. "Microcephalic babies are beginning to be born [in the US]," Jamieson said. "The disease seems to be very similar no matter where it is." Though Zika virus can cause major health problems for pregnant women and their unborn children, the infection is usually pretty harmless for most healthy individuals. In fact, roughly 80 percent of those infected never know it. Usually, even if symptoms, such as fever and rash, appear, they only last a few weeks and rarely end in hospital visits. The virus was first discovered back in 1947 in monkeys, getting its name from the Zika Forest in Uganda where it was found. The first reported cases of Zika started to emerge in 1952 in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. "Before 2007, at least 14 cases of Zika had been documented, although other cases were likely to have occurred and were not reported," reports the CDC. "Because the symptoms of Zika are similar to those of many other diseases, many cases may not have been recognised." The virus is primarily transmitted through mosquito bites, though men can sexually transmit the disease if they were recently infected before a sexual act. The CDC says that the best way to prevent contracting the illness is to avoid getting bitten in the first place, which is obviously easier said than done. To help with this, the CDC has a full list of prevention methods on their website. "What we're seeing is a very consistent pattern underscoring the fact that Zika causes microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities," Jamieson told Lena H. Sun from The Washington Post. "This highlights the importance of preventing unintended pregnancies, avoiding mosquito bites and for pregnant women to avoid traveling to areas with ongoing Zika virus transmission." Despite all of this bad news, scientists are working hard to combat the disease, with several vaccine candidates in development. Back in May, an international team of researchers created a tool that can diagnose Zika in just a 3 hours. So far, though, an effective treatment for pregnant women has remained out of sight.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald said Friday that he won’t be participating in Germany’s parliamentary investigation of National Security Agency spying activities unless the probe includes an interview with Edward Snowden. Greenwald, who won a Pulitzer Prize this year for his reporting on Snowden’s disclosures of NSA surveillance, said that the Germans would be remiss if they didn’t interview the former security contractor, whose temporary asylum in Russia expired this week. “I am very supportive of any attempt by the German Parliament to conduct a serious investigation into NSA spying on Germans,” Greenwald said in a statement that he posted on Twitter. “Unfortunately, German politicians have demonstrated, with their refusal to interview the key witness in person – Edward Snowden – that they care far more about not upsetting the U.S. than they do about conducting a serious investigation.” Greenwald made the same point in April, arguing that “it would be incredibly irresponsible for the German Commission to try and pretend to investigate surveillance on German soil without speaking to the one person who knows more about that and is willing to talk to them than anybody in the world.” Below, Greenwald’s full statement:

Dear GM CEO Mary Barra: A revolution doesn’t happen overnight. It took Thomas Edison more than 1,000 light bulbs before he found the right one. Henry Ford’s wife, Clara Ford, drove a Detroit Electric car in 1914 that once went 241 miles on a charge. Women refused to ride in the gasoline-powered horseless carriage because the soot soiled their dresses and frankly, many feared it would catch fire! Which brings me to your decision to stop making the Chevy Volt. The battery-powered car with the small gasoline tank and generator that powers the electric drive train when battery juice runs out was the first of its kind in the modern era. This was no ordinary hybrid. It was an electric car that gave you the ability to drive more than 400 miles without stopping. No more “range anxiety.” Ironically, you say GM wants to focus on pure electric vehicles, like its newer Chevy Bolt (with a “B”) that gets 238 miles on a charge and sells for about $37,000? Fine. But killing the amazing, versatile Volt — a bridge car I own that gets me to work using only battery power but also to assignments across the Southland without stopping for a charge — is a huge mistake. Not everyone is ready to drive an all-electric car. There is “range anxiety,” not knowing whether you can make it back home. And there are not enough public charging stations, not even close, to accommodate every EV driver’s needs. The Volt closed that gap for hundreds of thousands of revolution-minded owners. Your decision is premature. You are killing a fantastically engineered car that became the basis for the Bolt. Frankly, this move is a headscratcher. It makes me question your commitment to electric vehicles, as well as electric autonomous vehicles. I get the other decisions, even though they are painful for the soon-to-be laid off 14,000 workers. Closing up to five plants and stopping the production of poor performing gasoline sedans such as the Cruze, Impala and Cadillac models makes sense. But you speak out of both sides of your mouth when you say you want to focus on electric vehicles but are killing the Volt. Moving away from ICE sedans because America is hooked on gas-guzzling pickup trucks and SUVs? That is a business decision, as much as it is a disastrous one for the planet. I say, keep making the Volt for five more years. Lagging sales are your fault. You did not promote it in your ads. You didn’t educate your sales force. I leased my first Volt in 2013 and the dealer didn’t know much about it. “You know more about this car than I do,” he told me during a test drive. I am on my second one, a black, 2017 Volt LT that can get 63 miles per charge on a warmer day, has virtually zero maintenance costs, drives like I’m floating on a cloud and handles as a sports car. But I assume you already know all this. But did you know how about the loyalty of Volt owners? Isn’t loyalty to the Chevy brand what you sell in your ads? Now you are destroying it. I became evangelistic about the Chevy Volt. I convinced three co-workers to buy one and they love theirs. I was spreading the gospel of Chevy’s commitment to electric vehicles ever since interviewing Bob Lutz at the L.A. Car Show, the living legend (now 85 years old) who helped engineer the Volt after making iconic ICE sports cars. The message was perfect: Help dump gasoline. Join the clean energy revolution. But you don’t need an all-electric car to hop on board. You don’t need to lay out $50,000 or $60,000 for a Tesla to save the planet. Again, revolutions take time. And that’s OK because Chevy has your back. Or so I thought. Maybe it is not you, it’s me. No, wait. It IS you; it’s not me. I have been loyal. I did my part. Lutz did his. And now, you are breaking up with me. I will have to look at the 2019 Nissan Leaf or at the lower-priced Tesla Model 3 when my Volt lease runs out next spring. You know, my dad had a 1962 Impala — a car for that time. I wanted to stick with Chevy in honor of him. But now, you’ve lost me. I guess time will tell if you still are leading the way or have retreated in favor of higher profits. Will I see you at the revolution? Or, maybe we should just become friends. Signed, A loyal Chevy Volt owner Steve Scauzillo covers public health, environment and green transportation for the Southern California News Group. He’s a recipient of the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @stevscaz or email him at [email protected].

In a major blow to the latest Republican healthcare effort, Sen Susan Collins said on Monday she could not support her colleagues’ measure. Republicans seeking once again to fulfil their promise of repealing a federal healthcare law could afford few defections, and the loss of Ms Collins - a centrist from Maine - likely deprived them of the needed vote margin to move their bill. If the loss of Ms Collins does doom the initiative, the collapse will be the latest failure in a string of abortive Republican efforts to translate a perpetual campaign promise - the repeal of Obamacare - into legislation. The party has failed to do so despite controlling the presidency and both houses of Congress. Ms Collins' “no” vote also helped stymie a high-profile push in July. Hoping to win enough votes to advance the measure, Republicans had sought to lure holdouts like Ms Collins and Alaska Sen Lisa Murkowski. Leadership was scrambling to cobble together enough votes after other members of the caucus - including Senators John McCain, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul - declined to support the measure. In a statement explaining her decision, Ms Collins cited “sweeping changes and cuts to the Medicaid program”, which provides health insurance to low-income Americans; provisions that would allow states to set rules potentially leading insurers to charge higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions; and a wall of resistance from health industry representatives. An effort to ease Maine’s loss of funding would not go far enough, Ms Collins said, because “huge Medicaid cuts down the road more than offset any short-term influx of money”, and she faulted the political calculus behind trying to win her vote. Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown Show all 3 1 /3 Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown obama.jpg Martin Wolske, 49 and his family, Illinois. His son Eric, 23 (bottom right, dark hair) was recently badly injured in a motorcycle accident. Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown obama2.jpg Tracy Russo, 31, Washington DC Faces of Obamacare: The health scheme at the centre of the shutdown obama3.jpg Kevin McCollum, 41, and his wife Melissa, 40, Texas “If Senators can adjust a funding formula over a weekend to help a single state”, she said, “they could just as easily adjust that formula in the future to hurt that state”. Critics of the Republican repeal effort have complained of a rushed and opaque process that hasn’t left enough time to analyse proposals. On the same day that Ms Collins said she could not support the latest bill, the Congressional Budget Office released a partial analysis that offered ammunition to detractors. The legislation would slash federal subsidies to help individuals buy health insurance, allocating funding via new block grants to states, and would trim the budget deficit by at least $133 billion, the nonpartisan analyst said. The woman who stopped Trump repealing Obamacare was applauded spontaneously at an airport But millions fewer people would have health insurance covering “high-cost medical events”, the analysis concludes. The loss in coverage would be driven by “substantially lower” Medicare enrollment, fewer people buying coverage because of a loss in federal subsidies, and a lack of penalties for not having insurance.

Daily Summary September 25, 2020 Yesterday Today Normal* Record Low High Low High Low High Low High Temperature: 72°F 91°F 73°F 92°F 64°F 85°F 44°F (1989) 102°F (2005) Yesterday Today Record Rain: 0.00 " 0.00" 2.27" (1913) Snow: " " 0.00" () *Normals based on 30 year averages. Current normals calculated from data collected from 1981-2010. (As officially recorded at DFW Airport. Period of record began in September 1898.)

Transport for London (TfL) has announced that the first section of the new signalling system on the London Underground has commenced operations. The Thales-delivered signalling system is currently operational between Hammersmith and Latimer Road. Overall, it will be rolled out across Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines. Deployment of the signalling system will enable TfL to increase the frequency of operations to accommodate passengers during peak hours. TfL director of major projects Stuart Harvey said: “The modernisation of these four lines will make a massive difference to hundreds of thousands of customers every day by making journeys quicker and more comfortable. “The modernisation of these four lines will make a massive difference to hundreds of thousands of customers every day.” “It will also make customer information more accurate and improve reliability in the long-term. The introduction of the first section of new signalling is a really exciting step for the Tube, and for everyone who uses these lines.” Train frequency in central London will increase from 28 to 32 per hour, effective from 2021. Overall project completion is expected in 2023. Thales Ground Transportation Systems vice-president Shaun Jones said: “The successful introduction of this section is a significant step on the journey to upgrade the signalling system of this highly complex railway. “This further demonstrates the capabilities of Thales technology, leading to a reliable railway that enables capacity improvements for people travelling throughout London.” The signalling upgrade works are part of a larger modernisation programme for the four Tube lines. The programme includes the introduction of S-stock Tube trains. In total, the four lines carry 1.3 million customers daily.

In a move that may spark a constitutional crisis, Gujarat Governor Kamala Beniwal on Friday appointed a Lokayukta, bypassing the Narendra Modi government. Within hours, the State government moved the High Court, challenging the constitutional propriety of the appointment. Sources in the government said Gujarat might become the second State, after Karnataka, to witness a confrontation between the government and the Governor. The announcement of Lokayukta's appointment was made by Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Shaktisinh Gohil, who led a Congress delegation to the Governor in the afternoon to request her to appoint a Lokayukta, arguing that the government had failed for the past seven-and-half years to fill the post in keeping with its constitutional obligations. Coming out of the Raj Bhavan, Mr. Gohil said the Governor told the delegation that she had issued the notification on Thursday, appointing R.A. Mehta, a retired judge of the Gujarat High Court, Lokayukta. She also said the file on the appointment had been sent to the government. The name of the 75-year-old Mehta — who served as judge of the High Court from 1982 till his retirement in May 1998 and who has also held the post of acting Chief Justice several times — was recommended earlier by the Chief Justice of the High Court, S.J. Mukhopadhyaya, and was approved by the Congress. Mr. Gohil, himself an advocate practising in the High Court, maintained that under the State Lokayukta Act, the government had no role in the appointment, the power of which vested with the Governor. He said the Governor had cleared Justice Mehta's name long ago and advised the government to issue the notification for his appointment, but the government failed to act, despite several reminders, forcing the Governor to directly appoint the Lokayukta. Cabinet spokesman and Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas said the direct appointment of the Lokayukta by the Governor was “unconstitutional.” The Governor, he claimed, was expected to act on the advice of the Council of Ministers and could not bypass the government in any appointment. Pointing to the constitution of the five-member Cabinet sub-committee at Wednesday's Cabinet meeting to recommend amendments to the State Lokayukta Act commensurate with the Lokpal Bill to be adopted by Parliament, Mr. Vyas said that when the process was under way to make changes to and expand the scope of the Act, the Governor had erred by making the appointment without consulting the government.

What if god doesn't exist and people just made him up to control other people 4,512 shares

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was exposed for her blatant push to include abortion funding in the emergency coronavirus bill. Senior White House officials alleged that the California Democrat attempted to get “several” provisions added to the bipartisan plan while in negotiations with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, according to The Daily Caller. While the liberal media skewed the narrative by claiming House Republicans were to blame for the delay in the coronavirus economic stimulus plan because of demands to “include Hyde amendment language,” it was actually Pelosi who was pushing for a mandate for up to $1 billion to reimburse claims made by laboratories. “A new mandatory funding stream that does not have Hyde protections would be unprecedented,” a White House official told the Daily Caller, referring to the amendment which blocks federal funding to clinics that perform abortions. Notice how this is framed. “GOP demands to include Hyde amendment language.” In reality, GOP demands Pelosi and Democrats don’t be ghouls and try to sneak in abortion funds to sneak around Hyde Amendment. Holy shit our media sucks. https://t.co/Lo1Pv9JcfT — Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) March 12, 2020 The provision was described as a “slush fund” by one White House official speaking to the news site while another reportedly asked “what the Hyde Amendment and abortion have to do with protecting Americans from coronavirus,” which was echoed by MSNBC’s Joy Reid. Wow… @kasie just reported that Republicans’ objections to the House Democrats’ emergency coronavirus bill include issues related to abortion. What does that have to do with COVID19…? — Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) March 12, 2020 “You should ask Nancy Pelosi why she decided to play politics and strong arm abortion funding into the coronavirus bill,” the Daily Caller’s Greg Price tweeted in response. Others also slammed the attempts to sneak in the provisions while the media spun a false narrative about the GOP opposition to the bill. As if the baby murder didn’t make it obvious enough, YOU GUYS ARE SO EVIL. Pelosi tries to sneak in $1B of our tax dollars to fund abortion. If y’all really cared about people dying of coronavirus, nothing about abortion would be included. https://t.co/eoOapiJ4cL — Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) March 12, 2020 Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko gave an update on the negotiations while calling out Pelosi’s strategy. Speaker Pelosi dropped a totally partisan coronavirus bill at the eleventh hour and snuck in provisions that have nothing to do with #COVIDー19. We all care about fighting this disease, preventing its spread, & protecting Americans. We must put politics aside and work together. pic.twitter.com/I2pJK6D5Ev — Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (@RepDLesko) March 12, 2020 While President Trump promised to sign any stimulus bill that Congress approved, Republicans and the White House openly opposed the House proposal and called for more time to address questionable issues. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called for a new draft over the next 24-48 hours, and tweeted a video montage showing his remarks against Pelosi’s petulant outburst at her weekly press conference. We owe it to the American people to get this right, and I am confident that if we come together as adults, we can act responsibly in the next 48 hours. But a “my way or the highway” approach is not the right way to handle a serious health epidemic. pic.twitter.com/bDWd0G8ug0 — Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) March 12, 2020 “We don’t need 48 hours, we need to just make a decision to help families right now… I’m not sticking around because they don’t want to agree to language,” the congresswoman said defiantly in response to a question about whether House Democrats would put off a recess if a compromise on the coronavirus response bill is not reached in the next 24-48 hours. Lawmakers called out the Democrat leader and exposed the bill which Rep. Steve Scalise said was “full of liberal fantasies that have nothing to do” with the coronavirus crisis. Pelosi wasted the whole week behind closed doors drafting a partisan bill full of liberal fantasies that have nothing to do w/ Coronavirus. Republicans are ready to work w/ Dems on SERIOUS solutions. Now is not the time for politics. Pelosi needs to stop the games & work w/ us. — Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) March 12, 2020 Donald Trump Jr. reacted in a tweet accusing Democrats of “trying to create an abortion slush fund.” This pretty much sums everything up: @realDonaldTrump is moving quickly to protect Americans from coronavirus and its economic impact… Democrats are spending their time trying to create an abortion slush fund! https://t.co/oFSxOLDBQj — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 12, 2020 Others also expressed their frustration over the political games. What does it say about the radical Democratic Party that Pelosi would bring up a bill to limit the President’s ability to control disease carriers from coming into the United States in the middle of a pandemic. How many Americans is Pelosi willing to sacrifice to her ideology. — Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) March 12, 2020 Can you believe Pelosi is loading the Coronavirus bill down with pork? — Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) March 12, 2020 Pelosi wanted to sneak in a billion dollars in funding for abortion programs through the coronavirus stimulus package. Don’t ever tell me the Democrats aren’t politicizing this situation. https://t.co/uuaqmzshfj — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 12, 2020

A quel âge philosophe-t-on le mieux ? Pourquoi la jeunesse serait-elle un moment propice à cet exercice ? Et quel est le lien entre les jeunes et beaux garçons dont Socrate s'entoure et la recherche de la vérité ? La réponse aujourd'hui avec le jeune mais sage Fulcran Teisserenc. Le texte du jour « Le jeune homme confie toujours le commandement de son âme au plaisir qui surgit soudainement, comme s’il était soumis au destin, jusqu’à ce qu’il en soit rassasié, puis il s’abandonne à un autre, et cela sans en mépriser aucun, mais en les nourrissant de manière égale. (…) Si on se risque à lui dire que certains plaisirs découlent de désirs nobles et bons, alors que d’autres naissent de désirs mauvais, et qu’il faut cultiver et valoriser les premiers, réprimer et dompter les seconds, dans toutes ces circonstances il hoche la tête en signe de dédain. Pour lui, selon ce qu’il prétend, ils sont tous pareils et doivent être considérés de valeur égale. (…) Il passe ses journées à satisfaire sur cette lancée le désir qui fait irruption : aujourd’hui il s’enivre au son des flûtes, demain il se contente de boire de l’eau et se laisse maigrir ; un jour il s’entraîne au gymnase, le lendemain il est lascif et indifférent à tout, et parfois on le voit même donner son temps à ce qu’il croit être la philosophie. Souvent il s’engage dans la vie politique et, se levant sur un coup de tête, il dit et fait ce que le hasard lui dicte. S’il lui arrive d’envier les gens de guerre, le voilà qui s’y implique ; s’agit-il des commerçants, il se précipite dans les affaires. Sa vie ne répond à aucun principe d’ordonnancement, à aucune nécessité ; au contraire, l’existence qu’il mène lui semble mériter le qualificatif d’agréable, libre, bienheureuse, et il vit de cette manière en toute circonstance. » Platon, République, VIII Lectures - Platon, République, VIII, in Œuvres complètes sous la direction de Luc Brisson, (Flammarion, 2008) - Platon, Gorgias, in Œuvres complètes sous la direction de Luc Brisson (Flammarion, 2008) Extraits - Après mai, film d’Olivier Assayas (2012) - Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse, film d’Arnaud Desplechin (2015) Références musicales - David Helbock Trio, Eros - Hayashi, One Piece film gold - Supergrass, Alright - Steff, Je suis jeune - Röntgen, Ein cyclus von phantasiestücken

Harrison Ford wants to do Indiana Jones 5. Steven Spielberg wants to do Indiana Jones 5. Lucasfilm wants to do Indiana Jones 5. So what’s the deal with Indiana Jones 5? Another installment following Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has been buzzing around the Web for quite some time, and producer/Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has another update for us. Long story short, it’s still in the works, but obviously the big priority right now is getting the new Star Wars off the ground. THR spoke with the Lucasfilm president, who, among a number of other topics, said of Indiana Jones 5: We’re all trying to figure out when the right time is to step back in. Harrison really wants to do it; Steven really wants to do it. We’ve kicked around a couple of story ideas, but beyond that, I don’t know yet. I think there will be one, we’ll certainly move forward with Indy. But right now, everybody’s just focused on Star Wars. Ford reprises his role of Han Solo for The Force Awakens, out in theaters December 18th, and he’ll also return as Indy for this fifth installment. Spielberg said recently that he has no intentions of replacing the actor in the role, even though Crystal Skull made it seem like Shia LaBeouf was going to be stepping up to the leading man plate. Still, how long can a man in his early 70s go before he can’t crack the whip anymore? Kennedy’s comments do conflict with previous statements from producer Frank Marshall, who said back in October that there haven’t been talks about Indy 5 yet, which apparently aren’t accurate. It’s hard to imagine hearing anything more on this front before the holidays, which will be all about Star Wars. Lucasfilm has a trilogy installment scheduled for every year with an anthology film slated in between. Once they get in a good groove, perhaps then Indy will get more attention. Hopefully everyone involved with still want to do it.

Share this... Already 58 New 2017 Papers Link Solar Activity To Climate Changes Earlier this month, the first installment in the accumulating list of hundreds of new peer-reviewed scientific papers supporting a skeptical position on climate change alarm was made available. Included on the list were 38 papers linking climate changes to solar forcing: 38 Sun-Climate Scientific Papers, January-March 2017 Just in the last few weeks alone, another 20 scientific papers were identified which link solar variations to climate changes, which means 58 papers have already been published in 2017. 20 New Sun-Climate Papers High Solar Activity (Warming), High Crop Yields – Low Solar Activity (Cooling), Low Crop Yields “Throughout the written history of Finland, delayed onset of summer and night frost have been named as the main reasons for crop failure and famine. … Our reconstruction suggests that in the 8th–10th centuries AD, when continuous crop cultivation was established in Finland, the risk of temperature-driven crop failure was notably lower and the crops were generally higher than during the historical period (c. 13th century ad onwards). The continuous period of high crop yields coincides with an episode of multi-centennial summer season warmth, associated with the MCA [Medieval Climate Anomaly] in the region and around north-west Europe (Goosse et al., 2012; Luoto and Helama, 2010; Ogilvie et al., 2000; Sundqvist et al., 2010). The warm climatic regime of the MCA was interrupted by a period of distinctly cold winter and summer temperatures c. ad 1110– 1150 (Helama et al., 2009b; Linderholm et al., 2015; Tiljander et al., 2003). Also on the eastern side of the study area, in North-West Russia, c. ad 950–1100 was marked by a warmer climate and intensive agricultural expansion to the north (Klimenko, 2016).” “The rapid mid-15th century cooling, which followed a major atmospheric circulation change over the North Atlantic (Dawson et al., 2007; Meeker and Mayewski, 2002) and coincided with the culmination of the Spörer solar minimum (Miyahara et al., 2006), has been evidenced in various summer and winter season reconstructions of the region (Haltia-Hovi et al., 2007; Helama et al., 2009b; Klimenko and Solomina, 2010; Luoto and Helama, 2010; Zhang et al., 2015).” “The culmination of the ‘LIA’ [Little Ice Age] in Finland has been commonly dated to the late 17th and early 18th centuries ad (Luoto, 2013; Luoto and Helama, 2010; Tiljander et al., 2003), which is synchronous with the onset of the phase of the lowest yield ratios in our reconstruction. The Maunder solar minima (c. 1645–1715) and several volcanic eruptions preceded the culmination (Shindell et al., 2003).” Decadal Variations In Ozone, ENSO, NAO, Mean Sea Level, And Climate ‘Excited By Solar Activity’ 2. Chapanov et al., 2017 DECADAL CYCLES OF EARTH ROTATION, MEAN SEA LEVEL AND CLIMATE, EXCITED BY SOLAR ACTIVITY “But recently, another mechanism of climate variations, due to cosmic rays was proposed (Kilifarska and Haight, 2005; Kilifarska, 2008, 2011; Velinov et al., 2005). According to the new models, the cosmic rays produce a ionization of the atmosphere, changes of atmosphere conductivity, lightning, and an increase of ozone concentration. The ozone plays significant role in climate variations, so the new models of cosmic ray influences on Earth atmosphere may explain the observed correlation between cosmic rays and climate variations.” “The shape of solar cycles is rather different from sinusoidal form, so they affect geosystems by many short-term harmonics. A possible solar origin of decadal variations of Earth rotation, mean sea level and climate indices is investigated by the harmonics of Jose, de Vries and Suess cycles with centennial periods of 178.7, 208 and 231 years. The common decadal cycles of solar-terrestrial influences are investigated by long time series of Length of Day (LOD), Mean Sea Level (MSL) variations at Stockholm, ElNiño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), temperature and precipitation over Eastern Europe, Total Solar Irradiance (TSI), Wolf’s Numbers Wn and North-South solar asymmetry. A good agreement exists between the decadal cycles of LOD [length of day], MSL [mean sea level], climate and solar indices whose periods are between 12-13, 14-16, 16-18 and 28-33 years .” “The Total Solar Irradiance (TSI), Wolf’s Numbers (Wn) and North-South (N-S) solar asymmetry expose different spectral peaks, amplitude modulation and phases from these bands. These solar time series represent thermal heating over the Earth, solar wind (space weather) and solar magnetic field variations. The decadal cycles of N-S [North-South] solar asymmetry strongly affect corresponding cycles of El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) .” 3. Helama et al., 2017 (full) “Solar proxy data (Steinhilber et al., 2009) consistently illustrate low activity between AD 400 and 700, with a notable seventh-century solar minimum, the millennial-scale solar changes culminating over these centuries and thus during the DACP [Dark Ages Cold Period] (Scafetta, 2012). Interestingly, there is multiple proxy evidence showing that reduced solar activity may modulate the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) towards its negative phase (Gray et al., 2010). Since the NAO is a leading pattern of climate variability in the global atmosphere, and the negative NAO phase is generally associated with cooler temperatures particularly over western Europe and eastern North-America for both the winter (Wanner et al., 2001; Hurrell and Deser, 2010) and summer seasons (Folland et al., 2009), a prolonged negative NAO phase could thus result in cold temperatures at least over some parts of the Northern Hemisphere continents. … Recently, a collection of multi-proxy evidence illustrated a cooling phase around the Northern Hemisphere which was tree-ring dated to AD 536-660 and termed the Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) (Büntgen et al., 2016). This event was shown to follow a multitude of large unknown volcanic eruptions in AD 536, 540 and 547, for which evidence was derived from bipolar ice-core timescales and sulphur records (Sigl et al., 2015). The cooling, having once initiated from volcanic aerosol forcing (Larsen et al. 2008), may have been sustained over extended intervals possibly because of the coinciding solar minimum and through sea-ice/ocean feedback mechanisms (Büntgen et al., 2016; Matskovsky and Helama, 2016), analogous to findings from equivalent proxy data (Gennaretti et al., 2014) and transient climate model simulations(Miller et al., 2012) during the LIA. 4. Yukimoto et al., 2017 “A delayed response of the winter North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) to the 11-year solar cycle has been observed and modeled in recent studies. The result of this study supports a previous hypothesis that suggests that the 11-year solar cycle signals on the Earth’s surface are produced through a downward penetration of the changes in the stratospheric circulation. … The importance of the North Atlantic oscillation (NAO) for the European weather and climate conditions has been known for a long time (Walker and Bliss 1932; van Loon and Rogers 1978; Hurrell et al. 2003). NAO is the dominant intrinsic mode of atmospheric variability over the Atlantic sector (Hurrell and Deser 2009). … The present result confirms the previous hypothesis reported by Kodera et al. (2016), which stated that the major solar influence on the Earth’s surface can be produced through changes in stratospheric circulation , and the spatial structure of the solar signal at the Earth’s surface is largely conditioned by atmosphere’s interaction with the ocean.” 5. Wang et al., 2017 “The identification of causal effects is a fundamental problem in climate change research. Here, a new perspective on climate change causality is presented using the central England temperature (CET) dataset, the longest instrumental temperature record, and a combination of slow feature analysis and wavelet analysis. The driving forces of climate change were investigated and the results showed two independent degrees of freedom —a 3.36-year cycle and a 22.6-year cycle, which seem to be connected to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation cycle and the Hale sunspot cycle, respectively .” ’11-Year Solar Cycle…Influences [Surface] Weather And Climate’ 6. Gray et al., 2017 “There is growing evidence that variability associated with the 11-year solar cycle has an impact at the Earth’s surface and influences its weather and climate . Although the direct response to the Sun’s variability is extremely small, a number of different mechanisms have been suggested that could amplify the signal, resulting in regional signals that are much larger than expected. In this paper the observed solar cycle signal at the Earth’s surface is described, together with proposed mechanisms that involve modulation via the total incoming solar irradiance and via modulation of the ultra-violet part of the solarspectrum that influences ozone production in the stratosphere.” 7. Hood, 2017 QBO/Solar Modulation of the Boreal Winter Madden-Julian Oscillation … “The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), also known as the 30-60 day oscillation, is the strongest of the intraseasonal climate oscillations in the tropics and has significant derivative effects on extratropical circulation and intraseasonal climate. It has recently been shown that the stratospheric quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) modulates the amplitude of the boreal winter MJO such that MJO amplitudes are larger on average during the easterly phase (QBOE) than during the westerly phase (QBOW). A major possible mechanism is the decrease in static stability in the lowermost stratosphere under QBOE conditions resulting from relative upwelling associated with the QBO induced meridional circulation. Here, evidence is presented that tropical upwelling changes related to the 11-year solar cycle also modulate the boreal winter MJO . Based on 37.3 years of MJO amplitude data, the largest amplitudes and occurrence rates, and the weakest static stabilities in the tropical lower stratosphere, occur during the QBOE phase under solar minimum (SMIN) conditions while the smallest amplitudes and strongest static stabilities occur during the QBOW phase under solar maximum (SMAX) conditions. Conversely, when the QBO and solar forcings are opposed (QBOW/SMIN and QBOE/SMAX), the difference in occurrence rates becomes statistically insignificant.” 8. Gan et al., 2017 Temperature responses to the 11-year solar cycle in the mesosphere from the 31-year (1979-2010) … “Atmospheric response to the solar cycle (SC) here refers to atmospheric variability induced by the 11-year solar activity cycle. The SC [solar cycle] response originates mainly from large (4-8%) solar UV spectral irradiance change (in the range of 200-250 nm) from solar minimum to maximum condition, while the total solar flux stays nearly constant (0.1%) [Donnelly, 1991; Lean et al., 1997; Woods and Rottman, 1997; Beig et al., 2008; Gary et al., 2010]. The variability of the solar UV spectral irradiance affects the thermal structure of the atmosphere by directly changing the total energy deposited and indirectly modifying the photochemistry and dynamics of the atmosphere . In addition to the equatorial Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) [Baldwin et al., 2011] and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) [Li et al., 2013], the 11-year SC is also a significant source to the inter-annual variability in the mesosphere and lower (MLT) region.” Periods Of Low Solar Activity Explain Little Ice Age Cooling Trends 9. Pandey and Dubey, 2017 “The Maunder minimum (1645-1715) refers to a period when very few sunspots were observed. During this period, the Earth climate was cooler than normal . This period mimics the solar cycle climate change connections. The particles and electromagnetic radiations flowing from solar activity outbursts are important for long-term climate variations. There is an abrupt and drastic cooling in the climate can be possible in near future due to large scale melting of global ice by global warming, and prolonged sunspot minima. There is a close correlation between variations in the 11-year sunspot cycle and Earth’s climate . Solar activity varies on shorter-time scales, including the 11- year sunspot cycle and longer-term as Milankovitch cycle.” 10. Williams et al., 2017 “Reconstructed SSTs significantly warmed 1.1 ± 0.30°C … from 1660s to 1800 (rate of change: 0.008 ± 0.002°C/year), followed by a significant cooling of 0.8 ± 0.04°C … until 1840 (rate of change: 0.02 ± 0.001°C/year), then a significant warming of 0.8 ± 0.16°C from 1860 until the end of reconstruction in 2007 (rate of change: 0.005 ± 0.001°C/year).” [Sea surface temperatures warmed faster from 1660s-1800 than they did from 1860-2007.] “In fact, the SST reconstruction significantly co-varied with a reconstruction of solar irradiance [Lean, 2000] on the 11-year periodicity only from ~1745 to 1825. In addition, the reconstructed SSTs were cool during the period of lower than usual solar irradiance called the Maunder minimum (1645–1715) but then warmed and cooled during the Dalton minimum (1795–1830), a second period of reduced solar irradiance. … The Dalton solar minimum and increased volcanic activity in the early 1800s could explain the decreasing SSTs from 1800 to 1850 … [T]hese data suggest a complex combination of solar irradiance, volcanic activity, internal ocean dynamics and external anthropogenic forcing explain the variability in Aleutian SSTs for the past 342 years.” 11. Didkovsky et al., 2017 “Radiative forcing of the Earth’s atmosphere plays a significant role in its thermal and chemical balance (Haigh, 1994; Haigh et al., 2010). Effects of heating and cooling are influenced by long-term solar-cycle changes . One example of such change compiled from sources that show sensitivity to the changes of solar activity (Hoyt and Schatten, 1998) is the Maunder Minimum of 1645 to about 1715 (Maunder, 1890). These observations demonstrate the effects of solar-activity changes during the Maunder Minimum for which low to near-zero sunspot numbers persisted for about six solar cycles (SC) with a SC-averaged period (for SC 1 to 22) of 11 years (Hathaway, 2010).” 12. Nan et al., 2017 “Furthermore, our temperature records, within age uncertainty, coincides with the changes of the solar irradiance changes, suggesting a possible link between solar forcing and climate variability. … The relationship between the solar irradiance and climate change has been demonstrated by lots of studies (He et al., 2013; Kroonenberg et al., 2007; Sagawa et al., 2014; Soon et al., 2014). It was suggested that the solar activity was a primary driving force of climatic variations in the Holocene (Bond et al., 2001; Wang et al., 2005). Small solar perturbations can be magnified by different feedback mechanisms and may ultimately lead to climatic oscillations on several time scales, such as annual to decadal and/or centennial scales, as well as millennial scales (Haigh, 1996; Bond et al., 2001).” ‘Marked Association Of Solar Activity With Weather And Climate Change’ 13. Xiao et al., 2017 “Solar wind and electric-microphysical process is the key mechanism that affects climate … We investigated the influencing mechanism of high-energetic particle precipitation modulated by solar wind on the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). On a day-to-day time scale, Zhou, Tinsley, and Huang (2014) and Huang et al. (2013) found that the minima in AO and NAO indices only lagged 0~2 days of the solar wind speed (SWS) minima during years of high stratospheric aerosol loading, which suggests a much faster mechanism of solar influence on the atmospheric system compared to the ozone destruction process. From the perspective of year-to-year variation, Xiao and Li (2016) and Zhou et al. (2016) showed a robust relationship between SWS [solar wind speed] and NAO in boreal winter . These aforementioned studies indicate that the wintertime Iceland Low in the North Atlantic was very sensitive to solar wind variations and played an important role in the process of solar wind and electric-microphysical effects on climate. Moreover, under the condition of a weak electric field, we have demonstrated the marked impact of cloud droplet electricity on the collision efficiency of cloud condensation nuclei. This, in turn, suggests that the collision in a cloud microphysics process constitutes the core link between atmospheric electricity and climate (Tinsley and Leddon 2013; Tinsley and Zhou 2013, 2014). Furthermore, Tinsley and Zhou (2015) improved the collision and parameterization scheme that varied with electric quantity in a cloud microphysics process and quantitatively evaluated the effects of high-energetic particle flux on cloud charge. This achievement not only supports the marked association of solar activity with weather and climate change on various time scales , but also but also avails the quantitative accession of solar impacts on climate. It is worth noting that the successful establishment development of a theoretical model regarding of the influencing process of solar energetic particles on the atmosphere improves the development of global climate models.” Hurricane Frequency ‘Is Synchronous With The Solar Irradiance’ 14. Vyklyuk et al., 2017 “Hurricane genesis modelling based on the relationship between solar activity and hurricanes … There are a number of works concerning the Sun–Earth connections and their influence on atmospheric motions. There are a number of observations which show that within a few days after energetic solar eruptions (flares, coronal mass ejections and eruptive prominences), there are diverse meteorological responses of considerable strength (Gomes et al. 2012). … Conclusion: [T]here are several indications which are in favor that the beginning of violent cyclonic motions in Earth’s atmosphere may be caused by charged particles from the solar wind .” 15. Katsuki et al., 2017 “Typhoon frequency in East Asia is synchronous with the solar irradiance . … Several studies documented typhoon pattern changes in response to the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). … The fluctuation of the solar activity plays a key role in regulating the westerly jet movement. The multi-centennial scale of the typhoon frequency in mid-latitude East Asia is therefore caused by changes in the solar activity and ENSO conditions.” ‘Climate…Follows Solar Activity Fluctuations On Multidecadal To Centennial Time Scales’ 16. Moreno et al., 2017 “Understanding the Sun-Earth’s climate coupling system is both an essential and an urgent issue, with great progress achieved over the last decades (e.g., Haigh, 2007; Soon et al., 2014 for a review). Recently, Brugnara et al. (2013) referred that the Euro–Atlantic sector, in which Portugal is located, seems to be a region with a particularly strong solar influence on the troposphere, finding a significant change in the mean late winter circulation over Europe, which culminates in detectable impacts on the near-surface climate. Jiang et al. (2015) suggested that (i) climate in the northern North Atlantic regions follows SA [solar activity] fluctuations on multidecadal to centennial time scales , and (ii) it is more susceptible to the influence of those fluctuations throughout cool periods with, for instance, less vigorous ocean circulation. Similar results were found by Gómez-Navarro et al. (2012) in the context of climate simulations for the second millennium over the Iberian Peninsula, recognizing that temperature and precipitation variability is significantly affected at centennial time scales by variations in the SA [solar activity].” “Grand Minima and Dalton-type Minimum scenarios are broadly characterized by (i) lower TSI (i.e., lower available PAR) (Lean, 1991, and references therein), (ii) development of cloudiness (e.g., Usoskin and Kovaltsov, 2008), and (iii) decreased global/regional air surface temperatures (e.g., Neukom et al., 2014) in tandem with greater regional precipitation variability.” “The connections between solar phenomena and the lower atmosphere processes can be explained by two kind of mechanisms: (i) “top-to-down”, influencing the pole-to-equator temperature gradient and exerting an impact on the modulation of the atmospheric circulation cells, weakening or strengthening the zonal winds, and (ii) “bottom-to up” that directly impact on the radiation fluxes, energy balance and temperatures on the ground. Both finally impact the atmospheric circulation modes responsible for the global/regional precipitation and temperature patterns (e.g., Gray et al., 2010; Martin-Puertas et al., 2012; Thiéblemont et al., 2015).” 17. Lihua, 2017 “The modulation action from solar activity plays an important role in the temperature change, and there is a possible association existing in the global land-ocean temperature and solar activity on decade time scales . … About 11-year period, a remarkable oscillation of solar activity, continually exists in wavelet transform of solar variation. According to the cross wavelet transform, solar activity influences global land-ocean temperature change on ~11-year time scales during 1935-1995 with above the 5 % significance level.” ‘A Large Proportion Of [Recent] Climate Variations…Explained By TSI And Cosmic Rays’ 18. Utomo, 2017 “A similar result was also found for the relationship between solar activity and cosmic ray flux with a negative correlation, i.e. 0.69/year. When solar activities decrease, the clouds cover rate increase due-0.61/month and – to secondary ions produced by cosmic rays. The increase in the cloud cover rate causes the decrease in solar constant value and solar radiation on the earth’s surface [cooling]. … The increase in the formation rate of cloud would affect the decrease in the intensity of solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface. The relationship between cosmic rays and solar constant is an “opposite” relationship because of the negative correlation type (r < 0). The phenomenon of “opposite” is in a good agreement with the result by Svensmark (1997) who found a correlation between temperature and global cloud coverage with the cosmic rays . … [T]he climate also depends on variations in the flux of solar energy received by the earth’s surface. Variation in the solar energy flux is caused by variations in solar activity cycle. Thus the climate is a manifestation of how solar radiation is absorbed, redistributed by the atmosphere, land and oceans, and ultimately radiated back into space. Every variation of solar energy received at the earth’s surface and reradiated by the earth into space will have a direct impact on climate change on Earth .” 19. Biktash, 2017 “The effects of total solar irradiance (TSI) and volcanic activity on long-term global temperature variations during solar cycles 19–23 [1954-2008] were studied. It was shown that a large proportion of climate variations can be explained by the mechanism of action of TSI [total solar irradiance] and cosmic rays (CRs) on the state of the lower atmosphere and other meteorological parameters. … Recent studies by Pudovkin and Raspopov, Tinsley, and Swensmark have shown that the Earth’s cloud coverage is strongly influenced by cosmic ray intensity. Conditions in interplanetary space, which can influence GCRs and climate change, have been studied in numerous works. As has been demonstrated by Biktash, the long-term CR count rate and global temperature variations in 20–23 solar cycles are modulated by solar activity and by the IMF (interplanetary magnetic field). A possible geophysical factor which is able to affect the influence of solar activity on the Earth’s climate is volcanism. The effects of volcanism can lead to serious consequences in the atmosphere and the climate.” +2 W m-2 Per Decade Surface Solar Radiation Forcing From 1983-2013 20. Alexandri et al., 2017 “In this work, the spatiotemporal variability of surface solar radiation (SSR) is examined over the Eastern Mediterranean region for a 31-year period (1983–2013). … The satellite-based data from CERES (Cloud and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System), GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment) and ISCCP (International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project) underestimate SSR while the reanalysis data from the ERA-Interim overestimate SSR compared to CM SAF SARAH. Using a radiative transfer model and a set of ancillary data, these biases are attributed to the atmospheric parameters that drive the transmission of solar radiation in the atmosphere, namely, clouds, aerosols and water vapor [CO2 not mentioned].. … The CM SAF SARAH SSR trend was found to be positive (brightening) and statistically significant at the 95% confidence level (0.2 ± 0.05 W/m2/year [2 W m-2 per decade].”

Welcome back! So, there is more to this chapter, I'll be the first to say it. I'm throwing some finishing touches on it now. I had made this one big super chapter, but was informed that, unfortunately, 8000+ words is way too much for one chapter. So, as a result, I cut it down into two parts. Now, I must apologize. This took way too long to bring out, regardless of what anyone says. End of school led to an increase at work and it was tough for me to figure out a way to schedule in everything, but now, after a month or two, I have found a way to properly schedule my work, writing and, albeit nonexistent, social life. Anyway, now that all of that is out of the way, I can finally say that I'm proud to bring you the fourth chapter of Downed! Enjoy. Yang shot out, striking a Crok head on. The massive beast bounced back, hit a tree, but still got up and began moving back towards the team. Ruby was trying to cut down as many as she could without wasting ammo. She knew she was already low enough as is; shooting these things wouldn't help. She'd have to use them in an emergency. Blake was close by to her leader, providing as much support as possible. Using her shadows, Blake was able to bounce in and around these beasts, cutting them up quickly and accurately. However, their iron-like skin makes dealing any kind of damage very difficult. Bullets and shells seemed to bounce off of them, while cutting them down was difficult and dangerous. Something the girls noticed was that as the Crok's got close, they stood on their back legs, giving themselves a huge size advantage. This, however, did leave them exposed, as their bellies weren't armored. But they could still take a couple of hits. Crok's were very well built. Yang made a shot, punching one that dared stand in its gut. It recoiled for a moment, but then turned an angry eye towards the brawler. Before it could lunge at Yang, a gust of wind could be felt. Before Yang realized it, her younger sister had come to the rescue, utilizing her speed semblance to decapitate the beast. Ruby did a flip before landing next to Yang. The sisters silently nodded then went back in. Blake had been using the trees to give herself a boost. Using her cat-like reflexes, she prowled above the Crok's that were still on their feet. Those were her targets. She jumped down, quickly slashing and stabbing whatever she could. She weakened them greatly, but they wouldn't die yet. Choosing that she didn't care about her ammo anymore, Blake pumped a few rounds into each beast. Five fell. But others still emerged from the swamp. "Ruby! Yang!" Blake called, "There's too many! We have to fall back!" "To where?!" Yang responded, "To the cave? We'll be cornered there!" "Well we can't fight here," Ruby defended Blake, "Weiss would be a great deal of help too!" She took a breath, "Ok! We're going back to the cave!" They all ran back to the cave. Ruby using Crescent Rose to cut down a many trees as possible, blocking the Crok's for a moment. It was still better than nothing. Once they got back to the cave, the trio took a moment to catch their breaths. Weiss, who had stayed back in the cave per Yang's request, was confused. "What happened out there?" She asked, "Was it-?" "Croks!" Ruby almost yelled, trying to steady her breathing, "So many! Like... Wow was that a lot of Croks!" "I only wish you were joking..." Weiss spoke meekly, "How many is a lot?" "Enough to give us trouble." Yang said blankly. "Listen up! Ruby gave us some time by taking those trees down but we don't have much longer here! We can either move to another area or stand and fight." All three looked at each other, pondering their options. Up until Weiss decided to speak, "Ok, allow me to be the voice of reason here. Ahem, we have few supplies, probably low an ammo, we're backed into a cave and our ride out of here is just over forty-five minutes away. Running may not seem like a good idea, but it gives us the best chance for survival. If we stay here then once we run out of ammo we're dead." Ruby and Blake looked at Weiss, then each other, then to Yang. Ruby stood up, "I... I think Weiss is right here. We can go out, find another place that won't leave us backed into a corner and fight there. Any amount of time we can burn until the evac comes is a plus. I say we book it." Blake sighed, "I hate to admit it, but running for now sounds good." Yang nodded and clapped her hands together, "So it's settled?" Everyone nodded, "Good. Let's get going." Picking up the radio, Yang was the first to step out of the cave. She didn't even take more than two steps before stopping and sighing. The rest of the team joined her outside and gasped. The Crokolisks had climbed above and moved around the trees Ruby had taken down. The young leader's shoulder slumped, "Man. Can't catch a break today." "No." Blake said, drawing Gambol Shroud, "No we cannot." "Nobody said it'd be easy." Weiss commented, turning Myrtenaster toward the Grimm. "Well, if we're gonna go down, I'd say let's give 'em hell!" Yang cried, her gauntlets activating. She dropped the radio behind her and took a stance, "Let's go!" The entire team joined her in a brutal war cry, charging in. "Hey... Pyrrha?" "Yes, Jaune?" "Wasn't Team RWBY supposed to be home, like, an hour ago from their mission?" "They probably got caught up in some weather or something." Pyrrha said. "Maybe their flight got cancelled?" Nora inquired, "You can never trust airlines these days." "I don't think it works like that, Nora." Ren stated, not even looking up from his book. "Beacon would provide the transportation to and from." Jaune looked out from his team's dorm room. Team RWBY had been sent on a mission in the southern territories to assist a dig site. Said dig site was run by the Schnee Dust Company and was running into some problems with Grimm running around the area. Ozpin recommended a third or fourth year team or two, but Weiss' father insisted it would be his daughter's team. They performed perfectly, keeping Grimm at bay until the SDC was able to build a proper wall around the site. The mission wasn't set to last more than two days. Even if they got held over for some reason, one of the members of RWBY would tell someone in JNPR. That's why Jaune was worried. Still, he knew lack of communication between teams is part of the job and passed it off as an emergency or something. Or maybe they did get caught in some weather. He sighed, closing the door. Looking into his teams' dorm, Jaune announced, "Ok... Anyone have any suggestions on what to do next?" "OH!" Nora cried, "I know! We can go raid Team RWBY's room again!" "Nora," Pyrrha chastised, "We already set up some pranks in there. If we open the door it'll blow up in our face..." "Literally!" Jaune added. Nora became slightly flustered and sat back down, "Oh yeah... I forgot." Just as she sat, her stomach rumbled, catching both hers and Ren's attention. "Oh! I got it, now! Let's go get dinner!" Jaune and Pyrrha shared a glance; Pyrrha smirked while Jaune sighed. "Alright, I guess we can go get some food." The leader gave in, earning a loud cheer from the hammer wielder. The team departed from their dorm. It had been a long day for them, and there wasn't really much to do (not that they really put much thought into it). Dinner would definitely give them a chance to recharge a bit and figure out something to do. Entering the cafeteria, they were almost instantly greeted by team CFVY, who had entered moments before them. "Hey there!" Coco called, "How's it going?" "Slow day." Pyrrha responded as her team went for dinner. "If it wasn't for Nora we'd still be in our dorm doing nothing." She and the rest of team CFVY followed the rest of JNPR's lead and went up for their food. "Hey, since I've got you all, have any of you seen team RWBY? I'm not sure if they got back from their last mission..." Velvet turned to her questioningly, "Oh? They never got back?" "Ah!" Coco waved them both off, "They probably got caught up in Ozpin's web of after-action reports, debriefing and mission review." She composed herself, picking up a tray and filling it with food, "I'm sure they're fine." "Yeah," Pyrrha sighed, continuing her quest for dinner, "You're probably right." "Of course I'm right! Now come on, let's go eat!" Both teams nodded in agreement and took their seats. The teams chatted amongst each other, topics varying from different points, depending on who you listened in on. Pyrrha, Jaune and Velvet held a conversation on their school work; Ren and Nora mindlessly babbled (Nora did most of the babbling, Ren corrected her) while Coco, Fox and Yatsuhashi all listened. Well, Fox and Yatsuhashi jumped in and out of the conversation, while holding their own at times. Every now and again, though, Jaune would break temporarily and glance towards the cafeteria entrance, hoping to see RWBY walk through the doors. Alas, though, nothing. His hopes were dashed whenever he saw another team enter or leave when the door opened. Coco noticed this and sighed. "Ya know, they're not gonna walk in just because you keep looking at the door." Jaune looked to her, "I know. Thing is, they were supposed to be back hours ago. Even if they had paperwork to do, it shouldn't have taken this long." "Eh, clear out missions take a while. You could be leaving two days early or staying a week late. It happens." The older girl said, taking a bite out of her meal, "If I were you, I'd concern yourself with something a little bit more important... Like your History grade." "H-Hey!" Coco snickered at the leaders reaction, "I'm joking. And I'm telling you, they're fine, so don't worry." "Are you so sure about that, Miss Adel?" A voice called from the end of the table, causing both teams to do a double take. "WOAH!" Coco flinched, dropping her sandwich, "Damnit... Oh, uh... Hi, Professor Ozpin." "Hello." He greeted, "I was hoping I'd find you all together." "What's wrong, Professor?" Velvet asked. "I'm sure you've noticed, by now, the absence of a certain team." All present nodded, "I'm sure you've been wondering where they are presently at. Please, come with me. We have precious time." Both teams looked to one another and shrugged, but did as the headmaster asked and followed him out of the cafeteria. After a short walk, they found themselves on their way to the schools armory. "Um, headmaster, I don't mean to be nosey, but what's going on?" Pyrrha asked. "All will be explained soon." Ozpin said, stopping just outside of the armory. "Grab your weapons, students, and meet me at the hanger. Be quick." All present nodded and rushed inside whilst Ozpin departed for the hanger. It had been less than twenty minutes since Glynda informed him that they found team RWBY, alive and well, but down in a dangerous area. The swamp they were in was more of a basin, surrounded by mountains. Past those natural borders however were lush, greener plains. Ozpin chuckled to himself, "It must be their luck that put them in that swamp, rather than the plains." Glynda didn't share his humor, but that didn't matter to him. Ozpin made it to the hanger and found Glynda preparing both Bullheads. One was for the pickup, which would have medical supplies on board, while the other was for support, which was currently stocking itself with weapons. That particular swamp area was known to house many Crokolisks. Too dangerous to clear out, topped with the fact that there was no interest in that area in the first place, gave hunters no reason to clear it out. Too much danger, not enough reward. Still, Ozpin did have deep regrets of agreeing to Mr. Schnee's requests in only sending in his daughter's team. Ozpin wished he had sent in at the very least team CFVY. Even JNPR would have been some help in their current situation. 'Still,' he thought, 'Preparation for the world of hunting I suppose.' "Glynda," He called. Professor Goodwitch snapped to attention, "Are all of the bullheads ready?" "A-almost, sir. We're finishing loading the ammo now." "Good." Ozpin nodded. Looking out to the entrance of the hanger, he awaited teams CFVY and JNPR's arrival. Explaining what happened and what their job will be is going to be the easy part, executing the plan will be difficult, only because of the ever present Grimm there. Ozpin didn't wait long as both teams entered with their weapons in hand. "Ok, Ozpin," Coco declared, "What's going on?" "Well, Miss Adel, since you're so anxious I'll explain." Ozpin sighed, stopping Glynda from scolding the younger women, "At approximately three o'clock this afternoon we lost contact team RWBY's bullhead over a swampy basin, surrounded by the Waldrike Mountain range. for almost an hour and a half we attempted to re-establish contact, until we received a hail from the emergency radio from the craft. The GPS on said radio is still active, though we are unable to establish a satellite link at this time to see how they are doing. Unfortunately, they haven't responded to our more recent hails, which concerns us greatly." Professor Goodwitch stepped in, "Your mission is a search and Rescue for them. Team CFVY, we thought you would be more willing to go if you had some... larger weapons at your disposal." Coco's eyes shined, "You will be providing cover, while Team JNPR will be doing the actual rescue." "We will explain more into your mission as you make your way there. In the mean time, load up. Every second we waste is a second closer to death for Team RWBY." Ozpin said, voice as level as ever. Both teams nodded and went to their respective crafts. After loading up, the pilots raised their altitude and flew off. "How long until they make it?" "Hopefully, within twenty minutes, if the pilots punch it." "Well then, Professor Goodwitch, let's hope you're correct." With a fiery blast Yang knocked back another Crok. The fight had been going as well as one could expect. That meaning that they were all holding their own. Weiss needed more help than usual, but that was mainly because her injury was getting worse. It wasn't swelling as much, but it was bruising, very badly. She was slower and had to watch herself, as any wrong move would lead to more pain. The sheer number of Crokolisk's that currently surrounded the group was mind boggling small. Just a few dozen. In terms of normal Grimm that wouldn't be much, but in terms of theses beasts only one dozen are as dangerous as a few packs of Ursa Majors. Distance is key when fighting these beasts, but when you're running out of ammo fast, that little tidbit goes out the window. Luckily, though, Weiss worked best at a distance. Her glyphs, along with her weapon itself, made ranged fighting easy. Using most of her ice dust, she managed to impale a few Crok's by stabbing her blade into the ground, causing the water to freeze and rise up, piercing through their undersides. Those that weren't killed instantly would hang there until they died. Yang glanced over towards Blake, watching her work. Her faunus teammate was holding her own, mainly because of her semblance. She could dodge the massive chomps of the Crokolisks easily, but flat out killing them was tough. The undersides weren't as armored, but it was tough to reach there without getting bit in half. "Yang, watch out!" Before Yang could react she was smacked hard by what could only be described as a small train. Looking up, she saw a Crok, standing on its back legs, staring down on her. Stunned, be it by the force of the hit or the fear she felt, all Yang did (or could do) was stare as the beast slowly opened its massive jaws, revealing a dark maw of death. Accepting her fate and bracing for the worst, Yang closed her eyes, when in a flash of red the beast in front of her had lost its head. Opening her eyes Yang saw a flurry of rose petals fall around her, revealing a figure oddly similar to her sister... Wait... "Tsk tsk tsk..." Ruby shook her head, "Yang Xiao Long, I can't leave you alone for two minutes without you getting into trouble, can I?" She extended a hand to Yang. Yang chuckled, smiling lightly, "What can I say? It tends to follow me." She claimed, accepting her sister's help. In a flash, once again, Ruby was gone. It was very clear that she was out of ammo, or at least close to being. She was using her speed as momentum to cut the Grimm up, something that she had done often whenever she found herself strapped for bullets. Yang jumped back, getting a better view of the battleground. They were losing and she knew it. It took far too much to kill one of these things, and it was only a matter of time before the Crok's got a clue and begin to overwhelm them. She looked up at the trees that surrounded them. Very large oak trees, with flat canopies as the branches stretched out... Flat canopies... "Oh duh." Yang smacked her face with her hand, internally kicking herself too, "Ruby! Treetops!" The aforementioned leader looked up and saw exactly what Yang saw. She too smacked herself. "Blake, Weiss! Follow us!" Instead of waiting for the two, Yang and Ruby both picked up their respective partners and rushed up the closest tree. After making a quick ascent, all four took a seat upon the flat-top of the tree and looked below them. The Crok's were circling the very oak tree the team found themselves in, most with mouths open indicating they were ready for their meal. "Well," Yang spoke, out of breath, "I think we found our place to hide!" The top of the tree wasn't entirely spacious, but it would due as a place to rest for a few minutes. Weiss was trying to get settled, clearly not enjoying the small space of the canopy. "Ruby!" She called, "Will you move over!?" "Where?" Ruby asked, looking down, "I move anywhere and I fall. And I don't wanna fall." "Weiss just bring your knees to your chest and wrap your arms around them. Boom, problem solved." Yang said, doing exactly as she instructed Weiss to do. The heiress was more reluctant to do that, considering her stomach. It was visible to the others that she was still in pain, regardless of how much she denied it. "I think I'll pass, thanks." "Still hurting?" Blake inquired. "Not pain, more discomfort. It's tough to move, too. I think sore would be the best word for it." "Let me take another look." Blake climbed over both Yang and Ruby, who were both sitting between her and the white haired heiress. Blake sat to Weiss' left whilst Ruby moved next to Yang in order to give her faunus teammate more room. Blake began her examination, feeling her teammates abdomen and watching for a reaction of any kind. The area in question was still bruised, but it wasn't worse than it was earlier. It appeared that Weiss' aura had stopped whatever it was, but didn't heal it completely. Whether or not it was because of low aura overall wasn't a concern; Blake's main concern was whether or not it was severe. "Does any of that hurt?" She asked as she pressed down on the bruise. Weiss shook her head, but her facial expression told Blake that it was definitely uncomfortable. Blake sat back furrowed her brow, "I have no idea. It could be a ruptured organ, or just a popped blood vessel. But it's not any worse than it was earlier and apparently it's not hurting anymore. We'll just have to wait and see what the doctors say." Ruby and Yang looked to each other, nodded, then to Weiss. She covered her stomach once again and nodded, understanding that she would have to wait for actual medical professionals to get answers. "Hey Blake..." Ruby called. Blake turned her attention to her young leader as she sat back on a branch. "Where did you learn medical training?" "We had to know a few things about medicine in the White Fang." Blake said easily, "Just in case something happens." "I'm going to take your current bluntness as you being tired right now?" "Yes, Weiss. At this point I just don't care. I just want to go home." "Don't we all." Ruby said, leaning back on a large branch. She wasn't putting her full weight on it, in case her seat of choice wasn't as strong as it appeared. Yang noticed this and pulled her sister to her side, sharing her seat. "So... How long do you think we have? U-until our rescue gets here?" Weiss sat up, cupping her hand under her chin, "I don't know, Ruby. Maybe... Ten minutes? I suppose I could ask, I have the radio right here." She pulled the Emergency Radio to the center of the canopy and turned it on. As she began to speak into the microphone, Blake allowed her eyes to wonder. She looked around from her elevated position. Crok's were everywhere, ranging in size. They were just, staring up at the team, some even able to stand on their back legs. Menacing would be a word to describe it. Blake looked down, only to see some of these beasts attempt to climb the tree. Some made it a good distance, but ultimately failed. This allowed the faunus to breathe a sigh of relief. She turned to Ruby, who had also been watching bellow. The two shared a concerned glance, but shrugged. It didn't appear that the Crok's could get up to them. Blake zoned back in to the end of the conversation between Weiss and... Whoever was on the other end. It sounded like professor Goodwitch, but she just didn't know. "Well," Weiss sighed, putting the radio down, "She said fifteen minutes. They're going as fast as possible though." "That's good, right?" Ruby asked. Everyone nodded, to which she physically relaxed. "Good..." She looked down and squinted, trying to determine if what she was seeing was true... The Grimm were trying to eat away the tree. "Hey, guys... Uh, How well do you think A Crokolisk could eat a tree?" "Could you repeat the question?" Weiss asked, "It sounded like you said 'eat a tree'!" Yang looked down, seeing what her sister saw. The Crok's, mouths agape, had begun to take bites out of the massive oak tree's trunk. The tree shook with each bite taken. "Woah... You gotta be kidding me, right?!" She yelled as she jumped away from the end. "They're actually eating the tree! What the hell is this!?" "Someone doesn't want us getting out of here!" Ruby yelled, "I think it's time we abandoned ship!" Just as she finished her sentence, the tree began to fall... Well... That's a thing. This is where I contemplated finishing the first time, but said 'Nah, you're good, chief.' Next thing I know I'm about 7k words in saying 'Maybe I'm not that good...' Oi, about halfway through this chapter I realized I have a very, VERY, simplistic writing style. I'm gonna try and fix that. So what did you think? I know, not enough. But I'm not sure if I'd be able to hold your attention for 8k words. Splitting was the best possible outcome for me and for you in the long run. I'll be finishing the next chapter overnight and should have it up and ready tomorrow. There'll be another chapter after that for the epilogue. Now, when I say these next few words, I mean it. I don't want a "cool story" or a "Nice chapter". No. I want a review. I want to know how you feel. Do you agree with what I said about my writing style? Do I suck? Am I ok? Let me know! I want an actual review! TWO WORDS DOESN'T HELP ME, PEOPLE! With that, I'm off. I hope you all enjoyed. Until Next Time.

told him i bought new lingerie Asked if it was from sears 240 shares

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons is being sued by a radio and television broadcaster who claims the rocker groped her and made “unwanted, unwarranted sexual advances” during a November 1 interview she conducted. According to the lawsuit, the alleged incident occurred while the plaintiff, identified as “Jane Doe,” was interviewing Simmons and his Kiss bandmate Paul Stanley at their Rock & Brews restaurant at San Manuel Casino in Highland, California. “Defendant Simmons turned standard interview questions into sexual innuendos, which made plaintiff Doe extremely uncomfortable,” reads the lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday. Simmons, the suit claims, repeatedly grabbed the unnamed woman’s hand and “forcefully placed it on his knee and held it on his knee.” The suit also claims Simmons “reached toward Plaintiff Doe’s buttocks and touched it” while they were posing for a promotional photo. Allegations included in the lawsuit include sexual battery, battery, assault, and gender violence. “My client is embarrassed and humiliated by the incident with Mr. Simmons,” the unidentified plaintiff’s attorney, Willie W. Williams, told the San Bernardino Sun in an interview. “She filed suit because she wanted to make a strong statement that this behavior is unacceptable and she wants to see an end to this type of behavior.” Simmons, for his part, said he intends to “vigorously” counter the allegations made against him. “Friends, I intend to defend myself against any alleged charges you may have been reading about in the media. For the record, I did not assault the person making these accusations in the manner alleged in the complaint or harm her in any way,” the Kiss co-founder said in a statement, Pitchfork reports. “I am conferring with my lawyers with the aim of vigorously countering these allegations. And, I look forward to my day in court where the evidence will prove my innocence.” Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Senator Thad Cochran, the courtly Mississippi Republican who held leadership positions over some four decades in the Senate, died on Thursday at the age of 81, his successor, U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, said in a statement. FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senator Thad Cochran takes part in a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba, February 22, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini Cochran had served as chairman of the influential Senate Appropriations Committee, which controls billions of dollars in discretionary spending, and before that during the George W. Bush administration, when he oversaw funding for the Iraq War and rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast. He resigned from the Senate last year due to health concerns. Hyde-Smith was first appointed to take his seat, and won a special election last November to serve the remainder of his term. Cochran started out as a Democrat back when the U.S. South was a stronghold for the party, and voted for Lyndon Johnson for president in 1964. But with the region shifting toward the Republican Party, four years later he worked for Richard Nixon’s successful presidential campaign. Cochran first went to Washington to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1973. When he was elected to the Senate in 1978, he became the first Republican to win a statewide election in Mississippi since Reconstruction following the Civil War. His health had been a concern for several years and there was increasing speculation in 2017 that he might have to step down at a time when Republicans needed all the Senate votes they could get in pushing for tax breaks and undoing Democratic former President Barack Obama’s healthcare program. Cochran had survived an especially nasty 2014 re-election race after insurgent right-wing Tea Party Republicans went after him as the embodiment of establishment Washington. The opposition campaign accused Cochran of having an affair while his wife, Rose, was suffering from dementia and published photos online of her in a nursing home bed. Despite his positions of power, Cochran kept a low profile in Washington - not the sort to appear on Sunday political talk shows to discuss hot issues. He also had a reputation as a Republican who was not averse to working with Democrats. U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s top Democrat, called Cochran “one of the most personally decent, nicest people” he had met in his career. President Donald Trump called Cochran a friend, and wrote that he “never let our Country (or me) down!” in a Twitter post. HEALTH PROBLEMS Cochran had a dwindling presence in Washington in 2017 after contracting a urinary tract infection that kept him in Mississippi for several weeks in the fall as Republicans formulated spending bills to keep the federal government running late in the year. He frequently missed votes, and media reports said he rarely met with colleagues and was showing mental and physical deterioration. In October 2017 Politico reported he appeared disoriented in the Capitol and mistakenly cast a “yes” vote on a tax reform amendment despite being repeatedly told the Senate leadership stance was a “no” vote. He eventually switched his vote to “no.” There had been speculation that Cochran would not run for re-election in 2008 and again in 2014, but he always returned to the fray. His last political race was a contentious one, with Tea Party adherents running conservative state Senator Chris McDaniel in a Republican nominating election. McDaniel’s supporters accused Cochran of having an affair with longtime aide Kay Webber, but the Cochran campaign dismissed the allegation as “silly gossip.” Rose Cochran died in December 2014 and Cochran, then 77, married Webber in May 2015. McDaniel had drawn more votes than Cochran in the primary election but with establishment Republicans, minority voters, big-money donors and even some Democrats such as liberal former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg rallying around him, Cochran defeated McDaniel by two percentage points in a runoff. He then easily beat a Democratic opponent in the general election to win his seventh Senate term. During the primary campaign, a McDaniel-supporting blogger shot cellphone video of Cochran’s wife in her nursing home bed and it was posted online. The blogger was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy while two other men pleaded guilty and received no jail time. Cochran, who sometimes played classical music on the baby grand piano he kept in his Senate office, was known as “Gentleman Thad” because of his mannered, genial demeanor. “From the beginning of his career he rejected the invective of Southern demagoguery, a specialty that so many of his contemporaries were practicing when he was first elected to Congress,” journalist Curtis Wilkie, a longtime Cochran friend, wrote in Politico in 2014. Cochran, the son of educators, was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi, on Dec. 7, 1937, and graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he was a cheerleader, in 1959. After serving in the Navy, he earned a law degree from the school and practiced for several years.

Not sure if I told you I had the worst time 74,176 shares

Many people have been trying to get the Canadian Premier League up and running for a while, but it looks like they are now targeting a 2018 kickoff. The Canadian Premier League has been in planning for a few years now but just hit its stride with an expected kickoff date in 2018. This idea of Canada’s own professional soccer league was started in 2013. The intention of this new league is to foster Canadian talent and develop their own coaches. Since the whole idea of the Canadian Premier League is to foster Canadian players, there is a rumor going around that there would be a quota of 75% Canadian players on every team. That would give Canadian professional players much more time on the field in a competitive mindset than they are getting now. Current teams in the MLS (Vancouver Whitecaps, Montreal Impact and Toronto FC) and in the NASL (FC Edmonton and Ottawa Fury FC) will not be required join the new league but the new Canadian Premier League officials are hopping that the NASL teams will join to help strengthen the league. Though the Canadian Premier League is pushing to be a tier 1 league along side the MLS, it might take a while for this league to have the experience to play at such a high level. This league could be great, though, for the Canadian National Team as they try to take more of a foothold in the international side of the sport.

CoolerMaster MasterCase 5 and Pro 5 Review Introduction and Technical Specification | Source: CoolerMaster Price: £89-£109 Author: Gary Wain Introduction In a break from the norm this is actually going to be two reviews in one. Why? Well because the brand new MasterCase5 from CoolerMaster is available in vanilla form and as the Pro 5 which offers additional features. Not only that, but if you've purchased the base model and want to upgrade at a later date you can, in theory at least, buy the accessories pack, and using the free form modular system, upgrade it to a Pro 5. We like the idea of a modular case, a case that you can change and alter to suite your needs or whims, let's just hope this modular concept isn't just a concept, and CoolerMaster are able to put some meat on the MasterCase bones. So without further ado, let's have a look at the spec sheet for the case. Technical Specification Dimensions 235x512x548mm (WxHxD) Materials Steel chassis and Plastic trim Motherboard Support ATX, M-ATX, M-ITX 5.25" 2 3.5" 2 2.5" 2+2 PCI slots 7 Cooling Front: 3x120/140 (1x140 installed) Top: 2x120/140 Rear: 1x120/140 (1x140 Installed) Water Cooling support Front: 240/280mm up to 40mm thick Top: No Support Rear: 120/140mm Max CPU cooler Height 190mm Max GPU length 412mm (296 with HDD cage) 1 - Introduction and Technical Specification 2 - Up Close: Exterior 3 - Up Close: interior 4 - Rear, Stripped, and in the Nip 5 - In The Nip Continued 6 - The Build 7 - Cooling Options 8 - Pro 5 and Pro 5 Accessory Pack 9 - Pro 5 and Pro 5 Accessories Continued 10 - Conclusion «Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next» Most Recent Comments

I was born in 1946, just when the boomer wave began. Bill Clinton was born that year, too. So was George W. So was Laura Bush. And Ken Starr (remember him?) And then, the next year, Hillary Clinton. And soon Newt Gingrich (known as “Newty” as a boy). And Cher. Why so many of us begin getting born in 1946? Simple. My father was in World War II. He came home. My mother was waiting. Ditto for the others. Sixty years later, we boomers have a lot to be worried about because most of us plan to retire in a few years and Social Security and Medicare are on the way to going bust. I should know because I used to be a trustee of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Those of you who are younger than we early boomers have even more to be worried about because if those funds go bust they won’t be there when you’re ready to retire. It’s already starting to happen. This year Social Security will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes. The tipping point came sooner than anyone expected because the recession has kicked so many people off payrolls. But it was coming anyway. And it adds new urgency to reforming Social Security — a task the president’s commission on the nation’s debt is focusing on. So what’s the answer? Fed Chair Ben Bernanke this week listed the choices. “To avoid large and unsustainable budget deficits,” he said in a speech on Wednesday, “the nation must choose among higher taxes, modifications to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, less spending on everything else from education to defense, or some combination of the above.” Bernanke is almost certainly right about “some combination,” but he leaves out one other possible remedy that should be included in that combination: Immigration. You see, the biggest reason Social Security is in trouble, and Medicare as well, is because America is aging so fast. It’s not just that so many boomers are retiring. It’s also that seniors are living longer. And families are having fewer children. Add it all up and the number of people who are working relative to the number who are retired keeps shrinking. Forty years ago there were five workers for every retiree. Now there are three. Within a couple of decades, there will be only two workers per retiree. There’s no way just two workers will be able or willing to pay enough payroll taxes to keep benefits flowing to every retiree. This is where immigration comes in. Most immigrants are young because the impoverished countries they come from are demographically the opposite of rich countries. Rather than aging populations, their populations are bursting with young people. Yes, I know: There aren’t enough jobs right now even for Americans who want and need them. But once the American economy recovers, there will be. Take a long-term view and most new immigrants to the U.S. will be working for many decades. Get it? One logical way to deal with the crisis of funding Social Security and Medicare is to have more workers per retiree, and the simplest way to do that is to allow more immigrants into the United States. Immigration reform and entitlement reform have a lot to do with one another. Add/view comments on this post. ------------------------------ The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link above.

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During a recent visit to Arlington, Seattle manager Scott Servais repeated his contention that in the American League West "everybody in the division is going to beat up on everybody else." That will happen for four teams but not the division-leading Rangers. They are running roughshod through the division, winning at a rarely seen pace. A 5-1 win at Oakland on Thursday put the Rangers at 26-13 in the West, with 37 division games remaining. If the Rangers continue at this pace, they would go 51-25 and win the division title for the second consecutive season with ease. With a division full of weak sisters, the Rangers could have a better record than that. Houston, Oakland and the Los Angeles Angels have three of the five worst records in the AL. The Rangers have 31 more games against them. A year ago, the Rangers became only the fourth team in the three-division era, which began in 1994, to finish first despite a losing (36-40) division record. In this season, they could establish a benchmark for division dominance. The 1995 Cincinnati Reds had the best divisional record in this period, at 35-14 for a .714 winning percentage. For teams with at least 70 divisional games, the 2005 Chicago White Sox had the best divisional record at 52-22 for a .703 winning percentage. The 2003 San Francisco Giants had the most wins at 53-23. The Rangers could challenge both marks. What does this mean? Is a team better off reaching the postseason after slogging through a demanding division or running away in an easy division? History suggests playing a collection of weak sisters during the regular season does not set up a club for postseason success. Of the top 11 teams -- 2005 St. Louis and 2011 Milwaukee tied -- for division records in this century, only two reached the World Series. The White Sox swept Houston in 2005. The New York Yankees lost to Arizona in seven games in 2001. Six of the clubs reached a league championship series, the most recent Detroit in 2011. Three teams failed to get beyond a division series, the most recent the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2014. It is a moot point for the Rangers over the next month. The do not play in the West again until July 18, with the opening of a series against the Halos. The final month could be memorable. The Rangers play 22 of their final 28 games against the West. A look at MLB teams with the top division records since 2000

Sebastian Vettel was penalised for deliberately driving into Lewis Hamilton in a chaotic and incident-packed Azerbaijan Grand Prix but the German still extended his title lead as a loose head restraint cost the Briton victory. A remarkable race that featured three safety cars and several crashes, including clashes between team-mates, was won by Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo. Vettel was given a 10-second stop-go penalty for swerving into Hamilton's Mercedes as they prepared for a restart at the end of one of three safety car periods in Baku. But the time Hamilton lost being forced to pit for a new head restraint put him behind Vettel. He followed him past a number of cars as they recovered positions, and closed up as the race entered its final lap, but the Englishman was not able to pass. Hamilton ended up finishing fifth, a place behind Ferrari's Vettel, and lost two points to the German. He is 14 points behind after eight of 20 races. Hamilton's Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who was last and lapped after the first lap, passed Williams driver Lance Stroll for second on the final straight as the 18-year-old Canadian scored his first podium in his eighth race after a mature drive. Hamilton v Vettel gets tasty Road rage: The moment Hamilton and Vettel collided for the second time The controversial incident between Hamilton and Vettel happened as they prepared for the restart after the second safety car period. Vettel ran into the back of Hamilton as he accelerated out of Turn 15, the penultimate corner, damaging his front wing. The German then pulled alongside Hamilton's Mercedes and drove into it, banging wheels. Vettel told his team over the radio that he believed Hamilton had deliberately slowed, saying: "He brake-tested me. What the hell is going on?" Hamilton told his Mercedes engineers: "Vettel literally just came alongside me and hit me." When he was told of the penalty, Vettel said: "Tell me when I did dangerous driving." Ferrari told him they would discuss it after the race. Hamilton said over the radio, addressing his remarks directly at race director Charlie Whiting, that he believed a 10-second penalty was "not enough for driving behaviour like that - you know that, Charlie." The race slips away from Hamilton It was a cruel end to Hamilton's Baku race Before the stewards delivered their verdict on Vettel's driving, Hamilton's race had already fallen apart. He had controlled it from the start, despite the chaos behind him, and was leading Vettel by 2.5 seconds after 28 of 51 laps when the cockpit head restraint padding that protects the drivers from impacts began to lift on the straight. His race engineer asked him to try to push it back down again but he was unable to force it into position and Mercedes were ordered to pit Hamilton to fix a restraint into position. He rejoined in eighth place and fought his way up past Esteban Ocon's Force India, McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Haas driver Kevin Magnussen before the end. Safety car after safety car Ricciardo was handed victory by the problems of Hamilton and Vettel but he also had to earn it. He dropped to 17th early in the race with an unscheduled pit stop to clear debris from his brake ducts - but fought his way back up to 10th by the time of the first safety car period. The chaos of the next two promoted him to fifth, thanks to some aggressive overtaking by the Australian, between Stroll and the other Williams of Felipe Massa, then he passed Stroll into Turn One at the final restart as Massa dropped out with a broken damper. Stroll hung on for a few laps but Ricciardo eventually edged away to win by four seconds as Stroll was caught by Bottas on the final straight after a superb recovery by the Finn. The red flag was shown in lap 23 with debris strewn over the track after multiple collisions Bottas had been lapped at the end of the first lap following a collision between himself and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen at the second corner, Bottas bouncing over the kerb and into his fellow Finn, damaging both cars. But the first safety car period allowed him to un-lap himself and he drove well to pick his way through the field after that. The first safety car period happened because of a mundane reason - Daniil Kvyat's Toro Rosso had broken down and stopped in a dangerous place and needed to be recovered. But it set up a domino effect at the restarts. At the first attempt to restart on lap 17, Vettel was challenged for second by Force India's Sergio Perez, and behind them the second Force India of Esteban Ocon and Raikkonen were side by side with the Finn losing some bodywork. That and a number of other brushes between cars left debris on the track and the race was immediately stopped for it to be cleared. The marshals had a job to keep up with the number of incidents The safety car was out for another two laps, but just before the second restart Hamilton and Vettel clashed. Then, as the race restarted, the Force India drivers collided as they tried to accelerate out of Turn two side by side, creating a whole load more debris, and the safety car was immediately deployed again. The incident is likely to cause further recriminations at the team, where there was a dispute about team orders at the previous race in Canada. Two laps later, Alonso went on to the radio to say the race should be red-flagged because there was so much debris. "This circuit is too fast to have this risk," he said. Shortly afterwards, the red flag was thrown and the race stopped for 15 minutes. At the restart Nico Hulkenberg looked set for a strong finish in the Renault, running sixth and threatening Magnussen, but he made a critical error in misjudging Turn Seven, breaking his right front wheel on the inside wall. Ocon recovered from the clash with Perez to take a solid sixth ahead of Magnussen, Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz and Alonso, who scored McLaren-Honda's first points of the season despite losing battery power in the closing laps. Ricciardo's team-mate Max Verstappen retired early from fourth place with an engine failure. Welcome to the podium: Pipped to second by Valtteri Bottas, rookie Lance Stroll still enjoys the champers At least Mariah Carey came out of the day unscathed Some corners of the tight and twisty circuit in Baku are only 7.6 metres wide

Previous record highs are expected to melt away Thursday as residents across the province continue to bask in warm sunny weather. Coastal areas of Vancouver were on pace to meet the record high of 16.1 degrees set in 1941, while inland temperatures across the region are slated to smash that figure, reaching a peak of up to 21 degrees Thursday, according to Environment Canada. The average maximum temperature for Vancouver on March 31 is just 11.4 degrees while the minimum is 4 degrees, according to the national weather service. Pitt Meadows is forecast to edge out its high of 20.8 degrees set in 2013 Thursday, Hope is set to hammer its 12.6 degree record, and Abbotsford could come within a degree of its 22 degree high set in 1987. Meanwhile, records are slated to fall across the north Thursday, with all-time highs in Williams Lake, Prince George, Smithers, Prince Rupert, Dease Lake, Sandspit, and Fort St. John, among other locations. Temperatures on Vancouver Island and through the Okanagan and Kootenays are forecast near record highs. Sunny weather is expected to continue into the weekend for much of the south coast, but rain clouds are forecast to blanket some cities by Sunday. [email protected]

ASUSのSIMロックフリースマートフォン「ZenFone 2(ZE551ML)」の中古品が、イオシス各店で特価販売中。店頭価格は税込6,980円で、保証期間は3か月。 今回販売されているのは「特に目立つ傷などはないが、経年劣化に該当する使用感が見られる」というBランク中古品で、26日(水)時点のイオシス全体の在庫は約130台。 端末の主な仕様はディスプレイサイズが5.5インチ(解像度1,920×1,080ドット)、搭載CPUがAtom Z3580(クアッドコア)、メモリ4GB、ストレージ32GB、OSがAndroid 5.0など。対応するLTEのバンドは1/2/3/4/5/6/8/9/18/19/28。 手頃な価格のSIMロックフリースマートフォンを探している方は、購入を検討してみてください。

スピン経済の歩き方： 日本ではあまり馴染みがないが、海外では政治家や企業が自分に有利な情報操作を行うことを「スピンコントロール」と呼ぶ。企業戦略には実はこの「スピン」という視点が欠かすことができない。 「情報操作」というと日本ではネガティブなイメージが強いが、ビジネスにおいて自社の商品やサービスの優位性を顧客や社会に伝えるのは当然だ。裏を返せばヒットしている商品や成功している企業は「スピン」がうまく機能をしている、と言えるのかもしれない。 そこで、本連載では私たちが普段何気なく接している経済情報、企業のプロモーション、PRにいったいどのような狙いがあり、緻密な戦略があるのかという「スピン」を紐解いていきたい。 衣料品大手「しまむら」の一部店舗で、ナチスドイツのハーケンクロイツ（カギ十字）をあしらったようなペンダントとタンクトップが980円（税込み）で売られていたとして問題になっている。 1カ月前から売られていたものを今月19日に店を訪れた客が画像付きでツイート。ネット炎上をマスコミが追いかけるという毎度お馴染みのサイクルで、20日には販売見合わせになった。 「仏教のありがたいマークじゃないか」という好意的な解釈をする人々もいたが、ナチスの鉄十字勲章と並べてみると、2020年東京五輪のエンブレムをデザインした佐野研二郎さんの作品群同様に元ネタとピタッとハマる。フランスパン問題で一躍脚光を浴びたトレース技術がここでも用いられている可能性が高い。 だが、「しまむら」が佐野さんのケースと大きく異なるのは、ハーケンクロイツのパクりだと判明してからもなお擁護（ようご）する声が多いことである。 「グローバル企業ならいざしらずドメドメの国内企業に欧米の理屈を押し付けるな」とか「行き過ぎた規制」という意見が多く、あげくの果てに店舗の従業員に「使ってはいけないマークだ」と苦言を呈した人物のほうが逆にネット上で中傷されるという事態にまで発展した。 かつてエノラゲイの搭乗員が原爆投下記念Tシャツをつくって全米で売ってまわった時、日本側から「よくそんな不謹慎なことができるな」と怒りの抗議をしたが馬の耳に念仏だったように、自分たちの痛みを国や文化が異なる人々に理解をしてもらうのはかなり難しい。「あのマークのなにが問題なの」と首をかしげる日本人が一定数いるのも当然かもしれない。 ただ、企業の経営という観点からみると、今回のナチスマーク騒動はかなり深刻な問題だと思っている。リスクの芽を事前に発見し、それを未然に防ぐ策を講じて組織運営にいかすという「フィードバック」が働いていない恐れがあるためだ。 1|2|3|4 次のページへ

Power up your Switch and you should see the latest update to the news channel. It essentially tells players how they can feed meat or fruit to specific animals in Zelda's open world. Pretty straightforward thus far, right? The neat trick, however, is that when you tap the clickable link at the end of the update, you'll spawn in-game with three pieces of food. These tend to be split between basic meat and apples. Of course, be sure to have the game in your system, otherwise it won't work. It also seems like you can keep grabbing the items to your heart's content. Unless, Nintendo decides to disable the link when the next update drops. It may read like a gimmick to get you checking game promos for now, but it could be worth keeping an eye on. Especially if Nintendo keeps dishing out free stuff. For example, players would be pretty chuffed if the Splatoon 2 channel started dropping free swag. If you're looking to populate your feed with more updates, just hit the news icon from the Switch home screen, and select find channels. Then, scroll through the list and start following the ones you like.